Chapter 21 The Alzheimer’s Connection Let’s return to where we started from in all of this, and that’s the Alzheimer’s disease rates in Atlantic Canada.
Once again, and for what it’s worth, I actually have absolutely zero doubt this theory accounts for the root cause of Alzheimer’s, too. I know that’s a pretty crazy statement to come from an older engineer/geologist who was just trying to resolve a skin rash. And, yes, I do know that medical science has officially ruled out vitamins (including A) as the cause of Alzheimer’s disease. So why do I make such an absurd-sounding claim? 1. The data supports it; there are very significant correlations with the world geographic and demographic data, very similar to those of Crohn’s and eczema.
2. The significant east to the west gradient in Canadian rates also means this is an environmentally induced disease.
3. Mental dullness and confusion are well-documented symptoms of vitamin A toxicity. So are memory loss, mental dullness, and confusion with lupus and a lot of other autoimmune diseases.
4. People with Alzheimer’s have something like a 40 percent higher rate of osteoporosis. There’s clinical proof that elevated levels of vitamin A cause osteoporosis.
5. There’s clinical proof that vitamin A in the form of retinoic acid will burn holes in tissue.
6. Once you get to an elevated vitamin A toxicity state, it is nearly impossible to randomly stumble upon a diet to get you out of it.
7. The inflammation on my brain resolved with my vitamin A elimination diet.
8. My cognitive function improved with my vitamin A elimination diet.
The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 266 9. There are studies showing a very strong correlation between cataracts and Alzheimer’s and when combined with Recent findings on retinal degeneration in Alzheimer’s90 means this is not a disease that originates within the brain.
10. People with Alzheimer’s commonly report having eczema.
11. Others are also major connecting Alzheimer’s with autoimmune diseases.
Next, let’s consider the following list of symptoms: ? Depression ? Psychosis (seeing or hearing things that are not real) ? Start to feel sad or have crying spells ? Lose interest in activities you once enjoyed ? Sleep too much or have trouble sleeping ? Become more irritable, angry, or aggressive than usual (for example, temper outbursts, thoughts of violence) ? Have a change in your appetite or body weight ? Have trouble concentrating ? Withdraw from your friends or family ? Feel like you have no energy ? Have feelings of worthlessness or guilt ? Start having thoughts about hurting yourself or taking your own life ? Start acting on dangerous impulses ? Problems with the skin, pancreas, liver, stomach, bones, muscles, hearing, vision, dry skin, chapped lips, dry eyes If you are familiar with all the symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer’s, you’ll easily recognize all of these as the classical clinical signs. You might also easily assume this list was copied from some website or publication regarding either dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. But, it was not. Rather, it’s the list of documented side effects of taking Accutane (or other isotretinoin based acne drugs). Source: iPledgeprogram.com.
90 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20205667 The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 267 Now, let’s once again consider the incredible data from Atlantic Canada regarding Alzheimer’s disease. I’m duplicating that same Canadian Alzheimer’s mortality chart we’ve seen before just for easy reference here.
Figure 44 Alzheimer’s mortality rates across all of Canada I have no doubt whatsoever that this data reflects the closure of the Atlantic cod fisheries in 1993. Also, this data is for mortality rates, and I think the data for age-adjusted incidence rates would tell even more.
Clearly, the rate changes in Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick is huge, almost a 50 percent decline. This is too huge to dismiss as being random or an anomaly. This represents the entire Atlantic region of Canada. This is a ~5 million-person population with huge decreases in rates. This decline is not at all the same in Western Canada.
Look at the amazing change in Prince Edward Island (PEI) over this time. It has gone from one of the highest rates in Canada to the same “normal” rate as British Columbia and Alberta. I think these Atlantic region numbers would tell an even more amazing story if I had the data The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 268 dating from 1996 to 2014 (for some unknown reason the data stops in 2011).
Here’s a map showing the 2000 Statistics Canada data presenting the increasing rate pattern from the West to East coasts in Canada .
Figure 45 Alzheimer’s mortality rates pattern West to East in Canada Could the somewhat higher rate of vitamin A consumption in Atlantic Canada via codfish have really caused the higher disease rates recorded in this region? Is there really a vitamin A to Alzheimer’s causal association here? Once again, here’s the chart showing just the Atlantic Province of PEI with the Nova Scotia Crohn’s incidence rates included.
