Salt - Good, Bad or What?

PART I One of my first forays into the world of alternative medicine took place soon after my arrival in Japan when I was in my early 20’s. Not feeling particularly energetic and without any helpful feedback from conventional sources, I sought the advice of elderly Japanese man who placed me on a diet. The diet basically consisted of brown rice, beans, vegetables, fermented soybean products like soy sauce and miso, sesame oil and a few, mostly salty condiments.

Some people might recognize this as basic “Macrobiotic” fare. Macrobiotics was a diet and philosophy based on an idealized concept of the traditional Japanese food before the widespread use of milled white rice and foreign dietary influences. I was excited by the idea of feeling better and took up the challenge of changing the way I ate immediately. I remember standing on the train platform waiting to catch the train home after my first meeting with “my advisor”. I pulled out a cheese sandwich I had packed for the ride home and most ceremoniously dumped it in the garbage.

Looking back after over a quarter century of experience, I marvel at the consequences of my enthusiastic embrace of this idea. Admittedly, I will give myself a A for effort, but more importantly, I’d get a D- for common sense and an F for results.

The first 2 weeks were great. My energy increased, I felt light, I slept well... But after that initial honeymoon period of clean eating, the metabolic imbalances of insufficient protein, too many carbohydrates and especially too much salt gradually led to an ever decreasing level of health. My energy started to slide downward, my muscles felt tight and stiff, my emotional and mental outlook became increasingly narrow. Within six months I was a wreck and worst of all I had no understanding of how bad things were. I just wasn’t well enough in any sense of the word to see or evaluate my own condition.

Fortunately, a somewhat crazed American Zen devotee snapped me out of it. I hardly knew him, but through a mutual friend, it was arranged that he be put up at my house for a few days. At one point during his stay, he said to me, “The problem with you is that you aren’t eating any food at all, you are just eating theoretical concepts!” That comment, which I still remember with great clarity and appreciation, was like a lightening bolt, cutting through my dazed state and awakening in me a sense of perspective about my condition.

In retrospect it was a very destructive - and instructive episode in my life. Even after returning to an appropriate balanced diet, some of the symptoms that developed during that half year took years to disappear. Unfortunately, some of them still linger on in a ghostlike fashion, reappearing now and again.

The lessons I did learn have also stayed with me and I have had many occasion to share them with clients over the years. First and foremost, never delegate total responsibility for one’s own health to anyone else, even an “authority”. This is especially so in regard to dietary regimens. There are many ideas and theories, most of which worked for someone at some time, none of which work for everyone. It is important to keep an open mind, a sense of perspective and trust one’s common sense while trying out any diet. It might work marvelously for your best friend and be a disaster for you; and your mother might say you look too thin and pale, but you might feel absolutely fantastic.

Secondly, I experienced firsthand how diet is an extremely powerful tool, for better or for worse, to change one’s state of health and well-being. While I have studied and employed many different healing modalities over the years, there is no other tool as fundamental as considering the food a patient eats. It isn’t simply a matter of what is eaten, but also the amount that is eaten, the way it is eaten and, most importantly, the attitude with which it is eaten.

Third on the list is the necessity to consume adequate amounts of appropriate forms of protein. With all the publicity concerning the Atkins, Zone and other low carb diets, this certainly is a secret no longer. (When bakeries around the country are reporting that bread sales are off as much as 40% around the country and RJ’s Diner in downtown Bellows Falls advertises LOW CARB MEALS on the sign in front, you know the idea has taken hold...) Actually, it took me a long time to fully appreciate this particular lesson, but I firmly embrace it and written about it frequently over the years.

Lastly, it is important to respect the effect of salt on one’s health. Either too much or too little can make a critical difference in how one feels. The single most destructive aspect of my dietary adventure back in Japan was the over-consumption of salt. That is why I became so stiff and rigid - both physically and mentally. I was so dried out that it was nearly impossible to muster the energy to bend my legs to climb a flight of stairs.

