The Health Plus Letter – Another Special Medical F/r/e/edom Issue
December 7, 2004, Vol. 2, No. 39
By Larry Trivieri, Jr. – founder & publisher,
http://www.1healthyworld.com

If you prefer to read this issue online, you can read it, along with all other back issues, at http://www.1healthyworld.com/ezine.


Table Of Contents
What’s New
Quote of the Day
Fast Fact
Medical F/r/e/edom Alert
Health News and Commentary
The Hidden Ritalin Facts by Jon Rappoport
How “Modern Medicine” Killed by Brother by Russell Blaylock, MD
Recommendations


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What’s New

First off, let me wish all of my Jewish readers and very happy and blessed Hanukkah! May the season and the year that follows it bring you health, love, and joy.

I’m back after only a week because of a number of timely news stories I want to share with you related to your health, medical f/r/e/edom, and Big Pharma. My thanks, once again, for the diligent reporting of Jon Rappoport, whose expose on the fraud surrounding Ritalin is must-reading. I’m also including a moving essay by Dr. Robert Blaylock written shortly after he lost his brother to cancer, due to the arrogance of elitist, ignorant physicians. Having lost one of my sisters to cancer, I kn/o/w whereof Dr. Blaylock speaks. In his essay he points out precisely why modern medicine is so fallible today. In addition to these stories, the Health News and Commentary section returns to bring you up to date on other health issues.

As always, please continue to send me your comments and suggestions. 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

“Be an opener of doors.”
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson


Fast Fact

44% of the US population takes at least one prescription drug for chronic medical problems. (See news story below.)


Medical F/r/e/edom Alert

Our health f/r/e/edom remains under siege. Please support the following organizations, which are at the forefront of those working to protect our rights:

Citizens for Health - http://www.citizens.org (Sign their online petition to safeguard health supplements.)

Institute for Health F/r/e/edom – http://www.ForHealthF/r/e/edom.org

International Advocates for Health F/r/e/edom (IAHF) – http://www.iahf.com

Health Lobby (Monica Miller) – http://www.healthlobby.com

To stay info/rmed of other developments related to medical f/r/e/edom, please visit http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org the website of Dr. Mattias Rath, a leading crusader for medical f/r/e/edom.

To see to what depraved lengths people will go to persecute practitioners of alternative medicine in the U.S., please read the following report by noted medical f/r/e/edom advocate Tim Bolen at http://www.quackpotwatch.org/opinionpieces/Suster2.htm

And to learn how corrupt and extensive Big Pharma’s monopoly is, visit http://www.pnc.com.au/~cafmr/online/research/index.html the website for the Campaign Against Fraudulent Medical Research. In particular, read their in-depth report The Pharmaceutical Drug Racket that you will find th/e/re.


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Health News and Commentary

Prescription Drug Use Reaches Record High in US

Last week, the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services released a report showing that 44% of all Americans had taken at least one prescription drug within 30 days when surveyed in the years 1999 and 2000, an increase from 39% during the years 1984-1994. The report also stated that one in six Americans are taking three of more prescription drugs simultaneously, that 85% of Americans aged 65 and older use prescription drugs and that nearly half of all Americans 65 or older take at least three medications. Among the most commonly prescribed drugs are “antidepressants, anti-inflammatories and drugs designed to control cholesterol and blood sugar levels.” The findings reveal that Americans are among “the most peoples in the world.”

Outgoing Sec/retary of the HHS, Tommy Thompson seemed to hail the findings as a positive, stating: "Americans are taking medicines that lower cholesterol and reduce the threat of heart disease, that help lift people out of debilitating depressions and that keep diabetes in check."

For the complete story, see: http://snipurl.com/b45v

[Comment: As you consider the above, also consider this: Chronic disease conditions comprise 80-85% of all health complaints in the United States, and Big Pharma’s drugs cannot cure any of them. At best, they provide symptom relief, without addressing the cause of the disease, and in all cases do so with a severe risk of side-effects. In fact, many people who are prescribed these drugs are also prescribed additional drugs to mitigate against these side-effects. Given that, how is it that so many Americans are opting for such an inelegant (to say it politely) solution to their health problems?

