22 August 2019
‘A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.’ Max Plank.
Perhaps the greatest challenge facing anyone who has a new idea is the sheer difficulty of getting anyone to change their mind. About anything. This difficulty is compounded if a committee, or any group of people, has to change their minds. Not only do they have to change their mind, they must make a public admission that they were wrong.
Many years ago, I was in contact with a geologist Thomas Gold. Yes, don’t worry, you have never heard of him. Neither had I. It was simply an honour that having read some of my ramblings he chose to reach out for a few on-line chats. Sadly, he is now dead.
He was a maverick. In the nineteen fifties he had been repeatedly thrown out of the American Geological Society for being a vigorous promoter of the tectonic plate hypothesis. Namely, that the Earth’s surface is make up of vast plates that glide about above the mantle. Not so much gliding as grinding very slowly.
Of course, this is now universally accepted as being true. Not so sixty years ago, when anyone mentioning tectonic plates was considered a dangerous fool, who understood nothing about geology, or science. Oh yes, indeed.
However, Thomas Gold did not stop with tectonic plates, he also promoted the abiotic theory of oil generation. I think he also came up with the idea of neutron stars as well. Anyway, getting back to abiotic oil generation, he did not believe that oil was created when trees – or other organic matter – died, rotted, went underground and was, gradually converted to oil.
He believed that oil was generated spontaneously within the Earth’s core. To quote:
‘Gold’s theory of oil formation, which he expounded in a book entitled The Deep Hot Biosphere, is that hydrogen and carbon, under high temperatures and pressures found in the mantle during the formation of the Earth, form hydrocarbon molecules which have gradually leaked up to the surface through cracks in rocks. The organic materials which are found in petroleum deposits are easily explained by the metabolism of bacteria which have been found in extreme environments similar to Earth’s mantle. These hyperthermophiles, or bacteria which thrive in extreme environments, have been found in hydrothermal vents, at the bottom of volcanoes, and in places where scientists formerly believed life was not possible. Gold argues that the mantle contains vast numbers of these bacteria.
The abiogenic origin of petroleum deposits would explain some phenomena that are not currently understood, such as why petroleum deposits almost always contain biologically inert helium. Based on his theory, Gold persuaded the Swedish State Power Board to drill for oil in a rock that had been fractured by an ancient meteorite. It was a good test of his theory because the rock was not sedimentary and would not contain remains of plant or marine life. The drilling was successful, although not enough oil was found to make the field commercially viable. The abiotic theory, if true, could affect estimates of how much oil remains in the Earth’s crust.’ 1
There you go. You have never heard of this before – ever. I think I can pretty much guarantee this. Neither had I. But I loved it. It was utterly and completely different to everything I had been told. Is it right, or is it wrong? No idea. I ain’t no geologist. Worth exploring as an idea though, surely.
What I do know, from speaking to Thomas is that almost all of his peers instantly rejected his ideas out of hand. Why? Because it didn’t fit with the knowledge they had been brought up with. Custom is king …
For many years it was taught that bacteria could not live in the human stomach. It was too hostile, too acidic. So, when it was proposed that a bacterium (H. Pylori), living in the stomach, could be an important cause of stomach ulcers, the idea was pretty much dismissed out of hand.
Warren and Marshall eventually proved that the scientific consensus on this matter was utter nonsense. This despite being attacked viciously from all sides. They eventually won the Nobel prize for their work where they were specifically praised for battling on in the face of implacable hostility. It is clear that had Warren not been a cussed swine, they could easily have given up, worn down by the opposition.
Had Max Plank not decided to publish some wild and whacky papers in his journal ‘Physics’, from a patent clerk, it is perfectly possible we may never have heard of a certain Albert Einstein.
When people ask me why do you think people cling onto the cholesterol hypothesis with such tenacity, is this vast conspiracy driven by the pharmaceutical industry? I expect most of them think I will say yes. I mean, obviously, there is a vast conspiracy going on to protect profits from cholesterol lowering.
