A Thumbs Down Book Review
Minerals for the Genetic Code: An Exposition & Analysis of the Dr. Olree Standard Genetic Periodic Chart & the Physical, Chemical & Biological Connection.
By Charles Walters Acres, USA, 2006
Reviewed by Chris Masterjohn
Dr. Richard Olree, a chiropractor who calls himself a “theoretical geneticist,” has put forth a new theory about the nature of the genetic code that, if correct, would revolutionize the field of genetics. The theory stipulates that each of the 64 codons, the basic units of the genetic code, requires its own unique mineral—thus greatly expanding the list of essential nutrients.
Charles Walters, founder of the eco-agriculture publication AcresUSA, has transmitted this theory to book form in the 2006 title, Minerals for the Genetic Code. While the book contains an interesting introduction to the history of biological science, an excellent interview with cancer researcher and genetic engineering critic John Fagan, and a useful 100-page appendix listing important food sources of various trace minerals, Walters devotes less than one hundred pages to his description of Olree’s theory and is remarkably silent about the experimental basis for this theory—assuming one exists at all.
Lack of Experimental Evidence
The book begins with a foreword on the dangers of fluoride and its first several chapters deliver scathing critiques of the modern medical system and commercial soil chemistry. Walters then narrates the fascinating stories of the discoveries and experimental demonstrations of some of the most basic chemical and biological concepts that we take for granted today.
For example, the Flemish physician Jan Baptista van Helmont first demonstrated in the seventeenth century that trees synthesize most of their tissue from water or air rather than from soil by planting a tree in an isolated tub and measuring the weight of the soil before and after it grew.
The English scientist and preacher Stephen Hale tried to test whether plants consumed air by clamping a glass container over a number of peppermint plants and measuring the change in atmospheric pressure, but the plants simply died. Later research demonstrated that animals and plants changed the air in opposite ways, each allowing for the survival of the other, and that plants only changed the air in the presence of light. Through many well-designed and wellcontrolled experiments, we now know that plants produce glucose from carbon dioxide and water, releasing oxygen, and that animals conversely break down glucose with oxygen, releasing carbon dioxide and water. Walters narrates in like manner the discoveries of the periodic table of the elements and the genetic code.
When, after more than 80 pages, Walters finally begins describing Olree’s theory, he leaves the reader infinitely less impressed. Rather than describing solid experimental research as in the previous section, Walters describes a “eureka” moment back in 1981 when Olree realized he could tie the genetic code in to a chart he had already made drawing relationships between color therapy, aromatherapy, acupuncture and a Chinese sacred text called the I Ching. Walters likens this sudden insight to Archimedes’ discovery that he could determine the density of the king’s crown, and thus whether it was made of pure gold, by measuring the water it displaced in a bathtub, and to Friedrich Kekulé’s realization that benzene could be structured as a hexagon while staring at the shapes made by the smoke rising from his fireplace.
The basis of the theory is the repetition of the number 64 in various natural and philosophical systems. The vertebral column develops from 32 embryonic structures called somites that eventually become vertebrae and 32 spaces that eventually become intervertebral discs, together making 64 points along the spine. The ancient Chinese text, the I Ching, is a compilation of hexagrams with six positions that can be filled with either solid or broken lines, making 64 possible hexagrams, each of which is associated with a certain psychological trait. Olree noticed in his private practice that misalignments of certain vertebrae were associated with particular psychological changes and began mapping out the associations between the 64 points along the spine and the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching. He used a 1926 version of the periodic table of the elements made by Walter Russell, an artist and architect credited with coining the term “New Age” and with hypothesizing the existence of various subatomic particles now known to exist. This table contained far fewer elements than the current table contains, as well as 22 subatomic particles not included on the current table. It was organized into nine octaves. The ninth octave contained radioactive elements, while the first eight octaves contained 64 non-radioactive elements and subatomic particles. Referring to these collectively as “minerals,” Olree designated each vertebral point with its own mineral and its own hexagram of the I Ching.
