It took me six weeks to halt the progress of "galloping" rheumatoid arthritis, two more years to pay attention to candidiasis, nutrition and food allergies, and the next 13 years to understand what's really going on, and what the factors are that create rheumatoid arthritis and the other 79 related rheumatoid diseases.

I'm not going to lie to you, and say that I know all the factors, but I'll bet most anything that I know more than most rheumatologists. Not being a health professional those are mighty egoistic words!

I'm going to share my knowledge with you. You can act on it or not, as you wish. Health, after all, is always up to you, not your doctor.

Layer One Toward Wellness: Stress

Stress is the greatest contributor toward a sick body. Whenever stress is unavoidable, or even if you've conditioned yourself to believe that a stress activity is enjoyable, some folks will get well simply by removing themselves from an environment of stress. Stress has many faces, and it is never solved by blaming others, although it's possible that removing yourself from others may be necessary. There are so many faces to stress that it deserves a newsletter by itself. Some folks can get well from rheumatoid arthritis simply by removing themselves from stressful situations.

Layer Two Toward Wellness: Nutrition

As I've repeatedly written – as has Joel Wallach, D.V.M., N.D. (Dead Doctors Don't Lie; Rare Earths: Forbidden Cures, etc.) – a successful farmer knows more about nutrition than the vast majority of health professionals graduating from the standard medical school. A successful farmer knows with a certainty – a certainty upon which his family's welfare relies – that unless he feeds his cattle, chickens, hogs, sheep, and so forth the very best nutrients, their market value will be low, and his income accordingly will suffer. Unfortunately few American farmers have learned to apply this same philosophy to their plant kingdom crops, as they seem to be stuck in the limited nitrogen/phosphorus cycle, and the use of hybrids that produce large, healthy appearing vegetation without a whole lot of nourishing characteristics.

Most religions teach that man is both spirit and animal. And while it is most important to nourish the spirit, this can be increasingly difficult without persistently buttressing our animal natures with the proper nutrition and nutritional supplements. If not, the spirit may leave the body prematurely.

Everywhere on earth are healthful foods growing wild: insects, worms, nuts, fruits, various vegetation. There's probably more healthful edible food growing wild on this planet even today than there is inedible, poisonous food, but neither of us are about to break our childhood conditioning to seek after it. So, what is left?

Well, the closer we can come to the diet of our foraging ancestors, the more healthy we will become. In other words, we need organically grown food free of pesticides, herbicides, and chock full of enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids.

As it has become increasingly difficult to obtain what our animal natures require, we must do the best we can. After having chosen the very best store products available to us, we must choose wisely in supplementing with various vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids – because our foods no longer contain the proper balance or lack sufficient quantity of these life substances.

Those are just the general principles. A scientific discourse on the proper food baffles the best of physicians, so don't expect this short article, or even this writer, to provide you with foolproof, complete advice suitable just for you. Each person is genetically different, and each has different requirements, and those are the ingredients that you must learn about with the assistance of a knowledgeable health professional.

There are many who achieve wellness from rheumatoid arthritis, and the other 79 collagen tissue diseases which we call rheumatoid diseases, simply by improving their nutritional intake. I would estimate that about 30% can get well by this means alone. Incidentally, that 30% figure which I've guessed comes from two other sources: (a) professional rheumatologists will have about 30-33% "improvement" rate, no matter what they've done to their patients, right or wrong; (b) about 30-33% is the "improvement" rate for traditional rheumatology practices reported in many scientific studies, called the "placebo effect."

Remove stress, and improve nutrition, and you may very well achieve wellness from rheumatoid disease!

Layer Three Toward Wellness: Candidiasis and Food Allergies

Candida albicans, a yeast/fungus, is an organism of opportunity, just as many other microorganisms are. These organisms of opportunity set up shop in our bodies, particularly the intestinal tract, whenever conditions are right. Right conditions are provided by the use of antibiotics, hormones (birth control pills) and other chemicals, exposure to stress, and poor nutrition. A particularly virulent form of candidiasis – the name given to the Candida albicans yeast/fungus infection – is a fungal form that plants itself in the intestinal mucosal membrane, there to grow inward rootlets that penetrate all the way into the blood stream. (See The Yeast Connection, William Crook; The Yeast Syndrome, Morton Walker, D.P.M., John Trowbridge, M.D.; others.)

