Things We All Should Know

I assume you have a built-in set of rules, regulations, and immutables that you have filed away in your memory storage banks that are helpful when decisions are needed immediately.

• Gravity works! (the best one)

   

• Water is needed when you are thirsty.

   

• When someone is crying, they are sad. You should be sympathetic, at least.

   

• Mood swings usually mean low blood sugar. Feed that person.

These are the usual things that we all need to get through days. Here are some things that may be controversial to you but because they are based on chemistry and chemistry follows rules, you will eventually come to believe in them and abide by these immutable rules of chemistry.

If you crave some food, you are looking for some ingredient in that food that your chemistry says you need.

• If I crave parsley and even steal it from some diner's plate, I'm looking for beta-carotene.

   

• If you lust after milk, you're after the calcium, and the blood calcium level is usually in the low range, that is, below the mean.

   

• People who will kill for chocolate are most likely after the magnesium in that tasty brown stuff. Women, especially during their periods, will find that chocolate is their friend. (I have found most of these people have a low GGT in the blood test, have little muscle cramps in their feet and legs, and are ticklish.)

   

• Those with poor dream recall need pyridoxine; a bottle of pure B6 will smell good to them. Elderly people who have trouble digesting meat, are usually low in stomach acid; they have soft nails, much gas, and they do not mind the smell of betaine hydrochloride. (Get a bottle from your local health food store and ask the next patient you see with soft or crumbly nails to smell it.) Smelling the bottle of betaine HCI is cheaper than going through the Heidelberg Test. If the betaine HCI stinks, the smeller has enough stomach acid. Some people with low HCI need iron because it takes iron as a catalyst for the enzyme to make hydrochloric acid.

   

• Patients with aches and pains are frequently somewhat alkaline. If they also have high blood pressure because the sodium in their blood is elevated, have them drink an eight-ounce glass of water with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. It will taste good to them because they need it. If it tastes too tart, it suggests their blood pressure elevation is due to some other element that pushes their chemistry to the alkaline side.

Here are some other basic rules that I have learned.

• It is smart to tell your wife or husband, "I love you." My wife and I have been married for 45 years and I found that it is the best thing I can do for domestic tranquility to say those three words.

   

• If you are dealing with children, ask what they want be when they grow up. If you are dealing with adults, ask what they most enjoyed in their past. If you are dealing with teens, ask them what they're doing now.

   

• If you don't know what to say, tell a joke. You may use this one: A policeman stopped a man who was walking in the gutter. His left foot strode on the curb, while the other foot was at the gutter level. The cop said, "Hey, you, you're drunk. I'm going to take you in." Man responds, "Thank God you stopped me. I thought I was crippled."

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Lendon H. Smith, MD
Portland, Oregon