DEVELOPMENT
THEORY –
PART I
by Dr. Lawrence
Wilson
©
May 2019, LD Wilson Consultants, Inc.
All information in this article is for
educational purposes only. It is
not for the diagnosis, treatment, prescription or cure of any disease or health
condition.
Contents
Biological
Transmutation of the Elements.
Layers of Adaptations And
Compensations
NatureÕs Mineral Interaction
System
Pattern recognition rather than
diagnose-and-treat
_______________________
Many important
scientific breakthroughs occur in the gray areas between traditional
sciences. Such is the case with
development science. Incorporating
knowledge from the fields of biochemistry, physiology, nutrition, stress
theory, pathology and psychology, this science is a synthesis that draws together many
ideas. It is able to clarify
previously unexplained phenomena and presents a new and expanded approach to
healing.
The essence of development
science is based on a set of little known and poorly understood concepts
elaborated within the past 100 years.
It uses newer biological and other sciences that are not even mentioned
in conventional medicine, or in holistic, naturopathic, or other medical
sciences.
It involves an
unusual and extremely precise means of assessing and monitoring the condition
of the body chemistry by means of a hair mineral biopsy. However, it requires a new set of rules
for interpreting the results of the mineral biopsy.
It uses unusual
applications of diet, supplementary nutrients, detoxification protocols, mental
and emotional suggestions and more to balance the minerals in the tissues,
enhance the adaptive energy level, and thus help restore a much more healthful
body chemistry.
To appreciate the
research that has gone into development science, one needs at least a little
familiarity with the basic concepts.
This is the goal of this article.
II. THE PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT SCIENCE
This concept asserts
that health is about balance more than anything else. One thinks of the balance of yin and yang in Chinese terms,
or the balance of hot and cold, dilation and contraction of blood vessels,
contraction and relaxation of muscles and so forth.
Although the above
is vague, the concept certainly carries great importance. Health is not simply about getting rid
of symptoms. In designing
development programs, we find that when one balances the oxidation rate and
sodium/potassium ratio, energy production in the body increases
drastically. Also, when the levels
of the minerals in the mineral system are balanced, health also improves and
development occurs.
Bioenergetics means
viewing the body as an energy-producing machine. When the energy production is high, health and development
are the result.
A related idea is
that of vitality. We often speak of adaptive energy. This is different from the energy one
uses to run around the city. Adaptive
energy is core energy or life force.
It is related to another of the basic concepts of development science,
the importance of ether or etheric or subtle energy.
In the ancient
healing arts, this subtle energy is given many names such as chi, qi, prana,
orgone energy, vital force and others.
Here are a few basic principles of vitality.
1. Life force or adaptive energy is central to health. It is the common denominator of
health. This energy is required
for all body functions. Therefore,
any ailment or symptom can occur due to fatigue or low vitality. This is the most important implication
of the vitality principle.
2. Energy is enhanced when the body does not have to adapt. All adaptation uses up energy that
could otherwise be used for other things.
This means that
adapting to cold, heat, noise, infection, lack of rest, improper food or other
stress of any kind is not helpful for oneÕs health.
An exception is that
some temporary stress due to exercise or activity is good for building the bones
and muscles, but not for much else.
This, and nothing else, should be the function of exercise of
activity.
Excessive exercise does not build vitality. All other activity that produces
excessive stress, such as vigorous exercise done to exhaustion, is ultimately
not helpful for oneÕs health.
This is very
different from other systems of healing that encourage a lot of exercise, for
example.
Similarly, any
activity that depletes energy is not helpful. Even too much thinking is not helpful for health, although
some thinking is essential, of course. Thinking is a very calorie intensive
activity. The point is that people
who work too hard may endanger their health.
3. Vitality is not the same as Òbeing energeticÓ. Many people zoom around all day and
even part of the night. However,
on hair mineral tests we find that many of them do not have a high vitality
level, which we measure using various ratios mentioned below.
Many so-called vital
people live on stimulants, for example, such as coffee or other caffeinated
foods or drinks. It is important
to realize that vitality is not the same as being energetic, which is often
just being stimulated.
Many things can
stimulate a person, such as anger, fear, sexual drive, music on their radio,
various foods such as sugars, drugs such as ADD drugs and more.
4. Vitality is not easy to measure. The section above illustrates that a
person who seems vital or energetic may not be, while a person who is tired may
be quite so. This is a confusing
topic that is discussed more in the article entitled Vitality
on this website.
Building Vitality.
The importance of building adaptive energy or vitality in the body in
order to restore and maintain health is a central concept in development
science. We do it by balancing the
oxidation rate and renourishing the body.
Lifestyle
modifications also play a central role for some people. These include getting enough rest,
proper activity, early to bed and more.
Detoxification is
central for most people today, as the presence of toxic metals and chemicals
require that the body adapt to them in order to continue to function.
Reducing medication
and other toxic exposures is also important for many people, although essential
medication is important not to discontinue until it is hopefully no longer
needed such as blood pressure medication of insulin for a person with diabetes.
Attitude change is
also important to build vitality.
Negative thinking, depressive thinking and similar attitudes can destroy
oneÕs vitality quickly in some cases.
This is why we always recommend the Roy Masters meditation and other
methods to build self-confidence and a positive outook.
Definition.
Biological transmutation of the elements is the idea that living
organisms can change one element into another at common body temperatures and
pressures.
This theory has been
known for thousands of years and is one of the alchemical principles of
old. However, modern research,
especially by Dr. C. Louis Kervan, has confirmed the principle in a few cases.
Dr. Kervan wrote Biological
Transmutations (1966). I
have a recent translation by Beekman Publishers, NY, 1998.
