NOHA Honorary Member Russell M. Jaffe received his MD degree from the Boston University School of Medicine in 1972. He completed his residency training in Clinical Pathology at the National Institutes of Health, where he was on the permanent staff as a practicing molecular biologist and molecular pathologist. In addition, he has studied extensively in the area of nutrition. He was asked by Norm Shealey to be the founding chairman of the Scientific Committee of the American Holistic Medical Association. He was the first Course Director of "Oriental Medical Strategies in Western Medical Practice." This was the first program recognized by New York State for licensure certification based on being a diplomat of this training program. Most graduates of this program are now instructors in Oriental Medicine and Acupuncture training programs throughout the world. In 1984, Dr. Jaffe developed the lymphocyte response assays (LRA) by ELISA/ACT tests. These tests enable physicians to examine the responses of patients' immune systems to challenges. Delayed allergy for up to 436 common substances can be ruled in or ruled out in terms of delayed hypersensitivity by functional LRA by ELISA/ACT tests.

Most doctors in the United States today are trained in treating disease symptoms instead of in how to maintain good health. Since Dr. Jaffe had similar medical training, he first thought all people who practiced health through nutrition, meditation, or acupuncture were "crazy." Since he had just received 4,000 hours of medical training, if anything was worth knowing in these areas, wouldn't he have been taught it already?

Dr. Jaffe now admits that he has been receiving his TRUE education over the last thirty years in an extremely fragmented fashion from groups like NOHA and from individuals all over the world, including Beatrice Trum Hunter and many experts in Asia.

After a friend asked Dr. Jaffe how much he really knew about these fields, Dr. Jaffe decided to learn a lot more. When you want to learn anything, you should go to the best. Dr. Jaffe now admits that he has been receiving his TRUE education over the last thirty years in an extremely fragmented fashion from groups like NOHA and from individuals all over the world, including Beatrice Trum Hunter and many experts in Asia. He had a seven-year apprenticeship in Chinese medicine. To learn about nutrition, he visited Beatrice Trum Hunter in New Hampshire. He was astounded by all the handily accessible files of extremely valuable information, which she had carefully stored in her barn, and by the gracious, simple life she led.

The mind and body are still connected (even though many doctors in today's specialties practice as if the mind and body was disconnected). With the proper nutrition and attitude, we may thrive even today with all the technology and toxins in our environment. We should try to learn what our body is teaching. Good nutrition combined with comfort, relaxation, and a positive attitude of engagement can get us a lot more than negative fears of our symptoms. Unfortunately, with all these toxins in our environment today we are all conducting a huge uncontrolled experiment on ourselves.

Dr. Jaffe's current holistic approach allows the immune system to "speak for itself" and for us to find out what is distracting the immune system. Based on what is learned, a specialized individual diet can be followed and many specific supplements at laboratory or pharmaceutical grade purity can be added.

Good nutrition combined with comfort, relaxation, and a positive attitude of engagement can get us a lot more than negative fears of our symptoms. Unfortunately, with all these toxins in our environment today we are all conducting a huge uncontrolled experiment on ourselves.

Dr Jaffe has moved from an allopathic internist to an evidence-based eclectic. If something looks good and has been carefully tested to be safe, try it. The amount of scientific information available is doubling every four years. When he was graduating, Dr. Jaffe's dean had a statement about all this increasing information: "I have good and bad news for you. The good news is that half of what you know now is wrong. The bad news is that I can't tell you now which half it is!"

For most people, there is no relationship between the cholesterol taken in and their blood cholesterol level. There is also no relationship between cholesterol and heart disease. We should always have enough antioxidants to keep the small amount of oxidized (toxic) cholesterol from forming.

Functional Nutrition
We should always aim high by using pure, pharmaceutical grade supplements. They should:

• be sufficient—have enough anti-toxins to overcome the toxins,
  
• have good transport and uptake enhancement—just like in food,
  
• include a delivery system to facilitate the uptake,
  
• have all active components,
  
• have independent verification of what is on the labels—even at the expiration date, and
  
• have full disclosure labels.

An example is glucosomine and chondroitin in soluble monimer forms for helping our joints. These two biochemicals form the water-binding shock absorbers around the joints. Most commercial brands are actually made from ground up shrimp or lobster shells, which do contain glucosomine but are NOT soluble. These are much cheaper to make.
We should always use the same form and source of supplements as those that have been shown to be beneficial. Unfortunately, this is rare in commercial supplements due to the corporate profit motive.