However, the main reason why people cling to ideas is the natural human response – which is to reject new ideas out of hand.
“The mind likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and resists it with similar energy. It would not perhaps be too fanciful to say that a new idea is the most quickly acting antigen known to science.” Wilfred Trotter
Ooh, I do like Wilfred Trotter. Here is another one of his:
‘The truly scientific mind is altogether unafraid of the new, and while having no mercy for ideas which have served their turn or shown their uselessness, it will not grudge to any unfamiliar conception its moment of full and friendly attention, hoping to expand rather than to minimize what small core of usefulness it may happen to contain.’
What has this to do with heart disease, you could ask? The answer is: almost everything.
1: https://enviroliteracy.org/energy/fossil-fuels/abiotic-theory/
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick 
Thank you
So true!
Richard Dawkins tells an interesting story in one of his books (I think “The Greatest Show on Earth”, but memory fades). At a conference or a lecture a theory is shown to be incorrect by the speaker and evidence showing a new explanation is presented. At the end of the talk, the originator of the original theory walks to the front, shakes the newbie by the hand and thanks him for his excellent work!
Yes, it can happen. The fact that Dawkins used it as a story makes it clear that it doesn’t happen very often.
Ah! So glad you are past your writer’s block!
Though Dawkins is also a publicity-loving prima donna. His treatment of Rupert Sheldrake, (who is extremely flaky, but is a very bright person with some interesting ideas) was, and still is, shameful.
Sheldrake is not flaky, you have just proven the point with your silly comment.
Sheldrake is very far from flaky. He has certainly explored some ideas that are rather far from the mainstream, but he has done say using carefully designed experiments.
I’d recommend anyone to read his book, “The Science Delusion”.
Malcolm
As usual thought provoking stuff.
I once worked for a chemical company, and I was sent to evaluate from a finance point of view a novel way of making an everyday object, less process energy etc.
When I came back, we had a meeting to discuss it.
First question from the head of research. « we have checked him out and he has no PhD. »
NIH has a long pedigree.
Of course the corollary of believing everything not mainstream can also lead to error.
As I always like to point out, Alan Turing had no degree in computer science; Charles Darwin had no degree in biology; Isaac Newton had no qualification whatsoever in physics; and I bet Socrates, Plato and Aristotle lacked degrees in philosophy (or even Greek).
Mr Chris,
Yes. That corollary is as scary to me as the blinded establishment.
(um… how many of us here are Flat-Earthers?? 🙂 )
But what other shape could it be?
JDPatten: Not me! I’m certain Earth is a dodecahedron, thus months in a year, inches in a foot, eggs in a carton, days of Christmas, etc.
Your spot on Malcolm. Human beings hate to admit they were wrong(me included, but don’t tell anybody!) We can all remember looking down our noses in scorn at people who “still use butter” when marg is better for you etc. etc! Seriously, it is so difficult to do what’s right, when doing wrong is encouraged so “professionally!” Running the Daily gauntlet of healthy living advice has almost become a career in research for us! All this hard work is killing me. lol.
As a teenager I can remember my English mum buying ‘marg’ simply because it was cheap. Butter was expensive. !
When yellow margarine first became available the South African government banned it. This was to favour the dairy farmers, who were strong government supporters. Later they relaxed the ban because of consumer pressure for cheaper substitutes.
I must say I fell for the “marg is healthy” scam for some years. These days I won’t even allow it in the house, although I don’t like the hit to my very limited finances. It’s worth paying a bit more for health.
Martin,
After my MI and my successful recovery people asked me for “advice” and the one I gave was “Never eat margarine!”
My father used to like Crelos margarine from Sainsburys but at least he alternated with butter. Yes it was cheap and still is. Little known fact – originally margarine was made from milk and beef fat, the stuff made from industrially produced Omega 6 seed oils came later. I can also remember Gran introducing mother to Trex which was the UK equivalent of Crisco and full of trans fats.
