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DOCTOR YOURSELF Newsletter (Vol 3, No 3) December 18, 2002

Tue, 10 Dec 2002 12:46:15 -0500

 

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" Let no one who has the slightest desire to live in peace and quietness be

tempted, under any circumstances, to enter upon the chivalrous task of

trying to correct a popular error. "

 

(William Thoms, deputy librarian for the House of Lords, c. 1873)

 

The DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER (Vol 3, No 3) December 18, 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 350 natural healing articles with nearly 4,000

scientific references.

 

THE VITAMIN E STORY

 

The first course I ever taught was entitled " Forgotten Research in

Medicine. " That was in 1976. Even by that time, there had been a strikingly

large number of impeccably qualified researchers and physicians who had left

drug-and-cut medicine behind in favor of a naturopathic approach. I had seen

so much well-documented evidence for the safety and effectiveness of

therapeutic nutrition against major chronic diseases that I figured it must

presently be self evident to everybody. Surely, I thought, it could only be

a matter of time (say twenty years at most) until all doctors shifted to

natural healing, because word would spread like wildfire and all their

patients would demand it of them.

 

I'd read a variety of articles documenting an incredibly bitter controversy

which raged throughout the 1950's over the use of vitamin E (d-alpha

tocopherol) for cardiovascular disease. Drs. Wilfrid and Evan Shute were at

the center of this storm, which encircled their work in Ontario, Canada.

They were among the very first medical doctors to clinically employ large

doses of the vitamin in place of conventional drug therapy. Like many

pioneers, they caught all the arrows. Almost all of the positive articles I

saw were based on case histories and came from the popular press. Almost all

of the criticism seemed to come from the medical press, which seemed

singularly resistant to even try the Shute's approach, let alone endorse it.

Yet, somehow, their unwillingness to test the Shute's high-dose, natural

vitamin E protocol did not seem to prevent them from dismissing it.

 

In the early 50's, Canada was a hotbed of leading-edge nutritional research.

Maybe there is something in the water up there. In Saskatchewan at about the

same time, Dr. Abram Hoffer and Dr. Humphrey Osmond found that niacin was

the best way to treat psychosis. The Shutes found that vitamin E was the

best way to treat heart disease. One might think that the only possible

professional response to such important discoveries would be grateful

acceptance and widespread journal publication.

 

Just the opposite occurred.

 

For decades it has been said that pharmaceutical medicine has little to gain

from a cheap vitamin cure that cannot be patented and exploited for high

profit. Observers have also witnessed what happens to medical doctors that

have defected to drugless healing: they gain many grateful patients, and

lose a lot of research funding. Few pharmaceutical companies willingly

contribute to the competition.

 

The Shutes saw early that such would be the case, and paid their own way.

They created their own research foundation and treatment facility (The Shute

Institute), created their own journal (The Summary), and in so doing, some

would say, created their own trouble.

 

The Vitamin E Story is Dr. Evan Shute's first-hand, ring-side account of the

discovery that high-dose d-alpha tocopherol cures serious disease. It is

also an unusually interesting autobiography of an unusually interesting man.

Evan Shute, an obstetrician by training, was a poet by inclination. He once

delivered 25 babies in 17 days, yet he also wrote children's stories and

published ten volumes of verse. Dr. Shute's professional character is

perhaps best illustrated by his repeated efforts to credit medical student

Floyd Skelton with major contributions to the development of vitamin E

cardiovascular therapy. The Shute's personal integrity is demonstrated by

their maintaining a non-commercial stance and never profiting from the sale

of the vitamin. Oddly enough, in 1948 they actually advocated making vitamin

E a prescription item.

 

Perhaps this is understandable, given the spectacular, wonder-drug-style

patient recoveries that the Shutes had already seen by mid-century.

 

TWENTY YEARS OF IGNORED SHUTE VITAMIN E RESEARCH: A Timeline

 

1936: Vitamin E-rich wheat germ oil cures angina.

 

1940: Vitamin E suspected as preventive of fibroids and endometriosis, and

curative of atherosclerosis.

 

1945: Vitamin E shown to cure hemorrhages in skin and mucous membranes, and

to decrease the diabetic's need for insulin.

 

1946: Vitamin E greatly improves wound healing, including skin ulcers. Also

demonstrated effective in cases of claudication, acute nephritis,

thrombosis, cirrhosis and phlebitis. Vitamin E strengthens and regulates

heartbeat.

