Inflammation is your body’s immune response to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens (viruses, bacteria), toxic compounds and more. It has long been known to be the root cause of virtually every chronic disease that comes through a doctor’s office door, including arthritis, heart disease, most cancers, most all autoimmune diseases, Parkinson’s disease and especially Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Why is inflammation so powerful?

Suppose you have a water leak behind your upstairs shower. On the floor below, a watermark appears on one wall, and you paint over it. Problem solved. It’s nothing that another coat of paint every few months can’t cure!

But behind the drywall, the water damage spreads. Over time, you may have wood rot, ruined walls and mold. And if the mold affects the health of those in your family, you could be looking at costly medical bills, remediation of the home and maybe even needing to sell your home.

Clearly, it would have been better to fix the problem.

In the very same way, inflammation goes on below the surface. It slowly but surely causes more and more damage. The symptoms appear small and may even be in one specific area at first. We may try to treat them, but if the treatment is not a true fix, then it’s just a patch.

Inflammation leads to disease eventually, not immediately.

To be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia, patients are almost always in the moderate to severe range. They could have done so much more to fix, repair and reverse it had they started working on it earlier.

Don’t Let Your Symptoms Go Unchecked

Let me share a little personal example (it wasn’t “little” at the time, but in comparison to the brain, you could call it little.) Many years ago, I had terrible psoriasis all over my body. I tried every lotion, potion, treatment, cream and pill under the sun.

Nothing changed until I figured out, by food allergy tests and the process of elimination, that I was very sensitive to gluten, peppers and tomatoes. These three, which I ate almost daily and actually craved, were causing incredible inflammation in my gut. For me, that translated into psoriasis on my skin.

It took me about five years to finally figure it all out, including repairing leaky gut and restoring beneficial bacteria in the gut, but I did! When the symptoms finally cleared up, it was an incredible relief! I’ve had no symptoms for many years, but I still make it a practice to avoid or very infrequently eat gluten, peppers and tomatoes.

In the same way, when you fix whatever has been causing your inflammation, the symptoms will usually eventually clear up. They have to because you removed the point of inflammation. You went to the source and fixed the problem. You remove the thorn, and you will eventually heal.

For the sake of your brain, quenching any inflammation is always the best plan of attack. Elevated blood sugar and insulin resistance are also associated with inflammation.

Dr. Colbert’s Top Tip for Inflammation

I highly recommend a healthy keto diet. A healthy keto diet not only slows or stops inflammation, it also helps heal your gut, feeds your good bacteria and protects your brain from plaque buildup. Basically, a healthy keto diet does it all!

On a side note, one very common sign of inflammation is the presence of belly fat. Usually, the more belly fat someone has, the higher their inflammatory markers and the smaller their hippocampus (the brain’s memory center). A shrinking hippocampus is not a good thing!

Also, belly fat itself is highly inflammatory. Inflammation may be caused by diet (as was my psoriasis), infections, toxins, a leaky gut, medications or something else. Sugar and trans fats are inflammatory to everyone, and gluten and dairy are inflammatory to many.

Everyone agrees that inflammation must be stopped because it leads directly to disease and often to Alzheimer’s and dementia, but will they do anything about it? Sadly, not many will.

Most causes of inflammation are self-induced, and changing a habit, especially if it is a food and lifestyle habit, is not the easiest thing to do. But when it comes to the brain and the very real risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia, making new habits is easy!

For every cause of inflammation, there are options and answers. If you have inflammation, don’t ignore it, don’t see how it is next year, and don’t give it the band-aid treatment. Find its root cause and fix it now. You will be very glad you did.

This excerpt was taken from chapter 19 of Dr. Colbert’s Healthy Brain Zone. For more information about the book,” visit . {eoa}

Bring Charisma magazine home with a subscription today!

Don Colbert, MD, has been a board-certified family practice doctor for over twenty-five years in Orlando, Florida, and most recently in Dallas, Texas. He is also board-certified in antiaging medicine through the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and has received extensive training in nutritional and preventive medicine. He is the author of three New York Times best-selling books: “Dr. Colbert’s Keto Zone Diet,” “The Seven Pillars of Health” and “Dr. Colbert’s ‘I Can Do This’ Diet,” along with best sellers “Toxic Relief,” the Bible Cure series, “Living in Divine Health” and “Stress Less.” He has sold more than 10 million books and treated more than 50,000 patients in his years of practicing medicine.

Read Time: 4 Minutes 43 Seconds

Of the many artificial sweeteners out there, such as aspartame, sucralose (Splenda), saccharin (Sugar Twin and Sweet’N Low) and neotame (NutraSweet), aspartame is one of the most common.