When Olree stumbled upon a book called DNA and the I Ching, a new theory of genetics was born. The book drew an analogy between the codons of DNA and the hexagrams of the I Ching. DNA is like an alphabet in which each of four nucleotides represents a letter. Nucleotides consist of nitrogen-containing ring structures called nitrogenous bases that are attached to sugars and phosphate groups. The four bases making up the nucleotides in DNA are adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C) and thymine (T). When the cell makes a protein, it first makes an RNA copy of a particular DNA sequence using the same bases, except it replaces thymine (T) with uracil (U). The RNA copy is then used to make the protein. Each of these “letters” makes up a three-letter “word” called a codon. Each codon codes for a particular amino acid that will be used to make the new protein; for example, AUG codes for methionine. There are 64 possible codons in the “languages” of DNA and RNA. The book drew an analogy between these 64 codons and the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching. Olree had already determined that each I Ching hexagram corresponded to a particular position in the vertebral column and to a particular mineral; once he realized the connection between the I Ching and DNA, then, the relationship between the latter and the 64 minerals of Russell’s periodic table became self-evident.
Olree synthesized all of this information into the “Olree Biological Periodic Chart.” Each of the 64 entries contains the name of the mineral, its electric charge, the number Russell had assigned to it, the I Ching hexagram Olree assigned to it, the RNA codon to which it corresponds, the amino acid coded for by the RNA sequence, the number of times the codon appears in the human genome, the point on the vertebral column to which it corresponds, the hour of the day during which a particular acupuncture meridian that Olree also assigned to the mineral regenerates, and the psychological trait associated with the I Ching hexagram. Examples of the psychological traits include “before the end,” “after the end,” “insight,” “conscientiousness,” and “reuniting.”
Walters gives no description of precisely how Olree assigned the minerals to their respective codons. For example, why does UGU correspond to arsenic and not to calcium? No answer is given. Buried deep in the book, however, under the entry for the “subatomic mineral” barnordon, Walters gives us a disturbing description of how Olree assigned the minerals to the vertebral positions in Olree’s own words: “I like the third law of physics. For every action [there is] an equal and opposite reaction. So I [took] the human spine and the 64 amino acids [codons] and concluded that number 1 equals 64, number 2 equals 63, and I laid it out on paper. The opposite of number 9 is number 54, the yttrium area of the spine. So treatment at the cervical 5 disc can directly have an effect on yttrium.” In other words, he simply started with the first vertebra and counted backwards down Russell’s periodic table from the last mineral to the first. The great scientists whose work Walters spent 80 pages reviewing at the beginning of the book would have designed experiments to test whether these associations were true, but Olree apparently did not.
An Implausible Theory
The most puzzling part of the theory is the lack of clarity about the exact roles of these minerals. Under the entry for lanthanum, Walters states that silica and lanthanum form “the glue that holds ‘junk’ DNA together,” based on the abundant appearance of their associated codons in these regions of DNA. This suggests that the minerals are actually bound to the DNA itself. In the introduction to the Olree chart, however, Walters states that the minerals associated with the stop codons that signal the end of the protein— sulfur, hydrogen and yttrium—need to be present in order for the protein to be properly made from the RNA copy, or else the protein will be made in fragments and degraded. This suggests that the minerals interact with RNA during protein synthesis rather than with DNA. Both propositions are implausible because scientists reproduce these processes in test tubes all over the world every day without ever adding lanthanum or yttrium to the mix. Without certain enzyme cofactors like magnesium, the processes will not go forward, but the absence of yttrium never results in fragmented proteins.
Another question also arises: if these minerals are essential components of DNA or RNA, why is it that no one has found them there? Indeed, some of the statements in the book make it ambiguous whether one should expect to see some of these minerals in the body at all. For example, the mineral scandium is said to be associated with proline, an important amino acid that makes up roughly one third of the collagen molecule. According to Olree, scandium is abundant on the sun but is the rarest mineral on the earth. He posits that scandium is somehow transmitted to us through electromagnetic radiation when we are exposed to sunshine. According to one of his lectures available on the internet,1 the “DNA sequence of vitamin D”—by which he must mean the sequence for the vitamin’s receptor or an enzyme that metabolizes it—is rich in the scandium-associated codon, which he says explains why we need sunlight for vitamin D. One must wonder, however, whether we receive the actual scandium from sunlight or only its spirit.
The case of the seven noble gases is similar. Noble gases such as argon and xenon are, outside of this particular book, universally regarded as irrelevant to biology because they do not engage in chemical reactions. They nevertheless have their place on the Olree chart. Since they do not form charges and thus do not interact with biological molecules, however, Walters states that their presence in the genome may be more “psychological” than “physical.”
