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A
MOST PROBABLE EXPLANATION FOR THE OCCURRENCE OF ALL AUTO-IMMUNE DISEASES
(© 31
July 2015: Dr.V.M.Palaniappan,Ph.D.)
Most of
the time, for want of proper explanation of the auto-immune disease phenomenon,
people tend to describe it in the following manner:
In this regard, let us see a latest news that concerns “promising progress for new treatment of type-1 diabetes”
The
following URL would take you to the hot news that was in Medical Xpress (July 30, 2015):
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-07-treatment-diabetes.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=ctgr-item&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter(T1D refers to Type-1 Diabetes)
(The above comes from the journal Scientific Reports, and the authors are from Uppsala University: Dr. Kailash Singh and Professor Stellan Sander.)
*************
Let me offer here my explanation for the occurrence of
not only T1D, but also for ALL other auto-immune diseases.
To understand the phenomenon, one should read the
following text in FULL, rather than skipping
parts of it, with the assumption that it is already known information. (I
can assure you, you will be certainly benefitted by doing so.)
As against the normal medical ethics, I performed a small
research on my own body.
I had to do that essentially because, I felt that, that
is the only way by which I can control (or account for) all OTHER variables
that often tend to mislead a researcher.
The objective of the investigation was to find IF SALT (SODIUM
CHLORIDE) IS REALLY A CULPRIT IN CAUSING HYPERTENSION, HEART DISEASE,
STROKES, HEART FAILURE, and/or KIDNEY DISEASE IN PEOPLE.
**********
The FDA has the following to say about SODIUM
intake:
Average Sodium Intake
“The human body requires
sodium, commonly referred to as salt, to balance the fluids in the body and
help transmit signals between the nerves, muscles and brain.
Consuming too much sodium,
however, causes an increase in blood volume and contributes to high blood
pressure.
The average American consumes
3436 mg of sodium per day, according to the American Heart Association, which
is well above the daily recommended intake.”
***********
I initiated my study, based on the following
hypothesis I developed:
Point-1:
5 grams (5,000 mg - more than
double the amount recommended by the FDA), about a teaspoon of
salt in a glass (250ml) of water would form a
strong salt solution, and that would taste very bitter.
If that amount of salt is dissolved in 1 L (1,000
ml) of water, it would taste slightly better, but still on
the higher side.
If the same quantity is dissolved in 2 L water, it may
taste nice.
If that is dissolved in 3 L, then one may feel (if
that happens to be a soup) that the salt is NOT enough. He may
want to add a little more to make it tastier.
Point-2:
The salt, upon entering into the body, helps in balancing
the body fluids, works as an electrolyte by helping to conduct impulses from
the brain to the muscles, and the like, and then gets leached out of the body
in the urinal fluid. (If we consume more salt, urine becomes more salty.)
If we drink LESS water, in other words, if we drink a
strong salt solution, the salt content of the voided urine will be at its
maximum saturation point.
Excess salt that cannot be voided beyond the saturation
point of the consumed water will stay within the body.
This will then increase the salt concentration of the
body fluids.
In other words,
If a person takes 10 grams of salt, and if he
drinks only HALF a litre of water (500ml), then, his body would retain abundant salt.
Such a high salt retention would certainly increase the
consistency of the blood, thicken it, increase the blood pressure, give strokes
and heart failure, and also kidney disease.
On the other hand, if the person drinks, say, 5 L of
water, then the 10 gm salt would still perform ifs function inside the body, and
would get easily removed in the urine, for THAT amount of water will not get
saturated with salt.
In this latter case, the blood may not coagulate, but may
remain thin as if aspirin is taken. The pressure may NOT increase, instead of
it, LOW blood pressure tends to occur (Palaniappan,V.M., 2001. Heart
problems, diabetes, and related diseases. ISBN 978-967- 9988-08-2: pages:
113-156). Strokes,
heart failure, and kidney damage too may not occur.
Point-3:
If we want to test the ill effects of increased salt
consumption, we should design an experiment in the following manner: (It
is just a hypothetical one, meant to provoke further thinking in the right
perspective):
Let us say we are testing it on 4,000 men and 4,000
women.
All these people should (at least in theory):
· Live
in the same environment,
· Practice same kind of lifestyle (including fan usage, physical exercise, etc.)
