Dr.
Frank Shallenberger’s
Vol. 7, No. 12
Are These Popular Drugs
Contributing to Cancer?
If you think your family history of can-
cer is your biggest risk factor in getting this
terrible disease, think again. Only 30% of
cancer cases are due to genetics. It’s the
other 70% you should worry about. That’s
because these are the result of lifestyle
issues. And, believe it or not, that’s good
news. While you can’t control your genetics,
In this Issue
Q If you have heartburn, it
greatly increases your risk of
this cancer .................................. p. 1
Q Simple and inexpensive way
to stop snoring now .................... p. 4
Q If you have joint pain, it’s a
clear sign of arthritis, right?
Well, maybe not .......................... p. 7
Q Is this mineral deficiency a
cause of Restless Leg Syndrome?
Here’s how to know .................... p. 8
Coming Next Month
• If you have shoulder pain and your
doctor tells you surgery is necessary,
don’t go under the knife until you try
this amazing procedure first.
• What to do when your doctor says you or
a loved one has Alzheimer’s. Following
these simple recommendations could
save your memory.
December 2008
you can control your lifestyle.
And poor lifestyle choices have caused a
rare cancer to become one of the fastest
growing cancers in the U.S. In the last 30
years alone, the chance of getting this cancer
has increased fivefold. According to Dr. Scott
Swanson, chief of thoracic surgery at Mount
Sinai School of Medicine in New York,
“There may be only 14,000 cases now, but if
you keep up that rate of rise, it’s going to
pass them all. If it continues, we’re going to
be dealing with a real epidemic.”
But that’s not the worst of it. It looks
like the cause of this form of cancer is a com-
bination of extremely common symptoms,
along with the drugs that are used to sup-
press the symptom.
The cancer I’m talking about is
esophageal cancer.
The symptom that causes it is good old
heartburn. The estimates are that 60 million
people have heartburn occasionally. And over
15 million people have it on a regular basis.
And the drugs used to treat it are those
that suppress stomach acid production.
Common examples are Pepcid, Zantac,
Tagamet, Prilosec, Prevacid, and Nexium.
Prescriptions for these drugs and their
cousins nearly doubled from 50 million in
1999 to more than 93 million in 2004!
Why are these drugs being used by more
and more people? Because of bad lifestyle
habits. The kinds of habits that are causing
the dramatic increase in esophageal cancer.
No Need to Worry — It’s
Preventable
Now I don’t want you to worry too
much over this. If you have heartburn, even
if you take medications for it, it is not auto-
matic that you will get esophageal cancer.
However, you will greatly increase your risk.
It works like this.
About 12% of patients with persistent
heartburn (called GERD) will develop a
more severe form of the disease called
Barrett’s esophagus. The problem here is
that other than putting a tube with a cam-
era down your throat (called gastroscopy,
which costs about $1,000) there is no way to
know who has Barrett’s and who has simple
heartburn. And the distinction is important.
Once heartburn turns into Barrett’s,
the risk for esophageal cancer increases by
40 times. That translates into one in every
20 patients with Barrett’s getting esophageal
cancer. That’s a substantial risk for a very
serious disease. So instead of worrying about
getting esophageal cancer, why not just get
rid of your heartburn/GERD? It’s easy. And
if you are on heartburn medication, there’s
an additional bonus. You can save that $2-$4
a day that you’re currently spending on
medication, because you will no longer need
it. So now, let me tell you about Tom.
Tom’s story
Tom is a good looking 52-year-old man.
He is and has always been in excellent shape.
He exercises regularly. If you saw him, you
would surely think, “This is one healthy guy.”
And, in fact, he was healthy except for one
not-so-minor problem. Tom had heartburn.
But Tom never thought much about
it because his doctor had prescribed
Prilosec for the last eight years. As long
as he took his medication, he had no symp-
toms. Out of sight — out of mind. And
then one day his brother changed all of
that. His brother was diagnosed last year
with esophageal cancer.
