Fwd: DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWS (Vol. 3, No 25) November 20, 2003

[Guest guest]

" Andrew W. Saul "

 

DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWS (Vol. 3, No 25) November 20, 2003

Tue, 11 Nov 2003 12:06:50 -0500

 

To for free: news- )

 

" Relinquish your need for approval. There is great freedom in that choice. "

 

(Deepak Chopra, M.D.)

 

The DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER (Vol. 3, No 25) November 20, 2003

 

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

 

Written and copyright 2003 by Andrew Saul, PhD, of

http://www.doctoryourself.com, an online library of over 350 natural healing

articles with nearly 4,000 scientific references. Commercial use of the

website or the contents of this Newsletter is strictly prohibited.

 

IN THIS ISSUE:

 

Whooping Cough

 

Heart Disease

 

Aspirin Can Cause Pancreatic Cancer

 

Why Fluoridated Water is Bad for You

 

Constipation

 

And our Feature Article: THE SAFETY OF VITAMIN E

 

THE LATEST ON my new book: " DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works " is

now published and widely available. However, getting your copy directly from

me means you also get it autographed. I am pleased to add that this 90,000

word book actually costs ten dollars LESS than my last one. I guess that's

one advantage of having a good publisher. Please go to

http://www.doctoryourself.com/order.html if you would like to order.

 

GUEST ARTICLE:

 

Whooping cough outbreak

 

by Melissa Klein, THE JOURNAL NEWS (Westchester, NY: October 29, 2003)

 

Cortlandt - Pertussis is called the 100-day cough, but sometimes the Cook

family felt like it was an illness that would never end.

 

First, 13-year-old Kevin Cook got sick, followed by his sisters, Katelyn,

10, and Kristen, 7. They would all cough so hard they would gasp for breath.

Katelyn, who is disabled, would actually stop breathing. The coughing fits

would end with vomiting.

 

" It would scare the hell out of them, " said Brian Cook, the children's

father. " Scare the hell out of us. "

 

Six weeks after a doctor diagnosed pertussis - or whooping cough - the Cook

children are much better, but they are still coughing.

 

Whooping cough has sickened 29 people in Westchester County and 25 people in

Putnam County. It is the largest outbreak in both counties in recent memory

of an illness many people thought was relegated to the history books, if

they had heard of it at all. It has sent health officials on a mission to

trace how it has spread and raised the issue of what happens in a community

when parents choose not to immunize their children against preventable

diseases.

 

The first whooping cough cases in Westchester were traced to four children,

all old enough to have had a full series of childhood vaccines, but who

received none. They first developed symptoms in July, but they were not

diagnosed until August, allowing time to unwittingly transmit the highly

contagious illness to others.

 

" This is an outbreak that really shouldn't have happened, " Westchester

Health Commissioner Joshua Lipsman said. Health officials do not know who

made the four unimmunized children sick, but say they believe the youngsters

contributed to the spread of the illness. Pertussis circulates in low levels

in a community all the time, mainly among adults for whom immunity has worn

off. Even immunized children like the Cooks can get sick because the

pertussis vaccine does not confer 100 percent immunity, and immunity starts

to diminish during childhood.

 

Janet Cook said her son might have become ill at an upstate lacrosse camp in

July. When Kevin got home, he had the sniffles and later developed the

cough, which was incorrectly diagnosed for several weeks. In addition to his

siblings, three children of a neighbor, also all vaccinated, got sick.

 

So far, pertussis has been confirmed in Westchester in 24 children, from the

age of 3 weeks when diagnosed to as old as 14. Five adults have also gotten

sick. Health officials have been able to connect two-thirds of the cases,

most of which have been in the Peekskill-Cortlandt area. Of Putnam's 25

identified cases, 18 are confirmed and seven probable, in residents ranging

from 7 weeks to 51 years old.

 

Loretta Molinari, Putnam's public health director, said five of the county's

first seven cases were among children who were not immunized. The first sign

of illness in Putnam was in June.

 

Pertussis usually begins as a cold or with flu-like symptoms and progresses

to the severe cough with the characteristic " whoop " sound as people gasp for

breath. It is an annoying and uncomfortable illness for most people, but can

be life-threatening for infants, who may develop pneumonia.

 

" If they have these fits of coughing, that can tire out their little bodies,

so much so that it's hard for them to breathe, " Lipsman said. " They don't

get enough oxygen. They may be so uncomfortable they can't eat or

breast-feed. " In this outbreak, four infants under the age of 4 months in

Westchester and the 7-week-old in Putnam had to be hospitalized. All are

recovering.

 

Pertussis is treated with antibiotics, usually erythromycin, which may not

always lessen symptoms, but shortens the contagious period. Some 200 people

in Westchester, including about 70 at a preschool, and about 80 people in

Putnam who came in contact with an infected child or adult, were advised to

take a course of preventive antibiotics. A new pertussis test has made the

illness easier to identify, and the publicity about the outbreak may have

brought more cases to light that would have gone unrecognized.

 

Whooping cough is such an uncommon illness because most children are

vaccinated against it, beginning at 2 months when they receive the first in

a series of five shots. New York is among six states that does not require

the pertussis vaccine to enter school, but most children get it anyway

because it is bundled with the diphtheria and tetanus shots, which are

mandated.

 

The pertussis vaccine once caused more side effects, including fever and

unconsolable crying, than other childhood shots. A new purer vaccine called

acellular pertussis became available in 1996 and causes far fewer reactions.

Public health officials credit vaccines with wiping out such common

childhood scourges as polio, measles and haemophilus influenzae type b or

Hib, once the leading cause of meningitis in young children.

