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Dr. Micozzi’s “Classified Cancer Answers”

Doc Gumshoe looks at Micozzi's "Cancel your colonoscopy forever" teaser pitch

[ed note: Michael Jorrin is not a doctor but we like to call him “Doc Gumshoe,” he writes non-investment pieces for us about medical hype and health issues from time to time — today he indulged me by taking on a pitch from a health newsletter that caught my eye]

The promotional piece – endless and repetitive as these all seem to be – starts out with the banner headline:

“I WANT TO CANCEL YOUR COLONOSCOPY FOREVER!”

Doesn’t sound a bit bad, does it? No more nasty prep, no more risks related to anaesthesia or, perish the thought, an accidental perforation of the colon. So even for those of us who are constitutionally skeptical, the temptation to continue reading, and listening, is irresistible.

The hype presents our hero, Dr Marc Micozzi, who has a veritable encyclopedia of cancer cures, “guaranteed” to be effective. As usual, these cures are being suppressed by the all-powerful conspiracy, which in this case involves the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), all of which are in cahoots with the pharmaceutical industry and the medical establishment.

In order to get Dr Micozzi’s free book of cancer answers, you have to subscribe to a newsletter which costs $78 for 12 issues. You can cancel at any time, of course, and you can keep Dr Micozzi’s free book. I did not subscribe to his newsletter, but a bit of poking about got me a copy of his “Classified Cancer Answers,” which I’ll give you a look at in this piece.

But first, let’s think about this notion of “canceling your colonoscopy forever.” Is that really a good idea?

Doc Gumshoe’s reaction is a loud NO!

Critics of colonoscopy point to three main categories of objections. First, that the procedure involves risks; second, that there is no definitive hard evidence that undergoing a colonoscopy reduces your chances of having colon cancer; and third, that there are alternative procedures to screen for colon cancer.

Okay. The risks, such as they are, are really small. There are certainly risks involving anaesthesia, but these are almost always effectively managed during the procedure itself. The scary risk, perforation of the bowel, is rare – a 2009 study put the risk of perforation at about 8 in 10,000 procedures, and the risk of death at 6 in 100,000.

Regarding the lack of hard evidence, what that basically means is that there has been no controlled clinical study that compared sufficiently long-term outcomes in patients who have had colonoscopies with those who have not had colonoscopies. But the clinical evidence is exceedingly strong nonetheless. Colon cancers develop from polyps; if the polyps are removed – as they are in a colonoscopy – the cancers do not occur. And the statistical evidence is strong as well – colon cancer rates have been dropping by about 3% per year, just as colonoscopy rates have been increasing. I know, that’s post hoc propter hoc, but why else?

So what about these alternative procedures? One is a simple test for occult fecal blood (that’s the one Dr Micozzi’s promotional piece hypes as the one “you can do yourself at home”). Yes, if there’s blood in the feces, it might come from a polyp that has become cancerous. Or it might come from hemorrhoids. But if there’s blood in the feces, the next step is a colonoscopy, because you have to find out where it comes from. Another alternative is a sigmoidoscopy, which only checks the descending colon – the scope doesn’t have to make that tricky turn into the transverse colon, and the patient doesn’t require more than mild sedation. But because of this, sigmoidoscopy misses a third to a half of potentially pre-cancerous polyps. Finally there are “virtual” colonoscopies – external imaging of the colon. However, if these procedures find polyps, the next step is a real colonoscopy, so we’re right back where we started from.

From Doc Gumshoe’s perspective, the only good reason to cancel your colonoscopy forever is if you have it on good authority that you’re due to be struck by lightning the next time the sky clouds over.

A bit more about our hero, Dr Marc Micozzi

Here’s what I gleaned from Wikipedia:

Micozzi served as a researcher and physician for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Walter Reed Medical Center; and the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. He also is an adjunct professor for the Department of Pharmacology at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C.

Micozzi was the founding editor-in-chief of The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine: Research on Paradigm, Practice and Policy, CAM’s first scholarly journal. He also organized and edited the first US textbook in his field, Fundamentals of Complementary & Alternative Medicine, which was published in 1996. The fourth edition of the textbook was published in 2011.

And here’s what Wikipedia itself says about the entry about Micozzi:

This biographical article is written like a résumé. Please help improve it by revising it to be neutral and encyclopedic. (December 2013)

This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject, preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral. Please help improve it by replacing them with more appropriate citations to reliable, independent, third-party sources. (December 2013)

And here’s how “Classified Cancer Answers” starts out:

“The proven cancer revelation— pushed aside for profits!

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“In 1984, a staff scientist for the NCI and colleague of mine was on the verge of a medical epiphany. She had gathered a towering pile of PROVEN research regarding a downright ordinary substance: Vitamin C.

