19th September 2018
As many of you now know, Peter Gøtzsche was recently expelled from the Cochrane Collaboration. I was going to write a blog on it, but Maryanne Demasi has already written an excellent blog which covers most of what I was going to say. I would recommend that everyone reads it.1
I would simply add that, when an organisation that I had a lot of time for, the organisation now known as Cochrane, which used to be the Cochrane Collaboration, loses its way, one wonders if the lamps truly are turning out across the world. Perhaps never to be turned on again.
President Dwight Eisenhower made this warning to the world in 1961:
On Jan. 17, 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower gave the nation a dire warning about what he described as a threat to democratic government. He called it the military-industrial complex, a formidable union of defense contractors and the armed forces.
Eisenhower, a retired five-star Army general, the man who led the allies on D-Day, made the remarks in his farewell speech from the White House.
As NPR’s Tom Bowman tells Morning Edition co-host Renee Montagne, Eisenhower used the speech to warn about “the immense military establishment” that had joined with “a large arms industry.”
Here’s an excerpt:
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.” 2
Had Eisenhower been alive today, I am certain that he would have recognised another player had joined the party. The ‘pharmaceutical/medical device industry complex.’ His warning about ‘the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist,’ is equally valid today.
In fact, it is not a ‘potential.’ It has happened.
‘The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time.’ Edward Gray.
1: https://blogs.bmj.com/bmjebmspotlight/2018/09/16/cochrane-a-sinking-ship/
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick 
Thank you. The world gets scarier.
Yes, Cochrane was always a useful starting point because the reports were not contaminated by commercial pressure. Now I will wonder if it worth the look because sorting out subtle bias can be enormous work.
They wren’t perfect but were usually among the better metastudies. At least there are still a few (Andrew PURE Mente) who have heard of Bradford Hill.
It’s noticeable when you look at “official” sources like NICE and NHS Evidence how they back the dogma from not just the drug companies but the foodlike substance manufacturing industry, and if you dig below the surface you will find the Seventh Day Adventists too.
On the other hand there’s the Wisdom Of The Crowds, patients routinely achieving what is said to be impossible, backed by small but increasing numbers of doctors and even some dieticians and now a large and increasing number of researchers. It’s like two separate and parallel conversations.
This is leading to an ever more desperate fightback from those who know which side their bread is buttered. Er, margarined. This is the latest example but won’t be the last.
We control the horizontal, we control the vertical, dah de dah dah . . .if you recognise that you are dated same as me.
Public Health England are just as bad, they promote adding toxic fluoride (there is no other type) to water supplies to supposedly prevent dental caries, no matter that being the top halogen it replaced substances such as iodine and calcium………..
Fluoride just like the most profitable drugs is basically an antidote to a poor diet – the poor diet They tell you to eat. I believe the history is that they found a market for a waste product of tin refining. See also, wheat bran, making a profit from what was previously a waste product from flour refining. It reminds me of Milo Minderbinder in Catch 22, who persuaded the Americans to bomb their own airfield on behalf of the Germans, for profit.
Sorry, are Seventh Day Adventists really associated with pharmaceuticals considering they’re scared of anything non-vegetarian?
I am not surprised
Thank you
Malcolm
I feel very strongly about this. Doubtless Gotzsche is a prickly character, but that’s what we need in life to challenge established ways of thinking. Look at Noakes, look at Australia, Sweden etc etc.
I feel very strongly about this as well. Look at what happened to Dr Gary Fettke and Dr Maryanne Demasi. Look at what happened to those ladies who had knowledge about herbs.
Trish Greenhalgh gives a typically measured and thoughtful response to this in BMJOpinion.
https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2018/09/17/trish-greenhalgh-the-cochrane-collaboration-what-crisis/
Trish says, “Board members are presumably expected not to spit in the soup (especially when using Cochrane letterhead).” I think the problem is that Peter Gøtzsche was not spitting in the soup but saying that the soup did not have the ingedients it pretended to have. If you cannot upset your sponsors there is no independence.
spitting in the soup? corporate conflicted views are whats contaminating the reviews, and the organisation
There are a growing number of people who are still currently labelled as conspiracy theorists but the next few months will confirm if we are indeed ‘nutters’ or we correctly chose the red pill.
The conspiracy centres on the idea that Trump stated that the USA and most of the world was controlled by a ‘Deep State’ which is all about money and power and keeping the population in the dark. It purports that the leaders of big global conglomerate industries (big pharma being a major player) are the true holders of the power together with their corrupted or complicit stooges in key political offices across the world. I agree that the lights are currently going out across Europe but if Trump ‘drains the swamp’ as promised then just maybe we will see them lit again soon.
Trump epitomizes the love of “money and power and keeping the population in the dark” while his open adoration for dictators and his wish for lifetime appointments for U.S. presidents (beginning with himself, no doubt) is a major alarm to anyone who cares about Democracy.
Trump epitomizes the love of “money and power and keeping the population in the dark” while his open adoration for dictators and his wish for lifetime appointments for U.S. presidents (beginning with himself, no doubt) is a major alarm to anyone who cares about Democracy. It is Robert Mueller and his team who are “draining the swamp” and hopefully, Donald Trump will be going to prison for Abuse of Power, Obstruction of Justice, Money Laundering, Tax Evasion, Bank Fraud and Indecent Assault at some point after both Federal and State charges are laid and prosecuted.
All of the issues you cite were vastly worse under the Obama/Clinton regime, especially the indecent assaults on previously stable (ish) countries like Libya and Syria. Were you complaining about them at the time? If not, then start having gratitude and express support for the improvements our president (while imperfect, as we all are) is trying to make.
OK, you didn’t mention Trump, directly, but I did say I would draw a line on discussion of the Donald. I have nothing against a good political rhubarb, nothing at all. I just don’t think this blog is the forum for an in-depth political debate. There must be other places where people can go and rip chunks off each other on this matter. Whilst I have my own views, I am not sharing them here.
Good move. I agree. Thanks.
Malcolm
Totally agree. If we let politics, religion and veganism in this blog will be destroyed. Look how your firmness has restored the calm.
Funniest thing I’ve read today, thanks! One wonders how Pelosi and Waters managed to amass milllions and stay in office for so many decades… Nice use of the Alinsky rules btw.
I agree completely about the Donald. I am over being bored with the imposition of US politics or UK Tory politics or EU politics in the MSM here in Oz..Being able to set it aside completely is so freeing.
Bill in Oz: Agreed. The purpose of the media has evolved into a shaper of public perception for the greater good of corporate interests, which are entirely profits. I pay no attention to it. I say, be skeptical of everything, except most of what mom said (but not everything!)
Hello Bill in Oz
Used to take CS along with glucosamine for arthritis without seeing any tangible benefits. Still have some of the tablets left, so what dose of CS do you take?
Enjoy the spring
Bill in Oz: Another thought/question: I know the body stores fat-soluble vitamins. Does it store amino acids? As I understand it CS is made up of amino acids and sulfate. Does the body store CS? Yesterday someone posted a fascinating 2017 article by Stephanie Seneff. I heard five lectures by her over 2011-2015, and she spoke at length about sulfate, taurine, and lots of other stuff, but she’s greatly expanded on these. Well worth a read. One of her intriguing claims is that atheromata act to deliver sulfate under conditions of deficiency, since apparently the heart needs lots of it. Also, that vitamin D itself is less important than its role in delivering sulfate to the tissues, which it does when sunlight converts cholesterol sulfate to vitamin D sulfate. Interesting stuff which I haven’t heard anyone else discuss.
Unfortunately, the swamp continually increases its pressure on Trump. They have all the money, all the propaganda outlets, and the ears of all those (a majority, it seems) who believe that government exists to give them things. He has achieved a lot for the economy – the trade deal with Mexico was brilliant, even mandating that the automobile industry in Mexico increase workers’ wages – but he has fallen down on his promise to improve border control, the main issue of the campaign.
Trump also backed allowing parents to have a greater say in how their children are vaccinated, for which he was roundly attacked by those who want everybody to follow in lock-step to the rules set down by the government/medical power establishment.
We “conspiracy theorists” have been proven right over and over again, despite being labelled “deplorable.” I hope and pray for the future.
But Trump has filled the swamp and can’t be trusted, sad to say.
Egad, step away from Fox “news”. There is no “deep state”. This is a Russian contrivance made to influence people who believe in conspiracy theories. Furthermore, in what way has Trump “drained the swamp”? The people he put in charge are the swampiest of the swamp. They’re truly the worst people. Not only that, but EVERYONE involved in the Trump campaign has met with and been influenced by Russia. Trump complains of a “witch hunt”, but there are an awful lot of “witches” who have plead guilty to federal crimes.
And I’m a registered independent. I equally like and dislike both sides.
Sorry, but no more about Donald Trump please.
I wish I could reply to some of this, but I respect that Dr K wants to keep this focused. If you look back through some my comments in previous sections, you can get my view!
BobM if you give me your email (spelled out so it doesn’t look like an email) I will give you my thoughts.
(Delete comment if appropriate)
David Bailey and BobM: Read what Sharyl Attkisson, a fine journalist (20-year CBS investigative journalist) and Rep. Devin Nunes have written about this affair. Most of what has appeared in the mainstream press about this and most everything else is not to be trusted, any more than Cochrane now is.
Over a long life I have noted that even the smallest organization has personality divisions and conflicts. A cyclone can develop and devastate but soon dissipates. For this reason I doubt there is any long term global conspiracy. So, there may be temporary, localised conspiracies, but we can expose them and break them. This is what our dear Dr Kendrick does.
Let’s not just depend upon Trump. We all need to wake up.
But I see evidence that people are waking up.
It is always darkest before dawn.
AnnaM: People are indeed waking up. Beautiful to see.
You are spot on. I am so sorry to be reading this.
Chilling.
Thank you, will try and join others through social media, to register….. outrage!
thank you Drs Kendrick & Demasi for exposing travesty
this attack on the integrity of an individual makes me angry
follow the money
The outpourings from CCG’s controlling the medical practitioners and thereby denying treatment to patients is becoming more like a fascist regime everyday. My GP has been told to report an endocrinologist who dares to prescribe against their formulary.
Oh dear, I took that for granted with PCTs but had hoped CCGs might have more medical input, not just financial.
Welcome to the Great Awakening. In the UK, we have the Cultural Marxist Common Purpose “graduates” and Useful Idiots in charge, all part of the Globalist cabal that run the world. Governments are little more than their sock puppets; they own MSM, internet networks/social media, industrial and military complexes and Big Pharma. They have infiltrated education, entertainment, local government, the police and judiciary. Soros is one of their facilitators. Political Correctness is their main tool of censorship, anyone opposing them is called a racist, bigot or radical/extreme right wing.
Killary losing the US election has halted their New World Order plan, that is why they are at war with Trump. Here, we have the Brexit farce – leaving the EU is not allowed. Trump is doing what JFK tried to do, he seems to be succeeding. For all our sakes, let’s pray he does. So far, the has freed North Korea from their control, Iran is next. Hopefully, the UN and other corrupt organisations will also fall. The extent and depth of corruption that will be exposed will be shocking, I can’t wait!
Time to get Red Pilled, some good info coming out here:
https://qmap.pub/
https://twitter.com/hashtag/qanon
https://www.knowledgeoftoday.org/2011/12/new-world-order-exposed-john-f-kennedy.html
Dr. Kendrick, can you please block these political comments. They barely come under the heading of heart health and I don’t come to this site to read about Trump.
They shalt now be blocked, by order of the management. Although I reserve the right not to read all comments properly and let a few through by mistake. Equally, not to notice a comment, and fail to approve it by mistake. I am not a conglomerate.
