Each of these “STOPS” has been selected because of its adverse impact on bioavailable copper, which is what the body runs on. Eliminating these factors, listed below, enables the body to restore, renew, and rebuild itself, no matter what the stressor, symptom, or disease state you may be experiencing. If you simply STOP doing these things, you will see improvement in any health issue you may be struggling with.
All of these recommendations are directly adapted from Morley Robbins’s book, Cure Your Fatigue (in that, you will find all the scientific studies and references) as well as from his countless blog posts, found on his Facebook group page, The Magnesium Advocacy Group.
STOP taking iron supplements
You are not truly iron-deficient, despite what your lab test may indicate. The standard iron status tests ordered by 99% of health practitioners are erroneous and provide an incomplete look at the full iron metabolism picture. These tests are only measuring your ferritin levels, which indicates iron storage. But, we should be more interested in how functional your iron is. In nearly every chronic condition, iron is stuck in the tissues and organs of the body, causing oxidative stress and inflammation. It is unable to circulate in the blood, where it belongs. This is because it’s dysregulated for two main reasons: 1) you’re drowning in non-bioavailable iron from your supplements, iron-fortified foods, pharmaceuticals, and vaccines, and 2) you are deficient in bioavailable copper, which balances and regulates iron, by keeping it in blood circulation and not stuck in your tissues, which is not showing up on your iron status lab tests. Finally, your body has a built-in iron recycling system, which works amazingly well when you have enough bioavailable copper to regulate it. You actually only need to consume 1 mg of iron per day, which you are certainly getting from your diet alone. So, in summary, if you supplement with iron, you’re only adding to your oxidative stress, inflammation, and bodily malfunctions.
STOP taking Vitamin D3 supplements
Again, the lab tests ordered for this by 99% of health practitioners are only testing the storage form of Vitamin D, not the bioactive form, which is the more important of the two. All the immune function respect that Vitamin D continues to receive is really from the forgotten bioactive form (remember, the one not tested in routine vitamin D blood tests). And it should also be mentioned that the immune-boosting function of the bioactive form of D is only possible when it’s working in concert with ample retinol (Vitamin A from animal products) in your body, which you get from your diet. Nature always pairs Vitamin D and Retinol in a 1:10 ratio, respectively. That is, 1 part vitamin D to 10 parts vit A. When you take a whopping dose of synthetic vitamin D on its own, it totally tanks what little vitamin A you most likely have in your body, causing a host of [other] health problems, most commonly causing Renal Potassium Wasting, where the kidneys cannot absorb potassium, which is a critical electrolyte. This can take years to recover from. Taking supplemental Vitamin D also uses up a huge amount of your already-deficient magnesium and bioavailable copper, which are two of the most important minerals in the body, that both prevent and cure many, if not most, of the disorders people suffer from. In addition, low levels of Vitamin D are an indication of oxidative stress and inflammation in the body, not the cause of it. It’s correlation, not cause. In other words, you are not dealing with chronic inflammation because you don’t have enough vitamin D. Therefore, taking vitamin D will not heal your chronic inflammation. Your vitamin D is low because you are deficient in magnesium and bioavailable copper and, thus, iron-toxic, which is the true cause of oxidative stress, inflammation, chronic symptoms, and “dis-ease.”
STOP taking calcium supplements
While calcium is essential for optimum health, calcium supplements are not. Although calcium supplements are routinely recommended to prevent osteoporosis, the most common supplemental form, Calcium Carbonate, is poisonous to the body’s vital bone-building process. While it’s true that osteoporosis is due to calcium loss, what is not understood nor addressed, is that bone loss is actually caused by excess, unbound iron. The research is very clear about iron’s negative impact on osteoblast activity (the bone-building cells of the body), as well as iron’s ability to kill alkaline phosphatase enzyme function and osteoblasts, both of which are essential to make new cellular tissue in the bone matrix. Most important here is the need for healthy and plentiful bone marrow. When iron is in the bone, it rusts this precious bone marrow. In addition, healthy and abundant bone marrow requires retinol, which the Standard American Diet (SAD) is pretty much devoid of. Also essential to new bone production activity are the key minerals, magnesium and bioavailable copper, both of which are very deficient in most people. Finally, unlike magnesium, we can obtain all of our calcium needs solely through our diet. What throws our metabolism off is the addition of calcium supplements. This sends the body’s calcium stores out of balance, leading to excessive levels that prevent the proper uptake and utilization of magnesium. Therefore, and not surprisingly, calcium supplementation is being shown by research (and in my own clinical observation), to cause calcification in the body (including in the arteries). Lastly, prior to the 20th century, our diet contained an ideal 1:1 balanced ratio of calcium to magnesium. But, beginning about 100 years ago, our food started to change, in large part due to refining, the advent of commercial farming, the introduction of thousands of food additives, and the prevalence of carbohydrate-rich grains and carbonated drinks. As a result, we now have a dietary Calcium/Magnesium ratio of 5:1, nearly a 500% increase from where calcium should be. Not only that, pasteurized and commercial yogurts and cheeses have up to 26 more times calcium than magnesium. These dairy products often contain synthetic Vitamin D as well, which further damages our mineral balances, and, ultimately, our health.