The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 269 Figure 46 Alzheimer’s in PEI and Crohn’s rates in Nova Scotia (ages 20-29) If you are reading this in an electronic format, you can click on the chart to get a better view.
Clearly, something dramatic changed in Atlantic Canada to cause this steep decline in disease rates. What bigger environmental change took place in the Atlantic region during this period other than the closure of the Atlantic Cod fisheries in 1993? Due to this unique event in Atlantic Canada, we were handed a bit of a hidden gem in the data. The fish was taken away from a long, and well established dietary pattern. Moreover, it was just one fish species, Atlantic Cod that was removed from the regional diet. It was taken away abruptly, and for 20 years! Almost the exact same years that we have the Crohn’s disease and Alzheimer’s rates declining for.
With the removal of that one species of fish from the regional diet, something magical happened. We had a 35% decline in the incidence of Crohn’s and a 50% decline in Alzheimer’s disease. This has happened nowhere else in the world. Atlantic Canada is now approaching the same rates of Crohn’s disease and Alzheimer’s as the rest of Canada. Meaning, The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 270 Atlantic Canada is now becoming “normal” in the Canadian context.
That is pretty damn lucky, and a damn lucky bit of data to be handed.
Of course, the Atlantic Provinces didn’t consume all that Atlantic codfish catch. Canada exported some of it across Canada, the US, Germany, and elsewhere. However, Atlantic Canada consumed enough of it to now show up in this data. But, once again, don’t blame the fish; it’s the vitamin A in the fish.
The somewhat anomalous rate change in Nova Scotia as compared to the other Atlantic Provinces might be explainable based on people diagnosed in the region and moving to Halifax to get better access to health services or long-term care facilities. But, that explanation is pure speculation on my part.
Additionally, I think this data from Atlantic Canada makes it perfectly clear that Alzheimer’s is an environmentally (specifically food) caused disease. The current research into linking this disease with genetics and the various brain banks from victims are almost pointless. I say almost pointless because if anyone wants to test it, I’ll bet that stored brain tissue is going to exhibit an abnormal amount to retinoids.
I think that vitamin A saturation levels inducing Alzheimer’s will actually be much subtler and at a lower level of than what causes eczema or Crohn’s. It’s a subtle chronic poisoning persisting over decades, yet with devastating end results.
What we do know is that when we increased vitamin A consumption (via Accutane), Crohn’s rates went up significantly. When we decreased vitamin A consumption (via cod), Crohn’s rates went down significantly.
We also know that the full set of symptoms of IBD/Crohn’s is a nearperfect match with those of vitamin A toxicity. Based on the remarkable correlation between the declining trend lines for these two diseases in The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 271 this one geographic region, in a multimillion-person population, a causal relationship is a strong probability.
Now, having the very important firsthand experience in having the inflammation on my brain vanish after eliminating vitamin A from my diet, I can move this probability even higher.
I still would not make the call if it were not for another very important and amazing connection here. It’s sad to say, but this information has literally stared doctors in the face for many decades now. It’s on the faces of people suffering from this disease. It’s also on their hands. It’s called eczema. Once again, it’s one of those incidental things commonly reported with Alzheimer’s and autism. It’s probably considered to be of no immediate clinical significance, not related, and just an annoyance.
If you read the Alzheimer’s caregiver forums, you will see many comments about people struggling to treat eczema. Here’s a good example: Constant Scratching/Picking at the Skin http://www.alzcompend.info/?p=233 On another Alzheimer’s forum, I’ve read one such comment from a man caring for his ailing wife. He could no longer afford all the band-aids he was using on her eczema-affected hands. Now, why does a person with a brain disease need so many band-aids on the hands? I inquired about this eczema connection with a prominent Alzheimer’s researcher. He simply stated that the observed skin lesions aren’t related.
But he cannot validly make that claim without first knowing the real root cause of Alzheimer’s. I’ve read another doctor’s rationalization about this observation of the skin problems seen in Alzheimer’s patients. He claimed that it’s likely due to these patients not eating properly and not getting enough nutrition. This too is completely not true. Most of these people are well cared for. And there are many incidences in people with The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 272 early onset who are still working and they are looking after themselves.