On the other hand, this is actually a political post, about a political situation, that of political and financial corruption.
AnnaM: I think what he is referring to are the partisan political posts, which read like mainstream media attacks on Trump. Truly everything is political, but partisan politics has no place in polite company. Waste of time.
P.S.
If Eisenhower was alive today, he would be part of the Q team.
WWG1WGA.
Unfortunately Eisenhower has several irremovable blemishes on his resume. His role in the Bonus Army massacre, and in the massacre of German Army personnel, and Germans in general, after WWII leave much to be desired. Eisenhower was a creature of the establishment who seems to have found religion late in life, too late, in my opinion.
This is truely awful. It depletes Cochrane from its meaning. I have been speaking with several opinion leaders, and they are are all VERY worried. It is much easier to destroy all the accumulated reliability than to built new trust. Maybe new lighthouses are needed…
Don’t know the history of the Cochrane institute, have not researched. Fantastic article from Maryanne Demasi. Money is needed to run an organisation, political parties have the same problem, bias and conflicts of interest. Even our universities are businesses now. So how to we fund and manage truly independent science, that we all have access to.
There are brave people out there, including you Dr Kendrick, annoying and disturbing too satisfied and comfortable folk who do not wish to be disturbed.
Even our universities are businesses now.
As far as I know, we no longer have any institutions or public service providers which do not have corporate status: the courts, police, colleges etc. All profit and performance driven, not public servants as in the days of old. Most run by Common Purpose.
Yes, indeed a scandal! I am a retired general practitioner, and have read 2 of Gøtzsches books. I think his views are quite inconvenient for the Norwegian Director of Health and his team, that believe strongly in the LDL theory, and use their power to marginalize all other views. Knut Flatland, MD, Oslo
Den ons. 19. sep. 2018, 10:08 skrev Dr. Malcolm Kendrick :
> Dr. Malcolm Kendrick posted: “As many of you now know, Peter Gøtzsche was > recently expelled from the Cochrane Collaboration. I was going to write a > blog on it, but Maryanne Demasi has already written an excellent blog which > covers most of what I was going to say. I would recommend tha” >
“Insiders say a ‘possible concern’ might be that Cochrane fears that Gøtzsche’s criticism of the HPV vaccines review would negatively impact its sponsorship from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.”
So apparently ‘medical science’ supports what an IT mogul believes is beneficial.
“Medical science” needs its grant money, the same as everybody else. Personally, the mere fact that the Gates Foundation is supporting Cochrane lowers their prestige in my estimation. I always believed that the collaboration was created and run by people solely interested in its scientific work, I did not realize it was duty-bound to make sure its financial backers were in tune to its laudable work.
Corporate imperialism much?
I was shocked to find that the Cambridge University Computer Lab was not named after its founder, Prof Sir Maurice Wilkes. It is The William Gates Building, The Gates Foundation contributed £10m to the cost of building. Bill Gates and his father are globalist eugenicists.
With Peter Gøtzsche I think it is important to continue the fight against medical corruption rather than to cry in isolation.
BTW, today I have invited a lecturer to my home town to give a public talk about what is happening in agriculture around the world – read corruption again.
To “save the world” is a tough task indeed!
Goran, I’m really pleased to see you are continuing with your talks.
Yes – this turned out to be an animated meeting about the poisons used in agriculture.
One new thing I learnt at the meeting from one of the participants (many eyes watching!) was that since the ground water is today so contaminated by these agricultural poisons (‘Orwellian nomenclature talks instead about ‘protection of the crops’) the costs of cleaning this contaminated water before letting it out for consumption is today alarming. This also tells us something about a world when boys turns into females already in their fetus stage due to the endocrinological effects of these ubiquitous pesticides,
“Completely safe according to our authorities!” (It is their job to ‘cover up’ what is going on.)
Not only pesticides. Bisphenol A is an endocrine disrupter and most people handle it many times a week. It is used in thermal printer rolls!!! And yet the vegans witter about the use of a tiny amount of tallow used in the manufacture of bank notes. Maybe they should look at the real threats, and that includes the pesticides used in growing their plant diets. Including of course the glyphosate, and remember it is an antibiotic. There are now bacteria in Australia which are resistant to ALL antibiotics. I wonder why.
I HOPE THE BIG MONEY CANNOT CORRUPT ALL THE CRITICAL VOICES. MY BIG THANKS TO PETER GOTSHE FOR HIS BRAVERY.
I would propose the same thanks to Dr. Kendrick.
YES!! Me too.
And me
I wish it would try and corrupt me, I could do with a few £squillion. (It wouldn’t work, but it would be fun watching them try).
Maryanne Demasi wrote:
‘Gøtzsche is well-known for his blunt criticisms over the harms of breast cancer screening programs, the overuse of psychiatric drugs, and has referred to the drug industry as ‘organised crime’. But his most recent article, with co-authors Lars Jørgensen and Tom Jefferson, was a stinging critique of the quality and methodology of Cochrane’s HPV vaccines review. [1]
‘Immediate backlash ensued and the Cochrane leadership, accused Gøtzsche’s team of causing reputational damage to the organisation, fuelling anti-vaxxers and risking “the lives of millions of women world-wide by affecting vaccine uptake rates”, according to a complaint by the editor of the Cochrane group that published the HPV review’.
It looks as if organised crime has reacted by expelling the irritant gadlfy.
As for “reputational damage”, ironically the Board has inflicted that on itself by its expulsion of Dr Gøtzsche. The Cochrane Collaboration’s worldwide reputation was based entirely on its demonstrable fairness, open-mindedness, and apparent ability to resist commercial pressures. By dismissing Dr Gøtzsche it has, at a blow, thrown away all those assets. It is hard to imagine how any act more damaging to The Cochrane Collaboration’s reputation could have been devised.
As for the complaint of ‘fuelling anti-vaxxers and risking “the lives of millions of women world-wide by affecting vaccine uptake rates”’, doesn’t that precisely beg the question? Shouldn’t an organisation like The Cochrane Collaboration keep an open mind about such a controversial issue in the absence of definitive proof on one side or the other?
Hark the herald angels sing!
This is a shameful event, Stalinist in its implications. If it is true that Gotzsche’s expulsion was by a minority vote of the executive is is undemocratic as well – although I understand that several other executive members have resigned, so maybe the six who voted are the residue. It is all the more disappointing when the debate over statins appears to be swinging the way of the sceptics, illustrating the importance of null hypotheses and Black Swans. I can only hope that if Gotzsche has inside information to release then he will now be free to do so. That said, the British Medical Journal has kept a careful eye on the whole business of drug company trials, data release and so forth and is aware of this event – so I am hping for an explosion.
Is BMJ “special” among the medical journals – I wonder when they invite patient (myself for one) reviews on papers to be published.
Shocking. Depressing.
It is in the very nature of all human organisations to degenerate over time.
So this happening in the Cochrane Collaboration is not surprising.
The only solution is the withdrawal of all trust, recognition, support and funding.
And maybe it is time to set up a new group of collaborators who are not driven by political correctness.
Perhaps it could be called “The International Network of Science Skeptics (THINSS) “
Well, it would eventually evolve to THIN SS (The International Network of Subsidized Science)…
[“Cochrane has become too sensitive to criticism of the pharmaceutical industry”, says one board member. Insiders say a ‘possible concern’ might be that Cochrane fears that Gøtzsche’s criticism of the HPV vaccines review would negatively impact its sponsorship from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.]
Get on to Bill Gates to cut the funding!
Rockefeller and Carnegie were also great philanthropists.
Where would we be but for nujol…
And yes. let us embody the basis for a natural regeneration of support for healthy communication as an extension of trust rather than the appeal for it or the presumption of entitlement to it.
But in essence, yes, withdraw trust and allegiance from the false so as to give it wholly to the true.
I guess “money talks”!
I made a comment about this on yesterday’s blog – but it’s ‘still awaiting moderation’, so I must’ve gone a bit too far? Not sure, reading other comments, that I had – maybe I’ll go the way of Gøtzsche too, for giving my honest opinion….
I’ll try again, “And as for the news about Peter Gøtzsche, it’s shocking! I suppose he himself isn’t shocked after ‘putting himself out there’ with his books, recent criticisms of the Cochrane review of the HPV vaccine, scathing articles about SSRIs etc – and the fact that Cochrane has relatively recently been given a very large donation by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation who are kindly providing vaccines for children in the 3rd world – I don’t suppose his views sit nicely at all with them. Money has power. It is heartening to know that he had the support of 4 members of the board who resigned immediately as a result. However, I guess Cochrane will now recruit new board members who will toe the line…not much hope for ‘independent reviews’ in the future, in that case.
I do hope that he continues to stick his neck above the parapet because we need people like him, and yourself, to make the public aware of how they are being duped for the sake of profit and not for any benefits for their health.”
Thank you Dr Kendrick but I am not surprised.
This is what one commentator said earlier in the year on the Cochrane support for the flawed PACE trial on ME patients:
It’s sort of hard to see the Cochrane review as having independently validated the PACE findings, when on page 31 of the decision by the ICO tribunal on the releasing of the PACE data, Trudie Chalder said that “all three of the PACE principal investigators sat on the [Cochrane] review panel”. http://informationrights.decisions….iversity of London EA-2015-0269 (12-8-16).PDF
They are caught up in more scandals than those mentioned in this particular case.
Very true. I have been in correspondence with Cochrane, as have many patients and independent scientists about this since before the review was published and no action has been take to withdraw or update the review https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD003200.pub7/full. A leading investigator David Tuller has been doing a great job campaigning for Cochrane to do the right thing http://www.virology.ws/2018/09/03/trial-by-error-the-cochrane-controversy/
(Possible re-post after comment disappeared):
I thought that I would provide an unbroken link to the above tribunal judgement: http://www.informationtribunal.gov.uk/DBFiles/Decision/i1854/Queen%20Mary%20University%20of%20London%20EA-2015-0269%20(12-8-16).PDF
It’s a reflection of real problems at Cochrane that the authors of controversial primary research could be allowed to guide the development of the protocol for a Cochrane review at a time when the problems with their underlying research was generating mainstream news coverage, and leading to MPs claiming that “when the full details of the trial become known, it will be considered one of the biggest medical scandals of the 21st century.”
https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k3621
Also worrying is the way Cochrane have enabled biased review authors to provide evasive and misleading responses to concerns raised about their review of exercise therapy for CFS. It is inevitable that mistakes will be made in reviews, or that some reviewers will want to put a positive spin on research findings. Cochrane cannot be expected to catch every problem. But when other identify and report problems, Cochrane needs to be willing to take action, even if doing so causes short-term embarrassment.
Robert Courtney posted a copy of the comments he submitted about Cochrane’s CFS exercise review here: https://sites.google.com/site/mecfsnotes/submissions-to-the-cochrane-review-of-exercise-therapy-for-chronic-fatigue-syndrome
I would be curious to see if anyone felt that the responses provided by the review authors adequately addressed the concerns raised. The full Cochrane review includes their responses here: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD003200.pub7/read-comments
For quite a while I have been seriously disquieted about the creeping dabbling worldwide by the Gates Foundation. They are evil.
Another recent and frightening development is social-media censorship of dissenting political and scientific/medical facts. Youtube is now putting a political message on all videos which dissent from official vaccine policy, and Pinterest has banned such posts altogether. But the public is awakening. Pharma has over-reached. There have been mass demonstrations in Italy and Poland, specifically about forced vaccination. In the U.K. MMR uptake is now below 92%. Our cowardly, criminal governments march to the tune of the gazillionaires, like the purely evil Gates tag-team, but the people really do have more power than they do, the power of refusal. Americans were taken for a ride on the pharma express by Clinton, Dubya, and Obama. We shall see what Trump is made of. I’m not holding my breath, such is the lethal power of these vile, amoral bastards.
