Best way to take DE

[Whitey]

I was reading where you add it to a gallon of water, but do you stir it before you drink the water?

I think DE might do me a lot of good. I just did about 2 years of chelating Hg with ALA, and my GI tract is a little loused up because of it. I've had chronic eczema for 15+ years, thinning hair, a history of low HCl, soft bones [MD told me after I broke my ankle last Summer], GI dysbiosis, soft teeth, etc. Got rid of all my amalgams in 1986. I had 18 of them.

I haven't added any acid to the DE water yet, I've only been on DE for less than a week and I'm getting a detox reaction to it. I took at least 3/4th a tsp of it today, plus what I added to my drinking water. I can tell that I should not go too fast with it. Besides supplying Silica, does DE also do anything to candida?
I seem to be absorbing more Ca citrate due to DE. How do you feel about taking HCl capsules? I do not take HCl. Last time I tried taking HCl it seemed to disrupt my Mg and other electrolyte levels.

Whitey

[James]

(07-02-2012 04:21 PM)Whitey Wrote:  I was reading where you add it to a gallon of water, but do you stir it before you drink the water?

I don't. Stirring it up first will make the water taste muddy and make it gritty. If allowed to stay settled out you cannot even taste it. And I am using it for the orthosilicic acid formed by the reaction of the water on the silica in the diatomaceous earth (DE).

I think DE might do me a lot of good. I just did about 2 years of chelating Hg with ALA, and my GI tract is a little loused up because of it. I've had chronic eczema for 15+ years,

You should be working in large part on your adrenals for the eczema. Starting out slowly with bitters can also help with this as well as the digestive issues.

thinning hair,

There are several things that can cause this. The two most common reasons are hypothyroidism, which also has many causes and elevated dihydrotestosterone (DHT). Chinese licorice root is great for both the adrenals and countering DHT.

a history of low HCl,

That can cause a number of health issues.

soft bones [MD told me after I broke my ankle last Summer],

A lack of stomach acid can contribute to bone loss, particularly through the decline in orthosilicic acid absorption.

GI dysbiosis,

Dysbiosis results from a lack of intestinal flora. These can be built back up with cultured foods and prebiotics.

soft teeth, etc.

Again, a decline in orthosilicic acid is a major factor for soft teeth.

Got rid of all my amalgams in 1986. I had 18 of them.

I haven't added any acid to the DE water yet, I've only been on DE for less than a week and I'm getting a detox reaction to it. I took at least 3/4th a tsp of it today, plus what I added to my drinking water. I can tell that I should not go too fast with it.

Taking large amounts will not provide much benefit since the silica component is so poorly absorbed.

Besides supplying Silica, does DE also do anything to candida?

DE can remove some of the Candida from the gut. But this will make very little difference. The amount of removal will be really low and the Candida will grow right back.

I seem to be absorbing more Ca citrate due to DE.

Yes, the silica in DE helps with calcium absorption.

How do you feel about taking HCl capsules? I do not take HCl. Last time I tried taking HCl it seemed to disrupt my Mg and other electrolyte levels.

Whitey

That would be betaine HCl, which is good for short term use. But in the long run it is best to support the body's own digestion with things like bitters, zinc and methyl donors such as trimethylglycine (TMG).

For anyone who has had their gallbladders removed though they should avoid bitters.

[Whitey]

Thank you for this interesting info.

How do you feel about the parasite killing effect of DE? Would it be good to drink gritty, stirred up DE for short term use to take care of internal parasites? I don't seem to have any, as I've used raw garlic, cayenne, and GSE often in the past.

[James]

(07-03-2012 06:30 AM)Whitey Wrote:  Thank you for this interesting info.

How do you feel about the parasite killing effect of DE. Would it be good to drink gritty, stirred up DE for short term use to take care of internal parasites? I don't seem to have any, as I've used raw garlic, cayenne, and GSE often in the past.

Yes, the DE can be taken in water or capsules to address intestinal parasites. The DE shreds intestinal worms.

Other safe options for dealing with intestinal parasites include raw pumpkin seeds and ground papaya seeds.

