Rassel-Daigneault Holistic Health Center
Nutrition Articles & Tips

Aspartame is a sweetener used in foods. It is found in NutraSweet, Equal, diet sodas, various brands of tea mixes, chocolate mixes, cookies, gelatins, puddings pre-sweetened cereals, yogurt, gums, etc. Over half the adult population consumes products containing aspartame. It is promoted by a multibillion-dollar industry as a way to avoid sugar and lose weight.

Although the FDA has received thousands of reports of adverse effects from this chemical, little regard has been given to its serious health effects. H. J. Roberts, MD, FACP, FCCP, is director of Palm Beach Institute for Medical Research and on staff at St. Mary’s and Good Samaritan Hospitals in Florida. During his many years of practice and research, he discovered what he calls “Aspartame Disease.” In his book, “Aspartame, Is it Safe?” he explains his experience.

Patients reported various, seemingly unrelated symptoms such as: headache, dizziness, nausea, weight gain, mood changes, anxiety attacks, chest pain, swelling, diarrhea, abdominal pain, vision changes, fatigue, seizures, sleep problems, memory loss, rash, ringing in the ear, numbness, etc. Patients avoided aspartame for two weeks to see if symptoms changed. Most of their complaints lessened or disappeared when aspartame products were stopped and recurred after resuming the products.

Aspartame is made of three chemicals: aspartic acid (40%), phenylalanine (50%), and methanol (10%). The first two are amino acids (building blocks of proteins) and methanol (methyl alcohol) is a known toxin. In the small intestine, the methanol is metabolized producing formaldehyde (a deadly neurotoxin), which is then converted into formic acid. Within cells, formaldehyde and its breakdown products damage cellular proteins, impair DNA function, and cause retinal damage, among other things. (Methanol, from the Emergency Medicine and Primary Homecare page and Neurotoxic Interaction of MSG, Aspartame, and other Toxins, text from Dr. Markle, as self-appointed expert on aspartame.)

Dr. Roberts claims that these chemicals are responsible for many symptoms. For some it appears to be addictive. Once eliminated, some experience withdrawal symptoms such as severe irritability, tension, depression, tremors, nausea, sweating and craving for the products. The symptoms usually cease once the product is reintroduced. Dr. Roberts strongly recommends that children, pregnant women and diabetics avoid use. The chemicals can cross the placenta becoming 3 or 4 times more concentrated. He says children often have more severe reactions. He always associates it with brain tumors.

If you research this topic, you will find some claiming it’s safe and others, like Dr. Roberts, warning of its dangers. If you consume aspartame and experience any symptoms, eliminate aspartame for two weeks and see if your symptoms subside. If they do, avoid it. Introduce other drinks (water, carbonated and flavored water, sodas with natural sweeteners, herbal teas (iced or hot). Read labels to avoid products containing aspartame. The FDA has received many complaints about aspartame. Dr. Roberts’ and others think it should be banned. Don’t wait until the experts are in agreement. Take steps to see if it is a problem for you and your family.

Recent studies indicate a 330% increase in psychotropic drug use in children under age twenty over the past 10 years (study was over a population base of 990,000 individuals). This is staggering, both for what it represents to us personally as families and parents, but secondarily to our culture and society.

There are many things that can be employed nutritionally to turbo charge the brain function and perhaps make drug intervention unnecessary. Research finds everyday new applications of safe and known nutrients to assist the normal physiology of mentation and concentration. These things work! It is vital to try the lesser measures before beginning to medicate a young child in the developmental years, as it is so easy to interrupt the subtle mental, emotional and social evolution occurring. Some people say that addictive patterns can be introduced in childhood pre-disposing individuals to addictions later in life.

Currently school systems are experiencing a 400% increase in autism over the past 10 years, each individual requiring extensive support and special attention. The cost of this is staggering and crippling. It is well known that essential fatty acids are very influential in assisting the normal brain function. Every impaired individual should be supported with basic foundational nutritional approaches to observe how optimized their function can become.