 

1947: Vitamin E successfully used as therapy for gangrene, inflammation of

blood vessels (Buerger's disease), retinitis and choroiditis.

 

1948: Vitamin E helps lupus erythematosus and shortness of breath.

 

1950: Vitamin E shown to be effective treatment for varicose veins, and in

cases of severe body burns.

 

1954: The Shutes' medical textbook, Alpha Tocopherol in Cardiovascular

Disease, is published.

 

1956: The Heart and Vitamin E is published.

 

It is not overly easy to see how such promise could be ignored for long. But

it was. Dr. Shute's frustration with an unnaturally stubborn medical

profession comes starkly through his text.

 

" It was nearly impossible now for anyone who valued his future in Academe to

espouse Vitamin E, prescribe it or advise its use. That would make a man a

" quack " at once. This situation lasted for many years. In the United States,

of course, the closure of the J.A.M.A. pages against us and tocopherol meant

that it did not exist. It was either in the U.S. medical bible or it was

nought. No amount of documentation could budge medical men from this stance.

Literature in the positive was ignored and left unread. Individual doctors

often said: " If it is as good as you say, we would all be using it. " But

nothing could induce them as persons of scientific background to make the

simplest trial on a burn or coronary. " (p 146)

 

 

The American Medical Association even refused to let the Shute's present

their findings at national medical conventions. (p 148-9) In the early 1960'

s, the United States Post Office successfully prevented even the mailing of

vitamin E. (p 166)

 

Linus Pauling wrote, in the book's 1985 forward:

 

" The failure of the medical establishment during the last forty years to

recognize the value of Vitamin E in controlling heart disease is responsible

for a tremendous amount of unnecessary suffering and for many early deaths.

The interesting story of the efforts to suppress the Shute discoveries about

Vitamin E illustrates the shocking bias of organized medicine against

nutritional measures for achieving improved health. " (vii)

 

O that things were truly better today, but they are not. Yes, the American

public can and does buy vitamin E (even by mail) without a prescription.

Still, I am unaware of any burn clinic using topical vitamin E as their

primary treatment. I am yet to see " megadose vitamin E cures cardiovascular

disease " commercials on TV. I have never seen a bottle of vitamin E in an

intensive care unit. It has now been nearly 60 years since vitamin E was

seen to greatly help diabetics and cardiovascular patients and only very

recently has medical research " discovered " a glimmer of the value of this

vitamin. For half a century, vitamin E has been an available specific for

intermittent claudication, angina, prevention of and recovery from heart

attack, thrombophlebitis, and a wide variety of other serious conditions.

 

Aye, there's the rub.

 

Vitamin E is entirely too good for too many purposes. Consumer Reports

trashed it in back in 1972, and often since. It didn't help matters that

Evan Shute was " only " an obstetrician. (This obstetrician was, however, made

a Fellow of the American Society of Angiology in 1969.) And today, vitamin E

's very availability, and exceptional safety, seemingly render it

unattractive for hospital use as the spectacular therapy that it is.

 

The Vitamin E Story surprised me with Chapter 12, a collection of rather

funny real-life obstetrical experiences that Dr. Shute evidently just had to

put down on paper. I'm glad he did, as the stories are both delightful and

bizarre. There is the account of proof of ovulation in a 102 year old woman.

There is the case of " cranial nerve neuralgia cured for two years by a

hemorrhoidectomy. This shows the suggestive power of the knife. " Then there

is the surgeon who smoked during operations, the cigarette ash getting into

the wound. And let's not overlook the marriage ceremony performed during

labor. " Uterine contractions imposed an odd punctuation to the responses,

but the minister did most of the talking, fortunately. "

 

But this book is mostly the story of the Evan Shute who published over 120

medical papers; the doctor who was opposed to circumcision; the doctor who

treated tens of thousands of patients with large amounts of vitamin E.

 

Tocopherol has been known and studied since the 1920's, generally in small

quantities as a means to ensure a full-term pregnancy. Without the Shute

brothers' high-dosage clinical work, especially in cardiology, no one at all

would be megadosing with vitamin E today. We owe them our thanks, and our

lives.

 

The Vitamin E Story, by Evan Shute, M.D. James C. M. Shute, editor. Forward

by Linus Pauling. (Burlington, Ontario: Welch Publishing, 1985. 219 pages,

softcover.) ISBN 0-920413-04-8 This book is available for US $14.00

(postpaid to US addresses) from the Shute Institute, 367 Princess Ave.,

London, Ontario, Canada N6B 2A7. Canadian and international ordering

information may be obtained from

 

shutemedical .