It would appear that Olree’s theory is based not on any experimental evidence, but merely on the analogy between the repeating pattern of 64 in the several natural and philosophical systems he has tied together. Putting aside the questions of whether all 22 of Russell’s “subatomic minerals” actually exist as such and whether the exclusion of all the minerals in the ninth octave and the inclusion of all the others was justified, the analogy is weaker than it first appears. DNA and the I Ching arrive at the number 64 in very different ways: DNA uses four symbols in three positions (four multiplied by itself three times is 64) while the I Ching uses two symbols in six positions (two multiplied by itself six times is 64).
The I Ching becomes analogous to the genetic code only if one counts every two lines as a single symbol. This will make the two symbols (solid and broken) become four symbols (solid-solid, solid-broken, broken-solid, broken-broken) and thus analogous to the four DNA bases (A, G, C, T) and will make the six single lines of the hexagram become three line pairs and thus analogous to the three nucleotides of the codon.2 But this maneuver simply manipulates the I Ching into something it is not.
Moreover, the DNA code is redundant. Although there are 64 codons, they collectively code for only 21 meanings. Sixty-one of them code for the twenty amino acids that are incorporated into proteins and three of them act as stop signals.3 By contrast, each hexagram of the I Ching has its own meaning and each mineral of the Russell table is unique.
Both the structure of DNA and the redundancy of the genetic code make it especially difficult to figure out where in the biological process these minerals fit in. DNA exists as a double-stranded twist where all of the codons have their binding sites connected to the codons of the opposite strand. The binding patterns are dependent on the individual nucleotides, however, and not on the full codon. A always binds to T and C always binds to G. A-T and C-G are the only two binding patterns in DNA. If minerals were to somehow fit between these bases without completely disrupting the structure of DNA, there would be room only for two, not for 64. When the cellular machinery makes a protein from DNA, it first makes a copy of messenger RNA (mRNA). The synthesis of the mRNA molecule is dependent on the same type of base-pairing that occurs within the DNA molecule itself, so again there is no room for 64 different minerals in the process. Protein-producing machines called ribosomes then read the mRNA transcript and molecules called transfer RNAs (tRNAs) act as forklifts that bring the appropriate amino acid to the ribosome at the appropriate time so the ribosome can connect the amino acids together and make a protein. Each tRNA molecule has an “anti-codon” that corresponds to one or more codons of the mRNA, but there are not 64 tRNAs; there are only 20, each one corresponding to one of the 20 amino acids.3 Thus, it makes little sense that the codons of the mRNA molecule would require 64 different minerals to interact with 20 different tRNA anti-codons.
Moreover, the nature of biology is to conservatively utilize the least number of patterns possible. For example, a basic zinc-requiring fingershaped pattern called a “zinc finger motif” repeats itself over and over again in molecules that interact with DNA, rather than each molecule requiring a different mineral to make the finger.4 There are thousands of proteins that incorporate zinc because of its unique structural utility, but other minerals like aluminum are not known to coordinate the structure of any proteins because their properties are less useful or even harmful. Olree’s theory, by contrast, posits the use of 64 different minerals to fulfill very similar or identical functions within a single system and thus violates the basic principles of how biological systems are designed.
Strange Conclusions
Olree’s theory leads to some very strange conclusions. For example, the RNA codon UGG codes for the amino acid tryptophan and is associated with the “subatomic mineral” marconium, the 6:00 PM regeneration of the kidney meridian, and the cervical disc 7, which itself is associated with the nerve connected to the thyroid gland. Olree thus concludes that the thyroid gland falls under the energy field of the kidney and that, since the thyroid gland consumes a great deal of iodine, iodine is the most important element for kidney function. Most other practitioners or researchers would set out to test the ability of treating the kidney to normalize thyroid function or the ability of iodine to normalize kidney function before they would draw such a conclusion.
