DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER (Vol. 6, No. 7 July-August, 2006)

July 3, 2006

" Andrew W. Saul " <drsaul

Sun, 2 Jul 2006 16:15:05 -0400

" One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not

to

take medicine. "

Sir William Osler, MD (1849-1919)

The DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER (Vol. 6, No. 7 July-August, 2006)

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

which

now welcomes nearly two million visitors annually. Commercial use of

the

website or the contents of this Newsletter is strictly prohibited.

IN THIS ISSUE:

1) DO YOU HAVE A " HIP " DOC?

2) MEGAVITAMIN PIONEERS HONORED

3) NEW NUTRITION NOTES

4) INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT CARTON, PhD

5) FLUORIDE FINDER

6) CANCER, MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS, DEPRESSION

7) BEST HEALTH BOOKS

8) MEDLINE BIAS: AN INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT

9) MEGAVITAMIN CURE FOR MENTAL ILLNESS

10) NO MORE MEDICINES

11) MEDIA VITAMIN BASHING

12) HEART HEALTH WITH VITAMINS

AS I SAT AT LUNCH with the 88-year-old Dr. Abram Hoffer, I took some

vitamin

pills. Dr. Hoffer leaned over towards me and said, " You know, you're

going

to live a lot longer if you take those. "

I looked back at him and he added, " I guarantee it. If not, come back

and

tell me. "

Dr. Hoffer advocates vitamins. Dr. Hoffer is hip.

DO YOU HAVE A HIP DOCTOR?

No, I don't mean an orthopedic surgeon. I mean, in the parlance of the

perpetually groovy, " Do you have a family physician who really DOES

think

that vitamins and food supplements are safe and effective? Who urges

his

patients to take vitamins in larger than RDA quantities? Who urges her

patients to try nutrition first, and drugs last? "

If so, the Doctor Yourself News wants to talk to her or him!

Why? It's as simple as this: Research studies are often inaccessible,

excessively brainiac, or even contradictory. But just about everybody

has

respect what experienced family doctors say.

Therefore, we are going to collect as many AFFERMATIVE VITAMIN

STATEMENTS

from physicians as we can to once and for all debunk the cornerstone

medical

myths that vitamins are somehow harmful, and drugs are the only real

medicine.

(NOTE: We are NOT preparing a directory, nor do we provide referrals or

names of a physician near you. Asking at health food stores and

searching

the internet are good ways to do that.)

Please send me your vitamin-savvy doctor's email address so we may

contact

and hopefully quote him or her. Yes, it HAS to be email addresses ONLY

(not

phone numbers, not postal addresses); it's the only practical way we

volunteers can do this. Please email drsaul

MEGAVITAMIN PIONEERS HONORED

Orthomolecular nutritional therapy has sometimes been called

" complimentary "

medicine. Might that therefore make conventional pharmaceutical-based

therapy " insulting " or " rude " medicine? Orthomolecular medicine is the

only

segment of the healing arts to be given its name by a double Nobel

prize

winner. Linus Pauling stated that orthomolecular means the " right

molecules. " In time, I think allopathic medicine will be more widely

known

as toximolecular. Since a drug-based approach introduces molecules that

are

foreign or " wrong, " perhaps even " naughty-molecular. "

The old paradigm of medicine is represented in a story Mark Twain tells

of a

doctor at the bedside of a very sick, elderly lady. The doctor told her

that

she must stop drinking, cussing and smoking. The lady said that she'd

never

done any of those things in her entire life. The doctor responded,

" Well,

that's your problem, then. You've neglected your habits. " Twain added:

" She

was like a sinking ship with no freight to throw overboard. " Perhaps

some of

that " freight " would be an old-fashioned ignorance of nutritional

medicine.

Now let's consider another and quite different elderly woman: a woman

taking

niacin for 42 years, and still cross country skiing at the age of 110.

This

is a real person, an actual long-time patient of Dr. Abram Hoffer.