My youthful “joie do vivre” was replaced by a rigid, narrow mindedness that I could no longer even see what was taking place. True excess salt intake and the fluid imbalances that it causes can also disturb the circulatory system and the function of the heart, resulting in elevated blood pressure, palpitations, headaches and a generalized anxiety.

Over the last 30 or more years, salt intake has become one of the standard tools of conventional medicine to regulate blood pressure. Next time we will explore this issue in greater detail.

PART 2

Baseball is by far the most popular spectator sport in Japan - and nothing is followed with greater interest than the national high school tournament played every summer in one the most historical professional league ballparks. During the week or two (I can’t remember clearly how long it goes on anymore) that the teams representing each of the provinces fight it out in the single elimination tournament, the country’s attention is firmly fixed on these adolescent athletes.

Each day promises 3 or 4 consecutive games beginning around 9 am. Just about every office and public place has a TV or radio tuned in to the action. For the Japanese, this tournament is the embodiment of “ganbaru ki” or “fighting spirit”: true amateur athletics played with the intensity of samurai warriors. One might compare it with the Little League world series held every year in Pennsylvania or college basketball’s March Madness tournament, but the high school tournament has much higher skill levels than the former, the absence of the masqueraded professionals of the latter, as well as an intensity and a nearly universal popularity that is unequaled by both of them put together.

For all its appeal, I didn’t find high school baseball the most intriguing spectator sport during my time in Japan. For me, it didn’t have the same allure as the primeval, ritualized sport of Sumo wrestling. These modern day athletes still live by social and athletic traditions that originated several thousand years ago. They are descendants of ancient warriors who, it is said, fought until death.

At the professional level, the 6 major tournaments consist of two weeks of matches, every day beginning with the lowest ranked wrestlers in the morning and ending with the highest around 6 pm. Each wrestler has a precise rank based on his performance history, and that rank is re-evaluated after each tournament. The matches themselves are quite brief, lasting anywhere from a few seconds to two or three minutes - until the opponent is forced outside of a ring or is made to fall on his knee or back.

What takes just as much, or perhaps, even more time are the stylized rituals that the fighters perform. Some take place as a joint presentation when a group or class of wrestles is introduced, others as the two wrestles prepare to face off against each other. To my foreign eyes, they always had an almost mesmerizing effect. Naked except for special silk loin clothes with detachable aprons that display their place of origin and rank, these behemoths slowly perform a series of arm motions and various types of stomps with their legs, all the while maintaining the same expressionless demeanor which is there code of honor.

Compared to the self-aggrandizing, demonstrative athletes of contemporary american sport, Sumo wrestlers are trained to never show a hint of emotion. This is especially so after a match. Whether they have been humiliated by a lower ranked opponent or have won the tournament championship, these fellows never betray any feeling whatsoever.

An integral part of the Sumo ritual is the use of salt. This, no doubt, is due to the fact that one of the four basic principals of Japan’s native Shinto religion is that before praying or approaching a religious shrine, a person must be cleansed through the sprinkling salt and then washing.

Likewise, the Sumo ring, known as a Dohyo, which is a clay platform with a straw circle, is purified with salt and sake each day before each tournament by a tournament referee and a Shinto priest. And before each match, the ring is again ritually cleansed with salt to ward off evil spirits. As the wrestles warm up, stretch and go thru their stylized motions before they face off, they once more grab handfuls of salt, sprinkle it on various body parts to ensure their personal protection and then toss the remainder into the ring .

A similar ritual was performed in Japanese theaters, where salt was sprinkled on the stage before each performance to prevent evil spirits from casting a spell on the actors and ruining the play.

The central role of salt in these rituals is not unique to Sumo or Japan. A fascinating article about salt by Dr. Paul Rosch, many similar examples are given .1

Many people are familiar with the superstition of throwing three pinches of salt over your left shoulder. This was because it was considered so valuable a substance that spilling any was thought to bring on bad luck. The idea was that some evil spirit was behind you causing the accident, and thus throwing salt in its direction would blind it and send it away.

The Biblical covenant of salt gave the rule over Israel to David and his descendants forever, while the Law of Moses required that all offerings contain salt.

