Alzheimer’s Disease – by Dr Peter Glidden
Anti-Aging Foods – by Dr Melody Hart
AGING!! When and how does it happen? – by Dr Martha H Howard
Beyond Skin Care Myths – by Dr. Jaena Stanley-Gonzaga
Preventing & Treating Sunburn Naturally – by Dr Harry Hong PhD, L.Ac.
Sunscreen & Vitamin D – by Robert C. Scott, DC CCSP

Alzheimer’s disease is a modern epidemic. 5.3 million Americans have it. It is the 7th leading cause of death. According to the CDC, there is a new diagnosis every 70 seconds and its treatment profits the medical industry 148 billion dollars a year. Worldwide, 35.6 million people are suspected to have it, and the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease is expected to double every 20 years. It is not genetic, is only indirectly related to the aging process, and it is not caused by a vengeful God. Alzheimer’s disease is a physician created disease, and in-as-much, it is a perfect example of the short sightedness, hubris, danger and ineptitude of the allopathic medical profession.

To understand this last statement, we need to put the practice of medicine in the United States into perspective. Since 1920, more or less, the American medical stage has been completely dominated by MD’s. This happened because of financial and political alliances formed between the Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegie Institute, allopathic hospitals and allopathic medical schools all around the country. If you aren’t familiar with the term “allopathic” – it refers to the type of medicine that MD’s practice. Allopathic medicine (allopathy) is just ONE system of medicine. There are many others: Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Ayurveda, Acupuncture, Traditional Chinese medicine, Chiropractic, etc. For the last 100 years however, allopathic medicine has been sold to us as the ONLY legitimate type of medicine, with all of the other systems of medicine being pitched to us as alternative, or inferior to it. Most people think that MD’s are the top dog of medicine because their treatments are more effective than those of the others. It is not. As a matter of fact, according to Dr. Barbara Starfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, 250,000 deaths per year are caused by medical errors, making this the third-largest cause of death in the United States. That’s right! Treatment by your MD is the third leading cause of death in the United States – right behind heart disease and hypertension.

This little history lesson represents the tip of the iceberg concerning the evolution of medicine in the United States, and I mention it only because of the subject matter at hand: Alzheimer’s disease. It is my contention that this illness is caused by MD treatments. Named after the 20th century physician, Alois Alzheimer, the very first case of Alzheimer’s disease was recorded in 1906. A patient of Dr. Alzheimer’s (named “August D”) developed memory problems, unfounded suspicions that her husband was unfaithful, trouble speaking, trouble understanding what others were saying, and died within 5 years of developing the first symptoms. Post-mortem autopsy of her brain revealed dramatic shrinkage of the cortex, fatty deposits in the blood vessels of the brain and dead brain cells. Current medical technology only allows for Alzheimer’s disease to be diagnosed via autopsy of the brain AFTER someone has died. When someone is living, we can only say that we suspect that they have Alzheimer’s disease. This is an interesting point to ponder because there is a very similar illness referred to as “Sundowner’s” syndrome. The symptoms of Sundowner’s and Alzheimer’s are very similar. The only difference being that Sundowner’s is the terminal stage of Beri-Beri, and is caused by a chronic vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency. This is why anyone with cognitive difficulties indicative of Alzheimer’s or Sundowner’s should be given vitamin B1 in therapeutic doses, as it will completely eliminate the cognitive difficulties if it was Sundowner’s and not Alzheimer’s.

Let’s have a little anatomy lesson. 75% of the white matter of the brain (the tissue effected by Alzheimer’s disease) is made from cholesterol. One of the anatomical characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease is shrinkage of the cortex. If the cortex is made from cholesterol, and it shrinks, might not a cause of this be due to a lack of cholesterol in the body? Well, yes it would – except for the fact that the liver manufactures cholesterol when the body’s stores start to run low. Are there any drugs you can think of that reduce the body’s ability to manufacture its own cholesterol? I’ll give you a minute to think…

Statin drugs!

Statin drugs (cholesterol lowering drugs) work by creating inflammation in the liver that blocks the liver’s ability to manufacture cholesterol. Statin drugs lower your cholesterol levels by blocking your body’s ability to make its own cholesterol.

