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Hello again everyone and welcome to all new subscribers.
Once again, thank you to those who have provided feedback from my last two newsletters. Your feedback is the most important stimulus for me to continue writing about the medical importance of wheatgrass, which is my basic message. Why is that important to me? Because it is important to anyone who wishes to take advantage of the healing properties of wheatgrass. Every day in my clinic I see patients suffering from all kinds of medical conditions that often do not respond to conventional pharmaceutical agents or, there are no safe and effective pharmaceutical agents available to treat them anyway. What's more, many of them have had enough of adverse effects such as steroid and antibiotic immune suppression and allergic reactions, not to mention the cost of attending doctors for prescriptions and the high cost of drugs. In many cases, e.g. eczema, psoriasis, soft tissue injuries, burns, leg ulcers, plantar fasciitis, otitis media and anal fissure, wheatgrass usually does a far better, safer and cheaper job than pharmaceuticals and no prescription is necessary.
In these days of increasing medical fees and insurance premiums, wheatgrass offers many patients an effective alternative that can be self-administered without fear of adverse reactions. Providing you are sure about the diagnosis, wheatgrass is often the better treatment modality. For instance, this year alone I have been able to wean hundreds of long-term eczema sufferers off topical steroids and even stronger immunosuppressants such as azathioprine and cyclosporins by using simple preventive measures and my wheatgrass extract.
But let's put all this into context. I am not criticizing these drugs per se. Systemic steroids save millions of lives e.g. in severe asthma, just as other powerful immunosuppressants prevent organ transplant rejection. Also, the mortality rate from leukemia has been dramatically reduced in recent years with chemotherapy. But I am not talking about wheatgrass saving lives in complex medical conditions that belong in the realm of highly sophisticated hospital medicine. By espousing and promoting the therapeutic value of wheatgrass, I am trying to help improve the quality of life of the majority who suffer non life-threatening but nonetheless distressing conditions such as eczema and psoriasis.
A Few Thoughts About Wheatgrass, Immunity and Autoimmunity
On my website, I talk about wheatgrass being a topical (and systemic if taken orally) immunomodulator or "immune system enhancer". I think most health practitioners would be delighted to know that such a thing exists, but it would simply be too good to be true. I have told many of my medical colleagues about the efficacy of wheatgrass, but this is almost invariably ignored as being outside the bounds of reality. If such a thing existed "we" would know about it. But, based on numerous clinical observations, medical research and other reports, I can vouch for the fact it does exist and that it often works. At http://www.wheatgrassprofessional.info/immunomod_obs1.htm you can see some of the evidence I have gathered to support this statement. My substantial anecdotal experience may not satisfy the medical researchers, but the collective evidence gives strength to my claim.
Now, if wheatgrass is an immunomodulator, then one would expect it to have some positive effect in autoimmune conditions such as psoriasis. It can, and, if the patient persists, it often works. We know that autoimmunity occurs when the body's immune system mistakenly produces antibodies that react against the body's own tissues. This is a phenomenon that occurs in all humans to a certain degree e.g. antibodies attacking abnormal cell development such as cancer cells. But when the immune system's checks and balances get out of kilter, things can start to go wrong on a larger scale and an autoimmune "condition" develops.
The usual medical approach to autoimmune conditions is to use drugs such as steroids in an attempt to suppress the immune response thereby reducing tissue damage. This sounds like a sensible thing to do, but over time, immunosuppressants can do a lot more harm to the body than good so the "cure" can end up being worse than the illness. Also, an undesirable rebound can occur on stopping these drugs. But are there no alternatives available to health practitioners? As far as I am aware, not from the pharmaceutical industry. So we have to look to the "alternative" side of medicine to find at least some of the answers, and that is where wheatgrass comes in.
But wheatgrass is not the only plant-derived immunomodulator. Echinacea is one such example, but this can sometimes be toxic and is not recommended for long term treatment. I am sure there are many others. I just happen to find that being able to apply or drink wheatgrass with impunity and indefinitely (I have been taking my extract twice daily for nearly nine years and, touch wood, have never been ill during that time) is quite a bonus. So wheatgrass can and often does help to modulate or steady the sometimes marked immunological swings that can occur in autoimmune conditions such as psoriasis thereby enhancing the healing process.
How then does wheatgrass actually work? Currently this question remains unanswered. Scientists have analysed the cereal grasses to the point that there is very little they don't know about them. But so far they have not isolated the Grass Juice Factor, (August Newsletter) a powerful growth and fertility factor which I consider to be the most important biological active in wheatgrass. This factor can act very quickly and produce phenomena that one does not normally observe in clinical practice, but which I have observed many times. These phenomena suggest the existence of alternative biochemical and/or immunological mechanisms and pathways that are as yet unknown. For example:-
Eczema
"Atopic eczema (dermatitis) is essentially an auto-immune condition."
To many health professionals, this statement might raise some eyebrows. After all, the classic teaching is that eczema, like asthma, is predominantly hereditary or genetically predetermined. Well, immunologically speaking, that is a well-known fact. But does the hypersensitivity associated with eczema explain the relapsing and remitting nature of eczema? Does it explain the nebulous variety of presentations that can occur, even in the same patient? What about the predilection for the face, neck, hands and the back of the elbows and knees? Or the fact that eczema can disappear for years then suddenly reappear for no apparent reason? Why does it respond to systemic and topical steroids and other strong immune-suppressants, then frequently rebound with greater vigour when they are ceased? Many of these questions remain unanswered.
Having successfully weaned hundreds of eczema patients off topical steroids this year alone using my wheatgrass extract, I can take this argument one step further. If wheatgrass acts as a topical immunomodulator, then it follows that there is probably a significant autoimmune component to the illness.
An example of this is a patient of mine who, like her mother and sister, has suffered severe atopic eczema since birth. Nothing has ever given lasting relief or control of symptoms. However, all three family members have had complete, sustained remission of symptoms since applying wheatgrass spray once or twice a day since the beginning of this year. They remain symptom and steroid-free.
If eczema is genetic in origin, then why have these individuals recovered from their lifelong disorder? Why do some patients with severe, lifelong eczema recover after only one or two weeks' treatment with wheatgrass? I've never known this to happen with steroids or other pharmaceuticals. To the contrary, what we usually see in atopic eczema is a chronic relapsing and remitting course, regardless of the treatment. To my mind, the answer is clear. Eczema is predominantly an autoimmune condition. Genetic predisposition is important, but secondary.
So the burning question is, "How does wheatgrass attain such positive results?" In my view, the answer to this question lies in isolating and elucidating the nature of the Grass Juice Factor. This I believe would unravel many of the hidden secrets of the power of wheatgrass.
Footnote:
Only today I heard that a group of medical researchers in Australia have decided to investigate the possibility that the use of antibiotics in infancy and early childhood may, by suppressing immunity, have contributed to the global epidemic of eczema that we see today. Hmmm. Well, I have little doubt they are on the right track. However the answer to the problem may not lie in their laboratories but literally in their own backyards!
I look forward to talking to you again next month.
Kind regards,
Dr. Chris Reynolds.
September, 2003.
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