Candidiasis, as will most yeasts, produces either acetaldehyde or alcohol, or both. Acetaldehyde is the metabolite of alcohol, the part of drinking liquors that gives you a hangover the next morning. This persistent production of acetaldehyde in your intestinal tract passes through every organ and bodily system day by day, night by night, placing extreme chemical stress on your cells, organs, and systems. The effects are extreme. In time virtually every degenerative disease condition can be mimicked, including those of rheumatoid arthritis as well as the other 79 so-called "autoimmune" diseases.

Simultaneously, as acetaldehyde is slowly, drastically, affecting your life, the rootlets planted in your mucosa are permitting small molecular particles of food to pass directly into the blood stream without being digested. Proteins particularly are therein recognized as foreign invaders, and your immune system builds up protection against them, forming what's called an antigen/antibody complex which is the biochemical beginnings of a food allergy.

The number of food allergies increase over time, and they have some peculiar characteristics: (a) Some food allergies can be spotted as soon as you've eaten the substance: headache, nausea, joint pain, depression, lethargy, and so on. (b) Some food allergies require as much as three days from the time you exposed yourself to the food to kick in with headache, nausea, joint pain, depression and lethargy, and so on. This type becomes hard to associate with foods eaten by causal observation, and may require either a valid blood test for allergies or a carefully prepared log of foods eaten compared to daily symptoms (Dr. Braly's Food Allergy and Nutrition Revolution, James Braly, M.D.).

Just as infestation by Candida albicans can create a huge variety of symptoms, depending upon which tissues are most affected, so can food allergies. And, just as candidiasis can mimic rheumatoid disease, and the other 79 collagen tissue diseases, so can food allergies.

In short, candidiasis produces food allergies, and both of them not only create their own disease symptoms, but both of them can also mimic any of the 80 rheumatoid diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis.

Health professionals who have had their patients rid themselves of stress, improve nutrition, and conquer candidiasis and food allergies have cured a high percentage of those afflicted with rheumatoid disease.

Two foundations, The Arthritis Trust of America/The Rheumatoid Disease Foundation, and The Road Back Foundation, have historically recommended the use of prescription medicines to halt the progress of rheumatoid arthritis. The Road Back Foundation recommends a series of treatments of minicycline, whereas The Arthritis Trust of America/The Rheumatoid Disease Foundation has long recommended any one, or combination, of several broad-spectrum anti-microorganism drugs.

Both treatments have resulted in remissions or "cures," from rheumatoid arthritis.

Coupling broad spectrum anti-microorganism treatment with treatment for nutrition, candidiasis, and food allergies has consistently resulted in an 80% cure rate since 1982, according to Gus J. Prosch, Jr., M.D. of Birmingham, Alabama.

Layer Four Toward Wellness: Mercury Detoxification, Pesticide and Herbicide Detoxification, and Sterilization of Foci of Infection

Solving stress may get the arthritic well.

Changing stressful conditions and improving nutrition may get the arthritic well.

Attending to stressful conditions, improving nutrition, reducing candidiasis infestation, and avoiding allergenic foods may get the arthritic well – and any of these life-style changes may be permanent or temporary, depending upon each individual's temperament and situation.

But what will surely work? And what will also come closest to returning your body (and youthful spirit) back to an early period when you were free of disease conditions?

According to Lee Cowden, M.D. of Dallas, Texas, various foci of infection are important to remove, but they will not leave completely until accumulated herbicides and pesticides are removed. Herbicides and pesticides will not go completely until mercury is removed.

I don't want to use this limited space to get involved in a lengthy pro and con as to why each of these factors are so important. That's what our recommended books and articles do in some detail. I'll briefly describe the nature of each of the above factors.

a. The US Environmental Protection Agency sets no lower limit for the amount of mercury that is dangerous to health. Dentists who handle mercury must do so under guidelines set by the agency for a very dangerous substance, including the need to dispose of waste scraps in a manner that will not endanger our environment, thus also endanger people.

For some irrational reason, once mercury is placed in fillings of teeth dentists consider it no longer of danger because, they say, it is in an amalgamated form – joined with other metals – and will not come free. This assumption is demonstrably false, and can be easily shown to be false by measuring the percentage of mercury from removed fillings and plotting percentages of remaining mercury against the time the amalgam spent in the mouth. Mercury disappears from the amalgams in a very predictable (linear) manner. The longer in the mouth, the less mercury contained in the filling.

