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Meridian Institute News
RESEARCHING THE SPIRIT-MIND-BODY CONNECTION |
In this issue:
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Psoriasis
Project Update
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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:
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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.
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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:
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Gliadin associated with gluten sensitivity (coeliac disease);
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Bacterial or viral superantigens (toxins produced by microorganisms) that
have been shown to produce a strong immune response linked to psoriasis
lesions;
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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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