Conscious Eating Part 28

Taking in the biophoton energy through the active enzymes and other live macromolecules in live foods is the main way we can bring biophoton energy into our cells. This means that the quality of our food depends on the amount of light energy it has stored. The more biophotons we take in through our foods, the better intra- and extracellular communication we have and the better our health.

Eating the Wild Electron.

LIGHT IS THE BASIC COMPONENT from which all life originates, evolves, and is energized. Light and health are inseparable. Because we have managed to disconnect ourselves from the natural sources of light with our fluorescent tubes, indoor lifestyles, gla.s.ses, contact lenses, sungla.s.ses, tanning lotions, flesh foods, processed foods, and even cooked vegetarian diets, many of us suffer from chronic "mal-illumination." Like malnutrition, "mal-illumination" deprives us of a level of nutrients and rhythmic stimulation that is essential for living as fully healthy humans.

It is worth repeating Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi's description of the essential life process as a little electrical current sent to us by the sunshine. Without light there is no health. This statement is a key to understanding the importance of vegetarian live foods and other ways of bringing light into our organism. We are human photocells whose ultimate biological nutrient is sunlight.

The exciting breakthrough for me is the conceptual synthesis of how our food brings the photon energy of sunlight into our body and how our bodies utilize this energy. I alluded to these concepts when I discussed the research by Dr. Hans Eppinger, who found that all cells are essentially batteries that appear to be charged up when people are healthy. He found the cells of sick people to be in a discharged state and poorly functioning.

The significant finding is that only uncooked foods were able to increase the cell battery potential.

The next step is understanding cellular metabolism as a battery. The positive pole is energetically fed by oxygen. The negative pole is fed by the high-electron photon energy collected from the sun and stored in our vegetarian live food. This high-electron food releases its energy across the cytochrome oxidase system, which acts as a step-down transformer to turn the electron energy into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is the basic energy storage molecule of biological systems. The biochemical releases of energy from ATP are the fuel for all energy-requiring processes at the molecular level in our biological systems.

The electrons are essentially drawn across the cytochrome oxidase system by the oxygen at the positive pole of the intracellular battery. The more oxygen in the system, the stronger the pull. Breathing exercises, eating high-oxygen foods, and living in atmospherically clean, high-oxygen environments increase our overall oxygen content. The key understanding is that the cytochrome oxidase system exists in every cell and requires electron energy to function. This electron energy comes from plant foods as well as what we directly absorb from the sun and other stars. When food is cooked, the basic harmonic resonance pattern of the living electron energy of the live food is at least partially destroyed. Once one understands this scientific evidence, the logical step is to eat high-electron foods such as fruits, vegetables, raw nuts and seeds, and sprouted or soaked grains.

Dr. Johanna Budwig from Germany holds degrees in physics, pharmacy, biochemistry, and medicine and is one of the first researchers to combine an in-depth knowledge of quantum mechanics and physics with an in-depth knowledge of human biochemistry and physiology. She has concluded that not only do electron-rich live foods act as high-powered electron donors, but electron-rich foods act as solar resonance fields in the body to attract, store, and conduct the sun's energy in our bodies. She a.s.serts that the photons of the sunlight are attracted by the sun-like electrons resonating in our biological systems, especially in the double-bonded electron clouds found in our lipids. These sun-like electrons are termed pi-electrons. This pi-electron system within our molecular structure has the ability to attract and activate the sun photons. She believes the energy we derive from these solar photons acts as an "anti-entropy factor." Translated into biological terms, entropy means aging. Anti-entropy is a.s.sociated with the reversal of the aging process. From a quantum physics point of view, photons never become old; they have the same quickness as time. Sun photons transfer a high degree of order (anti-entropy energy) into the pi-electrons of our biological system. The more light we absorb into our system, the more health-restoring and anti-aging energy we bring into our human organism.

Therefore, people who eat refined, cooked, highly processed foods diminish the amount of solar electrons energizing the system and the amount necessary to create a high-electron solar resonance field. According to Dr. Budwig, processed foods may even act as insulators to the healthy flow of electricity. The more we are able to absorb solar electrons as a result of our dietary intake, the better we are able to resonate, attract, and absorb solar electrons in direct resonance from the sun, other solar systems, and even other galaxies. On a skin-deep level, the more we are able to absorb solar electrons, the less sunburn and theoretically, the less skin cancer there will be.

