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We have started eating healthier. |
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I am more compassionate to others. My circle of compassion has expanded. |
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VSIG was started and has touched many lives. |
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We started a local
chapter of EarthSave International
in |
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We have simplified our lives. |
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I wrote a book and created a web page. |
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I have been invited to
speak to different groups. I even spoke at an " |
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I have met some wonderful, famous doctors and health practitioners (John McDougall, Neal Barnard, Michael Klapper, Lee Hitchcox). |
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I have even been reacquainted with old friends who have also been affected by vitiligo. |
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We have made friends with other parents, whose children have vitiligo. |
Spontaneous Repigmentation
I have
read about spontaneous repigmentation in vitiligo patients. Call it the
engineer (read engin-nerd for those of you married to one) in me, but
I have a hard time believing the spontaneous part of the repigmentation. I
believe there must have been some kind of a lifestyle change or behavior
modification that came first, IMHO. I believe that if it went away something
changed that made it go away. The use of these two words seems to me to be
the easy way out. Any case of spontaneous repigmentation should be cataloged
and closely studied. This is where the cure for vitiligo will come
from, not from studying animal models. Even if
it was caused by a hormonal change as an individual passed through a life
change.
I have had a friend joke "so looks
like Emily grew out of it", even though I knew he was joking it drove me
crazy. It is like saying I just grew out of my high cholesterol
problem. I think the reason I have problems with phrases like these is, I may
never be able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Emily did not
"just grow out of it" or that it wasn't spontaneous repigmentation.
I can only sympathize with Dr. Dean Ornish, when he was trying to prove that
he could reverse heart disease with lifestyle changes. Of course Ornish
finally did prove that he could reverse heart disease, so one day I may be
able to prove that Emily's repigmentation wasn't spontaneous. I do believe
that lifestyle changes can change the course of disease, and I believe I have
seen this many times in my own family.
A study using techniques similar to the
ones that Dr. Ornish used could easily be performed on vitiligo patients.
Using a control group and a group following the methods I describe later in
this book, nutrition, mind body counseling, natural psoralen, and support
groups. We would take pictures of all the patients. The control group would
go to their dermatologist and follow the standard advice. At yearly intervals
we could see the results, statistically we could compare the progress made by
each group.
Another study would involve vitiligo
affected human skin grown in a laboratory. Using varying amounts of the
vitamins mentioned by Dr. Montes in Vitiligo, Nutritional Therapy we
could test their effect on skin that contained vitiligo. In this experiment
you may need to vary the skin types (darker and lighter, hairy and not hairy)
and vitiligo types (symmetrical, segmental).
It has also occurred to me that we might
use population studies to help understand why a country like
We could study this thing to death but
right now there are many people looking for a safe and effective treatment.
It reminds me of the following story told by Denis Burkitt, MD, in Foods
Can Save Your Life by Neal Barnard. Dr. Burkitt had just finished a
speech about colon cancer and its relationship to diverticular disease and
going further its relationship to a lack of dietary fiber. A man approached
him and said
'I understand what you
are talking about, but I'm not going to advise anybody until I understand all
the mechanisms and have double-blind trials, and what have you.' 'Well,' I
said, Diverticular disease is going to take a sixty-year trial, so it'll be
your grandson writing up the last paper. If you were on a pier and your son
fell into the water, I know what you'd do. If you had a life jacket in your
hand, you wouldn't throw it to him. You'd say, "I'm not sure of the
specific gravity of this life jacket, and I don't really know whether it fits
my son. I think I'll go back to the lab. I'll do three more weeks' work on my
life jacket, then I'll come back to the harbor and, if Jimmy's still swimming
around, I'll throw him the life jacket'
There are a lot of
vitiligo patients out there that need a life jacket, unfortunately there
aren't any coast guard approved jackets laying around. Do not despair, there
are clues available to safe treatments that can keep you afloat, they may
even get you back to shore.
You Are Not
Alone
One
percent (1%) of the world population is estimated to have vitiligo, which is
one person out of one hundred. That may seem like a large percentage. When I
first heard that number I said, no way, it couldn't be, I thought it had to
be a smaller percentage, I just couldn't remember seeing that many people
with vitiligo. The more you think about it, people use camouflage, cover up
with clothing or just have a minor case of it. I was surprised to find out
that a neighbor has it, two of the guys I work with have it and a close
friend has it. I remember seeing someone with vitiligo once as a child, a
friend and I, were at the local gas station. I asked my friend and he told me
very seriously that it came about because the person spilled gasoline on
herself. At the time I accepted his analysis, now I know better. For a long
time I avoided gasoline.
Dr. Leopoldo Montes and his book Vitiligo,
Nutritional Therapy has helped us formulate a nutritional regime for
Emily. In a letter I received from Dr. Montes on
6-13-95 he told me "Leading vitiligo experts in
Looser, looser, double looser, as if,
whatever, get the picture, duh!
-My children, talking to me, totally,
for sure.
For now let's look at a few posts from
VSIG on the subject of
Message Number 1 of
3:
Subject: [VITILIGO] Cultural attitudes
This is the Vitiligo Support and Information Group (VSIG)
Hi all,
I've been sitting here
musing. It's a glorious summer day; I'm wearing a sleeveless top, which shows
off several of my patches to their best advantage, and long trousers. Why the
trousers? Well, for one thing I feel more comfortable in them, but
specifically today - well, to be frank, I didn't have time to shave my legs
this morning. This got me thinking - why don't I mind showing my patches, but
I'm shy about body hair? I've got a theory on that: does anyone remember some
of the rather cruel jokes that used to make the rounds about Germanic
(German, Swedish etc.) girls' underarm hair? I walked straight into that when
I first came to
And all that got me
wondering has anybody done any research on attitudes to vitiligo (by both
people who have it and the societies they live in) in different
cultures/countries? In particular, in cultures which are basically of
Northern European extraction? Are for example Swedes, who seem to have a
pretty relaxed attitude to their bodies in general, less bothered about it?
Or is the issue one of conformity, and whether one society tolerates
"deviance from the norm" more easily than another? Slightly off-topic,
I admit and apologize, but it might be useful to think these things over to
get to the bottom of what it actually is that bothers us about our vitiligo.
Any opinions?
Message Number 2 of
3:
Subject: Re: [VITILIGO] Cultural attitudes
This is the Vitiligo Support and Information Group (VSIG)
Hi Peps I remember
reading once that Gandhi said vitiligo caused a lot of suffering in
best wishes
Message Number 3 of
3:
Subject: Re: [VITILIGO] Cultural attitudes
This is the Vitiligo Support and Information Group (VSIG)
Hi Elizabeth:
Yes, people in rural parts of
By the way, for the
benefit of diet advocates on this list, my grandpa treated a lot of Vitiligo
Patients during his medical career and he always put them on special diet for
at least six weeks and special purgatives for one week before treating them
with "Bavachi" extract (Plant Psoralens in natural form) and
sunlight. The special diet was very simple, almost fat free and excluded many
food items like Onions, cheeses, meat, milk/milk products, fried stuff (no
oils), alcohol, tobacco and some hot spices. [Could we now theorize that may
be these foods cause higher intradermal production/accumulation of H2O2 in
Catalase deficient patient?] He always maintained that inadequate sleep and
fatty diet in wrong combination produced vitiligo in genetically predisposed
individuals. This condition was only treatable in some individuals if the
diet and lifestyle were corrected first followed by Psoralen/natural sun
light. Success depended on the age of vitiligo condition (older patches were
difficult to treat) and patient's adherence to this strict regimen. He also
once mentioned that Vitiligo was a "condition" not a
"disease" and was manifestation of different but related causes in
different patients. That is why this treatment was not suitable for some.
(This might explain unsuccessful double blind studies).
Well, I only wrote this
(a boring article) to open up a healthy debate on this subject and may be
inviting subscribers who have already experimented with strict diet regimens
to hear their stories. The worst thing you can do is to eat onions and drink
milk (or milk products) in a single sitting (this makes Pizza with cheese and
onions a bad combination food) and then starve the body of sleep. Anybody
with experience out there?
Regards,
S. Shah, MS
Rigidity of
Modern Medicine
Could
nutrition effect health? The food we eat three times a day. I began to read
about doctors who were successful with nutritional therapy or using nutrition
preventatively for a variety of diseases like heart disease, diabetes, cancer
and vitiligo. The problem was none of the local doctors had heard of it. We
had a pediatrician and two dermatologists tell us there was nothing we could
do, ignore it, live with it. They said she was too young for PUVA. Turns out
now that I am glad they said these things. It helped us open our minds to
look for alternatives, to ask questions. We just couldn't accept what they
told us. Our doctors didn't even recommend steroids, which some doctors do
recommend for vitiligo. I am glad we didn't use steroids, but I am not
knocking any parent or vitiligo patient that is using them. If things had
been different in our lives we may have went that direction. I just want to
say that at this point, looking back on our journey, I am glad we didn't have
to make that choice. I have concerns about the drugs that we are asked to use
by our doctors. I am concerned about steroids and their immune suppressing
effect. I might be willing to use it for a short period, but not for a long
term treatment and vitiligo requires a long-term lifestyle change.
My father was dying as I wrote this
book. He had prostate cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes and the cancer
had moved to his bones and lungs. I had to witness firsthand what happens
when you don't practice preventative medicine. It is very painful to watch,
but it is also showing me and I hope my children, the benefits of living a
simpler lifestyle. More in touch with nature, more compassionate. If you are
lucky it may help reverse your vitiligo, I know for certain it will help in other
areas of your life. My Dad was taking a soup of different drugs, at least
seven different drugs from four different doctors. An interesting side note
is that the doctors were giving my father rat poison to thin his blood. Yet
when I asked if it was all right to give him an enzyme pill to help him
digest his food, they became very concerned about the health implications of
giving him these enzymes. I realize the reason that the rat poison was used
and I also realize it was used in minute doses. It is just in this atmosphere
where doctors get frequent flyer miles to prescribe high blood pressure
medicine. Chemical companies make money without consideration for the damage
they do to the environment. The chemicals they make are then studied for
their effects on humans (using animal models).
There seems to be no money available to test the simplest of herbs, and
prevention is barely taught. We live in a very strange time in medical
history.
I am sorry to imply blame on anyone. I
am not interested in blame or in judgment in any way. I do not blame my Dad
for his prostate cancer, just as I don't blame anyone for his or her
vitiligo. All I am saying is that, in my humble opinion, we can have a
positive effect on our health by following some basic preventative
guidelines. For instance in 1996 the American Cancer Society said
"Increase of risk of prostate cancer is associated with animal fat, red
meats and dairy products, suggesting that saturated fat may be
involved." Of course this was too late for my father, if he had known
this 50 years ago, he might have had a chance. My father was a lively and
vibrant 70-year-old, who was stopped, in his tracks by this disease. I
believe that we can use this same preventative information, to produce an
environment that will promote healing, even for vitiligo. Blame is not part
of healing.
"How good it is to be well-fed,
healthy, and kind all at the same time!"
Henry Heimlich, M.D.
(invented Heimlich Maneuver)
In any statistical sample there will be
an outlier, like Winston Churchill or George Burns, don't let their success
stop you from taking positive action today for your own health. I believe it
will help your vitiligo, and I guarantee it will help other areas of your
health and the health of your family. Future generations will benefit from
the changes you make today. These new habits once learned by your children
will be passed on for many generations to come. If you don't have children, your
actions will have a tremendous effect on your friends. Most people are
interested in living a healthier lifestyle; we just need positive role models
to help us along the way. As we change our lifestyles we become those
positive role models. Others realize that if you can do it, they can too.
You are probably asking, what changes?
What does cancer have to do with vitiligo and saturated fat? Trust me I will
get there, eventually.
Peter Lynch, in his book One Up On
Wall Street, said that the individual investor has a better chance of
making money in the market than the large institutional investors. He
reasoned that the individual was not encumbered by the rules that the
institutions were under. They could buy as little or as much of any stock in
any sector that they had funds to invest. In the same way, I believe
individuals have a better chance of healing themselves or their loved ones,
of a chronic disease like vitiligo, than a doctor does. The doctors are
restricted by the AMA and the FDA as to which drugs they can use to cure
someone. A doctor may not see it this way, these organizations have been put
in place to standardize and test available treatments. Doctors must also be
concerned about litigation. There are financial incentives for doctors to prescribe
certain drugs. Medical insurance companies discourage services that are
outside of the standard. The problem is that instead of being about healing,
it has become a moneymaking juggernaut. Often times the high ideals required
for healing are not always the same ones required for making money. In the
current environment if your doctor were interested in trying some kind of
"mind body" approach to healing, other doctors would in my opinion,
ridicule them for being unscientific. In the current environment they can't
even consider herbs or vitamins. Medical practitioners must feel trapped
within this double blind system, at least when they deal with chronic
disease. Money and fear double blind the system.
I actually feel sorry for the
dermatologist that said there was nothing that we could do. He had worked
himself into a belief that it was his way or the highway. It was his belief
that the alternative health care professions don't offer anything. He must
have felt that the millions of people who spend their money on alternatives
are just wasting their money. When he told us to go home and just live with
it, I wonder if he really believed that he had earned the fee he charged.
There is wisdom in the large group of people choosing alternative
health care, and their wisdom should not be discounted.
An unexpected feeling is gratitude, I am
actually grateful for the unbending belief of modern medicine. This rigid
belief that their way is the only way, helped wake me up. It made me realize
that there is never just one way. It helped me to search for a way that would
work in our family.
We had taken the first step, in our case
the parents had to heal before the child. We had to face the problem and we
were now ready to do so. Then we could take the small steps required to solve
any puzzle. This took a long time but it was the foundation of our future
work.
Chapter 3
Lifestyle
Next step
in puzzle solving was to find the pieces with the straight edges. I like to
work the border first. This gives me a frame to work in. In this regard our
treatment was to rearrange our lifestyle. We brought our lifestyle into
alignment with healthy living. We changed our food choices and simplified our
lives.
Why Have We Done This?
