Ask Thomas and Sarah
This is our "ask the staff" page, so you may ask us questions here. This is really the only area wherein we are willing to answer questions anonymously. You may ask anything, and the worst that could happen is that your particular question gets ignored. The better the question, the more likely that we are to thoughtfully answer it. Questions should be as concise as possible, but include all important information.
If you have a serious health issue, then you should complete our questionnaire, instead of asking questions here. This page is for general questions which generate lots of public interest.
Lyme Disease Misdiagnosed as Juvenile Arthritis
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- Category: Ask Thomas and Sarah Ask Thomas and Sarah
- Published: October 07, 2014 October 07, 2014
"I was wondering if there was any way to naturally treat juvenile arthritis, because I'm sick of having to take pills for it, (which I'm only doing because my mom insists, as she is all for allopathic "medicine", and I don't know if my diet needs to change or what. Also, luckily for me, my grandpa's a supporter of this type of medicine. (Not sure what to call it after reading one of your articles on alternative medicine). And also, as much as I hate lying to my mom, I'm not actually taking the pills; and I've noticed that my arthritis isn't so bad, which is a start."
It is likely that your issues will remedy themselves, so long as your immune system is not damaged too much pharmaceutically. You are smart to beware of their 'help', because it is usually where the biggest problems lie. Historically, young people did not get arthritis, which means that there is a high probability that you actually have a misdiagnosed case of Lyme disease. You need to be cautious about mentioning this possibility to your mother, or the stupidity of the interventions could increase. We cannot make any diagnosis with great confidence, since we do not know the particulars of your case. We have plenty of information to help you manage the situation regardless, in case you are in a position to do so. We have a search at the top right of our site. Use it. Don't forget to pray, because you are going to need some help in keeping all of the over-reactive people at bay.
Patient Too Scared To Save Herself
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- Category: Ask Thomas and Sarah Ask Thomas and Sarah
- Published: October 07, 2014 October 07, 2014
"Hi, I was diagnosed with pancreatitis 7 days ago. I went to the emergency and then hospitalized for 7 days. The doctors thought I had gallstone, but I don't. I have a cyst in my left ovary, small bumps on my neck that was removed for biopsy; I did take pain medication 3 times while staying in the hospital. So, I am back home doing my natural medicine, but I am afraid of doing so because my doctor advised me about my condition saying that it is very serious and I should be hospitalized. I would like your help and advice about this. thanks."
They'll use your half-hearted dabbling with alternative medicine as proof that it does not work, and they'll claim that their "real medicine" was less effective because of it. We've been doing this long enough to predict exactly how it will play out. We know that somebody is wasting our time whenever we see a phrase like "my doctor says", followed by a demonstrated fear of natural medicine. Let us know if you decide who to believe, and if you decide before it's too late.
Feeding Pets Raw Meat
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- Category: Ask Thomas and Sarah Ask Thomas and Sarah
- Published: October 04, 2014 October 04, 2014
"I have four dogs and I like to keep them healthy. Can I use cayenne pepper to treat them for parasites? Also for other things as well? I try to stay out of vets. They are on grain free dog food such as CALL OF THE WILD. Also, what do you think of the raw food diet for dogs? This may be one of the questions not worth answering but to me my dogs are important. Thank You for your help. I just discovered your site and I really like it. I will continue to use it. Thanks again?"
The best parasite cleanse for dogs is diatomaceous earth. We have an article about this which provides ideal dosages for pets. We use diatomaceous earth periodically for our dog. We are not sure if you would be able to get a dog to eat cayenne, but it is not the best choice, in any case.
Grain-free dog food is superior, especially if you can confirm that it is not from China or irradiated. Raw foods should be avoided. If you were referring to raw meats, they increase the risk of parasites, and expose your dogs to the unnecessary risks of various diseases. Furthermore, feeding animals raw meats is known to increase aggression. It really is idiotic to train a domestic dog to crave the taste of blood. A dog's natural diet is predominately protein, with very little vegetation, so raw vegetables would not really benefit a dog.
The basic rules for keeping a dog healthy are the same as those for a human. They consist of a good diet, exercise, plenty of rest, good hygiene, shelter from weather extremes, and emotional happiness. As with humans, the secret rule is that there are no secret rules.
Seeking Alzheimer's Disease Help
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- Category: Ask Thomas and Sarah Ask Thomas and Sarah
- Published: October 03, 2014 October 03, 2014
"Alzheimers anything and everything I could give my mom. My mom is in early stages of Alzheimer's. Has been taking coconut oil, MCT too. We need help!"