The normally staid American Medical Association has declared mercury dangerous. The Swedish Medical Association, after resisting these claims against the use of mercury fillings and after studying available scientific data, concluded they were wrong, and they apologized to the Swedish public. Sweden, as well as some other countries, are now phasing mercury from dentistry.

The American Dental Association, however, is so blind, so protective of their trade union, that they have threatened to take the license away from dentists who remove fillings and replace them with a non-dangerous substance.

When mercury is amalgamated with another metal, the filling exists in either an alkaline or an acid environment, the saliva and food mixture in your mouth which changes according to what you eat and when you eat.

Two dissimilar metals in either an alkaline or acid environment form a small battery which, when activated, produces an electric current. Such an electric current is easily measured in each and every metallic filling in your teeth.

The joint effect of all the little batteries in all of your teeth is also measurable as both a current, and also as a persistent source of evaporated mercury in your mouth.

Evaporated mercury combines with organic matter in the mouth to form a mercury/organic compound, which your body accumulates. Over time, your body will accumulate a considerable amount of mercury from your fillings as well as from other sources, such as consumed fish (which seem to accumulate mercury), herbicides and pesticides, another dangerous environmental stressor surrounding us everywhere.

According to Hal Huggins, D.D.S. (It's All In Your Head), and other health professionals, here's the two major effects of the use of mercury fillings:

(1) Organic mercury tends to accumulate at nerve ganglia where it interferes with the proper functioning of nerve signals. Accumulated mercury in a ganglia in the face – for example – may easily affect operation of a joint in a remote part of the body, causing a form of "arthritis." The proof is that when the organic mercury is removed from the ganglia in the face, the pain in the joint stops immediately, and the joint begins to heal and function properly.

This is but one example among tens of thousands of seemingly unrelated dysfunctions that might be cited, including that of improper functioning of the immune system.

(2) Organic mercury forms small pockets or envelopes in various tissues of the body within which foreign microorganisms set up shop. These are usually mutated, anaerobic (live without oxygen) forms of organisms. When our macrophages and leucocytes try to attack these foreign organisms as they're supposed to do, they are prevented from entering the pocket by the mercury.

Thus, the foreign organisms continue to thrive, producing toxins (microbial waste products) which, if our human tissues are not already sensitive to the toxins, will, for the arthriticprone, probably become sensitive to them before long. The daily production of toxins, and their distribution throughout the tissues, organs, and systems of our body are what produce the various disease symptoms that are then classified as one of the 80 so-called "auto-immune" diseases.

The red coloring matter used to produce partial dentures and full dentures are usually made of a mercuric substance. This mercury also leaches out over time, continuing our accumulation of dangerous mercury. A clear flexite denture is recommended by Lee Cowden, M.D. of Dallas, Texas.

I was shocked when I talked to one manufacturer of denture plastic who told me he used cadmium to help keep the red (mercury) from leaching out.

Yea Gad! Cadmium is as dangerous as the mercury, and a major problem for the environment in keeping cadmium from leaching into our soils and water systems especially from disposal of cadmium batteries.

The problem of obtaining dentures made from a clear flexite material has proved difficult, but I believe I've finally solved it, with the help of Lee Cowden, M.D.

b. Extracted teeth and root canal surgery are extremely large sources of persistent infections that create degenerative diseases, including the various arthritides. (Arthritides refers to all forms of arthritis.)

George E. Meinig, D.D.S. (Root Canal Cover-Up) reports on the work of Weston Price, D.D.S., who, under the auspices of the American Dental Association, headed studies performed by 60 top-ranking medical scientists from very prestigious medical and dental institutions.

Whenever a tooth is extracted, or root canal work has been performed, the muscular tissue in the socket is usually left in place, and the dentist makes an assumption that the use of antibiotics will penetrate this tough tissue killing any microorganisms that may be present after the surgery.

The assumption is demonstrably false.

Steptococus feci, or any one of hundreds of viruses, bacteria or mycoplasmas, will find themselves in these open sockets during surgery. Within the apparently healed gums, microorganisms that thrive in oxygen in the mouth (aerobic) will mutate to a type that thrives without oxygen inside the tooth socket (anaerobic).

Only 10% of those infected in the gums will have sore or sensitive gums, and will ever suspect that something is wrong.

I had all of my teeth removed 50 years ago, and I argued loud and long with those who insisted that I have my teeth checked for a focus of infection. After all, I had no root canals performed, and my gums felt normal! Burton Goldberg (Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide) insisted, and so more to oblige him than because I believed, I had several non-invasive tests made, and two blood tests.