How common? Aspartame is an ingredient in more than 6,000 different processed foods!

You name it, and it probably has aspartame in it. From chewing gum to desserts, yogurts to vitamins, from toothpaste to salad dressings and medicines to diet drinks, aspartame is absolutely everywhere!

With artificial sweeteners, as with most dementogens, it is the cumulative effect and high amounts that cause dementia and Alzheimer’s. This holds true for all artificial sweeteners.

Aspartame, in particular, has been found to cause:

• Anxiety
• Cognitive impairment
• Depression
• Headaches
• Irritable moods
• Learning impairment
• Memory issues
• Migraines
• Sleep impairment.

Remember back in high school science class when it was time to dissect a frog? The liquid those frogs are preserved in is called formaldehyde. When aspartame is consumed, it breaks down into aspartic acid, phenylalanine, methanol and formaldehyde in your body and brain.

There is absolutely nothing good about formaldehyde being in your brain cells!

Formaldehyde can kill cells in your tissues and your brain, converting to formic acid, which is highly toxic.

Cognitive symptoms you certainly don’t want, such as “deficits in complex attention, inefficient information processing, reduced executive functioning, slower processing speed and long-term memory loss,” are all a result of consuming aspartame.

Aspartame is poisonous to the brain, but its negative impact is multiplied when consumed with carbohydrates.

What’s already bad becomes even worse when insulin levels spike—and they will spike when you eat high-sugar and high-carb foods, such as doughnuts, cereal, pancakes with syrup, bread, white rice, most desserts, pasta and countless other foods!

We have for years been sold the idea that “sugar-free” is a good thing. When artificial sweeteners are used, rest assured that they more than eclipse any health benefits from the lack of sugar.

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life” (Gal. 6:7-8).

One of the challenges with the brain is relying on sugar (glucose) for energy, and unlike other cells in your body, your “brain cells cannot convert fats or proteins into glucose, so they depend on daily glucose for optimal functioning and survival.” Your brain needs energy, just not in the artificial form.

There is more than enough glucose in what you eat or drink daily for your brain to function. It’s not like you need to start taking in sugar to feed the brain. There is plenty of glucose in carbohydrates and starches on hand to go around.

Brain-Healthy Alternatives

Here are a few healthier, natural sweeteners that do not trigger Alzheimer’s or dementia:

• Erythritol
• Monk fruit
• Stevia
• Swerve
• Xylitol
• Vcon syrup

For Your Ongoing Health

If you cannot avoid artificial sweeteners, be they aspartame, sucralose (Splenda), saccharin (Sugar Twin and Sweet’N Low) or neotame (NutraSweet), the next best thing is to reduce your intake. Yes, that will probably be the end of drinking virtually all sugar-free soft drinks and eating certain foods, but you no doubt knew they weren’t healthy for you anyway.

Though artificial sweeteners are a dementogen, they are simply one of the many dementogens out there that accumulatively cause Alzheimer’s and dementia. What is the best thing you can do to protect yourself from Alzheimer’s and dementia regarding sugar and artificial sweeteners?

There are two answers:

• Avoid artificial sweeteners and reduce or avoid sugar.
• Know how sugar harms the brain.

When you know how sugar harms your brain, you are far more likely to make healthier decisions. This knowledge will help you avoid Alzheimer’s and dementia because this knowledge will usually stick with you for the rest of your life!

Sugar and your brain work like this:

• Sugar (be it from a carbohydrate, fruit sugar, starch, or other) converts to glucose in your bloodstream.
• Excessive glucose attaches to proteins, forming advanced glycation end products, obstructing their work and aging your brain and body.
• Your body produces insulin to lower the glucose levels.
• Your body produces insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) to break down the insulin so it does not lower your sugar levels too low.

This happens all the time in real life, especially with afternoon snacks at a coffee shop, a meal at a fast-food restaurant or dessert after a hearty dinner. Substantial insulin spikes are required to lower the sugars in most foods/drinks consumed in the standard American diet. People who consume meals, snacks, drinks and late-night munchies may have five or six insulin spikes a day or more.

Now, the body is a wonderful creation, and every time there is an insulin spike, the multitalented IDE (insulin-degrading enzyme) comes in and balances everything out. So you might be thinking, “What’s the problem?”

It’s this little-known fact: the IDE in your body must choose between (1) breaking down insulin in your blood, and (2) breaking down amyloid plaques in your brain. Your amazing IDE cannot do both. It either breaks down the insulin your body created to handle what you ate/drank, or it breaks down the amyloid plaques that build up in your brain—the very plaques that are ever-present in the brains of people living with Alzheimer’s.