[Whitey]

I've eaten a lot of pumpkin seeds lately too. They are quite high in Omega 6 tho, I think.

How do you feel about the digestion improving properties of gritty DE in water? People at the Andy Cutler chelation forum suggested it because they say they now have improved digestion from taking DE and they're happy with these results. I'm wondering if drinking the gritty DE helps by killing bugs in the GI tract or by helping to improve Mg absorption via improved calcium absorption. Whatever it does, it seems to enable me to have 2 or 3 BMs per day without the IF1 herbal formula I was taking.

I'm getting detox reaction from DE, so I feel I should keep taking it. According to this article, DE should be taken every day, possibly forever to detox from various things :

http://ezinearticles.com/?Detox-and-Diat...id=2421175

I was also intrigued to find these articles :

http://www.earthworkshealth.com/How-Diat...-Works.php

http://www.earthworkshealth.com/human-use.php

I've had Hep C for 30 years but am in good general health. Chronic elevated ALT and AST are about my only symptoms. I feel that DE may do many good things for me, including easing the liver burden and leftover mercury detox. I may go onto DMSA to remove more Hg, I'm kind of on the fence about that.

PS - Where is a good place to buy things like Chinese Licorice and Bitters, or brand names?

Whitey

[James]

(07-03-2012 12:08 PM)Whitey Wrote:  I've eaten a lot of pumpkin seeds lately too. They are quite high in Omega 6 tho, I think.

Yes, but primarily linoleic acid, which is beneficial. It is not the omega 6 fatty acid arachidonic acid (AA), that is a primarily cause of inflammation. AA is derived from animal proteins.

Pumpkin seeds also provide the beneficial omega 9 fatty acid oleic acid.

If you want to balance these out with more beneficial omega 3s then adding some fish oil would be the best.

How do you feel about the digestion improving properties of gritty DE in water? People at the Andy Cutler chelation forum suggested it because they say they now have improved digestion from taking DE and they're happy with these results. I'm wondering if drinking the gritty DE helps by killing bugs in the GI tract or by helping to improve Mg absorption via improved calcium absorption. Whatever it does, it seems to enable me to have 2 or 3 BMs per day without the IF1 herbal formula I was taking.

This is not really from improving digestion. DE is primarily silica, which we normally get from insoluble fibers in our diet. And like the silica in insoluble fibers the silica in DE helps to promote intestinal peristalsis.

I'm getting detox reaction from DE, so I feel I should keep taking it.

DE really should not cause a detox reaction and often other things get blamed on the DE. For example, in the past I have had people claim that they got kidney pain within minutes of taking DE. The problem with this claim is that DE is poorly absorbed and it takes a lot longer than a few minutes to even enter the bloodstream so it can reach the kidneys.

According to this article, DE should be taken every day, possibly forever to detox from various things :

http://ezinearticles.com/?Detox-and-Diat...id=2421175

This article is over hyped. DE can absorb some things, but this requires direct contact. Many of the things they mentioned would be in parts of the body where the DE would not directly reach.

Silica in DE though will convert in to orthosilicic acid and be absorbed in to the body where it can displace lead.

I was also intrigued to find these articles :

http://www.earthworkshealth.com/How-Diat...-Works.php

This article is full of even more hype. First of all the colon does not build up a hard layer of mucus or mold.

Second, DE is not as hard as they claim. I addressed this fact in this article:

http://medcapsules.com/info/Silica_Diato...0Grass.htm

And I have never seen any evidence that DE will lower cholesterol in the blood or lower blood pressure. DE does help prevent the build up of plaque on the arteries, but not by removing cholesterol. The silica works by strengthening the blood vessel walls and by reducing inflammation reducing cholesterol deposition.

http://www.earthworkshealth.com/human-use.php

Most of the claims made on this site have been verified, but again I have not seen any evidence of lowering blood cholesterol or blood pressure.

I've had Hep C for 30 years but am in good general health. Chronic elevated ALT and AST are about my only symptoms. I feel that DE may do many good things for me, including easing the liver burden and leftover mercury detox. I may go onto DMSA to remove more Hg, I'm kind of on the fence about that.