Two kinds of non-invasive tests are effective in making such a determination: (1) kinesthiology, or (2) a computron, or dermatron (Electro-Acupuncture according to Voll), a device that sends a small amount of current along an acupuncture meridian and, by reading the resulting effect, one can determine if foreign invaders are involved, often what species.

Each blood test confirmed the presence of a mycoplasma, one also inferring the presence of an associated virus.

When I finally placed myself under the care of a biological dentist, his computron reported that I had the presence of both a mycoplasma and a virus throughout my upper and lower gums, also naming the organism's species.

I still did not believe or accept, but I did permit the cutting of a small portion of my gums as a final determination.

Lo! A grayish mass was present. We found this evidence of infestation, throughout the top and bottom along my whole gum line – a fifty year-long unsuspected focus of infection. These were laser sterilized and cleansed with hydrogen peroxide injections.

Later a nerve ganglia that could not be cut into by the biological dentist was also cleansed by a medical doctor with appropriate techniques, as were other nerve ganglia containing mercury in other parts of my body.

According to Dr. Meinig, so long as the immune system is young, and functioning properly, these toxins and foreign invaders are properly handled. Once we age, as do our systems, the immune functions become slowly overwhelmed, and the various degenerative diseases set in.

By the way. None of this kind of dentistry should be attempted without a biological dentist. They are few in number, and not too easy to find. The untrained, normal dentist not only will not believe, but even if willing to remove mercury or cleanse foci of infection, they are likely to leave you worse off than when you began. Especially dangerous is the possibility of accumulating more mercury in your system than you had before amalgam replacement with a neutral filling. Specialized techniques and training are necessary!

There are cases on record where once the mercury has been removed, and the foci of infection cleared up, arthritis has totally disappeared without further treatment.

There are also cases where obvious health improvement has been obtained, but the arthritis has not cleared. Reason: Stress, nutrition, candidiasis, food allergies, and additional problems to be discussed in the following.

c. Additional foci of infections may result from improper sterilization after adenoidectomies or tonsillectomies, according to Dr. Meinig.

What's happened to this information, about the dangers of mercury, gum infection after extracted teeth and root canal surgery, and possible storage of infectious microorganisms after adenoidectomies and tonsillectomies?

Why hasn't the public – or the arthritic – been told of it? When I asked my dentist about his knowledge of these fantastic, long-term, definitive research works, he shook his head, saying, "No, I've never heard of them! They never taught us this in dentistry school."

I gave him copies of Meinig's and Huggins' books.

Like so many important medical discoveries, the knowledge got buried by mean-spirited, closed-minded, suppressive personalities – or people with vested interests.

Initial research records are stored in the American Dental Association archives, and in the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation.

d. Pesticides and herbicides surround us everywhere. It is as though we live in a sea of these dangerous, man-made substances. The initial idea was to kill pests (insects, rodents, etc.) or to kill weeds that are undesirable in our farm acreages, so that we could produce more. The same mind-set led to the use of antibiotics which, at first glance, appears to be a miraculous use of nature's own means of limiting undesirable microbes.

However, what has happened is this: Insects, microorganisms, and even so-called weeds adapt. One surviving microbe, for example, can breed a generation of descendants that not only cannot be killed by the chemical or antibiotic that killed its forbearers, but thrives on it instead, and so another chemical or antibiotic must be manufactured against this new generation.

And so it goes, until there is hardly anything that can be used against these adaptable organisms that is not also dangerous to the cells of man.

Dangerous pesticides and herbicides have also become extremely widespread: winds spread the chemicals to our shores as does wave; and even traffic from country to country by car, ship, plane, and feet which all spread these deadly man-made chemicals.

There is little water, whether city conditioned, or well water, stream, ocean, or lake, that does not contain these dangerous substances, just as there is little produce that reaches our markets that do not contain them.

Harold Buttram, M.D. (Our Toxic World; Who Is Looking After Our Children?) reports that "about 70,000 chemicals are now used in commerce, of which several hundred have been tested for neurotoxicity, and among these only a handful have been tested thoroughly. Children have been estimated to be up to 10 times more vulnerable to toxic chemicals than adults."

Generally, these poisons are accumulated in the parts of the cells of the body called "lipids," or fatty parts of our cells. Parasites, including infestations of candidiasis, amoebae, mycoplasmas, bacteria, viruses, worms, et. al., will not readily leave the body until these pesticides and herbicides are driven from the body.