 

Paul Offit, the chairman of infectious disease at the Children's Hospital of

Philadelphia, where he heads the Vaccine Education Center, said some of

these illnesses have not been eliminated in the rest of the world, leaving

unvaccinated children in the United States vulnerable.

 

" There are people that come into this country that have those diseases, "

Offit said. " If you choose to leave a group of children susceptible to these

diseases, they'll be back. "

 

Still, media reports of a possible connection between vaccines and autism, a

link that has not been demonstrated, and concerns about exposing a baby's

immune system to numerous vaccines swirl among parents at play groups and

nursery schools. Some are delaying vaccinations until the child is older

and, according to one measure, an increasing number are forgoing them

altogether.

 

New York requires that children be immunized against nine diseases before

entering kindergarten, but allows parents to bypass the requirement in two

ways. They can submit proof from a doctor for a medical exemption, usually

based on an allergy or bad reaction to a vaccine. Parents can also claim a

religious exemption by giving their school district a signed statement

saying they object to immunizations based on sincere and genuine religious

beliefs.

 

In the 2002-03 school year, the state Health Department, which tracks

exemptions, recorded 2,150 on religious grounds. The number of such

exemptions has risen every year since 1998, state records show. Far fewer

parents - 1,159 - submitted a medical exemption in 2002-03.

 

Andrew Saul, a natural-medicine specialist in Rochester, said parents in New

York do not have to demonstrate they are a member of an organized religious

group when submitting their letter.

 

" The school district will almost always respond to this with a request for

more information, " said Saul, who advises parents on the topic on his Web

site, http://www.DoctorYourself.com . " The parent does not have to provide

any more information. "

 

The Westchester Health Department will not release many details of the

families in the pertussis outbreak whose children were not immunized, except

to say there were three or four of them, they were " fairly affluent " and

they had given schools unspecified vaccination exemptions.

 

Dr. Ada Huang, Westchester's deputy health commissioner for disease control,

told the county Board of Health recently that although their children were

sick, these parents had no regrets.

 

" People have very strong beliefs, " she said.

 

Alyce Edelman, a Bedford Hills resident, said she had heard the concerns

about vaccines after her first child was born five years ago. She had a

slight reservation about vaccinating her second child, Alexandra, who is a

month old, but went ahead. She winced as Dr. Marc Childs gave Alexandra a

hepatitis B shot recently.

 

" I think that, all in all, the benefits outweigh the risks, " Edelman said.

 

Childs, a pediatrician in the Mount Kisco Medical Group's Carmel office,

said he gives as many as 100 immunizations a day and is constantly answering

parental questions about the shots, dispelling myths and explaining why

immunizations are important. If a parent decides against vaccinations,

Childs said, he will help them find another medical practice.

 

" I think that parents who are unwilling to vaccinate their children are

basically playing a game of roulette, " he said. " It's one thing to put their

own children at risk. It's another thing to put the rest of the population

at risk, which is what they're doing. "

 

Dr. Michael Lasser, a Cortlandt pediatrician and the head of pediatrics at

Hudson Valley Hospital Center, is caring for 20 children who have been

sickened with pertussis, most of whom have been immunized. He said he

encourages vaccinations for the reason that they could prevent such an

outbreak but does not ask parents who refuse them to leave the practice.

 

While Lasser said he may not agree with the parents' reasoning, he

recognizes they have made a difficult decision. " You would meet these

families and think they're excellent parents and wonderful parents, " he

said.

 

Emily Griffin describes herself as a churchgoing conservative Republican who

worked as a tax lawyer before her daughter, Mary, was born a year ago. Under

the federal government's recommended vaccination schedule, Mary could have

had as many as 19 vaccinations by now. She has had none.

 

Griffin, a Mount Vernon resident, began reading about vaccines before Mary

was born and said she became concerned that the risk of potential problems,

from neurological deficits to cancer, had not been sufficiently studied. She

said she did not want Mary pumped with vaccines while she was an infant and

would probably start the vaccination schedule when her daughter was 15

months old. She said she might ask that certain immunizations like measles,

mumps and rubella, which are traditionally given together, be done

separately to minimize potential reactions.

 

" My pediatrician had told me a million times that I'm absurd and I'm the

only one who isn't following the schedule, " Griffin said.

 

Griffin said the pertussis outbreak did not give her any qualms and said if

Mary were to become sick with a vaccine-preventable disease, she felt

confident she would be able to get her treated immediately.

 

" I don't feel at all like I'm gambling with her life, " Griffin said.

 

Reach Melissa Klein at MEKLEIN or 914-694-5063.

 

(Copyright 2003 The Journal News. Reprinted with permission.)

 

DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER COMMENTARY:

 

On October 29, 2003, Ms. Klein verified the number of unvaccinated children

that got whooping cough:

 

 

" In Putnam (County), there have been a total of 6 unimmunized children (that

contracted whooping cough). That includes a 7 week old baby who, of course,

would not have been immunized. In Westchester (County), there are 4

unimmunized kids. "

 

Well, then, that makes a total of 10 non-immunized children for both

counties. There were 25 whooping cough cases in Putnam County, and 29

whooping cough cases in Westchester County, for a total of 54. Only 10 of

the 54 cases were in non-immunized children.

 

That means 44 of 54 cases of whooping cough were in vaccinated persons. That

is 81%. In other words, better than 4 out of 5 whoopers had had shots. In my

opinion, that is the greater story.

 

Another interesting question would be, Exactly how many unimmunized children

did NOT get whooping cough? I expect the number would be considerably

higher.