Emily's
vitiligo made us reevaluate our entire lives. Anytime the conversation about
health came up and it is surprising how often this happens, we listened. We
did a lot of listening and reading. So I started researching the disease and
health in general. At the time I had a cholesterol
level of 242 (2 points away from the average for a heart attack victim, 244)
and I was experimenting with natural ways to reduce my cholesterol.
My father had adult onset diabetes, which he controlled for years with a pill
and had just started injecting insulin a few years earlier. My blood sugar
level had just crossed the threshold into the high range. So there were a lot
of good reasons to start studying and changing. I could accept that these
things were my inherited traits, which I could do nothing about, or I could
do something about them. I chose the high road.
Loyalty to a petrified opinion never
broke a chain or freed a human soul.
Mark Twain
Dr.'s didn't have much to offer Emily in
the way of a cure and in fact what they did offer had the potential to screw
up her liver. We went to the local library and read the Physicians’ Desk
Reference concerning the pharmaceutical grade psoralens one dermatologist
recommended, it didn't give us a warm feeling. Most doctors said we shouldn't
do anything until she was 12 years old. Their PUVA treatment didn't exactly
offer me much hope. After reading the next quote (Klaus, S. and Lerner, A.
B., Vitiligo. Journal of the
A combination of an
orally ingested drug (psoralens) and the exposure to long-wave ultraviolet
light (PUVA) has become a popular form of therapy. Although this treatment
may improve the appearance of a patient it rarely induces total
repigmentation. Repigmenting therapy often takes several years and requires a
tremendous expenditure of time by both the physician and the patient. The
basic defect that led to the destruction of the pigment cells is not
corrected. Because of the disappointing results patients are often rebuffed
or advised to ignore the white patches or to cover them with cosmetics.
Then there are the
questions about how permanent the repigmentation is after using PUVA. This
caused us to lean away from PUVA, in search of a solution to the "basic
defect". Admit it if I could give you a pill a day that would correct
the "basic defect", you would pay me $500 per year, for the rest of
your life... would you be willing to change your lifestyle, if I told you to
keep the $500, keep reading.
About 30-40% of Emily's body (chest,
back, ankles, shins, knees, and neck) was depigmented at the time, and it was
increasing, we had to do something. So we looked into non-mainstream
treatments. I was studying biochemistry and looking at vitamin therapy, I was
in search of the "basic defect".
What Have
We Done?
Susie took
a vegetarian cooking class at the local hospital, she was so excited about
the class, she stopped at the local library on the way home. She picked up a
large stack of vegetarian books. When she got home she announced "we are
going vegetarian". I would like to think that because of my humanitarianism
and my feminist ideals, I embraced the idea whole-heartedly. In actuality it
was because I am lazy when it comes to preparing food. I will cook if I
absolutely have to but I am more than happy to eat what is made available.
Then I started reading the books she brought home and I was moved.
I read a book called May All Be Fed
by John Robbins. He is the guy that walked away from millions of dollars when
he decided not to take over his family’s business, Baskin-Robbins. He
wanted to take his own path; I don't think that made his father very happy.
He talked about how the food we eat gets to our table. He opened my eyes so
to speak, when he showed me how my daughter was getting sulfa-based
antibiotics. I had read in a biochemistry textbook that sulfa-based
antibiotics block the body’s ability to process folic acid, a B vitamin that
is important for healthy skin.
Here is the quote from Introduction to
Organic and Biological Chemistry, Ronald M. Scott 1980, page 294.
Tetrahydrofolic Acid
Intestinal bacteria provide a supply of this cofactor. A deficiency, usually
termed a folacin deficiency, produces anemia. A deficiency is more likely to
occur during treatment with antibiotics, particularly with sulfa drugs. The
sulfa drugs are particularly effective because their mechanism of action is
to prevent synthesis of tetrahydrofolic acid. The sulfa drug is chemically
similar to the para-aminobenzoic acid portion of the cofactor. It is
mistakenly incorporated by the microorganism, producing a nonfunctional
cofactor.
I had previously
searched her medical records to see if she had gotten sulfa and she hadn't.
Then I read the following quote from May All Be Fed by John Robbins,
page 112.
Four different surveys
of the safety of our milk supply were conducted by independent researchers
between 1987 and 1989. The results were not comforting, unless you like
antibiotics and other veterinary drugs in your dairy products. The studies
found between 63 and 86 percent of milk samples to contain sulfa drugs,
tetracyclines, and other antibiotics. These surveys embarrassed the FDA so
much that the agency finally got around to conducting a survey of its own.
Despite using outdated methods that cannot detect small quantities of the
dangerous drug sulfamethazine, a March 1988 FDA survey found sulfamethazine
in 74 percent of the samples tested.
This finding was particularly disturbing. Sulfamethazine is a sulfa drug that
is a suspected human carcinogen.
It is an important book
that you should check out from the library sometime. Emily was born in 1988
and after one year of breast-feeding, we put her on cows milk. After all, we
are told that milk is the world's perfect food. Unfortunately they don't tell
us that it is the most perfect food for calves. It seems to me that there is
a possibility that we had given her these antibiotics in the milk and dairy
we were eating. We were eating a lot of dairy products, I used to joke that
Susie was the "cheese queen".
Dr. Christine Northrup, a gynecologist
in Yarmouth, Maine, states, "Dairy is a tremendous mucus producer and a
burden on the respiratory, digestive and immune systems." Dr. Northrup
says when patients "eliminate dairy products for an extended period and
eat a balanced diet, they suffer less from colds and sinus infections."
Besides the anti-biotics in milk there
is the cholesterol, saturated fat, and worst of all is the protein. This
animal protein is theorized to be involved in many autoimmune diseases, which
vitiligo is theorized to be. In 1997, I learned this at a health show in
There is one thing dairy products have
more of than any other food I can think of: contamination.
John A. McDougall, MD
Then there is pesticide contamination to
be concerned about. In John Robbins first book Diet for a New America
he pointed out another problem with animal protein, which had an important
connection to our family. On page 324 he writes:
...occurred in
"PBB's are persistent and can be passed on for generations. PBB's are
stored in the body fat, where they can remain indefinitely. During pregnancy,
they can cross the placenta to the developing fetus...PBB is...capable of
producing physical defects in offspring in utero."
Not substances you'd particularly want in your hamburgers. Yet, in 1976
alone, several years after the PBB contamination occurred,
What had happened was that this toxic chemical had somehow gotten mixed into
livestock feed which was dispersed throughout the state. When the PBB's were
first discovered in virtually all of
Can you imagine the heir
to Baskin-Robbins (an ice cream chain) saying these things? Susie is
from
Michael Klaper, MD, from page 29 of his
book Vegan Nutrition: Pure and Simple, has this to add;
Dairy products also
harbor a little discussed, but very ominous connection with leukemia in
children. As any veterinarian will verify, leukemia is common in dairy cows
and is caused by a virus, bovine leukemia virus. A cow with leukemia passes
this virus into the milk. Up to 20% of the cows in a herd may be infected
with leukemia virus. Their virus-laden milk is mixed with other milk and sold
in stores. Could the high rate of leukemia in children be connected to their
high levels of milk consumption?
If you are interested in
what Robert M. Kradjian, MD, Breast Surgery Chief, Division of General
Surgery, Seton Medical Centre,
I now realized that something else
affected my course of action in fighting this disease. Early in my working
career three young women (in their thirties) died from cancer. I worked
closely with all three; my desk was next to two of them. Zeanne Houllemont
(cervical cancer, Aug. ‘87), Jill White (melanoma, Jan ‘88) and Carol
Scheitauer (breast cancer, ‘92) all died after going through conventional
treatments. This was painful to watch in all three cases, surgery, steroids,
diuretics to reduce the edema caused by the steroids, chemotherapy,
radiation, more surgery, then funeral. This left me looking for alternatives.
I ended up subscribing to a newsletter by Dr. Williams called Alternatives.
Dr. Williams left me with one very important piece of information. Find out
what your relatives died of and protect yourself from those diseases. So I
did research on our families past health history. We had problems that are all
too common in
So for all of these reasons, in August
of 1995, our whole family gave up animal products. I think that the steady
drop in my cholesterol levels over these years solidified my belief that what
we eat can affect our health. My cholesterol is now
145 (a level where you no longer have to be concerned about ratios of good to
bad cholesterol). My blood sugar also dropped back into the normal range.
We've never had a heart attack in
Dr. William Castelli
More importantly Emily's vitiligo has
improved greatly, for more current information see her timeline
with pictures. Pictures are as important in vitiligo, as blood tests are in
heart disease. We need that feedback to make sure we are making progress.
Another benefit of our lifestyle is that our daughter Katie has not had
bronchitis since we started this lifestyle. The year before she had it four
times, as well as a constant cough and lots of mucus.
My wife and I now weigh what we did when
we were happy about and proud of, our bodies. If you have been trying to
loose weight you will find it easier on a low-fat vegetarian diet. When you
eat fat, 3% of it is burned in converting it to body fat. When you eat
complex carbohydrates you burn 25% in the conversion to body fat. Put simply
it is easier to turn fat to fat than starch to fat. For more on weight loss,
read Eat Right, Live Longer.
Skin as an
Eliminatory Organ
It seems
simple but it needs to be said. The skin has a purpose other than being an
envelope to keep our insides from falling out. Remember that one function of
the skin is to remove toxins from the body; in this sense the skin is an
eliminatory organ. When we sweat, toxins can be eliminated through our pores.
Much of the alternative literature that
discusses healthy skin, mention that if your other organs are backed up with
waste products, then the skin will be overworked, the amount of toxins it
will have to remove will increase. I have seen pictures, in Dr.
Jensen's book, of one fellow who got rid of a bad case of psoriasis, when
he went in for multiple colon cleansings. Do not read this book when you are
eating, it contains wonderful color photos of what came out of this man.
That is one reason why we went to a
mostly vegetarian diet, high in fiber and low in fat. All that fiber help to
move things through the system and aids in eliminating toxins. It actually
reduces the amount of calories that your body derives from the food you eat,
by decreasing the transit time that food moves through your body. It reduces
fat, glucose and triglyceride levels in the blood. If all systems are running
smoothly, then the skin will have a chance to heal itself.
How Did We Change Our Food Choices?
For me it
was easier to cut out categories of foods. I was trying to reduce my
cholesterol so, one of the first categories for me was deep fried foods. For
my personality type it was easier than say having only two deep-fried meals
per week and I tended to stick to it better if I cut it out completely. As we
mentioned earlier we had been adding one or two vegetarian meals per week to
our diet for years, while it was a step in the right direction, I don't think
we experienced any physical benefits until we made the complete shift. Dr.
McDougall explains it this way, any change is difficult, it is even harder to
make a change when you don't see any progress. It is better to make a big
change and see results right away.
We tried early in the year to cut meat
out of our diet but we failed. Then after Susie took her vegetarian cooking
class we cut out meat again, although we still ate fish. Then later fish and
dairy left our kitchen for good. During this process of eliminating
animalized and feminized protein, we sat down with the children who were 8, 6
and 4 at the time and had many family meetings. We used the old "Full
House" style meeting, where the only one allowed to talk was the one
holding the teddy bear. When you want to talk, you raise your hand and the
person talking will eventually pass the teddy bear to you so that you might
get your chance. "Full House" was a popular TV show at the time;
you know the show with the three girls (DJ, Stephanie and Michelle) their Dad
Danny, Uncles Jesse and Joey, and beautiful Rebecca. So we explained why and
the kids thought about it, asked some good questions and were actually very
supportive. We felt it was important, we explained the many reasons for
vegetarian food choices. Other than health
there is, environmentalism, feeding
the impoverished (cows eat better than some people do), feminism, ethical reasons and animal rights. Reading some of the books
in the bibliography will open your mind to some of the other reasons for
making a vegetarian choice at each meal. Children can connect with feelings.
That was June 1, 1995 and we have been eating a vegetarian diet since then.
In August of 95 we became pure vegetarians.
We went to the library and checked out
every veggie cookbook we could find. We did a lot of experimenting in the
kitchen. Each of our children had unique tastes. We tried soymilk and found
that rice milk was much better over cereal; we use both to replace milk in
cooking. We have also tried oat and almond milks. We try to make this an
adventure, a team effort. New taste sensations, different restaurants,
shopping at the natural food store with all of those woo-woo types (of which
we are now card-carrying members). Recently I was asked what woo-woo meant,
well to answer that I have to ask, have you ever seen anyone that you thought
was "way out there", well that was woo-woo.
At first we tended to look for foods
that replace the old foods we ate. One thing we learned is that these foods
may taste close to the same as what we were used to, they just won't taste
exactly like them. Once we let go of that requirement, the shift became
easier. The test was no longer "Does it taste like cheese?” it was "Does
it taste good?". The kids have been carrying sack lunches to school ever
since we started this. Peanut butter and jelly, leftover pasta, beans, raw
veggie sandwiches, meat substitutes (on occasion), fruit, pretzels, nuts and
seeds, grass clippings (kidding). We also drink plenty of water.
We don't get on our children's case if
they make other food choices; it has to be their decision. They get lots of
good options at home. If we notice them making a lot of the wrong choices
when we go out, we try to reinforce the message later. You can't push too
hard, we have seen that backfire on others.
Of course there is more to it, and it
was easier for us than most. Susie and I were united in our decision to
change our food choices. Susie had a sister who was already a vegetarian. We
had, for years, been eating at least one or two vegetarian meals per week but
we liked our burgers, ham, chicken and turkey. Now we have decided that we
like cows, pigs, chickens and turkeys better.
We also joined EarthSave and became very active in it.
Our children see by our actions how important it is to us. EarthSave has lots
of educational materials and we share them with the kids. EarthSave makes the
connection between what we eat and how it effects the environment. They teach
people to shift towards a more plant centered diet.
Another tool to make eating a
plant-centered diet easier for kids is "Babe" and
"Gordy", two great videos with an animal rights theme. We watch
them and talk frankly about the meaning of different scenes in the videos.