It must be only the recent videos which get the political notice then. Suzanne Humphries on Gardakil is still without, to name but one
AhNotepad: I suspect they’re just getting warmed up to drop the hammer. Interesting that Levi Quackenboss recently wrote that the children of Google employees have low vaccination rates, and after SB277 went into effect, pulled them out of preschools. So, while the executives of these outfits march to the beat of the globalists, at least some of the employees know better about this 18th Century quackery, which is now pharma’s profit leader-expected to reach U.S. $60 billion in sales by 2020.
I am reading Dissolving Illusions by Suzanne Humphries. Recommended.
Note that Gøtzsche was examining one particular vaccine. If you think all vaccines are evil, perhaps there is a flat earth blog out there that you could read.
Since there is no vaccine that has been qualified by a proper placebo RCT, then sorry, but flat earth it is. Nutrition is always the fix, not injections of pathogens and toxins and foreign tissues.
He had a vested interest in knowing about that particular vaccine as his daughter was offered the chance of some kind of trial…and having looked into it, he had concerns. I think every vaccine should be examined individually, they may or may not be useful – plus the unexpected and unintended consequences need to be considered too, which is something that is only becoming apparent after decades of their use. It’s certainly not an ‘all or nothing’ argument. Interestingly, Professor Chris Exley has now entered the field with his research on aluminium toxicity. He, having not been anti-vaccine in any way, in fact not having any reason to have an opinion on the subject, has now spoken out against aluminium adjuvants, which in the case of the HPV vaccine is highly relevant as the amount of aluminium in that vaccine is higher than for other vaccines (and even more so in Gardasil 9, which wasn’t included in the Cochrane review). He feels that the adverse reactions that hundreds of girls around the world have had is related to this adjuvant, and is concerned that it’s a new formulation that Merck refuse to provide for research purposes…
He has now spoken out against these kinds of adjuvants, saying that unless a vaccine that contains them is absolutely life-saving, it’s best to avoid them. So far, his comments have produced, as he says, a deafening silence! His research reveals that Alzheimer’s Disease appears to be related to large amounts of aluminium deposited in the brain, but also that the brains of those diagnosed with autism have even more enormous levels of aluminium in them – and he maintains that it got there through being transported by macrophages ‘loaded’ with aluminium as a result of the inflammatory response to a vaccine (and one that does not necessarily contain aluminium itself.)
anglosvizzera: Yes, the Al Professor Exley and his team found in Alzheimer brains was located in general cellular debris, but in the autism brains within macrophages. Since the adjuvants are in the form of nano particles, the macrophages gobble them up at the injection site and in some people, carry them, Trojan-horse fashion, into the brain, where the Al ions are highly reactive.
Mark, this video presentation by Gøtzsche, explains his concerns about the HPV vaccine:
…and here’s an excerpt of the excellent documentary, “The Age of Aluminium”, where Chris Exley talks about aluminium adjuvants that, incredibly, have never been tested for safety…
Excerpt – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il6wH81qHAo
…and for those that are interested in the whole subject of aluminium toxicity, here’s a link to the whole documentary (in German with English subtitles) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F0u54gs0iU&t=574s
Mark Sanders: I would be happy to supply you with a list of the wealth of evidence, historical and scientific, condemning the entire vaccine paradigm. Until you dig into it, you don’t know, as I didn’t. The CDC clearly knows that vaccines cause autism; they convincingly validated the Wakefield hypothesis with DeStefano study, whose data was manipulated over a two-year period to show no signal. What they discovered is that timing is critical. Those given the MMR after 36 months showed no increased risk; of those given it before 36 months, for African American boys, the OR was 3.6. This is convincing, and it shows causation. This is what the film Vaxxed is about. I urge you to watch it. There is a good reason the pharma thugs pressured Robert Di Niro to pull it from Tribeca. This move backfired, and the film has been shown all over the U.S., and in Australia and many European countries. All vaccines are a soup of known and unknown ingredients injected into muscle of tiny infants, and now pregnant mothers. About as far from pure as is possible. There is no post-marketing surveillance, as there is with drugs. It is a horror show. This is without question, in my opinion, why Dr. Gøtzsche was sacked. Vaccines are lucrative; they are the future of pharma.
It’s fine to critically examine how a particular vaccine is made and delivered. But my point is that people forget that vaccines have historically been one of the greatest tools for health and safety in our civilization. It used to be common for mothers to lose half or more of their children to smallpox and other diseases before they were 10 years old. To think that good nutrition is going to save your unvaccinated child if he is exposed to deadly diseases is just irresponsible fantasy.
Mark Sanders, if you read through “Dissolving Illusions” you will see from information gathered from the official government figures of the time, the the greatest effect on mortality was from the likes of Joseph Bazalgette, who built swers to reduce the contamination of the drinking water. Vaccines, apart from Jenner-the-Fraud’s smallpox scam, were available only very late on in the cleanup sequence, and have had very little effect on improving mortality, in fact lately it is causing the opposite effect.
Mark Sanders: Like so much we have been told about history, the actual history of smallpox and the vaccine is very different than the fable we’ve been taught. Read “Dissolving Illusions.” The actual history, from primary sources. The vaccine was so terrible, the British people rose up and got Parliament to overturn the mandate. Polio is another good example of propaganda intended to frighten the populace. A virus, whether poliovirus, or another, is found in some, but not all cases of paralysis. It requires a cofactor. The early epidemics (1890’s-WWII) were associated with arsenical herbicides. Post-WWII, it was DDT, widely used against mosquitos in parks and homes, at beaches and wetlands, and on crops. The late Dan Olmsted wrote two well-researched pieces (available on the Age of Autism website) about polio. Poliovirus is ubiquitous in the human gut. In truth, vaccines had very little to do with the reduction in mortality from infectious diseases. Mortality from all of them (in the developed world) had reduced 90-98% before any vaccines for them were in widespread use. Vaccines are, and always have been, about money. Health insurance companies in the U.S. pay pediatricians a $400 bonus for every fully-vaccinated two-year-old child in their practice. Meanwhile, the autism rate is now 1 in 36, and more than half of American children have a chronic health condition. This is not normal; it is not a healthy population; it is frightening.
Anglosvizzera, thank you very much for the links. After watching the first Exley video I went on to watch another one where he mentioned doing a really interesting study looking at how aluminium could be caused to be excreted in urine by drinking silica-rich mineral water. Apparently Volvic fitted the bill for the water, but Danone had refused to be associated with the project – but why? They aren’t usually averse to publicity. The only obvious reason I can see is that Danone has links with the Gates Foundation. Until this week I wouldn’t have thought to look for that.
Aileen, we’ve been drinking Volvic water regularly for months now – hopefully it’ll help us avoid the dreaded dementia!
anglosvizzera: I have been drinking Fiji water (93 mg/L silica) for a few months. I definitely feel better and sleep better.
Anglosvizzera and Gary Ogden, Volvic is now making an appearance on my shopping list! Contemplating the Fiji water – I think it’s very high indeed in silica but the writing on the bottle is so small I couldn’t be sure.
One thing is troubling me. Apparently silica is also important for bone health and collagen formation. Chris Exley’s work suggests that ingested silica binds to the aluminium stored in the body and then both are excreted in the urine. So – does this mean that the body needs to have a low burden of aluminium before ingested silica is available to benefit bones and collagen/connective tissue? I’m sure I’m massively oversimplifying here – but in that case there could be profound implications for CVD.
Aileen, you could try asking Professor Exley himself, he may know the answer. He’s very approachable and his email address is on the Keele University website – he usually answers pretty quickly! There is also a Facebook page dedicated to “Silica Water Aluminium Detox” which is a closed group but I’ve joined and Chris Exley is a member (although he doesn’t comment on there). There are a lot of heartwarming stories about people who have been using his protocol for vaccine-damaged children and people with Alzheimer’s Disease. As more people join the group, there may be people with medical or nutritional knowledge to be able to answer your query.
anglosvizzera: I did the protocol about four months ago, and I am certain that removing the Al is responsible for my improved health, mental health, and sleep. Subtle but real.
Gary, great news about the aluminium detox. We continue to drink Volvic water every day, just in case! My husband’s late mother developed such severe dementia, likely from many causes but almost certainly exacerbated by statins, but she was on a cocktail of drugs for the side effects of others including aluminium hydroxide and omeprazole for her indigestion. I’ve since learned that not only is the former another source of aluminium for her, but also both of those medications are responsible for vitamin B12 deficiency, which was shown to be one of her problems later on, along with vitamin D deficiency. We didn’t know about the recent aluminium and Alzheimer’s Disease link (it had been proposed and ‘debunked’ years ago) and the potential means of detoxification back then, unfortunately.
anglosvizzera: Yes, I continue to drink Fiji water, about 1L per day. I think it’s a good idea (for everybody). Costs U.S. $1.66/L.
The safety and efficacy of vaccines can never be questioned. In doing so, Peter Gotzsche touched the third rail and they axed him for it.
This is a depressing development. The Cochrane Collaboration used to be a beacon of sanity. Now, it appears, they have sold out.
“I would simply add that, when an organisation that I had a lot of time for, the organisation now known as Cochrane, which used to be the Cochrane Collaboration, loses its way, one wonders if the lamps truly are turning out across the world. Perhaps never to be turned on again.”
I may be wrong – because I don’t go and read the output of the Cochrane Collaboration directly, but my impression is that it went off the boil some time ago. I mean why didn’t they speak up about statins, salt, diabetes diet, etc. They don’t seem to have been part of the intelligent fight back against insane medicine for some time.
It seems to be a continual battle, I presume the idea of “Evidence Based Medicine” was originally conceived as a way to push for common sense, but the Big Pharma nobbled it!
Am I wrong?
I believe they indirectly did since AFAIK the data for number-needed-to-treat and risk/reward on THENNT.com comes from them..
My understanding of Evidence Based Medicine is a 1984-style code word for when the powerful cook that statistics to their liking, and then have the clout to force everyone to conform.
I was there, at the start. For example, I worked with NICE to set up their first website. It was going to be a good thing, to try and ensure that high quality evidence was used – not simply the eminence of the doctor – and their views on what should be done. It got taken over by the pharmaceutical industry. Surprise, surprise. Dave Sackett was a good man, with good ideas.
Dreadful. Some board members got an outcome they didn’t like but chose to find a way to expel Peter Gotzsche anyway. Which, ironically, seems to lend support to his concerns over the direction the Cochrane Collaboration have been taking in recent years. Here is a link to Peter Gotzsche’s response to the expulsion – https://nordic.cochrane.org/sites/nordic.cochrane.org/files/public/uploads/moral_crisis_in_cochrane.pdf
Malcolm – thank you for your work, have been having a long overdue catch up on your blogs.
Thanks for that link. It is well worth a read. He notes the organization has become more top-down and authoritarian, losing its original collaborative nature, and is in danger of losing its integrity.
The collaborative aspect, social commitment, our independence from commercial interests and our mutual generosity are what people in Cochrane have always appreciated the most and have been our most cherished added-value.
Often it is forgotten that we are a scientific, grass-roots organisation whose survival depends entirely on unpaid contributions from tens of thousands of volunteers and substantial governmental support throughout the world. We make a substantial contribution to people’s understanding and interpretation of scientific evidence on the benefits and harms of medical interventions, devices and procedures that impact the population.
