Vol. 2, No. 3 Oct 26, 2006

It does! To me, and especially to you.

These notes will help you with your health matters.

***Again, a quick reminder to do the MAR (contact me with questions, instructions). Get a real handle on where your health really is, and discover what to do about it. Solutions specific for you.

and click on "Subscribe" in the box in the upper right hand corner. Thanks.

--------Feature Article--------

The latest issue of The Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients arrived recently and in it an article about Vitamin D. This is really good stuff and since we had just done an feature on Osteoporosis two months ago, this information helps round out the whole subject. Here is a synopsis of what the author/researcher can tell us about Vitamin D.

We all know that vitamin D is made in our skin in response from UVB rays from the sun. We also get it in our diets, especially in foods supplemented by vitamin D. That leaves lots of questions, however, since we don't do much sunlight anymore (afraid of skin cancer). Most of us, if we even think about it, depend on supplements. That leads to other questions.

For example:

How much time do you spend in the sun

What type of skin do you have - fair or not

How much Vitamin D do you get in your diet

What is the latitude of where you live

What is your blood level of Vitamin D

What time was that blood level taken

What did the lab really test for when they took your level

Here are his comments and answers about vitamin D.

• Blood levels of Vitamin D should be 50 ng/ml (not very much) but deficiency is rampant and may have huge implications.

• The test should be for 25-hydroxy-vitamin D and nothing else. Some labs test for 1,25 di-hydroxy-vitamin D or "activated vitamin D". Turns out this tells absolutely nothing about your vitamin D level. There are also technical issues related to doing the test depending on the lab used. We need to know how good the lab is.

• There is a so-called "vegetarian" vitamin D, ergocalciferol, around and used in some supplements. This is NOT vitamin D. This is a drug and will actually block the action of vitamin D in the body.

• There is NO UVB in full-spectrum lighting, so that is not a substitute for sunlight and will not generate any vitamin D.
• The standard recommended dose of vitamin D, 2000 Units per day, will get most people to a blood level of about 35 ng/ml. Tablets should contain NO vitamin A; beta-carotene is OK.
• Using a sunlamp or tanning parlor once a week during the winter will keep vitamin D levels at an adequate level for most of us.

Can one take too much vitamin D?

• Yes. Thousands of units per day will be too much. Eventually elevated levels will rains Calcium levels in the blood also causing organs to petrify.
• However, there seem to be some natural protective mechanisms. For example, high levels of vitamin D seem to cause increase levels of melanin resulting in quicker, deeper tans and hence less UVB absorption and less vitamin D production.

What are the implications of vitamin D deficiency?

• Cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, Multiple Sclerosis all likely have some connection to deficiency of vitamin D and will respond when proper levels are restored. Other common diseases likely will show the same connections.
• Viral respiratory infections like influenza, the common cold, and others will be shown to respond to vitamin D.

Where can I learn more?

The author of this article is John Cannell, MD. He is researching and attempting to fund the Vitamin D Council. Find him at

***

A cactus-like plant from southern Africa is making waves in the weight loss world. The plant is Hoodia. It is being researched for use in pharmaceuticals but can also be found in some supplements. There are several species, some apparently better than others in efficacy. The plant seems to cause suppression of appetite as a major factor in helping to lose weight: less appetite, less calories in. It also seems to have properties that decrease acid production in the stomach. This could be helpful for people with Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) and other acid related dis-eases. Stay tuned to future issues as we learn more.

Meanwhile, let's talk about an approach to weight loss (next section).

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Many of us are taught to believe that weight is a function of calories in, calories out. So, a pill or a diet to change what is coming in will take care of the weight. Unfortunately, that approach doesn't work. Like Mark Twain discovered when commenting that he had lost 1000#, we take it off then put it back on again, often more than before. That cycle is not good for the body!