Supplements can be of several grades:

• Food Grade—Worst (known in the industry as "floor sweepings")
  
• USP Grade—a little better, but not good enough
  
• Reagent or Pharmaceutical grade—the BEST—we should all aim here

For most commercial supplements, more than half of what is in the capsule is NOT disclosed on the label. We can test this by carefully totaling up all the weights on the label, then weighing the actual capsule. Always ask for FULL DISCLOSURE.
There are three essentials for healthy detoxification:

1. Sulfur—We need sulfur to detoxify. For anti-toxin sulfur, eat more sautéed onions, garlic, broccoli sprouts, or eggs. Any or all of these foods are great sources of sulfur.
   
2. Antioxidants—These are needed to control the destructive effects of free radicals.
   
3. Buffering Minerals—These are needed for neutralizing acid reactions from some foods. In his booklet, The Joy of Food: The Alkaline Way Guide (available at 800-553-5472), Dr. Jaffe spells out in detail which foods are acid producing in our bodies and which are alkaline producing.

Immune Diseases
We all have an elaborate control system consisting of our neurochemical, hormonal, and immune systems. In Chinese medicine, all these systems together are called the governing vessel. On every neurologically active cell there are receptors. Also, every nerve cell can reach with its dendrites a lymph node and drip biochemicals onto individual white blood cells with memory (lymphocytes) priming or quieting these cells. When we are burdened by foreign intruders, our immune system must deal with the intruders first. In so doing, the immune system defers repairs on the rest of our body. Over time, this neglect leads to leaky gut syndrome, leaky blood/thyroid barrier—resulting in thyroiditis, leaky blood/brain barrier, and many chronic autoimmune diseases such as: rheumatoid arthritis, type two diabetes, migraine headaches, chronic fatigue syndrome, and/or allergic asthma. From the time Dr. Jaffe first gave lectures until now, the number of autoimmune diseases has risen from 500 to over 1,000! One question that has puzzled Western doctors is: Why do so many people have multiple chronic diseases? The answer is that this control system or governing vessel is not working properly.

We all have an elaborate control system . . . In Chinese medicine [it is] called the governing vessel. . . . When we are burdened by foreign intruders, our immune system must deal with the intruders FIRST. In so doing, the immune system DEFERS REPAIRS on the rest of our body. . . . From the time Dr. Jaffe first gave lectures until now, the number of autoimmune diseases has risen from 500 to over 1,000! One question that has puzzled Western doctors is: Why do so many people have MULTIPLE chronic diseases? The answer is that this control system or governing vessel is not working properly.

If we are healthy, we have fifty billion dendritic cells, each able to recycle fifty foreign particles. In other words, we can deal with 2.5 trillion invaders, so our system has no problem dealing with all of the invaders AND maintaining the body in good repair. The dendritic cells surround the foreign invaders, neutralize, and then recycle them. Inside each dendritic cell is the lysosome which is the recycling center. In this way the invaders are used to build our bodies up. When healthy, we are tolerant, engaging, and can easily restore homeostasis (balance). When healthy, we have no allergies automatically. On the other hand, unhealthy people need more nutrients to cope with the invaders and still maintain body repair. They also may be too acidic, lack magnesium, and sufficient antioxidants.

Unfortunately, due to our increased toxic exposures, it is becoming harder and harder to find healthy people (particularly in some doctors' offices). If we want to maintain and/or improve our own health, whenever we go into doctors' offices, have we ever wondered how healthy they are?

When healthy, we have no allergies automatically. On the other hand, unhealthy people need more nutrients to cope with the invaders and still maintain body repair. They also may be too acidic, lack magnesium, and sufficient antioxidants. . . . Unfortunately, due to our increased toxic exposures, it is becoming harder and harder to find healthy people . . .

Every individual person is different with a different set of allergies and sensitivities. There are several types of allergies. Type one is immediate and is quite easy to diagnose, like our immediate swelling after a bee sting, but the other types are delayed, and days or weeks pass between the exposure and the symptoms, so it is extremely hard to link cause and effect. These delayed allergies do NOT show up on the common skin tests. The delayed allergy types include:

• Type 2: Reactive antibodies—from non-digested food. This type is "silent" so most people are unaware of having it.
  
• Type 3: Immune complex—responses include adult-onset diabetes.
  
• Type 4: T-cell mediated—includes rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, asthma.

What is a good balance? We should identify what burdens the immune system. It should be enriched with anti-toxic nutrients to BALANCE all the additional toxins we are exposed to today.

Dr. Jaffe's methods rehabilitate the central control system by giving enough nutrients to heal the immune system. There are over four hundred different tests for different allergies and sensitivities that are performed on just one drop of blood.