Perhaps the two highest solar electron-rich foods and foods which have the capacity to absorb solar electrons are spirulina and flaxseed in various forms, including flaxseed oil. Dr. Budwig has reported cases of general ill health and even cancer which have been reversed through the use of large amounts of flaxseed oil, which increases the amount of electron energy in the system and therefore creates enough energy to heal the system.

Because spirulina grows at high alt.i.tudes in high-temperature environments, it has increased beta-carotene, other carotenoids, enzyme systems, and other biological components to better absorb the intensified solar and cosmic radiations. I discovered that by ingesting spirulina and applying the product called Phycotene Cream (developed by Dr. Christopher Hills at Light Force), I, other members of our staff, and volunteers did not seem to get sunburned working long hours under the sun-filled skies at our Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, Arizona.

Research has shown that spirulina and Phycotene Cream have been successful in reversing squamous cell skin carcinoma and dissolving pre-cancer squamous cell carcinoma. Other research has found that three-fourths of the people who were hypersensitive to sunlight (suffering from erythro-poetic protoporphinaria) were able to increase their exposure time in the sun. Three-fourths of those who improved their tolerance were able to be exposed to sunlight four times longer than before. For those of us who understand that we are human photocells who often suffer from mal-illumination, this is an extremely exciting finding.

Dr. Budwig also found that when flaxseed oil is combined with highly charged sulfur-containing protein, the three double-bonded electron clouds available in the raw flaxseed oil and the protein make a bi-polar capacitor grid which even better absorbs, stores, and transmits the exchange of solar electrons and enhances the solar resonance. She often uses a type of cottage cheese as a high-protein food to combine with flaxseed oil. As a nondairy vegetarian, I find that bee pollen and spirulina are perfect high-protein concentrated foods to combine with flaxseed oil.

The discoveries of modern physics and quantum biology, according to Dr. Budwig, suggest there is no other living thing in nature that has a higher acc.u.mulation of the sun's electrons than human beings. Humans seem especially aligned with the sun's light. By the same solar electron resonance, our connection to the stars is enhanced by our ability to take in the gift of their light energy and process it biochemically. Light is our umbilical link to the universe.

Our ability to enrich ourselves with solar cosmic energy depends on eating foods with a high solar electron content that resonates with and attracts solar and cosmic rays. Our health and consciousness depend on our ability to attract, store, and conduct electron energy, which is essential for the energizing and regulation of all life forces. The greater our store of light energy, the greater the power of our overall electromagnetic field, and consequently the more energy available for healing and the maintenance of optimal health.

A strong solar resonance field promotes the evolution of humanity to reach our full potential as human "sun beings." Light supports evolution, and a lack of photons in our bodies hinders it. Light and consciousness are interconnected. As far back as the turn of the twentieth century, Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the Waldorf schools, Anthroposophical Medicine, and biodynamic gardening, taught that the release of the outer light into our systems stimulates the release of an equal amount of inner light within ourselves. The more we increase our ability to absorb and a.s.similate light, the more conscious we become. The more we transform ourselves by enhancing our absorption of light, the more we become that light. This is the subtle secret of "conscious eating."

Preview of Chapter 28.

TRAVELING IN THE UNITED STATES and many countries around the world is not always easy for an inexperienced vegetarian. One of the main challenges is that most of the world is not vegetarian and may have some difficulty understanding your needs. If it's your family who is not vegetarian, they may even feel a little threatened by your new change. This chapter addresses the challenge by explaining how you can tactfully and gracefully maintain dietary and health patterns almost anywhere. The real challenge is whether you are willing to exert the extra effort to make it happen. Are you?

I. Traveling in the raw A. Bring along whatever you need to restaurants or on trips B. Use the Yellow Pages to find health food restaurants and stores II. Dinner invitations.

III. Camping.

Traveling in the Raw.

PEOPLE FREQUENTLY ASK ME how they can best eat vegetarian, and particularly raw foods, while traveling. There are a few tips I would like to share from my own travels that may be helpful. The first point to remember is that when one travels, one might face social pressures to conform, as well as be subtly ridiculed for "being different." In these situations, one should remember that one eats vegetarian or live food not to please others but because it is the healthiest diet for our species. Once outside the home, overcoming shyness about eating differently is an important challenge to face. On some level, many people intuitively know a vegetarian and/or live-food diet is healthier than the standard American diet. Despite this unconscious inner knowing in some folks, they still consciously might feel threatened by it. By being firm about one's dietary needs, without adopting a "holier than thou" or a "self-righteous crusader" att.i.tude, one can travel almost anywhere and manage to get one's dietary needs met.

