Aspergirl

During my thirty years practicing orthomolecular psychiatry and homeopathy, I have treated many children and adults on the autism spectrum.  It is now up to one out of every 88 children in the US, even higher in parts of California, where my three year old granddaughter lives.  She has recently been diagnosed with autism. 

It is said to be common in children of engineers, maybe because people with Aspergers make good scientists and engineers. Asperger people tend to focus on an area of special interest and learn everything they can about it, which can eventually become the basis for a career.  They are usually of higher than average intelligence. They are more interested in figuring out how the world works than social relationships. 

According to Sara Robinson, “Asperger's Syndrome wasn’t named and identified until 1994, but by the 1950s, the defense industries in California's Santa Clara Valley [Silicon Valley] were already drawing in brilliant young men and women who fit the profile: single-minded, socially awkward, emotionally detached, and blessed (or cursed) with a singular, unique, laser-like focus on some particular area of obsessive interest.” 

Now that I am a grandmother, I am discovering that I have Asperger traits myself.  I’ve never been diagnosed, but I have diagnosed it in some of my patients. I am reading in books like Aspergirls, by Rudy Simone, and on the internet about how differently it presents in females, so is more often missed.  It would explain a lot of the funny little things about me.  

Aspergirls, unlike most of their teenage or adult peers, have little or no interest in fashion, make-up, or hairstyles, or chatting with friends for hours.  Like me, they hate shopping, prefer wash-and wear hair, and comfortable, practical clothes with lots of pockets.    One good thing for Dads, their daughter might be happier helping him in his workshop rather than helping their mother with housework. 

Three years ago my husband and I retired and moved to Italy, where he was born.  My possibly Aspergian attire (baggy blue jeans, sweatshirts and Birkenstocks, here in the land of fashion), and demeanor are probably attributed to just being American.  There are no other Americans in this town.  People ask my husband why I don’t talk much, don’t I understand Italian yet?  He says, “Lei e fatta cosi.”  (She’s made that way.)  I do understand most of what is said, but my taciturnity is more acceptable here, because there is seen to be an excuse for it.  I have become more talkative now, and the Italians are very helpful because they don’t care if everything I say is ungrammatical and pronounced wrong, as long as they understand my meaning.  They do correct me kindly, and don’t laugh unless I say something really funny (like saying I made a cake with “mascalzoni” (rascals), instead of “mascarpone” (cream cheese).   

I once had a brain map done by Dr Les Fehmi, in Princeton, NJ, a pioneer of biofeedback with whom I used to work.  It showed I was low in alpha brainwaves.  Alpha waves, 10 to 14 hertz, are associated with a relaxed, creative, open-focused state, in which the left and right hemispheres of the brain are in synchrony, together producing the large, smooth alpha sine waves.  (If you draw one vertically through a circle and add dots, it becomes the Taoist yin-yang symbol.)  I don’t know if low alpha is a general characteristic of Aspergians, but it would help explain their chronic anxiety.

Alpha waves can be increased by things like yoga, meditation, and marijuana.  THC from this herb happens to fit the brain’s anandamide receptors.  Anandamide is the first endogenous cannabinoid, discovered in 1992 by Raphael Mechoulam ,  named for the Sanskrit  word “ananda” meaning inner bliss.  After smoking the herb, some Aspies discover for the first time what it’s like to feel normal!  They can talk and converse like anyone else.  I invented the term “anandapenia”  to signify the condition of a lack of anandamide, (or lack of bliss).  

Aspergers is thought to be related to hypofunction of the right hemisphere, affecting things like:  recognition of faces and facial expressions, body language, spatial orientation, sense of direction, remembering how to get somewhere, (making it hard to drive).   I seem to lack the internal map that neurotypicals have in their brain that helps them find their way around town, or hotels, airports and train stations.  (I call it “dysmappia”.) 

