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Vol. 6  No. 3
 May, 2002
 
Meridian Institute News 

 RESEARCHING THE SPIRIT-MIND-BODY CONNECTION



 
In this issue: 
Psoriasis Project Update
Understanding the causes and treatment of psoriasis is an important area of research at Meridian Institute.  This article will bring you up to date on our progress and seek your assistance in moving forward with this exciting project.

Psoriasis is characterized by various types of skin lesions. Considered to be an autoimmune disorder with systemic features, psoriasis is known to be associated with joint and bowel disease. From a medical perspective, it is an incurable condition of unknown causation.  Conventional treatment focuses on symptomatic relief.

The Cayce hypothesis is that various factors produce a "thinning of the walls of the small intestine - specifically, the jejunum and the lower duodenum . This thinning allows toxic products to leak from the intestinal tract into the circulation; these eventually find their way into the superficial circulation and lymphatics and are eliminated through the skin, producing the plaques of psoriasis" (Mein, 1989, p. 176).  Therapeutically, a variety of natural remedies (such as diet, herbal teas, hydrotherapies, and topical applications) are utilized to heal the gut, decrease systemic toxicity, and provide symptomatic relief.

Pilot Projects and Publications

Our comprehensive review article published in Integrative Medicine documents the complex systemic compo-nents of psoriasis using an autointoxication model as described by Edgar Cayce (McMillin et al, 1999).

Our initial clinical investigation into psoriasis involved two pilot projects in Virginia Beach.  The format was to have psoriasis patients come to Virginia Beach (from as far away as Australia!) to be evaluated (pretest assessment), trained in the Cayce model, return home for several weeks to apply the Cayce approach, and come back to Virginia Beach for post test assessment.  We measured various indices including bowel permeability, amount and severity of skin lesions, quality of life, and psychospiritual healing.

We have documented the results of our research with reports published on our website and currently have an article on our pilot studies in the peer-review process with a Medline journal.

We are thankful that we were able to draw upon the expertise and experience of Dr. John Pagano who consulted with us on the first psoriasis pilot study and has continued to contribute to our understanding of this condition.  In certain respects much or our work with psoriasis complements Dr. Pagano's clinical work by focusing primarily on basic science issues.

Future Projects

With regard to future basic science studies, here are two tracks of psoriasis research that we intend to pursue:

  • Excessive Bowel Permeability: This aspect of our re-search program will continue our investigation of "leaky gut syndrome" in psoriasis.  In the two previous pilot studies that we have done, we used the lactulose-manitol bowel permeability test provided by a commercial lab.  A future study will expand upon this work by using additional bowel permeability markers that are not commercially available, but that appear to be especially relevant to the Cayce hypothesis.  We have already contacted researchers at a medical school who can do the special bowel permeability tests.
  • Pathophysiology of Psoriasis:  Thanks to the acciden-tal discovery that immunosuppressant drugs relieve the symptoms of psoriasis, for the past several years medical research has focused on improving drug therapies while seeking to understanding the nature of the immune dysfunction.  Because Meridian Institute personnel do not have extensive experience in immunology, future psoriasis research at Meridian Institute will emphasize collaboration with professionals with expertise and experience in this area. One of the missing pieces in bringing the Cayce model to fruition is understanding the pathophysiology of psoriasis.  By this we mean that we must be able to identify the antigens that are trigging the aberrant immune response in psoriasis.  If Edgar Cayce was right, looking to the bowel as a source of antigens should be a productive strategy.
    Fortunately, the medical literature continues to provide us with valuable insights into the possible gut/skin link in psoriasis.  Some of the possibilities include:
  • Gliadin associated with gluten sensitivity (coeliac disease);
  • Bacterial or viral superantigens (toxins produced by microorganisms) that have been shown to produce a strong immune response linked to psoriasis lesions;
  • Lectins (protein or glycoprotein substances), usually of plant origin, that bind to sugar moieties in cell walls or membranes leading to clumping or other biochemical changes in the cell.
How You Can Help

To move forward with our psoriasis research program we need your help.  Here are some possible ways that you can contribute to our efforts:

  • Expertise - Do you have expertise in researching the pathophysiology of psoriasis? Do you know of someone, such as an immunologist, with such expertise?  If you, or someone that you know, are willing and able to contribute expertise, please consider collaborating with us.
  • Networking - Are you aware of research that has been done that is relevant to the Cayce hypothesis involving "leaky gut syndrome" in psoriasis?  If so, please pass the information along to us.  Often in science, important information is underutilized because people with the information are not aware of its relevance to others working in different fields.
  • Financial support - Can you provide financial support for our psoriasis research program?  Doing research on bowel permeability and the pathophysiology of psoriasis requires considerable financial resources.  Please consider a tax deductible donation to Meridian Institute to further these worthwhile projects.
References

McMillin D, Richards D.G., Mein EA, Nelson CD.  Systemic aspects of psoriasis: An integrative model based on intestinal etiology. Integrative Medicine 2(2/3), 1999:105-113.