These people are eating just fine. Nevertheless, to test his hypothesis, I looked at more than a thousand pictures online of anorexic people. Now, these people are indeed starving themselves, and clearly not getting enough nutrition. I could not find a single photo, not one, of an anorexic person showing signs of eczema or psoriasis. Oddly, in nearly all photos, the skin looks perfectly clear (other than the skeleton poking through).
No eczema, no psoriasis. Two photos of people had what looked like acne, and they looked extremely ill. And no, I’m not at all recommending people use this as a form of treatment.
Similarly, many Alzheimer’s patients develop kidney and liver disease.
Even more importantly, many Alzheimer’s patients die with Alzheimer’s, not from Alzheimer’s. So, is a brain disease somehow causing eczema, cracked fingernails, kidney and liver failure, hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis, pneumonia, cataracts, and other eye problems too? Isn’t it more or less obvious that there’s something else poisoning the entire body? The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 273 A Man Named John Here’s an interesting video of a 49-year-old man from Columbia, who has Alzheimer’s.
Figure 47 A man named John Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW6HJCk3EUU There are close-ups of this man’s face and fingernails in the first 60 seconds of the video. Please look at his face and hands very closely.
What do you see? I see the thickened and reddish brown skin on the sides of his forehead. There are a lot of people with eczema who will not only recognize this condition, but they will also know exactly how it feels. As do I. Then I see his mottled fingernails and more. Does this look familiar? Now, I think we can make a pretty good guess as to why the outer third of the eyebrows go missing in Hashimoto’s disease. Yes, Hashimoto’s is yet another autoimmune disease; but this one attacks the thyroid. It has an odd and incidental skin issue showing up on the face. Weird, huh? The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 274 The immune system is attacking the thyroid, yet burns off the eyebrows too? Does this not seem incredibly strange that the highly optimized immune system, after millions of years of evolution, would waste its energy and resources like this? Next, there is something else rather amazing to notice about this man’s face. That gray hair on the sides of his head is almost astonishing. Why does a guy, of Spanish heritage, and being only 49 years old have hair that we might typically see on someone around 90 years old? What’s going on here? Well, the answer starts with the fact that that hair is not gray; rather it’s white! Now, what would cause this whitening? It’s simple actually. It has been bleached from the roots out. Remember that the immune cells generate and use hydrogen peroxide to kill pathogens and poorly behaving cells. With that little bit of knowledge, the chain reaction looks like this: Vitamin A builds up in the sebaceous glands around the hair follicles ? RA-induced cytokine callouts ? immune cells respond ? secretes hydrogen peroxide ? bleaches hair follicle ?fascinating? How long does this complicated graying process take to really kick-in? Well, it used to normally take about 70 years. In my generation in Canada, it is usually taking about 50 to 55 years. But, in the current generation it is now happening in people as young as 30, or even 20 years old.
The video cited above is about the extraordinarily high rates of Alzheimer’s in Yarumal, a town in Northern Colombia. There is also a disproportionately high rate of early onset there too. Researchers are attributing this high rate of Alzheimer's to a specific genetic mutation.
And yes, it could be. But it might not be a genetic mutation in just the people, but rather one in a plant they eat.
The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 275 I need to leave the fish theme behind on this one because Yarumal is landlocked, and about 2,265 m above sea level. But, it just happens to be that this region of Colombia is quite high in the consumption of sweet potatoes. Early Spanish settlers referred to sweet potatoes as a land truffle. It’s also somewhat established that this region is probably the very origin of the sweet potato plant being used as a food source. With about 19,000 IU of vitamin A per cup (133g), that’s no small factor.
Secondarily, it appears that in addition to sweet potato being a regular part of the diet, it’s customary here to eat organ meats, including liver91.
On top of that consider that chili powder contains about 30,000 IU per 100 grams. People in this region could be consuming huge amounts of vitamin A, and not realize it, or even be aware of the risks.
I just need to interject here with a bit more trivia from Darwin’s Beagle voyage. As he sailed down along the coast of Peru he noted that the old men of the region had long black hair flowing down past their shoulders.
Now, specifically, with regards to dietary patterns in the town of Yarumal, I don’t have data. However, I was able to investigate it some and it turns out that Higado con Salsa Criolla (liver with creole sauce) is a traditional Colombian dish there. If combined with sweet potatoes, a single meal could easily be as high as 60,000 IU of vitamin A.
