HealthBeat News

Category: Opinion

  • Sparks Fly! Spanked By A Subscriber Over Microwave Ovens…

    Our Reader Says “Duhhhh, Get A Clue!”

     

    By Nurse Mark

     

    We get lots of letters at The Wellness Club, and sometimes folks take us to task since many of our positions are, shall we say, controversial in the “Natural Medicine” world – that is, we are not automatically against drugs, surgery, or modern technology. We feel that there is a time and place for all these things, but that they must be used carefully and wisely and only after a full analysis of the associated risks and benefits – just as vitamins, herbs, detoxification, energy work, and other non-allopathic treatments must be.

    Regular readers know that Dr. Myatt is one of the most scientific, fact-based, research-driven physicians in practice anywhere today. That rigorous scientific attention to detail is what keeps her “stage 4” cancer and cardiac patients (folks, there is no “stage 5″…) alive and well year after year when they have been given up on by the conventional medical powers-that-be. Dr. Myatt gets the “tough cases” that Mayo, Johns Hopkins, Yale, and others wash their hands of.

    When you read HealthBeat News you gain the benefit of that rigorous, hard-nosed research. When Dr. Myatt makes a statement you can be sure that it is based on fact – not fancy, not wishful thinking, not urban legend, and not somebody’s advertising campaign. You can bet your good health on it!

    So, we had to smile when this letter came in:

     

    Hi, I just subscribed to your newsletter. I was curious about the “healthy blueberry muffin” recipe you are featuring.

    The ingredients look great but the instructions explain to microwave the muffins… are you kidding???

    Duhhhh, how about your next featured article should explain the disadvantages of microwave cooking to all your subscribers and publishers who need a clue.

     

    Whew! I guess we’ve just been told!

    But we’ll cut this reader some slack – as a new subscriber this person has probably not seen our article of not-too-long-ago that was researched and written in response to a number of similar comments generated when we introduced our Healthy Blueberry Muffin recipe.

    The article, Cooking in The Microwave Oven: Is It Safe? is a must-read for anyone with questions about radiation, ionizing radiation, and the safety of microwave ovens.

    OK dear reader, here’s your clue: please read our microwave safety article and let us know if you have any questions or if you wish to dispute any of the facts of the article – just be prepared to back up your statements with referenced scientific facts, not with internet legend, superstition, or fear and fantasy!

    Oh, and welcome to HealthBeat News!

  • Vitamins Linked to Increased Risk of Death ?

    Is The Case for Dietary Supplements Collapsing ?

     

    By Dr. Dana Myatt

    Do vitamin supplements increase the risk of death as current headlines would have us believe?

    Before you give up your daily supplements, let’s take a careful look at the “science” behind the headlines.

     

    First, “consider the source.”

     

    Conventional medicine and medical researchers have been “gunning” for natural remedies and supplements for decades. This current “study” (and I use the term loosely) behind the headlines is brought to you by the same conventional researchers who gave us Premarin (which increases breast cancer risk), Vioxx and Avandia (responsible for 47,000 cardiac deaths since its introduction in 1999).

     

    Second, did you actually read the original study?

     

    I’m BETTING YOU DID NOT, and neither did the “reporters” from the Wall Street Journal. How do I know? Because the study is only available for pay — $30 to be exact — from the Archives of Internal Medicine. No one has access to the original study for free except for doctors who already subscribe to the magazine.

    As a doc who actually reads medical journal articles much of the day, I can tell you that “abstracts” (“the short course” at the beginning of articles) frequently say one thing while the actual conclusion of the article says something very different. In order to know what was really said, the original article needs to be read. How many “reporters” (another term I use loosely) bother to do this? Would they understand what they were reading even if they did purchase the original medical journal article?

     

    Third, can you remember what supplements you were taking and in what amounts, say, six years ago? No?

     

    Interesting, because this “study” did exactly that: asked participants to recall from memory what supplements they had taken for the past six years, times three. This means that eighteen years of vitamin and supplement intake “data” was collected from memory. What could possibly go wrong with a study like that?!

     

    Fourth — without boring you with research jargon such as “hazard ratios” and “multivariant analysis”, let me tell you what else the study showed:

     

    B complex vitamins were associated with a 7% reduction in mortality

    Vitamin C intake associated with a 4% reduction in mortality

    Vitamin D intake associated with an 8% reduction in mortality

    Magnesium intake associated with a 3% reduction in mortality

    Selenium intake associated with a 3% reduction in mortality

    Zinc intake associated with a 3% reduction in mortality

    Hundreds of well-conducted studies have demonstrated the safety and efficacy of nutritional supplementation. This statistically massaged collection of “from my distant memory” numbers doesn’t qualify as a real study in my book, and not in the mind of any genuine scientist.

    I’d be ashamed to put my name on a pseudo-study such as this. The fact that it has been misrepresented by the Lamestream media (do these folks actually “do” real journalism any more?) is an insult to thinking people everywhere.

