Health & Fitness

This article was previously published April 24, 2018, and has been updated with new information.

Do you buy farmed salmon in the belief that it's the environmentally responsible thing to do? Think again. Fish farms are the water-based equivalents of land-based concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), and as such they create the same, if not worse, environmental concerns.

Since the salmon pens are placed along wild salmon runs, they pose a severe threat to wild salmon stocks that pass by, exposing wild fish to diseases such as sea lice, pancreas disease,¹ infectious salmon anemia virus and piscine reovirus.

For a quick review, see "Racing a Virus"² above — a video created by Alexandra Morton, a Canadian marine biologist who has spent decades studying the impact of salmon farming on wild salmon. Piscine reovirus is a highly contagious blood virus that causes heart disease in the affected fish.

The virus was first discovered in Norwegian salmon farms and has proven to be nearly impossible to eradicate. And, with the spread of this disease into wild populations, wild salmon may soon go extinct.

Toxins Abound in Farmed Salmon

Importantly, farmed salmon also poses health risks to those who eat them. In fact, toxicology testing reveals farmed salmon is one of the most toxic foods in the world — more than five times more toxic than any other food tested.³ A global assessment of farmed salmon published in the January 2004 issue of Science⁴ found no less than 13 persistent organic pollutants in the fish, including PCBs and dioxins.

Other investigations⁵ reveal PCB concentrations in farmed salmon are, on average, eight times higher than in wild salmon. According to the authors, "Risk analysis indicates that consumption of farmed Atlantic salmon may pose health risks that detract from the beneficial effects of fish consumption."

Another group of scientists concluded that⁶ "Consumption of farmed salmon at relatively low frequencies results in elevated exposure to dioxins and dioxin-like compounds with commensurate elevation in estimates of health risk."

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are also a concern because, according to Cleveland Clinic,⁷ "levels of PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl, which is one type of POP) are 16 times higher in farmed fish than in wild fish." Other contaminants, such as antibiotics, are at such high levels that the clinic advises children, women of child-bearing age and women who are pregnant not to eat farmed salmon at all.

Farmed Salmon Contain Harmful Fats

One of the reasons why farmed salmon contains much higher levels of toxins than wild is because the feed they're given is highly contaminated. In 2017 Responsible Seafood wrote:⁸

"Research shows farmed fish fed diets heavy on vegetable oils have higher amounts of omega-6 and lower amounts of omega-3 compared to fish fed diets heavy on fish oil. While seafood remains the primary source of beneficial omega-3s — the prevalence of omega-6 threatens seafood's healthy halo, particularly for farmed species with low levels of omega-3 fatty acids.

'The data shows those [vegetable] oils have affected the fatty acid profile in farmed fish, not just in omega-3 overall, but in increased omega-6 as well,' said Jillian Fry, project director of public health and sustainable aquaculture at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future."

Another reason for the higher toxin content is because farmed salmon contains far higher levels of fat, which binds to and accumulates these toxins. According to Cleveland Clinic:⁹

"A 3-ounce fillet of wild salmon has fewer calories and half the fat content of the same amount of farmed salmon. And although farmed salmon may have more omega-3 fatty acids, it also has more than double the saturated fat content — and that's not fat you want."

The exaggerated fat content in farmed salmon is a direct result of the processed high-fat feed that farmed salmon are given, which includes species-inappropriate ingredients such as poultry meal, fish meal, poultry fat, fish oil, whole wheat, soybean meal, corn gluten meal, feather meal and rapeseed oil. In essence, the salmon are being fed a processed junk food diet high in toxic contaminants and drugs, and their nutritional composition reflects this.

Their diet also results in radically skewed ratios of omega-3 to omega-6 fats. Interestingly, industry leaders are beginning to see the light and they know this is not sustainable for good health. According to Responsible Seafood:¹⁰

"Out of necessity fish feed companies have turned to a variety of vegetable oils made from rapeseed (canola), soybeans, corn, nuts and wheat. Some are high in omega-6s. Douglas Tocher, professor at University of Stirling in the Institute of Aquaculture, over 15 years has researched how to use plant oils instead of fish oils while keeping the final fillets rich in omega-3s.

There is no way around the fact that shifting to vegetable oils has led to a loss of EPA and DHA," he said. "Farmed salmon is still the best source of EPA and DHA you can get. But we're at the point where we can't continue that forever. We can't continue to just replace fish oil and fishmeal [with plant oils] because then we'll compromise seafood's health benefits … Retaining the long-chain omega-3s in the fish tissue is the top priority."

What's concerning is that the main oil they use — soybean — has an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio as high as 8-to-1! When Purdue University scientists looked at the fatty acid profiles of 76 different fish, they found that the omega-6 fatty acid content "ranged from 11 mg/100 grams in Alaska pollock to 2,530 mg/100 grams in Atlantic salmon."

This lopsided ratio can have negative health ramifications since most people are deficient in omega-3 while already getting far more omega-6 than they need thanks to processed foods, which tend to be high in damaged omega-6 fats. The imbalance also triggers inflammation in your body, according to researchers at Deakin University in Burwood, Australia, who said:

"'When we have such an imbalance it means the body is constantly producing eicosanoids from omega-6 than omega-3. Basically, we put our body in a constant inflammation mode and that can facilitate a lot of diseases.' Those include cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and some forms of cancer."

The bottom line is, rather than being a wonderful source of healthy omega-3s, farmed salmon contains far more omega-6 than omega-3.

Chemical Added to Salmon Feed Has Questionable Safety Profile

A chemical of particular concern found in farmed salmon (but not in wild) is ethoxyquin,¹¹ developed by Monsanto in the 1950s. This chemical is a rubber stabilizer (used in the production of tires), pesticide, preservative and antioxidant all in one.