 

There is no whooping cough epidemic in New York State. But there certainly

should be, with over 3,000 new unvaccinated children in the year 2003 alone.

And, if you consider what I think amounts to an 81% vaccine failure rate,

there should be a deafening chorus of millions of vaccinated New Yorkers

whooping away with the " 100 day cough " right now.

 

Where are all those other cases?

 

It looks to me as if shots are pretty much irrelevant in terms of

effectiveness. So why accept the risks and side effects?

 

More on vaccinations at:

 

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

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/vaccin_2.html and

 

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

 

On the natural treatment of whooping cough:

 

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

 

READERS ASK:

" I received information in the mail that says that congestive heart failure

is really a vitamin B-4 deficiency. It recommends supplementing with B-1 and

B-4 to cure Congestive Heart Failure. Perhaps you could include a small

article about B-4 in your newsletter? "

 

OK. B-4 is an older term for adenine. Adenine is a nitrogenous (purine) base

found in DNA and RNA. There is therefore a fair amount of adenine in your

body. There are about 6 feet of DNA in just one of your body cells, and you

are made up of tens of trillions of body cells. If you could line up all the

DNA in your body, it would reach to the sun and back. . . several hundred

times over.

(http://www.mariecurie.org/newsletter/news2000/autumn/032000_hgp.htm).

Adenine is not a vitamin. (If you search Google for " adenine, " you'll find

more on this.)

 

My standard caution to all readers: Be wary of advertisements, doctors,

writers and anyone else who sells the very supplements their articles

recommend. A financial connection means profit motive and information bias.

 

CHF is, I think, more complex than can be fixed by a magic bullet. My

opinion on congestive heart failure is posted at:

 

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

 

 

LOW MEAT " MEDITERRANEAN DIET " IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEART (November 09, 2003.)

 

Lisa Richwine (Reuters, Orlando, FL) writes that, " A Mediterranean diet

emphasizes fruits, vegetables, fish and olive oil, and very little meat, and

has been linked to lower heart disease rates. In the new study, researchers

tracked the eating habits of about 3,000 men and women in Greece, aged 18 to

89, who did not have cardiovascular disease.The closer people adhered to the

Mediterranean diet, the lower their levels of various measures of

inflammation, which recent research shows plays a major role in development

of heart disease. "

 

Yes, near-vegetarianism works!

 

And drugs, even the everyday ones, do not:

 

DAILY ASPIRIN USE LINKED WITH PANCREATIC CANCER

 

(Monday, October 27, 2003)

 

Maggie Fox (Reuters- Washington, D.C.) reported that " Women who take an

aspirin a day - which millions do to prevent heart attack and stroke as well

as to treat headaches - may raise their risk of getting deadly pancreatic

cancer, U.S. researchers said on Monday. . . Pancreatic cancer affects only

31,000 Americans a year, but it kills virtually all its victims within three

years. The study of 88,000 nurses found that those who took two or more

aspirins a week for 20 years or more had a 58 percent higher risk of

pancreatic cancer. "

 

The article quoted study author Dr. Eva Schernhammer of Harvard Medical

School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston as stating: " Apart from

smoking, this one of the few risk factors that have been identified for

pancreatic cancer. Initially we expected that aspirin would protect against

pancreatic cancer. "

 

 

According to the article, Dr. Schernhammer also said, " This finding does not

mean that women should no longer use aspirin " even though " Schernhammer

noted that one study showed that regular aspirin use may cause

pancreatitis -- an inflammation of the pancreas that can sometimes lead to

pancreatic cancer. "

 

How about that.

 

Say: What if there were one, just ONE case of pancreatic cancer caused by a

vitamin? What do you think the press would have said about that? Well, there

are ZERO cases of cancer caused by vitamins. Zilch. Nada. Zip. Bupkis. None.

Truth is, there are millions of cases of cancer prevented by vitamins.

 

And THAT'S the good news.

 

READERS SAY:

 

" Thanks for the excellent help about the constipation. It really helped;

thank you so much. I kinda had to force myself to do this because it's kinda

embarassing to send someone an e-mail thanking them for the help with their

constipation! Thank You So Much! I really mean it! "

 

Golly, you are welcome. Truly, there is nothing easier to cure than

constipation. And I cannot think of anything more important, either. More

pleasant, probably: but not more important. Or, on occasion, more fun:

 

When I was a kid, my Mom invited a friend over for lunch one day. I was

sorry to see that dessert consisted of stewed prunes. I did not like stewed

prunes. To my genuine amazement, my friend not only ate his serving but mine

as well. He then proceeded to have additional helpings. After lunch we went

out to play, and my Mom counted pits. There were about thirty pits on my

friend's plate. My mother dutifully telephoned his mother, and apologized

for inadvertently letting him eat so many prunes.

 

It all came out (the story, that is) about two days later. It seems that the

neighbor's toilet was working overtime. That, of course, is not surprising.

What IS a surprise is that we stayed good friends.

 

However, I do not seem to remember if he ever had lunch at our house after

that.

 

America is constipated, and this is no joke. The average American gets only

about 10 grams of fiber daily. A vegetarian gets 50 grams or more. Meat has

no fiber whatsoever. More fiber reduces the risk of bowel cancer, as well as

that of colitis, diverticulitis, spastic colon and hemorrhoids. Give a

diabetic more dietary fiber and s/he will require less insulin. No need to

buy fiber in a jar. Eat a largely salad diet and the raw vegetables

guarantee a good supply. That's what gorillas do. You will never meet a

constipated gorilla. We need to take our lessons from nature.

