Mike Liebner’s Positive Think Tank

FUPO is here again!

Man – you can apply FUPO to almost anything and it seems there is often a connection! Especially when the traditional medical explanations and prescribed drugs fail.

What is F.U.P.O.? FUNGUS UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE!

What is the cause of the problem? Well – it could be fungus!

So here I am wondering about gout.

A good friend of mine recently revealed he had issues with gout and it made me ask myself the question – could gout be caused by yeast and fungal issues???

FUPO says yes – until proven otherwise. So I searched for info to support this theory that fungus in some way could be tied to gout flareups.

What is gout? It’s a kind of arthritis with pain from inflammation.

If I had more time I’d research it better and do something more profound – but for now I will share some a few basic thoughts and some links that are worth checking out.

I’ve personally been battling systemic fungal issues myself and I’m pretty convinced that yeast and fungus and mycotoxins are the root cause of most problems.

I’m on the path towards cleaning up the stuff in my body and have learned a lot from the guy that came up with FUPO – “fungus until proven otherwise”.  That Doug Kauffman is the guy who started this FUPO thing with Kyle Drew helping spread the term.

So does FUPO apply? Is gout caused by fungus and mycotoxins? Is there a fungal origin? Is the cause fungus?

I’m pretty convinced that Arthritis and Gout are directly related to having mycotoxins in the body from fungus and systemic yeast issues.

Here are a few links I found as I was looking into the connection between yeast fungus and gout. The stufff is eye opening and could be applied to so much more than gout! Fungus has it’s hand in many common ailments.

This first article I linked is eye opening and says:

“Nearly every medical school in the country teaches its students gout is caused by uric acid… So he stated that uric acid was not the cause of pain experienced by gout patients…. They found that uric acid is more than likely of fungal origin”.

Read the full article:

http://www.yeastinfectionadvisor.com/arthritis.html

Candida Albicans and gout

“Candida Albicans is caused by overeating sugar, refined carbohydrates, and yeasty foods; by drinking alcohol; by undereating fibre (mainly found in fruit and vegetables).Candida Albicans is also caused by taking too many antibiotics and NSAIDs. Excessive yeast, which builds up over years,drives out the beneficial bacteria so that the large intestine does not work as well in digesting food. Purines therefore are not broken down efficiently into uric acid, and uric acid’s removal is impaired.”

Read the full article:

http://www.best-gout-remedies.com/candida-albicans.html

Sugar and alcohol and yeast containing foods are often the causes of gout flare ups.

“Within a few hours of ingesting sugar my big left toe feels stiff and aches, sometimes the ache goes up my leg. Sometimes my neck, my hands or my other leg hurts. I’ve noticed other symptoms that seem to be directly related to sugar…..and/or refined grains. I can’t seem to eat sugar or white flour (they are usually eaten in combination) without a yeast infection, and I can count on it disappearing in a day or two when I stop eating sugar/refined crap–100% of the time.”

Read the full article:

http://myyearwithout.blogspot.com/2011/09/sugar-gout-yeast-infections-oh-my.html

Doug Kauffman Know The Cause Newsletter - knows a thing or 2 about yeast and gout.

“Bakers and brewers yeast is commonly called Saccharomyces cerevisiae. For thousands of years this species of yeast has been used to make breads and alcohol. In the case of alcohol, during a process called fermentation, yeast and carbohydrates are slowly converted to alcohol. Mind you, not only am I the guy to bring you “Phase 1” eating, but I’m also the guy who taught you to be very careful of eating, or drinking, yeast. I told you that way back in 1963, Dr. Svlia published an incredible article that taught us how brewers yeast produces the very caustic uric acid, purportedly the cause of gout (but now you know better since you know where the uric acid comes from).”

Read the full article:

http://www.knowthecause.com/FindInformation/NewsletterArticles/tabid/84/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/877/Its-Almost-Holiday-Season-So-Bottoms-Up.aspx

Some interesting info about gout and anti-fungal supplements like Olive Leaf Extract.

