I had the pleasure to interview Dr. Jonathan Wright for my last two books, BREAKTHROUGH and KNOCKOUT.  Subsequently he has agreed to do a series of interviews on my blog to provide vital information for many of the issues women face today.  The first was on Vit K and its benefits to help menstrual clotting.  Today we will tackle the issue of thinning hair and weak nails.   

SUZANNE:  Hi, Dr. Wright.  Thank you for continuing this important series for my readers.  I meet so many women who are complaining they are losing their hair or have weak nails.  What causes this? 

DR. WRIGHT:There are several conditions which cause women to lose their hair.  First we have the relatively rare condition called “alopecia areata”, in which an entire “patch” or even multiple “patches” of hair fall out, surrounded by entirely healthy scalp with lots of hair.  Secondly, we have even more rare “alopecia totalis” in which all the hair—everywhere on the scalp—drops out.  But the much more common condition I want to discuss today commonly begins at peri-menopause (and sometimes even before then!) and is just  “thinning out all over”, when we find too much hair in the shower or bathtub drain type of hair loss. A typical observation about this kind of hair loss is “Gee, when I put my hair in a ponytail, the ponytail is getting skinnier and skinnier!” 

SUZANNE:This is a big problem for women.  I remember when I was young there was a certain age where women just didn’t wear their hair long anymore because it got too thin.  Everyone got those “mom” cuts by age 40.  And also I hear a lot of complaints about nails getting weaker and weaker. 

DR. WRIGHT:  Some women will tell me their nails have been in poor condition for years, while others will say they are gradually getting worse and worse.  Even adding gelatin or calcium – the nails chronically chip, peel, crack, “layer back”, are too thin and break way too easily. 

SUZANNE:Do thinning hair and weak nails have same cause? 

DR. WRIGHT:Yes, they do have the same cause, but surprisingly, even though both problems have the same underlying cause, I’ve very rarely heard, in 37 years of natural medicine practice, from one woman who has both problems at the same time.  

SUZANNE: So what is the cause? 

DR. WRIGHT:Recent research has established a link between low levels of iron and relatively uniformly distributed female scalp hair loss.  

SUZANNE:So if we supplement with iron will it help our hair and nails? 

DR. WRIGHT:It goes deeper than that.  Finding the connection to “thinning all over” hair loss and low iron levels is progress, but surprisingly, low iron levels, hair loss, and poor quality nails all have the same underlying cause for women of all ages:  it’s “gastric hypochlorhydria”, translated into English: low stomach acid. 

SUZANNE:Most people would never link low stomach acid to these other issues.  How does low stomach acid cause iron deficiency, hair loss, and nail weakening?   

DR. WRIGHT:If stomach acid is low, protein isn’t efficiently digested – and hair and nails are made up of… protein!  If we are deficient in protein, our bodies know that we can live without hair or nail proteins, but we can’t survive without heart muscle proteins or other important body proteins.  So if we are short in supply of protein, the hair or nails are the first to go. Optimal stomach function—which includes optimal stomach acid—is also key to optimal digestion and absorption of iron, many other minerals, and at least two key B vitamins. It’s no wonder hair or nails “go bad”!  If a woman in her twenties or thirties is losing a lot of hair, we now know it’s from too little stomach acid and pepsin.  This can be replenished with Hydrochloric Acid with Pepsin capsules.  (HCL-pepsin).  With women in their forties who are losing their hair, often it’s a combination of low stomach acid, low thyroid, and sex hormone loss – mainly estrogen and progesterone.  In this case we replace missing hormones with bioidentical estrogen, progesterone, and thyroid.  Then we also replace the missing or low hydrochloric acid.  But there is one more key element on the outside track – DHEA.  Sometimes DHEA is the key missing element.   

SUZANNE:That’s your cocktail for hair loss, I love it.  How great to have a natural remedy to replace what’s missing rather than a drug to put a Band-Aid on things.  So in women losing their hair, you would look for a doctor who specializes in anti-aging medicine and ask for a gastric analysis?  

