Newsletter v6n4

"Don't feel you owe me any respect; you can listen or not, as you please." (Benjamin Franklin)

The DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER (Vol. 6, No. 4, March, 2006)

"Free of charge, free of advertising, and free of the A.M.A."

Copyright 2006 by Andrew W. Saul of http://www.doctoryourself.com , which now welcomes nearly two million visitors annually. Commercial use of the website or the contents of this Newsletter is strictly prohibited.

IN THIS VERY BIG AND VERY CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE:

1) WHY GEORGE WASHINGTON SHOULD HAVE FIRED HIS DOCTOR

2) IS THIS NEWSLETTER ANTI-DOCTOR?

3) ORANGEMEN vs. PILL PEOPLE

4) FOOD STAMPS, FOOD SUPPLEMENTS

5) EPA EMPLOYEES FIGHT FLUORIDATION

6) ANTIVITAMIN BIAS AT NPR AND PBS

7) VITAMIN C A LIFESAVER; VIRUS KILLER

8) ORTHOMOLECULAR NUTRITION CONFERENCE

9) LIES AND DECEPTION AT NLM-MEDLINE

10) EMAIL INDIVIDUAL “MEDLINE” REVEWERS

11) MEDLINE BIAS IN BMJ

12) SELENIUM FIGHTS AIDS: OUR EXCLUSIVE NEW INTERVIEW WITH DR. HAROLD FOSTER

13) DEAR DOCTOR!

WHY GEORGE WASHINGTON SHOULD HAVE FIRED HIS DOCTOR

(An excerpt from my new book, FIRE YOUR DOCTOR!” http://www.doctoryourself.com/fyd.html )

“General Washington was taken in the night (in December, 1799) with a sore throat. The ‘bleeder’ being sent for, he took from him 14 ounces of blood. The following morning, the family physician arrived, and proceeded to bleed him copiously, twice within a few hours, and again the same evening, giving him thereafter a dose of calomel (mercury). Next morning he was given another dose. The next day another physician was called in consultation, and the result was that they took an additional 32 ounces of blood from General Washington. There was no alleviation of the disease. Ten grains more of calomel were given, followed by a tartar emetic in large doses. To his extremities blisters were applied, and to his throat poultices.”

"General Washington died."

(from the Pittsburgh Health Club Newsletter, July 31, 1931)

Former First President George Washington, the father of our country, died from a sore throat? No sir: he died from the treatment. Washington had the best scientific medical attention of his day. And? They bled him no fewer than five times in three days. Let's do the grisly arithmetic. The first bleeding removed 14 ounces; there were then three bleedings of unspecified quantity, collectively described as "copious"; and then a final full quart was removed. Assuming that the three "copious" bleedings were also 14 ounces each, that is another 42 ounces lost. Adding up, we have:

14 + (14 x 3) + 32 = 88

Some 88 ounces of blood was taken from George Washington. The human body contains about 10 units, that is to say 10 pints (5 quarts) of blood. 88 ounces is pretty close to 3 quarts, or nearly 6 units; that's well over half the blood in a person. Some estimates place Washington’s total bleeding closer to 8 units.

It doesn’t take a conspiracy, nor does it require an assassin, to kill a great man. Stupidity will do it just as well. (from Fire Your Doctor!, pages 11-12)

For more information about FIRE YOUR DOCTOR! :

http://www.basichealthpub.com/detail.php?ProductID=43&PHPSESSID=ea7dfcd3580f4b56516da99899e32f92

http://www.basichealthpub.com/listings.php?CategoryID=6

http://www.doctoryourself.com/fyd.html

TO ORDER AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY: http://www.doctoryourself.com/order.html

AM I ANTI-DOCTOR?

Who, me? Not really, the title notwithstanding. Many of my readers are physicians. I do not want to get rid of doctors; I want more of them. By that, I mean I want YOU (to quaintly quote the old Army recruiting poster), and your family, and friends, to become your own doctors.

I also want to reform medicine and especially medical education.

There are three ways in particular that modern medicine, just as it stands today, is truly helpful.

One is in its ability to deliver instant, life-saving emergency care. Another is technology, such as highly sophisticated diagnostic testing. And the third would be pain relief.