Clearly,

here is a new paradigm. How very different from the Henny Youngman

story:

" So this guy's doctor told him he had six months to live. The guy said

he

couldn't pay his bill. The doctor gave him another six months. "

One of the purposes of this newsletter, the www.doctoryourself.com

website,

and the Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame is to educate the

professions

and the public about the pioneers of high-dose nutritional therapy. To

take

this even further, the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service was started

in

March 2005. OMNS issues press releases spotlighting the safety and

effectiveness of vitamins and other nutrients. Now, after just over one

year, nearly 6,000 rs, including 3,000 broadcast and print

news

media, regularly receive OMNS press releases. You can read them all at

http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml . Not only that,

you

can for free at http://orthomolecular.org/.html

The Third Annual Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame induction banquet

was

a featured part of the Nutritional Medicine Today conference in

Vancouver,

BC, Canada. http://www.orthomed.org/NMT/nmt.html . I like to call them

the

" Orthomolecular Oscars. " Each year, we look forward to seeing who will

take

home the " Orthie. "

Eubie Blake, centenarian composer of the famous Charleston Rag, said,

" It's

not what we don't know that harms us; it's what we do know that ain't

so. "

All of the inductees in the Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame know

that

no cell in the human body is made from a drug. Not one.

In 2006, the winners in Vancouver were: William Griffith Wilson (Bill

W.),

Arthur M. Sackler, M.D., Max Joseph Vogel, M.D., Ruth Flinn Harrell,

PhD,

Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D., Lendon H. Smith, M.D., Sister Teresa Feist,

and

David R. Hawkins, M.D.

Each inductee for 2006 is now showcased, complete with a short

biography, at

http://orthomolecular.org/hof/index.shtml . All previous years'

inductees

are there as well.

(This article is reprinted with permission from Saul AW. 2006

Orthomolecular

Medicine Hall of Fame. J Orthomolecular Med 2006, Vol 21 No 3.)

NEW NUTRITION NOTES:

DOCTOR YOURSELF IN ASIA

The National Library Board of Singapore has just reviewed my book

DOCTOR

YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works in their June-July 2006

newsletter.

http://203.78.11.101:2000/Newsletter/issue_jun_jul06/reviews/bookreviews/health.\

asp

EUROPEAN UNION CITIZENS FIGHT BACK AGAINST VITAMIN SUPPLEMENT

RESTRICTIONS

Read how at http://www.eu-referendum.org/english/index.html

GUTE NACHRICHTEN für unsere DEUTSCHEN LESER!

My " where are the bodies? " parliamentary testimony on vitamin safety, (

http://www.doctoryourself.com/testimony.htm ) has now been translated

into

German. (Saul AW. [Vitamins and food supplements: Safe and effective]

In

German. Journal fur Orthomolekulare Medizin, Vol 14, No 1, March 2006,

p

67-77.) It is not yet online in German, however.

OU SONT ENTERRES LES CORPS?

L'article de sûreté de vitamine maintenant en français aussi ! (

http://www.doctoryourself.com/testimonyfrancais.htm )

FOR THE INSATIABLY INQUISITIVE:

A complete list of my journal publications is now posted (Relax:

they're in

English) at

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

FREE ACCESS TO THE JOURNAL OF ORTHOMOLECULAR MEDICINE

Here's good news: the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine is now

archived

online at http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom . Everyone may now

access

back issues of JOM free of charge. Six years are already posted; more

on the

way soon.

GETTING THE GOOD WORD OUT

My new book, Fire Your Doctor!

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

in its second printing. Doctor Yourself (2003)

http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html is now in its fourth

printing!

I wish to thank my readers for the very positive word-of-mouth.

THE DOCTOR YOURSELF INTERVIEW with

FLUORIDE-FOE DR. ROBERT CARTON

Introduced and interviewed by Andrew W. Saul.

" Fluoridation, " says former EPA scientist Robert J. Carton, PhD,

" presents

unacceptable risks to public health, and the government cannot prove

its

claims of safety. It is clear that fluoride is mutagenic, and that it

may

well cause cancer. EPA has attempted to silence scientists who do not

follow

the party line. " ( http://www.rvi.net/~fluoride/000247.htm ) And with

that,

he is just warming up. " Fluoridation, " he adds, " constitutes unlawful

medical research. It is banned in most of Europe; European Union human

rights legislation makes it illegal. "

Dr. Carton has considerable experience as a risk assessment manager for

the

US Environmental Protection Agency, investigating asbestos, arsenic,

hexachlorobenzene, hexachlorobutadiene, and, of course, cancer

incidence.

