Twelve Book Reviews
Rebecca Lewis served with an NGO in India researching community development and designing curriculum. She holds the MA in International Development from William Carey International University, where she taught as an adjunct professor for 10 years.
by Rebecca Lewis, June 17, 2017
See more articles on the topic of Health and Disease here.
Never Be Sick Again: One Disease, Two Causes, Six Pathways, by Raymond Francis.
Thesis: The basic thesis of this book is that all diseases at the foundation are due to cellular malfunction. When cells malfunction, body systems become disrupted. Cellular malfunction arises from two causes: deficiencies (cells not getting what they need) and toxicity (cells poisoned by something they do not need). We are healthy when all of our cells are functioning optimally. We become sick through deficiencies and toxicity which come through six primary pathways: 1) Nutrition, 2) Toxins, 3) Psychological responses, 4) Physical activities, 5) Genetic assault, 6) Medical intervention. To prevent or reverse disease, and to restore health, regardless of the trigger, toxins must be removed from the body and nutrition must give the cells what they need. Infectious agents (bacteria, mold, etc) almost all kill by toxins.
Author: The author, Raymond Francis, chemist and graduate of MIT, turned to research of the basis of health, after almost dying and suffering years of debilitating heart and health problems. He decided to work with the body’s amazing capacity to heal, and get rid of anything that worked against that. He has a website called Beyond Health News: http://www.beyondhealthnews.com/wpnews/index.php/2016/01/beyond-health-our-story-the-present/.
Curing the Incurable: Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins, by Dr Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD
Thesis: Dr Levy reviews over 60 years of scientific and medical studies, and promotes the thesis that healthy cells require a full and free flow of electrons, and illness exists whenever this flow is significantly impaired. He proposes that by far the most effective molecule that the body uses to keep the electron exchange flowing is Vitamin C. He also argues that all known toxins, natural and man-made, including the many associated with infectious diseases, damage the body through robbing electrons from body tissues and thus damaging and inflaming them. Vitamin C is capable of denaturing or detoxing all known toxins (even spider, bee and snake bites) if it is present in high enough amounts commensurate with the level of toxins and damage present. Since human bodies, unlike most of the animal kingdom, cannot daily manufacture their own vitamin C from glucose, nor store it effectively, megadoses are required to reverse illness or fight off infectious assaults, to counter exogenous environmental, or endogenous toxins during times of stress. Vitamin C in cells is further depleted by high blood glucose which competes for cell entry with Vitamin C. Much of the book is devoted to the long history of studies showing specific cases of curing, reversing and preventing infectious diseases or death due to toxins with megadose Vitamin C, for example: Polio, hepatitis, encephalitis, pneumonia, influenza, rabies, pertussis, tetanus, tuberculosis, strep, typhoid, staph, etc. etc. Other chapters discuss the antidote properties of Vitamin C to alcohol, pesticides, mycotoxins, venoms, species specific toxins, etc., and Vitamin C in relation to cancer, kidney stones, immune system disorders, etc.
Author: Dr Thomas Levy, graduate of Johns Hopkins (1972) and Tulane University (1976), was board certified in internal medicine and cardiology. He worked on the health impact of dental toxicity, writing Roots of Disease, concerning the connection between tooth decay and heart disease in particular. Other books he has written are Primal Panacea (also about Vit. C), Stop America’s #1 Killer (about heart disease), Optimal Nutrition for Optimal Health, and has a website: www.peakenergy.com, and articles at: http://www.naturalhealth365.com/author/dr-thomas-e-levy/.
Youtube video talks available.
Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills by Russell L Blaylock, MD
Thesis: This book asserts that a category of common flavor enhancing food additives (MSG, aspartame, cysteine, hydrolyzed protein etc.) is a major factor in causing progressive neurological destruction of brain neurons, especially in the hypothalamus, citing numerous animal studies, and some human studies. Especially damaging and probably irreversible is the destruction of excitotoxins on the developing brain in utero and during childhood through adolescence, heavily impacting everything from behavior to hormones, leading to delayed puberty, obesity, hypothyroidism, infertility, and gender bending side effects. There are also chapters on neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, and other neurological disorders, from seizures, to strokes, dementia, etc.. Things that help to minimize or reverse destruction by excitotoxins, like magnesium and anti-inflammatories, are also covered.
