Dr. Maxwell Nartey
Professor of Symptometric Science, American School of Symptometry, NFP VIEW ARTICLE AS PDF
A field of work like Symptometry that does not write prescriptions, but makes recommendations, requires a totally different approach and body of research to back up its recommendations. Here is why.
People demand explanations to fully understand why they are sick, why they should stop consuming the foods and beverages they love, and start eating certain foods; why they should fast periodically; why they should produce enzymes, etc. They also want to know what is in the products they will be taking; why they should take one product before or after another product, and so on and so forth.
A doctor of Symptometry must provide these explanations or clarifications; but to provide these explanations, he or she must do extensive research or use the body of research Symptometry developed. Symptometric research began with correlation diagnosis because it deals only with human beings.
Correlation diagnosis
Correlation diagnosis, which is germane to Symptometry, is the mental tool that enables a doctor of Symptometry to make a connection between our diseases and the foods we eat, between our diseases and the beverages we consume, between our diseases and the pharmaceutical drugs or the herbs people take, and between our diseases and the products we use in our hair, or on our skin.
Also, correlation diagnosis enables a doctor of Symptometry to make a connection between our diseases and what we inhaled or what we exposed ourselves to.
After doing correlation diagnosis, Symptometry would rely on chromatography to do the impartial deconstruction and analysis of products, and reveal what is behind the color of each product.
Chromatography
Chromatography is the scientific equipment that separates chemicals in a product according to their molecular structures. A molecular structure is the product’s fingerprint or identifier.
This separation then allows the Symptometry researcher to identify the various man-made or natural chemicals or alkaloids that are in the products.
The various databanks are useful to this research because they have the names of the molecular structures that were identified.
Further research is needed to confirm the identity and the function of the molecular structure of each chemical or alkaloid that was identified. The last phase of the research contains the finding.
It is the finding that enables a doctor of Symptometry to have first-hand knowledge of how certain chemicals or alkaloids harm DNA, the genes, the chromosomes, or the cell’s plasma membrane in order to cause a disease.
People have always suspected pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines of causing diseases. Also, people have always suspected certain herbs of causing diseases, but they have no proof of how these products cause diseases. Chromatography now offers the conclusive cause-effect evidence about how products cause diseases in a person. This is the proof people have been waiting for. Now, they have it. It is this cause-effect evidence that justifies the recommendation a doctor of Symptometry makes.
The question is, now that the presence of thenatural or the man-made chemicals that damage our cells, our genes, our chromosomes and our DNA has been confirmed, what is next?
The next step
The next step is to turn foods with health disruptors into foods that are safe to eat or beverages that are safe to consume. How is this done? To achieve this objective, symptometric research would have to move from the laboratory to the kitchen. Why the kitchen?
Food is responsible for causing over 90% of our diseases; and since food is prepared in the kitchen, the next step must start in the kitchen where food chemistry will be put to the test.
Chemistry entails combinations, reactions and results. There will be good results and bad results. Symptometry is interested in good results and in bad results because they are both important. There are lessons to learn from good and bad results or experiences.
After obtaining results in the kitchen, the researcher will move back to the food science laboratory, to re-analyze the result of the combinations and see if the molecular structure of the health disruptor is still in the product. If it is not, it is evidence that the method which was devised was effective at eliminating the poison or the alkaloid. This is how symptometric research makes products safe for human consumption.
However, if the health disruptor is still in the product, Symptometry will warn the public of the dangers that lurk in that product. This warning allows health-conscious individuals to modify their diet.
For example, if boiling a product which has solanine for 4 hours does not allow thermal energy to break the covalent bonds of solanine, the public will be warned of the dangers of eating boiled, fried or raw solanine-laden products.
Symptometric research is the research that aims at preventing diseases because it caters to the well-being of our cells. By identifying the health disruptors, and by modifying a person’s diet, Symptometry is proving that we can live on this toxic planet, and still be healthy at the cellular level. We now know where the disease causers are, and what we can do to avoid them or to neutralize them.
Let us at this point familiarize ourselves with the findings of symptometric research starting with oatmeal.
Oatmeal
Oats have heat-resistant betaglucans; and betaglucans cause polyps because humans cannot produce enzymes to oxidize them. For this reason, there is a connection between eating oatmeal frequently and growing polyps in the ears, nose, lungs, colons, uterus, etc.