If the part of your brain that shrinks because of Alzheimer’s disease is made out of cholesterol and you take a cholesterol lowering drug, is it a stretch to think that the two might be related? Statin drug sales have increased remarkably in the same time span that Alzheimer’s disease has gone from the 8th to the 6th leading cause of death in the United States. Has anybody looked at this relationship? YES! Yeon-Kyun Shin, a biophysics professor in the department of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, says the results of his study show that drugs that inhibit the liver from making cholesterol may also keep the brain from making cholesterol, which is vital to efficient brain function.”If you deprive cholesterol from the brain, then you directly affect the machinery that triggers the release of neurotransmitters,” said Shin. “Neurotransmitters affect the data-processing and memory functions. In other words — how smart you are and how well you remember things.” Shin’s findings were be published in the Feb. 2009 edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Will anybody take this seriously? No! Why? Because statin drugs are one of the most widely-prescribed and most lucrative sectors of the pharmaceutical industry, with total revenues exceeding $26 billion in 2008.

My advice – Stop all statin drugs immediately. Don’t worry about this increasing your risk of heart disease – it will not. (Go to www.ravnskov.nu for information about cholesterol levels and heart disease. Eg: there is no relationship between high cholesterol and heart disease). Eat foods high in cholesterol. Have your diet be 80% fat. Take all 91 essential nutrients appropriate for your body weight every day (go to my website to learn how to do this: ww.drglidden.com). Take extra vitamin B1. Fire your MD, and hire me or one of my naturopathic colleagues – as we are the only physicians in the country trained from day 1 in the application of science-based, clinically verified, safe, effective and affordable NON-DRUG treatments.

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The passage of time is not what ages us. It is the process that reduces the number of healthy cells in our bodies. Youth is not a chronological age. It is good health and a healthy spirit. Anti aging is really a way of living our lives, as a fabulous adventure, consciously affirming vitality in our whole being – body, mind and spirit.

A nutrient rich diet is the centerpiece of a vibrant long life. Your diet must become even more nourishing, even higher in antioxidants as the years pass. A good diet improves health, provides a high energy level, maintains harmonious system balance, keeps memory and thinking sharp, staves off disease and contributes to a youthful appearance.

Your body needs fewer calories and burns them slower as you age. An easy way to slow upward weight gain is to compose your diet of 50% fresh food.

The best anti aging foods:

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Age 25: Growth hormone, the “mother” of all healthy aging hormones, starts to go down. Skin, the most visible of all, begins to age. Even at this young age, production of collagen and elastin decreases, and skin loses its natural elastic recoil. Blood vessels are less dense, skin yellows. Skin glands produce less sweat and oil, and skin dries out. Fine lines and wrinkles start to show and skin sags. And that’s all happening at 25!!


Age 30: Hair loss can appear any time after puberty, and graying starts at age 30. Some of male pattern baldness can be held off with minoxidil and other products that help to slow down conversion of testosterone to DHT.


Age 35-45: Bones begin to age (late 30’s in women, late 40’s in men,) and the changes of menopause and andropause start—reproductive hormones begin a gradual decline. More signs of skin aging—sagging, wrinkles, sunspots; less firmness of connective tissues, “middle age spread”


Age 45-50: Reproductive hormones are in greater decline, causing menopause and andropause. Hormone replacement is currently controversial but bioidentical hormone replacement has a good health and anti-aging track record.


Age 65: Muscles age in both women and men.

Why is it so important to look good? And what to do??


Looking good and feeling good go together! When you see a reflection of yourself looking good, you feel better. When you are healthy and happy and feeling good, you look better.


Here are some tips for looking and feeling good. They apply to all ages. Start at 25-30 and just keep going!