Our work informs government legislation globally, it influences medical guidelines and drug approval agencies. Therefore, the integrity of the Cochrane Collaboration is paramount. We pride ourselves on being global providers of “trusted evidence” on a foundation of values such as openness, transparency and collaboration.
Yes Martin
when an organisation such a Cochrane Is no longer what it was set up to be, it’s time to kill it…And Start again
Thank you for the link. Its contents remind me of the way that UK charities have so often been taken over by managerialists who seem to undermine the charities’ purposes. There is a similar flavour of executive-itis in the UK universities.
Perhaps it’s time for another Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Whenever the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gets involved, it’s all over but the shouting. You can safely bet the farm that the truth has died.
Cochrane Collaboration?
R.I.P.
I’m sure Gotzsche was a ‘turbulent priest’ and difficult for some to deal with. But doesn’t science need those voices? We know that orthodoxies are often later over turned and it’s people like Gotzsche who begin the process.
It’s no coincidence that he was brought down when he stuck his head into the vaccine debate.
Stephen T: How right you are. It is forbidden to question the religion of vaccines.
While I agree with you, it’s important to remember the age-old fear of infectious disease and the relief when vaccines became available.
My mother was severely ill with whooping cough as a child in the 1920 s. My husband’s cousin died of polio aged 5 in the 1940 s. Two of my classmates caught polio in one of the last epidemics in the UK in Walton, Surrey in 1957. One was left with tiny hands and feet, the other with a severely shortened leg, though she played a mean game of hockey. I myself caught measles age 13 in the 1960 s, I became delirious and have no memory of about three weeks, was deaf for several months, and my ability to do maths quickly in my head never recovered . So I made sure both our sons had all their injections as children: they had no ill effects from the vaccines but my eldest still got measles, mildly, aged 5. I expect most of my generation did the same with their children.
In mid-summer 1965 my father suffered a drug reaction which brought him out in a pustular rash. The doctor did not know what it was so my father was rushed to the local isolation hospital with suspected smallpox. The staff at the hospital knew it was not that, though my father was quite ill for several days. Meanwhile the rest of the family was stuck at home in quarantine. Worse, we were forbidden to phone friends etc. for fear of starting a scare. Some bureaucratic obstacles prevented the quarantine order being lifted for 10 days, even though my father was now fit to come home. In the end my mother had to threaten to call the press before they would let us leave the house.
shirley3349, many of your generation, (I suspect most) did get their children vaccinated, but since there has never been a. study scientific comparing vaccinated with unvaccinated children it would not be possible to determine any benefit from vaccines. However one thing that vaccines do, and is the claim of the manufacturers, is to hyperstimulate the immune system, creating an inflammatory response.
Excellent point. Excess prescribing of pharmaceuticals (such as statins) is bad enough, but excessive vaccination of infants and children leads to an even lower rung of hell – accompanied of course by even more obscene profits for the pharmaceutical industry. Hopefully, there will remain those individuals like Gotzsche who will continue to be brave enough to speak out against bad medicine and in defense of good scientific research.
I read Peter Gøtzsche’s report The Cochrane HPV vaccine review was incomplete and ignored important evidence of bias. The Cochrane Collaboration certainly seems to have done an incomplete and sloppy analysis of the HPV vaccine data. The CC should have argued the merits of their review, not shot the messenger.
I don’t know it is an outrage so much as an ‘outing’ or exposure of a corruption and lack of substance revealed by the manner in which Dr Peter Gøtzsche was pushed out.
That this is specifically associated with the Gates fronted Global Vaccination Agenda is also significant. If there was science to refute or criminal negligence or fraud to answer for then none of it was brought forward. Don’t let truth get in the way of a good reputation!
Noting ‘Stephen T’ above this post, there is no vaccine debate, only a debacle. Power in the world is revealed by what cannot be open to free and open discussion. Witnessing for freedom of speech by living it is a true gift of inspiration. I hope that Peter Gøtzsche does not allow himself to become polarised in self vindications of grievance or vendetta, but deepened in his willingness to serve a true witness amidst lies backed by huge budgets and negative incentives – such as being cast out.
Test
I’ve always wondered if the rich and powerful follow ‘mainstream’ medical advice unquestioningly or if one can bypass mass medication if you have the wealth to buy bespoke health care.
What is frightening, apart from the suppression of critical thought, is the expectation of our unquestioning acceptance of the right of powerful lobbies, often based on greedy profit, to tell us we must live our lives as they direct.
To me this development is like an inversion: they set out to do one thing and are now doing its opposite. I expected so much more from these people, so much. Just the idea that they are associated, however remotely, with “unfathomable bias” is, simply, shocking. I don’t even want to know this is happening. Thank you.
Off topic–so I guess it is allowed :)) BPA— “the Food and Drug Administration-approved “safe” daily exposure amount of BPA may be enough to have implications for the development of Type 2 diabetes and other metabolic diseases.”
______________________________________________________________________
In a first study of its kind study, researchers have found that a common chemical consumers are exposed to several times a day may be altering insulin release. Results of the study, led by scientists at the University of Missouri, indicate that the Food and Drug Administration-approved “safe” daily exposure amount of BPA may be enough to have implications for the development of Type 2 diabetes and other metabolic diseases.
“Bisphenol A is an endocrine disrupting chemical that is used to manufacture thermal paper receipts, plastics and a wide range of consumer products,” said Frederick vom Saal, an endocrinologist and Curators’ Professor in the Division of Biological Sciences in the MU College of Arts and Science, and a co-author on the study. “Experiments with human and mouse pancreatic cells have revealed that low-dose exposure to BPA, in the presence of glucose, triggers an insulin response. We wanted to test the potential effects of BPA in humans to see whether it held true.”
In both of the studies, subjects were orally administered a safe dose of BPA, which led to the same amount of BPA in their blood that customers might encounter by handling a cash register receipt; or, the same subjects received a placebo exposure for comparison. Insulin responses were then assessed through an oral glucose tolerance test in the first experiment or a hyperglycemic clamp in the second experiment. Results of both studies showed that BPA altered insulin release relative to the placebo exposure in the subjects. In animal studies repeated BPA exposure resulted in insulin resistance.
“This exploratory study needs to be replicated because it suggests that BPA exposure at a dose considered safe by U.S. regulators could alter glucose-stimulated insulin responses in humans,” vom Saal said. “Our study is an initial step toward investigating whether exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals, such as BPA, contributes to insulin resistance and eventually Type 2 diabetes.”
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Missouri-Columbia. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
Richard W Stahlhut, John Peterson Myers, Julia A Taylor, Angel Nadal, Jonathan A Dyer, Frederick S vom Saal. Experimental BPA Exposure and Glucose-Stimulated Insulin Response in Adult Men and Women. Journal
If enough scientists got upset enough about this scandal, a New Cochrane Collaboration could arise.
Harry,
Only those with moral & financial independence from Drug Companies need apply !
Cochrane PLC/Cochrane Inc. AKA Microsoft Medical
Very good chris c, AKA Bill and Melinda’s Bulls**t
I had an even worse thought.
Welcome to Windows 2020, Cochrane Edition. Whenever you attempt to access a blog such as this, or look stuff up on Pubmed or Sci-Hub you are redirected to WebMD. Meanwhile a friendly smiling hypodermic appears on screen
“It looks like you are unwell. What would you like to inject today?”
Then an advert for PCSK9 inhibitors scrolls across the foot of your screen . . . well it could happen.
Oh and if you attempt to access Richard Feynman’s quote
“I would rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that cannot be questioned”
your monitor implodes.
Seriously, good point about a possible Cochrane 2.0. There are enough competent researchers to make it feasible. Who would finance it would be the problem
Richard Feynman’s quote is one to commit to memory and used to batter the “barrister brains” who try to derail discussions.
I hope you are wrong, but I fear you are right !
Re: ‘the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist’
Alas, the misplaced power, wealth and bullying applies to the church too. It is yet another player.
To quote from http://www.humanism.org.uk
‘The UK Parliament automatically awards 26 seats in the House of Lords to bishops of the Church of England. These bishops are able to (and do) vote on legislation, make interventions, and lead prayers at the start of each day’s business. This is not just a harmless legacy of a medieval constitution but a present example of discrimination, religious privilege and undemocratic politics. It survives in spite of the Church of England commanding little public support.’
The relationship between the church and government is unhealthy. Around a third of all state-funded schools in England and Wales are ‘faith’ schools in England and Wales. MPs pretend to be religious so not to upset anyone. Creationism is taught in schools as scientific theory while non-religious views still need to be voiced and respected in them. Assisted dying is deemed a no-go area and only the religious bodies can attend remembrance ceremonies at the Cenotaph in Westminster; humanism is excluded.
As a British Humanist funeral officiant I was asked to be a hospital visitor to people who are not religious but want someone to talk to. A local priest (who I had never met) rang me up to tell me that although he was obliged to have me on his list, I could be certain that he would personally see to it that I was never requested.
You say that creationism is taught as a scientific theory in the schools? I find that a bit hard to believe.
Those of you who are very disappointed and disgusted by this sacking want to do something, may I suggest that like me you write to the head of Cochrane and his fellow board members – esp. the head of governance – and complain?
The apparent “corruption” of the purpose of the Cochrane, loss of objectivity, questioning, even questionable conflicts of interest amongst some of the board (I do not believe it is enough to declare a CoI – I think one should withdraw from any relevant review/discussion entirely!)
Names, titles/roles and email addresses can be found here – https://community.cochrane.org/organizational-info/people/cochrane-organizational-structure
All very worrying
https://ebm.bmj.com/content/22/4/143.full
did this make lifelong enemies?
or this
https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/05/usage-depression-pills-almost-halved-among-children-denmark/
Cochrane has gone beyond a ship taking on water, more like a sunken wreck.
Sad and disappointing that Criminal Pharma has won this round.
how is Cochrane the brand going to get the better of these arguments,… or silence them,..?
a serious case of shamefacedness,… cochrane credibility is seriously damaged if the good doctor is not head of the ship
https://ebm.bmj.com/content/early/2018/07/27/bmjebm-2018-111012.responses#the-cochrane-hpv-vaccine-review-was-incomplete-and-ignored-important-evidence-of-bias-response-to-the-cochrane-editors
Psychiatry is of special concern of Peter Gøtzsche and there was a reference to an interesting site “Mad in America”.
However a book with this titel is also written by a journalist of science, Robert Whitaker and a great book which scrutinizes the treatment of psychotic patients since early history and the reading of which i certainly scary. I surely recommend the reading of the book
He also wrote “Anatomy of an Epidemic”, a scary read.
Sasha, yes that is a scary read – also another member of the Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry (of which Gøtzsche and Whitaker are members) is Dr James Davies (not a medical doctor, but medical anthropologist) who wrote “Cracked: Why Psychiatry is doing more Harm than Good” – excellent (and scary) read. A family member was recently in the clutches of CAMHS and nearly died (many times) as a result of their treatment – I recommend everyone reading it to discover what’s going on in the background….
I agree. I think that psychiatry that primarily medicates without talk therapy and cognitive behavioral modifications does mostly harm and not much good.
Sasha,
I surely read that book too – very revealing about the Big Pharma corruption of psychiatry.
I got interested in this part of “medicine” since a person close to me turned psychotic when suddenly interrupting his psychiatric medication, something that Peter Gøtzsche also warns against and the logic is well disclosed in the “Anatomy of an Epidemic”. And he definitely didn’t fare well by the numerous electro chocks he was subjected to – all this is horrendous in my eyes.
Yes, I saw the same thing with a family member: years of SSRIs, then bipolar diagnosis and electroshocks, all ending very tragically. And, as you say, “Anatomy of an Epidemic” does a very good job of explaining the mechanism of how SSRIs push people into bipolar states.
