![Letters, Fall 2022](https://www.westonaprice.org/wp-content/uploads/blankfeaturedimage.png)
Mercury, Low-Sulfur Diet, 5G, Raw Milk and more…
DEVIL IN THE MERCURY?
Your article, “The Devil in the Garlic: The Paradoxical Roles of Sulfur in Human Physiology” (Summer 2022) missed the forest for the trees. The sulfur dysregulation symptoms and diet they describe have a high level of overlap with low-level mercury toxicity and the benefits of a low-thiol diet, which is a subset of a low-sulfur diet.
The biochemistry of sulfur in humans is interesting, but the authors give only vague theories why some people and not others can̕t metabolize it well, and why those people benefit from reducing their intake of sulfur-rich foods. Low-level mercury poisoning is epidemic—exposure sources include amalgam dental fillings, vaccines and many others—which can be passed from mother to a developing fetus and can cause most of the chronic illnesses listed in the article. Wise Traditions covered this subject well in the Spring 2018 edition and in a recent low-thiol cookbook review.
Those with mercury toxicity often benefit from a low-thiol diet, which cuts out foods high in free or unbound thiol, a kind of sulfur group that reliably redistributes mercury around the body, causing symptoms to abate very briefly, as an amount of mercury is pulled out of tissues and organs into the bloodstream, and then become much worse over a few days, as it̕s redeposited elsewhere.
Foods that are high in sulfur and also in thiols include dairy, eggs, legumes, garlic and onions, the cabbage family, dark leafy greens, chocolate and coffee. Foods that are high in sulfur but low in thiol include meat and seafood, almonds, walnuts, Brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dried fruit, oats, wheat and ground ginger.
According to Wikipedia, “A thiol
. . . or thiol derivative is any organosulfur compound of the form R−SH, where R represents an alkyl or other organic substituent.” Some forms of dietary sulfur are specifically thiol compounds, and foods that we refer to as “high-thiol” have a relatively high level of unbound thiol compounds, whereas other foods could have a high level of sulfur, but in other kinds of compounds, such as meat, which wouldn̕t trigger the same mercury redistribution in those who are sensitive.
A low-thiol diet often helps people feel better, but the true fix—and that which enables sufferers to eat these foods again without restriction—is gentle, low-dose mercury chelation described by Dr. Andrew Cutler in his books Amalgam Illness and The Mercury Detoxification Manual, which are apparently already endorsed by the WAPF.
I noticed that though not all high-sulfur foods are high-thiol, the authors only highlighted foods that are known to be high-thiol for an exclusion-diet trial. What about the low-thiol high-sulfur foods? Why wouldn̕t those be problematic?
Name Withheld
Reply from Dr. Greg Nigh: I appreciate the feedback and the observations related to sulfur, thiols and mercury. A few comments around those topics:
First, I certainly make no claim that sulfur-metabolism issues are the only explanation for the symptoms I’ve seen resolved with the low-sulfur protocol we’re implementing in the clinic. I am confident that mercury toxicity plays a complicating role for many people. Anyone doing regular heavy metal testing knows that virtually everyone tested has some level of excess That said, most of the patients coming to me find me in the first place because they have “tried everything” (a phrase used by almost everyone) to improve their symptoms and nothing has consistently worked. It is not at all uncommon that doing a heavy metal chelation program is among the therapies they describe having done in the past, sometimes spanning several years. I always ask whether they felt better after doing that. Some say yes, typically for a short time, but most say “not really.”
In a large percentage of patients who implement the full low-sulfur dietary program that Maria has developed, along with the supporting nutrients and the home therapies I am suggesting for them, they report back that they feel quite significantly better, and often in a very short time. Again, not everyone, but a significant majority. And these are typically not short-term improvements but the most sustained improvement some have experienced in decades.