I would like to introduce you to a new friend who is doing something about that whole approach. Reeducating us to change the way we think about food and to add the exercise and proper nutrition is the great Joe Kasper, MS. If you struggle with weight or need to tone up you must contact him. You can do so at

Tell him Dr Jon sent you. Fill out the survey of your health needs and status and he will schedule a free consultation with you. He has books, CD and coaching to help you get where you need to be.

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Fall is here, and with it many folk are bringing in their last roses of the year. Always a perennial favorite of many, there are some interesting facts about roses revealed here.

Does anyone know why it is called a "rosary"?

How about a "new" cure for shingles?

Read to find out - (pardon the length).

ROSES.

Certain curative properties are possessed both by the Briar, or wild
Dog Rose of our country hedges, and by the cultivated varieties of
this queen of flowers in our Roseries. The word Rose means red,
from the Greek [464] _rodon_, connected also with _rota_, a wheel,
which resembles the outline of a Rose. The name Briar is from the
Latin _bruarium_, the waste land on which it grows. The first Rose
of a dark red colour, is held to have sprung from the blood of
Adonis. The fruit of the wild Rose, which is so familiar to every
admirer of our hedgerows in the summer, and which is the common
progenitor of all Roses, is named Hips. "Heps maketh," says Gerard,
"most pleasant meats or banquetting dishes, as tarts and such like,
the concoction whereof I commit to the cunning cook, and teeth to
eat them in the rich man's mouth."

Hips, derived from the old Saxon, _hiupa, jupe_, signifies the Briar
rather than its fruit. They are called in some parts, "choops," or
"hoops." The woolly down which surrounds the seeds within the
Hips serves admirably for dispelling round worms, on which it acts
mechanically without irritating the mucous membrane which lines
the bowels.

When fully ripe and softened by frost, the Hips, after removal of
their hard seeds, and when plenty of sugar is added, make a very
nice confection, which the Swiss and Germans eat at dessert, and
which forms an agreeable substitute for tomato sauce. Apothecaries
employ this conserve in the preparing of electuaries, and as a basis
for pills. They also officinally use the petals of the Cabbage Rose
(_Centifolia_) for making Rose water, and the petals of the Red
Rose (_Gallica_) for a cooling infusion, the brilliant colour of which
is much improved by adding some diluted sulphuric acid; and of
these petals they further direct a syrup to be concocted.

Next in development to the Dog Rose, or Hound's Rose, comes the
Sweetbriar (Eglantine), with a delicate perfume contained under its
glandular leaves. [465] "_Fragrantia ejus olei omnia alia odoramenta
superest_." This (_Rosa rubiginosa_) grows chiefly on chalk as a
bushy shrub. Its poetic title, Eglantine, is a corruption of the Latin
_aculeius_, prickly. A legend tells that Christ's crown of thorns was
made from the Rose-briar, about which it has been beautifully
said:--

   "Men sow the thorns on Jesus' brow,
   But Angels saw the Roses."

Pliny tells a remarkable story of a soldier of the Praetorian guard,
who was cured of hydrophobia, against all hope, by taking an
extract of the root of the _Kunoroddon_, Dog Rose, in obedience to
the prayer of his mother, to whom the remedy was revealed in a
dream; and he says further, that it likewise restored whoever tried
it afterwards. Hence came the title _Canina_. "_Parceque elle a
longtemps ete en vogue pour guerir de la rage_."

But the term, Dog Rose, is generally thought to merely signify a
flower of lower quality than the nobler Roses of garden culture.

The five graceful fringed leaflets which form the special beauty of
the Eglantine flower and bud, have given rise to the following Latin
enigma (translated):--

    "Of us five brothers at the same time born,
    Two from our birthday always beards have worn:
    On other two none ever have appeared,
    While our fifth brother wears but half a beard."

From Roses the Romans prepared wine and confections, also subtle
scents, sweet-smelling oil, and medicines. The petals of the crimson
French Rose, which is grown freely in our gardens, have been
esteemed of signal efficacy in consumption of the lungs [466] since
the time of Avicenna, A.D. 1020, who states that he cured many
patients by prescribing as much of the conserve as they could
manage to swallow daily. It was combined with milk, or with some
other light nutriment; and generally from thirty to forty pounds of
this medicine had to be consumed before the cure was complete.
Julius Caesar hid his baldness at the age of thirty with Roman Roses.