—2—
Tom came to me two weeks after he
heard the news and said, “My brother was
just diagnosed with esophageal cancer, and
I’m worried that I may get it too. I have
heartburn just like he did, and I’m also tak-
ing the same medication he took.”
I told Tom that I thought he had a very
real concern, and I started to tell him how
to cure it when he interrupted me. “Doctor
Shallenberger, how do you know that I don’t
already have esophageal cancer? My broth-
er’s wasn’t discovered until it had already
spread all over his body.” I thought about it
for a second. Tom had a very good question.
So I told him that I would send him to a
gastroenterologist for a gastroscopy. If he
had cancer, I assured him that the doctor
would see it with that procedure. I saw Tom
again one week after his gastroscopy, and
when I read the report, I was amazed at
how lucky he was.
The report indicated that as the camera
came close to the stomach, the esophagus
became eroded, thickened, and inflamed. In
fact, it looked enough like cancer that the
doctor took a biopsy of it. Fortunately, the
biopsy was negative for cancer. But it did
show that Tom had advanced Barrett’s dis-
ease. Furthermore, his esophageal cells had
already developed precancerous changes. It
was only a matter of time before these cells
would have become cancerous.
Tom’s intuition was right on target.
Had he not become worried after his broth-
er was diagnosed, he would have ended up
with cancer for sure. And now that he was
aware of his precarious condition, he was
fully motivated to do something about it.
Here’s what we did. And here’s what you
can do to clear up your heartburn/GERD
before it gets too serious.
A Real Cure for Heartburn
Whenever I’m on the hunt for a real
cure for any disease, the first thing I do is
determine what caused the disease. The
most common dietary causes of heartburn/
GERD and Barrett’s are the excessive use of
coffee, alcohol, aspirin and other painkillers
(such as NSAIDs), and carbonated bever-
ages (including soda water). The most
common lifestyle causes are weight gain,
eating too fast, eating less than three hours
before sleep, and stress. Tom had almost all
of these factors going on in his life.
But that’s not all. There is one cause
that almost every doctor misses — poor
digestion.
The poor digestion comes in two fla-
vors. One is an under production of stomach
acid. The other is an under production of
pancreatic enzymes. And the two are often
tied together. Pancreas enzymes are secreted
in response to stomach acid production. So
when there’s an underproduction of stomach
acid, there’s a decreased release of pancreat-
ic digestive enzymes. They go hand in hand.
Stomach acid is important for diges-
tion, but it also serves another critical pur-
pose. It protects us from infections. Every
time we eat something, there’s always some
bacteria, fungi, yeast, and, mold on the food.
This is true no matter how sanitary the
cooking methods are. There’s no need to get
concerned about it, however, because God
took care of all that when He made your
body to produce plenty of stomach acid.
When you eat these infectious organisms, it
exposes them to stomach acid, where they
are killed, and it protects you from infection.
That is, unless you don’t have sufficient
stomach acid to do the job. In that case, you
will develop infections in your stomach and
upper digestive tract. And these infections
are a major cause of heartburn/GERD. The
most common infection is from a yeast
organism called candida albicans. I’ll talk
more about Candida in a little bit.
Hypochlorhydria — A Major
Cause of Heartburn
The term that doctors typically use to
describe an under production of stomach
acid is hypochlorhydria.
Your doctor can diagnose hypochlorhy-
dria using a very easy testing procedure
called tubeless gastric analysis. We use the
test at my clinic all the time. So do many
—3—
gastroenterologists. The test requires you to
swallow a capsule, which contains circuitry
that can measure the presence of stomach
acid. The capsule also contains a small radio
transmitter. So as it determines how much
stomach acid is present, it transmits the
information back to the receiver. The cap-
sule is eliminated from the body in a normal
bowel movement. It’s as simple as that. It
doesn’t leave any chemicals in the body. And
it doesn’t have any side effects.