The answer is simple. Widespread marketing of these drugs by Big Pharma, not only in terms of their ads which saturate the television, radio, and magazine markets, but also in the f/o/r/m of the many drug reps who make weekly visits to doctors, wooing them with all sorts of perks if the doctors will prescribe the drugs to their patients. Perks that include lavish, all-expenses paid vacations for the doctors who prescribe the most drugs in a month. Few doctors have the time, even if they have the inclination, to keep abreast of the latest research regarding these drugs, so they rely on the positive spin the drug reps present them with, even giving out the f/r/e/e samples the reps leave behind to their patients. And so it is that these very same drugs kill 100s of 1000s of Americans each and every year, and seriously harm mil/lions of others.

As for Tommy Thompson, of course he’s making a positive spin about this. How could he not, when he oversees (until he steps down in a few more months) the very federal bureaucracy that kn/o/wingly and willingly allows this fiasco to continue year after year? (Thompson was also a Big Pharma shill during his former tenure as governor of Wisconsin. As an aside, it was noted in the press that he may follow his current position with a job in the private sector. It won’t surprise me in the least if that includes accepting a plum assignment from Big Pharma.)

Bottom line? Those who still place faith in the federal government to protect them from medical injury do so foolishly and precariously. Because the vast majority of our elected officials on both side of the political aisle can’t afford to do the right thing in this regard, due to how much influence, including financial in the f/o/r/m of campaign contributions, Big Pharma has over them.

Medical Authorities Question Safety of American Pharmaceutical Drugs

In a sign that the medical community hasn’t been completely co-opted by Big Pharma, a number of leading medical authorities are n/o/w calling into question the safety of, and therefore the advisability of prescribing, pharmaceutical drugs. Among them is Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, who likens the drugs safety system (the Food and Drug Administration) to “a dangerous building,” stating, “This building is on very shaky ground. Would I condemn it? No, but I would tell people, 'You go in at your own risk.'”

According to an interview of medical experts conducted by The Associated Press, the experts admit that no drug ever approved by the FDA “is ever fully safe,” nor is the FDA’s approval system designed to detect the side-effects of drugs that become apparent only after they reach the market. More importantly, even when such dangerous side effects are detected once a drug enters the marketplace, “regulators are often powerless to spot mistakes quickly and reluctant to jump on them.”

Many medical experts attribute the primary reason for drug safety failings to the fact that the pharmaceutical industry pays industry user-fees to the FDA for faster reviews, a practice that has been in place since Congress approved it in 1992. These experts charge that the funding makes Big Pharma, not the public, the FDA’s master, in direct contravention of the latter’s mission statement. They also note that many members of influential FDA advisory panels have ties to the very drug companies whose products they are supposed to be investigating. “The industry has n/o/w captured the agency that is supposed to be regulating it," sums up Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.

For more on this story, see: http://snipurl.com/b47a

[Comment: Certainly the fact that health experts are n/o/w speaking out against both Big Pharma and the FDA is a positive sign. It’s also indictative, to me, of what I’ve maintained for over a decade. Namely that Big Pharma, for all its record pro/fits, is on very shaky ground and, as a system, nearing the point of irrevocable collapse. But as long as the FDA is there to act as its servant, the collapse won’t come as soon as it otherwise might.

To find out more about how corrupt the FDA is, I recommend you read The Bull in the FDA Shop by columnist Philip Maddocks, available at http://snipurl.com/b4al. I also suggest you search Google for the Associated Press story that ran Dec. 4, 2004, entitled “Teen Says Antidepressants Led To Slayings.” Written by Jeffrey Collins, it recounts the chilling murders by a 12 year-old boy of his grandparents shortly after he began taking Zoloft. As the boy awaits trial, his father and maternal grandmother both state that it was the drug that caused the gruesome events. Meanwhile, aiding the prosecution, which is trying to get the boy tried and convicted as an adult, is Pfizer, the manufacturer of Zoloft, which even the FDA n/o/w admits needs to contain a “black-box” warning label stating the drug increases the risk of suicidal behavior in children and teens. You gotta hand it to Big Pharma. They leave no stone unturned when it comes to pro/tecting their intere$t$.]


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The Hidden Ritalin Facts by Jon Rappoport

 I continue to receive queries about Ritalin. It doesn't quit. It seems more parents are waking up to the fact that this is psychiatric drugging of children based on fake science and based on an eroded condition of the Bill of Rights. Because we have a new ABC story about a father in New Mexico who is being "monitored" by state authorities for taking his son off Ritalin, I reprint this article of mine today.