Please help with more data if you have firsthand experience living in Yarumal. You should be crying right about now too.
91 http://traveltips.usatoday.com/food-colombia-south-america-11342.html The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 276 I’ll share a bit more about my own firsthand experiences here. Let’s have a closer look at John’s face and consider the pattern of that reddish brown burn on his temple area. Also, take note of the little spider veins on his cheek and the long stringy hairs growing out of his eyebrows.
Figure 48 Inflammation burn on the temple area On the right is a photo of my face in quasi-flare-up mode. Don’t these burn patterns look rather similar? Also, note the outer one-third of my eyebrows is missing. Next, note the spider veins on the side of my nose (I don’t drink BTW). The same process burning the sides of my forehead definitely caused those small veins to become inflamed.
The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 277 Luckily for me, I quite quickly recovered from this condition.
Figure 49 My face mostly recovered Next, wouldn’t it be great to find some clinical evidence that links vitamin A and / or retinoic acid with Alzheimer’s disease (even though it has been officially ruled out). Well, we are in luck. It turns out that there are such studies. You just need to connect the dots on them.
Here are two separate research papers that do establish this exact connection (but you need to read both of them to see the connection).
Source: http://koreabizwire.com/taurine-may-be-effective-in-treatingalzheimers/26505 The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 278 Their testing showed mice regaining cognitive function from Alzheimer's after being fed 30mg of taurine daily. That’s fantastic news, but what’s this taurine substance? It’s an amino acid that occurs somewhat naturally in the body in small amounts. Next, we need to move on to this second study from 1984 to make the amazing connection here with retinoic acid.
ABSTRACT Cultured human lymphoblastoid cells exposed for short times to retinol and retinoic acid, undergo a time- and dosedependent decrease in viability, accompanied by cell swelling. The presence of taurine (5-20 mM) and zinc (50-100 /iM) protected cells from retinol-induced injury. Taurine 20 mM and zinc 100 pM added simultaneously abolished cell swelling and increased cell viability from 7 to 55%. Tocopherol (200 /tM) was also effective in protecting these cells from retinol. The three compounds together afforded complete protection.
Source: http://jn.nutrition.org/content/114/12/2256.full.pdf Similarly, here are two more studies; that when combined also provide a direct link between vitamin A and Alzheimer’s.
UCLA study suggests iron is at core of Alzheimer's disease http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-study-suggests-that-iron-247864 What the researchers are finding is a slightly elevated level of iron in the brain tissue. But, I completely fail to understand why they assume this might be the cause, rather than just another downstream artifact of some other process. Nevertheless, we need to ask where is the iron coming from and how does vitamin A fit into this picture? Well, it appears that vitamin A may affect the release of iron from the liver. Specifically, the more vitamin A, the higher the rate of iron release. Here is a 1984 paper documenting this relationship.
The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 279 Relationship between Vitamin A and Iron in the Liver http://jn.nutrition.org/content/114/5/840.full.pdf Now, with this evidence, I have pretty much zero doubt about a causal association here.
Autism and Eczema There’s also a big connection here between eczema and autism. There are exactly the same types of comments in the autism support forums.
You have all these mothers discussing and sharing tips on how to care for their autistic kid’s eczema. Eczema goes hand in hand with autism.
And so does gut inflammation. Why is that? It’s because the root cause of these diseases is one and the same. It’s the subclinical saturation, and the elevated non-liver storage of retinol and retinoic acid. So, based on that, my own experience, and this data, I am going to say there’s an incredibly good chance of a causal association here. Then add to that the elevated osteoporosis rates. That makes my theory extremely likely. No, it isn’t conclusive, but some almost trivial empirical evidence can close the deal on it.
The Hypersensitivity to Sunlight Here’s another significant connection between kids with autism and seniors (with and without Alzheimer’s). That connection is that their visual sensitivity to sunlight is elevated. In the case of kids with autism, it can be extreme and they can experience hypersensitivity to light.
Moreover, for many of these kids, they not only have hypersensitivity they also have trouble composing a correct mental image of what they are seeing. The image can be broken-up, and they can see double images.
