Where I find good information on this?

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"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."
—Thomas Jefferson

I think it's impossible to "heal" a genetic condition. The goal would be to mitigate the symptoms. I've been searching for this for years, and have not found much. I think all of the sites I have bookmarked (there are many) recommend a high calorie, high fat, balanced omnivore diet. But I'll check for you.

There are several different types of genetic variations of CF, Some mild, and some very severe. Most mild cases go undiagnosed. Some forms effect the digestive system more than others.

As for helping the condition with raw foods. A person would have to add very large amounts of salt, since raw foods do not contain enough. Getting enough calories could also be a problem. The calorie requirements of a CF patient are extreme. The bulk of raw food required could be prohibitive.

CF patients have very thick mucus, and while mucus is thinner on a raw diet, you have to add salt back into the diet. Salt thickens mucus, so the effects pretty much get canceled out.

I'd be very interested if anyone finds something new!

Hmmm........ very interesting information. Thanks for the in-put. Will keep looking.

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"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."
—Thomas Jefferson

I've checked a bunch of my bookmarked sites. Most have general recommendations for high cal, high fat diets. Some recommend healthy foods, but I'm amazed at the crap some of these sites list! How can people get healthy on processed foods?

I've found some extensive studies on nutrition for CF patients, but no trials or studies with raw foods. Let me know if you want these links.

Here is a link to an article on CF and the hallelujah diet, but it is not verifiable in any way. [www.yourlifesource.com]
They did not stick with it long term, see the update at the bottom

Thanks swimmer. Yes, I actually read that article already and another similar one (don't know where it is off-hand), but wasn't sure how much "stock" to put into them. I definitely think it would be a very interesting experiment to try the raw diet treatment for a CF patient. I have a dear friend who has lived to be 49 by taking very good care of herself, but she was recently hospitalized for a week after getting run-down and sickly from too much running with her business. To my knowledge, she is not vegetarian or vegan, although she does take very good care of herself and is a LOVELY person, both inside and out, and I would love to find documented evidence of treating this condition with a carefully-planned therapeutic raw diet.

Thanks for the information and for any links you can share.

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"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."
—Thomas Jefferson

I'm very sorry about you friend. With proper care and treatment, CF patients are living longer and longer. We have history of CF in my extended family.

I think if there was much truth to the article from hallelujah, the John Hopkins doctors and researchers would have been all over it. But I searched and searched, and found no brief, papers, comments or articles written from a scientific point of view.

Unfortunately, the raw food community has a history of writing about individual success stories, with no real verifiable, or reproducible results. My big complaint is "Opinions listed as facts". Exaggerations abound! The raw web is full of them (including this site) and it makes it hard to find any real studies. To give the story credit, I'd like to see progressive weight charts, lung scan results, blood tests, BP info, lung capacity test results, etc., and at least a comment or two from a treating physician. My guess is that they added cooked and animal products because of poor weight gain, but they don't say the reason.

Since CF is such a nasty deadly disease, and most patients are diagnosed in the first 2 years, so most of the info is on children.
Here is a fairly detailed link from the CF Trust in England. It's worth the read.
[www.cftrust.org.uk]

From what I know of this disease, and raw foods, it could be a real problem dealing with the sheer volume of food to get enough calories.
see these links for general calorie info:
[cf.conncoll.edu]
[www.nlm.nih.gov]
[www.umm.edu]

sites on adults with CF:
[www.netwellness.org]
[www.wrongdiagnosis.com]

I have many, many more sites and references, I'll post more later if you want them, my cat is demanding attention now!

As long as one believes they will never heal from a particular disease, they will never heal. The root of all healing comes from a spiritual place, outside of logic or science or what might be observed in others. The reason we can not rely on the literature of dealing with cystic fibrosis is that none of those people lived a truly healthy lifestyle.

To say that a disease is genetic and can't be healed is how our modern medical community communicates its apologetics around being impotent around healing disease.

