Nutrition and the current state of affairs…what does this mean to the consumer of nutritional products? Part two

It is a fact that we have some 375 different diagnoses we can give any one person on the mental spectrum—and we have yet to elucidate a biochemical cause for any one of them. And we have countless drugs we can treat these diagnosed illness with and we don’t have a clear mechanism of action of anyone of these medications. Think about this, we don’t know the cause of the disease and we are treating with a medication that there is no clear understanding how it works on you. The FDA directive of 2002 requires that supplements be demonstrated to be safe and effective. Considering the black box warning on all SSRI antidepressants I wonder who’s minding the store—oh, I forgot, BIG PHARMACY. These are the same people (FDA) that ignored the deaths and harm caused by the anti-inflammatory drugs Celebrex, Vioxx, and Bextra.

Vioxx was recalled in September 2004 due to cardiovascular deaths. The sad thing is the potential for harm was known before the drug went to market and the information not released to the FDA.  This was plain and simple murder. What did the FDA do?  They fined the drug company. No one stood trial for lying about research and killing people. And we want these people controlling our choices? This is about money; this is not about us as the consumer.

In April 2005, Pfizer issued a Bextra recall, but they kept Celebrex on the market with much stronger warnings. But these are the same people that want to take away our nutritional tools…the tools that have little if any side effects and work on the majority of you. If the same rules applied that they are now enforcing on nutritional supplements were applied to their medicines about 95% of their products would be banned.

One of the leading nutritional experts of all time was Paavo Airola, Ph.D., ND. He states the problem with what seems to be a high level of confusion covering nutritional information very clearly: “The difficulty in obtaining absolutely reliable, objective, and scientifically correct information on the most vital questions related to health, and particularly related to nutrition.” He goes on to say in his book, ARE YOU CONFUSED, that what we need is we need research done in an independent and forthright matter. That is to say independent of the research that is done today with many having an axe to grind and independent big business and the pharmaceutical companies. As it is there are hundreds of centuries of empirical evidence and actual application of many of these nutritional therapies without evidence of damage to the populations as a whole.

The problem when using modern research methods, using the standard of the double blind-placebo controlled study, is that they don’t work on nutrition.  A double blind-placebo controlled study blinds the doctor leading the study so that they don’t know which patient is on the studied ingredient or the fake pill. When used in nutritional studies, remember using only one vitamin at a time for example, 95% of those studies will inherently fail to show positive results. The reason is quite simple—when was the last time nature gave you a singular nutrient? Read the next statement by Majid Ali, M.D.:

…No molecule exists in biology alone, functionally or structurally. This is self evident. And yet we physicians insist in diagnosing “a nutrient deficiency” to understand “a disease” which we can then treat with “a nutrient therapy”…The central issue here is: Mononutrient therapy has no place in the clinical practice of molecular medicine.

A single nutrient does not work in a vacuum; it works in combination with all the other nutrients. To do research as it applies to the overall health of the biochemistry of any one human being with a single nutrient is bound to fail. Therefore they reach the conclusion that we need none of it. What balderdash.  The leading so-called experts leading this foray into banning these nutrients from your life misunderstand one important fact: we are not all the same—our requirements to meet the daily stresses of life differ—our genetics are different—our circumstances are different. Take the studies on Prozac or countless other drugs, the two variables are Prozac and the fake pill. Yet I ask any discernable human being that still has a sense of logic left…since we are all different are we not a variable also? So there is 600 people in the study-300 in the Prozac group and 300 in the placebo group…there are multiple variables. The assumption in the modern medical world is that Prozac works the same on everyone. If this statement were true then we wouldn’t have any depression.

