Our opinion

Why indium?

Of all the nutritional supplements and therapies we have tried, indium comes the closest to being the fountain of youth and miraculous answer to our quest for health.

Trying to make sense of the numerous benefits of Indium people experienced brings us to the conclusion that the mouse experiment reported in Schroeder's paper of 1976 documents the most important aspect of how indium actually works. The experiment clearly showed the enhanced rate of absorption of many essential trace minerals in mice supplemented with indium. Schroeder was focused in his research on testing the possible toxic and carcinogenic effects of indium. He didn't expect any benefits. He commented briefly on the results with speculation that enhanced absorption of trace minerals is probably to be credited with offsetting the toxicity of indium. Other people had a similar reaction; they were very cautious about viewing the enhanced absorption of trace minerals as an undisputed benefit pointing out that it looks like questionable interference with transport and the body's utilization of minerals and perhaps should be consider an abnormality. However, given the impressive range of benefits some Indium users experience another interpretation is possible.

Let's start with the following wise quote: "A mineral needs other minerals to be present or it won't do it's job correctly". We know that no mineral works in isolation in the human body. Being deficient in one mineral usually causes related deficiencies in other minerals too.  Even if indium is not an essential mineral on its own, why not consider it a benefit if it helps to absorb other minerals better? And who says that indium is non-essential? We simply don't know what role it plays in a human body but we cannot rule out the possibility that it does indeed do something important and essential. It is a common hypothesis forming strategy for scientists who study trace minerals to anticipate certain properties of a mineral from the position that mineral occupies in the periodic table of elements. Some people noticed that indium's position is central, meaning that both, on the left and on the right side of indium, there are solid blocks of elements known for playing very important role in human bodies. Therefore, thinking that indium allows for other essential elements to be assimilated by the body at an increased rate and in balanced proportions is perhaps an interesting and viable hypothesis. It certainly would explain the benefits people experienced.

Indium benefits

Our first customers — and test subjects — were family members and friends. The most commonly reported benefits include gradual weight loss and decreased need for sleep. Several women reported improvement in their menstrual cycles including relief from premenstrual and menstrual pains. Also, women reported fewer problems with dry skin. In general, women were able to notice and report more benefits than men, partly because many men tend to take their indium less faithfully.

How to make indium work for you?

We wish we could tell you that indium will solve all your health problems. Unfortunately, we know that for some people indium "doesn't work". Make sure that you take enough every day — it is safe to take even three times as much as the recommended dose. Try spraying it into your mouth as this most likely will help to increase absorption. Our opinion is that indium is a very effective tool if one makes it a part of a comprehensive health maintenance plan. We don't think that such a plan needs to be complicated, impossible to follow, or confusing. Basically it is the often repeated prescription: eat right and exercise.

Foundation of health

Health is simple to understand, to enjoy, and to maintain. It is the sickness that makes everything complicated and confusing. Good health begins in the soil. The soil that is rich in minerals and life. So why is it that there is so much sickness around?

The bad news is that in America today the food is bad. It grows on poor soil depleted from vital minerals. It is further downgraded by the food processing industry with practices that should have been outlawed a long time ago.  

It seems that these days everybody is on some sort of a diet. Health problems are common and nutritionists tell people to watch calories, cholesterol, proteins, carbohydrates, fats and who knows what else. We all live uncertain whether cancer or heart disease is not going to strike us tomorrow. We would like to get a clear picture of the relation between what we eat and how healthy we are but what we are getting from our scientists is far from being simple or clear. We would be getting much better advice if, instead of checking the cholesterol, calories, or fat content of the food, scientists started comparing the mineral content of it. Unfortunately, nobody does this any more and the reason for that is, in our opinion, that science no longer serves the public. Science serves those who fund it by providing money for research. It works well in the technology sector where technical progress serves both the corporations who fund research and consumers who benefit from its discoveries. This approach doesn't work at all in medicine where public interest and corporate interest are diametrically opposed. The public wants to be healthy, but corporations make a profit only on sick people. It doesn't work in the farming industry either because food that is cheap to produce means bigger profits for farmers while causing numerous health problems for consumers. Neither does it work in the food industry because most of the practices designed to prolong shelf life and reduce losses in transport deprive the food of their mineral and nutritional content.

The table below provides more accurate evaluation of American food than any document published in FDA history. Copied from The Healing Power of Minerals, Paul Bergner.

Table 1. Average mineral content in selected vegetables, 1914-1997. Sums of averages of calcium, magnesium, and iron in cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, and spinach. (Sources: Lindlahr, 1914; Hamaker, 1948; and U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1963 and 1997)

Is the decreasing level of minerals in the food we grow a reason for concern? Below is a quote from Henry A. Schroeder, M.D., The Trace Elements and Man. that answers that question.

