Ross Walter Nutritionist and Naturopath health articles and blog

Your immune system finds and destroys cancer cells!

1/11/2019

If you know me or have read some of my articles here, you may know that the topic of cancer comes up a lot, because it has been my main area of interest in natural health treatments for many years.I was initially drawn to natural cancer treatments because the general public believe that this is the biggest and baddest health problem, because a diagnosis of "cancer" fills people with such dread and fear, that it reminds people that we really are mortal. We shouldn't fear cancer at all, but welcome it, as it is your body giving you warnings and telling you that it is not liking what you are doing to it. It may take some time to change this perception of cancer, but we can start now.

My fears of cancer disappeared when I started reading cancer research over 12 years ago, when I found that your body's white blood cells, in particular the Cytotoxic CD4+ T-cells and NK (Natural Killer) cells, have a primary task every day in our bodies to find and destroy virus-infected AND cancer cells! Hence it is your own immune systems that CAN and DOES fight cancer every day!

I have linked a short video showing this - actual footage of your immune system cells attacking cancer cells and destroying them! Watch this video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntk8XsxVDi0

This information and this video highlights the importance of your immune system for the prevention and treatment of cancer!

Chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery are NOT the only options for cancer treatment! These actually don't help you much at all, because both chemotherapy and radiotherapy (ie, chemical therapy and radiation therapy, respectively) actually CAUSE more cancer by poisoning the body and destroying the immune system - the main part of your body's defence against cancer! It just doesn't make sense to do this.

I still read a lot of cancer research, and I put this knowledge into practice with my clients. There is no one cure for cancer (and probably never will be) as treatment requires a holistic (whole body) approach using a combination of correct nutrition and avoiding some specific foods, supplementation, stress relief and management, detoxification, mindset, lifestyle, exercise and other treatments.

If your immune system is not strong, or you get frequent infections or illnesses, or if there is a family history of cancer or autoimmune conditions, this is where I can help - this is what I do!

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Low water intake and low humidity can increase rate of flu infectionS!

30/6/2019

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I have written many articles before on how to prevent and treat the winter head colds and flu infections, without resorting to the useless flu vaccine! I will repeat these articles again shortly, now that it's allegedly flu "season". But first, to correct my own statement, flu does not really occur as a seasonal occurrence, but because of a combination of factors which just so happen to coincide in winter.

One of the least known but common factors which can greatly increase your risks of colds and flu in winter is a very simple one of not drinking enough water in winter! Why is this such a problem, and how does this cause more flu infections?!

Our immune system is the ONLY thing which can protect you from colds and flu. One of the physical barriers in this protection is your mucous membrane barrier, in your respiratory and digestive tracts. Your mucous membrane barrier is highly populated with your immune system cells and infection-fighting cells, as well as having a layer of mucus across this barrier for additional protection. The mucus barrier makes it more difficult for any infectious organisms to get through it to reach your cells and to infect them to affect your health.

But in winter this mucous membrane barrier is often much weaker because of a lack of water intake, because of these reasons:

1) We generally drink less water in winter as it's colder and we don't sweat as much, hence we often don't feel thirsty or the need to drink as much water as in summer
2) We drink more hot drinks like teas and coffees to stay warm! Unfortunately teas and coffees (and alcohol) are diuretic and cause more fluid loss in the body
3) The air in winter is drier and less humid, which can dry out our mucous membranes
4) We use more heaters and fires etc for warmth, but this too dries out our mucous membranes.

The lack of water means less production of mucus, and therefore less protection against infections like the flu virus.

Studies show that countries and environments with a higher humidity have a greatly reduced rate of flu. Other studies show that people in drier environments in winter have a much higher rate of flu. This is because the survival and transmission of the flu virus is affected by humid conditions, and virus survival rates increase in low humidity. Humid conditions will keep your mucous membranes moist, but drier conditions will dry them out.