On TV recently I saw an advertisement that stated: 2 out of 3 people on antidepressants note that their symptoms have not resolved and now they want to add another psychotropic drug to this regime. You must understand that it is rare in the pharmaceutical industry to study two drugs working together against a placebo. We don’t have a clear mechanism of action of Prozac in the human being and we want to add another mind drug without a clear mechanism of action. These are the same people that don’t understand the complexities of nutrient interactions. These are the same people that will tell you that amino acid protein and Vitamin therapy are harmful to you. They don’t have an answer for our differences and they have to make everything the same so that it becomes easier for them. Their research is flawed and their reasoning is flawed. And instead of coming up with clear concise reasoning they are more than willing to force you into doing it their way.

Recently, a major drug company found that one of the active forms of Vitamin B-6 (pyridoxamine) was protective against damage to kidneys during diabetes. This form of B-6 can be taken safely without concern for nerve damage. A lot of diabetic patients use this vitamin. They filed a research document with the FDA wanting to research this vitamin as a drug. Of course once a vitamin is considered a drug it has to be taken off the market so that it is not longer available to the general population.

The FDA has said it will now ban pyridoxamine and it will only be available as a drug. With this action the freedom of the diabetic patient to minimize suffering is effectively squashed.  And what might have cost you $12.00 dollars will now cost you, or your insurance company 100 times as much if you can even find a doctor willing to write a prescription for you. What is going to stop them from doing this to every vitamin out there? Nothing. And this by the way is exactly how they are going to bring the nutritional supplement business under their control. They’ll say it is for your safety and for the good of the common folk—and this is pure balderdash. I will defend to my death the right of my patient to educate themselves and to do what works for them. This is going to be a fight—one by the way we are currently losing.

The Counsel for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) sounds nice doesn’t it?  Makes us think that someone out there is looking out for our best interest. Of course behind the scenes are the heavy players—drug companies such as Bayer, Cargill, Monsanto, Wyeth, BASF and more. Other heavy pushers for these new laws are congressmen and senators who get enormous amounts of re-election money from these giants of reform whose only role in this is to make more money. Major nutrient makers have climb on board and shame on them because it is obvious that all they care about is money also. If they even cared remotely about you they would be finding a way to give you quality without jeopardizing your freedoms of choice.

Every Mom and Pop truck garden, everyone that makes up herbal remedies in your home, anyone that sells a nutritional food to anyone else is going to feel the teeth of big government in the nap of their neck. They say this isn’t true but it by God is true. And it time to step up…write to your congressman or senator—tell them by God you are not going to put up with it!

One final comment: When modern medicine got to big it just got too confused. Used to be we physicians stopped by to visit with you even if nothing was specifically wrong. We cared about our patients. That level of caring wasn’t imbedded in the fear of getting sued for malpractice. We understood that to effectively treat you we couldn’t just break you down into some mechanical system. That there was an emotional you and a spiritual you that we needed to perceive and work with. We listened to what you had to say—which by the way, is the major complaint with modern medicine—70% leave the doctors office and state that “the doctor never listens to anything I say.”

We understood that even the emotional stresses in our lives create changes at the physical level. We understood that just given the patient a forum to addresses their issues was many times the best way to bring you back to health—or at least the best starting point. And for some of us the rule has always been—START SIMPLE AND WORK OUR WAY INTO THE LEVEL OF COMPLEXITY THAT EACH PATIENT NEEDS INDIVIDUALLY IN THEIR CASE. Nutrition has been the mainstay of this medicine for tens of thousands of years. Let’s fight to keep our rights intact.

With Respect,

Dr Dave

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Nutrition and the current state of affairs…what does this mean to the consumer of nutritional products? Part One

Nutrition and the current state of affairs…what does this mean to the consumer of nutritional products? Much has been happening behind the scenes’ that most of the citizens of the United States are unaware. New laws are in effect, or are soon to be so, that will regulate every aspect of nutritional supplements including your right to purchase or have in your possession items that you have purchased in the past. Things like herbal remedies, good quality multi-vitamins, Vitamin E, mineral complexes, and even Vitamin C (I’ll cover more about this in the following paragraphs). I urge all readers to research the words—Codex Alimentarius—and to start educating yourself on these coming issues. The Codex was a set of rules and laws developed in 1963 by the World Health Organization an arm of the United Nations. The stated purpose was “to protect the health of consumers and to ensure fair practices in the international food trade.”