Author: Dr Russell Baylock is a board certified neurosurgeon (Louisiana State University School of Medicine), practicing neurosurgery for the last 16 years, and is a member of the Congress of Neurosurgeons, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, and several other Societies. He has studied among other things the effect of lead and mercury on the brain. An evangelical Christian, in 1989 when his father died of Parkinson’s disease, he began studying the origin of neurological deterioration of the brain more diligently. He has written a number of other books on nutrition and prevention of neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. Youtube video talks available.
The Germ That Causes Cancer by Doug A. Kaufman
Thesis: Going back to the early 1800’s many studies are reviewed of diseases associated with fungal infections or which have fungal characteristics. Then the association to cancer is drawn, showing similarities in growth patterns, impact of anti-fungal drugs on cancer patients, the gene altering capacity of mycotoxins, especially aflatoxin (“the most carcinogenic substance in the natural world”) a by product of aspergillus mold. The consistent association of invasive fungal infections in cancer patients is explored. Much of the book is devoted to understanding the mechanism whereby molds can turn cells cancerous, and how to combat or reverse this process. I came upon this book because of getting cancer within a couple months of a lung and systemic aspergillus mold infection.
Author: Doug A. Kaufman was a U.S. Navy Medical Corpsman in the Marines who, after getting very sick, discovered his multiple allergies and leaky gut was related to fungal infections. He has been studying the fungal link to many modern disease for many years and written 9 books on the subject. He has his own website: www.knowthecause.com He seems to be a Christian.
Youtube video talks available.
The Environmental and Genetic Causes of Autism by James Lyons-Weiler PhD
Thesis: The neuro-inflammation, altered inflammatory responses and immune abnormalities are a result of a combination of environmental assaults and genetic and epigenetic risk factors. This book pulls together more than 50 years of autism research into chapters covering phenotypes (cognitive, motor, seizure, sensory, immunological, gastrointestinal and renal, etc.) as well as neurotoxin-induced autoimmune-mediated neurological damage, comorbidities, vaccine-autism studies, causal research, etc. With autism and other neurodegenerative diseases increasing at exponential rates, this book is invaluable in tracking down important studies on the subject, particularly of autism.
Author: James Lyons-Weiler has a BA in Biology, Masters in Zoology, PhD in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation and post doc degree in computational molecular biology.
Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic, a Medical Controversy, by David Kirby
Thesis: Significant amounts of research has been done on the kind of mercury in vaccines, concluding vastly different things. This book with extensive documentation goes through not only what studies have been done but records a play-by-play summary of the battle between opposing perspectives, even on a global scale. The riveting records of people’s attempt to get answers to their mercury poisoning and conditions ranging from autism to Gulf War Syndrome gives unique insight into how difficult it is to be heard when vaccine and drug makers have their products at stake. Also interesting is his review of a number of other studies on non-vaccine sources of mercury poisoning and the result on autism rates and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Author: David Kirby is a former New York Times writer on health and science issues. His book, which gives voice to a number of parent’s stories, has been criticized by the mainline medical community.
Racing to the Beginning of the Road: The Search for the Origin of Cancer by Robert A. Weinberg (1996)
Thesis: Cancer is largely genetic and a result of dual damage to cells, to both the oncogene and tumor suppression genes, that together allow the cell to become cancerous. Most cells in the body are robustly resistant to becoming cancerous because multiple gene mutations are required before the cell can become cancerous. This book does not discuss adequately causes of the damage to the genes of cancer cells. However, this book is largely a recounting of the historical advances, controversies and rivalries that have been involved in cancer research. A NY Times Notable book for 1996, it is still useful by revealing the history of certain branches of research into the cause of cancer.
Author: Robert A. Weinberg, founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Professor of Biology at MIT.
Tripping Over the Truth: The Return of the Metabolic Theory of Cancer Illuminates a New and Hopeful Path to a Cure by Travis Christofferson (2014)
Thesis: The “gene theory” of cancer proved to be a long dead end in seeking the source and cure for cancer. Over 100 years of research have led back to an earlier theory involving dysfunction of mitochondria. This book covers the history of theories of cancer origin and failed cancer treatments, spiraling costs without appreciable improvements in survival rate. The book ends by proposing various mitochondrial enhancement therapies, while not adequately getting into WHY the mitochondria are malfunctioning in the first place.
