Saturday, December 31, 2016
Friday, December 30, 2016
Thursday, December 29, 2016
8 Reasons To Eat Blueberries and Why You Should Freeze Them!
8 Reasons To Eat Blueberries and Why You Should Freeze Them!: Just when you thought that the health benefits of blueberries couldn't be any more plentiful, new research has found that freezing the superfood actually increases the berry's nutritional content! Discover why & 8 reasons why you should have them daily!
Little Black Seeds Powerfully treats Hepatitis C Patients by Sayer Ji
Little Black Seed Powerfully Treats Hepatitis C Patients
Posted on: Monday, December 26th 2016 at 5:45 am
Written By: Sayer Ji, Founder
This article is copyrighted by GreenMedInfo LLC, 2016
Little Black Seed Powerfully Treats Hepatitis C Patients
Known mostly as a food condiment, this little black seed carries a medicinal punch so powerful it is being studied to treat some of the world's most deadly diseases.
Nigella sativa (a.k.a. Black seed), a food-condiment and medicine that has long been revered in the Middle East as ‘the remedy for everything but death,’ has been undergoing something of a scientific revival in the past few years. Whereas in the recent past, folkloric medicine was largely considered a byproduct of pre-scientific 'magical thinking,' a veritable tidal wave of modern biomedical research is lending validation to the ‘wisdom of the ancients' and their near universal adoption of food- and spice-based medicine as their default medical system.
You can dive deep into this accumulating literature on the GreenMedInfo.com Research Dashboard, where you will find over 10,000 natural substances and diseases indexed, with 100 different health conditions researched on Black Seed alone.
True to its legendary status, reports on its death-defying health benefits have been trickling in, with this recent case report on black seed inducing the remission of an HIV patient especially compelling: Black Seed Extract 'Cures' HIV Patient Naturally.
Another study -- but this time a human clinical trial -- reveals it might provide a safe, affordable, and effective alternative to pharmaceutical treatment for another potentially fatal viral infection: Hepatitis C.
Published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology in 2013 and entitled, “Effects of Nigella sativa on outcome of hepatitis C in Egypt,” researchers evaluated the safety, efficacy, and tolerability of Nigella sativa in patients with hepatitis C infection who were not eligible for the standard treatment of interferon (IFN)-α, due to either debilitating side effects or financial constraints.
Hepatitis C infection is one of the primary risk factors for hepatocellular (liver) cancer. It is believed that as many as 23% of Hepatitis C infection patients will develop liver cancer.1 All too often the conventional standard of care is prohibitively expensive or results in side effects that can lead to severe debilitation. While there is plenty of preliminary research on natural substances which may address both hepatitis C infection and liver cancer, human clinical data is still sorely lacking. The new study, therefore, sheds much needed light and validation on the topic.
The new study excluded the following patients:
“Patients on IFN-α therapy, infection with hepatitis B or hepatitis I virus, hepatocellular carcinoma, other malignancies, major severe illness, or treatment non-compliance.”
The study was carried out for three months, with the followering parameters tracked:
“[C]linical parameters, complete blood count, liver function, renal function, plasma glucose, total antioxidant capacity (TAC), and polymerase chain reaction, were all assessed at baseline and at the end of the study. Clinical assessment included: hepato and/or splenomegaly, jaundice, palmar erythema, flapping tremors, spider naevi, lower-limb edema, and ascites. N. sativa was administered for three successive months at a dose of (450 mg three times daily). Clinical response and incidence of adverse drug reactions were assessed initially, periodically, and at the end of the study.”
The patients were given the following treatment:
"[A]ll patients received one capsule of N. sativa seed oil (450 mg) available as soft gelatin capsules (Baraka; Pharco Pharmaceuticals) three times daily after meals continuously for 3 mo. Patients were followed up every 2 wk throughout the study period for assessing treatment adherence, tolerability and incidence of adverse reactions."
The positive results were reported as follows:
"N. sativa administration significantly improved HCV viral load (380808.7 ± 610937 vs 147028.2 ± 475225.6, P = 0.001) and TAC (1.35 ± 0.5 vs 1.612 ± 0.56, P = 0.001). After N. sativa administration, the following laboratory parameters improved: total protein (7.1 ± 0.7 vs 7.5 ± 0.8, P = 0.001), albumin (3.5 ± 0.87 vs 3.69 ± 0.91, P = 0.008), red blood cell count (4.13 ± 0.9 vs 4.3 ± 0.9, P = 0.001), and platelet count (167.7 ± 91.2 vs 198.5 ± 103, P = 0.004). Fasting blood glucose (104.03 ± 43.42 vs 92.1 ± 31.34, P = 0.001) and postprandial blood glucose (143.67 ± 72.56 vs 112.1 ± 42.9, P = 0.001) were significantly decreased in both diabetic and non-diabetic HCV patients. Patients with lower-limb edema decreased significantly from baseline compared with after treatment [16 (53.30%) vs 7 (23.30%), P = 0.004]. Adverse drug reactions were unremarkable except for a few cases of epigastric pain and hypoglycemia that did not affect patient compliance."
The study concluded:
“In conclusion, N. sativa administration in HCV patients is safe and tolerable and results in a significant improvement in viral load, oxidative stress and laboratory markers. Moreover, the clinical improvement and better glycemic control in patients with diabetes indicate a potential role for N. sativa in improving the clinical outcome of HCV patients. We recommend larger controlled multicenter randomized studies for longer periods for evaluation of the potential beneficial role of N. sativa in HCV patients with and without concurrent IFN therapy.”