PS - Where is a good place to buy things like Chinese Licorice and Bitters, or brand names?

Many health food stores will carry bulk licorice root powder. I do prefer Chinese licorice root (G. uralensis) over American licorice root (G. glabra) due to its calming properties.

For bitters you can either use a bitter herbal powder such as gentian root, bitter foods like bitter melon or if you want a pre-made formula there is Chinese Bitters and Grape Bitters. Either way you only need a tiny amount, just enough to taste the bitterness. With the Chinese or Grape Bitters I recommend 1/2 dropper full on the tongue before meals. Build up slowly though and drink plenty of water throughout the day.

[Whitey]

Hi James,

I find this so very interesting. I devote to holistic health and eat the best I can and take the most beneficial things but it's really hard to keep it all together on what should and should not be eaten and taken. I tend to buy a lot of things and take them for a week or so, and then stop them if I see no noticeable benefit. I have a SLEW of things in my cupboards and it has my small kitchen all cluttered up.

I don't doubt that a bit about what you say about AA, pumpkin seeds, and most everything else.

I have Liver / Gall Bladder / Parasite tincture that has Org Milk thistle seed, dandelion root & leaf, Oregon grape root, gentian root, wormwood, black walnut hull, ginger root, garlic and fennel seed. I bought it from Uny last year, I think you must know her. I'll take more of it. I was on their program last year but had problems that took me months to figure what they were caused by. I did great at first but then I started to have yeast GI issues, fatigue, intolerance of fruit and other foods I used to eat freely. At first I blamed it on raw ACV / raw honey I was drinking. It seems as tho raw Bragg's ACV is not a wise thing to put into my body. ACV and ALA are what seemed to louse up my GI tract. For years I had been able to eat as much fruit as I wanted to. This is the fist Summer in many years that I have to leave the fresh wild berries to rot on the plant because I have to limit fruit so much. It doesn't bother me much any more because I realize the mood/mental health improvements I've made from ALA chelating. I have better ability to make decisions and think too.

I've been buying organic or wild crafted herbs from places like Pacific Botanicals but I don't think they have Chinese Licorice so I'm looking for a place to buy that. 1st Chinese Herbs doesn't have it either.

I've read a lot of your info on CZ and I hope you won't get tired of my questions. I don't think I'll be asking a ton of questions but I find it real interesting to hear what you have to say about many things, and I seem to agree with most of it, if it applies to me. I hope you feel that the questions I ask are good , not dumb questions.

You seem like a really good person. You seem to remind me of a real nice man I used to know in New England that was a PhD / holistic healer but decided to take his life. He was more effective than anyone I think I'd ever consulted with but I guess he was not satisfied with life or himself. Not only was he smart, he was very caring.

Whitey

[James]

(07-04-2012 07:10 AM)Whitey Wrote:  Hi James,

I find this so very interesting. I devote to holistic health and eat the best I can and take the most beneficial things but it's really hard to keep it all together on what should and should not be eaten and taken. I tend to buy a lot of things and take them for a week or so, and then stop them if I see no noticeable benefit. I have a SLEW of things in my cupboards and it has my small kitchen all cluttered up.

I have seen a lot of this, people trying anything and everything under the sun trying to find what works. This is why it is so important that people learn more about how their bodies work and investigate products from non-sales sites to make sure the claims are not just hype.

Learning more about how the body works will help several ways. One it can help narrow down possible causes. Too often people self diagnose based on one symptom that they read on the internet somewhere is caused by......, and so they go with it. One problem with this is that symptoms usually have multiple causes.