As for recognizing faces - I seem to need to meet a person at least 3 times before I remember them.  This can be very embarrassing.  When people say Hello to me here, I’m always asking my husband, “Who was that?”  He’s gotten used to my quirks. 

Autistics may have more problems with the left hemisphere, where the speech centers are.  They may think in pictures, as Temple Grandin describes, rather than in words.  Animals probably think in pictures too.  It’s probably a primordial way of thinking that humans used before we acquired language.

Aspies are generally good at left brain functions like language and math.  They are very logical and generally prefer science, nature or computers to interacting with other people.  They often love to read, especially science fiction and fantasy. I’ve always been a Sci-Fi geek myself.  When I was a kid in Allentown, PA, I used to walk to the library a couple of times a week, check out some books, sit on the library steps and read them, take them back in and get more.  (I guess children were only allowed to check out 3 or 4 at a time, and I couldn’t have carried more than that home anyway.)   I read all the science fiction I could get.   My mother said I taught myself to read at 4, and I haven’t stopped since. 

Autism

Autism

The autism rate in the US is now up to 1 in 88.  My granddaughter who lives in California was diagnosed shortly before her 3^rd birthday.  According to my son, she had been regressing for about six months, talking less, not making eye contact and not even responding to her name.

I first met her in May 2011, when she was a year and 9 months old. I was back in New Jersey, trying to sell our house there, since we had moved to Italy.  While in the US, I took the opportunity to fly out to visit my son and meet my granddaughter. Now that I think about it, the little girl’s behavior was unusual even then. On the way to a big indoor children’s playground/learning center, she had a screaming fit which could only be stopped by her mother taking her out and walking around in the rain. My son said at that time that she could say about 30 words, but I didn't hear any, except maybe "No!"  At the playground, she didn't interact with any other children, just kept walking and walking like a wind-up toy.   She was given chicken nuggets and French fries to eat in the car.  She screamed to have her new shoes taken off.

She hasn't had any vaccines, fortunately! She’s been physically healthy and has never been on antibiotics or had bowel problems as many autistic children do. She was breast-fed for 2 years.  Like most kids, her diet is high in wheat and milk products. I told my son to get her on the gluten and casein-free diet, which Dr Bernard Rimland’s research indicates helps 66% of autistic kids.  Many children have greatly improved after having all wheat and dairy products removed from their diet, even though these are often their favorite foods. These children are unable to metabolize gluten and casein proteins down to the basic amino acids. Instead, they are broken down into peptides called gluteomorphin and caseomorphin, which act like opium (morphine) in the brain, making it difficult to respond normally to the environment.

California has recently mandated insurance coverage for behavioral therapy (ABA) for autistic children.  Between the diet and the ABA, my granddaughter appears to be improving.  We may also have her tested for heavy metals and detox pathways.  If there is a genetic component to autism, it may be an inability to detoxify the body from the innumerable chemical assaults that we are all now exposed to.

There is a whole spectrum of autism disorders. The mildest is Asperger's syndrome, which Einstein. Isaac Newton, and many other famous scientists are thought to have had.  Aspergians tend to be very intelligent, but have trouble with social relationships.

Many children develop more severe types of autism starting around the age of 18 months, after getting a lot of immunizations at once. They regress and often stop talking and lose other skills.  Like many doctors who specialize in treating this, I believe many cases are related to the mercury preservative thimerosal (which has now been removed from most, but not all vaccines.) It is still in the flu shot. It could also be due to other "adjuvants", like aluminum, or just the sheer number of shots overwhelming the immune system.

Some cases may also be related to mercury in the mother's amalgam fillings passing into the fetus, and then into the baby in breast milk. There may also be hereditary factors. Asperger's, in particular seems to be common in children of engineers. (It could be that the fathers had a touch of it, which made them good scientists and engineers.)

