Issue 19: Polish Cows and War on Cancer

"Educating Instead of Medicating!"

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"There must be something sacred in salt. It is in our tears and in the ocean." (Khalil Gibran)


_____________________________________________________________
Is human life without salt imaginable? Probably not. Salt symbolises life itself . Basic physiological functions depend on a balance between salts and liquids in the body. When the balance is upset, disease may occur.


Salt has been an essential, virtually omnipresent, part of medicine for thousands of years. It has been used as a remedy, a support treatment, and a preventive measure. It has been taken internally or applied topically and been administered in an exceedingly wide variety of forms.
_____________________________________________________________





Polish Cows and War on Cancer
by "geologist"



I have been told this story by an eyewitness who wanted to stay anonymous.
He is Polish geologist, expert on rock salt. He was witnessing fantastic
industrial "salt revolution". Today, he is witnessing his friends and
colleagues dying from cancer in there fifties and early sixties.


Somewhere in the sixties, suddenly started incredible epidemy of cancer.
Not only between people but between cattle, cows.
Milk industry was jeopardized!


Poland is virtually “built” on rock SALT. Below 2/3 of Poland, below the
earth surface, is layer of rock salt. Thickness of that layer is different
on different places, but mines have been built there where layer was tick
enough. It is sometimes over 800 meters below the earth surface.
The Wieliczka Salt Mine, located in southern Poland near the city of
Krakow, has been worked as a source of rock salt since the late 13th
century. The mine consists of over 200 km of underground passages,
connecting more than 2000 excavation chambers on 9 underground levels
extending down to 327m below the surface. Over the centuries, miners have
established a tradition of carving sculptures out of the native rock salt.
As a result, the mine contains entire underground churches, altars,
bas-reliefs, and dozens of life-size or larger statues. It also houses an
underground museum and has a number of special purpose chambers such as a
sanatorium for people suffering from respiratory ailments. The largest of
the chapels, the Chapel of the Blessed Kinga, is located 101 meters below
the surface, it is over 50 meters long, 15 meters wide, 12 meters high,
with a volume of 10,000 cubic meters. As a testament to its historical and
artistic importance, the mine has been placed on UNESCO's World Heritage
List of sites designated as having “outstanding universal value to
mankind”. It receives up to a million visitors yearly, most of them during
the warmer summer months.


Today, many of the salt sculptures are slowly dissolving. Water vapor
present in the ventilation air in the mine is being absorbed into the rock
salt at several locations in the mine, causing erosion of the carved salt
surfaces. A joint team of Polish and American scientists and engineers are
conducting experiments in the mine to document the environmental conditions
there and to seek solutions to the water vapor condensation problem. One
question faced by the study team is whether or not there is any significant
soiling or chemical attack on the statuary that might alter the hygroscopic
character of the salt.
Origin of rock salt in Poland is not clear. There are several hypotheses.
Some of the Rock Salt is thought to be 425 million years old.


People and animals have used rock salt for thousands of years.


Salt was in general use long before history, as we know it, began to be
recorded. Some 2,700 years B.C.-about 4,700 years ago-there was published
in China the Peng-Tzao-Kan-Mu, probably the earliest known treatise on
pharmacology. A major portion of this writing was devoted to a discussion
of more than 40 kinds of salt, including descriptions of two methods of
extracting salt and putting it in usable form that are amazingly similar to
processes used today. Chinese folklore recounts the discovery of salt.
And the Chinese, like many other governments over time, realizing that
everyone needed to consume salt, made salt taxes a major revenue source.
Nomads spreading westward were known to carry salt.


Egyptian art from as long ago as 1450 B.C. records salt making.


Salt was of crucial importance economically. A far-flung trade in ancient
Greece involving exchange of salt for slaves gave rise to the expression,
"not worth his salt." Special salt rations given early Roman soldiers were
known as "salarium argentum," the forerunner of the English word "salary."
References to salt abound in languages around the globe, particularly
regarding salt used for food. From the Latin "sal," for example, come
such other derived words as "sauce" and "sausage." Salt was an important
trading commodity carried by explorers.




