Newsletter v2n9

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not been discovered." Emerson

The DOCTOR YOURSELF (SM) NEWSLETTER Vol 2, No 9 March 10, 2002 "Free of charge, free of advertising, and free of the A.M.A." Written by Andrew Saul, PhD. of http://www.doctoryourself.com , a free online library of over 300 natural healing articles with nearly 4,000 scientific references.

LANDMARK ANTI-VACCINATION DECISION IN NEW YORK In many states including New York, it has always been relatively simple to attend school without ANY shots if you have a religious exemption. (http://doctoryourself.com/vaccination.html and http://doctoryourself.com/vaccin_2.html ) But what about parents of children that are already partially immunized, and change their mind? They have been often been denied a religious exemption due to health department or school officials' claims that their religious beliefs are not "sincerely held" since they have already had vaccinations prior to their new request for religious exemption.

In January, 2002, U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Telesca wrote an important precedent-setting decision: "This court may not pass on the wisdom of belief, nor on the manner upon which she came to hold that belief, provided that she maintains a sincere and genuine religious objection to immunization." In other words, once a person decides, for reasons of religious conscience, that they do not want any more shots, their decision is valid even if they previously had their child immunized.

The case is also important because the family in question was devoutly Roman Catholic. The Vatican is not opposed to vaccination. This decision allows individual members of a mainstream church organization to hold personal spiritual beliefs in addition to their church's official doctrine.

What's more, the family had previously sought, and been denied, a medical exemption from vaccination. The judge's ruling renders this point irrelevant.

(Tokasz, J (2002) Judge forces school to accept girl. Rochester, NY Democrat and Chronicle, Thurs Jan 31, p B-1)

Much more on the compulsive immunization controversy is posted at these excellent sites: http://doctoryourself.com/informed_consent.html http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/Feb_8_02/Scandal3.htm http://www.vaccinationnews.com http://www.whale.to/vaccines.html http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm http://www.909shot.com http://www.thinktwice.com http://www.redflagsweekly.com http://www.vaccines.bizland.com/ http://www.vaccination.inoz.com/about.html http://www.avn.org.au/

VITAMIN MYTH # 205: "Vitamins ought to be regulated as drugs, because they have pharmacological effects at high doses."

No, vitamins are foods. Specifically, vitamins are usually coenzymes. They are necessary for basic life functions. Drugs are different. Basic bodily functions do not require drugs. Metabolism may be affected by drugs, but bodies were metabolizing long before drugs were cooked up. Metabolism IS vitamin dependent. Without vitamins, you die.

Drugs are vastly more dangerous than vitamins. (http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v1n1.html ) Drugs are vastly more expensive. And drugs are vastly LESS versatile. Niacin can lower cholesterol, relieve anxiety, stop psychotic behavior, AND cure nutritional deficiency (pellagra). Thiamin can rebuild damaged myelin on the nerve fibers of MS patients ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/calcdef.html ) AND cure beriberi. Vitamin C is an antibiotic, antiviral and antihistamine, AND cures scurvy in its spare time. In all these cases, the difference is the dose. It is in the high dosages that vitamins have effectiveness against diseases. There is no drug can cure a nutritional deficiency.

Vitamins can work as drugs, but drugs can never work as vitamins.

The pharmaceutical industry stands to gain bigtime by eliminating your free access to megavitamins, their biggest competitor. Read on:

DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS RESTRICTED IN NEW ZEALAND by Robert Anderson, PhD Member, Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Genetics http://www.psrg.org.nz

As people begin to realize they can cure most of their maladies without resort to the sometimes dreadful, even fatal, side-effects of prescription drugs they are becoming reliant on dietary supplements; vitamins. [Doctor Yourself Newsletter for Feb 10, 2002, Vol 2, No 7] The pharmaceutical giants, realizing they are losing around US $6 billion annually from this growing trade have made firm moves to "plug the leak." Down under in New Zealand, a wonderful range of supplements has always been readily available to the public off-the-shelf, or from America via Internet.

But in November 2001, our government dropped a bombshell. Natural health remedies will be regulated as medicines. Furthermore, under "Free Trade" and "Harmonization" agreements, Australia will now be controlling New Zealand vitamin approvals through the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), known to be more draconian than the FDA. Since 1991 they have approved only 20 new supplements, about seven annually. At this rate, it will take over ten years just to clear the backlog of applications.

We have 1,524 dying per year from adverse drug reactions (still well behind our American friends at about 106,000 per year[1]), and there has not been a single death from a dietary supplement.

Putting our vitamins under the "Medicines Act" is a move undoubtedly "advised" by those in the pockets of the pharmaceutical corporations. For the poor, this is outrageous. They would be forced to pay doctor and prescription charges for their vitamins.

It not only represents a sad day for New Zealanders, but is further evidence of the erosion of all of our democratic rights in favour of corporate control. It is the very same politics, economics and logic that are behind the global pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry that have created so much poverty and environmental degradation all over the planet.

The World Health Organization recently said: "Clearly, without strict safety regulations, dangerous herbal preparations are reaching consumers." Perhaps that should read, "Clearly, even with so-called strict safety regulations, dangerous pharmaceutical preparations are not only reaching consumers, they are successfully killing hundreds of thousands of them every year."

