DOCTOR YOURSELF Newsletter (Vol. 5, No. 6 for March 5, 2005)

February 7, 2005

" Andrew W. Saul " <drsaul

Mon, 7 Feb 2005 10:48:25 -0500

To for free: dynews-

" Doctors are the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers

merely

rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too. " (Anton Chekhov, who

was

himself a practicing physician)

The DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER (Vol. 5, No. 6 for March 5, 2005)

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

http://www.doctoryourself.com , which welcomes over 1.5 million

visitors

annually. Commercial use of the website or the contents of this

Newsletter

is strictly prohibited.

I AM STARING INTO MY FISH TANK. I've had these same tropical fish for

years

and years. I regularly give them vitamin C, pouring grams of it

straight

into the water. As the crystals drift down, before they can dissolve,

the

fish rush over and eat them whole.

Now that's what I call a megadose.

Yet none of my fish appear to have diabetes, allergies, eczema, kidney

stones, cardiovascular disease, cancer, hangnails, or any of a

multitude of

media-fanned scare-diseases falsely attributed to ascorbate.

(http://www.doctoryourself.com/safety.html)

How about that.

As my aquarium is on the same wall as the TV, the fish cannot watch the

news. And if the subject is vitamins, they aren't missing much.

TV? Why not just turn the darn thing off? I submit that you can learn

more

about health from watching your animals than you will from watching

your

television.

On Saturday mornings especially, my mother shooed us away from the

Idiot Box

and made us kids go outside and play.

" But Mom! " we pleaded. " There's no one out to play with. "

She said, " If you get out there, they'll see you, and then they will

come

out, too. "

That sometimes actually worked. Example is a powerful thing.

So take your vitamins, darn it, and let other people know that you do,

and

why you do.

DOCTOR YOURSELF READER SPEAKS OUT AGAINST VITAMIN BASHING

To the Rochester, NY Democrat and Chronicle newspaper:

" About the Vitamin E attack in today's paper: What you have to do is

look at

the sources; Johns Hopkins leads the " study, " Annals of Internal

Medicine

and Mayo Clinic joyfully concur. These institutions are all interested

in

spreading the medical viewpoint, which prefers drugs and knives to

natural

cures. They tout the Standard American Diet (SAD). The reason they tout

that

diet is little money can be made from vitamins. Lots of money can be

made

from drugs and knives. What would the medical industry do if everybody

lived

as I do, and finally said to my doctor:

" " What's the point of me coming for appointments with you when you can

never

find anything wrong? Let's stop wasting our time! "

" He agreed, so I just call him for things like injuries.

" Recently I received a glamorous booklet about health from the Mayo

Clinic,

suggesting that I pay to learn about the latest medical discoveries. I

wrote

back that for my first 60 years I had followed the medical route,

having

allergies, colds, sometimes the flu, joint replacements, etc. thinking

that

was what life was like. Then I started following a friend who's a

naturopathic educator. Soon I noticed I no longer had my allergies or

flu or

even sniffles. I have no ailments, no prescriptions, and am actively

pursuing my art, with commissions and profits, though I am now 89.

" I told all this to the Mayo doctor. He never replied.

" It's all about money, I guess! My friend publishes a book that is sold

in

bookstores. He also has a free program on the web, with wonderfully

interesting stories.

" Just trace these attacks on vitamins to their source, for the answer!

" Yours truly,

" Nancy Watson Dean "

(My always-astute readers have already deduced that it is my privilege

to be

the friend Mrs. Dean speaks of, and she is kindly referring the Doctor

Yourself book (http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html) and

website.

Thank you, Nancy. You've had a great first 89 years!)

READERS SAY:

" GERSON LITE " FOR MIGRAINES

K.L. writes:

" I have been increasingly bothered by migraine headaches that pain

relieving

medicines did not even relieve, let alone stop. I decided to try

something

else: lots of water, and no salt. I've become a real label-reader

lately,

because so many foods contain salt, and so much of it. The payoff is, I

have

not had a migraine in months. "

Saying " No " to salt and " Yes " to liquid has the stamp of Max Gerson,

M.D.,

firmly upon it. Not everyone knows that the Gerson Therapy was

originally a

migraine therapy. It is a virtually no-salt diet. Plus, a dozen glasses

of

juice per day certainly provides hydration. The fact that the Gerson

therapy

works so well against many serious diseases including cancer, and not

merely

headaches, says a lot about the real value of healing the whole body

nutritionally, not pharmacologically. You followed what I might term a

" Gerson Lite " approach, and I'm very happy to learn of your success.

