HealthBeat News

Category: Health Questions

  • What To Do With Old Supplements?

    What should you do with out-dated or unwanted vitamins and other dietary supplements?

     

    By Nurse Mark

     

    We sometimes are asked how to safely disposed of out-dated or unwanted vitamins, minerals, herbs, and other dietary supplements.

    That’s a good question – since most people know that prescription drugs should never be flushed down the toilet or into our sewers or septic systems and should not be allowed to find their way into our landfills. We have enough trouble as it is with the drugs and hormones that find their way into the environment after being taken by people and livestock…

    So, what to do about old or unwanted vitamins? Are they dangerous to our environment too?

    In a word, no.

    While many vitamins, such as Vitamin C, can oxidize with time and exposure to air and heat and many herbs will lose their potency over time they do not become “dangerous.”

    Let’s remember that these are natural substances – not synthetic unknown-in-nature chemical creations of Big Pharma.

    Most vitamin supplements can be thought of as being “concentrated nutrients” and they are generally the sorts of things that we would like to be obtaining in our diets from good healthy food but are not. They occur naturally in our environment – though not in the amounts we might like these days!

    Minerals are even easier – they come from Mother Earth and can be safely returned to Mother Earth.

    Herbs and other plant products are given to us by nature and can likewise be returned to nature.

    Some “authorities” recommend taking unwanted supplements and grinding them up with a coffee grinder and then mixing them with coffee grounds (to make them unappealing to animals) and then disposing of them in the trash. Others suggest dissolving them in water and then pouring them down a toilet or into the sewer system.

    We think that’s wasteful, and a lot of other people do too.

    Many people add these unwanted supplements to their compost or their gardens – here is a story written by an 11 year old boy who details his success with turning unwanted vitamins into plant food – yes, that’s right, this enterprising young man created fertilizer from supplements and we invite you to read his report, published by Mother Earth News in 1989:

    Vitamins for Vegetables – An Experiment in Homemade Fertilizer
    In a self-designed science project, this 11-year-old author and gardener uses vitamins as fertilizer and plant food, with outstanding results

    Folks, Robert Williams III is now 36 years old – Let’s hope this bright young man lived up to the promise of his experiment and article and is enjoying a distinguished career working for the good guys!

    So, don’t be afraid to return your unwanted or outdated vitamins, minerals, and other natural supplements to nature. If you don’t have a garden or a compost pile to use them in you surely know a friend or relative with a “green thumb” that does.

    Your garden won’t care that they are out-dated!

  • A Medical Degree – From The U of G !

    University of Google that is…

    By Nurse Mark

     

    I’ve said it before – the internet is a wonderful resource chock full of knowledge and information. It’s also a wild and wooly place full of absolute B.S. (that’s Bad Science folks!) Unfortunately, there are no warning labels on most content to tell you what you are looking at – good or bad, true of false, science or superstition. Because of this, people are often left to “trust their intuition and common sense.” The problem with that, when it comes to anything medical, is that without a lot of education in anatomy and physiology, biology, biochemistry and more, simple “common sense” can often fail us – medicine just isn’t so simple, our bodies are a complicated place.

    In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, some people love to send out emails with “common sense” medical advice to all their friends and demand that those friends send them to all their friends. You know the emails – you’ve gotten them. Maybe you even sent them.

    Here’s a recent example from one of our regular readers:

    Hi Dr. Myatt,

    Received this from a friend and just wanted to pass this on to you.  Is most of this true??

    Terrie

    Read through this email and see how much of it “makes sense”…

    Subject: Heart Attacks and Water

    How many folks do you know who say they don’t want to drink anything before going to bed because they’ll have to get up during the night?

    Heart Attack and Water – I never knew all of this ! Interesting…….

    Heart Attack & Water
    Something else I didn’t know … I asked my Doctor why do people need to urinate so much at night time.
    Answer from my Cardiac Doctor;
    Gravity holds water in the lower part of your body when you are upright (legs swell). When you lie down and the lower body (legs and etc) seeks level with the kidneys it is then that the kidneys remove the water because it is easier. This then ties in with the last statement! I knew you need your minimum water to help flush the toxins out of your body, but this was news to me.

    Correct time to drink water… Very Important: From A Cardiac Specialist!

