Cholesterol Theory - Fatally Cracked

September 9, 2008 // No Comments »

As many of you may know I have a particular interest in the Cholesterol Theory of heart disease and this article came across my desk  today and i thought it so important that i just had to post it. The unerlying premise that Cholesterol and coronary heart disease are linked is clearly coming under increasing scrutiny and may well be not only disproved but blown out of the water - where does that leave the pharmaceutical companies????

September 8, 2008

Egg Study Puts Cracks in Anti-Cholesterol Claims
Results undermine the never-proven hypothesis that diets high in cholesterol and saturated fat promote cardiovascular disease
by Craig Weatherby

A new study from Britain further undermines a decades-old medical myth regarding the role of dietary cholesterol in cardiovascular disease.

And these findings add to fast-deepening doubts surrounding the broader, near century-old “lipid hypothesis” of heart disease, which is reflected in public health policies, including the USDA Food Guide Pyramid.

This increasingly discredited hypothesis holds that “excess” dietary saturated fat and cholesterol – and resulting rises in blood cholesterol and lipid (fat) levels – are major contributing factors to cardiovascular disease (atherosclerosis) and resulting coronary heart disease.

Key Points UK study finds that two eggs a day did not raise cholesterol levels in overweight dieters. Study affirms prior findings that dietary cholesterol does not cause cardiovascular disease. The idea that saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease is increasingly discredited by the evidence.

Atherosclerosis – which is the chief defining characteristic of cardiovascular disease – is the medical term for arteries lined with inflamed, unstable, plaque.

This inflammatory condition is the leading cause of heart attacks, stroke, congestive heart failure and the arrhythmias that induce sudden cardiac death.

(For a summary of the relationships and distinctions between inflammation, cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis, and coronary heart disease, see our accompanying article, “What is Heart Disease, Exactly?”.)

Incredibly, given the decades-old public health advice to avoid saturated fat and cholesterol – and the several billion dollars spent annually on cholesterol-lowering drugs – the evidence supporting the lipid hypothesis of heart disease is astonishingly weak.

We covered the declining credibility of the lipid hypothesis of cardiovascular disease earlier this year: see “Cholesterol Fiasco Undermines Accepted Theory”, which contains links to several eye-opening articles in The New York Times and The Boston Globe.

Eggs and heart disease: The overdue exoneration of a scapegoat

Healthy people and heart patients alike have routinely been advised to strictly limit intake of eggs … or avoid egg yolks, where most of their fat and cholesterol reside (along with their valuable vitamin A and D).

Omega-3-enriched eggs: Making a good food better Advice to avoid eggs is misguided, given their blamelessness with regard to heart disease, and the fact that each egg provides about 10 percent of the recommended daily intake of protein and vitamin A. And anti-egg advice is especially wrong-headed now that most supermarkets offer eggs high in omega-3 fatty acids, which are proven to enhance heart health. Eggs high in omega-3s were the norm before competitive pressures caused most farmers to confine their hens in cages and feed them grains such as corn, which are low in omega-3s and high in pro-inflammatory omega-6s. Today, it’s easy to find omega-3-enriched eggs, which come either from “free-range” hens raised on pasture or, more commonly, from hens raised on grain-based feed fortified with fish meal.

This advice flowed from the lipid hypothesis of heart disease, which holds that foods high in cholesterol and saturated fat – such as egg yolks – promote cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis, and resulting coronary heart disease.

Yet, misguided medical advice was never supported by a persuasive preponderance of evidence.

Indeed, with the exception of people diagnosed with diabetes – among whom high egg intake is associated with increased heart risks – none of the large epidemiological studies that looked for links between eggs and coronary heart disease or stroke have found any.

As early as 1982, researchers who examined data from the famous Framingham Heart Study found no association between eggs and heart disease: “It is concluded that … differences in egg consumption were unrelated to blood cholesterol level or to coronary heart disease incidence.” (Kritchevsky SB et al. 1982)

Then, researchers from Harvard School of Public health analyzed diet and health data from two of the largest, best-controlled epidemiological studies ever conducted: the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986-1994) and the Nurses’ Health Study (1980-1994), which together involved 37,851 male physicians and 80,082 female nurses.

