The Health Plus Letter
February 24, 2004, Vol. 2, No. 7
Table Of Contents:
What’s New (Hear My Latest Radio Interview From Your Computer)
Quote of the Day
Fast Facts
Medical Freedom Alert
Health News and Commentary
The AIDS Debate: The Gay Plague (Part 1) by Liam Scheff
Self-Care Tips for Preventing and Managing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
The Power of A Human Spirit - A Tribute to My Sister Andrea (Part 14)
Reader Feedback: (Questions About Dr. Friedman)
Unabashed Plug
Both Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble online are offering my newest book, Health on the Edge: Visionary Views of Healing in the New Millennium at a healthy discount. To order it, visit either http://www.amazon.com (which gave it 5 stars, its highest rating) or http://www.bn.com (Barnes and Noble). Simply type in the title or my name on their homepages and you’ll find it. Please tell others about it, too, because the information and self-care exercises it contains are important, and it’s the first book of its kind to contain such a range of topics related to the future of health and healing
What’s New (Hear My Latest Radio Interview From Your Computer)
I'd like to thank Drs. Susan Cole and Richard Clofine, hosts of Temple of Health, and Raymond Francis, host of The Beyond Health Radio Hour, who featured me as their guest on their radio shows this weekend, talking about Health on the Edge, my latest book. You can hear my entire interview with Raymond by going to http://www.beyondhealth.com/radioshow.htm.
Once there, you will find a link for my interview with him. Click on it to listen to it on your computer. (You will need Windows Media Player to do so, and Raymond provides a free link where you can download it if you don't already have it on your computer. I come into the interview about 8 minutes in, but I encourage you to listen to the entire show, including the end, where you will learn how you can receive my book for free.)
This issue continues the multipart series by investigative journalist Liam Scheff on the subject of AIDS and HIV that calls into question the widely accepted hypothesis that HIV=AIDS.
Also in this issue is information on treating and preventing carpal tunnel syndrome. Plus more of my tribute to my sister Andrea. (But no Recommendations this week, because I haven’t had time to view any new websites, nor to finish the books I’m reading. This feature will return next issue.)
Please continue to send me your comments and suggestions. You can email me at larry@1healthyworld.com.
And please spread the word about The Health Plus Letter by passing it along to your friends and inviting them to subscribe.
Quote Of The Day
“A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible labor and there is invisible labor.”
- Victor Hugo
Fast Fact
“The development of the chemotherapy drug Taxol, which brings Bristol-Meyers Squibb nearly $1 billion a year in revenues, was funded with public dollars by the National Cancer Institute... The NCI then assigned it at no cost to the company, which sells it at twenty times the cost of manufacturing.”
Kenny Ausubel, When Healing Becomes a Crime
Unabashed Plug
Dr. Garry Gordon’s entire line of nutritional products are available for purchase directly from 1HealthyWorld.com. Dr. Gordon is a member of 1HealthyWorld’s Medical Advisory Board, and an internationally acclaimed expert in the areas of cardiovascular health, anti-aging medicine, and the use of nutritional medicine to prevent and reverse chronic disease. He is also one of the most accomplished and knowledgeable physicians it’s ever been my privilege to meet, and the nutritional products he’s developed reflect his expertise. You can order his products by visiting http://www.1healthyworld.com/healthproducts/garrygordon
Medical Freedom Alert
Please do your part to ensure that the misleadingly named “Dietary Safety Supplement” Act (S. 722) is defeated. To become informed about S. 722 and to take action to help defeat its passage, please visit: http://capwiz.com/nnfa/S722.html
To stay informed of other developments related to medical freedom, please visit http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org the website of Dr. Mattias Rath, a leading crusader for medical freedom.
Health News and Commentary
Antibiotics Linked to Breast Cancer
According to a study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the use of antibiotics is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. The new research adds wei/ght to previous studies that suggested a relationship between breast cancer and antibiotics. Researchers of the new study suggest that the link may be due to the effects antibiotics have on intestinal flora and the way estrogen is processed in the body, as well as how the drugs impact the immune system and inflammation.