(For more on the Gerson Therapy, please do a search for " Gerson " at

http://www.doctoryourself.com )

DIABETES

B.V. writes:

" This letter is to thank you for the information in your website and

Doctor

Yourself book, which have been invaluable in alleviating my diabetes.

Last

January, I still had to inject 12-14-12-20 units of insulin. By using

the

Budwig diet (http://www.cancure.org/budwig_diet.htm) with 8 grammes

vitamin

C, 2000 IU vitamin E, B-complex eight (yes eight) times daily, and

600mg

alpha lipoic acid a day (plus lots of exercise), I managed to be on

zero

units of insulin by September 15, nine months later.

" My brother is a different chapter: he has to lose 70 kgs, and is less

strict in the routine, but I think eventually he'll manage. For some

people,

everything should be included in one pill, even the exercise! "

Thank you for your report. One of the first nutrition zingers I ever

heard

was Dr. Carlton Fredericks' comment to the effect that diabetics could

be

weaned off of insulin with extremely high doses of B-complex vitamins.

I am

a conservative person and I have my sincere doubts if a Type I diabetic

could ever be free of the need to take insulin. On the other hand, I

have

personally seen diabetics require significantly less insulin when they

take

a 50 mg balanced B-complex tablet every two hours, as you have. The

potential benefits are so great that I think diabetics should demand a

suitably cautious therapeutic trial of megavitamin therapy, with

insulin

dosage adjustment made and closely supervised by their physician.

More on diabetes at http://www.doctoryourself.com/diabetes.html

WHAT REALLY CAUSES ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE, AND HOW TO AVOID IT

Harold D. Foster, Ph.D.

Department of Geography,

University of Victoria, British Columbia.

There is a global " pandemic " of sporadic Alzheimer's disease, with some

4.5

million victims in the United States alone. By 2050, this figure is

expected

to have risen to 14 million. The associated suffering and financial and

social loss is unnecessary. Alzheimer's disease is caused by aluminum,

especially in its monomeric form. Monomeric aluminum is chemically the

simplest species of aluminum, passes the blood-brain barrier most

easily,

and seems to be by far the most toxic type of aluminum.

Alzheimer's is particularly common in those carrying the APO E4

allele(s), a

type of variant gene. These people are more susceptible to this toxic

metal

because they are less capable than the rest of the population of

removing

the beta-amyloid and tau proteins that aluminum encourages to develop

in the

brain. As a result, these proteins accumulate, forming the neuritic

plaques

and neurofibrillary tangles that are characteristic of Alzheimer's

disease.

This process occurs most often in populations living in regions that

promote

the deposition of these dangerous proteins. Such " harmful " environments

are

those in which drinking water is acidic, high in monomeric aluminum,

and

lacking magnesium, calcium and silicic acid. (Silicic acid protects

against

aluminum. It occurs at high levels naturally in some water supplies.) A

few

of the references identifying such regions are listed at the end of

this

summary (1-6). Under these circumstances, aluminum enters the brain and

impairs numerous enzymes, including choline acetyltransferase,

calcium/calmodulin kinase II, alkaline phospatase and phospholipase A2.

Such

enzyme disruptions interfere with numerous biochemical systems and

eventually cause the abnormal brain pathology seen in Alzheimer's

disease.

The best way to reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease is to

avoid aluminum, especially its monomeric form in drinking water. In

addition, the average British and North American diet is known to

contain

less than half the calcium and magnesium required to avoid deficiency

illnesses. This can be corrected by adding foods, such as salmon,

sardines,

broccoli and bok choy, which are high in calcium and pumpkin seeds,

almonds,

whole grain brown rice, which have elevated magnesium, to your diet.

Experimental trials, conducted in Russia, have also shown that the

ascorbates (vitamin C) of calcium and magnesium and of other minerals,

taken

regularly, can reverse the early stages of memory loss in the elderly.

References

1. Flaten,TP (1990). Geographical association between aluminum in

drinking

water and death rates with dementia (including Alzheimer's

disease),Parkinson's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,in

Norway.

Environmental Geochemistry and Health,12 (1 and 2),152-167.

2. Gauthier,E.,Fortier,I.,Courchesne, F. et al. (2000) Aluminum forms

in

drinking water and risk of Alzheimer's disease. Environmental Research,

84(3), 234-246.