So how does hypochlorhydria cause
heartburn/GERD? In two ways. First, as I
mentioned above, it allows the growth of
bacteria, fungi, yeast, and mold in the stom-
ach and the upper intestines.
The other way hypochlorhydria causes
heartburn is by poor digestion. And an insuf-
ficient level of stomach acid can dramatical-
ly reduce your digestive capacity. You need
stomach acid to start the digestive process
and cause the release of pancreatic enzymes,
which are so crucial for digestion. To the
degree that the food you eat isn’t fully
digested and absorbed into your system, it
will just sit in your stomach and upper
intestines and ferment.
But poor digestion is not enough to
cause esophageal cancer all by itself. So
what is the cause? The biggest reason why
patients with heartburn/GERD get
esophageal cancer is the drugs they use to
treat the heartburn symptoms.
The Drugs Are the Problem
When most people have heartburn/
GERD, the first thing they reach for is an
antacid or a drug that decreases stomach
acid production. But, as you’ve already seen,
most cases of heartburn/GERD are not
caused by too much stomach acid, but too
little. So in the great majority of cases, tak-
ing a drug that reduces stomach acid just
makes the problem worse.
But I have told you only half the story
so far. These drugs lead to an even worse
scenario. One that is directly associated
with esophageal cancer. They lead to bile
reflux. Bile reflux, particularly the reflux of

Stop Snoring Now!
Last month, I told you about an inexpen-
sive, safe, and easy way to treat all three kinds
of sleep apnea — obstructive, central, and the
mixed type. It simply involves breathing oxygen
through a nasal cannula during sleep. And
that’s all that’s needed for the majority of
patients with apnea. But sometimes, especially
in cases of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), it’s
not enough. That’s when using a simple dental
splint can make all the difference.
Dental splints are so effective that about
30% of all OSA can be completely eliminated
by using one, without any oxygen at all. But in
order for you to understand how these devices
work, you need to know what causes snoring
and OSA.
Both snoring and OSA are caused by the
same thing — a blockage in the airway. The
blockage occurs when the tongue and soft palate
fall back in the throat when you lay down to
sleep. The problem is especially bad when you
sleep on your back. To compensate for the
blockage, the body will automatically increase
strength of the breathing effort. And, to some
extent, if the blockage is not too bad, this
unconjugated bile acids, is when bile acids,
specifically what are known as unconjugated
bile acids, reflux from the small intestine up
into the esophagus. Bile reflux is now
known to be one of the major causes of
esophageal cancer. And a study published in
the Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery
explains how antacids cause bile reflux.
The doctors looked at 30 patients who
had GERD. Just like Tom, all of them had
been taking the drug Prilosec for the symp-
toms. But unlike Tom, who had been taking
the drug for years, they had been taking it
for only three months. The researchers per-
formed a gastroscopy on all of these
patients. Not surprisingly, they found that
one-third of them had a dramatic increase in
the presence of bacterial overgrowth. These
bacteria acted to increase the amount of
—4—
Clinical
increased effort will allow the body to get
enough oxygen.
In this case the only problem will be the
snoring sound that occurs as the air struggles to
get past the obstruction. OSA is more serious.
OSA is what happens when the obstruction can-
not be overcome by simply breathing harder.
In the case of OSA, the airflow that’s
needed to overcome the obstruction is so great
that it’s like trying to drink through a straw
that’s stuck in ice-cream; the harder you suck,
the flatter the straw becomes, and the worse
the blockage becomes. And the worse the block-
age is, the less oxygen gets to the brain. At some
point, this becomes so severe that the body liter-
ally stops breathing. At that point, of course,
your brain is getting no oxygen at all!
Dental splints work by preventing or limit-
ing the ability of the tongue and soft palate to
fall back and cause the obstruction. Often only
a small decrease in the level of obstruction is all
that’s needed to stop OSA. It’s a simple, easy,
and inexpensive solution. And it really works.
