Butylfuel, with 10 employees, combines with British company

By Dan Gearino THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A Gahanna-based chemical-maker has merged with a British company.

Butylfuel Inc., which has offices and a lab in Gahanna, says it has combined with Green Biologics Limited and will use the Green Biologics name. The combined company has about 40 employees, 10 of whom come from Butylfuel and are located in Ohio. The corporate headquarters is in England.

The main product is “biobutanol,” a fuel developed from plant waste that has the same properties as butanol, a petroleum-based fuel.

• Biobutanol can be blended with gasoline, much like ethanol.

“This merger creates a truly global leader in biobutanol and represents a transformational deal for both companies,” Sean Sutcliffe, CEO of the combined company, said in a statement.

Tom Grote, who was chief financial officer for Butylfuel, will have the same title with Green Biologics. Grote, along with his father, Jim Grote, the founder of Donatos Pizza, have owned the chemical company since 2007.

Butylfuel has mainly sold chemicals for use in paint and plastics. With the merger, the new company will devote more resources to making motor fuel, Tom Grote said.

One of the next steps for Green Biologics will be to build a refinery to produce the fuel, which will likely be in Ohio, he said. He estimates that a plant would employ 50 people and cost at least $50 million. He describes this as a “bolt-on” plant, meaning it would likely be constructed as an addition to an existing ethanol plant, working in partnership with the plant’s owner.

Ohio has six ethanol plants. The closest to central Ohio are in Marion and Fayette counties.

dgearino@dispatch.com

Models leap ahead as car dealers post solid 2011 sales figures

By Dan Gearino | THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

WIECK PHOTOS

Central Ohio car dealers, after battling a bad economy for several years, finally gained some traction in 2011. New-car sales jumped 17 percent in the Columbus area last year, significantly better than for the country as a whole.

The surge was driven in part by a few models that posted triple-digit percentage increases, led by the Kia Optima, up 535 percent, the Ford Explorer, up 360 percent, and the Chevrolet Cruze, up 180 percent, according to registration figures from Autoviewonline.com  .

The big gains contained a common thread: new designs.

The midsize Optima, with 502 units sold, benefited from a sporty redesign, helping Kia become the fastest-growing of any brand in the market with at least 1,000 vehicles sold.

Several other Kia models also had big increases in sales, such as the Soul crossover, which was up 86 percent. Kia dealers say the growth in sales is attributable to a combination of strong designs and low to moderate prices.

“When the recession hit, it forced people to live within their means and say, ‘I’m going to give this car a shot,’” said George Kauffman, vice president of Byers Automotive, which has a Kia store in Lewis Center.

Meanwhile, the Ford Explorer was part of a surprisingly good year for sport-utility vehicles and a strong year for the Ford brand. The Explorer, which sold 556 units locally, had a new design that was the 2011 North American Truck of the Year.

“We went from selling a few to selling quite a few,” said Doug Krieger, co-owner of Krieger Ford on the North Side.

The model improved on its main drawback — poor fuel economy — and added many features, he said.

Overall, SUV sales have grown for several reasons, including new designs, an increase in the supply of vehicles and relatively stable fuel prices. Among the other standouts in the segment is the Ohio-made Jeep Grand Cherokee, local sales for which were up 129 percent.

The Ohio-made Cruze had its first full year on the market, demolishing the sales of the compact-car model it replaced, the Cobalt, and helping lead a resurgence for General Motors. For this model, the 180 percent increase includes Cruze and Cobalt sales. The Cruze sold 118 units in 2010 and 1,457 in 2011; the Cobalt sold 405 in 2010 and seven in 2011.

“It’s well-built with good mileage, and much higher quality than Cobalt,” said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with Edmunds.com  .

Despite the sudden gains of several models, the region’s top-five sellers were unchanged from 2010 to 2011. Honda continued to dominate the market, with Accord, CR-V and Civic, which ranked first, second and third, respectively. Next were the Hyundai Sonata and Toyota Camry.

