Rogue flu strain has surfaced in New Zealand

A rogue flu strain has surfaced in New Zealand, infecting even those who have had their annual vaccination.

Most flu sufferers this year have had the H1N1 influenza A strain, or swine flu, against which the latest vaccine offers good protection.

But about 8 per cent of cases have involved a new strain that had changed quite a lot, National Influenza Centre director Sue Huang said yesterday, and there had been a reported surge in immunised people catching flu.

The problem was caused by a different strain of the H3N2 influenza A virus surfacing unexpectedly this year, she said.

The flu vaccine had three components - two influenza A strains and one B strain - which were selected each year to match the strains predicted to strike the following winter.

More:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/10650629/Vaccine-no-match-for-rogue-flu-strain

_______________________
Gary:
Its wrong to call this a "rogue": This flu is merely doing what a flu virus does - it mutates often.  That's flu for you and this is why flu vaccines are of little value as an increasing number of studies are showing.
http://blog.garymoller.com/2013/04/is-seasonal-flu-vaccine-actually.html

What really annoys me about all this hype about flu is:

• Research shows that the annual flu vaccine is mostly ineffective  http://blog.garymoller.com/2013/04/is-seasonal-flu-vaccine-actually.html
• There is an almost religious "flat earth" fervour amongst medical and health officials to the extent that even the mere suggestion that a particular vaccine may not be effective is met with howls of protest.  Look at the facts please!
• Immunity from a vaccine is temporary at best; whereas the immunity gained from contracting the actual disease is lifelong and gives some resistance against the next variant.  The more one contracts the flu, the less severe any further infections - I can attest to this personally as I have got older.
• Because the flu virus is constantly mutating there is one defence that we must focus on and that is our immune system - our defence system that has evolved with the millions of pathogens that occupy our environment.  People who get really sick are the ones with compromised immune systems.  Where's the advice on how to ensure our immune defences are robust?

Why is there no publicity about how to bolster our immune defences?

The answer is simple: There is no commercial benefit and, in fact, such advice is bad for business.  Vaccines are worth millions of dollars to medical practices in New Zealand and worth even more millions to the all-powerful pharmaceutical industry.

How to bolster your family's immune defences

• High dose vitamin C.
• Echinacea and lysine.
• Selenium.
• Zinc.
• Magnesium - in fact - all the alkalising nutritional minerals.
• The B vitamins.
• The fat soluble vitamins - A, D, E and K.
• High antioxidant diet consisting of fresh fruits and vegetables and bright spices, especially turmeric.
• A diet that is rich in fats and proteins.
• Bone broths; especially chicken broth.
• Avoid stress - get relaxation time every day. Do an adrenal fatigue recovery programme (your adrenals help regulate your immune system).  Contact me if you think you have adrenal fatigue.
• Do not over or under exercise - exercise should be invigorating - not exhausting.
• Promote habitual nose breathing, especially for children, asthmatics and anybody with lung or heart problems.  Mouth breathing is a sure risk for ear, nose and throat infections.  Mouth breathing further encourages the nasal tissues to swell and become infected - a vicious cycle of trouble!  Do a Buteyko breathing course: Contact the Buteyko guru - Glenn White here http://www.buteykobreathing.nz/
• Do Buteyko if you are a habitual snorer (snoring dries out and irritates the mouth and throat tissues making you a sitting duck for infections! http://www.buteykobreathing.nz/Sleep-Apnea.html
• Be aware that many prescription drugs can suppress or weaken your immune health, some deliberately.  Contact me if you have any concerns about current medication.
• Expose yourself to infections such as colds and flus when you are in a healthy and rested condition - get the flu over and done with and you will be immune to that strain for life and resistant to any new variants.  At worst, a healthy person will be out of action for no longer than 10 days (take even more vitamin C etc and broths when you are ill).

Even if you decide to go with the vaccines for your family, the decision to do so in no way reduces the importance that you concentrate on supporting your immune health.  In fact, this may be more important because there is growing concern that most vaccines impart only partial and/or temporary immunity and may actually render the recipient more vulnerable to the target disease, requiring booster vaccines for life!  Take the whooping cough vaccine for example - referring to this interesting collection of Pubmed studies:

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/anti-therapeutic-action/vaccination-pertussis

And read this:

"The recent news articles to hit the mainstream media in the past week finally states what public health officials and epidemiologists have known for some time: those vaccinated against pertussis are carrying and spreading the bacteria and are responsible for most of the outbreaks."

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/those-vaccinated-pertussis-vaccine-are-spreading-disease

My position regarding vaccines

I am still of two minds: I think there are benefits to be gained from vaccines; however, I think we have lost all perspective with the money-making benefits completely taking over the whole issue of immune health and disease control and, at the expense of promoting basic good health, including stress management, good nutrition, non-patent treatments and even the importance of good housing and sanitation.

There is no way we can vaccinate against the millions of bugs out there which are always adapting to what we throw at them chemically (take antibiotic resistance for example).  Our only sure defence is our incredibly complex and effective immune system.  This should be our focus, rather than trying to take over using costly and only partially effective technology.  

Getting sick is part and parcel with being human - how we respond to an infection, such as a virus is the big question: A healthy person will have a virus done and dusted within about 10 days and ultimately better off due to a primed and more robust immune system; whereas an unhealthy person will be smashed and further weakened by the same pathogen.

Take Ebola for example: We should be engrossed in studying the survivors and those who have the antibodies but never fell seriously ill.  How come they survived?  What protected them?  Nutrition and being generally in a good state of health is key, I would wager.