The book gives
careful explanations of Dr. KervanÕs experiments. For example, chickens excrete more calcium in their egg shells than they ingest. This can be easily proven in the field, as can all of Dr.
KervanÕs experiments.
Dr. Kervan also
discovered some of the actual chemical reactions that lead to the
transmutations in animals and human beings.
His work is ignored,
but bears a striking resemblance to the hair analysis work in many ways. While Dr. Paul Eck believed the ratios
of the electrolytes in the hair tissue mattered greatly, Dr. Kervan showed that
these ratios actually represent transmutations in progress.
This is a very
profound concept that is far beyond the scope of this article. For more information, see Dr. KervanÕs
books.
BIOAVAILABILITY
The development method can be confusing because it also depends on
identifying bioavailable and biounavailable minerals in the body.
Definition.
Biochemical Individuality is the concept that all bodies have different
nutritional and other needs. These depend on
oneÕs age, lifestyle, health condition and many other factors.
This very important
nutritional principle was put forth by Dr. Roger Williams, PhD. He worked at the University of Texas
for many years and authored many publications, among them Biochemical Individuality (1956).
Dr. Williams was a
famous nutritional theorist and scholar who discovered pantothenic acid
(vitamin B5) and wrote many scientific papers.
The principle has
many implications. For example,
measures such as the RDA (recommended daily allowance) or MDR (minimum daily
requirement) mean little or nothing in practice. Their only value is as a minimal baseline assessment of
human nutritional needs.
Sadly, most of
Europe and Asia have adopted the MDRs as their nutritional standards and donÕt
even allow supplements to contain much more than a small multiple of these
levels. This could happen easily
in America as well if people do not object strenuously. It would be another health disaster, in
my opinion.
Another implication
of this axiom is that all development programs must be tailored for each
individual. This, of course, we do
and is a critical step in getting well.
For this reason, just following general nutrition guidelines in a book,
for example, is often not enough to become well.
Another implication
is that each person must understand his or her own needs. One must not just copy the diet,
lifestyle of other nutritional program of a friend or even a family member.
This means that one
must find out how much rest one really needs, for example, and not just guess
based on anyoneÕs opinion. The
same goes for food needs.
The exception to the
principles is that a professional with years of experience or someone with lots
of research data can estimate needs fairly well. That is what we attempt to do in all cases.
Patients have to be
warned that taking extra vitamins or herbs, or altering dosage levels can
easily spoil the entire program because the program is designed specially for
that individual.
However, at times,
clients must modify even our development programs to fit their needs. This can be very critical for
healing. A wise practitioner understands
this principle and will modify his or her recommendations based upon feedback
from the patient or client.
Biochemical individuality applies to drugs, too, to a lesser
degree. One reason for drug
medicine failures and side effects is that some need far more than others. This fact can make drug therapy quite
dangerous if one is dealing with pharmaceutical products that are somewhat
toxic.
This more modern
science incorporates some aspects of many of the sciences above. This is why it is listed last. Chaos theory is not part of medical
care, but it should be. It has to
do with how one handles chaos in a complex,
self-regenerating system. This is
vital because disease of any type may be considered a type of chaos in the
body. If health equals wholeness
and oneness in the body, then disease equals a chaotic state in which parts of
the body and mind are not cooperating, and instead fighting one another for
dominance, and creating havoc.
Having the incorrect
of less preferred minerals in your enzyme binding sites, for example, is a very
simple example of chaos. Even not
drinking enough water, or eating bad food combinations, are simple examples of
chaos. Other examples are having
oneÕs oxidation rate too fast or too slow, or being a mixed oxidizer. Even having the sodium/potassium ratio,
or some other ratio or level out of balance, are forms of chaos.
Chaos theory tells
us how to approach this chaos in a very specific and organized way in order to
reduce the chaos to a manageable level, keep it there, and then deal with the
smaller or less gross levels of chaos in the body. This is truly a fascinating science and we apply some of the
principles in every development program.
For example, one of
the principles of chaos theory is that you must reduce the overall level of
chaos in order to bring the system into a better state, so that you can then
reduce the finer or more delicate aspects of chaos. This is done by balancing the oxidation
rate and the oxidation type.
Another aspect of
chaos theory has to do with how to handle aberrations in the system that cause
more chaos and tend to disrupt the system. This is handled in development science by paying close
attention to all
aspects of a personsÕ diet, lifestyle, eating habits, and even their
thinking habits. This is necessary
and helpful because any aberration or deviation can induce more chaos in the
system and ruin the effectiveness of the program.
Another aspect of
the program has to do with balancing mineral ratios. Chaos theory is quite mathematical, and includes balancing
ratios of factors, just as is done in development. So these are just a few examples of how this advanced
science is part of development, and why altering or ignoring any part of the
program can lead to disaster or at least reduced effectiveness.
Definition.
Cybernetics, which many equate with computer science, is a study of
complex, self-regulating systems. It is sometimes
called the science of communication and control in animal and machine. Others
call it information theory.
It is the brilliant
work of Dr. Norbert Weiner at MIT and others who lived in the mid-twentieth
century in America. Dr. Weinger
wrote about it in two popular books, Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine
(1948) and The Human Use of
Human Beings (1950). He
and many others also wrote innumerable technical papers about it.
It began as a way to
program automatic tracking systems for machine guns on warships during the second World War.
However, it applies to all self-regulating systems including computers,
robotics and, of course, human beings.
It focuses not on
things as much as on the relationships between unstable things or parts of
complex systems and their communication links.
We will only touch
on it because of it s immense complexity.
However, we derive some important language form cybernetics. The words homeostasis and feed back
loops are these important terms.
1. Homeostasis is the process of maintaining internal system
equilibrium or balance in the face of dynamic or constantly changing outer
conditions.