But, let’s go back to Poland. Somewhere in the sixties, suddenly started
incredible epidemy of cancer. Not only between people but between cattle,
cows. Milk industry was jeopardized!


Researchers tried to find out what is causing that epidemy. It was a
serious economical problem for farmers. After some months and even years,
they connected this epidemy to white, refined, table salt .



Polish farmers have been giving rock salt to cattle and other animals for
thousands of years. Even to wild animals.
Why?
Animals are stronger and healthier if they have access to rock salt.
They like to lick salty rocks. Animals take only as much as they need. One
rock can last for some time. Either cattle ate salt, or it slowly melted
by humidity. Salt rocks were always available. Farmers new how important
those rocks are for cattle. Just as important for people?



But, unfortunately, Poland, like other East-European countries, joined
fantastic industrial "salt revolution" that started in the rich west, and
Poland started production of refined salt. Minerals extracted from rock
salt have been used in all branches of industry.
PVC industry (plastics) was exploding. Chemical industry was exploding.
New salt factories were blossoming.


As the time passed, it was easier for farmers to get refined salt, then god
old raw salt rocks. Rock salt was only used for salting roads during cold
winter days.
And, as farmers didn't know much about geology or chemistry, or about
physiology of minerals, they just did what is easier; they gave refined
salt to animals. Months and years after, cancer became an epidemy.


After it was clear that cancer epidemy was caused by improper diet, state
authorities immediately made rock salt more available, and made mandatory
for all farmers to feed cattle rock salt. Epidemy was over. Poland won its
first war on cancer. And, the Polish cows were healthy again.


But, People in Poland still eat refined salt. People in Poland still suffer
Cancer.
________________________________________
---------------------------------------------





A Taste for Salt in the History of Medicine
By Eberhard J. Wormer


Eberhard J. Wormer
Leonrodstr. 32, 80636 München, Germany
E-mail : eberhard.wormer@extern.lrz-muenchen.de
http://www.tribunes.com/tribune/sel/worm.htm



_______________________________
Is human life without salt imaginable? Probably not. Salt symbolises life
itself . Basic physiological functions depend on a balance between salts
and liquids in the body. When the balance is upset, disease may occur.


Salt has been an essential, virtually omnipresent, part of medicine for
thousands of years. It has been used as a remedy, a support treatment, and
a preventive measure. It has been taken internally or applied topically and
been administered in an exceedingly wide variety of forms.


We shall take a journey through the history of the use of salt in medicine
and discover that empirical knowledge of the benefits - and sometimes
drawbacks of salt - has been a hallmark of many civilisations.
_______________________________


When Lot's wife looked back to catch a last glimpse at the burning city of
Sodom, she turned into a pillar of salt. Roman priests scattered salt where
the city of Carthage once stood to prevent any return of life. These
allegories contradict what we know about salt today. Dissolved common salt
(sodium chloride) is present in all the human body and plays crucial
physiological roles in life-sustaining processes (a). Life cannot exist
without salt. But when did salt become associated with healing powers? And
what are its healing powers? (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)


Our journey through the history of medicine will illustrate how the
properties of salt have been viewed with time.



Salt in Egyptian medicine


Salt is mentioned as an essential ingredient in medical Science in some of
the oldest medical scripts. The ancient Egyptian papyrus Smith, which is
thought to refer to the famous master-builder and doctor Imhotep of the
third pre-Christian millennium, recommends salt for the treatment of an
infected chest wound. The belief was that salt would dry out and disinfect
the wound (b). The papyrus Ebers (1600 B.C.) describes many salt recipes
especially for making laxatives and anti-infectives. They were dispensed in
either liquid, suppository or ointment form. For instance, there was a
suppository containing honey, vegetable seeds and ocean salt that was used
as a laxative and one with incense, vegetable seeds, fat, oil and ocean
salt against anal infections. Salt-based remedies were also prescribed for
callous skin, epidemic diseases, to check bleeding, as an eye ointment, and
to accelerate childbirth (a vaginal suppository).