“Humans have used olive leaf extract for centuries to treat such conditions as gout, malaria, fever, and hemorrhoids. And as early as the 1900s, the leaves were also recognized for their antimicrobial properties. The active ingredient in olive leaf extract, called oleuropin, breaks down in the body to become elolenic acid. Elolenic acid is particularly effective against many strong strains of fungi. Olive leaf extract can help to treat fungal-related conditions like influenza, encephalitis, shingles, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, arthritis, psoriasis, and sinusitis.”

Read more:

http://www.bioactivenutrients.com/news/learn-more-fungus/110

Video on sugar cravings and mycotoxins

This dude Elliot is right on! Watch his loud and in your face advice on this youtube video on yeast and mycotoxins and sugar cravings… Thanks dude for helping to loudly spread the word about FUPO!

Watch the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0Z6VLsq6So

I hope you find this information helpful and please remember FUPO

Fungus until proven otherwise!

The “Natural Flavor” in your processed factory made fast food might just be killing you.

I just learned that almost all processed food contains harmful additives known as exitotoxins, which ironically are allowed to be labeled as “natural flavor” or “natural flavorings” on food labels.

I’m sorry to say that until recently, I’ve been mostly blind to the ingredients I’ve been allowing to be put in my body when I buy food and beverages to eat both at home and in restaurants.

Sure, I’ve been reading ingredients labels more carefully for a few years now, but like most Americans, I have been more trusting than I should. I haven’t really paid much attention to a lot of the stuff I’ve been seeing as listed on the ingredients labels.

I’m human and I have made a lot of bad choices throughout my life as far as diet is concerned. I have blindly consumed all kinds of packaged food trusting that someone must be looking out for me and preventing me from consuming ingredients or chemicals that may be harmful.

Since “corporations are people” – right – the food companies must be concerned that I eat food with the healthiest ingredients, right??? At the very least they only allow “safe ingredients”, right?

And surely “big government” that has so much of a hand in regulating everything we do is protecting us, right?

The truth is – no one can protect you better than yourself. You can’t assume someone else is looking out for you and making sure the food you eat is 100% safe.

The fact is big food and chemical corporations exist to make money and while they certainly don’t want to kill their customers, they may on occasion, make decisions based on squeezing more profits out of the food and beverages they sell to us.

They are companies and are focused on being profitable. Also, people respond favorably to many of the things that can mask what they are really selling to us inside the container or shiny plastic wrappers.

And then consider that the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) allows this problem to occur. The FDA categorizes many well documented and scientifically proven harmful ingredients as GRAS aka “Generally Recognized As Safe”.

NO ONE is really looking out for you and making sure you only eat stuff that won’t kill you or contribute to illness or disease.

So what about these excitotoxin things? what are they?

Recently I saw a show on TV that brought exitotoxins to my attention. As you might guess a word with “toxins” indicates “poison” is involved.

Excitotoxins include common food additives you almost can’t help but eat every day, including MSG, aka Monosodium Glutamate, and Aspartame (NutraSweet)

I now realize how serious of a situation it really is with the big food corporations playing dangerous games with our health and trying to fool us into a false sense of security by hiding poisons in the food.

The guest on the show was a neurosurgeon by the name of Russell L. Blaylock – the author of the book “Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Blaylock

I found a lecture he did on Google Videos discussing Excitoxins which is worth watching:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2384105525501310962#

His book page on Amazon has some interesting details and of course a wide range of reviews which are interesting to read in themselves. It seems not everybody wants to believe that there could be anything harmful in our food and would rather be mad at the author for spreading the message. Weird.

http://www.amazon.com/Excitotoxins-Taste-Russell-L-Blaylock/dp/0929173252

While I will not attempt to explain in detail what he was discussing – I will say I was really affected by how common harmful toxic chemicals and poisonous ingredients are working their way into our lives.