Not too surprisingly, in addition to light sensitivity being a key symptom of vitamin A toxicity, seeing double images is an often reported The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 280 symptom too. But this double vision phenomenon in connection with vitamin A toxicity is reported uniquely in kids. But, now at the other end of the age spectrum, double vision is quite commonly reported in older adults with dementia and Alzheimer’s too.
Additionally, for many other seniors, even without dementia, they become so sensitive to sunlight that you’ll see some of them wearing big wraparound almost blackout sunglasses. Of course, they are not trying to start a new eyewear fashion trend, rather they are doing this for a real reason.
Naturally, and very importantly, there is much more going on with this hypersensitivity to sunlight phenomenon. What do you think would happen if the tissues of the eye start accumulating a very light sensitive molecule? This particular molecule has its very origin in the development, and evolution, of visual systems for this particular reason.
Moreover, this molecule fluoresces92 (think glows if you prefer) when exposed to the correct wavelength. That particular wavelength is part of sunlight, but it is below the normal visible spectrum. Therefore, what’s happening is that as the vitamin A builds up within the eye, exposure to sunlight causes it to fluoresce. But, to the external observer, we don’t see this glowing because the regular ambient white light washes it out. Now with that fluorescence what you have is a bunch of extra light energy bouncing around inside the eye. Would you find that confusing? If you are a numbers type person, here’s what you need to know. The visual spectrum of light is wavelengths from about 380 through to 740 nanometers. The excitation wavelength for retinol is 335 nm, and the emission is at 458 nm. Therefore, for most of us, light entering the eye at 380 nm or below is not visible. But, the fluorescence of retinol up shifts the 335 nm wavelength up into the visible spectrum.
92 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescence The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 281 Vitamin A: 335 nm ? emits at ? 458 nm Visual Spectrum: 390 nm ———?————————- 700 nm Therefore, for people with extra retinol in the eye, they would be able to detect the inbound 335 nm wavelength too. But, this is not just being able to pick up on a wider spectrum. The 458 nm emission light is now coming from within inside the eye. It is almost like having one or more separate little projectors within the eye, with their reflected image being projected to other parts of the eye. Therefore, in addition to double vision, people might see those double images as being upside down, sideways, or in other weird and random ways. This is almost trivial to test for experimentally.
Okay, here’s a quick summary of some of the symptoms shared between autism and Alzheimer’s disease: ? Spontaneous bone fractures ? a unique symptom of vitamin A toxicity ? Sensitivity to Sunlight ? a key symptom of vitamin A toxicity ? Double vision ? a unique symptom of vitamin A toxicity in kids, but reported in MS, dementia and Alzheimer’s too ? Inflamed, flaky skin (eczema) ? a key symptom of vitamin A toxicity ? All kinds of brain related issues ? key symptoms of vitamin A toxicity The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 282 Let’s spice up this deep and troubling topic with a little more trivia.
Hillary Clinton has been afflicted with double vision for a while now, and sometimes she wears special glasses trying to compensate for that condition93. The story in the press is that her double vision is the result of some head trauma incident. Well, Hillary Clinton has also been a big fan of hot peppers and chili spice from around about 199294. Remember that in addition to capsaicin, these peppers also have an extremely high vitamin A content. She claims to be eating these peppers almost every day, citing their thought to be immune boosting health benefit95. I think this thought to be “immune boosting” habit is now catching up with her too.
The mechanism of inflammation in the Brain Of course, we should understand the mechanism of how elevated levels of retinoic acid get into, and affect the brain. One theory I have is that the process is nearly identical to what happens with the fats in the sebaceous glands of the skin and GI tract. Except here, the first target may be the myelin. Myelin is the fatty tissue that coats nerve fibers.
Retinol and retinoic acid are fat-soluble molecules. Therefore, they will get absorbed and wrapped by a lipid. The brain is highly dependent upon lipids. Now, we have lipids circulating in the blood that is effectively little toxic Trojan horses. They contain the retinol or retinoic acid molecule. Just like with the skin, the fat is consumed, unwrapping and exposing the toxic molecule. Once exposed, this toxin will cause inflammation and destroy tissue and, possibly, cause the buildup of other tissues and proteins.