Then, for ten years, Dr. Carton was with the U.S. Army Medical Research

and

Materiel Command, Fort Detrick, Maryland. He was Chief of Environmental

Compliance, responsible for environmental compliance of the Army's

medical

research with the National Environmental Policy Act. He also managed

the

preparation of environmental assessments of biological and chemical

defense

laboratories throughout the U.S.. Diametrically opposite of the raving,

fictional general in Dr. Strangelove, Bob Carton is the real deal: he

has a

B.A. in Chemistry, an M.S. in Environmental Science, and a Ph.D. in

Environmental Science from Rutgers University.

When this man talks of fluoridation dangers, it is time to listen. The

DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWS is pleased to present the following exclusive

interview, in edited form, with this outspoken EPA dissenter.

DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWS: Dr. Carton, I have followed, with great

appreciation,

your stance against fluoridation of water for many years. My comments

on

fluoridation are posted at

http://www.doctoryourself.com/fluoridation.html , and our Journal of

Orthomolecular Medicine published

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

CARTON: I enjoyed the references you sent.

DY NEWS: How long were you with EPA?

CARTON: 20 years, from 1972 until 1992. I was a Risk Assessment

Scientist

with the Office of Toxic Substances, and twice president of the EPA

Professional Union.

DY NEWS: How popular were you with EPA?

CARTON: I think they tried to ignore me; they considered me " small

potatoes. "

DY NEWS: Were you?

CARTON: Well, at a meeting of the drinking water subcommittee of the

EPA

Science Advisory Board, I basically accused EPA of scientific fraud.

You can

read that presentation on the web at

http://www.rvi.net/~fluoride/000039.htm

When the Natural Resources Defense Council objected to EPA's 1985

standards

(raising the amount of fluoride allowed in water), I convinced the EPA

union

to file an amicus curiae brief in support of NRDC. (

http://rvi.net/~fluoride/000052.htm )

DY NEWS: Why?

CARTON: Because EPA did not even attempt to go through the scientific

process for determining an acceptable daily dose. They tried at great

length

to avoid nailing down how much fluoride people were actually getting so

they

could keep marching with the policy of keeping fluoridation going.

DY NEWS: Is this what you mean by fraud?

CARTON: In April 1985, a person writing standards for EPA actually told

me,

in private, that he was lying. He said he was told to lie, and that he

had

to do what he had to do to keep his job.

DY NEWS: Wow.

CARTON: That launched me. That is what got me interested.

DY NEWS: EPA's standard is 4 mg fluoride per liter. That is about 1 mg

per

cup of water. I have looked in the Physician's Desk Reference (PDR) and

have

seen that 1 mg of fluoride can be a prescription dose.

CARTON: Exactly.

DY NEWS: That, to me, says that EPA is allowing a prescription dose of

fluoride in a single eight-ounce glass of water. And people are

encouraged

to drink more than that.

CARTON: Exactly. The variation in consumption is huge. It makes no

sense at

all. The US Safe Drinking Water Act's recommended Maximum Contaminant

Level

Goal (MCLG) for fluoride is 4 mg, which is unenforceable. (MCLG is

explained

at the EPA's website: http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw/standard/setting.html )

What

is enforceable is the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL). It is supposed

to be

as close to the MCLG as possible, taking economics and feasibility into

account. This is a political decision, not a scientific one. For

fluoride

they are totally linked together. They are both 4 mg/liter.

DY NEWS: The limit and the goal are equal? Is that unusual?

CARTON: Yes. The law says you are supposed to set the goal at the

lowest

level at which effects may occur, with an adequate margin of safety as

well.

DY NEWS: With public safety as their rationale, EPA has taken a hard

line on

secondhand tobacco smoke. But not the same with fluoride?

CARTON: Nothing is the same with fluoride.

DY NEWS: In regards to smoking, I think very few doctors would say, " If

you

smoke 40 cigarettes a day, you are safe, but if you smoke 41, you have

a

problem. "

CARTON: Right.

DY NEWS: So, with fluoride, EPA is saying that 4.0 is OK, but 4.1 is

not.

And yet there are reported dangers from fluoride at only 1 or 2

mg/liter.

CARTON: Right. The 2006 National Research Council report (

http://darwin.nap.edu/books/030910128X/html ) shows this. Artificial

water

fluoridation is the largest contributor to the daily dose of fluoride

received by citizens of the US, according to the NRC report. 162

million

Americans have fluoridated drinking water. I am not optimistic about

EPA

using the NRC report to take the appropriate action to protect public

health. If they did, there would be no way to justify artificial

fluoridation and it would end.