    I wouldn’t even remotely consider giving up my daily vitamins based on such a pitiful “study,”  especially in view of the many studies showing their benefit.

  • Cancer Scandal: Poison For Profit

    Is It Right For A Doctor To Profit From The Misery Of Cancer?

    Opinion by Nurse Mark

     

    Dum Vivimus, Vivamus

     

    Doctors are not allowed to profit from selling drugs, right? Everybody knows that – doctors just write a prescription for whatever medicine is best for the patient, and that’s it – they don’t sell the drug or make profits from it, right?

    Wrong!

    There is one kind of doctor who is allowed, even encouraged to profit from the sale of drugs, and those profits are often so large as to be obscene.

    Those doctors are cancer doctors – oncologists – and they are allowed by law to buy chemotherapy drugs from the drug companies and to re-sell them to desperate cancer victims at a “set” profit. That profit is regulated, supposedly to keep doctors from charging whatever the market will bear. To get around this restriction, chemo doctors usually get deep discounts off the “wholesale price” and then bill the insurance companies (or the unfortunate patient without insurance) for the retail sticker price.

    With many chemotherapy treatments costing thousands of dollars per day, and with little or no solid proof that the treatment is doing anything more than making the poor patient miserable, this might be called “quackery” – a name that oncologists give to natural treatments with far better proof of effectiveness – yet it is perfectly legal.

    Most chemotherapy is outright toxic – it works under the supposition that because cancer cells grow more rapidly than healthy, normal cells they take up (absorb or ingest) substances more quickly than normal cells. This is not far off the mark for many cancers, and most early (and many current) anti-cancer drugs – “chemo drugs” – are toxins that exploit this characteristic of cancer. The idea is that the toxin can be given and will kill the cancer before it can terminally poison the patient.

    Sometimes it works.

    Often it doesn’t.

    Chemo drugs that are claimed (usually based on “research” done by or funded by the drug companies) to statistically extend “mean survival time” by some amount – usually mere weeks or months – more often really just makes the patient’s life seem longer with horrid side-effects.

    Is it possible that the best function of many of these drugs is to extend life long enough for the patient’s wallet (and probably the life savings of the patient’s entire family, including future generations!) to be completely emptied?

    We understand the fear that a diagnosis of cancer brings to someone. The fear of illness, of disability, of disfigurement, of pain, of death.

    We understand that life is precious – invaluable. No mere coin has greater value than a human life – no price can be set.

    Yet oncologists set an exorbitant price on human life every day with their wildly profitable patented drugs.

    Could this be why un-patented natural treatments are not recommended by your oncologist? Could it be that treatments given freely to us by Mother Nature simply don’t generate the big profits that drugs do?

    If an oncologist knew of a simple, non-toxic, effective treatment that could stop many cancers in their tracks and even make them wither up and go into remission, should he tell his patients about it? Even if it doesn’t make him a profit?

    Should the oncologist trade thousands of dollars a day in profit by toxic chemicals for whatever reasonable amount can be charged for the teaching and coaching that will help a cancer victim learn the simple dietary changes that can cause a metabolic shift that puts cancer on the run and turns that patient from a victim into a survivor?

    Certainly an ethical cancer doctor should do those things – but will he?

    Let’s be honest – there are plenty of people who have been told they have cancer, given chemotherapy, and now are told they have been cured. There are some cancers for which chemotherapy is proven to be highly effective.

    Some cancers, in their early stages, will go away on their own.

    But there are also plenty of people who have endured the misery of chemotherapy and lived not a day longer than they would have lived without it.

    Even if a cancer patient elects to try the chemotherapy regimen (assuming they can afford it) that the oncologist is offering, there are natural (but un-profitable – read “inexpensive”) treatments and strategies that work synergistically with conventional treatment to improve outcomes and lessen or even eliminate the nasty side-effects of many conventional chemotherapies and that will often allow smaller, less toxic doses and regimens to be equally effective.

    Someone facing a diagnosis of cancer and the chemotherapy that will inevitably be offered might want to ask the oncologist about a proven dietary strategy which will cause a metabolic shift that will stop many cancers in their tracks. This metabolic state literally starves most cancers to death, while actually providing improved nutrition that will correct a host of other health problems too.

    Ask the oncologist about using a metabolic technique called Dietary Ketosis In The Treatment of Solid Tissue Malignancy – better yet, print out this free medical paper (references and all) and show it to your oncologist. If your oncologist gives you a blank look, or pooh-pooh’s it saying “that mumbo-jumbo diet stuff doesn’t work!” (or words to that effect – we’ve heard ’em all…) then just smile and nod your head and resolve to book a Brief Telephone Consultation with Dr. Myatt just as quickly as you can – for it is Dr. Myatt who wrote the paper and teaches other doctors on this subject!