We are able to get most to a place where they can reintroduce most high-sulfur foods back into their diet without provoking a return of symptoms. Not uncommonly, though, there will be one or maybe a few of the high-sulfur foods they just can’t seem to tolerate. Which sulfur foods this will be is unpredictable, and I don’t think it fits the thiol model of reactivity. Nor do I think the symptom picture we see resolved has consistent overlap with symptoms associated with mercury toxicity.
If mercury toxicity were the explanation for the myriad symptoms we see associated with sulfur dysregulation, I am at a loss how to explain the very rapid and sustained resolution of most or all symptoms many of our patients experience with this protocol. I fully acknowledge the enormous biological damage that mercury toxicity causes and fully support the clinical approach of clearing it and other heavy metals from the body. But my clinical observations don’t fully jibe with the idea that what I’m calling a sulfur-dysregulation issue is actually a hidden mercury toxicity issue.
Greg Nigh, author of The Devil in the Garlic, will be a speaker at Wise Traditions 2022.
SUCCESS WITH THE LOW-SULFUR DIET
Once again, WAPF has saved my life! All those years I thought I was reacting to fiber, or eating too much fat . . . it was the sulfur! Within two days of the low-sulfur protocol, my gut (and really my entire torso) deflated. I can finally eat a large meal (and even things like bell peppers and tomatoes that I thought I couldn̕t) without discomfort and bloating. I finally don’t look like I’m carrying a basketball in my belly at night.
My skin’s transformation has been dramatic. I had skin so dry and scaly that dry-scrubbing resulted in my being enveloped in a cloud of skin particles that looked like snow. I haven’t had a scale to speak of since starting a month ago, and my skin is smooth as silk. Could it all be from the Epsom salt baths? I would think if Epsom salt turned your skin baby-soft, everyone in the world would be using it.
And now I know why I had elevated blood glucose readings despite my low-carb and low-sugar diet! (This is explained in the book.) And why I have had tingling feelings just under my skin (for which a homeopath had suggested homeopathic sulfur for me years ago!) And why I had a rash across my upper abdomen almost nightly for the past fifteen years. It is now gone, unless I have something with a lot of sulfur in it, in which case the rash promptly reappears. Interestingly, as this diet calls for eating many more carbs than I was used to, I have not had any weight gain, nor fungal issues from the fruit sugar as in the past.
I have now been able to add several sulfur foods back in with only minor issues. Currently I’m working on breaking up biofilm with lumbrokinase and serrapeptase (especially important for people with a history of candida overgrowth.) If anyone has any questions, and wants to email me privately, I’m at ravensphere@gmail.com.
By the way, some have mentioned getting cramps from Epsom salt baths. I experienced some too. Don’t know why. Nevertheless, I’m grateful, grateful, grateful!
Michelle Eshbaugh-Soha
Chapter Leader
Denton, Texas
TOXIC 5G
I would like to report adverse effects from the “turning on” of 5G. Since the beginning of 2022, my husband has been battling a health decline.
My husband was thirty years old at the new year and is now thirty-one. We think your email announcement about the “5G turn on” and his sudden health issues are not coincidental. As Pope Saint John Paul II said, “In the designs of Providence, there are no mere coincidences.” In these past seven months, my husband has experienced unending fatigue and not many hours slept at night; weight gain and difficulty losing weight; difficulty breathing night and day; and headaches.
We live in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, and although we are not in an area that has small cell 5G transmitters, we are certainly immersed in EMF smog and the electric grid. When we leave the Phoenix area and go to a more rural or native desert region of the state, he immediately feels better and his symptoms disappear. This happens in areas that are sparsely populated and that do not have many power lines.
We were on the Full GAPS Diet from September 2021 to April 2022. So, the new year of 2022 was smack in the middle of our diet. It was so strange for him to be feeling okay on the diet and then all of a sudden, he felt worse than before we started the diet. This fact also leads me to believe it is because of the introduction of 5G.
In the past couple of months, he has probably become adapted to this 5G technology attacking his immune system and health. He is breathing easier and sleeping better. The fatigue is still a concern but really, life has to continue so he is pushing himself through it.