93 http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/05/16/ophthalmologist-weighs-in-on-clintonglasses-spectacle.html 94 http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/hillarys-health-plan-hot-peppers/ 95 http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/01/21/463858189/hillary-clintons-elixir-cana-hot-pepper-a-day-boost-immunity The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 283 A secondary theory as to the mechanism is also based on a toxic Trojan horse analogy. Rather than lipids delivering more retinol, it is somewhat spent RBP (retinol binding protein) complexes that have had their retinol extracted, and are released back into the serum. Then, with elevated retinoic acid molecules, the RBP recycles and binds with this rather toxic retinoic acid molecule. This RBP is now delivered to the receiving cells, and when unwrapped it exposes a nasty little surprise (and yes, the RBP does have an affinity to retinoic acid).
I think one of these scenarios almost has to be the case since so many autoimmune diseases also have brain inflammation as a co-symptom.
Also, this same inflammatory process will happen anywhere in the body that consumes these toxic lipids. I think this now puts MS on the list too.
Whether this is even close to the correct mechanism or not, it doesn’t really matter in the short term. There are many times in science we can make use of information we don’t fully understand. For example, I’m sure there are many effective drugs in use, and their exact mechanism is not fully understood. What’s critical at this point is that we actually do something with this information.
A bit of personal “Anecdotal Evidence” Around 2006, I had almost completely stopped dreaming at night. I maybe had dreams two or three times in a year. So, that is about nine years of almost never dreaming. I assumed this was due to drinking too much coffee or just something that happens with aging.
Four weeks after being on my vitamin A elimination diet, I started to dream every night. That is every single night for months now. My coffee intake has remained the same. Of course, it was not just my dreaming that changed. I was thinking far more clearly with my vitamin A elimination diet. Okay, so that’s subtle inflammation/pressure on my brain resolved, thinking clarity back to normal, and resumed dreaming at The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 284 nights. Do you think this toxin was having an adverse effect on my brain? I don’t want to think too much about it. I’m just glad I can’t see my brain under my microscope.
More “Anecdotal Evidence” I’ve read on some of the Alzheimer’s forums that people caring for their loved ones in their very final days make some peculiar comments such as, “When mom was finally too weak to eat and had not been eating for several days,…she had a few moments of clarity; she even recognized me again…
Isn’t that a very interesting anecdotal comment: when mom stopped eating,..she regained some clarity. Other people make similar comments.
When Ronald Reagan was dying from Alzheimer’s he also had severe cataracts. His eyes were completely clouded over. I’ve read a report that in his final days after he had stopped eating, his eyes cleared and were blue once again.
Is there a clue here for us? Could this be likened to the perfectly clear skin seen in the anorexics that eat so little? Next, let’s look at some interesting global maps for Alzheimer’s disease and autism.
The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 285 Figure 50 WHO Vitamin A deficiency prevalence 1998 Figure 51 Alzheimer’s / Dementia Death Rate per 100,000 Age-Standardized Source data: http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/alzheimersdementia/by-country/ The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 286 Yellow regions in the top WHO-VAD map are getting lots of vitamin A, and yellow and red regions in the second map are getting lots of Alzheimer’s/dementia.
Although the world map shown above is of the Alzheimer’s / Dementia Death Rate (it is amazingly close to that of worldwide rates of schizophrenia too), it could just as well be a map showing the nations that are supplementing their food supply with Vitamin A.
Likewise, here is what appears to be another world map highlighting the countries that supplement their foods with vitamin A. However, it’s not actually a map of vitamin A supplementing countries. It’s a map of incidence patterns of autism.
Figure 52 Incidence patterns in autism Source data: http://sfari.org/news-and-opinion/news/2011/researchers-track-downautism-rates-across-the-globe The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 287 Below is a map showing the incidence pattern of autism in the USA.
Figure 53 Autism prevalence in the USA No. per 10,000 Source data: http://sfari.org/news-and-opinion/news/2011/researchers-track-downautism-rates-across-the-globe The other observation to be made from the above maps is that the higher incidence patterns are mostly coastal regions, and especially so of course for Japan and the Scandinavian Countries. But, even more striking is the incidence pattern along the Atlantic coast in the USA. This very closely matches with the findings of the reports I’ve cited earlier regarding both the Crohn’s and eczema incidence patterns in the USA. There is no way that is just a coincidence. These diseases are indeed somehow related.
Why does the USA have such a high rate of kids with autism? Well, I believe it is because these kids have had both their milk and breakfast cereals fortified with vitamin A.