I worked with a group of doctors, called DAN (Defeat Autism Now) who specialize in treating and curing autism through natural means. Dr Jim Neubrander, my colleague when I worked at the Princeton Biocenter, went on to specialize in autism and discovered a very useful treatment based on Methyl B12 shots.  Some cases have been cured by homeopathy, as described in Impossible Cure, by Amy Lansky. Orthomolecular nutrition also helps, by supplying vitamins and minerals that may be lacking or needed in greater than normal amounts. Although autistic children are often prescribed psychopharmaceuticals, they are rarely beneficial, and may cause further brain damage.

Are We Mermaids?

Are We Descended from Mermaids?             July 4, 2012 

                                    The Littoral People                                   

Unlike the portrayal on Animal Channel’s special fictional documentary, “Mermaids: the Body Found”, on Memorial Day weekend, we never really turned into mermaids.  We only made it about a quarter of the way.  We really didn’t need to go all the way to aquaticness.  We were shore-dwellers, living off the “fat of the land”, and especially the fat of the sea, in this special ecological niche.  It was the high level of omega-3 fatty acids and cholesterol in seafood that gave our brains the fuel to expand and grow.

                        Littoral apes become literary apes

Unlike your dog or cat, humans occasionally have the misfortune of choking to death.  If we choke on a pretzel, it can stop our breathing.  This is because our breathing tube (trachea) and our eating tube (esophagus) intersect.  In other (land) animals they are separate. This was an evolutionary adaptation for the ability to hold our breath while diving underwater, a trait we share with other diving mammals, like whales and dolphins.  Breath control is a precondition for speech. Dolphins, whales and seals can obviously hold their breath, for a long time, in order to dive and swim underwater.  Perhaps this is what allowed dolphins and whales to develop their own extensive vocal communication systems, like whale songs.  John C Lilly was one of the first scientists to study dolphin communication.  He later did interesting studies on human consciousness and wrote books like Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer  (1972).  Chimps may learn sign language, but they are incapable of ever learning to speak.

                        What would Semi-Mermaids eat?

What would shore-dwelling people eat?  Food from the sea, as well as food from land near the shore line, starting with things that were easy to catch, like shellfish, seaweed, eggs of seabirds, and fruits and berries growing along the shore, like blueberries and beach plums.  This would have been an extremely healthy diet, providing everything needed for a growing brain.

                        Why We Walk Upright

Wading out to sea to look for food, while keeping our heads above water, long-legged creatures have an advantage.  Our evolutionary path gave priority to long straight legs, with a little webbing between our fingers and toes. For swimmers, heavy, wet fur sure is a drag, so we became the Naked Ape.  This is certainly a more reasonable explanation that all the fanciful stories trying to justify the Savannah theory.  We retained the hair on our head, to protect the brain from overheating in the sun.  Elaine Morgan has speculated that the reason women tend to have long hair on their head is to give their floating babies something to hold onto.

                                    Fat Babies Float

Human babies are much fatter at birth than baby monkeys and other apes.  Why should this be?  It is a great caloric expense to pregnant mothers to produce all that fat, and requires an exceedingly rich, high fat diet. Also it would be burdensome to have to carry that fat heavy baby around.  The simple answer is:  fat babies float.  Fat is less dense than water.  Fat people float easily, while skinny, bony people have trouble staying afloat.  If our ancestors were spending a lot of time in the water, fat babies would be more likely to survive.  New born babies instinctively hold their breath and paddle when placed in the water, learning to swim before they can walk.  If not exposed to water, they lose this instinct after a few months.  Humans of all ages have a layer of subcutaneous fat (of varying thickness), a trait they share with marine mammals, but not other primates.  This fat layer serves as insulation to retain body heat in the water, and also increases buoyancy.

                                    Are We Cousins to Dolphins?

Eventually, with our new tall, hairless body and big brain, we moved from the shoreline to recolonize the land, becoming hunters and gatherers on the African Savannah.  Perhaps some of us stayed in the sea and eventually became perfectly adapted to it, like the dolphins.  Dolphins, like whales, have evolved from land animals.  No one knows what the land ancestor was like.  Maybe it was us! Scientists at Texas A&M were surprised to discover many similarities between dolphin and human genomes.

