Last night I spent over two hours listening to Dr. Cass Ingram at a local venue. His knowledge of what is going on in the world politically, especially as it pertains to our health, is right on the mark. He started off the evening by stating, “It’s almost abnormal to be FULLY healthy and to feel good.”
He shared a lot of information including that the #1 cause of death in Canada and the United States is modern medicine. There is no debate that modern medicine has saved countless lives, but it is also taking lives. This includes prescription drugs (even when taken according to directions), drugs prescribed incorrectly, incorrect drugs used in hospitals, errors made in surgery, over-the-counter medications and sample drugs often given to patients in the doctor’s office. Combine the deaths of all these sources and there are well over 1 million people losing their life every year.
Dr. Ingram stated that some top officials in the pharmaceutical industry refer to their vaccines as being nothing more than “the bargain basement of healthcare.” He says that fortunately, many people have become aware about the heavy metals added into vaccines, but what many are not aware of is that they are “teeming with germs” and contain aspartame.
There is no denying that the industrialization of western food keeps a steady stream of patients in hospitals and at medical clinics every day. Dr. Ingram spoke about food and that we must be diligent about being very careful about what we eat, and the sources of which our food choices come from.
Dr. Cass Ingram spoke in length about the amazing health benefits and healing abilities that are in oil of oregano and chaga. Before running out and buying any type of oil of oregano, be sure you read the label on this as well – not all natural health care products are the same. There have been some recent studies in which many mainstream vitamins contain petrochemicals and coal tar. You may appear to be healthier – but your life is being shortened. He stressed that anyone taking supplements needs to be vigilant in finding out if the vitamins and minerals being taken are 100% food grade. (On a side note, some of Shopper Drug Mart’s Life Brand vitamins contain food colouring that has been proven to cause illness and ADHD in many children and adults.)
Chaga is truly a super-nutrient. The human body must have a healthy PH level otherwise it can succumb to disease and part of maintaining a healthy PH is to ensure you have a lot of oxygen in every cell of your body. Water ionizers can add oxygen to water and there is O2 water that can be purchased in health food stores – and there is chaga. Here are some fast facts about chaga: It supplies an extremely rare and powerful enzyme that is oxygen-rich, superoxide dismustase (SOD). SOD halts the toxicity of free radicals. Chaga supports the healthy function of all glands. It also supports energy mechanisms in all our organs. Dr. Cass Ingram has a great video on YouTube that tells you where to find chaga. Chaga, along with wild edibles is surely the best way to take your health into your own hands.
THE CURE IS IN THE FOREST
There are two ways to alter SOD levels. One is to take a top natural source such as chaga. Another is to take substances/foods which boost the body’s production of this enzyme. Says Colman, “The most promising natural compound has been found in broccoli extracts: D3T (1,2-dithiole, 3-thione). It not only raises SOD and all the other endogenous antioxidants (catalase, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione), it also raises the enzyme glutathione transferase, which neutralizes the toxic metabolites formed by the liver.”
Learn about wild chaga, birch bark, and wild poplar buds. Throughout history humans have used folk remedies, largely through experimentation. This is surely true of chaga mushroom as well as white birch bark. They have been in use as both food and remedies for thousands of years. In particular, Siberian tribes-people realized that chaga mushroom makes not only a tasty, soothing beverage but that, when taken regularly it also helps maintain good health. Additionally, it has been discovered over the centuries that specific diseases, notably lung conditions, gastrointestinal disorders, infections, skin diseases, and cancer, respond to chaga. Furthermore, the primitives determined, its regular intake had significant preventive effects and was seemingly associated with a long and vigorous life.
Yet, how could this mushroom possess such broad-spectrum powers? How could a single living entity, a mere mushroom, which grows preferentially on birch trees, achieve so much, far more than the greatest scientists have achieved? Here is a natural substance which is versatile and its uses were known long before the establishment of modern research. By mere observation and experience its potency became renowned. This tremendous power can be understood by reviewing its chemical nature. So, the proof is in the chemistry and nutritional density. Thus, it is no surprise that modern research confirms that the traditional powers of chaga mushroom and its extracts are very real.
