Sign up for periodic reports and bulletins
Bill Sardi
the vitamin supplement answer man
FREE access; FREE of commercials; FREE to use
Sign up for periodic reports and bulletins
FREE access; FREE of commercials; FREE to use
Posted November 22, 2012: by Bill Sardi
A revealing report published in the Wall Street Journal indicates heartburn is on the upswing in America with 44% of Americans reporting the problem at least once a month and 7% report daily symptoms.
The rising number of cases of heartburn (a 46% increase in visits to doctors’ offices for gastro-esophageal reflux disease or GERD since 2004) parallels the rise in obesity in the adult population. More than 100 million prescriptions are written for heartburn drugs annually at a cost of nearly $14 billion.
These antacids result in nutrient malabsorption (most lettered vitamins and essential minerals require stomach acid for absorption) and compromise the immune system as stomach acid is the last line of defense against germs that are consumed in foods. (Yep, we don’t eat sterile foods, there is a low bacteria and fungal count in most foods unless heated.)
Posted in Dietary Supplements, Modern Medicine ; No Comments »
Posted November 16, 2012: by Bill Sardi
A typical overweight, diabetic patient with high blood pressure and joint pain is likely to be taking an anti-diabetic drug like metformin that depletes vitamin B12; a water pill (diuretic) that depletes potassium, magnesium and vitamin B1; a liver-toxic cholesterol-lowering statin drug that depletes coenzyme Q10 and mimics the biological action of vitamin D; an ACE inhibitor that depletes zinc and thus results in copper overload; a beta blocker that depletes coenzyme Q10 and induces asthma, fatigue, impotency and impaired circulation; a steroid like prednisone that depletes vitamin C, calcium and magnesium; and a baby-sized aspirin tablet that depletes vitamin C, folic acid and iron. There is no way such a patient will ever get well taking such a regimen, which is common in the over-drugged population. These drugs cause so many side effects, such as chronic heartburn and mental depression, that even more drugs are required to deal with these side reactions. All this simply represents disease substitution rather than disease elimination. This is what the FDA drug approval process promotes. A bonanza for pharmaceutical companies but a travesty for naïve Americans, who have been misled that America has the best health care system in the world. (It’s actually a disease-care system.) – Bill Sardi
Posted in Dietary Supplements, Modern Medicine ; No Comments »
Posted November 15, 2012: by Bill Sardi
I was reading a front-page Wall Street Journal report about a medical researcher who believes his company, TauRx Pharmaceuticals Ltd, has a remedy for Alzheimer’s disease. It was a re-run of dated stories about TauRx’s 10-year venture to cure or even slow down the progression of this debilitating brain disease.
God knows how much venture capital TauRX has chewed up in the last 10 years. The company finally completed a small human study. At a 50-milligram dose the tau drug, Rember, produced only modest results in its first small human trial. A 100-mg dose had no positive effect. Full data on these first human studies were not revealed because the TauRx says “it didn’t to protect the company’s commercial interest.” That commercial interest might be that TauRx’s molecule is nothing more than methylene blue, a cheap anti-fungal agent used in fish tanks. While TauRx warns that Rember is different from plain methylene blue, it is a very close molecular cousin that appears to have been altered for the purpose of patent protection rather than improved performance.
Posted in Brain ; No Comments »
Posted : by Bill Sardi
How much evidence will it take before modern medicine backs away from beta blockers? Beta blockers slow the heart rate by about 8 beats per minute and are most often prescribed in cases of high blood pressure. About 20 brands of beta blockers vie for 200 million prescriptions written annually. But evidence that beta blockers are of little value in reducing mortality from strokes or heart attacks goes back as far as 2004. In fact, there is evidence that beta blockers actually increase the relative risk for a stroke by 26%.
Now the most conclusive evidence against the use of beta blockers, a 3.5-year study involving almost 45,000 subjects says beta blockers do not work as intended. Another recent study shows there are other drugs that work far better than beta blockers. The New Scientist has written the best slamdown of beta blockers, which can be accessed here.
Posted in Dietary Supplements, Heart, Modern Medicine ; No Comments »
Posted October 19, 2012: by Bill Sardi
Since its initial discovery in 2000 by researchers in Japan, the hormone known as fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF21) has intrigued biologists and endocrinologists. Mouse FGF21 is highly identical to human FGF21, making it useful for laboratory comparison.