Children just naturally love animals and don't want to do anything to hurt
them. "Free Willy" is another good video that we picked up from the
local library.
Who is strong? He who can conquer his
bad habits.
Ben Franklin
Our lifestyle choices now added value to
our lives. It was now a framework for health living and loving. Putting the
long lines of frame pieces together creates an impressive frame for the
jigsaw to finally fill.
Chapter 4
Diagnosis
After the
frame is arranged and the border to the puzzle is all laid out, it is time to
decide where to start. Pick a well recognizable picture on the cover to start
on. One holiday we worked on a scene of a small town covered in snow. So I
started my work on a house in the center of town that had very
distinguishable characteristics. Its coloring was quite different from the
rest of the puzzle. Each piece was easily recognizable as belonging to that
house. In this chapter I will try to identify all of the bases that you
should consider, in order to better understand if you really have vitiligo
and what may have caused it.
Causes
What
causes vitiligo? Stress or unusual trauma (especially to the head) can cause
vitiligo. Diabetes mellitus (adult onset), abnormal thyroid function,
Addison's disease, Pernicious anemia and Alopecia areata (hair loss in
patches) are each associated with vitiligo. So you want to rule out each of
these diseases and minimize stress. I started asking myself questions, like
what do these diseases have in common? What connections are there? Many of
the answers pointed towards diet.
Another possibility is that you were
exposed to an industrial chemical that affected your pigment.
Genetics
and Heredity
Turns out
that my grandmother's hair turned white at age 18. My parent's hair turned
white when they were about 32. My hair is currently turning white and I am
37. I have been studying our family tree and these are the only links I can
find to vitiligo that I can find. There are no reports of anyone with
milk-white patches of skin.
I think that too often we try to say it is one or the other, environmental or
genetic. I think that it could be both. I believe genetics is involved, but
it is my belief that environmental factors have more weight. Since the
environmental factors are the only ones we as parents can change, the only
ones we have some control over, this book will deal exclusively with them. If
we tend to have a genetic propensity towards vitiligo or any disease, we need
to influence the environmental factors in order to make life easier and
symptom free.
Life-style changes can alter a child's
genetic blueprint by many fold.
Charles R. Attwood, M.D., F.A.A.P.
I tend to like Dr. Christine Northrup's
view of disease, as a messenger, telling us it is time to re-evaluate our
lives. Maybe it is time to slow down and clean up our act. The fast paced,
fast food world we live in can have a tremendous influence on our health.
Tinea
Versicolor
Go to a
dermatologist that uses a Wood's lamp. This is like a black light and the
vitiligo will show up under the lamp. Find a dermatologist that knows
vitiligo and can differentiate it from the fungus (tinea versicolor). Early
on a friend, who happens to be a doctor, thought Emily's vitiligo might have
been the fungus, so we wasted time putting Selson Blue on it.
Another pigment related disorder is
guttate hypomelanosis I have this as well. It is said to be caused by sun
damage and looks like small white porcelain spots on the skin.
For further information on making a
correct diagnosis Dr. Montes has an excellent
chapter in his book. Dr. Montes takes a skin biopsy in his diagnosis, which
may be a little traumatic for a child.
Blood Test
Your
doctor will probably not recommend this but you should get a blood test for
vitamin and mineral levels. See the following table for the vitamin and
mineral levels to check for.
If you have been taking vitamins, stop
for three months then take the blood test, which is what we did. Emily was
tested on 1-3-95 and all of her levels were normal. Even though her levels
were normal Dr. Montes recommended we treat her with high doses of vitamins.
We didn't feel he was correct at the time, we figured this was not the
problem since her levels were all normal. We were wrong, we have come around
to the wisdom of his suggestion. I think that our diet change as well as our
juicing vegetables increased our intake of B vitamins, which is essentially
the same and probably better than supplementing. As of 3-98 we added folic
acid and B12 to our regime. We have also become more systematic about taking
our supplements. I remember the first blood test we forced Emily to take, it
was terrible. I almost think it would have been better to have waited, taking
the vitamins, until she was older. We could have then taken her off of the
vitamins for a few months and tested her blood levels. It might not be
important to know which one your child is deficient in, right away. One thing
to remember when taking any B vitamins, you should also be taking a B
complex, a B complex contains a broad spectrum of B vitamins. This is
important since B vitamins work together, a lot of one of them might reduce
the supply of another. Dr. Montes has found that many of his patients are
deficient in one or more of the following vitamins.
|
Vitamin
or Mineral |
|
|
Vitamin B12 |
205-700 PG/ML |
|
Plasma Folate |
2-10 NG/ML |
|
RBC Folate |
140-340 NG/ML |
|
Vitamin A |
25-70 UG % |
|
Vitamin E |
0.6-1.4 MG % |
|
Vitamin C |
0.2-1.5 MG % |
|
Vitamin B-6 A/C |
1.0-1.89 A/C |
|
thiamin B1 A/C |
1.0-1.23 A/C |
|
Carotene |
79-237 UG % |
|
Iron |
did not get a normal range from them |
These are the blood levels
checked at the
Thyroid
Test
I have
read that the blood test for thyroid problems is not very accurate. I suggest
the morning temperature test or the iodine absorption test. Emily's blood
test for thyroid levels came out normal, but her morning temperature was a
little low. Balch describes this test in Prescription for Nutritional
Healing. The iodine absorption test was brought to my attention on VSIG. I
have paraphrased it here, from the archives of VSIG, thanks to Nuki.
Your thyroid (located at
the frontal base of the neck) is a key gland that furnishes energy to every
cell in your body. It is dependent on a balance of two trace minerals,
manganese and especially iodine. Thyroid does not function proficiently in
the absence of adequate iodine.
Applying a tincture of Brown Iodine to your skin is the most efficient (as
well as economical) method of determining a metabolic deficiency of iodine.
It is a test as well as a treatment. If the brown stain fades
in 24 hours (or less), it indicates that iodine is not sufficient to
normalize thyroid secretion to the cells. By following these instructions,
when the faded brown stain is apparent after 24 hours, your thyroid
will more likely be able to function normally.
Use applicator rod to apply iodine to upper thigh or low abdomen in a 3"
square patch. Apply as often as you notice that the iodine has absorbed and
the skin is clear, rotating areas of applications each time. For instance, if
absorption occurs in 2 hours, reapply then; if it occurs in 4 or 8 or 12
hours, reapply whenever you notice the skin is clear.
When you eventually notice a faded brown stain after 12 hours, check in
another 12 hours for the stain. If your skin is clear after 24 hours,
continue application once a day until the stain is still apparent after 24
hours. Discontinue application when you observe a faded stain at 24 hours
after initial application. The objective of the frequent applications is to
accomplish the 24-hour slight stain as quickly as possible, rather
than have to continue to apply over several months time. Recheck iodine
absorption every 3 months. Repeat the process as above if it fades in 24
hours or less.
It seems this test is for people with skin on which the stain would be
more apparent, so I apologize if those of us with darker skin will not be
able to use this test. As always, if you have questions, check with your
doctor.
Iodine is good for
hypothyroidism. A good source of iodine is kelp, a sea vegetable that grows
off of the coast of
The doctor of the future will give no
medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in
diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.
Thomas Edison
Diabetes
Diabetes (the
body's inability to maintain blood sugar levels) is influenced by the amount
of fat in our diet. My glucose level dropped into the normal range when I
shifted to a low-fat vegetarian diet. For three months while my father
battled cancer, he switched to the same diet and his insulin requirement
dropped from 80 units to 55 units per day. I have a friend with diabetes who
no longer needs insulin, he credits this with a low-fat vegetarian diet and a
book titled Reversing Diabetes by Dr. Julian Whitaker.
Just as in working a puzzle, taking an
occasional break can be a healthy thing. Treat yourself to a night out at the
movies. Make it a comedy, they say laughter is the best remedy.
Chapter 5
Treatment
Long after
the first recognizable picture in the puzzle is put together, many of the
other pictures are falling into place. Some of the hardest work is yet to
come. It is the most monotonous part. One particularly hard puzzle had a
clear blue sky. It was just about impossible for me to distinguish each
individual piece. You couldn't look at the cover and see where the piece
would fit in, they were all seemingly the same. So I started one piece at a
time, trying to fit it into the hole that was left in the puzzle. Slowly the
puzzle came together, as the sky was filled in.
As with the treatment of any disease or
anything important in life we had to stay the course. We found what we
thought would work and we kept at it. Making adjustments along the way. Never
giving up. Taking supplements every day can be very monotonous and changing
your lifestyle can be very challenging. It is easy to fall back into old
habits.
First Do No Harm.
Hippocrates, 460-377 BC
At one point my wife and I had a big
arguement. I was the tyrant, insisting on everything being perfect and pure.
I felt that we had been slipping backwards, eating more refined foods. She
was feeling overworked and underappreciated; she was also not willing to face
the problem. I was obsessing over it. Susie wouldn't even talk about
vitiligo. Anyway we had a huge fight. She was sitting down at the dinner
table and I started digging all of the unhealthy stuff in our cabinets. I
started pouring all of the bad stuff on her dinner plate. White flour,
mayonnaise, vegetable oil, anything I could find that was overly processed or
had hydrogenated oils in it. She sat there watching me as her dish was piled
high in this really gross looking mess, overflowing from her plate. I
remember telling her, "here if you think this stuff is good to eat, then
eat it". I'm sure she thought I had gone insane. Finally we both looked
at each other and busted out laughing. We laughed like we hadn't laughed
before; we were crying we laughed so hard. It turned out to be part of the
process. We can both talk about vitiligo now.
When treating vitiligo two very
important things should be addressed. First the underlying disease or
condition that has caused the skin to lose its health. Only after this
problem has been addressed will you start to repigment. Second, you must
support your body in repigmenting.
This is how
we have been treating our daughter Emily for her vitiligo.
As an
engineer I come across problems weekly that I have to troubleshoot. Like most
engineers I try to simplify the problem. We work on very complicated computer
systems (of course they are not near as complex as the human body). When I
have a problem with the system at work, I ask questions of all of the
experts, the technicians and engineers. We try to address every subsystem
that is affected. We systematically address each subsystem and their relation
to the problem at hand. I guess that our approach for vitiligo was the same,
from a systems level, whole body. We saw the vitiligo as an indication that
there was something wrong. We hoped that fixing the underlying problem would
help her body heal itself. It is important to find what works for you. We
knew that other diseases were associated with vitiligo, so I learned as much
as I could about each disease. I started to learn that many doctors had been
successful treating these diseases, using a common approach. Their approaches
appealed to me because of the lack of potentially damaging side effects.
Air
Clean air
is important and most of the time it is abundant in our small town by the
ocean. As long as the
Water
We started
our therapy by cleaning up the water we drink. We drink and cook with only
distilled water, since 8-9-95. I suggest a solar distiller, from SunWater
Solar Inc.,
Food
Choices
Our family
adopted a pure vegetarian lifestyle (no meat, dairy or eggs). Check out why we chose this life style. You might also be asking
yourself, how did we convince our children to go along
with us?
Vitiligo is theorized to be an
autoimmune disease. As an autoimmune disease it should respond well to a low
fat vegetarian diet. Just as diabetics require less insulin when on this
diet. Reducing the amount of saturated fat floating around in your veins will
make it easier for your body's immune system to identify good and bad cells.
This is the foundation of the treatment we use and besides helping Emily's
vitiligo it has helped my cholesterol
and my blood sugar levels.
... the diets of South and Central
Americans, Africans, Indians, and Chinese contain little fat and little meat,
and they're better off for it.
Michael DeBakey, MD, pioneer heart
surgeon
I believe that in our case, changing our
lifestyle helped stop the progress of the disease. It also supported the
following things that we were using to help her repigment. As well as supporting
her body to heal itself, our diet is about ten percent fat; the kids probably
get more than that. Pediatricians like Dr. Attwood and Dr. Spock have since
come out with books that specifically recommend this diet for healthy
children.
Dairy food can impair a child's ability
to absorb iron and can cause subtle blood loss from the digestive tract in
small children. These problems, combined with the fact that milk has
virtually no iron of its own, can lead to iron deficiencies. ...Children who
grow up getting their nutrition from plant foods rather than meats have a
tremendous health advantage. They are less likely to develop weight problems,
diabetes, high blood pressure, and some forms of cancer.
Benjamin Spock, MD, Dr. Spock's Baby
and Child Care, pages 332-3
I am sorry to say but, our food budget
used to be one of the low priorities in our household budget. At the end of
the month, if we were a little short on cash, we tended to eat cheaper food.
Now food is the top of the budget, I am now very happy to spend money on
food. We try to buy organically grown produce as much as we can, whenever it
is available. These are grown without the use of synthetic pesticides,
fungicides and herbicides.
Whether it is the immune system,
various enzyme systems, the uptake of carcinogens into the cells, or hormonal
activities, animal protein generally only causes mischief.
T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., Cornell
University, director of the China Diet and Health Study
Food
Allergies
I have
been interested in allergies and their affects on vitiligo for some time. I
am reading more and more about elimination diets lately. Two good sources are
Foods That Fight Pain and The McDougall Plan (see the bibliography).
We have eaten some very good macrobiotic
meals, a way of life, which is said to be very healthy. Macrobiotics seems to
me to be very rice centered; it is basically vegetarian although some fish is
acceptable. They avoid nightshade plants, I know for a long time I used to
say to myself, "What in the heck is a nightshade plant?" I finally
found out that there is a poisonous plant called a nightshade and there are
vegetables that we eat everyday that are from this family, potatoes, tomatoes
and eggplants are the ones that I am aware of. This is just an area of food
choices that I am interested in, I haven't done anything about it, just
trying to learn more.
Antibiotics
and Acidophilus
As well as
chlorinated water, intestinal flora can be damaged by antibiotic use. After
any treatment with antibiotics we should replace the beneficial bacterium
that has been killed by the antibiotic. Also, many of us are getting
antibiotics every day in the foods we eat. Modern factory farming techniques
create the need to use antibiotics to maintain bio-security. These
antibiotics can find their way onto our table, specifically in milk and
dairy. Very powerful antibiotics are used by the meat and dairy industry, sulfa-based
antibiotics. Residues are found in our milk. Sulfa-based antibiotics block
the body's ability to process folic acid. Folic acid is an important nutrient
for healthy skin and it is involved in the production of melanin.