The best way to understand the chaga mushroom, is to evaluate the chemistry. Chaga is a top source of a wide range of nutrients. Like other fungi it is also rich in enzymes. Yet, it is not the nutrients or the typical digestive enzymes that make this mushroom unique. Chaga contains a massive amount of the enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD), which is rarely found in an edible substance. This enzyme acts to absorb noxious free radicals before they can damage the body. Chaga contains 25 to 50 times more SOD than other medicinal mushrooms. This makes it the top source of this enzyme known.
Chaga also contains substances known as sterols in great amounts. These are the plant form of steroids, the latter being made by humans. So, to reiterate plants synthesize sterols, while humans synthesize steroids. The key sterols in chaga are lanosterol, betulin, lupeol, and betulinic acid. The combination of sterols, particularly those of the betulin family, plus SOD makes chaga unique. It derives the betulin and betulinic acid from the birch bark. Regarding its rich supplies of SOD, apparently, this is produced by the mushroom itself.
For survival of birch trees, as well as chaga mushroom, in harsh nature both sterols and SOD are required. Yet, too, both are essential for the survival of humans, especially those who are enduring great stress or suffering from chronic disease. So, sterols, substances similar to the cholesterol in human bodies, and SOD are two of chaga’s main constituents. Other major components include saponins, triterpenes (which are also steroid-like), proteins, amino acids, polysaccharides, major minerals, such as calcium and magnesium, and trace minerals.
The production of SOD is a major issue. This is a potent antioxidant system of vast use for the human body. Its ingestion through chaga extracts is essential for the enhancement of human physiology. With age synthesis declines, as do tissue levels. This may explain the ultimate result of the ingestion of chaga extracts, which is the halting of the aging process. With the regular intake there is likelihood that lifespan can be extended by as much as 10%, perhaps more youthfulness.
Both of these substances block oxidative damage of the tissues. This largely accounts for the significant anti-aging properties of chaga mushroom. White birch bark extract also has this effect, since this is a top source of a wide range of sterols which possess anti-degenerative and antitumor properties. How crucial is SOD? According to Noguchi and Niki in Antioxidant Status, Diet, Nutrition, and Health this enzyme is essential for stopping tissue damage. This damage is the result of aberrant forms of oxygen known as reactive oxygen species. This is where SOD is crucial. It is a potent neutralizer of such noxious, destructive oxygen compounds.
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SOD converts dangerous forms of oxygen, the kind that is so explosive that it can damage and/or destroy cells, to oxygen gas, the type which is breathed. This is why this molecule is essential to life. Moreover, aging is the result of tissue damage, so by blocking this life span is extended. SOD is so essential to this process that it is, clearly, associated with long life. A number of studies have demonstrated the danger of low tissue SOD levels. Such low levels are not only associated with a decline in overall health but also a reduction in life span. In contrast, high or normal levels of tissue SOD in the aging body is associated with an increase in lifespan.
What are the longest lived of all organisms? It is the trees, which may live as long as 4,000 years. In humans hundreds of substances have been evaluated and then, correlated with longevity. There has as a rule been no universal agreement of the findings, with one exception. This is SOD levels. In a key study, published in 1984, Richard Cutler of the NIH (National Institutes of Health) made the discovery. He determined that in a variety of animals SOD levels are more greatly correlated with a long and vigorous life than any other factor. Interestingly, humans have the highest levels of this enzyme of any mammal, and they are also the longest lived. Notably, the chimpanzee has about half the human levels of SOD and, then, about half the lifespan.
