More pied pipers and health gurus...The Miracle Of Etc....

[Guest guest]

Just another thought on the subject, and another over-used

word: " miracle. "

 

Go into any health food store and in the book section you will find

any number of titles which start " The Miracle Of... "

 

" The Miracle of Selenium "

" The Miracle of St. John's Wart "

" The Miracle of Milk Thistle "

" DMSO: The Miracle Chemical "

" Miraculous Healing Herbs "

 

A miracle is a supernatural occurrence; herbs are natural, not

supernatural. Many of them have been around for centuries, and are

being " rediscovered. " As the member who gave us " a short history of

medicine " wrote today: " Here---eat this root. " That's not miraculous;

it's time-tested knowledge.

 

With all the blab about " miracles, " no wonder it happens so many

times that when I try to talk someone who is " mainstream brainwashed "

into trying an alternative treatment, he says to me, " No thanks---

there are no magic bullets. "

 

Please, if anyone reading this is thinking of writing another book

about some kind of natural healing, leave the word " miracle " out of

the title.

 

Elliot

 

, " breathedeepnow "

<aug20@m...> wrote:

> A large populace of baby boomers, who received B minuses in Biology

> 101, and who have seen their parents get old and decrepit, with

> physicians largely unable to help them, are prime targets for pied

> pipers and health gurus.

>

> How about " Oxy-Up, " water supposed to have dissolved oxygen in it

to

> resuscitate humans living " in an age in which there is far less

> available oxygen than in former times " ?

>

> " http://www.nutritionadvisor.com/oxyup.htm

>

> , Frank

> <califpacific> wrote:

> >

> > http://askbillsardi.com/sdm.asp?pg=health_guru

> > : " askbillsardi.com "

> >

> > More pied pipers and health gurus

> > Fri, 14 May 2004 11:49:04 -0700

> >

> > Apricot pits, coral calcium, colloidal minerals, coconut oil,

soil

> organisms, just what will the next health guru bring to America?

> Health reporter Bill Sardi investigates......at

www.askbillsardi.com.

> >

> >

> >

> > More Health Gurus and Pied Pipers

> > So many millions of Americans want to distance themselves from

> problematic and costly prescription medicines and invasive

treatments

> that may produce life-long side effects. But in their search for

more

> natural alternatives, the public is bedazzled with claims of

instant

> cures and " fountains of youth " that they can hardly sort fact from

> fiction.

> >

> > The natural health arena is bereft with gurus and a culture of

> pseudoscience. These marginal health providers exist solely on the

> desperation and ignorance of the infirm.

> >

> > It's easy to see how something that has a ring of truth to it

soon

> becomes the next whirlwind money maker. In fact, a whole army of

> multi-level troops await the next elixir they can peddle to

gullible

> consumers.

> > One of the problems in deciphering health claims for various

> nostrums is poor logic. For example, let's say that kids are known

to

> come down with recurrent ear infections. In studying these kids we

> find out that most of them wear tennis shoes. Does that mean that

> tennis shoes cause ear infections? No, the tennis shoes are

> associated with, but are not a cause of, ear infections. The tennis

> shoes are just bystanders. It is this type of illogical thinking

that

> permeates natural medicine today. People in far off lands may live

> long and healthy and may eat certain foods or drink water from a

> special spring. But these factors may in fact play no role at all

in

> promoting health or longevity. Similar examples abound – see below.

> > Pied pipers continue to lead the natural medicine movement

astray.

> In recent times a number come to mind.

> > The colloidal mineral guru

> > One pied piper, a chiropractor, whose audio tape entitled " Dead

> Doctors Don't Lie " sold millions of copies, maintained that a

> shortage of minerals is responsible for many maladies and colloidal

> minerals were the answer to all these ills. The problem is that

many

> colloidal mineral products contain undesirable heavy metals.