In the case of a
radar-controlled self-tracking machine gun on a destroyer, the outer changing
conditions are the ship rolling on the sea and the plane that is the target
flying by overhead. The gun must
stay trained on the plane in spite of these conditions.
In the case of the body, the outer
conditions include changes in temperature, for example, that require the body
to heat itself up or cool itself down all the time.
In fact, there are
thousands of changing conditions around any physical organism, from invasions
of germs to accidents, wounds, hunger, thirst and more. Throughout the body must keep itself
balanced or in homeostasis.
In fact, homeostasis
is about the most fundamental processes of life, even if the word was coined to
describe a war machine.
2. Feedback loops are the special communication links needed to
maintain homeostasis. Feedback loops,
additionally, can be of two major types.
Negative feedback loops. Negative loops are those that cause a return
toward balance or toward the way things were before the element in question was
disturbed or changed.
Therefore, negative
feedback loops tend to move any system toward stability, balance and in the
case of our bodies, toward a return to excellent health.
For example, if one
does not sleep enough on a given night, the body will signal us with fatigue to
sleep more to return the body to a rested state of balance. Fatigue acts as a
negative feedback mechanism, in other words, that helps us return to
stability and balance or health.
Positive feedback loops cause an element in a complex system that is
disturbed to become more disturbed or further away from balance. This means that positive loops
destabilize and are sometimes called 'vicious cycles'. If allowed to continue for any length
of time, they tend to destroy oneÕs health.
Serious illness, for
example, is generally caused by positive feedback loops. For example, let us discuss a heart
attack.
A heart attack often
starts with a mild blockage or mild spasm of a coronary artery that restricts
blood flow to a small area of the heart.
However, this can cause intense chest pain and discomfort.
The body responds
with a surge of adrenalin that unfortunately constricts the coronary arteries
further. This further restricts blood flow and causes more pain. If too little blood reaches the heart
muscle, it begins to die.
If the situation is
not reversed at once, the vicious cycle kills the person instantly for
practical purposes.
Not all heart
attacks kill because the positive feedback loop is broken somehow, perhaps by
the person becoming unconscious and relaxing or by an injection of magnesium
sulfate in the emergency room, or because the body can compensate for the
infracted or dead heart tissue enough that the heart continues to beat and
maintain life.
One could view life
and death as a battle between negative feedback loops trying to keep us in
balance and positive loops that kill.
A nutritional
example. When a person has
low calcium and magnesium, he feels irritable and anxious. By a positive loop, those feelings
cause adrenal stimulation that causes calcium and magnesium to go even lower.
This is a vicious
cycle that eventually results in an altered state of body chemistry called fast
oxidation.
However, if one eats
a food with calcium and magnesium which one may crave
due to a negative feedback loop, it reverses the positive loop or vicious cycle
and the person calms down and adrenal activity lessens.
In this way, all of
life is a series of communications and feedback loops that must operate
correctly or life ends rather quickly.
This is the importance of cybernetic thinking and our healing.
Life is a series of homeostatic states. Life is just a series of homeostatic
states as our bodies respond or adapt to stress. The early stages of homeostasis are much healthier ones
characterized by better vitality and more ability to respond to stress. As one ages,
homeostasis is harder to maintain and the body begins to develop more problems.
Disease a failure of
homeostasis. Disease and death
occur when the homeostatic or balancing mechanisms no longer maintain the
body. Then breakdowns begin occur
that can end in total shutdown or death..
The goal of development, in the broadest sense, is to assist the body
to break out of positive feedback loops and restore functioning of the negative
loops. That, in turn, will move the body back toward a more optimum or ideal
condition of homeostasis.
This is the
expansion of the energy field of a body and the fulfillment of the complete
genetic potential of a body. It is
a precise physiological process with a set sequence of stages. For details, read Introduction To Development.
The ether is a name
given to a subtle type of energy that permeates all of space. All living bodies require this energy
to survive and thrive. In other
words, we do not live just on food and water. We are born with a certain amount of stored ether inside the
body. As this runs down, we age
and sicken. When the amount in the
body dips below a certain amount, the body dies. The goal of a development program is to conserve and enhance
the level of ether in the body.
For details, read Etheric Energy and
other articles about ether on this site.
A
fractal is a pattern generated by repeating a simple pattern of numbers or
something else. Our bodies have a
fractal design. This means that
our bodies are made using repeating simple patterns. This is a little advanced, but very important because it
explains many things that otherwise make no sense whatsoever in development
science.
For
example, how can a simple mineral ratio such as the sodium/potassium ratio be
related to oneÕs hormones, oneÕs electrical balance, the adrenal glands, the
emotions and more? It is because
of the fractal design of the body.
For details, read Fractals. Also, read the Advanced Theory article.
Definition. A
system is a group of items, all of which affect each other. While not a rigorous definition, this
is adequate for our purpose. In
the early 20th century, great minds realized the importance of
viewing many complex phenomena as ÒsystemsÓ. Among the pioneers was Ludwig Von Bertalanffy, author of General System
Theory, Foundations, Development and Applications (1968).
While we take the
word ÔsystemÕ for granted, today, it is a relatively new word in common parlance. Understanding the laws of systems,
however, is essential to understanding development science.
Conventional
allopathic medicine, by contrast, and even most nutrition science, often still
thinks in terms of body parts and individual functions much more than in terms
of the entire or whole human system.
For details, read Systems Theory.
Definition. This is a
tissue mineral biopsy that uses hair as the biopsy material. The science of mineral balancing would not have
been possible before the perfection of the technique of accurate, reliable
mineral testing of human and animal tissues.
This occurred in the
early twentieth century. Newer
computerized testing instruments introduced in the late 1960s greatly decreased
the cost of testing and improved the accuracy and reliability of the test.
