Dr. Myatt, Have You Heard About… This Wonderful New Miracle Product…

By Nurse Mark

Not a day goes by here at The Wellness Club that we don’t receive one or more emails from well-meaning customers, readers, and even patients, asking us if we know about this or that or another “New, Miraculous, Advanced Formula” product that is making the rounds in the advertising world.

Folks, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – you will have to get up awfully early in the morning to find an herb, supplement, vitamin, drug, or other health product that Dr. Myatt is not familiar with – if it is out there, we know about it: maybe not by the particular brand name that has found it’s way into your inbox, but we certainly know of it in it’s basic form.

You see, there is not much that is truly new under the sun – the laws of physics and of biochemistry are well-known and pretty much unchanging.

Have we heard about:

Coral Calcium? Sure we know about it – and whether it is from Okinawa, Brazil, or Timbuktu, if it is real “coral calcium” it comes from the destruction of beautiful, irreplaceable, slow-growing coral reefs and often results in the death of live coral. We have a better idea: Cal Mag Amino – and Dr. Myatt has been recommending it with great success for years.

Miracle Mineral Supplement? Oh, you mean chlorine dioxide? Concentrated industrial bleach? The stuff that the inventor touts as a cure-all and has actually come up with a “religion” and “church” to protect? We’ve not only heard of it, we’ve researched it and written about it before in Another “Miracle” Product – Is It Real? A Scam? Both? and we’ve taken plenty of flak from the religious devotees of this stuff. I’m sure this mention will generate yet another barrage of angry emails from the true believers. MMS seems to do a pretty good job of killing malaria, but the scientific evidence to support the claims that it “cures 95% of all diseases” is sadly lacking. If you have malaria give it a try – since little else works. Otherwise, be very careful with this stuff, it could be harmful if misused.

OPC-3, the latest miracle allergy cure? Uh,that would be oligomeric proanthocyanidins – a type of flavonoid – that is extracted from grape seed extract, red wine extract, and pine bark extract bioflavonoids. No need to get the stuff from your local Multi-Level Marketing salesperson; Dr. Myatt has several formulations that she has been using with good satisfaction for some time. Check out Maxi Flavone.

HCG injections for weight loss? Yeah, we’ve heard all about them and the success stories that go along with the HCG weight loss program. Here’s the “skinny” on this one: any diet that restricts intake to 600 calories per day is going to result in some pretty dramatic weight loss – no matter what else you do. Believers say that the HCG injections help to curb appetite – and that may well be: I know that getting poked regularly and paying the rather exorbitant cost for the injections would tend to ruin my appetite – after all, for that much money, failure is not an option…

Resveratrol? Yup, we’re familiar with it – Dr. Myatt has been recommending Grape Seed Extract (surprise!) for years. Will it help you lose “up to 20 pounds in a month”? Nope- unless you are following one of those 600 calorie-a-day diets…

Human Growth Hormone? Yes, it looks like HGH does a whole bunch of wonderful things. It is also very, very tightly controlled by the DEA – your doctor had better not be prescribing it for anything other than a very limited number of fairly rare diseases or he could find himself enjoying an extended stay at Club Fed. The nasal spray version and all the other O.T.C. and buy-it-online versions? Save your money – if they actually do contain HGH they are ineffective. HGH is not absorbed at all orally, and there is no evidence that it is absorbed any other way except parenterally – that is, by injection. If someone visits your gym offering to inject you with HGH run as fast as you can in the opposite direction! Not only is it illegal (and you might be being “set up”) there is a very good chance that it’s NOT HGH! Do you really want to find out what it is? I thought not!

Acai berry: Now here’s a good one – use this berry and lose weight, restore health, cure cancer, lower your choleserol (or blood pressure, or both) and achieve spiritual enlightenment! Uh, folks, the stuff might be tasty, and it contains some antioxidants (though nowhere near as much as Dr. Myatt’s Maxi Flavone), but in most cases it is little more than a sugar-filled juice drink – certainly no miracle cure for anything!

How about hoodia – the stuff that keeps mysterious African tribesmen slim and fit and never hungry? Yeah, right: they are slim and fit because they are active and limit their food intake. Never hungry? Don’t you believe it!