Leonardo da Vinci painted an overturned salt dish in in front of Judas which represented an ill omen for the traitorous act. Another example are the ancient Druid rituals performed at Stonehenge that incorporated salt because it was “a symbol of the life-giving fruits of the earth”.

The importance of salt originated not only from its nutritional value as a mineral source, but also from its usefulness in preserving foods for seasons when people would otherwise have starved.

It became so valuable that many societies used salt as a form of currency. The expression "not worth his salt" comes from the practice of trading slaves for salt in Greece. The word “salary” comes from “salis”, the Latin word for salt, with which Roman soldiers were sometimes paid. "Soldier" is a derivative of “sal dare”, meaning “to give salt”. .

Salt was used to seal an agreement or contract, in the way a signature is used today, in many cultures. In Arabic countries, it also signified safety and friendship.

Participants at medieval feasts were seated in order of importance based on the location of the salt dishes. Distinguished guests dined at an elegant elevated banquet table "above the salt." Lesser lights sat "below" in the boondocks in progressively lower trestle type tables.

Indeed, as Rosch points out with the Latin saying “Nil sole et sale utilius”, there is nothing more useful than the sun and the salt.

1 Rosch, Paul J., M.D. “Take the Latest Low Sodium Advice With a Grain of Salt”, Health and Stress newsletter of The American Institute of Stress

PART 3

For thousands of years, salt has been considered an irreplaceable component of the human diet. Without adequate amounts of salt, people suffered from mineral deficiencies and metabolic disorders. Yet, for the last several decades, instead of being celebrated as the essential, life-giving food that it is, salt has been gained notoriety as a cause for high blood pressure.

Dr Paul J. Rosch, a professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at the New York Medical College has written a fascinating overview of both the history of and our contemporary attitudes towards salt in an article entitled, “Take the Latest Low Sodium Advice With a Grain of Salt”.1

Millions of dollars have been spent on government sponsored salt related research. This generally negative attitude toward salt has been most famously codified by the 1979 "Surgeon General's Report on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention" which identified salt as a major factor in hypertensive conditions. Five years later, a huge government sponsored study concluded that in general societies with higher salt intake will also have higher average blood pressure.

Even more damning was a 1999 study that followed over 20,000 Americans for more than a quarter century. The results were that people who ate more salt “had 32 percent more strokes, a whopping 89 percent more deaths from stroke, 44 percent more heart-attack deaths, and 39 percent more deaths from all causes.”

What is most interesting about this research is that although the statistics were technically correct, the conclusion was actually false. It is a classic example how numbers can be manipulated to prove just about any preconceived opinion.

What an independent review of the data showed was that the correlation of high salt intake and cardiovascular disease was only true for persons who were overweight. If overweight persons were removed from the study, the correlation disappeared. In fact, Michael Alderman, an epidemiologist and past president of the American Society of Hypertension, concluded quite the opposite and wrote that for persons who were not overweight, "the more salt you eat, the less likely you are to die."

While it is undoubtedly true that certain hypertensive persons are sensitive to salt intake, it is simply impossible to conclude that high salt intake is a cause of high blood pressure. For instance, in one of the salt studies, one group of Chinese all from a particular province had the highest salt intake of any group in the study - and very low rate of hypertension. Conversely, another group from Chicago with low salt intake had above average incidences of high blood pressure. Another group, a Brazilian rain forest tribe had low salt levels also had mean blood pressures that ran 20 to 30 points lower than what is considered normal.

The fact of the matter is that while it is possible to manipulate or cherry pick the data to “prove” any number of theories that may contradict each other, restricting salt can also have negative health consequences. For instance, after reviewing data in a study of 3,000 people with relatively moderate hypertension, Dr. Alderman concluded that “those who consumed the least sodium had the most myocardial infarctions and other cardiovascular complications.”

An article published in the Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal, in 1998 similarly concluded that people “who eat lots of salt live longer than those who avoid it.” The 25% of people who consumed the lowest amounts of salt had a higher risk of death compared with the 25% who consumed the highest amounts of salt (23 deaths per 1,000 compared to 19 per 1000 person-years). Likewise, in an eight-year study of hypertensives in New York, those on low-salt diets had more than four times as many heart attacks as people with normal sodium intake.