Hair is only one
tissue that could be used to test minerals. Testing hair is simple, non-invasive and easily performed in
a medical office or even at home.
Hair is also a rapidly growing tissue and one that is kept relatively
clean by most people. Other
reasons for using hair are discussed in the text, Development and Hair Mineral Analysis.
This book is mainly
the research of Dr. Paul Eck, a pioneer in hair analysis research. He is the originator and main proponent
of development science. The book is dedicated to his memory, as he passed on in
1996. When performed and
interpreted properly, hair mineral testing is one of the most cost-effective,
powerful, predictive and best testing procedures available today.
I do not recommend
its use for cancer patients or for advanced cases of multiple sclerosis and
probably also not for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. However, for most other conditions, including most
mental/emotional health conditions, it is superb when performed and interpreted
correctly.
The hair mineral
test gives a unique type of reading because It
measures activity within the tissues without requiring expensive biopsies or
other procedures. It is also
unique in that Dr. EckÕs interpretation method allows one to assess how the
body is responding to stress. This
is quite unusual in medicine.
Since most metabolic
activity occurs within the tissues rather than in the blood, the hair test provides
a different point of view, whose possible application In
medical science has hardly begun to be explored. For much more information about hair mineral analysis, read Introduction To Hair Analysis.
Definition.
Every aspect of a personÕs life, including health history, genetics, diet,
lifestyle, occupation, relationships, attitudes, recreational thoughts and
activities and more will influence health and healing.
This is related to
some of the other concepts such as wellness and biochemical individuality.
However, it is far more comprehensive in its scope. Health must be seen as a dynamic interaction of many factors
playing out in a personÕs life each day.
Health is not a static concept, in other words.
This
principle is very important in the interpretation of a hair analysis. It is best is to know about a personÕs
diet, lifestyle and even his or her perceptions and attitudes for the best hair
test interpretation.
However, if this
information is not present, one can still do an excellent interpretation, but
it will not be as comlete or accurate in some cases. the reason is that in some cases,
the emotions, for example, or a dietary indiscretion, play a large role in the
personÕs overall holistic picture.
In other cases, these play a minor role, while an illness, a toxic substance
in the body or a biochemical imbalance is the major factor present.
This is a subtle
subject and goes to the interpretation of the test, mainly. However, it is an important theoretical
principle, which is why it is included in this article.
Additional important
conceptual information about hair analysis interpretation is found in the
second and third chapters of Development
and Hair Mineral Analysis by this author.
LAYERS OF ADAPTATIONS OR COMPENSATIONS
This is the idea that what is called ill health or disease is not an
ÒentityÓ, as the vets and medical doctors are taught. In fact, disease is a time-dependent process of adaptation
to stressors.
For example, an animal that is cold will usually speed up its
metabolism to produce more internal heat.
This uses up more calcium, magnesium and zinc because this is part of
the fight-or-flight reaction. Then
zinc is replaced by cadmium because the need for zinc is so huge to compenate. Calcium is also replaced by lead and
magnesium replaced by beryllium and other metals in the magnesium-dependent
enzymes. This sickens the animal, who may then receive antibiotics from the vet. This damages the liver, which causes
abnormal copper and iron deposition in the liver. And so on until you have a sick animal!
The problem is that the vets just diagnose the later stage of the
problem and suggest a remedy. In
reality, there is a chain of events or layers of adaptations and compensations. Real healing means undoing the layers,
not just white-washing the problem with a remedy. This takes some time and more effort.
Retracing. Another vital concept in development science is
that deep healing of a body causes flare-ups of old symptoms as the animal
heals.
This is part of the disease reversal process when deep healing
occurs. The bodies literally
reverse course and retrace. This
idea relates directly to the idea of layers of adaptations described above.
For example, an animal that at one time had a very fast oxidation rate
will go back into that state for a while as it heals deeply.
An infection that is now chronic, but was acute at one time in the
past will go back to being acute for a time as it heals. Then it goes away for good, which is very
different from suppression, which is what antibiotics offer.
NOTE: Retracing often skews blood tests, so you must beware of this or
you will needlessly medicate your animals when they are just retracing and do
not need veterinary intervention.
Definition. Human
beings can be classified into various body types or other types, biochemically,
physically, psychologically or in other ways.
This concept is most helpful to simplify and avoid mistakes in
recommending diets, nutritional supplements, detoxification protocols, and for
psychological and personality assessment and more.
Metabolic typing is
a refinement of the idea of biochemical individuality. It counters the idea that we are all random and unique by suggesting that within the
variability of human beings are certain patterns of nutrient needs and other
parameters.
It is very much a
systems concept that is essential for development science and many other
natural healing approaches.
Examples of metabolic typing systems abound. They include the ancient Chinese idea of
yin and yang, the Ayurvedic three doshas, Hippocrates melancholic and
phlegmatic and others.
WatsonÕs Oxidation
Types. A
modern metabolic classification system was developed by George Watson, PhD. He was a researcher at the University
of California Los Angeles in the mid-twentieth century.
He happened upon a
discovery that paved the way for a gigantic leap in understanding human
physiology. Dr. WatsonÕs books are
fascinating and easy reading. They
can usually be found in used book stores. They are Nutrition and Your Mind (1972) and Personality
Strength and Psychochemical Energy (1979).
Fast and slow
oxidation. The two basic types
he identified he first called type one and type two. Later he realized that one group metabolized fats better
than carbohydrates, and the other was the reverse.
He then changed the
names to fast and slow oxidizers. The word oxidation means to mix with oxygen
or to burn.
He theorized a third
group, the sub-oxidizers, who did not fit into either the fast or slow
categories.
His original work
used odor tests. Later he added
blood tests of pH and carbon dioxide levels.