DY NEWS: My dentist thinks that 1 mg/liter (1 part per million) is

absolutely a good idea to prevent tooth decay. But even he thinks that

the

EPA's 4 mg/liter (4 ppm) standard is way too high, and unsafe.

CARTON: Even 1 mg/liter (1 ppm) has been shown to produce brain changes

identical to those in Alzheimer's patients. And that is in rats, and

rats do

not absorb as much as humans. That tells me that the level that would

produce those changes in humans is probably a tenth of a milligram per

liter.

DY NEWS: Dr. Carton, what level of fluoride in drinking water do you

consider safe?

CARTON: Nothing. I think the Maximum Contaminant Level Goal should be

zero.

DY NEWS: Let's say the technology, the money and the will to do it were

available. Coming close, being realistic, would you agree that water

fluoridation at 0.1 mg/liter is " safe " ?

CARTON: I can't say that's safe. There is too much information showing

detrimental effects. The more you put fluoride in water, the more it

gets

into all food and beverage products.

DY NEWS: How much fluoride in water is a " good idea to reduce tooth

decay " ?

CARTON: Zero.

DY NEWS: The public often hears that " fluoridation of water has reduced

dental cavities by up to two-thirds. "

CARTON: There is no evidence that that is true. Studies have shown no

reduction in tooth decay between fluoridated and unfluoridated cities.

DY NEWS: Dentists I have talked with are largely unaware that even

their own

profession says that systemic (ingested) fluoride does not strengthen

teeth.

DY NEWS: It was the cover story of the July 2000 Journal of the

American

Dental Association.

DY NEWS: So, since they still vehemently support water fluoridation,

does

the ADA actually think there is a topical benefit in the range of 1 to

4

ppm? I cannot think of any topical medication that is claimed to be

effective at such a dose.

CARTON: When iodine intake is inadequate, just seven-tenths of a

milligram

(0.7 mg) of fluoride per day has been shown to cause detrimental

effects on

the thyroid.

DY NEWS: How much of the US population gets seven-tenths of a milligram

of

fluoride, from all sources, each day?

CARTON: Probably everybody.

DY NEWS: What kind of home water filtration removes fluoride from tap

water?

CARTON: Reverse osmosis might, to some degree. Carbon filters do not.

(Editor's note: The Doctor Yourself News does not recommend or endorse

any

manufacturer, brand or product, and this newsletter's contents may not

be

used by anyone for such a purpose.)

DY NEWS: Why aren't our elected officials and the EPA looking harder at

fluoride dangers?

CARTON: Under no circumstances is the government going to change its

mind on

water fluoridation.

DY NEWS: Given that, what actions do you recommend?

CARTON: Get fluoride to a public vote. Get a public referendum on the

ballot

insisting that fluoride be taken out of your local water supply. And,

of

course, get informed. Look at http://www.fluoridealert.org , which I

consider to be the premier source for news and information on the

entire

subject of fluoride. For insights into the history of fluoride's

protected

status, I highly recommended Christopher Bryson's book, The Fluoride

Deception (2004) http://www.fluoridealert.org/fluoride-deception.htm

(This

book is reviewed, and the author interviewed, at

http://www.doctoryourself.com/fluoridation.html . Please scroll down

the

page about one-third.)

Additionally, the journal Fluoride is another excellent resource. My

critique of the National Toxicology Program cancer study was a guest

editorial there in 1991. ( http://www.rvi.net/~fluoride/000040.htmc )

Additionally, the 1998 memo I wrote to the director of the Gulf War

Research

program ( http://www.rvi.net/~fluoride/000056.htm ) at the U.S. Army

Medical

Research and Materiel Command might interest your readers. His response

back

to me was to mind my own business. In 1998, Dr. Bill Hirzy and I

presented a

paper about the fraudulent nature of the EPA standard at the National

Association of Environmental Professionals Annual Meeting:

http://www.rvi.net/~fluoride/000037.htm . Hirzy's congressional

testimony is

posted at http://www.fluoridealert.org/testimony.htm .

DY NEWS: Dr. Carton, thank you for all this information.

CARTON: Thanks for this opportunity.

Recommended for further reading:

Cross DW, Carton RJ. Fluoridation: a violation of medical ethics and

human

rights. Int J Occup Environ Health. 2003 Jan-Mar;9(1):24-9.)

Hileman B (1988) Fluoridation of water Chemical & Engineering News

(American

Chemical Society) 66 (31) 26-42 Aug 1st.