While it doesn't have the health benefits normally associated with dietary antioxidants, it does prevent oxidation of fats, which is why it's used in different types of animal feed, including fish feed and pet food.¹² As explained by Nutraceutical Business Review:¹³

"Globally, ethoxyquin is not approved for use as a direct food additive in foods for human consumption; therefore, ethoxyquin should not be detectable in the food supply. Specific to the omega-3 industry, some krill meals and crude fish oils for animal feed are preserved using ethoxyquin …

The European Union (EU) upper limit in feed (including fish feed, but excluding dog food) is 150ppm ethoxyquin alone or together as the sum of BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole), BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) and ethoxyquin.

The maximum content of ethoxyquin allowed in dog food is 100ppm and the mixture of ethoxyquin with BHA and BHT is allowed provided the total mixture doesn't exceed 150ppm. According to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), ethoxyquin is 'considered to be toxic to aquatic organisms based on the acute toxicity data provided for fish, daphnia and algae.'"

Ethoxyquin Health Effects

In human food production, ethoxyquin is used post-harvest to prevent scald (browning) in pears and apples, and as a color preservative for chili powder, paprika and ground chili powder.^14,15 Side effects from direct exposure to this chemical include skin and eye irritation, allergic reactions, depression, reproductive effects, liver and kidney damage, and thyroid problems, and it's known to be "harmful if swallowed."¹⁶

Studies have also shown it adversely affects cell metabolism, especially the metabolic pathways of renal and hepatic cells in rats, and the mitochondria in bovine hearts and kidneys. As noted in one review, "The authors suggested that [ethoxyquin] interacted with site I of the mitochondrial respiratory chain, and it resulted in inhibition of oxygen consumption in the mitochondria of kidney and liver cells when glucose was a respiratory substrate. The effect was dose dependent."¹⁷

According to Chemical News, "While ethoxyquin has not been tested for its carcinogenic potential, a closely related chemical, 1,2-dihydro-2,2,4-trimethylquinoline, showed some evidence of carcinogenic activity in rats. The only suggestion of a potential carcinogenic effect for ethoxyquin came from a Manson et al. (1987) study."¹⁸

What Chemical News fails to mention is that the one and only study ever done to assess ethoxyquin's effects on human health also found carcinogenic effects.

This human health study was part of a thesis by Victoria Bohne, a former researcher with the Norwegian National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES) in Norway, who made a number of disturbing discoveries, including the fact that ethoxyquin can cross the blood brain barrier. She was ultimately pressured to resign from NIFES after attempts were made to falsify and downplay her findings.

EFSA has also pointed out that while there's not enough data to make a conclusion about ethoxyquin's safety, one of its metabolites, ethoxyquin quinone imine, is "possibly genotoxic," and the impurity p-phenetidine, produced during the manufacturing process, is suspected of being mutagenic, meaning it may damage your DNA.¹⁹ As noted in a 2013 review:²⁰

"Possible carcinogenicity of [ethoxyquin] is probably connected with its prooxidant activity and induction of reactive oxygen radicals which cause DNA damage. DNA damage is usually repaired by cellular repair system, but if it is severe or there are too many lesions, this leads to programmed cell death (apoptosis).

Sometimes, however, the programmed cell death pathway is damaged so when the defense mechanisms fail there is no way to stop a cell from becoming a cancer cell. Some in vitro studies showed both cytotoxic effects of [ethoxyquin] leading to cell apoptosis or necrosis and damage of genetic material at DNA or chromosome levels."

Farmed Salmon Is a Significant Source of Ethoxyquin

Due to its potential toxicity, the EU has strict limits for ethoxyquin levels in fruits, nuts, vegetables and meat. However, since it was never intended for use in fish, and fish feed manufacturers never informed health authorities that they were using it, there are no limits on how much of the chemical is allowed in seafood.

One 2010 study²¹ found that eating 300 grams of farmed salmon would contribute "at most" 15% of the acceptable daily intake (ADI) of ethoxyquin for an individual weighing 60 kilos (132 pounds), and 75% of the ADI for BHT — another toxic chemical antioxidant. However, other testing has revealed farmed fish can contain levels of ethoxyquin that are up to 20 times higher than the level allowed in fruits, vegetables and meats, so it can hardly be brushed off as insignificant.

There are also lingering questions about just how much of the chemical people are getting from fish when you add in the metabolites of ethoxyquin, as researchers have found the chemical transforms once inside the animal's body. As one would expect, NIFES insists the levels of ethoxyquin found in fish feed are safe for humans.²² However, considering the lack of research, what guarantees do we have that such claims are accurate?

NIFES also claims ethoxyquin is "required to be added to fish meal in order to prevent it from exploding during sea transport and storage," and inaccurately states that "Everything is toxic if it is consumed in sufficiently large amounts, which is to say that the amount of a given substance … determines whether or not it can damage our health."

This is not an accurate statement of fact, as researchers have shown that even minute amounts of certain toxins can be dangerous. In some cases there's no safe level above zero.

Studies²³ have also demonstrated that even tiny amounts of chemicals, when combined with others, can have significant effects. Even nontoxic chemicals can become carcinogenic at low doses when combined with other chemicals.

As noted in one 2015 study,²⁴ "Our analysis suggests that the cumulative effects of individual (noncarcinogenic) chemicals acting on different pathways, and a variety of related systems, organs, tissues and cells could plausibly conspire to produce carcinogenic synergies."

Norwegian Fishery Minister Has Financial Ties to Industry

According to Kurt Oddekalv, a Norwegian environmental activist who has brought a lot of attention to the harmful impacts of fish farming, one of the reasons research into the health effects of ethoxyquine is so hard to come by is because it was purposely stifled by the former Norwegian minister of fisheries and coastal affairs, Lisbeth Berg-Hansen,²⁵ a major shareholder in a commercial salmon farm and deputy chair of the board of the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research.