Let's take fatigue for example. This could be from adrenal dysfunction, hypothyroidism, various forms of anemia, liver dysfunction, diabetes, medications, etc. So this one symptom tells us nothing, yet I have seen people self diagnose based on this one symptom numerous times. But let's say the person also has poor circulation as well. This narrows down the possibilities to most likely hypothyroidism and diabetes. Now throw in the symptoms of dry hair, dry skin, low body temperature, etc. and this narrows down the likely cause as a thyroid issue. Of course this does not tell us why the thyroid is off. Again this could be from a number of things. For example, I have seen a number of cases lately of people posting symptoms of iodine toxicity after following the dangerous advice of taking 100-150mg or more of iodine daily. Other causes include hypothalamic or pituitary disorders, hormone imbalances, chlorine, fluoride or bromine exposure, adrenal dysfunction, high rT3 levels, autoimmunity, poor iodine uptake, etc.

The second benefit to learning how the body works is to have a better understanding of how things will or will not work on the body, or how they can actually make things worse. For example, I have seen so many people self diagnose with "systemic Candida", which is extremely rare and would likely be deadly in a short time without proper intervention. A lot of this though has to do with the fact that most people making this claim have no idea what "systemic" really means. Anyway, one of the things I have seen so many people try is to kill the Candida, which simply will not work. Candida is a normal part of everyone's body, just like Staphylococcus bacteria. It is when these things overgrow that we have problems. But killing them does not work as you will never kill every last cell so they will simply grow back if the terrain is still in a state that supports their growth. The enzymes cellulase and hemicellulase for example are often promoted to kill Candida. If people really stop and think about it though digesting the Candida walls with these enzymes produce what? Glucose, which simply feeds the surviving Candida! These enzymes will also digest the fibers which the flora, that control the Candida growth, need to feed on. So the flora get starved out while the digestion of the fibers produce even more sugar to feed the Candida. Again, we cannot rely on sales hype for our health information. All that does is drain the wallet and often leaves people worse off than they started.

I don't doubt that a bit about what you say about AA, pumpkin seeds, and most everything else.

I have Liver / Gall Bladder / Parasite tincture that has Org Milk thistle seed, dandelion root & leaf, Oregon grape root, gentian root, wormwood, black walnut hull, ginger root, garlic and fennel seed. I bought it from Uny last year, I think you must know her. I'll take more of it. I was on their program last year but had problems that took me months to figure what they were caused by. I did great at first but then I started to have yeast GI issues, fatigue, intolerance of fruit and other foods I used to eat freely. At first I blamed it on raw ACV / raw honey I was drinking. It seems as tho raw Bragg's ACV is not a wise thing to put into my body. ACV and ALA are what seemed to louse up my GI tract. For years I had been able to eat as much fruit as I wanted to. This is the fist Summer in many years that I have to leave the fresh wild berries to rot on the plant because I have to limit fruit so much. It doesn't bother me much any more because I realize the mood/mental health improvements I've made from ALA chelating. I have better ability to make decisions and think too.

This is another great example of what I was saying above. What was starting your food intolerances was not the apple cider vinegar, it was the Oregon grape root. Oregon grape root is one of the berberine herbs along with some others such as goldenseal, barberry and coptis (goldthread). These herbs are best avoided altogether. One of their major drawbacks is that they kill the intestinal flora, which are essential to our health. Kill off the flora and we end up with problems such as fungal Candida overgrowth leading to "leaky gut" and thus the food intolerances. Destroying the flora also leads to other intestinal infections, irritable bowel syndrome, decreased nutrient absorption, decreased vitamin synthesis, decreased serotonin synthesis, etc.

The use of berberine herbs for more than a week or two can also lead to damage to the intestinal lining also contributing to "leaky gut". Other adverse effects of these herbs can include hypoglycemia and depletion of potassium leading to cramping and high blood pressure.

Unfortunately, there are to many what I refer to as "textbook herbalists" who have no clue as to the chemistry or risks of certain herbs. They simply read in a book somewhere that "X" herb has been used historically for "Y" problem so they recommend that herb or add it to a formula without regards to interactions. For example, the most common formulating mistake I see is the addition of high tannin herbs, such as uva ursi or green tea, to formulations. The high tannin content of these herbs simply bind many of the active components of the other herbs rendering them useless to the body. Same reason old coffee grounds are used to destroy outdated medications. The tannins in the coffee grounds bind the medications so their ingestion will not have any effect.