Olree’s strangest conclusions concern the minerals selenium and yttrium—these are also two of the minerals whose dietary importance he emphasizes the most, both in the book as conveyed by Walters and in his own talks.1 His own chart ties the stop codon UGA to yttrium. Modern science, however, has tied it to selenium. Olree thus concludes that selenium is only used for the stop codon as a backup mineral when yttrium is deficient, implying that we are suffering from a widespread yttrium deficiency. Yet modern science has not tied selenium to the stop codon; rather, it has shown that the UGA codon when adjacent to certain selenium insertion sequences can code for the modified amino acid selenocysteine instead of the stop site.5 Olree seems completely unaware of the fact that every single selenoprotein in the body incorporates selenocysteine in this manner. He is adamant that selenium must be taken in as selenomethionine, which often occurs in plants and plays no known role in the animal body, but makes no mention of selenocysteine, the form commonly found in animal foods like liver.5
In addition to his speculation that selenium’s connection to the UGA codon is a result of yttrium deficiency, Olree also discovered “clear cases of yttrium deficiency not allowing for protein synthesis” when he found that two defective myelin proteins involved in multiple sclerosis were abundant in the UGA codon. Much more impressively, he uncovered actual experimental evidence that yttrium can dramatically increase lifespan in certain animals, but this effect does not necessarily confirm Olree’s speculations about its involvement in the genetic code. The section on this mineral and its entry in the appendix suggests that certain bacteria of the Bifidus genus, cabbage, and various other plants are the best sources of yttrium. Eating sauerkraut, cultured milk and other probiotic foods or forms of cabbage might be a harmless way to obtain yttrium, then, but Olree’s views on selenium might warrant more caution.
Minerals for the Genetic Code cites a 1996 report showing that 200 micrograms of selenium per day reduced the risks of several types of cancer.5 In a 2005 lecture available on the internet,1 Olree refers to another report showing that the same dose of selenium increased the risk of type 2 diabetes.7 Olree says that this was probably because they used sodium selenite instead of selenomethionine. These two reports are actually two separate analyses of the same double-blind, placebo-controlled study. It used high-selenium yeast, which contains most of its selenium as selenomethionine. The protection against cancer was seen only among the two-thirds of the participants with the lowest plasma selenium levels at the beginning of the study; in the one-third with the highest levels, participants who supplemented with selenium had 20 percent more cancer than the participants who took the placebo, although the effect could not be conclusively distinguished from the effect of chance. Selenium supplementation had no effect on the risk of type 2 diabetes in the bottom two-thirds, but in the top third it increased the risk by 30 percent, an effect that was conclusively distinguished from that of chance. It is possible that the selenium would have been protective even for people with higher levels of the mineral had it been in the form of selenocysteine or had other important cofactors been provided with it such as vitamin B6 or bioavailable cysteine from raw proteins, but this study certainly does not justify Olree’s enthusiasm for selenomethionine supplements.
Although the book does not make any specific recommendations for supplementation, it may lead many people to believe they should supplement with minerals such as lanthanum, yttrium, strontium and arsenic in addition to selenomethionine. Though it is possible that trace amounts of these minerals may play unknown essential roles in the body or be otherwise beneficial in certain circumstances, supplementation could also be harmful. Until we understand more about their potential benefits and toxicities and their mechanisms of action, we should be sure to obtain traces of these minerals only in traditional foods.
Ultimately Disappointing
After the superb introduction to the history of biological science that Walters weaves through the first 80 pages of the book, it comes as a major disappointment when he devotes only several pages in total to the basis of the theory that constitutes the book’s main subject and even less material explaining the mechanisms by which the minerals are supposed to interact with the genetic code. Part 2 of the book provides an impressive amount of information about the general roles of various minerals in human nutrition, but one would expect the book to discuss their specific roles in organizing the genetic code, which is largely left out. The interview with Fagan and the 100-page appendix on food sources of minerals are both useful. Despite a number of interesting and valuable sections in the book, however, it ultimately fails at its central task—to convince the reader that Olree’s 64 minerals are in fact essential to the genetic code.
REFERENCES
- Olree R. Minerals for the Genetic Code: Acres ’05 Conference Presentation. http://www.emineral. info/Presentations.html. Accessed April 20, 2008.
- Internet Sacred Text Archive. Introduction to Legge J, Tr. “The I Ching,” originally printed in Sacred Books of the East, Volume 16, 1899. http://www.sacred-texts.com/ich/index.htm. Accessed April 20, 2008.
