Alternative COPD and Emphysema Research

When I began researching optimal health it was primarily due to my mother's diagnosis with emphysema and COPD. COPD is an acronym that stands for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and is a family of diseases that includes emphysema, chronic bronchitis, bronchiectasis and more recently, asthma. My research spanned from 2003 at the time of her diagnosis until late in 2007. My findings resulted in my mother's complete recovery from End Stage, or Stage IV Emphysema.

December 2008
After complete recovery from emphysema and COPD.

She had deteriorated down to weighing only 77 pounds and requiring 4 liters of continuous supplemental oxygen. Her meal size had decreased down to about a cup of food at each meal. If I urged her to eat more she would tell me that if she did she could not breathe.

September 2007
Early stages of recovery from emphysema and COPD.

Alternative COPD Treatments

What I found was very little in the way of alternative COPD treatments. I found Dr. Robert J. Green Jr., a Naturopath and author of, "Natural Therapies for Emphysema and COPD." Dr. Green had managed to keep his father alive for more than 16 years after he was diagnosed with emphysema and COPD.

I incorporated some of Dr. Green's therapies for my mother but what I was really looking for was someone who had figured out why emphysema and the other COPD diseases were progressing so long after smoking cessation. I quickly realized that quitting smoking did not stop emphysema and COPD from progressing. I remembered working with a gentleman that had been diagnosed with emphysema even though he had quit smoking more than 28 years earlier. Right now in 2014 Leonard Nimoy is suffering with COPD after he quit smoking 29 years ago.

"Why was this disease progressing at all if the cause of the disease, smoking, had been eliminated?"

No one seemed to have an answer for this question. One of my mother's doctors told me that, "It might be the alpha-1 antitripsyn deficiency." I reminded him that she had smoked cigarettes for almost 40 years so I was not buying that this was the result of a genetic disorder. I wanted to know why her emphysema and COPD were progressing 2 and a half years after she had quit smoking and no one had any answers!

COPD Research Reveals Answers

I noticed that none of the alternative research on COPD provided any ideas on why the disease progression continued long after smoking cessation. I observed my mother daily watching as her supplemental oxygen requirement increased while her food intake decreased. I watched her sleep diminish down to about an hour at a time before she would wake up in the middle of an exacerbation and was gasping for air. It was very difficult watching someone I loved so much suffer so intensely.

Hypothesis Explains the Cause of the Progression of COPD

After thousands of hours of research and observation I developed a hypothesis which I believe explains the cause of the progression of COPD. My hypothesis is,

"Smoking introduces a pathogen into the lungs that begins proliferating and will continue even if the patient quits smoking."

I remembered from a graduate level course in Pathology that all pathogens eat sugar so eliminating systemic sugar was paramount in killing any pathogen regardless of which one was causing the problem. I also remembered that pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and cancer, all have a protective protein covering. I also remembered after reading "Alkalize or Die" that no disease can exist in an alkaline environment.

I immediately began studying the findings of researchers having success with treating other diseases as if they were a pathogenic infection. I found cancer researchers who were starving cancer cells with a restrictive diet which eliminated systemic sugar. I found a practicing MD who had developed a cure for allergies and asthma that most of his collegues did not know existed. I found researchers who provided complete methodologies for restoring the immune system after it has been compromised by antibiotics and a poor diet. I found researchers who knew exactly how to tear away the protective protein covering on pathogenic cells. I found researchers who were amplifying the immune response and killing pathogens in the process. All in all, I compiled more than 30,000 pages of information.

Applying Alternative Emphysema and COPD Treatments

Where it made sense to do so, I began systematically applying these treatments to my mother's COPD and emphysema daily treatment regimen, having already determined that the progression of the disease must be due to a pathogen growing and proliferating in her lungs that was there as a result of 40 years of smoking.

The amazing part was that as soon as I began applying these alternative treatments my mother began showing subtle improvements! Even though they were small improvements they were significant because they were the first improvements she had shown since her diagnosis and they were permanent improvements which we were able to build upon daily until her complete recovery.