As a GP in mid sixties , used to relying on Cochrane for unbiased open evaluation amid an increasingly difficult and biased platter of medical and health information , this is disturbing news .
Thanks for alerting me Malcolm .
You may think me the fuddiest of duddies, but I would automatically be suspicious when a hired hand at the Cochrane Collaboration wants to be styled CEO.
Anyway, to more concrete matters – who the devil can think that a five minute, heavily badgered inquisition is a sensible way to pursue your personnel policies?
Complexes — such as the military-industrial complex Eisenhower cautioned against and the pharmaceutical/medical device/medical science and practice complex you mention — are on the rise. They are a product of technological advances in society bound up with influ7nces firmly;y rooted in the attributes of fiat currency.
Basically, beginning with the advent of agrarianism passing through several methodological/technological revolutions along the way the genuine needs of many people can be met by the enterprising efforts of far fewer people. This excludes some people from the justifiable economy.That exclusion needed be a problem if only we could all take the benefits of advance back in time and back in kind. But unfortunately we all rely upon fiat currency (money) to mediate our dealings of time spent and effort expended. Its not obvious to anyone except one who ‘knows’ but the attributes of fiat currency are what prevent us from sharing out the workload more fairly.
People who otherwise be excluded from the genuine economy have to conjure new means to participate. The net result is an economy based upon fictions:
You must have this . . . You must heed this . . . I must prescribe this . . . You will be at risk if you do not take my prescription . . . How could you live without a ‘Wondercore Pro’ . . . however did you survive without a ‘Nutribullet’? See it now?
Christopher,
Interesting point you are making.
There are incredible amounts of money concentrated in the very few hands who rules Big Pharma and Big Agro and where everyday man is the victim in their hands and where there is no “moral” except the business moral which is in fact nothing but what they can “get away with” without being caught. Typically the Cochran Collaboration and Peter Gøtzsche are two of their evident victims.
Our invited lecturer (Ann-Helen Meyer von Bremen) who gave an initiated overview of the development of the worldwide agriculture had visited many farmers and of very different kinds on all continents in order to be able to write her great book – “The Earth we Eat” – about the situation for the “Swedish Society for Nature Conservation”. (Only in Swedish but though as I understood now being translated into German.) What is striking is that the countryside basically very rapidly has turned empty on people and where the very few remaining are isolated individuals and where accordingly social relations are few today. Passing farms today you seldom see any people. There is no real “home base” on farms any more. My Swedish farmer friend is a typical close by example for me.
No wonder that psychiatric diagnoses today are rampant in our “broken down” society where our “natural” connection to the earth we live on, and on many different levels, has disappeared.
Yes – the book is available in German.
https://www.bokus.com/bok/9783865816641/foodmonopoly/
“The Earth does not belong to man; man belongs to Earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”
Chief Seattle
Sasha: Also: “We don’t inherit the Earth from our grandfathers, we borrow it from our grandchildren.” Don’t know the attribution, but is a Native American saying.
Yes, lots we can learn from traditional societies. Jared Diamond even wrote a book on this: “The World Until Yesterday”.
The World Until Yesterday paints the picture of a pretty brutal world. At least that is what I thought
Yes, they say homicidal rates as high as 15-25% in some hunter gatherers. But we lost an understanding of the web of life, something that comes naturally to traditional societies who are more integrated into their environment.
Sasha I read that statement by Chief Seattle 5 decades ago. There is so much truth in it. But he was ignored in the 1870’s when he said it. And this wisdom has been ignored even in the past 5 decades as well…Humans think they are the most important part of the web and can do whatever they like……
Yes, very true. The last 50 years even sped up the process of destroying the soil with industrial agriculture. I wonder what happens next…
To Sasha and Gary. Not wishing to turn Dr Kendricks blog into book club but have to say I agree re Native American sayings, many years ago read Bury my heart at wounded knee.
Wonderful, heartbreaking. It all kind of feeds in to the discussion.
Soul destroying news. How you continue weathering the storm Dr. K is beyond me. But, whatever you do, don’t ever give up, or in! Once again, “Thank You for what you do”.
Joyce: I would suggest that Dr. Kendrick weathers it well because he is comfortable with the clarity to see truth where it lies, and bullshit where it is deposited on the ground. Also, I suspect he doesn’t generally take human stupidity personally. And he relishes solving a puzzle (I admit I do, as well).
Malcolm what about establishing a “Kendrick Collaboration” ? Seems like this is the logical & inevitable step forward after the Cochrane hostile takeover stuff up.
Good morning Dr Kendrick,
As somebody wirh a keen interest in your analysys of CD issues and who is managibg well without statins much to the surprise of my Cardioligist todays Irish Times article appears to be “more of the same” that is missing out on the underlying conditions affecting patients. Maybe not directly related to this article, but the following appears in todays Irish Times and i am limited in my capacity to understand where he is coming from.
Extract as follows;
The benefits, (of statins) he noted, were clear: “reducing LDL cholesterol by 1 minimoles per litre reduces heart disease by 22 per cent over a five- year period – so for those with vascular disease if you reduce your LDL level from 3 to 2, it reduces your heart disease risk by a more than a fifth.”
Prof Maher added: “Like with aspirin, people without a risk of vascular disease from cholesterol do not need drug treatment. However, it is misleading to confuse people regarding this carefully considered approach to addressing cholesterol’s contribution to Ireland’s biggest cause of mortality.”
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/statins-work-where-there-is-evidence-of-disease-says-cardiologist-1.3635811?mode=amp
Jerome, just likt the rt of us, you will just have to learn to ignore the bloody experts like Professor Vincent Maher. Their income, lifestyle and pestige all depend on folks bowing their heads in agreement & ignoring the evidence.
If Professor Vincent Maher, and his ilk, ever had an original thought about CVD, it would die of loneliness.
Thanks Bill. The constant bombardment from the establishment can get on my nerves. I certainly dont need the stress potential from the cardiac careerists.
Tho on a positive note, more and more i become interested in crowd behaviour, and the causes of tribal thought paralysis.
I feel obliged to make another comment on autism and vaccines. It will probably be my last because I find it difficult being out on a limb here. On this blog we purport to be seekers of truth and true science yet still manage to display some biases. Please hear me out.
The background:
I have spent my working life looking at personality traits in young children (fascinating!) and even back in the early 70s recognised many, many cases of autism which paediatricians, in their ignorance, refused to accept,. Autism was only properly acknowledged by people who worked in the field and there was a reluctance to diagnose it because of the often awful implications. Less severe cases were not diagnosed. When the autistic continuum became accepted, people were less reluctant to talk about it and we had another umbrella term in which people could be categorised and pigeonholed.
Some very important facts about autism:
1. It develops in the very early years (generally shows before 36 months) and many parents do not recognise that their children have a propensity for it. One child is seldom like another and people tend to seek reassurance rather than trouble. (There have been plenty of stories in the past of normal children being spirited away by the fairies who leave a demon in their place.) I, and my colleagues, have seen lots of children displaying autism when their parents are unaware.
2. Children with autism have high levels of anxiety. A British working party under the chairmanship of Dr Mildred Creek in 1961 produced nine points to help in the diagnosis. One of these was ‘acute, excessive and seemingly illogical anxiety’. The children cope with this by switching off to their surroundings (which can hide the anxiety). It is responsible for rituals, obsessions, outbursts….
3. In identical twins, if one has autism, there is around a 70% chance that the other will have it. This acknowledges both genetic and environmental components. The strong genetic component suggests that both twins have the propensity for autism.
If there is enough normal behaviour, mild autistic traits tend not to be diagnosed. This will apply to a very large number of children (and adults!).
The effects of vaccines:
1. Bearing in mind the high levels of anxiety and heightened reactions of these children, what is more likely to upset them than being taken into a strange room where a strange person sticks needles into them while they are held by an anxious, uptight parent? Children without such a propensity can be strongly affected by such unsettling events (the stuff of nightmares) so it seems entirely reasonable to assume that the act of vaccination is often a trigger for autism to those with the propensity.
2. To add to this, don’t we often acquire problems such as allergies when we are hyped-up? Our systems are at full alert at such times. So if there is anything in the vaccine to hurt us, being in a hyped-up state is a bad time to receive it. In this case though, it is the actual vaccine doing the damage directly, even though the hyped-up state has encouraged the body’s adverse reaction.
So yes, I do think vaccines have a lot to answer for. But reading and listening to parents’ accounts can be, at least in part, misleading. It is far better to understand what is actually going on. The vaccine may exacerbate an already existing condition – or it just might bring autism into play for the first time.
The greater the anxiety, the greater the risk of vaccine.
I do not write this to be argumentative but to broaden the debate.
Yes, vaccinations can exacerbate already present genetic vulnerabilities but those differences do exist. Not taking them into account when vaccinating can create harm. A black child born in Chicago can have very different genetic vulnerabilities as compared to a white child.
TS: Thank you for your thoughtful comment. I advise everyone who cares about our future to read J.B. Handley’s new book, “How to End the Autism Epidemic” and watch the Highwire episode I posted above. It is not always the case, but most autism is iatrogenic.
The problem is that without placebo (and I mean actual placebo) controlled trials, it’s impossible to tell for any vaccine or sequence of vaccines what the effects are. There are very few of those for single vaccines and none for the combination of the many vaccines we’re giving our children and us.
At least when Cochrane was still operating correctly, they came out and said that their analysis of flu vaccines indicated they might have a minor benefit. (And this is one vaccine for which there are actually some placebo controlled trials – although what’s considered a placebo is often suspect.) But that’s a far cry from the “get the flu vaccine or you will DIE!” hysteria we see here in the US. Summer is not over yet, and they have the advertisements telling us to get the flu vaccine.
Without some body who is not beholden to anyone, we can’t really have a fair voice standing up for us. A case in point is the American Heart Association. They keep slamming saturated fat intake, although the vast majority of evidence (RCTs, meta-analyses, reviews, etc.) indicate saturated fat intake does not affect heart disease. They’re beholden to their supporters.
BobM: Yes. In the case of the AHA, it is Proctor and Gamble, through whose largesse a small, dedicated group of doctors looking at CVD became a shill for industry. As for “influenza” and the flu shot, this is one of the longest-running scams in medical history. I earlier posted some interesting information about this, particularly regarding the 1918-1919 flu “pandemic,” which was caused mainly by very large doses of aspirin and experimental vaccines.
Gary, If you are referring to Salicylates and Pandemic Influenza Mortality, 1918–1919 Pharmacology, Pathology, and Historic Evidence, it actually concludes: “Experimentally, salicylates increase lung fluid and protein levels and impair mucociliary clearance. In 1918, the US Surgeon General, the US Navy, and the Journal of the American Medical Association recommended use of aspirin just before the October death spike. If these recommendations were followed, and if pulmonary edema occurred in 3% of persons, a significant proportion of the deaths may be attributable to aspirin.”
That’s two ‘if’s and a ‘may’, a more modest conclusion than ’caused mainly by very large doses of aspirin’. And vaccination is not mentioned.
Martin Back: Qualifiers, such as “could have,” or “may have” are often used in medical reports, scientific papers, sports stories, etc. Hedging their bets, so to say. I would call 1-31g of aspirin an alarmingly high dose. Most of the deaths were due to bacterial pneumonia, not “influenza,” and aspirin in these high doses leads to fluid leaking into the lungs. How else to explain the high number of deaths in the 20-40 age range?