Rosch states that reduced salt intake actually has a number negative consequences including: increased levels of renin (an enzyme that is associated with hypertension), increased levels of LDL (Low density lipids - the “bad” type of cholesterol), insulin resistance (the cause of adult onset or “type II) diabetes), reduced sexual activity in men and cause cognitive difficulties and anorexia in the elderly.

Reductionist thinking, that is an attempt to reduce complex phenomena to a single simple factor, is always tempting because it makes things simple. But the human metabolism is too complicated to reduce the cause of cardiovascular disease to a single culprit, be it salt or anything else.

There are many factors that influence blood pressure. For instance, it is known that deficiencies of other minerals such as calcium, potassium, and magnesium, correlate with hypertension. Excessive dietary intake of carbohydrates can also have a similar influence.

Balancing the amounts of sodium, magnesium and potassium can reestablish a healthy blood pressure when it is raised. Sodium, potassium and magnesium also act to regulate fluid balance in the body, allowing nutrients and oxygen to reach necessary destinations within the body.

That is why for anyone concerned about blood pressure, it is important to use a high quality of salt such as Celtic Sea Salt from France or Real Salt from Utah, both of which contain not only sodium chloride, but a plethora of other minerals essential for maintaining a healthy metabolism. Unfortunately, most of the commercial salts commonly available, even those labeled as sea salt or kosher salt, are heated and bleached. This results in a chemically altered, mineral deficient product which, though inexpensive and easy to pour from a shaker, is best avoided.

1 Rosch, Paul J., M.D. “Take the Latest Low Sodium Advice With a Grain of Salt”, Health and Stress newsletter of The American Institute of Stress

Smallpox & Other Poisons

PART I I hadn’t heard from him in quite a while, but as soon as I answered the phone and heard the voice at the other end, there was little doubt who it was. The combination of the thick Eastern European accent, breathy smoker’s tone and the plaintive quality brought instant recognition.

“Dr. Jonas, it seems we’re having a problem and we were wondering if you could help.” “Alexi, I haven’t heard from you in years,” I replied. “What’s going on?” “Dr. Jonas, it’s Irina. You see, last month she was feeling very weak and was complaining of dizziness. We took her to the doctor here, and after many tests they diagnosed her with diabetes...” “Wow! She just suddenly developed juvenile diabetes?” “Yes, it appears that way. Nina and I want to know if there is anything you can do to help.” “There might be... It only just happened, maybe there is something we can do. But it’s important to find out what pushed her body into that state. Was there anything unusual happening? Any illnesses or stresses?” “No, not that we can think of... The only thing that was any different was that Irina was given a flu shot a month before this all happened. The doctor assures me there is no connection.” “No connection, my ass!” I couldn’t contain my frustration. “Didn’t we talk about giving Irina vaccinations? Her medical history makes her the most vulnerable type of person to suffer side effects from them.” “I know that you had told us. But she had been doing well and her pediatrician wanted her to get the shot. She even showed us all this information about it and said it was absolutely safe.”

Irina (not her real name - nor are Alexi’s and Nina’s) is a 10 year old girl who I began treating four years earlier for chronic recurring pneumonias and gastric reflux as a result of an esophageal fistula (an abnormal hole in the esophagus which usually opens into the trachea and is present at birth). In point of fact, I had never met Irina nor her parents face to face. Living too far away for office visits, we had consulted on a consistent basis for several years over the phone. In spite of her delicate constitution, Irina made steady progress over that time until regular consultations were no longer necessary.

This made the news of her latest problem all the more disheartening — especially in the light of the fact that her parents had been duly warned against her vulnerability to the possible side-effects of vaccinations.