“She was a part of the ‘crash program’ to uncover as much as we could on the relationship between diet, nutrients, and cancer. And had taken it upon herself to gather and review a decade’s worth of small, but very
sound studies on vitamin C. And what she found was staggering.

“In fact, this tireless researcher reviewed over 46 separate epidemiological studies. She found that 33 of them revealed vitamin C offered significant protection against cancer…particularly for esophageal, pancreatic, stomach, lung, and breast cancers.

“Thirty-three out of 46.

“That’s a 71% rate of positive results! “

But, Micozzi goes on to say, the NCI and the NIH didn’t pay any attention to these revolutionary findings:

“When this dedicated researcher finished her work, was she congratulated? Was she asked to present her findings to an expanded panel of her superiors? Was she even listened to?

“No. As she told me, they weren’t interested. Imagine, the NIH, the guardian of this nation’s health and well-being, wasn’t interested in her findings.

“Why would the NIH shelve this once-in-a-lifetime discovery? Why would they pass on this sound research that could change the face of cancer treatment? Did the NIH already have a ‘cancer plan’ and this once-in-a-lifetime discovery just didn’t fall in line?”

What were those positive results? Micozzi does not say. They may have been in vitro results, for example, Vitamin C kills cancer cells in a test-tube. What we know for sure is that they were not results of clinical trials in which Vitamin C was shown either to cure or prevent cancer in human patients.

But according to Micozzi, the NIH had its own reasons for not looking further into Vitamin C. They were hot on the trail of something else, something we probably remember: beta-carotene. And they were unwilling to pay attention to another hot lead that would divert resources from the pursuit of their favorite candidate – despite the fact that Vitamin C was being proclaimed by none other than the eminent Linus Pauling as being a likely cancer treatment.

A small digression about beta-carotene

Yes, in the mid 1980s there was a lot of interest in beta-carotene as an effective cancer preventative. Beta-carotene is an A vitamin, and there was evidence of a correlation between physiologic levels of beta-carotene and some forms of cancer. The evidence certainly justified a closer look, but the closer look failed to show that taking beta-carotene actually prevented cancer.

And are the NCI/NIH susceptible to being short-sighted? Certainly they are. At present, what’s taking up most of the air – and most of the money! – at the Cancer Institute is gene sequencing. They have gotten exceedingly good at this, and in some cases, they have achieved excellent results. They can sequence the genome of a specific cancer in an individual patient, engineer cells from that individual’s immune system to target those specific cancer cells, and in some cases have been able to halt and even reverse the progress of the cancer in that individual patient. There are those who say that this is not an approach to cancer treatment that can work in the general population, and that it is diverting attention and funds from approaches that might be more generally applicable.

Micozzi charges that the NCI perhaps had unsavory reasons for favoring beta-carotene:

“In this particular case — a member of the National Cancer Institute advisory board happened to be a senior science officer at a manufacturer of synthetic beta-carotene. The shameful dots should be easy enough to connect. If the rug were pulled out from under beta-carotene, too much would be lost.”

… but back to Linus Pauling and Vitamin C

“All the while, sealing the fate of a TRUE CANCER ANSWER to sit on the shelf, collect dust, and be kept from you.

“One day I asked another scientist how the NCI could continue to ignore all the evidence about vitamin C. He explained that two-time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling had given vitamin C a ‘bad name.’ In the government’s eyes, he was too vocal about its benefits. And the NCI couldn’t afford to be seen as ‘kooky’ or ‘fringy.’

“Better to be just plain wrong. Meanwhile, Linus Pauling single-handedly held as many Nobel Prizes as the entire scientific bureaucracy of NIH put together. But the NCI prefers to be ‘often wrong, but never in doubt.'”

Yes, it is true that Linus Pauling had won two Nobel Prizes. But neither one had the least connection with Vitamin C. In 1954 Pauling was awarded the Nobel Prize for his achievement in deciphering protein structures – the particular electronic bonds that weld complex proteins together and determine their shape. And, by the way, it is the shape of proteins (and other molecules) that largely determine their properties – how they fit, in three dimensions, with other molecules. It is a branch of science to which Pauling made immense contributions. He was a bit ahead of the curve, for example, when it came to describing the structure of DNA. He knew it was helix, but he was pretty sure it was a triple helix. Of course, James Watson and Francis Crick came away with the blue ribbon when DNA was found to be a double helix, as they predicted.

As close as Pauling came to medical science was when he identified the single genetic mutation that caused sickle cell anemia. It was later found – but not by Pauling – that the reason that this mutation persisted in large numbers of people in certain parts of the world is that in addition to causing sickle cell anemia, it also confers relative immunity from malaria, so the mutation has a survival benefit.

