What’s behind the deep dark plot to keep miracle cures concealed from the public?The one area of the web that has as many “self help” and “miracle solutions” newsletters (and marketing teasers) as personal finance is health — the investing newsletters promise eternal wealth, and the health newsletters promise eternal life (or something dang close). Readers ask us about the crazy marketing for these health newsletters all the time, so we’ve found someone who can help answer these questions. His name is Michael Jorrin, we’ll call him “Doc Gumshoe” and he’s a longtime medical writer who can help add a little skepticism and reality to the hype we all see every day. Here’s his first article for you, we’ll try to bring him back on a regular basis if and when there’s interest (so feel free to suggest other topics for the Doc in the comments section below). As with our other guest authors, Michael’s opinions and assertions are his own.
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What’s behind the deep dark plot to keep miracle cures concealed from the public?
We’ve all heard it before. And yet, the temptation to take a peek behind the kimono is hard to resist. Might there just be a grain of truth in this latest claim?
Here’s a web video ad from a newsletter called Logical Health Alternatives that comes close to dangling the promise of eternal life:
It starts with the headline “Poof! 20 million cancer cells gone!” And it goes on from there. The premise is that there is a natural cancer treatment that miraculously exterminates cancer cells by the millions – even billions – with no ill-effects to the patient. And, of course, the implication is that Big Pharma is doing its evil utmost to keep us from finding out about it, because if we knew about the wondrous effects of this natural cure, no one would spend a dime on Big Pharma’s ineffective and dangerous drugs.
The website describes a New York City physician, Dr Fred Pescatore, in glowing terms. Here’s what the spokesperson says:
“I’ve been working in the health publishing industry for nearly 20 years. And yet, never before have I encountered a physician making such breathtaking inroads in natural medicine.
“Exposing the REAL causes behind today’s deadliest threats. And delivering cures so shockingly easy—they boggle the mind! And put ‘modern’ medicine’s high-tech ‘wonder drugs’ to SHAME.
“His name is Fred Pescatore, M.D. Dr. Pescatore is a best-selling author, sought-after medical expert, and trusted physician to hundreds of patients (from around the world) who flock to his high-profile Manhattan clinic.”
The secret remedy that cures cancer and a lot of other diseases is called “Alpha G,” and, according to the website,
“It’s virtually unheard of here in the land of “cut, poison, and burn” cancer care.”
Behind the premise that Big Pharma is threatened by “natural” treatments is an assumption, shared by many, that there is a fundamental distinction between “natural” treatments and pharmaceutical drugs. Let me say, right off the bat, that whatever distinction there is, it’s exceedingly blurry. Many – maybe even most – drugs have origins in natural remedies. Take aspirin.
Aspirin: a Drug Originating in Tree Bark
Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) traces back its source to infusions made from the bark of the willow tree (Salix), which was used to treat aches and pains from the times of Hippocrates, in the fourth century BC. Willow bark was not without its ill effects, however, and practitioners looked around for substitutes that might work as well without the problems, including the bark and leaves of those pretty Spirea bushes. And in the 19th century, chemists found ways to compound the “natural” salicylic acid with other molecules to mitigate the harmful effects, and by the end of the 19th century they arrived at aspirin as we know it today. But it took a lot of tinkering.
Aspirin, some might say, is a miracle drug. It alleviates pain. It brings down fever. It reduces inflammation. And, perhaps most usefully, it inhibits the clumping together of blood platelets, even in very small doses. Because clots formed by blood platelets in small blood vessels in the brain are the cause of strokes, aspirin is a very effective guard against strokes.
But it’s not without its harmful effects. The same mechanism that inhibits platelet clumping can slow blood clotting in other parts of the body. Long-term, high dose aspirin is thought to be an important cause of bleeding in the intestinal tract. In that sense, aspirin is like every other drug. No drug (and no extract from tree bark or any other “natural” substance) is entirely without harmful effects. As the saying goes, “the poison is in the dose.” Too much of anything can be harmful, even deadly.
More Tree Bark Drugs
But let’s go back to drugs that have their origin in natural substances. Quinine was derived from the bark of the chinchona tree, and is effective as a treatment for malaria. Quite a lot of other drugs, such as the quinolones (which include such vital antibiotics as ciprofloxacin and the other floxacins) are molecules with structures similar to the quinine molecule.
One of the recent discoveries along that line was that a compound from the bark of the Pacific yew tree (Taxus brevifolin), called “taxol,” is effective in combating cancer. Cancer cells, like all cells, reproduce by mitosis, or splitting. The process by which they do so is complex, but it involves dividing some of the cancer cell’s crucial components, such as chromosomes and microtubules. A number of drugs can significantly inhibit the process. Taxol-based agents using this mechanism include paclitaxel (Taxol, Bristol Myers Squibb); docetaxel (Taxotere, Sanofi-Aventis), Abraxane (a newer formulation of paclitaxel from Celgene) and others. These agents are now synthesized and no longer require collecting huge amounts of yew bark, which is fortunate, since it was estimated that a single clinical trial might require harvesting hundreds of thousands of these trees.
So, Big Pharma, as well as Little Pharma and Tiny Pharma, are keenly aware of any clues that a “natural” substance might have disease-fighting capabilities. Their eyes are peeled and their noses are to the ground, because from those “natural” remedies might come pharmaceuticals from which they would make billions.
Here’s what the website says about “Alpha G.” I won’t paraphrase it, I’ll quote it directly. Here it is:
“Renowned medical experts spanning the globe have come to a shocking consensus… Alzheimer’s…diabetes…heart disease…impotence…and much more
are all symptoms of…“The HIDDEN EPIDEMIC of the Baby Boomer Generation
“Researchers call it ‘the single most common thread to premature death’
Are you getting our free Daily Update
"reveal" emails? If not,
just click here...“And, astonishingly…no one’s talking about it
“But now you can turn the tide against this stealth killer— with a solution so STUNNINGLY SIMPLE it puts modern medicine to shame!