One of the best ways to get one's culinary needs fulfilled is to take care of them oneself For example, when going to a potluck, don't depend on someone else to make something that you can eat. To play safe, bring one dish that supports your own dietary needs. If you are going out for a meal with a group of friends and don't know much about the menu or have much say in selecting the restaurant, upon arriving order a small salad but bring your own supplemental sprouts, avocado, sunflower seeds, or whatever else you might want on a salad. Since most salad dressings in restaurants have a lot of pesticides, preservatives, and cooked oils in them, it is a good idea to also bring a homemade salad dressing.

More and more restaurants nowadays will prepare a vegetarian plate or salad if they are specifically asked, so bringing extra backup foods isn't always necessary. While traveling on the road, there is usually a salad bar somewhere that will have enough healthy items to eat. One might still want to bring one's own salad dressing because the salad bar dressings are often high in synthetic or regular dairy, fats, preservatives, additives, and color dyes. The foods of choice to eat in a salad bar are sprouts, dark green vegetables like spinach, and sunflower seeds. Avoid the white-colored head lettuce (iceberg) since it is a nutritional waste of time (and stomach s.p.a.ce).

Eat the simple, fresh foods and avoid the foods with lots of sauces. Sometimes these sauces sit around for a long enough time that bacteria begin to grow in them. It is also a good idea to ask if any items have monosodium glutamate (MSG), a harmful additive that causes a violent reaction in some people. Salad bar items are sometimes sprayed with sulfites to help preserve the appearance of the displayed foods.

The best policy when taking car trips of a few days is being prepared. Our family often takes an ice chest filled with several days' food when we go traveling. We periodically get ice refills along the way to keep the food cold, as well as stock up whenever we need to from local health food stores that we pa.s.s. Looking in the Yellow Pages under the category "Health Foods" is a good way to find out if there is a health food store in the area.

It is relatively easy to find health food stores or health food restaurants in large cities to supply vegetarian needs while traveling in the United States or Europe. A thorough examination of even a standard restaurant may yield something. For example, our relatives in England took us to a fancy traditional restaurant in London. Sitting next to the roast beef was one of the best salad buffets I've ever experienced in a restaurant anywhere. In traveling throughout Mexico, Canada, Europe, India, and the US, I have always seemed to get by with little difficulty finding vegetarian and primarily live foods.

One compromise that I've noticed in my travels is that I have not always been able to find organically grown foods. Admittedly, unless there is a health food store with organic produce or someone's organic garden that one stumbles upon, organically grown foods are harder to find. However, eating a limited amount of nonorganic foods for a short while is not going to hurt one's health unless one's immune system and general health are already very run-down. In places like India or Mexico, plenty of raw foods are available if one likes fruits with a hard outer covering, such as bananas or papayas. The covering gives protection against parasites and pesticides.

It is possible to maintain a live-food diet while traveling if one carries one's own extra supplies. For example, sunflower seeds, almonds, pumpkin seeds, alfalfa seeds, dried fruit, and dried vegetables work well. Taking along a light-weight, portable water filter to purify drinking water and for soaking the dry foods overnight is a must. With the purified water one can even have sprouted seeds the next day. Fresh fruits and vegetables are usually available in most countries during the summer.

There are several excellent foods to take when traveling. One is spirulina; another is a new cla.s.s of products called flash-dry vegetable, grain, and fruit concentrates. I suggest only getting ones that are organic. If I had a choice of one food to bring with me on a desert island, it would be spirulina. Gram for gram, spirulina could be the most nutritious and well-rounded food on the planet, which stores almost indefinitely. It is about 70% a.s.similable protein. The following properties make spirulina a number-one food choice: it has all the essential amino acids in correct proportion; it contains the needed omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids; it has 14 times the daily dose of human-active B12 (per 100 grams); it contains glycolipids, sulfonolipids, vitamins, 17 different beta-carotenoids, and over 2,000 enzymes; and it contains a full spectrum of well-a.s.similated minerals, especially iron and magnesium. Spirulina is the only substance that contains phycocyanins, and it is second only to mother's milk in concentration of natural gamma linolenic acid (GLA). Spirulina is 0.5% glycogen, which is a ready-made glucose energy in a stored form. It contains 9% rhamnose, which is a biologically active and unique sugar important for transporting essential substances across the brain barrier as brain food.