To further emphasize the importance of
bacterial flora, I found this tidbit from A Pictorial Handbook of Anatomy
and Physiology by Dr. James Bevan.
The large intestine
The fecal matter is further decomposed by bacterial action to produce gas,
some of the vitamin B complex and feces.
For these reasons we
added acidophilus capsules to our diet. Look for a brand that has
enteric-coated capsules to protect these microorganisms from destructive
stomach acids and release them live into the intestinal tract. I haven't been
able to find a vegetarian brand that is enteric-coated so we use one made by
Veg-Life, it is kept refrigerated at the Health Food Store.
People have gone to the store and
picked up packages of poultry and taken them off to a laboratory and checked
them for salmonella contamination. The number of birds contaminated has been
shown in several studies to be around a third.
Carol Tucker Foreman, former Assistant
Secretary of Agriculture
In these days of factory farming, with e-coli and salmonella in the news
every day, it is important to clean your vegetables. We soak them in
peppermint castile soap, then rinse them well. In addition to cleaning the
veggies, you must have a strong flora. The good bacteria will literally
displace the bad bacteria in your gut.
Psoralen
One of my
old college professors told me, "If you want a new idea, read an old
book." So thanks to Dr. Richard N. Miller at the
The following table shows the many
plants that contain psoralen. Notice that even celery, carrots, parsnips and
other common foods have psoralen in them. We have increased our intake of raw
vegetables by juicing, 6-28-95. When we first started we were juicing
everyday. We juice once or twice a week now. A big glass of carrot and celery
juice contains lots of nutrients for the skin as well as psoralen.
DO NOT USE THESE WITHOUT DISCUSSING IT
WITH YOUR DOCTOR. DO NOT COMBINE PHARMACEUTICAL PSORALENS WITH THESE.
From: Vitiligo and Psoralens
by Abdel Monem El Mofty
(Pergamon Press, Oxford 1968).
PLANTS REPORTED TO EVOKE
PHYTOPHOTODERMATITISE
|
Common
name |
Botanical name |
Natural order |
|
Fig |
Ficus carica |
Moraceae |
|
Parsnip |
Pastinaca sativa |
Umbelliferae |
|
Cow parsnip |
Heracleum sphondylium |
Umbelliferae |
|
Garden parsnip |
Heracleum gigantum |
Umbelliferae |
|
Wild parsnip |
Pastinaca sativa |
Umbelliferae |
|
|
Heracleum
mantegazzianum |
|
|
Fennel |
Foeniculum vulgare |
Umbelliferae |
|
Dill |
Anethum graveolens |
Umbelliferae |
|
Parsley |
Peucedanum oreoselium |
Umbelliferae |
|
Wild carrot |
Daucus carota |
Umbelliferae |
|
Garden carrot |
Daucus sativa |
Umbelliferae |
|
Masterwort |
Peucedanum ostruthium |
Umbelliferae |
|
Celery |
Apium graveolens |
Umbelliferae |
|
Aatrillal |
Ammi majus |
Umbelliferae |
|
Angelica |
Angelica species |
Umbelliferae |
|
Common rue |
Ruta graveolens |
Rutaceae |
|
Gas plant |
Dictamus albus |
Rutaceae |
|
Lime bergamot |
Citrus bergamia |
Rutaceae |
|
|
Dictamus fraxinella |
Rutaceae |
|
Lime |
Citrus aurantiom |
Rutaceae |
|
|
Citrus aurantifolia |
Rutaceae |
|
Persian lime |
Citrus aurantifolia,
var. |
Rutaceae |
|
(Tahitian, Bearss) |
Swingle |
|
|
Buttercup |
Renunculus species |
Renunculaceae |
|
Mustard |
Brassica species |
Cruciferae |
|
|
Sinapsis arevensis |
|
|
Blind weed |
Convolvolus arevensis |
Convolvulaceae |
|
Agrimony |
Agrimnony eupatoria |
Rosaceae |
|
Yarrow (milfoil) |
Achillaea millefolium |
Compositae |
|
Goose foot |
Chenopodium species |
Chenopodiaceae |
|
Bavachi |
Psoralea corylifolia |
Leguminosae |
|
Hypericum perforatum |
Hypericaceae |
Note:
Phytophotodermatitis denotes the reaction to sunlight of skin, which has been
in contact with certain species of plants.
Here is some interesting information on
psoralen and the immune system. From Secrets of Supercharging Your Immune
System The Natural Way by Dr. David G. Williams, page 17. Copyright 1993,
he can be reached at Mountain Home Publishing PO Box 829, Ingram, TX 78025.
Researchers at
Within six months, lymph node swelling had decreased in all five patients and
all the previous disease symptoms were gone in four patients. At the
beginning of the study all patients cultured positive for the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV). After five months one patient's cultures were
negative! Two other patients tested negative at 14 and 15 months; however,
one of those became positive again the following month.
All three patients who stayed with the program for 15 months showed increased
levels of the T lymphocytes, indicating a substantial boost to their immune
systems! (Ann Inter Med 90; 113(4): 270-5)
The FDA has just approved an expanded trial of the treatment involving 20
additional patients.
About safety, I don't
feel good saying yes this is safe, since I am not qualified to do so. I will
tell you that we read a lot about St.
Johns Wort before we used it. It is one of the best known herbs and the
only side effect that I know of is that it is helpful in depression. The
bottle said that an adult should take three per day, Emily was about a third
of the weight of an adult so we cut that down to one a day. Then to be even
safer we cut that in half. She is now taking one a day, at nine years of age.
I discussed this dosage with a doctor that specializes in herbal treatment
and he agreed on the dose. In
I have been told that too much St. Johns
Wort can cause problems not being able to urinate. It is actually recommended
to people for enuresis. We give Emily very little and have not noticed any
trouble in this area.
Some members of VSIG
have found
Picrorrhiza
Information
supplied to VSIG by H. "kee" Wanakee, Wanakeeh@aol.com, seems to
indicate that an Auyrvedic herb called Picrorrhiza is helpful in vitiligo
patients. I have found picrorrhiza mentioned in The Encyclopedia of
Medicinal Plants by Andrew Chevallier, the author states that
"Picrorrhiza also helps treat...autoimmune diseases, including psoriasis
and vitiligo". I have not been able to find picrorrhiza at the local
health food store, but it is available on the net at Sequential Healing. This is
where Kee gets her supply.
Kee has an excellent web
site with more info on picrorrhiza and other options, check it out. I
really like her approach to good healthy skin care.
One concern when I read the bottle was
that the tablet contained hydrogenated oil and I try to avoid anything
hydrogenated. I asked them at Sequential Healing and they said "The
hydrogenated oil is part of the manufacturing process; they use it in the
tablet machine instead of machine oils. The small amount there is
insignificant - but they are into full disclosure."
After a month of using picrorrhiza (July
98), I have noticed an improvement in my bowel movements. You would think
that someone who eats nothing but veggies would have no problems with
elimination, but I do occasionally get a slight constipation. Nothing like
what I used to get before we changed our carnivorous ways, but you can tell
when things get slowed down. I blame it on a little too much fat in a meal or
eating something highly processed with very little fiber. I think I just have
a slow or sluggish system. Picrorrhiza seems to have helped in that I no
longer have any difficulty, it really stimulates the peristalsis. In fact if
you take too much you will experience a slight discomfort or griping. I tend
to use a half tablet twice a day, just like Kee.
Taboo
Subjects
Of all cancers, colon
cancer is the one which is most characteristic of modern Western culture.
Colorectal cancer is always rare amongst primitive people. Everything points
to diet, and the most important things in diet are fat and fiber.
Denis Burkitt, MD
While we are on the subject of
constipation let’s talk about bowel movements. Here are Eric's rules to live
by; rules of good health, your movements should occur two to three times a
day. After all, you eat two to three times each day. A two foot by two inch
comfortable and pain-free movement should not be a surprise, no-urgency, no
brown racing stripes in the underwear, no anal itching, not excessively
smelly, no diarrhea or constipation, a one wiper. Of course all of this would
rule out Olestra (the fake fat put out by Monsanto, also known as
If you don't turn your compost pile it
will really stink, that is an indication of rotting putrefied matter, and you
are supposed to turn it often. If your bowel movement smells really bad then
you have a problem with putrefying and rotting matter. This can be corrected
by getting more fiber in your diet; this decreases transit time, thus
increasing the frequency that you turn your internal compost pile. Death
begins in the colon, eat an apple a day and make sure you stay away from
refined white flour. Get some fiber and acidophilus in your life. Increase
the percentage of raw and unprocessed foods that you eat. It might help to squat
on the toilet or put a stool in front of the toilet to raise your feet off of
the ground and put you in the proper position. A colon cleansing might help
if you have consistent complaints. Your skin is an eliminatory organ, if the
rest of the elimination system is backed up or not working smoothly; the skin
has to handle more of the load. If your skin is dealing with extra toxins,
what possibility will there be for your skin to heal itself? One last point,
hemorrhoids are not a vegetarian disease.
You should see a minimum of one clear
urination per day, if not then you should be drinking more water. That's
right, just plain old ordinary water, not soda with its 9 teaspoons of sugar
per can. Can you imagine sitting down and eating 9 to 12 teaspoons of sugar
at once? The section about phenylalanine will show you why NutraSweet should
also be avoided. Distilled water is our preferred choice.
These are all things that can be passed
on from generation to generation; they are a gift from me to you. They are important
things to talk about even though many of us would rather not. :-) These are
not things that have to happen overnight. It is just movement (no pun) in the
right direction we need. Check back occasionally to see how you are doing.
Ultraviolet
Light
We use
natural light, and we tend to wear hats more often than we used too. When in
the sun, we only stay out for about half an hour to an hour then take a break
inside. There is always a fun inside activity to fill a half-hour. This is of
course effected by the time of day, we really try to avoid the mid day sun.
At times when she might get too much sun, I cut an aloe leaf off of one of
our plants and slather it all over her pink areas. This keeps her from
peeling and helps tan. Even in
Everyone on the planet seems to be
concerned about skin cancer, specifically melanoma. On VSIG
we have heard that vitiligo patients may have more of a chance for skin
cancer. Then we hear that they have less of a chance to develop melanoma.
Which is it? In our concern for skin cancer we eat low on the food chain,
this also reduces your chance for skin cancer. When you eat lots of fruits
and veggies you increase your intake of anti-oxidants, which help fight off
the free radicals that, cause so much damage. This also reduces the saturated
fat we eat, which means we get more oxygen to our tissues than the average
American.
Anyone with vitiligo and concerned about
skin cancer should read this:
Researchers have found
that a low fat diet may decrease the likelihood of skin cancer. Subjects fed
a low fat diet (20 percent of calories from fat) had 70 percent fewer
appearances of a skin lesion associated with increased risk for skin cancer
compared with subjects consuming the usual American diet of 36 percent of
calories from fat. "The International Journal of Cancer" 1995;
62:165-169
So, we use sunlight to
help our daughter repigment. We do not use sunscreen unless we can't get out
of the sun for some reason. This might be because of a long day at a local
spring where we don't anticipate there being a lot of shade. Emily also has a
few different bathing suits so that different areas of her skin get exposed.
She had a little resistance at first to a bikini, but now she loves them. She
went on a special shopping trip with her Mom and sister, and that’s all it
took.
This is one of the most confusing parts
of the whole vitiligo puzzle to me. It seems (to me) the confusion comes from
the conventional PUVA therapy. The doctor prescribes a specific amount of
psoralen and UVA. She/he doesn't want you to get anymore sun than what was
prescribed so they tell you to stay out of the sun and wear sun block. The
doctor probably tells you to stay away from foods that contain a lot of
psoralen as well (I only say this because I seem to remember reading it
somewhere).
IMHO, if you are not on PUVA you need to
get sun light to repigment. So... it doesn't make sense to overdo it on
sunscreen. Don't go out and get burned, but get some daily exposure. If you
are going to be out for a long time, use sunscreen. Planned interruption or
breaks in outdoor activity, would be the better option. Time enough to allow
your skin to recover from its previous sun exposure.
Emily doesn't say much about her
vitiligo, although recently I upset her. I didn't mean to, she got a little
too much sun one day so I told her that it could cause vitiligo (trauma to
the skin). You have to walk a tight rope; you want sun to repigment, but not
enough to burn and cause the vitiligo to come back. Later that night Susie
told me Emily cried a little about it, that she didn't want to get any more
vitiligo. So the next morning I talked to her about it. I told her about the
tight rope thing and I also told her that because of everything we have done,
the problem may have gone away. By that I mean, trauma like sunburn may not
cause her to lose her pigment, because her body may be able to handle it
better. (I am not saying that she was ever affected by trauma, just that in
general trauma affects some people with loss of pigment. We just try to avoid
anything that could cause vitiligo.)
The following is information from an
August 12, 1996 article called The Treatment Of Children With Vitiligo
by Aaron B. Lerner, M.D. Department of Dermatology Yale University School of
Medicine. I really like the way he describes this whole issue of sun
exposure.
The child should be
exposed to as much sunlight as possible without getting sunburn. Ultraviolet
light is a mitogen for pigment cells. That is, light stimulates pigments
cells to divide so that new cells can be made. Whether this action of light
on pigment cells is direct or indirect is not known. We are walking a
tightrope here because sunburn is trauma to the skin, and the normal
pigmented skin in a person with vitiligo is easily depigmented when
traumatized. In fact, it is common for a patient to state that his/her
vitiligo first appeared after sunburn. Following a 15- to 60-minute stay in
sunlight, a light protective preparation or sunscreen cream or lotion of SPF
8 or higher should then be applied to the skin to stop the further action of
light. This controlled, limited exposure to light will most likely avoid
predisposing the child to significant photo-aging of skin.