 

My moderate, " easygoing " suggestions to help restore your, er, ah, " get up

and go " are at

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/constipation.html, with more to say at

 

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

 

WHY FLUORIDATED WATER IS BAD FOR YOU

 

(Published Sunday, Oct. 26, 2003 in the Palo Alto Daily News)

 

by SUSAN WILLIS, PhD

 

As the daughter of a dentist, I grew up with confidence in fluoride. After

bouts with cancer and osteoporosis, however, I learned to scrutinize health

claims more closely. When I discovered that our water fluoridation product

is not natural calcium fluoride, but rather synthetic, non-toxicologically

tested, non-FDA approved, non-pharmaceutical grade sodium fluorosilicate,

which carries a " toxic " label complete with skull and crossbones, I felt

betrayed.

 

Our water department informed me that this chemical is a by-product of the

phosphate fertilizer industry and requires disposal as a " hazardous waste. "

It is not found anywhere in nature and is 20 times more toxic than calcium

fluoride. Safe for me and my family? Doubtful.

 

But what about all those endorsements for reduction in tooth decay? If you

look at nothing else, look at the worldwide data on tooth decay reduction

published by the World Health Organization

(www.fluorideaction.org/who-dmft.htm). Tooth decay rates have declined

worldwide, in fluoridated and non-fluoridated countries alike.

 

No matter how many dentists, agencies and politicians say we need to drink

fluoride for healthy teeth, the fact is, we do not. If other countries can

reduce tooth decay without fluoridation, at the same rates to the same

levels that we do, we can too.

 

110 U.S. CITIES REMOVE FLUORIDE

 

Ninety-eight percent of Europe is non-fluoridated, along with Japan, China,

and India. Only seven countries worldwide fluoridate over half their

population. Basel, Switzerland, just quit after 41 years, citing

ineffectiveness and health and environmental consequences. More than 110

American cities have rejected fluoridation since 1990. Global rejection of

fluoridation is underway.

 

Tooth decay has declined worldwide in recent decades due to better nutrition

and use of dental sealants, hygiene, and topical fluoride products, like

toothpaste. This is reflected by recent CDC findings that fluoride doesn't

work by ingestion, only by topical application. Dental claims that you have

to drink fluoride to constantly bathe your teeth in topical fluoride from

saliva fail to mention that the concentration in saliva is too miniscule to

have an impact (www.fluoridealert.org).

 

Poverty correlates with tooth decay far more than absence of fluoride, and

studies which do not control for that factor are flawed. Baby bottle tooth

decay afflicts 50 percent of poor, Head Start children in this country, and

water fluoridation is powerless against this problem.

 

No one knows how much fluoride we swallow daily. What other FDA-defined drug

is prescribed that way? The " intended " dose is one milligram per day for

adults, and if you drink one liter of Palo Alto water, about 4 cups, you'll

get one milligram. If you drink 8 cups of Palo Alto water, you will be at

the California EPA Maximum Contaminant Level for high risk of dental

fluorosis -- staining and mottling of the teeth (unsightly and expensive to

repair).

 

Further, this dose does not take into account the " halo effect " of water

fluoridation -- the chemical is now in many foods and beverages, from food

processing with fluoridated water and from fluoride-containing pesticide

residues on produce (www.keepers-of-the-well.org).

 

Fluoride is not benign in the human body. After you swallow it, it is no

longer a dental matter. 50 percent of ingested fluoride accumulates in adult

bones; 70 percent in the bones of growing children, and 87 percent in the

bones of infants. The majority of studies show higher hip or wrist fracture

rates for seniors in fluoridated communities, when they have drunk fluoride

at least 20 years (www.slweb.org). There is no shortage of studies on the

negative impact of fluoride consumption -- for bones, pineal gland, brain,

thyroid and people with kidney or cardiovascular disease. Read the

FDA-required warning on your fluoride toothpaste container if you have any

doubts about the toxicity of ingested fluoride.

 

(Susan Willis, Ph.D., is a Stanford graduate, and Palo Alto psychologist,

wife and mother. She is Treasurer of Palo Alto Citizens for Safe Drinking

Water, and can be reached at safewater4pa.)

 

" CAVITIES ARE GENERALLY A RESULT OF POOR DIET and not lack of fluoride, "

says the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation

(http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof). " When they insist on fluoridating the

water to save children's teeth, keep this in mind:

 

" Up to a third of (U.S.) children under 2 consumed no fruits or vegetables.

.. . And for those who did have a vegetable, French fries were the most

common selection for children 15 months and older. . . More than 60 percent

of 12-month-olds had dessert or candy at least once per day. . . (which)

rose to 70 percent...by age 19 months. Thirty to 40 percent of the children

15 months and up had a sugary fruit drink each day, and about 10 percent had

soda. " ( " Study on Bad Eating Habits Finds Children Under 2 Eating Fries,

Drinking Soda " by T.A. Badger, Associated Press, Oct 25, 2003)

 

VITAMIN E: A CURE IN SEARCH OF RECOGNITION

 

" Some doctors claim that vitamin E helps many heart cases, but the official

view is that the substance has not been proved of value in treating heart

disease. "

 

This statement could have been taken verbatim from any of a number of recent

news media reports. But in fact, this particular quote is from a 1953

article in Maclean's Magazine entitled " The Fight Over Vitamin E. " (1)

 

Half a century later, it would seem that little has changed.