1 – get exercise—if you hated gym, try a dance class, or a Pilate’s class.
2 – break a sweat—with exercise, a sauna or a mineral bath.
3 – move gracefully—try Feldenkrais, Alexander lessons, tai chi, or qigong.
4 – get enough sleep. Eight. Hours. Not. Six.
5 – keep up your energy (NADH and Siberian Ginseng are good supplements for this.)
6 – drink plenty of water (filtered, chemical free.) Skip the sports drinks with the sugar and dyes. These really age skin.
7 – eat fresh food—proteins, green and leafy vegetables, fruits, whole grains, healthy fats (olive and sesame oils are good ones.)
8 – take a good vitamin-mineral complex, fish oil, vitamin C, calcium/magnesium, a probiotic, and antioxidants. Those are the basics.
9 – watch indoor and outdoor air quality. Chemicals and pollutants in the lungs damage the skin.
10 – minimize processed and “junk” foods that are full of chemicals, dyes and additives.
11 – avoid caffeine, smoking, alcohol. They all speed up the wrinkling process.
12 – use organic skin and body products that are chemical free, (you will help the environment too!).
13 – moisturize and de-age skin, with rich creams like Age Defying Moisture Cream. Microdermabrasion or laser resurfacing can be helpful. Skip the botox, and minimize makeup .
14 – use only natural sunblocks—free from octyl-methoxycinnamate, homosalate, and other ingredients that are harmful estrogenic chemicals. Mychelle, Desert Essence, California Baby and Aubrey all make effective, chemical free sunblocks.
15 – use chemical free conditioners and natural colors on hair (henna is a good one).
16 – de-stress with meditation, tai chi, yoga, massage. Supplements can help too—a good place to start is with theanine.
17 – take some quiet moments and remember a time when you were happy, loving and being loved.
18 – reach out and help others–volunteer.
19 – old=rigid. Be more flexible—keep an open and optimistic attitude and mind.

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What is truly needed to keep the skin looking young, clear, healthy and vibrant? Would it be expensive moisturizers and creams, pH balanced skin care products, natural products, soap free cleansers, and skin exfoliants? We all have a daily regimen of taking care of our skin. The question is, “What practices can you do to create a natural and constant expression of radiant skin?”

Myth 1: Your skin can block toxic chemicals from your skin care products. Answer: False Principle: The skin is the largest organ of the body and is responsible for a variety of functions including protection, sensation, excretion, immunity, blood reservoir, and Vitamin D synthesis. Instead of applying skin products that are chemically toxic to the skin, which can go directly into the blood, liver, brain, lymph, and fat cells, apply moisturizers and other products that are free from the following ingredients: sodium lauryl sulfate (any sulfates), propylene glycol, alcohol, parabens, imidazolidinyl and diazolidinyl urea, synthetic colors, triethanolamine, mineral oil, petroleum, and other chemical based ingredients. Practice:Be aware. Read your label and be aware of what you actually put on your skin. Buy skin care products that do not have the above ingredients.

Myth 2: The skin needs to drink, feed and breathe. Answer: True Principle: Dehydration, lack of topical nutrients and lack of oxygen can perpetuate skin aging. The skin has a capacity of 80% water. The best moisturizer for the skin is water from water soluble moisturizers. This, along with a wellness approach to life, will create juicy plump smooth skin. The shine from oil based moisturizers creates an illusion of moisture. The oils prevent water loss from the skin and do not add any more water than what is already present. The oils are therefore no use to the skin’s natural water binding soluble substances. In addition, the oils create a protective barrier that does not allow the skin to breathe causing hypoxia which damages the skin. For your skin to breathe and absorb the nutrients from the oils, the oils must also be water soluble. Other ingredients found in skin care products that help with hydration and nourishment are ionized atomic minerals and natural sugars. Practice: Acknowledge that you skin has its own life force that is not separate from you. Enhance the life force of your skin by giving it natural plant based formulations that utilize water soluble properties, ionized atomic minerals, and chemical free ingredients. Allow your skin to completely hydrate, nourish, and breathe.

Myth 3: pH balanced skin care products are best for the skin. Answer: False Principle: The skin is a reflection of the whole. Just like the human body, it needs a higher or more alkaline pH for nutrients to be optimally absorbed and utilized by the cells. This type of an environment carries the greatest amount of oxygen that a healthy cell needs. Most products that are available contain chemicals that are depleted of oxygen and have an acidic pH. Many products, including “natural ones”, that are said to be pH balanced are due to the mixture of chemicals present which tricks the body into receiving the toxins as nutrients. Practice: Find out for yourself. Test your product with pH paper that has a range of 5.5 to 8.0. Optimal pH range would be 7.2 or above.

Myth 4: Sunblock stops skin cancer. Answer: False Principle: As noted by The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “…the incidence of melanoma of the skin has increased significantly [in the United States] by 7.7% per year from 2003 to 2005 among men, and increased significantly by 2.9% per year from 1993 to 2005 among women. When considering the use of a sun block, understand that the majority protect from the UVB rays that prevent sunburn and not the UVA rays that are extremely more damaging to the skin. What you probably don’t know is that sun block typically needs to be reapplied about every hour.. When using sun block, you are also protecting yourself from receiving Vitamin D that is an essential nutrient for cancer prevention. In addition, sun blocks contain numerous toxic chemicals that are even more harmful to your body. Practice: Be responsible. Limit your exposure to the sun to before 10am and after 2-3pm when the sun is not at its peak. This will allow you to still get your Vitamin D nourishment for the day. Look into current sun protection products that use desert plants.