Here is another important fact about IDE that you must know: it will always break down insulin first. Is it a good idea to keep your IDE busy lowering insulin levels with an artificially sweetened beverage? I don’t think so. Drink a glass of water. Or green tea. Or coffee. Let your IDE stick to the most important things, such as breaking down those amyloid plaques!

For more information about “Dr. Colbert’s Healthy Brain Zone,” and to order the book, visit or .

Bring Charisma magazine home with a subscription today!

Don Colbert, MD, has been a board-certified family practice doctor for over 25 years in Orlando, Florida, and most recently in Dallas, Texas. He is also board-certified in antiaging medicine through the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and has received extensive training in nutritional and preventive medicine. He is the author of three New York Times best-selling books: “Dr. Colbert’s Keto Zone Diet,” “The Seven Pillars of Health” and “Dr. Colbert’s “I Can Do This” Diet,” along with best sellers “Toxic Relief,” the “Bible Cure” series, “Living in Divine Health” and “Stress Less.” He has sold more than ten million books and treated more than fifty thousand patients in his years of practicing medicine.

You don’t have to go through another year overweight and out of shape. Take these 10 steps to good health.

Would you choose to fly on an airline that had a track record of arriving safely at a destination only 5 percent of the time? Of course not! You wouldn’t dare set foot on one of that company’s planes. Yet every day, dieters around the world embark on a new diet with the same success rate.

Some hop on board the latest hyped-up, low-fat, wonderworking program that has made it past the late-night infomercial phase to become a New York Times best-seller. Still others prefer a more adventurous journey with a no-carb, miracle pound-shedder that has a host of B-list celebrities touting its amazing results. Of course, almost all who set out to lose weight via one of these diets swear that it will be absolutely, positively the last one they’ll ever try.

It seems everyone is looking for the “diet to end all diets.” Sadly, people are looking for something that doesn’t exist. Why? Because in the long run, dieting just doesn’t work.

Some reports indicate that only 2 percent of all dieters manage to lose weight and keep it off for good; others claim it’s closer to 5 percent. Although those figures are hotly contested, what we do know for certain is that even those researchers who support dieting concur that diets fail at least 80 to 90 percent of the time.

After a year, the overwhelming majority of dieters regain whatever weight they’ve lost. Worse still, almost two-thirds end up weighing even more within four or five years than before they started their yes, there are those who may lose 100-plus pounds on certain programs. However, the vast majority of patients gain the weight back—and usually more weight—because they have become metabolically compromised.

You’re probably wondering: Dr. Colbert, why would you even recommend a diet plan if diets don’t work? And why should I bother trying to lose weight if it will most likely come back?

I’ll be honest with you: If you are just looking to continue the pattern of following here-today, gone-tomorrow fad diets, you may as well put down this article now. Why? Because I think dieting, over the long haul, is one of the surest ways to become frustrated, discouraged, fed up and even depressed about losing weight.

After treating more than 40,000 patients during the last 25 years, I have observed some definitive commonalities among those who repeatedly attempted to lose weight, only to gain it back. I have also found a medically verifiable answer that leads to lifetime success in this area.

So what makes my “I can do this” diet different from diets in other books? The “can do” part, for one thing! It’s doable, and it works. As a medical doctor, I deal with getting results—verifiable results that prove a patient is on his way to long-term health, not just fixing an immediate problem. 

Yes, my diet is far more than a diet; it’s a lifestyle. It does not offer you a quick-fix approach to anything. But it does offer you principles that are meant to last for life, principles that have been proven to work for thousands of individuals for more than a decade and counting. If you want to lose weight and keep it off, follow these 10 steps to a healthier life:

• 1. Make a commitment to lose weight. A commitment is more than a goal. It is a framework for your progression in life, a long-term vision that goes beyond just reaching your targeted ideal weight. And when you combine rock-steady commitment with positive emotion that propels you to the next level, suddenly succeeding on a daily, weekly or monthly basis becomes much easier.

• 2. Set reachable goals.When you embark on a lifestyle change to lose weight, it’s crucial to establish goals. However, they must be realistic if you hope to reach them. An unrealistic goal for weight or clothing size sets you up for discouragement, and people who become discouraged will usually stop the program altogether and eventually gain back all their weight.

• 3.Keep a food journal. Keeping a food journal while losing weight is a tremendous motivator for most individuals because it creates accountability. I am not recommending that you track your calories every day during the program. That, like many dieting techniques, can become such a burden that it is more harmful than helpful. To get an idea of how many calories you are ingesting daily, however, you need to start this program by recording everything you eat and the associated calorie intake for three weekdays and one weekend day.