Unlike other algaes, the cell wall of spirulina has high concentrations of mucopolysaccharides, which are easily digested and form glycoprotein complexes that are important in the formation of protein and the building of cell membranes. Primitive foods such as spirulina contain the highest food energy, the highest nutrient value, and use up the least amount of the planet's resources. Spirulina is also a powerful alkalinizing and healing food. It is an excellent support for the healing of hypoglycemia, diabetes, chronic fatigue, anemia, ulcers, and for boosting the immune system. It has been shown to repair free radical damage. Researchers have found it to contain a tumor necrosis factor. The anti-cancer power of spirulina is significant enough that at Harvard Medical School they found extracts of spirulina were extremely effective in treating cancer in hamsters. In my preliminary personal and clinical research, I have found spirulina and Phycotene Cream (a skin cream produced by Light Force, Inc., and made of the phycotene extract of spirulina) effective in preventing sunburn, while actually helping to absorb the sun's solar photon energy.

In 1977,I, my family, and others who were on prolonged stays in India began to use spirulina. It was my impression that those who took one tablespoon of spirulina a day maintained their health better in India than those who did not use it.

Other excellent foods for travel are dried vegetable, grain, and fruit concentrates. You can make them yourself by sun-drying and grinding organic ingredients into a powder. Pure Synergy is an excellent combination. I recommend Pure Synergy as perhaps the best single all-around food to take camping. Its sixty-two different ingredients represent some of the finest and most potent superfoods in the world. All the ingredients are organically grown, vegetarian, seasonally harvested, and go through over two hundred tests for purity and potency. There are no fillers, artificial preservatives, coloring, or flavorings in it. It contains eleven different algaes including spirulina, Klamath Lake Blue-Green, chlorella, Australian Dunaliella Salina, Longicrusis and Digitata Kelp, Irish moss, dulse, and alaria. It also has seventeen Chinese rejuvenation herbs. It has a green juice powder made from seven different gra.s.ses including wheatgra.s.s, barley gra.s.s, Green Kamut, and spinach octacosanol. The nutrients provided by this green juice powder alone are equal to those of a fresh garden salad. Pure Synergy contains ten Western herbs used to cleanse, regenerate, and revitalize the body, as well as an Asian Mushroom powder made of five rejuvenative and life-preserving mushrooms, including Reishi, Maitake, Shiitake, Tremella, and Cordyceps. This amazing product also has a natural enzyme powder, lecithin, royal jelly, and a natural anti-oxidant powder which help to keep the Pure Synergy fresh for traveling. One of the main advantages of Pure Synergy as a food is that it is a balance of approximately 50% protein and 50% carbohydrate so it can be used by all const.i.tutional types. It is one of the general natural food concentrates that I most frequently recommend to my clients, and it is a nourishing and rejuvenating food that is ideal for a camping trip. Pure Synergy can be ordered through the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, 520-394-2533, or by email at [email protected]

Part of the adventure of traveling can be exploring the open markets or health food stores in a town or city. This becomes an interesting way to learn about a culture. I once attended a seven-day program where there was no health food store produce available. However, I was able to procure fruit, avocados, and sprouts at the local market and was able to pick fresh, organic vegetables from someone's garden. I completely enjoyed my meals that week despite the initial paucity of health food outlets.

I don't want to make it sound too simple; I'd be the first one to admit that in this society eating vegetarian, and particularly live food, on the road is not always easy, but with a little creativity and effort one can make it work. While one is traveling there is no need to give in to the momentary conveniences that are always tempting us away from a healthy diet.

Dinner Invitations.

DINNER INVITATIONS ARE SOMETIMES TRICKIER. It is advisable to tact-fully ask the host ahead of time what might be served. If nothing the host mentions is considered healthy for the stage of diet that you are in, confide in the host that you are a vegetarian. Sometimes they will be very glad to make a little side dish on your behalf. If your host still somehow doesn't get it or is unreceptive to hints, remember that the main purpose of the gathering is to socialize and not to eat. With close friends it is often possible to be so informal as to bring a salad or some "special dish" that just has to be shared as part of the meal for everyone to enjoy.