Clearly, this study reveals just how promising the food-based approach to treating disease really is. Not only is using a food like black seed as medicine safer, but pharmaceutical intervention has serious side effects and can cost 15-20,000 dollars per full course of treatment, making it impossible for many who are suffering to afford.
Additional References
1Review Cancer and infection: estimates of the attributable fraction in 1990. Pisani P, Parkin DM, Muñoz N, Ferlay J Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 1997 Jun; 6(6):387-400. [PubMed]
Sayer Ji is founder of Greenmedinfo.com, Vice Chairman of the Board of the National Health Federation, and Fearless Parent, Steering Committee Member of the Global GMO Free Coalition (GGFC), a reviewer at the International Journal of Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine.
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Hidden Side Effects: Medical Studies Often Leave Out Adverse Outcomes
A new analysis estimates that for nearly half of clinical studies, data goes “missing” when published
Credit: Dwight Eschliman Getty Images
Approximately half of studies published on new medical treatments leave out at least some of the adverse effects they uncovered, according to a recent analysis in PLOS Medicine. A team of British researchers conducted the review after coming across individual cases of missing side effects in medical literature, which includes studies from pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and academics. To determine how widespread the problem was, they analyzed 28 journal articles that together cross-checked the published data from more than 500 clinical studies with their original data sets. The review's results quantitatively confirm that some drugs may have side effects not even doctors know about—which means treatments may not be as safe as they appear, says Yoon Loke, a physician and lecturer at the University of East Anglia in England. Scientific American talked with Loke about the importance of clinical data transparency. Edited excerpts follow.
Scientific American: Why are these results troubling?
Yoon Loke: What we found confirmed our suspicions: missing data are very common. Journal publications often report a smaller proportion of the measured adverse events than were observed in the clinical research. We found it alarming. You want to do the best for the patient, but if you can access only half the information, then a decision on choosing a particular drug or device might not be as reliable as you'd like.
Why do adverse events go unreported?
I think one of the problems is that journals are limited by space and the scope of what they can publish. I myself was an editor of a scientific journal, and often you want to publish interesting, positive things that people want to read. It's an optimism bias. There are a lot of other issues that have been hinted at, too. For example, for a company to market a product, it may be more beneficial to publish more favorable results, as opposed to adverse events.
What can patients do?
If you are a patient and take part in a clinical trial, when you sign the consent form you should be able to stipulate that you want the results of the study to be available to the public. On Alltrials.net, a large body of people are campaigning for all trials to be registered and all results to be reported so there aren't so many missing data. I'm hoping that through the public voice—as well as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently tightening up their regulatory requirements—data about adverse events will become available to a much wider audience.
DATA SHOULDN’T DISAPPEAR
Starting this month, U.S. investigators conducting clinical trials will have to make all their findings publicly available—no matter what outcome a study has—thanks to a new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Meanwhile the Evidence-Based Medicine Data Lab at the University of Oxford released a new online tool called TrialsTracker that reveals exactly who is withholding data. — R.F.M.
This article was originally published with the title "Hidden Side Effects"
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Ryan F. Mandelbaum
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What Your Face Is Telling You About Your Health
What Your Face Is Telling You About Your Health: Have you ever wondered what your face is telling you about your health? Discover what signs your skin is showing and how you can bring back that radiantly healthy glow
Kelly Brogan Beliefs Do you believe?
Do You Believe?
“Our Beliefs are our Destiny.”
-Mahatma Gandhi
From Brain-Based Medicine to Heart-Based Healing
I’ve always been confident.
Somehow, I feel like I may have been born this way. It didn’t come from my upbringing, from years of therapy, or from new-age soul work. I am comfortable with being wrong, with not knowing, but have always felt in touch with an inner reservoir of competence to get me through any challenge.
I brought this confidence to my clinical work as a holistic practitioner and have felt powerfully optimistic about my ability to help patients – as the first stop, the last stop, or somewhere on the path. With an enormous tool kit, I have wanted to believe that I could help whomever was sitting across from me in my office.
At one point, this attitude earned me a one year waiting list for a consultation.
Now, becoming a patient in my practice is something between a Harvard application and an Okcupid.com profile assessment.
What’s changed?
In my work with Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez, I learned about the alchemy of the healing dyad. He said:
As someone who spent my entire adult life as a self-identified faithless individual, he helped me to understand that I did have faith back in my atheist days. It was in the religion of medicine. I believed that science could bring truths. Clear, present, incontrovertible truths. I believed that doctors delivered these truths. And I believed in the power of the intellect to commandeer the recklessness of nature.
Then, six years ago, my belief shifted.
It became more of a visceral sense of knowing as I watched my own body heal through nutrition, supplementation, exercise, meditation, and more purposeful living. I began to clear the cobwebs from my mind and peel them from my eyes. I woke up to the truth about information and how it is trafficked and manipulated in our society.
Through my mentorship with him, I came into better touch with my own intuition because I was learning through a trusting relationship and a heart-connection. In this space, I was able to let my frenzied brain and all of the 1000s of catalogued studies in my mental Rolodex, go. I let it all go and I listened harder for the truth. My truth. And he helped me do that. He modeled it for me, and I witnessed its effects on his patients.
He taught me that I am not meant to help everyone and anyone. He taught me that fear can destroy the most effective protocol and that faith can heal with no protocol at all.
You have to engage the medicine that is right for you. And you have to be aligned with it.
I get that now.
