Dr. Craig Reese, DC, PC
DR. CRAIG REESE,
D.C. P.C.
BIO CRANIAL CENTER OF BOULDER
April/May Newsletter 2005
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Spring has arrived and I have been busy securing a new office space that is handicapped accessible so we can move on May 27th. Our new office will be at 3000 Center Green, Suite 230. It is the first building west of Foothills Parkway on Valmont. The building has two entrances, the one farther east is handicapped accessible if you need that. You can also park under the building and take the elevator to the 2nd floor which will be really nice in bad weather (if there are any spaces left on those days!). We may not make our deadline for being in the new office so send us your email address if we don’t have it already to make sure you don’t miss any office updates.
Deadly Vitamin E
The press was all over a report that came out suggesting that vitamin E increased your chance for getting cancer or heart disease. This was not based on a new study but on an interesting manipulation of old studies and their statistics. The only forms of Vitamin E studied were D-alpha tocopherol isolate and its synthetic cousin DL-alpha tocopherol. The flaws in logic and the study selection were extremely biased but it does bring out one important point. Synthetic vitamins or fractionated vitamins are not good for you. Alpha tocopherol is only a part of the whole vitamin E complex and should not be taken alone without its natural synergists like the other tocopherols and selenium.
Natural vs Synthetic
A recent article
on Mercola.com was called “Real or Synthetic: The Truth Behind Whole-Food
Supplements” by Daniel H. Chong, ND. He states:
“Americans are now spending more than $17 billion a year on supplements
for health and wellness. Strangely enough, the rates of some forms of
chronic disease have not changed, while the rates of others have actually
increased. There are a number of reasons for these poor statistics and
many things remain a mystery. One thing seems fairly clear, however. Most
supplements aren't helping very much. I'm not saying there are no helpful
supplements out there. There certainly are. What is becoming more apparent,
however, is supplements will not help much if one does not first address
the necessary basics of health and healing. What is also clear is that
not all supplements are created equal. … Just like refined foods,
these refined vitamins have been robbed of all of the extra accessory
nutrients that they naturally come with as well. In turn, like refined
foods, they can create numerous problems and imbalances in your body if
taken at high levels for long periods of time. They can also act more
like drugs in your body, forcing themselves down one pathway or another.
At the very least, they won't help you as much as high quality food and
food-based supplements. (http://www.mercola.com/2005/jan/19/whole_food_supplements.htm)
Vitamin Failure
In the booklet accompanying the Royal Lee Lectures Volume 2 CD’s, Mark Anderson outlines 21 predictions that Dr. Lee made in his lectures and their outcomes 50 years later. Here is the first one:
1. The failure of synthetic or purified vitamins and the antioxidant theory of vitamins. From the earliest days of vitamin research, Dr. Lee asserted that synthetic vitamins functioned as poorly as synthetic foods. They may have pharmaceutical effects but not nutritional. Every major long-term study on human beings fed synthetic vitamins and antioxidants has failed to show a conferred benefit. Quite the reverse. To the bewilderment of most gray-bearded authorities, significant large-scale studies show a negative relationship to major diseases and synthetic vitamin consumption. Lee accurately predicted that no benefit from these artificial pills would ever be found. …Natural whole foods, Lee argued, were complexes of synergistic components that function together as a mechanism. “Vitamins are not chemicals any more than brass, steel and jewels are a watch.”
Drug Paradigm
We know that the majority of drugs on the market today were developed from herbal remedies of the past. They looked to find what part of the plant might be causing the healing effect and then synthesized that chemical so that it could be patented. Today vitamins are being treated the same way. The whole Vitamin C Complex from citrus fruit was found to prevent scurvy but Vitamin C today is just ascorbic acid which is the wrapper around the Vitamin C molecule. Vitamin C complex has trace minerals, organic copper, Vitamins P and K as part of its structure. Same with the Vitamin E complex, it is not just alpha tocopherol it is also delta, gamma, beta tocopherols, selenium, Vitamin F1 and F2 plus Xanthine. Dr. Lee, in one of his taped lectures, quotes research from the 1940’s that showed synthetic Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) added to their food caused infertility in 2-3 generations of the animals studied. Since Thiamine is one of the vitamins used to “fortify” food for the past 70-80 years, is it any wonder that the infertility rates are so high and that sperm counts are so low? Quoting Dr. Lee, “One of the biggest tragedies of human civilization is the precedents of chemical therapy over nutrition. It’s a substitution of artificial therapy over natural, of poisons over food, in which we are feeding people poisons in trying to correct the reactions of starvation.” That starvation is from eating dead food and thinking we are nourishing our bodies. Dead vitamins are no better.
Catalyn was formulated in 1929 by Dr. Lee from 12 raw organic foods. Over the years, as “new” vitamins and nutrients were discovered, Standard Process would test Catalyn and the newly discovered nutrient was already in there. Dr. Lee figured out what we needed to be well nourished and put those things in Catalyn in their whole form with all of the co-factors and synergist both known and unknown. I believe we still have a lot more nutrients unknown than known at this time.
Grande Super-Size Please
Today people are looking for the highest potency, massive mega-dose they can find in their vitamins. Hey if a little is good more is definitely better! We have been fooled into believing that large amounts of dead chemicals are more nutritionally potent than smaller amounts of high-quality living compounds. I was trained that way and for years was sucked into that drug concept myself. But high potency can’t be found in nature. A medium sized lime, the fruit that saved the Royal Navy from the ravages of scurvy, only has 20 milligrams of Vitamin C in it. Yet, thousands of milligrams of ascorbic acid will not cure or prevent scurvy. So it is the source of the vitamins not the massive amounts that are important. We need to nourish the body with nutrients not stimulate it with synthetics. Many people feel better when they start taking a mega-dose Vitamin B Complex. This acts as a stimulant to the body and gives them more energy. But over time their adrenals weaken and they start to feel bad again so they add more stimulants like 2000-5000 mg of ascorbic acid or whatever Prevention Magazine is touting as the “cure” of the month. Soon you just keep adding more and more supplements to your list and still feel bad. There may be times when your body only wants the more synthetic high-dose vitamins but they should only be used for a short time. I would rather you spend your money each month on organically grown food to eat at home than tons of synthetic supplements. This will support the organic farmers and bring the cost of this food down and it will put out of business the companies poisoning you with their fake vits. My goal is to get you down to only needing a multi made from whole food sources and extra minerals for the Colorado climate. For more information on Natural vs Synthetic Vitamins you can pick up a four-page handout we have at the office.
Office News
Thanks again to all who participated in our Tsunami Donation Day and helped us send nearly $1000 to various charities in the names of our donors. In May, I will be at a Bio Cranial seminar for 4 days so I’m sending the staff away for a little R&R at the same time. The office will be closed Wednesday May 4 thru Sunday May 8 (Mother’s Day). We are still planning to move the office over the Memorial Day weekend if all goes according to plan. If not, we’ll let you know that too!