When I first learned about dental splints, I
began sending my patients to a dentist in Los
Angeles who specialized in custom splints for
this purpose. That was until I learned that they
unconjugated bile acids in the stomach. And
they increased it a lot — a full 1,200%!
Another study published just four
years ago also shows how bad this problem
of bile reflux is. This one came out of the
School of Medicine at the University of
Leeds in Leeds, England. In this study, the
researchers found that 48% of the patients
studied who were taking drugs to reduce
stomach acid had bile reflux!
This is a remarkable finding, and one
that the drug reps are not going to tell their
doctors. You are also not going to see this
information on any of the thousands of TV
commercials that appear every day encour-
aging you to take these drugs for your
heartburn symptoms.
So the bad news is that taking drugs to
reduce stomach acid production is one of the
l Pearls
were charging $2,000-$3,000 for the fitting.
Somehow, I thought, that can’t be right. So I
began to look into the matter myself. I eventual-
ly discovered a company called Distar. Distar
markets an FDA-approved dental splint called
the TheraSnore.
The TheraSnore appliance is the world’s
leading anti-snoring dental splint. It was invent-
ed right here in the U.S. by Dr. Thomas Meade.
And more than one million people have used one
to date. It’s one of the least expensive and most
successful medical treatments for simple snoring,
and for OSA. And, best of all, you don’t need to
be a dentist, have dental equipment, or visit a
dentist to custom fit and adjust this splint.
In last month’s issue you learned all about
Anita. Anita (not her real name) is a patient of
mine who had severe mixed apnea — a blend of
central sleep apnea combined with OSA. When I
put her on oxygen by nasal cannula every night,
she improved dramatically. But she was still
having some problems with the obstructive com-
ponent of her apnea. She was the first one I ever
fitted for a TheraSnore dental splint. The
results were great.
After several sessions of adjustments and
re-fitting (remember this was my first one!),
causes of esophageal cancer. And this helps
to explain why the incidence of this terrible
cancer is growing at such an alarming rate.
But there is some good news to report.
In the same study, the researchers also
looked at 10 patients who had been on
Prilosec, but who had stopped it for only ten
days. Happily enough, they found that the
bile acid problem had disappeared in all but
one of them. So, if you are taking these
drugs, it’s good to know that once you stop
them, you can normalize your bile reflux in
a short period of time.
Other Drugs That Cause
Heartburn/GERD
I mentioned them in the beginning of
this article, but it is good to say it again. The
class of drugs called NSAIDs is a known
Anita was very happy. She was no longer snor-
ing, and her OSA was a thing of the past. Her
overnight oximetry sleep study was completely
normal. So now, as long as she has her dental
splint and her oxygen, she is completely free of
sleep apnea. And she obtained this great result
without surgery and without C-PAP.
Since Anita, I have had several other
equally satisfying cases using this splint to treat
OSA. And, so far, I have not had any failures.
The manufacturers say that their research
shows that the splint is 93% effective in treating
mild to moderate cases of snoring.
It takes me about an hour to custom fit the
splint. And here’s the really good news — the
total charge is only $500. In many cases, this
cost is reimbursed by insurance.
So if you have OSA, and your doctor told
you that you need either surgery or C-PAP,
remember this: Surgery usually doesn’t work
and is loaded with side effects; and C-PAP is
expensive, inconvenient, and cumbersome. Try
the splint and/or oxygen by nasal cannula first,
and only try these other modalities if you
absolutely have to. To get a list of doctors and
dentists using the TheraSnore splint, just go the
Distar website (www.distar.com).
cause of heartburn. Many people use these
anti-inflammatory drugs to treat various
aches and pains, including arthritis. Examples
are Advil, ibuprofen, Aleve, Mobic, Motrin,
Naprosyn, and Celebrex.
Another class of medications that cause
heartburn is the bisphosphonates. These are
the drugs that are used as a treatment for
osteoporosis. Common examples are Fosamax
and Actonel.