DR. WRIGHT:And from my experience, I would say it will probably reveal low stomach acid for sure, and/or low thyroid, and/or a lack of DHEA and/or natural sex hormones.  Once those are replenished, the hair and nails get thicker and stronger.  

SUZANNE:I have a friend who was very upset that she was losing her hair.  She started taking 3-4 Hydrochloric Acid with Pepsin (HCL-pepsin) capsules  (available at health food stores) with each meal and her hair is coming back and her bloating is subsiding.  She’s thrilled!  I’ve been taking HCL-pepsin for several years, and I’m happy to say, my nails and hair are both in great shape.    I’ve covered many of these topics in my book, BREAKTHROUGH.  If my readers want more extensive information on low stomach acid, hair loss and nail weakening, where should they look? 

Dr. WRIGHT:For a brief review of low stomach acid and related problems, you might see my recently published book Stomach (Praktikos Books, Mt. Vernon, Virginia, 2009) or the older book Why Stomach Acid is Good for You (M. Evans & Company, New York, 2001) written by Lane Lenard, Ph.D., and me.     

SUZANNE:

Thank you, Dr. Wright. 

Sincerely,

Dr. Nick Gonzalez, an alternative cancer treatment specialist, sent me this incredible testimonial from his patient, Carey Reading.  This wonderful, beautiful story is a triumph of the human spirit and a tribute to Dr. Gonzalez’s incredible work. I hope I never have to test it, but were I to get cancer again I would be at his door yesterday. 

Picking up the Pieces - By Carey Reading

I remember the very moment it all began. I had just finished a rigorous pump class at my gym. As usual, I started my stretching routine. When I reached for my left toes to get a nice stretch down my back, I felt a ripping sensation down the bottom right quadrant of my back muscles. I had been a yoga student for years, worked out daily, was a devout vegetarian and was very in tune with my body.  This was my body, actually speaking to me loud and clear, yelling at me from my lower back, "Hey you! I'm Burkitt's Lymphoma, one of the world's deadliest cancers. I'm going to suck all of the life out of you and try to kill you!"

I didn't hear my body's first cry for help.  I had been a model of health, wellness and beauty. Over the next six months this outer exterior of perfection would work against me as the parasite used my body and looks to masquerade around in. On the outside I was a 32 year old, standing 5' 9" and weighed 115 lbs. I was confident and happy, naturally tan with long, thick blond hair. I was on my way to becoming a court reporter, and felt as if the world was my oyster.  On the inside I was dying, quickly and torturously.

After several months of denying what my body was telling me, I sought the advice of two doctors, one allopathic the other naturopathic. I gave them my list of complaints such as; sleeping up to 16 hours a day, loss of appetite and night sweats forcing me to change three times a night and waking in soaking sheets.  The doctor dismissed my symptoms and her advice was, "you need to get a life" and that I “can't just sleep all day.” After she complimented me on my weight and physique she sent me on my way. Based on her blind-sighted "doctors orders" I vowed to myself that I would try harder to be better.

On the doctor's advice, I tried harder and the pain grew stronger.  Regardless of continued unbearable pain, which now spread to my lungs and lower back, I was discouraged to seek any other specialist's input. Even though undiagnosed I had all the symptoms of a cancer patient.

On August 18, 2008, I was diagnosed with stage four Burkitt's Lymphoma, a rare and extremely lethal cancer. I was given seven to ten days to live. I underwent the most aggressive treatment available with the idea to try to kill the cancer without killing me in the process. Finally, I was a candidate for a stem cell transplant. After experiencing a litany of grueling side effects, I was left with the dismal results that my cancer had returned and I was given three to six months to live.

My life took a turn of events when Dr. Gonzalez became an alternative resource.  I was done with the medical community as much as they were done with me. There comes a time in one's life where a window of opportunity presents itself.  For me Dr. Gonzalez was that window.