If one is visiting relatives, volunteering to help prepare the food is both a nice offering and a way to help steer the meal toward including at least something live. Sometimes one can have fun preparing the whole meal. Preparing food in a fun way allows relatives to enjoy the special offering. If they don't want the type of food you offer to prepare, then take everyone out to dinner. If nothing works, the art of delicately and lovingly making one's boundaries clear, without confrontation, is sometimes necessary The bottom line for a successful friendship or family relationship is love. While it is important to be loving, it is also important to be truthful and to maintain one's integrity. Just because a relative thinks one should eat meat does not mean one has to please them by eating flesh foods. This is more likely to create a resentment that ruins the digestion of the whole meal, as well as alters the relationship with the relative.

Recreational Camping.

CAMPING TRIPS REQUIRE a different sort of creativity. Although I do not generally recommend dehydrated food as a regular part of one's diet (because its SOEF energy is depleted as compared to fresh foods), dehydrated foods are very handy on camping trips. Dehydrated foods are also good to take traveling in cars and on airline trips. Foods dehydrated at 118 F are the closest to live foods in energy. Once these foods are exposed to water, the enzymes are often reactivated with a minimal loss. In the recipe section, there is a variety of soups, snacks, crackers, and cookie preparations of organic foods that are dehydrated in a way which maximally preserves the enzymes. Dehydrated food is also the best way to store food with the minimum amount of enzyme and energy loss.

On a camping trip, a good water filter that is able to filter out bacteria is important. No commercially available filter works for viruses. If one is concerned about hepat.i.tis and other viruses in the water, there are oxidative preparations, such as stabilized oxygen solution by the brand name of Aerobic 07 and its a.s.sociated product called Floc, which interact with the oxidized viruses so they clump and can be filtered out. The makers of Aerobic 07 claim this combination completely sterilizes and purifies the water. Boiling the water for twenty minutes and reactivating it with the product called Crystal Energy is also a good way to have safe drinking water. I personally am using a high-tech portable filter system called Earthcrew from WETech a.s.sociates that is a 2-micron absolute (nothing larger than 2 microns) porous plastic filter impregnated with powderized activated carbon and other absorbing media that filter out giardia, cryptosporidium, cysts, spores, pesticides, detergents, industrial and agricultural wastes, lead, aluminum, cadmium, copper, mercury, nickel, zinc, and other heavy metals, chlorine, PBCs, DDT, THMs, VOCs, synthetic organic compounds, and Radon 222. I take it wherever I go as it guarantees clean water, even from contaminated streams, or for emergencies like floods and earthquakes. We carry it in our Tree of Life internet catalogue.

If while traveling one is unable to find acceptable food to eat, one can either decide not to eat or remember that eating some nonorganic food for a short period of time will not cause great harm. The biggest problem I often see with traveling is not the food people eat while traveling, but figuring out how to return and successfully re-establish a nonsugar or sweets program, or a newly started live-food or vegetarian program. If one is not careful, it is easy to slip back into old patterns and start feeling bad about oneself. What helps this tendency is to understand that this is just a temporary situation and not take it as if it is the end of all of one's good progress. This is the time to get some positive social support and maybe fast for a couple of days to clean out and then start again on one's health program. Sometimes reexperiencing how poorly one felt on one's old diet is a blessing in disguise and may reinforce the desire and fort.i.tude to proceed in making the necessary dietary changes in the future. The usual process to a healthy diet and lifestyle is an up-and-down "sine wave" rather than a straight-line graph going upward to a "perfect" diet. By not holding oneself to unrealistic standards, a failure and discouragement syndrome is avoided. At all times during the transition to a healthier dietary practice, be gentle on oneself.

Preview of Chapter 29.

ONE OF THE MOST ALARMING and pernicious threats to our health is radiation. Everyone is exposed to it. In this chapter you will understand the sources of radiation to which we are exposed, the ways in which they are dangerous to us, general dietary adaptations that can be made to help protect you and your family, and specific nutrients and herbs that offer protection. The good news of this chapter is that the general conscious eater's diet I recommend is basically the best diet to eat for radiation protection. Isn't it interesting that a conscious vegetarian diet is good for preserving health in so many different ways? Do you think the source of the Divine inspiration for the dietary blueprint given in Genesis 1:29 knew about this potential use?

I. Major sources of radiation exposure II. A nuclear blast is not the most serious radiation threat unless it lands on your head III. Yes, something can be done-four principles of protection A. Selective uptake.

