Aspirin - The Bitter Pill That Kills

[Guest guest]

Aspirin - The Bitter Pill That Kills

_http://www.communicationagents.com/chris/2003/06/04/aspirin_the_bitter_pill_t

hat_kills.htm_

(http://www.communicationagents.com/chris/2003/06/04/aspirin_the_bitter_pill_tha\

t_kills.htm)

Bob

Regarding the May 31st. 2005 _Quirks and Quarks Science program _

(http://www.radio.cbc.ca/programs/quirks/archives/02-03/may31.html) on Aspirin

was

interesting, however, statements such as quoted below sounded more like an

advatorial.

" Now, imagine taking this pill daily to prevent cancer and Alzheimer's

disease. A growing number of studies suggest that regularly popping an aspirin

or

other similar anti-inflammatory drugs can reduce your risk of these diseases

by 30 to 40 percent. "

Wow! What they don't tell you is that some earlier studies tell us quite a

different story. Some of these have indicated that you can get strokes and

Colon cancer and aspirin may even cause _Macular degeneration_

(http://www.visionworksusa.com/maculardegenerationarticle.htm) . While much

safer

anti-inflammatory foods such as Turmeric; and vitamin C to prevent Colon cancer

already

exist.

The following extract from the booklet " How Health-Conscious Americans Get

Killed by Bad Medicine " by Dr. Douglas' MD will give some balance to the above

radio program. The complete booklet is available at:

_http://www.rhinopublish.com/books/BadMedicine.htm_

(http://www.rhinopublish.com/books/BadMedicine.htm) this is a must read and

clearly demonstrates the mainstream Quacks are

well and alive. Be warned that the ebook version with some minor typos is not

printable and copious references are not provided, although these are not as

important as most information is logical and self contained.

Of course there is no money for research on these safer alternatives and as

usual regulatory bodies such as the FDA, Health Canada etc. will be the first

to protect their pharmaceutical buddies with our tax money no less. While in

Europe the _CODEX_ (http://www.iahf.com/anh_lawsuit.html) initiative to

burry safe effective doses of vitamins and herbs is well underway.

Incredible!

Chris Gupta

See also:_ Vitamins For Macular Degeneration/Eye Health -- Offers Big

Savings_

(http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2005/02/24/vitamins_for_macular_degenerat\

ioneye_health_offers_big_savings.htm)

Aspirin The Bitter Pill That Kills Aspirin

An aspirin promotion group called the Aspirin Foundation boasts that the

chemical " probably has been taken, at one time or another, by almost every

human

being on earth. " Wishful thinking, no doubt, but pill-happy Americans scarf

down 25 million aspirin tablets a day. The British take it in a powder, the

Italians take an effervescent, champagne-like mix, the French take it

rectally, and the Thailanders put it in their morning and evening tea. Chemical

companies produce 90 billion aspirin tablets a year. If all those tablets were

placed end to end they would stretch to the planet Infinity and back. Did you

ever think that you would see the day when Americans by the millions would be

popping aspirin for their health* Do all these people really have an aspirin

deficiency? Did God forget to put aspirin in our food? Will an aspirin a day

keep the doctor away? You'd probably say no to all of the above because it

doesn't make any sense to take a chemical as if it were a vitamin. But it took

the British to figure out how the aspirin industry and the AMA pulled off such

a scam.

_The Real Hero: Magnesium_

(http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2003/06/02/magnesium_research_misconduct.\

htm)

The much-promoted Physician's Health Study proving that taking aspirin

regularly will prevent heart attacks didn't use just aspirin but aspirin plus

magnesium in the form of Bufferin. Research done years ago proved that

magnesium

protects the heart. It dilates blood vessels, aids in absorption of potassium

into cells (which will prevent heartbeat irregularities), acts as an

anticoagulant (blood thinner) and keeps the blood cells from sticking together

(thrombosis). Autopsy of the heart muscle following death by heart attack

almost

always reveals that the heart muscle is deficient in magnesium. I have been

taking a magnesium supplement (KMag from Vitaline — there are other good

ones)

for 10 years and I have hundreds of patients on magnesium. We just don't see

heart attacks in patients who stick with it. So the doctors (and their

patients) have been conned again by the group that has been leading them around

by

the nose for 75 years — the pharmaceutical industry. A British study using

only aspirin revealed that aspirin had absolutely nothing to do with lowering

the incidence of heart attacks.

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul?

The American study was so flawed that you can't help but wonder if the

aspirin industry financed it. The subjects were white, male, mostly non-

smoking

doctors who were not monitored, and who reported their condition by letter —

post office research. The study used an extremely healthy group with only

oneeighth the death rate of the general population. Even with such a healthy

group, the study results had some ominous overtones. That's the part the

aspirin

companies don't want you to know about. Though heart attacks were relatively

rare, strokes and sudden death from other causes were more common among the

aspirin group than with the placebo group. This information is very

significant. The claim for reduction in heart attacks among the aspirin group

was 47

percent. But the small print (very small print) in the report said that when

death from all causes was considered, there was no difference in the mortality

rates of the two groups. Thus, death from other causes among the aspirin

group increased substantially — an amount equal to 47 percent of all heart

attacks in the nonaspirin group. Did you know that every time you take aspirin

you

bleed a little into your gut? A microscope will show that the bowel movement

of someone on daily aspirin has blood in it every time. If it's happening in

your intestinal tract, how do you know it's not happening in your brain? How

many strokes are precipitated by chronic aspirin intake? How many fatal

hemorrhages of the brain, spleen, liver, intestine, or lung occur after an

automobile accident because the blood has been thinned with aspirin? Nobody

knows

and nobody is checking. Prevention That Works There are many natural ways to

protect yourself from heart attack without enriching the Bayer Company:

 

• Magnesium, as men tioned above, is absolutely essential for a healthy

heart and should be given credit for the beneficial results obtained in the

aspirin study.