Folic Acid
Feeling
grouchy? Weak or anxious? Sleeping poorly? You could be deficient in folic
acid. Folic acid is important for healthy skin and for the nervous system. It
rebuilds damaged DNA. Often times vitiligo follows along areas of the skin
where bundles of nerves branch out to the skin from the spinal column. There
is a theory that the nerve cells are improperly functioning and damaging the
melanocytes.
Thus the depigmentation often strikes
places that are richly supplied by nerves.
Leopoldo Montes, MD
We have this handy kitchen reference card that contains the following
information about folic acid. From the Nutritional Awareness Guide by
Legion of Light, The benefits and whole-food sources of vitamins and
minerals. Legion of Light Products
Vitamin: Folic Acid (B complex) (Destroyed by heat)
Functions in the body: Necessary for proper brain function. Essential
for mental and emotional health. Improves lactation. Helps prevent anemia.
Essential to the formation of red blood cells. Promotes healthy skin. Aids in
the performance of the liver. Needed for the division of body cells. Aids in
protein metabolism. Important for the production of the nucleic acids RNA and
DNA. Aids the intestinal tract. Enhances circulation.
Finest food sources: Alfalfa sprouts, Apricot, Asparagus, Avocados,
Beans (sprouted and whole), Beet Greens, Broccoli, Buckwheat sprouts,
Cantaloupe, Cauliflower, Citrus Fruits, Comfrey Leaf (herb), Cucumber,
Ginseng (Korean), Grains (sprouted and whole), Greens (leafy), Kelp, Peas,
Soybeans (sprouted and whole), Spinach, Spirulina, Sprouts (all kinds),
Wheat-germ, Wheat-grass
This is something I
received from the National Vitiligo Foundation Inc., during the summer of
1998:
From a Journal Watch for
Dermatology (Published by the Massachusetts Medical Society, publishers of
The New England Journal of Medicine and Journal Watch): Treatment of Vitiligo
with Oral Vitamin B12 and Folic Acid.
Vitiligo rarely improves
with current therapies. A previous report found low levels of folic acid and
vitamin B12 in some patients with vitiligo and a response to aggressive
replacement therapy. Prompted by that report, investigators in
The patients ranged in age from 9 to 79 years; 67 were women, and 64 had
active disease. Vitiligo had been present for 1 to 43 years, with the age of
onset ranging from 1 to 65 years. Patients were treated with tablets
containing 1 mg of vitamin B12 and 5 mg of folic acid twice daily, which they
were instructed to take for 3 months or more. They were encouraged to seek
UVB exposure throughout the year. Baseline vitamin B12 and folate levels were
normal in the subgroup tested.
Patients were ultimately treated for 1 to 12 months. Repigmentation to some
degree occurred in 52 patients, mostly in sun-exposed areas. The best
predictors of success were age less than 26 years, vitiligo duration less
than 10 years, treatment for 7 to 12 months, and a commitment to UVB
exposure.
This was the article
that finally convinced my dermatologist to give Emily vitamins.
Here is something I read in Good
Medicine (Spring/Summer 1998) put out by PCRM:
“People suffering from depression often are low in folic acid, a B-vitamin found
in vegetables and
beans, according to psychiatrist Jonathan E. Alpert of
The more I read about depression and vitiligo, the more I find circumstantial
evidence that folic acid and St. Johns Wort should be helpful for both problems.
Folic acid is very safe, it is even
given to neonatal
children.
PABA
We
recently (6-6-98) started painting PABA on Emily's left ankle once a day. The
product we are using was recommended by H. "kee" Wanakee,
Wanakeeh@aol.com, it is called DMAE-H3 and is made by Twin-Labs. PABA is part
of the Folic Acid molecule. Kee sent me the following information that
convinced me to start the DMAE-H3.
I talked to Twin Labs to
find out exactly what is in the DMAE-H3 liquid that is much cheaper than the
lotion, and the PABA is far more concentrated, and to my amazement, I was
told the product is totally vegetarian. I asked several times, and demanded
to know why it smells fishy. Again, I was told its totally veggie, though the
material did not list which specific veggies were used. Could be sea veggies,
for Kelp and other edible sea veggies smell like fish. You can call Twin Lab
customer service at 1-800-645-5626.
Eat Your
Greens
We added
Super Blue Green Algae to our daughter’s diet, eating low on the food chain,
6-10-96. Two pills twice daily of the 'Alpha' (this is the least expensive of
their products). We also gave her a veggie chewable multi-vitamin, we were
less regular with this than the algae.
A friend of mine invited me to a lecture
by a chiropractor about the Super Blue Green Algae (Multi-Level Marketing).
The speaker mentioned that he had vitiligo and within 3 months it went away.
I questioned him after the lecture and I didn't get a warm feeling about his
"vitiligo". He didn't seem to realize that there is also a fungus
that causes similar depigmentation. He said his could have been the fungus.
Anytime someone tells you he got rid of vitiligo in three months, you should
question him.
Emily was able to swallow large capsules
early on so we were lucky. Our other daughter Katie had more trouble, if we
ever needed to have her take anything we would break it up in a spoonful of
maple syrup.
We take a break from all supplements for
a month each year. December works well for us; since there isn't the intense
sunlight we get the rest of the year.
As of, about 6-97, we stopped using
the algae. We were trying to reduce the number of supplements we were giving
to Emily. If we started loosing ground we felt we might go back to the SBGA.
Mind Body
Connection
We are
lucky that a local counselor and friend took interest in Emily's vitiligo. He
offered to consult with her for free. He gives her mental exercises to help
her to repigment. He is a licensed Mental Health Counselor and he specializes
in Mind / Body medicine Hypnosis, NLP, EMDR. We now pay him for his effort
and believe that it is helping her. It gets her in the right frame of mind to
support the healing process.
Since Susie’s brother committed suicide,
we have been concerned about depression in our family. We had concerns that
her vitiligo might one day depress her.
I received email from a suicidal
teenager. Unfortunately, this is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
Vitiligo may seem permanent but it doesn't have to be. If nutritional support
isn't for you, try depigmenting or camouflage. If you are feeling depressed
try
One morning I woke up from a dream. This
will sound awful but I immediately looked over to my wonderful wife with some
very mean spirited thoughts. I literally hated her for what she was doing in
my dream. This wasn't just any ordinary kind of hate. Every cell in my body
hated her, I was even trying to convince my intestinal flora to hate her. :-)
Before I tell you what she was doing in my dream, I have to apologize to a
whole group of people. You see I am showing a prejudice on my part, and that
is not always easy to do. In my dream Susie was smoking cigarettes. Of course
this is not a terrible thing, people do it every day. I just happen to have a
completely unreasonable phobia towards it. Anyway, I finally worked out my
anger and hatred, realizing it was a completely emotional reaction to a strange
dream. So logic prevailed and I went back to sleep next to the wife that I so
much adore.
The next day I didn't even mention the dream to my wife and I went on with my
life. A few nights later I woke up in a cold sweat. Of course Susie had once
again been smoking cigarettes in my dream. Once again I must apologize to any
smokers reading this, but I really hated her for smoking in my dream. I felt
she had betrayed me and betrayed my trust. She knew that I couldn't stand
cigarette smoke and that I was also concerned about the health effects of
smoking. We had talked about it early in our relationship and she knew how I
felt. So I was justified in my hate, but wait, this was just a dream. I had
to go back to sleep and forget this nightmare. Again I didn't mention my
dream to Susie.
Then again, for a third time, I had the same dream. I decided I had to
mention the dream to Susie before I went insane, or any more insane. I
mentioned my dream to Susie. I told her that I had these terrible feelings
towards her and that in my dream she was smoking. I also told her that I had
dreamt it three times. Her jaw dropped and she told me. She told me that she
had in fact been smoking at work with some of the other waitresses. We had a
terrible fight, after I said some mean things. Like I had not married a
smoker and that I wasn't going to be married to one. Terrible ultimatum and
it goes to show the depth of my phobia. This dream really made the mind body
connection for me. At least it makes it easier for me to believe the
possibilities for healing, from first healing the mind.
Stress
If you
think this is all a bunch of woo-woo garbage, I suggest as a minimum to get
some counseling for stress management. Read You'll See It When You Believe
It by Wayne Dyer, it helped me deal with stress. Thinking of that book
reminds me about a story; I met an old friend who told me that years earlier
I had hurt her badly by something I said. I didn't even remember saying it to
her, but I didn't doubt for a moment that I could have said it (I have my
moments). I apologized to her for hurting her feelings. It was amazing that
for years this thing I said and forgot about had been on her mind and
bothering her. She carried it around for many years. Wayne's book put it
another way, if you are in traffic and the person in front of you cuts you
off, there are two ways you can process the information. You could get angry
about it and stew over it, scream at the person and let it ruin your day.
Think about who really is affected by this anger, you are. The other person,
the one that turned right three miles back has gone on with their life and
forgot about the whole thing. They might have not been aware of it at all.
The second way to process this event is to realize that that person was doing
exactly what they were supposed to be doing. You could choose to learn from
the situation, drive more defensively and get along with your life.
We are also simplifying our lives.
Getting rid of things we don't need, not volunteering as much as we used to.
Learning to say no. This has reduced the stress level around our home.
To boost her self confidence we have
emphasized sports. She tried gymnastics and is currently in soccer. She
didn't enjoy her first experience at soccer; she was the only girl on the
team. She didn't play soccer for a year after that, then an all girls team
formed and she loves it.
She also is interested in acting and
music. She sang a solo at the school talent show, January 1997.
Food
Enzymes
Ever since
we heard about the new pseudo-catalase treatment being tested in
We only used the catalase for about a
year, and then we stopped using it, in an effort to reduce the supplements
she takes. If we start losing ground we will try this again.
There are many thousands of different
enzymes in our bodies and in the raw foods that we eat each day. The enzymes
in our foods aid digestion. Enzymes are specific protein catalysts; they
actually speed up the process of breaking down the food.
One of the guys I work with (Glenn
Strickland) said it this way:
If the food you eat is
over processed, it will be devoid of enzymes. The purpose of these enzymes is
to help digest the food that you eat. You body will rob your immune system of
its enzymes, to help breakdown the enzyme lacking food.
Your immune system uses
enzymes to breakdown the toxins it finds in your body. The cells of the
immune system carry enzymes with them.
Foods That Contain Catalase
|
Food |
Amount |
Source |
|
Grapes |
? |
1 |
|
Mango |
? |
1 |
|
Sugar Cane |
? |
1 |
|
Carrots |
? |
2 |
1. Enzyme Nutrition by
Edward Howell, page 35.
2. Food Enzymes by Humbart Santillo, page 12.
Another good book on enzymes is, Enzymes
The Fountain of Life by D.A. Lopez, MD. It goes in depth into the process
of how large enzyme molecules are absorbed when taken orally.
The following is information on how to
find out if a food contains catalase, from Albert R Gordon, Jul. 2, 1997.
Although animal liver is
often used as a source of catalase for laboratory experiments, you will find
catalase in most plant species. I recall reading reviews many years ago that
outlined specific plant species that have large amounts, but I do not recall
the sources (I'd check the Annual Review of Biochemistry). There are several
books out also but these may be quite dated by now.
You can easily test for the presence of catalase in a plant by using 3%
hydrogen peroxide in a beaker and dropping a small chuck of plant with cut
sides into the beaker. The evolution of bubbles (oxygen) is indicative of
catalase activity. Fleshy stems and leaves will rise to the surface.
Plants that do not have large amounts of catalase usually have large amounts
of a related enzyme called peroxidase. Peroxidase breaks down hydrogen
peroxide using an electron donor that is oxidized in the process. Catalase
tends to work best at higher hydrogen peroxide concentrations whereas
peroxidase is most efficient at lower hydrogen peroxide concentrations.
This shows that plants
in general contain either catalase or peroxidase, which break down hydrogen
peroxide. If the excess hydrogen peroxide in the skin is causing the
breakdown of melanin or inactivation of the melanocytes then plants may be
the protectors of these cells. Adding more plant foods and reducing animal
proteins may in fact allow the melanocytes to perform their intended
function.
Sugar Cane also contains tyrosinase, an
enzyme important in the production of melanin. We have been eating evaporated
cane juice since we went on a health food diet. The brand we use is called
Sucanat. (Sucanat North American Corporation,
I am concerned about the direction we
are taking with food processing in this country. We are all concerned about
food borne pathogens like the new strains of E-Coli and Salmonella. The
problem I see is that we are looking towards the quick fix instead of
addressing the root of the problem. Many of us are ready to embrace
irradiation of our foods to eliminate the pathogens. The concern is that the pathogens
are not the only things affected by irradiation. Irradiation destroys the
enzymes in the food as well. As I have found from the available literature,
these enzymes are important in a long and healthy life. The real fix to the
pathogen problem is a conversion from factory farming of livestock towards
buying more locally grown, organically produced vegetable, grains, fruits and
legumes. We are creating the problem by our own demand for animal products,
with the huge demand come huge amounts of manure. The more we purchase animal
products, the more antibiotics are used for bio-security. The more
antibiotics used, the more virulent forms of bacteria are grown. So with each
dollar we spend, we can vote to have more locally grown, organic produce and
fewer factory farmed animal products. Creating less manure and causing fewer
problems with bacteria and pollution from runoff.
Achlorhydria
I have
also read that as we age our ability to produce hydrochloric acid in our
stomach is reduced. This is called achlorhydria. The same source talked about
a doctor that cured his vitiligo with these supplements. There is a test a
doctor can perform to check for this condition. It requires dropping a radio
transmitter into your stomach, with a string attached. The acid levels are
measured and transmitted back to a recording device. For more information on
the low stomach acid test follow this link.
There are HCL supplements you can buy; a company called Freeda's makes a
vegetarian tablet. We have not tried this, as Emily is still very young.