Myth 5: Lifestyle has a direct effect on premature aging. Answer: True Principle: Depending on your lifestyle habits, it is well documented that smoking and long term sun exposure quickens the aging process of the skin. This can result in the following: loss of elasticity, fine and deep wrinkles, skin damage, thin skin, skin cancer, dullness of skin, and leathery skin. Practice: Honor yourself. Your skin is an expression of how well you take care of yourself.

Myth 6: What you eat and drink has no long term effect on the health of your skin. Answer: False Principle: Your skin has natural regenerative qualities. Anti-aging is when the next generation of cells are healthier than the first. Your skin’s health and radiance is affected by how you choose to nourish yourself. What building blocks do you choose? You can help defy premature aging with optimal hydration and an increase in consumption of fruits and vegetables. You will not only help to moisturize from the inside out. You will also enhance oxygenation, reduce free radical damage, reduce inflammation, increase alkalinity, and enhance healing. Practice: Choose to nourish for long term effects of youthfulness.

Myth 7: Stress can cause wrinkles. Answer: True Principle: Life’s challenges are never ending. Stress can be thought of as a stimulus or change that the body must respond to immediately. This response in physiology can either reflect optimal adaptability or survival. For many, there is a constant bombardment of emotional stress, environmental stress, lifestyle challenges, physical stress, work deadlines, trauma, relationship problems, death in the family, irritations, annoyances, worries, fears, burdens, and so on, that trigger a constant barrage of cortisol in the body for its survival. Cortisol is a hormone that is released when your automatic defense mechanism senses an emergency and triggers a survival response. Your body is not designed for a constant stress response. Breakdown, exhaustion and premature aging internally and externally will predominate. Practice: Get back to basics. Breathe and focus on what you are thankful and grateful for!!!

Myth 8: Your natural radiant glow is in direct proportion to living a passionate life. Answer: It’s up to you. Principle: Have you ever noticed that there is a magnificent glow expressed by those that are living an authentic and passionate life. They gently radiate love and compassion. Coming from passion, they are genuinely happy which shows in their state and physiology. The beauty is seen beyond the skin. We see the beauty in who they truly are. Practice: Find your passion, be your passion and live your passion for the good of all.

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Summertime is fun, the pool, the beach and the…dangerous sun poisoning. Symptoms of sun poisoning include headache, dizziness, nausea and red, burning skin. How do you prevent sun poisoning? Let’s start with some basics.


Make sure your body is hydrated. Hydration does not mean sports drinks and soft drinks…no matter what their manufacturers say, high sugar content will dehydrate you. So if you try to hydrate the body, water is the best! If your kids want juice, you can dilute the juice with water as much as possible, and keep reminding them to drink throughout the day. Watermelon juice (watermelon and ice in the blender) is also a great natural source to hydrate the body.


Remember to use sunscreens. The main ingredients in regular sunscreens are now found in many waterways, and beginning to have a disastrous disruption in the hormonal systems of fish and other animals that inhabited and consumed the toxic waters. Natural sunscreen is not only better for us, but also for our planet. You can find SPF 40 sunscreens made by Jason Natural and Lavera.


Also keep in mind, protective clothing can be huge in helping to prevent sun poisoning. People who live in the scorching desert always covered their body except with the eyes, because that is the best way to protect their body from the sun. Of course we don’t have to be that extreme. But long or three-quarter sleeve cotton tees and Capri pants are better than tanks and shorts. Also bring umbrellas and tents so you have shade every few hours. If it’s a hot day, go out to the beach before 11am or after 4pm, when the sun light is weaker.


But if sun poisoning does happen, here are some ways to deal with it. Aloe vera gel, vinegar, alcohol, iced tea can all be applied topically to help with the burning feeling and swelling. Drinking more water is also important to hydrate the body. In Chinese medicine, a Chinese herbs combination called Huoxiangzhengqi can help with most of the sun poisoning symptoms except the skin. You can also find homeopathic remedies such as Rescue cream for the sun-burning skin and Rad-tox to detoxify radiation out of the body. Another homeopathic remedy is Calendula in various dilutions or in cream form. For more information about treating sun poisoning, please contact our office at 847-922-4156, or visit our website at www.highlysensitivebody.com.