I want to help the patients who want to be helped. Who truly want to be guided back to themselves. Because some people need to be sick and want to be sick even when this isn’t conscious. Others harbor so much fear that I could never wrest their attention from the conventional model’s rhetoric. Still others suspect there is something to holistic medicine but aren’t ready to take the plunge, and so they fight it, while engaging it.
Now, I do a preliminary assessment to establish how willing a given patient is to shed their fear. And how much faith they bring to the healing process, to the unpredictability and complexity of their journey, and to their intuition. Faith as an active belief in the body’s self-healing potential is, as Dr. Gonzalez said, the most important ingredient for healing.
Sickness as Part of Health
Symptoms and illness don’t have to be scary.
Dr. Gonzalez and holistic pediatrician, Dr. Larry Palevsky speak about the vital importance of childhood illnesses, for example, to the priming of the adult immune system. An immune system in adulthood that can now be disabled by a tick bite or a bout of Mono. If we look to illness as a precursor to progress, as suffering for growth, it becomes less of something we want to beat into submission.
I own my faith now. I believe that life is an unfolding. I believe that if I live connected to a feeling of lightness and if I seek joy and focus on the wonder, I will be protected. And if I become ill or if tragedy befalls me, then I accept it and look for the lesson in it, letting curiosity and non-judgment lead my understanding. I embrace the Maybe principle.
Mind Control
You may have rolled your eyes at The Secret, or corny phrases like The Law of Attraction, and also, somewhere inside you, acknowledged that there must be some truth to it. The truth may be as simple as this:
I make this point to my patients with a simple example.
If you are walking down a dark alleyway, alone, and hear rapid footsteps coming up behind you, what’s going to happen? An entire fight or flight cascade complete with racing heart, sweating, shortness of breath, and paralyzing fear, unleashes. You see, feel, think danger. If you then hear your friend’s voice from those footsteps, what happens? All of this dissipates and you may even laugh. What has changed? Your perception. You told your body that it is safe. And your body reflected that.
I recently read Mutant Message Down Under, the story (fact or fiction) of an American doctor who spends three months (somewhat involuntarily) in the bush with Australian aboriginals. In one particularly powerful scene, a tribesman suffers a compound fracture of his leg.
After a ritual that involves chanting and the application of a clotted blood salve, the man walks on his leg the next day and even the wound heals completely within five.
I thought – what if we believed in the body’s spontaneous healing potential? We know the body can heal itself, but what if we have been interfering with it for so many decades – with Tylenol, antibiotics, steroids, and the like, that we have shifted expectations for just how rapidly and completely it can do so?
What if we were raised in a culture that believed more in the vital power of the body to heal, even spontaneously, rather than in one that believes we need man-made chemicals to outsmart it?
A contemporary example of this was carried out at Harvard Medical School where 12 patients with fractures were randomized to treatment as usual with xray studies over 12 weeks. One group was guided in healing hypnosis and the other wasn’t. The hypnotized group healed 2.5 weeks faster, according to a blinded radiologist, than the non-hypnotized group.
Then there are the patients at UC Davis, undergoing spinal surgery who had 45% less blood loss when they practiced a brief pre-surgical visualization technique. Mind-set matters.
Placebo: Friend or Foe?
Once we shift our beliefs and our energetic focus, our reality begins to reflect these beliefs.
In medicine, the study of this phenomenon is called the Placebo Effect. Dismissed as a nuisance confounder in primary clinical research, it is a poorly understood but very powerful factor. So powerful that sometimes the only information that comes out of a sophisticated and expensive trial is clear support for the power of belief in symptom resolution.
In an effort to acknowledge the legitimacy of this phenomenon, the NEJM reports:
“Placebo effects rely on complex neurobiologic mechanisms involving neurotransmitters (e.g., endorphins, cannabinoids, and dopamine) and activation of specific, quantifiable, and relevant areas of the brain (e.g., prefrontal cortex, anterior insula, rostral anterior cingulate cortex, and amygdala in placebo analgesia).”
There’s even data looking at outcomes of belief. In one of my favorite studies took 84 hotel attendants with cleaning responsibilities and told half of them that their daily work satisfied the Surgeon General’s recommendations for an active lifestyle as exercise. They told the other half nothing.
“As a result, compared with the control group, they showed a decrease in weight, blood pressure, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, and body mass index. These results support the hypothesis that exercise affects health in part or in whole via the placebo effect.”
The brilliant Bruce Lipton, who has worked to awaken us to the reality of our beliefs as the most important factor in our health and wellness, and to decentralize the deterministic gene-based model, states:
“The placebo effect should be the subject of major, funded research efforts. If medical researchers could figure out how to leverage the placebo effect, they would hand doctors an efficient, energy-based, side-effect-free tool to treat disease.”
This principle is never more relevant than in Psychiatry.
With no objective tests for diagnosis or progress, psychiatry is the arena of opinion, belief, and subjectivity. Prospective patients are literally conditioned to believe in their broken brains that need chemical adjustments by Direct to Consumer advertising, legal only in this country and New Zealand. They form beliefs about what medications can do for them.
Placebo and Nocebo
In the literature, it is referred to as expectancy. Probably the most powerful demonstration of this was a study entitled The Role of Patient Expectancy in Placebo and Nocebo Effects in Antidepressant Trials . Two fluoxetine (generic Prozac) discontinuation studies including 673 diagnosed depressed outpatients were treated to in an open-label (they knew they were receiving fluoxetine) trial over 12 weeks.
At the 12 week point, all patients were informed that they would be randomized to placebo or continued fluoxetine.
