Everything strives for a balance, from trees in a forest to our organ systems, to disease and toxins in a living organism.

I recently watched a fascinating documentary on trees in a forest. It turns out these are not just individual organisms trying to survive, they form a huge network of various organisms either supporting each other or competing, and they achieve a balance. Trees communicate with each other through the medium of mycorrhizomes (fungi). Nutrients are also directed from a mother tree to her offspring. A remarkably complex relationship between a huge network of individual organisms also facilitated through fungi - an enormous symbiosis. Makes a person feel bad about cutting down a tree, especially if taking out its roots, as other trees may be reliant on those roots.

This really is a similar concept to le Chatelier's principle: everything strives to be in equilibrium. This is a related principle that everything strives to achieve balance (could this be Semelka's principle?.

Recent literature in human disease also reflect that very delicate balance. A recent report described glutathione promotes the ability of cancers to metastasize (by ofcourse protecting them them from oxidative stress). A recent study from Australia described that NSAIDS and Acetaminophen may promote the ability of bacteria to thrive (NSAIDS decrease immune reactions). Most recently I read that a GABA drug (pregabalin) can cause heart failure in people taking it for chronic pain.

So we are aware in the health field about how all the micro-organisms in our digestion track, skin, elsewhere form an ecosystem of symbiosis, each helping the other and in our interest our own bodies. But the balance is very delicate, and although in healthy people there is considerable redundancy and durability. It turns out none of us now in a heavily polluted environment are perfectly healthy and normal, we all have some level of immune system dysregulation. The more dysregulated the more the balance of maintaining health walks a thinner and thinner razor's edge.

Most recently I have come to focus on that this establishment of balance also occurs with entities that cause us disease. In fact many of the micro-organisms we rely on, if they are out of balance then this can also cause us harm.

Here is now the micropoint on Gd: after about 3 months residing in the body, all our cells and tissues try to achieve a balance with the retained Gd (other heavy metals, other toxins) which can be uneasy, but it is a balance. In the great majority this balance does not result in appreciable disease. Now many of these balances in people with significant immune dysregulation are tipped in the direction of getting much worse (progressive GDD), but it is a form of balance. We must understand that for treatment. Changing the balance has to be done with care, because we are disturbing a balance. The easiest strategy is to remove the Gd with chelation within 2 weeks, before the immune system reaction has matured, and the path to balance established. Presently I rarely recommend it, unless it is very clear from the start that significant GDD is likely to be present. Speed is often critical in treatment of proliferating invaders (infection and cancer) but may not be the best approach for nonreplicating disease (Gd and other nonradio-active heavy metals)

Now to interject another critical issue I have focused on: STAY CALM. Staying calm and reducing stress may be one of the most critical things we can do to benefit our health. This basically is the source of the benefit of meditation and prayer in health. The cytokines related to stress essentially follow the same paths as GDD and other toxicities.

Interjecting the next point I have focused on: we have to accept as normal and important to embrace that two trains of thought are essentially the natural thing we have to accept as 'true' or 'correct'. In this case the two trains of thought: 1. stay calm, and 2. strive to knowas much as available on subjects.

So the issues I brought up at the start are not anarchistic or nihilistic, actually quite the obvious. The point is to understand everything is in a balance, and thoughtful attention must be paid to the opposing effects of various treatments. As example Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen are extremely important to decrease fever and inflammation, but there is a balance with also allowing infective organisms to escape destruction from immune cells. It is a balance.. Glutathione is an effective cell health promoting chemical by being a very powerful anti-oxidant, but anti-oxidation can also benefit cancer cells. It is a balance.

The critical issue is that there is always a balance of often competing effects, and to be aware of that, even if the principle of treatment is not changed.

But finally, I am in general not keen of administering iv many substances that the body has not actually asked for. Injection iv then inserts a lot of something that the body may actually need to get rid of, because it did not want it. For the majority of people, it is critical to allow the body to do what it does on its own, like make glutathione.Perhaps the smartest approach is to provide the building blocks for glutathione and other chemicals in the diet, and if the multilevel of cells feel they need to make it, then they have the blocks to do so. Often I think substances like glutathione the body only really likes when it has made it itself, how it has made it, and where it placed it, and not had it forced upon it, unasked for. But again, in some people this ability to generate or incorporate various substances may be significantly absent or damaged. So although the smartest approach of providing the building blocks in the diet (preferably with whole foods), in a few individuals this may not be sufficient. Distinguishing the few from the many is a challenge in health care that must be focused on as we move forward.

In summary, the three key points 1. everything is in balance, even bad things set up a balance with our cells, it is therefore critical to plan not only treatment but how best to break apart that balance, speed may not always be the best approach 2. health is on a razor's edge, although in the healthy there are a number of redundancies that makes that razor's edge relatively broad and tolerant to errors in healthcare, not so in those with severe immune system dysregulation., the razor's edge may be a micron thick. 3. stay calm as a separate and durable train of thought. that is always on: 100% duty cycle.

Richard Semelka, MD