Salt in Greek medicine


Both Sea Salt and rock salt were well known to the ancient Greeks who noted
that eating salty food affected basic body functions such as digestion and
excretion (urine and stools). This led to salt being used medically. The
healing methods of Hippocrates (460 BC) especially made frequent use of
salt. Salt-based remedies were thought to have expectorant powers. A
mixture of water, salt, and vinegar was employed as an emetic. Drinking a
mixture of two-thirds cow's milk and one-third salt-water, in the mornings,
on an empty stomach was recommended as a cure for diseases of the spleen. A
mixture of salt and honey was applied topically to clean bad ulcers and
salt-water was used externally against skin diseases and freckles.
Hippocrates also mentions inhalation of steam from salt-water. We know
today that the antiinflammatory effects of inhaled salt provide relief from
respiratory symptoms (c). Thus, 2000 years ago, Greek medicine had already
discovered topical use of salt for skin lesions, drinking salty or
mineralized waters for digestive troubles and inhaling salt for respiratory
diseases!




Roman salt-containing recipes


The Roman military doctor Dioskurides (100 A. D) is regarded as one of the
most important medical authors of Antiquity. His work Materia Medica
summarises the botanical and pharmacological know-how of his time.
Dioskurides considered "honey-rain-ocean water" to be an excellent emetic.
Salty vinegar was helpful against "binging and rotting callosities" and
bites (dogs and poisonous animals), to check bleeding after surgery, as a
gargle to kill leeches and to get rid of "scab and crust". Salt added to
wine and water was a laxative.


Both sea and rock salt were used in remedies but rock salt was considered
to be the strongest. The salt was generally mixed with other ingredients
(e.g. vinegar, honey, fat, flour, pitch, resin) and could be dispensed in
several forms (drink, suppository, clyster (enema), ointment, oil). The
main recommended indications were skin diseases, dropsy, infections,
callosities, ear-ache, mycosis, digestive upsets, sciatica.




The inheritance of classical Antiquity


The Greek doctor Galen from Pergamon (129­200 A.D.), physician-in-ordinary
to the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, summarised the medical concepts of
antiquity and left his mark on western medicine for over 1000 years. His
medical system also made use of salt (sea salt, rock salt, salt foam) in
recipes against many diseases: infectious wounds, skin diseases,
callosities, digestive troubles. His list of salt-containing remedies also
included emetics and laxatives.




Salt in the Arab world


Eight hundred years later, the medical precepts of the well-known Arab
doctor and scientist Avicenna (Ibn Sina, 980­1037 A.D.) laid the
foundations of modern scientific medicine. His recipes also used salt. He
emphasised the presence of Iodine and iron in coastal sea salt. The Jewish
doctor Maimonides (1135­1204 A.D.), physician-in-ordinary to the caliph in
Persia, wrote in his Dianetic for soul and body that only bread with enough
salt was healthy food.




Salt in medicines of the Middle Ages


The School of Salerno (11th -13th Century A.D.) founded western European
academic medicine in the Middle Ages. It is seen as the first European
university to bring together medical knowledge of Greek and Arab origin and
transcribe it in latin. Its writings reveal an awareness of the use of a
mixture of salt, oil and vinegar as an emetic and of suppositories of salt
and honey as an effective remedy against constipation (see Egyptian
medicine above). Powdered and roasted salt was said to have a pain-killing
effect and rock salt was considered to be a good remedy against fever.


The School published a book on The Art of Staying Healthy which was a
collection of sayings and poems providing Crusaders with life regimens they
could understand. It was in fact one of the first popular medical manuals
for people versed in latin and for academically trained physicians. The
book explicitly recommended salted bread and food. Salt not only made food
tasty but drove off toxins. However, it also warned against too much salt:
"Too salty food diminishes semen and eyesight ­ salt burns, makes one
fretful, shabby, scabby and wrinkly."




