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A Powerful Remedy for Mental Diseases and Cancer |
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This powerful remedy for mental diseases and cancer is finally beginning to be recognized by the biomedical sciences. And here is more proof, again, that my discovery is correct. The diseases alleviated or prevented in this report range from neural and mental diseases, heart disease, arthritis, allergic conditions, cardiovascular diseases, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, to several types of cancer, including breast, prostate and colon cancer - all as stated in these pages (see SUPREME HEALTH).
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However - and while the omega-3 fatty acids focused upon here are crucially important to our health and well being - and while I have cured 3 incurable diseases (MS, ALS and Edema) in myself with just such a diet - there is much evidence that the complete range of the 72+ trace elements in seafood is just as important.
To whit: The astonishing and much studied life-long freedom from all diseases and great longevity of the Hunzas was described by several English army physicians as "the ideal in human mental and physical health". And the Hunzas lived high in the Himalayas - as far away from the sea as it is possible to get on this Earth.
Consequently, there just was not any seafood or fish in their diet; period. None; zilch; zero. Yet, the Hunzas enjoyed life-long freedom from all diseases and a typical life-span of 110 to 120 years - and most importantly, in supreme mental health.
Indeed, and being a relatively small and very prosperous tribe, the Hunzas were often attacked by their far more numerous and less prosperous neighbours. But, and although greatly outnumbered, the Hunzas always won and were never conquered. Their secret weapon? - their brilliant intelligence and far superior wits. That's it. The Hunzas always outsmarted their attackers - and for them, this was easy.
There are also numerous other populations around the world where seafood or fish does not play a role in their freedom from disease and longevity, as for the Georgians of Russia for instance. However, the common factor in all of those societies is an agriculture which retains the complete natural range of the 72+ trace elements in their daily nutrition (see A POISON-FREE AGRICULTURE
in these pages).
And while many small steps have been taken in this direction in the biomedical sciences, the crucial importance of the 72+ trace elements in our daily nutrition remains as yet generally unknown to the medical establishment.
The original report:
Food for the Brain
The belief that our early ancestors swung out of the trees into the savannah has taken a bashing recently. A theory gaining favour suggests that our forebears evolved at the water’s edge. This could explain why research is finding that a diet featuring oily fish can offset a wide variety of health problems.
Professor Michael Crawford, of the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition at the University of North London, says: “The basic biochemistry of our brains dictates that we must have had access to fish fats, and these simply were not available on the savannah. I am absolutely confident that the human brain could not have developed to the degree it did if we had not lived on a seafood-rich diet.”
He says that DHA, one of the important fish fats, is a constituent of nerve cell membranes for which there is no alternative. The fish fats have a wide variety of effects on health. They even seem to make us more intelligent.
Oily fish consumption has been linked in studies to increased IQ, and Crawford advises that pregnant and breast-feeding women need to include oily fish in their diet to ensure the optimum development of their children. Yet these valuable oils are sparse in the modern diet, as our consumption of fish has dropped by 50 per cent since the 1950s. We now eat just 144g (6oz) of fish a week, and our favorites are white-fleshed fish, low in the beneficial oils.
Crawford, who is worried that we risk going into evolutionary reversal if we continue our current non-fish-eating dietary trends, says: “In the 1970s my colleagues and I were warning that where cardiovascular disease leads, mental health follows. In the developing fetus, 70 per cent of energy that crosses the placenta is devoted to brain growth, and to develop at that rate you need a good vascular system.
“Fish oils are vital for the health of the cardiovascular system, and if heart disease is a problem, the brain is the next to go.” He adds that the rise in mental health problems is spectacular, and, according to the World Health Organization, will be the second leading threat to a long life after heart disease by 2020.
Amanda Geary, the author of The Guide to Food and Mood, funded by MIND, the mental health charity, says: “Research is pointing to the importance of the omega-3 fatty acids. This is not surprising as the brain consists of 60 per cent fat and needs specific fats to operate smoothly. A low-fat diet, which is almost inevitably also low in the omega-3 fatty acids, is linked to depression, and omega-3 deficiency is also linked to schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.”
Fish rich in these important fats are the oily ones, such as salmon, tuna, herring, sardine, pink trout, mackerel, pilchard and anchovy. Crawford also points out that all seafood, including mussels, prawns and oysters, is valuable. He rues the passing of the day when oysters, a “poor man’s food”, were offered free in bars in the way that crisps and peanuts are today.
DHA is a member of a family of very long-chained, unsaturated fats called omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (or n-3 PUFAs). The other marine fat that belongs to this family and which can be gained in abundance by eating fish is EPA. A vegetarian form of omega-3 fatty acids is ALA, which is obtained from walnuts, soya, linseed, rapeseed, pumpkin and hemp seeds. However, ALA needs to be converted by the body into EPA and DHA to be useful. This conversion is slow and our diets - typically high in another family of fats, the Omega-6, from vegetable oils - slow the process.
The importance to our health of DHA and another fat found in fish (AA) is underscored by the telling fact that the only time we make these fatty acids in any abundance is in human breast milk. The assumption is that we should obtain them from our diet when weaned, but that as babies we have only one natural source. There is even evidence that bottle-fed babies who are given DHA and AA as a supplement do better at problem solving than bottle-fed babies who do not.
Several of our physical traits seem to support the idea that our ancestors lived in close proximity to water, and so evolved to need a fish-rich diet. We are the only primate species with babies born fat and able to swim, and this subcutaneous white fat is ideal for floating, not for insulation. This fat is also bound to the skin, as it is in seals, dolphins and hippos, but unlike the fat of our nearer primate relatives.
Studies are showing that heart disease, many kinds of cancer, arthritis and allergic conditions are all helped by eating marine fats. In addition to DHA being critical for vascular health, EPA helps to prevent cardiovascular disease by making the prostaglandin-3 chemicals, which control blood clotting and artery spasms. EPA also improves blood viscosity (stickiness), lowers unhealthy LDL-cholesterol levels and lowers triglycerides (total blood fats).
A recent study, presented to the American Heart Association annual conference, based on almost 12,000 people who had suffered heart attacks in the previous three months, showed that supplementing fish oils lowered the risk of death significantly.
Consumption of fish oils is also important for reducing our risk of some types of cancer. Professor Steven Heys, who heads the breast clinic at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and who is researching the effects of the omega-3 fatty acids, says: “There is great potential for fish oils in preventing cancer, and a high intake is associated with a reduction in risk of certain kinds of cancer including breast, prostate and colon cancer. It is also clear from lab studies that fish oils can reduce the rate of tumor growth if cancer does occur.”
How much fish do you need to eat? Government guidelines suggest two fish meals a week, of which at least one should be oily fish. However, nutritionists interested in optimal health advocate that if you are seeking to prevent heart disease and certain kinds of cancer, and alleviate arthritis and allergic conditions, you may need to eat three meals of oil-rich seafood weekly.
Are there any disadvantages to eating these oily fish? It seems not, according to Crawford. Some concerns have been raised regarding the chemical pollutants, dioxins, found in fish, but he says: “The payoff from eating fish is overwhelmingly greater than the threat from these substances. This does not mean that we have to be complacent, but nor should it put us off regularly eating fish.” [Source: Health Mall - Jan. 16. 2001]
[my comment: it has to be a minumum of 4 ounzes of seafood per day to be really effective, and more is better].
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