Reference: 1. Lazarou J, Pomeranz BH, and Corey PN "Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospital patients: a meta-analysis of prospective studies" Journal of the American Medical Association. 1998.

(Editor's Note: Dr. Anderson is right on the money. See for yourself what Australia thinks of vitamins with a site search right at the ol' TGA itself at http://www.health.gov.au/tga/search.htm Try "megavitamin" and you will get almost one (ha!) result. Try "vitamin" and you will see how medically-fixated the Aussie ruling class has become.)

More information on how it could happen, or IS ALREADY HAPPENING, in your country is posted at http://www.iahf.com/index1.html (scroll down the left side column for "CODEX") http://doctoryourself.com/news/v1n4.txt http://doctoryourself.com/news/v1n22.txt

READERS SAY: A British reader writes: "Last year I had an abscess which burst, was operated on and then turned into a fistula. After a couple of months the fistula hadn't healed so, of course, the surgeons wanted to do what they do: Cut. Anyway, I did a huge trawl on the Net for alternatives, found your article ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/homeopathy.html ), canceled my hospital appointment and took the homeopathic remedy Silicea.

"That was in October, at the beginning of January, I had a very disappointed specialist. The fistula has healed, and there is no evidence of it, even with an internal exam.

"Thought you would like to know, and thank you for posting the article."

You're most welcome. The IRS says that while it is against the law to EVADE paying taxes, it is perfectly legal for citizens to AVOID paying taxes. Of course there are circumstances where surgery is indicated and must be faced. In that case, denial would be to attempt to evade it. While waiting for surgery for a non-life-threatening condition, there is no rule preventing you from trying to avoid needing an operation. Congratulations!

BEDWETTING is a frequent topic request. I am currently assembling an article on natural methods that can help. If your family has successfully dealt with this problem in the past, please drop me an email at doctoryourself.com/contact.html and share your experience.

Spring is coming, and it's time to get back to the land.

MAKE YOUR OWN HERBAL REMEDY FOR SORE MUSCLES http://www.doctoryourself.com/achespains.html

IT'S COUGHING TIME AGAIN. Coltsfoot tea to the rescue! http://www.doctoryourself.com/coughing.html

COMFREY ROOT FOR CANCER? http://www.doctoryourself.com/comfrey_herb.html

CABBAGE FOR ULCERS and other G.I. PROBLEMS http://www.doctoryourself.com/rectal.html

CIDER VINEGAR CAN BE GOOD FOR WHAT AILS YOU I've been getting a lot of questions on this lately. About the work of D. C. Jarvis, M.D.: http://www.doctoryourself.com/honey.html Inflammation: http://www.doctoryourself.com/laryngitis.html Arthritis: http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v2n1.txt

NOT ALL THAT GROWS FROM THE GROUND IS HEALTHY http://www.smokefreemovies.ucsf.edu/ourads/ad_inbedroom_nyt.html

READERS ASK: Mike Grudzien writes: "I'm a grateful subscriber to your newsletter and a big eater of salads. Sometimes, I'll put about 2 cups of salad in the blender with juice and set it to liquefy and drink it. But I've been told that steaming actually makes the vitamins and nutrients more digestible and bio-available. I thought that steaming is OK, or even good, but not better than raw. Second question: If put my salad in a blender and liquefy and immediately drink it, then I'm getting the juice and the fiber. Is juice and fiber better than just juice? What's the real low-down?"

Steaming is good; raw is usually better, juiced is best. Any vegetable that can be eaten raw is best eaten raw, or juiced. Blended salads do have the advantage of much more fiber, but most folks would not particularly care for the resulting raw "baby-food"-like product. Here's how-to instructions from the great naturopath Christopher Gian-Cursio:

BLENDED SALAD 1 each small tomato, red or green pepper 1/2 small cucumber juice of 1/2 lemon or lime 5-6 leaves romaine lettuce 3-4 stalks fresh fennel or celery Place cut up pieces of tomato, pepper and cucumber along with lemon juice into blender. Blend until smooth and liquid. Add romaine leaves one at a time. Add celery or fennel; blend additional 2-3 minutes. (The consistency depends upon personal taste; some like it smooth and watery, others thick and crunchy.)

This tastes better than it sounds, but for persons with gastrointestinal disorders, it has only to be tried to be immediately appreciated.

Newsletter Ideas? To submit a question or suggest a topic for the newsletter, email me at doctoryourself.com/contact.html

AN IMPORTANT NOTE: This newsletter is not in any way offered as prescription, diagnosis nor treatment for any disease, illness, infirmity or physical condition. Any form of self-treatment or alternative health program necessarily must involve an individual's acceptance of some risk, and no one should assume otherwise. Persons needing medical care should obtain it from a physician. Consult your doctor before making any health decision.

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Copyright c 2002 and prior years Andrew W. Saul Permission to reproduce single copies of this newsletter FOR NON-COMMERCIAL, PERSONAL USE ONLY is hereby granted providing no alteration of content is made and authorship credit is given.