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Bill Sardi
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November 3, 2011: by Bill Sardi
The current craze in natural medicine is gluten free. Shops have opened up in my community featuring nothing but gluten-free foods. Gluten is the current phobia. Medically the problem is called celiac disease and it involves the deterioration of the mucus barrier in the small bowel as a result of the innate immune system over-responding to an allergen.
The disease is triggered by consumption of dietary wheat-, rye- and barley-derived gluten and it often manifests with intestinal symptoms such as diarrhea and mal-absorption of nutrients. Part of the problem is the hybridization of grains as explained by William Davis MD in his book entitled Wheat Belly (Rodale Books 2011). His book was preceded by many other damning wheat and grains, such as Life Without Bread by Christian B. Allan and Wolfgang Lutz, Dangerous Grains by Drs. James Braly and Jonathan Wright, and numerous gluten-free cookbooks.
Posted in Dietary Supplements, Vitamins ; No Comments »
October 12, 2011: by Bill Sardi
In recent days the Journal of Nutrition reported that dietary supplements make a significant contribution to the daily need for vitamins and that meeting the Recommended Daily Allowance could not possibly be accomplished via foods alone. But, ERASE, ERASE! Never mind that. On a day when a report in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition claimed that doubling vitamin D blood levels would reduce the global vitamin D–sensitive disease mortality rate by an estimated 20 percent, the news media chose to run with a front-page headline that made it sound like multivitamins kill.
The multivitamin study does instruct, but its interpreters attempt to scare the public away from vitamin pills to soften them up for the next blow – the FDA is scheming to cut the daily vitamin and mineral requirements in half, a move that would ensure a certain level of disease to treat in the population.
Posted in Dietary Supplements, Vitamins ; No Comments »
August 22, 2011: by Bill Sardi
To the editor
Editor: Paul Dacre
DAILYMAIL.CO.UK
From: Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc. San Dimas, Ca. USA
I am writing to complain about an apparent false story released in your publication 3 days ago, according to Google’s log. The report refers to a study that is a decade old. It was reported in Science Magazine in June 15, 2001 and fully rebutted in that same publication on September 14 of that same year. The report, entitled “Vitamin C Cancer Fear” is a total falsehood as it has recently been confirmed that mega-dose vitamin C, given intravenously, is totally non-toxic, transiently creates hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) that selectively kills cancer cells and does not harm healthy cells, and then converts to harmless non-toxic H2O (water). The University of Pennsylvania study was conducted in a lab dish while doses of vitamin C up to 10,000 milligrams had already been tested in humans and found to be non-toxic to DNA. Why has the DAILY MAIL chosen to re-publish a story that is not news and that has been thoroughly dismissed as junk science a decade ago? (See referenced story, referenced reports below)
Posted in Vitamins ; No Comments »
August 7, 2011: by Bill Sardi
With release of a report from the annual meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, that low blood levels of vitamin D are more common among NFL football players who suffer muscle injuries, there is no better time to talk about vitamin D and sports with the release of Dr. John Cannell’s newest book, entitled ATHLETE’S EDGE: FASTER, QUICKER, STRONGER WITH VITAMIN D (www.vitamindsportsbook.com).
Readers will get the instant impression that this fully-illustrated 318-page book will make an impact, not just on individual athletes but also on entire sports the way performance-enhancing drugs did for baseball, but this time, it’s a natural (and legal) molecule that is involved.
Posted in Dietary Supplements, Vitamins ; No Comments »
July 27, 2011: by Bill Sardi
SAN DIMAS, CA (July 26, 2011) -Saying the newly proposed safety guidelines for dietary supplements would likely eliminate most children’s vitamins from store shelves, the first official comment regarding the FDA’s New Dietary Ingredient guidelines has been submitted, and it also calls for dietary supplements to be removed from oversight by the FDA altogether. The newly proposed guidelines were published on July 1 and are subject to a 90-day comment period.
Bill Sardi, long-time dietary supplement advocate, health writer and dietary supplement formulator, speaking from his office in San Dimas, California, says dietary supplements are safer than tap water, table salt, aspirin and even food and it is unlikely the newly proposed guidelines will make them any safer. His 16-page critique of the FDA’s newly proposed safety tests, available for viewing at www.knowledgeofhealth.com ,demands that an economic impact report be commissioned before any further action is taken by FDA.