The Harvard team found no evidence that eggs were risky: “These findings suggest that consumption of up to 1 egg per day is unlikely to have substantial overall impact on the risk of CHD [coronary heart disease] or stroke among healthy men and women.” (Hu FB et al. 1999)

(The only exception was diagnosed diabetics, among whom a higher intake of eggs was associated with greater risk of developing heart disease. This could simply reflect the facts that diabetics are more prone to developing coronary heart disease, and that diets high in fat are associated with higher risk of CHD.)

And a study in Japan yielded more evidence exonerating eggs as risk factors for developing coronary heart disease: “In conclusion, eating eggs more frequently, up to almost daily, was not associated with an increase in CHD [coronary heart disease] incidence for middle-aged Japanese men and women.” (Nakamura Y et al. 2006)

Last year, researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey came to similar conclusions after analyzing diet and health data from 9,734 adults aged 25 to 74. The title of their publication summarized their exculpatory findings: “Regular egg consumption does not increase the risk of stroke and cardiovascular diseases.” (Qureshi AI et al. 2007)

Die-hard defenders of the lipid hypothesis of heart disease might say that while epidemiological studies like these reveal associations, they cannot provide final proof of a hypothesis regarding diet and disease.

However, the results of a British clinical trial should help end the debate over heart health and eggs.

British study exonerates eggs

A research team from the University of Surrey recruited 45 overweight but otherwise healthy volunteers, and divided them into two groups (Harman NL et al. 2008).

• Group A (egg group) followed a low-calorie diet that included two eggs per day for 12 weeks.
• Group B (control group) followed the same low-calorie diet for 12 weeks, but ate no eggs.

The people in both groups lost 7- 9 lbs (3 to 4 kg) and their average levels of blood cholesterol fell.

Their blood cholesterol levels were measured at six weeks and 12 weeks, and both groups showed either unchanged or reduced cholesterol levels … particularly in their LDL (bad) cholesterol levels.

This finding came despite the egg group increasing their dietary cholesterol intake to around four times that of the control group.

As the authors concluded, “An increased intake of dietary cholesterol from two eggs a day does not increase total … or LDL cholesterol when accompanied by moderate weight loss. These findings suggest that cholesterol-rich foods should not be excluded from dietary advice to lose weight on account of an unfavorable influence on … LDL cholesterol.” (Harman NL et al. 2008)

Team leader Bruce Griffin, Ph.D., RPHNutr summarized their findings in a press release: “We have shown that when two eggs a day are eaten by people who are actively losing weight on a calorie-restricted diet, blood cholesterol can still be reduced.”

And Dr. Griffin’s companion comment focused on the heart of the matter: “There is no convincing evidence to link an increased intake of dietary cholesterol or eggs with coronary heart disease through raised blood cholesterol.”

In fact, saturated fat – whose primary dietary sources among Americans are red meats, butter, and foods made with butter – is more responsible for raising blood cholesterol than cholesterol-rich foods, such as eggs.

However, this does not mean that saturated fat is a significant villain, either.

The available evidence shows that diets high in saturated fat are not linked much more closely to risk of heart disease than are diets high in total fat, polyunsaturated fats, or monounsaturated fats. The main exception is that younger people’s risk is exacerbated more by high fat intake. (Artaud-Wild SM et al. 1993; Esrey KL et al. 1996; Jakobsen MU et al. 2004; Xu J et al. 2006; Volk MG 2007)

Sadly, many doctors remain unaware that the lipid hypothesis of heart disease rests on a foundation of sand, with numerous studies proving that diets high saturated fat and cholesterol are not inherently unhealthful.

Instead, it is a lack of plant foods and exercise and an excess of refined carbohydrates (i.e., white flour products) that can make fatty diets dangerous. These contextual differences explain why people in Finland and France have widely divergent rates of heart disease despite having similar intakes of saturated fat and cholesterol (Volk MG 2007).

In other words, it appears safe to eat reasonable amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol as long as your diet meets the basic criteria outlined in our accompanying article, “What is Heart Disease, Exactly?”