The top five were the same in 2010, except that the CR-V rose from third to second, switching places with the Civic. The Sonata also switched places with the Camry.

Honda’s strength in the region is tied to its presence as a major employer. The automaker has assembly plants in Marysville and East Liberty.

The brand’s success came despite some major setbacks, starting with the earthquake and tsunami last March in Japan, which disrupted the supply of parts. Honda dealers spent much of the summer waiting for inventory to arrive.

Central Ohio dealers sold more than 64,000 new vehicles last year, up 17 percent from the year before. That was better than the 10 percent increase in national new-car sales, according to Ward’s Auto.

The region’s strong showing may be tied to Honda’s performance. The brand’s national sales fell by 7 percent in 2011, largely because of the inventory problems, but increased by 9 percent in central Ohio. dgearino@dispatch.com

Nine kidnappers killed after Obama orders mission to save ill American

By Jeffrey Gettleman, Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker THE NEW YORK TIMES

Aid workers Poul Hagen Thisted of Denmark and Jessica Buchanan, formerly of Ohio, had been held for ransom by Somali kidnappers since October.

KHARTOUM, Sudan — Under the cloak of darkness early yesterday, two dozen U.S. Navy SEALs answered the prayers of the many friends of Ohio-born Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Den-mark’s Poul Hagen Thisted, 60.

The SEALs parachuted into Somalia, stormed the hideout of the gunmen who had been holding the two aid workers hostage since October, killed nine of the gunmen and whisked the hostages out of the sweltering desert and into waiting helicopters, Pentagon officials said.

“Ever since Jessica was captured, we all as a community have been praying for her safety and for her safe release,” the Rev. Don Meyer, president of Valley Forge Christian College near Philadelphia, said of the graduate of his school yesterday.

The SEALs were from the same elite Navy commando unit — SEAL Team 6 — that secretly entered Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden in May, senior U.S. officials said, although the rescue mission in Somalia was carried out by a different assault team.

President Barack Obama was closely tracking the raid Tuesday night, which was yesterday morning in Somalia. As he stepped into the House chamber to deliver his State of the Union address, Obama looked at Defense Secretary Leon Panetta standing in the crowd and said: “Leon, good job tonight, good job.”

Minutes after giving his address to Congress, Obama was on the phone with Buchanan’s father to tell him his daughter was safe.

PETE SOUZA WHITE HOUSE    President Barack Obama, accompanied by his wife, Michelle, tells John Buchanan by phone from the Capitol that his daughter is safe. Obama had just completed his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday night.

No SEALs were hurt during the operation, Pentagon officials said. The hostages were soon flown to a U.S. military base in neighboring Djibouti.

U.S. officials said they were moved to strike because they had received “actionable intelligence” that Buchanan’s health was rapidly deteriorating and could lead to kidney failure. The gunmen had just refused $1.5 million to let the two hostages go, Somali elders said.

A Danish Refugee Council official said Buchanan was “not that ill” but needed medicine. The family reported that her health is good, Meyer said, but there were no other details on her illness.

Before Buchanan’s family moved from Ohio years ago, she attended the now-closed Ridgeville Christian School in Springboro, north of Cincinnati. Buchanan was an elementary-education major at Valley Forge Christian, which has about 1,100 students, and had done a student-teaching stint at Rosslyn Academy in Nairobi, Kenya, as part of her course work, Meyer said. She had been in Africa about five years when she was abducted.

“She fell in love with Africa,” Meyer said. “She could hardly talk about Africa without tears in her eyes.”

The aid workers had been kidnapped by two truckloads of gunmen as they headed to the airport in Galkayo, a central Somalia town on the edge of pirate territory. The two were representing the Danish Refugee Council, one of the few Western organizations still operating in the area, and were working with a mine-removal unit. The two had finished a workshop on land mines just before they were kidnapped.