To study evaluated data on 2266 women with primary, invasive breast cancer between 1993 and 2001, and 7953 randomly selected women without breast cancer. Both groups were enrolled in the same health plan. Compared to women who did not use antibiotics during that period, women with cumulative use of the drugs for 1 to 500 days had a 2.5-fold increase in the risk of breast cancer.
"We found that increasing cumulative days of antibiotic use increasing cumulative number of antibiotic prescriptions were associated with increased risk of incident breast cancer, after controlling for age and length of enrollment," the researchers reported. "Increasing cumulative days of antibiotic use was also associated with death due to breast cancer, controlling for age,
length of enrollment, and ever use of postmenopausal hormones."
For more on this story, see: http://snipurl.com/4nfi
[Comment: Although the researchers of this study stressed that their findings do not definitely prove antibiotic use can cause breast cancer, they did say that the findings were “potentially worrisome” (quite the understatement, given the 2.5-fold increase of risk linked to the drugs) and called for further research on the subject. Holistic physicians have long warned of the health risks associated with antibiotics, and usually recommend measures to normalize the healthy intestinal flora that are destroyed by their use whenever antibiotics are prescribed. Clearly, this is a story that bears watching.]
Antioxidants Found to Reduce the Risk of Diabetes
Finnish researchers have found that people whose diets are rich in the antioxidants vitamin E and carotenoids (compounds found in red, yellow, and orange fruits and vegetables) have a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Vitamin E alone was shown to reduce the risk by as much as 30 percent Previous research has shown that vitamin E and other antioxidants may protect people from type 2 diabetes by quenching free-radicals that are a byproduct of normal metabolism.
To read more on this story, see: http://snipurl.com/4nfp
[Comment: This is far from the only health benefit offered by antioxidants.]
The AIDS Debate: The Gay Plague (Part 1) by Liam Scheff
[Note: This article was originally published May, 2003, in Boston’s Weekly Dig. Some readers may find the lifestyle activities described below offensive, but I feel the information in this article is very important, showcasing as it does the inherent health risks of the behavior described, and also illustrating how the pharmaceutical industry has used its influence to dominate the AIDS issue for significant financial gain. I have long been aware of and accept the basic premise expressed by the scientists Liam interviews below and wish to help share it with a wider audience. I also urge you to read Liam’s most recent reporting from the AIDS front, which can be found at http://www.altheal.org/toxicity/house.htm and http://www.altheal.org/toxicity/nurse.htm.]
Prologue: In 1984, Robert Gallo announced that a retrovirus called HIV was the “probable cause” of AIDS.
In Part 1 of “The AIDS Debate,” [See the last two issues of The Health Plus Letter] AIDS researchers gave startling evidence that retroviruses are, in fact, not toxic to cells, and are too biochemically inactive to cause any disease, let alone the 29 different diseases the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) classifies as AIDS. These researchers claim AIDS was correctly diagnosed in the early ’80s as a lifestyle disease typified by immune damage caused by massive drug use and malnutrition.
Ten years after his announcement, at a 1994 National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) meeting, Robert Gallo quietly admitted that the first defining AIDS disease in gay men, Kaposi’s Sarcoma, could not be explained by HIV, but that nitrite drugs called “poppers” could be the primary cause. Poppers were a popular, le/gal drug heavily marketed in the gay community in the 1970s.
Gay men were indeed using poppers and other cell-damaging, mutagenic drugs in huge quantities in the 1970s, immediately prefiguring the first outbreak of AIDS diseases. But the specter of AIDS didn’t stop recreational drug use. Many gay men in the party scene continue to abuse the same drugs, including nitrite poppers.
Now they’re adding toxic AIDS pharmaceuticals to this already deadly cocktail, and it’s costing them their lives. A national study conducted by Dr. Amy Justice, an AIDS researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, revealed that liver failure is now the leading cause of death in HIV-positive individuals taking AIDS drugs. While liver failure has never been an AIDS disease, it is the primary, well-known side-effect of the new AIDS pharmaceuticals. [Note: Many pharmaceutical drugs can cause liver damage. - LT]
At the 1994 NIDA meeting, Dr. Gallo said that Dr. Peter Duesberg’s drug-based AIDS theory should be funded and investigated. Taking Gallo’s advice, I spoke with Duesberg and two other health advocates about the first AIDS patients, drug abuse and the new prescription drugs that are killing AIDS patients today.