Sugar and the high American glycemic diet have been implicated for years in ADD and hyperactive disorders. Simple and appealing diet modifications directed by profound nutritional understanding may significantly enhance cognition and attention span. Food allergies are also a culprit robbing the body of its vitality and over stimulating the adrenals creating a cascade of behavior disturbances. When these chronic immune burdens are removed within three days improvement is obvious. The most suspicious food allergies are cow milk products, corn, wheat, and soy. By eliminating these things for 2 weeks and then reintroducing them one at a time it is demonstrated which one(s) are offending.

Our children are not temperamental biological mechanisms with inherent Ritalin stimulant deficiencies – they are profound miracles of biochemical individuality. They must be given the opportunity to achieve the full genetic potential. It is vital that we find more natural means of supporting childhood developmental challenges, and only medicate if all other alternatives prove inadequate.

Until recently the issue of autoimmunity was not even accepted within the scientific community. Although initially introduced in late 70’s, the mechanism of autoimmunity was considered radical until the late 1980s. Throughout the ’90s autoimmune diseases proliferated until it seemed almost common to know a person with an autoimmune disease.
Autoimmunity literally means that the immune system has developed antibodies to attack its own tissues. There are many theories as to why this may happen. This paper will present three of the main theories behind this event. Traditional medical approaches seem to concern themselves only with trying to control the secondary symptoms of autoimmunity instead of addressing the underlying causes, which are still enigmatic and mysterious.

One possible mechanism of autoimmunity concerns the integrity of the cellular and nuclear membranes. When these membranes begin to lose their integrity leaking minute amounts of nuclear genetic material directly into the bloodstream these nuclear proteins are perceived by the liver as indication that upstream tissue damage has occurred. In response the liver develops what are called natural tissue antibodies (NTA’s) that are put into circulation designed to target the upstream tissue breaking down and degrading the perceived damage before infection by an external agent can occur. This seems an intelligent response on the part of the body and may be addressed simply by encouraging healthy membrane physiology through the application of healthy essential fatty acids and phospho-lipids, which are the primary components of the cellular and nuclear membranes.

A second mechanism thought to cause autoimmunity is described as molecular mimicry. In this model it is possible for certain inoculants to induce immune responses to protein sequences that are similar to normally occurring tissue. The best example of this is the relationship between acquired immunity to German measles from vaccination and the autoimmune disease of Ankylosing Spondylitis, in which the nucleotide sequences in the proteins of these two tissues are almost identical with only one nucleotide sequence different. This causes the acquired immunity of the vaccination to attack the normal occurring tissue in the body thinking that is a foreign protein. Many such mechanisms are speculated involving multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases.

A third and final theory, called the dual signal hypothesis, describes the possibility of the immune system being up-regulated and hyper-reactive simultaneous to another injury occurring. As a result the overly ambitious immune system identifies this injury as an antigenic marker and thus begins to attack that tissue is if it were an infection. It is very common to note that many autoimmune diseases onset following severe physical or emotional trauma within 6 to 12 months.

In any of these cases the employment of foundational therapies seeking to balance all systems of the body can assist in bringing resolution to the autoimmune diseases. Down-regulation of immune activity by reducing inflammatory and chronic infection burdens while simultaneously balancing bio-terrain issues can gradually improve symptoms and result in remission. While it is difficult to repair tissue that has been attacked and damaged by an autoimmune response, it is reasonable to expect an interruption to the progression of the autoimmune disease. In this way autoimmunity can be contained without the ongoing use of imbalancing and dangerous drug therapies.

Idiopathic Hypertension is the name of elevated blood pressure with no explainable etiology/cause. The elevation of systolic and diastolic blood pressure represents an increase in vascular tone for the purpose of increasing blood pressure.