Impressively, participants continued on fluoxetine and those on placebo BOTH developed worsening depressive symptoms suggestive of two significant interpretations:
- The initial effect was attributable to placebo since all patients knewthey were receiving treatment (open label)
- The loss of benefit with the introduction of the possibilityof being randomized to placebo is the undoing of the placebo effect, or the nocebo effect.
This trial was the foundation for my clinical tenet of nonprogression with medication tapers if the patient is fearful. To engage a medication taper in my practice, there are several elements to best outcomes, but the most important one is mindset. I want patients to feel empowered by the changes that they experience through lifestyle modification, and then to approach the taper with enthusiasm about this next chapter in their journey.
There is also a rich body of literature implicating the role of belief in psychiatric symptoms relief that comes from the work of Irving Kirsch. In 1998, Dr. Irving Kirsch, an expert on the placebo effect, published a meta-analysis of 3,000 patients who were treated with antidepressants, psychotherapy, placebo, or no treatment and found that 25% of the therapeutic response was attributable to the drug’s action.
This was followed up by a 2008 review, which invoked the Freedom of Information Act to obtain access to unpublished studies, finding that, when these were included, antidepressants outperformed placebo in only 20 of 46 trials (less than half!), and that the overall difference between drugs and placebos was 1.7 points on the 52 point Hamilton Scale. This small increment is clinically insignificant, and likely accounted for my medication side effects strategically employed (sedation or activation). When active placebos were used (placebos with similar side effects to the active medication), the Cochrane database found that differences between drugs and placebos disappeared, giving credence to the assertion that inert placebos inflate perceived drug effects.
The finding of tremendous placebo effect was also echoed in two different meta-analysis by Khan et al who found a 10% difference between placebo and antidepressant efficacy.
What does this mean?
It means that what we believe can be so powerful that it directly shapes our experience. We have to reclaim our agency in order to reclaim our beliefs. We have to take back an inner sense of knowing, and to feel confident that our own intuition can guide us.
We need to go from believing this:
- We are broken
- Fear is an appropriate response to symptoms
- We need chemicals to feel better
- Science knows the definitive answer
- The body is a collection of gears and levers
To believing this:
- Prevention and disease remission are possible
- Your health is under your control
- Working with lifestyle medicine is an effective way to send the body a signal of safety and to engage vitalism – your body’s natural desire for balance
- Your journey is your journey for a reason
You have the choice to fear and stop living life like it is a minefield of infections, cancer, and random onset of predestined diseases that require urgent pharmaceutical attention. Choose to identify the beliefs that are keeping you sick. Change them. Heal.
“In fact, I am certain, there has never been a doctor anywhere, at any time, in any country, at any period in history who has ever healed anything. Each person’s healer is within.”
– Mutant Message Down Under
Featured Image Source: CHRIS JOELCAMPBELL
Thyroid Cancer Epidemic of Overdiagnosis
Thyroid Cancer Epidemic of Overdiagnosis
Written By: Dr. Jeffrey Dach, MD
Originally published on JeffreyDachMD.com.
The last 40 years have shown triple the incidence of thyroid cancer in women, yet the mortality rate has remained the same. Why are physicians so quick to diagnose women with thyroid cancer?
American Idol Alum Jax Cole
The American Idol finalist Alum Jax Cole announced that she underwent thyroid surgery in April after discovering a “lump in her neck”. She is now receiving radiation treatments, presumably radioactive iodine (I-131), after the finding of thyroid cancer at surgery.(1-3)
An Epidemic of Overdiagnosis of Thyroid Cancer In Women
According to Dr Gilbert Welch in 2014 Otolaryngology, there is an epidemic of overdiagnosis of thyroid cancer in young women.(4)
Since 1975, the incidence of thyroid cancer in women has more than tripled from 6.5 to 21.4 per 100,000 women, mostly from papillary cancer.
However, the “mortality rate from thyroid cancer was stable between 1975 and 2009 (approximately 0.5 deaths per 100 000).”
In other words, mortality from thyroid cancer did not increase, even though the incidence tripled. If this was real cancer, one would expect increase in mortality numbers. There was none.
Dr Welch concludes:
“There is an ongoing epidemic of thyroid cancer in the United States. The epidemiology of the increased incidence, however, suggests that it is not an epidemic of disease but rather an epidemic of diagnosis. The problem is particularly acute for women, who have lower autopsy prevalence of thyroid cancer than men but higher cancer detection rates by a 3:1 ratio.”
Above Chart shows thyroid cancer rising incidence females (GREEN Arrow), while thyroid cancer mortality is unchanged (flat line RED Arrow). Chart courtesy of Davies, Louise, and H. Gilbert Welch. (4) “Current thyroid cancer trends in the United States.” JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery 140.4 (2014): 317-322.
Dr Robert Udelsman reported in Thyroid 2014, on”The Epidemic of Thyroid Cancer in the United States”. (16) He says:
“The increased detection of thyroid cancer results in surgery and radioactive thyroid treatment that may be of limited benefit.”
“The autopsy prevalence rate of occult thyroid cancer in the Finnish population is 35.6%, suggesting that thyroid cancer is both common and clinically insignificant for the vast majority of individuals”
“It is likely that the majority of diagnosed thyroid cancer patients will not benefit from surgical and/or adjuvant interventions. “
Pathologists: Many Thyroid Cancers Should be Reclassified
Dr Nikiforov writes in JAMA Oncology 2016 that many thyroid cancers are really not cancer and should be reclassified.(6) An example is the encapsulated follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma. These cases are treated as having conventional thyroid cancer, yet they are not really cancer, Dr Nikiforov says this type of pathology does not require radioactive iodine after surgery.