WatsonÕs concept is
so important for development that the details of the system, as modified by Dr.
Paul Eck and others, is described in a separate article entitled Fast and slow Oxidation.
Foods and nutrients
and the oxidation types.
Dr. WatsonÕs greatest contribution, perhaps, was his research on the
effects of common food groups and supplementary nutrients on the oxidation rate
and oxidation type. This is
discussed in the same article on oxidation.
Definition. Each
mineral in the soil, in plants and in animal bodies affects the levels of all
the other minerals.
This amazing
discovery was the work of Dr. William Albrecht, a soil scientist who worked at
the University of Missouri in the early twentieth century. He designed the Òmineral wheelÓ
illustrating some of these complex interactions.
His
work is collected in The
Albrecht Papers, some of which are highly technical. Dr. Albrecht is widely published in other
agricultural journals as well.
This
forms a system of minerals that is essentially self-balancing or
self-regulating in the soil and human beings. It was a great systems conceptual breakthrough that is used
in agriculture and now can be used in development and nutritional science.
Dr.
Paul Eck stumbled upon AlbrechtÕs work and used the concepts to explain many
paradoxes that he encountered in understanding how to interpret hair tissue
mineral analyses. For example, to
raise the calcium level one must give copper, not calcium. To raise the sodium level, one gives
manganese and so forth.
The
interactions are quite complex, though we donÕt need too much complexity to
make use of the system. The
relationships of the minerals in the soil are somewhat similar to the
interaction of minerals in human and animal bodies, though they are not
identical.
Development science involves balancing the minerals in a plant, animal
or human body. This requires the
research of William Albrecht, PhD, concerning how the level of one mineral in a
body affects the levels of other minerals. While this research is now almost 100 years old, few doctors
use it in the way we do.
For this
breakthrough, we owe a great debt to Dr. Paul Eck, who extended the research
and came up with a practical way to balance bodies based upon it.
Definition. This is
the principle of using natural or physiological substances such as vitamins and
minerals, given in the amounts the body needs, to
correct disease conditions.
This term was coined
by the late Dr. Linus Pauling, PhD, winner of two Nobel prizes. It was a radical idea when it was
proposed, but has since been vindicated clearly. Thus it does not seem as odd or radical today.
This is also a
refinement of the biochemical individuality concept because it postulates that
each person may need different amounts of certain nutrients to correct his or
her body chemistry.
Dr. Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD.
The best known application of this theory of
medicine was pioneered by dr. Abram Hoffer, MD, author of Orthomolecular Nutrition, several other
books and many scientific papers.
Dr. Hoffer was a
psychiatrist who noticed that after the Korean war ended, prisoners of war who
had been starved in the North Korean concentration camps had mental symptoms
that suggested deficiencies of B vitamins thiamine, niacin and pyridoxine at
times as well.
As a result, he
prescribed standard doses of vitamins to help the men. However, there was little
response! Then, by chance, a
patient took a much larger dose of the vitamins and made a complete recovery.
Dr. Hoffer
immediately tried the same idea on the other patients and had similarly
fantastic responses. Although he was ostracized by his colleagues, he continued to obtain
excellent results in some cases of schizophrenia, other pychoses, depression
and other mental illnesses by giving very high doses of basic vitamins. In this way the science of orthomolecular
psychiatry and orthomolecular medicine was born.
Dr. Hoffer has
written several popular books and many journal articles. He founded the Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry,
which, in 1986, was renamed the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine.
I had the good fortune
to meet Dr. Hoffer, a very humble and brilliant man. He allowed me to contribute an article to his journal
entitled ÒDetermination Of Oxidation Types By Means Of Tissue Electrolyte
RatiosÓ. It appeared in 1986, Vol.
1, #2. pp. 126-131. It is reprinted in the 2010 edition of Development And Hair Mineral Analysis, and
is also on this website.
I also helped author
an article for the same issue of the journal regarding the effects of washing
hair at the hair testing laboratory. The official author was Dr. Raymond
Leroy, DSc., chief chemist at Accutrace Laboratories
where the studies were done.
Development is a type of orthomolecular approach. However, it differs from others in several
important respects:
1. Development is not a symptom-based approach. Most orthomolecular nutrition is based
on overcoming symptoms only. Few
tests are used and large doses are required. Also, the patient must usually remain on the vitamin regimen
forever or symptoms will return because underlying imbalances are not addressed
in many, though not all cases.
In contrast, in
development, diet, supplementary nutrients and lifestyle are generally not used
to alleviate symptoms directly.
They are employed to delicately move the organism to a more desirable
oxidation state. In other words,
we use a balancing approach, not a symptom-based approach to healing the body.
2. Development vitamin and mineral doses are usually not as high
as in traditional orthomolcular approaches.
Dr. Eck did not like using very high dosages of nutrients, even vitamin
C. He reasoned that these are drug
dosages, basically, when used at these doses. They are less safe and, though they can remove symptoms, they
rarely balance the body. Also,
they are rarely necessary if we can restore the biochemical pathways instead of
just bridging over the trouble spots with megadoses of nutrients.
However, he knew
that many people have impaired digestion and absorption of nutrients. Therefore, the nutrient dosages we do
use are still far higher than the minimum daily requirements so that the
patient at least gets a physiological dose delivered to the tissues.
3. As a result, with development one rarely needs to stay on the
nutrients forever. Balancing the
oxidation rate and removing toxic metals and toxic chemicals usually results in
greater energy production. This,
in turn, allows and facilitates normal healing processes. Since the problem actually disappears,
there is usually no need to keep taking the vitamins, at least not a full
program, to maintain optimum health.
This does not
involve either diagnosis of disease, or the use of specific remedies. Instead, one assesses the functioning
of the entire whole system of the body.