STOP taking zinc supplements
Zinc is yet another nutrient that you should only obtain from food. It has been heavily researched and studied that zinc kills the copper-based enzyme, Ferroxidase, that is responsible for metabolizing iron toxicity in your body and reducing free-radical damage. It also binds up bioavailable copper, which then depletes energy for the mitochondria, which are the energy powerhouses of our body, ensuring all necessary bodily functions can be performed, and thus preventing metabolic dysfunction and fatigue.
STOP taking molybdenum supplements
Molybdenum is a trace mineral. It breaks down proteins in the body. This can be problematic because, Ceruloplasmin, the copper-based master antioxidant protein of the body, is as just stated, a protein. Therefore, you don’t want molybdenum to break Ceruloplasmin down. Additionally, there is no need to supplement this trace mineral, as it is found is many commonly eaten foods and deficiencies are virtually non-existent.
STOP taking multivitamins
Multivitamins, multi-mineral products, One-a-Days, and pre-natal vitamin combinations are not designed to optimize bioavailable copper, which is the main goal for restoring your health. The first of many reasons you should avoid taking these is they almost always have iron in them. Extra iron consumption, outside of what is found naturally in your diet, at any level, is not advisable. Secondly, these products typically contain synthetic vitamins C and D3, molybdenum, citrate, and citric acid, which all degrade bioavailable copper in your body. Thirdly, multivitamins typically contain twice as much calcium as they do magnesium, and up to 15 times more zinc than copper. These ratios are very detrimental to your body. Fourthly, the B vitamins these products typically contain are not only synthetic but are also produced as byproducts of the petroleum industry. Instead, it’s recommended to ingest your B vitamins from bee pollen, unfortified nutritional yeast, and eat a more ancestral diet, as opposed to the Standard American Diet (SAD). Finally, and most importantly, the nutrients found in synthetic multivitamin and mineral products do not function the same way, or nearly as effectively in our bodies, as do nutrients in food-based formulations or the actual food itself. This is because food and products that come from food, as opposed to from a test tube in a lab, come to us by way of the beneficial microbes in the soil that interact with the nutrients so that the plants, and, eventually, the animals and humans that ingest them, can properly utilize and absorb these nutrients. Chemically, they may be similar to lab-grown nutrients, but only nutrients that come from properly mineralized soil are truly catalyzing and able to nourish our bodies, just as the intelligence of nature intended.
STOP taking B vitamins from a bottle
Not only are these synthetic and therefore not bioavailable, but they are produced from byproducts of the petroleum industry, making them possibly toxic and detrimental to our health.
STOP taking Ascorbate/Ascorbic Acid, /Citrate/Citric Acid
(aka synthetic forms of Vitamin C)
Synthetic Vitamin C / Ascorbic Acid is perhaps the most widely recommended nutrient in the world. As a result, in its most widely used forms (synthetic ascorbic acid and sodium and calcium ascorbate), it is also one of the main culprits in the epidemic of chronic fatigue throughout the nation. In simple terms, it literally causes the master antioxidant protein enzyme of our bodies, Ceruloplasmin, to explode. Scientific studies for the last 70 years on this topic abound, revealing that all synthetic forms of Vitamin C / Ascorbic Acid act as a toxic substance in the body. But, for nearly three generations, we’ve been propagandized to believe in and use this form of Vitamin C, while we’re ironically destroying our body’s supply of Ceruloplasmin and, therefore, our health. In addition, nearly all synthetic Ascorbic Acid is manufactured from genetically modified corn that comes from China, which is notorious for its low production standards in the manufacturing of nutritional and herbal supplements. It has also been shown that Citrate and Citric Acid both suppress and kill Ceruloplasmin. In order to fully eliminate your intake of synthetic Vitamin C, Citrate, and Citric Acid, avoid processed and packaged foods because often all 3 of these ingredients are found in them. Also, get into the habit of reading food and supplement labels, and avoid citrate forms of minerals, including Magnesium Citrate, which is one of the most popular forms of magnesium supplements on the market.
STOP eating High Fructose Corn Syrup and Artificial Sweeteners
They block the absorption of copper into the body. They prevent dietary copper from being absorbed in the gut and block copper from entering the cells.
