Letters, Winter 2018

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THE WISE MINORITY
We rarely run into or hear of a large group of wise people, that is, the wise are rarely in the majority. This is a problem in a democracy, a problem which the founders of our country discussed and tried to protect against.

Majorities go awry at times, perhaps often, and then how important it is to have a few voices in the minority to speak up.

On a number of important issues, the Weston A. Price Foundation is in the minority and seems to be the only voice speaking up. I thank you for it. I also thank you for your quarterly journal, which is printed on paper,and can be held in one’s hand.

As Wall Street genius Jack Dreyfus once said, “Every now and then a little common sense ought to be permitted.” Let us try to provide a little common sense.
David Ellis
Portsmouth, Rhode Island

5G ROLLOUT
In this brave new world, capitalism-at-any-cost continues to drive Father Technology with a vengeance, with no real consideration for Mother Nature—the opposite of what the Weston A. Price Foundation has been trying to communicate for the last twenty years. The new 5G towers have recently been rolled out in Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, Washington DC, Houston, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Sacramento and Las Vegas. The former FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, and other industry leaders are eschewing any safety concerns from the resulting higher radiation levels in order to position the U.S. as the front-runner in this emerging technology, and to benefit from the billions of dollars that can be made.

Fortunately, even people outside our holistic community are speaking up. Firefighters in California have filed to have the 5G towers outside their stations removed after reporting an epidemic of disturbing neurological symptoms (confusion, memory loss, headaches, insomnia). Furthermore, some cities, like Santa Rosa, California, are not allowing 5G towers to be installed until further research on the health repercussions from this powerful radiation are addressed. And although the CDC and EPA continue to report that 5G is safe, over two hundred forty scientists and doctors from forty-one nations have appealed to the United Nations to institute a moratorium on this 5G rollout due to the serious human and environmental health risks linked with this dangerous ionizing radiation.
Louisa Williams
Austin, Texas

VACCINATION HORROR
A few cases of measles or chickenpox—benign infections in healthy children that last a week or so, confer lifetime immunity, prime and develop the immune system when contracted via natural means during childhood, enable females to then pass on immunity to their babies during the vulnerable time of infancy and which we are learning protect against cancer both in childhood and later in adulthood—trigger our pharma-backed mainstream media to scream outbreak, to manipulate the public to go into panic mode, and to declare a state of national emergency, all of which are then used to generate more vaccine mandates for more people.

At the same time, over nine thousand children per month are being diagnosed with a severe, permanent, lifetime disorder of autism (based on the previously published rate of one in thirty-six), which is breaking the banks of families, school systems and our country, rendering the majority of its victims dependent for life, rather than independent, participating, productive, income-generating, self-sufficient citizens, and which robs its sufferers of proper development and, for most, of the ability to lead an independent life, including college, driving, working, marrying and having children. . . all of which is unbelievably and categorically ignored, dismissed, denied, scoffed at, demeaned, belittled, lied about and left to continue increasing and devastating lives with no plans to stop it.
Laura Hayes
Granite Bay, California
Read the full text of Laura’s recent presentation in Utah, “Why Is This Legal?” at www.ageofautism.com/2018/11/why-is-this-legal-presentation-on-vaccines-by-laura-hayes.html.

HEALING THROUGH WAPF
I am writing this to thank the Weston A. Price Foundation for everything you have done to change my life for the better. Six years ago, I found myself in an absolute health crisis as a young mother of three children under four, sick and weak with severe adrenal fatigue. I was quickly losing weight and unable to function. It took two years under the care of a brilliant WAPF chapter-leader naturopathic doctor, a change in my dietary habits, targeted Standard Process supplementation and lots of prayer, but I was completely healed and restored to a place so much healthier and stronger than I could ever have dreamed. The healing process through the use of traditional foods was astounding to watch and to experience, as each day brought with it a renewed hope.

Inspired and encouraged by how powerfully food and the healing arts affected my life, I completed the nutritional therapy consultant course through the Nutritional Therapy Association in 2014 in order to help others. I had been enjoying a very full life as a wife and mother, feeling wonderful, until some digestive issues flared up a few weeks ago out of the blue. To my chagrin, I found myself unable to eat anything at all without being in searing, agonizing pain for hours. The pain was comparable to childbirth and had me losing weight quickly again.