 

" (W)e do not support the continued use of vitamin E treatment and discourage

the inclusion of vitamin E in future primary and secondary prevention trials

in patients at high risk of coronary artery disease. " (2)

 

This statement is from a 2003 analysis that looked at studies employing

daily treatment dosages between 50 and 800 IU. Yet since the 1940's,

clinicians have been reporting that vitamin E dosages between 450 and 1,600

IU or more are required to effectively treat cardiovascular disease. I would

enjoy seeing a meta-analysis of the work of Drs. Wilfrid and Evan Shute, who

treated coronary thrombosis with 450 to 1,600 IU; angina with 450 to 1,600

IU; and thrombophlebitis with 600 to 1,600 IU of vitamin E daily. (3)

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

 

The recent Lancet meta-analysis did not include them. There is nothing

capricious about either study selection or dosage choice. Researchers and

analysts know full well that high dosage will obtain different results than

low dosage. Statistical analysis of meaningless studies will rarely enable a

meaningful conclusion.

 

DOUBLE STANDARD

 

Countless comedians have made fun of the incompetent physician who, when

called late at night during a life-threatening disease crisis, says, " take

two aspirin and call me in the morning. " Now it's no longer funny. Recently,

one of the largest pharmaceutical conglomerates in the world ran prime-time

national television commercials that declared: " Bayer aspirin may actually

help stop you from dying if you take it during a heart attack. " The company

also promotes such use of its product on the Internet. (4)

http://www.bayeraspirin.com/news/heart_attack.htm

 

This statement comes forth after a century of widespread aspirin

consumption. Cardiovascular disease remains the number one killer of men and

women and there are over a million heart attacks annually in the US alone.

 

If you produced a TV ad that said that megadoses of wheat germ oil, or the

vitamin E in it, could save your life by preventing a heart attack, not only

would people disbelieve you, you'd also be subject to arrest for breaking

federal law. Foods and vitamins may not be advertised as treatments for

specific diseases. " All statements of nutritional support for dietary

supplements must be accompanied by a two-part disclaimer on the product

label: that the statement has not been evaluated by FDA and that the product

is not intended to " diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. " " (5)

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/dietsupp.htm#Application

 

Yet even traditional nutrition textbooks acknowledge the extensive

scientific proof of successful treatment of intermittent claudication with

vitamin E. " This therapy helps reduce the arterial blockage, " says Nutrition

and Diet Therapy, Seventh Edition, a standard dietetics work. (6) Unless

there be something absolutely unique about arterial real estate between the

knee and the ankle, would not vitamin E also help " reduce the blockage " in

other arteries? This is rationale the Shutes used when, 65 years ago, they

employed vitamin E to successfully treat circulatory diseases in thousands

of patients, using daily dosages as high as 3,200 IU. For that achievement,

they were praised by their patients and ostracized from the ranks of

orthodox physicians.

 

By 1971, it was increasingly clear that the Shutes had gotten it right.

Intermittent claudication, now regarded as a reliable sign of peripheral

arterial disease, was shown by double-blind study to be diminished 66% with

the use of vitamin E. The dosage administered was 1600 mg/day. (7)

 

A TORRID HISTORY

 

1922 was the year the USSR was formed and " Little Orphan Annie " began.

Trumpeter Al Hirt and future heart transplant pioneer Christiaan Barnard

were born. Alexander Graham Bell died. And vitamin E was discovered by H. M.

Evans and K. S. Bishop. (8)

 

In 1936, Evans' team had isolated alpha tocopherol from wheat germ oil and

vitamin E was beginning to be widely appreciated, and the consequences of

deficiency better known. Health Culture Magazine for January, 1936 said,

" The fertility food factor (is) now called vitamin E. Excepting for the

abundance of that vitamin in whole grains, there could not have been any

perpetuation of the human race. Its absence from the diet makes for

irreparable sterility occasioned by a complete degeneration of the germinal

cells of the male generative glands. (T)he expectant mother requires vitamin

E to insure the carriage of her charge to a complete and natural term. If

her diet is deficient in vitamin E . . . the woman is very apt to abort. . .

It is more difficult to insure a liberal vitamin E supply in the daily

average diet than to insure an adequate supply of any other known vitamin. "

(9)

 

And that very same year, 1936, the Shutes were already at work employing

tocopherol from wheat germ oil to relieve angina symptoms. (10)

 

 

Since the word " tocopherol " is taken from the Greek words for " to carry

offspring " or " to bring forth childbirth, " it is easy enough to see how Evan

Shute and other obstetricians were drawn into the work. As early as 1931,

Vogt-Moller of Denmark successfully treated habitual abortion in human

females with wheat germ oil vitamin E. By 1939 he had treated several

hundred women with a success rate of about 80%. In 1937, both Young in

England and the Shutes in Canada reported success in combating threatened

abortion and pregnancy toxemias as well. A. L. Bacharach's 1940 statistical

analysis of published clinical results " show quite definitely that vitamin E

is of value in recurrent abortions. " (11) And also in 1940, the Shutes were

curing atherosclerosis with vitamin E. By 1946, thrombosis, phlebitis, and

claudication.