Therefore, to prevent polyps, Symptometry will modify the frequency of oatmeal consumption, or it will recommend its complete elimination from the diet.
Tea
Teas have a heat-resistant poison called theophylline. Theophylline causes cell dehydration.
To prevent dry mouth, dry throat, dry vagina, dry eyes, dry feet, etc., and burning sensations, Symptometry will modify the frequency of tea drinking, or it will recommend its elimination as a habit.
Coffee
Coffee has a heat-resistant poison called theobromine. Theobromine causes cell dehydration.
Since cell dehydration predisposes a person to many diseases, Symptometry will modify the frequency of coffee drinking, chocolate eating, and kola nut chewing. This is because theobromine is also in kola nuts, and in chocolate.
Metals
Metals are non-nutrients. They are the byproducts of industrialization. They denature human enzymes. The first enzymes that humans produce are called kinase and cyclins. It is kinase and cyclins that divide our cells to produce a baby.
If metals damage kinase and cyclins, atrophy will occur, and tissue dissolution will follow atrophy.
Edema, hydrocephalus (fluid in the brain), ascites (large amount of fluid in the abdominal cavity), hydrothorax (fluid in the chest cavity), fluid in the lungs, or suppuration (boils, abscesses, pus-filled legs, etc.), will occur after tissue dissolution. This is because water pressure on the atrophied cells would be overbearing.
Metals do also damage the enzymes called oxidase, oxidoreductase, and transferase. It is these enzymes that remove bad electrons during electron exchange. It is the non-removal of the bad electrons that damages our tissues and our organs to cause enlarged spleen, enlarged liver, enlarged heart, enlarged prostate, etc.
This finding about the negative effect of metals has enabled Symptometry to modify the diet and the lifestyle of individuals who have edema, or suffer from hyperplasia (enlargements) or suppuration.
Additionally, this finding has compelled Symptometry to use chromatographic analysis to identify the sources of metals.
Chromatographic analysis confirms that there are metals in liquor, beer, and wine; there are metals in vaccines; there is nickel in margarine; there is cadmium in all wheat products including breakfast cereals; and there is bismuth in barley, sorghum, and millet. Also, there are metals in nuts.
In all nuts, non-nutrient metals like astatine, palladium, lutetium, nickel, antimony, and lead intermingle with mineral nutrients like boron, molybdenum, vanadium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, manganese, copper, and cobalt.
Since the combined atomic weight of the non-nutrient metals is heavier than the atomic weight of the mineral nutrients, the non-nutrient metals will combine with the saturated fat in the nuts to block the release of minerals to the cells. This is how a person who eats nuts may still suffer from mineral deficiency diseases like hypokalemia (low potassium), low iron, low magnesium, etc. There are neuromuscular disorders associated with low potassium and low magnesium.
Unfortunately, the blockage of minerals will cause another problem. It will overload the cells with the saturated fat that is in the nuts. Saturated fat will in turn trap heavy metals. Heavy metals will denature enzymes, and eliminate oxygen from DNA. It is the elimination of oxygen from DNA that may cause a mutation. This is how metals cause cancer.
Metals have absolutely no benefits. All they do is cause diseases. There are metals in many pharmaceutical drugs.
To prevent metal-derived diseases, Symptometry produced a molecule that enables our cells to produce hydrolyzers. It is hydrolyzers that liquefy metals to make a person healthy.
The benefits of pulp
Symptometric research has uncovered a considerable amount of hesperidin, lutein and rutin in the pulp of big and fleshy oranges. This is why, in order to prevent or reverse capillary fragility, Symptometry now recommends the consumption of just the pulp, not the juicy fruit, of this kind of orange.
Frequent nosebleed, hematuria (blood in urine), coughing blood, spitting blood, bloodshot eye, retinal hemorrhage, brain hemorrhage, bleeding from the ear, bleeding from the gums, heavy menses, etc. are all caused by capillary fragility. Capillary fragility may also cause excessive bleeding during surgery or during childbirth.
Solanine
Solanine is the poison in tomatoes, eggplant and potatoes. It is so heat-resistant that frying or boiling potatoes or tomatoes will not neutralize it.