Sources

• Artaud-Wild SM, Connor SL, Sexton G, Connor WE. Differences in coronary mortality can be explained by differences in cholesterol and saturated fat intakes in 40 countries but not in France and Finland. A paradox. Circulation. 1993 Dec;88(6):2771-9.
• Dawber TR, Nickerson RJ, Brand FN, Pool J. Eggs, serum cholesterol, and coronary heart disease. Am J Clin Nutr 1982;36:617-25.
• Dawber TR, Nickerson RJ, Brand FN, Pool J. Eggs, serum cholesterol, and coronary heart disease. Am J Clin Nutr. 1982 Oct;36(4):617-25.
• Esrey KL, Joseph L, Grover SA. Relationship between dietary intake and coronary heart disease mortality: lipid research clinics prevalence follow-up study. J Clin Epidemiol. 1996 Feb;49(2):211-6.
• Gramenzi A, Gentile A, Fasoli M, Negri E, Parazzini F, La Vecchia C. Association between certain foods and risk of acute myocardial infarction in women. BMJ 1990;300:771-3.
• Harman NL, Leeds AR, Griffin BA. Increased dietary cholesterol does not increase plasma low density lipoprotein when accompanied by an energy-restricted diet and weight loss. Eur J Nutr. 2008 Sep;47(6):287-93. Epub 2008 Aug 26.
• Hu FB, Stampfer MJ, Rimm EB, Manson JE, Ascherio A, Colditz GA, Rosner BA, Spiegelman D, Speizer FE, Sacks FM, Hennekens CH, Willett WC. A prospective study of egg consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease in men and women. JAMA. 1999 Apr 21;281(15):1387-94.
• Jakobsen MU, Overvad K, Dyerberg J, Schroll M, Heitmann BL. Dietary fat and risk of coronary heart disease: possible effect modification by gender and age. Am J Epidemiol. 2004 Jul 15;160(2):141-9.
• Kritchevsky SB, Kritchevsky D. Egg consumption and coronary heart disease: an epidemiologic overview. J Am Coll Nutr. 2000 Oct;19(5 Suppl):549S-555S. Review.
• Lacombe CR, Corraze GR, Nibbelink MM, Boulze D, Douste-Blazy P, Camare R. Effects of a low-energy diet associated with egg supplementation on plasma cholesterol and lipoprotein levels in normal subjects: results of a cross-over study. Br J Nutr. 1986 Nov;56(3):561-75.
• Nakamura Y, Iso H, Kita Y, Ueshima H, Okada K, Konishi M, Inoue M, Tsugane S. Egg consumption, serum total cholesterol concentrations and coronary heart disease incidence: Japan Public Health Center-based prospective study. Br J Nutr. 2006 Nov;96(5):921-8.
• Qureshi AI, Suri FK, Ahmed S, Nasar A, Divani AA, Kirmani JF. Regular egg consumption does not increase the risk of stroke and cardiovascular diseases. Med Sci Monit. 2007 Jan;13(1):CR1-8. Epub 2006 Dec 18.
• Volk MG. An examination of the evidence supporting the association of dietary cholesterol and saturated fats with serum cholesterol and development of coronary heart disease. Altern Med Rev. 2007 Sep;12(3):228-45. Review.

Xu J, Eilat-Adar S, Loria C, Goldbourt U, Howard BV, Fabsitz RR, Zephier EM, Mattil C, Lee ET. Dietary fat intake and risk of coronary heart disease: the Strong Heart Study. Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Oct;84(4):894-902.

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Posted in Drugs, Omega 3, cholesterol, diet, food, heart, medicine, pharmaceutical drugs

Little or No Evidence Supports Conventional Medical Treatments

June 6, 2008 // No Comments »

I saw this article and couldn’t help echoing its sentiments.

by Barbara L. Minton (see all articles by this author)

(NaturalNews) Do you ever get the feeling that your doctor doesn’t know what he’s doing? Well, you are probably right. There is little or no evidence that today’s $2 trillion-dollar medical system works any better than various other alternatives. Whether you have diabetes, heart trouble, back pain or cancer, this judgment applies. If you are contemplating surgery, you should know that the orthodox disease establishment doctors have little clue about the success rates for the procedures they endorse.