Somali elders said the gunmen were part of an established pirate gang. Pirates operate with impunity in much of Somalia, which has languished without a functioning government for more than 20 years. As naval efforts have intensified on the high seas, stymying hijackings, Somali pirates seem increasingly to be snatching foreigners on land. Just last week, pirates grabbed another U.S. hostage not far from where the SEAL raid took place.

Somali pirates have held hostages for months, often in punishing conditions with little food, water or shelter, and past ransoms have topped $10 million. One British couple sailing around the world on a small boat was kidnapped by pirates from this same patch of central Somalia and held in captivity for more than a year.

Obama authorized the operation on Monday.

“As commander in chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission,” he said in a statement yesterday. “The United States will not tolerate the abduction of our people.”

Pentagon officials said the SEALs dropped into the area by parachute about 2 a.m. and hiked nearly 2 miles to where the hostages were being held, near a small village called Hiimo Gaabo, south of Galkayo.

According to Pentagon officials, within minutes of the SEALs reaching the encampment, shots rang out. The hostages were quickly located and freed. In the gunbattle, the nine Somali gunmen, described as heavily armed, were killed.

Accounts differed as to whether the SEALs captured any of the gunmen, with local officials saying several had been taken. The Pentagon said no prisoners were taken.

Several hostages are still being held in Somalia, including a British tourist, two Spanish doctors and an American journalist kidnapped on Saturday.

Information from the Associated Press and McClatchy Newspapers was included in this story.

Besides usual separations such as retirements, the Army will allow fewer enlistments.

By Lolita C. Baldor ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — The Army plans to slash the number of combat brigades from 45 to as few as 32 in a broad restructuring of its fighting force. The action is aimed at cutting costs and reducing the service by about 80,000 soldiers, according to U.S. officials familiar with the plans.

Officials said the sweeping changes likely will increase the size of each combat brigade — generally by adding another battalion — in a long-term effort to ensure that those remaining brigades have the fighting capabilities they need when they go to war. A brigade usually is about 3,500 soldiers but can be as large as 5,000 for the heavily armored units. A battalion usually is between 600-800 soldiers.

The restructuring will unfold over several years and is intended to save money without eroding the military’s ability to protect the country and wage war when needed. Army officials say that while there eventually would be fewer brigades, building them bigger will give them more capabilities and depth, and will reduce stress on the units.

• They said specialty units, such as Army special operations forces, would not be affected by the cuts.

Reducing the overall number of brigades also will eliminate the need for the headquarters units that command and oversee them.

Officials acknowledged that merging battalions together into larger brigades could shift some soldiers to different bases across the country, although that effort could be stymied by members of Congress who don’t like to see the staffing decline at bases that feed local economies. Officials said the Army will try to limit such shifts.

The cuts come as the Pentagon puts the finishing touches on its 2013 fiscal-year budget, which must reflect about $260 billion in savings in its five-year plan. Congress has ordered the Defense Department to come up with a total of $487 billion over the next 10 years, and it could face cuts of double that amount if Congress can’t reach an agreement to avoid automatic across-the-board reductions mandated by lawmakers last year.

Most military leaders, from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on down, insist that they will come up with the budget cuts without hurting the force’s effectiveness.

According to officials, plans call for the active-duty Army to shrink from a high of about 570,000 soldiers during the peak of the Iraq war to roughly 490,000 over the next decade or so. Initial cuts have been ongoing, and there currently are about 558,000 active-duty soldiers.

Additionally, there are nearly 205,000 in the Army Reserve and close to 360,000 in the Army National Guard.

The Army plans to shed soldiers carefully, including through planned departures, separations for medical or behavioral problems and by scaling back the number of people promoted or allowed to enlist and re-enlist.