· ALL
the 8,000 people should be given, say, 5 grams of salt daily.
The above are called VARIABLES. Such variables
should be same as far as possible, so that errors will not occur while
conducting the experiment.
First lot of 2000 people should be given HALF Litre (500ml) water daily
(and no other liquids).
Second lot of 2000 should drink 2 L water.
The third lot 2000, 3 L.
The fourth lot should take 4 L.
If the experiment is carried out for a year, the
following results can be expected, based on my earlier study (Palaniappan,V.M., 2001. Heart problems,
diabetes, and related diseases. ISBN 978-967- 9988-08-2: pages: 113-156).
Those who took only half L water daily + 5 grams salt can be
expected to almost certainly develop high blood pressure, stroke, heart and
kidney failures.
Those who took 2 L, may get slight high blood pressure,
and the above to a lesser degree.
Those who took 3 L, almost certainly will not develop any
of the above diseases.
Those who took 4 L water, may end up with LOW blood
pressure. They may end up being THIN, for most of the weight-contributing
calcium would get leached out in the excessive urination. (See:
Palaniappan,V.M. (1998). Obesity: causes, cure and prevention. 471pp. ISBN 978-967-9988-05-8;
Palaniappan, V.M. (2013). All about obesity in a nutshell. 254pp. ISBN 978-967-9988-15-4)
In this group
of people, their blood would remain very thin, and strokes, heart failure and
kidney damage, etc. would not occur at all!
THE INFERENCE:
IT IS THE QUANTITY OF WATER ONE CONSUMES THAT DETERMINES
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SAID DISEASES, AND NOT THE QUANTITY OF THE SALT ONE
CONSUMES.
As a matter of fact, if blood samples of all the four
groups of people are tested for the salt content, the following would become
obvious:
The blood of those who have been taking 500 ml water would
show very high salt concentration – hence all the diseases.
That of those taking 2 L, may show sodium concentration on the upper side of
the normal range.
Those taking 3 L may exhibit on the LOWER side of the
normal range.
Those consuming 4 L water daily may show SALT (Sodium)
INADEQUACY.
******
The above was the hypothesis I developed in 1998.
I did so because, I have been consuming too much of salt
all the time from childhood, but had LOW BLOOD PRESSURE.
This led me to do an experiment on my own person, as said
above, against the normal medical ethics that one should not use one’s own body
for experimentation.
**********
The following experiment is what I did to study the effect of excessive
salt consumption:
Let me copy-paste here what I have written in my book: Palaniappan,V.M.,
2001. Heart problems, diabetes, and related diseases. ISBN 978-967-9988-08-2: 284pp).
Here it is: Excerpts from pages 131-136:
********"A true situation that happened in my life
Since
1975, it has become a regular practice for me to test a hypothesis on me rather than doing
it on other people.
This
time, based on my findings, I wanted to tell all, that taking plenty of salt, guided only by
the taste buds on the tongue, would not be
harmful to health.
With
a view to reconfirming this, I started taking about 20 to 30 grams of salt daily. For this purpose, I bought from a
neighbouring supermarket a dozen good-looking plastic packets that had refined,
finely ground, imported salt. (I did not bother to find if this was iodine-enriched.)
I
increased the salt intake by sprinkling it liberally on potato chips, smearing cut
sour mangos in it before eating them raw, and adding plenty of it practically
to all foods I ate. I enjoyed eating cut
jumbo fruits dipped in a mixture of
salt and ground cumin seeds. This is a delicacy!
During this period, I drank about 10 glasses (2½ L, instead of my
normal 6 glasses = 1½ L) of plain, purified water, in addition to taking about
three mugs of light coffee, daily. I
kept up my regular urination.
I monitored my blood pressure, body weight, blood glucose, etc. once
every week. There was no change in any
of the readings: my B/P stood at 115/68 mmHg, and Pulse 68/min., with
insignificant fluctuation. My unchanged
body weight (on its own, without any diet control) has been 138 ½ pounds (63
kg) all the time - for the past 26 years!.
Everything
went on very well for about 5 months. Suddenly, I found some changes in my
physical features. My body weight
increased to 145 pounds (66 kg), face became swollen, couldn’t pronounce words,
speech became distorted, eye-sight became blurred, memory failure became noticeable, mind
developed a confused state, ears became deaf, eye-bags developed, and I became
lazy, lethargic and sleepy.