Dr. Gonzalez's unique combination of attending to the mind, body, spirit and lifestyle of a person is carefully choreographed into his medical approach, lending itself a pain free, holistic treatment. With the consumption of pork pancreas enzymes, supplements, diet and thorough detoxification, my cancer was eliminated safely and quickly.

It has been one year to date, (February 10, 2010) since I first began Dr. Gonzalez's program.  The PET scans and Cat scans over this last year have all shown absolutely no signs of cancer.  While the medical community may not understand my cancer remission, I am confident that Dr. Gonzalez's Treatment has saved my life. I am cancer free and I still have my dignity, mental and physical strength, and independence. There is a place for chemotherapy and it did save my life, but only to a point. My cancer "broke" through the chemo and left me as a shell of a person with a very real death sentence. I thank God Dr. Gonzalez was there to take me in, and pick up the pieces of a once whole person and put me back together again. I am eternally thankful for Dr. Gonzalez's courage to bring a different approach of healing into the world.

It is my ultimate dream to see that the Dr. Gonzalez enzyme therapy protocol would be recognized by the medical community for its life saving ability. With this recognition the insurance industry would then see fit to cover the expenses associated with this treatment. Until then, I wonder if there is a way to raise money for those cancer patients who are in dire need of the Gonzalez therapy and cannot afford it.

First week in the hospital.

Rough times ahead.

Me and Mom

Senator McCain Files New Bill That Attacks Your Access to Supplements and Repeals Key Sections of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act

TAKE ACTION - TELL YOUR SENATOR NOT TO CO-SPONSOR THIS BILL

Senator McCain’s bill is called The Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA). It would repeal key sections of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). DSHEA protects supplements if 1) they are food products that have been in the food supply and not chemically altered or 2) if they were sold as supplements prior to 1994, the year that DSHEA was passed. If a supplement fits one of these two descriptions, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cannot arbitrarily ban it or reclassify it as a drug.

These protections are far from perfect. They discourage companies from developing new forms of supplements. New supplements may be arbitrarily banned by the FDA or adopted by drug companies in a way that precludes their further sale as supplements.

McCain’s bill would wipe out even the minimal protections contained in DSHEA. It would give the FDA full discretion and power to compile a discreet list of supplements allowed to remain on the market while banning all others.

The FDA will like this because it believes that it can more easily control a few industry giants. But isn’t it more likely that the industry giants will eventually gain control over the FDA?

The FDA is already misusing the adverse event reporting process that exists. Drugs rack up thousands of adverse event reports without any action. Just recently, the FDA yanked from the market a supplement product based on just a couple of alleged adverse event reports without even allowing the company (an old and respected firm) to provide any counter-evidence or counter-argument.

The bill also allows the FDA to yank a product (at the company’s expense) if there is a “reasonable probability” that it is “adulterated” or “misbranded”. Let’s remember that “adulterated” could mean there is a minor record keeping error on the producer’s part and “misbranded” can mean that the producer simply tells the truth about the product. An “adulterated” and “misbranded” supplement in Orwellian FDA speak may actually be both completely safe and effective.

TAKE ACTION

McCain’s Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA) appears to be supported by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) which is funded by major league sports teams including baseball, football and others. The recent suspensions of NFL and other professional sports figures is much in the news, and the goal of the sports industry appears to be to shift the spotlight from their players to the supplements industry. In his comments, Senator McCain cited six NFL players recently suspended for testing positive for banned substances and purportedly exposed to these substances through dietary supplements.

The problem here of course is one of illegal sale and use of steroids. So why dismantle the supplement industry in order to control already illegal substances?

The FDA currently has complete and total authority to stop illegal steroids and, more broadly, to regulate dietary supplements. If the agency were doing its job, it could and would have prevented the sale of illegal steroids. The answer to this problem is not to give FDA more power. The Agency simply needs to do its job.