Permanent
Goosebumps and Carrots
Emily has
been getting "permanent Goosebumps" lately. We just give her a
carrot a day and this seems to keep them under control. Vitamin A is known to
be good for Permanent Goosebumps (I learned this from Dr. Williams he
publishes a newsletter called Alternatives) and beta-carotene from
carrots is a precursor to vitamin A. Our bodies can make vitamin A from beta
carotene. Permanent Goosebumps are little bumps that Emily and I get when we
haven't had enough beta-carotene. They look and externally feel much like
regular Goosebumps but don't go away, unless of course I eat or juice a
carrot. I say externally feel because you don't actually get the tingling up
the spine feeling, of real Goosebumps. I think that in certain areas of the
skin that this occurs, the waste products that the skin is trying to
eliminate are not able to make their way out.
I would suggest staying away from
vitamin A supplements; I feel that carrots and carrot juice are the
appropriate way to get beta-carotene (precursor to vitamin A). Other sources
are sweet potato, winter squash, pumpkins, mango, apricots, papaya and
cantaloupe. Food sources are better than beta-carotene supplements as foods
have other important carotenoids. Carotenoids are powerful antioxidants.
This problem has seemed to disappear
over time, or maybe we just eat enough carrots now.
Skin
Conditioner and Pine Tar Soap
We have
gotten into the habit of applying a skin conditioner after showering (after
reading Neal Barnard's book, Eat Right, Live Longer). The one we use is
cruelty free and something we picked up at the local food coop, April 1997.
It is called Yuzu (Japanese Citrus) Moisturizing Formula and ShiKai makes it.
We have also changed over to castile
soap (we get it at our local HFS) from the standard brands we used to buy at
the grocery stores.
Soap that we have recently started using
contains Pine Tar; it is made by Aubrey Organics. Pine Tar is also called
pycnogenol and it is a powerful anti-oxidant, more powerful that vitamin C.
Abrasions
and Scratching
We noticed
that often times Emily's scraped knees were not recovering their pigment.
This led us to be concerned that scratching might cause new depigmented areas
(others have posted information about scratching on VSIG).
We have asked Emily not to scratch and if she feels the need, we apply aloe
or a skin conditioner.
This problem seems to have gone away.
She now repigments scrapes with no problem.
Pesticides,
Herbicides and Fungicides
If you know that animal
food sources contain a lot of these substances which you know are potentially
harmful, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to go on eating them.
Oliver Alabaster, MD, George Washington
University Medical Center, from Foods Can Save Your Life by Neal
Barnard, page 28
Our home and property is now a pesticide free zone. Any chemicals we used to
use, such as diazinon, dursban, baygone, atrazine, have now been replaced by
natural alternatives.
We have planted all native (indigenous)
plants, with lots of flowers. We use a thick layer of pine bark to fight the
weeds. If a fungus attacks our plants, then it didn't deserve to be a part of
our landscape in the first place.
One good thing is that we don't have all
of those poisons around the house to worry about. Like if the kids get into
them.
This is another gray area, I used these
chemicals for years then Emily developed vitiligo. Could they have caused it,
I believe it is possible. I can remember shaking after spraying my house for
cockroaches. My whole body shook uncontrollably for a short period of time,
probably less than half an hour. My father had used these same chemicals to
keep away roaches when I was young, so I used them. You mix the bottle with a
few gallons of water, shake it up and apply it to the baseboards of the
house. We would evacuate for a few hours and let the stuff dry and the fumes
would dissipate. It is amazing what we would do to our bodies in this
country, I would do it again and my body would shake, then I would do it
again. I would probably be doing it today if the vitiligo had not opened our
eyes. We no longer spray, we keep the house very clean, as well as cleaning
the dishes immediately after meals (this has always been the case), well
sealed and we use Harris roach tablets. They are made with boric acid, are
non-toxic and are very effective. They are also easier to use then chemical
sprays. Spraying around the beds in the children's rooms always concerned me.
For ants we use boric acid mixed with
powdered sugar, or Terro syrup (a product that contains borax and syrup).
Phenylalanine
I had
considered using an amino acid treatment on Emily. It involves supplementing
with phenylalanine. The following excerpt from Foods Can Save Your Life
changed my mind. This is from an interview of Richard Wurtman, MD, from MIT:
Phenylalanine can damage
brain cells. High levels of phenylalanine develop in children with a disease
called phenylketonuria, or PKU. Profound brain damage is often the result.
When we consume aspartame, we are essentially drinking phenylalanine. How
much NutraSweet can we consume and still be sure that the phenylalanine
levels in the brain are safe? No one knows. Wurtman advises pregnant women
and small children to stay off aspartame completely. Phenylalanine affects
brain cells directly and interferes with substances in the brain, which are responsible
for preventing seizures.
This amino acid is
abundant in our diets, is it possible that we are not digesting our protein
well enough to break down this acid?
Hair Color
My hair
has been lightening since I was about 33. I have noticed friends whose hair
regained its color. One friend used colloidal minerals and swore that it was
the tin that gave him his color back. Another used the Asian herb ginseng and
was successful in regaining his hair color. I work with both of them and they
both had remarkable changes in hair color. I tried both of these things and
didn't see any progress. The pictures in Dr. Montes' book have inspired me to
try using PABA to regain the pigment in my hair, July 1998. I have also added
a hydrochloric acid supplement after each meal. I will keep you updated as to
how this is working.
More Ideas
From Let's
Live February 1996, page 22, in the "Preventative Medicine"
section by Richard P. Huemer, MD
TWO QUERIES ON VITILIGO
Q. My 11-year-old son has vitiligo, a rare skin pigmentation problem. It
started five years ago, and now is spreading over his body. His pediatric
dermatologist says nothing can be done for him. Hydrocortisone has failed.
Blood tests have ruled out associated conditions like Addison's disease and
diabetes. Would natural products that are good for the immune system and skin
be of any benefit? I was wondering about zinc, garlic, royal jelly and
vitamins A, E and C. -J.L.,
Q. I found an old
article in "Let's Live" (Dec. 1977) on vitiligo by the late
A. Dr. Airola was
probably referring to a report by B.F. Sieve in Virginia Medical Monthly
(Jan. 1945; 6-17). Sieve started out by giving 100 mg of PABA three or four
times daily, in addition to B complex. Because the effect was slow,
injectable monoethanolamine PABA was added, 100 mg twice daily. The results
were stated to be striking after six or seven months of treatment.
Oral PABA is available in this dosage range, but watch out for potential side
effects like skin rash, loss of appetite and liver toxicity with high doses.
To get the injectable form, you need three things: a cooperative doctor who
will write a prescription, a compounding pharmacist who will prepare the
injectable solution and a copy of Dr. Sieve's original article for both the
doctor and the pharmacist.
Other nutrients that have been tried include copper and the amino acid
l-phenylalanine. The phenylalanine gets converted by the body into
l-tyrosine, another amino acid. Tyrosine has many roles in the body, one of
which is to become skin pigment (melanin) through the action of a special
enzyme that requires copper.
In a 1985 study, doctors treated patients with doses of phenylalanine in the
3- to 4-gm range, and then exposed the patients to ultraviolet light shortly
after the dose. They reported "reasonable" repigmentation after
four months of this.
Low stomach acid may be a factor in vitiligo. Of
the several ways of testing for this condition, I prefer the radio telemetry
pill ("
I don't see why multiple vitamins wouldn't help some, but I'd suggest going
easy on zinc, since it antagonizes copper.
Chapter 6
Typical Weekly Meal Plan
I have
been asked many times, "So what do you eat?" So here is a list of
some the things we might eat in a typical week.
|
Breakfast |
oatmeal with Stevia, |
|
Lunch |
leftovers from dinner,
|
|
Dinner |
black bean and corn
salad, |
|
Dessert |
smoothies, |
Please, order a copy of
our cookbook, These Are a Few of Our Favorite Things.
Full of staple recipes that we enjoy each month.
I also like this brief write-up by the PCRM called The 3-Step Way to Go
Vegetarian.
Chapter 7
Don't Give Up
While
working a large puzzle it is important to step back at times, take a break
and rest. Always look back at the cover for the big picture. It helped in
this vitiligo puzzle to keep a record of what happened on the journey,
through notes, photos, and medical records. One thing that helped was that
anything we posted to VSIG
was saved into an archive. So it
was easy to go back and find out when we started any new course of treatment.
You will find the treatment that is
right for you. With a little perseverance you will get rid of vitiligo.
Inspiration
We watched
Lorenzo's
Oil a couple of times. If anyone needs inspiration in the fight
against any disease, rent this movie. It also shows you that things could be
worse. Another good inspirational movie was Patch
Adams, it helps you to think outside of the envelope.
Also the support we receive from VSIG
has been fantastic.
Repigmentation
Process
This
disease could drive you crazy, if you let it. At one point Emily was gaining
and loosing pigment at the same rate. The timeline
will be helpful in this regard, in it I talk a little about how she was
depigmenting and repigmenting. There was a transition period between
depigmenting and repigmenting. I seem to remember that she was depigmenting
for a few years, then she was depigmenting and repigmenting for some period
(but the depigmentation was winning), then she stopped depigmenting
altogether.
I have noticed that since Emily's
vitiligo is no longer "active" (read - actively spreading) her
scars heal and pigment normally.
We have noticed that when Emily's spots
turn red that seems to be a good sign. They start freckling after that.
With vitiligo, persistence pays off. I
have noticed that with anything that requires persistence it helps me to read
different authors on the subject. Their words will inspire you to keep the
fires burning.
Timeline
Emily has
made very good progress. Here is a timeline of her progress with before and
after photos. We recommend taking pictures of the vitiligo often. I suggest
using artificial light, write down information like the film speed, pay
attention to body position and facial expression and watts of light used.
Keep the background the same, a solid color works best. Without pictures it
is hard to get feedback as to whether the repigmentation is progressing.
Keeping other records helps as well, start a scrapbook. It is all great
feedback, how else will you know what works for you? The timeline really
helps when you find yourself slipping and going back to old habits. Sometimes
we forget how far along the vitiligo had gotten on Emily. When we see the
pictures we get renewed energy to stick with what works.
Following the timeline is a side by side
comparison of the photos (before and after).
We moved to our current home, on
Emily's 5th birthday, 7-13-93.
Subscribed to Alternative's, from Mountain Home Publishing, I was looking for
ways to lower my cholesterol, 2-10-94.
First spot, on foot, 3-94.
Ordered back issues of Alternative's, 4-7-94.
Joined the local food coop, Sunseed 4-11-94.
Started adding more yogurts with Acidophilus to our diet.
Local dermatologist (Dr. Eells) diagnosed Emily with vitiligo; she had a spot
on her right ankle and one on her left thigh, 7-7-94.
Ordered back issues of Alternative's (issue dealt with Melagenina,
3-93 Vol. 4 #21), 7-8-94.
Emily turns 6, 7-13-94
Joined NVFI, 11-4-94.
Ate vegetarian for two months, Jan + Feb. 1995.
Pediatrician Acosta, diagnosed as vitiligo, requested second opinion from
dermatologist 4-6-95.
Blood test, high cholesterol, 125 LDL, 184 total (this may indicate that her
homocysteine levels were high. In that case folic acid and other B vitamins
would be helpful. In future homocysteine levels should be checked), 4-6-95.
Wrote letter to NVFI about starting a
listserv, 4-27-95.
Ordered back issues of Alternative's, 4-30-95.
Reading about PABA and B vitamins for vitiligo on the Internet, before
hearing of Dr. Montes, 5-1-95.
Susie graduated from UCF, Big party, had gone back to eating meat again,
5-3-95.
Started giving Emily PABA, 5-9-95.
Photos, 5-16-95.
Neck
and upper chest, 5-16-95.
Neck and back, 5-16-95.
The back of her knees, 5-16-95.
Knees, shins and ankles,
5-16-95.
Ankles, 5-16-95.
Received AAD guidelines from Dr. Eells, not much use, 5-22-95.
Noticed that it started in places where she sweats, 5-23-95.
Had it on face, armpits, ankles, knees, and neck 5-24-95.
Dermatologist
Been reading VEGAN-L and HERB listservs, 5-26-95.
Received Dr. Montes' article on vitamin therapy from the NVFI. I wrote letter to Dr. Montes and Dr.
Rebat Hadler, 5-30-95.
Started vegetarian lifestyle, also started folic acid and vitamin C treatment
(probably stopped the PABA at this time), Susie took vegetarian cooking
class, 6-1-95.
From a note on my to-do list, "Dr. Acosta mentioned that he will get a
med-line search. Should take a couple of days. Would like time to digest
information. Seemed very receptive. Would like any information I get from Dr.
Nordlund. A little skeptical about
Took my letter to Dr. Montes to the post office, 6-1-95
Reading more about herbs and psoralen, 6-95
From a note on my to-do list, "Saturday 6-10-95 3:50 PM Emily by herself
on couch, sucking thumb, Kyle + Katie outside playing. Emily has headache.
Just recently ate a banana, not hungry. Gave her a half a kelp pill. 15
minutes later she is outside playing and happy. 2 B-50, 500 mg C, 1/2 kelp, 1
Amino Acid complex, Multi-vitamin, Cal Mag Zinc x2, and primrose oil. I don't
believe Immune system is to "strong or weak". I do believe it could
use supplementation to properly carry out its function. (Note: Strong and
weak sound like jargon words when describing the immune system. We should use
more descriptive language to describe what is actually going on.), 6-10-95
Note on my to-do list, "folacin deficiency, produces anemia. Antibiotics
particularly sulfa drugs are chemically similar to PABA. Blocks production of
folacin. Page 294 Introduction to Organic and Biological Chemistry,
Ronald M Scott, 6-12-95
Plotting her morning temperature, turned out to be borderline low, started
kelp tablets, 6-12-95.
We received mail from Dr. Montes, 6-13-95.
Wrote to Dr. Urbanek about coal tar therapy, Dr. R. W. Urbanek
Dr. Bob Zenhausern agrees to host VSIG
at
Birth of VSIG, 6-23-95.
Finished reading May All Be Fed, 6-27-95.
Started Juicing, after talking to Mark Vigeant, 6-28-95.