As for me, I went through the fatigue just as he did, but I bounced back faster. Being hit hard but then bouncing back is something Dr. Louisa Williams spoke of on Wise Traditions podcast episode #373. Nevertheless, my husband and I have decided to leave the Phoenix Valley and move to a small town with lots of native desert, Wickenburg, Arizona. We close on a piece of land with some acreage in early September, on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We look forward to living a natural and clean lifestyle. Thank you to WAPF for helping lead us to this change.
This 5G and small cell technology are truly evil. How dare these few individuals who are allowed to make such large and lasting impacts on the common folk like us! We will keep fighting against 5G technology and for health freedom.
Casey S.
Phoenix, Arizona
![children choosing healthy snacks at an outdoor Farm School Meal table](https://www.westonaprice.org/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
FARM SCHOOL MEALS
I thought you’d enjoy seeing our snack at farm school. We do all WAPF meals, two per day—one snack and one lunch for forty-five young farmers and three to ten counselors and crew. Ferments, raw dairy, veggies and sourdough are the mainstay. Then one stew, meatballs with liver, or beef and tacos for lunch. For dessert, banana bread topped with whipped cream and berries picked by our young farmers, or cobbler, or flan.
The kids eat everything we put out, especially the pickles! They consumed over five gallons the first week. They spontaneously chant, “Butter is better.”
Bravery is our motto, observation our focus. This farm school’s intent is to teach the kids to do scary things like cutting down small trees and go into the bee hives. Everything just makes the kids hungry!
Leigh Merinoff
Chapter Leader
West River/W. Townsend, Vermont
FROM A VACCINATED AUSTRALIAN
If Covid were a battlefield, it would still be warm with the bodies of the unvaccinated. Thankfully, the mandates are letting up and both sides of the war stumble back to the new normal.
The unvaccinated are the heroes of the last two years as they allowed us all to have a control group in the great experiment and highlight the shortcoming of the Covid vaccines. The unvaccinated carry many battle scars and injuries with the efforts to mentally break them, yet no one wants to talk about what happened to them and what they forced “The Science” to unveil. We knew that the waning immunity of the fully vaccinated had the same risk profile as others within society as the minority of the unvaccinated, yet we marked them for special persecution. You see we said they had not “done the right thing for the greater good” by handing their bodies and medical autonomy over to the State.
Many of the so-called health experts and political leaders in Australia admitted the goal was to make life almost unlivable for the unvaccinated, which was multiplied many times by the collective mob, with the fight taken into workplaces, friendships and family gatherings. Today the hard truth is that none of it was justified as we took a quick slide from righteousness to absolute cruelty. We might lay the blame on our leaders and health experts for the push, but each individual within society must be held accountable for stepping into the well-laid trap.
We did this despite knowing full well that principled opposition is priceless when it comes to what goes inside our bodies, and we let ourselves be tricked into believing that going into another ineffective lockdown would be the fault of the unvaccinated and not the fault of the toxic policy of ineffective vaccines. We took pleasure in scapegoating the unvaccinated because after months of engineered lockdowns by political leaders blinded by power, having someone to blame and to burn at the stake felt good.
We believed we had logic, love and truth on our side so it was easy to wish death upon the unvaccinated. Those of us who ridiculed and mocked the non-compliant did it because we were embarrassed by their courage and principles and didn’t think the unvaccinated would make it through unbroken, and we turned the holdouts into punching bags. Lambie, Carr, Chant, Andrews, McGowan, Gunner and the other cast of hundreds in prominent roles need to be held to account for vilifying the unvaccinated in public and fueling angry social media mobs. The mobs, the mask Nazis, and the vaccine disciples have been embarrassed by “betting against” the unvaccinated because mandates only had the power we gave them.
It was not compliance that ended domination by big pharma companies, Bill Gates and his many organizations, and the World Economic Forum. . . It was thanks to the people we tried to embarrass, ridicule, mock and tear down. We should all try to find some inner gratitude for the unvaccinated as we took the bait by hating them because their perseverance and courage bought us the time to see we were wrong.