My trusted naturopathic doctor recommended three things: raw milk, rare beef and Gastrex from Standard Process. Raw milk is readily available at the health food store over the border in Connecticut from where I live in New York, and I have consumed gallons over the past few weeks. I have felt wonderful and have not once had a day where I was dizzy or weak. Raw milk has sustained me and I am able to consume it without any pain whatsoever. The addition of rare beef last night had me anxious, as anything solid I have tried has left me in agony for hours, but fortunately, it did not cause any pain. I am looking forward to healing my digestive issues completely though a traditional diet and the WAPF guidelines. Thank you, thank you for all you do and the knowledge you have imparted to me over the years. My family and I are eternally grateful.
Vanessa Leahey
South Salem, New York

THE ROOT OF A THYROID PROBLEM
I am writing because I had a root canal-treated tooth removed at the end of July after spending eighteen months working with a thyroid specialist to get to the root of my Hashimoto’s Disease. I’ve likely had Hashimoto’s most of my life, however, I only received a diagnosis about two years ago when I abandoned our conventional health care system and had a full thyroid panel of tests done on my own. I tested high for thyroid antibodies, a test which all of my previous doctors failed to mention. The long and the short is that I went through all the conventional treatments for hypothyroidism, and none of them yielded any lasting improvement. I even did three rounds of something called the Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome Protocol which did initially produce some symptom improvement but ultimately did not resolve my issues.

I was gearing up to start another cycle of this T3-only treatment, which is on the controversial end of the spectrum by conventional standards, when I came across some research by Dr. Weston Price. I had a post and crown in a root-canal-treated tooth since it was knocked out by a rock when I was ten years old. I was getting ready to replace the crown anyway, and I thought that rather than invest in the new crown, I would hold off on any further thyroid treatment and see about having the tooth properly extracted instead.

One of my hypothyroid symptoms was always being cold, and I tracked my body temperature almost obsessively for over a year prior to the tooth extraction. I normally ran 96.5 to 97.5 degrees. Nine days after the tooth extraction, my body temperature went up, and I am over 98.0 every day now, hitting 98.6 most days. My first full menstrual cycle since the tooth extraction went from forty-two days to twenty-nine days, and my basal body temperature seems to have a more delineated follicular and luteal phase pattern, as it should.

Given several significant changes obviously related to shifts in my hormones, my doctor ordered blood work to determine whether my estrogen and progesterone had gone up. Consistent with my symptom improvement, my estrogen has doubled and my progesterone has increased over 1000 percent! For over two years, my progesterone has tested in the post-menopausal range. I am forty-two and every health care practitioner I have met with agrees that my symptoms are not perimenopausal in nature. My tooth is the only variable that changed in this period of time, and my doctors had exhausted all of their usual treatments for autoimmune hypothyroidism, including radical dietary and lifestyle changes.

This is still likely to be a long journey, but I feel like I am finally on the right path. I have asked my doctors for help for over twenty years only to be told that my problems were either in my head or that there was nothing wrong with me. It would seem they were correct about the issue being in my head, but I’m not sure they were considering the oral cavity in their assessments. Despite the well-established link between root canals and periodontal disease with heart disease and stroke, the problem is that it takes many years for those issues to develop and be empirically measured. What is remarkable about the female body is that we have things that are measurable and quantifiable when there is a changed variable, like the extraction of a root canal-treated tooth on a monthly or even daily basis. As such, I believe that women will be at the center of bringing this issue into the public eye. If WAPF has any members who are experts in endocrinology or integrative medicine, I would be very interested in connecting with them.

I am writing for a couple of reasons. First, my tooth is still preserved, and I was very much hoping to have it sent to someone to have a full pathology report done and a culture of whatever bacteria might be growing inside of it, but the professor who used to perform the dissections for my oral surgeon is no longer at the university where they previously sent specimens. I am wondering whether WAPF or any of its members have any resources for scientists who still perform such testing. If so, I would love to get in touch with them.

Secondly, this has been quite an emotional journey for me, and it has left me profoundly moved. I feel like I need to do something with it to help facilitate change—change in how this dental procedure is practiced and marketed, change in our approach to health and dental care, change in how we demand access to clean, healthy foods.

I am in the preliminary stages of building a new website: rootcanalsafety.org which came about after a few discussions with dentists and oral surgeons about the fact that there is no central database or organization to collect doctor and patient accounts of health improvements after the proper removal of root-canal-treated teeth. Such stories then end up being referenced as anecdotal. There is power in numbers and allowing patients to tell their stories in one central location may provide the weight needed to bring this issue into the public eye where it belongs. My intention is to build a database where doctors and patients can report those accounts and the data can be collected, analyzed and used for public-awareness purposes. It is not intended as a commercial website or blog, just a reporting site.

