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For Facts about Vitamins, Why Can't Parents Trust Big Pharmaceuticals?
When it comes to children's nutrition facts about vitamins, it is difficult to know whom to trust because there is so much disagreement over the effectiveness of vitamins and supplements and because of corporate media censorship. Yes, it's true, censorship prevents parents from getting the whole truth regarding children's nutrition facts about vitamins.
(I didn't believe media censorship existed until someone referred me to Sonoma State University web site called
Project Censored).
Focusing on the vitamin controversy, on one side there are traditional medical doctors and pharmaceutical companies defending patented medicines and attacking vitamins and supplements as proving ineffective and even dangerous. On the opposite side there are alternative physicians and vitamin companies, not only defending vitamins, but claiming vitamins are often superior than prescription medications for treating many diseases.
What are the facts about vitamins?
From the stand point of children's nutrition, since both sides are influenced by their respective financial interests involved, it is difficult to determine where the truth lies by simply relying on their word, particularly since there exist medical doctors in both camps. However the truth and credibility of their claims can be evaluated and this should help parents making decisions concerning children's nutrition and the facts about vitamins.
Mainstream medicine and the major pharmaceutical companies have claimed vitamins are dangerous. While there appears to be agreement in both camps that certain vitamins can be dangerous, like iron for example, it is with vitamin C where there, particularly, exists major disagreements. Hence, we will examine the safety of vitamins, in general, compared to patented medications and, also, examine the credibility of those involved in the vitamin C controversy in order to help us decide whom to believe from a children's nutrition perspective on the facts about vitamins.
Below, Dr. Philip Rudnick, Professor Emeritus, Chemistry, (http://www.thenhf.com/articles_27.htm)cites a five year study, excerpted from the "Journal of the American Medical Association" performed between 1993-1998. The findings were as follows:
Summary of Comparative Mortality of Drugs and Supplements/Herbs:
- Iatrogenic deaths from non-error adverse effects of
medication: ~ 106,000/year
- Deaths from herbs (weight-loss): ~37/year
- Deaths from supplements: 0-1/year
- Ratio of iatrogenic deaths from “properly” prescribed
drugs to deaths from herbs: 2865 ~ 2900/1
- Ratio of iatrogenic deaths from “properly” prescribed
drugs to deaths from supplements: =/> 106,000/1.
From a children’s nutrition perspective, it appears one is more than 106,000 times more likely to die from a correctly prescribed doctor's prescription than from taking a vitamin supplement, one of the very important facts about vitamins.
As a quick check on these findings, let's examine this
graph of the statistical comparison of frequent causes of death in the USA
(www.laleva.cc/petizione/english/ronlaw_eng.html).
Examining the graph, note one has .0001% chance dying from supplements and a 5.18% chance of dying from properly prescribed drugs. In other words, correctly prescribed doctor's prescriptions are 50,000 times more likely to kill you than vitamin supplements. Children’s nutrition is a lot safer sticking to vitamins than drugs, even when drugs are correctly prescribed.
From this information, it appears obvious that vitamin supplements are safe for children’s nutrition. This being the case, why do many medical doctors and pharmaceutical companies warn about their dangers, when the facts about vitamins support the opposite conclusion that doctor's correctly prescribed drugs are unsafe, in comparison to vitamins, and are the fourth leading killer in the United States after heart disease, cancer and smoking?
From a children’s nutrition perspective, the following information may prove helpful in evaluating this question.
According to Karl Loren's very credible and extensively documented web site:
- "Now I've got to the point where I think we can get
almost complete control of cardiovascular disease, heart attacks and strokes. The proper use of vitamin C and lysine can prevent cardiovascular disease and even CURE it." [Linus Pauling, 1994 Interview]
- "If you are at risk of heart disease, or if there is a
history of heart disease in your family, if your father or other members of the family died of a heart attack or stroke or whatever, or if you have a mild heart attack yourself then you had better be taking vitamin C and Lysine." [Linus Pauling, 1994 interview]
PAULING THERAPY
| Agent 1 | Agent 2 | |
| Vitamin C (3-6 gm) | L-Lysine (3-6 gm) |
- "The heart surgery industry is booming. According to
American Heart Association statistics, in 1995 1,460,000 angiograms (the diagnostic procedure that starts the ball rolling) were performed at an average cost of $10,880 per procedure. This resulted in 573,000 bypass surgeries at $44,820 a shot, and 419,000 angioplasties (the balloon procedure for opening up arteries) at $20,370 each. The total bill for these procedures is over $50 billion a year.
- The millions of people told that they needed immediate
surgery to save their lives actually had a 98.4% chance of surviving without surgery! [According to the CASE study published by the New England Journal of Med., 1983]
- Dr. Robert Cathcart, III, MD, reports that he hasn't
seen a single case of heart disease develop in patients who didn't already have a bad heart to begin with. Dr. Cathcart has treated over 20,000 patients with high doses of ascorbic acid vitamin C!
- During the 1970s vitamin C consumption in the U.S. rose
by 300%. Mortality from heart disease decreased by 30% in the U.S., the only country with a significant drop in heart disease fatalities. Yet, the media and organized medicine ignore these facts and disseminate misrepresentations of scientific findings regarding the value of vitamin C.
- Furthermore, the early findings of Canadian doctors
Patterson and Willis should not be forgotten. Their research indicated that arterial tissue levels of ascorbate (vitamin C) are much lower in heart patients when compared with controls, and that ascorbate supplementation could reduce arterial deposits. This pioneering work should have been immediately followed up.