“High blood pressure…Elevated cholesterol…Problem blood sugar…Bone loss…Sexual dysfunction.
“I’ll bet you know someone taking prescriptions for all these conditions. Maybe you face the avalanche of pill bottles every time you open your own medicine cabinet.
“But let me fill you in on a secret Big Pharma is desperate to keep tightly under wraps…
“Every single one of these sinister syndromes can be tied back to ONE HIDDEN CAUSE.
“In fact, as you’re about to discover inside this exclusive expose…
“There’s almost NO disease or health worry that isn’t directly related to this SECRET HEALTH MINEFIELD
“And in just a moment I’ll tell you how you can get the inside scoop on the jaw-droppingly EASY cure to this hidden cause.
That’s right—CURE”
About Alpha G
Okay, so what exactly is Alpha G? It appears to be alpha lipoic acid. This nutritional supplement is widely marketed. However, if you check the on-line sources for Alpha G or alpha lipoic acid, you will not find the kind of claims quoted above – nothing about curing any of the diseases mentioned on the video presentation. Why not?
Because if the marketers of those vitamins and supplements made any health claims, they would run afoul of the FDA. The FDA keeps a sharp eye on health claims of any kind, and especially on claims that a supplement or “nutraceutical” can cure or alleviate a disease. Claims of that kind have to be substantiated by evidence, and for lots and lots of supplements, that requirement is highly inconvenient, because there just isn’t any evidence. So the manufacturers and marketers of these supplements stay away from that dangerous ground. Which means that the claims have to be made by somebody else.
Is it really the case that establishment medicine doesn’t know anything about Alpha G, or is keeping it under wraps lest the availability of this miracle product utterly destroy the health-care establishment as we know it? Hardly. As it happens, if you go to PubMed, which is the website of the National Center for Biotechnology Information, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and do a quick search for published studies on alpha lipoic acid, you will turn up 3,532 citations. Most of them, as far as I could tell, were studies in animals (mice, rats, guinea pigs, ferrets) or laboratory studies (in vitro, as they are called). No randomized controlled clinical trials in human beings have yet been published to confirm that alpha lipoic acid actually has any health benefits, or, perhaps more important at this stage, to determine whether alpha lipoic acid has any harmful effects, and if so, at what dose.
However, if we search the NIH website that lists clinical trials, whether completed, ongoing, recruiting, or terminated, we find 70 for alpha lipoic acid. Most of them are in combination with other drugs, and a few are federally-funded (one by the National Institute of Aging). The diseases in which alpha lipoic acid is being investigated include heart and vascular disease, diabetes, HIV, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Alpha lipoic acid is an antioxidant, synthesized in our bodies, although in relatively small quantities. Like many organic molecules, it exists in two forms – the so-called right and left enantiomers. What does this mean? Complex organic molecules consist of several sub-units linked together. Molecules that are mirror images of each other can have the identical chemical composition, but function differently because of their shape. Think of the way a key fits into a lock – the exact mirror image of the key wouldn’t work at all, even though the profiles of the keys were identical. It’s the same thing with molecules. They work by fitting precisely into receptors, and if the right enantiomer is the one that fits, the left enantiomer is basically useless. For alpha lipoic acid, it’s the right enantiomer that has the antioxidant characteristics, but most manufactured alpha lipoic acid supplements are half and half right and left. It’s very difficult to separate the two forms, and nobody is quite sure what the left enantiomer does.
What we can be entirely sure of is that the health-care establishment and the pharmaceutical companies are watching alpha lipoic acid carefully. They are not bent on keeping it a secret or concealing its benefits, whatever those might turn out to be, from the public.
The Other Two Miracle Drugs
So, what are Dr Fred’s other two miracle cures? He calls the second one his “Secret Super Charger,” (SSC) and here’s what that presentation says about it:
“SSC is a secret ingredient–a delicious natural, ultra-healthy, relatively inexpensive plant extract with near-magical health-promoting powers. The plant is native to Australia, and ‘freakish’ is truly the word for it…
“It goes to work melting that stubborn belly bulge and balancing see-sawing blood sugar in a matter of DAYS.
“How does it work? Well, SSC blows away any other superfood you may have sampled in its enormous proportion of monounsaturates. These are the ‘good fats’ that help make olive oil so sensational, and SSC is nature’s richest source of them bar none…”
According to the presentation, the result is a cure for diabetes …
“A cure so powerful, yet so simple, ditching diabetes for good is almost EFFORTLESS!
“Forget about the needles, the ‘sawdust and grass clipping’ diet, and the potentially lethal blood sugar drugs. The supposed ‘global health authorities’ are beating a dead horse with these useless tactics.
“Because Dr. Fred’s breakthrough is all about using your body’s most powerful cravings to help you defeat diabetes once and for all.
“That’s right.
“Golden fried chicken…gooey chocolate brownies…and other ‘off limits’ decadent treats can actually HELP cleanse your body of diabetes”
What the plant extract is, the presentation doesn’t say. The reference to olive oil and mono-unsaturated fats is no doubt intended to add a morsel of legitimacy to the claim. But there isn’t any evidence that mono-unsaturated fats “cure” diabetes. Olive oil, and its presence in the Mediterranean diet, gets a lot of credit for improving cardiovascular health, and there is certainly a link between cardiovascular health and diabetes. But nobody has demonstrated, or even claimed, that olive oil cures diabetes or mitigates the symptoms.
And the third miraculous natural cure is tree bark. Here’s just some of what the presentation says:
“The tree bark CUREALL for sunburn, stroke…
“And everything in between!