With
all these in me, I couldn’t even cross a road properly, for I felt an imbalance
often. While crossing a road at a ‘zebra
line’ in Myanmar (I had already joined a tour group a long time earlier), I
even fell down on the road! Dr. SM.
Subramanian from Johore Bahru, my cousin and a fellow traveller, literally
dragged me aloof, saving me from the on coming traffic!
Until
now, I was never on drugs of any kind.
Once a year or so, I would gulp some analgesics, such as two tablets of paracetamol tablets, if I had any
headache or body pain. The last time I
had antibiotics was in 1985 – that was
to recover from severe diarrhoea I had after a visit to
one of the neighbouring countries!
I
went for a medical check-up, and consulted a few specialists. I was put on
steroids. Finally, a reputable
Endocrinologist diagnosed me as having Hashimoto’s
Hypothyroiditis, with a ‘woody hard’ thyroid gland!
In
simple language, this means that my thyroid gland is dead, and
thereby it has lost its capacity to produce the required thyroxine on its
own. Therefore, I have to substitute it
with a synthetic pill, daily, for the rest of my life!
My
blood was repeatedly tested. Such tests
showed the following readings:
Both
the Thyroid Antibody and the Microsomal
Antibody were 2,621,440, instead
of the normal <100.
·
Thyroid Stimulating Hormone
(TSH) became >100, instead of the normal range of 0.4-4.7 mlU/L.
·
Free Thyroxin (FT4) was <5 p mol/L
instead of the normal 10 –25.
·
A few more of the readings became erratic,
suddenly.
·
All the electrolytes in my blood were at
midpoints of the normal ranges.
·
Whereas the sodium (salt, also an
electrolyte) stood at 136, the normal range being 135 – 145 mmol/L. This was at the base of the normal range,
when it fact, I have been taking enormous quantities of salt!
That
was a joyous news, and my hypothesis was correct, after all!
Based
on the thyroxin-related readings of my blood sample, I was then given with
different doses of thyroxin hormone tablets. Regular blood
tests performed at bimonthly intervals gave information pertaining to the right
dosage my body required to manage itself in a ‘healthy state’!
Now,
I am hooked to it: I have to take 1¼ tablet (125 micrograms) of the thyroxin
tablet daily, forever! Yet, I have been
having minor but nuisance-causing side effects until now, I guess, because of
the hormone tablets.
All
this while, I belonged to the Perfect category.
But, not any more! What a
pity! I wanted to show to the world that
one could live without any disease for 120 years. That appears to have become ruined now!
The
above story is true!
At this, I have the following questions to clarify:
Why
should this happen to me?
Where
have I gone wrong?
What
has caused the hypothyroiditis?
If there was excessive iodine in the salt, by right, I should have
developed hyperthyroidism,
and not hypo.
It
took a lot of thinking, recollections, and tracing of the history of my life
style that I practised during the crucial six months’ period. Every minute detail was recollected and
analysed.
With a view to tracing the truth, I studied intensely
plenty of literature connected to endocrinology. I was surprised to find that there does not
seem to exist any literature that could provide a meaningful answer for the
occurrence of this problem in humans.
I approached some Endocrinologists with a view to
co-operating with them to do some research so that we could establish the cause
for the problem. I thought, I would make
an excellent study subject.
With a view to pursuing the research proceedings, I tried
to convince my Consultant Endocrinologists by presenting the three
recent books I have published recently.
I thought, this might create in him/her some respect for me as a
researcher, so that he/she may allow me to do some research in this area, in
their premises. It did it!
Personally, I believe, if I can gain access to interviewing
a hundred patients in an Endocrinology Clinic, I should be able to determine
the cause that is responsible for the thyroid problems in people! I think, I have the adequate pre-requisite
knowledge to do that! Now, having seen
the green signal, I have to plan my research program and proceed with it soon.
In the meantime, I have more or less traced theoretically
the cause for the problem all by myself.
Let me lead you to the answer, which I believe, is right.
The most probable cause for thyroid problems and also hyperactivity in humans.
The
situation leading to the development of hypothyroidism appears to be identical
to the occurrence of the Insulin-Dependent ‘Juvenile’ Diabetes Mellitus Type I
When a person consumes normal sugar, normal quantity of
insulin secretes.