"Take," says an old MS. recipe of Lady Somerset's, "Red Rose buds,
and clyp of the tops, and put them in a mortar with ye waight of
double refined sugar; beat them very small together, then put it up;
must rest three full months, stirring onces a day. This is good
against the falling sickness."

It is remarkable that while the blossoms of the Rose Order present
various shades of yellow, white, and red, blue is altogether foreign
to them, and unknown among them.

As the Thistle is symbolical of Scotland, the Leek of Wales, and the
Shamrock of Ireland: so the sweet, pure, simple, honest Rose of our
woods is the apt-chosen emblem of Saint George, and the frank,
bonny, blushing badge of Merrie England.

The petals of the Cabbage Rose (_Centifolia_), which are closely
folded over each other like the leaves of a cabbage, have a slight
laxative action, and are used for making Rose-water by distillation,
whether when fresh, or after being preserved by admixture with
common salt. This perfumed water has long enjoyed a reputation for
the cure of inflamed eyes, more commonly when combined with
zinc, or with sugar of lead. Hahnemann quotes the same established
practice as a tacit avowal that there exists in the leaves of the Rose
some healing power for certain diseased conditions of [567] the
eyes, which virtue is really founded on the homoeopathic property
possessed by the Rose, of exciting a species of ophthalmia in
healthy persons; as was observed by Echtius, Ledelius, and Rau.

It is recorded also in his _Organon of Medicine_, that persons are
sometimes found to faint at the smell of Roses (or, as Pope puts it,
to "die of a rose in aromatic pain"); whereas the Princess Maria,
cured her brother, the Emperor Alexius, who suffered from
faintings, by sprinkling him with Rose-water, in the presence of his
aunt Eudoxia.

The wealthy Greeks and Romans strewed Roses on the tombs of
departed friends, whilst poorer persona could only afford a tablet
at the grave bearing the prayer:

    "Sparge, precor, rosas super mea busta, viator."

    "Scatter Roses, I beseech you, over my ashes, O pitiful passer-by."

But nowadays many persons have an aversion to throwing a Rose
into a grave, or even letting one fall in.

Roses and reticence of speech have been linked together since the
time of Harpocrates, whom Cupid bribed to silence by the gift of a
golden Rose-bud; and therefore it became customary at Roman
feasts to suspend over the table a flower of this kind as a hint that
the convivial sayings which were then interchanged wore not to be
talked of outside. What was spoken "sub vino" was not to be
published "sub divo":

    "Est rosa flos veneris, cujus quo facta laterent
    Harpocrati, matris dona, dicavit amor:
    Inde rosam mensis hospes suspendid amicis,
    Conviva ut sub ea dicta tacenda sciat."

[468] For the same reason the Rose is found sculptured on the
ceilings of banqueting rooms; and in 1526 it began to be placed over
Confessionals. Thus it has come about that the Rose is held to be the
symbol of secrecy, as well as the flower of love, and the emblem of
beauty: so that the significant phrase "sub rosa,"--under the Rose,--
conveys a recognised meaning, understood, and respected by
everyone. The bed of Roses is not altogether a poetic fiction. In old
days the Sybarites slept upon mattresses which were stuffed with
Rose petals: and the like are now made for persons of rank on the
Nile.

A memorial brass over the tomb of Abbot Kirton, in Westminster
Abbey, bears testimony to the high value he attached during life to
Roses curatively:--

    "Sis, Rosa, flos florum, morbis medicina meoium."

Many country persons believe, that if Roses and Violets are
plentiful in the autumn, some epidemic may be expected presently.
But this conclusion must be founded like that which says, "a green
winter makes a fat churchyard," on the fact that humid warmth
continued on late in the year tends to engender putrid ferments, and
to weaken the bodily vigour.