What about Japan? Why do they now have such a high rate of autism in kids and yet a low rate of Alzheimer’s in adults? It could be that their fishing fleets are now going into the very cold Antarctic waters. The The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 288 disease rate increase is showing up first in their kids due to their higher susceptibility. It may just take a few more decades before the big jump happens with the Alzheimer’s rates in their adult population. I think this is another major seismographic event predicting the oncoming disease tidal wave.
Autism and anecdotal evidence Now a common comment or perception about kids with autism is that many have some hidden genius trapped within them. Maybe this is even accepted scientifically and not really anecdotal at all. I don’t know. But, please allow me to indulge in a bit more “wacko” thinking here.
Remember that with eczema, and psoriasis there is the universal, yet strange, observation that with the skin becoming inflamed, and destroyed by the immune system it gets much thicker in the process. The exact same thing is observed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. As the immune attack destroys the joints, they can actually become bigger and sometimes subsequently deformed. This is documented to be a paradox of the disease. Once again, it should be a paradox at all. When the cells send out the self-destruct cytokines to the immune system, they also send out growth hormones to kick-start the rebuilding of their replacement cells. So, we have secondary processes trying to counteract the first one.
Do you see where I am going with this wackiness in connection with autism? Yes, I think there may be a similar process happening in the brain. As some brain cells are being destroyed by inflammation significantly more are being grown due to the release of growth hormones. Now, how many kids with autism have some subtle chronic inflammation on the brain? My bet is that every single one of them does.
The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 289 Autism, ADHD, Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia, MS and Alzheimer’s Doesn’t it just strike you as it being rather peculiar that there are so much mimicry and overlap in the symptoms of all of these conditions, and socalled diseases of the brain? Isn’t it just incredibly peculiar that every one of these diseases of the brain comes with eczema96? Seriously, how the heck does a brain disorder cause an autoimmune disease of the skin? The obvious answer is that it doesn’t! Isn’t it just as peculiar, and like with the autoimmune diseases, one other major common symptom they all share is: no one knows what causes them, and there are no cures. Additionally, like with the autoimmune diseases, after more than fifty years of intense research, and hundreds of billions of dollars spent, none of these so-called brain diseases has been solved. That’s right, not a single autoimmune disease has been solved, and not a single one of these brain diseases has been solved. Just like with the autoimmune diseases, they are all only becoming vastly more prevalent.
Yet, just like with the autoimmune diseases, if you do get diagnosed with one of these brain conditions you’ll likely be prescribed some drug that will attempt to mask or suppress the symptoms. Doesn’t it just strike you as very peculiar that none of the drugs work very well at all? Most are clinically proven to be no better than placebos. Doesn’t all of this just simply tell you that researchers must be completely on the wrong track? If you are really unlucky and are diagnosed with Schizophrenia, you might even be given some horrible electric shock therapy. We have no idea as to the real root causes, yet somehow “modern medicine” can resort to such a barbaric “treatment”. Clearly, we are simply in the 96 http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/eczema/news/20030325/adhdskin-disease-may-be-linked The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 290 virtual Stone Age of medicine when dealing with the brain diseases.
Doesn’t that just simply tell you that modern medicine has absolutely no idea what it is doing in attempting to treat this disease? Now, what if autism, ADHD, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, MS, and Alzheimer’s are all just one big spectrum? After all, they all do share many common symptoms. Like with the autoimmune diseases, each one has been given a unique sounding name; but that naming is based on our somewhat vague and arbitrarily selected clustering of these symptoms.
What if ADHD is just very mild autism, and depression is just one of the symptoms of very mild Schizophrenia, and Anxiety is just a small variation of ADHD combined with depression, and schizophrenia is early Alzheimer’s, and therefore, Alzheimer’s is the long tail condition of dealing with autism or mild schizophrenia for decades? Well, you get the idea; are not all these diseases just one big blur? Could it be that all of these diseases are just varying degrees of the same underlying root condition? Could it be that there are varying degrees that present slightly differently in different people, and present differently in different people at different ages? That’s what it sure looks like to me; and especially so when you factor in the little fact that having eczema, or asthma earlier in life makes you more susceptible to developing schizophrenia. Isn’t it incredibly suspicious that Autism, MS, Alzheimer’s, and Schizophrenia all have this major connection with eczema? I mean, doesn’t that make it obvious that whatever has poisoned the skin, is implicated in these brain diseases too? Of course, medical experts will cling to the claim that’s not the case, and state that they are indeed distinct diseases. However, unless someone can tell us the exact and very root cause, then the only thing that really makes them distinct is our naming and classification of them.