Poison in the form of chemicals such as mercury, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, herbicides and insecticides and even foods including “natural flavorings” such as Monosodium Glutamate and NutraSweet, yeast extract, plant protein extract, natural flavors are everywhere.

The FDA even allows the corporations to rename their ingredients and hide them in healthy sounding names even such as “natural flavors” which last night I discovered was in the can of Andersons Split Pea Soup I was holding in my hand.

Here I have been eating food I thought was healthy only to add more of those harmful ingredients into my body.

I guess I now understand better why often people that are really sick will have a complete turnaround by going on a restrictive anti-fungal diet such as Doug Kauffman’s Phase 1 Diet, which does not allow any food that may contain yeast or mycotoxins (another word with toxins in it). The Phase 1 diet starves not only yeast and fungus but it makes sense that eating more wholesome natural foods will help get some of those chemicals and processed food ingredients out of our systems, allowing our bodies to heal in a more natural way.

Well, that’s enough on this – but I do hope I made you aware of some info that could be used to help protect yourself from some of the things that are surely causing many health complications as people just blindly eat what they put in those attractive packages.

If you still want more – I did find another interesting article called Excotoxins and You which is worth reading

http://www.learninggymusa.com/nutrition/excitotoxins.html

Also worth reading

The Slow Poisoning of America

http://www.rense.com/general67/msg.htm

If you have an open mind – OR – if you have become frustrated by traditional medicine not being ale to help you – you may want to consider that the root of your problems are related to fungus.

I just ran into an interesting article in the newest monthly edition of Doug Kaufmann’s Newsletter.

You really need to read the whole thing but this article called “Back To School” has some excellent info.

“When someone has a chronic fungal infection, it is almost always present in the gastrointestinal tract (dysbiosis). Dysbiosis allows proteins, viruses, bacteria and fungi to get into the tissues of the body, which would not ordinarily occur. Your immune system reacts to these “foreign invaders” by setting up an immune response (inflammation). As time goes on, the immune system becomes stressed from the “chronic foreign invasion”. Stress causes your thyroid metabolism to slow down and your adrenal glands to increase the production of cortisol. Increased cortisol production causes the release or production of inflammatory chemicals (cytokines) into the blood stream. This in turn causes more inflammation. Inflammation is the root of most all chronic medical problems. You can probably see where I am going with this. The chronic fungal infection has to be stopped in order to break the cycle of inflammation.”

This is an excerpt from an excellent article by Lynn Jennings MD at the Know The Cause Newsletter

Do we really need to be afraid of grain? YES!

It’s Safe Grain Handling awareness time and I think you’ll agree in a minute or two after reading some of this that I am not over reacting. This is a real danger!

It’s time to take a serious look at grains and how they may causing all kinds of serious health issues.

The main issue I am focusing on is contamination – there are other things too – but I’m most concerned with the toxins that grains expose us to.

Grains are commonly contaminated with mold and fungus and it’s a serious health issue.

Grains are stored in silos which are known to have mold and fungus.

Contaminated grains from the silos pass on this toxic stuff to animals and humans.

Don’t believe it – or maybe you’re a natural skeptic… Well – let’s take a look at the information I just stumbled upon for “Organic Dust Toxicity Syndrome” aka ODTS – which is a fairly common illness affecting farmers. It’s also called “Grain Fever”.

Man – if that doesn’t make you stand up and pay attention – I don’t know what will! I didn’t make up this GRAIN FEVER Thing! It’s really called that!

So – let’s take a step back and cover more of the bases and see how I came to this wild grain fever thing and my claims about grains and fungus being part of a major health concern.

OK – so I am pretty aware of candidaiasis (candida), fungus, mold and mycotoxins and have long been concerned about the negative impact from them. 

I am amazed at how common mold and fungus related health issues are and I do my best to share this info with people who want to learn and listen.