This is also the reason I don't follow the teachings of certain old school herbalists like Christopher and Schulze. They rely too heavily on herbs simply based on their historical use, not based on what is most effective and safe. For example they rely heavily on herbs such as the berberine herbs and stimulant laxatives such as senna and cascara sagrada that I recommend people avoid. We have come a very long way in our understanding of herbs and their chemistry. And often there are safer and more effective herbs than the traditionally used herbs such as goldenseal, echinacea, horsetail grass (shavegrass), lobelia, etc.

I've been buying organic or wild crafted herbs from places like Pacific Botanicals but I don't think they have Chinese Licorice so I'm looking for a place to buy that. 1st Chinese Herbs doesn't have it either.

It is a bit difficult to find.

I've read a lot of your info on CZ and I hope you won't get tired of my questions.

Not a problem. I have been answering questions on forums for years. Luckily I have covered most topics so it saves me a lot of time when I can re-post answers or direct people to links of my articles or other posts with answers.

I don't think I'll be asking a ton of questions but I find it real interesting to hear what you have to say about many things, and I seem to agree with most of it, if it applies to me. I hope you feel that the questions I ask are good , not dumb questions.

Its pretty hard to come up with dumb questions. As long as people are asking serious health questions to actually learn I don't have a problem.

You seem like a really good person. You seem to remind me of a real nice man I used to know in New England that was a PhD / holistic healer but decided to take his life. He was more effective than anyone I think I'd ever consulted with but I guess he was not satisfied with life or himself. Not only was he smart, he was very caring.

Whitey

Thanks.

[Whitey]

(07-03-2012 08:43 PM)James Wrote:  If you want to balance these out with more beneficial omega 3s then adding some fish oil would be the best.

I haven't been able to tolerate fish oil or flaxseed oil for 10-15 years or more. I used to seem to benefit from taking MaxEPA emulsified cod liver oil but these days that stuff really makes the eczema on my head a lot worse, and fast. Got any idea why this has been happening? Taking ox bile, pancreatin, or plant enzymes seems to have no effect on this.

[James]

(07-04-2012 06:00 PM)Whitey Wrote:  

(07-03-2012 08:43 PM)James Wrote:  If you want to balance these out with more beneficial omega 3s then adding some fish oil would be the best.

I haven't been able to tolerate fish oil or flaxseed oil for 10-15 years or more. I used to seem to benefit from taking MaxEPA emulsified cod liver oil but these days that stuff really makes the eczema on my head a lot worse, and fast. Got any idea why this has been happening? Taking ox bile, pancreatin, or plant enzymes seems to have no effect on this.

Eczema is in part an allergic response, so it sounds like you are allergic to these oils, which can stress the adrenals aggravating allergic responses even more.

The best way of dealing with allergic responses is to build up your adrenal glands:

http://medcapsules.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=2462

Allergic responses stem from a lack of antihistamine and antileukotriene epinephrine and anti-inflammatory and immune modulating corticosteroids being released from the adrenals in response to antigens.

The other component of eczema is hypo-functioning of the liver. The best way to boost the liver as long as you still have a gallbladder is with the digestive bitters and plenty of water throughout the day.

And you are right, bile, pancreatin and enzymes will not help since they don't address either of the underlying issues.

[JC73]

Are there any scholarly research articles on DE?It seems every article I find is from an advertiser,(either direct or indirect).....any peer reviewed studies...pub med??

[James]

(07-05-2012 06:19 AM)JC73 Wrote:  Are there any scholarly research articles on DE?It seems every article I find is from an advertiser,(either direct or indirect).....any peer reviewed studies...pub med??

I checked PubMed and most of the information had to do with silicosis from DE inhalation. I know there are a lot of studies on the benefits of silica. So searching for information on silica in relationship to certain conditions such as osteoporosis would be better.

