What Doctors Don't Tell You Australia/NZ February - March 2020

Judy Dench, who played “M,” head of the British Secret Service in seven James Bond movies, broke hearts recently when she spoke openly about her failing eyesight. Dame Judy, age 84, is a victim of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which causes slow and steady deterioration of cells in the macula, the pigmented part of the eye in the center of the retina where vision is most focused. The condition creates a little cloud right in the field of vision and causes straight lines to appear wavy, making it difficult to read, write, drive or even walk. Dame Judy has accepted her condition stoically as simply a poor genetic roll of the dice, since her mother suffered from it, too. She says that she now requires scripts in 22-point type and that she finds it…

Dr. Jean Monro, medical director of the Breakspear Hospital, is an internationally recognized specialist in environmental medicine, including such conditions as chronic fatigue syndrome, Lyme disease and multiple chemical sensitivity. She is Fellow of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine and a Board Certified US examiner. Dr. Damien Downing, whose practice specializes in allergy, environment and nutrition, is current president of the British Society for Ecological Medicine and on the editorial board of Orthomolecular Medicine News Service. Chief Medical Advisor of cancer charity Yes to Life (www.yestolife.org.uk), he is also the author of numerous books, including The Vitamin Cure for Allergies. Dr. Harald Gaier, arguably the UK’s most knowledgeable practitioner of the major alternative medical disciplines, is registered in the UK as an osteopath, homeopath, acupuncturist, naturopath and medical herbalist. Former director…

Unsure about antioxidants Over the last 30 years, I have collected and read many books and articles on nutritional medicine and concluded that most authors agree on reasonably safe upper limits for maintenance and therapeutic dosages of vitamins, minerals and other supplements. However, when it comes to taking dietary antioxidants, I can’t find any references for safe intake levels and have even read that too many antioxidants can have the opposite effect, causing oxidation instead. Antioxidants including grapeseed extract, pycogenol, rutin, hesperdin, quercetin, green tea extract, ginkgo, bilberry, milk thistle, turmeric and various carotenoids (lutein, zeaxathin, lycopene, alpha and beta carotene) add to the antioxidant action of vitamins C and E, coenzyme Q10, alpha lipoic acid, selenium, zinc, copper, manganese and N-acetyl cysteine. Advice varies from taking as many of these as possible to…

New therapies for cancers not being researched The most common—and deadliest—cancers are not being researched by independent scientists, which is blocking the introduction of innovative and non-chemo therapies into mainstream treatment. Nonprofit research funding is not being allocated to the research of these cancers—and it could be because some consider the cancers “embarrassing” or they have been stigmatized. Only breast cancer, leukemia, lymphoma and children’s cancers are getting the lion's share of independent funding, say researchers at Northwestern University. The ‘forgotten’ cancers include colon, endometrial, liver and bile duct, cervical, ovarian, pancreatic and lung cancers, and they lack support because they are embarrassing or have been stigmatized. “Shame and discomfort with talking about our bowels and ‘private parts’ may be reducing funding for diseases like colon or endometrial cancers,” said Suncel Kamath, one of the…

Doctors prescribe opioids even to small children Doctors are prescribing opioids—the powerful and highly addictive painkillers—to young children. Around 60 percent of children who have their tonsils removed are being given the drugs, a new study has discovered. The children are being given an average of 48 doses of opioids after a tonsillectomy, say researchers at the University of Michigan, who reviewed case records of 15,793 children who had the operation in a private clinic. Some 60 percent of these children, who were between one and 18 years old, were given opioids. The painkillers are thought to reduce complications after surgery, but the researchers say there is no evidence the drugs are any more protective than standard NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) such as ibuprofen. Constipation was more likely to occur among children taking opioids,…

Adding fluoride to the water supply has been hailed as one of the top ten most important public health measures of the twentieth century—but has the practice, introduced in the 1940s to prevent tooth decay in children, now passed its sell-by date? Two new studies suggest it has, with one concluding there’s no such thing as a safe dose of fluoride to the growing body, and another underlining what fluoride’s opponents have claimed for years: the chemical is a neurotoxin that affects a child’s IQ and ability to learn—even when it’s the mother who drank fluoridated water while pregnant. Advocates of fluoridation have argued that the poison is in the dose. At the recommended concentration of 1 part per million (equivalent to 1 milligram per liter of water), it’s safe, they argue. This…