Newsletter v4n1

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." (George Bernard Shaw)

The DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER (Vol. 4, No. 1 December 5, 2003) "Free of charge, free of advertising, and free of the A.M.A."

Written and copyright 2003 by Andrew Saul, PhD, of http://www.doctoryourself.com, an online library of over 350 natural healing articles with nearly 4,000 scientific references. Commercial use of the website or the contents of this Newsletter is strictly prohibited.

IN THIS ISSUE: FIRE YOUR DOCTOR! BREASTFEEDING GOVERNMENT ATTEMPTS TO TAKE AWAY YOUR SUPPLEMENTS CANCER: NUTRITIONAL THERAPIES

WELCOME TO ALL NEW "NEWSLETTER" READERS Glad to have you among our ever-growing, self-reliant cadre of health-homesteaders! My 75 previous Newsletters are archived at http://www.doctoryourself.com/backissues.html, and you can read every one of them there for free.

"DOCTOR YOURSELF" ON THE AIR With the publication of my new book, "DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works" (http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html), I've been on the airwaves a great deal. There has been a terrific response, for http://www.doctoryourself.com website traffic has nearly doubled to close to 15,000 hits a day.

If you'd like to give me a listen, here is a schedule of some of my upcoming radio interviews:

Nov 28: Ohio WKBN (AM 570) "The Dan Rivers Show" 11:00 AM Eastern Time. Dec 1: New York WYBG "North Country Speaks" 8:30 AM Eastern Time Dec 2: Minnesota WJON (AM 1240) "The Midday Show" 10:40 AM Central Time Dec 3: Illinois WDDD (FM 107.3) "Wes and April in the Morning" 9:05 AM Central Time Dec 9: Tennesee WWSR (FM 105.7) "Tony in the Morning" 8:00 AM Eastern Time Dec 9: Pennsylvania WKHB (AM 620) "Doctor on Call" 11:00 AM Eastern Time

To read a newspaper review of "Doctor Yourself: Natural Healing that Works," please look at http://www.journal- register.com/articles/2003/11/12/news/news2.txt .

If you'd like an autographed copy of my new book, directly from me, please go to http://www.doctoryourself.com/order.html .

And here's a sample chapter for you, entitled "Fire Your Doctor":

I FIRED MY FIRST DOCTOR when I was fifteen. I was away at school and experiencing some anxiety symptoms. Without hesitation and without explanation, the school physician gave me a little white envelope containing half a dozen little green capsules. Before leaving the infirmary, I took two of them, as directed. By the time I got to the campus dining hall, I was higher than a kite. I still remember walking over to the table by the window where my roommate and best friend, Dean, always sat. As I approached, he looked at me quizzically. Me, I just smiled. And I mean all I did was smile. Everything was absolutely, positively fine; there are no worries when you are as heavily doped up as I was. Of course I could do nothing but smile in that state. I did not care if I ate and I do not remember if I did; I had no interest in schoolwork, conversation, or anything else, either. Those little green capsules turned out to contain a very powerful tranquilizer. It was odd, really, for the year was 1970, and seemingly every student I knew (except Dean and me) was perpetually in search of any way at all to purchase the kind of high I had just received, legally, entirely paid for by health insurance, and dispensed from the wise hands of the good ol' school doc. I never took a second dose of that tranquilizer. Maybe this is because I was a straight-laced good boy. Maybe. More likely, though, the real reason was because I wanted a healthy life. This was a major realization, a truly big step: I realized that the doctor's treatment was seriously amiss. I never went back to the infirmary.

Firing a doctor need not assume the conventional image of a pink slip and a bootprint on the keester. Rather, to fire your doctor means to not need him, to outgrow her, to decide that the doctor's information is incomplete or wrong, and to determine his skill to be insufficient to bet your life on.

To fire your doctor is to hire yourself as your chief physician.

You probably think you are not up to the job. After all, who are you? You didn't go to medical school. That's true, of course. Neither did I. But consider what the limitations of "medicine" are. Drugs and surgical treatments have always been the focus of medical school. Any physician will confirm that, even today, the rest of the curriculum runs far, far behind. Ask your doctor how many courses in clinical nutrition she has completed. Ask your doctor how many hours of homeopathic medicine, herbal medicine, and orthomolecular medicine he has logged. You are likely to find that those "medicines" aren't even counted worthy of time in the medical school syllabus.