Author: Travis Christofferson, M.S. received his undergraduate degree in molecular biology from the Montana State University Honors Program and a master’s degree in Material Engineering and Science from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Today, he is a full-time science writer and founder of a cancer charity.
The organization dedicated to metabolic cancer cures: Singlecausesinglecure.org
Other Books on This Subject:
• Cancer as a Metabolic Disease by Thomas M. Seyfried, PhD
• Living Downstream: A Scientist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment by Sandra Steingraber (1998)
Thesis: Cancer is much more prevalent in areas where the environmental toxins from human industry are highest. Told in the form of her personal story, Sandra shows how toxic chemicals in water, food and air can alter gene expression in both human beings and animal. She complains that a medical obsession with genes and heredity is blinding people to the environment roots of cancer. The book is well-documented and has a good index.
Author: Sandra Steingraber has her PhD in biology from the University of Michigan
Books on the Environment:
• Altering Eden: The Feminization of Nature by Deborah Cadbury (1997)
Thesis: Chemicals and medications that we are dumping into our environment are not degrading as expected instead they are affecting the gender of all kinds of species, threatening to lead to mass extinction. In some places, up to 80% of the alligators studied (having survived since the time of the dinosaurs) have abnormal reproductive organs. Adult are infertile; eggs produced are dead. Gender-bending chemicals, byproducts of plastic production etc, and steroids and hormones, increasingly used for everything from birth control to fatting up of animals, are used with little thought for their long term impact on species in our environment. Fish are becoming so feminized in our rivers that extinction is inevitable. Polycarbonates, phlthalates, alkylphenols, estrogens from birth control pills, estrogenic pesticides and herbicides, hundreds of common chemicals are now shown to alone and in combination cause significant gender distortion of species. These chemicals are not removed by water treatment plants and so end up in both bottled and piped water from these plants. No mention is made on gender confusion in humans, now a widely recognized phenomenon.
Author: Deborah Cadbury is an award winning British author and BBC producer.
• Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival? by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumansoski, and John Peterson Myers (1996)
Thesis: Recognition that synthetic chemicals can disrupt hormone messages in the body, not just sex hormones by thyroid etc as well, may have even more profound implications than global warming concerns. Some chapters discuss in detail how the chemicals in question disrupt the hormonal system of animals and humans, and how several in combination are even more dangerous. Several chapters consider the effects on human health, everything from mis-shaped reproductive organs, to infertility to cancer.
Ongoing news found at: http://www.ourstolenfuture.org
Authors: Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumansoski, and John Peterson Myers, preface by V.P. Al Gore.
• Hell’s Kitchen: The Cause, Prevention and Cure of Obesity, Diabetes, and Metabolic Syndrome by J.D. Wallach, Bs, DVM, ND and Ma Lan MD, MS, LAc
Thesis: Based on the studies of a zoological veterinarian, who spent 20 years curing zoo animals with nutrition, Hell’s Kitchen proposes that our food supply and soil began to exponentially deplete in nutrients when wood ash (which has over 90 nutrients) was substituted by chemical fertilizers containing as few as three ingredients (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium), as cooking moved from wood to gas and electricity. Hence, though over fed we are still undernourished. It is a very oddly written book with lots of random history of dietary experiments sprinkled throughout, and other of unrelated scientific historical trivia. It covers deadly diseases found to be nutritional in origin (like scurvy, beriberi, etc) and how we have forgotten the insight these provided about the severe effect on the human body of improper nutrition. The book shows when the pharmaceutical company veered away from research into nutritional causes of disease to management of disease symptoms.
Author: J.D. Wallach is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and a Naturopathic Doctor and has spent 47 years in biomedical research, and wrote a 1000 page book on The Diseases of Exotic Animals published by W.B.Saunders. Ma Lun received her medical training, specializing in transplant immunology, in the People’s Republic of China, and is also trained in traditional Chinese medicine. She has many years of clinical experience both in the Chinese Air Force and in the USA.