In addition to my usual recommendations for prevention and treatment of the winter colds and flu, make sure you are drinking enough water! If you have a cup of tea or coffee to keep warm, have a glass of water too, to negate the diuretic effects of these drinks.

For the relief of symptoms of colds and flu, our supplement and herbal dispensary can help you get over the infection quicker!

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food intolerances or sensitivities can cause chronic issues

24/2/2019

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I see a lot of people, mostly children, with intolerances and sensitivities to any number of foods, food ingredients or environmental substances. The number of people with such intolerances or sensitivities appears to be increasing at a rapid rate. So what might be causing these issues?

But firstly, what are some symptoms to look out for in yourself or your children?

Common symptoms of intolerances and sensitivities can include:
- constant or recurring runny nose, and having to blow nose frequently
- clearing of throat by coughing frequently, especially after waking in the morning
- sinus infections or pressure
- frequent tummy upsets, with sudden or frequent diarrhoea
- bloating of lower abdomen and lots of gas/flatulence
- frequent infections such as throat infections, colds and flu
- foul or smelly breath
- frequent enlarged or infected tonsils and adenoid glands, or had them removed due to being enlarged
- skin rashes, eczema, or itchy skin
- having a horizontal crease across the lower part of the nose
- sunken and/or dark circles under the eyes, as shown in the meme photo.

Many people think that these intolerances are "allergies" and use this term to describe the reactions or symptoms they see. Allergies and intolerances are both immune system reactions to triggering substances, but they are very different! Intolerances such as to dairy or gluten (as in Coeliac Disease) are an IgG immune system response, whereas allergies are a more severe IgE response.

People also believe that if you avoid the food or substance that you are intolerant to in the same way as for allergies - ie, complete avoidance, you actually have a high risk of developing new intolerances to MORE substances. I've seen this in some clients and in published research.

Hence intolerances need to be treated quite differently to allergies! In addition, failure to identify various intolerances and act on them can result in ongoing symptoms and development of chronic health conditions.

Because of the delayed reaction of symptoms appearing with intolerances, it can be very difficult to identify what are your individual triggers! But there are some very good pathology tests using blood or hair samples which can identify 50-500 different food and environmental triggers which cause intolerance symptoms. Bear in mind that allergy tests will not identify intolerances or vice versa.

If you see the "allergy shiners" under your eyes or other intolerance symptoms or in your children or family, please look into getting an intolerance test to identify what is causing these issues, and then make some adjustments to dietary intake or lifestyle to reduce exposure, to improve health! I can help with testing and recommendations from the test results!

Do you have any known intolerances and what are they? Or do you suspect some intolerances but are not sure what is causing them?

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How your immune system works to keep you alive!

20/7/2018

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This article is about your immune system! You might not think much about your immune system or think that it does very much, but your immune system is on alert constantly to protect you from all known and unknown infections, injuries, damaged cells and more, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, for your entire life! Your immune system, quite literally, keeps you alive!

There are two main parts to your immune system:
1) Innate immune system - these cells protect you from all unknown infection-causing microbes, bacteria and viruses! They recognise what is "self" or safe and what isn't, and will attack and destroy any foreign invaders. This part of your immune system is how we have been able to survive for millenia without modern medicines or medical interventions! The innate immune system, when confronted by a new microbe or invader, learns from this and then trains the adaptive immune system for longer-term defence mechanisms.
2) Adaptive immune system - the adaptive immune system develops antibodies against each invader. Antibodies are then used by the immune system to more quickly respond to and stop infections in future!

Contrary to popular belief, newborn babies do have an immune system! They get this from the mother during development, then from being exposed to good bacteria during birth, and from breast milk which is high in immune system proteins and antibodies. Their immune system gets stronger each day to protect them!