- Klug WS, Cummings MR, Spencer CA. Concepts of Genetics: Eighth Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education (2006).
- Aranda A, Pascual A. Nuclear Hormone Receptors and Gene Expression. Physiol Rev. 2001;81(3):1269-1304.
- Burk RF, Levander OA. Selenium. In: Shils, et al., eds., Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease: Tenth Edition. Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (2006) pp. 312-25.
- Clark LC, Combs GF Jr, Turnbull BW, Slate EH, Chalker DK, Chow J, et al. Effects of selenium supplementation for cancer prevention in patients with carcinoma of the skin. A randomized controlled trial. Nutritional Prevention of Cancer Study Group. JAMA. 1996;276(24):1957-63.
- Stranges S, Marshall JR, Natarajan R, Donahue RP, Trevisan M, Combs GF, et al. Effects of long-term selenium supplementation on the incidence of type 2 diabetes: a randomized trial. Ann Intern Med. 2007;147(4):217-23.
This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly magazine of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Summer 2008.
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Chris, thanks for a top notch review. I hope it finally made its way to Olree. If he is as honest and truth-seeking as I think him to be, he will address all your concerns in any further publication. Obviously, the late Charles Walters cannot. One would think that chiropractors and their focus on innate healing should devote more study to food, food, food, higher quality food, and less to dosing thoughts—even if the dosing is in the form of minerals and not drugs.
noble gases, and etc.
“Noble gases such as argon and xenon are, outside of this
particular book, universally regarded as irrelevant to biology”
Not quite.
vis:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12170064
Anesthesiology. 2002 Jun;96(6):1485-91.
Effects of xenon on in vitro and in vivo models of
neuronal injury.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16179534
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2005 Aug;1053:289-300.
Potentially neuroprotective and therapeutic properties of
nitrous oxide and xenon.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3972917
J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 1985 Mar;5(1):126-32.
Effects of xenon and krypton on regional cerebral blood flow
in the rat.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18344553
Br J Anaesth. 2008 May;100(5):667-75. Epub 2008 Mar 15.
Positron emission tomography study of regional cerebral blood
flow and flow-metabolism coupling during general anaesthesia
with xenon in humans.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17682508
Aviakosm Ekolog Med. 2007 Mar-Apr;41(2):60-4.
[Effects of xenon and krypton-containing breathing mixtures on
clinical and biochemical blood indices in animals]
……… further, if you do some searching, you will find
that helium and neon might have some effects on wound-healing,
gingival repair, and fibroblasts.
Alan, it is perty strange, when I read your last sentence in this message, about “neon” because I had an experience of healing, in a very different way, which had the symbols of neon all around me. Back in the end of July 2017, I began to have a pain spreading through my back. Every day for about three days, it grew. It was so bothersome suddenly, that I went to go spend time in bed hoping to heal it with rest. That is when I experienced a most unusual phenomenon. I began seeing from my body, outside of my body. As I examined the scenery of the other dimension outside my body while still in it, I found I was beginning to travel through it. I got to a point where the cover, or cloud cover was so murky full of different energies like tangled and tied together one on top of the other, and it made for feelings of negativity and fear to be recognized. I then remembered that when you want to go out, you have to have pure and clear intent. So I put on joy and love and surrendered to the moment with confidence. That is when I found myself passing through those convoluted areas, and I saw tall dark-like beings of shadow who were controlling by keeping people down in that state under those negative layers and blankets of convoluted clouds of mess, tangles. I passed through and went out looking around. I soon found myself outside of the planet, on the one side of it, looking at space and the many stars in it, and I was hiding so that I wouldn’t be seen. It seemed I was waiting form someone or something. Then in the distance, I saw a large neon red thing that looked like a snake which moved gracefully in curves up and down in waves, and coming toward me after it’s initial appearance. It came right to me, and that is when I saw it was made of large rings of neon red which were all one after the other, but not attached. Just rings like 8 feet in diameter. It came right up to me and felt sentient. I stepped inside of it and it sped/zoomed super fast off into space, seemed to pass many a long distances away from Earth, and I was now in some other place. When it dropped me off on the ground at some neon lit garden like yard to some building structure, it suddenly transformed itself into a golden tree of light that had the appearance of a large fountain, and its neon gold light sometimes changed colour to silver or white as well. And I stood there totally immersed in the beauty of the view. It was all nice and dark around me, except for these beautiful neon colours everywhere and this neon red ring thing that now was a neon gold fountain in front of me. Then I was somehow pulled into the building through the wall and I saw two people, male and female, of perfect form, all dressed in a tight fitting black sleek outfit with some logo of some sort on their upper left-hand shoulder. They moved so fast and took me, had me now on like a table or something, and were operating on the middle of my body. They were pulling things out, and when something came out, not sure what it was, because I was standing off at a distance looking now at this scene, of them doing this healing thing to my body, I noticed they all turned away when this thing was flowing out of me, as though it was such a bright light that they had to hide their eyes from looking at it. But I didn’t see it. I just sensed that. When it was all done, I was back in my body and moved away, realigning myself to my true being, and then just relaxed and rested standing around looking at all that was going on in the large, super large, place. Lots of things happened in that most unusual experience which I’ve never had before, nor since…but when I got back to my body in bed, I noticed there were some beings who came and seemed to be realigning my merkaba system or something like that. They were invisible, but I could sense their presence and communicate subtly. The next day, there was absolutely no more pain. Everything was healed!