In 2016, Dr Lester Thompson reviews 94 cases of thyroid cancer with the pathology diagnosis of “Encapsulated follicular papillary thyroid carcinoma”. (17) Because of the indolent nature, they recommended changing the pathology classification to “Noninvasive Follicular Thyroid Neoplasm” Dr Lester Thompson went on to say: These are “exceedingly indolent tumors, best managed conservatively by lobectomy or thyroidectomy alone, without radioablative iodine or suppression therapy.”(17)
Thyroid Cancer: What are the Drivers of Overdiagnosis:
1) Advent of High Resolution Ultrasound imaging and thyroid screening programs which detect ever smaller “abnormalities”.
2) Commercial and professional vested interests. Hospitals make more money if they do more thyroid biopsies, thyroidectomies, and radioactive iodine treatments. Thyroidectomy creates a patient on thyroid medicine for life.
3) Conflicted panels such as the American Thyroid Association, and the Endocrine Society write guidelines that expand disease definitions and encourage overdiagnosis.
4) Malpractice Litigation punishes underdiagnosis but not overdiagnosis.
5) Health system incentives encourage more testing and more treatment.
6) Cultural beliefs that more is better; faith in early detection unmodified by its risks. (12) Paraphrased from Ray Moynihan. “Preventing overdiagnosis how to stop harming the healthy .” Bmj (2012).
Medical Iatrogenesis in Women
Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman states very clearly, “there is a tradition in U.S. medicine of excessive medical and surgical interventions on women”.(14)
Over-Diagnosis of “Hysteria” in Women.
Perhaps one of the early examples of medical iatrogenesis in women occurred in the 1800’s in Paris with the over-diagnosis of “Hysteria” by Dr Charcot Dr. Martin Charcot of the Paris hospital La Salpetriere diagnosed, ten “Hysterical” women each day, The number of women diagnosed as “Hysteria” increased 17-fold from from 1% in 1841 to 17% in 1883.(13,14)
DES Diethyl-Stilbestrol
A more recent historical example of medical iatrogenesis in women is the 1938 story of DES (Diethylstilbestrol) the first synthetic hormone replacement drug. This carcinogenic monster hormone was approved by the FDA and given to millions of women from 1940 until it was banned in 1975 because it was shown carcinogenic. The first report of cervical cancer in the daughters of DES treated women was published in April 1971 in the New England Journal of Medicine.(15)
Premarin
Our next example of medical iatrogenesis in women is Premarin, a horse estrogen isolated from the urine of pregnant horses. Available since FDA approval in 1942, Premarin has caused an estimated 15,000 cases of endometrial cancer, representing the largest epidemic of serious iatrogenic disease ever reported.(15) One might think this would be the end of any drug. However Premarin was promptly rehabilitated with the addition of another synthetic hormone, a progestin, to prevent endometrial cancer. Thus, in 1995, Prempro was born, a synthetic hormone pill containing both Premarin (the horse estrogen) and Provera (the progestin). Again, this was FDA approved, thought safe and handed out freely to millions of women.
Prempro
Our next example of medical iatrogenesis in women is Prempro , the combination of Premarin with Provera (medroxyprogersterone) found to cause breast cancer and heart disease. Four large scale studies showed increased breast cancer and heart disease from this estrogen-progestin combination pill. The Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project, published in 2000, showed an eight fold increase in breast cancer for estrogen-progestin users.(15) The Swedish Record Review, published in 1996, had a fourfold increase in breast cancer with progestin use.(15) The Million Woman study, published in Lancet in 2003, had a fourfold increase in breast cancer for estrogen-progestin combination users compared to estrogen alone users.(15) Finally in 2002, JAMA published the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), an NIH funded study terminated early because of increased breast cancer and heart disease in the estrogen-progestin users.(15) Incredibly, the medical system is still dispensing this discredited drug to women.
SSRI Antidepressants Shown to be No More Effective Than Placebo
The next example medial iatrogeneiss in women is SSRI antidepressant drugs that were shown to have little benefit for patients with mild to moderate depression. The benefits of SSRI drugs are equivalent to placebo pills.(15). Adverse side effects include sexual dysfunction, movement disorders, increased suicidality, mania and violence and withdrawal effects. In spite of this, the discredited SSRI drugs are still being dispensed freely to millions of women.
Mistreatment of Women by the Medical System – Excessive Hysterectomies
The National Women’s Health Network has written extensively on the overuse of hysterectomies. Ernst Bartsich, M.D., a surgeon at Cornell in New York. says ” Of the 617,000 hysterectomies performed annually, “from 76 to 85 percent” may be unnecessary. “(CNN) Thus representing another example of mistreatment of women by the medical system.(15)
More Discredited Treatments Used on Women:
Radical Mastectomy: A disfiguring operation which provided no benefit compared to lesser procedures such as lumpectomy.
Bone Marrow Transplantation for Breast Cancer: Which was abandoned when studies showed it offered no benefit.(Welch BMJ 2002)
Kyphoplasty for Osteoporotic Fracture: Was discredited when studies found no benefit compared to a sham procedure
Arthroscopy for Osteoarthritis: Was abandoned after studies found no benefit compared to conservative treatment.
Screening mammograms: For under 50 age women offers more harm than benefit.
Conclusion:
Drs Welch, Udelsman, Nikiforov and Moynihan have come forward to alert the public to the “Epidemic of Overdiagnosis of Thyroid Cancer”, a form of medical iatrogenesis in young women. Since Alum Jax Cole’s pathology report was not made public, we don’t know if her particular case was overdiagnosis.