Peter Duesberg is a professor of molecular biology at UC Berkeley. He is an expert in the field of HIV science and retrovirology.
John Lauritsen is a journalist and gay historian who’s investigated and written about AIDS for over 20 years. In 1992, he uncovered documents through the Freedom of Information Act, which revealed that the toxic AIDS drug, Azidothymidine (AZT), was approved based on fraudulent medical trials. His books include The AIDS War and The Early Homosexual Rights Movement - 1864 to 1935.
Darren Main is an author, holistic health practitioner and AIDS educator. According the CDC's 1993 redefinition, Main has AIDS, though he is not sick.
Interviews were conducted separately and integrated into a dialogue. Individual points-of-view belong only to the speaker.
The gay rights movement emerged as a powerful force in the early ’70s after decades of repression and abuse of gay men and women. What was the gay scene like in the ’70s?
John Lauritsen: There was a marvelous sense of freedom for gay men in the early ’70s.The gay liberation movement after Stonewall [a major turning point in the gay rights movement] allowed men who’d been held back by cultural taboos to come out in the growing gay centers. These were strong, healthy, young men who suddenly had this tremendous freedom offered to them. Using a lot of drugs and having a lot of sex was part of that freedom.
I lived in New York from ’63 to ’95; I was there, right in the heart of it. I lived around the corner from an extremely popular gay club called The Saint. On some nights, a couple thousand men would show up. The main activity was consuming drugs of every sort: ecstasy, poppers, marijuana, quaaludes, MDA, crystal meth, LSD, cocaine and designer drugs. Some drugs only showed up once, like the one they made specially for the club’s opening night.
At clubs like The Saint, there was a drug schedule. Someone would say, “Now it’s time for ecstasy, now it’s time for crystal, now it’s time for Special K,” and hundreds to a couple thousand guys would all do drugs at the same time. This went on all evening. They mixed this with alcohol through the course of the long, long night. A drug called “poppers” was used constantly, because it was cheap and legal.
What are poppers?
Lauritsen: Poppers are nitrite inhalants. The nitrites (amyl-, butyl- and isobutyl-) have a number of effects that made them attractive to young gay men. If used during sex, they prolong and enhance orgasm. Some men became incapable of having sex or even masturbating without them. Poppers were used to facilitate anal sex, because they deaden pain and relax the muscles in the rectum.
How were poppers used?
Lauritsen: They were used ubiquitously. They came in little vials that you’d pop open and snort. Some gay men used poppers first thing in the morning, on the dance floor and every time they had sex. At gay discothèques, men shuffled around in a daze, holding their poppers bottles under their nose. The acrid odor of poppers was synonymous with gay gathering places.
How do nitrite poppers affect health?
Lauritsen: Poppers are an extraordinarily toxic drug. They cause brain damage from strokes, severe skin burns and heart failure. They suppress the immune system and damage the lungs. They’ve caused death from a single use. They’re such an effective poison that they’ve been used to commit suicide and murder.
The nitrites are strongly mutagenic, which means they cause cell/ular change and genetic mutation. Nitrites produce deadly toxins when mixed with commonly used chemicals like antihistamines, artificial sweeteners and painkillers. Virtually all antibiotics are converted into potent carcinogens by nitrites.
Why were poppers legal?
Lauritsen: Poppers were originally manufactured by the Burroughs-Wellcome Corp. as a remedy for emergency heart pain, but they were replaced by nitroglycerine. In the ’60s, only a few gay men used poppers as a recreational drug.
Poppers found new life during the Vietnam War, sold on the black market to soldiers overseas. When the soldiers came home, they kept up the habit. Reports of blackouts, headaches, blood abnormalities and terrible skin burns forced a reclassification of the drug.