So, I’m equating this neon stuff, which I saw in abundance there, and totally fell in love with, with the healing process. Or perhaps, a specific type of healing. Anyway, thanks for your comment, and I’m very grateful I came across this message. Thank you.
Olree’s Theory Makes Sense and Deserves a Chance-Pt2
(comments cont):
In the book, Walters seems to have captured many of Olree’s theories, but many of the points are not as complete as Olree’s lectures. Walters made a reasonable attempt to write a book that was simplified and oriented to the interests of the more wholistic farmers (his Acres USA audience, who he regularly wrote for). His book is not written for the accademic (like Chris) who is looking for a lot detail. And while (in his talks) Olree comments on the the multitude of references that he has sorted thru in coming up wiht his comments and ideas, it appears Olree may have sometimes gone behind the bottom line opinions in some of the research papers to draw his own opinions based on the raw data behind the studies.
Olree is clearly an “out of the box” thinker who seems to have drawn connections that seem to have a lot of merit. His focus was originally on coming up with ideas which could help his patients, and he’s apparently had some success in treating using the ideas he uses. Some of these ideas were conveyed by Walters, and others could have been conveyed a lot better. I suspect that a lot of fine points behind Olree’s theories still have to be worked out, but his framework makes a lot of sense, and he seems to have made connections that seem to be years ahead of their time.
Olree seems to have bridged between how the body is affected by chiropractic points and the meridian system (i.e. different elements of energy medicine) with minerals (including the ionic charges of each form of each mineral and the amino acids and vitamins formed from the minerals) with how each mineral seems to have a link with different parts of the DNA, in the body, in the defence system, in health issues, and in things like how different probiotics help the body properly absorb different minerals.
Olree’s ideas should be given a fair chance. I suspect there is far more truth to the connections that Olree’s made than Chris accepts in this review. Based on the method used by Olree in placing his minerals, I suspect that much of his theory, and the connections he makes, will ultimatly be shown to be accurate – not the “Implausable” or “Strange Conclusions” ratings that Chris provided.
Olree’s Ideas Seem to Have Merit and Deserve a Chance-pt1
I would give Olree a GREAT Thumbs up for his ideas (in Walter’s book), and Walters a Thumbs up for effort in bridging a difficult topic and trying to convey the ideas for the common man (not written for the scholars or researchers).
While Chris raises some interesting arguments in his review, it is clear that prior to writing the review he did not listen to or review the talks posted on Olree’s website, http://www.emineral.info. Some of Chris’ comments are answered there, and others are admitted there (prior to the review being written). Chris seems to be criticizing the concept without going to the source to find out the real support behing it.
While not supported by a lot of documented research in Walter’s book, I think Chris is jumping the gun here in calling Dr Olree’s ideas an “Implausable Theory”. Yes, it is outside the normal box, but the normal box is very primitive and has many challenges. And over the years, the out of the box thinkers were the ones who were ultimately responsible for progress. In his lectures, Dr Olree explains HOW he came up with the different mineral connections for the DNA for each DNA string. He used PUBLISHED DNA strings, and had a computer program which ran an analysis of each string. Then he compared those. Part of the basis for his analysis is the starting points and the stopping points in DNA strings, and his analysis is based on genetic frequency of the different elements in the DNA strings.
