Why Amy Goodman Developed Bell's Palsy

Several days ago, my husband called me at work. He said that he had just put on the news, Democracy Now!, that he watches every morning as he gets our children ready for school, and that something had happened to Amy Goodman. He described her symptoms to me and I said then and there, “She probably has Bell’s Palsy.” I explained to him that Bell’s Palsy affects the facial nerve causing facial paralysis on only one side. The traditional allopathic medical view of this disorder is that it is a problem with the nerve itself and it is treated with pharmaceutical drugs like neurontin, elavil, surmontil and others. In actual fact, it is a mineral deficiency. Osteoporosis of the skull causes the tiny holes in the skull that allow nerves and blood vessels to pass through to the face and scalp to “fill in” with bony material and these tiny spurs put pressure on those nerves and can eventually interfere with their function. The facial nerve passes through the skull to innervate the face; there is one on each side of the face and they each have three branches that go to the eyebrow, the cheek and the side of the mouth. Bell’s Palsy imitates a stroke in that the eyebrow and eyelid cannot work for frowning, raising the eyebrows, blinking, winking, closing the eyes, etc. The side of the mouth does not go up or down with smiling, speaking or frowning and does not close completely when eating or drinking. It is occasionally painful if the sensory part of the nerve starts sending pain signals to the brain even without a painful stimulus. Usually it causes a deadening of sensation or even numbness in the side of the face that is affected.
Osteoporosis is usually called a Calcium deficiency, but it is, in fact, a deficiency of multiple minerals in addition to Calcium. It is caused by deficiencies of Magnesium, Boron, Copper, Sulfur, Selenium, Strontium, Actinium and Fluorine. These are the minerals that are “cofactors” for Calcium; they are required for the proper absorption and utilization of Calcium. Osteoporosis can also be caused by excessive amounts of Fluorine, Phosphorus, Cadmium and fat; these all interfere with the absorption of Calcium.
Calcium is the fifth most abundant element in the Earth’s crust and is essential to all life forms. The late Paleolithic Period of 35,000 to 10,000 years ago was the most recent time that our human forbearers lived in the bios for which they had been biochemical designed. The agricultural revolution occurred 10,000 years ago and it reduced the wide variety of wild foods in the human flood chain and increased food energy. These changes universally and forever decreased man’s dietary intake of minerals, trace minerals and Rare Earths. The uncultivated food plants and wild game commonly available to Stone Age humans would supply 1600 mg at basal energy intakes and between 2000 and 3000 mg of Calcium at the energy levels required to support the hunting and work. Currently, American adults have a calcium intake of only one fifth to one third as much as did Stone Age humans. The National Health & Nutrition Examination Survey II reported a median calcium intake for American women of between 300 and 508 mg per day and only 680 mg for men.
Other nutrients that are rich in the American diet aggravate the national calcium deficiency. Diets rich in salt and phosphates (protein) result in an increased Calcium “cost”, that, in effect, increases the requirements for Calcium. There are no less than 147 deficiency diseases that can be attributed to calcium deficiency or imbalances. Calcium is mainly absorbed in the duodenum, where the environment is still acid. Once the food in the intestine becomes alkaline, absorption drops. Calcium is absorbed from the small intestine by active cellular transport and by simple diffusion. Metallic calcium absorption may be limited to 10 percent or less and is affected by many substances in the gut. Calcium by be absorbed in the organically bound plant derived colloidal and water soluble chelates.
Lack of vitamin D results in calcium deficiency, as well as deficiency of stomach acid; lactose intolerance, celiac disease, high fat diet, low protein intake and high phytate consumption all result in calcium deficiency; oxalic acid in rhubarb, spinach, chard and greens combines with Calcium to form an insoluble calcium oxalate which is not absorbed; fiber itself, besides the phytates content, prevents Calcium absorption; alkaline intestine, gut mobility (too rapid movement of food through the gut, too much fiber, too much fruit, etc.), pharmaceuticals (antiseizure drugs, diuretics, etc.) result in decreased absorption and retention; excess of caffeine from coffee, tea, colas, etc. will leach Calcium from the bones.
Not only are our soils and food deficient in calcium, additionally, the American diet is rich in Phosphorus, which is found in just about everything we eat (NPK fertilizer and food additives). Ideally, the Calcium to Phosphorus ratio in our daily diet should be 2:1; however, this idyllic ratio is not possible (you would have to eat 25 lbs of broccoli every time you ate a 16 oz steak). The only possible way to approach the 2:1 ideal is to avoid as much as possible the high Phosphorus containing items and supplement with plant derived, colloidal minerals.