I have personally healed things in my body that are generally recognized as being chronic and not healable.

To heal from cystic fibrosis is going to take a consciousness and mindset that deviates from the common wisdom. What will also be necessary is a set of lifestyle changes to let go of the lifestyle habits that produce sickness and to adopt a set of lifestyle habits that produce health.

The short list of lifestyle changes would be water fasting, a healthful raw diet, reducing stress/anxiety/worry, getting exercise, sunshine, fresh air, loving relationship, etc...

Bryan, sorry my friend, but you are way, way out of your league here.

I mean no disrespect, but I think you have a misconception of what were dealing with. Genetic deviations are different from chronic ailments. There is no cure for because you are talking about the a basic flaw in the building blocks that made a person. Outside factors are not going to change the genetic material that make our cells. Many children die of this disease before they can even understand what worry or stress is.

You've seen me here long enough (6 yr+) to know I'm an avid raw foodist. I completely believe what your saying works to cure, or aid in curing many diseases, disorders and chronic problems.

Genetics is whole different ballgame. Genes don't self correct because they have a better environment. If what you say worked to cure genetic disorders, it would mean ALL genetic birth defect could be healed by living such a life. It just does not work that way. I wish this were true, because so many people would not have to suffer short or burdened lives. But environmental changes can't correct a genetic flaw, it's not a mind set that makes me say this, it's years of research on both natural living & healing, and genetics, to aid others as well as myself.

I can tell you first hand that this lifestyle has "cured" many of my symptoms and related disease, but the particular genetic flaw in my makeup remains.

If you're interested I'll find and post some links on the basic principles of genetics and genetic flaws and disorders. Let me know...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2010 09:37PM by swimmer.

swimmer,

I respectfully disagree with Bryan on this one for the same reasons that you cite. However, it did occur to me that because it is so difficult for CF sufferers to reach middle age healthfully, but plainlydressed's friend has, perhaps this means that some CF patients' constitutions are just better able to survive this disorder. Therefore their constitutions may better benefit from alterations in diet than those of people that cannot thrive with CF no matter what. So a raw foods diet like the Hallelujah diet, especially as it's high in anti-inflammatory compounds and helpful EFAs that support the immune system and limit mucus, is worth a try.

If we waited for scientific prudence to fully vet what we intuit to be true, we'd be waiting forever . . .

Tamukha,

Thanks! I agree a persons constitution has a lot to do with survival rate of any disease. However, in the case of CF and many other genetic disorders, differing lifespans are going to be greatly effected by what variation or mutation of the gene develops.

Check out this site: [www.healthsystem.virginia.edu]

And power point slide show (note slide 19): [74.125.155.132] Click the link at the top to get it in power point slideshow form.

The Human genome project is a great source of info:
Genome home: [www.genome.gov]
Genome CF article: [www.genome.gov]

For sufferers of this disease, I'm sure anything is worth a try. It's just the mechanics of this disease work against the raw suggestion. Anything to help support the immune system should be practiced. So any dairy should removed, yet whole cows milk with extra dried milk added is often recommended for babies...go figure!

As we established, there are mild and more extreme cases, but for a average CF adult with the most common mutation...(This is on a page I printed last year, I've lost the original source. I'll try to find it and post the link to the full article.)
"Due to the absence of pancreatic enzymes in the digestive system, and the constant barrage of overly thick mucus in the intestines, a diet of 5000 more calories per day is often recommended for adults."

Now that's a whole lot of veggie bulk for a very inefficient system to handle.

A person with CF need to constantly replenish salt, especially chloride lost in mucus (that's what makes it so thick), saliva and sweat. A raw food diet does not contain anywhere near enough, so extreme amounts of table salt would need to be added.

If a gene can mutate to be incorrect , why then can it not mutate back to being correct? I would think it would be reasonable to think if genes are capable of changing one way they would be just as capable of changing another way given the right conditions.

no?

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

No, sorry.