Keep in mind that we are really talking about fake science of the worst kind fronting for a sec/ret operation that involves: reducing the planet to a quivering mass of people who are so toxified by medical drugs that they can't think, can't act, can't resist, can't shake off the oppression of official government control.

Of course, in the long run, these governments are cutouts for sec/ret groups who want to wrap up the planet under the banner of globalist management---the rule of the many by the few...

If medical associations and drug companies seeking more $$$ and more control create a disease label (like ADHD), and if the government seeks to cement this label into place by applying one iota of coercion to get a child to take Ritalin and submit to the diagnosis of a mental disorder, that is a crime in progress.

Who cares whether people like H. Clinton parade around urging a more graceful obedience to medical dictates vis-a-vis so-called mental disorders? There are idiots everywhere. Some occupy high places. They kn/o/w nothing. They have their own agendas. They are themselves suckers who have bought into propaganda on the subject of "mental disorders."

The "kinder, gentler" approach to "mental disorders" is, at one level, nothing more than PR bought and paid for by drug companies. At a much higher level, it is an attempt to brainwash society into believing that all of us have some mental disorder or another. In other words, we're all a little sick, and we need drugs to get better.

This latter control strategy has the goal of making all dissident opinion about anything into a symptom of a disease which needs to be treated.

As in, The United Medical States Of America.

In 1986, The International Journal of the Addictions published a most important literature review by Richard Scarnati. It was called “An Outline of Hazardous Side Effects of Ritalin (Methylphenidate)” [v.21(7), pp. 837-841].

Scarnati listed a large number of adverse affects of Ritalin and cited published journal articles which reported each of these symptoms. For every one of the following (selected and quoted verbatim) Ritalin effects, there is at least one confirming source in the medical literature:

Paranoid delusions
Paranoid psychosis
Hypomanic and manic symptoms, amphetamine-like psychosis
Activation of psychotic symptoms
Toxic psychosis
Visual hallucinations
Auditory hallucinations
Can surpass LSD in producing bizarre experiences
Effects pathological thought processes
Extreme withdrawal
Terrified affect
Started screaming
Aggressiveness
Insomnia
Since Ritalin is considered an amphetamine-type drug, expect amphetamine-like effects
Psychic dependence
High-abuse potential DEA Schedule II Drug
Decreased REM sleep
When used with antidepressants one may see dangerous reactions including hypertension, seizures and hypothermia
Convulsions
Brain damage may be seen with amphetamine abuse.

Many parents around the country have discovered that Ritalin has become a condition for their children continuing in school. There are even reports, by parents, of threats from social agencies: “If you don't allow us to prescribe Ritalin for your ADD child, we may decide that you are an unfit parent. We may decide to take your child away.”

This mind-boggling state of affairs is fueled by teachers, principals, and school counselors, none of whom have medical training. Yet even if they did, the very definition of the “illnesses” for which Ritalin would be prescribed is in doubt, especially at the highest levels of the medical profession. This doubt, however, has not filtered down to most public schools.

In commenting on Dr. Lawrence Diller's book, Running on Ritalin, Dr. William Carey, Director of Behavioral Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, has written, “Dr. Diller has correctly described... the disturbing trend of blaming children's social, behavioral, and academic perform/ance problems entirely on an unproven brain deficit...”

On November 16-18, 1998, the National Institute of Mental Health held the prestigious “NIH Consensus Development Conference on Diagnosis and Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder [ADHD].” The conference was explicitly aimed at ending all debate about the diagnoses of ADD, ADHD, and about the prescription of Ritalin. It was hoped that at the highest levels of medical research and bureaucracy, a clear position would be taken: this is what ADHD is, this is where it comes from, and these are the drugs it should be treated with. That didn't happen, amazingly. Instead, the official panel responsible for drawing conclusions from the conference threw cold water on the whole attempt to reach a comfortable consensus.

Panel member Mark Vonnegut, a Massachusetts pediatrician, said, “The diagnosis [of ADHD] is a mess.”

The panel essentially said it was not sure ADHD was even a “valid” diagnosis. In other words, ADD and ADHD might be nothing more than attempts to categorize certain children's behaviors - with no organic cause, no clear-cut biological basis, no provable reason for even using the ADD or ADHD labels.

The panel found “no data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction [which malfunction had been the whole psychiatric assumption].”

The panel found that Ritalin has not been shown to have long-term benefits. In fact, the panel stated that Ritalin has resulted in “little improvement on academic achievement or social skills.”