So if mandates ever return for Covid or any other disease or virus, hopefully, more of us will be awake and see the rising authoritarianism that has no concern for our well-being and is more about power and control. The War on the Unvaccinated was lost and we should all be very thankful for that.
Author Unknown
GMO MILK
Most of the milk out there, which many of us drink for the calcium, may well be partly GMO. There was experimentally proven a horizontal genetic drift, where genes from GMOs consumed in the diet can pass to the gut bacteria, which then can pass those genes to the organism they inhabit.
Some may say, “Why now this GMO, why do we need to think about it? It doesn̕t affect us much!” Not for now, maybe. But your children, and the children of your children, will have greater chances of being born genetic cripples. Studies have shown cancer development in mice, in addition to many birth defects, who were fed only GMO crops. That happened to most of the mice, not to one or two of them. It didn̕t happen at once, but it did happen in the end. Do you know how many children are born now with birth defects, compared with twenty years ago? I don̕t want to spread fear, but I want to spread awareness.
Most milk and dairy products sold in supermarkets and on the Internet are probably already partly GMO. This is because the stock at most big farms is fed corn and soy. Most of the corn and soy, commercially available as cheap stock food, is GMO. Thus, most of the milk, cheese and dairy products, such as the skim milk powder, kefir, yogurt, cream, ice cream and whey protein that you can find, is probably part GMO.
Fortunately, there is a way to make sure the milk you buy is actually from pasture-fed cows, or at least cows fed only a minimal amount of corn and soy. It relies on brix numbers. I have tested some milk brands in Spain, and most milk in the supermarket has a brix of nine to ten—whether raw milk or UHT, it has the same brix reading. However, milk from pasture-fed cows gives readings of thirteen to fourteen. One milk brand gave a reading of sixteen!
How does this prove that those cows who give milk with a brix reading of sixteen ate no, or almost no GMO crops? Well, a GMO crop usually has a very low brix, meaning it is low in minerals. So, a cow eating lots of GMO crops would also have a milk with a low brix reading. However, it is possible that someone who feeds stock non-GMO crops may also have a reading of nine to ten because they use low-mineralized crops. But most farms buy some or all GMO crops and seldom grow their own low-mineral non-GMO crops. It is also possible that milk labeled from pasture-fed cows may have a reading of only ten to twelve, perhaps because the cows are on pasture only a few hours per day and the rest of the day are given GMO grains.
GMO feeding can affect the meat as well. This would mean that most commercially available poultry, eggs, meat and fish (especially salmon) also should be avoided, if you don̕t want GMOs in your body.
Maybe some food labeled organic may be free of GMOs. But who checks those cows or chickens to make sure they were fed 100 percent organic, non-GMO feed? And that there were no GMO fields growing near them? Because GMO crops can pass GMO genetic material to non-GMO crops growing nearby. This is a proven fact.
How do we solve this dilemma? You can buy your meat, eggs and dairy products from a trusted source. Buy from farmers you know and trust, who don̕t use GMO crops, nor buy any GMO crops for their livestock. If you want, you can move to live on your own land. Grow your own high-brix, high-quality food! That̕s one of the best choices out there!
Valerii Arvat
Chisinau, Moldova
ROOT CANALS ALMOST DESTROYED MY BODY
Since my teens I have been extremely capable physically in sports, physical work and martial arts. My aim in life was to be both martial artist and Chinese medicine doctor. But martial arts was definitely my first goal.
I had my first root canal aged around seventeen. A few years later I remember complaining about a constant pressure behind my ear. Also strangely, aged around twenty-five, I suddenly couldn̕t go full power anymore at the gym, I put it down to stress from university studies. Also, my sexual appetite fluctuated, which I attributed to a difficult relationship.