Posted in Dietary Supplements, Health Care System, Vitamins ; No Comments »
April 18, 2011: by Bill Sardi
According to a recent government report, which pharmaceutical companies will surely use to develop counter strategies, the use of dietary supplements is at an all-time high and rising. About 50% of the American public now uses dietary supplements.
One doesn’t know whether to declare this achievement a failure in the midst of widespread nutrient deficiencies, or a meaningful sign that the doctors and patients are adopting nutrient-based therapies.
That people are taking vitamin pills is one thing, that they are taking the right doses and forms of nutrients is another. Most supplement users have been herded into taking no more than 100% of the Recommended Daily Allowance, which is the level to avoid a frank nutrient deficiency for perfectly healthy adults, not the level for optimal health. The RDA does not apply to growing children, pregnant females, smokers, diabetics, the hospitalized, or people taking many drugs, which comprises a strong percentage of supplement users.
Posted in Dietary Supplements, Modern Medicine, Vitamins ; 3 Comments »
March 25, 2011: by Bill Sardi
Those are the words of John Cannell MD, founder of The Vitamin D Council. What Dr. Cannell is talking about is the anticipated FDA approval of a multitude of vitamin D-like drugs (called analogs) in the next year.
Big Pharma, moving in concert with the pro-drug agency, the Food & Drug Administration, that gives Rx pills false credibility, and the Institute of Medicine that recently cemented levels of preventable disease in the American population by raising vitamin D requirements by an insignificant amount (400 IU to 600 IU), are attempting to delay multitudes of Americans from taking vitamin D pills till they become drugs. Then American medicine will embrace the idea whole heartedly at ten times the price and with myriads of side effects from man-made vitamin D-like molecules that the human body is not designed to metabolize.
Posted in Modern Medicine, Vitamins ; No Comments »
August 9, 2010: by Bill Sardi
The dietary supplement industry is such a mixed bag these days. It has such promise, but often fails to deliver. For example, garlic pills were once the number one herbal supplement. But studies showed most garlic pills failed to deliver the active ingredient produced by fresh-crushed garlic cloves. Subsequently garlic pills fell from their top-seller spot. Turns out that stomach acid destroys the enzyme (alliinase) that produces the active ingredient allicin. Only if a garlic clove is crushed outside the acidic stomach is allicin produced. Only enteric-coated or buffered garlic tablets produce what a fresh-crushed clove of garlic delivers
This is not to say that there haven’t been a plethora of negative studies that were designed to unfairly smudge the reputation of dietary supplements. Namely, the infamous beta carotene/smokers study, released just prior to the 1994 vote in Congress on the Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act which falsely claimed beta carotene increased the risk for lung cancer. Beta carotene was just ineffective (no benefit, no harm), that’s all.
Then there were those contentious vitamin E studies which manipulated statistics in an attempt to show miniscule differences in health risks would kill millions of Americans if they took too much vitamin E. However, subsequent re-analysis and inclusion of data from additional studies reveals statistical variation between studies (a higher proportion of male subjects in these trials) which explains the slightly increased mortality rate among vitamin E supplement users. Researchers now conclude that “high dose vitamin E supplementation can not be regarded proved to increase mortality.”
Posted in Minerals, Vitamins ; No Comments »
April 28, 2010: by Bill Sardi
So much is said about antioxidants these days. The public has been educated to believe antioxidants are generally beneficial when consumed in foods and dietary supplements. Antioxidants counter the effects of what are called free radicals, unstable species of oxygen, and to a lesser degree, nitrogen. These free radicals can damage tissues in the body.
Yet, in recent years, a growing body of data points to certain health benefits from employing mega-dose antioxidants, such as vitamin C, curcumin and resveratrol, to actually generate free radicals to treat disease.
But before we get to these recent discoveries, maybe it is best to briefly background readers in the science of antioxidants.
Read the whole post »
Posted in Resveratrol, Vitamins ; 4 Comments »
April 1, 2010: by Bill Sardi
This article provides a list of proven home remedies and self-help strategies that readers can begin utilizing today to maintain health while avoiding costly medical care.
While I have written articles in the past at LR that have addressed heart disease, cancer and other maladies, I hadn’t yet addressed every-day and emergent health problems that cause Americans to run to the doctor.
Posted in Dietary Supplements, Minerals, Vitamins ; No Comments »
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