My favourite butters are President from France and Kerrygold from Ireland. Anchor used to be from New Zealand and is now from Somerset. It’s been a long time since I last saw butter at a discount, I think the tide is turning against margarine despite all the marketing.
The Australian National Heart Foundation (I moved from UK to Australia 45 years ago) have this week changed their policy on full fat products. ‘Apparently’ full fat milk, cheese & yoghourt is not ‘bad’ for us after all!! They still warn against butter and cream though. I grew up in Macclesfield/Rainow (Hi Malcolm) on butter – the secret is not to be greedy with these products, or anything else. The saying ‘everything in moderation’ is something we should all live by daily. I had a coronary CT scan recently (zero!) after I abandoned statins and produced a cholesterol score of a high 7 (my husband read Malcolm’s book and had already gone off statins). I also regularly do a 6:1 fast thanks to Michael Mosley. Thankfully my GP is enlightened and already has Malcolm’s book. She had just attended a Melbourne workshop and said the cholesterol evaluation methodology is now all in the air for reconsideration. She said while most doctors would insist I stay on statins, she’s happy for me not to take them (Crestor 5mg) if that is what I wish. Interestingly my nightly foot cramps have stopped, and my husband is a new man from the grumpy, unhappy, aches and pains life he had on statins. Thank you Dr Malcolm Kendrick :)).
Without dreams we start nothing.
Without work we reach nothing.
Without integrity we are nothing.
Great read, thank you! And what an amazing person to learn about, Thomas Gold.
The article you linked states that “He has also been wrong, however; he was a proponent of the “steady state” theory of the universe, which has since been discarded for the “Big Bang” theory.”
Well, not so fast! The Big Bang is only a theory, and might be a bit wrong after all. And so could the ever-expanding theory of the universe. If there is one certain thing in science, it is that it is never settled.
https://www.livescience.com/49958-theory-no-big-bang.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/09/21/the-big-bang-wasnt-the-beginning-after-all/
http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/science-universe-not-expanding-01940.html
Thomas Gold should be a household name (I have had a copy of “The Deep Hot Biosphere” for a long time). In collaboration with Hermann Bondi and Fred Hoyle (two other names to conjure with) he invented the Steady State Theory. https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/library/special_collections/hoyle/exhibition/bondi_and_gold/
The currently popular “Big Bang Theory” originated as a joke. One of the three, asked if it wasn’t odd to suggest that the universe had no beginning in time, asked sarcastically if it was any more plausible that it “began with a big bang?”
Hoyle was one of the greatest astrophysicists who ever lived, and with Chandra Wickramasinghe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandra_Wickramasinghe he popularised the notion of “panspermia” – that life does not originate on planets at all, but in outer space.
Hoyle’s superb SF novel “The Black Cloud” explores this idea in a fictional setting. If you haven’t read it, you really should! (I suspect the hero Chris Kingsley is a rather thinly disguised Hoyle, and a character rather reminiscent of Richard Feynman also appears – together with a fantastic comedy Russian).
I feel that the following brief extract from “The Black Cloud” might appeal to Dr Kendrick.
===================================================================
There was a derisive laugh from Alexandrov.
“Bloody argument,” he asserted.
“What d’you mean ‘bloody argument?'”
“Invent bloody argument, like this. Golfer hits ball. Ball lands on tuft of grass – so. Probability ball landed on tuft very small, very very small. Million other tufts for ball to land on. Probability very small, very very very small. So golfer did not hit ball, ball deliberately guided on tuft. Is bloody argument. Yes? Like Weichart’s argument”.
– Fred Hoyle, “The Black Cloud”
I remember coming across a book The Big Bang Never Happened, written by a Scandinavian astrophysicist who, I think, was also a Nobel laureate. The physics in it was too difficult for me but I remember the book being a fascinating read, whatever I could make of it…
Gee, I’ve got that book too, and got bogged down in it as well.