And, by the way, Pauling’s second Nobel was the Peace Prize, which he won in 1962. Nothing to do with Vitamin C.

But Pauling was convinced that Vitamin C had near-magical disease-fighting properties. This certainty of Pauling’s was based on a pretty well-observed correlation, specifically, that the immune response in humans tends to deplete Vitamin C levels. A conclusion following from this correlation is that when the immune response is invoked – for example, we have an infection – it’s a good idea to supplement our Vitamin C levels and bring them back at least to normal.

So far so good. The next step in the reasoning is something of a leap: if supplementing our Vitamin C levels when we have infections helps us to get rid of the infection, wouldn’t it also be a good idea to increase the Vitamin C level all the time, so that we fight off the infection before it takes hold?

And, by the way, even though almost all animal species synthesize their own Vitamin C, we are among the few that do not. We share that shortcoming with our simian relatives, who, however, get all the Vitamin C they need from their diet.

Pauling began to push Vitamin C as an actual cure for cancer in the 1970s. He was of course very well known indeed by then, and his advocacy for Vitamin C as a cancer cure got a lot of attention. He and a colleague published a couple of papers in the late 1970s in which they claimed that Vitamin C treatment significantly prolonged the lives of terminal patients. These papers were severely criticized at the time on procedural grounds. They compared two patient cohorts – one much more severely ill, which got the placebo, and one much less severely ill, which got Vitamin C – so it was no wonder that the Vitamin C patients lived longer, since they were less severely ill in the first place. Later on, in 1986 , the Mayo Clinic published a big study in the New England Journal of Medicine, comparing Vitamin C with placebo in cancer patients, and found zero benefit. Pauling then engaged in a protracted feud with the Mayo Clinic, accusing them of fraud and deception.

However, in this matter of Vitamin C as a cancer cure, invoking the holy name of Linus Pauling is nothing more than an appeal to authority, and in no way constitutes reliance on evidence. If the great Linus Pauling, who won two Nobel Prizes, says so, it must be so, regardless of the evidence!

Micozzi points to another NCI goof

This particular goof was a sin of omission. There was a period in our history when iron supplements were all the rage. Some of you may have heard of Geritol, which was advertised and promoted over the moon in the post World War II years. Micozzi is correct in pointing out that for most people, iron supplementation is entirely unnecessary, and for some it can actually be harmful.

The NCI failure in this case was that when a researcher – another Nobel Prize winner, Dr Barry Blumberg – wanted to publish data about possible harmful effects of iron supplements, the NCI refused to give him access to the data. Why? Because it would contradict the CDC’s policy of persuading pregnant women and women of child-bearing age to take iron supplements.

So, what cancer-fighting tactics does Micozzi favor?

In general, Micozzi seems to favor three fairly distinct tactics:

  • Strengthening the immune system, which he calls the cornerstone of the natural approach, as opposed “to standard cancer treatments that are actually harmful to the immune system and to other healthy human cells.” Grant him his grain of truth: standard chemotherapy is certainly rough on patients in many ways. But these standard agents do target and kill cancer cells and significantly extend the lives of many patients, whereas so far the evidence for strengthening the immune system as a means of treating established cancer is non-existent.
  • Preventing cancer cells from getting the blood supply they need to grow, or anti-angiogenesis. Micozzi claims that despite the “heroic efforts” of Dr Judah Volkman, who first proposed this mechanism back in 1971, there isn’t as much research done in this area as in antioxidants and immune support. I think there Micozzi is flat-out wrong. Anti-angiogenesis is central to cancer research today. There are 3,246 current studies in cancer angiogenesis, and the success of some drugs, such as those that target vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), is based on inhibiting angiogenesis. An example is Avastin (bevacizumab), from Genenetech/Roche.
  • Mobilizing what Micozzi calls “the antioxidant brigade.” Combating free-radicals with antioxidants is a central concern of the entire natural/alternative health movement, based on the belief that the causes of many or even most cancers are free radicals, which cause oxidative stress and give rise to the birth of cancer cells . Micozzi, however, is quite modest in what benefits he actually attributes to antioxidants:

    “Antioxidant supplements can help the body recover from the effects of cancer treatment as well as helping to prevent the recurrence of cancer.”

However, he’s clearly in the natural/alternative camp:

“Natural substances are not toxic to cells but act differently by influencing the correct growth of cells. And, in some cases (particularly with certain Ayurvedic and Chinese herbal combinations), they can even help cancerous cells return to homeostasis—a normal, stable, healthy state.”

As for his claim that “natural substances are not toxic to cells,” Doc Gumshoe’s skeptical eyes narrow. There must be thousands of natural substances that are highly toxic to cells. “Natural” is not synonymous with “benign.” (By the way, for a more comprehensive look at Doc Gumshoe’s views on the matter, check out The Antioxidant Paradox & the Goldilocks Principle from last Summer.)