You may discover your meal portions are too big. Or you may find out your calorie count for a particular meal is much higher than you thought. It will be easy to determine such problems if you simply take the time to record what you eat and the number of calories consumed in a food journal.

• 4. Measure yourself. You do not need a scale or any other fancy tools to evaluate your progress—just a simple tape measure. By focusing on your waist measurement and achieving your goal measurement, you will eliminate one of the main risk factors for disease, toxic fat in your abdominal area. You can track other measurements, such as body weight and body fat percentage, along with your waist measurement once a month—not once a week. Log these in your food journal so you will have a clearly established goal.

• 5.Eat the right foods in the right combination. Your body needs three food components daily: carbohydrates, proteins and fats. All the calories you consume can be attributed to one of these groups. Healthy, low-glycemic carbohydrates should comprise about 40 percent of your total calorie intake per day, good proteins 30 percent, and healthy fats another 30 percent. Each meal should contain all three components. Avoid all white flour and white sugar as well as beverages and food products that contain artificial sweeteners. (For more details about exactly what foods to eat and beverages to drink, see Dr. Colbert’s “I Can Do This” Diet, available January 5.)

• 6.Eat at the right times. One of the most important principles of the “I can do this” diet is to eat three meals a day, with no carbohydrates after 6 p.m. The reason is that these three meals provide the fuel your body needs at the times it needs the fuel most. The most important of these three fueling times is breakfast—a meal many people often skip.

• 7.Eat healthy snacks. The correct fuel mixture at meals should control your hunger for three to four hours. Yet most people go longer than that between meals, allowing their blood sugar to drop and causing a noticeable decrease in energy and mental clarity. The right mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks will enable you to remain hunger-free and productive for several hours, and a snack an hour before bed will help ensure restful sleep. 

• 8. Control your portion size.Most Americans eat more of what they eat than is healthy for them. We have become accustomed to ignoring serving sizes on food labels and eating the amount we’ve trained our stomachs and brains to demand. It’s time to exercise some portion control!

• 9. Engage in physical activity. Exercise is essential. This truth applies universally to every human being, but especially to anyone hoping to lose pounds. You can restrict your diet and eat less than your daily requirement, yet without burning off calories through physical activity, you have only half the equation.

• 10. Take safe weight-loss supplements. A weight-loss supplement is a nutritional product or herb intended to assist your healthy eating and activity plan with the ultimate goal of losing weight. A supplement comes alongside; it does not replace. 

Most supplements for weight loss have no sound clinical research supporting their claims, and some—including those containing fenfluramine, ephedra and aristolochia—are dangerous. However, there are a number of safe and effective dietary supplements that look promising for weight loss. My favorite is PGX fiber because it suppresses appetite by making you feel full, but there are several others described in my book that you may want to try.

Following the lifestyle principles described above will provide many benefits beyond weight loss. It will help you improve your overall health, manage stress and prevent stress-related eating. In fact, it is the best program you can be on during not only the good times but also the most chaotic times of your life.

Don Colbert, M.D., is board-certified in family practice and anti-aging medicine. He has also received extensive training in nutritional and preventive medicine. Colbert is the author of the New York Times best-selling book The Seven Pillars of Health, as well as best-sellers Toxic Relief, The Bible Cure series and Eat This and Live. His most recent book, Dr. Colbert’s “I Can Do This” Diet (), releases January 5.

LOSE IT FOR GOOD

Did you resolve, to no avail, to lose weight last year? Visit to find practical ways to stick to this year’s health resolutions and lose it for good.

Question: I have suffered with anxiety for much of my life. I have been prescribed many medications, and I’ve become addicted to some of them. Is there any hope that I’ll ever be able to control my anxiety?
G.P., Bethesda, Maryland

Answer: Anxiety is so common that it is often referred to as the “common cold of mental illness.” The true key to overcoming anxiousness, and the worrying that spawns it, is to learn to meditate on the Word of God instead of worrisome thoughts. Doing so enables you to cast down imaginations that promote anxiety and are contrary to the Word of God.

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4, NKJV).

Worry is the opposite of faith. Without faith it is impossible for us to please God (see Heb. 11:6). So it is important not only to your mental health but also to your spiritual health that you subdue anxious thoughts. It’s like changing the channel of your mind from The Worry Channel to The Faith Channel!

Pastor and author Rick Warren writes in his best-selling book The Purpose-Driven Life: “When you think about a problem over and over … that is called worry. Whereas meditating on God’s word is simply thinking about the answer over and over.”