OK, compliments are over. Now on to the problems:

Ways in which medicine never left the dark ages would include the following:

1) staunch politically-driven rejection of raw-food and megavitamin therapy;

2) guild-like suppression of herbalism, chiropractic, and naturopathy

3) blind advocacy of pharmaceutical therapy, regardless of its ineffectiveness and well-established dangers

4) ridiculously high cost, due to profit motive and a vested interest in sickness, not health

5) media pandering

I define modern medicine as the experimental study of what happens when poisonous chemicals are placed into malnourished human bodies. Politically powerful medical quackery is nothing new. Drug-and-cut doctors have been ignoring nature's laws for a long time, with disastrous results.

"The Dark Ages of Medicine are long over," you say? If only that were true.

ORANGEMEN vs. PILL PEOPLE

by Andrew W. Saul

I have never shopped at Neiman Marcus or Hammacher Schlemmer. Years ago, as a Big Apple tourist, I did have a long look in the window of the Waldorf Astoria restaurant and read the lunch menu. A green salad was more than I would have wanted to spend for an entire dinner anywhere else. When luxuries are predictably expensive, we can scoff, wish, or drool.

But what really grabbed my ever-miserly attention was my recent visit to a supermarket. Not an upscale munchie boutique, just a run-of-the-mill chain store in a working-class community. Over to the produce department, and there they were: Apples, a dollar apiece. Oranges were a dollar. Each. Grapefruits were even more.

Later, I was at a well-known big-box department store. Ascorbic acid vitamin C, 500 mg, was three bucks for a bottle of three hundred. That’s a penny a tablet, two cents per 1,000 mg.

The math tells quite a story: one store-bought medium-sized orange might contain 60 milligrams of vitamin C. ( http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/5552.html ). I think that figure would be substantially lower in most tired-looking, out-of-state oranges you are likely to purchase mid-winter. Even if we allow a generous 62 mg, it takes eight oranges to equal the ascorbic acid in one single 500 mg tablet. Eight oranges can cost eight bucks. The vitamin C tablet can cost one cent. That means vitamin C supplements are eight hundred times cheaper than eating right. If those oranges were an incredible half-price special, they’d still cost 400 times more than the supplement.

For those readers who may be about to crank up their Outlook Expresses to hasten to inform me that pure ascorbic acid in a tablet is not necessarily as good as the vitamin C in fruit, may I please save you some trouble. ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/synthetic.html ) I am also fully aware that there are many side benefits of eating oranges. Among other things, oranges contain bioflavinoids, fiber, and their vitamin C, in such quantity it may be, is ideal. ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/bioflavinoids.html )

Now consider the costs, both financial and human. The US Bureau of Census reports that “the national poverty rate rose to 12.5 percent - 35.9 million people - in 2003, from 12.1 percent in 2002. Hit hardest were women, who for the first time since 1999 saw their earnings decline, and children. By the end of 2003, 12.9 million children lived in poverty.” (1)

This leaves few nits left to pick. Truly, there has been more than enough discussion. It is time to declare an important health truth to the world: vitamin supplements are cheaper than eating right. It is time to aggressively advocate for nationwide, worldwide vitamin supplementation, not because it is a nice idea but because it is essential. Nutritional supplementation not only improves lives, it saves lives. Don’t tell me that we can’t find $3.65 per year for a vitamin C tablet a day to keep a kid healthy. We can, and we must. Eating right is a Waldorf salad seen through the window, an unaffordable luxury, for millions of children.

1. Connolly C and Witte G. Poverty rate up 3rd year in a row. More also lack health coverage. The Washington Post, Friday, August 27, 2004; Page A01.

DID YOU KNOW THAT FOOD STAMPS CANNOT BE USED TO BUY CHILDREN’S VITAMINS?

That could change immediately, if Congress had any courage at all.