For additional information on these alternative treatments, which have now been used by more than 8500 people in 39 countries to beat this disease, visit the COPD page or visit our sister site: Emphysema Treatments.

Developing Optimal Health Protocols

My research led me to many researchers whose findings had been obscured by the pharmaceutically financed and controlled news media. I noticed that the research studies being done on supplements were not the multimillion dollar, double blind studies like the ones conducted by the pharmaceutical companies. The profit margins were not nearly high enough for them to warrant these types of studies on supplements besides, the quality supplements are extracts from food. They are not synthetically manufactured in a lab like medications.

Widepsread Deficiencies in Our Diets

I soon realized that most of us were deficient in vitamins and minerals. We were not getting the right amount of healthy fats or a reasonable variety of phytonutrients. Most of us are dehydrated because we don't drink enough water and most of us don't get enough sleep resulting in the use of various stimulants for waking up and getting started in the morning. For the most part, I found a mix of confusing and contradictory information regarding most of these deficiencies.

Daily Water Intake for Optimal Health

One of the areas I found lots of confusion was on the amount of water we need each day for optimal health. Most healthcare profesionals say 8 to 10 glasses per day and leave it at that. Do you really think an 80 pound woman needs the same amount of water that a 300 pound woman needs? Of course not however, since there is no money in researching water intake we end up with an erroneous number that only a fraction of the population follows.

Research reveals that the right amount of water is dependent on body weight. The most accurate estimates for the right amount of daily water intake that I found started with your body weight in pounds multiplied by 0.66. Pounds (weight) are then changed to ounces (fluid).

Here is an example using a 100 pound person.

(100 lbs)(0.66) = 66 lbs ounces

This shows that a 100 pound person would need 66 ounces of daily water intake for achieving and maintaining optimal health.

"Are you getting enough water in your diet each day?"

Water Quality

Always be cogniscent of the water quality. Tap water is generally the worst water available. You can have your water tested but make sure you do not get it tested by someone selling a water purification system. They have a vested interest in showing you how bad your water is. I generally drink alkaline water. It has a pH of 9.3+. (Remember, pH is the negative log of the hydronium ion concentration. pH=7 is neutral, below 7 is acidic and above 7 is basic or alkaline.)

When Shoud Vitamins and Minerals Be Taken

Many people are confused as to when vitamins and minerals should be taken. When we eat a meal, vitamins and minerals act as catalysts which allow biochemical reactions to occur that otherwise would not occur or would not occur to the same degree. The end result is taking your vitamins and minerals with your meals which allows them to perform their most important function and allow you to extract more nutrition from your food.

Quality of Vitamins and Minerals is Paramount

You may have noticed the price of vitamin and mineral tablets in health food stores is much higher than the vitamin and mineral tablets at the local drug store or your local "Large Mart" department store. The difference in price is primarily due to the quality of the supplement not the quantity the store purchases. The vitamins and minerals generally found in health food stores are extracted from food and the ones at the local drug stores and department stores are made in a lab. Do you think your body knows the difference? You better believe it does!

What Does "L" and "D" Mean When on a Supplement Label

You may have noticed the "L" or "D" before a supplement name and wondered what this stands for or what significance it holds. Let me provide a simple explanation.

Stereo Chemistry is a section covered in the 300 level college Organic Chemistry class. It refers to two different isomers of the same coumpound, the "L" isomer and the "D" isomer. It was noticed that when one isomer was placed in a 1 decimeter tube and a plane of polarized light was passed through it, the "L" isomer would rotate the plane of polarized light to the left in a "levorotatory" direction and the "D" isomer would rotate the plane of polarized light to the right in a "dextrorotatory" direction.

These two isomers are identical in chemical makeup however, the atoms are arranged in such a way that they are structurally mirror images of each other much like your hands.

The real important part of this is that generally speaking, one of these isomers is made in nature and the other is made in a lab. The chemist cannot make the one made by nature and here again, your body knows the difference. In general, the "L" isomer is the one from nature and you will see it commonly on amino acids such as L-arginine, L-carnitine, etc. and the "D" isomer is made in a lab. This is not always the case.