The jury is far from out regarding the safety and efficacy of vaccines.  In the meantime, my advice is to concentrate on nurturing your inner defences.

About this website 

The advice in these articles is given freely without promise or obligation. Its all about giving you and your family the tools and information to take control of your health and fitness.

Candida and Fungal Infections? Gary Moller recommends you explore this programme: Click Here!

Study finds that Flu vaccine recipients found to be more likely to get the flu

Part of the complex process of
acquiring immunity.

A strange vaccine-related phenomenon spotted in Canada at the start of the 2009 flu pandemic may well have been real, a new study suggests.

Researchers, led by Vancouver's Dr. Danuta Skowronski, an influenza expert at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, noticed in the early weeks of the pandemic that people who got a flu shot for the 2008-09 winter seemed to be more likely to get infected with the pandemic virus than people who hadn't received a flu shot.

Five studies done in several provinces showed the same unsettling results. But initially research outside Canada did not, and the effect was dismissed as a "Canadian problem," a problem with the flu vaccine used in Canada.

But a new study suggests the findings were real.

Skowronski and a group of researchers have recreated the event in ferrets. Their findings were presented Sun-day at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a major international infectious diseases conference taking place in San Francisco.

Skowronski, who outlined the work at a webcast press conference, worked with 32 ferrets, giving half the 2008 seasonal flu shot and the rest a placebo injection. The work was blinded, meaning the researchers didn't know which ferrets received which shot. Later, all the ferrets were infected with the pandemic H1N1 virus.

The ferrets in the vaccine group became significantly sicker than the other animals, though all recovered.

"The findings are consistent with the increased risk that we saw in the human studies," Skowronski said.

The reason is unclear and Skowronski urged other research groups to take up the question. She said it's important to get to the root before the next pandemic. But in the meantime, Skow-ronski insisted the findings should not deter people from getting flu shots.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver 

_____________________________________Gary:
I find this last piece of advice rather interesting:

"Skow-ronski insisted the findings should not deter people from getting flu shots."

I conclude that we should be very cautious about relying on flu vaccines for protection against flu epidemics.  What this research further tells me is we should be concentrating our public health promotion efforts on ensuring that populations have much robust natural immune systems, rather than relying on unreliable technology to protect us from bugs like the flu.  In coming to these conclusions, we must also bear in mind that

"One swallow does not make a Summer"

This is just one study, so we should not jump to conclusions.  At the same time, my impression is that there is a growing body of evidence that vaccines are not the harmless panacea that they are usually made out to be. Watch this space!

We have evolved over millions of years to coexist with bugs of every kind imaginable.  Most of these bugs do us no harm, or when we catch them, the healthy Human will, in most cases, shrug off the infection in about 10 days after which there will be the best part of lifelong immunity or resistance to it - and resistance to future variants.

Where bugs do the most harm is when a person's immune system is weak.  This is very common nowadays due to nutrient-compromised foods, widespread environmental toxins, drugs/medicines and an ageing population that previously would have been thinned out from famine, industrial accidents, child birth and war.  And infection from poor sanitation (mostly eliminated nowadays).

Why do vaccines appear to give only partial, temporary immunity?

A good example is the tetanus vaccine which requires regular booster shots.  Or the Gardisil vaccine for Herpes which may require successive shots to ensure a reasonable immunity.

If you want to learn more about how we acquire immunity, please read this online lecture on the topic:
http://www.uic.edu/classes/bios/bios100/lecturesf04am/lect23.htm

In a nutshell, what may be happening is the weak vaccine-initiated immune response is too weak to shunt the immune process through all stages of acquiring powerful and lasting immunity.  It fizzes out partway, leaving the person vulnerable to future infection.

Here are a number of things you can do for yourself and your family to ensure your immune system is in good condition:

• Ensure your diet is rich in betacarotene, vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin C, zinc and magnesium (A Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis takes out the guessing).  This is most essential during puberty, pregnancy, periods of illness, stress and when on medication.  For example, when a girl goes through puberty her zinc requirements soar, rendering her extremely vulnerable to severe viral, fungal and yeast infections - if she is zinc deficient (most are!).  
• Get a little daily natural vitamin D from supplements or from the sun.  Avoid, at all costs, medical megadoses of synthetic vitamin D!  A dribble of about 1,000iu of natural D per day is about right.
• Avoid toxins that weaken the immune system.  Toxins include most medicines, excessive alcohol, food additives, environmental pollutants such as exhaust fumes and even many cosmetics.
• Get rid of or mitigate unnecessary stress.  Excessive and constant stress smashes and  confuses the immune system.
• Get regular sleep.  Be in bed and asleep by 10am and awake by 7am.  Children need more sleep.
• Get regular but not exhausting exercise.  Preferably outdoors.  It should leave you invigorated - not wasted.
• Here's a radical suggestion:  Expose yourself to dirt, colds and flus when you are in excellent health.    Sure, you might end up off work for a few days; but you'll shrug it off within 10 days and then have immunity for life.  In the case of flu each one contracted naturally primes your immune system against future variations.  Complete avoidance may leave your immune system more vulnerable for the really nasty variant should one end up doing the rounds!  
• Wash your hands, but go easy on the antibacterial wipes and sprays.

I am definitely not anti-vaccination

Vaccines do have their place, such as for protection against the really nasty of the nasty bugs, such as tetanus.  What I do have a serious problem with is the vast vaccine industry that is fueled by massive profits.  This industry knows no limits.  There are millions of bugs out there and if this this industry and those that profit from it, had their way they would have us taking a vaccine for protection against every single one!  Or so this would appear to be the motivation.  Of course, this is sheer fantasy but I think we have already gone too far down this track.

