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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 research
has led to several patented techniques
for pain relief. He is a graduate of Duke University School of Medicine
and a well-known author and lecturer.
Since retiring from private practice in 1999, Dr. Shealy has devoted his
time to research. One of his research
projects is investigating the properties and values of AIM Cell Wellness
Restorer™.
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 dealing
with 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 electromagnetic
stress. All of these affect our
bodies in a negative way.
AIM: Could you elaborate?
Shealy: Let's take electromagnetic
stress. First, the brain does not deal with this type of stress very
well. We know
that when the brain is exposed to very
little of this type of stress, the incidences of brain cancer double.
It is estimated
that there are 230 million times as many
radio waves now as 70 years ago, and at the same time, brain cancer is
the
only cancer that has markedly increased
in the past 20 years. I believe that this may be because of our exposure
to
electromagnetic 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
know
that 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 bed
for a week, you produce about the amount
of stress on the body as breaking your leg! So, couch potatoes are
subjecting their bodies to physical stress.
And obesity - if you are 30 percent above your ideal weight, it's like
smoking 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 stress
reaction, 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 teaspoons
of 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 of
the hormone DHEA are the major physiological
principles of stress-induced illness. And, as I said, all illness
is
stress-induced. So, these two substances,
the mineral magnesium and the hormone DHEA, are integral in safeguarding
our 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 300
essential enzymes in the body. It
regulates the electrical charge of our cells, and if the charge is not
normal, our cells are
hyperexcitable. A hyperexcitable
cell causes agitation, frustration, depression -- stress. It also
weakens our immune
systems.
Magnesium deficiency is seen
in all major diseases, and higher levels of magnesium often have a major
impact on
recovery. For example, if you are
given a shot of magnesium after having a heart attack, it improves our
chances of
recovery 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 have
10 percent of the DHEA we had at age 30.
I also saw that, like magnesium, low levels of DHEA are associated with
almost 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?
Shealy: I have experimented with
this. You can take supplements of DHEA, but this can be dangerous.
Your DHEA levels
must be low. If they are not, direct
supplementation may increase certain cancers. But if you stimulate
your body to
increase DHEA, you avoid this risk.
I found that natural progesterone can raise DHEA somewhat, as can certain
types
of acupuncture.
As far as magnesium goes,
I injected it because when you use it orally, very little is absorbed.
It can speed up
transit 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 was
helping people by having them soak in
a liquid. I was skeptical of this, but when I saw the results, I
felt there had to be
something 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 found
new energy and a sense of well-being.
But, when I measured their DHEA levels, it was actually lower. I
have to say I
was disappointed. But I kept using
it, varying amounts, and I soon found that it did increase DHEA levels.
I believe it
initially 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 low
in 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 going
to 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 magnesium
getting 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, but
it also mixes with water. It appears
that the molecular structure has been changed. The only thing I can
think is that
this 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.
AIM: This liquid is known as Cell
Wellness Restorer . (Click here to order)
Shealy: That's right.
Reprinted with permission of AIM International, Inc. © Partners Magazine, July, 2000