Suprisingly a lot of people don’t want to know about fungus and mycotoxins or even consider them as posing a threat.

It’s not only an environmental thing – airborne and such – but fungus is also in the food we eat. More so than you may realize.

That’s too bad because this mold and fungus thing is more prevalent than we may realize and is almost impossible to escape.

I was just doing some online research looking up CLA Conjugated Linoleic Acid when I ran into some alarming and disturbing info on grains and toxins which led me to find even more crazy stuff on mold and eventually I ended up at this Safe Grain Handling article (I’ll share that in a minute!).

CLA apparently is an essential nutrient found in meat and dairy.

I’m not an expert on it – but I will summarize some of what I learned… Let’s just say CLA Conjugated Linoleic Acid is generally accepted as very good for you and has many health benefits including helping to reduce fat and create more lean muscle tissue, prevent cancers and maybe even prevent diabetes. Theres more, but for now let’s just focus on how CLA is good for us humans and it is healthy to have more CLA in our diets.

But that appears to be a problem. And it’s partly the blame of grains (oh not again – leave them grains alone!)

Apparently over the years the amount of CLA Conjugated Linoleic Acid in meat and dairy has been declining. Not so much in free range or grass fed animals – but CLA has significantly decreased in those mass assembly line style farms that feed cows low budget stuff they would not naturally eat on their own.

Cows like to graze in pastures and eat grass.

They don’t naturally eat corn or other grains or processed grain sludge.

The animals that eat grains have LESS CLA (and Omega 3 and other nutrients as well).

Factory produced cows and animals that we eat meat from are simply not giving us the same nutritional value that grass fed or free range animals provide.

That’s bad enough – but not only do they have less CLA because they eat grains instead of grass – but the grains cause other problems – not to mention hormones and anti-biotics which further create issues and pose health concerns.

I found this alarming and as I was studying CLA I came across more and more info on the meat thing – the way factory farms raise animals and how meat is processed and such.

I ran across this thing called silage. That’s one of the cheap grain stews they feed animals in place of grass.

I never heard of silage – but my guess is it has something to do with silos and to me – that word is synonymous with mold and fungus.

Here is the actual quote from wikipedia:

“meat and dairy products from grass-fed animals can produce 300-500% more CLA than those of cattle fed the usual diet of 50% hay and silage, and 50% grain.”

Silage… that sounds scary… I wonder what that is.

I was especially intrigued because one of my health mentors Mr. Doug Kauffman of Know The Cause often speaks about silos and grain being contaminated with molds and fungus and contributing to the spreading of mycotoxins.

So I look up silage and to make a long story short I start to come across some weird stuff about handling grains safely.

Farmers Lung is a big problem apparently. And so is this Organic Dust Toxicity Syndrome.

Isn’t that an odd thought?

Why would anyone have to be concerned about handling grain safely or in a certain way???

The reason is – handling grain is DANGEROUS!

It’s crazy I know… but farmers have to be really careful around grains – especially stored grains!

You’d think the farmers would have enough health concerns just from all the toxic Roundup type pest killing chemicals used in farming – how could handling grain be a health threat???

It appears that the way they store grains in silos and such causes mold and fungus and toxins to develop at such a high rate that that we have these common health issues among people who handle the grain.

So my thinking is – this goes beyond the safety of people who handle it – what about the people and animals that CONSUME the grain???

The processed grain garbage they make – silage – or whatever they call it – they feed this crap to cows and such because it’s cheap and it makes them fat and they make more money.

But the cows are not getting the nutirents they normally would. Grass would give them more of what they need to thrive.

Grains do not help make healthy thriving cows!

And then consider they (the animals) are being exposed to this toxic sludge and all the fungus and mold and mycotoxins that are affecting the farmers and grain handlers with Grain Fever or Farmers Lung or Organic Dust Toxicity Syndrome – these animals are being slaughtered in an assembly line and the nutrition they are passing on is not only less than stellar – it’s possibly toxic and dangerous.