The lymphocyte response assay (LRA) ELISA/ACT tests were developed using functional cell cultures under ex vivo conditions, which means that under these conditions the laboratory results are the same as inside the human body.

The Alkaline Way diet lowers the immune system load. When the need for defense is reduced then repair can finally occur. This diet also deals with reduced mineral levels. For any individual (we all are DIFFERENT), applying the Alkaline Way diet, which is worked out for this individual person, addresses the causes, not just the symptoms. Even better results are obtained this way than were achieved by positive group tests using placebos. This diet lowers the burden on the large, complex control system so repair can finally occur. We also need to build up buffering minerals and antioxidants, which have been depleted from years of toxic exposure.

We don't have to be perfect. We only have to eat enough nutrients and/or take enough supplements to lower the stress on the central control system sufficiently to allow the immune system to heal and start repairing the body. For example, Dr. Jaffe has studied fibromyalgia (or muscle pain), for five to ten years. So far, the Alkaline Way diet has been found to be the best and quickest cure for fibromyalgia.

[The Alkaline Way] diet lowers the burden on the large, complex control system so repair can finally occur. We also need to build up buffering minerals and antioxidants, which have been depleted from YEARS of toxic exposure.

A key test for finding our individual needs is of the FIRST MORNING URINE. After six or more hours of rest, the Ph (a chemical measure of how acid or base a solution is) in our morning urine has been shown to correlate exquisitely with the net acid assays taken many times over 24 hours! We get that same precision by taking only ONE test in the morning.

Dietary choice and delayed allergies are keys to your cellular chemistry's balance. Resistant ill health occurs when healthy chemical balance is lost. This guide can be key to bringing you back to health and chemical balance.

In a healthy person, this Ph should be between 6.5 and 7.5, but if it is below 6.5 we have a mineral depletion. This means that 80% of our foods should be alkaline. We should also take ionized magnesium and choline citrate to help the magnesium be absorbed when the magnesium uptake is being blocked. Choline relaxes us while citrate is alkaline and energizing.

To take these first morning urine tests, we need to obtain hydrion strips with a range of 5.5 to 8.0 from a doctor, pharmacy, or reliable source. These hydrion strips are not available commercially from any supermarket or drug store.

Appropriate supplements:

• Have high standards of identification—the supplier can't change their manufacturing methods or the exact materials used
  
• Have full disclosure labels—everything in the weight of the capsule is accounted for
  
• Use pure, pharmaceutical grade materials which have been proven effective in the laboratory
  
• Use Clinical Evidence
  
• Use Third Party Testing as part of the production assays
  
• Transport enhanced bioavailability
  
• Have been bio-tested using humans with sensitivities

Conclusion
All healthy people can maintain their same hormonal neurochemical immune responses—intelligence, eyesight, hearing, skin elasticity, etc.— regardless of their actual chronological age, be it 20, 40, 60, or 90 years! Dr. Jaffe met a man over 98 who had the immune responses of a man age 40! At the chronological age of 40 this man was told he only had a few more months to live with three serious life-threatening diseases. He retired into a monastery, relaxed, became a monk, discovered his problems, slowly and carefully worked on them, and began working at 80. At the age of 80, he met Dr. Jaffe and started using these nutritional, dietary, and supplementation approaches. Anyone of any chronological age can greatly improve or biologically "youth" their health by following this alkaline diet and supplement plan.

We should always try to "follow nature." Dr. Jaffe has observed many truly healthy people in very different wisdom-driven cultures all over the world. They are all basically following his holistic, alkaline plan, but with many very different specific diets.

ANYONE of ANY chronological age can greatly improve or biologically "youth" their health by following this alkaline diet and supplement plan.

One of the main problems in the USA is that we have a fantastic, highly technical "sick-care" system. This system deals extensively with chronic illness symptoms, treating the extreme ones in the hospital operating room and smothering all the rest with expensive drugs—many with bad side effects. We hardly yet have any true "health-care" system that concentrates on finding the true root causes of our diseases and symptoms, curing us, and finding methods by which we can stay healthy. Unfortunately, most of our doctors and politicians still call the "sick-care" "health-care" mixing up the two. It's time to start educating them and our many fellow citizens about this mix-up and these great, relatively easy and much less expensive ways of attaining and maintaining good health.

Dr Jaffe has an excellent website: www.perque.org for information.

Article from NOHA NEWS, Vol. XXIX, No. 4, Fall 2004, pages 3-6