When
the sugar consumption increases, insulin secretion
also increases proportionately to cope up with the excessive sugar input.
Likewise,
when a person takes less sugar, insulin secretion
decreases.
When
a person stops taking sugar altogether, then the
very secretion of insulin has no purpose.
As a result, the secretion gets totally
withdrawn, giving rise to Diabetes Mellitus, Type II.
When
the sugar consumption is increased to a level that is
far beyond the tolerance limit – the threshold point, the only alternative
available for the brain at this situation to
prevent death is to ‘reject’ the sugar by ‘ignoring’ its
very presence so that such sugars will get eliminated along with the excretory
products, through urine and other sources. This
could be best done only by a total withdrawal of insulin. Thus, the function gets totally withdrawn,
and as a result of it, a complete dependency for insulin gets initiated, and
that will be the Type I, requiring a daily injection of the insulin, for
rest of the life of a person.
The latter phenomenon is identical to the withdrawal of the
monthly menstruation among fertile
women. If a woman continues to have
orgasm through sex, she will continue to have
menses even into her sixties. If she
refrains from it altogether, menopause
will set in at an early age. This occurs because the functioning of the
reproductive system becomes redundant in such women. This should be the reason why young females at Christian
institutions, totally sacrificing their life for the service of God, develop
early menopause. Such occurrences become
irreversible![1] The development of hypothyroidism is identical to the
above.
Under normal circumstances, if the iodine supply is
available through the food eaten (e.g., cabbage, sea fish, agar-agar jelly, etc.), then the person
stays healthy with a normal quantity of thyroxine secretion.
When
there is a shortage of iodine, hypothyroidism develops in
him/her. With a view to preventing this,
the salt manufacturers enrich the salt with iodine.
When the iodine consumption increases, the thyroxine hormone secretion also
increases, giving the person hyperthyroidism.
If and when the iodine input becomes far too much to
tolerate, and crosses over the tolerance limit, the hyperactive state also should
proportionately increase to an intolerable level, giving the person total
insomnia, mental upset, limitless
irritability, a rapid heartbeat (palpitation called tachycardia), very high blood
pressure to the extent of
bursting the blood vessels (cerebral haemorrhage) at the brain, resulting in stroke,
followed by death.
The best alternative for the brain at this situation is to
withdraw totally (similar to the withdrawal of insulin in a Diabetes-I case)
all the thyroxin secretions. This
can be best achieved by destroying the very thyroid gland, and that
too in an irreversible manner!
How could such destruction be carried out?
The
above process must have occurred in me.
That is precisely why the auto-antibodies (viz., the Thyroid
Antibody and the Microsomal
Antibody productions) were
produced in such unbelievably high numbers as stated above – in several
millions, instead of <100!
Naturally,
in the total absence of thyroxin, the Thyroid Stimulating Hormone
(TSH) gets increased to more than 100 mlU/L, instead of being between 0.4 and
4.7. This is to persuade the thyroid gland to secrete the
thyroxin hormone. Because of the irreversible nature of the
thyroid gland, and related inability to produce any more thyroxin, the Free
Thyroxin (FT4) content in the blood becomes drastically reduced – to a level
that could be considered insignificant.
Thus, the quantity of FT4 in me became <5 mol/L instead of the normal
range of being between 10 and 25.
So, the new situation where the thyroid gland would not secrete
any more thyroxin, would give rise to a situation called hypothyroidism,
and it is named after the Japanese Surgeon Hashimoto, hence the name
Hashimoto’s
Hypothyroidism.
The above must have occurred in me because of taking too much of iodine
through iodine-enriched salt.
The normal quantity of sodium
present in my blood shows that, the excessive salt
I have been consuming has not done anything to me. But it should be the iodine-enrichment that
had damaged my body functions. (I found later that all the
salt I consumed was iodine-enriched!)
Had I taken such an excessive salt that has not been iodised,
I would have been totally healthier all the time as I have been until now.
The next question that arises out of this
If
the above is true, why should such a hypothyroidism develop in an obese
person who takes only a negligible quantity of salt?
Unfortunately, the obese persons, owing to their
under-urination habit, accumulate abundant salt in their body.