Hill DR. (1997) Fluoride: risks and benefits? Disinformation in the

service

of big industry. http://www.fluoridation.com/calgaryh.htm

http://www.nofluoride.com and especially

http://www.nofluoride.com/scientific_studies.htm

http://www.cfsw.us/2006/05/20/thiessen-nrc-report-relevent-to-fluoridation/

My viewpoint on water fluoridation is posted at

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

FLUORIDE FINDER

A well-written and fluoride-skeptical article in Prevention magazine (

http://www.prevention.com/article/0,,s1-1-74-112-6959-1,00.html ) is

coupled

with a clickable tool to show you find how much fluoride you are

getting:

http://www.prevention.com/water/fluoride_home .

In my opinion, you might best read it now, before the ADA pressures it

out

of there.

DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWS' RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE MONTH:

FREE ALTERNATIVE CANCER THERAPIES NEWSLETTER

I urge my interested readers to sign up for Ralph Moss, PhD's

excellent,

free email newsletter.

http://www.cancerdecisions.com/060406.html This is one of the least

commercial, best written, and very best referenced newsletters on the

'net.

DOCTOR'S DETAILS ON HOW VITAMNS STOP M.S.

Fire up you printer and make copies of this free, full-text paper

immediately:

FREDERICK R. KLENNER, M.D.'s VITAMIN TREATMENT PROTOCOL FOR MULTIPLE

SCLEROSIS http://www.townsendletter.com/Klenner/klenner1.htm

BLOG on DEPRESSION

http://stopdepression.blogspot.com/2005/12/depression-doctor-yourself-by-andrew.\

html

has this to say:

" Dr. Andrew Saul is an incredible man with a passion for empowering

people

to be healthy. He authored the best-seller: " Fire Your Doctor " and has

one

of the best (and largest) natural health websites in the world. This

article

discusses how the same chemicals made in the body by prescription

medication

can be made naturally, through dietary choices & nutritional

supplements. "

" An excerpt from Dr. Saul's article on Depression:

" " Rather than give a synthetic drug to block or mimic the body's

chemical

nerve messengers (neurotransmitters), it is possible nutritionally to

encourage the body to make its own natural ones. If we are what we eat,

then

our nerves also depend on what they are fed. Here is tremendous

potential

for the alleviation of depression and related disorders. "

(More at http://www.doctoryourself.com/depression.html ) "

READERS ASK:

BEST BOOKS?

Mike writes:

" I am looking for an online list of book recommendations on nutritional

medicine from beginner to advanced. Besides your books (

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

http://www.doctoryourself.com/fyd.html , what other books would you

recommend as a must read to learn about orthomolecular approaches to

medicine? "

I have constructed several webpages listing good-to-start-with books,

coupled with my mini-reviews, posted at

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

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

Books Dr Hoffer has personally reviewed are at

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

Papers I especially recommend are at

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

Papers I have written are at

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

My full bibliography and reading list is at

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

MEDLINE BIAS: IT'S NOW AN INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT

Medline's refusal to index the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine is

now

news across the hemispheres. A Norwegian magazine has published

articles on

the controversy. Canadian Member of Parliament the Hon. James Lunney (

http://www.jameslunneymp.ca ) has written a formal and detailed demand

for

explanation to the US National Library of Medicine. And now, the

prestigious

British Medical Journal has published a letter about Medline bias both

online ( http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/331/7531/1487#124851 )

and

in the print journal as well. This has had the curious result that

Medline

now indexes Medline bias. (Hickey S. Censorship of medical journals.

BMJ.

2006 Jul 1;333(7557):45. PMID: 16809720)

For more on the story, we turn to the author of the BMJ letter, Steve

Hickey, PhD, of the School of Biology, Chemistry, and Health Science at

Manchester Metropolitan University, who writes:

" Currently, Medline does not index a number of important medical and

scientific journals. These include the Journal of Orthomolecular

Medicine;

Fluoride (the journal of the International Society for Fluoride

Research);

the Journal of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine (the journal of

the

British Society for Ecological Medicine and associated medical

societies in

the USA and Australia); and the Journal of the American Physicians and

Surgeons, formerly Medical Sentinel (journal of the Association of

American

Physicians and Surgeons). These publications share a common feature:

they

each represent an alternative viewpoint to the current medical

paradigm.