Salt in Renaissance medicine


The doctor and alchemist Paracelsus (1493­1541 A.D.) introduced an entirely
new medical concept. He believed that external factors create disease and
conceived a chemically oriented medical system which contrasted with the
prevalent herbal medicine. Only salted food could be digested properly:
"The human being must have salt, he cannot be without salt. Where there is
no salt, nothing will remain, but everything will tend to rot." He
recommended salt water for the treatment of wounds and for use against
intestinal worms. A hip-bath in salt water was a superb remedy for skin
diseases and itching: "This brine - he said - is better than all the health
spas arising out of nature." He described the diuretic effect of salt
consumption and prescribed salt preparations of different strengths that
were used for instance against constipation.




Salt in 16th-19th century pharmacies


The pharmacies of the 16th century continued to relate the various uses of
salt to its external aspect (rock salt, sea salt, refined salt and roasted
salt). Respect for salt was as deep as prices were high. Until the 18th
century, the preferred and most common pharmacy salt was rock salt which,
in Germany, came chiefly from the Carpathian Mountains, Transylvania, the
Tyrol, and Poland. Rock and sea salt were still listed separately in the
1833 chemical-pharmaceutical handbook but, as from 1850, the origin of the
salt was no longer specified.


The pharmacists of the 19th century recommended internal use of salt
against digestive upsets, goitre, glandular diseases, intestinal worms,
dysentery, dropsy, epilepsy, and syphilis. Externally applied salt (e.g.
cold or warm hip-baths) was said to be locally stimulating but acerbic to
skin and mucous membranes at high doses. External application was advised
in cases of rash and swelling and, in ophthalmology, to drive off stains
and stain-obscurations of the cornea. A clyster (enema) of salt was even
supposed to work for patients who were "seemingly dead and apoplectical".




Salt in encyclopaedias and popular medicine in the 18th and 19th centuries
The encyclopaedias of the 18th century published extensive treatises on
salt, in particular rock and sea salt, and referred to current knowledge on
the healing powers of salt. A particularly infamous book was the Dirty
Pharmacy by Paulini (1734) which held a collection of the nastiest
imaginable mixtures for diseases of all kinds. Salt was a frequent
ingredient. For instance, red watering eyes could be treated by covering
them with a mush of fresh manure from a black cow, beer-vinegar, and half a
knife's tip of salt.


Medical practitioners of the 19th century paid particular attention to the
effects of natural salt. In 1860, in eastern Bavaria, a sodium chloride
solution was used as a compress against inflammation. Further west,
inflammations of the belly button of children were washed with salt water.
Warts were removed by spreading the juice of a snail that had been
sprinkled with salt. Hot foot-baths containing salt and ashes were used to
alleviate headaches. Burns were treated with brandy, vinegar or salt water.





Salt in 20th century medicine


As indicated above, salt was an important ingredient of remedies in Europe,
on a par with natural products such as herbs, until the late Middle Ages.
>From then onwards, it became an item in the medicine chest of popular
rather than academic medicine. It was not until spa therapy gained
popularity in the 19th century that its healing powers gradually began to
be investigated scientifically and not until the 1950s that its effects
were studied in any detail.


Today, salt is a natural healing principle used in the form of inhalations,
salt-water baths and in drinking-therapy. An important discovery of 20th
century medicine is that salt water - in the form of an isotonic sodium
chloride (saline) solution - has the same fluid quality as blood plasma.
This has led to the use of salt solutions as intravenous infusions.
However, salt solutions are also used subcutaneously, intramuscularly, as
an enema or externally.


Infusing saline


In 1832, the English doctors R. Lewins and T. Latta used a sodium chloride
infusion successfully against cholera for the first time. Nowadays,
isotonic sodium chloride solution (saline) has many uses:
- as a "replacement fluid" in emergencies. Saline can temporarily replace
large amounts of lost blood and thus often saves the lives of accident
victims. It can palliate prolonged loss of gastric juices.
- as a "tool and washing liquid". Chilled saline is used to determine
cardiac output per minute, for medically founded forced drainage, to wash
red blood cells for blood transfusions, and, at body temperature, to
irrigate organs (e.g. gastro-intestinal tract, bladder).
- as a "carrier" solution for drugs.