 

• Salmon oil contains a strong platelet antisticking agent called

eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA).

 

• Garlic blocks the clotting mechanism.

• Niacin is a well known anti-atherosclerotic agent.

 

• Vitamin C is an important factor in prostaglandin production.

 

• Vitamin E is also important in the production of prostaglandins.

• Bromelin reduces platelet stickiness.

• Zinc is a necessary catalyst, along with the enzyme d-6-d, in certain

fatty acid metabolic processes essential to the health of your coronary

arteries.

• Vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine) converts the highly atherogenic homocysteine to

cystathionine. This prevents meat protein from damaging your arteries. Also

stops platelet aggregation.

 

• Folic Acid neutralizes the enzyme XO in homogenized pasteurized milk. XO

hardens your arteries.

 

• Carnitine and Taurine, two of the amino ' acids considered nonessential by

most nutritionists, are absolutely essential for a _healthy heart_

(http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2003/06/02/magnesium_research_misconduct.\

htm) .

There are other nutrients for a healthy heart, but you get the picture. So

who needs aspirin?

The Cancer Connection

 

A few years ago I was in Nashville, Tennessee attending a medical conference

with a colleague. While at dinner he developed severe chest pain, was rushed

to the university hospital, and was found to have suffered a heart attack.

He went very quickly to bypass surgery and survived it with no complications.

I was visiting him one day following the surgery when a nurse came in to give

him his aspirin tablet. She stood there and watched him take it with a glass

of water. It was almost a ritual. Such is the reverence felt for this drug.

But in addition to the reports showing aspirin has no preventive effect on

heart attacks, new reports show that aspirin may cause cancer. And what's more,

a study of California researchers reported in the British Medical Journal

that older men and women who take aspirin every day almost double their chances

of developing so-called ischemic heart disease. Ischemic heart disease

accounts for a wide range of illnesses involving blockage of the arteries

carrying

blood to the heart. Aspirin-users were also more likely to develop kidney

and colon cancer, the study found. Lawrence Garfinkel, Vice President for

Epidemiology at the American Cancer Society said, " It would give one pause

about

using aspirin routinely to prevent an initial heart attack. This is going to

be very confusing to the public. " The new study concluded: " Our study would

not recommend that these people routinely consume aspirin. " There are a few

other reasons why you shouldn't take aspirin: indigestion, bleeding ulcers with

possible hemorrhage and death from exsanguination (internal bleeding) and

hemorrhagic stroke.

I'm Vain About My Brain

Leo Dropperman started taking aspirin to prevent a second heart attack, as

advised by his doctor and the TV commercials. But when he read that daily

doses could increase his chances of getting a hemorrhagic stroke, he quit. " I'd

much rather have a heart attack than a stroke, " said the Tennessee

psychologist. " I'm very vain about my brain.†Of course, it may be even worse

than that.

The British report mentioned earlier found no beneficial effect on heart

attack frequency from taking aspirin, but the California study goes even

further

in suggesting that daily aspirin use may actually increase the odds of

having a heart attack, as well as give you kidney and colon cancer. On hearing

that news, drug companies quickly folded their medicine tents and split. Their

commercials connecting aspirin with beneficial effects on heart disease were

scrapped. Sterling Drug (Eastman Kodak) pulled its commercial depicting the

Bayer aspirin logo over a pulsating heart monitor and substituted the old logo:

" the wonder drug doctors themselves take more often for pain. " Bristol-Myers

dragged out Angela Lansbury to say: " A cup of tea and a couple of Bufferin

allow me to do the things I want to do. " Sterling Drugs even went so far as to

introduce a Bayer calendar pack to remind people to take their aspirin.

Consumers are beginning to question all these contradictory studies. They don't

know who to believe anymore. So, when it comes to advice on drugs, who can you

trust? The FDA? Well, in December, 1984 the FDA recommended allowing drug

companies to promote the use of aspirin to reduce the chances of a second heart

attack. Can you trust the medical journals? In January, 1988, the New

England Journal of Medicine reported that an aspirin every other day reduced

the

risk of heart attacks. (Is it coincidental that the drug companies have been

able to get their slimy fingers into the New England Journal of Medicine with

multi-million-dollar advertising contracts?) Can you trust the medical advice

given by actors on TV commercials? Forget I asked. Can you trust the

hospitals and their doctors? Remember the episode my colleague had in the

hospital

with the nurse force-feeding him aspirin? After the aspirin-popping media

blitz, aspirin sales temporarily increased and then resumed the old downward

trend. The news leaked out that an aspirin a day would keep good health away.

One

disgusted advertising drummer said plaintively: " About the only preventive

thing people do in this country is brush their teeth with fluoride. " I guess

you can't trust the advertising agencies either.

 

 

 

 

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