Big mistake. Homeopathy has been successfully practiced by physicians the world over for two hundred years. Homeopaths were giving tiny, nontoxic amounts of natural substances to effect a cure while "regular" doctors were drugging people to a premature death with stiff quantities of arsenic and mercury. Herbal medicine goes back for centuries, when practitioners (mostly women) used plants to heal instead of taking blood by the quart from the arms of anybody unfortunate enough to come within the reach of a surgeon's lancet. If anything, drug-and-cut "medicine" is an alternative to the natural health disciplines- and not a very good alternative at that.

And orthomolecular (megavitamin) medicine? There are tens of thousands of references to support it. I have over 4,000 at my doctoryourself.com website alone. Can all of those successful vitamin-study authors, all those researchers and physicians, be dumber than the reporter you have heard intone that "vitamins may be dangerous and just give you expensive urine"?

Of course not. And far-thinking doctors are beginning to come around to what they were initially taught, and then taught to forget: vis medicatrix naturae: the healing power of nature. They have been led back to this timeless principle by their patients, the majority of which see a natural-health practitioner at least once in a given year. The market favors success, and savvy doctors can see the handwriting on the wall.

Now they are trying to learn "natural health," which they want to call "complimentary medicine" to keep it in their shop. Monopolistic concerns aside, we should focus on this point: your doctor probably doesn't know any more about natural healing than you do... and is likely to know a good deal less. It is a fair race when all parties start at the same time and place. You can learn whatever your doctor learns, just as fast and just as well.

You even have several advantages:

First, you have the Home Team Advantage. Your body is better known to you than Yankee Stadium was to Babe Ruth. You live inside you every minute of every day. You can better monitor and adjust your needs than can anyone else.

Second, you only have to learn what you and your family specifically need to know. You have to study up on your own particular health problems, but you do not have to spend time learning about everyone else's. This makes you a specialist in the same time it will make your new study-buddy doctor a poor generalist.

Third, you have the personal, altruistic advantage: you are doing this for your family. Unlike the doctor, you are working for love and life, not money.

Together, these make one tough starting lineup. This is a very powerful, healthy combination, and it will serve you well.

Whenever you do consult a physician, remember that your doctor works for you and not the other way around. It is your body. You run the show; your doctor is your subcontractor.

In order for this to work, you need to be on an equal footing with your physician. This is where a lot of people balk and are more than willing to sit down, shut up, and behave. To be on a level playing field with your doctor, first you need to read. Knowledge is power. Read like mad about your condition and the alternatives available for it. Search the library and search the Internet, and do not rest until you have the references to back yourself up.

Next, you need to have a workable physician. If your doctor is not providing you with the care you want, there are two possibilities. One: you have a miscommunication, meaning you have not made it sufficiently clear to your doctor what you do in fact want. Two: you have a disagreement, meaning you have made it clear all right, and the physician is not cooperating with you.

Both of these problems are common, though it is far easier to clear up a miscommunication than a disagreement. I am not saying that you should jettison every doctor that does not knuckle under, but you simply must have a baseline agreement, or any attempts to share information will be futile.

Even polite, personable doctors can still be very paternalistic, sweetly telling you to leave the complicated stuff to them. Hogwash. I would not accept that phrase from a mechanic, plumber, or politician. Neither should you, and in this case your life depends on it. Pleasant office or bedside manner is no substitute for thoroughness.

Do not accept vagueness, either. Nail down a deal, and get your doctor to clearly and unequivocally state his or her acceptance of your wishes. If you cannot get such a negotiated agreement, you need to ask yourself, "Exactly what kind of relationship do I have with this person?"

Then, fire your doctor. And do more reading.

To order your autographed copy: http://www.doctoryourself.com/order.html

BRIEF BOOK REVIEW: La Leche League's The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (originally published 1963; latest edition 2004.) Franklin Park, Illinois: La Leche League International http://www.lalecheleague.org .

This book is even more than a wonderful how-to manual of breastfeeding. It is a very well written, reader-friendly guide to most aspects of having a baby, and caring for it from pregnancy through weaning. Full of "common sense" that's all too uncommon, this book gives confidence and facts to the new mother - and new father - who lack experience in breast feeding. An annotated booklist is provided, along with information about the League itself and its services. The drawings are excellent and the book is concise and untechnical. "Special Circumstances" are considered as well as everyday breastfeeding. I think this book is more essential to a baby than diapers.

WOMANLY ART OF BREASTFEEDING ON CASSETTE TAPES I have a (very) few audio book versions of "The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding" (on two cassettes, monaural) available for purchase for $16.00 postage included, USA addresses only. If you are interested, it is necessary that you first email me (doctoryourself.com/contact.html) to reserve a copy.