If we had a loved one with Alzheimer's disease, our first step would be a heavy metal cleanse. We would treat him as if he had autism, because Alzheimer's disease is very much like adult autism. In fact, it is caused by the same things. You may wish to read our report about cleansing, and our report about curing autism. After the heavy metal cleanse, we would follow up by repairing the nerves. There is some information about that in our autism article, but our most comprehensive report about nutritionally-repairing nerve damage is the one about Bell's palsy. You really will need to understand these conditions before you can understand Alzheimer's, for it is very much not dementia. Of course, beware of medications and vaccines. She should also try to embrace an all-natural diet. Severe blood sugar problems could aggravate the condition, or they could even be falsely identified as Alzheimer's, so it is something to keep an eye on. The biggest challenge in a case like this, is often one of keeping the effected individual away from the doctors. This wasn't caused by old age. It was caused by them. We know from our own experience that if you cannot convince her of this, then there is nothing that you can do to help her. It is this harsh reality that we have had to explain to people time and time again.
Supplementing With Humic Shale
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- Category: Ask Thomas and Sarah Ask Thomas and Sarah
- Published: September 29, 2014 September 29, 2014
"Is humic shale (colloidal minerals) safe and effective?"
Attempting to supplement with humic shale, which is actually dirt or clay, is a bad idea. Some of the clay that is being sold as a "mineral supplement" contains high amounts of minerals that are dangerous, including aluminum, lead, and barium. Conversely, our edible vegetation extracts healthy minerals from the ground, and makes them bio-available to us, which is exactly what God intended. To get a healthy source of minerals, add sea salt to the diet and get plenty of vegetables. No supplement will replace a good diet, and dirt certainly won't. This is similar to the silica 'supplement' scam. These dirt 'supplements' would work for us if we were earth worms. Ironically, unusable supplements mostly impair digestion to cause undernourishment. We've had a perfect mineral supplement for thousands of years. It's called organic spinach.
Vitamin D Supplement Expectations
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- Category: Ask Thomas and Sarah Ask Thomas and Sarah
- Published: September 29, 2014 September 29, 2014
"When I typed vitamin D into your search report window, I was re-directed to a page of advertizements for various vitamin D companies. I am sure that is an error, very disappointing. I really want information on the efficacy, dosage and recommended brands."
We do not intermingle our information or search results with advertising. We consider such routine practices as unethical, dishonest, and it is one of the things that separates us from our peers. The advertisements that you saw were from Google. We have no control over the advertising shown by Google searches.
As for vitamin D efficacy, it is well documented (even in the mainstream medical literature) that natural vitamin D from sunlight and seafood is a powerful, health-maintaining nutrient. However, supplemental vitamin D is less beneficial, and some people get absolutely no benefit from it. It is important to know that vitamin D is virtually useless if the person is deficient in either magnesium or calcium, because they are interdependent. Likewise, the body will not properly utilize the optimal vitamin D (D3) if the liver is sufficiently dysfunctional. Be advised that too much vitamin D from supplementation will prevent a body from properly coping with cholesterol, which can lead to major problems, so less can sometimes be more.
There are good reasons why you did not see any recommended brands from us. As part of our ethical policies, we rarely recommend particular brands. There are two important reasons for this policy. Firstly, we want to stay journalistically clean by not having any perceived or real conflicts of interest. Secondly, we cannot recommend specific brands in good faith because supplement ingredients change so regularly that any such advice might eventually get lots of people hurt. We operate under the old principle of "First do no harm". Thus, the main advice that we give concerning brands is that everyone should strive to be an educated consumer in knowing exactly what the ingredients are and where they originated. For instance, you would be shocked to know how many companies are getting unmonitored ingredients from China, and then relabeling their resultant products as being "American Made", using the trickery of it being "produced" in America, since it is where they mixed the foreign ingredients together. In case this helps, we get most of our own supplement products from vitacost.com, and we currently give the most trust to supplements that are made by Nature's Way. Nevertheless, check each product for yourself, for we cannot make blanket endorsements for any company, nor can we predict future behaviors. Our overall statement about vitamin D is that it is indeed very important to health, but it is over-hyped amongst the writers of alternative therapies. You may find our article about supplement gotchas interesting: The Supplementation Problem and Our Supplement Recommendations. You may also wish to read: Sunscreen Lies and Cosmetic Trade Secrets for some fascinating information about vitamin D.