There are a number of speculated mechanisms that may contribute to this reaction and adaptation body. The adrenal and kidney responses result from increased stimulation and stress resulting in increased tension of the vascular tone. Oftentimes elevated blood pressure is a body response to high levels of inflammation and allergy in the environment or diet. The body interprets all stress as a wild animal trying to attack it, and so stress that comes from eating certain foods has a reaction of stress that is similar to societal stress, or that comes from truly being in peril. It registers the same on the endocrine system, making no distinction between psychological stress and biochemical stress and circumstantial stress.

As we reduce the stress of our lifestyle and our diet we significantly reduce the adrenal responses to stress attempting to elevate its metabolism and prepare itself for fight or flight responses. A most subtle but consistent factor that should be explored in high blood pressure situations is the presence of chronic food allergies. Most typically corn, soy, milk or wheat can influence the inflammatory levels, creating chronic inflammation resulting in elevation of corticosteroids. Often simply by eliminating the food allergies within three days the blood pressure will be falling and within two weeks it is within the normal range.

It is always best to correct high blood pressure by determining the cause of the elevation, rather than to suppress the symptom only. Magnesium and organic potassium and minerals significantly relax the body. Ionic calcium reduces acidosis and thus reduces tension. When the natural interventions fail reduction of food allergies should always be employed to correct the possible cause of the elevated blood pressure.

Blood pressure medication is very difficult to reduce and discontinue once the body has become accustomed to. Blood pressure medication will often require subsequent drugs as we get older. It is always desirable to avoid the need for medication until it is absolutely necessary. Oftentimes blood pressure medication will interrupt other functions of the body such as energy levels, ability to respond to stressful situations and libido, especially in men.

High blood pressure is an intelligent body response to imbalance. The difficulty is to determine what the imbalance is. Blood pressure may naturally be balanced bringing about the elimination of symptoms, instead of symptom suppression. Many are herbal remedies being employed as simply natural approaches to tactics of suppression of blood pressure, and are still symptom-based therapy. The only real correction is to assist the body back into balance and eliminate its need to elevate the vascular tone.

Mammograms and thermal imaging are great tools to aid in the detection of breast cancer, but they only find a problem after it has begun and they do nothing to detect the risks before the disease begins to manifest itself. It is obvious that waiting until a problem develops before trying to address it is one of the reasons why so many people die of cancer. It is possible to determine your risk of developing breast cancer and therefore to make intelligent diet, lifestyle, and nutritional changes that may reduce the likelihood of manifestation.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the U.S. accounting for 32 percent of all female cancers. Breast cancer is responsible for 18 percent of cancer deaths in women, and is second only to lung cancer as the cause of death from cancer among American women. In the year 2001 an estimated 192,200 women were diagnosed and 40,600 of these women died from the disease. The older woman has greater chances of developing breast cancer, with approximately 77 percent of the cases occurring in women over 50 years of age. Caucasian, Hawaiian and African-American women have the highest incidence of invasive breast cancer, four times higher than the lowest group including Korean, American Indian and Vietnamese women.

Cancer develops at a cellular level for years or decades before a tumor is large enough to be identified using modern imaging techniques. While genetics point to breast cancer potential, the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 seem to be implicated in only three to five percent of breast cancers. With the acceleration of the onset of menstruation from 16.5 years old in 1842 to 13 years in 1995 and to 11 or 12 years in the year 2003 parallels an increase in breast cancer onset later in life. The Shanghai Breast Cancer Study showed that women who exercised during adolescence and adulthood experience a 40% reduction of breast cancer incidence. Researchers reported two factors that increase the risk of developing breast cancer being increased abdominal body fat distribution and increased weight at age 30. Endocrine disruptors can be synthetic or natural estrogens that act on the endocrine system by mimicking, blocking or interfering in the natural instructions of hormones to cells. Well-known endocrine disruptors are the drug DES, dioxin, PCBs, DDT, pesticides, and plasticizers. It was also reported in 2003 that women with Type II diabetes are 17 percent more likely to develop breast cancer than those without.