“A bill to amend the Food Stamp Act of 1977 to permit participating households to use food stamp benefits to purchase nutritional supplements providing vitamins or minerals, and for other purposes” is now in the US Senate (S.1546) (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:s.01546: , or search at www.thomas.gov )

Introduced on July 28, 2005 by Senator Tom Harkin (Hooray, Iowa!), it has only one cosponsor so far, and that is Sen. Orrin Hatch, a long-time supporter of natural nutrition and vitamin therapy. It was immediately sent to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, where it is almost certain to die because your Senators make too much money to really understand the nutritional needs of the poor. READ THE COMPLETE BILL HERE: http://www.govtrack.us/data/us/bills.text/109/s1546.pdf’

And if you want to, feel free to contact your Senators and give them a piece of your mind. Easy how-to hints are provided at http://www.doctoryourself.com/write_now.html

As always, I would welcome a copy of your letter, and your Senators’ responses, to doctoryourself.com/contact.html

EPA EMPLOYEES FIGHTING FLUORIDATION

Please sign the petition supporting the EPA Unions' request for a nationwide moratorium on fluoridation at http://www.powalliance.org/petition/index.html

CALL IN YOUR PLEDGE NOW!

ANTIVITAMIN BIAS AT NPR AND PBS

B. K. writes: “Recently I heard some major vitamin bashing on NPR's Morning Edition, including interview snippets with Dr. Andrew Weil and Consumer Reports' medical director.”

You are right. National Public Radio Health Care (“in partnership with PBS”) ran an item entitled “The Vitamin C Myth” by Patricia Neighmond on Morning Edition, February 2, 2006 Says member-supported and TAXPAYER supported PBS: “There's no doubt that Vitamin C is good for you. But, contrary to popular belief, a mega-dose of Vitamin C is not an effective cold remedy.” ( http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5184850&ft=1&f=2100955 )

Is that so, PBS? For a second peer-reviewed opinion, by orthomolecular experts, please read the latest Orthomolecular Medicine News Service press release at http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v02n01.shtml

If you want to comment to PBS, you can do so through their http://www.pbs.org website.

R. M. writes:

“I’m trying to follow the money. Why would the New York Times print this (below)? Are they trying to encourage people to eat wrong? It certainly is getting a lot of ink.”

“Low-Fat Diet Does Not Cut Health Risks, Study Finds” by Gina Kolata, February 8, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/08/health/08fat.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

May I add that, of course, PBS/NPR also featured it: “New Studies: Low-Fat Diets Don't Prevent Cancers” by Patricia Neighmond. (Ah, her again!) All Things Considered, February 7, 2006. “Three studies of post-menopausal women show low-fat diets don't prevent heart disease, breast cancer or colon cancer.” http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5194730&ft=1&f=2100955 Interesting that the same NPR person did both stories. A coincidence, I’m sure.

FOR THE BENEFIT OF “PUBLIC” TV, NPR, DR. WEIL, CONSUMER REPORTS, AND, WHILE WE’RE AT IT, THE NEW YORK TIMES:

May I suggest they take the time (perhaps between pledge breaks) to actually read the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service media releases that they are already receiving?

To view all previous Orthomolecular Medicine News Service press releases: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml

VITAMIN C NEWS THAT PBS AND NPR AND CONSUMER REPORTS AND THE NEW YORK TIMES MAY HAVE MISSED:

“Vitamin C may be a life-saver: Mega-doses of Vitamin C can counter avian flu, hepatitis and herpes, and can even control the advance of AIDS” by Jane Feinmann, 12 April 2005, The Independent (UK)

”Imagine that a deadly virus is sweeping the world, killing and maiming hundreds of thousands of children. Nothing seems able to stop it - until a doctor stands up at the American Medical Association and reports on 60 cases involving severely infected children, all of whom have been cured. Yet his work, subsequently reported in a peer-review journal, is ignored, leaving the virus to wreak havoc for decades.

”This isn't a docudrama about some futuristic plague - it's a true story about what happened in June 1949 when polio was at its peak. Dr Frederick Klenner, a clinical researcher from Reidsville, North Carolina, reported that a massive intravenous dose of Vitamin C - up to 20,000mg daily for three days (today's recommended daily allowance is 60mg) - had cured 60 of his patients. The findings were published in a medical journal, yet there was virtually no interest. Apart from a couple of minor trials, no attempt was made to find out if they had any scientific substance.

”Relating this curious incident in a new book, “Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases & Toxins: Curing the Incurable” ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/levy.html ), Dr Thomas Levy, a US cardiologist, admits to being gripped by a range of emotions when he came across Klenner's work and other studies that replicated it. "To know that polio had been easily cured yet so many people continued to die, or survived to be permanently crippled by it, was difficult to accept."