In 2009, the Norwegian environmental group Green Warriors of Norway filed charges against Berg-Hansen, claiming her financial conflicts of interest had led her to violate regulations she was supposed to enforce. A 2013 French documentary claimed she was single-handedly responsible for lowering the legal limits of toxins allowed in Norwegian fish. In the documentary, "Poisonous Fish: The Big Health Lie," Oddekalv also told the filmmakers:²⁶

"… [T]he research budget in the area of ethoxyquin was severely reduced … through pressure from the former Norwegian fishery minister [Berg-Hansen] … The minister herself created the current regulations for fishery. She had full control over the public health authority and everything that had to do with fish farming.

She exploited her power. She wanted fish to be sold at all costs, regardless of whether [it's] sick or not, so that the farmers don't lose any money. This never happened before in Norway. She's the pivotal point of this whole matter."

Ethoxyquin May Pose Greater Risks Than Imagined

A recent article in the Norwegian newspaper Morgenbladet,²⁷ also addresses the conflicts of interest that has kept ethoxyquin in the salmon industry and highlights Bohne's and others' findings:

"[Bohne] contacted a Polish researcher, Alina Blaszczyk of the University of Lodz, who had studied the effect of ethoxyquin on human cells. Attempt that the substance caused chromosomal aberrations, holes and fractures in chromosomes.

Blaszczyk believed the substance damaged the DNA in our lymphocytes — a subset of white blood cells. Today, she explains: 'We found that ethoxyquin was chemically toxic, destroyed chromosomes and DNA …'

… Professor Edmund Maser at the Department of Toxicology and Pharmacology at the University of Kiel … [commented on] the metabolite quinone imine [saying] … 'Quinone imine structures can bind to DNA and can create mutations. They can be carcinogenic.

There is no safe lower level. One molecule may be enough to start a tumor' … Blaszczyk … agrees: 'If a molecule reacts with DNA, it can cause mutations and lead to the development of cancer.'

Blaszczyk has studied how ethoxyquin affects cells and their genetic material. In a summary study, she and colleagues say that research suggests that ethoxyquin is 'guilty of a wide range of health-related problems in dogs as well as in humans.' Dog tests show symptoms in the liver, kidneys, and thyroid gland, dysfunctionality of reproductive capacity, maternal injuries, allergic reactions, skin and hair abnormalities.

Blaszczyk also refers to studies indicating that the metabolite ethoxyquin dimer (EQDM) in the salmon is chemophilic and recombinant in human lymphocytes. The implication of this is that ethoxyquin must be labeled well, consumers must take care not to get too much and that the drug needs to be regulated better than today.

Blaszczyk's studies are broadly cited in EFSA's report, but she writes [via] e-mail: 'They did not mention the most important of these studies. It was that ethoxyquin caused disentric chromosomes, and relocated atypical chromosomes. These deviations were not extensive, but they were serious.'"

When Boycotting Factory Farmed Food, Remember the Fish

Factory farming has not only become a source of tremendous pollution but it's also creating food that is unsafe for consumption in the long term. This includes fish farms, which are the CAFOs of the sea. So, when you shop for healthy food for your family, remember to look for wild-caught seafood and shun farmed varieties.

At present, more than half of all fish consumed in the U.S. is farmed, and it's only customer demand that allows this destructive industry to flourish — which it does at the expense of your health. As noted by Organic Consumers:²⁸

"The U.S. industrial agriculture and fishing industry is an out of control system based on cruel, filthy, disease-ridden and environmentally destructive animal prisons and fish pens; labor exploitation; false advertising; … corporate corruption of government; and the use of massive amounts of dangerous pesticides, chemical fertilizers, antibiotics, hormones and growth promoters …

The production of factory-farmed meat, dairy, poultry and fish is the No. 1 cause of water pollution, soil degradation, greenhouse gas emissions, and chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, reproductive defects, hormone disruption and obesity…

Factory-farmed salmon and fish not only threaten wild salmon and other marine species by spreading disease … but also by contaminating coastal waters and the ocean with the toxic chemicals and feed used on fish farms.

As Sea Shepherd Conservation Society says, via their Operation Virus Hunter campaign, 'You are not saving wild salmon by eating farmed salmon' … We are what we eat. This means, among other things, we need to be just as concerned about fish and seafood as we are about the other items on our plate.

So, ask your restaurant waiter if the vegetables are organic, and better yet local and organic, and put your money where your values lie. But don't forget to ask whether the meat, dairy or eggs are organic or grass-fed; or whether they are coming off the food service truck from factory farms.

And last but not least, don't forget to do the same thing for the items on the fish menu. The nation that destroys its soil, freshwater and oceans is the nation that will eventually destroy itself."

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Dr. Frank Shallenberger, author of “Bursting With Energy: The Breakthrough Method to Renew Youthful Energy and Restore Health,” has been a natural medicine physician for nearly five decades.

He’s a true pioneer in the field and, as most good natural medicine physicians, a perpetual student. He was actually the first to innovate the use of nebulized hydrogen peroxide, which has become my favorite intervention for upper respiratory infections, including SARS-CoV-2. Sadly, it's been widely disparaged, but those that have used it are typically really impressed by the results.

In this interview, we’ll review a number of strategies you can use to optimize your mitochondrial health and function. After graduating from medical school, Shallenberger first went into trauma medicine. After about seven years, he transitioned into being a general practitioner and internist. Within months, however, he realized that nobody was getting well. In fact, many were getting sicker from the drugs he prescribed.