But I did find this one study regarding benefits of DE specifically:

Eur J Med Res. 1998 Apr 8;3(4):211-5.
Diatomaceous earth lowers blood cholesterol concentrations.
Wachter H, Lechleitner M, Artner-Dworzak E, Hausen A, Jarosch E, Widner B, Patsch J, Pfeiffer K, Fuchs D.
Source

Institute of Medical Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Innsbruck, Fritz Pregl Strasse 3, Innsbruck, A-6020, Austria.
Abstract

In this study a potential influence of diatomaceus earth to lower blood cholesterol was investigated. During 12 weeks we monitored serum lipid concentrations in 19 healthy individuals with a history of moderate hypercholesterinemia (9 females, 10 males, aged 35 - 67 years). Individuals administered orally 250 mg diatomaceous earth three-times daily during an 8 weeks observation period. Serum concentrations of cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides levels were measured before study entry, every second week during the period of diatomaceous earth intake and 4 weeks after stop of intake. Compared to baseline (285.8 +/- 37.5 mg/dl = 7.40 +/- 0.97 mM) diatomaceous earth intake was associated with a significant reduction of serum cholesterol at any time point, reaching a minimum on week 6 (248.1 mg/dl = 6.43 mM, -13.2% from baseline; p<0.001). Also low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (week 4: p<0.05) and triglycerides levels decreased (week 2: p<0.05, week 4: p<0.01). Four weeks after intake of diatomaceous earth was stopped, serum cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides still remained low and also the increase of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol became significant (p<0.05). Diatomaceous earth, a bioproduct, is capable of reducing blood cholesterol and positively influencing lipid metabolism in humans. Placebo-controlled studies will be necessary to confirm our findings.

[Whitey]

I don't think I'm going to take the gritty DE water any more. It seems to make me want to over-eat and the food seems to pass through me a little faster than it should. From now on I think I'll take DE in water but not stir it, and add a new spoonful of DE every 6 months or so. Perhaps the Silica is causing a detox and if so I probably need to grin and bear it.

[James]

(07-05-2012 10:38 AM)Whitey Wrote:  I don't think I'm going to take the gritty DE water any more. It seems to make me want to over-eat and the food seems to pass through me a little faster than it should. From now on I think I'll take DE in water but not stir it, and add a new spoonful of DE every 6 months or so. Perhaps the Silica is causing a detox and if so I probably need to grin and bear it.

The DE will stimulate the intestines like fiber making the food go through the system a little faster.

If you do have intestinal inflammation as I suspect then you will already has an increased transit time and thus lower nutrient absorption. So speeding up the transit time more can further decrease nutrient absorption. And this can increase appetite as the body craves the nutrition it is not getting properly.

So again, I recommend focusing on building up your flora and reducing intestinal inflammation first. The yucca root powder I mentioned in an earlier post will not only reduce inflammation and support the flora, but it also increases nutrient absorption.

[16_stone]

(07-04-2012 04:00 PM)James Wrote:  

(07-04-2012 07:10 AM)Whitey Wrote:  Hi James,

I find this so very interesting. I devote to holistic health and eat the best I can and take the most beneficial things but it's really hard to keep it all together on what should and should not be eaten and taken. I tend to buy a lot of things and take them for a week or so, and then stop them if I see no noticeable benefit. I have a SLEW of things in my cupboards and it has my small kitchen all cluttered up.

I have seen a lot of this, people trying anything and everything under the sun trying to find what works. This is why it is so important that people learn more about how their bodies work and investigate products from non-sales sites to make sure the claims are not just hype.

Learning more about how the body works will help several ways. One it can help narrow down possible causes. Too often people self diagnose based on one symptom that they read on the internet somewhere is caused by......, and so they go with it. One problem with this is that symptoms usually have multiple causes.

Let's take fatigue for example. This could be from adrenal dysfunction, hypothyroidism, various forms of anemia, liver dysfunction, diabetes, medications, etc. So this one symptom tells us nothing, yet I have seen people self diagnose based on this one symptom numerous times. But let's say the person also has poor circulation as well. This narrows down the possibilities to most likely hypothyroidism and diabetes. Now throw in the symptoms of dry hair, dry skin, low body temperature, etc. and this narrows down the likely cause as a thyroid issue. Of course this does not tell us why the thyroid is off. Again this could be from a number of things. For example, I have seen a number of cases lately of people posting symptoms of iodine toxicity after following the dangerous advice of taking 100-150mg or more of iodine daily. Other causes include hypothalamic or pituitary disorders, hormone imbalances, chlorine, fluoride or bromine exposure, adrenal dysfunction, high rT3 levels, autoimmunity, poor iodine uptake, etc.

