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Medical data is for informational purposes only. You should always consult your family physician, or one of our referral physicians prior to treatment.

Supplement to

The Art of Getting Well

Germanium

Sources are given in references.

Authors of contributions\quotations are alphabetically arranged;

major author, if any, is underlined.

Kazukiko Asai, Dr. Gerald Garcia, Sandra Goodman, Ph.D.,

Betty Kamen, Ph.D./Responsible editor/writer Anthony di Fabio.

Foundation for Eradication of Rheumatoid Disease

AKA The Arthritis Trust of America

7376 Walker Road, Fairview, Tn 37062

Permission to republish portions granted to EXPLORE!,

PO Box 1508, Mt. Vernon, WA 98273, Vol. 5, No. 4, p. 29, 1994.

Several paperback books recently found in health food stores

and book stores describe the merits of “germanium”, and until

several years ago many health food stores and pharmaceutical

companies were beginning to stock the substance. One reference is

Germanium: A New Approach to Immunity by Betty Kamen, Ph.D.

and another is Germanium: The Health and Life Enhancer, Sandra

Goodman, Ph.D.

Unfortunately, the FDA clamped down on this substance and,

while it can be obtained, it is not quite as prevalent as it should be.

The literature is filled with its medical wonders that require further

investigation.

Before you go out and purchase Germanium per se, keep in

mind that it is a very toxic and poisonous substance in its natural

form, or in the form of many of its salts. It's not "Germanium" that

you are after, but rather a new substance called bis beta-

carboxyethyl germanium sesquioxide, since also titled as Ge

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(mu-trioxo-bis [beta-carboxyethyl] germanic anhydride). Its inven-

tor and developer, Kazukiko Asai, a Japanese chemist and coal

engineer, tested 132 compounds of Germanium, finally ending

with this one -- thus titled Ge

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For those of you who know about and use herbs, it is of interest

to note that organic germanium is an active ingredient in garlic, aloe,

comfrey, chlorella, ginseng, watercress, shelf fungus (which is a

variety of Reishi mushroom), Shiitake mushrooms, pearl barley,

sanzukon, sushi, waternut, boxthorn seed and wisteria knob.

It will also interest you to learn that many of the traditional

problems for which the above specific natural substances are recom-

mended, are also solved when using organic Ge

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While there are many claims about what Ge

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— hereafter

often to be called “Germanium” — will do for the health, only

certain characteristics stand out and seem to be substantiated both

by supporting research and clinical practice. I cannot report on

everything, and so will hit some of the highlights that seem to be

firm.

Pain is a way of life for arthritics, and anything that can and

will safely reduce pain is of importance. A most interesting charac-

teristic of Germanium is its ability to relieve a great deal of pain. It

does this by inhibiting the natural body enzyme that, in turn,

inhibits production of the body’s endorphins.

Endorphins are substances produced in the brain that

naturally raise the pain threshold. Some of us produce more

endorphins than others, and those that produce very little are highly

sensitive to pain. Another way of describing the phenomenon of

pain sensitivity is in the recognition that some of us produce more

of the enzyme that blocks the utilization of our own endorphins,

thus making us more sensitive to pain. Bis beta-carboxyethyl

germanium sesquioxide inhibits the endorphin inhbitor.

Personal use, and reports from physicians and patients,

indicate that Germanium does work as a pain desensitizer.

In both humans and animals Ge

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has been shown to increase

gamma interferon in the blood, activate macrophages and natural

killer cells, bring blood hemoglobin levels up and white cell counts

down, stimulate immunomodulation activity in the B cell system,

and demonstrates antitumor and antiviral activities. This substance,

therefore, may be an excellent adjuvant (aids the operation of)

immunochemotherapeutic agent. The effects of Ge

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on various

immune parameters are almost identical to that of known gamma

interferon immunomodulating activity. In addition, studies on

immune-suppressed animals and on patients with malignancies

or rheumatoid arthritis suggest that Ge

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normalized the function

of T cells, B lymphocytes, anti-body-dependent cellular cytotox-

icity, natural killer cell activity and numbers of antibody-forming

cells. Obviously organic germanium has a “normalizing” influence

on the immune system.

A key characteristic of Germanium is its ability to

“normalize” many physiological functions. For example, it has the

ability to lower blood pressure on hypertensive people. This

normalizing effect may extend to a broad variety of physiological/

biochemical functions, such as restoration of deviant blood

parameters to their normal ranges, including pH, potassium,

calcium, chloride, triglycerides, cholesterol, bilirubin, uric acid, and

blood hemoglobin.

Our bodies have many physical/chemical systems that are in a

state of "homeostasis", which is the ability to restore systems to their

"normal" state.

A substance that assists the body systems to restore to normal-

ity is called an "adaptogen". Germanium is without any question an

adaptogen.

Inside cells, Ge

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acts as an electron sink at the mitochondrial

level. By analogy, when cells produce energy, the process

produces excess electrons that must go somewhere. When we are

healthy, we handle those excess electrons without too much trouble.

As we age, or get diseased, the electrons, having no place to go,

attach themselves to various substances, creating products that

are undesireable for health.

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picks up those excess electrons, thus improving the

efficiency of the cellular operation.

In effect, Ge

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, analogous to thyroid hormones, improves the

overall metabolism of the cell, thus the organ, the system, and

therefore the body is improved.

In a sense, like EDTA Chelation therapy, which scavanges

free-radicals throughout the circulatory system outside the cell,

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scavanges electrons before they will produce free-radicals

inside the cell.

Bis beta-carboxyethyl germanium sesquioxide is virtually

non-toxic to the human system. When IV (intravenously) adminis-

tered it is excreted very rapidly, with about 60% lost in the urine

within the first hour, and 90% lost within three hours.

It is apparently not metabolized at all by tissues, and levels

peak in the tissues within six hours following oral (sub-lingual)

administration, and it is not retained significantly by any organ