    Drinking water at a certain time maximizes its effectiveness on the body:
    2 glasses of water after waking up – helps activate internal organs
    1 glass of water 30 minutes before a meal – helps digestion
    1 glass of water before taking a bath – helps lower blood pressure
    1 glass of water before going to bed – reduces the risk of stroke or heart attack

    Please pass this to the people you care about……

    I can also add to this…
    My Physician told me that water at bed time will also help prevent night time leg cramps. Your leg muscles are seeking hydration when they cramp and wake you up with a Charlie Horse.

    Subject: Mayo Clinic on Aspirin – PASS IT ON

    Mayo Clinic Aspirin Dr. Virend Somers, is a cardiologist from the Mayo Clinic, who is lead author of the report in the July 29, 2008 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Most heart attacks occur in the day generally between 6 A.M. and noon. Having one during the night, when the heart should be most at rest, means that something unusual happened. Somers and his colleagues have been working for a decade to show that sleep apnea is to blame.

    1. If you take an aspirin or a baby aspirin once a day, take it at night. The reason: Aspirin has a 24-hour “half-life”; therefore, if most heart attacks happen in the wee hours of the morning, the Aspirin would be strongest in your system.
    2. FYI, Aspirin lasts a really long time in your medicine chest for years, (when it gets old, it smells like vinegar).

    Please read on.

    Something that we can do to help ourselves nice to know. Bayer is making crystal aspirin to dissolve instantly on the tongue. They work much faster than the tablets. Why keep Aspirin by your bedside?
    Heart Attacks –
    There are other symptoms of a heart attack, besides the pain on the left arm. One must also be aware of an intense pain on the chin, as well as nausea and lots of sweating; however, these symptoms may also occur less frequently.
    Note: There may be NO pain in the chest during a heart attack. The majority of people (about 60%) who had a heart attack during their sleep did not wake up. However, if it occurs, the chest pain may wake you up from your deep sleep. If that happens, immediately dissolve two aspirins in your mouth and swallow them with a bit of water.
    Afterwards: – Call 911. – Phone a neighbor or a family member who lives very close by. Say “heart attack!” – Say that you have taken 2 Aspirins. – Take a seat on a chair or sofa near the front door, and wait for their arrival and …DO NOT LIE DOWN!

    A Cardiologist has stated that if each person after receiving this e-mail, sends it to 10 people, probably one life could be saved! I have already shared this information. What about you? Do forward this message. It may save lives!

     

    And here is what Dr. Myatt had to say about it all:

     

    Hi Terrie:

    This email is a classic example of why I recommend you DO NOT get your medical information from SPAM emails and/or the University of Google!

    Here’s the scoop, heavy lifting on the research courtesy of Nurse Mark:

    This email has been going since 2004, and growing in complexity and silliness since then. This latest iteration has been circulating since 2011.

    Here is the Snopes page on it: http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/water.asp

    Essentially, this is a collection of wives’ tales and urban legends and armchair theories generated by people with very limited command of human anatomy and physiology who have then invoked the name of the “Mighty Mayo Clinic” and an unnamed “cardiologist” in order to try to attach validity to their ramblings.

    “2 glasses of water after waking up – helps activate internal organs” – as if internal organs somehow stop working when we sleep?

    “1 glass of water 30 minutes before a meal – helps digestion” – no, it hampers digestion by diluting the normal healthy hydrochloric acid content of the stomach.

    “1 glass of water before taking a bath – helps lower blood pressure” – this is beyond silly – where is the scientific basis for this?

    “1 glass of water before going to bed – reduces the risk of stroke or heart attack” – if this were true, don’t we think that modern medicine would know about it and be shouting it from the rooftops? Again, there is no scientific basis for this statement.

    The aspirin / “heart attack” advise is likewise mostly silly, with tiny footholds in reality – like calling 911 if you think you might be experiencing cardiac pain and yes, taking an aspirin if you think you’re having a heart attack.

    With regard to the aspirin / Mayo Clinic reference: Mayo Clinic states: “Neither Dr. Somers nor Mayo Clinic contributed to this email, which contains some information that is inaccurate and potentially harmful.” The new release to that can be found here: http://newsblog.mayoclinic.org/2010/02/28/misleading-aspirin-email-virend-somers-mayo-clinic/

    Friends and family are some of the worst offenders for passing along junk like this without bothering to find out if it is true before forwarding. Please take stuff like this with a grain of salt.