Cutler looked at a number of theories of long life and largely disproved them, including the supposition that a cold or slow metabolic rate is a factor. Instead, he proved, the tissue production and levels of antioxidant enzymes are a true factor, the levels of SOD being most predominant. Notes John Colman in his article “SOD—the Enzyme that Keeps Us Alive in an Oxygen-Rich Atmosphere” the studies proving the authority of SOD in are “voluminous.” This is due to the fact that “byproducts of oxygen utilization are the main contributors of aging and disease—superoxide radicals, hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radicals.”
SOD attacks this. It neutralizes such noxious molecules by converting them to mere oxygen and water. Other enzymes which assist in the process of neutralizing dangerous free radicals include catalase, peroxidase, and glutathione peroxidase. These are the enzymes produced within the body. Notes Colman, “These endogenous (internally produced) enzymes are vastly more potent than dietary antioxidants, such as vitamin C. SOD for example, is 3500 times more potent than vitamin C at reducing superoxide radical.”
Thus, it is no surprise that when levels of SOD decline, there is a dramatic change in the body. Now, the incidence of degenerative diseases rises dramatically. Without SOD there is no means for the body to neutralize destructive free radicals. Thus, essentially, the body begins to decay; there is no way the organs can fend off the free radicals on their own, that is without sufficient SOD.
Fasting increases the production of free radicals, while eating stalls this. Yet, most people are not about to cut back on their eating. This is why chaga is an ideal alternative to, for instance, regular fasting, although the use of this mushroom plus regular fasting is ideal.
Colman makes another critical point, as follows: Genetically inherited SOD levels can vary as much as 50% in humans, which helps to explain why some people are prone to degenerative diseases early in life as opposed to others, who lead disease-free lives. In humans and other mammals antioxidant enzyme levels normally decline with age, and levels of inflammatory gene expression, like COX-2 and IL6, increase with age. The only exception to these changes has been found in calorie restriction experiments with mice, primates and humans. Calorie restriction experiments were first conducted in 1932, and it was discovered that the longevity of mice increased 50%.
Later experiments showed that animals fed normally one day and deprived of food the next day also lived 50% longer. Human experiments with calorie restriction at 50% daily intake or eating on alternate days also maintained youthful antioxidant enzyme levels and youthful expression of inflammatory genes.
The basis for this, notes Colman, is profound: “When this compound is available or found in higher concentrations in broccoli or other natural cruciferous vegetables, it will solve two huge problems—the problem of SOD production within the human body and the production of stage II liver enzymes, which will reduce cancers by neutralizing the carcinogens formed during stage I liver detoxification.” The decline in SOD is devastating. Without it, noxious forms of oxygen run amok.
This is critical, because the explosive forms of oxygen readily cause cell damage. This occurs by causing direct damage to the cell walls, known as oxidation. “Lipids are oxidized,” note Noguchi and Niki, by reacting with “oxygen molecule(s) quite rapidly to give lipid peroxylradical.” This, they note, causes damage to fats within the cells and in the cell walls, which they call “spoilage,” and the damage caused by these rapidly acting free radicals is a proven factor in the cause of degenerative disease of the arterial walls known as atherosclerosis.
The membranes contain cholesterol and phospholipids as key components. These crucial components may be readily damaged through free radical strikes. This causes contortions in the cell membranes. The cells, then, can no longer function. Nor can they defend themselves against attack. As a result, the cells and organs are greatly weakened.
Thus, disease readily develops, including heart disease, diabetes, atherosclerosis, arthritis, skin disorders, lupus, and cancer. SOD halts this toxicity. Yet, here is the danger. The investigators said the poisoning happens suddenly. If there is no or insufficient SOD available, then, the damage proceeds unchecked. Thus, the intake of a daily supplement which provides biologically active SOD is an essential component for preventing or reversing oxygen poisoning in the body. In addition, sterols, as found in the wild chaga, are essential for rebuilding any cell damage, which is caused by oxidative stress. Thus, SOD and the sterols work as a team to both maintain excellent health of the internal organs and also to stall the aging process.
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