B. Chelation.

C. Antioxidant nutrients and enzymes.

D. Certain foods and special herbs.

IV. Summary of the conscious eater's radiation protection diet: a low-fat, high-natural-carbohydrate, high-fiber, high sea vegetable, 80% live, vegetarian cuisine optimizes radiation protection.

How Diet Can Protect You from the Dangers of Radioactive Radiation.

Major Sources of Radiation Exposure.

EXCESSIVE RADIOACTIVE RADIATION EXPOSURE comes from: 1) radioactive fallout from nuclear testing; 2) major nuclear power plant accidents, such as Three Mile Island and Chern.o.byl; 3) accidents at sterilization and food irradiation facilities; 4) unreported minor radioactive leakage from smaller mishaps at nuclear plants; 5) routine leaks and emissions from common devices and products that use nuclear technology; 6) radiation from medical radiation techniques such as X-rays, fluo-roscopy, mammography, and C.A.T. scans; 7) military nuclear activity, such as nuclear weapons plant site accidents, storage difficulties, and nuclear submarine accidents; 8) radon gas; and 9) cigarette smoking.

Accidents at nuclear plants occur more frequently than one would ever expect. The Radiation Protection Manual points out that there were 2,974 reported mishaps at nuclear plants filed in the records of the Nuclear Regulatory Committee in 1985 alone. According to the September 1985 report released by the US General Accounting Office, there were 151 "significant nuclear safety incidents between 1971 and 1984 in fourteen Western countries."

The lack of civilian regulation of military nuclear facilities adds an additional danger. The General Electric contract-managed Hanford facility in Washington state is a good example of a health threat stemming from a military-run operation. In the 1940s and '50s the Hanford weapons plant exposed people to the radiation equivalent of 3,000 chest X-rays per year, without reporting it or warning the one-quarter of a million people who were exposed. Regularly occurring nuclear submarine accidents are also a hazard.

Radon gas is another source of radiation exposure. Radon is a radioactive byproduct of naturally occurring uranium decay which is often found in granite deposits, shale or phosphate rock, concrete made with uranium-containing phosphates, gypsum, or brick. The radon gas is released from these sources and seeps up from the ground, where it may acc.u.mulate in unventilated bas.e.m.e.nts and other rooms of the home. According to Dr. Steven Schechter, the author of Fighting Radiation and Chemical Pollutants with Foods, Herbs, and Vitamins-Doc.u.mented Natural Remedies that Boost Your Immunity and Detoxify, the National Cancer Inst.i.tute officials now say that radon gas may be responsible for at least 30,000 lung cancer deaths each year. According to 1988 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates, approximately 20% of all homes in the US contain potentially toxic levels of radon gas. Good ventilation and sealing off the cracks in the bas.e.m.e.nt floor can help protect against radon gas seepage through the floor.

Although it may be a surprise, cigarette smoking is another significant source of radiation. Dr. Schechter points out that with the inhaling of cigarette smoke comes two radioactive particles: polonium-210 and lead-210. These are breakdown products of radium-226. Radium-226 is found in the phosphate fertilizers used in commercial tobacco farming. Cigarette smoke has also been found to contain radioactive radium-226 and pota.s.sium-40. In an article published in the American Scientist ent.i.tled "Tobacco, Radioactivity, and Cancer in Smokers," Dr. Edward Martell points out that when tobacco smoke is inhaled, these radioactive elements create an alpha radiation exposure that is hundreds of times greater than naturally occurring background radiation. He also points out that large amounts of polonium and lead-210 are found in the lung tumors of smokers and in their adjacent lymph nodes.

A Nuclear Blast Is Not the Most Serious Radiation Threat.

CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF, the most serious threat of radiation exposure is not the big nuclear blast of ionizing radiation that occurs with a nuclear explosion. Low-level radiation over a long period of time causes the most radiation damage to the cellular structures. This low-level radiation comes from small amounts of chronic radiation exposures that arise from eating the airborne radioactive particles that have fallen on food, or from the water and soil radiation incorporated in the cellular structure inside the food. The end result of low-level radiation over a long period of time is the production of a great deal of free radicals. This free-radical production causes lethal radiation sickness and contributes to high rates of cancer.