It didn’t take long for investigators to realize FGF21 is a “novel therapeutic agent for human metabolism” in the regulation of sugar utilization, particularly in fat cells (adipocytes) in the liver. Therapeutic provision of FGF21 to laboratory mice reduces blood sugar levels and these animals are resistant to obesity. And FGF21 does not induce hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), cancer or weight gain at any tested dose in diabetic or healthy animals. Biologists were beginning to think of it as an ideal hormone/drug to treat diabetes.
Posted in Anti-Aging ; No Comments »
Posted September 30, 2012: by Bill Sardi
It is not surprising to learn that Big Pharma has shown no interest in what may become the world’s first proven cancer prevention pill. If big profits aren’t promised, pharmaceutical companies predictably pass on such a development.
The pill is a relatively safe FDA-approved generic drug, prescribed millions of times to help control diabetes, and it costs maybe 10-cents a day. But what is surprising is that public health authorities appear to be remiss in announcing this breakthrough. They are the agency in society commissioned to address important public health issues such as this.
Data has been accumulating for 5 years now showing metformin (Glucophage), an anti-diabetic drug, dramatically reduces the risk for cancer and prolongs life among patients who are battling cancer.
Posted in Cancer ; No Comments »
Posted September 24, 2012: by Bill Sardi
Comment: without a proven cure for Alzheimer’s disease, clinicians should move vitamin B1 (thiamin) to their “A” list of potential remedies. Coffee, tea, alcohol, sugar, all block B1 absorption. Fat-soluble B1 (benfotiamine) was developed for this very purpose. Accompanying signs of B1 deficiency would be nystagmus (lateral eye twitches), chronic diarrhea, fibromyalgia-like symptoms, heart failure, greying of hair, diabetic complications in eyes and kidneys. — Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc.
Posted in Brain, Vitamins ; No Comments »
Posted September 11, 2012: by Bill Sardi
Adult-onset diabetes is treated by a variety of drugs: an old standby, chlorpropamide (Diabinese), stimulates the pancreas to release more insulin. Newer drugs that perform the same function as Diabinese are exenatide (Byetta), glipizide (Glucotrol and Glucotrol XL), glyburide (Micronase, Glynase, and Diabeta), glimepiride (Amaryl), repaglinide (Prandin) and nateglinide (Starlix), but may not work any better than chlorpropamide. Then there are drugs that inhibit insulin resistance, such as Rosiglitazone (Avandia), pioglitazone (ACTOS), and metformin (Glucophage). Other anti-diabetic drugs like Acarbose (Precose) and meglitol (Glyset) help the body to lower blood sugar levels by blocking the breakdown of starches in the intestine. You would get the impression that diabetes is a drug deficiency rather than a diet-related/age-related disease.
Exactly what causes blood sugar levels to rise in middle-age? Researchers have known that answer to that question since 1994 – the accumulation of iron in the body. And it has been demonstrated numerous times that depletion of iron stores, as measured by the amount of an iron storage protein called ferritin, will produce long-term resolution of diabetes. Repeated blood donation can also accomplish this (a unit of blood contains about 250 milligrams of iron). Blood-letting combined with a natural iron chelator (key-lay-tor) like IP6 rice bran extract may eliminate the need to take drugs altogether. View the entire text of the recent report here.
Posted in Diabetes ; No Comments »
Posted : by Bill Sardi
Alopecia is the loss of hair from the scalp as well as disappearance of eyebrows and lashes. When researchers at the University of Miami injected measured amounts of quercetin, a natural anti-inflammatory molecule derived from onions or apple peel, striking new hair growth was observed. You will have to see the photos of the lab animals for yourself.
Posted in Dietary Supplements ; No Comments »
Posted September 8, 2012: by Bill Sardi
Recall the data claiming beta carotene should not be consumed by smokers because of a slight increased risk for lung cancer.
Here in the study below we get a clearer picture where vitamin D is protective against lung cancer but beta carotene, the precursor to vitamin A, then results in a diminishment of that effect. So it would only be high-dose beta carotene that would pose this problem. Initially, the smoker/beta carotene lung cancer problem was identified among smokers in Finland, a country at a northern latitude where vitamin D levels would be low.
Posted in Cancer, Dietary Supplements, Vitamins ; No Comments »
11
17
52
95
14
24
237
6
56
43
10
116
15
66
105