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

 

I. INTRODUCTION

 

II. THE PRINCIPLES

Balance Concept

Biochemical Individuality

Bioenergetics Or Vitality

Biological Transmutation of the Elements.

Chaos Theory

Cybernetics

Development

Ether-Powered Bodies

Fractals

General Systems Theory

Hair Mineral Analysis

Holism

Layers of Adaptations And Compensations

Metabolic Typing.

Mineral bioavailability

NatureÕs Mineral Interaction System

Orthomolecular nutrition

Pattern recognition rather than diagnose-and-treat

Predictive medicine

Preferred Minerals
Retracing

Seven physical energy centers

Stress Theory of Disease

Warming And Cooling

Wellness

 

III. INTEGRATION OF CONCEPTS

_______________________

 

I. INTRODUCTION

 

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

 

THE BALANCE MODEL OF HEALTH

 

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 OR VITALITY

 

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.

 

BIOLOGICAL TRANSMUTATION

 

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.

 

BIOCHEMICAL INDIVIDUALITY

 

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.

 

CHAOS THEORY

 

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.

 

CYBERNETICS

 

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.

 

DEVELOPMENT

 

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.

 

ETHER-POWERED BODIES

 

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.

 

FRACTAL DESIGN

 

            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.

 

GENERAL SYSTEMS THEORY

 

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.

 

HAIR MINERAL ANALYSIS

 

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.


HOLISM

 

            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. 

 

METABOLIC TYPING

 

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.

 

NATUREÕS MINERAL SYSTEM

 

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.

 

ORTHOMOLECULAR NUTRITION

 

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.

 

PATTERN RECOGNITION SCIENCE

 

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.

 

PREDICTIVE MEDICINE

 

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.

 

SEVEN ENERGY CENTERS

 

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.

 

THE WELLNESS MODEL OF HEALTH

 

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.

 

III. INTEGRATION OF CONCEPTS

 

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.

 

 

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