Its not a surprise that all the fear-mongering about the flu and other bugs does not include sensible advice about how to strengthen you and your family's immune health.  Your immune system is your first and most powerful line of defense against ALL infections!  Why is it not a surprise it is largely ignored?

Because there's no money in it!

We have to draw the line somewhere because we can't vaccinate against anything and  there is the possibility that too many vaccines may end up actually weakening and confusing the immune system.  So, I advocate vaccination against bugs like tetanus but not against the flu.  Instead, I advocate simple and effective nutrition and lifestyle strategies to bolster one's natural defenses against these lesser bugs.

_______________________________________

About this website

The advice in these articles is given freely without promise or obligation.  Its all about giving you and your family the tools and information to take control of your health and fitness.

Does sugar compromise the immune system?

Gary,

Please put me out of my misery - does sugar compromise the immunity system - reduce "leukocytes sp??" levels in the blood?
I have been told my kid has a cough because she has too much sugar and had poor immunity.
All I can find on the internet are hundred of references to Dr Stolls claims that sugar does affect immunity.
I know sudden high levels are not advisable - sugar rush - adrenalin injection, etc.
any input appreciated
thanks
John
_______________________________
Dear John
I have absolutely no doubt that excessive sugar compromises child health. Partly because of the direct effects of excessive sugar on the body, including causing harm to the pancreas and potentially leading to Type II diabetes. There is also the harmful secondary effects caused by sugary foods causing varying degrees of malnutrition. This really applies to nutrient poor processed foods as a whole. Your child needs food that is rich in nutrients. Keep your child away from fat-free foods. Give plenty of fat and exercise and you will have a healthy happy child.

With the other side of my family being Pacific Islanders, I am particularly interested in the impact of the undermining of traditional diets by modern industrialised foods. The effect has been catastrophic on Pacific populations and an end must be put to what is being done for the sake of commercial gain.

Our modern diet is harmful and there is no better way to illustrate this than by the following series of photos that shows the harm done when traditional Pacific Islands diets are replaced by harmful processed "superior" (cough-choke!) European foods:

Photo One
healthy, vibrant happy people with beatutiful facial bone structures. There is almost a complete absence of tooth decay. The facial bones are wide, there is no cramping of the teeth. There is never any need for orthodontic work like braces.

Note the strong jaws and neck muscles - strong enough to lift a 44 gallon drum or to husk a coconut with the teeth! Once common tricks in the Fiji islands to impress the tourists.
Photo Two
No problems getting these healthy Pacific Islanders to smile. Their traditional nutrient dense diets produce strong facial structures that do not cramp or rot the feet. Rich in omega oils and fats, vitamins A, E, D and K they have robust bones and healthy brains. No angry young teenage boys and girls in this population!

Photos three and four
Introduce flour, white sugar and soft drinks that squeeze out the traditional foods and you have rampant tooth rot and catastrophic declines in all measures of health.

Note the subtle loss of facial bone structure and weakening which is apparent even within a single generation of dietary degradation. This leads to the gradual lengthening and narrowing of the face as typically seen nowadays in Westernised populations with the consequent severe cramping of the teeth. Hence the near universal need for orthodontic work nowadays.


Here is the original source of these photos.













Here is a fun video I made of my son about the benefits of a diet that is rich in nutrients and includes raw, full fat milk. No rampant tooth decay, obesity or angry sickly children here!

How much vitamin C should an athlete take to keep healthy?

It is the common experience of many athletes to finish an exhausting event like a marathon or iron man triathlon and feel surprisingly good; only to crash several days later going down with a virus an injury like tendonitis or feeling very depressed and tired or all of the latter. This may be fully or partially due to the delayed effects of the extreme oxidative stress suffered during the exhausting exercise (This can be either from competition or heavy training). In many cases, such as multiday events there is the added stress of sleep deprivation which hammers one's immune system.

"A practical way to reason is that, if a person carrying out heavy exercise feels that he or she has colds too often, he or she could (should?) try vitamin C.

The doses have been about 0.5 to 2 grams per day in the controlled trials and that kind of doses are safe for ordinary people (and cheap). In the US nutritional recommendations they consider that safe range goes to some 2 g/day. That is a conservative limit in my opinion, but with the current knowledge, I do not think it makes much sense to use substantially larger doses even though I consider them safe.

If we assume that the oxidative stress caused by the marathon would b protected against by higher vitamin C levels in the body, I think that the time scale would be initiation a few days before and continuing a few days after the marathon (one or two times per day I would think)". Harri

(Excerpt from correspondence between Gary Moller and Harri Hemilä, MD, PhD,Department of Public Health,University of Helsinki, Finland. Dr Hemilä is one of the world's leading researchers into the benefits or otherwide of substances like vitamin C and vitamin E).

Dr Hemilä's impressive work in this area makes fascinating reading.

With what we know about free radicals and how they are generated during exhasting or intense exercise, it would make good sense to anticipate excessive oxidative stress to your body and take preventive measures, if you are doing heavy training or have an exhausting competition coming up. This migh also apply to work and personal situations that may be emotionally as well as physically exhausting.