Raw Cannabis Juice Miracle Healing Food

Raw Cannabis Juice Miracle Healing Food

Cannabis is no longer just a psychoactive drug that people use for its interesting effects on the brain. Raw cannabis leaves and buds have been discovered to be filled with an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-cancer and non-psychoactive compound known as cannabidiol (CBD), a miracle "superfood" that can prevent and relieve many chronic diseases.

Despite a huge amount of scientific data collected over hundreds of years proving the tremendous therapeutic potential of cannabis, the US government remains adamant against approving its use.  In spite of this, many dedicated researchers are investigating new therapeutic applications for consuming raw cannabis.

Certainly less well-known than the psychoactive THC, the CBD found in the marijuana plant is a powerful medicinal compound with unique immune-regulating capacities. The human body, like most other animals, already contains its own endogenous cannabinoid system, complete with cannabinoid receptors, which has served to keep us healthy even before we evolved as humans.   In the last few hundred years, industrial pollutants have been overwhelming this natural health-maintaining system.  CBD from raw marijuana can supplement our own natural cannabinoids to help normalize the body's functional systems, including cell communication and proper immune function.

“CBD works on receptors, and as it turns out, we have cannabinoids in our bodies, endogenous cannabinoids, that turn out to be very effective at regulating immune functions, nerve functions, bone functions," says Dr. Ethan Russo, a physician in the Seattle area.  "There's a tendency to discount claims when something appears to be good for everything, but there's a reason this is the case. The endogenous cannabinoid system acts as a modulator in fine-tuning a lot of these systems, and if something is deranged biochemically in a person's body, it may well be that a cannabinoid system can bring things back into balance."

People suffering from autoimmune disorders, chronic inflammation, cancer, and other chronic illnesses can improve their health simply by consuming CBD.  According to Dr. William Courtney, a medical marijuana expert and founder of Cannabis International, CBD provides a cell communication system that completes a “positive feedback loop” that functions like the body's own natural anti-inflammatory endocannabinoid system.

Dr Courtney, who runs a Luxembourg clinic providing raw cannabis to patients who need it, considers juicing raw marijuana leaves and buds one of the best ways to ingest CBD.  The leaves, with fibrous stems removed, could also be eaten raw in a salad.

Although 15 U.S. states and Washington DC now recognize and have legalized marijuana as legitimate medicine, the federal government continues to classify marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug with "no currently accepted medical use."  But the US federal government now has a patent on the medical use of CBD, so how can it continue to maintain that cannabis has no medicinal value?  The FDA has approved CBD as an “investigational new drug”, but the DEA is still raiding medical marijuana dispensaries in states where this herb is legal.

One of the main reasons marijuana is still illegal is its tremendous potential as medicine. Drug companies have been trying for over 70 years (since it was made illegal in 1937) to make drugs out of it, but they were unable to separate the "high" (which just means feeling extremely happy) from the drug effects they wanted, like relief of pain and muscle spasms, control of glaucoma, nausea and anorexia, etc. The majority of the sponsors of Partnership for a Drug-free America, which recently changed its name to The Partnership@ drugfree.org, are pharmaceutical companies. They would lose billions of dollars in drug sales if marijuana were legal and people were free to grow their own.  

You want medical marijuana? Big Pharma is more than willing to sell it to you, as a hugely expensive drug under their complete control.  GW Pharmaceuticals, a British drug company, is utilizing CBD in a new marijuana mouth spray known as Sativex.  International expansion of Sativex is well underway since ten European countries recommended approval of the drug for multiple sclerosis patients.

Cannabis International and other groups are continuing to educate the public about why marijuana is an essential food, and how legalizing it could change the world. See http://www.cannabisinternational.org/.