MORE ON BREASTFEEDING: http://www.doctoryourself.com/pregnancy_lactation.html

BREASTFEEDING PROVIDES IMMUNITY TO YOUR BABY Todd Gastaldo, D.C., todd@chiromotion.com writes:

"Please be sure to tell women that the bodies of breastfeeding women actually scan for pathogens and manufacture immunizations which they "inject" into their infants, through breastfeeding, every day.

"Quoting Hanson and Telemo [1999]: "The improved defense against infection in the breast-fed infant is not just a matter of passive, temporary protection. There is also a definite ACTIVE impact on the breast-fed infant's immune system that makes it function more efficiently in defense against infections and in response to vaccines for years to come." [Hanson and Telemo in Ogra et al. Mucosal Immunology 1999:1501, emphasis added.]

"What woman - explicitly informed that she can immunize her baby daily - is going to pass by an opportunity to give her baby free daily immunizations? I sincerely believe 100% of babies would want me pointing this out."

My children surely benefited from natural breastfeeding immunity, so I know they surely agree. Right on.

US GOVERNMENT TRYING TO RESTRICT YOUR ACCESS TO SUPPLEMENTS

And don't think they can't pull this off; it has already happened in many other countries, including most of Europe, and in Australia. This is serious. If we do not act now, Americans can expect to lose our access to high potency nutrition supplements as well. (http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v3n21.txt)

If passed, a bill known as S. 722 would give one single person, the Secretary of the FDA, dictatorial power to personally decide which supplements will or will not be available to US citizens. (More information on this, including the complete text of the bill, at http://www.doctoryourself.com/limitUSA.htm)

Any patriot will tell you, and a lot of them have, that it is easier to fight to keep a freedom than to lose it and have to fight a whole lot harder to get it back.

Let me illustrate just why we need to put pressure on lawmakers NOW:

SENATOR CLINTON FAILS TO RESPOND TO MY LETTERS

I have written three letters to my senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton. I have received no reply to any of them. No sir, not one reply. I have called her office three times. I was promised written responses. I have received nothing. No ma'am, not one.

Now Senator Clinton is a busy person, I know. She is a member of important committees, has a best selling book, and does a lot of travelling and speaking. But gee, all I want is an answer to one lil' ol' taxpayer's letter. . . on a very important public issue. S. 722, a bill she supports, is poised to take away my right to buy vitamins. Yours, too. I think that is worth a response from my senator. After all, my federal income taxes pay her salary. Yours pay her, too.

Senator Clinton, silence is not the way to respond to your constituents. I want you to oppose S. 722. And since you in fact support that awful bill, I want you to write to me and tell me exactly why you disagree with me.

It's OK: I can handle disagreement. But what I, and voters nationwide, will not accept is silence from a public servant on an issue that is so very important to millions.

Say there, New Yorkers: If you would like to write to Senator Clinton, and see if she will write back to YOU, please go to http://clinton.senate.gov/offices.html

FOR ALL MY READERS: EXACTLY WHAT DOES **YOUR** SENATOR THINK ABOUT S. 722? Which side of the fence is he/she on? Write and ask!

Get your Senators' addresses, and write to them both today. Their addresses are easy to find at http://www.congress.org (or http://congress.org/congressorg/home). You can send an email letter to them directly from that website, but remember this: A SHORT, HANDWRITTEN U.S. POSTAL SERVICE 37- CENT LETTER **ALWAYS** HAS MORE IMPACT. When you write, be sure to request a response.

Please send me a copy of any response you get. Here are some, sent to me by Newsletter readers:

SENATOR GEORGE ALLEN (Virginia, http://allen.senate.gov) states:

"I firmly believe in the right of the American people to determine the relative advantages and disadvantages of using legal nutritional products. The federal government should not dictate to a free people what they can or cannot purchase. I also believe, however, that the government plays an important role in keeping the public informed of the negative effects of certain supplements and regulating those that pose extreme health risks. When it is discovered that a certain supplement has exceedingly dangerous consequences, especially when children often use the substance, we must ensure the protection, safety and security of the American consumer.

"As you may know, a bill has been introduced in the Senate - S. 722 - that would require manufacturers of dietary supplements to submit reports on adverse experiences with dietary supplements to the Food and Drug Administration. This bill would restrict health choices and increase the costs of health care. While I am working diligently to provide access to dietary supplements, public health and public choice should not be compromised under any circumstances."