Micozzi goes on to name just about every supplement you’ve ever heard of. I’ll list them briefly here. However, it’s interesting that, although he usually introduces them with fanfare – “the best cancer treatments you’ve never heard of …” “the Mother’s Day cancer-crusher” – the actual claims he makes are quite modest, and he prefaces these claims with the following statement:

“Since such ingredients are all ‘natural products,’ many of them are widely available on the open market. However, additional research is needed to establish the correct doses and combinations of these ingredients to have the most beneficial effects. In addition, different formulations of these ingredients on the open market vary widely in their potency and quality.”

Dr Micozzi’s list& some benefits he claims (in his own words)

  • Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALC): “It can help you overcome fatigue and improves the function of the brain and nervous system. This can be very helpful for those recovering from cancer.”
  • Alpha Lipoid Acid (ALA): “has been shown to have anticancer effects by activating glutathione peroxidase (another potent antioxidant in the body) and decreasing oxidative stress in cancer patients. One recent study found that ALA could initiate cell death in lung cancer cells.”
  • Co-enzyme Q10: “In the laboratory, coenzyme Q10 has been shown to prevent cancer and reduce cancer cell growth. It can also improve white blood cell and immune system function.”
  • Vitamin C: “Thanks to the complete misdirection of the NIH, the research on all the potential mechanisms of action of vitamin C is still lacking…. A protective effect of ascorbic acid in colorectal cancer could exist by its prevention of fecal nitrosamines or against other fecal mutagens. In addition, a mechanism has been proposed whereby vitamin C inhibits DNA synthesis and spread of preneoplastic cells.”
  • Lentinen and other mushroom extracts: “Mushrooms, such as shiitake, used for cancer in traditional Asian medicine, appear to contain a substance called polysaccharides. These polysaccharides appear to activate the immune system NK cells. In addition, some mushroom extracts have been shown in the laboratory to directly kill cancer cells, but leave normal cells alone.”
  • Resveratrol: “In laboratory studies, it has shown anti-cancer effects by inhibiting the growth of over 12 different types of cancer cells, including prostate, breast, colon, pancreas, and ovarian carcinomas.”
    Genistein: “In one study, genistein was found to inhibit blood vessel formation in melanoma cells both in vivo and in vitro.”
  • Piperine (Piper nigrum), the active compound in black pepper: “Research has shown it can boost the bioavailability of the cancer-fighter curcumin substantially. This is important, since curcumin is not easily absorbed by the body.”
  • Curcumin (Curcuma longa): “ In a review of over 728 curcumin analogs which covers the literature from 1815 to mid-2009, researchers showed that curcumin interfered with multiple cell signal pathways including the spread of cancer cells, angiogenesis, and inflammation.”
  • Garlic (Allium sativa): “Unlike many other herbs, garlic, is also a biologically active food with presumed medicinal properties, including possible anti-cancer effects.”
  • Sutherlandia frutescents (Cancer Bush): “Cancer bush contains a substance called L-canavanine. This potent compound has been shown to stop pancreatic cancer cells in their tracks. But beyond the technical aspects of this wonder-find, there lies a mysterious aspect that could make it the “back from the brink” cancer weapon patients have been praying for. And that’s the ability of the cancer bush to halt the deadly “wasting” process that so many terminally ill patients experience.”
  • Chrysanthemum: “Chrysanthemum morifloriam flowers have demonstrated various anti-cancer effects specifically against prostate cancer, together with reishi mushroom (Ganoderma), licorice root (Glycyrrihi zaglabra), saw palmetto (Serenoa repens), and the adaptogen Sanchi Ginseng (Panax pseudoginseng). Chrysanthemum is included in a formulation called PC-CARE. Treatment with PC-CARE or similar formulations should be individually monitored and sought from a qualified and knowledgeable traditional Chinese medical practitioner. Such practitioners may be found in Chinatowns in major urban areas and even some modern university hospital settings in the U.S.”

So what’s Doc Gumshoe’s take on all this?

Dr Micozzi is not a nut and also not a total fraud. Nowhere in his gospel does he assert that there is real evidence that any of the “natural” remedies he’s describing actually cures or prevents cancer in human patients. There are in vitro (in the laboratory) and in vivo (in animals) suggestions of effects against cancerous cells. The remedies could have various effects; possible anti-cancer effects are noted; a substance appears to activate the NK cell system. And so forth. At the same time, Dr Micozzi boosts Chinese and Ayurvedic healing, and goes so far as to suggest that patients in the US seek out Chinese practitioners. What gives?