Sources of estrogen as a risk to cancer include endogenous formation from inside the body, xenobiotics from environmental toxins, and hormone replacement therapy. In every case whether one takes it or makes it, the body must metabolize it, and this requires a healthy liver capable of methylation processes in Phase I and Phase II liver detoxification. Famous studies indicate that breast cancer is vastly increased in countries where increased milk production per capita is low, the highest of which is in the Americas, while Japan has the lowest incidence of breast cancer with the least milk production per person. Thyroid metabolism when reduced has also been shown to negatively influence the metabolism of estrogen.

The cruciferous vegetables that promote the production of methyl groups formed in the digestive tract assist in the detoxification and reduction of estrogen to healthy metabolites. Studies show a significant reduction in the risk of breast cancer with regular consumption of brassica (cruciferous) vegetables which include brussel sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, kale and turnips. Calcium d-glucarate and DIM (di-indole methionine) as supplementation can be employed to reduce the Beta Gluco-uronidase from building up in the intestine which has been associated with an increase in cancer.

In summary to reduce the risks of breast cancer, simply reduce carbohydrates to stabilize insulin levels, eliminate dairy, reduce red meat and alcohol consumption, increase fiber, increase brassica vegetables, increase exercise, and the reduce exposure to xeno-estrogens. Nutritionally it is recommended that Livaplex and Livco with Vitanox be employed to reduce estrogens by promoting liver detoxification, along with calcium d-glucarate and DIM.

It is possible to change the outcome of cancer by understanding what created it. Do not wait for a lump to go bump in the night to awaken to all that can be done to support the health and well-being that may actually prevent all this form and potentially all forms of cancer.

It is said that with cancer the best strategy is prevention! The truth is, according to Boyd a famous pathologist, the body is in and out of a cancerous state 40 times each day. There is function of the normal body that is able to identify and control the development of cancer on a cellular level. When this function stops working there is the possibility of developing a focus of cancer called a tumor. A tumor is a much more difficult challenge for the body to resolve, than the singular cancer cell.

Prevention can be achieved by reducing the risk factors, especially those which create a chronic immune burden, toxic burden and especially estrogen concentration. This is accomplished by lifestyle modification and by nutrient supplementation to support the body’s innate ability to detoxify, specifically phase I and II liver function and lymphatic and immune function. The use of family history review and using the cancer potential survey it is possible to determine an individual’s risk tendency and therefore indicate the level of prevention that should be elected.

When cancer does occur there are some basic principles that should be employed. Cancer is a primitive tissue that is undifferentiated and therefore it is not very sophisticated in its ability to metabolize, requiring primarily sugar to thrive. Simply by reducing sugar and sugar-forming foods from the diet it is possible to reduce the nourishment of the tumor. As well by moving more into a ketotic fat-burning state it is possible to encourage the body toward a cannibalistic state in which it begins to consume any unnecessary tissue. Ultimately the goal is to get the body to eat the tumor.

One principle of cancer is that the body deals with cancer the same way it deals with infection. Certain principles dictate that by unburdening the immune system of chronic sub clinical or cavitated infections the immune system can be freed to more potently attend to any tumorous activity. This is especially so with low-grade infestations of parasites, yeast proliferation and cavitated infections carried under the teeth or in body cavities. These infections may be in reduced and eliminated thus liberating the immune system to the greater ambition of attacking any tumor formation.

The liver is considered by all cancer experts to be essential in achieving control over cancer. Phase 1 and 2 liver detoxification can be encouraged with the use of lifestyle and diet modification and nutritional supplementation. This is essential to the body’s immune ability to identify abnormal cell growth in and target it with white blood cells. It is proven that proper calcium function is an essential flag to activate union responses. Almost all natural cancer therapy includes intense systemic and liver detoxification.

It is also possible to promote enzymatic functions through enzyme therapy and supplementation, as well as by bio-terrain assessment and support. Some enzymes and antioxidants are respected for their ability to anecdotally reduce tumor activity. While many Western cancer therapies are successful at controlling and killing tumors, it should be pointed out that unless the body is balanced and corrected from its former imbalance it may reproduce the cancer yet again. Many people waste the blessing of remission by not being active during the remission to reduce the likelihood of recurrence.