Yes, the physics in it is pretty intense… The physicist it references a lot is Hannes Alfven, right? He’s one of the mavericks on that list someone posted earlier on the thread.
You should look at Rupert Sheldrake’s “kindly” comments on the mechanistic supporters of The Big Bang… who need a miracle (Bang…) to give them the ammunition to explain everything else in their universe !
Speaking of which! https://quaxpodcast.com/2019/08/ep-26-interview-grant-genereux-vitamin-a-is-a-poison/?fbclid=IwAR2_2I30D2-8Le3762CPnrwU-zi6kQRILR3UM8_jIqI-f45nQlhI4szccO8
Yes, Grant’s research is certainly mind changing from what we have been told all our lives about ‘vitamin’ A. Interview is also on iTunes.
Wonderfull Malcolm ! Thank you !
Very good
I recall going to see my GP way back in the 1980’s and discussing H pylori with him. I said there was a simple blood test that could detect the infection. ” H pylori? ” He’d never heard ” such nonsense” and I was sent packing!
A few months later, our paths crossed in the local bank of all places. He rather sheepishly admitted that I was right and he was wrong.
Quite an admission from a man who was very short tempered and shot fools on sight!
You are right, of course, and somehow we all feel that this is plain to see and obviously true. But still, when we ourselves are presented with an idea that we find crazy, we also just dismiss out of hand. And this is how humans tend to be. So, the only way around it, is to teach ourselves and our children to not be like that from the youngest age possible, to question and doubt, and not believe but check, and keep digging and checking. And we as adults, need to force ourselves to go against our natural tendencies to do what countless have done and continue to do in the face of something that goes against what we think we know. I have written a little piece that relates to this quite well, even though it is the story of three X-ray astronomers, the conclusion is similar. Let me know what you think of it: https://rigorouslycurious.net/2016/01/24/implicitly-assumed/
M. Belanger, Just read your “little piece”; your IQ must be as high or higher than former PM Trudeau, 180+.
Frances, is that a derogatory comment? I was only attempting to add to this discussion.
Frances, for clarity not the current president Trudeau, whose IQ somewhat elusive, assuming he has one.
Dear Me, No, I have great admiration for your comments.
I love the way you think and read almost everything. I love change and new ideas and pondering the what if’s. Life is an ever changing force. Thank you for being you.
Thank you.
Honesty & logic is rare in our current world.
What a wonderful man!
Back in 2000 I attended a conference organised by the National Autistic Society at Imperial College in which Andrew Wakefield under a momentary amnesty was matched against a doctor from GOSH talking about pharmaceutical interventions for autism – who was maintaining that there was no connection between the gut and the brain. Wakefield gave two examples refuting this assertion (1) drinking a glass of beer (2) taking one of the GOSH man’s pills. Wakefield, the great medical maverick, was stating the blindingly obvious but it still was not accepted. The guy just looked very uneasy. No concession was made to reality.
Meanwhile, 18 years later:
Differential immune responses and microbiota profiles in children with autism spectrum disorders and co-morbid gastrointestinal symptoms
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5953830/
It must be emphasised, of course, that this paper has nothing whatsoever to do with vaccination!
John: Thank you for that link. The first sentence of the abstract: “Many studies have reported the increased presence of gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).” Of course one of the first of these, and a seminal one, remains retracted by that once-respected medical journal, Lancet. What a ridiculous term ‘autism spectrum disorders,’ which serves to obscure its source in nearly all cases as a neurological injury of environmental origin, and since brain and gut are intimately connected through the vagus nerve, and in continual communication in a biologically functional relationship, GI health must be impacted in nearly all cases regardless of overt symptoms.
They say autism/Aspergers is “genetic” but that entirely fails to explain how a once rare disease only identified in the forties has now become so common.