If this were the only story I have to tell about vaccine related illness, perhaps it wouldn’t disturb me so much. But it isn’t. This week a woman related to me how she developed chronic fatigue syndrome within weeks of a rubella vaccine. Two weeks before that I saw a 13 month old child who broke out with eczema within days of his first immunizations. The pediatrician swore there was no connection and insisted that the child continue with the series of scheduled shots. After each subsequent vaccination, the eczema would flare up again and his mother would be reassured that it had nothing to do with the shots. Now, unless he is lathered in cortisone creams, his intolerably itching and burning skin condition rages out of control.

Day in and day out, these stories are so commonplace in my practice. And that doesn’t include the patients who, although not consciously aware of it, have a hidden “vaccine connection” as a factor in their illness which becomes apparent either through careful review of their medical history or by energetic testing such as electro-dermal screening.

One would think that these complications would be generallly recognized by the medical establishment. Instead, they are either dismissed as an acceptable rate of “collateral damage” or, more frequentely” pointedly denied. Patients and parents of patients suspicious that a vaccination has caused a medical problem rarely are taken seriously.

But there is clear data that indicates otherwise. For instance, Dr. J. Bart Classen, an immunologist working at his own private laboratory, has presented data showing that, in his words, “80% of cases of insulin dependent diabetes in children who have received multiple vaccines starting after 2 month of life.”

Classen made a public presentation September 11, 2000 - of all dates - revealing that his research showed “causal relationship between many different vaccines and the development of insulin diabetes. “1 The data indicated that it was not a problem with a specific vaccine per se, but was connected with a broad range of them such as pertussis, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, hemophilus influenza and others. This indicates that the entire concept of immunization shots needs to be reconsidered. What makes the problem even more insidious is that his data indicated it may take 4 or more years after the vaccination for people to develop vaccine induced diabetes.

And now in the wake of our concern over biological terrorism we are faced with the spectra a host of other vaccinations such as smallpox and anthrax being forced on us. Several persons have already died from heart attacks after receiving the smallpox vaccine. And that is surely only the tip of the iceberg.

Nearly 4 years ago, the Dr. Classen tesified in front of the Committee on Government Reform of the United States House of Representatives that his research indicated “an increased risk of autoimmunity following immunization in the military and the link between vaccines and diabetes.”2

How long will it be until the “see no evil, hear no evil” attitude toward vaccinations of most medical authorities is replaced with the clear recognition that they pose a severe threat to the well being of a large number of people. This is especially, the true of the most vulnerable and valuable segment of our population — the immunologically undeveloped infants who on the receiving end of an ever increasing number of vaccine insults.

PART II

The notion that vaccinations are the the magic bullet of preventative medicine is deeply ingrained in both philosophy of the public hygiene establishment and the public imagination. When there is a perceived threat from any biological agent, the implementation of preventative vaccinations is often the first - and perhaps only - strategy that is either suggested or enacted.

Yet, there is far too little recognition that we are paying a price for our reliance on this strategy. There are widespread side-effects associated with the ever increasing number of vaccinations that have become part of the standard healthcare protocol for infants, children, the elderly and military personnel.

The deleterious side-effects go far beyond the acute distress, sometimes fatal, that develop in a relatively small percentage of immunized persons. There is evidence that vaccinations compromise our immune and nervous systems, leading to increased incidence of autoimmune disease, behavioral disorders and mental impairment. Research has linked diabetes, rheumatism, autism and other conditions to vaccinations. Recent reports of several deaths from heart attacks suffered after smallpox vaccinations suggests that the cardiovascular system is not immune from similar damaging consequences.

How much of a “vaccination load” can the immune system bear? The numbers of suggested vaccinations keeps on growing every year. The three or four childhood vaccinations of my youth have blossomed into many times that number. Over the past few years, vaccinating for various strains of hepatitis has become standard, vaccinating for various forms of the flu has become an annual autumnal ritual amongst the geriatric population and our concern with a terrorist attack using biological agents such as anthrax or smallpox has once again stimulated renewed interest in adding yet another series to the regimen. No doubt, a vaccine for SARS is in the pipeline...

It is easy to dismiss the negative consequences of vaccines as the inevitable collateral damage, a necessary evil so to speak, associated with a successful public hygiene policy. Yet, the widespread and severe nature of these side-effects suggests that this policy is perhaps neither successful nor wise, and that the risks may outweigh the benefits. In other words, the possibility of conferred immunity is too high a price to pay for the long term - and, in some cases, immediate - problems associated with vaccinations.