 

Yet when the MDR's (Minimum Daily Requirements) first came out in 1941,

there was no mention of vitamin E. It was not until 1959 that vitamin E was

recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as necessary for human

existence, and not until 1968 that any government recommendation for vitamin

E would be issued. That year, the Food and Nutrition Board of the US

National Research Council offered its first Recommended Daily Allowance: 30

IU. It has been as low as 15 IU in 1974 . In 2000, it was set at 22 IU (15

mg) for all persons, including pregnant women. This is somewhat odd in view

a 70-year established research history showing how vital vitamin E is during

gestation. It is another curious fact that today, when the public has been

urged to increase its consumption of unsaturated fats, the official dietary

recommendation for vitamin E is substantially lower than it was 35 years

ago. " The requirement for vitamin E is related to the amount of

polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) consumed in the diet. The higher the

amount of PUFAs, the more vitamin E is required. " (12)

 

 

One reason the RDA was lowered is that " dieticians were having difficulty

devising diets of natural foods which had the recommended amount (30 IU) of

vitamin E. " (13) There are about 39 IU of vitamin E in an 8-ounce cup of

olive oil. A full pound of peanuts yields 34 IU. Professor Max K. Horwitt,

Ph.D., who spent 15 years serving on The Food and Nutrition Board's RDA

committees, said in an interview that " The average intake by adults, without

supplements, seems to be about 8 milligrams of alpha-tocopherol per day, or

8 tocopherol equivalents. This is equivalent to 12 International Units

(IU). " (14) So it might be said that, in the end, the accommodation was not

to raise the bridge but rather to lower the river.

 

Vitamin E is the body's chief fat-soluble antioxidant. It is a powerful one

indeed, when you consider that 22 IU is presumed adequate to protect each

one of the tens of trillions of body cells in a human being. Even though

there has been a veritable explosion in antioxidant research since 1968, the

RDA for vitamin E has been decreased.

 

POSTAL FRAUD

 

" Any claim in the labeling of drugs or of foods offered for special dietary

use, by reason of Vitamin E, that there is need for dietary supplementation

with Vitamin E, will be considered false. " (United States Post Office

Department Docket No. 1/187 (March 15, 1961)

 

On October 26, 1959, the US government charged an organization known as the

Cardiac Society with postal fraud for selling 30 IU vitamin E capsules

through the mail. Specifically, the charge was " the operation of a scheme or

device for obtaining money through the mails by means of false and

fraudulent pretenses, representations or promises . . . that Respondent's

product 'E-FEROL 30 I.U.' (containing vitamin E) is therapeutically

effective and beneficial in the treatment of heart and cardiovascular

diseases for any person so afflicted; that Respondent's said product will

prevent heart disease; that " It (vitamin E) is the key both to the

prevention and treatment of all those conditions in which a lack of blood

supply due to thickened or blocked blood vessels or a lack of oxygen is a

part or the whole story of the disease " ; that " Vitamin E seems to be a

natural anti-thrombin in the human blood stream. . . It is the only

substance preventing the clotting of blood which is not dangerous " ; that the

book " Your Heart and Vitamin E " tells you " What Vitamin E is and Does, How

It Treats Heart Disease, Its Success In Circulatory Diseases, Your Foods'

Deficiency in Vitamin E " . . . That " It (the book) explains medical facts in

every-day language concerning the help that is available for sufferers from

diseases of the heart and blood vessels such as Coronary Heart Disease,

Angina Pectoris, Phlebitis, Buerger's Disease, Diabetes, Strokes, etc. " (15)

http://www.usps.gov/judicial/1961deci/1-187.htm

 

A four-day hearing before the Hearing Examiner in Washington, D.C. generated

sufficient testimony to fill " four volumes totaling 856 pages. Seventy-six e

xhibits were received in evidence. . . for the consideration of the Hearing

Examiner. His Initial Decision covers forty-two pages. "

 

It is an oddity of history that, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis,

the United States of America found both the reason and the resources to

prosecute such a case as this.

 

" The record here shows that the consensus of medical opinion is that

Respondent's claims are false and that this is the universality of medical

opinion on the subject. Numerous tests and experiments have been conducted

to attempt to substantiate the claims made by Respondent that Vitamin E is

efficacious for treatment of a number of conditions but these have failed to

substantiate the claims. It appears perfectly clear from the testimony of

the expert witnesses that Respondent's claims and representations are devoid

of scientific support. . . The Hearing Examiner correctly found that the

Respondent intends to deceive by its false representation and that actual

fraud under established law is proven. . . A fraud order shall issue

forthwith forbidding the delivery of mail and the payment of money orders

incident to such scheme, to the Respondent, its agents and representatives,

all in accordance with 39 U.S.C. 259 and 732. " (15)

http://www.usps.gov/judicial/1961deci/1-187.htm

 

After this, all mail addressed to the Cardiac Society was returned to the

sender, with " Fraudulent " stamped on the envelope.

 

DOSAGE AND UTILITY

 

Vitamin E has many clinically important and seemingly unrelated properties.

In their books (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21) the Shutes discuss a number of them.

 

1) Vitamin E strengthens and regulates heartbeat, like digitalis and similar

drugs, at a dose adjusted between 800 to 3,000 IU daily.

 

2) Vitamin E reduces inflammation and scarring when frequently applied

topically to burns or to sites of lacerations or surgical incisions.

Internally, vitamin E helps to very gradually break down thrombi at a

maintained oral dose of between 800 IU and 3,000 IU.

 

3) Vitamin E has an oxygen-sparing effect on the heart, enabling the heart

can do more work on less oxygen. The benefit for recovering heart attack

patients is considerable. 1,200 to 2,000 IU daily relieves angina very well.

My father, duly diagnosed with angina, gradually worked up to 1,600 IU over

a period of a few weeks. He never had an angina symptom again. In this, he

had the identical success that thousands of Shute patients had.

 

 

4) Vitamin E moderately prolongs prothrombin clotting time, decreases

platelet adhesion, and has a limited " blood thinning " effect. This is the

reason behind the Shutes' using vitamin E (1,000 - 2,000 IU/day) for

thrombophlebitis and related conditions. The pharmaceutical industry and the

medical profession are well aware of vitamin E's anticoagulant property and

that " very high doses of this vitamin may act synergistically with

anticoagulant drugs. " (21) However, this also means that vitamin E can,

entirely or in part, substitute for such drugs but do so more safely.