“This is Dr. Fred’s No.1 recommendation for every patient he sees. No matter what ails them.
“Even deadly serious conditions like Alzheimer’s and hypertension are no match for this natural remedy. And you’d never guess the source…
“This virtual cure-all comes from one of nature’s oldest, simplest materials…
“Tree bark, of all things!
“But before you start chipping away at the old maple in your backyard, hang on just a second!
“We’re not talking about any old tree bark here. No, this one is highly unique. And it grows ONLY in a specific region along the European coast of the Atlantic Ocean.
“There’s almost NOTHING it can’t do
“Nature’s own ALLERGY medicine
“Erase the NO. 2 FEAR of getting older
“VISION LOSS!
“Forget the ‘LITTLE BLUE PILL’
“Hush that incessant RINGING in your ears!
“Armor your brain against ALZHEIMER’S disease
“Shield yourself from SUNBURN–from the inside out
“The safest STROKE prevention on the planet
“And that’s just the beginning of what TBC can do for you!
“Just look at what else this Tree-Bark Cure is capable of…
“Shave days off of wound-healing time–and prevent ugly, disfiguring scars
“Promote a youthful, glowing, wrinkle-free complexion
“Soothes the itching, scaly skin of psoriasis
“Even help kids with ADHD–one study showed that within a month, symptoms were barely noticeable!
“And these are just a few more entries on TBC’s mind-boggling roster of benefits.”
What It Would Take to Get These Miracle Drugs Approved As Drugs
So now we have the complete picture: alpha lipoic acid: a plant extract that’s high in mono-unsaturated fats: and another tree-bark extract.
There is a possibility that, with enough assiduous, painstaking lab work followed by carefully controlled clinical trials, one or more of these “miracle cures” might actually be demonstrated to confer some benefit to human beings. Here’s what would have to happen.
First, the active ingredient – the molecule that has the desired effect – would have to be identified, just the way the chemists in the 19th century determined that the active ingredient in those willow-bark infusions was salicylic acid.
Then there would have to be careful studies to determine a safe and effective dose of this active ingredient. One of the steps is usually to establish the minimum lethal dose. This is done, I am sorry to have to report, by killing laboratory animals. Enough of any drug – of just about anything at all – can be lethal; the question is, how small a quantity can be lethal. Once that has been established, they scale way back from that to determine the maximum safe dose for humans.
But will that maximum safe dose be effective? Now there have to be studies to demonstrate what is known as proof of concept –.i.e., will the active ingredient in this tree bark produce even one of those cures listed above. This might be done in relatively small-scale trials. But so far, we’re not anywhere near close to getting this drug approved by the FDA, or any other regulatory authority that I know of.
In the meantime, they need to do what is known as ADME studies, usually in healthy volunteers. It’s important to know the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of any drug. Based on this information, they can figure out how much to give (and by what route – oral, injectable, intravenous, topical), how often, how long it stays in the system, and other vital information. Even the route of excretion is vital – some drugs are excreted unchanged, and some are metabolized in the liver. The ones that are metabolized in the liver have the potential to interact with other drugs.
Now they have to demonstrate that it really works. This will require big randomized controlled clinical trials. Depending on the specific disease that they’re taking aim at, the trials could be huge, and they could be long-lasting. If it’s preventing sunburn, that’s one thing. They could find out pretty fast if it works. But if it’s preventing strokes, it would be considerably more complex. There are already stroke prevention drugs out there, besides aspirin, that work pretty well. They would at least have to demonstrate that their new drug worked just as well as established drugs (non inferiority).
The best evidence that would likely lead to regulatory approval (and a blockbuster drug!) would be a head-to-head trial that demonstrated that the tree-bark derived drug actually was superior in efficacy, and just as safe, as an established drug. In the case of stroke prevention, a likely trial would enlist persons who had already experienced a TIA (transient ischemic event, sometimes called a mini-stroke) and are therefore at high risk for a full stroke. Because not giving these people an established drug would be unethical, the trial would likely evaluate combination therapy with an established drug plus the new drug compared with the established drug alone.
And the cost of going through the necessary clinical trials to get a new drug approved and bring it to market is huge – it was estimated to average $1.3 billion (with a b!) in 2007, counting the efforts that fizzle.
Given all this, it’s no wonder that the marketers of “nutraceuticals” are not eager to go through the regulatory process. They would rather make their miracle cure claims by some other means, such as the presentation I’ve been quoting. But what you get when you go for a nutraceutical is a lot of big question marks – what’s the right dose, does it really work better than the alternatives, how much is too much, what else am I getting in this little pill?
Speaking for myself, I pass.
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And a word about myself. I have been a medical writer for about 25 years; before that I was a documentary film maker, and some of my films were about medical subjects. I am not a physician, but I have a pretty good scientific background. I wouldn’t dream of recommending any kind of treatment to anyone, and I cannot give medical advice. However, I understand the medical literature and the data and evidence behind it, and I have an inquiring and skeptical turn of mind. In this case it led me to question the hyperbolic claims in the Logical Health Alternatives presentation. In other cases, I scrutinize and question and, sometimes, challenge the positions of some of the established health-care organizations. Eternal vigilance is a small price to pay for health. — Michael Jorrin (aka DocGumshoe)
Since we see the term so often, we should remember how the story of the snake oil salesman had its origins.
In the late 1800’s many Chinese immigrants came to this country and worked on railroad construction. This was hard, back-breaking work, resulting in near continuous aches and pains. For relief, the Chinese took snake oil, which they had brought with them from China. This was ridiculed by the patent medicine salesmen of the time as being worthless. As proof, they offered the observation that there was no immediate relief from snake oil, if any, whereas you could immediately tell the difference when you took their concoctions. The patent medicine salesmen were so successful in this smear campaign that the very term “snake oil salesman” came to mean someone who was selling something that was worthless.