Consider the case of Kathy (nor her real name), a 26 year old woman who consulted with me in the fall of 2002. She has been diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and fibromyalgia, suffering from joint and muscle pains, inability to concentrate, disturbed sleep, and recurring respiratory infections for over 2 years.

Her problems are clearly related to a vaccination for hepatitis C. The day after receiving the shot, Kathy had for the first time what she refers to a ‘seizure’. In her own words, she described the experience thus: “I know they are coming and I lose the ability to focus on anything. I begin to feel numb. This numbness passes through me, from my nose to my back, from my shoulders down my arms and fingers. It goes into my lips. The right side of my body will start shaking first and I’ll need to lie down and just concentrate on my breathing”. This used to occur several times a day, but with time had diminished in frequency. Along with this phenomena, Kathy also developed an inflamed liver with internal bleeding.

It was after the resolution of the acute liver inflammation and hemorrhage that the chronic symptoms of fatigue, pain, respiratory infection and so on began. Fortunately, in Kathy’s case, she has responded well so far to a regimen of homeopathic cleansing where quite literally the information and energetic grip of the vaccines on her system has been neutralized and the related toxins expunged from her body. The process is by no means completed, but many of her most troubling symptoms have abated.

Although there are healthcare practitioners who, through various protocols involving homeopathics, vitamin and mineral supplementation, diet, botanical medicines and other modalities, are able to assist people who have suffered the negative consequences of vaccinations, their efforts are no match for the size and depth of the problem.

For one, the number of practitioners is miniscule in comparison to the number of persons affected by the vaccinations. Secondly, the general population is for the most part unaware that these remedial therapies exist and, to a great extent, unaware that there is a connection between the problems they or their children suffer and the vaccinations that caused them.

This situation will not change unless several things happen. People on the front lines of the healthcare delivery system - healthcare providers of every type - need to understand how serious the problem is, how widespread it is and learn to recognize it in individual cases. Only then will the “hear no evil, see no evil” attitude of denial in the medical profession begin to disappear.

Secondly, the coercive tactics of the medical establishment to force infants, school aged children, healthcare works and the elderly to be vaccinated needs to stop. No mother ought to be scolded, belittled or otherwise made to feel guilty for questioning the wisdom of vaccinations for her child. People, both professional and lay person alike, need to be educated about the pros and cons in order to make informed recommendations and decisions.

As a corollary, the grip of the pharmaceutical industry, which obviously has a very strong economic incentive to encourage widespread immunization campaigns, must be loosened. Of course, immunizations are only one aspect of the much large issue concerning the undue influence of drug companies on the way medicine is currently practiced in this country.

Finally, it is important for us to recognize that true preventive medicine does not necessarily rely on this prophylactic tinkering with our immune system which has so many known and unknown consequences. Proper hygiene, nutrition, and lifestyle, along with cohesive family and societal structures are the foundations upon which health is preserved and disease avoided.

http://www.909shot.com http://www.cure-guide.com> http://www.vaccines.net http://www.access1.net/via/ http://www.mercola.com/forms/vaccine_teleconference.htm

Sticky, Smelly Beans

It is well known that as a rule the Japanese are not an inclusive bunch. While Americans often take pride in their ethnic diversity, the Japanese self-identify as a homogeneous, island nation unique in language and culture. Current anthropological thinking puts the lie to this concept since it is believed that the modern day Japanese descended from a mixture of various races, including Micronesians, Southeast Asians, Koreans and Manchurian stock. Yet, the national psyche still clings to this idea with far ranging implications for the country. Foremost is that anyone coming to Japan for the briefest or the lengthiest stay is considered a ‘Gaijin’ - an ‘outside person’, and, as such, find it next to impossible to be integrated into the society. This includes anyone from the casual tourist to the the long term resident expatriate westerner to the ethnic Korean communities whose ancestors immigrated (or were brought as forced labor) centuries ago. Members of this latter group often do not even have Japanese citizenship - after 400 years.