As it happened, Linus Pauling had a once-a-month study group in the area, which Shallenberger was able to join. He quickly realized there are far better ways to treat disease.

The Importance of Mitochondrial Optimization

One of the things Shallenberger has pioneered is bio energy testing that measures mitochondrial function. As you age, your mitochondrial function typically decreases, and this is a hallmark of both the aging process itself as well as most chronic disease.

He decided he wanted a way to test mitochondrial status, and by 2004 he had developed a system that evaluates how much oxygen you consume and, in real time, how much carbon dioxide (CO2) you produce. This can give you a quantitative measure of how well your mitochondria are working.

What he found was that even asymptomatic people in their 30s were having significantly decreased mitochondrial function. He calls this “early onset mitochondrial dysfunction,” and it’s indicative of future health problems, even if everything seems good and well right now.

“The conventional thinking has always been that our mitochondria lose their efficiency as a result of the aging process. But I started questioning that, and wondered if our mitochondria in fact lose their efficiency even before any signs of aging. And, the amazing thing I discovered was that mitochondrial efficiency can decrease significantly even in our 30s and 40s, long before any of the effects of aging.

I believe that this early decline is the primary factor that accelerates the aging process and makes us more vulnerable to the diseases of aging. And this is exactly what I have observed over the years. People with optimal mitochondrial function, no matter how old they are, rarely develop any of the diseases associated with aging, and routinely maintain full function even into their 90s.”

B Vitamins Needed for Optimal Mitochondrial Function

So, what are some of the most effective interventions Shallenberger has found for optimizing mitochondrial function? After a lot of testing and experimenting, the only two substances found to really move the needle were B vitamins and ozone treatment. He explains:

“B vitamins are absolutely critical for mitochondrial function — especially niacin, riboflavin and folate. Orally speaking, with niacin, I typically start them at 100 to 200 milligrams a day [but] you can go up to 2,000 mg easy on some patients. I use a B complex because I like to balance it out, but I'm focusing primarily on niacin, folate and riboflavin.”

Typically, when a deficiency of B vitamins is the cause of decreased mitochondrial function, I will see improved readings within two to three weeks, although the level of improvement can vary tremendously from one person to the next. An important caveat here is that mitochondria are vulnerable to any number of assaults, including emotional stress.

“I have literally seen patients have great mitochondrial function, be under stress for two months, and have their mitochondria wiped out just from emotional stress,” he says. “I haven't done the studies, but I'm pretty sure that if you get under a lot of emotional stress, I bet your mitochondria suffer a measurable hit within 48 hours.”

Ozone Therapy

The other intervention Shallenberger found for mitochondria optimization is ozone therapy. He explains:

“First of all, people should understand what ozone is. When we talk about ozone and medicine, we're not talking about ozone in the atmosphere. We're talking about a very pure molecule, it's pure oxygen, period. There's nothing else in there. Regular oxygen that we breathe is what we call O2, that's two oxygen atoms combined together.

Ozone is basically three oxygen atoms combined together. What makes that molecule so unique is that it is very electron deficient. It needs electrons big time. So as soon as you put that into the human body, or into any tissue, it's going to start grabbing electrons. And as it grabs the electrons, it's going to form molecules called peroxides [a reactive oxygen species, ROS].

So, after ozone treatment, you're loaded with peroxides, and these peroxides can stay in the body for a good seven, maybe as much as 14 days. These peroxides are what mediate the various physiological and biochemical effects of ozone. They're also, by the way, molecules that are electron deficient ...

Ozone is a hormetic molecule, it has a hormetic clinical effect. This means that at low doses, it does one thing, and as you increase the dose high enough, it starts doing the exact opposite. So, deciding on the dose for ozone is pretty critical.

To stimulate mitochondrial function, I use relatively small doses, in the order of 10, maybe 12 mg ... I get ozone treatments myself every week, just because I can. And it would be super good if everybody could do that.”

It is important that the ozone used intravenously be free of contaminants, so you need to use a machine that converts pure medical grade oxygen to generate pure ozone.

Ozone generators that convert air from an oxygen concentrator are only good for certain topical applications, not for intravenous injection. Also, while the peroxides are ROS, in this case, that’s what you want. You do not want to try to counteract the oxidative stress with antioxidants before the treatment, and here’s why:

“The reason is because I want these peroxides. When the ozone goes into the tissue, I want it to be interacting with lipids and maybe amino acids. I don't want it to interact with ascorbate, because then I'll get dehydroascorbate. That's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for peroxides.

The basic thinking with ozone therapy is, you really never want to give any kind of substance that's going to donate electrons, like vitamin C or glutathioneprior to the treatment, if you want to maximize peroxide production. Now, after the treatment, yeah. You want to do it after, but you got to have that sequence correct.”

Lifestyle Strategies to Improve Mitochondrial Function

Certain lifestyle strategies will also improve mitochondrial function, the top two being interval exercise and a ketogenic diet (high in healthy fats and low in refined carbs, provided that’s optimal for you. For additional details, see section below). Lowering your stress and detoxing heavy metals are two others. With regard to exercise, Shallenberger says:

“Resistance training is really important, especially for the over 60 crowd. For lean body mass-types of reasons, for resting metabolic reasons, it's very important. But it doesn't do what classic aerobic interval training does ...

For normal people, not athletes, to maintain good mitochondrial function, what you need is two 30-second intervals [where you go all-out, max exertion], followed by about four or five minutes of rest between the two, done three times a week. That’s hardly anything ... [but] it’s every bit as good as any of the harder exercise routines.”

The Case for Bioidentical Hormones

Your thyroid may also need to be addressed if your mitochondrial function is impaired. The key here is using bioidentical hormones, which unfortunately is getting more difficult to get a hold of. Bioidentical thyroid hormones are basically made from desiccated animal thyroid and therefore contain all four of the natural thyroid hormones: T1, T2, T3 and T4.