Using Dr Hemilä's advice as our guide, here is my guidance:

• If you are doing exhausting training take 1-2,000mg of vitamin C per day
• If you have a history of frequent colds, take towards the upper level (2,000mg)
• Take 2,000mg per day over the 2 days before an exhausting competition and for 2 days afterwards
• If you are taking Wagner Ester C, then you could reduce these guidelines to 50% and you will probably get the same protection or still better.
• Regardless of vitamin C supplementation, take a daily Super Smoothie that has red berries and whey protein added and eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.
• Go to sleep before 11pm every night and be out of bed by 7am
• Get plenty of sunlight on your body to boost your vitamin D levels. Get a blood test of your levels.
• An athlete requires more minerals and B group vitamins than most
• Other antioxidant food extracts like high potency garlic extracts could be added to the diet
• Have recovery days within your training schedule and take 3-5 days rest after an exhausting competition like a marathon.

I will be posting some guidelines about use of vitamin E which is currently a confused and controversial matter.

Vitamin D May Cut Breast Cancer Risk by up to 50%!!!

Vitamin D May Cut Breast Cancer Risk by up to 50%!!!
April 5, 2006
WASHINGTON (AP)

Women who get lots of vitamin D are less likely to develop breast cancer, suggests a pair of studies that add to the already strong evidence that the "sunshine vitamin" helps prevent many types of cancer.
High levels of vitamin D translated to a 50 percent lower risk of breast cancer, one study found. Even modestly higher levels resulted in 10 percent less risk, which would translate to 20,000 fewer cases a year if it were true of all American women. A second study, by Canadian researchers, found that women who spent time outdoors or got a lot of vitamin D from their diets or supplements -- especially as teens -- were 25 percent to 45 percent less likely to develop breast cancer than women with less of the nutrient.

"Exposure to vitamin D at the time breasts are developing, particularly around adolescence, might be important," said lead researcher Julia Knight of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto city
_____________________________________________________

Gary Moller comments:
Why, oh why is it that research like this gets hardly any publicity, to the point of being ignored? Get this right: Here is the way we can REDUCE THE RISK OF BREAST CANCER BY HALF! Furthermore, it’s FREE!

If this was a pharmaceutical drug development, the publicity would be front page headlines, demand would be sensational and each dose would be worth a thousand dollars.

By keeping our girls out of the sun, we are increasing their breast cancer risk later in life by as much as 50%! Surely this is a scandal?

For the last few years, I have been presenting the arguments why we should be encouraging our children to be outdoors doing healthy activity, including getting exposure to Vitamin D producing sunlight. The evidence grows by the day that sunlight is essential for human health. Depression, osteoporosis, cancer, heart failure, multiple sclerosis and more and more and more are associated with Vitamin D deficiency. To understand why influenza and other viruses run rampant during winter and not summer, we need look no further than the Vitamin D connection.

Perhaps the following are reasons why this powerful and free natural therapy is being mostly ignored:

• There’s no money in it for big business: Vitamin D is free via sunlight and in dietary form (e.g. cod liver oil) it is cheap and readily available.
• Health experts and administrators have overdone the hysteria and the consequent rules about skin cancer risk. It is going to take a big effort and the need to swallow much pride to backtrack and accept that people, especially children, need daily sunshine.
• A further issue is the bureaucratic need for “one-size-fits-all rules and the need not to be seen to be discriminating by race. So, because I am fair skinned, I need just 10 minutes sunlight per day; whereas my dark-skinned partner, Alofa, needs about 30 minutes per day to get her Vitamin D.

The photo above, of my son, Alama, and his cousin, Jasmine, demonstrate two very different skin types. They are dressed appropriately for the conditions.

Problem: how do you set non-racist rules in places like childcare centres and schools? Personally, I see no problem at all – just do it!

In the meantime; what do you do?

• Get out in the sunlight for several minutes per day, depending on your skin type and expose at least 1/3 of the body.
• On days you do not get sunlight, such as during winter months, eat eggs and oily fish regularly and consider a few capsules of cod liver oil and natural vitamin D. You can get fresh high quality cod liver oil and a natural vitamin D supplement from my Store www.myotec.co.nz
• If you have children that go to school or are in day care, why not raise this sunlight and health issue at the next suitable meeting with a view to ensuring that the rules and practices are sensible and healthy?

Sunlight may prevent the development of multiple sclerosis

"Inheriting genetic risk factors for multiple sclerosis (MS) is not sufficient to cause this demyelinating disease of the central nervous system; exposure to environmental risk factors is also required. MS may be preventable if these unidentified environmental factors can be avoided. MS prevalence increases with decreasing solar radiation, suggesting that sunlight may be protective in MS. Since the vitamin D endocrine system is exquisitely responsive to sunlight, and MS prevalence is highest where environmental supplies of vitamin D are lowest, we have proposed that the hormone, 1, 25-dihydroxycholecalciferol (1,25-(OH)2D3), may protect genetically-susceptible individuals from developing MS. Evidence consistent with this hypothesis comes not only from geographic studies, but also genetic and biological studies. Over-representation of the vitamin D receptor gene b allele was found in Japanese MS patients, suggesting it may confer MS susceptibility. Fish oil is an excellent vitamin D source, and diets rich in fish may lower MS prevalence or severity. Vitamin D deficiency afflicts most MS patients, as demonstrated by their low bone mass and high fracture rates. However, the clearest evidence that vitamin D may be a natural inhibitor of MS comes from experiments with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a model of MS. Treatment of mice with 1,25-(OH)2D3 completely inhibited EAE induction and progression. The hormone stimulated the synthesis of two anti-encephalitogenic cytokines, interleukin 4 and transforming growth factor beta-1, and influenced inflammatory cell trafficking or apoptosis. If vitamin D is a natural inhibitor of MS, providing supplemental vitamin D to individuals who are at risk for MS would be advisable."
Hayes, C.E. Proc Nutr Soc. 2000 Nov;59(4):531-5
__________________________________
Gary Moller comments:
What this research study points to is this:
Having optimum levels of vitamin D is essential for a robust immune system. This is why vitamin D deficiency is linked with every autoimmune disease one might want to think of. This website http://www.garymoller.blogspot.com/ has everything you need to know about vitamin D and health. Use the search by labels function on the right hand column of this website.