Bats dying by the millions because of recent fungus

My own diet is pretty clean, therefore, I’m not too worried for myself on the cancer front.  But the thing is, doing the Gerson Therapy tends to heal the body enabling it to heal and/or take care of anything which is needing correction.  Even tho I juice and have for years, am big on fermented foods and am pretty much plant-based and a lot RAW,  I still have a a couple of things that I wish I didn’t have some of which I have bored you with before.  So when I came across this piece, it seemed to me that it would be helpful for you to know about for anyone one you may wish to help down the road.  Meanwhile, I intend to concentrate a little more seriously on this therapy now.) 

The Gerson Therapy 

Healing Your Body with the Gerson Therapy

With its whole-body approach to healing, the Gerson Therapy naturally reactivates your body’s magnificent ability to heal itself – with no damaging side-effects. Over 200 articles in respected medical literature, and thousands of people cured of their “incurable” diseases document the Gerson Therapy’s effectiveness. The Gerson Therapy is one of the few treatments to have a 60 year history of success.

The Gerson Therapy is a powerful, natural treatment that boosts your body’s own immune system to heal cancer, arthritis, heart disease, allergies, and many other degenerative diseases. One aspect of the Gerson Therapy that sets it apart from most other treatment methods is its all-encompassing nature. An abundance of nutrients from thirteen fresh, organic juices are consumed every day, providing your body with a superdose of enzymes, minerals and nutrients. These substances then break down diseased tissue in the body, while enemas aid in eliminating the lifelong buildup of toxins from the liver.

Throughout our lives our bodies are being filled with a variety of disease and cancer causing pollutants. These toxins reach us through the air we breathe, the food we eat, the medicines we take and the water we drink. As more of these poisons are used every day and cancer rates continue to climb, being able to turn to a proven, natural, detoxifying treatment like the Gerson Therapy is not only reassuring, but necessary.

Although its philosophy of cleansing and reactivating the body is simple, the Gerson Therapy is a complex method of treatment requiring significant attention to detail. While many patients have made full recoveries practicing the Gerson Therapy on their own, for best results we encourage starting treatment at a licensed Gerson treatment center.

Download a free brochure

Please Note: The Gerson Institute does not own, operate, or control any treatment facilities. We maintain a licensing program with clinics to ensure that patients are receiving true, 100% Gerson care. Be sure your clinic is licensed by the Gerson Institute to provide the Gerson Therapy. 

Learn more about licensed Gerson treatment centers

The History and Development of the Gerson Therapy

The Gerson Therapy is a state of the art, contemporary, alternative and natural treatment which utilizes the body’s own healing mechanism in the treatment and cure of chronic debilitating illness. When it was introduced to the world by Max Gerson, M.D., the dietary therapy was so far ahead of its time that there were almost no rationales available in the scientific literature to explain how it could produce cures in chronic as well as infectious diseases. But, because it did cure many cases of advanced tuberculosis, heart disease, cancer and numerous lesser conditions, the Gerson Therapy was established as a major contribution to the medical field, through the publication of articles in peer reviewed medical literature http://cancer-research.net/GersonPubs.html. Gerson first published on the topic of cancer in 1945, almost forty years before the adoption of the current official U.S. National Cancer Institute program on diet, nutrition, and cancer.

Max Gerson treated many hundreds of patients and continued to develop and refine his therapy up until his death in 1959, at the age of 78. His most famous patient was Dr. Albert Schweitzer, whom Gerson cured of advanced diabetes when Schweitzer was 75. Schweitzer returned to his African hospital, won the Nobel prize, and worked past age 90. Schweitzer wrote “I see in Dr. Gerson one of the most eminent geniuses in the history of medicine.”

Most recently, Dr. Gerson was recognized as a pioneer in his field when he was inducted into the Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame in Ottawa, Canada on May 14, 2005. He joined seven other giants of medicine whose seminal work has been influential in the medical and scientific worlds, and are considered pioneers in their respective fields.

