As I enter my den to respond to your questions tonight, I must tell you how wonderful it has been to be able help those of you I have during the past year. I picked up my 19-year-old son from the airport today and with the family intact, will enjoy a peaceful time together with my family. Far too often, I just take health for granted, because my family is so blessed presently with good health. But I know that Sir Isaac Newton was 100% correct when he proved that what goes up must come down. Someday, ill health will fall upon a member of my family, perhaps myself, being the elder Kaufmann. It is with the most sincere intentions that I respond to your health quests just as I would do if they were from my very own family. Thank you, Julie Arndt, and the entire Lakeshore Guardian staff, for allowing me to expound upon my gift so that others may benefit! Happy New Year, Michigan!

Q… My husband has been recently diagnosed with diverticulitis. He has been plagued with an ulcer and acid reflux for about six years now. It seems his whole body is acting up with liver enzymes being high, high blood pressure, cholesterol, heart pains and gallstones. I have ordered him some probiotics, lactose free in powder capsule form. (They said that the Healthy Trinity would be too much for his system to handle.) The doctor has had him on antibiotics, and it helps briefly but then the gut pain comes back with a lot of bloating and bowl problems. I would like to put him on the phase one diet, but where do I get a copy of it? Does the diet along with the probiotic and damage control vitamins sound like a good plan? Should he do a colon cleanse first?

My husband drinks coffee and uses a lot of sugar in it; he is also a smoker. Will this plan help even though he is hurting himself with cigarettes? Is there a cure for diverticulitus, and diverticulitos? The doctors say no, he will just have to stay away from things with seeds like tomatoes, cucumbers, corn and peanuts. He will have to depend on antibiotics and acid-reducing medicine, and possibly remove part of his colon or intestines. They say his colon already has pits (like a potted road) and that is why he is in pain when he eats things with seeds that get stuck in the jagged areas. I do not want to do anything to hurt or make his condition worse. I just know what these products have done for me and my health, improved it greatly.

I miss your show. I have recently moved and can no longer get it here. I guess I will have to order Sky Angel because I truly miss all the information I have learned. Thanks, Deb

A...Deb, thanks for your compassionate letter! The most important thing you can do is always remember this sentence when caring for a loved one: When the student is ready, the teacher appears! So many people whose health has been forever positively changed by our protocol become excited for their friends and family to try it. But so often, our friends and family believe that doctors are correct when they tell them what the doctor told your husband...that surgery and medication are his only hope. If he truly believes that, there is little hope of helping him with a simple diet change and good bacteria. I pray that he trusts you!

The National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NDDIC) has a good explanation of what diverticulosis is.

"Many people have small pouches in their colons that bulge outward through weak spots, like an inner tube that pokes through weak places in a tire. Each pouch is called a diverticulum.

Pouches (plural) are called diverticula. The condition of having diverticula is called diverticulosis. About 10 percent of Americans over the age of 40 have diverticulosis. The condition becomes more common as people age. About half of all people over the age of 60 have diverticulosis."

Then, following such an excellent explanation, the same organization follows with this information, which I feel is erroneous; "For most people with diverticulosis, eating a high-fiber diet is the only treatment needed. You can increase your fiber intake by eating these foods: whole grain breads and cereals, etc...."

Like most gut diseases, I tend to believe that mycotoxins are at fault.

These fungal poisons get inside our intestines in many ways, including antibiotics, beer and our grain supply. Whereas the NDDIC recommends eating cereals, the Journal of The American Medical Association (Jan 02) stated that corn is "universally contaminated with mycotoxins." So patients who have gut disease like GERD, indigestion, Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's Disease and diverticulosis often had plenty of grains, including corn in their diets. They tend to drink beer, or if not, tend to take far too many antibiotics (themselves mycotoxins) when they were younger. Had they replaced the good bacteria in their intestines that were eliminated by the antibiotics, their present suffering may be for naught.

I don't think the jury is in yet on coffee....a seemingly harmless member of the bean (legume) family, but we do know that people with gut fungal conditions literally crave sugar. I personally do not believe that diverticulosis has a tobacco etiology, but cigarette tobacco, cured in fermented sugar, becomes a mycotoxin. This is why I contend that we blame cigarettes and alcohol for cancer. If only doctors knew that each is a mycotoxin, and mycotoxins do cause cancer, in addition to serious gut diseases. I really think you're on the right track with 90 days of probiotics (I disagree with whoever told you that Healthy Trinity was too potent) and our phase 1 diet. Diet repairs lots of potted roads! But it takes a while!

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Q…Dear Doug, how long do you take olive leaf? Should you take it everyday? I'm over 65 and wondered if you should take it for awhile and then stay off for a day or two. Mimi

A...Mimi, I want to let all Lakeshore Guardian readers in on a little secret, because you're a sharp bunch! We take vitamins because they interfere with, and may even correct free radical damage, caused by unpaired electrons circulating in our bodies. Many supplements, like vitamins, are called "anti-oxidants" because oxidative damage, caused by free radicals, advances the aging process and contribute to so many diseases. We take vitamin supplements every day, yet we have never questioned what actually causes those nasty free radicals! First we blamed all dietary fats, but then years later we learned that God put fat here in some instances as an insulator. Monounsaturated fats, for example, are good for us. Avocados are loaded with monounsaturated fats! Then we were told that oils were the cause of free radicals. Of course, Omega 3 fatty oils are now found to restore eyesight, reverse depression in some and fight heart disease. The point I'm making is that we're so busy trying to profit off of free radicals, no one ever stopped and applied logic to the problem. As it turns out, these same mycotoxins (eg...antibiotics, alcohol, grains, mold homes, candida, etc...) cause unpaired electrons! WOW! Oxidative damage is caused by booze and bread? Although that statement requires qualification, I'm much more convinced that what man has done to what God placed here has infinitely more to do with free radical damage than fat on a cow or oil from a flax seed! Man is causing free radical damage and man is paying the price.