    If there were simple things about timing of water intake that had a profound intake on your health, you would already know about it because you would have heard about it from me!

    In Health,
    Dr. Myatt

    A some notes by Nurse Mark:

    Bayer “Crystal Aspirin” was withdrawn from the market in 2010 and was NEVER recommended for use in the way this email suggests.

    Note in the “advice” letter that one sentence claims that “Most heart attacks occur in the day generally between 6 A.M. and noon” and then the letter says “most heart attacks happen in the wee hours of the morning” in reasoning what is the “best” time to take aspirin. So which is it? To me the “wee hours” are those between one and three or four in the morning…

    And, my pet peeve: Internet viruses. If every person sends a junk email like this to ten people who then each send to to ten more people who then each send to to ten more people – I’ll let you do the math, but the short course is that this quickly becomes spam and usually picks up viruses and trojans and other malware along the way. Just the sheer volume of this kind of thing make it a form of virus. So, please don’t do it!

  • B12 And Prostate Cancer: A Connection?

    By Nurse Mark

     

    Ahh, the Internet – a wild and woolly place. Full of lies, damned lies, and statistics. Serving up a never-ending smorgasbord of fact, fiction, conjecture, and opinion. Providing “authoritative research” from such diverse locations as one man’s laboratory notes to another man’s easy chair fantasies.

    Our patients and readers are constantly bombarded with well-meaning but often erroneous “medical information” that is often based on the misunderstanding of a research paper or, worse yet, some news reporter’s sensationalized mis-reporting of the results of research.

    This results in endless fear and confusion as folks struggle to sort out the good, the bad, and the ugly in terms of medical information. Fortunately, many people have the good sense to ask Dr. Myatt to help them separate the wheat from the chaff…

    Here is one fellow’s question:

    50 year old male considering b12 supplementation because of tiredness/memory problems but concerned about the link between prostate cancer and b12 levels.

     

    Well, a quick “Google-search” for this subject turns up some frightening posts in places like prostate cancer survivors websites and a vegan chat boards. These posts are based on the the selective reading of a number of studies that have been done on the relationships between B Vitamins and cancers. None of the studies actually say that vitamin B12 causes prostate cancer, though one might be excused for thinking so based on the breathless posts on some of these chat forums.

    What the studies do say, in essence, is that there is little or no correlation between folate or B Vitamins and prostate cancer until the blood levels of these nutrients become very high – at which time there appears to be a small increase in risk for prostate cancer.

    Here are what some of the studies have to say:

     

    First, a 2003 study, funded by the National Cancer Institute:

    Null Association between Prostate Cancer and Serum Folate, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, and Homocysteine

    Serum folate, B6, B12, and homocysteine were not associated with prostate cancer risk. There was no evidence of effect modification by age, intervention group, smoking, body mass index, BPH, or intake of folate, B6, B12, or methionine; however, the association between homocysteine and prostate cancer risk was modified significantly by alcohol intake, with a positive association observed among those who consumed more alcohol and a modest inverse association among those who consumed less alcohol. Consistent with this, an opposite pattern was observed for serum folate (interaction not significant). We observed no material differences in the associations based on disease stage.

     

    Europe, 2008:

    Circulating concentrations of folate and vitamin B12 in relation to prostate cancer risk: results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study.

    CONCLUSION:
    This study does not provide strong support for an association between prostate cancer risk and circulating concentrations of folate or vitamin B(12). Elevated concentrations of vitamin B(12) may be associated with an increased risk for advanced stage prostate cancer, but this association requires examination in other large prospective studies.

     

    And Norway, 2013:

    Serum folate and vitamin B12 concentrations in relation to prostate cancer risk–a Norwegian population-based nested case-control study of 3000 cases and 3000 controls within the JANUS cohort.

    CONCLUSION:
    This large-scale population-based study suggests that high serum folate concentration may be associated with modestly increased prostate cancer risk. We did not observe an association between vitamin B12 status and prostate cancer risk.