Panel chairman, David Kupfer, professor of psychiatry at the Univ/ersity of Pittsburgh, said, “There is no current validated diagnostic test [for ADHD].”

Yet at every level of public education in America, there remains what can only be called a voracious desire to give children Ritalin (or other similar drugs) for ADD or ADHD.

The following pronouncement makes a number of things clear: The 1994 Textbook of Psychiatry, published by the American Psychiatric Press, contains this review (Popper and Steingard) “Stimulants [such as Ritalin] do not produce lasting improvements in aggressivity, conduct disorder, criminality, education achievement, job functioning, marital relationships, or long-term adjustment.”

Parents should also wake up to the fact that, in the aftermath of the Littleton, Colorado, school-shooting tragedy, pundits and doctors began urging much more extensive “mental health” services for children. Whether you have noticed it or not, this no longer means, for the most part, therapy with a caring professional. It means drugs. Drugs like Ritalin.

In December 1996, the US Drug Enforcement Agency held a conference on ADHD and Ritalin. Surprisingly, it issued a sensible statement about drugs being a bad substitute for the presence of caring parents: “[T]he use of stimulants [such as Ritalin] for the short-term improvement of behavior and underachievement may be thwarting efforts to address the children's real issues, both on an individual and societal level. The lack of long-term positive results with the use of stimulants and the specter of previous and potential stimulant abuse epidemics, give cause to worry about the future. The dramatic increase in the use of methylphenidate [Ritalin] in the 1990s should be viewed as a marker or warning to society about the problems children are having and how we view and address them.”

In his book, Talking Back to Ritalin, Dr. Peter Breggin expands on the drug's effects: “Stimulants such as Ritalin and amphetamine... have grossly harmful impacts on the brain -- reducing overall blood flow, disturbing glucose metabolism, and possibly causing permanent shrinkage or atrophy of the brain.”

In the American press, although many articles have appeared covering “the debate” about Ritalin and ADHD, no newspaper or TV network has taken it upon itself to hammer on all the lies, day after day, month after month. That kind of campaign could turn around the whole nation on this vital subject—but of course, pharmaceutical advertising is a more powerful force.

And one should not forget that Ritalin came out of a Swiss drug giant called Ciba-Geigy (n/o/w Novartis) fifty years ago. That company once had very close business ties with the infamous Nazi cartel, IG Farben. Farben stood for inhuman experiments on human beings. Read the adverse effects of Ritalin again, and consider that mil/lions of little kids take those pills every day.

Copyright © Dec. 5, 2004 by Jon Rappoport  and www.nomorefakenews.com. All rights reserved.


How "Modern Medicine" Killed My Brother  by Russell L. Blaylock, M.D.

Earlier this month, I traveled to Monroe, La., to bury my de/ar older brother, Charles. Charles was not only a wonderful brother, but he was a man with a heart of gold who always put the needs of others and his family before his own. Charles, unfortunately, began smo/king when he was in law school, something I warned him about repeatedly.

Approximately four months ago, I noticed that he was getting horse. He brushed it off and continued his hectic schedule. When I again visited him a month later, he was still having the hoarseness. I advised him to see someone about it. He took my advice and saw a local physician group. The doctor was actually too busy to see him and had his nurse see him.

Before he went to the doctor, I told him it was critical that he have the doctor examine his vocal cords. The nurse looked in his throat, but wasn't trained to examine his vocal cords.

Two more weeks passed during which his doctors assured him that it was nothing more than bronchitis. They treated him with steroids and antibiotics, but no one examined his vocal cords.

Misdiagnosis After Misdiagnosis

I pleaded with him to see an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor, but he trusted his doctor. For the next two and a half months, he was treated with steroids and antibiotics. Finally, he developed pneumonia and was admitted to the hospital, what was supposed to be one of the best hospitals in the area.

At the time, I was on vacation in North Carolina. He told me the doctors told him he had a bruit in his carotid artery, a sign of atherosclerosis, and that they wanted to do an arteriogram. I advised him against it, suspecting he, in fact, had a cancer and attempting an arteriogram on someone with such poor pulmonary function would be disastrous. The arteriogram was cancelled. Still, no one had examined his vocal cords.

When I arrived, I called a friend of mine I had gone to medical school with, and asked him to see Charles. Prior to this, I asked the doctor in charge of his respiratory care to add vitamins and magnesium to his IV. While he promised he would, he didn't. Every attempt to get Charles' laboratory studies was met with obstruction based on the Patient Privacy Act. He soon signed the necessary forms and finally I was able to see this closely guarded data.

