On Friday, April 15, 2005, Sherry A. Rogers, MD, gave a NOHA lecture1 to over three hundred people on "Healing the Impossible." She pointed out that a diagnosis, in other words, naming particular symptoms, is not really relevant to healing. Basically, we need to know what nutrients, essential for health, are low in a particular person and also what toxins are impinging on that particular person. Then, each person must face up to reducing exposures and learn both how to detoxify and how to build up essential nutrients. Dr. Rogers was eloquent on the details of all these subjects both in her NOHA lecture and also in her latest book, Detoxify or Die.2
Dr. Rogers emphasizes eating whole foods uncontaminated with pesticides and drinking unchlorinated, unfluoridated water that is as uncontaminated with agricultural runoff as possible. "The sick body cannot rally if it is busy detoxifying pesticides and other chemicals." Tests show that pollutants from plastics are "a million times higher than any other pollutants." She lectured us on the awful endocrine disrupting effects of the phthalates in the plastics that are ubiquitous—soft plastic closely covering foods and plastic bottles for water, soda pop, and even for baby's milk. (She pointed out that when she was a child glass baby bottles were used.) The phthalates in plastics can migrate into the food, water, and milk causing hormone disruptions in all the endocrine systems—reproductive, nervous, and immunological, causing symptoms such as "inability to handle stress, uncontrollable violence, increased mental disease, decreased intelligence, drug addiction, schizophrenia, gender confusion, and the loss of normal parental instincts."3
Dr. Rogers emphasizes eating whole foods uncontaminated with pesticides and drinking unchlorinated, unfluoridated water that is as uncontaminated with agricultural runoff as possible. "The sick body cannot rally if it is busy detoxifying pesticides and other chemicals."
She told us at length about cancer patients being cured and gave us extensive prestigious medical references on significantly higher survival rates with certain nutrients (even, in one case, just adding two daily multiple vitamin, mineral, and essential fatty acid pills). She cited a dramatic case of one woman changing to a strict macrobiotic diet and curing her cancer. This patient had failed on surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation and was given two weeks to live. Over 23 years later she is healthy. Basically, macrobiotics is a nutrient rich diet of "grains, greens, and beans, seeds and weeds, roots and fruits." The sea vegetables or seaweeds, for example, are so extremely rich in minerals, that it is one of the few diets that has not also required large amounts of supplements. However, because of the modern polluted world, this is even changing. We are the first generation ever exposed to such an unprecedented level of chemicals in our daily life. But the work of detoxifying our environment uses up nutrients. The detoxifying enzymes are proteins. Often we need more of specific amino acids.
Dr. Rogers explained carefully to us the great need for an "oil change" for most people. Many people eat processed foods with their trans fatty acids (hydrogenated fats), which are so deleterious to our health. Essential fatty acids, like the long-chain omega 3s, EPA (ecosopentaenoic acid) and DHA(docosahexaenoic acid) are needed in all our cell membranes, where they are exceedingly important for the electrical communications throughout our entire bodies. Pure cod liver oil is a fine source of these oils.
We are the first generation ever exposed to such an unprecedented level of chemicals in our daily life. But the work of detoxifying our environment uses up nutrients. The detoxifying enzymes are proteins. Often we need more of specific amino acids.
Dr. Rogers recommended two tests in particular that can let an individual know a lot about their own level of nutrients and specific heavy metal toxicities.
In the case of cancer, she has pointed out vividly that, even when some diet or other regimen can kill the cancer cells, the release of toxins may overwhelm the person's system and they die.
. . . the best way to eliminate heavy metals, pesticides, and other toxic chemicals is by sweating, which gets rid of minerals and metabolizes fat, which is the depository of many toxic chemicals.
Dr. Rogers told us about coffee enemas. The coffee does not enter the small intestines to bother those with reactions to coffee. However, it stimulates the liver to dump toxins, which can then be eliminated. She herself is allergic to coffee but has found that she can have daily coffee enemas with no problems at all—just a good reduction of toxic load.
She points out that the best way to eliminate heavy metals, pesticides, and other toxic chemicals is by sweating, which gets rid of minerals and metabolizes fat, which is the depository of many toxic chemicals. For example, many pesticides are made to be lipophilic (fat loving) so the toxins accumulate in our fatty tissues and the mother's first child gets a huge dose from the fatty tissues in her breasts. Sweating can metabolize and get rid of these fat-loving toxins. Dr. Rogers highly recommends the far infrared sauna, made of non-allergenic solid poplar wood. As a young woman growing up, she herself was badly poisoned by her job of spreading herbicides on their family farm. For many years she could not sweat at all. The far infrared sauna has completely taken care of this situation and she is now able to sweat profusely. Dr. Rogers also points out that sweating gets rid of many essential minerals, especially magnesium, but also calcium and many others. In Detoxify or Die she gives two careful lists of specific nutrients that one must take—one before and the other after the sauna in order to replace lost nutrients and also to enhance detoxification. In addition, she insists on a large amount of pure water because of the dehydration from sweating.
Dr. Rogers highly recommends the far infrared sauna, made of non-allergenic solid poplar wood. As a young woman growing up, she herself was badly poisoned by her job of spreading herbicides on their family farm. For many years she could not sweat at all. The far infrared sauna has completely taken care of this situation and she is now able to sweat profusely.
In her lecture Dr. Rogers emphasized cancer and ways to cope with it, because it is the most "scary" disease. However, she mentioned many other diseases, such as heart attacks, which are at the top of our medical problems and have a lower survival time than many cancers. In the case of all these diseases, we need to think of our nutrient status and ways to reduce our toxic load, both by avoiding further contamination, as much as we can, and by detoxifying. Studies, for example at the Mayo Clinic, have shown that the infrared sauna is helpful for heart patients. This is surprising because we always hear that a heat wave results in many deaths of cardiac patients. It seems that the far infrared sauna is gentle and not at all hard on heart patients.
In summary, here is a quotation about Detoxify or Die from NOHA speaker and Honorary Member William J. Rea, MD, "Dr. Sherry Rogers, as always, has hit the nail on the head. She outlines the scope of chemical pollution in a knowledgeable and understandable manner. She then shows in detail how to prevent disease and treat chemical overload. This is done succinctly and precisely. I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking optimum health and creativity."
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1Tape #213, "Healing The Impossible," Sherry A. Rogers, MD, video
($25 US), audio ($12 US), payable to NOHA, P.O. Box 380, Winnetka, Illinois
60035, U.S.A.
2Published by Sand Key Company, Inc., Sarasota, Florida, 2002.
3Ibid, page 34.
4Ibid,page 275.