In my late twenties I had a bad dental experience in a Third World country, and after that I refused to see any dentist for years, which resulted in four more root canals when I finally did visit a dentist again. I immediately started getting very sick, first of all inflammation in the ankle and upper spine, then muscle atrophy and lethargy plus many strange inflammatory symptoms. Also, that pressure behind my ears was driving me crazy. During that time, I aged ten years in less than two years—skin, muscles, strength. Suddenly I couldn̕t even handle the heat as my body was always on fire.
I had to return to Europe in the end due to these problems, and with the better diet and cooler temperatures I fared better. But the problems kept coming up, for instance, boils all over the body, and nobody knew why. Last winter it became serious, starting with what felt like gallbladder pain. After a few weeks and months this pain progressed to chest pain and racing pulse. Eventually I had to be admitted to hospital for two days, where I was diagnosed with pericarditis. Following this I was in bed for two months with extreme pain, hardly able to breathe—until one day one of the three remaining root canals developed an infection. I got antibiotics from the pharmacy and the next morning my symptoms were 95 percent improved.
After taking anti-inflammatories until my stomach was raw and the max dosage of painkillers for weeks, it was always the tooth, and a dose of antibiotics cured it. One week later I had it removed. The following months
I felt the energy of a twenty-year-old and managed to do full workouts in the gym again for the first time in nearly a decade.
Now there are two remaining root canals, the extreme surge of energy has balanced out, but the pericarditis nearly came back last month. I immediately had a few rounds of intravenous vitamins, amino acids and glutathione which healed even the last bit of strange feelings from pericarditis and have me feeling the best I have all year.
I always knew root canals could play a big role in my autoimmune disease, but it never really dawned on me that they could be the only cause, and that I̕m a healthy person being continuously poisoned by dead teeth in my mouth. In fact, there was a turn in psychology—from thinking of myself as a sick person, to realizing I have an incredibly strong body that took this level of poisoning for nearly twenty years and is still walking. To get to the ultimate bottom of this I went to probably the best dental clinic in the world for this kind of problem, the Biohealth Centre in Switzerland. There I had a full diagnosis and a complete treatment will cost about fifty thousand euros!
Miro Westmaas
Monaghan, Ireland
TRIP TO THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Recently I traveled to the Czech Republic for family business. I am pleased to report hardly anyone wore a mask; if we saw someone with a mask it was probably a tourist. We were around tons of people—in buses, trains, trams, underground, stores, on the streets and somehow we were fine! We even had to go to the hospital three times to check on a relative, and nobody asked us any-thing, thank God. At the same time, I know that the Czechs have been more of the rule followers during the lockdown. Getting to more alternative information and truth is much harder over there. You have to seek it yourself or be educated already.
We enjoyed the food while there. The big supermarket called Globus had a section with artisan meats plus a huge selection of cheeses. Meat stores sell lots of products with organ meats and gelatin. You can also buy traditional fats such as lard and goose fat. My girls found it fun to find pig̕s feet and even a pig̕s head at a store. But they also sell lots of processed foods, and I noticed that people have gotten fatter in my home country. I think it̕s due to preservatives, fast food, sodas and a more sedentary lifestyle. And unfortunately, the food prices have been skyrocketing there.
![artisan meats and large selection of cheeses at Globus, a Czech Republic supermarket](https://www.westonaprice.org/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
People have been experiencing side effects from the jab, but nobody really questions anything. Only one gentleman shared with us that his two good friends died shortly after the injection and his mom (age eighty-six) developed full-blown Alzheimer̕s the day of the injection. She was capable of fully living on her own and now she̕s very dependent on him. It is very sad and he said he wasn̕t alone in his observations, and people have been talking.
Anna Simpson
Chapter Leader
Tolland County, Connecticut
INTRIGUED BY CLAY
I recently listened to episode 372 of your podcast with Victor Cozzetto entitled “Clay: Ancient Earth Medicine.” [See page 54 for podcast transcsript.] I was so intrigued that when I got home, I mixed half a teaspoon of some French green clay (I had some on hand for face masks) in a quart of water. I stirred it with a wooden spoon and left it overnight. The next day, I was debating how much to drink, so I put the glass to my lips. When the clay-water hit my mouth, my whole body seemed to sense the heaviness of the clay water and I thought, “Whoa, I had better go slow with this stuff!” So, I just took a small sip that morning. Later that evening just before bed, I had another sip and drank a full glass of water.