Yes – I know it’s hard to believe that mycotoxins can be passed on in meat from cows fed this processed grain scraps – but that is exactly what is happening.

You are what you eat, right?

The food you eat impacts your health, right?

Shouldn’t you be concerned about this?

We’re not getting all the nutrients we would get from grass fed cows (like CLA) and on top of that we’re being fed posionous mycotoxins because the grain the cows eat contains mold and fungus and who knows what else.

I don’t know about you – but that makes me angry.

We just let these big farm factory meat companies do whatever they need to do to increase profits.

Shoot up the animals with dangerous hormones and antibiotics and feed them cheap grain garbage. They feed the animals (and even FISH!)  CORN and grain instead of healthy food the animals would normally eat and they’re making more money at our expense.

But no one seems to be complaining.

Other than Doug Kauffman and a few others spreading the word about toxins and fungus, I don’t hear anyone shouting or even sharing this information.

We all just eat our factory produced burgers and steaks and drink the processed milk and eat assembly line eggs and such and have no clue to what is really going into our bodies.

We just want cheap food. The cheapest on the shelf is the one most people buy.

So those big companies are making the cheapest food possible so they satisfy our frugle shopping needs.

Well – me – what can I do? What can you do? It seems hopeless.

Me…. I really need to back off on consuming grains – it’s a fact that grains are commonly contaminated.

It would be smart for me to eat less food with grains and maybe even eliminate them from my diet completely.

And as far as meats – I will make a serious effort to find more grass fed and free range meat when possible.

I already eat less meat than in the past - I just need to make sure I eat higher quality meats from farmers that do more of the right things.

There are companies and farmers out there that are doing things the right way.

It’s time to find them and support them and maybe that wiill help drive out some the mass produced garbage from the marketplace.

We can vote with our wallets.

It actaully does work. People will often buy alternatives if they have a choice.

The otherday for example I was at In N Out Burger (I know!) and I saw a kid walk in with his own bottle of Organic Ketchup which had ZERO corn syrup in it!

Ketchup is notorious for having toxic corn syrup swetener crap in it by the way.

Right on! Smart kid! I buy that same organic ketchup by the way. It tastes great! As good or better than brands with corn syrup in it. It does cost slightly more though.

That’s the kind of stuff we need to do.

If there is an alternative we need to buy it!

Maybe some day those packets of ketchup will all NOT have corn syrup.

Corn is a grain by the way that is often contaminated with fungus!

High Fructose Corn Syrup is a great example of a toxic grain ingredient that is in almost everything. It’s so cheap for them to mass produce and use in place of sugar or other sweeteners that are healthier.

Corn Syrup is extremely unhealthy and more and more people are looking for products that DO NOT have it.

Some of the manufacturers are responding! I’ve even seen labels that brag they don’t have the corn syrup! That’s progress!

So – while it may seem hopeless and such a large problem – there are easy ways we can help.

Try to keep an open mind and if you have options – try to chip in and help the cause and drive out the unhealthy meats and products that have garbage ingredients or overly processed crap.

Eventually – someone with a calculator at the big factory will notice the decline in sales. At least I hope they do!

OK – so I hope you were affected as profoundly by that stuff as I was. I’ll provide links to the articles I ran across so you too can get a more complete picture. It’s really worth investigating this stuff. It affects our health much more than we realize.

Here are the links:
There is more! Continue Reading the entire post »

Word of mouth – the ultimate converter!

It’s amazing how powerful of an impact a personal reference or a testimonial can have on propelling a customer’s decision making process and create an action. They dig the product so much they want to say so in writing (or in video!)

I recently took some of the emails I had received from members and created a Blogging Underground testimonial page. It has been very effective and has actually prompted many more new testimonials!

Word of mouth is very convincing. It applies to the movies and also to business people looking to make solid decisions.

If you have a product people are digging – I highly suggest compiling your feedback into a testimonial section!