I’m sure you’ve seen a bumper sticker or a plaque that read “Let Go, Let God” or “One Day at a Time.” Maybe you’ve seen “The Serenity Prayer,” a portion of which reads: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”

These message-statements are meaningful to millions of people and popular with those who suffer from anxiety, depression and various addictions. Why? Because when put into practice, they work! They inspire people to “mindfulness,” which is an important technique for overcoming anxiety. Mindfulness involves letting go of any thought that is unrelated to the present moment.

It is exemplified in people we know who seem to live “in the moment”–those whose credo is always: “Enjoy life. Live each day as if it were your last.” We might laugh at the free spirit they exude, but secretly we long to share in their freedom from worry and fear.

I recommend that you learn to focus your attention on the present, which includes the people and the scenery around you. Refuse to fret about the future or worry about the past. When an anxious or worrisome thought pops into your head, refocus your mind. For more information, refer to my new book, Stress Less (Siloam).

I also recommend that you practice the following steps to help you regain your peace of mind.

Cultivate a thankful heart. Voicing gratitude and praise to God is also a great way to practice mindfulness. “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:18). Of course, this will take a little practice, but don’t despair. It eventually will become a habit leading to peace just as, for many, worrying has become a habit leading to anxiety.

Eliminate “What if?” thinking. Ultimately, asking yourself “What if?” isn’t a healthy mental exercise. Most of us tend to carry this kind of thinking too far. In the end, we imagine the worst-case scenario and have fueled worry and added only anxiety to our thought life.

Thinking about it will only drive you to distraction. Focus instead on what you can do in the present moment to benefit yourself and those around you.

Pray and let go of your worries. First Peter 5:7 tells us to cast all our cares (or worries) on Jesus. We are also told in Philippians 4:6 to be anxious for nothing. Practice meditating on these passages of God’s Word.

Other Bible passages that I recommend for your meditation are Psalms 23, 91; Ephesians 6; and 1 Corinthians 13. Allow the Word of God to help you slam the door on worry and feed your faith. As Psalm 118:24 says, “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

Those are words to think about–and live by.

NOT EVERY PERCEIVED THREAT IS REAL. FIND OUT HOW TO GAIN CONTROL OVER THE THINGS THAT NEEDLESSLY STRESS YOU OUT.

We have a stress epidemic in our nation.

The majority of Americans very likely have excessive stress in their lives, and reports of stress seem to indicate that the percentage of Americans each year who feel under “a great deal of stress” is rising.

It’s common to hear people say: “I’m stressed out!” But what does that mean? In my opinion, stress is the pressures of life and how one perceives, believes, reacts, and copes with these pressures.

All forms of stress produce a very well-documented physical reaction in the body. The actual definition from Webster’s is “a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation.”

The body’s stress response involves more than 1,400 known physical and chemical reactions involving more than 30 different hormones and neurotransmitters. Excessive release of “stress hormones” damages cells, tissues and organs.

For most people, the daily stress hassles are the most damaging to the body. Internalizing stress creates something of a steady drip, drip, drip of stress hormones into the person’s tissues, including the brain. The little stressors add up over time and can do far more damage than an occasional negative event that might produce a more massive stress reaction.

The potential sources of stress are endless and everywhere. Anything that could rob us of our peace and joy, and eventually compromise our health, can be considered a source of stress. Naturally, some events or situations are more stressful than others. The death of a family member has a more serious impact than being hungry, for example. But all forms of stress can take a toll.

Nevertheless, there is an important principle related to stress that can help you minimize the effect of it on your body, and that principle is this: What you perceive to be stressful to you is.

Your perceptions determine what you label as stressful or not stressful. There’s no such thing as an event that is automatically stressful–unless you are the victim of a physical attack. Stress is largely a matter of what you think about external stimuli.

In other words, a high percentage of stress is individualized. What you see as stressful may not be stressful to another person.

Do you become anxious when you are asked to address an important client during a business presentation? Do you “stress out” at the thought of an upcoming performance review with a supervisor you can’t seem to please? Do you feel stressed as you pull onto the freeway every morning?

Perception is everything when it comes to stress.

The reason this is good news is that it leads to another important principle related to stress: You can choose to control the stress level of your life.

How does a person do this? First, I recommend that you become informed about stress. Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (NKJV). This verse does not point to a shortage of love, faith or hope. It points to a lack of knowledge! There are certain things we each must come to know about the causes of stress, and then take action related to what we learn.

Second, you need to make a decision about what you are going to do in response to the information you gain. Just before he died, Moses reminded the Israelites of the need to choose carefully what they would do when they entered the land of promise. He said:

“‘I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live'” (Deut. 30:19, emphasis added).

Choosing life means to choose God’s way over our way; it means to choose a relationship with Him and obedience to Him over our own self-centered desires.

