Soybean

I saw a friend yesterday who said to me, "I quit eating soy products because of you." I asked him "why?" He told me when we saw each other a few months earlier I told him about soy.

What I said made him so concerned it motivated him to change his eating habits. So what did I say?

I mentioned to him that I used to eat a lot of soy products including tofu. At various times I used to use soy milk almost daily on my cereal.

One day, while talking with an Alternative Medicine M.D., the conversation drifted into a discussion of soy products. He mentioned several very negative effects from eating unfermented soy products. I immediately drastically cut my unfermented soy consumption.

Unfermented soy products like tofu and soy milk and yogurt cause the following:

• Block absorption of essential minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc. This results from a high content of phytic acid and phytates.
• Estrogenic effects from the isoflavones causing increasing estrogen levels higher than what’s healthy
• Suppress thyroid function which is referred to as Goitrogenic effects and disrupt endocrine function
• Inhibit growth due to the trypsin inhibitors that it contains
• Can cause blood clots due to haemagglutinin

Whew! That’s quite a list of negatives. By the way textured vegetable protein is really bad due to the way it’s processed with high temperature, high pressure, and the use of acid and alkaline chemicals.

Soy allergies are common but often undetected. The doctor I mentioned above said he conservatively estimates that about 10% of his patients are allergic to soy. Many of them don’t even know this until they are tested. Pay attention to how your body reacts to soy when you eat it in any of its many forms and as part of the ingredients of many foods.

Some of the symptoms caused by soy include acne, canker sore, inflammation and infection of the mucous membrane lining of the eyelids and the exposed surface of the eyeball, dermatitis, diarrhea, eczema, hives, heart palpitation, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, panic attack and PMS like symptoms.

Soy has been linked to malnutrition, digestive distress, immune-system breakdown, thyroid dysfunction, cognitive decline, reproductive disorders and infertility.

Like many other foods, unfermented soy products should be eaten in moderation of 1-2 servings per week. It just goes back to having a well rounded diet that contains a variety of foods.

Are any soy products good for you? Yes. Fermented soy products like miso, tempeh, natto, and soy sauce are good for you. The fermentation process reduces or eliminates the phytic acid and phytates in soy and changes soy’s other effects mentioned above.

Fermentation creates probiotics, the "good" bacteria necessary for your body, such as lactobacilli, that increase the availability, digestibility and assimilation of nutrients in your body.

Immune System

Illness develops because one’s immune system is weakened. This is indisputable yet often not acknowledged. Alternative Medicine is based upon this premise.

The disease itself represents a large "red warning sign" that a person has sustained immune system deterioration for some time. To eliminate illness, your immune system needs to be revitalized. Alternative Medicine uses therapies and remedies that allow your body to restore its own immune system. Only your own immune system will rid your body of illness.

Though "Five Primary Causes Of Weakened Immune Systems" would more accurately title this article, it doesn’t have the same allure as the word "Illness." So where does illness really begin?

A single vulnerability in one’s immune system creates favorable conditions for a vast array of diseases. More commonly, many factors attack the immune system over time.

While symptoms are not immediately recognizable, the slow deterioration of the immune system leads to chronic illness that isn’t linked to one specific cause. Unlike most conventional medicine that often focuses on a narrowly specified area of the body, alternative medicine examines the whole person as a means to discover the clues necessary for proper therapy.

Five Primary Factors

Five primary causative factors of immune system deterioration are: Heavy Metal Toxicity, Parasites, Food Allergies, Poor Diet and Nutrition, and Dental Problems. This article specifically addresses Heavy Metal Toxicity. Other factors are addressed in other articles.

Heavy metal toxicity is among the most disregarded destroyers of immune systems and therefore causes of illness. It stems from air pollution, water pollution, and pesticides, insecticides, and fungicides found in food. Dental amalgams, or silver-mercury fillings, are another primary source of heavy metal toxicity.

Toxic Mercury: Unperceived Degeneration

Mercury is a major neuro-toxic substance. It is one of the most widespread forms of heavy metal toxicity. So called "silver" tooth fillings or "amalgams" are typically at least 50% mercury plus silver, tin, and copper, and possibly other metals.

For more information on the health effects of mercury amalgams, see the web site for DAMS, Dental Amalgam Mercury Syndrome at www.dams.cc. (The web site isn’t fancy but the content is well documented.)

The effects of mercury toxicity are subtle and accumulate over time. Other common heavy metal toxicities are lead, aluminum, cadmium, nickel, tin, copper, and arsenic.

Heavy metal toxicities have been associated with a vast range of "illnesses" including chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, ADD/ADHD, autism, thyroid problems, depression, insomnia, anxiety, excessive salivation, ringing in the ears, neuropathy, osteoporosis, memory loss, irritability, moodiness, headaches, intestinal problems, muscle weakness, unexplainable cardiovascular problems, and many others.

Symptoms vs. Illnesses

Although the above are routinely labeled "illnesses" by conventional medicine, alternative medicine views these as "symptoms" indicative of an imbalanced condition of the body. As "symptoms" they’re a collection of conditions that can be eliminated through proper nutrition, detoxification, drainage remedies and appropriate chelation therapy for specific heavy metal exposures.

Tissue hair mineral analysis is a simple and non-invasive means to measure heavy metal toxicity. Chelating agents can also be used to discover hidden heavy metal toxicity.

With the goal of long-term good health, rather than merely attempting to cover up or stop an immediate illness, nutrition therapy and chelation treatments provide a gradual and rewarding recovery from heavy metal toxicity.

If you, or anyone you know, feel chronically "unwell" with multiple vague complaints, you probably won’t fit into a standard medical classification. If your doctor reports that everything is fine – but you know you aren’t "fine" – you may want to seek out an alternative medicine practitioner who understands these five destroyers of immune systems.

If you need a recommendation, I strongly recommend Dr. Simon Yu, M.D., as you know if you’ve read "Ed Mass – Alternative Medicine Background" in the sidebar. Check out his web site at preventionandhealing.com.