Neuroimmunology, Part 1

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

I recently attended a twelve hour continuing education seminar titled, “Neuroimmunology: Patterns of Influence,” by Dr. Stephen Marini, M.S., D.C., PhD. Today’s article comes from this seminar.  It is going to concentrate on some challenges to the medical paradigm that are held so dear by most physicians, yet makes so little sense when compared to verifiable, scientific truth. This is a very difficult subject to write about due to its complexity, but is vitally important to understand when learning about how to stay healthy naturally.

The conventional medical paradigm holds to some very wrong headed public health ideas, which completely drives their research agendas and public health policy. First off, medicine believes the immune system is independent and autonomous (works alone without help). Scientific research shows this to be completely false. Can thoughts of the mind affect your physical health? You bet.  Have you  ever heard of the placebo effect? Does physical trauma affect the psyche or nervous systems? Sure. No one system stands alone, yet this is how medicine treats the immune system when it tries to fake it out with immunizations for contagious disease.

They believe that natural immunity (actually getting a disease and recovering) is the same as artificial immunity (shots). It is not!  This subject will be another whole article.

Alternative Artificial Sweeteners

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

In this article on sweeteners, I will present a few acceptable alternatives to the chemical slurries commonly used. There are six sweeteners to consider: stevia, stevia based alternative, xylitol, dextrose or pure glucose, and lastly, sugar and honey in moderation.

We’ll start with my favorite of the bunch, stevia. Stevia belongs in the herb and shrub genus in the sunflower family. It comes from the Central and South Americas. It is 300 times sweeter than sugar, has no calories, no fat, carbs or sugars. It has a negligible effect on blood glucose, so diabetics and low carb dieters can use it without worry.

Artificial Sweeteners

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

How many of you think you are doing yourself a favor by reducing calorie intake with artificial, no calorie sweeteners? You know the pink, blue, yellow, and now green packets. Advertisers entice people to use artificial sweeteners as a means to lose weight. Did you know it doesn't really help at all? Would you believe it actually makes you fatter? Studies show that artificial sweeteners have adverse consequences, including tricking the body into desiring MORE calories. Plus, the long list of side effects connected to them just doesn't make sense for your health. This week, we’ll look at the ones you should avoid, and in the next article we will cover what you can safely use as alternate sweeteners.

First, to prove my point above, a study by the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, presented this report at an American Diabetes Association meeting. Diet sodas are not a “guilt free” treat at all. After following 474 diet soda drinkers for 10 years, they found that their waists grew 70% more than those who drank non-diet sodas. For those who drank 2 or more diet sodas a day, their waists increased, on average, over 500%. Waist size indicates the amount of fat at your organs, which is strongly linked to type II diabetes.