Mein E.  Keys to health.  New York: Harper & Row, 1989.
 

PUBLICATION
 
 
TREATMENT OF PARKINSON'S DISEASE

We are pleased to announce the publication of an article titled:  "Treatment of Parkinson's Disease Using The Cayce Wet Cell Battery." The article was published in the peer-reviewed journal Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine.

Parkinson's disease, a condition involving progressive deterioration of the nervous system, is at present incurable by conventional medicine.  Our report documents evidence of clinical improvement from using a treatment modality recommended by Edgar Cayce, a subtle energy device known as the wet cell battery.  Cayce said that the wet cell would transfer vibratory energy into the body, and specifically recommended it for neurological disorders, but there have been no previous clinical studies of this modality.

Ten participants with Parkinson's disease used the wet cell, a chemical battery, with gold and silver solutions, for a four-month treatment period at home.  Nine of the ten people followed the protocol consistently (but none completely or perfectly).  They averaged slight to moderate improvement in Parkinson's disease symptoms over four months, based on observations by researchers and subjective questionnaires.

Over the long term (three years), one participant obtained almost complete remission of his Parkinson's disease symptoms.  Since there was no control group the placebo effect cannot be ruled out.  However, many minor symptoms showed interesting improvement in several individuals.  For example, two people reported regaining their sense of smell, and one had improved color vision.  Several people had more facial emotional expressiveness, and reported reduced tremors.

Reference

Richards DG, McMillin DL, Mein EA, Nelson CD. Treatment of Parkinson's Disease Using the Cayce Wet Cell Battery.  Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine 11(2), 2002: 151-166.
 

LITERATURE
 
 
ABDOMINAL AURA IN FOCAL EPILEPSIES
 
Edgar Cayce maintained that the cause of many cases of epilepsy can be traced to the abdomen.  Abdominal auras preceding seizures are common, but are usually regarded as being caused by primary brain pathology rather than indicating abdominal etiology. An aura is actually a mild seizure that precedes the primary seizure. It can be thought of as a warning that a seizure is about to happen. Most often, auras manifest as an altered consciousness or peculiar sensation. "The most common aura is of vague gastric distress, ascending up into the chest" (Gordon, 1942, p. 610).

Reporting in the journal Neurology, Henkel et. al. (2002) have quantified the prevalence of abdominal aura in focal epilepsies (involving specific areas of the brain). The seizures of 491 consecutive patients with focal epilepsies were prospectively classified using prolonged EEG video monitoring and MRI scan. Two hundred twenty-three patients (45%) had temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE); 113 patients (23%) had extratemporal epilepsies; and for 155 (32%) patients, the epilepsy could not be localized to one lobe. Abdominal auras were more frequent with TLE (117 of 223 patients, 52%) than in extratemporal epilepsy (13 of 113 patients, 12%, p < 0.0001) and more frequent in mesial TLE (70 of 110 patients, 64%) than in neocortical TLE (16 of 41 patients, 39%, p = 0.007). Abdominal auras were followed by ictal oral and manual automatisms (automotor seizure) in at least one seizure evolution in all patients with TLE (117 patients, 100%). In contrast, only two patients with extratemporal epilepsy (2 of 13 patients, 15%, p < 0.0001) had abdominal auras evolving into automotor seizures. An abdominal aura is associated with TLE with a probability of 73.6%. The evolution of an abdominal aura into an automotor seizure, however, increases the probability of TLE to 98.3%.

References

Henkel A, Noachtar S, Pfander M, Luders HO. The localizing value of the abdominal aura and its evolution: a study in focal epilepsies. Neurology 2002 Jan 22;58(2):271-6.

Gordon, B, ed. Hughes' Practice of Medicine. 16th ed. Philadelphia: The Blakiston Company, 1942.
 

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