 

(My review, above, also appeared in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine,

Vol. 17, No. 3, Third Quarter, 2002, pages 179-181.)

 

A bibliography of the Shutes' principal written work is posted at

 

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

 

For specific vitamin dosage information on CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE, Angina,

Hypertension (High Blood Pressure), Congestive Heart Failure, and other

heart-y topics, try a site search for " Shute " or for " heart " from the top of

the main page at

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com Do so, and there's going to be a whole lot for

you to look at . . . for which I make no apology whatsoever. Cardiovascular

disease remains our number one enemy, the biggest killer of men AND women.

 

CANCER, VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTS, AND QUALITY OF LIFE

by Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D.

 

Recently the Canadian news media announced, with considerable excitement,

that the addition of folic acid to flour not only decreased the incidence of

spina bifida in babies but also decreased a serious form of cancer by the

same degree, about 50%. This made me feel good because it showed that the

publicity given to vitamins (including their possible use in cancer) will

persuade many women to take B complex vitamins. This anti-cancer effect of

folic acid is a most favorable, if unintended, consequence.

 

On the other hand, another recent study [ " Mega-Dose Vitamins and Minerals in

the Treatment of Non-Metastatic Breast Cancer, " Breast Cancer Research and

Treatment, 10/15/2002] concluded that " survival times were not improved for

the vitamin/mineral treated group over those for the controls " over an

average of five-and-one-half years. I initiated this study in order to

establish that breast cancer cases did better on vitamins. The outcome was

disappointing, but there are possible explanations.

 

In my series of 273 patients, there was only a small number that would not

follow the nutritional program. The outcome with the non-compliant group was

in fact not very good compared to the ones on the program.

 

While all my patient charts were scrutinized, the investigative team,

employing certain criteria, used only about 90 of my patients and compared

them against an equivalent group that had not been treated in this way. I

think that had the study group used all my cases, the results might have

been different. But these were the only ones who were almost entirely stage

one cases, unilateral with no metastasis. Most of my patients were stage 2,

3 and 4.

 

One has to accept the possibility that early (stage 1) breast cancer cases

in fact may not need as much vitamin C if their immune system is already

functioning fairly well in contrast to more advanced cases, but they do have

a much better quality of life with vitamin therapy. This was not

investigated, nor could it have been. My own clinical

observations remain the same. The breast cancer cases that I see do much

better on a vitamin C program combined with other nutrients.

 

What may be confusing is that one of the authors who agreed in the published

report that both of the groups fared equally well reported to the press that

vitamin C was harmful. This is incomprehensible to me and corrective reports

have been released to the press. I still use the program with modifications

to impove it and will continue to do so. Based on the results on over 1200

patients seen since 1976, I know that many of my patients, after several

years, discontinued their program, usually because they were getting on so

well. The beneficial effect of the program would not be sustained after the

program was stopped.

 

(Editor's Note: There seems to be no end to flawed studies that purport to

show that vitamins are useless, or worse. Thanks to Dr. Hoffer for helping

us better understand the situation with his article, above, and also those

at:

 

http://doctoryourself.com/cancer_hoffer.html

 

http://doctoryourself.com/hoffer_vitc_can.html

 

http://doctoryourself.com/chemo.html

 

http://doctoryourself.com/hoffer_cancer_2.html

 

http://doctoryourself.com/hoffer_factoids.html

 

http://doctoryourself.com/hoffer_paradigm.html

 

http://doctoryourself.com/biblio_hoffer.html

 

I will continue the discussion below:

 

DO NOT BE FOOLED BY JUNK SCIENCE ON VITAMIN C MEGADOSES

 

My most common readers' questions ask about some so-called, media-hyped

" danger " supposedly due to taking a lot of vitamin C. The majority of the

negative articles about vitamin C can be exposed for what they really are

with a little help from my article posted at

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/antivitamin.html , with more to be found at

 

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

 

But since the holidays are so busy, here's a quickie reminder:

 

If two thousand milligrams of vitamin C were harmful, the entire animal

kingdom would be dead. Our nearest primate relatives all eat well in excess

of two thousand milligrams of vitamin C each day. And, pound for pound, most

animals actually manufacture from two to ten thousand milligrams of vitamin

C daily, inside their bodies. If such generous quantities of vitamin C were

harmful, evolution would have had millions of years to select against it.

Vitamin C is not a problem; it is a solution.