The last group of drugs that can
cause heartburn is antibiotics. Even just one
course of antibiotics can result in an over-
growth of a yeast called candida albicans.
Candida is a fermenting organism. It is by
far the most common infection that causes
heartburn and GERD. I’ve seen many cases
of chronic heart- burn that started after a
course of antibiotics.
—5—
Curing Your Heartburn Naturally
To cure heartburn and avoid
esophageal cancer, there are five things you
have to do. This program is a total cure. It
will completely eliminate heartburn/GERD:
(1) Eliminate candida. To do this you
need to stop eating all carbohydrates for two
weeks. This means limiting your diet to only
vegetables that grow above ground, meats,
and cheese. Nothing else! After two weeks
you can start eating carbohydrates again,
but continue to avoid sugar and fruit for an
additional four weeks. At the same time,
take an anti-yeast medication called nys-
tatin. You have to get this by prescription
from your doctor. Get one hundred 500,000
unit tablets, and take one tablet, four times
a day until they are gone. Also, take a
strong probiotic twice a day. I get great
results from Pro Bio Gold made by Kirkman
Labs (www.kirkmanlabs.com). Advanced
Bionutritionals also has an excellent product
(800-728-2288). I prescribe four capsules
twice a day for six weeks. Another impor-
tant probiotic is saccharomycin bullardi.
You can get this at the health food store.
Take 250 mg two times a day for six weeks.
This simple program will completely elimi-
nate candida from 98% of people.
(2) Eliminate all alcohol, coffee, tea,
caffeine, NSAIDs, and carbonated drinks
including carbonated water.
(3) Eat slowly, and avoid eating for
three hours before you go to bed.
(4) Take the following supplements:
Cease Fire wafer (www.vrp.com) — one
tablet daily; 20 drops of cabbage juice
Real Cures (ISSN 1062-4163) is published monthly by
Soundview Publishing, LLC. Publisher: Wallis W. Wood;
Editor: Frank Shallenberger, MD. Subscriptions $49 per
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770-399-5617. Real Cures is a newsletter containing gen-
eral comments on health, nutrition, and medicine. Readers
are advised to consult with their own physician before
implementing any health idea they read about, whether
here or in any other publication. Copyright © 2008 by
Soundview Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.
Unauthorized reproduction of this newsletter or its con-
tents by xerography, facsimile, or any other means is illegal.
—6—
extract; and one ounce of aloe juice four
times a day. Also, take two pancreatic
enzyme capsules before each meal.
(5) After one week, the heartburn
symptoms will be so minor that it will be
possible to stop the stomach acid medications.
Two weeks later, stomach acid production
will have returned to normal. At that point,
ask your doctor to test for hypochlorhydria
with tubeless gastric analysis. You can
find a list of doctors who do this test at
www.phcapsule.com. If you have an insuffi-
cient amount of stomach acid, start taking
one to two stomach acid tablets at the
end of each meal. Don’t be surprised if the
test says you need HCl. Most people will
need it.
So What about Tom?
Using this plan, Tom was off the
Prilosec he had been using for the past
eight years in just one week. Just for fun I
added it up, and the cost for those eight
years came out to $8,640. A week later, we
tested him with tubeless gastric analysis.
Sure enough, he had hypochlorhydria.
Ironically enough, all those years that he
had been taking medication to cut down
stomach acid production, his symptoms
were actually being caused by a deficiency
of stomach acid!
Three months later, we sent him back
to the gastroenterologist for another gas-
troscopy. This time the results were
markedly different. There were no signs of
Barrett’s esophagitis anymore, and the biop-
sy no longer showed precancerous changes.
Tom’s body was busy going about doing the
business of curing itself.