    Why would Dr. Myatt offer an important scientific paper for free or make Brief Telephone Consultations available so inexpensively? Because she and all of us at The Wellness Club believe that it is morally wrong for cancer treatment to be a for-profit cash cow – especially when those for-profit treatments cause so much misery and provide so little benefit.

    And after all – if someone is willing to spend thousands of dollars a day and endless days in a treatment center having toxic chemotherapy drugs dripped into their veins don’t you suppose it might be worth it to them to spend 20 minutes in a telephone call with the doctor who wrote the paper on a simple and effective dietary change that could help turn the misery of that chemo treatment into a success in the battle against their cancer?

    Wouldn’t it be worth trying a diet that is easy to follow (no complicated juicing schemes or odd food “rotations”), delicious (no pond-scum tasting “health drinks” or monotonous rabbit-food), and inexpensive (no special, unobtainable, order-only-from-us specialty foods) if there was a chance that it could halt the cancer and enhance the effect of the chemotherapy?

    Finally, here is a “news-flash” for anyone who hadn’t figured it out: We are all terminal! We are all going to die of something, sometime. It is up to each of us to make the very best of what we have until that time comes.

    Dum Vivimus, Vivamus – Let Us Live While We Live

    Our goal at The Wellness Club is to help people to live while they live.

     

    The Latin phrase “dum vivimus, vivamus” is thought to have been an Epicurean motto, and has been attributed to the Latin poet Horace (QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS 65-8 B.C.). It is generally translated as “While we live, let us live!”

    The meaning of this phrase was expanded on by the Puritan pastor, author and hymn writer Philip Doddridge (1702-1751) in an epigram on his family coat of arms, which included this motto:

    “Live whilst you live,”
    the Epicure would say,
    And seize the pleasures
    of the present day.
    “Live whilst you live,”
    the sacred preacher cries,
    And give to God each moment as it flies.
    Lord, in my views, let both united be;
    I live in pleasure whilst I live to Thee.

     

    Dum Vivimus, Vivamus – Let Us Live While We Live

     

    References:

    1. “How Medicare’s Payment Cuts For Cancer Chemotherapy Drugs Changed Patterns Of Treatment” Health Affairs, Published online ahead of print 6/17/10, content.healthaffairs.org
    2. “Medicare Cuts May Have Led Docs to Prescribe More Chemo” HealthDay News, 6/17/10, consumer.healthday.com
    3. “Medicare Cuts Increase Cancer Treatments, Study Finds” David Cameron, Harvard press release, 6/17/10, hks.harvard.edu

  • Natural Cancer killer — 10,000 times stronger than Chemo

    A New Cure For Cancer?

     

    By Nurse Mark

     

    Hard on the heels of our most recent HealthBeat News article Dr. Myatt, Have You Heard About… a reader wrote to us about an email he had received that talked about a “Natural Cancer killer — 10,000 times stronger than Chemo” and went on to accuse: “Billion-dollar drug company hides astounding discovery of a natural cancer killer.”

    Our reader was rightly skeptical and wanted to know what the real story was in all this hoop-la.

    Graviola, also known as paw-paw – is the latest marketing poster-child for some very big internet marketers and these hyperbole-filled advertisements have been making the rounds – offering everything from the substance itself to “free reports” that just happen to tell you how to buy graviola. (Hint: you can buy it from the same outfit offering the “free report” of course…)

    Doesn’t this sound like a wonderful, even miraculous substance? After all, other websites (and advertising emails) claim that it not only “cures all cancers” but that it kills intestinal parasites, calms nerves, reduces blood pressure and helps arthritis, heart and liver and boosts the immune system. Wow – what great stuff!

    So what’s the truth?

    The truth, sorry to say, is that while graviola, or more correctly some very specific isolated compounds found in graviola may show some promise that could be realized with further research and work, it is not the cure-all that the marketers are so breathlessly touting it to be.

    I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again – THERE IS NO ONE-PILL MAGIC BULLET, natural or otherwise, that will allow you to ignore the basic principles of good health and still avoid or beat disease. Without a proper diet and good basic nutrition including a full compliment of vitamins, minerals and trace minerals, without proper rest, exercise, fresh air and clean water, you can take all the magical, miraculous herbs you like – you will be deluding yourself if you think that any one herb will make up for the lack of a solid health foundation.

    Why is it that the very people who are so rightly distrustful of Big Pharma’s one-pill drug solutions to disease are so quick to believe the advertising hype of a one-pill herbal solution to disease?

    For more information on the graviola story you may want to read a very interesting article written back in in 2003 by the highly respected medical writer Ralph W. Moss, PhD – it can be found here: A Friendly Skeptic Looks at Graviola

    Graviola may prove to be a useful part of a carefully considered natural supplementation plan – but it is NOT a one-herb cure-all.

    For more information about herbal treatments for cancer please see Dr. Myatt’s Medical White Paper Nutritional and Botanical Considerations in the Systemic Treatment of Cancer – it’s fully referenced, and free.

  • Dr. Myatt, Have You Heard About…

    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.”