It is rare to find cancer, arthritis, or other degenerative diseases in cultures considered “primitive” by Western civilization. Is it because of diet? The fact that degenerative diseases appear in these cultures only when modern packaged foods and additives are introduced would certainly support that idea. Max Gerson said “Stay close to nature and its eternal laws will protect you.” He considered that degenerative diseases were brought on by toxic, degraded food, water and air.

How the Gerson Therapy Works

The Gerson Therapy seeks to regenerate the body to health, supporting each important metabolic requirement by flooding the body with nutrients from almost 20 pounds of organically grown fruits and vegetables daily. Most is used to make fresh raw juice, one glass every hour, 13 times per day. Raw and cooked solid foods are generously consumed. Oxygenation is usually more than doubled, as oxygen deficiency in the blood contributes to many degenerative diseases. The metabolism is also stimulated through the addition of thyroid, potassium and other supplements, and by avoiding heavy animal fats, excess protein, sodium and other toxins.

Degenerative diseases render the body increasingly unable to excrete waste materials adequately, commonly resulting in liver and kidney failure. To prevent this, the Gerson Therapy uses intensive detoxification to eliminate wastes, regenerate the liver, reactivate the immune system and restore the body’s essential defenses – enzyme, mineral and hormone systems. With generous, high-quality nutrition, increased oxygen availability, detoxification, and improved metabolism, the cells – and the body – can regenerate, become healthy and prevent future illness.

No treatment works for everyone, every time. Anyone who tells you otherwise is not giving you the facts. We know that when you have been diagnosed with a life-threatening ailment, choosing the best strategy for fighting your illness can be a bewildering task. Everyone claims to have either “the best treatment”, “the fastest cure”, or “the only therapy that works.” In most cases your trusted family physician only has knowledge of conventional treatments, and is either unaware of, or even hostile toward alternative options. No matter how many opinions you receive on how to treat your disease, you are going to make the final decision on what to do, and you must be comfortable with your decision. Choose a treatment that makes the most sense to you.

Most therapies, conventional or alternative treat only the individual symptoms while ignoring what is ultimately causing the disease. The reason the Gerson Therapy is effective with so many different ailments is because it restores the body’s incredible ability to heal itself. Rather than treating only the symptoms of a particular disease, the Gerson Therapy treats the cause of the disease itself. Although we feel the Gerson Therapy is the most comprehensive treatment for disease, we don’t claim it will cure everything or everyone.

Caution: Do not start the Gerson Therapy without referring to Charlotte Gerson’s Book, Healing the Gerson Way, or without the supervision of a Gerson Doctor if any of the following conditions apply:

• Chemotherapy
• Diabetes
• Brain metastases
• Severe kidney damage
• Foreign bodies such as pacemakers, breast implants, steel plates or screws.

Patients must be able to eat, drink and eliminate normally.

The Gerson Therapy cannot be administered to organ transplant recipients.

Juicers

Juicing is an essential component of the Gerson Therapy. To ensure reliable results, the Gerson patient will need to purchase an appropriate juicer. Dr. Gerson’s research indicates that cancer patients must have a two- stage juicer with a separate grinder and hydraulic press. One-step juicers generally do not produce the same quality of enzyme, mineral or micronutrient content, and some patients have failed to experience results simply by using the wrong juicer. We do not recommend the use of any centrifugal-type juicers for Gerson patients. Other non-centrifugal juicers may be used for health maintenance or non-cancer diagnoses.

Please read our Gerson Guide to Juicers to learn more about the kinds of juicers that can be used for the Gerson Therapy.

If you are interested in learning more about the two-step Norwalk juicer, please contact the Norwalk Juicer Representatives, Richard Boger or Gisela Summer at 1-800-405-8423/760-436-9684 outside the US.

The Gerson Diet

The Gerson diet is naturally high in vitamins, minerals, enzymes, micro-nutrients, extremely low in sodium and fats, and rich in fluids.