- There is evidence that textbooks earlier this century
contained much more information about vitamin C. Most certainly the information about vitamin C and collagen production was there. Why the change? Shouldn't we have learned even more by now? If Pauling was correct about vitamin C, then it is likely the mysterious missing info about vitamin C is an intentional omission and constitutes scientific fraud.
- "A study of 1,605 randomly selected men in Finland, aged
42 to 60 years, was conducted between 1984 and 1989. None of the men had evidence of preexisting heart disease. After adjusting for other confounding factors, men who were deficient in vitamin C had 3.5 times more heart attacks than men who were not deficient in vitamin C. The scientists' conclusion was, "Vitamin C deficiency, as assessed by low plasma ascorbate concentration, is a risk factor for coronary heart disease." British Medical Journal (Vol 314, Iss 708, 1997)
A great deal of research bolsters Linus Pauling's belief that vitamin C can prevent heart disease, and both vitamin C and lysine can reverse heart disease. Why is vitamin C so effective in reversing heart disease?
According to research by
Rath and Pauling
a local ascorbate (vitamin C) deficiency causes a crack to form in an artery. Then a form of low density lipoprotein, called apo(a) enters that crack and proceeds to initiate a repair process; however, this healing process is faulty and results in the accumulation of a mass of tissue that grows and can eventually clog the artery. How does vitamin C ameliorate this heart disease process?
For children’s nutrition and facts about vitamins, let's count some of the many ways vitamin C prevents and fights heart disease:
- Extra vitamin C may prevent the local ascorbate
deficiency that caused the arterial crack to form in the first place.
- Vitamin C prevents endothelial cells lining arteries
from dying.
- Vitamin C increases good HDL cholesterol, which moves
fat from the arterial wall to the liver.
- Vitamin C reduces the production of LDL apo(a).
- Vitamin C prevents the decrease in arterial blood flow
caused by a high cholesterol diet.
- Vitamin C decreases the liver's production of
cholesterol and triglycerides.
- Vitamin C prevents dangerous clot formations that might
cause a sudden stroke or heart attack.
This information about vitamin C adds to the pool of important facts about vitamins and their effectiveness.
From a children’s nutrition perspective, vitamin C appears to do all the right things in reducing heart disease. Since some studies indicate cardiovascular disease can begin in childhood, extra vitamin C might be a perfect addition to a children’s nutrition program to prevent heart disease in children.
The primary cause of cardiovascular disease is local ascorbate deficiency. The secondary causative factor is LDL apo (a). Cholesterol lowering drugs don't appear to have much effect on apo (a), except for niacin, a vitamin. Lysine along with vitamin C facilitate proper healing and repair initial crack in the artery and causes the plaque to shrink.
If a local vitamin C deficiency caused the arterial crack, it appears obvious that increased vitamin C intake might prevent the deficiency initiating the crack and, also, decrease the apo (a) that creates the plaque. Hence, Linus Pauling's approach to curing heart disease makes sense-another one of the important facts about vitamins.
Bolstering Dr. Linus Pauling's position is a new book by Dr. Thomas Levy.
"Dr. Levy is a medical doctor and a cardiologist by training. Some time ago, Dr. Levy analyzed all 27 known cardiovascular disease risk factors. Levy discovered that they all can be reduced to a single factor- low vitamin C."-another one of the critical facts about vitamins.
From a children's nutrition perspective, it appears obvious that the pharmaceutical corporations chose to purposely attack the credibility of those supporting vitamin C and the research upholding their support, and hid the knowledge of vitamin C's effectiveness against heart disease to prevent the tremendous financial loss they would have experienced had it become widely known to the American public.
One wonders how many children have died because pharmaceutical companies chose to hide the facts about vitamins to protect their very profitable patented drugs from competition?
From a children's nutrition point of view, it is important to validate these findings of apparent wrong doing by the corporate pharmaceutical industry, in regard to vitamin C, by checking for other supporting evidence outside of the vitamin C realm. In other words, if there proves to be evidence of widespread wrong doing by Big Pharma, in general, this would support contentions that Big Pharma acted inappropriately in regard to vitamin C and support the allegation that they chose to hide the facts about vitamins to protect their profits.
Marcia Angell, a faculty member of the Harvard Medical School and a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, in her book, The Truth About the Drug Companies, discusses the following ways drug companies deceive Americans:
- It plies attending physicians with expense-paid junkets
to St. Croix and Key West, Fla., where they are given honoraria and consulting fees to listen to promotional presentations.
- It promotes new or little-known diseases such
as "social anxiety disorder" and "premenstrual dysphoric disorder" as a way of selling the drugs that treat them.
- It sets up phony front groups disguised as "patient
advocacy organizations."
- It hires ghostwriters to produce misleading scientific
articles and then pays academic physicians to sign on as authors.
- It sends paid lackeys and shills out onto the academic
lecture circuit to ''educate" doctors about a drug's unapproved uses.
- It hires multinational PR firms to trumpet dubious
studies as scientific breakthroughs while burying the studies that are likely to harm sales.
- It buys up the results of publicly funded research.
- It maintains a political chokehold on the American
public by donating more money to political campaigns than any other industry in the country.
Big Pharma has a well organized team of strategies to prevent the facts about vitamins from reaching the American public.
If Big Pharma's hiding the facts about vitamins isn't enough, read this:
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