Olive Leaf Extract is a very potent and entirely safe (ALWAYS seek counsel from a health care practitioner before relying on me) free radical scavenger, just like vitamins! Whereas most of us think that vitamin C and D and B and all amino acids and minerals work because they reverse free radicals, in reality, each like olive leaf extract, is an antifungal! So fungus, and the mycotoxins they make, may be causing free radical damage to our bodies, an olive leaf extract daily may be the single best thing one can do to reverse free radical damage! Shhh, let's keep that our Lakeshore secret! Just imagine what would happen if someone actually figured that one out! Nobel Prize Time!!!!!

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Q…Doug, I am 42 years young and have been diagnosed with everything: fibromyalgia, fatty liver, elevated liver enzymes, thyroid problems, heavy metal toxins, sleep apnea, depression, etc and now cirrhosis of the liver. I am a full believer in natural remedies. I have a lot of knowledge from my own research on alternatives. I had to diagnose everything I had. I have had over $70,000 in medical testing and surgeries. If it would not have been for my own knowledge in natural remedies and God's guidance, I would not be alive today. My husband and I planned for my funeral last summer but I am fighting my way back to good health. What is your protocol for cirrhosis and heavy metal toxins? Please let me know. Tammy

A...Tammy, thanks for fighting the good fight! I think much is gained, spiritually when we must rely on our own resources simply to live! Trust me, Tammy, after 33 years in this field, God has a mighty plan for you...this education was for a purpose, and I'm hoping that it will prepare you for helping others in your city. I have learned that NO CREDENTIAL in medicine is as powerful as one patient given up upon by "experts", who struggles and lives...they become powerful healers!

According to A.V. Costantini, M.D., head of the Collaborating Center for Study of Mycotoxins in Foods with the World Health Organization (WHO) cirrhosis IS A MYCOTOXIN INDUCED disease. Unfortunately, those in the medical community are skeptical of cirrhosis patients and sometimes accuse them of secretly drinking alcohol, when their liver enzymes elevate too high, but if Dr. Costantini is correct, it is not alcohol, rather the mycotoxins in medications and grains that could be at the etiology of your health problems. Find me a cirrhosis patient that hasn't taken potent mycotoxins, called antibiotics, before their diagnosis, and I'll show you a disease we know little about! I believe that some people are poisoned by antibiotics and the end result looks like numerous diagnosable diseases, one of which is cirrhosis. The liver filters the blood and mycotoxins circulate in the blood stream. Mycotoxins might become sludge that atypically affects normal liver enzyme blood tests....once again, why isn't anyone studying the etiology of cirrhosis? Believe me, it's far more than alcohol, although alcohol is a mycotoxin! To this day, I'm convinced that many cases of Leukemia are intimately linked to antibiotics, as is ADD and many, many other auto immune diseases. Tammy, exercise causes perspiration and this helps detox the body...a sauna also will do the trick. Try taking a product out of Florida called SWEET WHEAT-www.sweetwheat.com-(no mycotoxins!) 4-5 times daily, as chlorophyll assists in detoxifying the body also. Replace the good bacteria with probiotics (refrigerated, please!) nightly and eat a diet that minimizes mycotoxin exposure. Within a few months, when I come to town for my lecture, you might just be the new Tammy!

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Q…Hello, I am a physically active rancher and suspect I have systemic fungus infections. What can I do to make sure I have adequate carbs for energy, yet stay on your anti-fungal diet? Are there any dietary recommendations you could make. Thanks in advance. Johnny

A...Johnny, I've yet to find anyone that isn't vulnerable to fungus and mycotoxins exposure, but in your line of work, sometimes the exposure is more common! Fungi live deep in the soil, so even a brisk wind, if inhaled, could deliver fungi into the lungs! Hay Fever was named as such because after inhaling hay that was stored in the barn or left outside, many healthy farmers and rancher became deathly sick and ran high fevers! It was later discovered that the fungus (mold), aspergillus, grew readily on the hay after a rainstorm! Aspergillus just happens to be one of the more dangerous species of mold because it makes several mycotoxins, one of which is Aflatoxin B1, the most carcinogenic substance known on the face of the earth!

A little exposure might even be healthy in that it activates the immune system to recognize it the next time and render it harmless....a little more exposure could cause a cough, nose bleeding and a fever...a little more exposure and all of the sudden the rancher is diagnosed with asthma or lung cancer. How I pray someday a doctor will discover this! Too many of our finest are dying, and oncology clinics haven't a clue! Johnny, when people have fungus problems, they actually begin craving carbohydrates like potatoes, bread, pasta, etc...(Think about alcoholism for a moment...see? You're getting it!). On our phase 1 diet, we do have plenty of carbs via our vegetables and allowable fruits, but you are considered an athlete in that you expend many calories daily in your work routine. In these cases I recommend additional carbohydrates by eating beans in the diet 1-2 times daily. Not only a wonderful source of protein, but also a great source of carbohydrates!

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Email your questions to knowthecause@lakeshoreguardian.com or mail to Know The Cause!, c/o The Lakeshore Guardian at 9697 Purdy Road, Harbor Beach, MI 48441. To order one of Doug's books, please call 972-772-0990. To learn more about Doug Kaufmann and his research, go to www.knowthecause.com.