Fighting Infections

Although this page is the heading for a section about treatments for acute infection, the main goal is to make sure you don't focus overly much on that. Putting all your focus on fighting infection is a good way to win the battle but lose the war -- which I believe is exactly what goes on with most people and "the normal progression of CF". The only way you are going to win this war is by rebuilding your body and basic health so you have more to bring to the battle.

The Cold War and Military Spending
I was never all that interested in politics so I don't know exact figures, but I have heard that Russia was spending a much higher percentage of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) than America was spending, yet we managed to outspend them basically because we were a wealthier nation. I especially like this quote:

After Reagan's military buildup, the Soviet Union did not respond by further building its military because the enormous military expenses, along with inefficient planned manufacturing and collectivized agriculture, were already a heavy burden for the Soviet economy. At the same time, Reagan persuaded Saudi Arabia to increase oil production, even as other non-OPEC nations were increasing production. These developments contributed to the 1980s oil glut, which affected the Soviet Union, as oil was the main source of Soviet export revenues. Issues with command ecconomics, oil prices decrease and large military expenditures gradually brought the Soviet economy to stagnation.

Healthy Mucus

I think one of the reasons that Celtic sea salt is so very important to my health is because it is nutritional support for producing healthy mucus. The common belief is that people with Cystic Fibrosis produce too much mucus. One study I read about concluded that they produce too little mucus and that all the stuff clogging up their lungs is phlegm (ie infection), not mucus. This fits with my personal experience and makes more logical sense to me. My personal experience is that when my sinuses are too dry (have too little mucus), then I cough up more stuff from my lungs. Mucus is an extremely important part of the immune system. I have come to believe that lack of healthy mucus is one of the primary ways that my immune system is compromised. This can be rebuilt by getting sufficient amounts of Celtic sea salt and enough healthy oils and carbohydrates (glyconutrients) for my body to adequately absorb and use the salt. When this is accomplished, the body's defenses are no longer catastrophically compromised in this critical area.

The purpose of mucus is to move out pollen, germs and other microscopic invaders and to creat a barrier that makes it difficult for them to get into the delicate tissues of the mucus membranes. The sinuses, lungs, and gut are all lined with mucus and they are all primary areas of serious health problems in people with CF. If you have CF and you want to actually get well, you need to aggressively work on supporting your body's ability to produce adequate amounts of healthy mucus.

PH Balance

This is chemical warfare. When your body's PH balance is way out of whack, your are being chemically assaulted by your own tissues. This is a very big deal and turns your body into its own worst enemy. Invaders will take advantage of this. High acidity promotes infection, promotes lung inflammation, leaches calcium from the bones in a desperate attempt to counter the acidity (thus promoting osteoporosis), and probably a whole lot of other things I don't know about. I think that if you get PH balance corrected and get healthy mucus production established, you close two of the primary pathways for chronic infection in people with CF. I also believe that the high acidity is a big part of what causes "the normal progression of CF". I have read some things on protein folding which indicate that high acidity in the cells will cause proteins to misfold -- proteins like the CFTR, which is the defective protein wreaking havoc in people with CF. I used to think that I would always need to work my butt off to avoid being sick. But the healthier I get, the easier it gets to maintain. I suspect that with correcting my PH balance, I am optimizing the functioning of the CFTR by having fewer of them misfold. This is the closest thing I know of to a "cure" for CF.

Building my own army

At the cellular level, fighting infection boils down to "eat or be eaten". We produce cells that will consume the microbes that are trying to feed on us. Aggressive nutrition allows the body's own defenses to build up so we are able to produce our own microsopic army in sufficient numbers to overwhelm the invaders. Glyconutrients likely play an important role here. When I was trying to figure out why glyconutrients were so very important to me for so long, I tripped across the fact that "glycoproteins" play a very important part in the immune system. So I believe that glyconutrients help supply the body with a critical building block for producing that army.

I no longer take glyconutrients as a supplement. Glyconutrients are basically types of carbohydrates. These days, I work hard on getting healthy carbs in my diet. But when I was really sick, I needed a concentrated supplement in order to build myself back up. This is no different from the fact that I took a great many nutritional supplements for a long time and I take relatively little in the way of supplements these days. Once the body has been rebuilt, a healthy diet can largely sustain one's needs. But in the short run, supplements can play a vital role in the quest to regain one's health.

Good gut flora

My understanding is that good gut flora play an important role in "crowding out" invaders. About half of human poop is made of micro-organisms. If they are friendly bugs, then you are likely pretty healthy. If they are unfriendly bugs, you have a serious problem. Good gut flora are also critical to the body's ability to properly absorb food. So if you don't have enough good flora in the gut, you will have be prone to malabsorption. I have been told that coconut oil does good things for gut flora. Glyconutrients and Celtic sea salt also play an important role in supporting the healthy gut flora and killing off the bad bugs.