" Andrew Saul and I have investigated the Medline indexing process and

have

discovered that indexing relies on a selected group of experts. This

implies

that the indexing process could be biased towards conventional

journals,

simply by selecting panel members with a particular viewpoint. This

indexing

process also produces anomalies in the other direction: Time magazine

and

Readers' Digest, for example. Apparently, Medline deems these popular

magazines to be more relevant to medical research than the serious

journals

listed above.

TWO IMMEDIATE ACTION STEPS

1) " If you do not agree with the exclusion of one or more of these

journals,

or if you consider that Medline should publish clear, complete and

definitive criteria on the requirements for journals to be indexed

(which

should be met by all currently indexed journals), please email us at

medlinebias. Please state your name and qualifications, if

you are

a physician, scientist or medical professional. If you are a concerned

member of the public, we value your opinion and would also like to hear

from

you.

2) " Make an online rapid response to this BMJ article by going to

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/extract/333/7557/45-a?eletter

and be

heard now. "

(Editor's note: Yes, taxpayer-funded Medline's bias is now news from

Canada

to Norway to England. Smells like victory!)

MEGAVITAMIN CURE FOR MENTAL ILLNESS

Healing Schizophrenia: Complementary Vitamin and Drug Treatments

by Abram Hoffer, M.D., PhD.

Toronto: CCNM Press, 2004. 213 pages, paperback. ISBN 1-897025-08-4.

I squirmed in my seat as I watched " A Beautiful Mind, " a popular film

about

the brilliant and schizophrenic Nobel laureate John Nash. I was able,

just

barely, to refrain from shouting aloud, " Give than man some niacin! " It

is

probably just as well I kept quiet, and was therefore able to see the

entire

movie without incurring the combined wrath of ushers and audience. But

after

reading the work of Canadian psychiatrist Abram Hoffer, M.D., it is not

easy

to maintain silence about schizophrenia, a disease that affects at

least one

percent of the population, often with dire and costly consequences.

Interestingly, when Dr Hoffer meets with newly diagnosed patient, he

actually says: " Good news: you have schizophrenia. " Patients' reactions

surely vary, but Dr Hoffer does not. He immediately reassures them that

they

are neither mentally nor morally deficient, but rather that they are

nutritionally dependent people, due to a gene-driven biochemical

imbalance.

He instructs most patients to immediately start taking 3,000 or more

milligrams of niacin a day, plus extra vitamins including large amounts

of

vitamin C, in divided doses. He also requires patients to all but swear

off

junk food. These steps, along with minimal doses of medication, have

resulted in thousands of biochemical cures of this supposedly

biochemically

incurable illness. In addition to being so responsive to nutritional

treatment, schizophrenia is also " good news, " Hoffer says, because

schizophrenics tend to be especially creative people who are unlikely

to

ever develop cancer.

Predictably, such an " easy " approach to such a " difficult " disease can

only

add up to medical heresy. For an heretic, Dr. Hoffer is remarkably well

credentialed: With a Ph.D. in nutrition in addition to his M.D., he was

formerly a director of psychiatric research, conducting the first

placebo-controlled, double-blind experiments in the history of

psychiatry.

Perhaps more heretics should have his other expert qualifications:

medical

journal editor-in-chief for nearly forty years, private practice for

fifty

years, and some twenty-five books and well over 500 scientific

publications.

For those who do not like " schizophrenic " as a label, let it be said

that

Dr. Hoffer doesn't particularly care for it himself. " The word

'schizophrenia,' " he writes, " serves no useful purpose either in

referring

accurately to a symptom or a disease, and will some day be replaced by

more

suitable diagnostic terms. " But as a rose by any other name still

requires

proper soil biochemistry, so do people called schizophrenics need

niacin,

and plenty of it.

Written in a confident yet unassuming style, Healing Schizophrenia:

Complementary Vitamin and Drug Treatments covers schizophrenia from

inside

out, with chapters on cause and symptoms, how it is treated, and how it

may

be prevented. Hoffer's directions on the fine points of niacin

administration and vitamin safety are so enormously valuable that those

sections alone make the book a must-read. A significant bonus is the

inclusion of a questionnaire from the Hoffer-Osmond Diagnostic Test for

Schizophrenia in the final chapter. A recommended reading list is

provided,

although an index is not.

Long-time readers of Hoffer's work will recognize much in the present

book

coming forward from his earlier works, How to Live with Schizophrenia

(1966), Common Questions on Schizophrenia and their Answers (1987), and

also

Vitamin B-3 and Schizophrenia. Discovery, Recovery, Controversy (1999).