As a result, (a) they don’t develop a craving
for salt consumption, and (b) all the obese
people take very little iodine-enriched salt through food. A survey conducted (see Palaniappan, 1998)
shows that the obese people don’t seem to prefer eating cabbage, jelly, black-pepper and the
like. Their preferred food appears to be
meat items.
As a result of these two, the iodine intake gets drastically inadequate
in the obese, thus giving them the hypothyroidism. In this case, the disease development should
be equivalent to that of the Type II diabetes – which may not be a
permanent destruction of the thyroid gland. Hence, it should be reversible[2].
However,
as a rare occurrence, if an obese person is going to consume excessive salt without increasing water
intake, then, any little iodine consumed will get accumulated to larger
quantities, and this way, the person could get Hashimoto’s Hypothyroidities, along
with the death of the thyroid gland. Then, it would be irreversible.
The
presence of this disease should be common among the obese. This disease in the Skeletal, Thin or Perfect persons
(people like me), should be a rare occurrence.
You may call mine a ‘misadventure’.
If the Skeletal, Thin and the Perfect people
are going to consume mediocre quantity
of iodine-enriched
refined salt, unlike me, they
would not develop Hashimoto’s
Hypothyroiditis, but would become hyperactive,
because of the increased thyroxin produced as a result of the inducement
provided by the iodine.
I
have seen this hyperactive problem in two children, who were brought to me
for a possible cure a few years back, but I was unable to determine the cause
for the problem at that time! Hence, I
did not fully succeed in my attempt to set right their hyperactive behaviour.
Whatever, if the imported salt packets I bought in the
local supermarket had a prominent label on it saying that it was
‘iodine-enriched’, I would not have used
this salt, instead, I would have continued using the loose, un-enriched,
‘dirty-looking’, natural, local salt.
What am I to do now?
Whatever, I am glad the above ‘misadventure’ gave me an
insight into the long-time puzzle that couldn’t be solved until now. Am I to thank God for it, or am to condemn
Him for putting me into a problem of this kind forever?
Recommendation to the people at large
Please use un-enriched, un-refined, un-processed natural,
local salt that is cheaply priced, for all your
cooking. This is what the food
manufacturers also should do. You can
take plenty of salt to taste, without any fear, as long as you are going to
consume adequate quantity of water to throw away the excesses through urination.
The obese people should certainly (but gradually) increase
(a) the water consumption and urination, and (b) the eating of
iodine-rich cabbage, sea fish, agar-agar jelly, black pepper, and the
like. Proper guidance may be found in my
book on obesity, in Chapter 10.
However,
it appears the iodine-enriched salt should be good only for
those who take little salt all the time.
Whatever, with the knowledge available from
this book, everyone should become aware of the dynamics of iodine for the
management of the thyroid glands in a healthy state, and regulate the intake of iodine-enriched salt
accordingly.
* * *
* * *
After all
this discussion, if I am to repeat asking you the same set of questions which I
posed a while ago, you would give different set of answers.
Now, what
do you think is the culprit that gives people hypertension and heart diseases? Is it excessive salt intake, or is it a
combination of inadequate water consumption and under-urination?
Why, in your opinion, all these medical researchers have
had misleading results? What has gone
wrong in their research programs?
In all the above
three studies, the medical researchers must have obtained blood samples from
people, without giving any due consideration to the quantities of water
consumed and the urine voided by
any of those people.
By right, they should have administered definite quantities
of water to consume, and also should have monitored the amounts of water
urinated by all those people whose blood samples were obtained for their salt contents.
In other words, it may not be a mistake to assume that most
of the research studies, conducted all these years without caring for the
dynamics of water in the regulation of salt in human body, have been
misleading the world population with the fallacy that increased salt
consumption will deteriorate human
health.
At this point, it becomes imperative for us to under-stand
the dynamics of sodium in relation to the process of human evolution.
************Well, friends, my write-up on sodium and other related matters continue in my book.
The current article is
already too long. That being the case, if I am to copy-paste more pages from my
book, it may put off even ardent followers from reading. Anyway, those who are
interested, of course, can read my book entitled “Heart problems, …”.
*********
[2] A few obese patients who had
hypothyroidism became cured after attending the Group
Therapy session - after taking plenty of iodine-enriched salt. Their thyroid gland must have been alive.
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