Your immune system is affected by factors such as stress, a poor diet (ie, nutrient deficiencies or excesses), poor digestive system function, chemicals and toxins in foods and environment, poor sleep quality or quantity, and chronic (long-term) infections, medications (antibiotics, NSAIDs, anti-inflammatories, immunosuppressives, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, steroids, etc), and other factors. then it's not going to work as well as it should. Reduced immune system function can lead to longer and more severe infections, reduced or slow healing of wounds, inflammatory conditions, auto-immune conditions (where the immune system turns against your body to damage organs and tissues), and even cancer. Your immune system has several types of cells which find and destroy cancer cells, so when the immune system isn't working optimally, this can allow cancers to grow and spread.

Suppressing your symptoms and your immune system with medications (as listed above) may reduce your symptoms, but will increase the risk of further or more severe infections or other chronic conditions such as cancer.

Having a good immune system is incredibly important, not just to prevent those nasty head colds or flus in winter, but for your long-term health and survival! Your immune system can be affected and reduced by so many factors. If you suffer from frequent infections such as colds, flu, tonsillitis, sinusitis, UTIs, allergies or intolerances, any autoimmune conditions, cancer, or any chronic infection, then your immune system needs help!

This is where I can help! By investigating all possible causes of a poorly functioning immune system and treating the causes, you CAN have your health back!

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Cold and flu prevention 2018 (Part3)

2/7/2018

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As mentioned in a recent article of mine, according to scientific studies looking at the infection rate of the flu virus, only about 20% of people get the flu even when deliberately exposed to the virus or from being in very close proximity to those infected with it.

So what protects you from flu - your immune system! This is why 80% of people won't get flu even when in very close contact with those who are infectious. You may only get symptoms of an infection when your immune defences are down and the infection gets on top of your immune system.

Your immune system has 2 main parts - the innate immune system and the adaptive immune system. The innate immune system is mostly found in your respiratory and digestive tracts, but also reproductive and urinary tracts too. The white blood cells of your innate immune system find and destroy foreign microbes which are recognised as not being "self". These immune system cells are non-specific, meaning that they find and fight any foreign invaders, and especially those which haven't been encountered before.

The adaptive immune system develops from the innate immune system, so that the adaptive immune cells can "learn" about the newly encountered microbes, and develop antibodies to them for longer-term protection and a quicker immune response when the microbes are found in the future.

Another problem with the flu vaccine is that this bypasses the innate immune system, as the simulated "infection" starts in the muscle where the injection occurs, and not in the respiratory tract where the innate immune system would normally start the healing process. Because of this, the innate immune system doesn't trigger the normal "learning" about the flu virus to produce permanent or even long-term memory against the infection. As a result, the flu vaccine's attempt at "immunisation" or developing an immunity only lasts a few months at most. In a real flu (or other microbial) infection, the innate immune system triggers the adaptive immune system to develop antibodies and learn for a PERMANENT immune response against the infection. In this instance, the adaptive immune system will never forget how to respond to a particular natural infection, unlike what happens with a flu vaccine.

When many other published studies show little or no benefit to the flu vaccine in terms of duration or severity of flu symptoms compared to people who don't get the flu vaccine, you have to wonder why there's such a push for everyone to get this shot...

The Cochrane review studies, which are the highest form of published research, show that the flu vaccine only reduces the flu infection rate by 1%, or in other words, only one person in 100 actually benefits from the vaccine. Another Cochrane study found that the flu vaccine only had a modest effect on time off work (1 day difference) and had no effect on hospital admissions or complication rates compared to those who did not get the flu vaccine. This study also reported that "reliable evidence on influenza vaccines is thin but there is evidence of widespread manipulation of conclusions and spurious notoriety of the studies", and "Studies funded from public (ie, independent) sources were significantly less likely to report conclusions favourable to the vaccines". Meaning that there is a lot of bias in pharmaceutical industry studies reporting "benefits" to the flu vaccines.

Other studies I referenced in a previous article suggests that the flu vaccine actually causes more respiratory infections (viral as well as bacterial), which can spread and infect more people.

You are much better off preventing flu by:
1) Improving your nutrition intake and lifestyle factors, which can boost your immune system
2) Improving hygiene during winter - washing hands more, and not touching your eyes, mouth or nose
3) Improving your vitamin D levels with more safe sun exposure, or vitamin D3 supplements during winter. Remember, "Vitamin D is the key" to prevention and treatment of flu!