Attar of Roses is a costly product, because consisting of the
comparatively few oil globules found floating on the surface of a
considerable volume of Rose water thrice distilled. It takes five
hundredweight of Rose petals to produce one drachm by weight of
the finest Attar, which is preserved in small bottles made of rock
crystal. The scent of the minutest particle of the genuine essence is
very powerful and enduring:--

    "You may break, you may ruin, the vase if you will,
    But the scent of the Roses will hang round it still."

The inscription, _Rosamundi, non Rosa munda,_ was graven on the
tomb of fair Rosamund, the inamorata of Henry the Seventh:--

    "Hic jacet in tomba Rosa Mundi, non Rosa munda;
    Non redolet, sed olet quae redolere solet."

    "Here Rose the graced, not Rose the chaste, reposes;
    The smell that rises is no smell of Roses."

In Sussex, the peculiar excrescence which is often found on the
Briar, as caused by the puncture of an insect, and which is known as
the canker, or "robin redbreast's cushion," is frequently worn round
the neck as a protective amulet against whooping cough. This was
called in the old Pharmacopeias "Bedeguar," and was famous for its
astringent properties. Hans Andersen names it the "Rose King's
beard."

The Rosary was introduced by St. Dominick to commemorate his
having been shown a chaplet of Roses by the Blessed Virgin. It
consisted formerly of a string of beads made of Rose leaves tightly
pressed into round moulds and strung together, when real Roses
could not be had. The use of a chaplet of beads for recording the
number of prayers recited is of Eastern origin from the time of the
Egyptian Anchorites.

The Rock Rose (a _Cistus_), grows commonly in our hilly pastures on
a soil of chalk, or gravel, bearing clusters of large, bright, yellow
flowers, from a small branching shrub. These flowers expand only
in the sunshine, and have stamens which, if lightly touched, spread
out, and lie down on the petals. The plant proves medicinally useful,
particularly if grown in a soil containing magnesia. A tincture is
prepared (H.) from the whole plant, English or Canadian, which is
useful for curing shingles, on the principle of its producing, when
taken by healthy provers in doses of various [470] potencies, a
cutaneous outbreak on the trunk of the body closely resembling the
characteristic symptoms of shingles, whilst attended with nervous
distress, and with much burning of the affected skin. The plant has
likewise a popular reputation for healing scrofula, and its tincture is
beneficial for reducing enlarged glands, as of the neck and throat;
also for strumous swelling of the knee joint, as well as of other
joints. It is a "helianthemum" of the Sunflower tribe.

The Canadian Rock Rose is called Frostwort and Frostweed,
because crystals of ice shoot from the cracked bark below the stem
during freezing weather in the autumn.

A decoction of our plant has proved useful in prurigo (itching), and
as a gargle for the sore throat of scarlet fever. For shingles, from
five to ten drops of the tincture, third decimal strength, should be
given with a spoonful of water three times a day.

---excerpted from Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of

Cure, by William Thomas Fernie, 1897.

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My personal skills are increasing. Last weekend completed the first level of a technique called CranioSacral Therapy. Potent, Powerful method! Holding space for your body at either the cranium or sacrum, it allows your body to do the healing work it long ago decided needed to be done. Reached into a core level and allows that healing to occur. We are currently scheduling appointments; call the number just below. If you live out of town we have room for you to come and stay. Call for more information. Don't come if you are not ready for significant change and awareness to come into your life!

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That will do for now. So many good things my head is spinning! LOTS more to talk and write about in future issues. Stay tuned.

Check out the sponsor links on the Resource page.

Your questions and feedback are always encouraged and welcomed.

Have a healthy, glorious, grateful, day!

Dr Jon

goodheartgroup@sbcglobal.net

314-750-6916

an email or call.

Past issues available here:

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Over time we will include information from many, if not all, of the various modalities which together comprise "alternative" or "complementary" medicine: diet/food, nutritional therapy, herbs, homeopathy, energy modalities, chiropractic and manipulative therapies, and of course massage/bodywork.

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