When I asked his doctor why the magnesium had not been added to his IV, word was sent back to me through the nurse that she had ne/ver heard of using magnesium. I sent copies of selected articles showing the immense value of magnesium on pulmonary and cardiovascular function. Still there was no response from the doctor. Not once did this doctor call me, or answer my pages.

Finally, The Diagnosis is Made

My ENT friend did a very good workup and discovered Charles had a large cancer in his left lower lung that was impinging on the nerve to his vocal cord, causing one cord to be completely paralyzed. At that point, a pulmonary physician did a bronchial biopsy and diagnosed a poorly differentiated lung cancer, with no evidence of spread. Once the diagnosis was made, an oncologist was naturally called, who wanted to start a complete course of chemotherapy drugs.

I advised my brother against it, kn/o/wing the cancer would not respond and the toxic drugs would dramatically increase his breathing difficulties, hastening his death. He took my advice. Then, a radiation oncologist suggested radiating the tumor to shrink it. I wasn't supportive of this treatment, but my brother wanted something done. Soon afterward, he started five and a half weeks of radiation treatment. At that point, I started him on a nutrition program and he began to feel better, his breathing improved and he was able to go back to work.

However, the oncologist told Charles he was losing too much wei.ght and he needed to eat more bread, pasta and even sweets to gain wei.ght. Charles, at the time of his diagnosis, was grossly overwei.ght and needed to lo/se the we/ight. I told him that losing the wei.ght would make it easier for him to breath. I had given him a copy of my book on the nutritional treatment of cancer and told him it was critical he follow the advice exactly.

Unfortunately, Charles decided he didn't like the taste of the blenderized vegetables and would do what the oncologist suggested. He began to eat ice cream, cookies and other items that cancer patients should ne/ver eat. Once he finished the radiation treatments, he developed fever, severe shortness of breath and had to be admitted to the hospital.

The "Evidence Based" Physicians Take Over

Sadly, he chose a hospital that was even more rigid in its control of the patient than his previous hospital. It was a local hospital affiliated with the Louisiana State Univer/sity Medical Center. Charles was admitted to the intensive care unit, where he had to be intubated and placed on a respirator.

Again, I was out of town, in fact, giving a talk at the Westin Price Conference in Washington, D.C., on nutrition. As before, I could not pry any information about my brother concerning his laboratory test, chest x-rays or the reason he was deteriorating so rapidly. His doctor refused to call me, despite numerous attempts by my sister and me to have her call.

In all my 26 years of neurosurgical practice, I have ne/ver seen a situation where a doctor treating a gravely ill patient would not discuss the case with a family member who is a physician. It was as if my brother belonged to the hospital and his physician and the family was to be kept in the dark. Finally, I was able to speak to one of the consulting doctors, who told me my brother had a very low hemoglobin count. I asked him if he was giving him blood. After a long pause, he answered, "No." I responded, " Well, with him unable to breath, don't you think it would be a good idea to increase his oxygen-carrying capacity by giving him blood?" He mumbled in agreement. I told him that I wanted my sister and her son to give the blood and that they were in the process of doing that as we spoke. He agreed. Yet, before my sister could have the blood transferred to Charles, the doctors had already given him blood from unkn/o/wn donors.

I rushed to my brother's side and found him awake, on a respirator and very frightened. He was receiving no magnesium in his IV and was getting a tube feeding-formula that contains significant doses of glutamate, something kn/o/wn to cause pulmonary deterioration. Again, his doctor ne/ver heard of that.

An Incred/ible Admission

At that point, Charles was lapsing into a coma. Still his doctor had not contacted me or communicated with me in any way. Disgusted, I told the nurse to have her come to the room and I didn't want any excuses. I asked to speak to her in private. She insisted a nurse remain with her. I told her of my absolute amazement that a treating physician would not speak to the family, especially when one of the family members was a doctor. She denied she had ever gotten a message, which was a bold-faced lie.

I then told her that I wanted my brother to have certain supplements that had been shown in careful medical studies to improve lung function. She had ne/ver heard of them, but agreed to give them if her superior, the Chief of Medicine, agreed. Therefore, I gave her a stack of medical abstracts and told her to let me kn/o/w if there was a problem. Within five minutes, she returned and stated that he would not agree to it and responded that the Chief of Medicine told her that he would not agree to change the treatment based on abstracts. I told her I wanted to talk with him that minute.