TAKE ACTION

Why would a bill be offered to solve an illegal steroid problem that does not really address the steroid problem but instead gives the FDA complete and arbitrary control over all supplements? The answer is simple.

Why not simply require that supplements be brought through the FDA’s drug approval process? Wouldn’t that create a level playing field?

That is probably the argument that Senator McCain has been sold. But it is a completely false argument. The FDA drug approval process costs as much as a billion dollars. It is not economically feasible to spend such vast sums on substances that are not protected by patent, and natural substances cannot legally be patented.

Senator McCain has no doubt offered this bill in good faith. But he has been sold a bill of goods by special interests. And he has been naïve enough not to know that he is being used.

TAKE ACTION

If McCain’s bill passes, we can look to Europe for a snapshot of what we may be in for: EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority, has sharply reduced the list of available supplements and is in process of reducing potencies to ridiculous levels, such as less beta carotene than can be found in half of a large carrot. Europeans already look to the US to obtain their dietary supplements. If this bill passes, where will we obtain ours?

Gretchen DuBeau
Legal Director, Alliance for Natural Health Int.
Executive Director, ANH-USA

Sincerely,

Suzanne Somers

For more information, please visit www.SuzanneSomers.com.

I have had the pleasure of working with Dr. Jonathan Wright for the past several years.  He is the “Father of Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy” as the very first doctor to prescribe these natural hormones in the United States.  My last few books detail the benefits of using bioidentical hormones in place of synthetic hormones.  For in-depth information, please reference The Sexy Years, Ageless, and Breakthrough.  Since Dr. Wright is the premier expert in this field, I have asked him to participate in a new series of blogs to explore many of your specific questions about BHRT. Plus, the timing is good for him since he has just released a book entitled, Stay Young & Sexy with Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement.  I encourage you to check it out as a comprehensive guide to BHRT.   

SUZANNE:  Dr. Wright, I have many women who write to me to ask about menstrual clotting. Most have doctors who say this afflicts some women more than others and there’s not much that can be done about it.  I know you have a fairly simple remedy.  Could you please share this with my readers?     

DR. WRIGHT:  Just a few years after opening Tahoma Clinic (it wasn’t named that then) in 1973, I was working with a nurse who, like me, had a background in conventional medicine, but had decided on her own that since our bodies are made up of natural substances and natural energies it made sense to prevent and treat illness with those same natural substances and energies rather than totally un-natural patent medicines. One of her problems was bruising rather more easily than nearly anyone she knew.

Even then, it was known that a major function of vitamin K is to stop easy bruising. She’d had her levels measured at the hospital where she worked by the then-current test (which measured blood coagulability), and was told it was said to be “very close to normal”, so that couldn’t be her problem. I advised her to try flavonoids, which can also stop easy bruising by strengthening blood vessels, including tiny capillaries, so they don’t break as easily.

Two or three months later, she reported that her “easy bruising” was a little better, but not that much. With no other remedies available, I advised her to take a larger-than-usual quantity of vitamin K1, 5 milligrams daily. (At that time, the only supplemental forms of vitamin K available were vitamin K1, phylloquinone, and vitamin K3, a semi-synthetic form.)

I didn’t see her for at least another six months, when she came back about another concern. When we were done discussing that, she noted that her “easy bruising” was entirely gone, and she’d noticed one other unexpected benefit. Her menstrual clotting—which had been extremely heavy since she’d started her menstrual periods over 20 years before—had entirely gone away. She said: “My clotting with periods has been so that sometimes I missed school or work because of pain. Sometimes the clots were so big I would name them!” She hadn’t mentioned this problem before because, she said, “I thought it was just normal for me. Besides, a few other women I know have the problem, too.”

SUZANNE: How long did it take for the Vit K to make a difference?