It should now be so overwhelmingly obvious that ADHD, autism, schizophrenia, MS, and Alzheimer’s are really poisonings. Modern medicine has been completely over thinking it. It is not some deep and The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 291 mysterious malfunction originating in the brain that’s causing these diseases. I mean, in the face of the shocking rates, and rate increases we are seeing in the North American populations, no reasonably open minded person can argue that it isn’t a poisoning. I challenge anyone to put forward a reasonable alternative explanation. Moreover, in a later chapter, I’ll explain that in addition to inducing inflammation, the particular poisoning we are investigating here has a unique capability of depleting and destroying our stem cells at the same time. What effect do you suppose that would have on the proper functioning of the brain and nervous systems? Please remember that every one of the symptoms, of every one of these diseases, is on the list of symptoms of chronic vitamin A poisoning, or that of being given the retinoic acid treatment. I think I’ve established at least a reasonably strong causal association here with autism, and Alzheimer’s disease. ADHD, depression, and anxiety are completely obviously implicated here too. These are reported as the very common, yet mild symptoms of being given the retinoic acid treatment. Of course, every man, woman, and child in North America is now being given this retinoic acid treatment (agreed, at very low doses; age and diet depending).
I’ve mentioned Schizophrenia a few times before in earlier chapters, now I want to try to connect the dots on it just a little bit more. From the 2010 Accutane causal association report97 investigating the relationship between Accutane (retinoic acid) and IBD, the authors included a chart showing the prescription rates of Accutane, and that of Crohn’s disease.
Here’s a facsimile of that chart (very oddly, the authors of the report decided not to include a scale on the vertical axis).
97 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2775814/.
The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 292 Figure 54 Accutane prescriptions by age Next, let’s look at a chart showing the incidence rate pattern for schizophrenia.
Figure 55 Schizophrenia based on age group at onset Source data: A typological model of schizophrenia based on age at onset, sex and familial morbidity. Acta Psych8atr. Scand. 89, 135-141 (1994) There are some important details to take note of here. Firstly, the peak in the incidence rate in boys is happening a few years earlier than that in The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 293 girls. Then look at what happens after about age 35. The pattern flips and young women are getting this disease at a significantly higher rate than young men. This is the same as for the autoimmune diseases. This very same peculiar age pattern is showing up in the Canadian schizophrenia rate data too98. The Canadian MS incidence rates follow a similar age pattern also. If you have a particular interest in MS, then now would be a good time to look very closely at the map shown on page 15 of this Atlas of MS report 99.
Now, you might be tempted to conclude that the treatment with Accutane, et al caused some of these cases of Schizophrenia. I don’t doubt that many cases are indeed exactly that. After all, the documented side effects of Accutane include all the documented symptoms of Schizophrenia. However, there is something more important to glean from these charts. Firstly, dermatologists were prescribing Accutane et al. for the very real reason of significant acne. Secondly, remember that the liver reaches its maximum size by age 15 or so, and boys are one to two years ahead of girls. Then it normally starts shrinking. I am repeating that chart here for easy reference.
98 http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/miic-mmac/images/fig_3-1_e.gif 99 http://www.who.int/mental_health/neurology/Atlas_MS_WEB.pdf The Alzheimer’s Connection Chapter 21 294 Therefore, what I see happening is the following sequence of events.
1. Liver volume and storage capacity is quickly maxing out by the late teens.
2. Forces the body to move more retinoid-laden lipids to the sebaceous glands, and other adipose tissue.
3. Elevated skin lipids feed the skin’s acne causing bacteria and enables it to flourish.
4. Some kids are treated with Accutane et al a. Some of them encounter the documented “side-effects” a.k.a. Schizophrenia 5. Many other kids are not treated with Accutane et al, and experience only very mild mental health issues.
6. Some other kids, who are also not treated, still encounter more severe mental health issues due to a higher rate of conversion to retinoic acid.
It just depends on the body’s state of storage when that liver volume starts dropping.
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