Fast forward to today for one of history’s richest ironies. We now know that the snake oil came from the Chinese water snake and was rich in omega 3 fatty acids, well known to reduce inflammation. The patent medicines, on the other hand, contained alcohol. cocaine, and other dangerous substances.
If herbalists and alternative medical practitioners are snake oil salesmen, then big pharma is today’s patent medicine salesman. And, things haven’t change a bit. Today’s patent medicine salesman is still pressing the smear campaign against alternative medicine while selling dangerous substances that mask or treat, but do not cure. They should be ashamed, but it’s hard to argue with success.
John Saggese
WOW John….
Very sage analogy…. Will definitely remember and use that..
Thanx so much!
Doc,
Several years ago the FDA commissioned a study that determined cigar smoking actually slightly decreased the risk of heart disease (while, of course, increasing the risk of certain forms of cancer), which got me to wondering if there is something in the type of tobacco used for premium cigars that suppresses tension, or in some way counteracts one of the other causes of heart disease? If so, is there a way it could be consumed in a manner that does not increase the risk of cancer, such as boiling in tea? I know it sounds crazy, but since heart disease such a huge risk among men over 55 and health costs rising to unaffordable levels, any type of herbal remedy that is legitimate would be quite valuable.
Jim,
That FDA research could possibly have some substance but there are so many other herbs/foods and supplements that show much more promise and have considerable more research behind them than one study from a collusive source.
BrasscheckTV has some outstanding coverage on issues such as the politics/ collusion
in science and how it impacts government and corporate research in our foods and supplements: http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/food-1/lying-scientists-.html
I too find this site interesting, but also lacking in up to date factual references to bonafide products to apply to referenced therapies. I have 2 cents to throw into the pot. I shy’d away from treating my sleep apnea/snoring debacle with a CPAP machine shortly after my fears of claustrophobia set in. I found that losing 40 pounds of body weight alleviated a weight problem (I did this in 90 days), my snoring and a better sleep pattern. Now, I don’t sleep anywhere near 10 hours, but enough for me to not take naps. I sleep around 6 hours give or take 1 hour each side of this depending on drinking alcoholic beverages in the evening. I usually wake up to empty my bladder from the alcohol so my consumption is moderate in the evenings. l currently am working on this interruption problem, my intermittant urinating during the day and prostate cancer protection by treating my prostate with appropriate nutraceuticals. I just ordered Prostate Defense from North Star Nutritionals along with separate orders from Swanson Vitamins for Flower Pollen and high Potency Beta-Sitosterol. Thru my research I have found these products contain what research suggests to support a healthy prostate. I am hoping the interrupter “getting up and emptying the bladder” will cease and sleep to once again be normal for me. I take Melatonin Formula from Sun Down, along with a sublingual melatonin to get to sleep quicker. Research supports Melatonin in helping to keep the valves involved in the digestive process, healthy and in proper working order (the pyloric and ilececum?). I just started the wife on this, hoping to get her off the PPI meds-Nexium and the side effects of long term use. I don’t have any acid reflux problems and attribute this to my secondary benefit of taking Melatonin long term. After all, being 66 years old, many seniors my age are taking PPI’s to treat this condition along with a medicine cabinet full of other drugs. I’ll shut up now. Everyone, nice comments, like it! Tell us more.
Steve,
You and your wife should both be checked for LOW stomach acid.
Most docs aren’t aware of the exhaustive research on this and continue
to prescribe acid blocking drugs. Few actually do any tests at all.
As most folks get older, their HCL digestive acid diminishes.
One of the best tests is the Heidelberg which is a device they
have u swallow but there are others.
Most GERD occurs as a result of the weakening of the pylorus
valve, thus allowing food and acid to reverse and causing
the heartburn.
I found and started taking a natural HCL and Activator product from QNLabs.com and have had excellent response to it. The gastro physician wanted me to take a prescriptive pill but the cost and side effects did not interest me. Found out that the gastric acid out body is able to produce begins to decline around age 40 and by 70 we produce almost no digestive acid. The cause of most acid reflux has more to do with eaten foods going puetrid rather than an over supply of digestive acid.
Thnx Ed…
SPOT ON!!!
Why is it that very few mainstream alopathic docs know this?
Guess Big Pharma has them in their hip pocket!
How many illnesses and repercussions are caused by their toxic prescriptions?
I’d caution anyone from taking anti-acid products. When the stomach acid is low, a person is not able to obtain enough iron from the food one eats. I was on dialysis for 10 months before receiving a kidney transplant. Dialysis does a poor job of removing phosphates from the blood, so a person has to take calcium to bind the phosphates so they are expelled in one’s stool. The first calcium prescription used is half a dozen tums (anti-acid tablets). If that is not enough, a stronger calcium product is prescribed. As a result, many dialysis patients need additional iron injections–often injected toward of end of a dialysis treatment directly into the blood stream.
I must have been slightly deficient in iron most of my life (at least at the low end of normal). After the transplant I became very weak and was diagnosed with low iron in the blood. Since then I have been taking a couple of iron tablets a day and feel better than I’ve felt in my life. Taking iron tablets tends to make a person constipated, so I eat prunes or prune juice on a regular basis!