Until Symptometry can devise a method to neutralize solanine, it is recommending diet modification with regard to tomatoes eggplant and potatoes. All the women who were advised to significantly reduce their consumption of tomatoes, eggplant, and potatoes, did not experience heavy menses, or menstrual irregularities. This proves the connection between solanine and menstrual problems.
Casein
Casein is a phosphoprotein. A phosphoprotein hydroxylates the amino acids called serine, threonine and tyrosine. To hydroxylate is to speed up the introduction of a hydroxyl group into serine, threonine and tyrosine. This introduction makes serine, threonine and tyrosine completely worthless.
Myelin (nerve covering) is made with the amino acid called serine. A person will experience pain if serine is not available to produce myelin, enkephalin, substance P and endorphin.
By hydroxylating serine, casein will lower a person’s pain threshold. This finding explains why women who eat chocolate, drink milk, or eat cheese tend to experience severe menstrual cramps. Hence, the connection between severe menstrual cramps and milk, chocolate or cheese.
During childbirth, the pain associated with delivery is usually most severe in women who drank milk or ate cheese on the day of delivery, or a few days prior to delivery. If such women receive an epidural shot to control their pain, they may end up suffering from severe and chronic lower back pain.
Also, cancer patients who drink milk or eat cheese or chocolate, will find pain unbearable.
Insecticides
Insecticides are made with organophosphorus compounds, or bromide. Organophosphorus compounds consist of non-nutrient metals. Non-nutrient metals may predispose a person to cancer.
Atmospheric pollutants
All atmospheric pollutants are metallic particles. In order to cleanse the atmosphere, leaves absorb these metallic particles. Therefore, by eating salads and other leaves raw, a person will also ingest a decent number of metallic particles.
Metallic particles cause anomalies in the lungs like sarcoids, tubercules and nodules.
Eggs
Eggs have oxysterol, ovalbumin, lutein, saturated fat, protein and avidin. They also have vitamins and minerals. Why focus only on egg protein, vitamins and minerals, and ignore the rest? What is being ignored is even more important than egg protein and vitamins because they are health disruptors. It is because they are health disruptors that they must deserve our attention.
Lutein (C40H56O2) is not soluble in the human body. It is important to the eggs of birds, but not to humans. Any compound that is not soluble in a human being would be a nutrient blocker. In order to stay healthy, we need all the nutrients we can get, but if a compound is blocking nutrients from getting into our cells, that compound must either be avoided or eliminated.
Avidin blocks biotin from becoming part of our enzyme template. This is how avidin makes it impossible for egg eaters to produce many food enzymes and ancillary enzymes.
Oxysterol is an oxygenated derivative of cholesterol. It cannot pass through our cell membranes; and because it cannot pass through cell membranes, it blocks nutrients from getting into our cells; and waste from leaving our cells, thereby causing cell lockdown. Also, saturated fat in the egg will combine with oxysterol to also cause cell lockdown.
If a cell is on lockdown, nutrients and resources cannot get into the cytoplasm and reach DNA, the genes and the chromosomes in the nucleus. Then, wastes cannot exit the cell. As a result, the cell cannot produce brain essentials and body essentials for self-healing. Also, it can no longer divide.
Oxysterol is notorious for causing thrombosis, arteriosclerosis and vascular disorders, especially varicose veins, and blocked arteries. This kind of cholesterol is only good for bird eggs. Bird eggs are not human eggs. Human eggs are in the woman’s ovaries.
Furthermore, ovalbumin is a phosphoprotein. As a phosphoprotein, it hydroxylates serine, threonine and tyrosine. This was also discussed when I was reviewing casein.
Serine is the amino acid that is used to produce myelin (nerve covering), enkephalin, endorphin and substance P. Also, it is used to produce purines and pyrimidines to manufacture DNA and the three RNAs. Additionally, serine is used to manufacture creatine. The higher the amount of creatine in the muscles, the smaller will be the amount of creatinine that will be seen in urine.
Therefore, by hydrolyzing serine, ovalbumin is lowering the person’s pain threshold; it is predisposing the person to renal failure, and burning sensations such as burning eyes, burning skin, or burning in the urethra when urinating.