I finally saw the movie last night. Lost In Translation was fantastic! It’s rare that I am this moved and affected by a movie.

I know it’s already approaching 9 years old – but for some reason I have never seen Lost In Translation until now.

I must say it is one of the best movies I have ever seen.

It was particularly interesting because the movie is set in Japan and the earthquake of 2 weeks ago is still fresh on my mind. Especially considering the nuclear reactors are still not under control.

 I have always liked Bill Murray and it wasn’t until I checked out the filmography in the Directv credits for Lost In Translation that I realized he has been in so many of my favorite films. Ground Hog Day and Kingpin to name a couple. He has been in many more.

But I think Lost In Translation tops them all because the film is a masterpiece in so many ways.

Sofia Coppola so graciusly captured the mood and feelings of this creative viewpoint of a premise that is so unusual yet is so relatable to so many of us because it can be twisted to match our own life experiences.

Sure, while I related with Bill Murray and his “mid life crisis” while being stuck in the chaos and complexity of Japanese culture and society, I can’t claim to be the big movie star he was. He was getting millions of dollars to be in a whiskey ad campaign in Japan and even though he wasn’t looking for it – fate found it’s way to him and put him together with Scarlett Johanson’s character.

Both Murray and Johanson played their parts exceptionally well. Mostly quiet and understated. It was that and the peculularities of the Japanese culture and the wonders of the people of Tokyo that played togeher with the 2 actors to make this an unforgettable movie experience. 

The film style, the music, the cityscapes and the capturing of the culture made this one incredible experience. I rarely watch movies more than once, but this film definitely deserves to be watched again.

Lost In Translation Trailer

I just wrote an article on web publishing for newbies!

Sometimes you just need a little push to get the momentim going!

How hard is it to fail? Not easy! It’s frightening for some! But I am telling you loud and clear that you need to fail at least a little ebfore you start achieving success!

This is ecpecially true for beginner web publishers! Yu need to start practicing and be wlling to fail or do things half right before you become a master!

Read the full article on web publishing

Do you know any people that all too often include LOL in just about every sentence?

It’s a crutch. It makes it easier to argue or disagree or say OH – OK – I understand LOL

I don’t have a whole lot to say about it – but I have noticed more and more people are doing this.

If you asked me – fixing Wordpress themes is a huge hassle that theme designers force us to do with regularity!

Hey – I know not all of them create themes with wacky code and bizarre formatting – but some of them do! And I believe some of them are on a power trip and they get off knowing they’re playing with us.

That’s not a good business model – I mean hey – themes should be easy to modify – you shouldn’t have to spend a significant amount of time trying to make paragraphs look like they should out of the box. There is a purpsoe for paragraphs – why make everything bllend together. Hey – if it were easier to figure out I wouldn’t mind so much but this thing took me 20 minutes to find it in the css file and fix it so paragraphs had a line between them like they should.

And come on – let’s try to stick with conventions instead of trying to create NEW code innovations tod o the same things we can already do.

What’s the point of making everything uppercase and other tricks.

That’s why from now on I will be removing Wordpress theme credits and replacing them with “This WP THeme was fixed by Mick”

Could our ailments really be because of fungus? Yes – they could!

But let me tell you – most people do not want to hear it – much less believe it! I try to share this with my firends but I must not be very convincing or they have blinders and defenses up – because they don’t seem to be “getting it!”

I’m a believer and NOW I believe “Fungus UNTIL proven otherwise!” (FUPO!)

I’ve been reading Doug Kaufmann’s excellent book The Fungus Link and MAN o MAN – I’m telling you – you wouldn’t be so reluctant to believe after you have read about regular people just like us who had serious health issues BUT ONLY overcame them because they finally FIGURED OUT the LINK to FUNGUS!

Keep an open mind – will ya? Here – if you find this interesting please read this article on Fungus and Heart Health – I just wrote it!