Page 26 - Fall2020

to high-quality cod liver oil, good sources of fundamental. Most practitioners can attest to
retinol include liver, pastured eggs and butter how often we see fear, stress and unresolved
(preferably from raw milk). emotional conflicts as underlying triggers for
As an interesting historical footnote, the health problems. When you lack peace, your
observation in the 1940s of an association be- ability to be resilient is highly compromised. At
tween anemia in pregnancy and lower levels of a metabolic level, stress causes our electrolytes
hemoglobin was one of the factors that launched to shift, and when that shift produces changes
iron fortification of food. Reflecting the lack of in pH, iron goes into the cell, magnesium goes
traditional wisdom characteristic of our era, out and metabolic chaos follows. Stress also
nutritionists and food scientists imposed this grabs copper and essentially makes it unusable.
measure not just on the 1 percent of the general A patient once told me, referring to the other
population represented by pregnant women but three pillars of health (nutrition, hydration and
on everyone. In 1995, a study showed that the movement), “I’ve done all that, but I need to
reasoning about hemoglobin and anemia was get my stress in check.” This person knew that
flawed; analyzing over one hundred fifty-three nothing will work when stress levels are chroni-
thousand pregnancies, the researchers found cally up. I would add that while there are many
that not only is it normal for hemoglobin to go a options available to “manage” stress—and that
little lower during pregnancy, but that failure of can be helpful for a time—ultimately, you need
hemoglobin to fall below a certain level actually to address the root causes in the same way that
increases the risk of poor outcomes such as low you would do for a physical condition. True
birth weight and preterm delivery. peace is a foundational component to building
36
As Weston A. Price Foundation members resiliency.
know, twentieth-century changes in agricul-
ture—mechanized farming, ammonium nitrate Dr. Ben Edwards obtained his medical degree
fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides including from the University of Texas-Houston Medical
glyphosate—have had a profound impact on the School. He completed his internship and fam-
availability of minerals in soil and food. Copper ily practice residency in Waco at the McLen-
depletion has been particularly significant. It nan County Medical Education and Research
37
currently takes twenty-one apples to provide the Foundation where he was chief resident. Post-
same amount of copper contained in two 1950s residency, he moved to rural west Texas where
apples, and fifteen cabbages at present to furnish he worked as the only physician in the county
the copper in a single mid-twentieth-century at Garza County Health Clinic. After seven
cabbage. Interestingly, bronze farm tools (made years of practicing conventional rural family
up of 92 percent copper) are known to produce medicine, Dr. Edwards made the transition to
better results (in terms of magnetic frequencies an integrative functional medicine practice and
in the soil and microbial balance) than iron tools. founded Veritas Medical in 2012. He now over-
sees six other medical providers at three clinics.
PEACE He lives with his wife Jamie and six children in
The fourth pillar of health—peace—is also a small town outside of Lubbock.

ASSESSING IRON OVERLOAD

Standard tests assess the amount of iron in the blood. However, even if a blood test shows iron levels to be “nor-
mal” or “low,” iron in the blood does not equal iron in the tissues—and the tissues may well be iron-saturated. There
is a combination of blood tests that doctors can do to get more of a read on iron overload, but one has to know how
to interpret them correctly, and most doctors don’t have that knowledge.
The ideal test would be an easy-to-use and easy-to-understand test for the ferroxidase enzyme. At some point, a
test like that may become available. In the meantime, I use patient history to evaluate iron overload. If patients have
eaten the standard American diet for any number of years or decades, then—unless they are experiencing extensive
bleeding for some reason (such as with very heavy menstrual cycles or ulcerative colitis), I’m going to assume that
they are high in iron.
24 Wise Traditions FALL 2020