I started a crowdfunding campaign. If we can raise even a few thousand dollars—which I think I can manage just through the thyroid and autoimmune communities on social media—we can at least get the database programmed and worry about a promotional campaign to alert doctors and patients about the tool later. Right now, I am looking to make any meaningful connections with doctors, dentists, anthropologists, patients and whoever might have a passionate interest in participating in one form or another in creating public awareness about root canal safety.

I am shocked at how many dentists and physicians I have spoken to who have never even heard of focal infection theory as it relates to root canal-treated teeth. The Internet and social media really have leveled the playing field to a large extent when it comes to David-and-Goliath kinds of issues. I think there’s a reason this happened to me, and I would be remiss not to do something bigger than myself with it.

If you know anyone who would be interested in contributing even ten dollars to the cause, the GoFundMe link for rootcanalsafety.org is at gofundme.com/root-canal-safety-website.
Jennifer Mayo
Stevensville, Michigan

BIRTHRIGHT TO BE HEALTHY
I am a chapter leader in Australia and will start working with children next year after completing my studies. I have healed myself using Weston Price principles for the past eight years and find my health improving every year. This is in contrast to many older people I know. I am fifty-eight, and many of my age are experiencing multiple health issues and taking lots of medications.

I was speaking to a friend yesterday about placing my grandson on the GAPS diet to attempt to address some mild behavior and gut issues as I also find Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride an inspiration. I told my friend something that I heard via a WAPF conference, which I downloaded one year. “It’s our children’s birthright to be healthy.” My friend understood this and told me to keep spreading the word. So, firstly, thank you for your inspiration, and secondly, it made me wonder whether the Weston A. Price Foundation could organize a conference with a theme of healthy children. Not sure if this has been done already, but I would love to come!

Rhonda Baker, Chapter Leader
Milton Ulladulla, Australia
Editor’s Response: A few years ago the theme of Wise Traditions was healthy children; maybe it’s time for our conference to focus on that again. We do have a special section of our website devoted to children’s health: westonaprice.org/childrenshealth/

STILL ZAPPED?
People watching the documentary Generation Zapped favorably reviewed in the Fall 2018 edition of Wise Traditions, need to be aware that, while the documentary is very well done and informative, two safety recommendations that came at the end are not good advice.

Using wired earpieces to keep the phone from being pressed to the head while in use is not good advice since phone radiation can be conducted to the head via the wires. A better solution is that offered by electrical engineer Jeromy Johnson at his website, www.emfanalysis.com. He recommends a vacuum airtube headset, which keeps any radiation from coming up to your head, which is what happens with a normal wired headset. It also provides excellent sound quality. This headset, along with utilizing a speaker phone and airplane mode, are the best ways to protect yourself from cell phone radiation.

Another particularly bad solution also offered at the end of the documentary was the Broadband Over Power Lines (BPL) home Internet system used by one of the interviewees who got sick from EMF. I watched the movie with Paul Harding of TotalEMFSolutions.com, and we both were astonished that this variant of the biotoxic PLC system was being presented as a healthy wired solution. No wonder the poor guy in the movie is still sick; he has not reduced his exposure to EMF by using BPL like he thinks he has.
Warren Woodward
Sedona, Arizona

Reply from Sabine El Gemayel, producer of Generation Zapped: Total hardwiring and not using a cell phone at all are the best practices indeed. However, not everyone can, wants or agrees to be totally disconnected and not use this technology. This film is made for the mainstream and for the skeptics. It advocates reducing exposure and being conscious of sources of exposure. It is not a film that discourages people to use their technology. The broadband option is the cheaper option to hardwiring for some people who cannot afford to rewire their homes. It depends where it’s located. While it’s not the best, it is the most accessible option for people who aren’t sure or want to try out hardwiring before incurring the expense. Air tube headsets are the best and that’s what our social media is advocating. Again, for someone who insists on putting their phone to their head, it’s best to use some type of headset rather than sticking it to their head. So while your comments are true, they are extreme and by being extreme, advocates preach to the choir rather than to expanding awareness in the mainstream. Jaimie in the film has found the BPL solution helped him tremendously and truly felt a difference. It was recommended by a building biologist. I hope that helps to clarify.