Conventional doctors typically use Synthroid or Levo-Thyroid, which only contains synthetic T4. Ideally, you want all four of them, but at bare minimum, you want T3 and T4.

“Thyroid is critical for a number of reasons,” Shallenberger says. “First of all, probably 80% of people over the age of 50 have suboptimal thyroid function. It’s such a common problem ... When I first got my equipment, I started measuring resting metabolic rates. Resting metabolic rate is how much energy your cells are producing when you're actually not doing anything.

You're sitting very quietly in a chair. In other words, no exertion. How much energy do you need for no exertion? It turns out the resting metabolic rate is almost entirely determined by thyroid hormone. Thyroid hormone also activates something called uncoupling protein 3 (UCP3), which is an uncoupling receptor on the mitochondria, which stop mitochondria from self destructing.

The thyroid prevents self-destruction of mitochondria. Thyroid also stimulates mitochondrial biogenesis, and stimulates mitochondrial division, so that when the cells divide, you get representative DARs cells with the same number of mitochondria. Also, through UCP3, that's where a lot of fatty acids come in. Thyroid is very important for fatty acid metabolism of mitochondria.

So, [thyroid] hits mitochondria in about four or five different ways. It's absolutely critical for mitochondrial function. A lot of the times that's the big problem. Somebody comes in, their resting metabolic rate's low, the mitochondrial function's low. I give them enough thyroid to bring the resting metabolic rate up to what would be considered close to optimal, and bang, the mitochondrial function goes right up with it.”

Thyroid Tests Are Unreliable for Diagnosis

Unfortunately, many of the thyroid blood tests aren’t particularly good. TSH is particularly useless, according to Shallenberger. He’s convinced that measuring resting metabolic rate and increasing the dose of bioidentical thyroid hormone until you’re at an optimal or near-optimal metabolic resting rate is a far better way to gauge how much thyroid medication you need. For general reference, the most commonly used dose is between 1 grain (60 mg) and 1.5 grains (90 mg).

“I had lots of these cases. They'll tell me, ‘I feel really good. Everything's wonderful. Thank you so much.’ Then they come back maybe a year later and they say, ‘I'm miserable ... I saw my doctor, he did the thyroid test and said ‘Oh, you're being way overdosed.’ So, he reduced the dose and the test is looking good now, but I feel like crap again.’

The doctor says, that's OK, ‘because your tests are looking good.’ So, that's how good these tests are. They're totally useless. The patient comes back to me, I put them back on the thyroid and that's the end of that story. I'll use T4 and T3 to monitor what I'm doing. But the TSH is absolutely useless. And they're all useless for diagnostic purposes.”

The Importance of Being Metabolically Flexible

About 90% of the population are metabolically inflexible, and that will have a tremendous impact on their mitochondrial function. Most eat far too many refined carbs and have an impaired ability to use fat as their primary fuel. To address that, you typically need to significantly reduce your carb intake and increase healthy fats.

This is not a 100% absolute certainty, however. The mitochondrial machinery in some people is preferentially adapted to carbs and they won’t do well on a high-fat, low-carb diet. The good news is you can actually measure how well your mitochondria are working on a specific diet, using Shallenberger’s test. This way, you can really get a clear idea of what your personalized ideal diet is. Shallenberger explains:

“Mitochondria have the ability to generate energy by either burning glucose or fatty acids. If they're purely burning glucose, they produce twice as much CO2 than if they're purely burning fat.

If I look at the ratio between oxygen consumed and carbon dioxide produced, since it's a linear equation, I can tell them exactly how much energy they're generating from glucose and how much energy they're generating from fatty acids. We have that capability, just from looking at these numbers, to determine that ...

Now, carbohydrates in certain people suppress fatty acid metabolism. There's a subset of the population that, when they eat carbs, it's mitochondrial suppressive. The rationale is that since we're all different, there are going to be a subset of people whose mitochondria prefer to get their protons from glucose.

There's going to be another subset of people whose mitochondria prefer to get their protons from fatty acid. They're just more efficient that way. So, you have these two extremes. The rest of us fit on some continuum between those two extremes.”

Nebulized Hydrogen Peroxide

As mentioned, Shallenberger was way ahead of everyone else with the use of nebulized hydrogen peroxide. Anytime you inhale something, it enters your bloodstream. Shallenberger had been using intravenous hydrogen peroxide for about 20 years when he suddenly had the idea to inhale it.

Respiratory viruses, of course, tend to hang out in the sinuses, respiratory tract and lungs. Hydrogen peroxide, meanwhile is known to kill most known viruses on contact. “It's pretty simple, but it's unbelievably effective,” he says. All you need is:

• A plug-in jet nebulizer
• 3% food grade hydrogen peroxide (food grade does not contain chemical stabilizers)
• Saline
• Optional: 1 to 2 drops Lugol’s iodine

Simply dilute the peroxide by mixing 7 teaspoons saline with one-fourth teaspoon of peroxide. This gives you a 0.1% solution, which is perfectly safe to inhale. If you like, you can add one drop of Lugol’s iodine into the cup along with the solution.

Heavy Metal Detox

Heavy metal toxicity is another problem that can take a toll on your mitochondria. To address heavy metals, Shallenberger typically uses a combination of colonics, saunas and chelation therapy. Like me, he’s a big fan of saunas. While most use far-infrared saunas, I prefer near-infrared saunas, for several reasons.

For starters, near-infrared penetrates much deeper into your tissues, releasing toxins. Importantly, 95% of melatonin is also produced in your mitochondria in response to near-infrared light. Melatonin is a very powerful antioxidant that helps mop up ROS in the mitochondria. Melatonin also helps increase glutathione, which is a major detoxification agent. For tips on how to create an EMF-free sauna, listen to our interview, as we go into more details than what I’ve summarized here.