3. Jacqmin-Gadda,H.,Commenges,D.,Letenneur,L et al. (1996) Silica and

aluminum in drinking water and cognitive impairment in the elderly.

Epidemiology. 7(3), 281-285.

4. Birchall,JD,Exley,C.,Chappell,JS et al. (1989).Acute toxicity of

aluminum

to fish eliminated in silicon-rich acid waters. Nature,338,146-148.

5. Jacqmin,H, Commenges,D.,Letenneur,L et al. (1994) Components of

drinking

water and risk of cognitive impairment in the elderly. American Journal

of

Epidemiology, 139 (1),48-57.

6. Kihira,T,Yoshida,S,Yase,Y et al.(2002) Chronic low-Ca/Mg high Al

diet

induces neuronal loss.Neuropathology,22 (3),171-179.

(Editor's note: Professor Harold Foster's new book, " What Really Causes

Alzheimer's disease, " is available free of charge at www.hdfoster.com .

At

this website, you can also download his previous book, " What Really

Causes

AIDS " for free as well. Dr. Foster is Associate Editor of the Journal

of

Orthomolecular Medicine. We will be featuring an interview with him in

an

upcoming Doctor Yourself Newsletter.)

PREVENTING PREVENTION

by Josef " Sepp " Hasslberger

Rome, Italy

Germany has long been one of the most restrictive countries on vitamin

and

mineral products, perhaps because of the relative strength of its

pharmaceutical industry, which sees a threat to profits on

pharmaceutical

drugs as more and more people seem to turn away from drugs and try the

" natural option " . . . Germany is also hosting and chairing the

once-a-year

meeting of a Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses

(CCNFSDU) of the international Codex Alimentarius. The committee

recently

finalized a Codex Guideline for Vitamin and Mineral Supplements, which

states that " upper safe levels " are to be set for vitamin supplements.

.. .

Once used in Europe, Germany and the European Union will lobby for

these

same principles to be applied internationally, by making them part of

the

Codex procedure for setting " upper safe levels. "

The coming rules will hit what is arguably the safest product category

in

existence by a wide margin - natural health products. Supplements and

herbal

products are safer than normal, everyday foods and infinitely safer

than

pharmaceutical medicines. Medicines are often found to be highly toxic

despite bearing the authorities' seal of approval. Modern medicine and

specifically adverse drug reactions have been identified as a major

cause of

death in the Western world.

The German administrative position has long been that of allowing a

maximum

of 3 times the RDA amount in the formulation of supplements of water

soluble

vitamins and correspondingly less (1 x RDA level) for vitamins with a

narrower safety margin and for minerals. Any supplements with nutrients

in

higher dosage have been kept off the market as " illegal medicines " by a

refusal to grant marketing authorization. Where such authorization was

not

sought, products were forced off the market.

A sampling of proposed limits shows 15 milligrams for vitamin E, 4

milligrams for vitamin B1, little more than 5 milligrams for vitamin B

6 and

a whooping 225 milligrams for vitamin C!

You will search in vain for any logic in such an approach to

supplementation

other than perhaps to prevent prevention. There is no winner, except

the

pharmaceutical business with disease.

(Excerpted from the article " Food Supplements: German Risk Institute

Takes

Dim View, "

the complete text of which is posted at

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2005/01/20/food_supplements_german_risk_ins\

titute_takes_dim_view.htm)

(Editor's note: I most definitely recommend Sepp's excellent free and

non-commercial email newsletter. You can sign up for it at his Health

Supreme website, via the above link.

Also, be sure to look at:

SUPPLEMENT BAN IN UK

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2005/02/03/eu_supplements_directive_is_good\

_for_consumers_british_mp.htm

ALLIANCE FOR NATURAL HEALTH'S ALERT TO AMERICA:

http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/_docs/ANHwebsiteDoc_129.doc

MORE IMPORTANT INFORMATION on CODEX:

http://www.thenhf.com/codex_25.htm

DY READERS SPEAK OUT AGAINST SUPPLEMENT RESTRICTION

To the DAILY MAIL, London UK

" Dear Editor,

" I would like to know why the Daily Mail, a paper that prints a 'GOOD

HEALTH'

section has not drawn the public's attention to the fact that on the

3rd

July 2003 the UK Standing Committee on Health voted to introduce the EU

Food

Supplements Directive into law. This law means that hundreds of highly

beneficial nutrients will be lost to the British consumer.