Also, the non-availability of serine makes it impossible to produce a lot of DNAs and RNAs. This would make self-healing extremely difficult, if not impossible. Let me at this point discuss tyrosine.
Tyrosine is the amino acid that the brain cells use to produce acetylcholine. The pineal gland uses tyrosine to produce melatonin and serotonin. The adrenal gland uses tyrosine to produce norepinephrine.
By hydroxylating tyrosine, ovalbumin is making it impossible for a person to produce serotonin, melatonin, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine.
Osteoblasts are the cells that rebuild our bones. How can our bones and our teeth be rebuilt when DNA and the RNAs in the osteoblasts cannot be repaired? It is because DNA and the three RNAs cannot be repaired that the osteoclasts will continue to destroy our bones, and our red bone marrow.
Symptometry is proving the connection that exists between eating eggs in any form, and dental caries, toothache, destruction of the jawbone, bone loss caused by osteolysis, osteosclerosis, gum diseases, lesions, ulcers, osteoporosis, osteopenia, cancer spreading to the bone, osteonecrosis, Paget’s disease of the bone, rickets, osteogenesis imperfecta, osteomalacia (bone softening), osteofibroma (bone tumor), osteoectasia (bowing of the bone), osteodystrophy, osteodysplasty, ossification of tendons called osteodesmosis, low bone density and bone infections.
Threonine is the amino acid that our osteoblasts use to manufacture dentine for our teeth. Then, our fibroblasts will use threonine to manufacture elastin and collagen for all our organs, viscera, and joint components.
Therefore, by hydrolyzing threonine, ovalbumin is making it extremely difficult, if not impossible to cure all skin diseases, lesions, skin ulcers, ulcers on the cornea, ulcerative colitis, blisters, bedsores, dental caries or rotten teeth, black teeth, etc.
Since a method has not yet been devised to neutralize avidin, oxysterol, lutein, and ovalbumin, Symptometry recommends dietary modification as far as eggs are concerned.
Sorbitol
Sorbitol, which is found naturally in many fruits and is also a food additive, can cause cell dehydration, diarrhea, dry mouth, elevated blood sugar, lactic acidosis, and more, in sensitive individuals. The question is, how can sorbitol, a sugar alcohol, be neutralized so the item which has it is safe to consume?
Symptometric research discovered that when pectin in the skin of a particular fruit is combined with the acetic acid from a specific vinegar, it neutralizes both sorbitol and citric acid.
Citric acid must be neutralized because humans do not need it. Krebs cycle is the same as the citric acid cycle in every human being. Since excess citric acid will cause acidosis, and it will block nutrient entry into the cells, citric acid must be neutralized, and Symptometry devised a method to neutralize it.
There is sorbitol in vaccines. Since there is sorbitol in many fruits, eating some fruits on the day of vaccination may cause sorbitol toxicity. Sorbitol toxicity will displace glutathione from the lens to cause cataracts. More discussion on sorbitol will follow shortly.
Besides doing research in the kitchen and in the laboratory to make foods safe, and to draw attention to the downside of the foods we love, Symptometry also conducts book research.
Book research
Book research is common in all colleges and universities. In Symptometry, it entails using published facts to serve as Symptometry’s backbone, and frame of reference. Where are these published facts?
They are in the botanical databases, EPA publications, FDA publications that many authors have cited, Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary, Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Encyclopedia of Nutritional Supplements, and many more. It is this frame of reference that enhances the credibility of symptometric research.
Published below are the highlights of the additional findings of symptometric research.
- EFFECT OF PHOSPHORIC ACID ON CAPILLARY PERFUSION IN THE PENIS
Many men and young adults are suffering from erectile dysfunction. Why the epidemic of erectile dysfunction all over the world? Here is what symptometric research found.
Man-made phosphates are in sodas. Phosphates combine with water to produce phosphoric acid. There is phosphoric acid in all sodas with some sodas having more than others.
Our capillaries use filtration force, power, pressure and strength to circulate blood to the walls and to the capsules of our organs.
Also, our capillaries use filtration force to circulate blood to the lining of our membranes, crypts, blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, as well as to our tissues (nerves, bones, muscles, etc.).
Research has now confirmed that phosphoric acid displaces vital minerals, and it considerably weakens the filtration force in the capillaries of the man’s penis.