In general it is evident that the immune system has been overburdened and inundated in this toxic imbalanced world. This is our first and most important responsibility when dealing with cancer. Caring for foundational issues in cancer can be done individually or complement your eye alongside other therapies.

Cholesterol has become the focus of a great deal of attention in the modern medical world. Many people have thought that cholesterol is something that signifies a tendency towards coronary artery disease and heart disease, and it is generally assumed that is very difficult to bring cholesterol levels down if elevated and that a statin drug would need to be employed to accomplish the reduction. There are a number of factors that should be considered when it comes to considering cholesterol balance.

The original study of cholesterol done in the 1960s on approximately 240,000 subjects found that cholesterol levels above 300 directly associated itself with an increased risk of heart disease. What was also reported in the same study also was that cholesterol less than 130 directly associated itself with an increased risk of cancer. At first it was thought that cholesterol came from animal foods and fats that were consumed in the diet, although it was later discovered that two-thirds of the body’s cholesterol is actually fabricated in the liver. Today with our new understanding around healthy fats and the impact of carbohydrates and high glycemic diets it is revealed that elevated triglyceride levels result in a downstream elevation of cholesterol. Chemically when triglycerides are high they automatically cascade downstream into high cholesterol. While the triglycerides lab values for the common American are said to be normal under 200 or 150 (depending on the lab), the truth is that any triglyceride level above 90 will result in unnecessary elevation of cholesterol. Oftentimes simply by limiting the glycemic intake in the diet the triglycerides fall to under 90 and the cholesterol naturally follows into range, optimally to be between 160 and 180.

If the triglycerides are under 90 and the cholesterol continues to be elevated it oftentimes suggests the possibility of some food allergy congesting and slowing the digestive process thus resulting in elevated cholesterol resorption from the gut. The most common allergy in this situation is eggs, and an estimated 30 percent of the population is allergic to eggs (lactalbumin). By eliminating eggs, if one is allergic to them and limiting the glycemic intake, the cholesterol naturally comes to an optimal level. It used to be expected that these changes in cholesterol take months or even years and that therefore legitimizes the employment of certain statin drugs to lower cholesterol. These triglyceride and cholesterol imbalances can actually be corrected profoundly within 7-10 days demonstrated by lab work. It is so simple to limit the glycemic index in the diet and see the triglycerides fall and subsequently the cholesterol normalize. It also is rewarding to discover that we can control our own chemical imbalances without having to use drugs to achieve this.

HDL cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein) is another consideration. HDL’s are able to help transport cholesterol through the blood and keep it from plaquing onto the arterial wall. HDL’s can be increased through exercise and through certain nutrients including red wine. Recently another factor has become a consideration as the level of Homocysteine protein in the blood acts as Velcro to attach the plaque to the arterial wall. Although normal levels allow up to 12-15, it is optimally recommended that Homocysteine be kept under 7. Interestingly enough Homocysteine is a purely nutritional event and if elevated simply adding vitamins B6, B12, folate and folic acid usually will return it to an optimal level. This is very good predictor of heart risk. Another influence to arterial wall plaquing is C-reactive protein (CRP). CRP represents the state of inflammation in the body and therefore the subsequent stickiness of the arterial wall. By keeping our body free of chronic infection and immune burdens, especially allergies, the C-reactive protein will fall to less than .04 where there is very little likelihood that plaquing will occur.

There are multiple factors that influence the lipid profile of our blood. A few of them have been outlined above so that a person can begin to explore their own capability of controlling their own cholesterol levels. It is an exciting thing to find that you are in control of your chemistry rather than the genes you inherited determining your destiny. Many people have been skeptical to believe how quickly the lipid profile could be optimized, and many have chosen not to try. When it is possible to see profound change within seven days there is every reason to be encouraged to try experimenting with your own lipid levels.