This exclusiveness is not really racism (though there is plenty of that to go around) as much as ethnic consciousness. It isn’t necessarily that the Japanese feel superior (my experience was that the lighter your skin was the more inferior they felt, the darker it was the more superior - but that is another story), but that they feel distinct and that their island(s) were there to be inhabited by them.

One illustrative fact is that as of the 1980’s when I lived in Japan, only three westerners had ever been granted citizenship. Of the three, I know of two - the writer Lafcadio Hearn and the sumo wrestler Jessie Takamiyama. Both of them achieved this distinction not only because they were well known long term residents, but more importantly, because they exhibited an extreme cultural identification with their adopted homeland. In a word, they were more Japanese than the Japanese.

Along with the strong ethnic identification comes a social consciousness of cooperation to the extent of compliance. At the end of the 2nd World War, the government made it known that the road to prosperity would in large part depend on limiting population growth and they made abortion available on demand. Today, it is extremely rare to find a Japanese family with more than 2 children. Couple this low birth rate for the last half century to the fact that the Japanese have the highest average life expectancy in the world and you’ve got an aging population - and a big problem.

There just aren’t enough working age people around to drive the economy and create the wealth necessary to support the increasing numbers of retired and non-working elderly. In other nations with aging populations, the European countries come to mind, this dearth of workers is offset by the acceptance large numbers immigrants - which has not occurred without a tradeoff in terms of a host of accompanying social problems. But the fact that the Japanese are so intent on preserving the social fabric and homogeneity of their nation, that they are instinctively disinclined to absorb Gaijin into their society to resolve the problem also means that they are facing some dire consequences.

During my eight years in Japan, I didn’t quite aspire to become the fourth Gaijin to earn citizenship, but I did do my best to remove myself from the expatriate community of English speakers, to live amongst Japanese as a Japanese to whatever extent it was possible for me at the time. It was an unattainable goal because in the end, I spoke, looked, acted, thought - and most importantly, felt different than my neighbors. In America, you be that way and still be an American - a white American, a black American, an Armenian American, an Irish American, a Japanese American - but an American. In Japan, it was much more binary - a Japanese or a Gaijin.

It wasn’t that my efforts didn’t produce some small victories along the way. One such very minor one was that I developed a palate for some of the more subtle tastes that are distinctive to Japanese cuisine and which , as a rule, Gaijin find disagreeable.

I distinctively remember how my youthful pride was once bolstered when I ordered a dish of fermented soybeans. The chef raised his eyes off the chopping block and looked at me quizzically - I was sitting at the counter in a hole-in-the-wall sushi shop - and exclaimed, “Eh, you like that stuff? Gaijin don’t eat natto!” I would like to say that I answered him with a proud, “Well, this Gaijin does!” - but in all reality, I probably just shrugged embarrassingly.

Yet, it was true that natto had become very appealing to me, not unlike developing a taste for blue cheese. In fact, the pungent fermented taste and odor of the two are quite comparable. In addition to that, though, there is another potential barrier to becoming a natto enthusiast. Even if your tongue and nose learn to accommodate or even appreciate the taste of natto, there is a visual dimension to the process.

The fermentation process produces a sticky paste-like substance that adheres to the surface of the beans. Customarily, one eats them with rice, stirring them up with chopsticks to enhance the flavor, but which also increases the stickiness. So, scooping up a mouthful looks a bit like stuffing your mouth with a cobweb...

Two decades have passed since I’ve been in Japan and my natto eating days are mostly behind me - or so I thought until last year. For it was around one year ago that I started reading in the literature about the miraculous health properties of an enzyme that has been isolated form natto. Today, this enzyme, commonly known as “nattokinase” has become the hot new kid in the world of nutritional medicine.

PART II

In the old Chinese medical classics, it is mentioned that the highest form of medicine is food. Appropriate amounts of good quality food nurtures and balances the body, providing it with the strength to ward off illness and function optimally.