Dr Micozzi is angry and frustrated. He has had it up to the eyeballs with the bureaucracy and politics at the big Federal health agencies. He is disappointed with the slow and painful progress of cancer research, and he has bought into the alternative sloganeering that current cancer treatment consists of “cut, poison, and burn,” which is how the alternative segment maligns surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. Does he have a point? Certainly. Is it possible that some of the remedies he proposes may have genuine benefit? Also, certainly. But evidence that any of his “cancer answers” can replace current standard treatment forms is entirely lacking. And, in the meantime, current cancer treatment is at least holding its own in the face of a rapidly increasing population at risk. What I mean by that is that the total number of cancer deaths is diminishing slightly, but more people are at risk for cancer simply because the death rate from heart disease has declined so sharply, and we all die of something. So seen in that light, current cancer treatment is a relative success.

But what has happened with Dr Micozzi is that he has been taken over by a marketing machine that packages his mostly moderate support for alternative and non-Western healing practices in a wrapper of over-the-top hype. Some people will likely be taken in by the promise that they can cancel their colonoscopies forever. In this regard, Micozzi has lent himself to a scheme that can lead to substantial harm and even death for the susceptible.

In the meantime, lots of research is going on regarding the benefits of some of these alternative treatments. For example, at the moment there are 98 clinical trials going on with curcumin – not only in cancer, but in several other conditions. And these are being done by mainstream institutions – universities, foundations, pharma companies. The objective is to find genuine, reliable evidence that these remedies work. If the evidence holds up, mark my words, mainstream medicine will accept the alternative remedies as bona fide drugs.

* * * * * * *

As always, Doc Gumshoe thanks his readers for comments of all flavors. Right now, I’m weighing a couple of subject for future pieces. On the one hand, there’s been a lot of talk about diabetes – this disease is affecting more and more of us, here and in other nations, and wreaking its ugly havoc on younger and younger people. At the same time, pharmaceutical companies keep introducing new agents for diabetes – and no questions, new agents are needed – with varying and debatable degrees of success. So, a look at what’s going on in diabetes? Another possibility is depression. The question is, how effective are any of the current treatments in restoring people to relatively normal function? Let me know which of these – or any other subjects – you’d like to hear about.

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Harley
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Harley
May 21, 2014 11:41 am

CDC’s Colorectal Cancer Control Program (CRCCP) provides funding to 25 states and 4 tribes across the United States for five years. The CRCCP’s goal is to increase colorectal (colon) cancer screening rates among men and women aged 50 years and older from about 64% to 80% in the funded states by 2014. An increase in screening rates will reduce illness and death from colorectal cancer.

http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/crccp/?mobile=nocontent

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D
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D
May 21, 2014 11:56 am

I’d love to cancel my colonoscopy, but I won’t — see comments above. Improving one’s diet and adding beneficial ingredients is never a bad idea, though. Everyone should be paying attention.

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Judith Crosbie
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Judith Crosbie
May 21, 2014 11:59 am

Excellent article indeed thanks to Doc for the great overview.
In regard to vertigo I would also be interested to know more. While the Eply manouver is not a ‘cure’ it worked in my case after having it done once and no more vertigo for 18 months now. If it returns I would not run back to the practitioner to have it done again a simple procedure and no drugs necessary.

ray
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ray
May 21, 2014 12:28 pm

I would like to here more on depression. While not as deadly it effects quality of life as much or more and can be a problem for many years of life.

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John Harris
Member
John Harris
May 21, 2014 12:52 pm