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As summer approaches we will once again be bombarded with news about the ill effects of sun exposure to our skin. We are lead to believe that sun exposure must be combated with sunscreen agents, and yet sunscreen may offer little protection to your skin from Melanoma, the deadliest of skin cancers. (Westerdahl J, Ingvar C, Masback A, et al, Int J Cancer. 2000;87:145-50)

Therefore it may seem wise to just avoid the sun all together. However, appropriate sunlight actually prevents cancer. An examination of 506 regions found a close inverse correlation between cancer mortality and levels of ultraviolet B light. The likeliest mechanism for a protective effect of sunlight is vitamin D, which is synthesized by the body in the presence of ultraviolet B. There are 13 malignancies that show this inverse correlation, mostly reproductive and digestive cancers. The strongest inverse correlation is with breast, colon, and ovarian cancer. Other cancers apparently affected by sunlight include tumors of the bladder, uterus, esophagus, rectum, and stomach. (Cancer March 2002; 94:1867-75)

New Research now shows that 600,000 new cases of breast and colon cancer could be prevented worldwide each year by simply by raising vitamin D blood levels. (Cedric F. Garland, Dr. P.H., Sharif B. Mohr, M.P.H., Edward D. Gorham, M.P.H., Ph.D., and Frank C. Garland, Ph.D., of the Division of Epidemiology at the UCSD Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and Moores UCSD Cancer Center; and William B. Grant, Ph.D., of the Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center, San Francisco). Clearly Vitamin D production is an important.

Sunscreen ingredients themselves have come under scrutiny because of their risk in promoting Cancer. A study in the April 2004 Journal of Chromatography found that there was significant penetration into the skin of all sunscreen agents they studied. Additionally, potentially harmful chemicals such as dioxybenzone and oxybenzone, found in some sunscreens, are some of the most powerful free radical generators known to man. Furthermore, authorities have suggested that whereas sunscreen may prevent sunburn, they may fail to actually protect against cancer because most sunscreens only screen out UVB, which makes vitamin D, not the UVA that causes most of the damage.

Visit the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep website, or (see table 1. below) for a list of sunscreen ingredients which are of concern.

Remember exposure to the sun allows your body to create an essential substance, Vitamin D. Research now shows that low blood levels of vitamin D are associated with hypertension, (Heartwire, March 2009), migraine headaches, (Medscape Medical News, July 2008), influenza, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, periodontal disease, epilepsy, osteoporosis, heart disease, and osteoarthritis. Low vitamin D levels are also associated with infertility (Journal Article, Hum Reprod, May 2007), PMS, fatigue, seasonal affective disorder, depression (Journal Article, J Midwifery Women’s Health, September 2008), and autoimmune conditions like MS, and Lupus (Journal Article, Curr Opin Rheumatol, September 2008), and rheumatoid arthritis. Vitamin D deficiencies are seen with Crohn’s disease, syndrome X, obesity, and poly cystic ovary disease. Vitamin D has been shown to improve survival in lung cancer patients, reduce falls in the elderly (Journal Article, J Am Geriatr Soc, February 2007), increase athletic performance, and increase cognitive performance in adults. Vitamin D should be a huge part of any protocol in the treatment of any kind of chronic pain, (Medscape Medical News, March 2009). Be careful with Vitamin D however; because it is fat soluble you should only take amounts above the RDA under the supervision of your physician.

So what’s in your beach bag? Few health recommendations have had as damaging an effect as the advice that you should never leave your house without sunscreen. As discussed earlier wearing sunscreen effectively blocks your body’s production of vitamin D, which happens naturally when your skin is exposed to sunlight. In fact, sunscreens reduce vitamin D production by as much as 97.5 to 99.9 percent. Instead of sunscreen limit your sun exposure to about an hour each day and try not to burn your skin when outdoors. Use your clothing to gradually expose your skin to sun during the spring and summer. Strengthen the oxidative capacity of your skin with a diet rich in antioxidants, like Acai, and omega 3-fish oils which have been shown to reduce cancer rates. Search for skin products which are absent of harmful chemicals for those which offer natural UV protection.

Enjoy the benefits of summer, sun exposure and healthy amounts of Vitamin D.
Table 1.

This table provided by www.mercola.com

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