Based on the epidemiology data alone, many young women with thyroid cancer are overdiagnosed. How many? For every 43 women diagnosed with thyroid cancer, one (2.3%) will die from metastatic thyroid cancer, and the other 42 (97.7%) will eventually die from other causes. About 1,070 women die from thyroid cancer annually. This number has not changed over 30 years in spite of aggressive detection and treatment. For comparison, about 41,000 women die from breast cancer annually.
Update August 2016: Autopsy studies do not mirror the increasing incidence of thyroid cancer, again indicating a problem with overdiagnosis (23):
“the observed increasing incidence (of thyroid cancer) is not mirrored by prevalence within autopsy studies and, therefore, is unlikely to reflect a true population-level increase in tumorigenesis. This strongly suggests that the current increasing incidence of iDTC most likely reflects diagnostic detection increasing over time. ” (23) by L. Furuya-Kanamori, Prevalence of Differentiated Thyroid Cancer in Autopsy Studies Over Six Decades: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2016.
Articles with Related Interest:
For evidence-based, natural health information on Thyroid Cancer, visit the GreenMedInfo.com Research Dashboard.
References
Dr. Jeffrey Dach, MD, is the founder and Medical Director of a clinic in Davie, Florida specializing in bioidentical hormones, natural thyroid and natural medicine called TrueMedMD. To see his full Curriculum Vitae visit his website here.
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Cures Depression, Reduces Every Pain and Works Anti Inflammatory
Cures Depression, Reduces Every Pain and Works Anti Inflammatory
The primary devices that stop and direct the development of free radicals are the antioxidants in our body.
The turmeric is the most famous spice hat is utilized as a part of the culinary specialties. However, it is additionally an inescapable element of distinctive cures that have incredible impact on our wellbeing.
This spice consists of 300 antioxidants, and in view of that, we give you this recipe of turmeric juice in powder. The beverage that you get fills in as a multi drink.
Ingredients:
- 1 teaspoon of turmeric in powder
- 2 lemons
- 1 piece of ginger (5 cm)
- 1 cucumber
- 5 carrots
- 1 orange
Peel the orange, lemon, ginger and carrots. Blend every one of the ingredients in a blender, you can add ice in the event that you need to, and you can drink it at any time.
The turmeric juice eases the pain caused by arthritis, in light of the fact that it consists of the antioxidants that relax the rigidity and wrist inflammation.
As it is realized that the free radicals can bring about numerous diseases of which the most widely recognized is cancer. The turmeric juice is an effective counteractive action for ovaries, large intestine, prostate and breast cancer.
The beverage has the ability to decrease the flatulence, gastritis and heartburn. The turmeric can be taken in powder, with a teaspoon of it in a coffee. The turmeric juice manages the cholesterol levels, takes care of the blood vessels and heart, working precautionary on the cardiovascular diseases.
Linus Pauling Heart Disease Prevention with Vitamin C
Linus Pauling Heart Disease Prevention with Vitamin C
Posted on: Tuesday, December 27th 2016 at 8:45 am
Written By: Anonymous
Originally published on JeffreyDachMD.com.
Mainstream medicine may laugh, but this Vitamin C protocol could be the key to a healthy heart.
The Steam Roller is Not Joking
I once had a conversation with a cardiologist friend of mine in which I casually mentioned the Linus Pauling Theory of heart disease, and the subsequent idea that a non-toxic nutritional supplement program with vitamin C and a few amino acids could prevent and reverse heart disease. The response from my cardiologist friend was hearty laughter that anyone would even suggest such a nonsensical idea, and surely you must be joking?
My cardiologist friend and the rest of the mainstream medical system has no clue about the steamroller coming to health care aiming right at the huge profits from diagnosis and treatment of heart disease, a multi billion dollar industry in the US.
The Cardiac Cath Lab and Cardiac Bypass Surgery Program will be flattened, the first casualties of the internet medical information revolution providing information about a safe and cheap supplement program to reverse heart disease called the Linus Pauling Protocol. Time has come for the old dinosaurs to go. In the near future, thanks to Linus Pauling, heart disease will become a curiosity of the past, like the disappearance of gastric ulcers after the invention of antacids and antibiotics.
The Linus Pauling Protocol – Vitamin C
Vitamin C and Collagen
Vitamin C is required to make a protein called collagen. The lack of Vitamin C is a deficiency disease called Scurvy.
Why is Collagen Important ?
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body. It is the structural protein used to make connective tissues, bones, teeth, hair, and arteries. Strong collagen is important for a strong body.
Vitamin C Deficiency Results in Poor Lysine Crosslinking on Collagen
Vitamin C is required for strong collagen. How does this work? Vitamin C is required for lysyl hydroxylase, an enzyme responsible for attaching the lysine residues together on adjacent collagen strands. (see diagram below) Vitamin C deficiency results in weakened collagen strands caused by disrupted lysine crosslinking. The resulting weakened collagen results in a widespread problems in the connective tissues, bones, teeth, skin, hair, arteries, etc.
Steps in Collagen Synthesis
How are the fibrils crosslinked? This is done with Lysine residues (see below diagram)
Fibril Cross Linking with Lysine and Lysyl Oxydase (see diagram below):
Above image courtesy of wikimedia commons lysyl oxidase.
Above image courtesy of wikimedia commons lysyl oxidase.
Next image (below) shows three steps in attachment of two fibrils (collagen strands) by combining two lysine molecules with the help of an enzyme lysine hydroxylase which requires vitamin C.