Toxic Fat

          Bonnie Camo MD,  Natural Medicine & Homeopathy, Trebisacce, Italy

                                                            Toxic Fat

Is there a link between the American epidemic of obesity and chemical pollution of our air, water and earth?  There are several known mechanisms by which toxic pollutants cause obesity. 

Environmental toxins include chemicals and heavy metals.  The heavy metals that cause the most health problems are lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, nickel, and aluminum.  Chemical toxins include solvents and cleaning agents, prescription drugs, pesticides and food additives. 

Organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB’s) stored in body fat are released when body fat is used as fuel during a weight loss diet.  These chemicals cause a decrease in thyroid hormone levels, lowering the metabolic rate and preventing further weight loss.  Toxins also damage the mitochondria, the tiny powerhouses in cells, interfering with their ability to burn fat and create energy.

A recent study conducted by the Mercer University School of Medicine examined whether pesticide exposure played a role in worldwide childhood obesity. The researchers observed nearly 6,800 subjects aged 6 to 19. Individual exposure was determined through the use of urine tests for pesticide residues.  The results showed that obese subjects had high urinary concentrations of 2,5-dichlorophenol (2,5-DCP), one of the most widely-used pesticides in the world.  Children who were exposed to high levels of PCBs and DDE (a product of DDT) in breast milk, averaged twelve pounds heavier at puberty.

Genetically modified foods, hyped by MonSatan as requiring less pesticides, actually require more pesticides than normal crops.   Weeds have become resistant to Monsanto’s Roundup ready GM crops, so farmers are having to apply more herbicides, and even more dangerous ones, like 2,4D, an ingredient in Agent Orange.  So the GMOs in almost all processed foods, damaging enough in themselves, are also loaded with obesity-causing pesticides.

Toxins also interfere with appetite-controlling substances in the brain, like leptin and alpha-MSH, causing hunger to increase.  Fatty liver is the most common liver disease in America, affecting one in five.  It is not caused by alcohol, drugs or viral hepatitis, but by excess sugar.  Sugar, white flour and high fructose corn syrup are converted to triglycerides (fat) in liver cells.  A fatty liver is unable to perform its job of detoxifying the body. 

Antibiotics have also been identified as being a promoter for obesity as well as diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Antibiotics may succeed in destroying harmful bacteria, as intended, but they also destroy good and necessary gut bacteria. These friendly flora are responsible for regulating overall health, including weight management.

We can avoid toxins that cause obesity by eating organic foods, thus avoiding pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, and GMOs.  Drink filtered water rather than water in plastic bottles (that will end up in a landfill or floating in the sea forever) and avoid the harmful effects of plastic ingredients like phthalates.  Use HEPA filters to remove dust, molds and volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) from the air, and shower filters to remove chlorine.  Fill your house with houseplants that help clean the air.  Reduce heavy metal exposure by avoiding aluminum pans and deodorants, mercury-laden large fish like tuna and swordfish, lead paint, and tobacco, a major source of cadmium.

Encourage elimination of toxins by drinking plenty of water, and working up a sweat by exercise, steam baths or saunas.  Stretching exercise like yoga improves the flow of lymph and helps flush out toxins.  Eat detoxifying foods like cruciferous vegetables, dandelion greens, garlic, and berries.  Drink green tea and herbal teas containing dandelion, ginger, licorice or cinnamon.  High sulfur foods like organic eggs, whey protein, onions and broccoli provide sulfur amino acids needed for detoxification.  Season your food with herbs like cilantro, which helps remove heavy metals, and rosemary, containing carnosol which raises detoxification enzymes.  Most fruits and vegetables tend to alkalinize the urine, which makes it easier to remove toxins.