In the ’70s and ’80s, the FDA permitted poppers to be legally sold under the ridiculous pretext that they were "room odorizers" – at the same time that the new gay sex industry blatantly marketed them to gay men as aphrodisiacs, under such names as “Rush,” “Hard Ware” and “Ram.”
Poppers were cheap, as little as $2.99 per bottle, and they were extremely popular. Every single gay publication at the time was filled with full-page, color ads for the drug. In the ’70s, poppers were a $50 million per year business. Gay magazines like The Advocate relied heavily on ad revenue from poppers; some magazines owed their very existence to the drug. They were so popular that there was even a “Poppers” comic strip named after them.
By the end of the ’70s, some of the healthy young men weren’t looking so young and healthy. They were worn out. Their faces were gray. They looked prematurely old. I remember going to a party in the late ’70s and being shocked to see how many men were gravely ill.
In 1983, I began to work with Hank Wilson, a Bay Area gay rights activist, on researching and writing about poppers. We started writing about the dangerous medical effects of the drug and were savagely attacked for doing so. The gay press called us “homophobes” and “gay traitors” because we criticized a chemical.
In the early ’80s, medical reports on AIDS considered it a lifestyle disease. The fast-lane lifestyle of gay men was defined by incessant sex and drug use. These men had constant STD infections – concurrent cases of syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, VD, bowel and parasitic infections – which they treated with increasingly strong rounds of antibiotics whenever they thought they’d caught something. Some doctors gave their gay patients open prescriptions for antibiotics and even advised them to swallow a few capsules before going to the baths. One bathhouse in New York sold black market antibiotics on the second floor, along with all kinds of street drugs.
One of the primary AIDS diseases was Kaposi’s Sarcoma, which is an overgrowth of the blood vessels that manifests as dark purple patches on the skin and face. Doctors speculated that nitrite poppers, a known mutagen, were the cause of Kaposi‘s Sarcoma (KS). Scientists wrote The Advocate with strong warnings about the dangers of poppers, but their letters were rejected or ignored.
The gay community’s reaction to the idea that chronic drug use had anything to do with illness was overt denial. In 1983, The Advocate actually ran a series of ads defending poppers. The series, called “A Blueprint for Health,” falsely claimed that government studies showed poppers were harmless and should be considered a healthy part of gay life. This was for a drug that said, “flammable, fatal if swallowed” on the label.
Peter Duesberg: AIDS was correctly diagnosed by the CDC from ’81 to ’84. They identified it as a probable lifestyle disease caused by excessive drug use and malnutrition. The New England Journal of Medicine published four articles on the drug lifestyle of what was then called GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency) patients. This syndrome was typified by opportunistic infections, pneumonia and KS.
The one factor that all these people had in common was very high use of recreational drugs: amphetamines, nitrite inhalants, cocaine and heroin. The theory was simple. These men had spent a decade destroying their immune systems and were now susceptible to all sorts of infectious disease. This theory was compatible with the non-random distribution of illness.
Until ’84, this was the only credible hypothesis. But when the government supported HIV theory, the lifestyle theory was abandoned, because all the money went into retroviral research. That’s how science works; if it’s not funded, it doesn’t exist. [Emphasis added - LT]
Lauritsen: The media immediately supported Gallo’s unproven hypothesis, and public health services followed suit. For 20 years, virtually all government funding has poured into Gallo‘s HIV-equals-AIDS theory, with nothing to show for it, while the drug and malnutrition models have been ignored.
In 1994, Robert Gallo quietly admitted that KS could not be caused by HIV. But this was nev/er reported in the mainstream press. Gallo told the audience of scientists and activists at the ’94 NIDA meeting that HIV couldn’t cause KS and that he‘d never even found it in T-cells, which HIV is supposed to kill. He said, “I don’t know if I made this point clear, but I think that everybody here knows – we nev/er found HIV DNA in the tumor cells of KS. And, in fact, we’ve never found HIV DNA in T-cells. So in other words, we’ve never seen the role of HIV as transforming [cancer-causing] in any way.”