" In an extraordinary act of contempt for Parliamentary democracy and

for the

wishes of the 20 million British consumers who take some form of

supplement

or use natural medicine, Mr. Blair at the 11th hour switched members of

this

select committee so that he could stuff it full of his yes-men, thus

giving

him the vote he wanted so that Britain could 'harmonise' with the EU.

" I am rather surprised that you have not alerted your readers to the

above.

Many do not know what is happening and I feel you have a moral duty to

inform them. I await your comments. This is a very important and

serious

issue - one of people's health and the issue will not go away.

" Yours sincerely,

" Marlene Houghton "

[Ms. Houghton then wrote again (I just love that!) saying:]

" Dear Editor,

" The UK Public Health Minister, Melanie Johnson, stated openly that she

is

against 'an alcohol ad ban' even though alcohol is related to

binge-drinking, anti-social behaviour, a massive increase in

alcohol-related

diseases, and domestic violence. Apparently she believes that

'individual

choice is important.' However, regarding the vitamin supplements issue,

it

was this Minister who voted against consumer-choice on the matter of

health

supplements. She does not believe in them. However, millions of the

general

public do, including natural health professionals who advise on their

use.

Ms. Johnson does not extend this same freedom regarding 'individual

choice'

to the vitamin takers that she magnanimously bestows to alcohol

abusers.

" So, welcome to New Labour's health policies - if you want to drink

yourself

into a stupor, you are exercising your individual choice. If you want

to

take supplements, with a proven safety record over decades, and under

stringent food laws in the U.K. to keep yourself well, you may soon

have

your health ruined if access to them is restricted after August 2005.

" Yours faithfully,

" Marlene Houghton "

RESPONSE from THE DAILY MAIL, LONDON

" Dear Mrs. Houghton

" Thank you for your letter.

" I am afraid I don't see it as the Daily Mail's job to advance the

cause of

any particular lobby group, however well-intentioned, including your

own. We

have printed stories about this issue and will continue to so do when

we

consider them newsworthy.

" Yours sincerely

" Alistair Sinclair, Deputy Editor "

READER IN THE NEWS

Another Doctor Yourself Newsletter reader decided that writing to the

papers

wasn't enough. He squeaked so loudly that a Minnesota newspaper did a

feature story on him, complete with photo.

VITAMINS OR DRUGS?

HEALTHY DEBATE

Abridged from the article by Tim Krohn, Mankato Free Press Staff Writer

(Jan

9, 2005)

Rich Putman's blood boils when he reads or hears news reports about

studies

showing possible dangers from using vitamins or supplements. The most

recent: a report that high daily doses of vitamin E may cause a higher

risk

of death.

" There are 106,000 people a year who die from prescription drugs. Then

maybe

a dozen people have a bad experience with vitamin E and that's jumped

on? "

There may be some dispute about the 106,000 number, but deaths from

drugs

improperly prescribed or used are considerable. (There are an estimated

100,000 deaths just among hospitalized people each year because of

medical

errors, including misuse of drugs and other mistakes, according to

Aetna.)

The FDA says Vioxx, the pain medication recently pulled off the market,

is

believed to have led to some 27,000 heart attacks and cardiac deaths in

the

past four years.

The 64-year-old Putman, a retired Mankato business owner, has spent

three

decades on a crusade for good health through personal responsibility

and

natural means rather than turning to prescription drugs. A recent study

shows he may be losing the battle. Forty percent of all Americans are

on

prescription drugs - with many using three or more - and the rate

continues

to climb.

" With prescription drugs, " Putman said, " It's not a question of if

there

will be side effects, it's just what kind and how serious they are. "

Dr. Eric Storvick, who practices internal medicine at the Mankato

Clinic,

agrees drugs can cause problems, but he says their benefits are far

greater.

.. .

" We shouldn't take prescription drugs we don't need, and the same for

vitamins, " Storvick said. " Just because it's natural doesn't mean it's

safe. "

(T)here remains a wide chasm between some who see modern medicine as a

threat to health and those who view many vitamins and supplements as

ineffective or even dangerous products pushed for profit.

" There's a bunch of things a person can do to be healthier. Watch the

foods

you eat. The white, refined flours, sugars, and (white) rice are

terrible.

That has all the nutritional and vitamin contents taken out, " Putman

said.

" Drugs primarily address symptoms and not the causes of problems. If

your

body is up to snuff, it can fend off most illnesses, " Putman said.