Main stream medicine and Big Pharma are very slow to accept alternative medicine. My wife has had Ulcerative Colitis for over 10 years and had progressed to the point where DR’s at one of the worlds leading Clinics in the U.S were recommending IV infusions with a mouse protein that had potential Severe side effects and if that did not work they were recommending surgical removal of her colon and all the problems that go along with that approach. She went to her Dentist and was telling him about her Colitis. He said, forget about those treatments and Google FMT Therapy. When she told me that, I spent the next few hours on the computer and was amazed at what I found. FMT Therapy is the abbreviation for Fecal Matter Transplant Therapy. This is the placing of someone else’s feces in the colon of people with Clostridium Diffie, Irritable bowel disease , or Ulcerative Colitis. This approach was done over 100 years ago, but went out of vogue. A Australian Gastroenterologist by the name of John Brody, started doing it again about 15 years ago, with great success. This is the same DR. who as a young resident, discovered that Ulcers in man were caused by bacterial infections and responded to antibiotic therapy. They were not due to stress and nerves. As a veterinarian I Know this was discovered in Pigs about 1962 in the US. It took American medicine almost 20 years to accept DR Brody’s treatment for ulcers. Realizing that Dr Brody in Australia and a few MD’s and Naturopathic DR’s were doing this in the US. , my wife and I quickly decided to try Fmt Therapy as soon as possible. That became a problem as April 14 of 2013, the FDA ordered all such Therapy to stop as they declared, some one else’s feces to be a biological drug, and as such needed at least 7 years of clinical trials. Now Gastroenterologists created a uproar as FMTT was CURING 100% of the C. Diffie cases it was used on. There were many elderly deaths due to C. Diffe . By July of 2013 , the FDA backed off and said FMT could be used for C. Diffie, but did not say it could be used for anything else. I know of 6-8 major teaching hospitals that quit doing FMTT for any thing but C. Diffe on advise of their legal consul. WE were planning a trip to Dr. Brody’s Clinic in Australia for treatment, when I found a DR in the US that had utilized this therapy over 9 years and was still willing to do it. First a Colonoscopy was done and my wife’s Ulcerative Colitis was rated as a 8 on a scale of 10, with 10 being the worst. My Wife received treatment 3 days in a row and the results were absolute miracle. She went from having to wear diapers , with enormous amounts of blood and little or no bowel control to normal stools and good control at the end of day 4. It has now been over 7 weeks and she is almost normal. She has a small trace of blood in her stool 1-2 times a week This therapy cost $2000.00 and was not covered by insurance. Compare that with a monthly bill of $1700.00+ for 2 drugs. If you check the web there are even videos showing how this can be done at home. Good luck and keep your mind open to new therapy,
NBC’s Vitamin Ignorance
An Apology
by Andrew W. Saul, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service Editor
(OMNS Nov 12, 2013) I would like to apologize for NBC News. It seems that the organization that brought us Lowell Thomas, John Cameron Swayze, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley has lowered its standard of reporting. NBC’s supplement-bashing headline article, “Vitamins don’t prevent heart disease or cancer, experts find” displays an ignorance of clinical nutrition that is difficult to ignore, and, thanks to its media prominence, can’t be. http://www.nbcnews.com/health/vitamins-dont-prevent-heart-disease-or-cancer-experts-find-2D11577445
Of vitamin supplementation, NBC specifically said that a “very extensive look at the studies that have been done show it may be a waste of time when it comes to preventing the diseases most likely to kill you.”
The “very extensive look” encompassed 24 preselected studies. It looks like they just possibly may have missed a few, such as these:
Multivitamin supplements lower your risk of cancer by 8%. An 8% reduction in deaths means the lives of 48,000 people in the US alone could be saved each year, just by taking an inexpensive daily vitamin pill. (Gaziano JM, Sesso HD, Christen WG, Bubes V, Smith JP, MacFadyen J, Schvartz M, Manson JE, Glynn RJ, Buring JE (2012) Multivitamins in the Prevention of Cancer in Men: the Physicians’ Health Study II Randomized Controlled Trial JAMA. 2012;():1-10. doi:10.1001/jama.2012.14641.)
72% of physicians personally use dietary supplements. The multivitamin is the most popular dietary supplement taken by doctors. (Dickinson A, Boyon N, Shao A. Physicians and nurses use and recommend dietary supplements: report of a survey. Nutrition Journal 2009, 8:29 doi:10.1186/1475-2891-8-29)
High serum levels of vitamin B6, methionine and folate are associated with a 50% reduction in lung cancer risk. Those with higher levels of these nutrients had a significantly lower risk of lung cancer whether they smoked or not. (Johansson M, Relton C, Ueland PM, et al. Serum B vitamin levels and risk of lung cancer. JAMA. 2010 Jun 16;303(23):2377-85.) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20551408
Vitamin D reduces cancer risk. Studies on breast and colorectal cancer found that an increase of serum 25(OH)D concentration of 10 ng/ml was associated with a 15% reduction in colorectal cancer incidence and 11% reduction in breast cancer incidence. (Gandini S, Boniol M, Haukka J, Byrnes G, Cox B, Sneyd MJ, Mullie P, Autier P. Meta-analysis of observational studies of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and colorectal, breast and prostate cancer and colorectal adenoma. Int J Cancer. 2011;128(6):1414-24.) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20473927
Vitamin D increases breast cancer survival. Women diagnosed with breast cancer had increased survival for those with higher serum 25(OH)D concentrations. In those with lower vitamin D concentrations, mortality increased by 8%. (Vrieling A, Hein R, Abbas S, Schneeweiss A, Flesch-Janys D, Chang-Claude J. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and postmenopausal breast cancer survival: a prospective patient cohort study. Breast Cancer Res. 2011;13(4):R74) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21791049
Risk of heart failure decreases with increasing blood levels of vitamin C. Each 20 micromole/liter (µmol/L) increase in plasma vitamin C was associated with a 9% reduction in death from heart failure. If everyone took high enough doses of vitamin C to reach 80 µmol/L, it would mean 216,000 fewer deaths per year. To achieve that a plasma level requires a daily dosage of about 500 mg of vitamin C. (Pfister R, Sharp SJ, Luben R, Wareham NJ, Khaw KT. Plasma vitamin C predicts incident heart failure in men and women in European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Norfolk prospective study. Am Heart J, 2011. 162:246-253.) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21835284
Vitamin C prevents and reverses radiation damage. (Yanagisawa A. Effect of Vitamin C and anti-oxidative nutrition on radiation-induced gene expression in Fukushima nuclear plant workers. Free download of full presentation at http://www.doctoryourself.com/Radiation_VitC.pptx.pdf See also: Korkina L, et al. Antioxidant therapy in children affected by irradiation from the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Biochem Soc Trans,1993. 21:314S. PMID: 8224459 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=8224459 The Japanese College of Intravenous Therapy has produced a video for people wishing to learn more about large doses of vitamin C.