Most factors related to stress are subject to your choice. You can choose to discover why you are stressed out, and you can choose not to be stressed out. Given a number of options about treatment, you can choose which options are of greatest benefit to you. Make this choice today: “I will come to grips with the stress level of my life!” And plan to start right now.

Being obese increases the risk of developing heart disease or cancer.
Question: I am overweight, and I know that obesity increases the risk of heart disease and cancer. What can I do to fight back?
L.R. Nashville, Tennessee

Answer:When we develop bad habits related to our diet by eating the wrong foods, such as sugar (in excess), fast foods, fried foods, highly processed carbohydrates and meats (in excess), we become prone to obesity. You’re right, being obese does increase the risk of developing either heart disease or cancer.

This correlation occurs because fat cells promote inflammation. It’s an established medical fact that most heart disease and much cancer is actually caused by inflammation. Fat cells also play a beneficial role in the body–they produce substances that assist in regulating the immune system. But an excess of fat will easily outdo any healthful benefit it normally brings to the body. For example, too much fat in the body can:

The commonly used silver and amalgam dental fillings contain mercury–lots of it.
Question. My dentist told me that several silver fillings in my mouth are not harmful. Can you please comment?
J.R., Bozeman, Montana

Answer. This is a highly disputed subject because levels of mercury exposure vary from person to person. Fillings made from amalgam–an alloy of mercury and silver–are approximately 50 percent mercury.

The amount of mercury absorbed depends, however, on the number and type of fillings an individual has and his or her dietary practices. Simply brushing the teeth, grinding the teeth, chewing gum or drinking hot liquids causes the release of significant amounts of mercury vapor from fillings.

This is important because mercury is one of the most toxic elements on the planet. It accumulates in the liver, kidneys, thyroid, GI tract, brain, pituitary and adrenal glands, and other tissues.

All dentists are required to put silver amalgams in an enclosed biohazard container after extracting them. Also, the silver used in fillings over the last 20 years or so is high in copper and releases many times more mercury than the older style of amalgam fillings. Thanks to improved technology, we today have newer materials that can be used in place of toxic elements.

I recommend that you not place silver or amalgam fillings in your mouth or your children’s mouths. Instead, ask your dentist for the safer, alternative compounds. If you already have silver fillings, I suggest you consult with a biological dentist for further advice. You can locate a biological dentist in your area by contacting the International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology at or the International College of Integrative Medicine at www./

It is also important to know that we are exposed to mercury through food, specifically fish. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more than half the fish in America’s lakes and reservoirs contain mercury levels that exceed the government’s standards for children and for women of child-bearing ages. Saltwater fish known to have high levels of mercury include shark, swordfish and king mackerel.

I recommend eating fish no more than twice a week. My patients take five Chlorella capsules or tablets after eating fish. Chlorella is a form of algae that binds to mercury and enables the body to excrete it. For more information, see my book What You Don’t Know May Be Killing You! (Siloam).

Question. I have heard that chocolate is good for you. Is this true? I must confess that I am skeptical.
M.G., Burlington, Vermont

Answer. Years ago I would have said that this was a rumor started by my wife. She believes the four main food groups are chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and chocolate. However, numerous studies conclude that one form of this beloved treat is actually good for you.

One such study, conducted in Greece, involved 17 volunteers who ate 100 grams of either dark chocolate or a nonchocolate substitute–the equivalent of about two standard-sized Hershey’s chocolate bars. The dark chocolate improved the blood-vessel function in healthy young adults for at least three hours. Specifically, it helped the vessels to dilate, which will slow the formation of clots.

Dark chocolate is high in flavonoids, an antioxidant that protects the heart and blood vessels from damage by free radicals. Plain dark chocolate can increase levels of antioxidants in the blood by about 20 percent. Milk chocolate does not have this same effect. Dark chocolate also lowers high blood pressure, according to a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in August.

If you eat chocolate, then choose the dark. Remember too that a primary ingredient, usually added liberally, is sugar, a substance that causes more health problems than chocolate can ever protect you from. So, before you rush to tear open a candy bar, look for a dark chocolate with low sugar and low milk content. And eat it only in moderation–not every three hours!

The most healthful diet in the world is the opposite of what most Americans eat
Question: All the talk about diet plans these days is a bit confusing. What do you believe is the best diet?
J.C., Northampton, Massachusetts

Answer: I am a strong advocate of what’s commonly called the “Mediterranean diet.” Numerous studies have concluded that it is the most healthful diet in the world.

As its name suggests, the Mediterranean diet is defined by the eating customs of people living around the Mediterranean Sea. In general, their diet is rich in olive oil, whole grains, fresh fish, and fresh fruits and vegetables, and low in red meat, creams and cheeses. The long-term effects of this diet on the body have been well-documented for some 40 years.