TH1 Versus TH2 Immunity

In closing, we touch on immune function. Your immune system is divided into two “arms” or branches, the innate immune system (TH1) and the humoral immune system (TH2). If your innate immune system is not working well, you’re more prone to infection and illness. Unfortunately, vaccines of all kinds suppress TH1, pushing you toward a TH2 dominance.

“In 1994, there was a study published, looking at homosexual men. It had to do with AIDS and all these men were HIV positive, but only a portion of them had AIDS. They found that of the ones who had AIDS, 100% of them were all in TH2 dominance. Of the ones that didn't have AIDS, only 30% were in TH2 dominance.

They were in TH1 dominance ... I looked at that study and I thought, ‘Wow, you’re telling me that 30% of men in the control group were already in TH2 dominance? That's pretty pathetic. This basically means their innate immune system is more or less shut down, and they're in a TH2 humoral system imbalance.

I thought, they’ve ruined the TH1, because what happens is that the TH2 system produces cytokines that suppress TH1. TH1 produces cytokines that suppress TH2. So, it's sort of like one aspect of the immune system is saying, ‘I got this, we don't need you anymore.’

So, we've got a number of our population of so-called healthy people that are in a TH2 dominance. In the ‘80s, it was a big thing to test for antibodies. Everybody was testing for antibodies. The conclusion we came to is that if you have a lot of antibodies, that means you're super-duper infected versus somebody who doesn't have a lot of these antibodies.

Turns out that's just not the case ... The problem is not that these antibodies are being caused by super infection-type situations. The problem is they're in TH2 dominance and that's what they do. They live off antibodies.

Maybe as much as one-third of the population is already in TH2 dominance. Why is that? ... What are we doing that's making all these antibodies? Hello, vaccines. But what's the definition of a good vaccine? It's one that makes an antibody. Every time you get a vaccine, you're automatically suppressing your innate immunity.

Statistical data came out a couple years ago, comparing the death rate from COVID in countries where the population was highly vaccinated for the flu in 2019 as opposed to countries with a low flu vaccine rate. And the death rate was something like 400% greater in the countries where most of the people had the 2019 influenza vaccines.

That stands to reason, because they suppressed their innate immunity. That was one thing that got to me. You know, vaccines aren't really helping this game here. The other thing that got to me is that we know ozone stimulates gamma interferon and IL2, which are TH1 stimulants that act to suppress TH2.

So, my conclusion, finally, was that when you add it all up, why does ozone work for every viral infection you can get? ... It has to do with the fact that I'm taking them out of a TH2 dominance putting them in a TH1 dominance.”

More Information

To learn more, you can pick up a copy of “Bursting With Energy: The Breakthrough Method to Renew Youthful Energy and Restore Health,” which is loaded with good advice.

If you’re interested in getting bio energy testing to measure your mitochondrial function, check out Shallenberger’s website, www.antiagingmedicine.com. Aside from Shallenberger’s clinic in Nevada, there are also testing centers¹ in a dozen other states, and several other countries.

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It's our annual Regenerative Agriculture Week again, and to give you an update, I interviewed Ronnie Cummins, co-founder and international director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA). OCA is one of the nonprofits we donate a portion of our revenues to each year.

While giving out information is important, we also want to make sure we can pave the way to make it easier for you to actually implement healthy changes such as switching to an organic diet. That's hard to do unless organic foods are readily available, and OCA is wholly dedicated to that mission.

About the OCA

The OCA is actually a family of organizations that include Regeneration International, which has a research farm in Mexico. It's staffed by about 50 people, mainly agronomists and farm workers. They also have a research farm in Minnesota that operates primarily during growing season. In the winter, they grow foods in a specially designed solar powered greenhouse.

"There is a way to grow green vegetables year-round, but we have to stop prioritizing GMO soybeans and corn in the Midwest and start prioritizing food for real people if we're going to do that," Cummins says.

"In Mexico, it's a totally different situation. We're in a semi-desert area near San Miguel de Allende. Our research on regenerative and organic food here is focused on how you can grow a bunch of food and basically restore the environment when you don't have wells and you don't have rainfall eight months a year.

We only get rain three or four months a year, so it's necessary to use all these permaculture type practices. In a good year, we get 20 inches [of rainfall].

So, we have ponds where we catch millions of liters of water from the mountains. We have cisterns below all the buildings. We catch the water on the roofs and put it into the cisterns. We have composting toilets, recycled shower water, and we try to grow crops and trees that are adapted to low moisture."

The 75-acre farm needs to collect and store about 12 million liters or 3 million gallons of water during the rainy season, which then has to last the rest of the year.

Crops that work well in this semi-desert and have low water requirements include native desert plants and trees like agave and mesquite. Growing these has allowed the farm to re-green the desert landscape and produce fermented animal feed that's both inexpensive and healthy.

Air Layering Project to Begin

The regenerative farm in Mexico is now gearing up for a new reforestation project. By taking a limb from a healthy mesquite tree, adding some natural hormones and wrapping the branch with a bag filled with compost, you will, after three to four months, have a small tree ready for planting as new roots grow into the compost-filled bag. At that point, you can either plant it into a container, or directly into the soil. This process is known as "air layering."

"Our 1-year-old mesquite trees are as big as a 7-year-old mesquite tree from a seed," Cummins says. "It's a method that we're really excited about. People in the Southwestern U.S., Texas and the Southwest, are very familiar with mesquite because there's so many of them.

Texas, I believe, has 55 million acres of mesquite. The bean pods on the trees are highly nutritious. You can make flour and bake with it. Animals also love the pods as an animal feed."