Part 1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbm_MH3nSdM
Part 2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4cyzts3lMo
Part 3 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYiRo2Oucfo
Part 4 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51Ie8FuuYJw
All four parts of the video are also available at http://firstlaw.wordpress.com/ .
Vitamin C arrests and reverses cancer. Oncologist Victor Marcial, M.D., says: “We studied patients with advanced cancer (stage 4). 40 patients received 40,000-75,000 mg intravenously several times a week. . . In addition, they received a diet and other supplements. The initial tumor response rate was achieved in 75% of patients, defined as a 50% reduction or more in tumor size.” (Presentation at the Medical Sciences Campus, University of Puerto Rico, April 12, 2010.) You can download the intravenous vitamin C protocol that he used free of charge at http://www.doctoryourself.com/RiordanIVC.pdf or http://www.riordanclinic.org/research/vitaminc/protocol.shtml
Intravenous vitamin C cancer therapy for cancer is presented in detail on video, available for free access at http://www.riordanclinic.org/education/symposium/s2009 (twelve lectures) and http://www.riordanclinic.org/education/symposium/s2010 (nine lectures)
NBC News said, “Vitamin E does no good at all in preventing cancer or heart disease.”
Here’s more of what NBC failed to report:
Natural vitamin E factor yields a 75% decrease in prostate tumor formation. Gamma-tocotrienol, a cofactor found in natural vitamin E preparations, kills prostate cancer stem cells. (Sze Ue Luk1, Wei Ney Yap, Yung-Tuen Chiu et al. Gamma-tocotrienol as an effective agent in targeting prostate cancer stem cell-like population. International Journal of Cancer, 2011. Vol 128, No 9, p 2182-2191.) http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ijc.25546/abstract
Gamma-tocotrienol also is effective against existing prostate tumors. (Nesaretnam K, Teoh HK, Selvaduray KR, Bruno RS, Ho E. Modulation of cell growth and apoptosis response in human prostate cancer cells supplemented with tocotrienols. Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 2008, 110, 23-31.) http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejlt.200700068/abstract See also: Conte C, Floridi A, Aisa C et al. Gamma-tocotrienol metabolism and antiproliferative effect in prostate cancer cells. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2004. 1031: 391-4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15753178?dopt=AbstractPlus
Vitamin E reduces mortality by 24% in persons 71 or older. (Hemila H, Kaprio J. Age Ageing, 2011. 40(2): 215-220. January 17.) http://ageing.oxfordjournals.org/content/40/2/215.short
300 IU vitamin E per day reduces lung cancer by 61%. (Mahabir S, Schendel K, Dong YQ et al. Dietary alpha-, beta-, gamma- and delta-tocopherols in lung cancer risk. Int J Cancer. 2008 Sep 1;123(5):1173-80.) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18546288
Vitamin E is an effective treatment for atherosclerosis. “Subjects with supplementary vitamin E intake of 100 IU per day or greater demonstrated less coronary artery lesion progression than did subjects with supplementary vitamin E intake less than 100 IU per day.” (Hodis HN, Mack WJ, LaBree L et al. Serial coronary angiographic evidence that antioxidant vitamin intake reduces progression of coronary artery atherosclerosis. JAMA, 1995. 273:1849-1854.) http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/273/23/1849.short
400 to 800 IU of vitamin E daily reduces risk of heart attack by 77%. (Stephens NG et al. Randomized controlled trial of vitamin E in patients with coronary artery disease: Cambridge Heart Antioxidant Study (CHAOS). Lancet, March 23, 1996; 347:781-786.) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8622332
Increasing vitamin E with supplements prevents COPD [Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, chronic bronchitis]. (Agler AH et al. Randomized vitamin E supplementation and risk of chronic lung disease (CLD) in the Women’s Health Study. American Thoracic Society 2010 International Conference, May 18, 2010.) Summary at http://www.thoracic.org/newsroom/press-releases/conference/articles/2010/vitamine-e.pdf
800 IU vitamin E per day is a successful treatment for fatty liver disease. (Sanyal AJ, Chalasani N, Kowdley KV et al. Pioglitazone, vitamin E, or placebo for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. N Engl J Med. 2010 May 6;362(18):1675-85.) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20427778
Alzheimer’s patients who take 2,000 IU of vitamin E per day live longer. (Pavlik VN, Doody RS, Rountree SD, Darby EJ. Vitamin E use is associated with improved survival in an Alzheimer’s disease cohort. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2009;28(6):536-40.) Summary at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20016184 See also: Grundman M. Vitamin E and Alzheimer disease: the basis for additional clinical trials. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Feb;71(2):630S-636S. Free access to full text at http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/71/2/630s )
400 IU of Vitamin E per day reduces epileptic seizures in children by more than 60%. (Ogunmekan AO, Hwang PA. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical trial of D-alpha-tocopheryl acetate [vitamin E], as add-on therapy, for epilepsy in children. Epilepsia. 1989 Jan-Feb; 30(1):84-9.) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2643513
Vitamin E supplements help prevent amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This important finding is the result of a 10-year-plus Harvard study of over a million persons. (Wang H, O’Reilly EJ, Weisskopf MG, et al. Vitamin E intake and risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a pooled analysis of data from 5 prospective cohort studies. Am. J. Epidemiol, 2011. 173 (6): 595-602. March 15) http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/173/6/595.short
Vitamin E is more effective than a prescription drug in treating chronic liver disease (nonalcoholic steatohepatitis). Said the authors: “The good news is that this study showed that cheap and readily available vitamin E can help many of those with this condition.” (Sanyal AJ, Chalasani N, Kowdley KV et al. Pioglitazone, vitamin E, or placebo for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. N Engl J Med. 2010 May 6;362(18):1675-85.) http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0907929
So I would hereby like to make amends for NBC’s hatchet-job on vitamins. In the interest of fair and balanced reporting, which I am sure NBC wholeheartedly stands for at least in principle, now you know the rest of the story.
