It is no wonder there are so few (if any) “natural cures” for devastating diseases. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would say it’s because the medical industry doesn’t want to find “natural cures.” If a natural cure were found for cancer, for example, oncologists and the whole traditional “cancer fighting” network would be looking for another specialty. Or another line of work.
The pharmaceutical industry doesn’t want to find a natural cure for cancer because there is no profit in a cure. Big Pharma makes its money selling products that at best only manage symptoms that are not life threatening but on going. Anyone with high blood pressure is a financial bonanza for the drug companies. Those unfortunate individuals will take profitable “management medication” until they die. Got it? Management pays. Cures do not.
However, I am not a conspiracy theorist. But I am a thinker. And I think this: There is a lot of stupidity and far too many “experts” who have been educated beyond their intelligence who are in charge of how and what research gets done, and what the public is told and led to believe as unimpeachable.
This is what I am getting at: A recent press release, “Study doubts antioxidant benefits for heart risk women” told about a study that concluded that women at high risk for heart disease are unlikely to see any benefit from taking antioxidants C,E, or beta carotene.
The study was conducted at prestigious Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. Right there you know the findings of this study are to be taken as the Word of God. And that’s exactly the effect it has when an uninformed, wary populace learns about the study conclusion.
And what is the study conclusion?
“There was no overall effect of ascorbic acid, (vitamin C) vitamin E or beta carotene on the primary combined end point or on the individual secondary outcomes of myocardial infarction, stroke, coronary revascularization or cardiovascular disease death,” wrote the researchers.
That’s a mouthful. They could just as well said that the supplements were useless, but that would not have sounded scientific enough.
Here’s what really happened: Women with a history of heart disease and a whole host of other health issues were chosen for the study. They were not “at risk” for heart disease – they had heart disease. In other words, they were very sick puppies.
Here’s why the study didn’t produce positive results: The women were randomly assigned to take 500 mg of vitamin C or a placebo every day, 600 units of vitamin E or placebo and 50 mg of beta carotene or placebo every day.
Anyone with even a smattering of knowledge about what supplements can or cannot do would know that the doses given could not produce a cure or even a major benefit for anyone with severe heart problems. The doses given in the study are doses that health-aware people take every day, knowing that prevention is the key to staying healthy.
This type of useless study is nothing new. The medical industry along with Big Pharma continue to spend time and our tax money on research that is doomed to fail from the get go. You can’t expect to cure very sick people with severe health problems with dietary doses of supplements. It ain’t gonna happen – ever. But this kind of worthless research serves a purpose – it perpetuates the fiction that supplements are useless, and worse – possibly dangerous.
I recall telling a woman that I take 2,000 units of vitamin E daily. The woman rolled her eyes and said, “That’s dangerous. My doctor would never go for that.” For sure. Most traditionally trained doctors don’t know squat about supplements, and don’t want to know. Those with enough intellectual honesty and curiosity who ask questions run the risk of the scorn of their peers, which in the medical profession is a fate worse than death.
Many people won’t take supplements unless they are recommended by their physician who may have only minimal training in nutrition. All most traditionally trained doctors know is what “research shows” – research of the type done at prestigious universities, hospitals and by the pharmaceutical industry.
Bottom line: Be a thinker. Understand that supplements in dietary doses cannot be expected to cure. But when they are taken in adequate amounts before a disease state begins, they can be life savers.