”Levy argues that the medical profession has routinely ignored research showing that high doses of Vitamin C can combat bacteria, toxins and severe viral infections including avian flu, SARS, hepatitis and herpes. And this is not a case of doctors sniffing at anecdotal evidence from a handful of enthusiasts. "Vitamin C is possibly the best-researched substance in the world. There are more than 24,000 papers and articles on the authoritative clinical website, Medline. Yet virtually the all the evidence has been dismissed. . . ‘"

”(T)he evidence seems to support his view that apart from causing diarrhea, mega-doses of Vitamin C are not toxic. . . According to Levy, the problem is not that people might take too much, but that they won't take enough - and thus won't get the desired effects. "There's a popular medical view that taking Vitamin C just makes expensive urine. Some of it is lost in urine, but the more you consume, the more stays in your body. . . ‘"

”Considering its overall safety, there appears to be no good reason why anyone with a chronic or acute health problem should not try, at the very least, a couple of week's regime of two or three 1,000mg tablets of Vitamin C a day.” Dr. Levy's book is reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/levy.html

MORE VITAMIN THERAPY NEWS THAT PBS AND NPR HAVE UTTERLY OVERLOOKED:

Excellent vitamin research summaries are posted at http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/news.htm

UPCOMING ORTHOMOLECULAR NUTRITION CONFERENCE

I will be attending and speaking at the 35th Annual International Nutritional Medicine Today Conference in Vancouver, BC, April 27-30, 2006 Dr. Abram Hoffer and many other outstanding nutritional physicians will be participating.

Friday morning, I will be presenting a paper on MEDLINE bias. Then on Saturday evening, I am honored to once again be the master of ceremonies for the Third Annual Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame inductions.

This annual conference is very valuable and exceptionally interesting. I hope you can come, too. A full program and registration information is posted at http://orthomed.org/NMT/nmt.html .

WORSE THAN MERE BIAS: NOW IT’S LIES AND DECEPTION AT NLM-MEDLINE

When a concerned physician recently wrote to MEDLINE Executive Editor Sheldon Kotzin to request the email address of each member of the NLM Literature Selection Technical Review Committee, the doctor received this reply:

From: "Kotzin, Sheldon (NIH/NLM) [E]" Date: February 3, 2006 4:10:22 PM EST Subject: RE: The JOM and Medline

”this list you referenced below is an internal NIH committee that advises on a database called medlineplus. the website for the committee that advises on the selection of medline journals is located at http://www.csr.nih.gov/Roster_proto/members.asp?cid=100753&Title=Literature+Selection+Technical+Review+Committee&ABBR=LSTR

”no email addresses are provided for either of these sites.”

”sheldon kotzin”

Please make careful note of that last statement. Asking again, here is the reply the doctor got to a second request for the Committee’s email addresses:

From: "Kotzin, Sheldon (NIH/NLM) [E]" Date: February 6, 2006 5:29:21 PM EST Subject: RE: The JOM and Medline

”unfortunately i don't have easy access to the individual email addresses.”

”sheldon kotzin”

Mr. Kotzin is either inept or is simply not telling the truth. All the email addresses, for each and every Literature Selection Technical Review Committee member, are posted right at the NLM’s website at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/lstrc/lstrc.html

I would consider that easy access, Mr Kotzin. Why don’t you?

Now look here, everyone: Mr. Kotzin has a Master’s degree in Library Science. As Editor of MEDLINE, it is presumably his business to know how to quickly contact his own reviewers. Furthermore, as a taxpayer-supported Chief, Bibliographic Services Division of the US National Library of Medicine, he should have little difficulty finding 15 emails at his library’s own website.

IT’S TIME TO WRITE TO INDIVIDUAL “MEDLINE” REVEWERS

(And here are their emails, Mr Kotzin. May I suggest that you please put them in your address book for future reference?)