Emily turns 7, 7-13-95.
Had read May All Be Fed, told Ludger Solbach we were eating all whole
foods, 7-14-95.
Stopped vitamin supplements for blood test, 7-20-95.
Started Vegan (pure vegetarian) lifestyle, 8-95.
Switched to acidophilus supplements.
Started drinking Distilled Water, 8-9-95.
Great video clip of vitiligo on Emily's neck and shins, 8-11-95.
Looking into esteem building activities for Emily (sports related). I think
that at this point we felt she might never repigment and we should prepare
her for a potentially difficult teenage life. I remember looking into Tai
Quon Do but the kids weren't interested, 8-12-95.
Joined EarthSave, 8-23-95.
Spots have spread to her legs, arms, chest, back, neck and chin, 9-20-95.
Checked vitamin levels in blood, all normal, didn't go back to using the
vitamin supplements (used occasional multi-vitamins) 10-3-95.
St. John's Wort, started taking 1 per
week (not sure when we increased it to three per week) 10-4-95.
Her vitiligo seems to be continually changing, freckles on a white spot, more
defined border on another spot, then a new spot somewhere else, 10-20-95.
Attended
Vitiligo still active, some spots freckling, others depigmenting, 11-5-95.
Article in "Let's Live" about vitiligo, PABA, b-vitamins and
hydrochloric acid, 2-96.
Became lifetime members, Sunseed Food Coop 3-5-96.
Sandy Konkel offered Mind/Body Counseling, 3-10-96.
Blurry, but this is her neck
5-96.
Went to a SBGA meeting and heard a testimonial about vitiligo, 5-11-96
Another
picture of her neck, spot turning pink, 6-96.
First session with
Started taking Super Blue Green Algae, 6-10-96.
Mind/Body Counseling, 6-20-96.
Started noticing more freckling, 6-22-96.
Started taking one Catalase per day, 6-25-96.
Emily turns 8, 7-13-96.
Photo on Aunt Sandy's rocking chair, cropped to seek neck, knee and shin,
7-23-96.
Neck, pink spots, 7-23-96.
Knee and shin, pink spots,
7-23-96.
The backs of her knees have been freckling for at least two months. These are
areas about 4 inches by 2 inches that were completely depigmented, 8-8-96
This
is her neck, 9-96.
The large shape on her chest, like a monarch butterfly, is now filling in and
looks like a small bat at dusk, 9-15-96
This
is her neck, 10-96.
Worked the EarthSave Booth at the
Mind/Body Counseling, 12-4-96.
Started feeling more confident about her progress, scratched vitiligo off of
to-do list, 1-97.
This is her shin, 3-2-97.
Emily is about 60% improved and holding, we are currently giving her three St. Johns Wort tablets per week 4-9-97.
Received a free copy of Dr. Montes’ book, 5-11-97.
Started taking colloidal minerals, used infrequently, once or twice a week
added to carrot juice, 5-28-97.
Started taking one St. Johns Wort per
day, 6-97.
Mind/Body Counseling, 7-2-97.
Photos, 7-97.
Neck and
chest, 7-97.
Neck and back, 7-97.
The back of her knees, 7-97.
Knees, shins and ankles, 7-97.
Ankles, 7-97.
Neck,
7-97.
Knee
and shin, some skin is actually darker than normal, 7-97.
Emily turns 9, 7-13-97.
Out to dinner with Rick and Linda DeBarros, met Paul and Eric, July, 1997.
80% repigmented, she only has two plaques that don't show any sign of
repigmenting, on her ankles, 8-18-97.
Started vegetarian form of catalase, 8-20-97
Emily is fine. There has been no change in her vitiligo in the last few
months. I have been trying to work with her doctors about giving her a folic
acid injection in one of her ankles (spots where her vitiligo has not
repigmented as much as the rest of her body). It is like beating my head
against a brick wall, I feel like asking for an injection of Ritalin (bet I
would get further with that). Anyway we have been slowing down with the
supplements, as we want to give her a break for a month, December, 1997.
Finally convinced the pediatrician (Dr. Arnold) and dermatologist (Dr.
Bishop) to give her folate (2 mg/day) and vitamin B12 (200 mcg/day), they
were actually very good, just trying to cover themselves, 3-98.
Started painting her left ankle with liquid PABA once a day, took pictures,
6-6-98.
Emily is 10, 7-13-98.
Out to dinner with Tom, Carol, Tiffany, Stephanie, Whitney and Kimberly
Hernandez, 8-14-98.
She is currently repigmenting very slowly. I give her five 800 micro gram
folic acid tablets, one B100 complex, one SJW tablet, one 250 mg vitamin C
(chewable), one chewable multi vitamin, one kelp tablet, all of these are
taken daily. I occasionally give her an acidophilus capsule and a weekly
glass of carrot juice. I want to juice more often, just haven’t lately. Her
vitiligo is now mostly confined to her ankles and they are freckling. I say
mostly confined because the other areas have freckled in very well, but still
need further progress. We paint her left ankle and shin with DMAE-H3 each
night, to see if it helps any, 8-31-98.
Started using Pine Tar soap, made by Aubrey Organics, 10-1-98.
Switched over to non-chewable vitamin C, 500 mg and multi vitamin. Also
increased folic acid to six 800 micro gram tablets. Discontinued the DMAE-H3,
just didn't see much difference. 12-98.
Comparison
In this
side by side (before and after) comparison of Emily's vitiligo, you will be
able to dramatically see how much progress we have made.
Photo's on left were taken 5-95 Photo's
on right were taken 7-97
Before (May ’95)
after (July ’97).
Before (May ’95) after
(July ’97). Neck and chest are slowly filling in.
Before (May ’95) after
(July ’97)
5-95
7-97.
You can see a lot of glare in some of the "after" pictures.
5-95 7-97
5-95
7-97.
Big difference here
5-95
7-97.
And here.
5-95
7-97.
We first started seeing her repigmenting here.
5-95
7-97
5-95 7-97. A little change
here, but not much.
5-95 7-97
5-95 7-97
5-96 6-96 7-23-96 9-96 10-96 7-97
7-23-96
3-2-97
7-97
Picture taken on 7-23-96 is one where the disease had progressed the most.
Now you have to really look to see the vitiligo.
Go back to the timeline.
Chapter 8
VSIG and Other Resources
There is
one aspect of putting a puzzle together that I think I like most of all. It
brings the family and friends together. Who can pass a puzzle and not try to
put just one piece in. Everyone likes to feel that they helped, just a little
bit.
Talk to
someone with vitiligo
Since this
is a rare disease you may not be able to find someone who lives down the
street with it. Even if you could find someone locally with the disease you
might not want to talk face to face about it. At least that was our reaction,
when we first met people on the Internet with vitiligo we were very
apprehensive about talking to them in person about vitiligo. The non-visual
email boundary was enough for us. I think we really didn't want to see how bad
it could get. Emily's was depigmenting so fast, I was afraid that if I met
someone with a lot of vitiligo it might be too much to take. Whenever I saw a
picture of someone with a large amount of vitiligo, I projected it onto my
daughter.
I remember that John Petrik offered his
phone number when we first met on the Internet. I declined to call. I was
afraid it would lead to a meeting that I was not prepared for mentally. Of
course we are now ready and more than willing to meet others with vitiligo. I
realize that I was wrong at first. On a trip to
That is what makes a vitiligo
email list so wonderful. If you are not ready or prepared mentally to
meet with others who have vitiligo, you can still talk to them. You get
anonymous support, which is what we needed at first.
Here is an example of some of the mail I
get thanking me for starting the VSIG.
Dear Eric
I am leaving the list only because I'm going away for a bit - will not have a
chance to access my mail. This list has been so very helpful to me since last
year when I was diagnosed with vitiligo. I felt that here was the only place
I could turn to where no one would stare at me and wonder what planet I came
from - in fact, people were sympathetic, considerate, helpful and most of all
very very informative. I thank you very much for your support.
Organizations
The
following organizations have helped us, by supplying information about
vitiligo. I have used some of that information in this book.
American
Vitiligo Research Foundation, Incorporated
National Institute of Arthritis and
Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases
Box AMS
9000 Rockville Pike
(301)495-4484
National
Vitiligo Foundation Incorporated
Animal Testing
We now
recommend supporting the American Vitiligo
Research Foundation Inc.; they do not support animal testing.
Why you should support an organization
that does not fund animal testing.
|
|
Animal tests have one purpose in today's medical environment; they are used to support liability defenses. |
|
|
The tests don't apply to humans; one example is that a cat will die if you feed it aspirin. |
|
|
These tests are wasteful of the human brainpower required to solve the riddle of disease. The intelligent people working on animal tests could be put to better use studying population groups, testing real human tissues and using computer models. |
|
|
Imagine if you were one of the technicians who had to do this work, day in and day out. That has to work on your psyche. In this case the animal tests are abusing the human animal. Often times IMHO these people aren't the Chief Scientist that came up with the idea of the experiment, these are the people who actually have to get their hands dirty. |
|
|
They actually obfuscate the problem. Consider that the tobacco industry used animal tests for years to show that smoking did not cause cancer. |
|
|
Animal tests and their acceptance reduce our level of compassion. It lowers the collective conscience of our society. What happens to the animals after the experiment is over? Are they sent to a sanctuary? Are their wounds healed? Do they use painkillers before they burn their skin? |
|
|
Even after animal tests, close to 50% of all drugs are removed from the market place because of adverse reactions. If the animal tests were successful, wouldn't this percentage be much lower? |
|
|
Every time a knock off drug (another generic form of the same drug) is produced it has to go through the same tests that the original generic equivalent had to go through. This has happened many times for such drugs as Valium. |
|
|
For more information on animal testing contact the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). |
Here is an excellent
article titled For Stella Pavlides,
Isolation of Vitiligo Strikes Two Ways from the Wall Street Journal.
It describes why Stella has chosen this path.
Conclusion
What have
we concluded from all of this? In a nutshell I believe that following Dr.
Montes advice with the possible addition of a natural psoralen (St. Johns
Wort in our case) along with a 1/2 hour in the sun or some time in a tanning booth
(start slowly) will correct this condition. Vitiligo won't disappear
overnight, just as many of the problems that caused it have been developing
over a long period of time.
Our shift to a pure vegetarian lifestyle
raised our intake of the vitamins Dr. Montes recommends. It also supported
our bodies in eliminating toxins, by not having to deal with a lot of
unneeded nutrients (as if cholesterol is a nutrient). I believe it also
eliminated potential triggers of vitiligo; animal protein, sulfa-based antibiotics,
pesticides.
Follow common sense rules for healthy
living, no-saturated fats, increase raw fruits and veggies, no-cholesterol,
get outside in the sun and fresh air every day (not mid-day sun), exercise
and see a therapist or share your feelings openly with your close friends.
Keep it simple; just remember how healthy a carrot can be for your skin. You
don't necessarily have to know that it contains carotenes, calcium, fluoride,
iodine, manganese, silicone, sodium, sulfur, panothenic acid (vitamin B-6),
calciferol (vitamin D), tocopherol (vitamin E), phylloquinone (vitamin K),
catalase, psoralen, just know that veggies are good for healthy skin.
When you finally solve a jigsaw puzzle
it gives you a great sense of closure. We don't quite have that with our
vitiligo. I hope one day to say that we do. I remember as a child hiding a
piece of the puzzle in my pocket. I would help my Mom solve the puzzle, at
the end I could stick in the final piece. It isn't so important now to put in
the last piece. The enjoyment has come from working the puzzle, the journey
rather than the destination. We are, as a family, living healthier more
compassionate lives. The beauty of it all comes into focus in that as a side
benefit, Emily is visibly getting better. It is a yardstick of our choices.
Vitiligo has not only started us on our path, it has measured our progress.
Appendix A
Internet Information
VSIG is a
group of individuals who discuss vitiligo daily via email. More information
about VSIG can be found at http://www.lsoft.com/SCRIPTS/WL.EXE?SL1=VITILIGO&H=MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU.
Information on searching past posts to VSIG can be found here as well.
How to subscribe
Send email to listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu with the command
SUBSCRIBE VITILIGO YOUR_FIRST_NAME YOUR_LAST_NAME
in the body of the note. Of course you must substitute your real name into
the command.
It might look like
SUBSCRIBE VITILIGO MICHAEL JACKSON
Network Etiquette
VSIG
is a support group and anytime you post to it, ask yourself if what you are
doing is supportive. If not, don't post it. If you feel the need to be heard,
send it directly to the person involved or to the ListOwner (me). Also never
post a message sent directly to you, without permission to post it.
Emoticons are helpful for displaying
emotion in a text-based environment. Here are a few examples; you have to
look at them sideways.
:-) This is a smiley face.
;-) This is a wink.
:-| A straight face
:-( A frown
These are acronyms that are used widely
on the Internet.
KIT - Keep In Touch
LOL - Laughing Out Loud
ROTFL - Rolling On The Floor Laughing
TTFN - Ta Ta For Now (It's what Tigger said in Winnie the Pooh)
Appendix B
Dr. Leopoldo Montes
Dr.
Leopoldo F. Montes, MD, MS, F.R.C.P.C.
Director of Dermatology Research Structural Research Center
Mobile Professor Emeritus of Dermatology
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama
Dr. Montes wrote:
Vitiligo, Nutritional Therapy by Leopoldo F. Montes
Westhoven Press
ISBN 987-96240-0-9
My Review: This is an excellent book for those suffering
from vitiligo, it should be required reading. Dr. Montes explains many
aspects of the disease from the history of treatment to diagnosis to ideas on
nutritional therapy. There are times that a slight language barrier exists in
the book between English, Spanish and medical language. Most of the time the
message gets through to the reader. I am most pleased with the photographs of
patients and photos used to explain the disease itself. Also included in this
book are patients that have Alopecia areata (hair loss in patches), with
significant progress in hair growth.