We will never know, for sure, the mortality rate in 1918 was far, far, higher than seen since. Estimates are that 3 – 5% of the entire world’s population died. 50 – 100 million. The same percentage today would cause 250 – 500 million deaths. Hard to believe the flu did this all by itself.
I’m not denying that aspirin consumption might have been a risk factor in making the pandemic more deadly than usual. But since we don’t know, of those who died, who took aspirin and who didn’t, our conclusions can only be tentative, not the confident assertion that you make.
I also wonder if exciting the immune system with a huge number of vaccinations, might produce some of the steep rise in allergies/ intolerance to food in recent years. Can anyone make a more informed comment on this possibility?
One of the puzzling features of the 1918 pandemic was the high mortality among young people. The aspirin hypothesis explains this by saying that young people were more likely to try aspirin. (No evidence given.)
Archie Cochrane investigated health systems in developing countries and noted: “…there is a marked positive association between the prevalence of doctors and mortality in the younger age groups. No explanation of this doctor anomaly has so far been found.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1060946
So maybe doctors were the problem, not aspirin. (joking!)
TS, thank you for your input. Much food for thought.
There are plenty of serious cases of autism these days, who grow up to be adults completely dependent for everything, wear nappies etc and can never be independent. There is plenty video evidence of them having behaved very normally until just after a particular vaccine.
We know that aluminium is a neurotoxin and is present in many childhood vaccines and from Professor Chris Exley’s recent research we now know that aluminium levels in the brains of autistic people are far higher even than those with Alzheimer’s Disease. Thankfully mercury is no longer present in the amounts it was, although we hear there are still ‘trace amounts’ and in combination with aluminium, the toxicity of both increases dramatically.
Yes, of course many more people are diagnosed as ‘autistic’, somewhere on the spectrum, but when a child dies from SIDS soon after a vaccine, or develops encephalitis and then obviously regresses after a vaccine, surely we have to investigate this and not tell the parents it’s just ‘coincidence’?
The increasing vaccine schedule is never tested, the aluminium adjuvants have never been tested for safety, they’ve been ‘grandfathered’ into the system, the presence of animal DNA is known and the effects of that is unknown…so many things are ‘assumed’ to be safe, so many parents are denied compensation for their child who often needs lifelong care. Who will deal with them once the parents have died? Most people who question vaccines were those who happily took their child for their routine vaccinations and learned the hard way what the consequences could be – they are trying to get their message heard, but it’s often falling on deaf ears in the medical community. We now vaccinate pregnant women with vaccines that contain aluminium – who knows what effect on the foetus that will have in the future? Many women have complained that they lost their pregnancy after vaccination. There is no follow-up on vaccinating pregnancy women other than whether the baby is born ‘normal’…beyond that, there is no surveillance.
We also know now that certain genetic defects can make a child more susceptible to vaccine damage but nobody is offering to test children before they’re vaccinated. A bit of ‘collateral damage’ here and there is fine for the manufacturers but devastating for the individual families involved!
anglosvizzera: Thanks. All true.
In the past, say before around 1700, poor people in Great Britain were not expected to raise severely physically or mentally handicapped children; they did not have the resources to do so and there was rarely any source of help outside the family.
Children who, at birth, were obviously severely physically handicapped, were normally not fed and died within a few days. The decision was the father’s, though he might defer to the mother’s wishes. He might seek the advice of the village priest or the squire, mainly to ensure he was not prosecuted, but the general feeling was that letting such children die quickly was the right thing to do. These children were not considered human or to have souls, were not baptised and were known as ‘monsters’.
Children who appeared normal at birth but did not develop normally were more of a problem. If the family were not able to cope for any reason, the father might denounce the child as a ‘changeling’ and say that his real child had been stolen by the fairies. If he received public backing for his claim, he was encouraged to leave the child in a quiet secluded place so that the fairies could take it back and possibly restore the true child. Once he was assured that the influential people in the village would go along with this, he could abandon the child to its fate. Again, this was commonly felt to be right, or the lesser evil.
These customs were a reflection of the harsh environment of the time. They are not myths but kinds of legal fiction. For it was difficult enough to raise children who were in good health. The childhood mortality figures are unknown but may have been well over 50%. For despite the high birthrate, population increase was very gradual until the industrial revolution.
Similar customs existed throughout Western Europe and possibly world wide. John Locke, in his ‘Essay concerning Human Understanding’ discusses a famous French case of a ‘monster’ whose parents decide to raise him against the advice of the village priest. The child turned out to have normal intelligence, the priest gave him an education, and he later became a priest himself.
Modern attitudes to our children are a reflection of the environment in which we find ourselves.
Shirley: Yes, going back into the past, there were likely many reasons why those children were born ‘sickly’ or had abnormal development: nutritional deficiencies were probably rife and for many, good food was often very limited in supply, many medical treatments were highly toxic or dangerous or any medical treatment at all was not available to many ordinary folk – but in our modern world, these factors are assumed not to be relevant any longer.
However, we read that our food is no longer as nutritious as it was only a few decades ago, due to modern farming methods – many minerals are depleted in our foods; food is also quite toxic – for example, other than pesticide and herbicide residues, our ‘daily bread’ suffers from most farmers spraying wheat (and other grains and veg) with glyphosate (aka Roundup) just before harvest as a way to improve the yield; GM foods are common in many areas of the world – who knows what the long-term effects of those might be?; modern meat production creates an imbalance in essential fatty acids making it pro-inflammatory – and that’s not even processed meat!; many prescribed medications can prevent absorption or contribute to deficiencies of essential vitamins and minerals (eg proton-pump inhibitors, antacids, the contraceptive pill etc) and so on.
Then there’s the ‘toxic medical interventions’ – well, we know all about those – the harm of prescribed drugs etc (to quote Dr Chris van Tulleken, “ALL medicines have adverse effects”), but to inject tiny babies with a substance that has never been tested (ie aluminium adjuvants of various kinds) as well as all the other things in those vaccines that are ‘assumed’ to be safe – is it any wonder that some babies are victims of these toxic substances?
So at both ends of the human age spectrum we have increasing evidence of brain damage – in babies or children who regress following a vaccine (usually after encephalitic symptoms) and later on with younger and younger adults developing dementia-like symptoms – both of which may well be due to medical interventions such as statins or vaccinations, to give only 2 examples.
Here, Professor Exley talks about aluminium adjuvants in vaccines – he was incredulous to find out that these are untested:
Here he talks about how to remove aluminium cheaply and easily from the body and at 3:30 into the clip he mentions that many girls who have been affected by the HPV vaccine (which has a very high dose of aluminium in it) have ‘got better’ after using his protocol:
Nowadays we see a lot of damaged children and adults who were presumably damaged from birth in the community. Some seem reasonably happy, but others are pretty obviously not happy – when they are fed food they seem to turn their heads away and moan. It seems awful, that in our PC environment, nobody even debates what we should do about this.
It’s curious that there have only been 3 responses to the news article about it in the BMJ from 4 days ago…https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k3945/rapid-responses
And zero responses from this one, outlining Gøtzsche’s reaction – https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k4008
I’m not able to read the whole articles, not being registered, but even so – it seems odd that nobody has responded, doesn’t it?
http://sci-hub.tw/10.1136/bmj.k3945
http://sci-hub.tw/10.1136/bmj.k4008
HTH! 😉
This is relevant to what happened to Dr. Gøtzsche, the filthy fingers of pharma:
The world’s leading autism expert, Dr. Andrew Zimmerman at Johns Hopkins University Kennedy Kreiger Institute explains the biological chain of causation in vaccine-induced autism in a vulnerable subset of children, those with cellular energy deficits (mitochondrial dysfunction), as many as 50% of autism cases, and urges that children be pre-screened before the first vaccination.
Gary,
Thanks,
Here I learnt a lot, especially about how aluminum injected as an adjuvant to the vaccine in nanoparticle form is captured and carried by macrophages to “boost” the immunological response in the brain and where the aluminum then also accumulates and is found in high concentrations as a typical characteristic not only of autism but also in alzheimer victims. If I now understand this correctly.
It seems like vulnerability is all about how effective our energy production in the mitochondria turns out to be. This also fits well inte the picture about how cancer can develop – in detail explained by prof. Thomas Seyfried.
Gary, sorry, I seem to have left a comment about this video a little further on where it doesn’t make any sense! What I meant to say was thank you for posting it. I was shocked by the information it contained, and also to realise that it dealt with developments that are happening right now.
Aileen: You’re very welcome. The pharmaceutical industry is the greatest evil the human species has ever faced. We will be watching the trial in Tennessee, the first the vaccine cartel has faced in the U.S. in 32 years. It is only through the courts (in the form of trial by jury, an almost insurmountable hurdle that we are nevertheless guaranteed in out Constitution) that they will be stopped in their tracks from injuring any more children and destroying any more families The only way to get them to reveal their dirty little secrets is in the process of discovery in a legal proceeding. In nearly all countries (Japan a notable exception) it is the politicians and political institutions, along with the “public health” authorities who are the enablers of fraud.
From having been fundamentally trained since childhood in the natural sciences and also spent my whole career with research in this area I strongly believed that medicine was of a similar kind but have not lost all confidence in this official “quackery” to be frank.
During 20 years now my belief has slowly eroded away. And what I see now, together with Peter Gøtzsche, is the utter corruption of criminal medicine and actually in all the different medical disciplines I have happened to scrutinize. CVD – nonsense, cancer – nonsens, mental health – nonsens, nutrition – nonsens and now even vaccination seems to be nonsens although I strongly believed in the benefits until recently. It was interesting to watch Gøtzsche’s lecture anglosvizzera llinked to where he also stated his belief in vaccination but finally relized the corruption involved even here.
It is if I have been following in the footsteps of the “biggest quack” ever: the double Nobel laureate Linus Pauling 🙂
What is left?
“First of all do not harm!”
What an ironic statement.
The correct one for present day medicine would rather be:
“Please, do harm but only for profits!”
They allowed up to half of the authors of reviews to have financial conflicts of interests in regard to what they were reviewing.
That’s all you need to know.
This has been one of the most disturbing blogs to date. CVD causes, being deliberately manipulated; the cavalier treatment of a serious scientist who profoundly disagreed with the mainstream view and the outrageous treatment of perfectly rational questioners of the massive increase in autism. Your comments Malcolm about the seriousness of the situation of current medicine is totally justified. It is both critical and frightening. Eisenhower was right and you are right, Malcolm.
Gary Ogden: Close to the top of the comment list you mentioned a newly-posted to the web paper by Stephanie Seneff, one of my great heroes. I tried to find it but could not identify it amid all of her many articles and interviews. I would greatly appreciate it if you could provide the title.
By the way, the powers-that-be must really be frightened of her considering how roundly she is criticized on the web. “Quack,” etc. And thank you very much for your interesting comments on this blog.
Old Fogey, someone may have already replied, but was this the link you were seeking? https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/modern-diseases/cholesterol-sulfate-deficiency-coronary-heart-disease/
Wow! Fascinating article; Dr Seneff makes one of the most compelling arguments for avoiding statins at all costs, whilst taking in the sun unhindered by sunscreens.
Many thanks for the link!
Old fogey: My thanks, too. A fascinating read.
Old fogey: The link was posted here, but I always have a devil of a time re-finding things. But, do this: Go the The Weston A. Price Foundation website. I’ve not been a member for a while, so I’ve forgotten how you search the site, but you can probably find it by her name. She’s one of my favorite scientists, too. Very meticulous, and very bright.
Gary, I found your link on Dr K’s previous blog not this one – it’s a nightmare trying to find things amongst all the comments though!
Many thanks for your help, and all best wishes.