Stay healthy this winter!

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Cold and flu prevention 2018 (part 1)

4/6/2018

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This is the second of my series of articles on cold and flu prevention.

It's only just into winter here and already the constant reminders to get the flu vaccine are really bugging me! The frequent playing of TV adverts (even on the rare times I turn it on), radio and sign advertising around town... It's like there's a global pandemic and we are all going to die if we don't get one! While many people will fall for the marketing, I won't be. Because there are better and safer alternatives!

Firstly, you have an immune system! Your immune system has developed over millions of years to protect you from any and all known and unknown infections and injuries, and it does this 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, forever. Your immune system learns and remembers infections from bacteria, viruses, parasites, mould, and other microbes and acts on them very quickly to enable you to have a permanent immunity from subsequent infections - usually without you showing any symptoms.

You don't catch a cold or flu just because "it's going around"! You get a cold and flu because your immune system is not working, or not able to protect you as it normally does. When your immune system is down or low, then those viruses (usually unnoticed by you) can start spreading out of control faster than your immune system can deal with them. At this time of year it will be the opportunistic cold and flu viruses which are more likely to make you unwell.

Instead of relying on a potentially risky flu vaccine which can be only about 16-26% effective for some age groups (see my previous article on my website), I recommend supporting your immune system naturally to improve its effectiveness to prevent cold and flu.

It is important to note that just because you may have been exposed to a microbe, say a flu virus, it doesn't mean that you will get it! In fact the transmission rate for flu, even in highly populated environments is quite low, with only around 20% of people getting flu even when deliberately exposed to the virus. The other 80% were automatically protected by their stronger immune systems!

What causes your immune system to not function as effectively?

There are many things which can deplete your immune system and therefore increase your risk of getting a cold or flu, here are just some:

A poor nutrient intake, ie nutrient deficiencies or excesses
Stress, emotional issues, traumas etc
Poor quality or quantity of sleep
Lifestyle factors - smoking, alcohol, drugs, lack of exercise
Poor hygiene - not washing your hands after touching objects that others may have infected, or poor hygiene by others coughing and spreading the germs to you
Low vitamin D levels in your body - vitamin D is a massive immune system booster!
Digestive system function - you can eat the best nutrients, but if your gut function is poor, then you might not get all the nutrients you need for a healthy immune system defence
Imbalance of your gut bacteria, which actually make most of your immune system proteins
Exposure to toxins and chemicals in your food and environment
Some medications - immunosuppressives, anti-inflammatories, corticosteroids, antibiotics and many more.

These main causes of immune system dysfunction give major clues as to how you can improve your immune system function to protect you against cold and flu viruses this winter!

In this series, I won't be going over all of these immune-boosting and preventative strategies, but I will focus on the main ones to help you improve your immune system function, so you can stay healthy this winter! Look out for the next article soon!

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winter is coming! cold & Flu prevention (part 3)

12/6/2016

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Here is part 3 of my recent "cold and flu prevention" article... enjoy! (please see parts 1 & 2 in other articles below)

Winter is coming! The key to staying healthy this coming Winter is prevention and preparation!
One of the best ways of preventing colds and flu is being aware what you eat! There are well known and researched foods and nutrient ingredients which keep the immune system strong to fight any infection.

There are other foods and nutrients which have anti-viral actions against the cold and flu viruses, to prevent their replication in the body, and this allows the immune system to attack and remove the virus and virus-infected cells.

Then there are other foods that actually suppress the immune system, make your symptoms worse, and extend the duration of your cold or flu. So not only do you need to eat the right nutrients, but avoid others for the best prevention and a quicker recovery.

How do you know which foods are immune-boosting, anti-viral or immune-suppressive? You ask your friendly Nutritionist & Naturopath! That's me!