Dr. David Eddy, a consultant for healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente and leader in the development of clinical evidenced based guidelines admits that the medical profession does not know what its doing, according to an article published by Alan Stang. Even today, with a high-tech health-care system that costs the nation so much money, there is little or no evidence that many widely used treatments and procedures actually work.

Eighty-five percent of what doctors do is not backed by hard evidence, which presumably means that only fifteen percent is. “Doctors dangerously over treat patients, because they get paid to treat; they don’t get paid not to treat,” claims Stang.

A hundred and fifty years ago, Ignaz Semmelweis claimed that his fellow physicians were killing women delivering babies in Vienna’s hospitals. Women were so terrified of hospitals that they considered a hospital stay the same as a death sentence. Their families had to bring them there by force because the women would try to escape. Semmelweis suspected that the reason for the deaths was that doctors were going from surgery to surgery without washing their hands. When he demanded that they scrub and sterilize their hands, the death rate dropped dramatically.

Although you would suspect that modern practitioners certainly wash their hands between patients, especially between surgeries, you would be wrong. Eighty percent of hospital infections happen today because doctors don’t wash their hands, resulting in deaths of thousands of people and costs of over a billion dollars a year. For instance, more than one-quarter of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s doctors don’t wash, because proper washing takes time and costs them money they would otherwise be making, according to an article in Business Week that interviewed some of the nation’s leading doctors.

According to these doctors, some of their colleagues are killing and robbing thousands of Americans a year. And these unindicted felons are the same critics calling for the power of the government to raid health food stores and throw so-called “alternative” practitioners into jail. These are also the same moral miscreants who use government propaganda to warn disease victims to reject any other treatment and therapy except theirs. They are the ones in collusion with the pharmaceutical companies who are trying to ban nutritional supplements with Codex Alimentarius. They point with their unwashed hands at anyone who dares to contradict them.

Stang recalls the story of Abraham Cherrix who had Hodgkin’s disease. The doctors told him to take chemotherapy so he did. It failed and the cancer returned. The chemo had left Abraham so weak that he couldn’t walk. He didn’t want to do it again, wanting instead to try “alternative” treatments to restore his immune system. Doctors used the courts to force him to again take the same chemotherapy that had failed him and left him so weak.

Abraham’s dad asked the social worker, “What will you do with my little boy? Will you take him somewhere and strap him down and put duct tape on his mouth and pump him full of this stuff if he doesn’t want it?” The social worker replied, “No, I will come to your house with a uniformed officer, and I will take your son by force if he resists. And I will take him to somebody else who will do that.” As the result of the huge public outrage over this case, Abraham finally won and was returned to his parent’s custody.

How could this have happened? The disease establishment is willing to do anything to protect and maintain its multi-billion dollar control of the people. Establishment medicine as practiced in the U.S. is monopoly medicine. Any threat to that monopoly is taken seriously. The four big players in monopoly medicine are the government, the AMA (American Medical Association), the drug companies, and the medical schools.

No matter how beneficial prevention modalities and alternative treatment modalities are to the people, they must be concealed, controlled, and done away with. There is a kind of psychic disconnect practiced by the establishment mentalities that want to do away with the means to prevent and treat conditions that may eventually threaten their own lives.

As the drug companies and politicians try to line us up for forced vaccinations and treatments, it’s good to remember that forced medical treatment was one of the main principles of Nazism. The Holocaust did not begin with the extermination of Jewish people. It ended with them.

The Holocaust began with the doctors when Hitler was still in jail during the Weimar Republic established after World War I. The Allies had promised Germany there would not be a punitive peace. Of course they lied and ended up imposing a ruinous war debt at the Versailles Conference. When Germany could not pay, the doctors decided to do their patriotic duty by eliminating “useless eaters”. They began with handicapped children and worked their way to criminals and beyond. Since doctors were running the program, the public swallowed it as just being “humane”. Only years later was this program known as the Holocaust, which many people today wrongly believe only exterminated the Jewish.

The fact that Business Week was able to publish much of this information in their cover story suggests that the disease establishment may be losing some of its control. But like many large beasts, monopoly medicine is probably more dangerous in its death throws.