Editing and updating are both extensive and seamless. Hoffer's

remarkable

writing style is at the same time both scholarly and, with his many

anecdotes, positively entertaining.

For those who may not like the idea of megadose niacin, but like the

idea of

schizophrenia even less, Dr. Hoffer is the author of choice. Moreover,

now

that he has retired from active practice, Healing Schizophrenia is more

than

just a timely publication: it is an essential one. To read Hoffer is

the

very next best thing to sitting down with him.

(Reprinted with permission from Saul AW. Review of Healing

schizophrenia:

Complementary vitamin and drug treatments, by Abram Hoffer. J

Orthomolecular

Med, 2006. Vol 21, No 1, p 59-60.)

READERS SAY:

NO MORE MEDICINES AT 60

" With health insurance becoming out of control and with changes, I was

not

able to get my prescription medicine from a mail order company. They

wanted

my money but would never send the medicine in a timely manner. I

decided

changes had to be made. On the web I go. Best thing I ever did.

" I had pneumonia a couple of years ago. The minute a cold starts I knew

I

was in trouble. Pneumonia likes me. I took control of my health and

body.

Vitamin C works. I don't think I would still be 'in this world' if it

was

not for your website.

" I am now off all medicines, except my high blood pressure meds. You

have

saved my pocket book and my health. Thank you so much. Everyone at my

job

knows about your website. Co-workers tell me I have more energy and

can

tell when I walk with a bounce. They ask me questions and want my

advice

and I say vitamin C, lots of it. They look at me funny and my comment

is

that 'hey, you're the one that is sick, not me.'

" At age 60, I finally got smart, thanks to you. "

Karen Robinson

Thank you, Karen. You made my day!

REBUTTAL TO MEDIA VITAMIN BASHING

To the Editors of the Wall Street Journal:

A recent Wall Street Journal article (March 20, 2006) trashes vitamins.

Financial newspapers are not medical journals. I am reasonably

confident

that the founders of the Wall Street Journal did not set out to rule on

nutritional matters. Neither do we expect NEJM or JAMA or Lancet to

give

investment advice (although they have been shown sufficiently

interdependent

with the pharmaceutical industry to do so).

There are those, especially in the pharmaceutical-advertising-supported

media, who would like the public to think that vitamins have no

therapeutic

value. In fact, they'd like it to think that nutritional supplements

are

downright dangerous. Advertiser money buys editorial favor. Scare

stories

sell papers.

If the Wall Street Journal were to analyze stocks with the convenient

selectivity with which they choose to report on vitamins, either they'd

have

the SEC on their tail or we'd be in the midst of another stock market

crash.

Almost all vitamin research is positive. If you search the National

Library

of Medicine's MEDLINE index for " vitamin, " you will find over 174,000

papers. A Medline search for " vitamin therapy " yields 53,372 citations;

" vitamin therapeutics " yields 16,191. A search for " vitamin

contraindications " gets 165 responses. Vitamins are well studied, safe

and

effective.

My own personal search of the medical literature has failed to find

even one

death proven to be caused by the public's use of vitamin

supplementation.

( http://www.doctoryourself.com/testimony.htm ) If you find to the

contrary,

please send it on to me. Remember, please, that I am looking

specifically

for proven instances, not hearsay. Not allegations, but forensic

evidence.

May I suggest that you might consider what I say when people talk to me

about all this:

" Show us all these people - any people - that have died from vitamins.

Where

are the bodies? Now explain this: the Journal of the American Medical

Association reports that at least 106,000 Americans are killed by

pharmaceutical drugs, properly prescribed and taken as directed, every

single year. " (Journal of the American Medical Association, 1994,

272:23, p

1851. Also: JAMA. 2000 Jul 5;284(1):95-7.)

In the end, you have to decide for yourself whether to trust Dr. Linus

Pauling or Mr. Dow Jones. And, if it will help keep things in

perspective,

why not bear in mind what Ward Cleaver told his son, Beaver: " A lot of

people go through life trying to prove that the things that are good

for

them are wrong. "

And at least some of those people likely work at the Wall Street

Journal.

Sincerely yours,

Andrew W. Saul

Assistant Editor, Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine

(This letter was not accepted for publication in the Wall Street

Journal.

Gee, I wonder why?)