Dr Olree readily admits that his placing of Selenium as one of 64 points is different from how the standard genetic code places it, but also explains why the differenece. He feels that Yttrium is the appropriate element to put in the place that normal geneticists place Selenium (apparently the only element that they had placed). In his talks, he explains that Selenium seems to be the body’s backup for Yttrium as a DNA stop point, and that may explain why normal geneticists have placed it where he places Yttrium.
Even though Walters’ book clearly has its weaknesses (part of it is his writing style), he seems to bridge many needed points (using Olree’s ideas, but also mixing in some of his own ideas), and seems to be a good starting point for further progress. But Walters was not the type of detailed writer that Chris would be impressed with. Olree seems willing to work with and talk with anybody who is open to learning, and Olree himself seems open to new ideas and connections also. From his talks, he doesn’t seem to be someone who is is locked into one method of thinking, and he seems to be open to having his ideas challenged provided it is based on the facts.
In his talks, Dr. Olree implies in at least a couple places that he’s dyslexic. If that is the case, it may help explain part of the “out of the box” connections he’s been able to make, and also explain why he needs help in coming up with the final written versions of his ideas. I suspect that Dr. Olree would benefit from working with someone like Chris for helping get his ideas across.
Keep Drinking The Koolaid
You missed the message. The information could save millions if not for your disinformation.
I am surprised to see that this slanted and tabloid-like review has been permitted onto the Weston Price website.
It sounds to me like this reviewer has no idea what Dr. Olree is talking about, and doesn’t want to know either. A few hasty conclusions jumped to and slapped together, obviously without investigation on the reviewer’s part, followed by instant manipulative knee-jerk diss-verbage.
I agree with Pat.
This book is full of common sense. This review is full of obvious imbalance.
The last entire third of the book, Pp. 187-288, contains food sources of every known nutritional element in alphabetical order. It is priceless to have in your health library.
Those who are wise enough to actually *read* this excellent book will be glad they did.
I read the book and then came across the above article looking for more info… it seemed too dis believing!! All I can say that more me personally everything ties in with my health conditions, the place on the spine, the thyroid- kidney and heart and sleen connection and the methionine, I take selenomethionine and recently found out that I have the MTHFR mutation which is all connected to folic acid( folate) which Walters talk about ( having had 2 anencephalic births) and the fact that I need methyl folate and not folic acid…
I will wait and see that sooner or later he will be proved correct !! Thank you Olree and Walters for this book!!
Pat, Linda – Don’t be mean, not on WAPF! 😀
I think this review is accurate! It is a frenetic crash-introduction to an area of study with a lot of potential, but it is far too lacking in clarity and organization to be referenced in mainstream discourse.
A discussion that “Minerals are Critical for Proper Human Health” is a compelling one, especially for the bulk-information that Walters provides in the Introduction, the Exposition section, and the first ~40 Element entries.
I have a deep feeling that even the more esoteric claims in this book are true. However, the Book (I have my copy right here next to me) is more a tantalizing introduction, lacking the clarity and background required for a true research-exposition. I’d like to see Olree publish a followup with appropriate restructuring, re-researching, expansion, and clarification.
> Since much of the book is based upon the Walter Russell Periodic Chart, this entire non-mainstream arm of physics needs to be explained in the book.
> The claim of sub-proton particles (RE: Sub-Hydrogen particles on the Walter Russell chart) is a highly mysterious, politically-contested, researched-but-forgotten section of modern physics, possibly subject to outeright criminal suppression. If we cannot even scientifically measure the *existence* of such ‘elements’ as “Bebegen”, “Alphanon” and “Helionon”, how are we to know how if they are having any interaction with the other chemicals that make up our body (thus affecting our health), let alone which plants contain them in order to harvest and ingest them?
> Much of this book explains its mechanisms of biological interaction in terms of Valence Charges. There is no mainstream understanding of the sub-hydrogen Russellian particles’ interactions with (or even *possession of*) electrons… therefore, how can Olree state that those particles have a valence charge at all?
> More explanation needs to be done on the claim that many minerals are ‘merely isotopes’ of other minerals in the Russell Elemental Chart.