McCLURE, Lucretia , M.A. (CHAIRMAN) lmcclure@hms.harvard.edu

BAUCHNER, Howard, M.D., howard.bauchner@bmc.org

DELCLOS, George L., M.D., M.P.H george.delclos@uth.tmc.edu

FREY , John J.III, M.D. jfrey@fammed.wisc.edu

KAPLAN, Jerry, Ph.D. jerry.kaplan@path.utah.edu

LI, Rong, Ph.D. rli@hms.harvard.edu

MANNING, Phil Richard, M.D. manning@hsc.usc.edu

RACZ , Gabor B., M.D. Paula.Brashier@ttuhsc.edu

SHARPS, Phyllis W. , Ph.D., R.N psharps@son.jhmi.edu

SIEGEL, Vivian, Ph.D. viviansiegel@sbcglobal.net

SOEHNER, Catherine B, M.L.S soehner@ucsc.edu

SPANN , Melvin, Ph.D mspann@erols.com

STERNBERG, Esther M., M.D ems@codon.nih.gov

TOM-ORME, Lillian, Ph.D., MPH, RN ltomorme@hrc.utah.edu

VAN PEENEN, Hubert J., M.D hjvanp@poncacity.net

(AND LET’S NOT FORGET MR. KOTZIN: )

KOTZIN, Sheldon, M.L.S. Chief, Bibliographic Services Division kotzin@mail.nlm.nih.gov We now see that the 15-member NLM Literature Selection Technical Review Committee, contrary to what MEDLINE Executive Editor Sheldon Kotzin has said, does INDEED have easy accessibility. It is time to write and give them YOUR views, or all you will have to read on MEDLINE is THEIR views. (Remember to be polite, please, and always request a reply.)

Please send a copy of your letters, and responses, to me a doctoryourself.com/contact.html

STILL MORE ON MEDLINE:

Steve Hickey, PhD, Manchester Metropolitan University, writes:

“Medline, provided by the US National Library of Medicine, has restricted access artificially, over a prolonged period. Journals in fields such as orthomolecular and nutritional medicine are generally not indexed. For example, the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine has been excluded for over three decades. As clearly pointed out by BMJ respondents, such exclusion would be expected to make barred journals less attractive to authors. It is too easy to censor medical information, even in apparently open forums. With the current commercial considerations, it is surprising how medical science can progress at all.”

Read Dr. Hickey’s complete paper, “Importance of open access,” (BMJ Rapid Response, 20 February 2006) at http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/332/7538/394#128557

The campaign against MEDLINE BIAS is growing: http://www.thenhf.com/articles_264.htm

and:

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2004/06/22/medline_oversight_orthomolecular_journal_not_indexed.htm

SELENIUM AND AMINO ACIDS AGAINST AIDS

Follow-Up Interview with HAROLD FOSTER, PhD

“WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE WITH HIV / AIDS PATIENTS IS TO RAISE THEIR SELENIUM, CYSTEINE, TRYPTOPHAN, AND GLUTAMINE LEVELS BACK TO NORMAL.”

(Editor’s note: This is truly earth-shattering knowledge, and I bet you’ve heard absolutely nothing about it from the media. Except, of course, here in our series of Doctor Yourself Newsletter articles. But not on PBS, nor NPR, nor Consumer Reports, nor the New York Times. . . )

DY NEWS: Dr. Foster, how many nutritional AIDS studies do you now have underway, and in what African nations?

DR. HAROLD FOSTER: There are, or have been, numerous small open nutritional trials, involving anywhere from two to forty HIV/AIDS patients, run by individual doctors or nurses, conducted in South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda. In addition, there are two larger, more scientific clinical trials currently ongoing in Uganda (300 patients) and Zambia (approximately 30 patients). These two trials involve T-lymphocyte testing and glutathione peroxidase measurement. The results from these two trials should be ready for publication late in 2006. The Ugandan study began in May, 2005. The Zambian study started just before Christmas, 2005. There are two more trials ready to get of the ground, in South Africa and Kenya, if I can raise the funds for them. DY NEWS: Total number of participants; approximate percent success?

FOSTER: Keeping track of statistics from volunteers in Africa is no easy matter. We have provided nutrients to somewhere close to 500 HIV/AIDS patients. So far I know of no failures with the most expensive, complete nutritional treatment. There are several cases of AIDS patients ,even those bedridden with dementia, rapidly recovering their health after taking these nutrients. I would think the success rate, even including those given the very cheap version of the nutrients, has been about 85%. This is better than it seems since, in addition to AIDS, these patients sometimes have advanced TB and/or syphilis. DY NEWS: The specific nutrients given, and doses of each, and frequency of dose?