     

    Now, I do not consider myself to be an authority on the subject of prostate cancer – but my reading of these studies and numerous others leads me to conclude that unless I’m going to “go overboard” and take very large doses of folate or vitamin B12 I’m not really going to worry about it causing my prostate to become cancerous.

    Indeed, given the very serious consequences of Folate and B12 deficiency (and the fact that I like the “energy boost”) I am personally fond of a product called B-12 Extreme  – a top quality formulation that contains all 4 forms of vitamin B12. I also use Maxi Multi every day which provides me with an optimal amount of folate.

    Please take a moment to read about B-12 Extreme here.

    For more information about vitamin B12 please see our Medical White Paper Is Science On The Verge of an ME/CFS Breakthrough? The Vitamin B12 – ME/CFS Connection.

    My conclusion?

     

    I don’t know enough about the fellow who asked this question to be able to make any recommendation specific to him – there could be a dozen other things going on in his life that I’m not aware of.

    However – Tiredness and memory problems can certainly be associated with deficient vitamin B12 levels. Unless there is active prostate cancer going on, sensible supplementation with vitamin B12 would seem a reasonable course of action.

     

    References:

     

    Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2008 Feb;17(2):279-85.
    Circulating concentrations of folate and vitamin B12 in relation to prostate cancer risk: results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study. Johansson M, et.al
    Source: Department of Surgical and Perioperative Sciences, Urology and Andrology, Umeå University, Sweden.
    CONCLUSION:
    This study does not provide strong support for an association between prostate cancer risk and circulating concentrations of folate or vitamin B(12). Elevated concentrations of vitamin B(12) may be associated with an increased risk for advanced stage prostate cancer, but this association requires examination in other large prospective studies.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18268110
    and
    In conclusion, this study does not provide support for the hypothesis that circulating concentrations of folate or
    vitamin B12 are related to prostate cancer risk. Further prospective studies are needed to investigate the possible
    association between high concentrations of vitamin B12 and increased risk of advanced stage prostate cancer.
    http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/17/2/279
    Access the most recent version of this article at:
    http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/17/2/279.full.pdf

    Int J Epidemiol. 2013 Feb;42(1):201-10.
    Serum folate and vitamin B12 concentrations in relation to prostate cancer risk–a Norwegian population-based nested case-control study of 3000 cases and 3000 controls within the JANUS cohort.
    de Vogel S, Meyer K, et.al.
    Source: Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
    CONCLUSION:
    This large-scale population-based study suggests that high serum folate concentration may be associated with modestly increased prostate cancer risk. We did not observe an association between vitamin B12 status and prostate cancer risk.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23508410

    American Association for Cancer Research
    Null Association between Prostate Cancer and Serum Folate, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, and Homocysteine
    Stephanie J. Weinstein et.al.
    Serum folate, B6, B12, and homocysteine were not associated with prostate cancer risk (Table 1)⇓ . There was no evidence of effect modification by age, intervention group, smoking, body mass index, BPH, or intake of folate, B6, B12, or methionine; however, the association between homocysteine and prostate cancer risk was modified significantly by alcohol intake (p interaction = 0.04), with a positive association observed among those who consumed more alcohol (OR = 1.71 and 95% CI = 0.76–3.83 for highest versus lowest quartile) and a modest inverse association among those who consumed less alcohol. Consistent with this, an opposite pattern was observed for serum folate (interaction not significant). We observed no material differences in the associations based on disease stage.
    http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/12/11/1271.long

  • Allergic To Iodine – What To Do?

    By Nurse Mark

     

    Allergic – perhaps one of the most overused and misunderstood terms in the medical lexicon.

     

    We get questions often from people who are certain that they are “allergic” to any number of things, including essential elements such as iodine, sulfur, and even calcium.

    Here’s an example:

    I’ve had low thyroid all my life, but am allergic to iodine (the doctor gave me iodine drops and my jaws locked). I use iodized sea salt. I have just about every disease you mentioned (on our informational page about iodine) – arthritis (everywhere), fibromyalgia, lumps on my thyroid and low thyroid, ovarian cysts (hysterectomy), breast cysts, chronic bronchitis – what can a person who is allergic to iodine do?