Is the cough caused by too much sugar?

Gary,
I have been told my kid has a cough because she has too much sugar and had poor immunity.

All I can find on the internet are hundred of references to Dr Stolls claims that sugar does affect immunity.

I know sudden high levels are not advisable - sugar rush - adrenalin injection, etc.

any input appreciated

thanks
John
____________________________
Gary Moller comments:

Notes:

1. There is growing evidence that high intakes can weaken the immune system over time. I have no doubt and as parents we should err on the side of caution.
2. There are many ailments related to high sugar intake including diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
3. Sugar comes in many forms. All carbohydrates, other than indegiestible forms like starch, become simple sugars with digestion, so noodles, bread, corn flakes and most fat free foods are ultimately sugar.
4. With processed sugar and carbohydrate products comes many other potentially harmful things like colourings, flavourings, preservatives, stabilisers, trans fats and so on that may become toixic to the growing child.
5. It may not be the sugar that is causing the cough. A high sugar diet may be indicative of a diet that is low in the fat soluble vitamins. Vitamins A, D and E are essential for lung health. We can assume that she is low in these fat soluble vitamins unless she has been:
1. Eating organ meat regularly
2. Consuming whole milk, yellow butter, yellow cheese daily
3. Eating the yellow yolks of free range eggs often
4. Eating oily fish
5. Having fish head soup, beef bone broth and so on frequently
6. Taking cod liver oil
7. Getting lots of sun on her growing body
8. Getting plenty of Vitamin C which is also essential for lung health - A diet high in refined foods is usually very low in this.
6. Even quite young girls can complicate matters considerably by being picky eaters, becoming amateurish vegetarians and so on.

Possible solutions:

1. Implement all of the items detailed in 5 above
2. Supplementing the diet with a child's nutritional supplement like Floradix Kinderval, or Nutra-Life Nutrimon - plus some additional vitamin C
3. Dealing with the Picky Eater problem, if this is the case (Would some readers like to write in with their advice, please!)
   

New Service: Hair Tisssue Mineral Analysis

I am delighted to offer an exciting new service:

Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA)

Minerals are essential for growth, healing and wellbeing. If you are an athlete in serious training you need to ensure that your mineral balance is healthy. If you a chronic health condition, or just keep getting sick or feel constantly stressed or tired, you have a mineral imbalance or toxic levels of poisonous heavy metals. If you are on prescription medicines such as for blood pressure, you may have an imbalance.

At last! We can eliminate most of the guessing about whether or not you are mineral defient, imbalanced or suffering from the toxic effects of exposure to heavy metals like mercury and lead.

Once we have the results in just a matter of days, we will know exactly what we are dealing with. Better still, we will have specific recommendations pertaining to modifying your diet and any supplementation needs to improve or maintain health.

Hair tissue mineral analysis is accurate, more so than a blood test, it is scientifically robust, and repeatable. If you are currently under the care of a health professional, the information gained is clinically valuable and should be shared with your healthcare provider.

Or else, get hold of me direct and I will send you an information pack immediately.

Exercise and cancer - is too much exercise bad for you?

"She won the New York City Marathon from 1978-80, 1982-86 and 1988, the London Marathon twice (1983, 1986), was world marathon champion in 1983, a five-time world cross-country champion and won silver in the marathon at the 1984 Olympics.
So now Waitz has been diagnosed with cancer. Not too different than Lance Armstrong, one of the most talented endurance athletes of all time who came down with testicular cancer.
Exercise is absolutely necessary for high-level wellness, but if you exercise too much it is clearly harmful and cancer seems to be a possible adverse outcome. My guess is that one's antioxidant threshold is exceeded or micronutrients are consumed at a level that cannot be easily replaced. Either way, they both add up to a major problem."

Quoted from an article by Dr J Mercola in response to the news that runner, Grete Waitz, is undergoing treatment for an unspecified form of cancer.
_____________________________
Gary Moller comments:
While much disease is still "luck of the draw", there is still a lot that we can do to reduce controllable risk factors so that the odds of the draw are more in our favour. Too much exercise is not good for us. Having spent most of my life in sporting circles I have been well aware that exercise does not necessarily make one healthier.

Longterm studies such as the Framingham Study, show that moderate exercise improves life expectancy; whereas excessive exercise reduces it. Excessive, exhaustive exercise can deplete immune function and increase the risk of colds (This can be countered to some extent by taking additional antioxidants, principally vitamin C) Please refer to my earlier article about this.

The first defense against disease, including cancer, is a strong immune system that is bolstered by dietary antioxidants derived from foods such as berries and brightly coloured fruit and vegetables. Adequate vitamin D derived mostly from sunlight is essential for a robust immune system.

We need to reduce exposure to toxins such as environmental pollutants and numerous chemicals in products like cleaners; burned, stale and rancid foods, food additives and even excess alcohol and various medications. As sports people we should not ignore the cancer risks of anabolic steroid abuse which is popularised by high profile athletes and celebrities (Refer my article about Arnold Schwarzeneggar).

One of the best predictors of future ill-health is stress and that includes events like getting married, divorced, changing jobs, a promotion/demotion, travel and running a marathon. We sure can do a lot about exercise; but what about the people who overdo it and do so year after year?