This was in complete opposition to everything Gallo had ever said about HIV or AIDS. But very few people paid attention to his retraction. The CDC ignored it, and continues to tell people KS is an AIDS disease.
When Gallo was asked what, if not HIV, caused KS, he said, “The nitrites [poppers] could be the primary factory” because “Mutagenesis” is the “most important thing.” It's a very embarrassing situation for the AIDS establishment, and they’ve kept it quiet. One of the two hallmark diseases of AIDS is now clearly understood to be totally unrelated to AIDS or HIV.
Take any AIDS diagnosis – there are good reasons why that person became sick the way they did. Take a heroin addict who develops pneumonia or a severe lung infection. This is what science has always expected as a consequence of taking opiates in excess, because opiates damage the lungs and reduce immunity.
If a gay man takes nitrite inhalants and develops KS, the best explanation is that he’s been affected by nitrite inhalants, not an infectious agent. Nitrites are mutagenic drugs that directly affect blood vessels. It’s telling that gay men who developed KS got it around the lips, nose and mouth – the same place he’d inhaled the toxic drug.
Copyright © 2003 by Liam Scheff. All rights reserved.
(Continued next issue.)
Self-Care Tips for Preventing and Managing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Carpal tunnel syndrome refers to compression of a nerve in the wrist (median) that produces numbness, tingling, and sometimes pain. Weakness and tingling of the first three fingers and thumb may also occur.
Symptoms: tingling of palm surface of hands, first three fingers, often worse at night or with driving. Can also be associated with tingling, burning, and pain of entire arm, neck and hip, and thigh. May be on one or both sides.
Occurrence: Most common in women after the age of 35.
Consider: Conditions that can create swelling or fluid shifts (contribute to pressure on nerve) such as pregnancy, low thyroid, occupations that require forceful or repetitive wrist movements, vitamin B6 deficiencies, nerve disorders, or compression of the nerve root of the sixth cervical vertebra due to misalignment of the neck, muscular spasm, osteoarthritis, disk disease, or tumor. May be secondary to other wrist conditions.
Special Notes: Treatment varies, symptoms may improve in one week or take several months. Often carpal tunnel can be successfully treated without surgery, although sometimes surgery is necessary. According to Steven Bailey, N.D., of Portland, Oregon, carpal tunnel is often a misdiagnosis of thoracic outlet compression syndrome, in which pressure to lower cervical and upper thoracic nerves results in dysfunction of the tissues and nerves associated with the brachial nerves.
Self-Care Approaches
Diet: Whole foods diet. Limit protein intake. Eliminate foods high in yellow dyes. Good foods to focus on are whole grains, seeds, and nuts, soybeans, fresh salmon, brewer’s yeast, molasses, liver, wheat bran and germ, and cod. Avoid stressor foods that deplete the body’s level of vitamin B6, such as excessive consumption of sugars, caffeine, and processed grains and corn.
Nutritional Therapy: Vitamin B6, vitamin B complex, magnesium, essential fatty acids, folic acid, bromelain, coenzyme Q10, kelp, manganese, protease enzyme formula, pycnogenol, zinc, thyroid hormone. People with carpal tunnel syndrome often have a large deficiency of vitamin B6, or have lifestyle factors that inhibit B6 metabolism such as stress, or ingesting Yellow Dye No. 5 and tartrazine derivatives. It may also be that a deficiency of vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) may cause a pyridoxine-responsive neuropathy (nerve disorder). Treatment with B6 may relieve the symptoms in many cases, eliminating the need for surgery. Daily dosage ranges from 25-300 mg, depending on the person’s biochemistry. (Caution: Pyridoxine supplementation may create a nerve disorder (sensory neuropathy) in dosages as low as 300 mg, if taken daily for long periods. Most of the cases of vitamin B6 toxicity have been reported with dosages from 2-5 g per day.)
Aromatherapy: Marjoram, lavender, eucalyptus.
Fower Essences: Rescue Remedy to help alleviate stress.