STOP eating industrialized Omega 6 oils (Canola, Soybean, Safflower, and Corn Oils)
These rampantly available oils cause equally rampant inflammation in the body. These oils are widespread, found in additives in many packaged foods, as well as in commercial bread, mayonnaise, used in restaurants, etc. These oils are more inflammatory than they would be on their own because they interact with the toxic iron already present in the body from commonly eaten wheat products, supplements, medications, and vaccines, thus creating highly reactive explosions of inflammation in your body, when consuming these oils.
STOP using fluoride
Fluorine is the most reactive element on the planet. Oxygen is the second most reactive. Adding Fluoride to the municipal drinking water was a terrible injustice for many reasons, but especially because combining the two most reactive substances on earth—fluoride with the oxygen in water—is the perfect recipe for creating oxidative stress in the body. That is reason enough for avoiding drinking tap water and, if possible, showering and bathing in it, since fluoride and other toxic chemicals commonly found in tap water are directly absorbed through the skin. Fluoride also displaces magnesium. So, the more Fluoride you consume and/or absorb–whether from tap water, fluoride toothpaste and mouthwashes–the more you are losing precious magnesium in your cells, tissues, blood, and kidneys, as well as in your metabolic pathways. Fluoride also compromises copper in the body, creating oxidative stress and the inability of the mitochondria to activate oxygen when Fluoride is present. In addition, Fluoride is not just in our drinking water. It is also in dental treatments and routinely found in prescription drugs. Any prescription drug that has the letter “F” in its pharmaceutical name, has Fluoride in it. For example, the commonly prescribed antibiotic “CIPRO” (Ciprofloxacin), has Fluoride in it and is commonly reported to rupture ligaments in the patients taking it, due to Fluoride’s action of chelating copper, therefore diminishing Ceruloplasmin and ample collagen in the body/tissue integrity. CIPRO is also notorious for causing magnesium deficiency.
STOP using colloidal silver
Silver displaces Copper from the body. Once Copper is displaced from the body, you’ve lost the ability to activate oxygen and deactivate oxidants. Unlike Copper, Silver does not have a relationship with Oxygen. Does it stop “infections“? Yes. But when you use Colloidal Silver, you’ve lost the mechanism to control the process of oxidative stress in the body (which is what Copper does so well). So, although Colloidal Silver may solve the short-term “infection,” what it also does is create metabolic chaos in the long run. It is also the “colloidal” form of Silver that is destructive to bioavailable Copper. But, there is a form of “Nano-Silver” that does not have the same copper-disrupting properties. However, as you follow the Root Cause Protocol, which rebuilds your immunity, strength, and vitality over time, you will find that you won’t even need products such as these. Your body will be able to take care of things on its own, without your intervention.
STOP eating low-fat, high-carb, processed and refined foods
This modern way of eating is both toxic and nutritionally barren, at the same time. It is all based on faulty scientific research, and the USDA and other governmental recommendations are oftentimes the opposite of what would actually be beneficial for your health. Instead, opt for seasonal and local foods from your Farmer’s Market and try to emulate the way our ancestors ate as best you can. That means, the direct opposite of what the governmental health “authorities” say: Instead of low fat, you want high fat, but good fats (grass-fed butter and ghee, coconut oil, organic cold-pressed olive oil, etc.). Instead of high carb, you want lower carb. Instead of convenient, cheap, processed and refined “foods” with empty calories and synthetic “nutrition,” you want nutrient-dense, home-cooked, organic, pasture-raised, grass-fed, etc. The more you eat this way, the less doctor visits, medicine, and even supplements you will need, and the more vitality you will foster.
STOP excessive exposure to unchecked blue light from screens and electronics
Constant exposure to radiation from blue light (from artificial lighting, tv, computers, phones, etc.), produces hydrogen peroxide (H202), a significant source of oxidative stress to our eyes and retinae. A predominance of artificial blue light over the natural full-spectrum cycles of sunlight can alter circadian rhythms and suppress melanin production (the body’s natural shield from UV and visible light radiation). It also affects the body’s utilization of sunlight in activating the breakdown of retinol into the retinoic acids and receptors that run our metabolism, and hampers the body’s ability to benefit fully from synthesizing vitamin D. Less activation of retinol means less bioavailable copper to regulate the recycling of iron in the body. EMFs (electromagnetic frequencies) are highly coordinated with blue light from electronic devices as well as cell towers, smart meters, and 5G networks, and this adds to our radiation load. Minimizing exposure to artificial blue light and EMFs is difficult in today’s technology-driven climate, and the most important step we can take is to strengthen the body’s capacity to neutralize the assault by following all of the above “stops” at the very least, and by ideally adopting the Root Cause Protocol, in its entirety.