As many doctors know, an obsessive-compulsive addiction to exercise is one of the most difficult sports medicine problems to deal with. There are numerous examples of compulsive exercisers who continue to exercise to excess, despite badly worn joints. A doctor's advice to "rest up" is seldom heeded. Refer to my earlier article about excessive exercise here. In such cases, a combination of referral to counselling services and being placed under the caring wing of a knowledgeable sports coach may be the best course of action.

While exercise is good for you, too much of a good thing is not. Maintaining good health is all about balance in life and moderation of all things good while minimising all things bad.

Can incidental exposure to sunlight produce optimum levels of vitamin D?

"During the summer months most people should be able to achieve adequate vitamin D (blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D) levels through incidental outdoor UV exposure outside peak UV times (2). As an example, someone who burns easily in the sun (skin type 1 or 2 - see Appendix 2) may only need 5 minutes of daily summer sun exposure before 11am and after 4pm (to the face, hands and forearms) to achieve adequate vitamin D levels whereas someone who tans more easily or has darker skin (skin type 5 or 6) will need more time e.g., up to 20 minutes."

Quoted from Cancer Society Position Statement: The Risks and Benefits of Sun Exposure in New ZealandSeptember 2005

Photo: Alama and Jamine Moller: sun exposure according to skin type

_______________________________________
Gary Moller Comments:These guidelines are misleading and have no relationship with reality. They are instrumental in creating an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency-related ailments that are beginning to swamp our health system.

I have been running a campaign since 2001 to highlight the importance of Vitamin D for optimum health and a long and productive life span. I can tell readers that I have not yet had a single person who has consulted me about health or injury problems who has optimum vitamin D levels. Every single person has been either deficient or not far off it. Clinical deficiency begins at 50, optimum is 120-150nmol/l. The lowest level by a client has been 8. Needless to say, she was not feeling well.

Can you obtain optimum levels of vitamin D by "incidental exposure" as advised by the Cancer Society? My answer is a definite "NO!" Take compeititive cyclists for example: They spend long hours out in the sun, but only expose their arms and legs at the most (Usually when sipping lattes outside a cafe!). This exposure can be over several hours and often during peak UV periods of the day. So far, the highest summer time vitamin D levels I have seen produced by a cyclist is just 75.

Sunlight is our only practical source of vitamin D, unless we consume large amount of seal blubber and various animal organs. Normal dietary sources such as eggs and liver and varous supplements like cod liver oil are not sufficient to significantly increase vitamin D levels. They serve only to slow the attrition that normally occurs over winter months. Cod liver oil, for example, can safely deliver only 200-800 iu of vitamin D, per day whereas full body exposure to sunlight can deliver from 10-20,000 iu in a single day.

It is time that the cancer authorities reviewed the latest evidence and altered their sun exposure guidelines accordingly.

How much vitamin C should an athlete take to avoid colds?

It is the common experience of many athletes to finish an exhausting event like a marathon or iron man triathlon and feel surprisingly good; only to crash several days later going down with a virus an injury like tendonitis or feeling very depressed and tired or all of the latter. This may be fully or partially due to the delayed effects of the extreme oxidative stress suffered during the exhausting exercise (This can be either from competition or heavy training). In many cases, such as multiday events there is the added stress of sleep deprivation which hammers one's immune system.

"A practical way to reason is that, if a person carrying out heavy exercise feels that he or she has colds too often, he or she could (should?) try vitamin C.

The doses have been about 0.5 to 2 grams per day in the controlled trials and that kind of doses are safe for ordinary people (and cheap). In the US nutritional recommendations they consider that safe range goes to some 2 g/day. That is a conservative limit in my opinion, but with the current knowledge, I do not think it makes much sense to use substantially larger doses even though I consider them safe.

If we assume that the oxidative stress caused by the marathon would b protected against by higher vitamin C levels in the body, I think that the time scale would be initiation a few days before and continuing a few days after the marathon (one or two times per day I would think)". Harri

(Excerpt from correspondence between Gary Moller and Harri Hemilä, MD, PhD,Department of Public Health,University of Helsinki, Finland. Dr Hemilä is one of the world's leading researchers into the benefits or otherwide of substances like vitamin C and vitamin E).

Dr Hemilä's impressive work in this area makes fascinating reading.

With what we know about free radicals and how they are generated during exhasting or intense exercise, it would make good sense to anticipate excessive oxidative stress to your body and take preventive measures, if you are doing heavy training or have an exhausting competition coming up. This migh also apply to work and personal situations that may be emotionally as well as physically exhausting.

Using Dr Hemilä's advice as our guide, here is my guidance:

• If you are doing exhausting training take 1-2,000mg of vitamin C per day
• If you have a history of frequent colds, take towards the upper level (2,000mg)
• Take 2,000mg per day over the 2 days before an exhausting competition and for 2 days afterwards
• If you are taking Wagner Ester C, then you could reduce these guidelines to 50% and you will probably get the same protection or still better.
• Regardless of vitamin C supplementation, take a daily Super Smoothie that has red berries and whey protein added and eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.
• Go to sleep before 11pm every night and be out of bed by 7am
• Get plenty of sunlight on your body to boost your vitamin D levels. Get a blood test of your levels.
• An athlete requires more minerals and B group vitamins than most
• Other antioxidant food extracts like high potency garlic extracts could be added to the diet
• Have recovery days within your training schedule and take 3-5 days rest after an exhausting competition like a marathon.

I will be posting some guidelines about use of vitamin E which is currently a confused and controversial matter.