A free radical is created when one molecule possessing a highly reactive electron "robs" electrons from other atoms. Free radicals can be thought of as molecules that are out of electron balance. The way they rebalance themselves is to steal an electron from another molecule, which subsequently unbalances the next molecule in a chain reaction-type fashion. When the electrons are stolen from atoms in biological structures, the structure and function of those biological tissues are disrupted. Free radicals can destroy lipids, enzymes, and proteins and cause cells to die. An especially negative effect of free radicals is the disruption of the function of the cell membrane and the membranes of the intracellular structures. DNA/RNA structure and function are also disrupted, as well as protein synthesis and cell metabolism in general.

Free radicals may also cause cross-linking among tissue proteins. The cross-linking phenomenon involves altering the shape of protein structures such that these protein strands get entangled in each other. When this happens they can no longer perform their normal function and this can contribute to the aging process.

Free radicals can cause inflammations, damage lung cells and blood vessels, produce mutations, and cause degenerative diseases, including cancer. Free radicals disrupt and deplete the immune system. Ultimately, it can even be said that free radicals disrupt and deplete the SOEFs of the organism. Many researchers in the field of aging hypothesize that free-radical destruction is the basis of aging, or at least always accompanies the aging process.

The danger of chronic, low-level radiation exposure was discovered in 1972 by Dr. Abram Petkau, a Canadian physician. He found that the cell membranes were considerably more damaged by long-term, low-level exposure to radiation than by a brief but high-level exposure to radiation of the equivalent total dose. He discovered that the main damage of low-level radiation was not from direct ionizing radiation bombardment of our genes (thereby causing mutations), but from the production of free radicals. According to Ernest Sterngla.s.s, Professor Emeritus of Radiological Physics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Dr. Petkau found the free-radical effect from chronic low radiation exposure to be one thousand times greater than from a single large exposure.

Dr. Petkau's finding represents a significant shift in understanding. Until 1972, the "permissible safe exposure" from nuclear plants, atomic fallouts, and nuclear arms plants was estimated on the basis of experience with brief and intense radiation exposures, such as from a nuclear blast. The implication was that regular and chronic low-dose radiation exposure is relatively "safe." In physiological reality, the low-level radiation is actually at least a thousand times more damaging to our health than estimated. At low levels of radiation, the free-radical process becomes more efficient. According to Dr. Petkau's observation, the more protracted the radiation dose, the lower the dose needed to break the cell membrane. This helps to explain why leukemia and other cancers are occurring 100 to 1000 times more than the initially predicted rate at Hiroshima. With this finding, one begins to understand that there is no "safe" dose of radiation since radiation is c.u.mulative. According to the nuclear physicist John Gofman, Ph.D., M.D., in Radiation and Human Health: Harm in the form of excess human cancer occurs at all doses of ionizing radiation, down to the lowest conceivable dose and dose rate.

Dr. Karl Z. Morgan, after thirty years as director of the Health Physics Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, wrote in the September 1978 Bulletin of Atomic Scientists: There is no safe level of exposure and there is no dose of radiation so low that the risk of malignancy is zero ... the genetic risks, and especially those a.s.sociated with recessive mutations, may be as harmful and debilitating to the human race as the increases of cancer.

According to Lita Lee, Ph.D., in her book Radiation Protection Manual, in the late '80s the estimate for the yearly radiation dose received by Americans increased from 170 to 360 millirems. The permissible maximum allowable radiation for the general public is 500 millirems. This dose is not related to safety or health, but to "what those in power can get away with." We are constantly being exposed to radiation. The more serious exposures are often for those living near nuclear plants. For example, the July 12,1990, edition of the San Jose Mercury News reported that Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary James Watson admitted that a study financed by his agency found large radiation releases in the 1940s and 1950s from the Hanford nuclear plant. It is possible that the thyroids and other organs of infants living downwind from Hanford nuclear reactor in Washington state could have received radiation doses of iodine-131 as high as 2,500 rads. This is five times greater than the yearly permissible dose.

Physician and physicist John Gofman was hired by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to investigate the impact of radiation on human beings; he concluded that radiation exposure produces a direct linear correlation in the increase of cancer incidence. Gofman's findings in 1985 indicated that the dose of radiation allowable from nuclear plants at that time would result in an additional 16,000-32,000 cancer deaths per year. In Killing Our Own: The Disaster of Americas Experience with Atomic Radiation, auth.o.r.ed by Harvey Wa.s.serman, it is reported that following the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident the cancer rate of those living in the area increased sevenfold and that 58% of the births had complications.