In contrast, the typical medications prescribed for colds and flu only reduce the symptoms. Those symptoms (runny nose, coughing, lots of mucus and fever) are actually needed to get the infection, the virus and wastes OUT of the body and help you recover quicker. Suppressing symptoms with medications will therefore keep the infection in the body for longer and you will feel sicker or worse, cause your cold or flu to progress into a more serious condition of bronchitis or pneumonia.

This Winter, prevent colds and flu with the right immune-system boosting foods (or supplements), and avoiding the wrong foods that make symptoms worse.

In the next article I will discuss the little known but major cause of most colds and flu and why we get more of them in Winter!

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cold and flu prevention (part 2)

26/4/2016

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Here is part 2 of my recent "cold and flu prevention" article... enjoy!

The key to staying healthy this coming Winter is prevention and preparation!
As I said in my previous article, you don't catch a cold or flu because it's "going around"! You get one because your immune system isn't functioning at its optimum to protect you from them. By looking at what actually causes your immune system to not function well, we can easily see what you need to do (and what to avoid) in order to stay healthy in the cooler months!
Your immune system function is affected by:
1) Stress, emotional issues, moods and attitudes

2) Your diet - vitamin and mineral deficiencies, eating junk foods etc
3) Your lifestyle - smoking, alcohol, drugs
4) Hygiene habits - yours and others
5) Your environment
6) Toxins, pollution and chemical exposure
7) Medications - many drugs lower your immune system response, including NSAIDs, corticosteroids, antibiotics and other immunosuppressive medications
8) Poor quality or quantity sleep
9) Imbalance in your gut bacteria
10) Lack of sun exposure - and therefore a vitamin D deficiency.
Therefore these are the main causes of you getting a cold or flu! These are the things I help you with as a holistic nutritionist - to improve your immune system function from many different aspects, in a gentle, safe and natural way! There is no single way to prevent a cold or flu - it's a combination of actions that are required on multiple causative factors as listed above.
Not only will your immune system improve, but other symptoms and health conditions can be reduced or cleared by working on these causes too! That's how I can help you to improve your health.
Stay tuned for another article soon on preventing a cold and flu, where I will tell you what the 2 biggest causes of colds and flu are!

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cold and flu prevention

26/4/2016

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Today I will start a short series of short articles on the topic of staying healthy during the coming Winter and avoiding coming down with a cold or flu!

Yes it's coming up to the season of colds and flu again (where I am in Australia)! But it shouldn't be, if you understand how your immune system works to protect you and how to properly prepare your body to prevent catching the cold or flu.

Both common colds and influenza are caused by viruses. Colds generally have a slower and gradual onset, while the flu can be quite sudden and usually more severe. Does it really matter whether you have the cold or flu? No! Only a laboratory test can confirm one way or the other. Is the prevention and treatment the same for each? Yes!

Your immune system is constantly on guard to protect you from all bacteria and viruses. The immune system cells are always actively killing and removing these pathogens and preventing you from "catching" an infection. You don't catch a cold or flu because it is "going around" or that it is highly infectious, because research has proven that this isn't the case[1]. You only catch a cold or flu infection when your immune system isn't strong enough to overcome the virus, and the virus gets beyond your protective barriers to infect cells, replicate and spread to other cells.

Therefore having a strong immune system is a key requirement for the prevention of colds and flu!

If you are regularly getting colds or flu during Winter, you need to keep watching this page for the next articles on what you need to do to help your immune system!

I also have a 1-hour "Cold and Flu Prevention" presentation I do for community groups, teams and corporates, to inform people on how to stay healthy over Winter. Contact me for details, or see my Seminars page for this and other health presentations available.

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Your immune system finds and destroys cancer cells!

Low water intake and low humidity can increase rate of flu infectionS!

food intolerances or sensitivities can cause chronic issues

How your immune system works to keep you alive!

Cold and flu prevention 2018 (Part3)

Cold and flu prevention 2018 (part 1)

winter is coming! cold & Flu prevention (part 3)

cold and flu prevention (part 2)

cold and flu prevention

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