The following is a typical daily diet for a Gerson patient on the full therapy regimen:

• Thirteen glasses of fresh, raw carrot/apple and green-leaf juices prepared hourly from fresh, organic fruits and vegetables.
• Three full vegetarian meals, freshly prepared from organically grown fruits, vegetables and whole grains. A typical meal will include salad, cooked vegetables, baked potatoes, vegetable soup and juice.
• Fresh fruit and fresh fruit available at all hours for snacking, in addition to the regular diet.

Supplements

All medications used in connection with the Gerson Therapy are classed as biologicals, materials of organic origin that are supplied in therapeutic amounts.

• Potassium compound
• Lugol’s solution
• Vitamin B-12
• Thyroid hormone
• Pancreatic Enzymes
• Enemas of coffee and/or chamomile

Detoxification

A very important part of the Gerson Therapy is frequent detoxification of the tissues and blood. This is accomplished through a variety of means, first and foremost through the use of coffee enemas.

The scientific basis for the use of coffee enemas is well documented, and can be obtained from the Gerson Institute. Patients report that the enemas decrease pain and hasten healing. Biologically, enzyme systems of the gut wall and liver are stimulated, and bile flow is increased. This has been shown to enhance the body’s ability to eliminate toxic residues from environmental, chemotherapeutic, and other sources.

Tumor and other diseased tissue is also more rapidly eliminated as it is broken down.
Other means of detoxification include castor oil, used as an additional stimulant of bile flow and as another way to enhance the liver’s ability to filter blood. In addition, digestive enzymes serve to enhance absorption of nutrients as well as assist in the elimination of damaged tissue.

Patients must have a complete understanding of the Gerson Therapy so that they may effectively continue the regimen at home after leaving the treatment center. The following are examples of educational opportunities at a typical licensed Gerson facility:

• Gerson-trained physicians and/or educators present lectures and instruction on healing reactions and medication uses.
• Charlotte Gerson and/or other senior Gerson Institute staff members lecture on the theory and practice of the Gerson Therapy, scientific rationales and relevant research.
• Instruction and demonstration of two-piece, press-type juicers, such as the Norwalk Juicer.
• Videotapes of lectures by Charlotte Gerson, other Gerson Institute staff, and Gerson-trained physicians are available for viewing at any time.
• Regular, individualized consultation with your Gerson physician on the specifics of your condition and any necessary modifications to the treatment. During this time, any specific questions you have may be addressed.

Get Started on the Gerson Therapy!

Tiny baby finally going home from hospital

LOS ANGELES (AP) — One of the world’s smallest surviving babies is headed home.

Melinda Star Guido weighed only 9 1/2 ounces at birth — less than a can of soda. After she spent her early months in the neonatal intensive-care unit, doctors and nurses were seeing her off yesterday.

Melinda has been growing steadily and gaining weight since she was born premature at 24 weeks in August at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. She is the world’s third-smallest baby and the second smallest in the U.S.

Now weighing 4 1/2 pounds, Melinda has made enough progress to be discharged, doctors said. It’s too early to know how she will fare developmentally and physically, but doctors will monitor her for six years.

Most babies this small don’t survive even with advanced medical care. About 7,500 babies are born weighing less than 1 pound each year in the United States, and about 10 percent survive.

A study published in the journal Pediatrics in 2010 found that many survivors have continuing health and learning concerns. Most also remain short and underweight for their age.

There are some rare success stories. The smallest surviving baby born, weighing 9.2 ounces, is now a healthy 7-year-old, and another who weighed 9.9 ounces at birth is an honors college student studying psychology, say doctors at Loyola University Medical Center in Illinois, where the girls were born.

Soon after birth, Melinda was treated for an eye disorder that’s common in premature babies and underwent surgery to close an artery. Her mother, Haydee Ibarra, 22, held her for the first time after the operation in November.