Then one applies a set of corrections that are similar for many people
today to ÒpushÓ the system in a healthier direction. As the system corrects, most symptoms and disease entities
go away on their own because, in fact, they were simply expressions of system
malfunction.
For example, if the
blood pressure is high, it is really just the bodyÕs attempt to force more
blood through diseased arteries or perhaps constricted arteries. Rather than apply a remedy to lower
blood pressure, often if one improves the health of the kidneys, arteries and
the autonomic nervous system, the blood pressure returns to normal without the
need for drugs, herbs or other remedies of any kind.
The goal of pattern
recognition science is not to remedy anything directly. Instead, it is to move the whole body
system to a better stage of stress, to use the language of stress theory. One keeps doing this over and over, on
a daily basis, and slowly the organism comes into harmony with its environment
more and more.
As this is done,
health conditions mysteriously disappear and one feels 100% better, stronger,
more centered and more balanced.
No remedies are needed, in almost all cases. In fact, using most remedies with a development program tends
to ruin the program. This is why
development rarely employs remedies of any kind, and why combining it with
other healing programs does not work well.
With a development
program, procedures that look like remedies, such as a coffee enema or
nutritional supplements, are not being used as
remedies. They are used as
movement-producing procedures that enable the whole body system to shift into a
more harmonious relationship with its environment.
Thus, development is
really an ecological or environmental science, not a medical approach. This is unusual to minds trained in
allopathic, naturopathic, holistic and other diagnose-and-treat methodologies.
It is also why development is considered ÒunscientificÓ by some. It is very scientific, but one must
understand the basics of general systems theory, fractals, chaos theory,
cybernetics, stress theory and other modern sciences to appreciate how and why
it works so well. With this
introduction, let us examine the modern sciences and principles that form the
basis for development science.
Development is,
above all, a whole system pattern
recognition science. This
is more like acupuncture and chiropractic, and different from conventional
allopathic, homeopathic and naturopathic medicine. The latter are diagnose-and-treat methods of care. The difference is important to
understand, so I will explain it in more detail.
Diagnose-and-treat methods involve recognizing a set of symptoms,
or identifying disease
entities via physical exam, history and perhaps laboratory tests. Then one applies a remedy to undo, correct or suppress the
symptom or disease. It is mainly a
linear sequence of first identifying a symptom or disease, followed by applying
(hopefully) the correct remedy.
Definition. This is the concept that with the proper
understanding, one should be able to predict that if a condition, situation or
lifestyle continues, an outcome will occur.
The main textbook
about this science is entitled Predictive Medicine : A Study in Strategy
by E. Cheraskin, MD and W. M. Ringsdorf, MD. It was quite a sensation when it first appeared in 1973.
Though the idea has
attracted little attention, the concept is valid and would save America and
other nations billions of dollars annually if it were studied more, I believe.
This idea takes
prevention a step further. Not
only can we prevent illness. We
should be able to predict it years ahead of time so that steps can be taken to
avoid it altogether.
The concept of
predictive medicine is an outgrowth of engineering principles. For instance, one can predict where a
missile will land if one knows enough about its trajectory, weight, power of
the motor and other factors.
It may sound odd to
talk this way about illness, but it is not. There are parameters of the body that can be measured
easily, with a hair analysis, for example. These can be used to literally calculate how they will
affect a person in the future with fair accuracy.
Today the closest
medical science to predictive medicine is epidemiology. This is the study usually of large
populations and their illness trends.
For example, studies have shown that smoking is associated with lung cancer, that drinking alcohol is associated with liver
disease and that obesity is associated with diabetes and joint problems.
This is a start on
predictive medicine. However,
epidemiology mainly studies established diseases, not parameters of health and
disease.
Development science
is very much a predictive approach. By correlating thousands of hair mineral
test patterns, levels and ratios, trends or associations with many important
illnesses have been identified.
The trend can appear on the test years before symptoms manifest.
This allows one to
avoid the illness altogether, before it even appears in a subclinical
form. This is really the ultimate
in primary prevention of disease.
PREFERRED MINERALS
Preferred
minerals. When an animal does not receive enough
of the minerals it requires, it will take up and use less-preferred minerals to operate its
enzyme systems and for other purposes.
This is a basic survival mechanism for all living creatures. However, it is also the cause of a lot
of ill health of animals.
Dr. Paul Eck learned about this phenomenon from the writing Henry
Schroeder, MD (1906-1975). Dr.
Schroeder wrote on page 7 of Trace Elements And Man:
Ò- cadmium avidly replaces zinc and changes
or inactivates zinc (dependent) enzymes, causing disease;
- arsenic displaces phosphorus, causing
disease;
- selenium displaces sulfur, causing disease;
- bromine displaces chlorine (and both
bromine and chlorine displace iodine);
- beryllium displaces magnesium;
- strontium displaces calcium ÉÓ
Dr. Schroeder realized that a chemical element can
often be replaced by the element underneath it on the standard periodic table
of the elements because they are shaped similarly. All the elements in each column have the same number of
electrons in their outer shell, which means they are ÒshapedÓ somewhat the
same.
For this reason, elements in the same column can ÒfitÓ into certain enzymes,
like a key that fits into a lock even though it is not the right key to open
the lock.
In the case of chemical elements, the replacement or less-preferred
ÒkeyÓ or element
can sometimes operate the lock to a degree, a times preserving
life. However, the enzyme or
tissue does not work properly, so disease results.
A crude analogy is if one breaks the fan belt on a vehicle and does
not have a replacement belt, one could possibly take off oneÕs waist belt, wrap
it tightly around the pulleys and slowly make your way home. That is how less-preferred minerals
work in animal and human bodies.
They donÕt fit well, but they fit enough to sustain life.