Full Blown Scurvy – Collagen Falls Apart
In the full blown Vitamin C deficiency disease called Scurvy, the structural elements of the body literally fall apart. Collagen is broken down and not replaced. The joints wear out, the small arteries begin to crack and degenerate, the skin shows easy bruising and bleeding as small vessels rupture throughout the body, and the teeth may loosen and fall out.
Linus Pauling: Heart Disease is a Chronic Scurvy Condition
Linus Pauling was unquestionably the greatest scientist of the twentieth century. All of modern biochemistry and molecular biology chemistry is based on Linus Pauling’s work, especially his discovery and elucidation of the chemical bond. Pauling is the only scientist to be awarded two unshared Nobel prizes. Above image microscopic view of collagen fibers.
Pauling’s later years were devoted to heart disease, and in 1989 he published “A Unified Theory of Human Cardiovascular Disease,” in which he states that atherosclerotic plaques in heart disease are actually part of a repair process, to repair the arterial damage caused by chronic vitamin C deficiency.
In essence, Pauling said that heart disease is a manifestation of chronic scurvy, and atherosclerotic plaque is a mechanism evolved to repair or patch blood vessels and arteries damaged by chronic vitamin C deficiency. Linus Pauling also said that atherosclerotic plaque formation can be prevented or reversed with vitamin C, lysine and proline. These are nutritional supplements available at any health food store for a few dollars.
Atherosclerotic Plaques Contain LipoProtein (a)
Plaque deposits found in human aortas are made up of a form of cholesterol called lipoprotein (a) also called Lp(a).
Atherosclerotic Plaques Are Found at Maximal Mechanical Stress
Atherosclerotic plaques are not found randomly distributed throughout the arterial tree, rather distribution is restricted to sites of high mechanical stress such as bifurcations, and areas of motion such as the surface of the heart (coronary arteries). In the early 1950’s, a Canadian, G. C. Willis, MD, made these same observations, and they have been confirmed by 60 years of coronary and peripheral arteriography at major medical centers.(1-4)
Exposed Lysine Crosslinks from Damaged Collagen is Site of LipoProtein (a) attachment and Plaque Formation
Imagine stepping on your garden hose a thousand times a day. You will soon notice cracks in the wall of the garden hose. This is the same process that happens in the artery. As these cracks open up, the collagen strands in the wall of the artery are teased apart. The triple helix collagen strands are normally bound together with lysine crosslinks which are now teased apart and exposed to the circulating blood stream.
The Lysine residues look like little flags waving from the damaged collagen strand. The exposed Lysine strands are available for binding to circulating Lipoprotein (a), a special form of cholesterol that has lysine receptors, and is known to increase heart disease risk. This attachment of lipoprotein(a) to the free lysine residues of damaged collagen initiates the atherosclerotic process. Over time, this process builds larger plaque deposits which eventually narrow the inner diameter of the artery causing a blockage, or leads to plaque rupture and thrombosis, a catastrophic event which may cause heart attack or sudden death.
Animal experiments in genetically modified mice which have “knocked out” the lysine binding sites on lipoprotein (a) show a fivefold reduction in atherosclerotic plaque formation.
Can You Make Vitamin C ? No You Can’t
We humans cannot make vitamin C in our liver as all other animals do. We humans had a genetic mutation in our ancestry 50 million years ago which “knocked out” the final enzyme in the hepatic synthesis of vitamin C. The missing enzyme is called GLO (gulano lactone oxidase). Primates such as gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans also share this same GLO mutation and cannot make vitamin C. In adddition all primates share with humans susceptibility to heart disease. Above Image Vitamin C, a simple ring structure similar to glucose, Ascorbate Courtesy of Wikimedia
All Animals Can Make Vitamin C, but the Guinea Pig Can’t
Except for humans and primates, all other animals have the three enzymes in the liver which can synthesize vitamin C from glucose (a simple sugar). One major exception is the guinea pig, which is really a rodent and not a pig, The guinea pig, for some unexplained reason, shares with humans the identical GLO genetic mutation and also lacks the GLO enzyme just like we do. This makes the guinea pig an ideal experimental model for human diseases. By the way, although animals that make vitamin C never get heart disease, the guinea pig which lacks the ability to synthesize vitamin C, also gets heart disease.
Animals That Make Vitamin C, Don’t Get Atherosclerotic Heart Disease
I though this was worth repeating. (note: here I am referring to atherosclerotic vascular heart disease in animals. Dogs and Cats DO succumb to other common types of heart disease such as cardiomyopathy and heart worm etc.)
Animals That Don’t Make Vitamin C, Do Get Atherosclerotic Heart Disease
This should be starting to become clear now.
Animal Scientific Support for the Pauling Unified Theory
As mentioned above, guinea pigs are especially well suited to study atherosclerosis because guinea pigs are unable to make their own vitamin C, and in addition, they develop atherosclerotic plaques similar to those found in humans.
G. C. Willis, a Canadian doctor, conducted research with guinea pigs in the 1950’s showing that guinea pigs deprived of dietary vitamin C developed atherosclerotic plaques, while guinea pigs given plentiful vitamin C were protected. In addition,guinea pigs fed a vitamin C deficient diet had elevated Lipoprotein (a) levels along with the increased atherosclerotic plaque formation in the arteries.(1-4)
Similar findings were demonstrated in genetically engineered mice lacking the GLO enzyme. The GLO deficient mice fed a vitamin C deficient diet developed atherosclerotic plaques in the aorta with characteristic deranged collagen crosslinking. GLO deficient mice fed vitamin C were protected. (link)
Human Studies Supporting the Linus Pauling Theory
Optometrist, Dr. Sydney Bush’s retinal artery observations support the Pauling theory. Using modern equipment to non-invasively photograph the retinal arteries of the eye before and after Vitamin C supplementation in humans, Dr. Bush has documented reversal of atherosclerotic plaque with Vitamin C supplementation.(link) Unfortunately, Dr Sidney Bush’s discoveries were not well received. His optometry license was revoked in 1993. Dr Bush’s slide presentation at a 2013 medical meeting can be viewed here.