" Obviously genetics can enter into it, but even then you can help

yourself

even if you are genetically predisposed to some problems. "

Dr. Storvick said medicine is often the only realistic choice, and one

that

saves lives. " Seventy-five percent of my visits may be a results of

poor

lifestyle choices. What am I going to do if you have high blood

pressure

from not eating well and you're in your 60s? Maybe you'll start eating

better, but it's not so likely. What am I going to do but give you

medications to reduce stroke and heart attacks? "

Rich Putman said in his teens and twenties he got the flu every few

years.

" Now, I haven't had the flu in about three decades. I credit it to my

change

in lifestyle. " (He does not get flu shots.)

Putman, who has spent three decades doing personal research on vitamins

and

natural health, said it can be hard to know where to turn.

" It's a tough question. A person can go on the Internet and there are

some

sites I think are good, " Putman said. (One he recommends:

DoctorYourself.com)

He's no longer a fan of one of the widely circulated magazines:

Prevention.

" They were good. They never would take drug company ads, but now they

are. I

think it's warped their editorial integrity. "

Dr. Storvick recommends against taking high doses of any vitamins

unless

prescribed by a doctor, and he says people should be cautious of where

they

get their information.

" I'd be wary of getting advice from Web sites or groups that have a

vested

interest in selling vitamins or supplements. "

For full text of the article:

http://www.mankato-freepress.com/news/story.php?storyid=105487

To to the Mankato, Minnesota Free Press :

http://www.mankatofreepress.com/home/info.php

COMMENTS BY ABRAM HOFFER, M.D., Ph.D.:

" In this article, the doctor makes a number of assertions that are

ridiculous and only the general ignorance of the public allows him to

get

away with it. He says, for example, that not enough is known about

vitamins

and then adds no one should take them in large doses without a doctor's

prescription. Where is the logic in that? Doctors know less than their

patients about vitamins. To ask people to only follow their doctor's

advice

is like asking them to strictly avoid vitamin supplements all the time.

The

real danger is that many patients do not know that doctors know nothing

about vitamins. "

(Thanks to Doctor Yourself Newsletter reader Rich Putman for speaking

out in

the media. His website is

http://www.alternative-health-answers.info/index.html.

I enjoy his sense of humor, towards the bottom of this particular page:

http://www.alternative-health-answers.info/meet-Rich.html)

FIGHTING BACK AT PSYCHIATRY's ATTACK ON MEGAVITAMIN THERAPY

The Abram Hoffer - Humphry Osmond " Reply to the APA " has long been hard

to

find; you surely can't get a copy from the American Psychiatry

Association!

However: the full text is now available and free online at

http://www.iahf.com/orthomolecular/reply_to_apa_tfr_7.pdf

SHOW ME THE RECIPE!

I am what my Dad termed a " by-guess-or-by-golly " cook. He was, too. My

Mom

was . . . well, as far as cooking was concerned, she wasn't. I mean,

gray

Jell-O? (The sordid tale is told at

http://www.doctoryourself.com/moms_cooking.html)

Now here's a way you can help Newsletter readers eat better, simply and

with

variety. (Most important, help me! I can always use some new recipes.)

Recipe submissions should follow these guidelines:

1) Vegetarian. (Dairy and egg OK if you wish)

2) Very, very simple. How about no more than 6 ingredients? (All right,

water and salt don't count.)

3) English (not metric) measurements, please. Yes, I was a science

teacher.

A milliliter is not a bug; a kilogram is not a death threat by Western

Union. Let's face it: Americans are only metric-minded when it comes to

soda

bottles.

Please send in your natural, healthy, tasty favorites to me at

drsaul

TOOTHPASTE LABEL REVS UP SOME ANXIETY

by Susan Ager, Detroit Free Press, Jan 13, 2005

(Reprinted in full with kind permission of the author)

I don't know why, or why I hadn't before, but the other day I read the

back

of my wrinkly tube of toothpaste. As if I don't already suffer enough

anxiety, I found these words: " Do not swallow. " Nearby was a warning to

keep

the tube away from children under 6. It got worse: " If more than used

for

brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a

Poison

Control Center right away. "

Words like " poison " and " do not swallow " do not belong on the label of

anything you put in your mouth even once a day. But there they were, on

my

Arm & Hammer, on a tube of Colgate in my travel case, on my husband's

" natural " Tom's of Maine. When I visited my local drugstore, I found

similar

words, including the P word, on every brand I checked.

What the . . . ?

One friend guessed too much toothpaste might " plug you up like

concrete, " so

that evening before bed I squeezed a tablespoon onto my finger and ate

it.

Its powerful minty taste made me gag, but it didn't kill me overnight

or

slow any of my natural functions.