Herbs: Anti-inflammatory herbs effectively support the broader treatment. A simple approach involves combining equal parts of meadowsweet and willow bark tinctures and taking one teaspoonful of this mixture three times a day. Other useful herbs include aloe vera, butcher’s broom, corn silk, devil’s claw, cayenne (capsicum), ginkgo, gravel root, marshmallow, skullcap, turmeric (curcumin), wintergreen oil, yarrow, yucca.
Homeopathy: Aconite, Arsen alb., Ignatia, Nat mur., Chamomilla, Colchicum. Homeopathic treatment tends to be constitutional in nature and is therefore normally long-term, but usually successful.
Hydrotherapy: Contrast application (apply one to three times daily).
Lifestyle: Avoid repetitive wrist movement. Monoamine oxidase inhibitor anti-depressant drugs can create a deficiency in vitamin B6 and should be avoided if possible.
Naturopathic Medicine: Vitamin B6 is believed to be highly effective, but patience is necessary—most people don’t respond for at least six weeks.
Professional Care: The following therapies should only be provided by a qualified health professional-Acupuncture (acupuncture treatments have proved effective in giving substantial relief from pain and discomfort), Applied Kinesiology, Bodywork (acupressure, Feldenkrais, Hellerwork, Rolfing), Chiropractic, Craniosacral Therapy, Detoxification Therapy (may be indicated, depending on the condition of the person), Energy Medicine (a recent study found that the TENS - transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator - unit and low-level laser acupuncture significantly reduced pain in carpal tunnel syndrome.), Light Therapy, Naturopathic Medicine, Orthomolecular Medicine, Osteopathy, Oxygen Therapy (hyperbaric oxygen therapy), and Prolotherapy.
Note: The information above was adapted from Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition, co-authored and edited by Larry Trivieri, Jr. (Celestial Arts, 2002).
Unabashed Plug
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The Power of A Human Spirit - A Tribute to My Sister Andrea (Part 14)
[The first 13 parts of this article appeared in issues 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 of Volume 1, and issues 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of Volume 2 of The Health Plus Letter, all of which are archived at http://www.1healthyworld.com/ezine.]
The weeks following Andrea’s birthday party passed in a whirlwind of activity for her. Still maintaining a weekly treatment protocol of chemotherapy, Andrea continued her beadwork and jewelry making, and took up knitting as a response to her worsening arthritis pain, a side-effect of her treatments. She also continued to enjoy Manhattan’s cultural offerings, and was thrilled to see her favorite actor, Al Pacino, perform live on Broadway. But the highlight of this time was the trip she made to Paris to spend time with her dau/ghter Alyssa. Taking one of her friends from Gilda’s Club with her, she spent a week exploring the City of Lights, and returned home proud as could be of all that Alyssa was accomplishing as a student there. It pleased her no end to know that both of her children shared her independent, explorative nature and self-sufficiency.
Soon after her return, she again visited Utica, eager to share her knowledge of beadwork with our young nieces, Maria and Marisa. Marisa, in particular, took to it with a passion, and today she has an active clientele of friends and fellow students who purchase her striking creations. I attended one teaching session, sitting in as Andrea showed Marisa how she had made a particular arrangement. The joy in her face as she did so was wonderful to witness. Eventually, though, my mother cautioned her to get some rest, pointing out that Andrea had been on the go all day. To which Andrea immediately replied, “I can’t rest. I could drop dead any day and till then I’ve still got things to do.” It was a simple statement of fact and, instead of sounding morbid or sad, it made us all laugh.
At heart, Andrea always had a warrior’s spirit; refusing to acknowledge facts was never part of her make up. She knew her time was coming to an end and, in ways I can only marvel at, she accepted this, choosing to live each day to the fullest, rather than dwell upon how many remaining days she might or might not have. In the process, she perceive the underlying humor in most situations. Laughter was a frequent companion to her all of her life, yet never more so in the years of her cancer’s return.
And so, after sparking our own laughter with her reply, she went back to teaching Marisa. Once again, when I left her, I did so with a lightness in my heart, and a fierce pride that Andrea was my sister.
When she returned home, it soon became apparent that her treatment was no longer working. As well as being in the brain, her cancer was once again metastasized throughout her body and her oncologist finally admitted that she didn&rs