An airplane flight from coast to coast will expose the flyer to several hundred millirads (1/1000 of a rad). The average radiation dose for medical X-rays is 300-500 millirads for pelvic X-rays, 10-500 millirads for chest X-rays, and 100 to 1000 millirads to the face for a full set of dental X-rays. Dr. Gofman, in his book X-rays Health Effects of Common Examinations, estimates that more than 45,000 fatal cancers are induced yearly by X-rays. The data are overwhelming that nuclear energy plants, nuclear arms production, irradiation plants for medical instruments and food, and the excessive use of X-rays all const.i.tute a tremendous threat to the health and safety of the human population.

Radiation is far more toxic than chemicals or pesticides. Radioactive isotopes that concentrate in specific organs are very damaging because, according to Dr. Sterngla.s.s, each electron emitted by a radioactive nucleus has several million electron volts of energy, which is enough to disrupt millions of molecules in the living cell. These radioactive isotopes emit radiation as they decay This means that when certain isotopes, such as I-131, concentrate in the thyroid, they give off radiation that causes cellular membrane damage, inactivates enzymes, alters cell metabolism, and may create abnormal cell division. Acc.u.mulation of radioactive isotopes in vital organs creates the worst damage because it results in long-term exposure to a particular tissue.

Another problem with radioactive isotopes is they stay around for a long time. Strontium-90 has a radioactive lifetime of 560 years, plutonium-239 has a full radioactive life of 500,000 years, cesium-137 has a radioactive lifetime of 600 years, and I-131 is radioactive for 160 days.

Dr. Sterngla.s.s points out that epidemiological studies show mortality rates have started to rise again in population centers near nuclear plants, just as they did at the height of the nuclear testing in our atmosphere in the 1950s. In those states where there are no large nuclear reactors, no nuclear bomb facilities, and no nuclear test sites, Dr. Sterngla.s.s finds the total mortality rate is dropping.

Englishwoman Dr. Alice Stewart, a recognized world authority on nuclear epidemiology, discovered that women exposed to diagnostic X-rays during pregnancy had offspring with two times the likelihood of developing leukemia as did children who had not been exposed in utero. It seems that just a small dose of radiation, approximately the equivalent of a single year of background radiation from the environment, doubled the rate of cancer for exposed fetuses. She also found that the risk of children developing childhood leukemia was twelve times greater if their exposure to X-ray diagnosis occurred in the first three months of pregnancy rather than at the end of pregnancy.

Dr. Sterngla.s.s points out that this discovery of a one-thousandfold radiation sensitivity in the early human embryo could explain his findings of increased infant mortality due to all causes following an exposure to nuclear fallout from bomb testing or nuclear plant explosions like Chern.o.byl. Sterngla.s.s hypothesizes that when the fetus or infant is exposed to radioactive elements, such as strontium-90, the radioactive particles acc.u.mulate in the bone marrow, where the cells of the immune system are developing, and disrupt their functioning.

Iodine-131, which is absorbed in utero or through the milk of the mother or cow, disrupts the thyroid gland. A poorly functioning thyroid gland affects growth and metabolism of infants. Radioactive decay of strontium-90 creates vitrium-90, which goes on to disrupt the function of the thymus gland. The thymus gland is extremely important for immune function. The vitrium-90 also acc.u.mulates in the pituitary and gonads and disrupts the critical secretory and regulatory functions of these glands. All these vital glandular organs affect the birth process and the onset of labor. Their disruption from radioactive particles from fallout may explain the increasing epidemic of spontaneous miscarriages and premature deliveries a.s.sociated with the onset of nuclear atmospheric testing in general, and the Chern.o.byl accident in particular.

According to Dr. Sterngla.s.s, the iodine-131 is concentrated one hundred times more in the thyroid of a fetus than in an adult. Since this radioactive poisoning of the thyroid affects the growth and development of all organs, Sterngla.s.s believes this helps to explain the epidemic of underweight babies and is also a.s.sociated with the reported increased incidence of brain damage and dyslexia that began during the time of nuclear testing. In follow-up research on radiation-related brain damage, Dr. Sterngla.s.s has noticed a correlation between prenatal radiation exposure and an 18-year follow-up that showed a drop in SAT scores in those who were exposed by living in areas of nuclear testing. According to Dr. Sterngla.s.s, as long as unborn children are exposed en ma.s.se to radiation, there is a possibility of widespread intellectual decline.