I have been “lurking” on your blog for several years! I am not a “commentator”, if you will! However, I could give you stories that would stop the heart of the “unwhased masses! Of which I proudly belong!
I have been a “health” care provider in the USA for over 20 years…
My speciality was organ transplant and infectious disease…
The same issues came up irrespective of the circumstances,
What came first…elevated CRP, or something else!
Last statement, I got a poor 19 year old off of her antibiotic regime because I instructed her to say “my crp is only elevated because I am on my period”.
She was fine, BTW…
I don’t want to waste your time!
Lisa, it isn’t clear what point you are trying to make, can you explain?
For sure I have been thoroughly educated on this blog during some years now by a number of very well informed and extremely knowledgeable people commenting and especially by all the “deep” contributions from Malcolm himself. This seems to me to be a rare phenomena in the medicine blog world of today where fake information is rampant.
Since this blog is about how a very high profile researcher, Peter Gøtzsche, is today witch hunted by Big Pharma for his rather mild criticism of one vaccine he earlier believed in I have now encountered Dr. Susan Humphries with a much harsher view on the corruption of the whole vaccine world. No part of this vaccine building is now still erect in my eyes.
A great lecture indeed which eroded any remaining confidence I might have had about vaccinations.
What a stinking mess the whole medical world has now turned into in front of my eyes.
What’s left in medicine for me?
I am still a strong believer in the technical skills to repair physically injured bodies and in the power of antibiotics to kill invading pathogens (may though be history soon). E.g. I cured my pneumonia myself two years ago with this “true” medicine, I had at hand, and without which I would probably not be sitting here today due to the severity of the infection.
From what I know today about “supplements” I would though first have tried very, very high levels of vitamin C first to boost my immune system. Two days ago I actually felt again that something serious was approaching in my airways and immediately went to action along these lines. So I increased my daily intake from about 15 g to about 60 g (4×15 during 24 hours) the limit set by the necessity to visit the bathroom. I was driven by fear of a new approaching pneumonia and that I didn’t have any antibiotics at hand as the last time I was hit. Today I feel just fine in front of my fireplace with a nice shot of Ardbeg. Life shouldn’t always be a Buddist “suffering” 🙂
It was also actually about vitamin C I first encountered Susan Humphries deep knowledge a while ago and when I was duly impressed by her attitude as I have also been by Stephanie Seneff’s inquisitive research mind as mentioned above.
My present view is that researchers in the medical field of today with a truly scientific mind very rapidly acquire the “quack stamp”. Linus Pauling was one for sure. I wonder about those creatures who perform the “dirty work” for Big Pharma – what a bunch to despise!
IMO, “suffering” is a wrong word to translate the Buddhist concept of dukkha.
Göran, my own disillusion with modern medicine occurred when I was training and working as a diagnostic radiographer back in the late 70s/early 80s. I noted the arrogance of many of the consultants in the hospital when questioned about any of their actions and their drive for money and ‘fame’ even then.
One, I recall, had prescribed various diagnostic imaging tests for someone he thought was a private patient, only to cancel most of them when he realised he was an NHS patient. He also used to ‘experiment’ on people by performing invasive investigations that he’d read about in journals – he hadn’t had any tuition for them, just decided it must be easy enough to do, often injecting materials labelled ‘for animal use only’.
I used to sit in a little used x-ray room in the oncology department at lunchtime with the open window backing onto the staff tennis courts and listen to junior doctors admit to one another that they hadn’t a clue what they were doing half the time, but just had to appear ‘confident’ in front of patients. Presumably by the time they became consultants, their myopic opinions about medicine would have become even more fixed.
As time went on, I experienced my own adverse reactions to NSAIS drugs to help with a back strain I’d had – I had, as a result, developed symptoms of a duodenal ulcer (knowing them well from the “Barium meal and follow through” patients we had regularly) and on reading the leaflet from the drug packet I thought that was the likely scenario. My GP insisted it wasn’t that, but eventually agreed that the symptoms sounded similar to an ulcer.
I later had 4 children, one of whom developed very bad eczema at 8 weeks following his first set of injections, and I started to put 2 and 2 together – the only change in his short life had been that vaccine combination. The orthodox treatment was aqueous creams for washing and steroid cream for the affected areas. This did nothing to cure the problem and it needed stronger and stronger steroids to deal with it.
By chance, a few months later, our local GP practice had an enlightened doctor who instigated free referrals to various complementary health specialist, one of whom was a homeopath. We saw her, and after trying a couple of different remedies, after only a few weeks his eczema vanished! He’s now 28 and has been free of eczema ever since, only ever getting the odd itchiness at certain times – but nothing visible.
From that day I started to use homeopathic remedies with the children and rarely bothered the GP. Most adults I know who visit homeopaths do so after they’ve given up with the suppressive and ineffective treatments on offer from the medical establishment, and are pleased to find their problems highly relieved or completely cured.
I really believe that the drive in the UK to rid the NHS of homeopathy and continue the rhetoric that “it’s all placebo” and “it can’t work – there’s nothing in it”, is driven ultimately by the pharmaceutical companies and their investors and has nothing to do with ‘wasting NHS money’ at all. So sad.
anglosvizzera: Thanks for sharing your insights.
Thank you for this one. I have a friend with the same eczema symptoms.
anglosvizzera (and Gary Ogden, Ah Notepad, Aileen and others) thank you all for your comments about vaccines, aluminum toxicity, etc. I used to see a lot of mocking of “anti-vaxxers” but didn’t really get into studying the issue at the time as my kids were long grown up and I have no grandkids as yet. I was also more interested in personal nutrition and doing my own n=1 to hopefully heal myriad autoimmune issues. Now, after seeing the discussions here on Dr. Kendrick’s site, I’ll be reading “Dissolving Illusions” and watching Vaxxed, among other things…Thanks again and be well.
Gary, thank you. I haven’t really been following the vaccine issue, and it was only when I had watched almost until the end of this video that I realised (with a feeling of shock) that the developments it speaks about are something that is happening right now (one document was dated 20 September). Interesting times!
Aileen: Yes, indeed. If you get a chance read Tom Jefferson’s new paper in BMJ concerning the GSK swine flu (2009) vaccine pandemrix, which uses squalene as adjuvant. A lawsuit in Ireland squeezed the information out of them that this vaccine had as many as ten times the rate of serious adverse events as their other flu vaccines, yet it was widely used. I can post the link, but it is available, posted today by John Stone, on the Age of Autism website. That would be easiest.
Anglosvizzera,
I found your post so interesting. We had a smallpox scare here in the UK in 1962 and as a precaution I had my daughter vaccinated. Shortly after, the site of the vaccination became inflamed and she was quickly covered with scaly lesions which drove her crazy due to the itching they caused.
My GP quickly diagnosed the problem as Psoriasis and referred her to hospital for treatment. During the initial consultation I was asked if I had any idea what could have caused the sudden onset of Psoriasis, and I mentioned the inflammation following the vaccination.
There were quite a few Junior Doctors in the room at the time and a number of them openly scoffed at my suggestion that the vaccination could actually have been responsible. However, the Consultant quickly took them to task saying “Who knows their child better than the mother” and agreed that I had, more than likely, “hit the nail on the head”. From that day I have been sceptical about so many things ‘medical’.
Until first reading Dr Kendrick’s blog I never really had the courage to refuse medication of any kind, but his blog, and comments from many of the contributors to this blog, actually gave me the determination I needed.
It all started with me researching statins when I had such frightening side-effects after taking them, and thereby hangs a tale. I now refuse Beta-blockers along with morphine patches and the ‘flu vaccination etc. etc. if I consider they have an adverse effect on me. Some people call me stupid, but I couldn’t care less.
The end of this story is the fact that I was finally advised that if you have Psoriasis in your family then you should NOT have vaccinations as these can ‘start it off’ so to speak. Unfortunately, at that time I wasn’t aware that my mother-in-law suffered from Psoriasis, and to this day I feel responsible for my daughter’s problems with Psoriasis.
Best wishes, Sylvia Brooke.
Sylvia, if you daughter still suffers from psoriasis and if she is in UK, look up Mazin Al-Khafaji. He’s internationally known for curing skin issues (including many psoriasis cases) with Chinese herbs.
Terri, this site is an eye opener, isn’t it? My daughter hasn’t had the HPV vaccine, more because of incompetence on my part than than anything else (I forgot to sign the consent form). I have been uneasy because I’ve been aware of problems around it, and have become concerned recently because she will be 18 next year, and in the UK it’s free up until 18 so we really need to decide. I was aware of problems around the vaccine but nothing I could have argued particularly convincingly. Until now.
It sure is, Aileen. I’ve been following Dr. kendrick’s work for quite a while through his CVD series, but have found that reading the comment section can open my eyes to many other areas of interest. In this case, it’s the discussions around vaccines and al toxicity that has got me looking deeper. As for your “incompetence” at having forgotten to sign the permission slip for your daughter to receive the HPV, I’d like to think that you had unconscious reservations about it from the start. Thankfully, as you say, you can now make an informed decision about it when she’s 18. All the best to you both.
Gary, sorry, my comment below related to the highwire interview with JB Handley which you posted further up the page.
Sylvia, I know of several people personally who have had their psoriasis ‘cured’ by homeopathic treatment – it’s not a condition to try and treat yourself though as there are many homeopathic remedies that help with that condition and the homeopath will take a full medical and personal history to be able to select the best match for the patient (which included any seemingly non-related symptoms that they have, as well as a host of other criteria). One young man I know had been having all kinds of treatments from the dermatology department and nothing was helping – but within a few months of homeopathic treatment is has cleared up and he remains clear several years later. It’s not just vaccines that can trigger psoriasis – I know of a boy whose condition started after a severe emotional shock when he was much younger – once that was dealt with by homeopathy, his psoriasis also disappeared. It’s a fascinating way of looking at disease – makes a lot of sense when you know more about it, even though we still don’t know the mechanism behind it – and it’s not ‘just placebo’! Sometimes it may be, but then so is orthodox medicine…
This is the thing, though, Goran, if we have almost totally lost faith in the Establishment pronouncements in medicine, why would we trust them in any other area?
Malcolm’s article is about a prominent man who lost his position because he dared question, in the mildest way, the religion of vaccination. I cannot but think of another religion we are not allowed to question, this one by law in many countries. The Holocaust. Or “Holohoax” as I increasingly see it referred to as. Why cannot it be questioned, in even the mildest way?
On 9/11 three skyscrapers in New York City were collapsed (at freefall speed, in their own footprints, with one reported on BBC News before it actually collapsed!) by, according to the Establishment, two hijacked airplanes. A fourth adjacent building was somehow demolished internally. Hundreds of witnesses reported series of explosions within the buildings immediately before their respective collapses. Why must this narrative not be questioned?
It’s worth mentioning that this same Establishment leads the hysterical (not too strong a word) opposition to the current US president.
Malcolm started out with statins and IHD. He has resisted being pulled into the vaccine debate for a long time, and for good reasons, but his hand was forced by the gutting of the Cochrane collaboration resulting from its straying into the vaccine debate. This comment stream demonstrates that many who doubt the one (statins and IHD) doubt the other (vaccine safety and efficacy). I’d suggest that, if commentators haven’t already, it’s time to broaden your horizons and question EVERY damn thing the Establishment tells us. And the more emphatic it is on any given topic, the more your skepticism is warranted.
Don’t tell people to eat less food. Brian Wansink, researcher behind 100-calorie snacks, discredited after 13 papers retracted. Known for promoting small portions, the Cornell University professor had 6 studies retracted in one day. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-september-21-2018-1.4831874/brian-wansink-researcher-behind-100-calorie-snacks-discredited-after-13-papers-retracted-1.4832860
I guess we are already an International Network of Cochrane Sceptics !