Despite the hurdles, doctors said Melinda was fortunate she did not suffer serious complications such as bleeding in the brain.

Read a brilliant article from the desk of Jonathan Wright in his current newsletter.  Love the idea and I want to tell you a little bit about it because it couldn’t be more relevant.

As an aside, it reminded me of something a wise man once told me many years ago;    as a repayment for the ‘blessing’  I had received, I was to perform ten good deeds to others.   I must have looked somewhat confused, for he said that I was to select the deeds and the others as I chose – - it was up to me.  No clues or restrictions applied.  But, that I must be aware that this is not as easy as it sounds, for as one puts the good out to others, it just keeps coming back to you;  that it was kind of the way the universe worked.  Sometimes it is rather a pistol to keep ahead of it because the desire is to put the deed or service out to others and these sweet little things just keep coming back at you and you can lose track and never get even. . .so to speak.   Anyway,  guess one learns to roll with these things.

So this action, I found out about is the act of giving blood.  Well, I can do that – - The act, noble as it sounds,  is especially self-serving as one ages.  This is because, as we grow older, our blood can thicken and become sticky – a term used to describe this is viscosity. Many of us have learned a little about this from our own doctors as they advise the blood thinners and/or the hypertension medication  to protect against the threat of  heart attack and stroke.  We don’t like it because of all the issues which attend it, but there we are.   Mostly, we find it hard to believe because there is no pain involved or any other symptoms usually.  Hard to want to screw up your life with meds when you feel okay.  Tricky to understand.  But this has to do with the “physics of blood flow”

Dr Wright said he was never taught anything about this  in medical school and it is not common knowledge.  However he studied 1,000′s of pages and research papers covering many studies of 1,000′s of individuals of many years periods, sorted by age groups.

Reduce Cardiac-Risk over 80 %

In one group of a research study of 2,862 men ages 42 – 60, observed over a period averaging  9 years.    Of 153 men who had donated blood prior to their first examination, only one man had a heart attack during the nine years as compared with 316 of 2,529 men who did not donate blood.  After the research adjustments for risk factors, it was found that the men who donated blood had 88% less risk of acute myocardial infarction as compared with the men who didn’t donate blood.  .  .  .  a really significant difference!

The researchers claimed  that the frequent blood loss through voluntary blood donations may be associated with a reduced risk of acute myocardial infarction in middle-aged men.

As for women, between menarche and menopause, women experience blood loss monthly.  In menstruating women not taking birth control pills,  it is rare for stroke or heart attack to happen.  But after this period of life closes, the woman’s risk factor equates those of men within about a  decade.  While the researchers opined that this may have something to do with iron, Dr Wright believes it to be more relevant to the level of blood viscosity resulting in an increase of blood flow throughout the body.

Atherosclerosis

He then goes on to discuss atherosclerosis  and how it starts years before cardiovascular disease is evident.  But after it is established, blood vessels can be completely or mostly blocked – - chest pain and heart attack can occur.  Dr Wright does not discount the threats of cholesterol, smoking, obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure and all that excellent documentation — however, he feels that there is an almost entirely overlooked cause of atherosclerosis:  which is the way that the blood itself flows within those arteries.    So he believes the most important issue is direct measurement of the blood’s ability to flow and is the most overlooked.

Studies have shown the strong relationship of blood viscosity to the development of atherosclerosis in which the men with extensive heart disease showed a much higher blood viscosity than those with little or no heart disease present.

Blood viscosity is a direct measure of the blood’s resistance to flow,  If affects not only how hard the heart has to work to circulate the blood, but also the level of stress and strain, injury and inflammation the blood causes to the arteries.  The thicker the blood, the more abrasion and damage it does to the lining cells (endothelium) of the arteries.  When they are injured, lipids and other inflammatory cells migrate into the tissue to repair damage.  As damage of lesions and plaque grows, the risk of plaque rupture grows too.