Even thousands of years ago, the authors of these texts considered the ingestion of medicines - and by that they meant herbal medicines - to be harsh and unnatural. They lamented the degenerative state of mankind which resulted in the need for people to ingest something that had no nutritional value per se, but was required for strictly the elimination of disease.

Well, we’ve come a long way since then - and maybe, in a sense, we are about to come around full circle. Certainly, as a society, we have a much higher awareness of the importance of nutrition - especially, of how poor nutrition effects our health - because the impact of our nutritional indulgences and negligence cannot be ignored.

Sometimes the line between food and medicine is not so clear. There are many foods that have medicinal effects, and there are substances we might consider medicines that are effective precisely because of their nutritional value. Garlic comes to mind as an example of the former; cod liver oil as an example of the latter.

The traditional Japanese food Natto is also one of those that cuts across both these categories. Like yogurt, sauerkraut, kvass and many other foods, natto is a fermented food with a long history. In this case, boiled soybeans are fermented with the bacteria Bacillus subtilisin.

The fermentation process creates a very pungent odor as well as sticky strands forming on the surface of the beans which look something like a cross between a spider’s web and super glue when eaten. Suffice it to say that it is cuisine for the aficionado who has developed an appreciation for its taste - not unlike a good smelly blue cheese. Most frequently it is eaten at breakfast with rice.

Although it is a rich source of protein, Vitamin B2 and Vitamin K2, the reason that natto has recently been the object of great attention in the nutritional circles is that it contains the enzyme ‘nattokinase’. In turn, the chief attribute of nattokinase that has made it one of the hot, new items in nutritional medicine its ability to dissolve blood clots, otherwise known as ‘fibrinolysis’.

Fibrin is a clot forming protein which serves to protect the body from excessive bleeding and ‘lysis’ means to break down. Thus, ‘fibrinolysis’ is a process that breaks down clots. The body produces an enzyme called ‘plasmin’ which has similar fibrinolytic properties, but for a variety of reasons its activity appears to diminish as we age. The effect of nattokinase not only is similar to plasmin, but research shows that it is four times more potent.

So, the question is: what is so important about fibrinolysis? While it is obvious that the capacity of the blood to form clots is extremely important, it appears that in many cases people have an overactive clotting mechanism. It is hypothesized that there are several possible causes of this dysfunction such as underlying nutritional deficiencies, physical tissue trauma, and acute or chronic infections.

Whatever the reason, this hyperactivity leads to a host of cardiovascular problems such as hardening of the arteries, heart attack, stroke, intermittent claudication (a common problem of pain that develops in the muscles of the legs when taking exercise due to peripheral vascular disease), varicose veins and high blood pressure. In addition, it is also thought to cause on be a contributory factor to many other conditions such as senility, infertility and impotence, hemorrhoids, eye conditions involving the retina and some types of chronic pain like fibromyalgia.

The enzymatic activity of Nattokinase is not only fibrinolytic, but also homeostatic. That is, not only does it break down existing clots, but it also works to prevent the formation of excessive amounts of fibrin and reestablish a healthy coagulation mechanisms of the body.

This regulatory action of Nattokinase means that, unlike the available pharmaceutical “clot busting” agents, it does not reduce the capacity of the body to form clots appropriately and quickly to stop bleeding.

There are other drawbacks to the anticoagulant drugs that are currently being used such as Heparin, Warfarin (better known as Coumadin), Streptokinase and t-PA (tissue plasminogen activator). In addition to increasing the risk of bleeding, Warfarin depletes the body of vitamin K - which has an important natural blood clotting action. Streptokinase has a very short lived action and over time becomes less effective. Heparin must be injected and its used can lead to allergic reaction, high potassium levels in the blood, osteoporosis, low blood platelets and even hair loss. t-PA is only administered as an IV, is effective for a relatively short period of time and generally is extremely expensive.

In contrast, nattokinase is easily taken as an oral supplement, has a longer lasting action, costs less and is without negative side effects. In fact, some of the noted possible positive ‘side-effects’ of nattokinase are increased energy, better circulation, better vision, less joint and muscle pain, and even has been used to manage migraine headaches.