> Furthermore, aging itself can be explained in part by the

> accumulation of minerals such as iron and copper in the liver,

brain

> and blood and calcium in the arteries, kidneys and heart valves. It

> was later revealed that doctors don't die at an earlier age than

the

> public at large as alleged in the audio tape. While this tape was

> entertaining and informative, it led the public in the wrong

> direction. They weren't any healthier for taking colloidal

minerals.

> Furthermore, the consumption of colloidal minerals is a

contradiction

> to the widespread idea among natural medicine practitioners that

> mineral chelation (removal) needs to be performed periodically.

First

> load up

> > on minerals, then remove them. Sounds silly, doesn't it? It's

good

> business for alternative medicine practitioners, but again, the

> public is not healthier.

> > The coral calcium guru

> > No more infamous is Robert Barefoot among health gurus, who led

> millions of Americans on the wrong road to health and longevity. He

> had an army of believers behind him who never once examined the

> validity of his claims because they were fanatically involved in

the

> selling of coral calcium. Barefoot claimed that coral calcium from

> Okinawa had magical powers, that it alone was responsible for the

> longevity observed among people on the Japanese island of Okinawa.

> But the super longevity observed among Okinawans emanates from

their

> calorie restriction, not their consumption of coral calcium, which

is

> obtained from drinking water and is only a trivial part of their

> diet. [J Nutrition Science Vitaminology (Tokyo) 42:241-8, 1996] The

> Federal Trade Commission pulled Dr. Barefoot's commercials off of

TV

> and radio. Still, hardliners continue to extol the benefits of

coral

> calcium.

> > The protein diet guru

> > Another pied piper was Robert Atkins MD. Not to say that Dr.

Atkins

> hasn't made a significant positive contribution to countering the

> carbohydrate-craving American culture. The switch to a protein-

based

> diet certainly removes the sugars, rids the body of yeast which

feeds

> on sugar, reduces the risk of diabetes and trims the waistline. But

> long term the Atkins diet will promote gout, raise cholesterol and

> the consumption of meat will result in iron overload. Dieters get

> away with the Atkins diet for a time and look slimmer, but in the

> long run their liver and other tissues will pay a price. Meat

> provides iron that is absorbed whether the body needs it or not.

> Plant foods provide a form of iron that is absorbed only on an as-

> needed basis. The Atkins diet is safe for short-term dieters who

need

> to slim down and get in shape. Beyond that, beware.

> > The coconut oil guru

> > The most recent pied piper, a naturopathic physician, has a

widely-

> promoted book, The Maker's Diet. With God's authority behind it,

who

> can argue with the book's content. But what does it really say?

> Frankly, it's a lot of mumbo jumbo. The author, Jordan S. Rubin, a

> naturopathic physician, says he is on a " mission from God to change

> the health of this nation. " His qualifications? -- his testimony of

> how he overcame debilitating Crohn's disease with soil organisms.

> Nowhere in the Bible are soil organisms promoted, but somehow this

> practice got plugged into the book.

> >

> > Rubin says in personal desperation he consulted the pages of the

> Bible. He says he found that the " longest lived cultures in the

world

> had a few things in common—they consumed `living foods' that

abounded

> with nutrients, enzymes, and beneficial microorganisms. And they

> consumed healthy animal foods that were rich in nutrients. "

Actually,

> the people who live the longest on the planet cannot be described

by

> what they eat. They can be described by what they do not eat. They

> are mostly calorie restrictors, or they drink red wine which

contains

> a molecule that mimics the healthy effects of calorie restriction.

[J

> Applied Physiology 95:1706-16, 2003] Rubin appears to be oblivious

to

> this now widely known fact. To be fair, Rubin talks about fasting,

> but this doesn't jive with the above quotation from his book.

> > Megavitamins a myth?

> > Another misleading claim made by Rubin is that the benefits of

> taking megavitamins are a myth and synthetic vitamins are to be

> avoided. Rubin promotes food-based vitamin pills which he claims

are

> superior to other synthetic brands. But under examination, his

claim

> doesn't hold up. For example, folic acid from foods cannot be

> adequately absorbed by about 35 percent of the population.