As he got better, we gradually began to
decrease the amount of supplements he was
taking, and we started to loosen up a little
bit on his diet. When the six-month interval
finally arrived just a few weeks ago, he was
back to a normal healthy lifestyle. He could
have some coffee, sweets, and alcohol, but
moderation was the word of the day. A repeat
gastroscopy showed that his esophagus had
completely healed, and there was no evidence
at all of either heartburn or GERD. Q
REFS:
http://www.csamedical.com/Publications/LayArticles/WSJ___Th
e_Hidden_Dangers_of_Heartburn_10_OCT_2005.pdf
Sarela, A.I., D.G. Hick, et al. “Persistent Acid and Bile Reflux in
Asymptomatic Patients With Barrett Esophagus Receiving
Proton Pump Inhibitor Therapy.” Arch Surg., 2004;139:547-551.
When Joint Pain Isn’t Arthritis
What if you found out that your joint
pains are not osteoarthritis, as your doctor
insists? What if the cause is excessive levels
of a very common mineral? Believe it or not,
there’s a condition that can perfectly mimic
the pain and swelling of osteoarthritis. In
fact, it can even look just like osteoarthritis
on X-ray films. But this condition is com-
pletely different from osteoarthritis.
I’m talking about skeletal fluorosis. As
the name indicates, the cause of skeletal flu-
orosis is excessive fluoride. The mineral
your dentist claims will save your teeth and
bones. While it won’t save your bones, it can
kill you. Most people don’t realize fluoride is
a poison. As little as five grams of sodium
fluoride will kill an adult. Smaller doses,
such as those from toothpaste use and
drinking water, can cause severe joint pain
and many other problems.
This condition is extremely common,
but doctors rarely diagnose it. That’s largely
because they never think to look for it. They
usually think of arthritis or some other con-
dition (such as ankylosing spondylitis; renal
osteodystrophy; osteopetrosis; and Diffuse
Idiopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis) long
before they suspect fluoride poisoning. And
X-rays don’t help. Skeletal fluorosis can look
just like osteoarthritis or one of the previ-
ously mentioned diseases.
So how can you tell if fluoride is caus-
ing your joint and muscle pains? The best
way to diagnose fluorosis is by testing for it.
Your doctor can order a blood test called a
serum sialic acid to GAG (glycosaminogly-
cans) ratio, or alternatively a serum sialic
acid to serum seromucoid ratio. A ratio less
—7—
Song, S., S. Guha, et al. “COX-2 induction by unconjugated bile
acids involves reactive oxygen species-mediated signaling path-
ways in Barrett’s oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcino-
ma.” Gut 2007;56:1512-1521.
Theisen, J., D. Nehra, et al. “Suppression of gastric acid secre-
tion in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease results in
gastric bacterial overgrowth and deconjugation of bile acids.” J
Gastrointest Surg. 2000 January-February;4(1):50-4.
than three in either test suggests fluoride
poisoning.
A simple blood level for fluoride can
also work. If you have a persistent elevation
of serum fluoride above 0.04 mg/L (normal
is less than 0.01 mg/L), you have fluoride
poisoning.
Finally, since urine can concentrate flu-
oride up to 50 times more than blood, urine
testing is another way. With this test, a fluo-
ride level over 8 mg/L in a 24-hour collec-
tion indicates fluoride poisoning.
If your fluoride levels are high, there
are two things you can do. First, avoid all
sources of fluoride. This includes typical tap
water and most toothpaste. Use a natural
toothpaste from a health food store that
doesn’t have fluoride. And use a reverse
osmosis filter for all your water, especially
drinking, cooking, and bathing water. Your
body will eventually excrete all the fluoride.
Second, it’s possible taking iodine will
hasten your body’s removal. So consider
taking an iodine supplement, such as Iodoral.
These are available on the Internet. Q
REFS: A K Susheela, T K Das, J S Khurana, A Jayaswal, and P
K Dave. Circulating levels of sialic acid and glycosaminoglycans:
a diagnostic test for ankylosing spondylitis. Ann Rheum Dis.