🙂
But “THINCS’ may be already taken
From the Sunday Times (23rd September 2018):
“A cardiologist and anti-sugar campaigner whose advice helped Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson lose seven stones says he is the victim of a “dirty tricks” campaign by the public health agency.
Dr Aseem Malhotra advocates a Mediterranean diet low in added sugar and refined carbohydrates. He believes saturated fat – found in cheese and full-fat milk, which scientists recently linked to better heart health – has been wrongly demonised. However, his advice contradicts that of Public Health England (PHE).
Now he says PHE, which he claims has been acting like a front for the food industry, has tried to discredit him.
In an article for the Sunday Times, Malhotra says government health officials contacted health leaders to warn them against endorsing or supporting his advice before the launch of a book he co-authored last year, The Pioppi Diet.
The regime is based on the eating habits of the Italian village of Pioppi, where many inhabitants live into their late nineties and beyond. Malhotra’s royalties go to charity.
Officials phoned the private office of Andy Burnham, the Manchester mayor and former health secretary, with a warning after he endorsed the book. Duncan Selbie, the PHE chief executive, phoned a hospital trust in Greater Manchester, Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, saying it should not endorse the diet.
Malhotra’s criticism of of PHE comes after Professor Sir Ian Gilmore , a senior government adviser on alcohol, resigned over the agency’s decision to work with a charity funded by the drinks industry.
Watson said last week that following Malhotra’s low-carbohydrate diet had helped reverse his type 2 diabetes.
He said “It seems extraordinary that the government agency responsible for helping us get healthy has tried to close down a respected cardiologist who just wants to make people well. If they disagree with him, debate with him, but don’t silence him”.
PHE said that it’s dietary advice – which Watson ignored to lose weight – is supported by the best scientific evidence.”
Dr Aseem Malhotra’s article can be read at thesundaytimes.co.uk
Martin T
Martin, fortunately his advice and that of others such as Dr David Unwin, who has also had huge success with reversing type 2 diabetes in his patients using this kind of protocol, has not been missed – the Royal College of General Practitioners is offering training to GPs in the low-carb diet for diabetes:
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/clinical/clinical-specialties/diabetes/rcgp-launches-gp-training-on-low-carb-diet-for-diabetes-patients/20037092.article
Anglosvizzera,
Thank you for your response and the link to the RCGP article.
It’s somewhat worrying that a GP needs a 30min refresher on basic human physiology to remind them how detrimental a high carbohydrate load is for a T2 diabetic – I’d have thought as diabetes is the number one cause of ill health in the UK that they would apply some professionalism and personal responsibility in keeping themselves abreast of knowledge in this area.
Also slightly worrying is the focus on ‘low GI’ in the article, when it is the overall carbohydrate load that should be taking precedence.
Still, fingers crossed that the message is gradually permeating through to the highest levels.
Martin T
I think most GPs in the UK don’t think for themselves about the causation of a particular condition, they just ‘follow the guidelines’ – ie the dietary advice that public health bodies put out there. I would have thought that ‘guidelines’ are just that – guidelines…and that they aren’t necessarily to be followed to the letter, but from what I hear, many GPs are worried about being disciplined for not following them! Crazy world.
Today I came across a weighty medical book published in 1930 in a charity shop which covered all aspects of health advice for doctors to administer. One chapter was about the treatment of obesity, and it stated that the problem was due to excess starchy carbohydrates and sugar, and the way to reverse that was to cut those out. I didn’t read about diabetes or dementia – maybe I’ll pop back and have another look tomorrow, or even fork out £3.25 and buy it!
Anglosvizzera, that’s very interesting. I was saddened earlier this afternoon, sitting in a cafe where an elderly gentleman (a local folk musician) was having hot chocolate piled high with cream and maltesers and marshmallows. It was a celebration because he had just been discharged from the diabetic foot clinic and apparently had narrowly escaped amputation. His wife was telling everyone and it was impossible not to overhear.
Aileen, that’s such a common, and sad, story. I worked for a while, once a week, in the paediatric diabetic department of a hospital a few years ago and, on hearing that the number of children being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes was increasing rapidly year on year, had many conversations with the diabetic nurses and dietitian about the likely cause. I was aware, even back then, that low-carbohydrate diets were reversing diabetes in adults but knew that the dietary advice given to the children was to eat quite a lot of carbohydrates and compensate with insulin. I recall a mother calling in as her child had been sick and said all they would eat was bread and would only drink Coke! The free booklets and pamphlets that were handed out to new patients was from DiabetesUK who we know are financially aided both by pharmaceutical companies and, at least at that time, also by Kelloggs. The dietitian, who herself was a lovely woman but certainly no advertisement for dietary advice, insisted to me that carbohydrates were absolutely necessary in quantity in children to provide adequate glucose – although I’ve since learned otherwise. I was very frustrated with the whole thing.
On top of that, in my normal daily work in the general paediatric department, I witnessed many children coming in for assessments for learning disorders, autism, ASD, ADHD etc and typed up their reports. Not once was the question of ‘when did this start’ put to the parents, and the only mention of vaccines was that they ‘were up-to-date with their vaccines’. Once I left the NHS I can no longer envisage the thought of working in mainstream medicine again.
Furthermore, there were many teenage girls who were patients there with a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome or chronic pain syndrome. I don’t suppose the idea of vaccine damage had occurred to the consultants with these girls, even though the HPV vaccine had been added to the NHS schedule by then and I’d been hearing of similar cases through my contacts with homeopathy.
I must confess that I didn’t discuss this possibility with any of the consultants – I think they thought I was barmy enough being interested in homeopathy without starting an argument about vaccination! I always declined the flu vaccine and saw many of my colleagues suffering with flu-like illnesses shortly afterwards, whereas I hadn’t had even so much as a cold for years and only ever had what may have been flu, twice in my entire life!
Back to diabetes in adults, a good friend of my husband’s was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes a few years ago. We furnished him and his wife with all the information about diet that we could find, from reliable medical sources, but his condition has deteriorated severely and he now has very poor eyesight and needs dialysis. He has retired early due to ill health. They don’t live near us, but on the occasions that we’ve met up for meals or parties, it’s obvious that any dietary suggestions we’ve made have fallen on deaf ears… nothing more we can do, unfortunately.
Anglosvizzera,
Thank you so much for your reply to my post relating to my daughter’s Psoriasis. You have certainly given my family a reason to ‘look into’ homeopathy, particularly as my youngest grandson also now suffers from the condition but, fortunately, nowhere as serious as his mum’s was for many, many years, causing untold heartache. I think it proves that the condition can certainly be inherited or triggered by stress, and also injuries which damage the skin. Sadly, people can be very unkind as they very often assume that the condition is infectious which, of course is not the case.
Sylvia, as someone who has suffered with psoriasis, I just want to wish you well in finding the right answers for your daughter. I hope the homeopathy works for her. I couldn’t go that route because my autoimmune issues got to the point where ingesting anything plant-based caused a reaction for me, but my psoriasis has cleared up with a carnivore diet extremely well, so there’s hope for all of us. Best.. 🙂
Teedee126, I think you might have got homeopathy confused with herbal medicine, as many people do.
Herbal medicines are made from parts of the plant either by steeping in alcohol to create a tincture, or drying the herb and pressing into tablets or creating capsules. In that respect, they are no better than pharmaceutical drugs because they still can cause adverse reactions and may just be suppressing symptoms. Chinese Herbal Medicine also uses some dodgy plants that may cause liver damage, so I’ve heard.
However, homeopathic remedies are made by using the original substance and made ‘safe’ by diluting it over and over (and ‘succussing’ at each stage – this is ‘shaking vigorously’) until beyond a certain dilution there is no longer any molecule of the original substance left. This is the bone of contention about its mechanism of action. Chemists say it can’t work because there’s nothing left in it, but physicists are finding that the ‘shaking’ appears to affect the dilution in some way that makes a difference. Research is ongoing and there are many exciting developments already, not that the press would have you believe it.
Also, remedies are made not only from plants, but also from the animal and mineral kingdom and are so dilute that they are unlikely to cause a reaction unless you have an intolerance to the sucrose or lactose pills that are used as a vehicle. In that case, it’s possible to use a liquid form (water and alcohol mix) instead. The only ‘reaction’ you may get from using homeopathic remedy is a temporary worsening of the symptoms before improvement begins. That’s not uncommon and is not usually a problem. With careful prescribing this can be avoided, for example, by using the remedy diluted in a glass of water – but the homeopath would explain the various options. Dr Samuel Hahnemann (founder of homeopathy) used to use ‘olfaction’ (ie just sniffing a remedy) for some extremely sensitive patients!
Homeopathy is often used to help autoimmune diseases – the late Dr Peter Fisher who was the head of the Rheumatology department and Homeopath (also the Queen’s Physician) at the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine was just one doctor who successfully treated autoimmune diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis where all other medical interventions had made things worse, as but one example.
Hope that helps to clarify things!
Yes, I realize that homeopathy is the one that dilutes the substance till there’s little of it left, but I wouldn’t want to chance even that tiny amount right now. I’m so relieved that the carnivore diet is working this well that I don’t want to risk triggering any reactions right now and I believe even the stress of having to work out all the details and the trials and errors with a Homeopath would be too much at this time. However, I appreciate your input very much–thank you!
teedee126, thanks for your reply and suggestion re. a carnivore diet – never heard of that ! When my daughter started school I actually went back to work to pay for acupuncture for her as her hair had started to recede at an alarming rate due to the scaling, her ears were almost completely blocked and her whole body covered with lesions, just devastating! I remember so well a ‘red letter day’ when the scales on her scalp, incredibly just disappeared, literally just dropped off a bit at a time, something of a miracle to me at the time. The acupuncture worked for a number of years until one day she refused to go to the clinic saying “Mum, it hurts”. That was the very first time she had ever complained. Of course, for many years she has managed her own treatment and has learned that stress is the main thing which causes a flare-up. I still offer any advice which I glean from various sources so thanks again teedee126.
P.S. I would recommend acupuncture to anyone with similar problems.
Sylvia.
I
Yes, I’ve heard good things about acupuncture for some conditions, while dietary interventions can work better for others. How wonderful that it worked so well for your daughter; it’s a shame it had to get to a point where it started to hurt too much. If you want to read some great testimonials about carnivores, you can see them at meatheals(dot)com. You could also visit the website, “Don’t Eat That” by Mikhaila Peterson, who is Jordan Peterson’s daughter. She had to adopt a carnivore diet to deal with many autoimmune issues, but her main one when she was a child was Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and then depression and skin problems. All the best.
I don’t know how many people have seen this:
“Letter to Danish Minister of Health against dismissal of Peter Gotzsche”
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/letter-to-danish-minister-of-health-against
It is outrageous news.
Thank you – I was just about to post the petition.
I have just seen that Dr Gøtzsche is raising funds for his legal costs to fight his case against being sacked by Rigshospitalet hospital, but also to go towards a new independent Institute for Scientific Freedom. This is vital now that Cochrane has been ‘bought’ and there are no longer any unbiased bodies to counter the spread of Big Pharma and its cronies and to speak up for the latest research findings.
Here’s the link, if anyone would like to donate – https://www.gofundme.com/scientific-freedom?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email&utm_content=CTA_view_campaign&utm_campaign=donation_receiptv5
Here’s a link for the forthcoming symposium on Scientific Freedom – some good names on there:
Click to access Symposium-Scientific-Freedom-9-March-2019-final-programme.pdf
anglosvizzera: Yes, impressive group of people. Wish I could attend.