    First, let’s review our basic knowledge about iodine:

    Iodine is a non-metallic essential trace element in human nutrition. Currently considered in conventional medicine to be primarily a thyroid nutrient (thyroid hormones T4 and T3 are composed largely of iodine), Iodine is actually found in many organs and tissues in the body including salivary, parotid, submandibular and pituitary glands; pancreas, testis, breasts, prostate, ovary, adrenal gland; stomach, heart, thymus, and lung. (1,2,3).

    Most people know that iodine is required for normal thyroid hormone production. But iodine also plays an important role in immune function, cancer prevention (especially of breast, thyroid and prostate cancer), diabetes prevention and reversal, atrial fibrillation correction, overweight and obesity, “brain fog” and low energy, breast and ovarian cysts, liver detoxification and menopausal symptoms.

    Iodine is also an important anti-microbial and can often relieve skin, lung, GI tract and other infections when antibiotics fail. In fact, from 1900 to 1960’s, every US physician used iodine (as Lugol’s solution) to treat low and high thyroid conditions, infections and many other conditions with excellent results.

    Allergic?

    No-one is truly allergic to iodine, any more than one could be allergic to water – iodine is a trace element that is essential to life. It is naturally present throughout our bodies. Many people have reactions to other components of things that may contain iodine, and iodine has been unfairly implicated – we call it “Found at the scene of the crime, but not guilty!”

    It is interesting to note that this person describes using iodized sea salt. Iodine is iodine, and iodized means iodine has been added. Obviously, the problem that was experienced when given “iodine drops” (and we don’t know what these were nor how they were administered) was not due to the iodine but to some other ingredient or component of the “drops.”

    What can someone like this do? They should work with an iodine-savvy holistic physician like Dr. Myatt who will help to correct the iodine deficiency that is causing so many problems. A skilled physician will get to the bottom of the “allergy” so that appropriate forms of iodine supplementation can be used and the deficiency is corrected.

    Here’s some more facts about iodine.

    • Studies show that we may need a LOT more iodine than the current RDI of 150 micrograms, and that many if not most Americans are iodine deficient.
    • Conventional doctors are “iodine-o-phobic” (afraid to recommend higher-than-RDA doses of iodine) because they are not familiar with the vast body of research showing that higher iodine levels are beneficial.
    • Low iodine levels are associated with higher rates of low and high thyroid function; breast and thyroid cancer (and possibly many other types of cancer); ovarian cysts (including polycystic ovaries); fibrocystic breast disease; heart arrhythmias; lung and other infections; fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue to name only a few.
    • Because very high doses of iodine can cause heart palpitations and excess thyroid function (both which resolve upon stopping supplementation), initial testing of iodine levels and monitoring by an holistic physician may be the safest way to take iodine.

    More Iodine information:

    Iodine Test (spot and 24-hour excretion test for total body iodine sufficiency)

    Iodine Supplements (concentrated source of high-potency iodine)

    Modfilan (Seaweed Source of Natural Iodine) (low dose, all-natural source of iodine)

     

    References

    1.) C. Spitzweg, W. Joba, W. Eisenmenger and A. E. Heufelder. “Analysis of Human Sodium Iodide Symporter Gene Expression in Extrathyroidal Tissues and Cloning of Its Complementary Deoxyribonucleic Acids from Salivary Gland, Mammary Gland, and Gastric Mucosa.” The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism Vol. 83, No. 5 1746-1751. (1)”Iodine in medicine and pharmacy since its discovery-1811-1961,” Proc R Soc Med, 1961:54:831-836.
    2.) Dai G, Levy O, Carrasco N. 1996 “Cloning and characterization of the thyroid iodide transporter.” Nature. 379:458-460.
    3.) Smanik PA, Ryu K-Y, Theil KS, Mazzaferri EL, Jhiang SM. 1997 “Expression, exon-intron organization, and chromosome mapping of the human sodium iodide symporter.” Endocrinology. 138:3555-3558.

  • Medical Myths In Your Email

    By Nurse Mark

     

    Computers, the World Wide Web, and email have become indispensable parts of our lives and have contributed greatly to the dissemination of knowledge and understanding – but they also have a darker side as they have also become the favored medium for spoofers, scammers, pranksters, and the spreaders of rumors, urban legends, and old wives’ tales.