Sources:

Author not noted, “Medical Guesswork”, Business Week, May 29, 2006.

Stang, Alan, “Today’s American Medicine: The Cure,” (www.AlanStang.com)

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Posted in Drugs, alternative, breast cancer, cancer, diabetes, health, medicine, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes

The Greatest Tragedy of All Time

January 29, 2008 // No Comments »

This video is the work of Healthy Mentors and Tubnuts Media princesstubnuts@hotmail.co.uk and depicts the Greatest Tragedy of all time in that a population the size of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are lost every 10 years through maladministered and adverse drug reactions. We can and have to do better.

Posted in medicine

The Greatest Tragedy of All Time

January 15, 2008 // No Comments »

This film was a personal response to our over reliance on the established medical treatments and it expresses some of my personal views. If you want to see more please go to website www.squidoo.com/greatesttragedye mail me


Healthy Mentors - here to help you
Trehalose - the safe sugar

Posted in C Reactive Protein, Low GI, NIDDM, Omega 3, Sickle Cell, Trehalose, breast cancer, cancer, chemicals, cholesterol, diabetes, diet, food, glycoforms, glyconutrition, health, medicine, minerals, obesity, skin, skin care, skincare, type 2 diabetes

Too fat - not fat enough - where is the truth

November 30, 2007 // 1 Comment »

OK - i am going crazy with this whole thing of overweight/obesity - lets get one thing straight - well several actually.

1. Carrying too much fat around our middle puts us at far greater risk of developing cancer, diabetes, heart disease and more.
2. being undernourished also damages our health.
3. eat the right food, supplement the nutrients that are missing, combat the chemical toxins with antioxidants, exercise

Now Doctors Say Its Good to be Overweight

By David Usborne, The Independent UK
November 13, 2007

A startling new study by medical researchers in the United States has caused consternation among public health professionals by suggesting that, contrary to conventional wisdom, being overweight might actually be beneficial for health.

The study, published yesterday in the respected Journal of the American Medical Association, runs counter to almost all other advice to consumers by saying that carrying a little extra flab — though not too much — might help people to live longer.

Struggling dieters, used to being told that staying thin is the best prescription for longevity, are likely to be confused this morning if not heartily relieved. While being a bit overweight may indeed increase your chances of dying from diabetes and kidney disease — conditions that are often linked with one another — the same is not true for a host of other ailments including cancer and heart disease, the report suggests.

In fact, scanning the whole gamut of diseases that could curtail your life, being over weight is, on balance, a good thing. The bottom line, the scientists say, is that modestly overweight people demonstrate a lower death rate than their peers who are underweight, obese or — most surprisingly — normal weight.

The findings will be hard to dismiss. They are the result of analysis of decades of data by federal researchers at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. This is not a study from a fringe group of scientists or sponsored by a fast-food chain.

Being overweight, the report asserts in its conclusions, “was associated with significantly decreased all-cause mortality overall”.

“The take-home message is that the relationship between fat and mortality is more complicated than we tend to think,” said Katherine Flegal, the lead researcher. “It’s not a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all situation where excess weight just increases your mortality risk for any and all causes of death.”

That the CDC has even published the report and thus threatened to muffle years of propaganda as to the health benefits of staying slender has enraged some medical experts.

“It’s just rubbish,” fumed Walter Willett, the professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. “It’s just ludicrous to say there is no increased risk of mortality from being overweight.”

Not that the CDC results are an invitation to throw caution to the winds and take cream with everything. The scientists are careful to stress that the benefits they are describing are limited to those people who are merely overweight — which generally means being no more than 30 pounds heavier than is recommended for your height — and certainly do not carry over to those who fall into the category of obese.

Obesity has been declared one of the main threats to health in the US, including among children. Those considered obese, with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 30, continue to run a higher risk of death, the study says, from a variety of ailments, including numerous cancers and heart disease. It said that being underweight increases the risk of ailments not including heart disease or cancer.

The scientists at the CDC first hinted at the upside of being overweight a few years ago. Since then, however, they have expanded the base of their analysis, with data that includes mortality figures from 2004, the last year for which numbers were available, for no fewer than 2.3 million American adults.