(Andrew W. Saul, an orthomolecular medical lecturer for 38 years, is author or coauthor of a dozen books and is featured in the movie FoodMatters. He is a member of the Japanese College of Intravenous Therapy and the Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame.)
Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine
Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org
My thanks to David Clumpner for this compilation of sources that completely de bunk the hysterical and deceptive “hatchet job” by NBC News. Based on my own lifelong research of hundreds of books read, and dozens in my library for reference, many out of print, I know from personal experience how much effort it took to compile the list presented.
Great work, in fact I would go so far as to say it is more comprehensive and valuable than all the Doc Gumshoe’s columns to date. That may sound harsh, but it is my considered opinion that DRUGS in the aggregate do far more harm than good,”and supplements at the worst “do no harm” drugs simply are not the answer to good health. The very fact of supposedly needing them is prima facie evidence that something is wrong in a persons lifestyle, which is WHY the most common and well known diseases are CALLED “lifestyle diseases” and are virtually 100% preventable. I do appreciate the columns due to the debate that it has fostered telling the “rest of the story” as the late Paul Harvey used to say.
There are a couple of things that I could mention that have not yet been touched on by other posters. First of all there is far more to good health than simply “adding vitamins and minerals” to key foods as is now commonly done, supposedly to prevent deficiencies and deceptively referred to as “FORTIFIED” designed to hide the fact that you have been ROBBED of the natural nutrients that were present PRIOR to processing. Vitamins and minerals while important, are only part of the natural foods picture. Of at least EQUAL if not greater importance are ENZYMES, which are destroyed by heat, so are virtually non existent in processed foods. Enzymes are absolutely ESSENTIAL for proper digestion and nutrient absorption and you get them primarily from fresh fruits and vegetables which are under-consumed by the vast majority of the American population. It is no wonder the acronym for the Standard American Diet is “SAD” you can’t build a healthy body on a diet of potato chips and sugary cola drinks, Twinkies, hotdogs and fries and though most people, if they are honest with themselves would admit that, but an unfortunate majority still take the path of least resistance and basically eat and drink “junk” or garbage in terms of nutrition, as opposed to real and genuine natural food.
Health begins at the cellular level, a properly nourished cell will not go “rogue” and become cancerous unless the body, (read liver, kidneys, and colon in particular) are simply over-whelmed by an abundance of undigested or undigestible intake that ROTS as opposed to being digested with enzymes, and hydrochloric acid which as somebody noted, diminishes as one ages.
CONSTIPATION has been called “the mother of all diseases” and is a result of not getting enough FIBER and PURE WATER in the diet, again something that is primarily supplied by fruits and vegetables, not MEAT, (RED meat in particular) of which most people eat far to much, in the mistaken idea that they need it for protein and strength.
Red meat regardless of source, while “protein” by definition, can not be used as protein by the human body. The individual amino acids, (21) of which unique proteins are composed must be broken down (digested) to form new proteins suitable to building human cells that have a different amino acid profile than animal flesh. Red meat does not contain all 21 amino acids, in fact it requires far more ENERGY by the body to break it down than does combining several vegetable source proteins that together have a complete protein profile of amino acids. The mistaken idea that you need “meat for strength” can be observed in nature. The elephant is arguably the strongest animal on earth, but is 100% vegetarian.
Carnivores naturally have “fangs and claws” and a shortened colon so meat is quickly digested with strong acids and disposed of with a short transit time. Speaking of which, if you want to know whether you are constipated, eat some BEETS and if the transit time is more than 48 hours, (preferably only 24) then you need to drastically change your diet.
If your doctor tells you you can go several days without a bowel movement and still be healthy, then he/she is uninformed or a quack.
The most admired carnivores are probably the “cat” family, but lions in particular. In spite of their flesh based diet, any grass eating member of the “deer family” antelope, gazelles, springboks, etc. if mature and healthy can outrun a lion because they have greater STAMINA than a lion that quickly becomes FATIGUED. That is why lions have to STALK herds and pick off stragglers, the young or lame etc. because they will lose a foot race.
This should be a well known fact because it has in recent years been acknowledged in Olympic circles because the old idea of having a steak before an event has been replaced by athletes on a vegetarian diet being shown to have more staying power (stamina) then their heavy meat eating competitors. Meat can be a healthy addition to a balanced diet if it is FRESH, and therefore free from nitrates and nitrites found in prepared meats, and the person eating it has adequate stomach (hydrocloric) acid and enzymes to break it down.
That is just the tip of a huge iceberg of information that needs to tale place before the epidemic of needless disease can be replaced with vibrant people healthy into old age.
With the knowledge we have today about nutrition, after 3-4 generations (if applied) it should be common for people to live 120 years.
David:
Thank you for your time and efforts in assembling this information. I have not completely reviewed, but I will.
Let me tell you what was the final nail in the coffin for my opinion of mainstream medicine. I have been a competitive distance runner all my life, and a reasonably good one, at that. For example last year, at the age of 68, I ran a 5K in 26:04, and the Chicago lakefront 10 miler in under 90 minutes (I forget the exact time, but could find it in the race results).