"Sincerely, "George Allen"

Doctor Yourself Newsletter comment:

Well, Senator, you seem to lean our way but it is not 100% clear just where you actually stand. Will you in fact vote against 722, or not?

SENATOR KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON (Texas, http://hutchison.senate.gov) comments:

"It is estimated that over half of all Americans use dietary supplements such as vitamins, minerals or herbs. To ensure these products are safe, Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) in 1994, which enables the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to issue and enforce regulations governing how a product is manufactured, labeled and marketed. The FDA can also stop the sale of supplements found to pose an imminent public health hazard.

"This legislation has helped consumers by providing more comprehensive information on product labels, permitting warning statements and requiring stringent quality control. As Congress considers legislation regarding the sale of dietary supplements, you can be certain I am committed to ensuring consumers have access to products that meet the highest quality and safety standards."

"Kay Bailey Hutchison"

Doctor Yourself Newsletter comment:

Senator, your answer is a study in doublespeak. Your have your facts straight, but that last "quality and safety standards" statement tells me that you will vote for more FDA control. Are my supplements to be controlled by the opinions of the FDA Secretary? Will you oppose S. 722, or not?

For more ANTI-VITAMIN LAW INFORMATION and updates, you may want to look at http://www.laleva.cc/ http://www.friendsoffreedom.org http://www.thenhf.com/government_affairs.html http://www.codexinfo.org/

And here's still more reason why we should encourage widespread supplement use:

SUPPLEMENTS HELP PREVENT BREAST CANCER RECURRENCE

"Despite widespread use, only a few clinical or epidemiological studies have examined the relationship between antioxidant supplements and risk of breast cancer recurrence or breast cancer-related mortality. We used . . . 385 postmenopausal women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1986 and 1988 enrolled into a case-control study on diet and cancer. Women were recontacted with a single questionnaire to ascertain the use of nutritional supplements during 12-14 years of follow-up time. In multivariable models, antioxidant supplement users compared with nonusers were less likely to have a breast cancer recurrence or breast cancer-related death. . . Vitamin E supplements showed a modest protective effect when used for more than 3 yr . . . Risks of recurrence and disease-related mortality were reduced among women using vitamin C and vitamin E supplements for more than 3 yr. . . This study provides limited support for the hypothesis that antioxidant supplements may reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence or breast cancer- related mortality."

(Fleischauer AT, Simonsen N, Arab L. Antioxidant supplements and risk of breast cancer recurrence and breast cancer-related mortality among postmenopausal women. Nutrition & Cancer. 2003;46(1):15-22.)

CANCER: NUTRITIONAL TREATMENT ARTICLES AND REFERENCES More on natural treatment approaches to cancer at http://www.doctoryourself.com/cancer.html http://www.doctoryourself.com/cancer_2.html http://www.doctoryourself.com/hoffer_vitc_can.html

Dr. Abram Hoffer's comments on cancer therapy: http://www.doctoryourself.com/cancer_hoffer.html http://www.doctoryourself.com/hoffer_cancer_2.html http://www.doctoryourself.com/hoffer_niacin.html

Dr. Hugh Riordan's use of vitamin C as chemotherapy: http://www.doctoryourself.com/riordan2.html http://www.doctoryourself.com/riordan1.html http://www.doctoryourself.com/biblio_riordan.html

Dr. Ewan Cameron's vitamin C protocol for cancer patients: http://www.doctoryourself.com/cameron.html

Why vitamin C does not interfere with drug chemotherapy: http://www.doctoryourself.com/chemo.html

The Gerson cancer therapy: http://www.doctoryourself.com/gersontherapy.html http://www.doctoryourself.com/gersonbio.htm http://www.doctoryourself.com/gersonspeech.html http://www.doctoryourself.com/bib_gerson.html http://www.doctoryourself.com/bib_gerson_therapy.html

The work of Dr. Hans Nieper: http://www.doctoryourself.com/biblio_nieper.html

Comfrey herb and fighting cancer: http://www.doctoryourself.com/comfrey_herb.html

Privacy Statement: We do not sell, and we do not share, our mailing list or your email address with anyone. We never send out advertisements of any kind. You may notice that there is no advertising at http://doctoryourself.com and no advertising in this newsletter. We have no financial connection with the supplement industry. We do not sell vitamins or other health products, except for Dr. Saul's books, which help fund these free public services.

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.

Copyright c 2003 and prior years Andrew W. Saul doctoryourself.com/contact.html . 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.