The roots of the mesquite tree can burrow hundreds of feet down in search of water, and they in turn provide nutrition for other plants. As explained by Cummins, they exchange liquid carbon from the tree for the nutrients from the soil.

"The combination of the native agaves and these types of nitrogen fixing trees is the real key to restoring the environment," Cummins says. "Originally, 400 years ago, this was a savanna. It had oak trees. It had lots of mesquite trees. It had a different climate.

The timber was valuable, though. The Spaniards basically deforested much of Mexico over the years, because they needed charcoal for the silver mines. In Europe, they loved the mesquite trees and the oak trees for building purposes — building ships, houses and so on. Once they deforested large swaths of Mexico ... it changed the climate.

Now, the native trees need human intervention to reforest. But if you can come up with a system, which we have, that rewards the small farmer or the rancher right away — in this case because they get low-cost animal feed that's much cheaper than alfalfa or corn silage — you can get people to start adopting this [strategy].

We've planted about 350,000 agave seedlings in the last two years, and we're seeing the popularity of this system now starting to spread. We're actually getting inquiries from all over the world now, including ranchers in Texas who would like to improve their pastures and their ecosystems in general."

Creating a Win-Win Situation

When you hear "agave," chances are your mind goes straight to tequila. As explained by Cummins, the state of Jalisco grows 500 million blue agave plants for the tequila industry. The problem is, they're being grown as a monoculture. All preexisting vegetation is cut down to make room for the agave. They also use chemical fertilizers, typically RoundUp. Together, it degrades the landscape rather than improves it.

What OCA and Regenerative International are doing is organic, regenerative and biodynamic. It preserves biodiversity and makes use of the natural potential of the plants. The big breakthrough came when a local farmer figured out that the leaves of the agave plant, which are huge biomass, can be fermented and turned into nutritious animal feed.

A single agave leaf can weigh 40 to 80 pounds, and these leaves were always discarded. "For thousands of years they were considered junk," Cummins says. What they found was that you can place finely chopped leaves in a closed container and ferment them.

To that, you can also add mesquite pods. Cummins has been using a mix of 80% to 90% agave leaf and 10% to 20% mesquite pods. This mix is superior to alfalfa in terms of nutrition, but costs only a third or a quarter of the price.

Cows, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens and even sheepdogs, enjoy it. A big part of the cost-savings is from the reduced water consumption. Alfalfa needs about 26 times more water than agave and mesquite. Most of the animals on the farm eat the natural vegetation and get the agave mash as a supplement. However, by adding garbanzo beans — another low-water crop — you could produce a feed that the animals could live on exclusively.

"We think it's a good idea to graze the animals," Cummins says, "even in the dry season when there's not much vegetation. But we graze them a lot less than has become the custom over the last 100 years.

Sixty percent of Mexico, like the Southwestern U.S., is semi-desert arid, and it's been over-grazed. So, we need to get back to a regenerative grazing situation where you partly rest the land, you're reforesting it and using contours to help retain the rainwater.

Forty percent of the world is arid or semi-arid, and is in danger of reverting to outright desert where nothing will grow. But we can reverse this process using native plants and organic and permaculture techniques that modern organic farmers have developed over the last 50 to 100 years.

Alfalfa is a great perennial if you have plenty of water and you're not draining the aquifer. But that's not the way it's being done. In Southern California, the giant dairy farms, the giant feed lots that are feeding alfalfa to the animals across the Southwest, these areas do not have the water availability to be doing this. We've got to stop that and start looking at the long-term water resources we have."

Bringing the Rain

The amazing thing about reforestation is that it can actually change the climate and improve rainfall. Regenerative ranchers in Northern Mexico, in the Chihuahuan Desert, who have added 1 million acres of rotational grazing, report getting 15% to 20% more rainfall than their neighbors who haven't regenerated their land.

"You can literally bring back rain to a level that was traditionally there, if you regenerate the landscape," Cummins says. "You do this not just with human ingenuity and stewardship, but the animals are totally necessary to speed up this process. We need animals grazing in areas, even the semi-arid arid areas, but we don't want them to over-graze ...

We need to use their natural behavior in conjunction with what we're doing to restore the environment. And we can do that."

New Market Opportunities

Cummins laid out a plan for transforming the U.S. through regenerative practices in his 2020 book, "Grassroots Rising." In the U.S., market demand is one of the primary factors driving regenerative farming and ranching. There is a bigger demand for grass fed meat and animal products now than there was 10 years ago, but it's not growing fast enough.

Feed lots and factory farming still dominate, in part because that's what our government subsidizes. Changing the farming subsidies to prioritize regenerative farming would go a long way to changing the status quo. Encouraging private investors to put their money where their mouth is, is another possibility.

"I'm pretty excited about this. There's a new type of asset being developed on the stock exchange. The rules are being written up by the Securities and Exchange Commission. These are called Natural Asset Stocks, or Natural Asset Corporations.

This is a type of stock different from anything we've seen up until now. The government of Costa Rica, for example, is putting all the lands that the government owns, the forests and the farmlands, into a Natural Asset Corporation.

So, if you're a manager of a pension fund, or an investor, or a corporation, you can invest in one of these natural assets. You don't own the land, you're not having a lien on any of the income that comes from this land. What you own are the ecosystem services that the land provides.

For example, you've got this system of agave and mesquite trees. We are incorporating now to where someone can own the environmental services. In other words, the amount of water that we're saving, the amount of carbon that we're sequestering, the amount of methane that our animals are releasing — they're releasing less when they eat this fermented silage.