Highlighting how a bit of bulge might help you, the scientists said that in 2004 there were 100,000 fewer deaths among the overweight in the US than would have been expected if they were all considered to be of normal weight. Put slightly differently, those Americans who were merely overweight were up to about 40 per cent less likely than normal-weight people to die from a whole range of diseases and risks including emphysema, pneumonia, Alzheimer’s, injuries and various infections.

Aside from escaping diseases, tipping the scales a little further may also help people recover from serious surgery, injuries and infections, Dr Flegal suggested. Such patients may simply have deeper bodily reserves to draw on in times of medical crisis.

Not everyone in the medical profession was surprised or angry about the study. “What this tells us is the hazards have been very much exaggerated,” said Steven Blair, a professor of exercise science and biostatistics at the University of South Carolina, who has long argued that the case for dietary restraint has been taken too far.

“I believe the data,” added Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, a professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of California, San Diego, who believes that a BMI of 25 to 30 — roughly the the so-called overweight range — “may be optimal”.

Critics, however, were quick to point out that the study was concerned with mortality data only and did not take account of the quality of life benefits of keeping your weight down. The study “is not about health and sickness”, noted the obesity researcher Barry Popkin of the University of North Carolina.

The report “definitely won’t be the last word”, said Dr Michael Thun of the American Cancer Society, who pointed out, in a report released last week by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research, that staying slim was the main recommendation for avoiding cancer.

Others in the American medical community, while a little bemused, were withholding judgement. “This is a very puzzling disconnect,” said Dr JoAnn Manson, the chief of preventive medicine at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The suggestion that a bit of extra weight may assist patients recovering from an infection or surgery was of no surprise to Dr Flegal. “You may also have more lean mass — more bone and muscle,” she said. “If you are in an adverse situation, that could be good for you.”

In their conclusions, the authors of the study note: “Overweight … may be associated with improved survival during recovery from adverse conditions, such as infections or medical procedures, and with improved prognosis for some diseases. Such findings may be due to greater nutritional reserves or higher lean body mass associated with overweight.”

Those of us mostly likely to benefit from a little bulge beneath the belt, the study adds, are between 25 and 59 years old, although there were also some advantages for people over 60.

Posted in Uncategorized, cancer, diabetes, diet, food, health, heart, medicine, minerals, nutrition, obesity, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes

Apricot Kernels - B17 - benefits

November 16, 2007 // No Comments »

I’ve recommended Apricot Kernels and other things as a source of B17 - wrongly called B17 as far as i can figure but that might be changing. Here is a great summary - if a little technical about B17 and what it does. We have seen some fascinating results with Sickle Cell Disease and B1, Apricot Kernels, Millet, and even Apricot Kernel Oil (cold pressed).

Apricot Kernels (B17 – called Vitamin B17 in error)

Apricot Kernels are the richest source of B17 (Laetrile). Ernst Krebs is the world’s leading authority on the relationship between cancer and nitrilosides, and the inventor of laetrile.

• G. Edward Griffin’s book World Without Cancer (American Media, 1974), available from Health World
• Ernst Krebs discussion of The Nature of Cancer
• Ernst Krebs discussion of the Trophoblast Theory of Cancer
• Ernst Krebs discussion of Trophoblasts and Morning Sickness
• Ernst Krebs discussion of the Metabolism of nitrilosides (Vitamin B17)
• Charles Gurchot’s explanation of How Vitamin B17 Works

Apricot kernels are known to prevent and cure cancer, even though the medical establishment has worked night and day and even lied to suppress it. B17 is found in most all fruit seeds such as the apple, peach, cherry, orange, nectarine and apricot. It is found in some beans and many grasses such as wheat grass. The hard wooden pit in the middle of the peach is not supposed to be thrown away. In fact, the wooden shell is strong armor protecting one of the most important foods known to man, the seed. It is one of the main courses of food in cultures such as the Navajo Indians, the Hunzas the Abkhasians and many more. Did you know that within these tribes there has never been a reported case of cancer. (And there are doctors and scientists from the U.S. living within these tribes right now studying this phenomena) We don’t need to make the seed a main course but we do need the equivalent of about seven apricots seeds per day to nearly guarantee a cancer free life. Other foods that contain vitamin B-17 are: bitter almonds, millet, wheat grass, lima beans and more. (The bitter almond tree was banned from the U.S. in 1995.) The kernel or seed contains the highest amounts of  B17.