HYPERINSULINEMIA
Thank you, thank you, for publishing Amy Berger’s article “The Hidden Problem of Chronic Hyperinsulinemia” (Fall, 2018). I particularly appreciated the point she made: a diet that is healthy for traditional healthy people may not be appropriate for someone who is well along the path of metabolic disease. I had already figured this out for my own body. Despite eating a Wise Traditions diet for years, I still cannot tolerate carbohydrates. I get worse every time I try them (no matter how much fat I include). I believe that if I had not found a low-carb, high-fat, keto diet, I would have full-blown type 2 diabetes by now.

I have sometimes felt like I was not a “proper” WAPF member because if I include traditional sourdough bread, soaked whole grains, starchy tubers, natural sweeteners or more than a tiny bit of fruit, my body reacts badly. My blood sugar, insulin and weight all go up and my energy plummets. I have headaches, forget words and become tired and spacey.

It was wonderful to see this condition recognized in the Wise Traditions journal, the acknowledgement that some of us cannot process even traditional properly prepared carbohydrates in a healthy manner. I believe it is important that we encourage insulin-resistant people to follow the Wise Traditions principles of nutrient-dense nutrition while also reducing carbs to address insulin resistance. Diabetics, prediabetics and people with metabolic syndrome need vitamin A and the full complement of fat-soluble vitamins, possibly even more urgently than those with healthier metabolisms.

In my role as chapter leader, I never recommend people avoid traditional sources of carbohydrates if they tolerate them well. But a diet of grass-fed meat, pastured eggs, raw cream, raw cheese, green leafy and other low-carb vegetables, animal fats, organ meats, bone broth, fermented foods and crispy nuts and seeds is not a hardship. It is 100 percent compatible with the characteristics of traditional diets and the WAPF dietary guidelines.

Please keep supporting those of us whose bodies are no longer able to regulate insulin properly and who do best when limiting traditional sources of carbohydrates.
Lisa Bianco-Davis, Chapter Leader
Eugene, Oregon

Editor’s Response: The beauty of the Wise Traditions diet is that it does not dictate specific percentages of fats, carbohydrates or protein as the USDA Dietary Guidelines do. Everyone needs to adjust the amounts of these macronutrients to conform with the characteristics of his or her metabolism, while still following the basic principles of the diet.

DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN
I am retired from the FDA. I did not realize it when I worked at FDA, but I now believe the FDA is a corrupt organization. The way the corruption works is that large pharmaceutical and processed food corporations control the members of congress who sit on the committees that oversee the FDA. Any member of Congress who does not play ball will not be reelected.

Regarding your Thumbs Down review of Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic (Fall, 2018), it’s clear that malnutrition causes lack of physical development. To say otherwise is an absurdity. If you study the history of disinformation campaigns, you will notice that most disinformation campaigns have at their core one or more absurdities, such as the absurdity that chewing hard food is what prevents dental malformations. This helps you to know that it’s a disinformation campaign.

If you look at the history of coauthor Paul Ehrlich, he seems to be a part of a group that wants to make the population sicker and dumber. For decades, the government has been giving public health recommendations to make the population sicker and dumber. A population that is sicker and dumber is a population that is easier to control.

One could argue that the authors of Jaws are too smart to be stupid enough to believe what the book says. You could make a case that the book appears to be an intentional disinformation campaign written by people who know exactly what they are doing. It appears to be a subtle attempt to distract the public from recognizing the lack of nutrition in adulterated processed foods, and toward a phony prescription to solve the problem.
Frank Russell
Annandale, Virginia

DUMPING GROUND
I read the article about using the elderly as a dumping ground for pharma drugs (Fall, 2018), and I found myself cheering out loud in every paragraph. I write books about natural health and healing, and I don’t pull any punches when I explain to my readers how totally absurd modern diet and medicine are today, and how dangerous they are to human health and longevity. I love the way the Weston A. Price Foundation exposes the fallacies in mainstream food and medicine and doesn’t hesitate to point out how much harm they do to people.

Writing is a powerful weapon in the war between the true and the false, and ironic ridicule is often the best ammunition against the armor of lies and deceit the pharma and food industries use to conceal the truth from the public. It pierces the pseudo-scientific jibberjabber they use to fool people into using their noxious products, while entertaining the reader with comic relief. For sure, the pen is mightier than the sword!
Daniel Reid
Chiang Mai, Thailand

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