Or Hyaluronic Acid – traditionally used by cosmetic surgeons for filling defects, smoothing wrinkles, and plumping lips (think of the oversized lips often seen on Hollywood starlets!) this substance is now being offered as a supplement and claimed to be the next miracle cure for joint problems of all sorts. Since it is a natural substance (your body makes plenty of it all by itself) it is unlikely to be harmful. Whether it will cure joint problems is another matter – the new “miracle” formulations all seem to contain a cornucopia of additional herbs and supplements, presumably with the hope that if they throw enough “stuff” at the problem, something in the mix will actually provide relief. Most of these formulas contain so many different substances (it is well-known in the supplement industry that people like and will tend to buy the supplements with the “most stuff” on the label) that they end up containing nothing useful – what we call “pixie dust doses.” For joint health, try Glucosamine Sulfate. Just be sure to get the good stuff – the pharmaceutical grade,  patented, fully-reacted molecule by the Canadian firm GlucosaPure®. It has been working for Dr. Myatt’s patients for years.

Then there is “Liquid Oxygen” – promising everything from better health to an “oxygen high”. A more careful look finds that it is basically sodium chloride – can you say “table salt”? I’ll get my oxygen the old-fashioned way, thanks – take a deep breath…

Don’t forget the various versions of “alkaline” and “ionized” water that are produced by remarkably expensive appliances, often sold through multi-level marketing schemes. We’ve seen the “amazing” science-fair / trade-show demonstrations, and we’ve actually tested several versions of these machines in our own home. Yes, they do produce varying degrees of either acidic or alkaline water through electrolytic action. Would we want to drink any of it on an ongoing basis? Certainly not! Folks, the normal pH range of human blood is 7.35-7.45. Anything above is alkalosis. Anything below is acidosis. Your body works very hard to maintain this very narrow range of pH since values outside that range are what we in the medical biz call “incompatible with life.” It is not practically possible to alter your body pH by drinking funny water or eating magic foods – your body works too hard to resist those changes, What you can do very effectively with these altered waters is cause digestive problems as your digestive system struggles to maintain it’s preferred pH…

Eskimo oil, Arctic oil, krill oil, etc.: Can you say “fish oil”? Be sure to get the good stuff – molecularly (cold process) distilled and free of heavy metal contamination… Try Dr. Myatt’s Maxi Marine for a good product at a good value.

Salba: claimed to be a miracle food of the gods (I wonder which gods?) by it’s marketers – we’ve written about it beforein We Got ‘Spanked’ Over Salba? and essentially, if you don’t mind paying a bunch more for something that gives you the same benefits of flax and but be sprinkled on your salad as a garnish, well, it’s your money… We’ll stick with good ol’ flax seed.

The list of “miracles” goes on and on – usually presented with breathless hyperbole telling us how the “miracle” is newly discovered / long lost / known only to the ancients / suppressed by (or soon to be suppressed by) Big Pharma or the FDA or Black Helicopters / or so new that there hasn’t been time for more than the one study which was conveniently done either by a scientist/researcher/doctor who has somehow disappeared (probably afraid of the Black Helicopters) or funded by the company marketing the supplement.

For many companies your health is all about marketing. There is one major vitamin company (which shall remain nameless) that produces a very slick, professional, glossy magazine every month, and in it every month there is always at least one, often several, “cutting edge breakthrough” products – newly discovered, and offered exclusively by the company that produces the magazine. Are we really to believe that there are that many new and novel supplements and formulations each month? It’s all about sales – and for a large segment of the American population, “new” sells well whether it is really new or just wrapped up in a shiny new label and hyped and promoted.

Marketing is all about having a product to sell that is “new” and that nobody else has for sale – yet.

Here at The Wellness Club we are not opposed to new – we just insist on seeing proof for all the wild and wonderful claims. If the proof is there, if it shows that a product or formulation will benefit our patients and customers, we will adopt it and tell you about it promptly.

But without proof? We’ll wait and see – there are plenty of tried and true remedies, supplements, and formulations. There’s no need to be a guinea-pig for something that is more about marketing and making money than about your good health.

If you want to read about those tried and true remedies and about the proven breakthroughs, there is plenty of scientifically verified information available to you free for the looking – just visit www.DrMyattsWellnessClub.com for the “real goods.”