Why no drug company sponsored double blind placebo controlled studies? Since there are no patents involved for natural supplements, and no drugs involved, no drug company would ever invest the 250 million dollars to fund such a study with no potential for financial return.
The Physician’s Health Study – Don’t Waste Your Money On Vitamins !!
Using public funds, the NIH (National Institute of Health) funded a large study called The Physicians’ Health Study II which evaluated Vitamins C and E in heart disease and was published Nov. 9, 2008 in JAMA by Howard D. Sesso.(21) The study found that Vitamin C and E did not prevent mortality from heart disease, results which are completely opposite to massive previously published research and anecdotal case reports.
A closer look shows a few glaring errors in study design. The Linus Pauling Protocol was not followed. The dosage of vitamin C was set too low, at one tenth the dosage recommended by the Linus Pauling protocol, and lysine was not provided. While the Sesso study showed no mortality benefit, many previous studies such as the Enstrom Study showed a striking 40% reduction in all-cause mortality over 6 years from the same 500 mg daily vitamin C dosage. The Paul Knecht study showed a 25% reduction in Heart Disease risk with daily 700 mg Vitamin C. Two previous studies from Japan and Finland showed that Vitamin C reduces risk for stroke, another atherosclerotic disease. There are many more like these.
Since favorable results would be financially destructive to the drug and hospital industries, a cynic might suggest that vested interests were at work in Sesso’s study intending to discredit vitamin C (as documented many times in the past with examples of corporate influence in medical research). (21) It is not difficult to design a medical study to fail. I regard this as merely another example of the information war waged by corporate mainstream medicine against natural medicine.
Enstrom Study, 500 mg Vitamin C Reduces Mortality 40% over 6 years
Enstrom showed that increasing vitamin C intake had a dramatic 40% reduction in mortality benefit which exceeds any statin drug study ever conducted.(23)
Linus Pauling Protocol For Prevention and Reversal of Plaque
If heart disease is chronic scurvy, caused by chronic vitamin C deficiency, then it makes sense to supplement with vitamin C in the amounts needed to make strong collagen and prevent arterial damage from mechanical stress.
In addition, Pauling devised a clever yet simple method to address the issue of Lipoprotein (a) attaching to the lysine residues on the damaged collagen fibers in the arterial wall. He recommended supplementing with 2-4 grams of lysine per day. The additional lysine in the blood stream attaches to the receptor sites on the lipoprotein (a) molecules, inactivating the lipoprotein(a) and preventing it from attaching to the arterial wall. This prevents the initiation of the atherosclerotic process. In addition, Vitamin C and Lysine are both important precursors for building strong collagen which makes strong arteries. In addition to Lysine, some of the collagen cross-linking is done with another amino acid called Proline, so proline was also added to the treatment protocol.
Where to Read About the Linus Pauling Protocol:
Owen Fonorow is perhaps the single most dedicated person devoted to the 1992 Linus Pauling Protocol for prevention and reversal of heart disease.(link) A patent for the Linus Pauling Protocol was issued in 1994.(link) In 1996, a CAT scan coronary calcium score study validated the protocol showing a 15% reversal of calcification indicating reversal of coronary artery disease.(link) Another excellent book on the subject of Vitamin C and heart disease is, Stop America’s #1 Killer by Thomas Levy MD, JD. 2006 (left image). To read more on the Linus Pauling Protocol, see this short four page booklet by Owen Fonorow.(link) Or, read this excellent article by English and Cass.(link)
What is the Linus Pauling Protocol?
L-Ascorbate (Vitamin C) 5-6 grams a day in divided doses
L-Lysine 5 grams a day in divided doses
L-Proline 2-3 grams a day in divided doses
Tocotrienols Vitamin E 200 mg /d
These supplements can be obtained at any the health food store as tablets or capsules for 40 to 50 dollars a month.
Tower Labs Ascorcine 9
A convenient powder containing all the combined ingredients for the Linus Pauling Protocol is called Ascorsine 9 and from Tower Laboratories. This is a good choice for anyone serious about preventing heart disease looking for an easy product with everything in it.
Vitamin E, Good or Bad, Yes or No, Blessing or Curse?
Steve Hickey and Hilary Roberts come right out on page 167 of their book, and make the statement, “Vitamin C and Tocotrienols can reverse coronary artery disease”. They would add the Tocotrienol form of Vitamin E to the Linus Pauling Protocol. Regarding heart disease, and atherosclerotic vascular disease, the authors state that “on the available evidence, the combination of Vitamin C and Tocotrienols could be curative with no known harmful effects.”
Opposition to the Linus Pauling Protocol by Mainstream Medicine
If you are facing the prospects of coronary artery bypass surgery (below image), you might ask the obvious question: Why hasn’t my cardiologist told me about this information and started me on the Linus Pauling Protocol?
Most cardiologists either don’t know about it or ignore it because of the information war going on between mainstream medicine and natural medicine. Cardiologists read medical journals which regularly run incorrect and biased articles saying Vitam
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.
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