i have been using magnesium oil as a result of reading this interview:
The Fountain of Youth
An Interview with C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D.
C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D., is one of the world's leading experts in pain management and his researchhas led to several patented techniques for pain relief. He is a graduate of Duke University School of Medicineand a well-known author and lecturer. Since retiring from private practice in 1999, Dr. Shealy has devoted histime to research.
AIM: Dr. Shealy, you believe that there is really one cause of disease. Could you elaborate on this?
Shealy: In 1971, when I started concentrating on pain, I realized that I was not dealing with pain. I was dealingwith stress. All illness is the result of stress. Most of us think of emotional stress -- anger, frustration, and so on -but there are really four types of stress -- emotional stress, physical stress, chemical stress, and electromagneticstress. All of these affect our bodies in a negative way.
AIM: Could you elaborate?
: Let's take electromagnetic stress. First, the brain does not deal with this type of stress very well. We knowthat when the brain is exposed to very little of this type of stress, the incidences of brain cancer double. It is estimatedthat there are 230 million times as many radio waves now as 70 years ago, and at the same time, brain cancer is theonly cancer that has markedly increased in the past 20 years. I believe that this may be because of our exposure toelectromagnetic stress.Or, let's take chemical stress. When we smoke, we are putting stress on the chemical makeup of the body. And,of course, smoking a pack a day reduces a life span by some seven years. And the stress of flying --did you knowthat slying for six to seven straight hours produces the same amount of chemical stress as smoking 200 cigarettes?We can also look at physical stress. Now this is interesting. Physical stress can be inactivity -- if you stay in bedfor a week, you produce about the amount of stress on the body as breaking your leg! So, couch potatoes aresubjecting their bodies to physical stress. And obesity - if you are 30 percent above your ideal weight, it's likesmoking three packs of cigarettes per day.Also important is the fact that stress if cumulative. If you drink two ounces of alchol a day, you may not have a stressreaction, but if you drink a quart a week, you do. Or if you take a few puffs on a cigarette, or a few teaspoons of sugar,or one-third of a cup of coffee, you will not set off a stress reaction. But if you take a couple of puffs, plus two teaspoonsof sugar, plus the coffee, you get a stress reaction.
AIM: What does this cumulative stress mean to us?
Shealy: To make a jump ahead here, what I found is that a magnesium deficiency and, subsequent to that, low levels ofthe hormone DHEA are the major physiological principles of stress-induced illness. And, as I said, all illness isstress-induced. So, these two substances, the mineral magnesium and the hormone DHEA, are integral in safeguardingour health. A lack of these could well be the source of disease.
AIM: Could you give us more information on these substances?
Shealy: Nearly everyone is deficient in magnesium, and it is a critical mineral. Magnesium is involved in more than 300essential enzymes in the body. It regulates the electrical charge of our cells, and if the charge is not normal, our cells arehyperexcitable. A hyperexcitable cell causes agitation, frustration, depression -- stress. It also weakens our immunesystems.Magnesium deficiency is seen in all major diseases, and higher levels of magnesium often have a major impact onrecovery. For example, if you are given a shot of magnesium after having a heart attack, it improves our chances ofrecovery by 50 percent.DHEA is a hormone, and such a common hormone that it is largely ignored. I saw that by the age of 80, we only have10 percent of the DHEA we had at age 30. I also saw that, like magnesium, low levels of DHEA are associated withalmost every known disease. In fact, the only known diseases associated with normal levels of DHEA are schizo-phrenia and acute alcoholism.
AIM: Is there any way you can raise magnesium and DHEA levels?
: I have experimented with this. You can take supplements of DHEA, but this can be dangerous. Your DHEA levelsmust be low. If they are not, direct supplementation may increase certain cancers. But if you stimulate your body toincrease DHEA, you avoid this risk. I found that natural progesterone can raise DHEA somewhat, as can certain typesof acupuncture.As far as magnesium goes, I injected it because when you use it orally, very little is absorbed. It can speed uptransit time, but the magnesium must be in your intestinal tract for 12 hours to be absorbed. As well, calcium, phosphorus,fat, and protein all block its absorption. But even giving shots raised the intracellular levels very little.
AIM: So there is really no good way to increase levels of these two substances?
Shealy: You can do it, but not too much. But then something happened. I met a man, Jim Carter, who told me he washelping people by having them soak in a liquid. I was skeptical of this, but when I saw the results, I felt there had to besomething behind it. I thought perhaps that it must raise DHEA levels.
AIM: Were you able to test this idea?
Shealy: Yes, I had some of my students use two ounces in a daily bath for three months. They loved it! They foundnew energy and a sense of well-being. But, when I measured their DHEA levels, it was actually lower. I have to say Iwas disappointed. But I kept using it, varying amounts, and I soon found that it did increase DHEA levels. I believe itinitially decreased them because of an initial detoxification period.
AIM: So this was an "a-ha"?
Shealy: Yes, but I still had questions. This liquic also seemed to provide some benefits in a wide range of problems,such as high blood pressure, and I couldn't understand why. Then it hit me. It has magnesium in it. Everyone is lowin magnesium. Maybe the magnesium would provide results; but was the magnesium getting through?We did moe tests and found that after four weeks, three out of four users had higher intracellular magnesium levels.This was why virtually everybody found benefits. Everyone is magnesium-deficient, so providing magnesium is goingto help everyone. I also believe that the magnesium acts as a catalyst to stimulate DHEA production.
AIM: So soaking in this liquid resotres magnesium? Water does not penetrate the skin, so how is the magnesiumgetting into the body?
Shealy: Now you've really hit the "a-ha". This liquid has unique properties. It acts like an oil, and has an oily feel, butit also mixes with water. It appears that the molecular structure has been changed. The only thing I can think is thatthis water's unique properties allow it to be absorbed through the skin and it brings the mineral with it. It sounds odd,but my tests show that soaking in this does raise intracellular magnesium and DHEA levels.