A physician named Ancel Keys conducted the initial research on the diet. He and his staff studied more than 12,000 men, ages 40-50, from 1958 to 1964. The men were divided into 16 study groups in seven countries: the United States, Finland, Japan, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands and Yugoslavia.

When Keys analyzed the data at the end of the study, he discovered that men in the Mediterranean groups–Greeks in particular–had the lowest number of deaths from all causes among all the participants.

The Greeks also had the lowest rate of heart disease. Most surprising to the researchers was the dramatic reduction among the Mediterranean men in the proportion of deaths from coronary heart disease.

The Finns had the highest rate of heart disease. They also consumed almost 40 percent of their calories from fat. More than 50 percent of these calories came from saturated fat.

The Greeks consumed almost the same percentage of calories from fat–but only a small percentage from saturated fat. Most of their fat intake came from olive oil.

The Japanese consumed a mere 9 percent of their total calories from fat, with only 3 percent from saturated fat. Yet, amazingly, the Greeks had fewer incidents of heart disease than the Japanese did. In addition, the rate of heart disease among the Greeks was a whopping near-90 percent lower than it was among Americans.

The big question for Keys and his staff was: How can people eat a higher percentage of calories from fat, smoke more cigarettes, drink more wine, exercise much less frequently, and yet have a longer life-expectancy, fewer cases of coronary heart disease and cancers (other than lung cancer or cigarette-related cancers) than Americans?

Their answer was the Mediterranean diet.

Question: The Bible says a merry heart is good medicine. Can you explain this benefit medically?

C.E., St. Louis, Missouri

Answer: Laughter is indeed good “medicine,” as Proverbs 17:22 says. Dr. Lee Berk of Loma Linda University Medical Center in California concluded that laughter boosts the immune system and reduces dangerous stress hormones.

Cortisol, a stress hormone, fell 39 percent and adrenaline 70 percent among 16 men in one study who had a good belly laugh while watching a funny video. Cortisol is a dangerous hormone that, once elevated for an extended time, becomes like acid in the body. It especially affects the brain, eventually causing memory loss.

Berk reported that laughter helps the immune system by increasing:

Proteolytic enzymes are excellent for reducing inflammation that is accompanied
by pain.
Question: I have had chronic tendinitis in my shoulder for years. I’ve been on many anti-inflammatory medications and have had physical therapy, with no relief. What do you suggest?
A.A., Boca Raton, Florida

Answer: I first recommend that you follow up with your primary care physician or orthopedist to determine if you need an X-ray or MRI of your shoulder. Beyond that, I advise treating your tendinitis with proteolytic enzymes. These are excellent for reducing inflammation that is accompanied by pain, warmth, swelling and redness.

Proteolytic enzymes occur naturally in our bodies–they are produced in the pancreas–to break down proteins into individual amino acids (one of the 20 “building blocks” of protein). As we age, however, our ability to produce enzymes in general decreases. Thus, alternate enzyme sources may be needed.

Animals and plants both are sources of proteolytic enzymes. The enzymes can be grown in a laboratory on a culture medium as well. Most supplements of the pancreatic form of the enzyme are animal-based and are prepared from fresh porcine (pig) pancreas.

The strength of pancreatic enzymes is rated by an X factor. A pancreatin of 10X (the highest) is 10 times stronger than 1X.

Biozyme from Phytopharmica is one of the very few in the 10X category. I generally recommend two or three tabs of it three times a day between meals.

Unripe papaya and pineapple are excellent plant sources of proteolytic enzymes. Papain is a proteolytic enzyme derived from the papaya plant, and bromelain contains a collection of the enzymes taken from pineapple juice and the stems of pineapples.

You can also get proteolytic enzymes from fresh foods, but enzymes in general are very sensitive to heat from cooking. When food is heated above 118 degrees Fahrenheit, most of the enzymes are destroyed. The enzyme content in fresh fruits and vegetables decreases as soon as they are harvested.

Proteolytic enzymes that are available in supplemental form generally will include trypsin, chymotrypsin, pepsin, rennin and pancreatin.

One of the newer proteolytic enzymes is serrapeptase. This powerful enzyme acts as an anti-inflammatory and pain reliever similar to aspirin. It has not been shown to cause ulcers or GI bleeding, as aspirin has.

Serrapeptase digests all nonliving tissue, including soft plaque in arteries, cysts, blood clots and even thickened mucus from chronic sinusitis. As well as being used to treat sprains, strains and tendinitis, it has been used to treat atherosclerosis, phlebitis, cysts (including fibrocystic breast disease), post-op swelling and autoimmune diseases.