With viscosity increasing, the blood rubs against the blood vessel lining increasing “friction” which causes arteries to stiffen and narrow (which is called plaque), which then increases friction even more which then decreases  blood flow within arteries and veins.  (I have been selectively presenting what I perceive to be salient points.  I will not however reproduce the entire article for this is a subscription newsletter which anyone can access directly with a personal connection to the site.)    The article goes on quite a lot with details of how and why all this seems to happen.  The major thing I wanted to impart is  “If blood flow is impaired due to increased viscosity, less oxygen and fewer nutrients can be delivered to the tissues and organs of the body,  affecting critical areas such as the brain, eyes and kidneys.  Additionally, a potential area which can be threatened by increased blood viscosity is that of hearing loss.

Reduce your blood viscosity  — and reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke.

If your blood is too thick and sticky, you’re at unnecessary risk for heart attack and stroke  until your blood viscosity becomes normal again.   And your blood isn’t delivering nutrients to your tissues as well as it should.

There are a couple of things that we can do to help correct this condition.  One is to donate blood, which would help reduce our own risk while, obviously, helping someone else who will receive our blood.    The doctor also suggests the ongoing use of fish oil  together with mixed tocopherol Vitamin E.

Dr Wright then spends a page or so explaining a fairly new technology which I believe he calls  Blood viscosity test monitoring.  There are only a few laboratories in the country who do it apparently as the equipment needed for doing is costly.  This equipment is sophisticated and is able to measure the blood’s performance under each extreme  as well as measuring the content of the blood in order to make good judgements on treatment.  A single point measure is not sufficient, the blood needs to be measured on multiple points on a curve.

• Dr Wright is the Medical Director of Meridian Valley Laboratories where this testing IS being done.  They can be reached at 1-855-405-8378 for details or contact  www.meridianvalleylab.com.

Personally, I’m going to try to work out getting back to my local blood bank where I used to donate and start that up again.   As you may or may not know — I quit my blood thinner in the beginning of October 2011 when I had those two falls.  My doctor said the thinner was hurting me and I should stop immediately.  Within a few days or week, I was taking Nattokinase  which is so far superior to any prescription blood thinner which is very toxic.  Nattokinase is terrific to improve circulation, improve blood flow and if there be a clot problem, it can take care of it better than most hospital stays with treatment and a whole lot cheaper.

I keep myself kinda restricted financially because of all the supplements I take.  Medicare does not pay for these.  For example when the doctor had put me on Vitamin-D therapy at 50K IU weekly (one pill a week), I did okay, but when I found out that prescribed Vitamin D is only K-2 and what I wanted was K-3 (because that is the kind of D the body recognizes and best uses.  So I switched to buying what I needed – myself.  I now take 10K daily and my current reading is 69 which is, for me – excellent – so much better than 13 – where I started.   When I can get out into gardening and sunshine again, I’ll probably drop it down to 5K to 8K daily.  Anyway, my budget being what it is, it isn’t too likely I’ll be getting up to the northwest where Dr Wright is – - but I would if I could.  Because it would be good to “KNOW” for sure what the facts are.

Hope this information is as welcome to you guys as it was to me. . . .so I just had to share it with you.  Be well.    Jan

Loren Cordain

Well, Paleo fans, look what I found – - Dr Cordain giving a lecture down in Pensacola on some of his findings.  He is so good!  A little audience Q and A at end.   This was in todays mail from Dr Mercola.   So here you go. .  .  .

Incidentally, Have you ordered the new book yet?  Called “The Paleo Answer:  7 days to Lose Weight, Feel Great, Stay Young”      I am looking forward to seeing it.    Jan

Eating This Can “Tear Holes” in Your Gut   
Allowing various gut contents to flood into your bloodstream where they wreak havoc on your health, causing bloating, gas and abdominal cramps as well as fatigue, skin rashes, joint pain, allergies, psychological symptoms, autism and more. Stop eating it now…