Therefore, it is the weakening of the filtration force that causes poor circulation in the penile nerve and in the subcutaneous nerve of the penis. It is the substantial decrease in blood flow to the nerves of the penis that causes erectile dysfunction.
Symptoms of erectile dysfunction include: weak erection, complete impotence, premature ejaculation, and ejaculation fiasco.
- EFFECT OF MANGOES, GRAPES, CORN AND BANANAS ON THE LENS
Sorbitol is the sugar alcohol that humans do not produce the enzyme to digest it. It is in all berries, cherries, plums, pears, apples and seaweed. It also abounds in mangoes, watermelon, corn and bananas. It’s man-made version is being used as a sugar substitute for diabetics; and it is in many mouthwashes, in intravenous feeding tubes, and in candy.
Sorbitol blocks vitamin C and glutathione from diffusing into the lens. It is this constant blockage that makes a person susceptible to cataracts; and sudden diarrhea, especially, after eating certain fruits.
The lens in the eye does not have blood vessels. This is why nutrients and resources diffuse into the lens. By blocking the diffusion of nutrients and resources into the lens, sorbitol is causing the susceptibility to cataracts.
Therefore, cataracts should never have been a mystery disease. Sorbitol causes it.
Finally, sorbitol is well known for making antibiotics and other pharmaceutical drugs less effective.
- EFFECT OF CYANIDE ON HUMAN CELLS AND ENZYMES
Cyanide is a poison, and toxicology confirms it as a poison. The items that have cyanide include corn, eucalyptus, flax whose seed is flaxseed, Lima bean, pear, apricot, cherry, peach, sloe, and cassava aka manioc.
Cyanide is not different from the other poisons. It denatures enzymes, it damages DNA and it causes a drag in the circulatory system. This is how cyanide compromises a person’s health.
If cyanide damages DNA in the islet of Langerhans that produce insulin; if it damages DNA in the cells of the adrenal cortex that produce cortisol, and DNA in the liver cells that produce enzymes to convert glucose to glucagon, the person will have diabetes. Hence, the connection between eating corn and diabetes.
It is not sugar that causes diabetes. It is the inability to thoroughly digest maltose, sucrose, lactose, fructosides, fructans, and fructose that predisposes a person to diabetes.
Cyanide is such a tough poison that it would make it impossible for the small intestine to produce lactase to digest lactose; sucrase to digest sucrose; and maltase to digest maltose. Also, it would make it impossible for the kidneys and the liver to produce the enzyme called fructokinase to digest fructose. This is why Symptometry recommends that a diabetic should avoid fruits and juices.
To digest cyanide, a person must produce the enzyme called thiosulfate transferase. How many individuals produce this enzyme in their lifetime? The answer is very few.
If cyanide does not damage the organs, it will damage the food enzymes and the ancillary enzymes the person produces. This explains why a person who eats cyanide-laden foods, and does not produce thiosulfate transferase, will be chronically ill.
- EFFECT OF GRAPES AND GRAPE PRODUCTS ON THE THREE NERVOUS SYSTEMS
Grapes do not have sorbitol, but they do have tartaric acid. Tartaric acid is one of the products that interfere with the axon’s release of neurotransmitters to the dendrites. It is this interference that makes a person susceptible to seizures, cramps, spasms, severe pain, and pain associated with cramps.
Neurotransmitters include dopamine, acetylcholine, epinephrine, norepinephrine, serotonin, endorphin, enkephalin and substance P. Therefore, if a person is forgetful, is moody, trembles, is in pain, or is edgy and temperamental, Symptometry will recommend that they avoid grapes.
Wine is a grape product, and so is champagne.
Many children are being expelled from school. Many more have attitude and learning problems. Parents need not look farther than the grapes they have been feeding their children.
- EFFECT OF COAL TAR DERIVATIVES ON TRANSDERMAL DIFFUSION
Coal tar derivatives are officially called FD&C red #3 (erythrosine), FD&C red #4, FD&C yellow #5 (tartrazine), and FD&C yellow #6.
The epidermis is the topmost layer of the skin. It does not have blood vessels. The skin’s blood vessels are in the dermis (second layer) and in the hypodermis (third layer). The nutrients and resources in blood reach the epidermis through a process called transdermal diffusion.