The next day I woke up and my husband asked if I had eaten anything the day before or what on earth had I done, because all my gut inflammation was completely gone and it looked like I had lost weight! So, I did the same protocol: one sip in the morning followed by a full glass of water, and the same at night before bed. I noticed the second day that my body was beginning to show signs of detoxing! Frequent trips to the bathroom and acne on odd places like my ears and cheeks! This kind of information excites me as I know that it means the clay is providing something my body needs to continue on its healing journey and push toxins out.
I am going to continue the clay protocol and am excited to see what happens. I looked up episode 215 on kefir, which was also with Cozzetto, and have dusted off my kefir grains to see how the two work together. Thanks for providing such fun, easy, practical ways to support my body.
Rachel Hester
WhoopsyDaisy Farm
Waynesburg, Kentucky
THRIVING ON RAW MILK
My chubby, very cute, happy, basketball-loving nineteen-month-old grandson is thriving on raw milk. He does not want to eat. He was born at home, nursed, and did not develop chewing capabilities until after a year old. He would sometimes gnaw on homemade arrowroot crackers. He would not touch egg yolks. But now he doesn̕t want anything except raw milk. As a young infant he was not a good sleeper nor was he an easy baby even though he was nursed and all the “right” things were happening. . . but his sleeping has improved recently. His forty-two-year-old mom tries to follow WAPF principles. One day soon, no doubt, he will find his appetite and will chow down food like his five siblings. I just find it fascinating that when you give children the right thing, they thrive even when it seems minimal to us.
I also know of a seventeen-year-old girl who was diagnosed with cancer. After a million and a half dollars in medical treatments and two strokes in a very short time, she was dying before her mother̕s eyes. She is now on raw milk, and she is gaining weight and regaining some strength. Since she is refusing more allopathy, CPS is after her parents, but she won̕t go back. She does eat other food, of course, and is using a few other therapies, but raw milk provides her with digestible nutrition while her body works to heal and overcome the powerful insults of modern treatments.
Another story is about a client whose son, age two and one-half, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. At the time the mother opted for the whole medical route for her child, which included very frequent trips to New York for years where specialists did clinical trials on him and other children. Finally, after there was nothing more to do, and many of the other children had died, the mother realized her son would also die. In her desperation she fearfully tried my suggestions, which included raw milk and raw liver in his G tube. I did not know whether he would live. Today he is a thriving fifteen-year-old, medically diagnosed cancer-free for over seven years. He does have some residual issues with one kidney, but he is going to school, playing ball and catching up from years of trauma. He has had no medicine for two years. Praise God!
I love to recommend raw milk especially in situations where digestive issues are serious. In these cases getting adequate nutrition is paramount, but difficult. Raw milk—since the greens are already “processed” through the four stomachs of the cow—assimilates so easily and gives tremendous benefits! I grew up on it, gave it to my five children and still drink it daily.
Connie Newcome
Chapter Leader
McPherson/Hutchinson, Kansas
HERDSHARE OPPORTUNITY
We want to send our sincerest thanks for the opportunity your website and work for food freedom has given to our family. We began our raw milk herdshare on our farm about four years ago when we were only milking one cow. At the time, we had interest from several neighbors and friends.
We then increased our herd to three cows last year and decided to list our farm on the Real Milk Finder at realmilk.com. Since listing our farm only a few months ago, our membership has grown exponentially. We have now grown to six beautiful dairy cows to meet the demand. We attribute most of the growth to the listing on your website and can’t thank you enough for this service that you provide.
Michelle Barringer
Shelter Mountain Farm
Mount Gilead, North Carolina
If you have a sulfur excess you may get cramps or other reactions from epsom salts baths due to it being partly magnesium sulfate.