Many of you might ask—what does this have to do with me? Any country that is a member of the United Nations signs on with one simple understanding—if you are a member state than you are bound by the rules and laws adopted by the United Nations. Welcome United States citizens to the Gestapo mentality that seems to have somehow invaded the freest nation in the world. The New World Order is here. The right you have to get these items is soon to be taken away from you. You might all do some research and find out how the European euro translates into dollar amounts because that is the next step.

Read the following text taken verbatim from Wikipedia:

“The Codex Alimentarius officially covers all foods, whether processed, semi-processed or raw, but far more attention has been given to foods that are marketed directly to consumers. In addition to standards for specific foods, the Codex Alimentarius contains general standards covering matters such as food labeling, food hygiene, food additives and pesticide residues, and procedures for assessing the safety of foods derived from modern biotechnology. It also contains guidelines for the management of official (i.e., governmental) import and export inspection and certification systems for foods.”

This doesn’t seem to be bad in the context that it is written. As many of you know, and I believe that most that do supplements and procure their own are well educated in finding decent and reliable products. And I have no qualms that the consumer should get what they pay for. There are some scalawags out there that will cheat there own mother to make a buck. I spent much of my time educating the patient in how to assess products, the manufacturers of those products, and to also educate them in the proper use and safety of the products that they consume. That is my job and I am well trained to do so. In fact, the word doctor comes from the Latin word ‘docere’ which literally means ‘to teach’. I have no qualms that we need to weed out the few that would take advantage of those that can get caught up with the hype and low grade sales pitches. Yet, we will always have these types of greedy people amongst us. Adopting laws to control less than 10 % (if it even that) that negatively affect the rest of us 90% is akin to burning the house down to get rid of a few rats. Most of us would agree that procuring a couple of cats would have worked without negatively affecting everything else.

The proponents of the Codex insist that these rules are voluntary. Nothing could be farther from the truth! Please note that the European Union has adopted these rules and laws. “In 1996”, as related in Wikipedia and other site locations, “a German delegation put forward a proposal that no herb, Vitamin, or mineral should be sold for preventive or therapeutic reasons, and that all supplements should be reclassified as drugs.” And the absolutely amazing part of this—the proposal was agreed to by the delegates that were there at the conference!  Implementation wasn’t carried out because of vigorous protests.  But in the following paragraphs you will see that the government of the United States, via the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is in the process of adopting these rules and laws. What this means is clear—remember that Vitamin C you bought a short while ago—the one with the 500 milligram caps—the one you paid probably less than $20.00 dollars for—it will be made unavailable to you because it is above the recommended daily allowance (RDA). This Vitamin C, will have to be made by a major pharmaceutical company—will have to be scripted to you by your doctor—and will probably cost you in the neighborhood of ten times as much—that’s right $200.00 dollars.  In fact it will be a crime to have it in your possession without a script. This has already happened in Europe.

The RDA was established in 1941 and the question that they wanted an answer to was this: WHAT WAS THE MINIMUM AMOUNT NEEDED, ON A DAILY BASIS, TO KEEP AN AVERAGE HEALTHY PERSON FROM SHOWING THE CLINICAL SIGNS OF DISEASE. Our RDA for Vitamin C is somewhere between 60-100 mg depending on who you ask. Dogs and Cats make about 1000 milligrams of Vitamin C in their livers everyday. Human beings, great apes, and guinea pigs can’t make it in the liver. We have to get it from our food. Make any sense to anyone out there that 60 mg is enough for us? Then when the dogs and cats were stressed out, via cold water baths, it was found that their livers produced about twice as much Vitamin C. Simply because Vitamin C is necessary to deal with stress though the production of adrenalin, the neurotransmitter that helps us adapt and to meet the challenges of the stressor.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have stated that the guidelines are to, “[keep you] from overdosing on vitamin and mineral supplements.” I have been a physician for almost 10 years focusing on nutritional treatments and I have never sent anyone to the hospital for an overdose of a vitamin or mineral. I have never seen an article in the paper that states anyone has…although it does happen on a rare occasion. And because of this rare occasion they insist on taking your freedom away from you. What they are really saying is that the majority of the population is so ignorant—so stupid—that they can’t possibly do this right. What pure unadulterated insanity! Now this makes me angry as hell and it should make you angry. In fact most of my patients, and in fact most of you, understand more about nutrition than most modern day physicians. Read the following statement carefully—mull it over:

More than two-thirds of the medical schools in the United States still do not have a specific nutrition course in their curriculum. This ongoing failure to teach nutrition and practice nutritional medicine is embedded in the idea that we get our recommended daily allowance (RDA) of nutrients if we eat within certain defined parameters. There is a clear understanding now that even RDA’s of these nutrients, established by the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 1941, may keep subclinical disease states subclinical. Because the RDA’s for vitamins are minimum amounts that will only prevent the signs and symptoms of deficiency diseases, the daily intake should often be higher than recommended. Furthermore, however well RDA’s work as a guideline, for any given person, they may be an underestimate or overestimate of the amounts actually needed for any specific health problem.

Further research indicates that less than 5% of the medical doctors and osteopathic doctors in this country have any meaningful nutritional education in medical school. In fact, chiropractors know more about nutrition than standard medical doctors. Now ask yourself this question—who are the people writing these rules– politicians? What the heck does a politician know about nutrition? So what would be their incentive to do this?  What once was an idea to help consumers receive quality has now gravitated itself into big business. This is now about big money. It is also a well known fact amongst us professionals that the FDA is principally run by big Pharmacy. And how would we know that?

The FDA banned the herb Ephedra which they blamed for some 70-100 deaths in this country in one year. In fact, used appropriately, it is a wonderful herb for allergies and other related conditions. 95% of you know how to do this appropriately. Now when Viagra, the erectile dysfunction medication, came out there were some 1400 deaths in the first year related directly to the use of the drug—did they take this off the market? No they didn’t. Do you really think big pharmacy cares about the people? Viagra–NAMCS data on new drugs show an estimated 2.6 million mentions of Viagra at physician office visits in 1999. These requests have gone up considerably in the last ten years. Viagra is easily a billion dollars a year to the pharmaceutical company that makes it. So the old saying comes to mind—“Money talks and honesty walks.” Even your soft drinks are under attack. Soon to be banned is the addition of things like ginkgo biloba, ginseng, chromium picolinate, guarana and goto kola. You will find these in assorted teas and soft drinks. Now another question—do you see people dying like flies while drinking these drinks? We are talking bout herbs and nutrients countless societies through the ages have done with little if any side effects…had they been harmful to us we would have quit doing them long ago.

For almost ten years I have treated depression, anxiety, drug and alcohol dependency with specific amino acid formulas and vitamin therapy. I do have the rights in the State of Arizona to prescribe antidepressants although it is extremely rare for me to have to do so. Several facts and truths about psychotropics are never told to the patient. This information is readily available to the doctor. First, we have no clear understanding how these drugs actually work in the brain. As one example, if we review the drug Prozac in the Physicians Desk Reference (PDR) we’ll see under the listing—mechanism of action—“UNKNOWN…but is thought to be…” This is true for of all psychotropics used today including the anti-anxiety meds.  Secondly, research on these medications, for approval from the FDA, rarely have  study groups larger than 400-600 patients and rarely exceed 4 months in length. In fact, if one looks at the PDR, the manufacturer of these drugs rarely approves their use beyond 4-6 months. Yet when the patient goes to the doctor they are commonly told that they may have to be on these medications the rest of their lives.  Thirdly, medical professionals have absolutely no idea of the long term affects of these medications and it is interesting that there is some research that indicates that the suicide rate in the US has risen consistently since the advent of Prozac in the early 1990’s.

More comments in Part Two

With Respect
Dr Dave

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