HEART HEALTH WITH VITAMINS

The User's Guide to Heart-Healthy Supplements

by Michael Janson, M.D.

(Paperback. Basic Health Publications, 2004. ISBN 1-59120-120-9.)

There is a heart attack every 25 seconds in the USA, and nearly half

are

fatal. Well over 2,000 Americans die from heart disease every single

day.

What we need is a good pocket-sized how-to guide, that anyone can

afford, to

stop this slaughter. Now we have one: The User's Guide to Heart-Healthy

Supplements, by Michael Janson, M.D.

Dr. Janson's approach is orthomolecular and his message is a

life-saver:

take supplements, and here's why. His book is concise, like an

exceptionally

well-written thesis. It is readable, like a well-written magazine

article.

And most important, it is dose-specific and practical, like no other

91-page

book you've ever seen. It contains level-headed advice, coupled with a

measured discussion ranging from time-honored herbal remedies to the

latest

nutraceuticals. The role of homocysteine is well explained and duly

emphasized. There are especially good sections on heart-friendly amino

acids, magnesium, and essential fatty acids. This is to be expected in

a

book authored by Janson, a highly-experienced physician, and one of a

popular series edited by veteran nutrition writer Jack Challem.

Skeptics looking for unguarded statements or extreme recommendations

will be

quite disappointed. Dr. Janson advocates good-sense lifestyle

modification,

appropriate medical testing, and seeking out a knowledgeable

nutrition-oriented physician. He is sharply critical of high protein

and fad

diets, a group that he specifically indicates to include the Atkins,

" Zone, "

and " Blood Type " diets. Janson urges readers to eat very little, if

any,

meat. He writes: " Meats from land animals, including poultry, and dairy

products are unnecessary in the diet, although very small amounts are

not

likely to do too much harm. " And he's right.

As in his previous books (Chelation Therapy and Your Health and Dr.

Janson's

New Vitamin Revolution) Janson makes a welcome departure from medical

orthodoxy in recommending a bevy of supplemental nutrients in large

doses.

He strays even further from the fold in expressing a very positive view

of

chelation therapy. On the other hand, his diet and exercise

recommendations

are indisputable, his vitamin C and niacin sections are measured and

reasonable, and the section on vitamin E is actually quite

conservative.

Additionally, the book contains short but content-dense chapters on

healthy

heart function, heart abnormalities, and risk factors for heart

disease.

Nutritional suggestions for a comprehensive heart treatment program are

clearly provided in tabular form, a convenience readers always

appreciate. I

would have liked to have seen a brief consideration of lecithin

included.

There is a good selection of references listed at the end of the book,

although I think the addition of in-text numbered footnotes would add

persuasive power without adding pages or slowing down the reader.

This is a fine little book, well-written, well-supported, and

well-indexed.

Page for page, it is the best writing on how to beat cardiovascular

disease

that I have yet seen. I highly recommend The User's Guide to

Heart-Healthy

Supplements for patients and practitioners alike.

(Reprinted with permission from Saul AW. Review of User's guide to

heart-healthy supplements, by Michael Janson. J Orthomolecular Med,

2006.

Vol 21, in press.)

OTHER BOOKS BY DR. MICHAEL JANSON:

Dr. Janson's New Vitamin Revolution, " (Penguin-Putnam-Avery, 2000)

The Vitamin Revolution in Health Care (Arcadia, 1997)

The User's Guide to Saw Palmetto & Men's Health (Basic Health

Publications,

2002)

Chelation Therapy and Your Health (Keats, 1998),

Free archive of Dr. Janson's newsletters:

http://www.drjanson.com/newsletters.htm

FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR ALL to this newsletter are available with a

blank

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We do not sell, and we do not share, our mailing list or your email

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notice

that there is no advertising at http://doctoryourself.com and no

advertising

in this newsletter. We have no financial connection with the supplement

industry. We do not sell vitamins or other health products, except for

Dr.

Saul's books, which help fund these free public services.

AN IMPORTANT NOTE: This newsletter is not in any way offered as

prescription, diagnosis nor treatment for any disease, illness,

infirmity or

physical condition. Any form of self-treatment or alternative health

program

necessarily must involve an individual's acceptance of some risk, and

no one

should assume otherwise. Persons needing medical care should obtain it

from

a physician. Consult your doctor before making any health decision.

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DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER (Vol. 6, No. 7 July-August, 2006)

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