Perhaps this is best summed up by surgeon Edward William Alton Ochsner, M.D.

(1896-1981) who said, " Vitamin E is a potent inhibitor of thrombin that does

not produce a hemorrhagic tendency and therefore is a safe prophylactic

against venous thrombosis. " (23)

 

 

5) Vitamin E is a modest vasodilator, promotes collateral circulation, and

consequently offers great benefits to diabetes patients. (24) The Shutes

used a dose of about 800 IU or more, tailored to the patient. For this,

among other reasons, Evan Shute, author of over 100 scientific papers, was

literally judged to be a fraud by the United States Post Office Department.

The 1961 court decision said, " Vascular degenerations in a diabetic are not

effectively treated in the use of vitamin E in any dosage. . . vitamin E has

been thoroughly studied and that there is no doubt whatsoever as to its lack

of utility. " (15) http://www.usps.gov/judicial/1961deci/1-187.htm

 

This statement was premature to say the least. The " thorough study " of

vitamin E was not quite completed by 1961. Thirty-eight years later, a

crossover study of 36 patients who had Type I diabetes, and retinal blood

flows that were significantly lower than non-diabetics, showed that those

taking 1,800 IU of vitamin E daily obtained normal retinal blood flow. The

patients with the worst initial readings improved the most. " (V)itamin E may

potentially provide additional risk reduction for the development of

retinopathy or nephropathy in addition to those achievable through intensive

insulin therapy alone. Vitamin E is a low-cost, readily available compound

associated with few known side effects; thus, its use could have a dramatic

socioeconomic impact if found to be efficacious in delaying the onset of

diabetic retinopathy and/or nephropathy. " (25) Vitamin E also works

synergistically with insulin to lower high blood pressure in diabetics. (26)

 

QUANTITY AND QUALITY

 

The most common reason for irreproducibility of successful vitamin E cures

is either a failure to use enough of it, or a failure to use the natural

form (D-alpha, plus mixed natural tocopherols), or both. For example, in an

oft-quoted negative study (27), researchers who gave 300 milligrams of

synthetic vitamin E to patients who had recently had a heart attack saw no

beneficial effect. Such failure is to be expected. You can set up any

experiment to fail. The Shutes would have used only the natural form, and

four times as much.

 

Natural vitamin E is always the dextro- (right-handed) form. On the other

hand, " synthetic vitamin E is a mixture of eight isomers in equal

proportions containing only 12.5% of d-alpha tocopherol. One mg of dl-alpha

tocopherol has the lowest Vitamin E equivalence of any of the common vitamin

E preparations. " (28)

 

There may be other differences. " Vitamin E derived from natural sources is

obtained by molecular distillation and, in most cases, subsequent

methylation and esterification of edible vegetable oil products. Synthetic

vitamin E is produced from fossil plant material (coal tar) by condensation

of trimethylhydroquinone with isophytol. " (12)

 

While personal philosophy is the only possible basis for a decision to

conduct a study using only the synthetic form of a vitamin, the use of low

dosage is generally explained away by alleging doubts about safety.

 

SAFETY

 

The most elementary of forensic arguments is, where are the bodies? Poison

control statistics report no deaths from vitamin E. (29) There is a reason

for this. Vitamin E is a safe and remarkably non-toxic substance. Even the

2000 report by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of

Sciences, which actually recommends against taking supplemental vitamin E,

specifically acknowledges that 1,000 mg (1,500 IU) is a " tolerable upper

intake level . . . that is likely to pose no risk of adverse health effects

for almost all individuals in the general population. " (30) The Shutes

observed no evidence of harm with doses as high as 8,000 IU/day. In fact,

" toxicity symptoms have not been reported even at intakes of 800 IU per

kilogram of body weight daily for 5 months " according to the Food and

Nutrition Board. (31) This demonstrated safe level would work out to be

around 60,000 IU daily for an average adult, some 2,700 times the RDA!

 

In addition to an awareness of anticoagulation medications, " Dr. Shute

advises starting with small doses for patients who have rheumatic heart

disease. He starts with 90 IU. and very slowly works up the dose. The reason

for this is that if too much is given at the beginning the increased

strength of the heartbeat may create some difficulty. The same applies to

heart failure. The initial dose should be small and gradually increased. If

this is done the final dose can safely reach 800 to 1200 IU. " (31)

 

SAFETY IN THE ELDERLY

 

A Columbia University study reported progression of Alzheimer's disease was

significantly slowed in patients taking high daily doses (2,000 IU) of

vitamin E for two years. (32) The vitamin worked better than the drug

selegiline did. The patients in the Alzheimer's study tolerated their

vitamin E doses well. Perhaps the real story is that 2,000 IU per day for

two years is safe for the elderly.

 

 

SAFETY IN CHILDREN

 

Children using anti-epileptic medication have reduced plasma levels of

vitamin E, a sign of vitamin E deficiency. So doctors at the University of

Toronto gave epileptic children 400 IU of vitamin E per day for several

months, along with their medication. This combined treatment reduced the

frequency of seizures in most of the children by over 60 percent. Half of

them " had a 90 to 100 percent reduction in seizures. " (33) This

extraordinary result is also proof of the safety of 400 IU of vitamin E per

day in children (equivalent to at least 800 to 1,200 IU/day for an adult).