Well, actually, it is true that mutated genes can revert, such as cancer, This would be called a "multifactorial inheritance disorders". They are caused by a hereditary AND environmental factors. Heart disease is considered hereditary, but heavily influenced by behavior and environment. The disease can be prevented, or the damage reversed.

But CF is called a "single gene disorder" The mutations of this gene happen in the womb at the chromosome level. They occur in the embryonic stem cells, in the very beginning stage of life. Every cell in the body contains the same mutated code, so when new cells are made, they also contain the same flaw.

Hope that helps. I'll post more links to genetics sites if you guys want...

sure thing Swimmer its all very interesting, please link some more

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

I'm happy to oblige:

More info on types of genetic flaws from the human genome project. This page describes the difference better than I can: [www.ornl.gov]

A power point slide show on genetics: [74.125.155.132] (click on the link at the top of the page to get in in power point form)

More to come, but some of this stuff gets pretty involved!

Another good description: [www.som.tulane.edu]

More specifically on CF: [ghr.nlm.nih.gov]
and a link from that page to specifics on the gene that gets mutated in CF: [ghr.nlm.nih.gov]

IMO, I think my recent thread "Whats your approach to healing ?" located at [www.rawfoodsupport.com] is relevant to this thread because the thinking that resulted from my reading in this thread is what caused me to start the "Whats your approach to healing ?" thread.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2010 11:09PM by EZ rider.

I think your approach is sound. However, I don't think any approach will help a person change their DNA by eating certain foods.

>To say that a disease is genetic and can't be healed is how our modern medical community communicates its apologetics around being impotent around healing disease.<

Bryan, I have to take issue with you a bit on this one. Please let me digress from the subject of CF for a moment, as I think this applies and is relevant.

As the wife of a person with a truly devastating genetic disease -- Usher's Syndrome -- which causes deafness and blindness, I can tell you that there are definitely genetic diseases that respond almost not at all to a raw food diet, and the well-meaning concept that one has not gotten well because they didn't have the proper attitude or expectation is just not aligned with reality. Some diseases, yes, have a genetic component, but are very amenable to dietary and lifestyle changes. Diabetes comes to mind. But diseases such as CF and retinitis pigmentosa (Usher's Syndrome is a type of RP) only respond to a minute degree. Jonathan was born deaf. He went to a school for the deaf. When he was in his late 30s he started going blind, and it was then that he found out his hearing and vision problems were genetic.

We went to a natural hygienist at one point (this was about 20 years ago), and he talked to us, and then consulted all his natural hygiene practitioner friends, and got back to us to tell us that, no, in fact, a raw food lifestyle wouldn't bring back his hearing or sight.

Jonathan takes extraordinarily good care of himself. So his eyesight deteriorated pretty slowly, and his hearing loss is not progressing at too alarming a rate. Other than hearing and vision, he is an amazingly healthy guy, with the health profile of a person about 35 years old instead of 66. So diet and lifestyle are great, and vitally important, but they won't stop the progression of a truly genetic disease.

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

(P.S. For clarification, because I don't think I made it clear at all, I just want to add that he did become totally blind about 10 years ago, after using a cane and having severe tunnel vision for about 20 years.)

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

I grow up with a friend with cf. The first book I gave her was the muculous diet? by arnold erhert?sp.

I do agree with this. There are so many negative people on the net. I was just speaking on youtube to someone about my healing. They said that I couldn't be healed. I disagree. You can even cure damaged DNA. Because something is genetic, doesn't mean you should play God and say that you can't heal something.
Thanks for your comment. Great wisdom.

Hello. I do not want to come off as insensitive to those who suffer, but I wanted to provide a documentary that very much shows evidence that believing can harm or help a person depending on their disposition. An incurable disease from birth was healed by the power of the mind. Please watch this video:

Part 1: [tinyurl.com]
Part 2: [tinyurl.com]
Part 3: [tinyurl.com]
Part 4: [tinyurl.com]