He arrived, looking very arrogant and self-important. I decided that I would try to calmly discuss with him my brother's case and why he needed the supplements. Again, I asked for a private meeting. He wanted Charles' doctor to be present. I explained to him what I was asking for was backed up by peered-reviewed studies and that none of the supplements had ever shown any harmful side effects in any dose. In a very arrogant tone, totally unsympathetic to my concern for my brother, he stated that he only read and trusted four journals: Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. Shocked that anyone would admit to being so intellectually limited, I told him there were thousands of peer-reviewed medical journals, most of which were reputable. He responded that he didn't have time to read or look up additional material. What an admission!

I reminded him I practiced neurosurgery for 26 years and was a hell of a lot busier than he had ever been. I also told him I had managed to write three books and 30 articles for peer-reviewed journals in addition to three chapters for medical textbooks. He had no comment.  I told him I found it inconceivable that a physician holding the position of Chief of Staff in a teaching hospital would:

Admit they read only four journals
Didn't have time to research material that would improve a patient's care
Would be so obstinate and filled with so much self-importance they would allow a patient to die rather than try something that had strong clinical evidence of benefit without any complications.

The doctor still refused to change his mind.

I pointed out to him, for 20 years there was a mountain of evidence that magnesium offered tremendous protection to the heart and brain, but because of people like him, it was only recently that magnesium has been added to the "protocol" for heart patients. I, then, reminded both of them that tens of thousands of patients died during that 20-year period because of their unwillingness to use a harmless mineral like magnesium. Then I said, " Is my brother to die because of your narrow mindedness and arrogance"?

I pointedly asked him if he could see the logic, the reasoning behind what I was asking. He responded that he did up until to the point about all the people that must die because of waiting for the elite of medicine to make up their mind. I turned to the female physician and asked her the same question. She said she agreed with the logic but trusted her chief.

Blind Leading the Blind

I asked the Chief of Medicine if he would want the same treatment for his brother. He thought a minute and then said, "Yes." He again, appealed to the fact that he didn't have time to research all these things. I reminded him that his job was to do whatever was necessary to provide his patients with the best medical care, based on the latest medical evidence available no matter how much time he had to sacrifice. He could not fall back on time constraints or the fact that he trusted only four journals.

The Chief of Medicine left, a lot less openly arrogant and self-assured. He was not able to give a single argument to support his intellectually bankrupt concept of medicine. It reminded me of the title of a book I had recently purchased: Intellectual Morons. He certainly fit the description. Before he left, I reminded him it was doctors like him who were the problem in modern medicine -- arrogant, condescending to patients and certain the medical care protocols established by the elitist academians were holy writ. Further, it was because of such an attitude that patients by the mil/lions were leaving the medical care system, and seeking answers from so-called alternative medicine. Patients were fed up with having drugs and treatments shoved down their throats that only led to more misery and rarely helped their disease.

The Danger of Regimentation

The practice of medicine has changed drastically in the world, especially in this country. When I first entered the world of medicine, doctors were able to practice independently, always maintaining a close relationship between themselves, the patient and the patient's family. Creative, caring doctors could alter their care to match new developments in medicine and nutrition to the greatest benefit of their patients. Third parties such as insur/ance companies, government and medical elite were held at bay.  Yet, the new thinking is that the practicing physician, and especially the patient, is unable to make these decisions. Instead, they are to follow a system of regimented medicine that assigns treatment protocols the physician is to blindly follow.

Elite boards appointed by medical associations, such as the American Medical Association, American Academy of Family Practice and others, design these treatment protocols and hand them down to the "ignorant automatons" making up the vast majority of treating physicians. They are to follow these regimented treatments without question and to the letter. The new breed of doctor, like my brother's doctors, fits this new pattern well. They are convinced this "cookbook" medicine is superior and their elite journals and medical associations kn/o/w best. Like members of the society Aldous Huxley described in A Brave New World, they are mere cogs in the wheel of the state's machinery. They do not question the authorities or the wisdom of their decrees. They do what they are told. They are unable to think for themselves. In fact, I asked Charles' doctor, "Can you not think for yourself?" She looked at me sheepishly and said, "I just trust the Chief of Medicine."