" There were no adverse side effects, " said the researchers. It also provides

a clear example of pharmaceutical use creating a vitamin deficiency, and an

unassailable justification for supplementation.

 

 

SAFETY IN INFANTS

 

Overexposure to oxygen has been a major cause of retrolental fibroplasia

(retinopathy of prematurity) and subsequent blindness in premature infants.

Incubator oxygen retina damage is now prevented by giving preemies 100 mg E

per kilogram body weight. That dose is equivalent to an adult dose of about

7,000 IU for an average-weight adult. " There have been no detrimental side

effects " from such treatment, said the New England Journal of Medicine, Dec.

3, 1981. (34) Nevertheless, the 1989 (sixth) edition of the textbook

Nutrition and Diet Therapy (6) advised that " healthy persons stand the

chance of developing signs of toxicity with the megadoses that are

recommended in these studies. " (p. 225) That incorrect statement was dropped

in the book's next edition. Instead, the 7th edition (1993) said under

" Toxicity Effects " that " Vitamin E is the only one of the fat-soluble

vitamins for which no toxic effect in humans is known. Its use as a

supplement has not shown harmful effects. " (p 186)

 

IMMUNE FUNCTION

 

" Worst Pills, Best Pills " is a monthly newsletter published by Public

Citizen, Ralph Nader's " Health Research Group. " The October, 2002 issue (Vol

8, No 10) contained this statement by editor Sidney M. Wolfe, M.D.: " You

should not take dietary supplements. These products have not been tested or

shown to be effective for any use, and their safety is unknown. The only

exception to this advice is an inexpensive vitamin or mineral preparation. "

(p 80) On page 77, the doctor presents a JAMA study (35) alleging that a

mere 200 mg of vitamin E is somehow detrimental to patients over the age of

60 with respiratory tract infections.

 

But there are other studies that Public Citizen might do well to present to

its readership. Emanuel Cheraskin, M.D., writes: " The effect of daily

vitamin E supplementation (800 IU alpha tocopherol for 30 days) on immune

responses of 32 healthy subjects (60+ years old) was examined in a

placebo-controlled, double-blind trial in a metabolic research unit. The

data suggest that vitamin E supplementation improves immune responsiveness

in healthy elderly. " (36) In a second study, " using a double blind protocol,

immune response was studied in a group receiving vitamin E (800 mg per day)

versus placebo. The increased immunocompetence was matched by blood vitamin

E levels which jumped from 1.1 to 3.1 mg%. No such change in blood vitamin E

occurred in the control group (1.1 to 1.0 mg%). " (37)

 

A recent and perhaps even more important study looked at patients with colon

cancer " who received a daily dose of 750 mg of vitamin E during a period of

2 weeks. Short-term supplementation with high doses of dietary vitamin E

leads to increased CD4:CD8 ratios and to enhanced capacity by their T cells

to produce the T helper 1 cytokines interleukin 2 and IFN-gamma. In 10 of 12

patients, an increase of 10% or more (average, 22%) in the number of T cells

producing interleukin 2 was seen after 2 weeks of vitamin E

supplementation. " The authors concluded that " dietary vitamin E may be used

to improve the immune functions in patients with advanced cancer. " That

improvement was achieved in only two weeks merits special attention. (38)

 

Note that the doses in these positive studies were four times the dose used

in the negative JAMA study cited by Dr. Wolfe.

 

HYPERTENSION

 

Recent research has indicated that Vitamin E normalizes high blood pressure.

(39, 40, 41) In some hypertensive persons, commencement of very large

vitamin E doses may cause a slight temporary increase in blood pressure,

although maintained supplementation can then be expected to lower it. The

solution is to increase the vitamin gradually, along with the proper

monitoring that hypertensive patients should have anyway. High blood

pressure has been called the " silent killer, " and nearly one-third of adults

have it. It is all too frequently unrecognized and untreated.

 

Nearly half of all deaths are due to cardiovascular diseases, and often the

first symptom is death. Advocating daily supplementation with several

hundred IU's of vitamin E would be good public health policy. Yet vitamin E,

for decades lampooned as a " cure in search of a disease, " remains virtually

the " silent healer " for as much as the public has been advised of its

benefits.

 

Back in 1985, Linus Pauling wrote: " The failure of the medical establishment

during the last forty years to recognize the value of Vitamin E in

controlling heart disease is responsible for a tremendous amount of

unnecessary suffering and for many early deaths. The interesting story of

the efforts to suppress the Shute discoveries about Vitamin E illustrates

the shocking bias of organized medicine against nutritional measures for

achieving improved health. " (10, vii)

 

Dr. Pauling would most likely have appreciated this comment from a recent

Harvard Health Letter: " A consistent body of research indicates that vitamin

E may protect people against heart disease. . . The data generally indicate

that taking doses ranging from 100 to 800 IU (International Units) per day

may lower the risk of heart disease by 30%-40%. " (42) Over half a century

ago, the Shute brothers and colleagues showed that, with even higher doses

than those, and with an insistence on the use of natural vitamin E, the

results are better still.

 

A bibliography of selected books and papers by Wilfrid and Evan Shute is

posted at http://www.doctoryourself.com/biblio_shute.html .

 

Evan Shute's autiobiography, The Vitamin E Story, was reviewed by me for The

Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, Volume 17, Number 3, Third Quarter, 2002

(p 179-181) and is also posted online at

http://www.doctoryourself.com/estory.htm .

 

(Reprinted with permission from the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine,

2003; Vol. 18, Numbers 3 and 4, p. 213-216.)

 

All 42 references for this article are posted at

http://www.doctoryourself.com/evitamin.htm .

 

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