 One of the most common nitrilosides is amygdalin. This nitriloside occurs in the kernels of seeds of practically all fruits. The seeds of apples, apricots, cherries, peaches, plums, nectarines, and the like carry this factor; often in the extraordinary concentration of 2 to 3 per cent. Since the seeds of fruits are possibly edible, it may be proper to designate the non-toxic water soluble accessory food factor or nitriloside that they contain as vitamin B-17. The presence of nitriloside in the diet produces specific physiologic effects and leaves as metabolites specific chemical compounds of a physiologically active nature. The production by a non-toxic, water-soluble accessory food factor of specific physiological effects as well as identifiable metabolites suggests the vitamin nature of the compound.

 In metabolism, nitriloside is hydrolyzed to free hydrogen cyanide, benzaldehyde or acetone and sugar. This occurs largely through the enzyme Beta-glucosidase produced by intestinal bacteria as well as by the body. The released HCN [hydrocyanide] is detoxified by the enzyme rhodanese to the relatively non-toxic thiocyanate molecule. The sugar is normally metabolized. The released benzaldehyde in the presence of oxygen is immediately oxidized to benzoic acid which is non-toxic. Thus this newly designated vitamin B-17 (nitriloside) could account for:

1. The thiocyanates in the body fluids–blood, urine, saliva, sweat, and tears;
2. For part of the benzoic acid (and subsequently hippuric acid); salicylic acid isomers;
3. For the HCN that goes to the production of cyanocobalamin from hydrocobalamin, or production of vitamin B₁₂ from provitamin B₁₂.

These are the physiological properties of the common nitriloside amygdalin. Before considering the possible antineoplastic activity of this vitamin B-17, let us recall that the benzoic acid arising from it has certain antirheumatic and antiseptic properties. It was rather widely used (in Germany and elsewhere) for rheumatic disease therapy prior to the advent of the ortho-hydroxy addition product of benzoic acid known as ortho-hydroxybenzoic acid or salicylic acid. It was originally obtained from beech-wood bark. As a matter of interest, the para- hydroxy isomer of benzoic acid occurs in the para hydroxybenzaldehyde aglycon (non-sugar) of the nitriloside found in the cereal millet. Millet was once more widely used in human nutrition than wheat. Wheat seed contains little or no nitriloside.

Recall now, that thiocyanate also was once widely used, in both Germany and American medicine, as an effective agent for hypertension. Used as such, as the simple chemical, the dosage was difficult to control. Obviously, this difficulty does not arise from the thiocyanate usually produced in the body through metabolizing B-17 (nitriloside). However, chronic hypotension (the opposite of hypertension) has been reported in Nigerians who eat quantities of the nitriloside-containing manioc (cassava)–especially that of the bitter variety.

Let us pause to reflect upon this question: Might not the rheumatic diseases as well as certain aspects of hypertension be in some cases partially related to a dietary deficiency in nitrilosides? One can hardly deny that the ingestion of a sufficient quantity of nitriloside-containing foods will metabolically yield sufficient benzoic acid and/or salicylic acid isomers to palliate rheumatic disease and certainly to decrease, however temporarily, hypertension as well as to foster the nitrilosation of provitamin B-12 to active vitamin B-12: cyanocobalamin.

Despite all this, are we justified in suggesting that cancer itself might be another chronic metabolic disease that arises from a specific vitamin deficiency–a deficiency specifically in B-17 (nitriloside)?

There are many chronic or metabolic diseases that challenge medicine. Many of these diseases have already been conquered. What proved to be their solution? By solution we mean both prevention and cure. What really cures really prevents. Let us think of some of these diseases that have found total prevention and hence cure. We are speaking of metabolic or non-transmissible diseases. At one time the metabolic disease known as scurvy killed hundreds of thousands of people, sometimes entire populations. This disease found total prevention and cure in the ascorbic acid or vitamin C component of fruits and vegetables. Similarly, the once fatal diseases so aptly called pernicious anaemia, pellagra, beri beri, countless neuropathies, and the like, found complete cure and prevention in specific dietary factors, that is, essential nutrients in an adequate diet.