The second benefit to learning how the body works is to have a better understanding of how things will or will not work on the body, or how they can actually make things worse. For example, I have seen so many people self diagnose with "systemic Candida", which is extremely rare and would likely be deadly in a short time without proper intervention. A lot of this though has to do with the fact that most people making this claim have no idea what "systemic" really means. Anyway, one of the things I have seen so many people try is to kill the Candida, which simply will not work. Candida is a normal part of everyone's body, just like Staphylococcus bacteria. It is when these things overgrow that we have problems. But killing them does not work as you will never kill every last cell so they will simply grow back if the terrain is still in a state that supports their growth. The enzymes cellulase and hemicellulase for example are often promoted to kill Candida. If people really stop and think about it though digesting the Candida walls with these enzymes produce what? Glucose, which simply feeds the surviving Candida! These enzymes will also digest the fibers which the flora, that control the Candida growth, need to feed on. So the flora get starved out while the digestion of the fibers produce even more sugar to feed the Candida. Again, we cannot rely on sales hype for our health information. All that does is drain the wallet and often leaves people worse off than they started.

I don't doubt that a bit about what you say about AA, pumpkin seeds, and most everything else.

I have Liver / Gall Bladder / Parasite tincture that has Org Milk thistle seed, dandelion root & leaf, Oregon grape root, gentian root, wormwood, black walnut hull, ginger root, garlic and fennel seed. I bought it from Uny last year, I think you must know her. I'll take more of it. I was on their program last year but had problems that took me months to figure what they were caused by. I did great at first but then I started to have yeast GI issues, fatigue, intolerance of fruit and other foods I used to eat freely. At first I blamed it on raw ACV / raw honey I was drinking. It seems as tho raw Bragg's ACV is not a wise thing to put into my body. ACV and ALA are what seemed to louse up my GI tract. For years I had been able to eat as much fruit as I wanted to. This is the fist Summer in many years that I have to leave the fresh wild berries to rot on the plant because I have to limit fruit so much. It doesn't bother me much any more because I realize the mood/mental health improvements I've made from ALA chelating. I have better ability to make decisions and think too.

This is another great example of what I was saying above. What was starting your food intolerances was not the apple cider vinegar, it was the Oregon grape root. Oregon grape root is one of the berberine herbs along with some others such as goldenseal, barberry and coptis (goldthread). These herbs are best avoided altogether. One of their major drawbacks is that they kill the intestinal flora, which are essential to our health. Kill off the flora and we end up with problems such as fungal Candida overgrowth leading to "leaky gut" and thus the food intolerances. Destroying the flora also leads to other intestinal infections, irritable bowel syndrome, decreased nutrient absorption, decreased vitamin synthesis, decreased serotonin synthesis, etc.

The use of berberine herbs for more than a week or two can also lead to damage to the intestinal lining also contributing to "leaky gut". Other adverse effects of these herbs can include hypoglycemia and depletion of potassium leading to cramping and high blood pressure.

Unfortunately, there are to many what I refer to as "textbook herbalists" who have no clue as to the chemistry or risks of certain herbs. They simply read in a book somewhere that "X" herb has been used historically for "Y" problem so they recommend that herb or add it to a formula without regards to interactions. For example, the most common formulating mistake I see is the addition of high tannin herbs, such as uva ursi or green tea, to formulations. The high tannin content of these herbs simply bind many of the active components of the other herbs rendering them useless to the body. Same reason old coffee grounds are used to destroy outdated medications. The tannins in the coffee grounds bind the medications so their ingestion will not have any effect.