I also reminded the arrogant Chief of Medicine these elite decision-making bodies have been racked with scandals that involved financial connections to pharmaceutical companies and other medical product manufacturers. In addition, similar scandals occurred among the editorial staff of one of his favorite journals, the New England Journal of Medicine. This collectivist regimentation of medicine will only get worse. Families are n/o/w excluded from medical care decisions, doctors do not talk to families, the entire hospital experience is shrouded in secrecy and patients have no say in their care. While more innovative doctors can alter the protocols or even reject them, soon they will not have that option. To deviate from the collectivist plan is to invite the wrath of the le/gal system.

Fear of Financial Ruin

Litigation pushes many physicians into following elitist protocols out of fear of financial ruin. In fact, these protocols have become the "standard of care" used by the le/gal system. Unfortunately, doctors, like those who killed my brother, are being turned out of medical schools all over the country like robots. They repeat the mantra of collectivism as if they thought of it themselves. To this new breed of doctors, individualism and independent thought is to be discouraged and reviled. Dependence on elite leaders will be automatic.

As an example, I recently spoke to a large group concerning the harmful effects of glutamate, explaining it is n/o/w kn/o/wn that glutamate, as added to foods, significantly accelerates the growth and spread of cancers. I asked the crowd when was the last time an oncologist told his or her patient to avoid MSG or foods high in glutamate. The answer, I said, was ne/ver.

After the talk, a crowd gathered to ask more quest/ions. Suddenly, I was interrupted by a you.ng woman who identified herself as a radiation oncologist. She angrily stated, "I really took offense to your comment about oncologists not telling their patients about glutamate." I turned to her and asked, "Well, do you tell your patients to avoid glutamate?" She looked puzzled and said, "No one told us to." I asked her who this person or persons were whose job it was to provide her with this information. I, then, reminded her that I obtained this information from her oncology journals. Did she not read her own journals?

Yet, this is the attitude of the modern doctor. An elitist group is in charge of disseminating all the information physicians are to kn/o/w. If they do not tell them, then, in their way of thinking, the information was of no value. Of course, 10 or 20 years from n/o/w, it may be the new standard and on all the protocols. How many cancer patients will have died during the long wait for the elitists to conclude the information was important? A million? Five million? Do they even care? In my conversation with the two physicians responsible for my brother's "care," they obviously didn't care.

It is too late for my brother. But, maybe, just maybe, if enough people decide they do not care to leave their fate and that of their loved ones in the hands of these arrogant regimented physicians, something will change.

Copyright © 2004 by Russell Blaylock. All rights reserved. (Dr. Russell Blaylock is a board-certified neurosurgeon and author of Health and Nutrition Sec/rets That Can Save Your Life and Natural Strategies for Cancer Patients.)


Recommendations

Website
http://www.theliteracysite.com - This site is devoted to a cause near and de/ar to my heart—getting books to children and encouraging them to read. Visit daily to donate a book each time. Very highly recommended!

Books
Third Opinion, 4^th edition by John M. Fink. I receive a lot of requests for information regarding viable alternative cancer treatments and the doctors and centers that are providing them. This excellent reference guide provides detailed listings of the best such sources, both h/e/re in the U.S. and abroad. Though the entries Fink includes are not in-depth, he provides readers with the information they need to make informed choices. Very highly recommended.

Eat to Beat Cancer by J. Robert Hatherill, PhD. This book is an excellent guide that can empower you to protect yourself against most types of cancer simply by following his food recommendations. This is not a diet book, and is based on sound scientific research. Though Hatherill does not address the mental/emotional issues that can also cause cancer, he has done a wonderful job of creating sensible and valuable eating suggestions that can literally save your life.


That’s all for this week. Stay tuned next week for my special year-end issue.

Health and Blessings!

Larry Trivieri, Jr. (larry@1healthyworld.com)


Disclaimer: The Health Plus Letter is a weekly eZine published by Larry Trivieri, Jr. and Library of Health, LLC (dba www.1healthyworld.com) 1514 Genesee Street, Suite 52, Utica, NY 13502. It is made available without charge for info/rmation purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical care. If you are experiencing a health problem, seek prompt medical attention.

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Le/gal Notice: The info/rmation in this eZine may be f/r/e/ely and widely disseminated so long as full attribution is made as follows: The Health Plus Letter, December 7, 2004, Vol. 2, No. 39. Copyright © 2004 by Larry Trivieri, Jr. All rights reserved.

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