>From applying salt to bathing in salt


Our journey through history has revealed that the antiseptic action of salt
on the skin and mucous membranes has been known for a very long time.
Scientific studies have now confirmed the effectiveness of salt therapy in
several indications. The antiseptic and bactericidal qualities of dental
salt (sea salt) help remove plaque which is a cause of gingivitis and
caries. Salt is being increasingly used as support treatment for skin
diseases. Chronically inflamed skin is treated with medical bath salt from
the Dead Sea (d) or table salt. The salt peels off dandruff, reduces
inflammation, itching and pain, and helps regenerate the skin. Salt-baths
are frequently used to treat psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, chronic eczema
as well as arthritis. Sometimes (as in psoriasis), this therapy is followed
by ultraviolet light radiotherapy under strict medical control so that the
combination of salt water and UV light does not expose patients to an
increased risk of skin cancer.


The ancient Greeks had already recommended seaside health resorts to cure
skin diseases and Paracelsus mentioned the effectiveness of "salt brine".
Sea-water baths later led to salt-water baths in regions closely linked
with the extraction of salt (salt mines, springs and works) but it was not
until 1800 that doctors from the German town of Bad Nauheim introduced a
methodical salt-bath therapy (6). They tried to obtain scientific evidence
for claims regarding the healing effects of the waters. Current medical
indications for salt-bath therapy rest, as a matter of principle, on the
empirical traditions of centuries. They include support treatment for skin
diseases due to the anti-inflammatory action of salt. Patients suffering
from rheumatic conditions often experience relief from joint pain when
moving about in a salt bath.


Finally, common or Dead Sea salt can be used as an additive especially in
body care products (ointments, shampoos, gels, washes and body lotions).



Inhaling salt


Steam from salt water is inhaled in chronic diseases of the upper and lower
respiratory track (pharynx, paranasal sinuses, and bronchial tree) or to
ease the discomfort of a common cold. Let's not forget that Hippocrates had
already recommended this treatment! The age-old method is to heat a salt
solution to obtain steam but modern ultrasound atomising can now transport
minute salt particles directly to tiny bronchia. The main effects of salt
on the bronchial system are to stimulate secretion, loosen and help
eliminate viscous secretions, inhibit inflammation, reduce irritation
causing cough, clean the mucous membrane of the kinocilium, and contract
(bronchoconstriction) or extend (dilatation) the respiratory ducts.


Drinking salt water


Salt water when drunk has an expectorant effect in the stomach and
increases gastric juice secretion. It raises the level of stomach acid,
hastens its production, impedes or stimulates stomach motricity and
emptying-rate (depending upon the salt concentration), increases the
secretion of the pancreas, and at higher salt concentrations stimulates the
formation of bile acids.



Salt as a vector


Rock salt is of higher purity than sea-salt which can be contaminated with
many minerals and other substances. Some of these contaminants, such as
iodine, can be beneficial to health. Iodine deficiency is a major health
risk. It gives rise to a thyroid gland disease characterised by hormonal
disturbances causing cretinism and by a goitre which can be so large that
it may blocs airflow through the throat or reach externally right down to
the collar bone (7). Goitre used to be endemic in regions far from the sea
such as the Alps but was rarely encountered in countries of southern Europe
bordering the Mediterranean. Nowadays, Germany is the only industrial
nation where goitre due to a lack of iodine is still common. This is
because, despite the known health risk, part of the German food industry
still uses the cheaper iodine-free salt for economic reasons. No legal
measure makes the use of iodised salt compulsory in Germa ny. The health
authorities must rely on public information campaigns promoting the
benefits of salt with iodine.




Homeopathic salt


N. H. Schüßler (1821­1898), a German doctor, developed a special
"biochemical" therapy based on 12 mineral salts which he considered crucial
for cell function. This therapy is still used today. For Schüßler, health
resulted from a balance among these salts, disease from a disequilibrium.
Common salt (sodium chloride) was one of his 12 salts. He administered the
salts in homeopathic doses in an extremely wide range of indications
(anaemia, loss of appetite, loss of weight, common cold, stomach and
intestinal disorders, watery diarrhoea, constipation, haemorrhoids, rashes,
rheumatic troubles, headaches, fatigue) and externally against lip
blisters, acne, comedo, skin fungus and sores.