FOSTER: This is an impossible question to answer because there is no one-size-fits-all dose. What needs to be done with HIV/AIDS patients is to raise their selenium, cysteine, tryptophan and glutamine levels back to normal. The ideal treatment then depends on what they previously have been eating. In sub-Saharan Africa, most patients are very selenium deficient and are given 600 micrograms of this trace element daily for the first month. This then drops down to 400 micrograms daily. They also tend to eat too much maize and are, therefore, very tryptophan deficient. They get 540 mg 5-HTP each day to deal with the tryptophan deficiency. DY NEWS: Who is paying for the supplements? Any grants at all?

FOSTER: In all the initial small trials, I paid for all the nutrients. The expenses incurred in shipping were often as high as the cost of the nutrients. The two current trials in Uganda and Zambia are being funded by small Canadian charities. In both cases, members of their boards saw the amazingly beneficial impacts of these nutrients on viral diseases for themselves and were convinced. DY NEWS: About how many physicians have reported in to you? Do you have their comments to share with us?

FOSTER: I was given the Orthomolecular Doctor of the Year Award (2004-2005) and so must have ISOM's support. Especially keen supporters in that organization are Drs Abram Hoffer and Brad Weeks. Dr Jim Sparling has been a tower of strength in Uganda and Dr Alan Russell has been a strong Canadian supporter, as has Dr Bill Panton. In a review of "What really causes AIDS," published in The Medical Post, a Canadian conservative medical newspaper, Dr Russell wrote: "The genetic code of HIV includes a homologue for the essential seleno enzyme glutathione peroxidase. To replicate HIV must compete with the host for selenium, cysteine, glutamine and tryptophan. Perhaps this is a leap, but I hate to think of the world dying of viral genocide due to an outdated concept on the mechanism of viral illness."

DY NEWS: What scientists have allied themselves with you so far? Let’s drop some names, in a positive and encouraging sense.

FOSTER: I am getting more support lately from geneticists, biochemists and some experts in selenium. I will refrain from naming them. They do not need the hot water. DY NEWS: Any other dietary or life style recommendations that seem to help?

FOSTER: The Earth's soils are becoming very mineral depleted and toxic. As a result, food is less nutritious. Eat organic food, if you can afford it, and make sure you take ample supplements. DY NEWS: Which drugs are worst for fighting HIV-AIDS?

FOSTER: This is a tough question to answer. I don't need Big Pharma's lawyers attention. However, antiretrovirals are generally associated with serious side effects, especially liver damage. They also promote viral mutation. Their key weakness, however, is that they cannot pass through the blood-brain barrier, so HIV continues to destroy the brain in all HIV/AIDS patients getting antiretrovirals as a treatment. In short, they inevitably create a type of pseudo-Alzheimer's patient with increasing memory loss over time.

DY NEWS: If you can, please talk about the hot water you are in at your university, or in the media.

FOSTER: Most of the covert criticism of my work has come in the Canadian newspapers and on CBC radio. I have frequency been accused of spreading false hope, even by the local Member of Parliament, an MD. Much of what has been published about my work has been deliberately false. To illustrate, I am frequently portrayed as believing that HIV does not cause AIDS. This is absolutely untrue. I have simply discovered how HIV causes AIDS. Under the heading "AIDS Nonsense," The National Post, a Canadian daily newspaper, published a letter from an Ottawa civil servant that began "Letter-writer Professor Harold D Foster's hypothesis is troubling and inaccurate. His reference to AIDS as a series of ‘nutritional deficiencies’ is ludicrous and does nothing but trivialize a global epidemic. Furthermore, the hypothesis he presents is little more than a conspiracy theory, which incorrectly suggests that the scientific communities are not working together to help find a cure for this disease." After that, his letter began to get nasty. Of course, the paper had no interest in publishing a reply.

(Dr. Foster’s website is http://www.hdfoster.com There you may download his AIDS book, and three others, free of charge.)