I believe the truth is somewhere between the medical doctors who belittle alternative or complimentary health care, and those who scorn chemotherapy as cut and burn. There is considerable evidence for instance that the polysaccharides in mushrooms help mitigate the side effects of chemotherapy and make it more effective. Geez – the mushroom extracts have no negative effects- at worst harmless – there is some evidence they help but my oncologist will not even consider prescribing the extracts. Instead he should start a clinical trial and get it funded to pay for the mushroom extract. I would be happy to participate. Or take the vitamin C debate. The fact is you can tolerate a ton more vitamin C (like 1000 mg up to 6 or 8 times a day) when you are sick fighting a cold or flu than you can tolerate normally (when more than one or two few thousand mg will give you the runs). The body seems to use it when you are sick. And don’t discount IV vitamin C. You can’t tolerate huge does orally (you get the runs) but IV directly into the blood bypassing the stomach, your body can tolerate very high doses and while I am no expert or doctor, I read that at these high doses in the blood vit C is antiviral, antifungal, and antibiotic even against antibiotic resistant strains. Yet when was the last time your doc offered you IV C for a bad cold. They would rather give you an antibiotic that knocks out all the good bacteria in your gut as well (and fail to tell you to eat yogurt or real fermented foods every day during the course) and that antibiotic will not help if you more likely have a virus, but IV c will knock both out in a day or two with one treatment. I talked to my MD and he won’t even consider IV C. I spoke with an alternative DO who does use it but they won’t accept insurance and are cash only. IV C has no known bad side effects and does wonders. Medicine ignores it. And no disrespect to Doc Gumshoe – you do a fine job from your perspective, but there is lots of evidence that the CDC is in bed with big pharma just as the FDA is. In both cases relatively poorly paid government directors at the CDC or the FDA will get very lucrative jobs in big pharma if they play ball during their stay in the government agency. Part of the hoopla over vaccines was the fact that the former director of the CDC, Dr. Julie Gerberding, fought tooth and nail to bury some evidence that vaccines might be associated with autism and fought for vaccines that were dubious and before long, in 2009, was hired as the head of Merck’s vaccine division (a 5-billion dollar division – just imagine what she gets paid now). This is often called the revolving door to big pharma that exists at the FDA as well. That to say nothing of the fact that the FDA gets most of its funds from the very pharmaceutical companies it is supposed to oversee, and those very companies fund the research the FDA asks for to approve their drugs – another conflict. And it is not just big Pharma with way too much control at the FDA either. The food supply is at risk too because companies like Monsanto have so much influence at the FDA to have already keep genetically modified organisms (GMO) ingredients from being labeled in foods as they require in Europe. The FDA should have required that years ago, just like it requires trans fats and high fructose corn syrup to be labeled. But Monsanto and big agriculture seem to have more say than the good of the people. How long did it take for the FDA to finally say you can’t use antibiotics in animal feed just to promote growth (finally just this year) but this new guideline is so weak it allows continued use for “disease control” so industrial feedlots will still use just as much but call it disease prevention rather than pro-growth. If the FDA actually cared about human health (or was not in the pocket of business) it would have banned antibiotic use in farm animals decades ago when it became clear that was causing the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria strains and scientists worldwide called for the end of such use (save for individual animal use with prescription from a vet after an actual visit). So when I hear the medical community or Doc Gumshoe defend the FDA and the CDC like they are saintly and always defending and fighting for our best health I have to only believe they are just ignorant of or blind to the realities in these government agencies and the monetary ties they have to big industry.

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SageNot
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SageNot
May 21, 2014 1:33 pm
Reply to  John Harris

I understand why most people think it’s criminal to disagree with your MD, or AMA/FDA,
but politics aside I’ve seen with my own healthcare that alternative health does serve a purpose, who cares if not all MD’s become millionaires doing procedures that put your life at unnecessary risk? In this instance having your colon penetrated is cruel &/or deadly & so do the other results (like my own), they s/b avoided as you age unless there is blood in your stool.

My last words, I promise!

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Stuart Withers
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Stuart Withers
May 21, 2014 2:22 pm
Reply to  John Harris

John Harris you are spot on! Feel free to contact me at cleowithers@gmail.com.

Solyom
Member
Solyom
May 21, 2014 1:00 pm

I am an unpaid but not retired physician. I help at a free medical clinic. I was part of the group that many of the supplements were no better than a good balanced diet. The typical American diet is unbalanced and irrational. A simple life style helps in prevention of all kinds of trouble. A balance between hard physical work and skilled labor and mental work seasoned with healthy relaxation goes a long way towards preventions of life’s illness and evil. Count Leo Tolstoi got that one right.

For younger folks a yearly test for blood in the stool risk low cost free here in Lincoln NE. For older folks a colonoscopy and the proper time and interval. If you are fearful go for the virtual colonoscopy but you might just have to bite the bullet.

Perforations generally occurred in those who require a removal of a polyps. rare very rare in those who do not.

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highnesska
highnesska
May 21, 2014 2:55 pm
Reply to  Solyom

Great, realistic, useful comment. Thank you much.

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Stuart Withers
Guest
Stuart Withers
May 21, 2014 1:25 pm

I would like to congratulate Doc G. on his article, but I would like to offer to collaborqte with him in explaining certain important things he needs to know. I invite him or others to contact me for a fuller explanation. My expertise lies in the field of alternative medicine and certain health problems which exist today largely due to the intervention of the US government in support of US industry at the expense of the interests of the consumer and the patient. Too big a subject to cover here! my email cleowithers@gmail.com

Bob
Guest
Bob
May 21, 2014 1:45 pm

I’ve decided that it’s time for me to join the Irregulars to help support this site. Although I enjoy and benefit from Travis’s articles, it’s the Doc Gumshoe articles that really made me decide to join. Also, here is another vote for an article on Diabetes. Being recently diagnosed, I’ve been researching extensively and found that the ADA-based guidelines used by most Doctors don’t agree with the research, and are completely different from what Endocrinologists recommend. I’m sure that Doc Gumshoe’s sleuthing would prove interesting . For anyone with Diabetes, I highly recommend the website http://www.bloodsugar101.com which seems well researched and documented.