Synthetic

> folic acid works better than the form found in foods. The

> bioavailability of folic acid from supplements is at least double

> that of dietary folic acid. [J Gender Specific Medicine 2: 24-28,

> 1999]

> > Meat to eat?

> > Another startling mistake in Rubin's book is the claim that there

> is " nothing in nutritional science that supports the claim that

> eating meat causes cardiovascular problems. " (Maker's Diet, page

102)

> A quick search of the National Library of Medicine can locate many

> repots on the health hazards posed by meat consumption. For

example,

> researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina found that

> meat eating can lead to iron overload which increases mortality

rate

> by three times! [Annals Family Medicine 2:139-44, 2004] Researchers

> at Loma Linda University recently reported that very low meat

> consumption lowers mortality rates and increases the human lifespan

> by about 3.6 years. [Am J Clinical Nutrition 78:526S-532S, 2003] In

> 1994 researchers reported that non meat eaters experience about 30

> percent less heart disease. [british Medical Journal 308: 1667-70,

> 1994]

> >

> > In fact, Rubin's living multivitamin provides 9 milligrams of

iron

> per serving which is inappropriate for full-grown males and non-

> menstruating females. Supplemental iron often leads to iron

overload,

> fatty liver, elevated cholesterol and blood sugar, and brain

disease.

> > Coconut trees in Palestine

> > Coconut trees must have been growing in Palestine in Bible days.

> Inexplicably, coconut oil made it into the Maker's Diet. Rubin

claims

> that coconut oil, not olive oil as described in the Bible, is the

> most nutritious oil in the world. Somehow, with a widespread

> deficiency of omega-3 oils in the American diet, Rubin chose to

> emphasize coconut oil as a dietary staple instead. Actually, the

most

> stable cooking oil is rice bran oil that is loaded with twice the

> antioxidants (vitamin e, tocotrienols, oryzanol) compared to the

most

> virgin olive oil and has a very high cooking temperature (it does

not

> brown foods). [Phytotherapy Research 15: 277-89, 2001] The

healthiest

> oil, though not suitable for cooking, is flaxseed oil that is

loaded

> with lignans and omega-3 fatty acids.

> >

> > It's not that coconut oil is so bad, it's just that one wonders

why

> it is being hyped. There is no question that coconut oil may lower

> certain circulating fats (lipoprotein A) which are considered risk

> factors for cardiovascular disease. [J Nutrition 133:3422-7, 2003;

> Eur J Clin Nutr 52:650-4, 1998] But at $66 a gallon, one wonders

what

> magic is touted to be inside this oil to pay such a steep price.

> > Whatever you do, don't forget to pay the pied piper. Be reminded

> the legendary 13th-century Pied Piper, who led away the rats from

the

> town of Hamelin and when refused payment for his services, lured

away

> 130 children and disappeared with them into the mountains.Led

astray

> again?

> > Is the public being led astray again? It always will. The public

> knows that medical doctors have little training in nutritional

> medicine. The public is also quick to believe non-MDs who claim

> hidden secrets of health because they know the medical industry is

> self serving. Bogus health claims persist because the public

believes

> the medical profession is hiding cheaper nonprescription cures. But

> the public is too eager to accept the next cure-all that comes

along.

> A few years ago another guru claimed that the Hunza people in

> Northern Pakistan are virtually immune from cancer because they eat

> apricot pits. Armed mostly with hear-say evidence, apricot pits are

> still being sold as a cancer remedy on the internet. Oh well, it's

> good for business.

> >

> > Now that all the unsubstantiated health regimens these

> pseudoscientists recommend have been discredited and pushed aside,

> you need to know about a Himalayan mountain cure that a Tibetan

monk

> has found. What he says is that this remedy is sure to cure …………….. "

> >

> > Copyright 2004 Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc.

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > SBC - Internet access at a great low price.

> >

> >