 

References showing how beneficial vitamin C megadoses are will be found by

the sleighful at

 

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

 

See also: DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTERS Vol 1, No 18

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v1n18.txt and Vol 2, No 3

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v2n3

 

DOCTOR YOURSELF QUICK HOLIDAY HEALTH TIP:

 

SCIATICA

 

Was that sack full of toys just too heavy for your aching back? Persistent

lower backache and upper leg pain with stubborn nerve inflammation can mean

sciatica. Saturation doses of vitamin C and a few trips to a good

chiropractor can often work wonders. And if you haven't already done so,

make it your New Year's resolution to lose that excess weight, there, Santa.

.. . and stop smoking that pipe (or anything else) you may be holding tight

in your teeth. If you do not, sciatica will be back on your list for 2004.

 

'TIS THE SEASON TO BE WHACKED OUT ON CAFFEINE

 

H. L. writes:

 

" Ruth Whalen's excellent caffeine articles at

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/caffeine_allergy.html and

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/caffeine2.html are also quite alarming. I seem

to have some of the described ailments. How do you stop caffeine intake

without the withdrawal headaches? Then, how to avoid the caffeine-brain

callback about three to four weeks later? "

 

And S. C. writes:

" Any chance of some suggestions on how to painlessly withdraw from caffeine

and cleanse the system as a whole? I am a great fan of your juice fasting,

but I get a " caffeine " headache if I don't get my 8-10 oz. cuppa joe in the

morning. "

 

I hear you. Who wants " cold turkey " (especially around the holidays, when

hot turkey is to be preferred by compulsive bird-eaters). Here are my

suggestions, some of which were collected from my former coffee-junkie

college students:

 

1) Vitamin C reduces caffeine withdrawal symptoms, especially the headache.

Studies have also shown that vitamin C reduces cravings for drugs including

nicotine

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v2n15.txt and even narcotics such as

heroin

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/pain.html . My dosage recommendation? " Take

enough C to be symptom free, whatever the amount may be. " Although it

normally can take a couple of months to get over a caffeine habit, my

students report that high antitoxic doses of vitamin C can greatly speed the

process.

 

2) To work the psychological end of the street, I'd recommend you substitute

a cup of something else for your morning coffee. Postum, herb tea blends,

hot water and lemon, (or my personal fave, hot cider) are all good choices.

Enjoy the society, the ritual, and the cold weather creature comfort of

pouring and holding a steaming mug of caffeine-free something-else in your

hands. Even decaf is a good start.

 

3) " What about tea? " you may be asking. Yes, there is caffeine in regular

tea, roughly half that of coffee. Tea also contains some antioxidants, which

are good for you. But then, fruits and vegetables contain far more

antioxidants, and zero caffeine. So I concur with Writer the Second, above,

and suggest you dust off your juicer.

 

GREEN TEA VS. BLACK TEA

 

Their leaves are picked off of the very same plant, Camellia sinensis. The

difference is that green tea is not aged (fermented), whereas black tea is.

Uncrushed, unoxidized green tea leaves are healthier for you. But both

naturally contain caffeine. A 5-ounce cup of average-brewed tea is has

roughly the same amount as a 12-ounce caffeine-containing soft drink. (Ray

and Ksir (1990) Drugs Society and Human Behavior, chapter 11. St Louis:

Mosby)

 

HOMEOPATHY FOR CAFFEINE (and Tobacco) ADDICTION?

 

Years ago, a national advice columnist published a reader's letter claiming

that eating a pinch of tobacco before smoking a cigarette reduced the amount

of smoking a person did. Maybe it was the yukky taste. Maybe it was fear of

mouth cancer. Or, maybe it was the principle of homeopathy, which may be

colloquially explained as " the hair of the dog that bit you. " Tobaccum 6X

(which is a harmless microdilution of, you guessed it, tobacco) might be a

more gum-friendly way to try this idea.

 

Therefore, I think homeopathic unroasted coffee, Coffea Cruda 6X, might be

worth trying for caffeine addiction. And let's face it: any dependency that

has physical symptoms as the consequence of quitting is a true addiction.

This includes caffeine. Maybe it is time for us to wake up and NOT smell the

coffee.

 

Homeopathy articles at my website include:

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

HO-HO-HO HOMEOPATHY BOOKS I OFTEN RECOMMEND (but I do not sell them.

Suppliers of homeopathic books and remedies are all over the Internet;

please refer your questions to them or to a homeopathic practitioner.)