1988 October; 47(10): 833-837.
Heller KE, et al (1997). Dental caries and dental fluorosis at
varying water fluoride concentrations. Journal of Public Health
Dentistry 57: 136-143.
Hileman B. (1988). Fluoridation of Water: Questions about
health risks and benefits remain after more than 40 years.
Chemical & Engineering News August 1: 26-42.
http://www.fluoridealert.org/fluorosis-india.htm
Singh A, et al. (1963). Endemic fluorosis: Epidemiological, clini-
cal and biochemical study of chronic fluoride intoxication in
Punjab. Medicine 42: 229-246.
 LETTERS TO THE
Q. What do you recommend for rest-
less leg syndrome? Any information or
direction you can provide on this will
be greatly appreciated. — Myron T., West
Warwick, RI
Myron,
The problem with the diagnosis of RLS
(restless leg syndrome) is that like so many
other syndromes, the causes are many.
Sometimes the cause is due to a deficiency
of a vitamin. The most common is the B-
vitamins, and especially folic acid and B12.
Other times it is due to a deficiency of
a mineral, especially iron and magnesium.
So a good start is to have your doctor give
you a trial of B12, magnesium, and folic acid
injections twice a week for three weeks. You
can try the same thing orally, but sometimes
injections are needed to get high enough
blood levels to turn RLS around.
Make sure your doctor also checks you
for iron deficiency. This is common, especially
in menstruating women, and is often missed
unless checked. A common sign of iron defi-
ciency is pale skin and excessively pale eyes.
Another effective treatment for RLS is
exercise. I’ve noticed that RLS rarely if ever
happens to people who are in good cardio-
vascular condition. If you don’t already have
a copy of my book, Bursting With Energy,
please get one. They are sold at all of the
major book outlets. I’ve written a whole
chapter about how to exercise properly.
Finally, I’ve seen many cases of RLS
respond to regular yoga exercises, especially
when you do them before going to bed.
Q. My muscles hurt so bad I can hard-
ly sit down or walk. The back of my
upper legs and left arm is hurting
badly. Local doctors thought I had a
muscle disease, but did some blood
tests that came back negative. What
could it be? — Roseanne T., via e-mail
Roseanne,
I wish I knew your age. These symptoms
—8—
EDITOR
sound like one of two causes. The first one
occurs in younger women, in their 30-40s. It
is a rheumatic condition that can be caused
by an autoimmune process in the body. The
three blood tests that tend to be positive in
this condition are a sed rate, rheumatoid
factor, and an ANA titer. If you have had
these tests and they are negative, it doesn’t
completely rule out a rheumatic condition,
but it’s much less likely. If the tests are neg-
ative, be sure to check them again after a
few weeks just to be sure.
The second cause is a hormone defi-
ciency. The most common deficiency is of
the sex hormones estrogen and proges-
terone. So if you’re menopausal, I would bet
that’s the cause. In that case, a trial of tak-
ing bio-identical hormones should clear up
the problem. Other hormone deficiencies
that can also cause the problem include the
thyroid hormones T3 and T4, and the adre-
nal hormones DHEA and cortisol.
Lastly, I would want to know if there
were any changes that occurred in your life
during the two to three months before the
symptoms began. Did you paint your house,
add new carpets, or fumigate your house?
Did you change your diet? Did you start a
new medication (the anti-cholesterol drugs
are known to do this)? Did you have any
dental work? Did you get sick, and/or devel-
op a rash? Any of these things can cause
your immune system to react in a way that
can cause your symptoms. If so, you may
need a complete detoxification program
from an integrative physician.
Got a Question?
Do you have a question for Dr.
Shallenberger? If so, please send it (typed
only) to him c/o Soundview Publications,
P.O. Box 8051, Norcross, GA 30091-8051 or
feedback@RealCuresLetter.com. While he
won’t be able to respond personally, he’ll try
to answer as many questions as he can in
these pages.