This is also the reason I don't follow the teachings of certain old school herbalists like Christopher and Schulze. They rely too heavily on herbs simply based on their historical use, not based on what is most effective and safe. For example they rely heavily on herbs such as the berberine herbs and stimulant laxatives such as senna and cascara sagrada that I recommend people avoid. We have come a very long way in our understanding of herbs and their chemistry. And often there are safer and more effective herbs than the traditionally used herbs such as goldenseal, echinacea, horsetail grass (shavegrass), lobelia, etc.

I've been buying organic or wild crafted herbs from places like Pacific Botanicals but I don't think they have Chinese Licorice so I'm looking for a place to buy that. 1st Chinese Herbs doesn't have it either.

It is a bit difficult to find.

I've read a lot of your info on CZ and I hope you won't get tired of my questions.

Not a problem. I have been answering questions on forums for years. Luckily I have covered most topics so it saves me a lot of time when I can re-post answers or direct people to links of my articles or other posts with answers.

I don't think I'll be asking a ton of questions but I find it real interesting to hear what you have to say about many things, and I seem to agree with most of it, if it applies to me. I hope you feel that the questions I ask are good , not dumb questions.

Its pretty hard to come up with dumb questions. As long as people are asking serious health questions to actually learn I don't have a problem.

You seem like a really good person. You seem to remind me of a real nice man I used to know in New England that was a PhD / holistic healer but decided to take his life. He was more effective than anyone I think I'd ever consulted with but I guess he was not satisfied with life or himself. Not only was he smart, he was very caring.

Whitey

Thanks.

I hear you, James. I really wished I had more good knowledge on how the body works. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of time to learn and I am being my own guinea pig a lot of the time. For example, my naturopath gave me shiitake mushroom powder once to strengthen my immune system and help clear my skin. It was mushroom powder mixed with protein powder and some flavours. I felt better while taking it, so I ordered shiitake mushroom powder and protein powder in bulk. Now I learnt that proteins block the absorption of nutrients... I take the mushroom powder straight now mixed with a whole bunch of herbs that failed the test of being a homemade shampoo alternative (fenugreek seed powder, yucca root powder, amla berry powder, & graviola powder). It gives me stomach pain when taken on an empty stomach and I don't know why. Seriously, I feel like I know nothing about how the body really works. Despite this, many people will ask me for their health-related problems because they feel that I know more than them about nutrition... this is sad. Also, I read in one of your posts that you are against taking massive amounts of different herbs. Well, on top of the above mentioned, I just tried to recreate some of your formulas - based on availability, the really cool herbs are not available to me anywhere - and now we're talking a lot of herbs! Seriously, I hope that you give seminars, write books, the whole lot, if you're up for it, of course! Which books do you personally recommend for further study?

[James]

(07-02-2012 04:21 PM)Whitey Wrote:  I was reading where you add it to a gallon of water, but do you stir it before you drink the water?

No, leave the DE settled on the bottom. Each time you add fresh water some of the silica in the DE will react with the water forming orthosilicic acid, which is what your body absorbs and utilizes.

I think DE might do me a lot of good. I just did about 2 years of chelating Hg with ALA, and my GI tract is a little loused up because of it. I've had chronic eczema for 15+ years, thinning hair, a history of low HCl, soft bones [MD told me after I broke my ankle last Summer], GI dysbiosis, soft teeth, etc. Got rid of all my amalgams in 1986. I had 18 of them.

I haven't added any acid to the DE water yet, I've only been on DE for less than a week and I'm getting a detox reaction to it. I took at least 3/4th a tsp of it today, plus what I added to my drinking water. I can tell that I should not go too fast with it. Besides supplying Silica, does DE also do anything to candida?

Not much of anything. Candida is best controlled by maintaining the flora, which produce the acids that control the Candida.


I seem to be absorbing more Ca citrate due to DE.

Silica, which is high in DE aids in calcium absorption.


How do you feel about taking HCl capsules?

It's OK particularly for short term use, but I prefer bitters for ling term use to keep the production of stomach acid and enzymes going and to help with things such as bile secretion.

I do not take HCl. Last time I tried taking HCl it seemed to disrupt my Mg and other electrolyte levels.

It shouldn't.

Whitey