While this idea may sounds unusual, it is one of the most important secrets of development science. It is the science of replacing faulty parts with factory original parts.
At times, several
minerals can substitute for a preferred mineral. For example, zinc is the preferred mineral in over one
hundred critical enzymes in our bodies.
If it is not present in sufficient quantity, or becomes depleted due to
stress, for example, the body can substitute mercury, cadmium, arsenic and
possibly others for it. Of course,
they do not work as well, but the body can continue to function at a lower
level of efficiency.
An adaptive
mechanism to preserve life.
The purpose of the substitution is to allow life to continue in the face
of nutritional deficiencies. Thus
it is an adaptive mechanism.
As a rule, the
affected enzyme will perform its job far less efficiently with the substitute
mineral than it would if the ideal or preferred mineral were present in the enzyme binding site.
Thus mineral substitution is always a bad thing, relatively, and leads
to every disease condition imaginable.
When too many
preferred minerals have been replaced by substitutes the enzyme efficiency of
the body becomes so low that life is not sustainable. Then cancer and very serious problems occur.
Aging and preferred
minerals. The scenario above
is what always occurs with age. As
nutritional deficiencies develop and mineral substitution goes on for years,
the body eventually ages and dies.
Development restores preferred minerals. One way to understand development and
some other natural healing approaches is that they aim to remove less preferred
minerals. Toxic metals such as
lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury are to be replaced with vital or preferred
minerals in thousands of enzyme binding sites and other locations in the body.
This will slowly
restore the original efficiency of the enzymes and tissues and health improves
automatically and often dramatically.
Illnesses, depression, cancer and more just melt away, without any
attempt to Òtreat the diseaseÓ.
This is a very
powerful way to understand healing of many types. Development uses very specific methods to help support the
body while the toxic metal is being eliminated so that the replacement process
occurs smoothly, rapidly and safely.
For this reason, it tends to be far safer than, for example, random
chelation with drugs or even with natural chelating agents.
Instead of just
using one method to remove toxic metals, for instance chelation, development
relies on at least eight methods used together at the same time to remove and
replace toxic metals with preferred minerals. These methods are discussed in detail in an article on this
website entitled Toxic Metals.
This is another very ancient science that is not well known in the
Western world. However, like
warming and cooling, it is a very basic life science.
The seven main energy centers of the human, animal body or plant body are spinning vortices of subtle energy located along
the midline of the body.
The health of these centers is critical for the health of any living
creature. The development method
takes into account the effects of food and other factors on these energy
centers.
A problem is that most people cannot see the energy centers. Therefore, most readers will need to
just observe the effects of balancing and strengthening them.
STRESS THEORY OF DISEASE AND THE GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME or
G.A.S.
The stress theory of disease. This
is the work of Hans Selye, MD (1907-1982). Dr. Selye realized that all animals go through stages of disease
before they die. He gave these
names – alarm, resistance and exhaustion. The development method identifies these stages in a cow and
then specifically sets out to move the animal to a healthier stage of stress.
The oxidation types. This
is the work of George Watson, PhD (1912-?). He was a professor of philosophy of science at the
University of Southern California.
His health research focused on the response of a human being to various
odors. Through this method, he
identified two basic states of body chemistry that he called fast and slow
oxidation.
This is not the same as fast and slow metabolism. However, it is somewhat related to the
standard determination of metabolic rate in human beings.
Definitions. The
General Adaptation Syndrome or GAS is a unified concept about how our bodies
respond to stress. It is closely
related to and part of the stress theory of disease.
Stress is a general term for the process by which organisms face changes
in their environment which force the organism to alter
itself in thousands of ways in response.
Stressors are factors that impinges on an organism
forcing that organism to adapt or change itself in order to survive and thrive
in their environment.
Adaptation is the process whereby a complex self-regulating system or
organism responds to its environment to maintain homeostasis.
Adaptations are the changes that an organism makes in thousands of parameters
in order to compensate or cope with the effects of stress.
Credit for this
theory of disease goes directly to Dr. Hans Selye, MD. He first presented the theory in the
1950s and wrote a number of books about it such as The Stress of Life, Stress Without Distress
and Calciphylaxis. He was quite a genius and receives
little credit for his unified theory of disease in animals and human beings.
Dr. Selye found that
experimental animals, when subjected to repeated shock treatment and other
stressful situations, responded in specific, predictable ways. Dr. Selye called the responses the stages of
stress. These he named the alarm, resistance,
and exhaustion stages.
Each stage of stress
is a lower energy and less desirable than the previous one and each represents
the best the animal can do to maintain itself under conditions of increasing or
continuing stress.
Stress. Dr. SelyeÕs theory
is the first ever unified concept of disease. It showed that many symptoms or
diseases can be linked to one single factor that he
called stress.
While the entire
world has incorporated this word into its daily vocabulary, very few people
understand exactly what stress is or how it works. Hair analysis can change all that and provide tremendous
insight into human and animal functioning as a result.
Examples of
Adaptation. For example, when it
is too hot outside, we sweat to lower our body temperature. When it is too cold outside, we shiver
to warm up. When a bacteria invades the body, we often feel tired so we will
rest. Also, we may run a fever to help kill off the invading germs faster.
Each adaptation,
such as sweating, is actually a very complicated process all by itself. Sweating, for example, is governed by
many feedback loops and systems so that, for example, we donÕt sweat out all of
our water and minerals and so that we stop sweating when the body temperature
returns to normal.
Many factors can
send a person into a lower energy stage of stress or less healthful homeostatic
state. These include nutritional
depletion, accumulation of toxic chemicals and toxic metals, structural and other
imbalances in the body.