– First, the word ‘isotopes’ is not used in the typical sense, here. ‘Isotopes’ are elements that are identical in number of protons, but differ in the number of neutrons. The elements called ‘isotopes’ by Walters are those they are between changes in Valence Charge in the Russell chart.
– Second, according to Olree’s 64-node structure, Iron, Chromium, Manganese, Zinc, Germanium, Silver, Cadmium, Tin, Gold, Platinum, and other minerals with (varying) known interactions with the human body are omitted from the chart’s 64-unit structure.
– Finally, some elements like Aluminum are listed as ‘elements’ in the Olree Genetic Chart, but Walters’ entire description of the element points out that it is a poison, and has no role in the human body.
> A deeper explanation of the I-Ching system should be given. The phrase “energy passes from X meridian to Y meridian at X o’clock” is used for each element, but what this *means* is not elaborated upon.
> The explanation joining I-Ching and Chiropractic is fairly clear (spinal sections affect organs via pinching / freeing nervous connections), but the explanation joining Chiropractic & I-Ching and Minerals is almost entirely unclear. Is Olree saying these minerals affect the development of ONLY their corresponding Spinal / I-Ching section en utero… en vivo? Perhaps someone could enlighten me.
> As stated in the article above, there appears to be no indication if the given minerals are actually present *inside* the DNA helix. This calls the “Number of Times Found in DNA Sequencing” data piece provided in the element tables into question.
> A variety of inline factual claims (both groundbreaking and benign) are raised throughout the book, but not elaborated upon, and not cited.
> I also found myself hoping real-world examples from Olree of where he treated patients of highly-specific disorders with corresponding minerals a/o Chiropractic adjustments, but these were not given.
I too want to thank the others for their support and this book mentions that all the topic of the book is about trace and not deletion like current foods in our stores. Uptake and usage are key to understanding our nutritional needs and it is mainstream knowledge to keep what is good for us and the food we eat, needs to be near us, so we can control what goes into it and our bodies and friends. Basic Tribal needs.
I am taking the book at face value. Up until now we have only the ability to supplement with chemical compounds to address deficiencies. Plant foods are the only way to deliver minerals. The Nanoparticle size that plants can absorb (or uptake) is the proper delivery system. Western Environmental Services is manufacturing soil amendments to enhance mineral uptake. We are using this book for guidance in our formulas. Naturally Noble is growing foods from the soil amendments and is testing them to see the effect on deficiency symptoms.
This will put the book to the test. Our plants are able to show mineral uptake increases over 70x greater then our controls. Showing that our foods are capable of delivering more them what we are getting at the market today.
If this book is correct it saved us millions in research if it is half correct it will make millions in healing the way God intended.
A) The medical profession says not enough work has been done to verify Olree’s theories.
B) But the medical profession is controlled by (and paid off by) the Big Pharmaceutical companies. Don’t you ever wonder why your doctor always prescribes the very latest and most expensive medication for a problem?
C) The Big Pharma companies are NOT going to invest any money in health mineral verification, because a) they can’t charge big bucks for it if it’s true, and b) Big Pharma and doctors make far, FAR more money from expensive ‘treatments’ that don’t cure anything, and they will fight to the death (yours and mine) to make certain that this continues.
D) If a medical university started doing some serious studies on minerals and health, Big Pharma (which ‘donates’ huge chunks of money to them, subsidizing what is most profitable to them) would be on their doorstep instantly, asking with an evil grin, “What’s wrong — don’t you like our money?” And the studies will fold.
If anyone thinks that most of the medical profession and Big Pharma gives a rat’s patootie about your health, I’ve got a nice chunk of ocean to sell you. When you want to discover the truth of a matter, ALWAYS FOLLOW THE MONEY.
I’ve had the book for many years and find it very useful. I’ve lent it to many others. It gets people to think outside the square and look at another dimension. It is an alternative approach to the narrow-minded money-hungry morally and ethically corrupt pharmaceutical corporations that look to farm people for profit by dumbing down symptoms and without hope of a cure. Good on Charles Walters and Dr. Richard Olree. I know of a homeopathic remedy based on Minerals for the Genetic Code.
Bread from stones: https://archive.org/details/breadfromstones00hens/page/n3/mode/2up