DR. ABRAM HOFFER’S NEW BOOK Readers have been asking how to get a copy of Adventures in Psychiatry, Dr. Hoffer’s autobiography. Here’s one good source: http://www.orthomed.org/store/store.html

FREE ART GALLERY

For my artistically-inclined readers: you may enjoy this online, free-access collection of over one hundred of my late father’s watercolors and sketches posted at http://www.doctoryourself.com/contentsWES.html

MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY: JEERS AND CHEERS

JEER: “Your conclusion that Muscular Dystrophy is directly related to the maternal diet is absurd and ignorant. For a guy who claims to know so much, you haven't a clue. I just read the piece you put together relating Muscular Dystrophy and maternal diet (http://www.doctoryourself.com/dystrophy.html ) and am still in disbelief of the irresponsibility of it. I have spoken with many of the leading neurologists and geneticists in the country and NONE have ever even hinted at such a relationship. NOBODY has ever been cured by taking a great vitamin or supplement. You should be ashamed of yourself for suggesting otherwise and producing such an accusatory piece of literature. Either go to school or go away." CHEER: “I was diagnosed with the FSHD form of muscular dystrophy some years ago and given the typical ‘there is no known cure’ comment from the muscle specialist, neurosurgeon and my personal doctor. I accepted the situation, but continued to hope for some development in the disease. I was doing a search on the ‘net one day and came across your web site, and read your article on M.D. ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/dystrophy.html ) For the first time in years I felt encouraged and began to try a combination of the items listed in the article. That was about two months ago. I noticed an immediate increase in my energy level, which felt good in itself, but the "amazing" happened just recently when both my wife and I noticed a increase in the size of my left leg's calf muscle (and this is without exercising). It was very obvious. I am continuing with the vitamins and supplements with an eager, though cautious "one day at a time" basis. I just wanted to send this e-mail to you and say ‘THANK YOU’ for being bold enough to have a web site that is not afraid to stand against "conventional" medicine, and give both hope and results to someone looking for such.”

CHEER: “Just wanted to let you know the latest about our MD grandchild. In early September, he was at the hospital for a complete cardiac exam. They found his heart to be perfectly normal. The doctor at this clinic also told my daughter: "All that you see there of your son is healthy and normal muscle." He had the boy on lie the floor and asked him to get up. The doctor smiled as he watched as he did so, shook his head and said, "There is even no sign of the Gower." (Editor’s note: Usually, because of extreme weakness of the hip muscles, a child with MD can stand up nly by first lying face down, then extending the elbows and knees to raise the body, then bringing them together, and finally crawling upright. This is called the Gower sign.)

DEAR DOCTOR!

You are quick to call this mental illness

a chemical imbalance or a brain disease,

but have you ever thought to check me for

an allergy or a vitamin deficiency?

You are anxious to point out my anxiety

and label me with PTSD, OCD or BAD,

When what I really need is to eat my vegetables

and exercise to increase my BAT*.

You are happy to prescribe me an antidepressant,

so I take my chill pill every day as you requested.

Just remember this next time you write out that slip:

I am a child of God not a subject to be tested.

My parents tell me to "listen to the doctor",

but which one might that be?

The one who profits off of drugs or the

doctor who teaches vitamin therapy?

"Take your medication" they all chime in --

my parents, my siblings, my friends,

but what they all neglect to realize is the

the drugs are a means to an "end".

My parents tell me to "listen to the doctor",

but which one might that be?

The one who sentences me to ill health,

or the doc who inspires me to be free?

You know labels do more harm than good,

yet you stick me with this "brain disease"

and now that I am tagged I will have to

spend the rest of my life being teased.

I am not alone you say, there are many others

"like me"; the list goes on and on you see.

There's Vivien Leigh, Patty Duke, Kay Jamison,

and more, the latest being Jane Pauley.

Sadly, many people are woefully misdiagnosed,

such as Frances Deitrick, who had a brain tumor.

Physical problems masquerade as mental problems,

and others are tragically diagnosed according to rumor.

I see the likes of me portrayed on television,

in the media, and on the silver screen,

yet Hollywood can't get past those old reflections

of the "Golden Era" that are just plain mean.

I'm no genius and I'm no freak, but

I may have some creative tendencies.

Those gifts originate from God alone,

not generated by some brain disease.

(*BAT = Brown Adipose Tissue)

DOCTOR YOURSELF STATS

www.DoctorYourself.com is now receiving nearly 40,000 hits per day. Thank you for telling everyone you know about it. The word is getting out!

READERS SAY:

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SCIENTIFIC DIGNITY

“Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.” That means 'Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound.'

Until next month’s Newsletter, may I invite you to ponder this, one of the great scientific questions of all time:

“Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?”

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