Coal tar derivatives will block transdermal diffusion to cause eczema, psoriasis, petechia, frequent itching in different parts of the body, purpura hemorragica aka liver spots, and hundreds of other skin diseases including fungal skin diseases, viral skin diseases and bacterial skin diseases. Also, they are notorious for making it impossible to cure hypertension.
Coal tar derivatives are in chocolate, and in all commercially-made cookies. Also, they are in breakfast cereals, strawberry jelly, bottled soft drinks, Aspirin TM, certain analgesics (pain relievers), prescription anti-inflammatory drugs, antihistamines, oral decongestants, gelatin desserts, ice cream, sherbets, dry drink powders, candy, spaghetti, and puddings.
Tartrazine is the most popular coal tar derivative. The other widely used coal tar derivatives are: Erythrosine aka FD&C red #3, FD&C blue #1, FD&C yellow #6, and FD&C red # 4.
They are in canned fruit cocktails, fruit salads, hair rinses, carbonated beverages, pre-packaged desserts, desserts that are served in restaurants, gelatin, mint-flavored jelly, frozen desserts, and dry drink powders.
To prevent coal tar derivatives from hurting our cells, Symptometry devised a cooking method. Also, this discussion enables a health-conscious person to know where coal tar derivatives are so they can be avoided.
- EFFECT OF ALCOHOL ON CAPILLARY PERFUSION
There are metals in alcoholic beverages. These metals denature enzymes and they cause a drag. A drag will slow down circulation. Then, the fermented cereals (hops, barley, etc.) and fructose which end up combining with ethanal and acetaldehyde in the beverage, will weaken the filtration force in the capillaries of the person who drinks alcohol.
If the pressure in the filtration force is weak, and the pressure in the surrounding area is high, the pressure differential will cause stasis, inertia or a drag in the capillaries. A drag may slow down circulation to the point of shutting it down to cause neuropathy (numbness). This is how alcohol causes the drag that affects the performance of the nerves, and the neurons in different parts of the body.
Neurons use their axons and dendrites, as well as a lot of electrical energy to run the brain and most of the three nervous systems. Therefore, the drag that alcohol causes may bring about neurological disorders.
However, liquor has an upside. It is a solvent.
As a potent solvent, liquor dissolves the halogen in snake bite, scorpion bite, and many other bites or stings. The timely dissolution of the halogen prevents a complete shutdown of the nervous systems until the person is given the most appropriate antivenom treatment in an emergency room.
Therefore, alcohol has its benefits, but it also has its disadvantages. Health-conscious individuals should know both.
RESEARCH CRITERIA
The efficacy of the products Symptometry recommends has already been tested and confirmed. No one has ever died from its products, and no adverse effects have been observed or recorded. Therefore, there is no need to reinvent the wheel.
However, the tests Symptometry conducts at the moment, are to determine 1) the best time to recommend the intake of its products so the recovery plan can be individualized 2) how much of the product should be taken and 3) how often the product should be taken in one day, in one week or in one month, as regards time, dose and frequency.
The doctor of Symptometry is the principal experimenter or the main Guinea pig. The doctor’s wife, children, parents, siblings, and members of his or her extended family, are considered adjunct experimenters. It is the results of these unceasing experimentations that continue to make Symptometry better. The excellent news about these experiments is, they make the participants healthier than they have ever been.
Symptometry only recommends the products it purchased from FDA-approved facilities in the United States; and no new product is recommended unless it has been tested multiple times on boys and men; and on girls and women of different age groups.
Symptometry owes this impeccable safety record to the homoeopathic researchers of the 1800s and 1900s, and to Dr. Hahnemann himself, whose incredible sacrifices, paved the way for Symptometry’s success today.
However, it is important to emphasize that symptometric research is not medical research.
Medical research does not test its pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines on physicians, nurses and laboratory technicians. It tests them on rabbits, primates, mice, and rats; and on patients during clinical trials called double-blind studies, placebo-controlled studies and crossover studies.
This difference is significant because it confirms that medical science is not symptometric science, and symptometric science is not medical science. They evolve in two parallel tracks.
© Copyright 2021, The American School of Symptometry, NFP. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of The American School of Symptometry, NFP. Library of Congress copyright number Txu 1-621-370, Washington D.C.