The recommended dose of serrapeptase is 10 milligrams to 30 milligrams a day. It is important to take it on an empty stomach at least 30 minutes before meals or two hours after a meal. Ten milligrams is equivalent to 20,000 units.

Only a few companies currently are marketing serrapeptase. World Nutrition markets it as Vitalzym and Cardiovascular Research Ltd. as Serraflazyme. Both are excellent products.

Physicians commonly recommend or prescribe anti-inflammatory medications called NSAIDs for tendinitis. Some of these include aspirin, naproxen (Aleve), ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil), Vioxx and Celebrex.

These medications, however, can damage the GI tract and may cause ulcers or GI bleeding. Vioxx and Celebrex (known as Cox-II inhibitors) are less likely to cause bleeding compared with the other NSAIDs.

These drugs can also damage the liver or the kidneys. Each year about 75,000 people are hospitalized because of GI complications caused by NSAIDs. In fact, approximately 20,000 Americans die each year from using these medications.

I personally take proteolytic enzymes, and I use combinations of them to treat diseases associated with inflammation. I do not recommend them if you are pregnant, nursing, have hemophilia or have taken Coumadin, heparin or any other anticoagulants.

Hormonal imbalances that occur in middle age can cause “the grumpy old man” syndrome.
Question: I’m a 55-year-old man and I’m getting fatter, and experiencing fatigue, irritability, depression, even erectile dysfunction. What can I do?
O.M., Wichita, Kansas

Answer: What you describe are the symptoms of male menopause, or “andropause.” This occurs as testosterone levels begin to decline during middle age. The gain in abdominal fat and loss of muscle mass are common symptoms of hormonal imbalance, which usually causes a decrease in testosterone and an increase in estrogen. Testosterone is a muscle-building hormone; thus, low levels of it generally lead to muscle loss.

Lowered testosterone can also cause the “grumpy old man” syndrome, which is another symptom of andropause, and is marked by irritability and mild depression. Many of my patients who have irritability, mild depression and low testosterone levels improve quite dramatically with testosterone-replacement therapy. Lowered testosterone is one of the primary causes of erectile dysfunction.

Testosterone replacement helps many with erectile dysfunction. Others, however, are not benefited by it, probably because they have elevated estrogen levels.

In general, men’s bodies create estrogen from testosterone; yet an increase in estrogen in turn causes a decrease in testosterone. Therefore, to help correct this imbalance, I have found it is important not only to supplement with testosterone cream but also to inhibit the aromatase enzyme–which converts testosterone to estrogen. I do this with the supplement Chrysin.

My patients who are on testosterone replacement take 500 mg (milligrams) of Chrysin twice a day, a multivitamin with at least 15 mg zinc, a broccoli extract called DIM, soy isoflavones, and saw palmetto to protect the prostate.

Other signs of low testosterone include difficulty concentrating, memory loss, and decreasing strength and beard growth. Obesity is associated with low testosterone levels because fat cells contain aromatase. You should lose weight, exercise and avoid sugars and highly processed carbohydrates. Heavy alcohol consumption also causes estrogen to rise.

I strongly urge you to have a complete physical yearly, during which you should request that your total and free testosterone levels be checked, as well as your PSA.

For more information, pick up my booklet The Bible Cure Booklet for Weight Loss & Muscle Gain ( ).

Question: I have rosacea and have tried many different medications, without much benefit. Do you have any recommendations?
R.R., Yonkers, New York

Answer: Rosacea, often called “adult acne,” is a disorder in which blood vessels of the face dilate too easily, resulting in redness of the skin and flushing. It is characterized by pimples and redness, especially in the center of the face; redness of the cheeks, forehead, chin or nose; and irritated eyes.

Medical science does not know its exact cause. To help control it, avoid spicy foods and drinks, caffeine, and alcoholic beverages. In addition, stress, strenuous exercise, sun exposure, extremes in temperature, hot flashes from menopause, irritating cosmetics (especially those with alcohol), excessive rubbing or scrubbing of the face, and even vitamins and medications all can cause flushing and thus aggravate rosacea. I advise my patients to keep a diary of their flushing episodes to determine what their main triggers are.

I generally start my patients with rosacea on a candida diet. For more information on this, please refer to my Bible Cure for Candida and The Bible Cure Recipes for Overcoming Candida. Many of my patients benefit tremendously from this program.

Topical treatments include Azelaic acid and Metrogel. You will need to see a primary-care physician or dermatologist to obtain these medications. More detailed information about rosacea is available in my booklet The Bible Cure for Skin Disorders.