    It seems hardly a day goes by without at least one well-meaning email appearing in my inbox encouraging me to cough if I think I’m having a heart attack, or to beware of razor blades hidden in gas pump handles, or to be cautious if someone honks their horn and flashes their lights at me when I’m driving at night or some other foolishness.

    A lot of people are taken in by these emails, and use up a lot of bandwidth in forwarding them along to “10 of your best friends” as most of these emails direct them to do. Fortunately, Wellness Club members and HealthBeat News readers are a little more savvy and they will often ask us about these “helpful” messages before they send them to everyone in their address book…

    There are lessons to be learned in these emails however – for they follow a fairly predictable formula in that they gain the confidence of the reader by first presenting statements that are known fact or make good sense. “Many heart attacks are preceded by arm or jaw pain”, “water is essential for life”, or “if you think you are having a heart attack, dial 911” are all examples of this kind of statement. How can you argue these statements – they are true! Next, the letter usually invokes some authority figure to validate the statements: “the Mayo Clinic”, “A Famous Cardiologist”, “a chief investigator with the FBI”, and so on.  Once the reader’s confidence has been gained, then almost anything else said will seem to make sense and will be accepted as fact.

    If you pay attention you’ll see that a lot of advertising for cures, remedies, and “natural products” follows the same pattern. Those ads for Coral Calcium, Raspberry Ketones, “top secret ingredients from the deep sea”, saffron, hoodia, and other amazing, miraculous cures start out with a known fact or two, then invoke an “authority” to lend credibility, and then hit you with the “pitch.” A time-honored technique…

    Here is a recent example, sent to us by a Wellness Club member – this one is making the rounds again, so you may have seen it yourself.

    Subject: Fwd: Heart Attacks and Water
    Hi Dr. Myatt,
    Received this from a friend and just wanted to pass this on to you.  Is most of this true??
    Terrie

    Subject: Heart Attacks and Water

    How many folks do you know who say they don’t want to drink

    anything before going to bed because they’ll have to get up during

    the night?

    Heart Attack and Water – I never knew all of this ! Interesting…….
    [this email goes on and on with nonsense – I’ve cut it here to spare you]

    Now, the very first thing that can be done to separate the truth from the spoof is to use the internet! Often a quick Google search of the subject line will result in plenty of references to”myth” or “hoax” or “spoof.”  That is exactly what I did with the subject line of the email that Terrie forwarded, and one of the first entries in the results was for “Snopes.com” – aka the Urban Legends Reference Pages – a website covering urban legends, Internet rumors, e-mail forwards, and other stories of unknown or questionable origin.

    According to Snopes, this email has been going since 2004, and growing in complexity and silliness since then. This latest iteration has been circulating since 2011.

    Here is the Snopes page on it: http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/water.asp

    If you find this “helpful” email in your inbox, here is my take on it:

    Essentially, this is a collection of wives’ tales and urban legends and armchair theories generated by people with very limited knowledge of human anatomy and physiology who have then invoked the name of the “Mighty Mayo Clinic” and an unnamed “cardiologist” in order to try to attach validity to their ramblings.

    “2 glasses of water after waking up – helps activate internal organs” – As if “internal organs somehow stop working when we sleep?

    “1 glass of water 30 minutes before a meal – helps digestion” – No, it hampers digestion by diluting the normal healthy hydrochloric acid content of the stomach.

    “1 glass of water before taking a bath – helps lower blood pressure” – This is beyond silly – where is the scientific basis for this?

    “1 glass of water before going to bed – reduces the risk of stroke or heart attack” – If this were true, don’t we think that modern medicine would know about it and be shouting it from the rooftops? Again, there is no scientific basis for this statement.

    The aspirin / “heart attack” advise is likewise mostly silly, with tiny footholds in reality – like calling 911 if you think you might be experiencing cardiac pain…

    With regard to the aspirin / Mayo Clinic reference: Mayo Clinic states: “Neither Dr. Somers nor Mayo Clinic contributed to this email, which contains some information that is inaccurate and potentially harmful.” The new release to that effect can be found here: http://newsblog.mayoclinic.org/2010/02/28/misleading-aspirin-email-virend-somers-mayo-clinic/