To order this book contact
1442 Mendelssohn Drive
Email: epetrik@stratos.net
Phone: 440-835-2025
Send a Money Order or Cashier's Check
addressed to Jan Petrik in the amount of $44 if mailed within the
More
Information from Jan Petrik:
PROCEDURE
FOR ORDERING DR. MONTES' BOOK
Vitiligo, Nutritional Therapy
As you may know, my office is now
providing distribution for Dr. Montes' book Vitiligo, Nutritional Therapy.
This system of distribution has proven to be extremely effective, especially
since it has provided a much faster method of delivery in addition to
providing a guarantee of receiving the book. As many of you are aware, the
majority of people were having lots of problems when they ordered the book
from
1442 Mendelssohn Drive
Phone: 440-835-2025
E-mail: epetrik@stratos.net
Thanks very much for your courtesy in this manner. My sincerest best wishes
to all of you!
P.S. No refunds or returns for Dr.
Montes' book.
Appendix C
My Cholesterol Levels
When
viewing the graph below, remember that the cholesterol level of the average
heart attack victim is 244. You can see that at 33 I was dangerously close to
that level, 242. You can also see from the graph, that my cholesterol is now
lower than it was when I was 27. The trend is still downward and my goal is
to get it below the 150 mark. That is the level that minimizes your risk for
heart disease.
The following items correspond to the
numbers on the graph. These were different things I was trying at the time.
1. Tried the Rinse Formula, invented by Dr. Jacob Rinse, it
was supposed to lower cholesterol. I think it worked but it didn't taste very
good.
2. I ate very little meat after February 1995.
3. Vegan diet, started transition in September
1995.
4. Started McDougall program.
5. Started using more fat in recipes.
6. Vegan, have not been concerned with fats.
Recently started surfing for exercise.
7. Vegan, started watching fats again (McDougall).
Still surfing regularly.
8. Vegan, watching fats, using Stevia in morning breakfast
instead of maple syrup.
Bibliography
I usually
pick up most of my books from the local library. If you are interested in
purchasing one of these books try Amazon.com
, if you don't find the book
there let them know. Especially Dr. Montes' book, it would be nice to have
books that deal with vitiligo and nutrition available on the web.
If you order a book from
this page I will be paid a percentage from Amazon.com. I receive 5% for any
book ordered via the two links above, the Amazon.com search engine and their
home page. I will receive 15% from any of the direct links to books at
Amazon.com below. If a book was offered in paperback or hardback, I went for
the cheaper of the two. So thank you in advance if you order one of these
books. Sometimes Amazon.com offers good reviews for the books at the
following links.
If you would rather order from Barnes
and Noble, please follow this link: barnesandnoble.com
Diet and
Health
Apple Cider
Vinegar Health System by Paul C.
and Patricia Bragg, ND. Ph.D.
Even though I believe that using unpasteurized ACV is good for you do to the
need for active bacterial cultures in our gut; I wasn't too impressed with
this book.
Beyond Beef by Jeremy Rifkin (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
This is the story of our cattle culture and what it is and has done to our
environment.
Deadly Feasts: The 'Prion' Controversy
and the Public's Health by
Richard Rhodes (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Well researched book about the history of spongiform encephalopathy. This book
really grossed me out and I can usually handle some gross stuff.
Diet for a New America by John Robbins
(click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
If you’re interested in eating more healthfully, I suggest reading this book.
If you are concerned about how you food gets to your table, this book will
validate your concerns. It is not all gloom and doom, after reading anything
by John Robbins, you realize there is a better way, a higher road.
Dr. Attwood's Low-Fat Prescription
for Kids by Charles R. Attwood, MD
(click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
A very successful pediatrician, he tells us why he prescribes a low-fat
vegetarian diet for kids. He also mentions that the parents seem to be helped
by it as well. What is it about children that cause a whole family to change
their ways?
Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for
Reversing Heart Disease by Dean
Ornish (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Interesting to hear the effort required to get this common sense approach to
health excepted by the modern medical establishment. Dr. Ornish has proven
that heart disease can be reversed through diet and lifestyle changes.
Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care by Benjamin Spock, Stephen J. Parker (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Before he died, Dr. Spock revised his book. It now recommends raising your
children as vegetarians. He also recommends avoiding milk and dairy products.
Having this book available when our children were young was very helpful;
just wish this latest revision was available then.
Don't
Drink Your Milk! by Frank
Oski, M.D. (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
A doctor that say's "don't drink your milk"? He is one of many you
will read, if you read some of the books listed here.
Eat Right, Live Longer by Neal D.
Barnard, MD (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Foods Can Save Your Life: Leading Experts Tell You Why by Neal D.
Barnard (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Foods That Fight Pain by Neal Barnard (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
The Power of Your Plate by Neal D.
Barnard, MD (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Neal is one of my favorite doctors and these are some of my favorite books.
He started the Physician Committee for
Responsible Medicine, of which I am now a member. He is an excellent
speaker and if you ever get a chance to see him, take it.
The Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants by Andrew Chevallier (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
One of the best books I have ever seen on the subject of herbs. Great color
pictures of the plants, very well written, made the subject matter
interesting to me.
Enzyme Nutrition by Edward Howell (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
He has some very interesting theories on the operation of the digestive
system. Helped me decide that more raw foods would be helpful.
Enzymes the Fountain of Life by Lopez, Williams and Miehlke (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Some parts were a little over my head, goes into the specific mechanisms that
allow a large enzyme molecule to enter the blood stream via the intestines.
This has been debated on VSIG.
Food Enzymes by Humbart Santillo (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Short and informative book on digestion.
The Hippocrates Diet and Health
Program by Ann Wigmore (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
If you are interested in adding more raw foods to your diet, this would be a
helpful book.
Introduction to Organic and Biological
Chemistry by Ronald M Scott
This is the book that made the connection for me between antibiotic use and
folic acid depletion.
Long Life Now by Lee Hitchcox, DC (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
This guy helped convince me that I need to exercise as well as eating right,
and that was no small feat! This book touches every aspect of your life, even
what type of sun glasses to purchase. It is like the manual that all humans
should come with.
Mad
Cowboy, Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat
By Howard F. Lyman With Glen Merzer (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Howard is the guy who caused Oprah to say "That stopped me cold from
eating another burger!” The cattlemen sued and she won. Howard is an
excellent speaker, this is a great book. Howard is now the president of EarthSave International.
May All Be Fed by John Robbins (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
This is the book that enlightened me about the amount of sulfa-based
antibiotics found in dairy in the
The McDougall Program by John A.
McDougall, MD (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
One amazing story after another, from his own personal health problem, to his
patients on
The McDougall Program for Maximum
Weight Loss by John A. McDougall, MD (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Great recipes.
Meatless Meals For Working People by Debra Wasserman and Charles Stahler (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
I really liked the section on vegetarian and vegan items found at fast food
or quick service restaurant chains.
Merck Manual (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Mooove Over Milk by Let's Live
Nutritional Awareness Guide by Legion of Light
This is a laminated, legal sized card that lists vitamins and the foods that
contain them. It was a gift, a friend gave to me. He picked it up in a HFS
near
Physician's Desk Reference (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
A Pictorial Handbook of Anatomy and
Physiology by Dr. James Bevan
Prescription for Nutritional Healing by James F. Balch, MD (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
This book is important to help understand how our bodies are affected by
different nutrients. Dr. Balch addresses just about every disease I have ever
heard of, vitiligo included.
Reclaiming Our Health by John Robbins (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
If you are concerned about what to do in the event of a major disease, like
cancer, get this book. I suggest reading it before you get the disease.
Reversing Diabetes by Dr. Julian Whitaker (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Tissue Cleansing
Through Bowel Management by
Bernard Jensen (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Warning the picture in this book are graphic and will completely turn your
stomach.
Vegan Nutrition by Michael Klaper, MD (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating by Erik Marcus (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Very well written with many personal accounts, I have enjoyed reading this
book.
Vitiligo, Nutritional Therapy by Leopoldo Montes, MD
Every vitiligo patient and their family should have this book. If we had a
vitiligo parade this man would be the center of attention, he would be the
grand marshal.
Whole Health by Joseph Keon, Ph.D. (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Christiane Northrup, MD (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Watch out, after reading this book my wife gave up caffeine.
Animal Testing
Many of
the books in this bibliography will cause you to think outside of the
envelope, the following four books will certainly do that.
Animal Liberation by Peter Singer (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
I think that I was never able to consider animals feelings until I became a
vegetarian.
Environmental
The
Dream of the Earth by Thomas
Berry (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
(click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
The
Story of B by Daniel Quinn
(click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Recipes
Cooking
Healthy With One Foot Out the Door by
Polly Pitchford and Delia Quigley
The bad girls of natural health, very funny. Great recipe for "Tofuna or
What the heck is it?". (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Eat Right, Live Longer by Neal D.
Barnard, MD (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
From the Heart of the Harvest Cafe by Susan Rizzo
-This book has some really great soup recipes, I really like the
"Turkish Wedding Soup".
May All Be Fed by John Robbins (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
The Black Bean and Corn recipe is "to die for", I just use less
oil.
The McDougall Health-Supporting
Cookbook, Volume One by Mary
McDougall (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
The McDougall Health-Supporting Cookbook, Volume Two by Mary McDougall
(click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
The McDougall Quick & Easy Cookbook by John A. and Mary McDougall (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Anything by the McDougalls will lower your cholesterol, I guarantee it.
The Uncheese Cookbook by Joanne Stepaniak (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Great for experimenting. We like the "Gee Whiz Spread" and the
"Fettuccine Alfonzo".
Stress and
the Mind Body Connection
You'll
See It When You Believe It by
Wayne Dyer (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
This book really helped me at a tough time in my life. It helped me to have a
more positive outlook on life.
The Power of Myth by Bill Moyers (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Religion made much more sense to me after watching this PBS video series. The
book follows along with the show.
Journey of the Awakening by Ram Dass (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Be here now, centered and aware.
Myths To Live By by Joseph Campbell (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
An excellent story teller. Very good book.
Lots of Dilbert comic books
(click here to order this book
from Amazon.com)
The Simple Living Guide: A Sourcebook
for Less Stressful, More Joyful Living by Janet Luhrs (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
She has a very enjoyable way of writing.
Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki
Robin (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Helped us simplify our lives and question some of our motives and habits.
Different Just Like Me by Lori Mitchell (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Written by a Mom, whose daughter has vitiligo. This book could be very
helpful if your child has vitiligo. I think it would help get the child talk
about the disease and how they feel about it. As well as talking about how
they feel about themselves.
To look at what Barnes and Noble has to
offer, go to Mind,
Body and Spirit.
Miscellaneous
Dead
Meat by Sue Coe 
(click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
Might be a good coffee table book, but probably not a good dinner table book.
:-)
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol
Adams (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
This book caused me to think differntly about the relationships I have with
the women in my life.
Living Among Meat Eaters: The
Vegetarian's Survival Handbook
by Carol Adams (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
A People's History of the
A completely different view of our history than what we learned in school.
Toxin by Robin Cook (click
here to order this book from Amazon.com)
A co-worker of mine, Marian, came in to work claiming she had just become a
vegetarian. She knows I am a vegetarian, I guess I talk about it a lot. In
fact I have a sign on my desk that says “Vegetarian, Indian word for ‘Lousy
Hunter’”. She called her daughter and told her to come over and clear out her
freezer of meat. Marian had just finished reading a book by Robin Cook called
Toxin. Marian, a grand mother, seemed to me to be one of the last people to
change, so this peaked my interest. I went to the library and checked out the
book. Toxin is the story of a doctor whose daughter gets sick when she is
exposed to E. coli O157:H7 bacteria. She ate a hamburger that wasn’t cooked
thoroughly. It is a very suspenseful story and it hits on all of the points
that EarthSave is concerned about. I could hardly put this book down. I don’t
often read fiction, in this case I am glad I did. I can see why Marian gave
up meat after reading it. I will be recommending this book to my friends.
7-21-99
Glossary
Addison's
Disease - I don't know much about Addison's Disease other than the
indications of it are that your forehead gets dark black pigmented spots. The
BID - means "twice daily".
Diabetes - characterized by excess sugar
in the blood and urine.
Guttate Hypomelanosis - Small white
porcelain spots on the skin, said to be caused by sun damage.
Melagenina - An extract made from the
discarded human placenta after childbirth. The product is applied to the skin
and the patient is then exposed to 15 minutes of infrared light. We decided
against it because of concern over blood born disease. Another reason was the
product is unavailable in the
Pernicious Anemia - Low levels of
vitamin B12 indicate pernicious anemia.
Phytophotodermatitis - denotes the
reaction to sunlight of skin, which has been in contact with certain species
of plants.
Psoralen - causes the skin to react when
exposed to the sun. See the table of plants that
contain psoralen above.
PUVA - Psoralen Ultra-Violet A, this is
the treatment of choice by the dermatologists I talked to. What stopped us
from using it, was first the dermatologists felt Emily was to young and the
Physicians’ Desk Reference listed some unacceptable side effects.
QD - means "daily".
Straight Edge - A vegan that does not
use drugs.
Thyroid - A gland in your neck that
regulates your temperature. A high or low temperature level will affect your
growth. The thyroid gland needs iodine to function properly. A good source of
iodine is kelp, tablets of kelp can be found at your local health food store.
Vegan - pure vegetarian.
Vegetarian - Eats no flesh. There are
varying forms of vegetarians.
Vitiligo - That's where your skin
develops milk-white patches that are completely devoid of pigment.
VSIG - The Vitiligo
Support and Information Group is a group of friends that talk to each
other on the internet daily about vitiligo. If you have Internet email you
can be a member of VSIG, for free.
About The Author
Eric Fricker is the
creator of the world’s first online support group for vitiligo, VSIG.
He works with systems test software and was educated at the
Eric is currently looking for a publisher who may be interested in promoting
this book.
Printing This Book
I suggest
doing a print preview first, that way you will know how many pages will
print. A laser printer works great and I am sure it would look great on a
color ink-jet printer. When I print it, Netscape prints page numbers on the
bottom of each page. Remember to include the copyright
paragraph.
Back to Eric's Home Page.
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