How to interpret your vitamin D results

Over the last year, I have had many people obtain blood tests through their doctor or specialist for vitamin D levels. This test is often not easy to obtain with some doctors refusing outright to order the test, or charging the patient extra to get it done which is outrageous.

What I can tell you is every test result - without exception - has come back as either clinically deficient, or not far off. Nobody, including me, has produced a result anywhere near optimum. If a person is suffering ill health such as depression, low energy, viral infection, heart disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, muscle and joint pain and so on and so on, then nothing less than optimum is acceptable as far as vitamin D is concerned.

Whenever you are addressing a health issue: "Normal" is not necessarily "Healthy". Always find out what is "Optimal" and go for that and settle for nothing less

When interpreting Lab test results for Vitamin D:

Optimal 25-hydroxy vitamin D values are:

45-50 ng/ml or 115-128 nmol/l

Normal 25-hydroxy vitamin D lab values are:

20-56 ng/ml 50-140 nmol/l

Your vitamin D levels should NEVER be below 32 ng/ml, or the equivalent in nmol/l. Any levels below 20 ng/ml are considered serious defiency states and will increase your risk of breast and prostate cancer, osteoporosis and autoimmune diseases like MS and rheumatoid arthritis - to name a few.

(Reference: Holick MF. Calcium and Vitamin D. Diagnostics and Therapeutics. Clin Lab Med. 2000 Sep;20(3):569-90)

Take a cold shower!

"Dear Gary,
Cold therapy. Hey I was amazed you kept up the cold shower routine for all of TWO days!
(Refer my earlier article about cold therapy)
I'll tell you a story.

When I was at school I read a book. I think it was "A stone for Danny Fisher" by Harold Robbins. It was about a young boxer who, on advice from his coach, finished each shower with an icy cold one.

I was impressed so started to do the same. Normal shower, then turn the water up to slightly more you can bear for a minute, then turn off the hot and spend two or three minutes under the cold water only.

Believe it or not I still do this every morning to this very day! No bullshit! I did it in Dunedin in the winter and was pleased to find out that when you step of of the cold shower your pores have snapped shut and you don't feel cold while you are drying off! Step out of a hot shower on a Dunedin winter's morn and see how you feel!

Result: Apart occasional sniffles for a day or two i can honestly say I have never had the flu or a bad cold in my entire life! I still piss people off every winter when the cold bugs are doing the rounds, watch them suffer and here them say "You'll be next" and never have it happen."
Dave
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Gary Moller comments:
Staying fit and healthy is not rocket science and can be as simple as a cold shower and a few other simple dietary and lifestyle measures. As Dave illustrates, even a rather trashy novelist can be a source of excellent health advice. The same can be said of Grandma with her cod liver oil for the children. Scientific evidence often lags decades behind experience and intuition. Dave has so ably demonstrated that the key to health is to consistently apply these simple practices year after year.

Freezing your body is good for you!

"Cryotherapy could be the key to keeping joints, muscles and tissues healthy over time. It works by shrinking the molecules in the body, so that when you emerge from the cold, the molecules expand, increasing the blood flow and easing pain, swelling and inflammation.
Cryotherapy involves exposing yourself to extremely cold, dry air in a sealed room for up to three minutes at a time. In Poland, cryotherapy has become a popular treatment for rejuvenating and revitalizing the body and it is also widely used by eastern European athletes instead of an "ice bath" to aid post-training recovery. ...."
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Gary Moller Comments:
I think the theory of shrinking and expanding moleclues is speculative bunkum.

The better explanation is that acute exposure to cold, such as an ice bath, gives a shock to the body's immune system. Done regularly, like the little old lady who takes a daily dip in the ocean, this keeps the immune system stimulated on high alert.

This is why people who adhere to these kinds of daily practices have robust immune systems and appear to be resistant to immune related ailments that are referred to in this report.

As a matter of interest; about 10 years ago I was so convinced of the health benefits of the early morning dip, I began taking cold showers first thing in the morning. I managed to keep this routine going for all of two days!

Cell phones reduce sperm counts

A study debuted in New Orleans has suggested that electromagnetic radiation from cell phones may have an effect on a man's sperm count.
The researchers, whose findings were presented at the 62nd annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said the sperm may also be affected by the heat generated by the phones, RxPG News reported Tuesday. Researchers from Cleveland, Mumbai and New Orleans said the effect on a man's sperm count depends on the number of hours he spends using his cell phone every day. They said data from 364 men being treated for infertility revealed that men who do not use cell phones averaged sperm counts of 86 million per milliliter with 40 percent normal forms and 68 percent motility, while men who used their phones for more than four hours per day averaged sperm counts of 66 million per milliliter with 21 percent normal forms and 48 percent motility. The researchers said further studies are needed to accurately identify the reason for reduced sperm counts in cell phone users.

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Gary Moller comments:

The radiation exposure from cell phones is an uncontrolled experiment being conducted on the human population. A scandal of massive proportions is possibly in the making.

If you value the Family Jewels, as well as your brains, why wait for the researchers decide what's up? Here's a few obvious safety measures for cell phone use that don't compromise their utility:

• Don't hang your phone on your belt right next to your crutch, or store it in your pocket where it snuggles up to to the dangly bits. The same should apply with more importance to women with regards to avoiding exposure of their ovaries because their eggs are one-off gems that tend to degrade with time, so it makes sense not to risk anything that might hasten this natural process.
• Use a hands free device whenever possible. The radiation is strongest when the phone is in active use, so it makes sense to keep it away from the brain.
• Do not sleep with the phone on standby, tucked under your pillow (a common practice with teenagers exchanging txt day and night.