Instead of going to a corporation or a foundation and looking for a donation, what you do is you say, 'Would you like to invest in a natural asset?' And then over time, as the forest matures, as the system matures, as you regenerate the soil, your asset is worth more money. If you choose to sell that asset, you can actually make money off of it.

This is very appealing to Wall Street at this point. They're really worried about their reputation, as they should be, but they also are not going to change overnight what they're doing. But this is a way that they can pull some of their assets out of financial assets and put them into ecosystem assets, and still get a return on their money.

But this is like organic certification. You can't just say that you're doing a benefit to the environment and then get people to invest in this benefit. You have to be able to prove it. We've developed a system of verification that is quite accurate scientifically. It involves measuring things like the numbers of plants, the size of the plants. You do soil analysis and so on, the traditional things you would look at.

But then with modern technology, it's possible to fly a drone over the area and take photographs. And then you compare your measurements on the ground with what the drone is seeing through their multiple cameras.

And then you develop an algorithm and progressions to where you can then fly the drone over another area that you haven't measured on the ground, and you get the readings on how much carbon biomass is in the environment. You get a reading on other ecosystem services."

Reasons To Be Hopeful

They're also using a blockchain accounting system to verify the calculations and make it very difficult to cheat. So, anyone who invests in a natural asset will be able to verify, several years down the road, at a very low cost, whether the asset has improved or degenerated.

"When people ask, 'Are you really greening the desert?' 'Are you really restoring the environment?' 'Are you conserving water?' 'Are you producing important food for animals and humans?' you'll be able to prove it one package.

There's $125 trillion out there invested in financial assets. Most of this is degenerating the planet. But there's $125 trillion-worth of natural assets that are not valued right now. We believe that approximately 1% of the financiers and the corporate money managers and pension managers right now are quite concerned about the environment, the same way we are, and are ready to start moving a portion of their assets.

We only need to move 1% in the next decade to get the ball rolling. The benefits of regenerative food and farming are far beyond even just the ecosystem benefits. As we've seen during the pandemic, sales of organic food have grown substantially.

Sales of dietary supplements have grown substantially. A lot of people have learned the joys of cooking at home again, instead of going out to restaurants. We've got a potential market demand. We just need to get the ball rolling."

The Regenerative Network

Regenerative International, incorporated in 2014, has since built a global network of regenerative farmers and ranchers, with some 400 affiliates in 60 countries. You can find a map of these regenerative farms on RegenerationInternational.org.

Much of the energy over the past seven years has been spent on educating the world about the importance of regenerative farming practices, including its ability to improve climate, preserve water and improve nutrition. Today, most people have at least heard about regenerative farming.

The primary focus now is to seek out the best practices and make sure they're shared, publicized and duplicated. The fermented agave idea, for example, came from a local farmer who visited the Regeneration International farm in Mexico. He asked if they'd heard of fermenting the leaves for animal feed. He'd been doing it for 12 years, yet no one had ever heard of this strategy.

As it turns out, it's a fantastic solution that solves several problems at once. There may be other solutions out there that people just don't know about, and Regeneration International aims to find them and share them, worldwide.

My New Line of Certified Biodynamic Products

My team and I are even creating access to biodynamic practices and better food sources through Solspring®, an authentic food brand that offers Demeter Certified Biodynamic® and organic ingredients from across the globe.

Not only are we making it easier for the average person to shop, cook and consume biodynamic products they can trust, we're also supporting farmers worldwide by offering a premium price for their harvests. From the U.S. to India, we strongly support their transition to biodynamic practices, and building healthier, more diverse farmlands.

OCA Is Paving the Way

Since its inception in 1998, OCA has worked to educate people about organic, biodynamic, regenerative food. Cummins spent a couple of decades fighting for the organic industry before that as well. They've also educated the public to realize that farming does have a big impact on the environment.

"If you care about clean water, for example, you better care about regenerative agriculture," he says. "If you care about animals, you better care about how factory farming is an abomination, and so on. We've created, I believe, the potential market demand.

We simply have to have the products available, and we have to stop governments from subsidizing degenerate food and farming. The market has the potential to correct a lot of the problems out there, if we work together to do that."

Today's your chance to help us achieve that mission. Every dollar you donate, I will match during this fundraiser. As explained by Cummins, all funds raised are used to further the mission of OCA and Regenerative International.

>>>>> Donate Now <<<<<

"Most groups in the world that care about regenerative food and farming are strapped for cash. For example, we have 50 people at this research farm in Mexico. Most of them are graduate students from agronomy schools. We provide housing. We pay them a wage. It costs money to do this, and it costs money to pay for the school buses that come with kids on them, and the small farmers who come in to see what we're doing.

OCA has always tried to be an international organization, so part of the money we raise goes to our international staff. We have one staff person in Africa. We've got one in Southern France, one in Australia, one in Argentina. This is what we use our money for.

I spend half my time exposing the bad stuff ... and the other half on positive solutions. You get frustrated after 50 years in the organic movement of asking the government to please stop allowing cheating of standards. Lo and behold, we're getting to the point where we're going to be able to measure a lot of these things scientifically, and verify them. If USDA organic seal isn't enough, we'll have another seal that you can get behind.

In this day and age, you can know where each piece of meat came from, each fish, each vegetable. That's what we're going to have to move to. We need organic standards that are truthful. We have unfinished business in the U.S. because the government's special interests have blocked mandatory labeling of GMOs.

They're not requiring labels on nanotechnology. They're lying about pesticide residues, and so on. We have to keep fighting the battle for truthful labeling and transparency, [and] thank goodness, we're at a point where we're going to be able to have a better method, not only of farming, but of proving that [organic, regenerative methods] are being employed."

So, please consider making a donation to the OCA today! I'll match all donations, dollar for dollar during this weeklong fundraiser.

>>>>> Donate Now <<<<<

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