DR. WRIGHT: After starting vitamin K, her first menstrual period was “about the same”, but her second menstrual period had somewhat smaller clots and fewer of them, her third had “very definitely” fewer clots which were also much smaller. By her fourth menstrual period after starting vitamin K, the clots were almost gone, and after that, they were entirely gone.

Neither of us could explain it, since the nursing and medical textbooks of the time told us (as they do today) that the principal function of vitamin K is enabling blood to clot normally—without it, there’s too much easy bleeding. Yet vitamin K had not only helped take away entirely her “easy bruising”, but also her menstrual clotting. 

“Please pass this along to any other woman who has menstrual clots” she asked. “I already have, and it’s worked for her, too.”

Since that time (1970s, remember), every (yes, every) woman I’ve worked with who’s taken vitamin K for her menstrual clotting has gotten rid of the problem within a few menstrual cycles. It appears that menstrual clotting is—for those women—a physical symptom of not enough vitamin K.

SUZANNE:  Thank you, Dr. Wright.  I look forward to sharing more life-changing information from you!

Sincerely,

Suzanne Somers

For more information, please visit www.SuzanneSomers.com

With mounting fear of H1N1, I have been asked numerous times for my opinion on the Swine Flu vaccination.  Should I get it?  Should I vaccinate my kids?  Is it safe?  Is it tested?  What are the side effects???  There is fear of this flu.  There is fear of the vaccination.  It’s a NEW vaccination – do I want to be in the test pool???  The FDA says it’s safe and the CDC recommends it.  My grandchildren have been sent home with permission slips so they can receive it at school.  So it’s time to do a little homework.  Do we just blindly follow the suggestions we see on TV and from the CDC?  Or do we dig a little deeper?  The choice is yours.  I am not a doctor or a scientist.  I am a layperson.  In my current book, KNOCKOUT Interviews with Doctors Who are Curing Cancer and How to Prevent Getting It in the First Place, I interview numerous doctors and professionals using everything from conventional treatments, to integrative, to alternative.  I do not give advice – my purpose is to give options so you can make your own decision about your treatment.  I have taken the same tact with the H1N1 vaccine. 

People are lining up to receive the vaccination, and it’s being doled out slowly as the manufacturers try to “keep up with demand”.  Reminds me a bit of “Tickle Me Elmo” – will there be enough to go around???  The shortage makes it that much more in demand as we see lines around the block with eager customers hoping there will be enough for them.  Mounting fear.  Mounting demand. Gotta get mine.  

Here are two opposing opinions on the vaccination.  DO RESEARCH.  MAKE YOUR OWN DECISION.   

#1:

The Center for Disease Control has published information on the Swine Flu and the H1N1 vaccination.   To research their findings, click here http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/background.htm

#2:

On the other side of the argument, please read this information by Dr. Russell Blaylock.  I interviewed him in my last two books.  He is one of the most highly regarded neuroscientists in the country.  He believes we are being scared into taking an ineffective vaccination with dangerous side effects, especially for pregnant women and their unborn babies (citing medical studies showing a risk for an increase in seizures, autism, schizophrenia, and neurological developmental disorders).  Read his article and listen to his interview with Dr. Mercola at Mercola.com.  He has been studying this flu since the outbreak in 1976 and following this current strain since its inception in March.

Health Alert from Dr. Russell Blaylock Concerning Swine Flu
Dr. Russell Blaylock
Swine Flu – One of the Most Massive Cover-Ups in American History

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/03/What-We-Have-Learned-About-the-Great-Swine-Flu-Pandemic.aspx

And make sure to watch the CBS 60 Minutes piece from 1976 that only aired one time and was never shown again.  It is now being released on the internet after 20 years.  While the current vaccine is completely different than the one given at that time it makes you think twice about accepting information as truth before doing thorough research. 

CBS 60 Minutes Swine Flu 1976 & Propaganda

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9mh9f_swine-flu-1976-propaganda_webcam