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abpromislow
abpromislow
May 21, 2014 4:39 pm

My doctor recommended that my last colonoscopy at age 80 should indeed be my last as it again proved negative, as had all the others every ten years.

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gummydave
gummydave
May 21, 2014 8:49 pm

Just had my first colonoscopy at age 52. The prep was worse than I expected but the procedure completely pain free with no after-effects. Don’t avoid it if you need one!

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emanon7
Irregular
May 21, 2014 9:10 pm

Every man over 40 years should have a colonoscopy!
First time i had 2 polyps, the second time 3 and one of them was bad, the 3rd time 2 polyps.
Scheduled in 3 years for another.
Please have a colonoscopy if you are 40 or over and especially if you are a man.

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midorosan
midorosan
May 21, 2014 10:07 pm

Good article thanks Doc and Travis, like you Travis I slept through mine and then added a music track to the DVD great fun for unwary guests.
My main concern now is my immune system I suffer from hypothyroidism and take 150 micrograms of Euthyrox each day. I suffer from persistent colds especially if I get wet particularly from heavy sweating, living in Hong Kong and playing golf in May/June does not help.
Any thought on how I might help myself deal with this situation would be welcome.

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Lorne Cutler
Irregular
Lorne Cutler
May 22, 2014 12:45 am

When I had my colonoscopy, the television in the waiting room was playing the Rotor Rooter episode of Undercover Boss. I thought that this was an interesting coincidence until I left the clinic and the same show was playing. I subsequently spoke to someone else who had the procedure at the same clinic and he said that the same tape was playing. Clearly a clinic with a sense of humour even if it got a bit repetitive for the front desk staff. By the way, clear and clean as a whistle. With the sedatives they give you, the night before (the clearing stage) is more uncomfortable than the actual procedure. Mind you, try having a barium enema without any sedatives if you think a colonoscopy is unpleasant.

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Carl May
Guest
Carl May
May 22, 2014 1:27 am

No question that diabetes and depression (with associated fatigue?) would be good topics for review.

Lyme disease is said to be the most rapidly growing infectious disease in the U.S., although this may be due more to an increased rate of diagnosis than to more infections with the spirochete. If you want to dig into an unresolved can of worms with much left to be learned, this would be an interesting subject, with Lyme-Literate MDs (LLMDs) now on the increase and standing up to the traditionalists (many associated with big pharma, big HMO, and big insurance) in the IDSA.

Another topic that can be considered from various angles is rare diseases. When all kinds are combined, they are not so rare in the population. My wife has been dealing with the auto-immune disease scleroderma–the systemic kind that lays down greatly excessive amounts of collagen (essentially scar tissue) in various vital internal organs and blood vessels–so we have been pretty keen on the various outposts doing research on cause(s) and treatment.

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O. Kaplan
Irregular
O. Kaplan
May 22, 2014 2:13 am

I refused colonoscopy, but persuaded my HMO to allow me to have the Quest Labs Colovantage (blood) test (it is FDA-approved). Sensitivity and specificity is not as good as colonoscopy but this factor can be compensated by doing about 3 such blood tests instead of one colonoscopy.
Strange that no postings have mentioned the ingestible capsule which transmits pictures of the colon and of the whole digestive tract. I think it is already available in the USA.

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Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe
May 22, 2014 12:46 pm
Reply to  O. Kaplan

Given Imaging (GIVN), which created that “camera pill”, was touted by a few investment newsletters over the years and was bought out by Covidien just a few months ago — they recently got approval for their “colon cam” for people who have “incomplete” colonoscopies for some reason (surgery, anatomy, etc.) and can’t get a full scope. From what I’ve read it sounds like the images are still quite subpar compared to an actual endoscope, and of course the pill can’t snip polyps for biopsy, but apparently the technology has made some advancements in the ten+ years that it’s been around (it was approved for imaging the small intestine in some circumstances in the early 2000s).

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jzjessez
Member
jzjessez
May 22, 2014 4:08 pm

I’ve been there and it was negative.All the side info?Just Listen to your Dr. Get it if required.Digest it and Reprint the important parts though” I’m impressed”.
Joseph Gaughan.

frankw17
May 22, 2014 6:04 pm

Good article and comments. To offer a little on the lighter side, read below.
Frank

Colonoscopy Journal:

I called my friend Andy, a gastroenterologist, to make an appointment for a colonoscopy.

A few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place, at one point passing briefly through Minneapolis . Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure to me in a thorough, reassuring and patient manner.