This advice is probably more important for younger people who have more rapidly dividing cells and who stand to have longer lifetime exposures.

Low vitamin D, depression, high blood pressure and the rest

"M" has been suffering excessively high blood pressure, a racing heart, poor energy and depression. In her early 80's she has been consulting her doctor. Other than blood pressure medicine, there has been little else her doctor can do for her.

At my urging over some months, she finally persuaded her doctor to test her vitamin D levels. The results have come back: her levels were just 15 - as good as zero - which means she is seriously deficient and at real risk of numerous ailments including osteoporosis, heart failure and various cancers and nervous conditions!
Optimum vitamin D levels are in excess of 100, so "M" has a lot of work to do. Her Dr has prescribed cholecalcitrol (vit D) and I am encouraging her to get outdoors into the sunshine (If only there was some in Wellington!).

So far, every person that I have had tested for vitamin D who are suffering health problems, such as chronic pain have come back with levels less than 60.

Why on earth don't doctors test for this critical vitamin more often? I just can not understand why not.

I will keep readers posted as to "M's" progress. In the meantime, go get your own levels tested.

I got a cold the day after running a race

"Hi Gary – I had a 10km race yesterday morning and woke up today with a bit of a cold – could the 2 be linked or is it more likely to be a coincidence?

Apart from the obvious (i.e. wear warmer clothing) do you have any tips for training / racing on really cold mornings or evenings?"

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Gary Moller responds:

It is probably more than a coincidence.

First of all, you might have already been coming down with a bug before the race; but were symptom free. Running hard out is a significant stress and would not have helped if your immune system was already struggling. Unaccustomed running hard in cold air may have added to the problem by the irritating your airway linings, making them more vulnerable to invasion by the virus.

The best prevention is ensuring that your immune system is given every bit of support possible. This is a year-round challenge because what you do several months earlier can impact on today. This means doing the following:

• Ensure that you have a balanced lifestyle that does not have you stressed and being run ragged all the time. A life of rush, bother and constant worry will eventually tear you down, so make life changes today before a severe crash.
• Get 7-8 hours sleep at exactly the same time daily. Sleep deprivation is a guaranteed way to cause immune breakdown.
• Ensure that you eat a nutrient rich diet including fresh fruit and leafy and coloured vegetables.
• Consider adding a quality multivitamin that includes plenty of vitamin C; a multi mineral and add some daily omega 3 oil.
• Get vitamin D from sunlight. This does not mean tanning – it means only several minutes of midday sun 3-4 times a week with plenty of skin exposed; preferably the torso. Pale skin works best in winter; brown skin needs much more sunlight.
• You might consider taking an herbal formulation that is designed to support the immune system. Consider taking Oliviral or Rhodiola over winter months.
• Keep away from infected people and wash your hands frequently.
• If you are training hard, including doing any kind of racing, you must be extra vigilant to ensure that you are eating well, spacing recovery days and getting adequate sleep and relaxation.
• When exercising in cold wear several layers of clothing that you can easily take on and off as body heat demands.
• Your lungs will adapt to running in cold air, if you do it often enough and so long as you are not talking about severe sub-zero conditions which require special safety measures. Have a long, hot bath afterwards.

What these measures will do in combination is help reduce the number and severity of any colds or flu’s that you might pick up over the year and you should get over them much quicker. As an aside, I don't think people need to have a flu vaccine, if they nurture their immune system in these ways.



If you do catch a cold while undertaking intense athletic training or competition, this is your body telling you that it needs a break. Take 3-5 days off everything other than short and easy stuff, eat really well, top up the vitamins and minerals and then gradually ease back into normal training.

If the infection is below the neck, then cut out the training altogether until recovered.

Why do we mostly get ill with flus and colds in winter?

Dr. Liu and colleagues at UCLA, publishing in this March's edition of the prestigious journal Science, showed that vitamin D might be, in effect, a potent antibiotic. Vitamin D increases the body's production of naturally occurring antibiotics: antimicrobial peptides. Antimicrobial peptides are produced in numerous cells in the human body where they directly and rapidly destroy the cell walls of viruses and bacteria, including tuberculosis. Furthermore, Liu showed that adding vitamin D to African American serum (African Americans have higher rates of TB) dramatically increased production of these naturally occurring antibiotics.
Science. 2006 Mar 24;311(5768):1770-3.

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Gary Moller comments:

Why is it that dark-skinned populations tend to be less healthy when:

• They shift further North or South?
• They move into cities?

If we get colds and flu due to getting cold, then why is it that people who work the skifields, including pro skiers always seem to be very healthy?

Why is it that flus and colds are worst during winter, despite the fact that these bugs are present in populations year round?

Why is it that flu outbreaks in the tropics are worst during the rainy season?

The answer may be due to my pet topic for some years now: Vitmain D deficiency which is present in populations and worst during winter. We are learning all the time just why the body produces massive amounts of this vitamin when the skin is exposed to sunlight. The latest finding is that it may exert a powerful antibiotic effect on both bacteria and viruses.

When people move North or South and into cities, they tend to get much less year-round sunlight and dark-skinned people are poorly adapted for low sunlight. During the rainy season in the tropics, there may be no sunlight for weeks on end. This is exacerbated nowadays in many lands by air pollution that blocks UV. People who work on skifields get constant exposure to high levels of UV radiation, thus producing vitamin D despite the cold.

Commonsense tells us that the human body must be making Vitamin D for very good reasons. The list of good reasons grows longer by the day.