Supplements that aid detoxification include a daily high potency multivitamin/mineral, vitamin C with bioflavonoids, milk thistle – an herb which benefits the liver, probiotics, omega-3 fatty acids, N-acetyl cysteine, alpha-lipoic acid, and L-carnitine.  Zinc may be low in a vegetarian diet and may be supplemented to help displace heavy metals.  Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM), also called organic sulfur, is another aid in removing harmful heavy metals.  

geoengineering - blocking the sun

Geoengineering: Blocking the Sun

Geoengineering refers to the artificial modification of the earth's climate systems through two primary technologies, solar radiation management (SRM) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR). SRM is a way of controlling global warming by blocking sunlight before it reaches the ground. The most outspoken proponents of this idea are environmental scientists Ken Caldeira of the Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution, Stanford, CA, and David Keith, professor of applied physics at Harvard University. Keith particularly likes it because it is “very cheap”. Watch his TED presentation from September 2007 on Youtube.

Geoengineering, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, in their “Unilateral Geoengineering” workshop in May 2008, is defined as “Any of a variety of strategies, such as injecting light-reflecting particles into the stratosphere, that might be used to modify the earth’s atmosphere-ocean system in an attempt to slow or reverse global warming.” 

Now Global Geoengineering Governance Rules are being developed to control the amount of sunlight reaching the earth (SRM), on a planetary scale. Upper atmospheric releases of sulfates, aluminum oxide and other toxic chemicals are being planned without public consent or oversight. There have been three hearings by the U.S. House of Representatives Science & Technology Committee since November 5,2009 (two in 2010). Testimony has only been from those, for the most part, promoting geoengineering. The Final U.S. House Science & Technology Report was released on October 27, 2010, and is located on their website. 

SRM is being discussed by the U.S. government as a global solution to global warming. It would reflect sunlight away from the earth by hazing the sky with reflective nano-materials (aerosols) that reflect sunlight. The aerosols would be dispersed via jet aircraft trails that expand into reflective artificial clouds. The first materials that have been considered for this are inorganic forms of sulfur, such as hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide, to create the effect of artificial volcanoes, since eruptions such as Pinatubo blocked sunlight and cooled the Earth for several years.  

But environmentalists have been working for years to prevent inorganic sulfur compounds from getting into the atmosphere, e.g. from coal-burning power plants, as they cause acid rain and deplete the ozone layer.  The reflective materials of choice are now barium, strontium, and aluminum oxide.  The SRM sunblock is being discussed as a possible future necessity if it is not possible to control global warming sufficiently by decreasing carbon dioxide emissions.

Although no government in the world has yet admitted it, many people believe this is already being done.  People observing the sky have noticed that jet “contrails” (condensation trails), which used to disappear within a minute, now last for hours, and expand and spread to cover the sky.  The public refers to these as “chemtrails”.  The program appears to have begun around 1997. Now the government is calling it geoengineering (and saying it doesn’t exist yet).

Eventually particles injected into the stratosphere fall to earth and are breathed in, as well as absorbed by plants we eat. The residue has been analyzed by many investigators and found to be high in heavy metals.  Spikes of toxic chemicals like aluminum, barium and strontium are already showing up in drinking water samples across the United States. Aluminum has been implicated for decades as a possible contributing factor to Alzheimer’s disease.  Watch the video “What in the World are they Spraying?”  One way of removing the heavy metals they're spraying on us is to take organic sulfur (MSM), which helps detox your body from these toxic substances.

Many people find it hard to believe that the government would be involved in any secret program or experiments that could harm the public.  But by decreasing the amount of sunlight reaching the earth, these programs may cause a decline in agriculture crop production, and make solar panels less effective, not to mention aggravating the worldwide epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. NASA stated 5 years ago that the earth is receiving 20% less sunlight than it did 10 years before. (Fifteen years ago is 1997, when the spraying appears to have started.)  Maybe this explains why some people believe that global warming is not happening, because the spraying is blocking the sun and cooling the atmosphere, but at what cost? So fossil fuel companies can continue to addict us to their polluting oil and coal, and block the sun that could supply all the power we need?

The chemicals used in these programs may also have a negative impact on crops and trees. Aluminum changes soil pH and weakens trees so they can be finished off by insects and fungi.  Rosalind Peterson, of the Agriculture Defense Coalition, documents the decimation of trees around the country. Honey bees and other pollinators are also feeling the heavy negative impact of our escalating experiments. Everyone is encouraged to learn more about these topics, and look up at the sky!