There are many ways to detoxify herbicides, pesticides, and other chemicals from the body, among which are (1) 3-1/ 2 to 4 weeks of sweat sauna with 1400-1800 F, with replacement vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids (Church of Scientology); (2) use of body soaks with special preparations, including dry scrubbing, et. al. (3) specially prepared herbs and homeopathic remedies, and so on.

Primary, however, and according to Lee Cowden, M.D., is to get rid of the accumulated organic mercury compounds.

e. Getting rid of parasites, including yeast, amoebae, mycoplasmas, bacteria, viruses, worms, et. al. may require a number of different treatments over more or lesser time periods. Lee Cowden, M.D., for example, may recommend ozone colonics, especially the kind that can be used in one's own home. An ozone machine is purchased (about $600) which is used for about 20 minutes in a number of gallons of water, after which, and with the prior preparation of a colema system and training on the method, one injects the prepared ozonated water into the lower colon. Dr. Cowden's rule of thumb is that for each 20 years of life it requires about 1 week of such treatment, twice daily, along with other special dietary factors.

Bernard Jensen, D.C., Ph.D. (Tissue Cleansing Through Bowel Management) describes other effective methods, as does Sherry Rogers, M.D. (Wellness Against All Odds), and Louis J. Marx, M.D. (Healing Dimensions of Herbal Medicine), may provide specific herbal formulations for specific as well as general conditions.

Possible Layer Level 5 Toward Wellness: Necessary Individualized Treatments

There is another level which might be required of certain individuals, and that is specialized individualized treatments – whatever treatment is necessary for the specific person. For example: a person who has diabetes may very well have a kind that William H. Philpott, M.D. of Choctaw, Oklahoma has identified as being caused by allergies to certain widespread foods. The beta cells in the pancreas swell because of the allergy, thus preventing the body from receiving necessary insulin. I've known folks who, on talking with Dr. Philpott, have tried his allergy recommendations and subsequently have become free of insulin shots thereafter.

Whether or not the type of diabetes is from food allergy, any diabetic can benefit from chelation therapy, a method of improving blood circulation in 80% of the peripheral (extremities) circulation. Such improvement in blood circulation is always accompanied by improved nutritional support for each individual cell, and thus improves ability to heal.

In fact, the use of chelation therapy can very well eliminate the need for by-pass surgery, one of those very costly, mostly ineffective standard treatments.

As each individual differs greatly from others both in genetics, past nutritional intake, stress, and other important modifiers of our biology, only a trained health professional can determine whether or not Level Five is necessary, and in most cases, while not necessary, may be desirable.

Level Four Toward Wellness (and possibly Level 5) is such an important step, especially when combined with levels 1 through 3, there's virtual certainty that when properly, implemented every (100%) arthritic will achieve wellness, doesn't mean that all of the damage will necessarily be reversed.

I'll promise more. Not just those suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, not just those suffering from rheumatoid disease (the whole 80 of them), but also a large portion of any who suffer from many so-called degenerative disease will achieve wellness.

I knowingly include many forms of cancer among the promised wellnesses.

You see, I've sort of snuck up on you!

I started by describing simple levels of healing strategies just for rheumatoid arthritis, and arrived at a level that will heal almost everything, so common are the causes, and so basic are the common physiological conditions.

The Catch

Implementing the above recommendations can be a serious problem. Although our physician list contains many doctors knowledgeable in one or more of the preceding treatment programs, there are few, indeed, knowledgeable in all of them.

Finding a biological dentist in your geographical region, as has been mentioned, can be a pain in the tail. The Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation has a listing of biological dentists. Finding a compatible physician or dentist may take some time, and may also require you to search throughout the country, or even out of the country. Some procedures can be accomplished only at the risk of the professionals' license, in some states, and some procedures can be best done by yourself, in your own home, or with your family physician.

Thus it is – with all the many implementation problems – that we highly recommend that you begin learning. Learning is what our publications and books are about. When you've studied the variety of aspects to getting well, you can decide for yourself how much expenditure of time and effort you will make to heal yourself.

Some things you'll do yourself, based on the knowledge we've provided you.

Some treatments will require guidance by a knowing health professional.

Some treatments will require full attendance by a knowledgeable health professional.

Some treatments can only be found a long way from your home.

Your best bet is still to begin by ordering books and materials from us and elsewhere.

Study and decide! Only you can get you well!