A flip side to the coin?


In the Middle Ages, the School of Salerno warned against the excessive use
of salt (see above). The subject of excessive salt use has been a matter of
great controversy over the last three decades. Scientific medicine has
found that a high salt intake from food, especially by people with an
inherited sensitivity to salt, might increase the risk of cardiovascular
disease (CVD). Extensive studies have indicated that too much salt in food
may lead to arterial hypertension. There are those who forbid the addition
of any salt at all to food and those who suggest that consumption should be
limited to around 5 or 6 grams a day. There are epidemiological studies
that indicate that populations such as the Japanese who consume vast
amounts of salt have a high incidence of CVD but no direct causal link has
yet been definitively established between salt consumption and high blood
pressure.


The cumulative past experience of our human ancestors and an increasing
volume of current scientific evidence indicate that salt is a major
life-preserving substance and effective healing principle. As often,
therefore, the question is one of balance. When do possible health risks
override the beneficial and vital effects of an adequate salt intake? The
answer probably depends on the individual (e).




Notes


(a) Science and medicine have tried to define the precise roles of salt in
the healthy and diseased human organism. Blood, sweat, and tears all
contain salt, and both the skin and the eyes are protected from infectious
germs by the anti-bacterial effect of salt.
When salt is added to a liquid, particles with opposite charges are formed:
a positively charged sodium ion and a negatively charged chloride ion. This
is the basis of osmosis which regulates fluid pressure within living cells
and protects the body against excessive water loss (as in diarrhoea or on
heavy sweating).
Sodium and chloride ions, as well as potassium ions, create a measurable
difference in potential across cell membranes. This ensures that the fluid
inside living cells remains separate from that outside. Thus, although the
human body consists mainly of water, our "inner ocean" does not flow away
or evaporate.
Sodium ions create a high pressure of liquid in the kidneys and thus
regulate their metabolic function. Water is extracted through the renal
drainage system. The body thus loses a minimal amount of essential water.
Out of 1500 litres of blood which pass daily through the kidneys, only
about 1.5 litres of liquid leave the body as urine.
Salt is "fuel" for nerves. Streams of positively and negatively charged
ions send impulses to nerve fibres. A muscle cell will only contract if an
impulse reaches it. Nerve impulses are partly propelled by co-ordinated
changes in charged particles.


(b) According to modern scientific research, salt does indeed have weak
disinfectant properties when applied topically.


(c) Inhaling steam from salt water has become an established treatment for
acute and chronic respiratory diseases in spa-, balneo- and thalasso- therapies


(d) The mineral composition of Dead Sea salt is slightly different from
that of common sea salt . Dead Sea salt is considered to be particularly
useful in chronic skin diseases such as psoriasis.


(e) I acknowledge with thanks Johanna S. Gordon's help in translating the
German draft of this article.




References
1. Cirillo M, Capasso G, Di Leo VA, De Santo NG. A history of salt. Am J
Nephrol 14, 426-31, 1994.


2. Denton D. The hunger for salt. An anthropological, physiological and
medical analysis. Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1982.


3. Ritz E. The history of salt - aspects of interest to the nephrologist.
Nephrol Dial Transplant 11, 969-75, 1996.


4. Wormer EJ. Heilkraft des Salzes. Suedwest Verlag, Munich, 1995.


5. Wormer EJ. Salz in der Medizin. In: Treml M, Jahn W, Brockhoff E (eds.):
Salz Macht Geschichte (Collection of essays and catalogue). Haus der
Bayerischen Geschichte, Augsburg, 1995, p. 48-55


6. Porter, Roy (ed.). The medical history of waters and spas. Wellcome
Institute for the History of Medicine, London 1990.


7. Merke F. Geschichte und Ikonographie des endemischen Kropfes und
Kretinismus (History and Iconography of Endemic Goitre and Cretinism).
Verlag Hans Huber, Bern, 1971.
_____________________________________________




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