This process is
reflected in our symptoms and even our mental attitudes such as depression,
anxiety and others. The relationships between the stage of stress, oxidation types and
personality is covered in an articles entitled Personality
And Hair Mineral Analysis.
This idea of viewing
people as being in a stage of stress, also called the
oxidation type, is a key to learning development science and hair analysis
interpretation. It makes it much
more simple and orderly.
Importance of the
adrenal glands. The G.A.S. begins as
a response of the central nervous system.
This, in turn, affects the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous
system.
The sympathetic
system affects certain glands, principally the adrenal medulla and adrenal
cortex to some degree, and the thyroid gland. This is why Dr. Paul Eck became so interested in these
glands and their effects on our health.
The goal is a healthier stage of stress. The goal of development, in broad
terms, is to move an organism away from the stage of exhaustion and back toward
the more desirable stages of stress.
An even more
desirable outcome is a balanced or flexible state in which the organism is not required
to adapt very much at all. This is optimum homeostasis and is really what
spiritual development involves.
WARMING AND COOLING OR THE ANCIENT TAOIST SCIENCE OF YANG AND YIN This is one of the most ancient of sciences and is
basic physics. Warming or Yang refers to faster moving particles,
while cooling or yin refers to slower
moving particles. All food, health
conditions and much more can be classified as either more warming or more
cooling. Today, all the bodies are
too cold. This results in many
weaknesses and diseases.
Causes for
a colder body:
- Depleted soils
- Toxic metals in the environment
- Processed food
- Improper diet such as eating sugar
- Ionizing radiation due to A-bombs and nuclear power plant emissions.
- Exposure to excessive amounts of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) due to
high-tension power lines, cell phone towers and other EMF sources.
An important goal of development programs is to make the bodies warmer. This is needed for deep healing and
improvement of the seven energy centers.
Definitions. Wellness
if the idea that health is not simply the absence of diagnosed disease. Instead, it is a positive concept,
perhaps related to vitality or high resistance to illness.
This is a wonderful
idea, but has not been elaborated in a rigorous scientific way that I am aware
of. It is the opposite of most
allopathic, homeopathic and herbal medicine, that
usually defines health as the absence of signs or symptoms of disease.
The closest thing I
have found to it is the idea of Òhigh resistance to diseaseÓ, another ambiguous
phrase that doctors use to describe, for example, people who do not get the flu
during an epidemic or pandemic.
Wellness = high vitality.
From my perspective, wellness is, first and foremost, an energetic
concept. It is not enough, it
states, that the body is free of obvious disease. The ideal state is one of what might be called Òsuperior
resistance to disease and everything else that can harm itÓ.
This is another way
of saying the same thing as the stress theory states in more technical
language. It is saying that the
optimum state called wellness is one of extremely high adaptive energy in which
the body does not have a problem handling stress.
Similarly, the
principle of development programs is to produce the highest possible level of
energy and well-being, far above simple absence of
disease. Only in this way can a person express himself and enjoy life to the
fullest.
Here are a few of
the most important combinations of the above principles of healing:
Oxidation types,
Yin-Yang Balance and the Stages of Stress. Dr. WatsonÕs metabolic types represent
the stages of stress according to Hans Selye. The rough correlations are:
á
Fast oxidizer = alarm stage of stress = more yang
á
Slow oxidizer = exhaustion stage of stress = more yin
Vitality and the
stages of stress. The alarm stage of stress = the highest adaptive energy or
vitality.
Exhaustion stage of
stresss = lower vitality and less adaptive energy.
Vitality and Energy
Efficiency. Dr. Watson also
found there is lower energy production in the cells when the oxidation rate is
either too slow or too fast. This
was a great insight.
Vitality and Age. Vitality tends to decrease with age.
Hair mineral
analysis. This can be used to assess the oxidation type, oxidation rate, stage of stress, vitality and much more.
In order to do this,
the hair must be:
- clean
- sampled
in the right place
- cut
properly to the right length
- the
lab must not wash the hair at all
- the
test must be interpreted correctly using the right normal values and the
methodology developed by Dr. Paul Eck and modified by us.
Most
problems with hair testing come from breaches in this protocol.
Imperfections
in Hair Analysis. The
hair is not a perfect test for many reasons. For one thing, it is an average of three months or so of
metabolism and cannot measure in an immediate or instantaneous way. Also, it depends on proper hair
sampling and testing. In addition,
the values can be skewed by environmental conditions at times, by the presence
of drugs in the system, by emotional stress at times and other factors.
So
far, however, it offers by far the simplest and most accurate way to make the
assessments we want.
Hair
analysis for research and monitoring. The hair test also provides a
way to monitor progress and compare ongoing symptoms with various states of
body chemistry. It is thus an
excellent research tool as well.
The mineral system applies to hair analysis. Dr. Paul Eck was aware of Dr. William
AlbrechtÕs brilliant work on the minerals in soil. He adapted it for human beings and animals and used the
concept to help him understand paradoxes that occurred with hair mineral
testing in human beings.
For
example, he found that giving calcium to a person would not raise the hair
tissue calcium level. However,
giving copper would raise the hair tissue calcium level, even if the copper
level did not increase.
This
is just one example of a seeming paradox that is explained by the mineral
system of the body.
Personality
and Nutrition. Another
major synthesis by Dr. Eck was also based on the work of Dr. Watson and others.
The oxidation types, stages of stress, energy level, mineral ratios, levels and
patterns offer valuable information about psychological and personality, in
addition to physical conditions.
This fascinating subject is covered in more depth in an article on this
website entitled Personality and Nutrition. The textbook, Development Science And Development Program (formerly
titled
Nutritional Balancing and Hair Mineral Analysis), also contains several
chapters on various aspects of hair analysis and personality.
For more theory of
development scienced (with some overlap), read the Advanced
Theory article.