Let’s go a step further, almost to the border of dogmatism, to advance an axiom in medicine and biology:

No chronic or metabolic disease has ever found cure or prevention, that is, real cure and real prevention–except through factors essential to an adequate diet and/or normal to animal economy.

I would welcome a contradiction to this principle; but even an exception would “prove the rule.”

Does it seem likely, therefore, that cancer will be the first exception to this generalization that to date has not had a single known exception? In my humble opinion, certainly not. But does it follow from this that B-17 (nitriloside) is the specific antineoplastic compound? Logically, by itself, alone, this conclusion that nitriloside is the specific antineoplastic compound does not follow. However, examine the brilliant laboratory studies of Dr. Dean Burk of the Department of Cytochemistry of the National Cancer Institute in Washington. I believe that in light of the experimental evidence that he has produced, you might agree that B-17 (nitriloside) is indeed the antineoplastic compound.*

One might ask, then, whether we suggest that B-17 (nitriloside) or Laetrile is an effective cancer drug. Our reply must be: it is not a drug; it is a food.

REFERENCES

Baker, J.E., Rainey, D.P., Norris, D.M., and Strong, F.N., p-Hydroxybenzaldehyde and other Phenolics as Feeding Stimulants for the Smaller European Bark Bettle, Forest Sci., 14(1):91-95, 1968.
Blum, M.S., and Woodring, J.P., Secretion of Benzaldehyde and Hydrogen Cyanide by the Millipede Pachydemus crassicutus (Wood), Science, 158: 512-513, 1962.
Briese, R.R., and Couch, J.F., Preservation of Cyanogenetic Plants for Chemical Analysis, J.Agr.Research, 57(2): 81-107, 1937.
Brown, W.E., Wood, C.D., and Smith, A.N., Sodium Cyanide as a Cancer Chemotherapeutic Agent — Laboratory and Clinical Studies, Am.J.Obst. & Gynec., 80: 907-918, 1960.
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Posted in Nitric Oxide, Sickle Cell, Vitamins, cancer, chemicals, diet, heart, hypotension, medicine

Health Vs Fitness: Have we got it right

November 9, 2007 // No Comments »

I was talking with a friend and colleague yesterday who brought my attention to this interesting article. That then sparked another thought that has been bugging me for the last couple of years. I work in the area of preventative health using all possible means. So often I am talking with a client who says ‘this therapist says they have the whole answer to my problem’ - another says that xyz therapy can cure everything’ - frankly they are displaying the same behaviour as an ostrich - sticking its head in the sand.

Get it and get it once and for all NO THERAPY HAS THE UNIVERSAL ANSWER. Stop trying to score points of each other - work together - treat everyone as an individual and don’t be so arrogant as to think you have all the answers all the time. At risk of offending ‘Classically Trained Homeopaths’ some of them are among the worst offenders in the business while some have moved on and into integrative health-care. This article is all about Fitness ‘therapists’ having all the answers - fitness is related to health but unless we address the dietary issues as well as exercise we are not serving people well.

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Private gyms are reaping the benefits from obesity health scares but are doing little to help fight the epidemic, a report has said.

Obesity figures are still growing despite the UK’s booming gym industry, according to research by an academic at the University of Leicester.

Dr Jennifer Smith Maguire’s study found private gyms were mostly used by richer members of society.

This left the less well-off struggling for help to combat weight problems.

The gyms also promoted exercise not as a part of everyday life but as something to be “squeezed” into the daily routine.

The focus was placed on looking healthy for image and not health reasons, the study added.

“The commercial fitness industry benefits from the scientific legitimacy and political urgency bestowed on population health issues such as inactivity and obesity,” Dr Maguire said.

“But it is ill-equipped to address those issues for a number of reasons. (more…)

Posted in alternative, diet, health, medicine, obesity