Eggs are Healthy Food

Eggs are Healthy Food      1/7/12

We bought nine young hens and a rooster from a local farmer a few days ago.  We let them out of the coop today, after two days inside to make sure they knew it was home.  We enjoyed watching them run around the yard, scratching in the dirt, eating weeds and bugs.  We found the first egg in one of the nest boxes, and I had it for breakfast, along with a store-bought egg.  The yolk of our egg was a much deeper red than the other, and really delicious.  From now on, we’ll have an unlimited free supply of organic free-range eggs, and can really “live off the fat of the land”.

Of course, the nutrient content of organic free range eggs is far superior to conventional eggs.  But even supermarket eggs are a good source of the amino acids tyrosine and tryptophan, needed by the heart and brain, as well as lutein and zeaxanthin, which are yellow-pigmented carotenoids very beneficial to the eyes. Cooking reduces these antioxidants by about half. 

Eggs are one of the most important foods to spend a little extra on and always buy organic.  Free range eggs contain more vitamin A, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E, and beta carotene, because the chickens are out there, like my chickens, eating highly nutritious weeds and insects.  One of the weeds chickens love is purslane, which increases the omega-3 content of their egg yolks. (Avoid eggs labeled as “omega-3 eggs”, as they come from chickens fed poor-quality sources of omega-3 fats that are already oxidized.)

Yolks are also loaded with bioflavonoids, brain fats like phosphatidyl choline, and sulfur, and can be eaten raw or added to breakfast shakes.  The best way to cook eggs is to soft boil or poach them, leaving the yolks mostly raw.  The worst way is scrambling, as it allows the cholesterol in the yolk to oxidize, which is what makes it harmful.  Conventionally-raised eggs should never be eaten raw, as they are likely to be contaminated with salmonella, not to mention pesticide residues.

The idea that eggs are unhealthy and promote heart disease is a complete myth. It's true that egg yolks contain cholesterol, but this is not really a bad thing. The cholesterol in egg yolks has little relationship to blood cholesterol levels.  Research published in the International Journal of Cardiology showed that even eating eggs every day did not raise cholesterol levels. In most people there is a feedback mechanism that decreases the body’s production of cholesterol when more is consumed. 

Cholesterol has important functions in the body, such as controlling the fluidity of cell membranes.  It is also the starting material for making vitamin D (cholecalciferol), the adrenal hormones aldosterone (which controls salt balance) and cortisone, for stress adaptation, as well as the male and female sex hormones.  Cholesterol can function as an antioxidant when there is an insufficient quantity of other antioxidants like vitamins C, E, B3, and carotenes and the minerals zinc, sulfur and selenium supplied by the diet.  Getting enough of these antioxidants, especially C and B3 (niacin) can lower a high cholesterol level.  The fact that niacin lowers cholesterol was discovered decades ago by Dr Abram Hoffer, who also pioneered the orthomolecular treatment of schizophrenia with niacin.

Cholesterol deposition in arteries is a repair mechanism for artery walls damaged by free radicals, due to lack of antioxidants, especially vitamin C, according to Linus Pauling and Dr Matthias Rath.  Vitamin C is needed to produce collagen and mucopolysaccharides, the “glue”  that holds cells together. Without it, arteries weaken and bleed into tissue spaces (scurvy). Cholesterol is deposited to prevent this.

Many people actually have cholesterol levels that are too low, either naturally or due to cholesterol-lowering drugs, which may cause depression.

Even vegetarians who are opposed to killing animals can eat eggs in good conscience.  As long as they are not “fertile eggs”, (for which you pay extra), there is no living embryo in the egg. The yolk and white are only a food supply for a potential chick, which will never develop without a rooster to fertilize the egg.  But hens continue to lay eggs anyway.