When we compared the concentration of chromium in the tissues of Americans and foreigners at all ages, we found high levels in stillborn, newborn infants and children up to ten years of age, which declined precipitously in the next two decades. Chromium, present in all young bodies, was not detected in 15-23 percent of American tissues from people over 50, but was found in almost every foreign one (98.5%). Estimates based on organ weights indicated that Africans had twice, Near Easterners 4.4 times and Orientals five times as much chromium in their bodies as did Americans. While we cannot prove that those persons deficient in tissue chromium had severe atherosclerosis, we found that chromium in the aorta was not detected (too low to be found) in almost every person dying of coronary artery disease, one manifestation of atherosclerosis, and was present in almost every aorta of persons dying accidentally. Henry A. Schroeder, M.D., The Trace Elements and Man. Chapter VI, Chromium Deficiency and Atherosclerosis.

Like if our poor farming practices were not enough let us see what the food industry does to the food we eat and, consequently, to our health. Here is another quote from Dr. Schroeder.

The refining of wheat to patent flour (72% of the wheat) produces a white product with 20 percent of the magnesium, 13 percent of the chromium, 12 percent of manganese, 50 percent of the cobalt, 37 percent of the copper and 21-31 percent of the zinc in the whole grain. [...] Polishing rice results in a white product with 17 percent of the magnesium, 25 percent of the chromium, 73 percent of the manganese, 62 percent of the cobalt, 75 percent of the copper and 25 percent of the zinc in the whole grain. Refining of sugar produces a white product with 1 percent of the magnesium, 7 percent of the chromium and 12 percent of the cobalt in raw sugar. Magnesium and chromium are needed to metabolize sugar. Henry A. Schroeder, M.D., The Trace Elements and Man Chapter X, Balancing Your Diet to Correct Partitioning of Foods.

Still not convinced about the importance of adequate mineral uptake to our health? What about the demise of the Mayan civilization? They most likely perished of malnutrition after depleting their soil from minerals with corn on which they relied and depended. What about the civilizations that flourished for millennia because they were fortunate to live along rivers replenishing their fields with minerals every season? What about the long living and healthy Hunza people whose health secrets are to be found in their soil and water which are constantly replenished with minerals by rock erosion and glacier activity? What about endemic diseases studied some time ago when science was still on the right track as far as mineral and health connection is concerned? There is no shortage of evidence how the mineral content of soil affects, for good or bad, the health of the local population. It is maybe a little unfortunate that today we all eat food from geographically different sources so the connection between the soil and human's health is obscured, but we are not immune from the problems of mineral deficiencies just because we eat food grown in Iowa, California, and Florida.

Good news

Industrial waste and mineral depletion of our soil and food are not the only changes in our environment that are detrimental to our health. Japanese scientists focused their efforts on studying the acidic-alkaline balance in our bodies, how it is disrupted by the modern lifestyle, and how technology can help in restoring the balance. The answer is ionized water endorsed and recommended by the Japanese Ministry of Health and recognized and approved in many Asian countries. We recommend the book by Sang Y. Whang, Reverse Aging which explains how this technology works and what health benefits it offers.

Here are few places on the internet where you can buy the Jupiter water ionizer.

Food processing is another area where the modern lifestyle brings new dangers. If you are concerned about your health then relying on a micro oven for convenience is a bad idea. Do yourself a favor and buy an infrared oven. It offers the most "nutrient" friendly way of cooking your food. Built with the technology advanced in the U.S. (NASA) but developed into a health serving technology in Japan. More about advantages of infrared cooking and health related applications of the infrared technology in the Whang's book, Reverse aging.

Specific recommendations

Quit smoking. Eliminate simple sugars. Forget soft drinks. Drink water and tea instead. Even coffee is better. Fruit juices are not as healthy as their producers would like you to believe either mainly because of the added sugar. Stay away from processed food. Avoid white bread and polished rice. If you eat spaghetti try to choose a European brand (like Barilla) over a domestic one since European flour is richer in minerals. Whenever it meets your budget requirements choose organic products over those produced with industrial methods since organic foods have better mineral content.

In your free time read two books. Paul Bergner will give you more specific and detailed advice on healthy eating. Wendell Berry will open your eyes with explanation why farming and industrial methods don't match so you will understand better all the warnings about the food produced by our food industry.

Be an educated health consumer. Do your research on alternative cures and therapies. Herb supplements are usually well researched but you are on your own when it comes to finding good sources of information. It is not likely that you will get reliable advice from your doctor. But don't put blind faith in the first salesman that comes across offering you "the natural" stuff, either.

References

1. Dr. Henry A. Schroeder, The Trace Elements and Man
2. Paul Bergner, The Healing Power of Minerals, Special Nutrients, and Trace Elements
3. Wendell Berry, Home Economics
4. Linus Pauling, How to Live Longer and Feel Better
5. Sang Y. Whang, Reverse Aging