I considered eating a spoonful every day for a month, just to see.

Instead I

called the 800 number on the tube, where I learned the warning,

required by

the FDA, had to do with just one toothpaste ingredient: fluoride.

So what's the problem?

" It's not meant to be ingested, " Tonya in Arm & Hammer customer service

told

me. " It's just supposed to be put on the teeth to help with

strengthening. "

So what happens if you ingest too much?

" I honestly don't know, " she said, " but I've heard some people say they

squeeze the toothpaste straight from the tube into their mouths as they

leave the house, and that's not the purpose of the product. "

Prowling the Internet, I found alarming claims about fluoride: that

it's up

there with arsenic and lead in toxicity, that half a tube of toothpaste

can

kill a child, that it's linked to attention deficit disorder, to

Alzheimer's

disease, to bone cancer and arthritis. I learned that Grand Rapids in

1950

was the first city in America to fluoridate its water, and that now

about

two-thirds of Americans drink fluoridated water.

Only 2 percent of Europeans do, because scientists there consider the

chemical too dangerous to spread around.

I spoke with Christopher Bryson, an award-winning investigative

journalist

who a year ago published " The Fluoride Deception " (to read a review,

scroll

down the page at http://www.doctoryourself.com/fluoridation.html). He

told

me optimal fluoridation levels of 1 part per million scare him, since

research has found dramatic toxic effects in animals consuming 5 parts

per

million.

He uses a fluoride filter on his home tap in New York City. As for

fluoridated toothpaste, he said, " I think about what my 2-year-old son

is

looking to do, so I don't keep the stuff in my house. "

It's a lot to swallow.

At Poison Control's national number (800-222-1222) I found Susan

Smolinske,

a pharmacist at Children's Hospital of Michigan. She said a 22-pound

child

would have to eat an ounce of fluoridated toothpaste to get an upset

stomach. She vaguely remembers one case of a seizure in a child who ate

too

much, but said acute fluoride poisoning from toothpaste isn't as

troubling

as chronic exposure.

You should worry, she said, " if you have a child who every day eats a

couple

teaspoons. " That can cause severe bone and other problems.

Then she told me, " If you drink fluoridated water, you don't even need

toothpaste. It's more important to brush your teeth than to brush them

with

toothpaste. "

I never knew that. I'm happy I now do, and I'm glad I read my tube,

which is

now in the trash.

(Susan Ager's column appears three times a week in the Detroit Free

Press

(www.freep.com), on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Her contact email is

ager.)

DENTISTS' PAY TOPS DOCTORS

Even with fewer cavities to fill, dentists' earnings are skyrocketing

(Excerpts from the article by Mark Maremont, in The Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/public/us , Jan 11, 2005)

" Once the poor relations in the medical field, dentists in the past few

years have started making more money than many types of physicians,

including internal-medicine doctors, pediatricians, psychiatrists, and

those

in family practice, according to survey data from the American Dental

Association and American Medical Association.

" On average, general dentists in 2000, the most recent year for which

comparative data are available, earned $166,460 - compared with

$164,100 for

general internal-medicine doctors, $145,700 for psychiatrists, $144,700

for

family-practice physicians, and $137,800 for pediatricians. . . From

1988 to

2000, dentists' incomes more than doubled, while the average

physician's

income grew 42 percent.

" (M)ost private dental insurance is still paid on a fee-for-service

basis.

Many optional procedures aren't covered by insurance, leaving dentists

free

to charge whatever the market will bear. About 44 percent of all dental

care

is paid by patients out of their own pockets, according to federal

statistics for 2002, compared with just 10 percent for all physician

and

clinical costs.

" 'Today, you can create a smile' from materials that people 'can't tell

are

not real teeth,' says Joe Barton, a Jacksonville, Fla., dentist who

specializes in cosmetic procedures. He says he typically charges from

$12,000 to $14,000 to put veneers on 10 front teeth, requiring about 3

1/2

hours of his time. "

(For submitting letters to the editor for publication in the Wall

Street

Journal: wsj.ltrs)

COMMENT by the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation:

" Most of us realize the problem facing America's poorer populations is

not

lack of fluoride; but lack of (affordable) dental care. Fluoridation

gives

dentistry and legislators the illusion they are tackling the oral

health

crises, when we know they aren't. Dentists have hardly put themselves

out of

business by encouraging fluoridation. "

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DOCTOR YOURSELF Newsletter (Vol. 5, No. 6 for March 5, 2005)

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