However, I also have high blood sugar. I have watched over the past 12 years as my HgA1C rose from 6.4 to 7.6, although my most recent reading came down to 7.2 with Berberine supplementation. My GP has been after me for years to get on Metformin/Glucophage, but I have refused. In an attempt to learn more about diabetes, pre-diabetes, type Ii diabetes, or whatever they call it, I went to see an endocrinologist who was well respected and had a large practice. This guy examined me and reviewed my blood work. He said I had a cardio-vascular system that was 1 in a thousand, or maybe even 10,000, and that he didn’t have another patient like me in his entire practice. He then wrote me a prescription for a statin and Glucophage. When I asked “why”, he said my cholesterol was 203, and the standard was 200 (this despite the fact that my ratios were off the chart in the positive direction) and he wanted to make sure that I didn’t experience a cardio-vascular event. When I asked him about the side effects of statins he didn’t seem familiar with their impact on CoQ10 production, and said he was sure that the side effects were over-stated. I thanked him, paid him, and left – and haven’t been back.
I’m hwp, have no diabetic retinopathy (yes, I’ve had it checked), no numbness or tingling, and I almost feel like I have to apologize for it, but I feel fine.
If I’m a candidate for a statin drug, then so is every single man, woman, and child in the country. As I understand it, about 25% of the population is on statins, but it looks like the drug companies want more.
I apologize for talking about myself so much. I feel truly blessed, and I’m sure my genes have at least some part in it. But when the medical profession cannot distinguish among us as individuals, when they mindlessly adhere to arbitrary standards, they have let us all down. I don’t want to play their game.
I will use the information in your post as I try to explain all this to a largely disinterested population. Thanks again.
John Saggese
Good for you John, obviously you are a man who thinks for himself as we all should instead of blindly accepting the word of a fallible man who may have financial incentives to steer you in the wrong direction, irrespective of his supposed professional status. STATINS are dangerous, the side effects can be devastating and there are far better ways to naturally control cholesterol. It always pays to “read the fine print” and indeed I have a whole laundry list of ingredients I check before buying any packaged grocery product. It never ceases to amaze me when viewing television the mandated SIDE EFFECTS that are included to be listed for a broad range of advertised drugs that often include heart attacks, and even death. Why would anyone in their right mind buy such drugs after being told what the possible side effects will be? With the internet, safer and more effective alternatives can easily be found. I raised 5 healthy children without ever having them vaccinated for anything or ever filling a prescription, and that decision was founded in the fact that I was personally paralyzed as a child for several weeks after receiving the standard diphtheria shot. While fortunately the paralysis left after a few weeks, I have had leg pains ever since in spite of the fact I played hockey until I was 72 and only gave it up as an unnecessary expense once I retired.
I’m a physician who took statins for about 12 years. The side effects were substantial and I am recovering. Slowly. Never again. Take a look at http://www.spacedoc.com
As to the alpha-lipoic acid, I prescribe it a couple of times a year for diabetic neuropathy and occasionally for tingling and nocturnal leg pain and cramps. Need a 6-12 month trial of 600 mg 2-3 caps daily with food. References are extensive – search PubMed on “alpha lipoic acid diabetic neuropathy 600”. It was mentioned in JAMA Oct 7, 2009 p 1455 and the reference given was Tang J, Wingerchuk DM, Crum BA, Rubin DI, Demaerschalk BM. Alphalipoic acid may improve symptomatic diabetic polyneuropathy. Neurologist. 2007;13(3):164-167.
Thanx Doc,
Will give the ALA a trial for mine.
This is good, but Alpha-G isn’t alpha lipoic acid. Just a bit more searching should have gotten you to Alpha-Glycan polysaccharide peptides. That may not be what it is either, but it seems lazy to stop at ALA.
List of Doc Gumshoe s’ Natural Vits / Herbs thast are most recommended & Safe
I know that some cancer doctors in Germany use AlA (alpha lipoic acid I.V. in cancer patients. That said,nobody would be stupid enough to use ALA alone as a cure for cancer. One of the problems with conventional thinking is to consider natural substances, including antioxidants, as drugs, and if they test them, to test their effect when used alone. Antioxidants work as teams. Most of them quench different types of free radicals and in different tissues. ALA is one of only two antioxidants that I know of,which can quench all types of free radicals in both water -based and fat-based tissues,and can enter all tissues including the eyes and the brain. The other one is glutathione, which is also used by some German cancer doctors. Dr. Lester Packer, the famous antioxidant researcher from UC Berkeley , wrote a book called, “The Antioxidant Miracle” in which he explains that one needs a full network of antioxidants which can quench all types of free radicals in all tissues,including the eyes and brain. He lists a complete network, as consisting of glutathione, ALA, Co Q10, vitamin c, vitamin e, and pycnogenol, as I remember.
P.S. One reason networks of antioxidants are used,no matter how complete the coverage of any particular one, is that when they donate their electrons to quench a free radical, they themselves become light free radicals unless they are re-charged by other network antioxidants.
The oxygen therapies (such as ozone etc., have also been found to be valuable for all types of cancer. I believe there was a Harvard study on this, Though to the uninitiated, it sounds strange, it is best to combine the oxidant and antioxidant therapies so that the oxygen can do its job without damaging the body with too much oxidation. As always, seek experienced doctors for these therapies. For instance, ozone would be too oxidizing with chemotherapy–thus dangerous. However, antioxidant therapies are of value. See Patrick Quillan’s book “Beating Cancer With Nutrition”. Quillan is highly experienced and designed natural patient therapies to be combined with chemotherapy for Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Also see brain surgeon, Dr Russell Blaylock’s book, “Natural Cancer Strategies”.