I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn’t really hear anything he said, because my brain was shrieking, ‘HE’S GOING TO STICK A TUBE 17,000 FEET UP YOUR BEHIND!’

I left Andy’s office with some written instructions, and a prescription for a product called ‘MoviPrep,’ which comes in a box large enough to hold a microwave oven. I will discuss MoviPrep in detail later; for now suffice it to say that we must never allow it to fall into the hands of America ‘s enemies.

I spent the next several days productively sitting around being nervous.

Then, on the day before my colonoscopy, I began my preparation. In accordance with my instructions, I didn’t eat any solid food that day; all I had was chicken broth, which is basically water, only with less flavor.

Then, in the evening, I took the MoviPrep. You mix two packets of powder together in a one-liter plastic jug, then you fill it with lukewarm water. (For those unfamiliar with the metric system, a liter is about 32 gallons). Then you have to drink the whole jug. This takes about an hour, because MoviPrep tastes – and here I am being kind – like a mixture of goat spit and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon..

The instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by somebody with a great sense of humor, state that after you drink it, ‘a loose, watery bowel movement may result.’

This is kind of like saying that after you jump off your roof, you may experience contact with the ground.

MoviPrep is a nuclear laxative. I don’t want to be too graphic, here, but, have you ever seen a space-shuttle launch? This is pretty much the MoviPrep experience, with you as the shuttle. There are times when you wish the commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the bathroom, spurting violently. You eliminate everything. And then, when you figure you must be totally empty, you have to drink another liter of MoviPrep, at which point, as far as I can tell, your bowels travel into the future and start eliminating food that you have not even eaten yet.

After an action-packed evening, I finally got to sleep.

The next morning my wife drove me to the clinic. I was very nervous. Not only was I worried about the procedure, but I had been experiencing occasional return bouts of MoviPrep spurtage. I was thinking, ‘What if I spurt on Andy?’ How do you apologize to a friend for something like that? Flowers would not be enough.

At the clinic I had to sign many forms acknowledging that I understood and totally agreed with whatever the heck the forms said. Then they led me to a room full of other colonoscopy people, where I went inside a little curtained space and took off my clothes and put on one of those hospital garments designed by sadist perverts, the kind that, when you put it on, makes you feel even more naked than when you are actually naked..

Then a nurse named Eddie put a little needle in a vein in my left hand. Ordinarily I would have fainted, but Eddie was very good, and I was already lying down. Eddie also told me that some people put vodka in their MoviPrep.
At first I was ticked off that I hadn’t thought of this, but then I pondered what would happen if you got yourself too tipsy to make it to the bathroom, so you were staggering around in full Fire Hose Mode. You would have no choice but to burn your house.

When everything was ready, Eddie wheeled me into the procedure room, where Andy was waiting with a nurse and an anesthesiologist. I did not see the 17,000-foot tube, but I knew Andy had it hidden around there somewhere. I was seriously nervous at this point.

Andy had me roll over on my left side, and the anesthesiologist began hooking something up to the needle in my hand.

There was music playing in the room, and I realized that the song was ‘Dancing Queen’ by ABBA. I remarked to Andy that, of all the songs that could be playing during this particular procedure, ‘Dancing Queen’ had to be the least appropriate.

‘You want me to turn it up?’ said Andy, from somewhere behind me.

‘Ha ha,’ I said. And then it was time, the moment I had been dreading for more than a decade. If you are squeamish, prepare yourself, because I am going to tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what it was like.

I have no idea. Really. I slept through it. One moment, ABBA was yelling ‘Dancing Queen, feel the beat of the tambourine,’ and the next moment, I was back in the other room, waking up in a very mellow mood.

Andy was looking down at me and asking me how I felt. I felt excellent. I felt even more excellent when Andy told me that It was all over, and that my colon had passed with flying colors. I have never been prouder of an internal organ.

On the subject of Colonoscopies….
Colonoscopies are no joke, but these comments during the exam were quite humorous….. A physician claimed that the following are actual comments made by his patients (predominately male) while he was performing their colonoscopies:

1. ‘Take it easy, Doc. You’re boldly going where no man has gone before!’

2. ‘Find Amelia Earhart yet?’

3. ‘Can you hear me NOW?’

4. ‘Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?’

5. ‘You know, in Arkansas , we’re now legally married.’

6. ‘Any sign of the trapped miners, Chief?’

7. ‘You put your left hand in, you take your left hand out…’

8. ‘Hey! Now I know how a Muppet feels!’

9. ‘If your hand doesn’t fit, you must quit!’

10. ‘Hey Doc, let me know if you find my dignity.’

11. ‘You used to be an executive at Enron, didn’t you?’

12. ‘God, now I know why I am not gay.’

And the best one of all:
13. ‘Could you write a note for my wife saying that my head is not up there?’

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