 

Boericke, William Homoeopathic Materia Medica (Ninth Edition, 1927)

Philadelphia: Boericke and Tafel.

 

This shortened, one-volume listing of homeopathically active substances

provides the framework on which to build an intermediate knowledge of the

" like treats like " science of homeopathy. Several hundred remedy resumes are

provided with over 350 pages of cross-indexing, symptom by symptom. This

standard work is unusually inexpensive (because of the publication date) but

is in clear need of revision, especially in the Therapeutic Index, which

does not always agree with the much more comprehensive and superior

Repertory immediately preceding it. Other more recent and more expensive

Materia Medicas await the detailed needs of the more experienced homeopath,

but Boericke's nearly 75 year old text is hard to beat for everyday

reference and home use. (1042 pages, cloth)

 

Clarke, John H. The Prescriber (Ninth Edition, 1972) Essex, England: C. W.

Daniel Co., Ltd.

 

This book is just what the title indicates: a homeopathic prescription guide

that is the next best thing to having a personal homeopathic doctor.

Clarke's work has stood the test of time. In this one volume, the reader

will first find the best 60 page introduction ever written on just how to

use homeopathic remedies, plus a list of abbreviations, and then over 300

pages of foolproof cross-indexing (repertory). With The Prescriber, a

Materia Medica, and study, one can become a competent homeopath. Simple to

use and to the point, The Prescriber is an essential reference for a healthy

home.

 

Coulter, Harris L. Homeopathic Science and Modern Medicine (1981) Richmond,

CA: North Atlantic Books

 

No one is a better historian of homeopathy's struggle with allopathic (drug)

medicine than Dr. Harris Coulter

 

( http://www.empiricaltherapies.com ). Here, in just over 100 pages, he

makes a strong, logical and well-researched case for " the physics of healing

with microdoses. " If you've always wanted to know how and why " like cures

like " and to read a fine review of the literature on infinitesimal dosage,

this is the book. Although merely a pamphlet compared to Coulter's

multi-volume homeopathic treatise Divided Legacy, this little book still

provides over 250 citations from medical journals, a handy table of remedy

dilutions, and an annotated bibliography. A 31-page article by J. T. Kent,

MD, on case taking and prescription is also included. (157 pages, paper)

 

OKAY, ONE LAST CAFFEINE QUESTION

 

N. K. writes:

 

" Our 11-year-old son became extremely strange and looked almost insane (it

really worried me), pulled pranks and barely even remembered what he had

done. We were extremely worried, as he had always been a happy, smiling boy,

and a model student, devoted to music and hard working. It all disappeared.

We then discovered that he consumed a bottle of soda pop or a can of energy

drink on the way home from school.

 

" At first, we did not know what was causing his sudden deterioration in his

personality. We thought about the teenage hormones. But as I searched

through Internet sites and discovered about the amount of caffeine in the

soft drinks he consumed, I started to read about caffeine's effect on the

brain. Your information was really useful. We eliminated all the

caffeine-containing food and drinks (as far as I know) from his diet and now

he seems almost back to normal. But he probably consumed a lot of caffeine

for about three weeks, and I have a concern about possible damage to his

brain. Is there a likelihood of permanent harm? "

 

If a few weeks of heavy caffeine consumption is dangerous, much of the world

(and all of its truck drivers and doctoral students) are surely doomed. More

seriously, caffeine, a methylated xanthine, is not known for its long-tem

effects. Miscarriage or low-birthweight babies, heart attack, elevated blood

pressure, benign breast lumps, panic attacks, and lower academic performance

may result from habitual, maintained caffeine use. Probably the worst one

can say is that, with caffeine consumption to the equivalent of seven to ten

cups of coffee a day, and for an extended period of time, there can be

observable and perhaps permanent damage to the rhythm of the heartbeat.

Three weeks is not what I would call extended.

 

On the other hand, I know of one lady who drank just a single cup of coffee

and had her heart rate jumped to 275. That can't be good for the ticker.

Your common sense, along with a cooperative physician, can help you keep an

eye on this.

 

I think your son staying off the caffeine will bring real and permanent

improvement.

 

Happy holidays! and remember: things go better without Coke.

 

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Persons interested in my book PAPERBACK CLINIC: A Simplified Manual of

Natural Therapeutics, may obtain it directly from me at 8 Van Buren Street,

Holley, NY 14470, USA for $34.00 postpaid in the USA; US $39.00 to Canada,

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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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