I had my suspicions in the past but it was only when I watched an autobiography of NNC “Nature Presenter” Chris Packham that the pieces fell into place. The part of my brain that understands social behaviour was hosed and I had to learn to imitate being a person, with varying degrees of success depending where I lived. Meanwhile I become obsessed with patterns, and detail, and collecting and archiving, so not all negative.
The gut connection is fascinating, but in my case the culprit for my GERD, intestinal grumbling and farting was clearly wheat. Without it my bowels are regular as an atomic clock. Would be interesting to see the effects of wheat elimination in children developing ASDs.
That’s BBC. I should clean my glasses more often. The point I should have made but didn’t is that my brain readily follows nonconventional explanations – but I don’t necessarily believe them any more than I believe Conventional Wisdom, only when it fits into a pattern.
Incredible, great food for thought. And it makes me very curious how this relates to heart disease. Although you already explained most of the wrong hypotheses going around… thank you (again) for sharing all this.
The Max Plank cliche: I once read about a psychologist who decided to see whether it was true. He studied the response of physicists old and young to the coming of quantum theory. He concluded that Planck was wrong, that the old boys had largely assented to it without demur.
What I guess might be true is that they would find it harder to absorb it into their intuition as quickly and thoroughly as younger men did.
It is not a cliche. It is a quote from Max Plank.
It is a cliche because every mother’s son quotes it.
Max Planck also has some interesting quotes about God.
With “editor” hat on, it’s actually Max Planck.
Does anyone have the, presumably German language, source for this quote?
“Eine neue wissenschaftliche Wahrheit pflegt sich nicht in der Weise durchzusetzen, daß ihre Gegner überzeugt werden und sich als belehrt erklären, sondern vielmehr dadurch, daß ihre Gegner allmählich aussterben und daß die heranwachsende Generation von vornherein mit der Wahrheit vertraut gemacht ist.” — Wissenschaftliche Selbstbiographie. Mit einem Bildnis und der von Max von Laue gehaltenen Traueransprache
“A new scientific truth does not prevail in such a way that its opponents are convinced and taught to be learned, but rather by the fact that their opponents are gradually becoming extinct and that the adolescent generation is acquainted with the truth from the outset.” — Scientific self-biography. With a portrait and the mourning address held by Max von Laue (per Google translate)
Source:https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Max_Planck
You can change your mind in an instant, but you can’t change textbooks so quickly and easily. So new ideas will take time to filter through to the young and upcoming members of a discipline.
Maybe they should have a ritual burning of textbooks once a year ;o)
@Shirley3349 Wissenschaftliche Selbstbiographie: Mit einem Bildnis und der von Max von Laue gehaltenen Traueransprache. Barth, Leipzig 1948
Could you translate that please
Thank you, Harry de Boer, for the source reference.
Translation: Scientific Autobiography: with a (photographic) portrait and the mourning speech given by Max von Laue. Barth, Leipzig 1948.
Note: this edition was published posthumously in what was then the Russian occupied sector of Germany. Max Planck died in October 1947 in Göttingen, in what was then the British sector, aged 89.
Max von Laue was a student of Max Planck and also a Nobel prize-winning physicist, four years before his teacher.
“You have never heard of this before – ever. I think I can pretty much guarantee this.”
Never heard about it? I’ve ruddy lectured on it! There’s more in heaven and earth, Dr K, than …….
P.S.That’s a cliche even though it is a quote from Shakespeare.
With “editor” hat on, it’s actually Max Planck.
Your comment reminds me of the ancient chestnut about the old farmer who was offered a chance to see a live performance of “Hamlet”. Being in awe of “the Bard”, although he had never read or seen any of the plays, he eagerly accepted.
After the play, he was asked what he had thought of it.
“Rubbish,” he answered dismissively. “I was so disappointed. It’s just a string of cliches!”
Fascinating and important topic Malcolm. Possible mechanism how ideas become fixated:
– a primitive and quick acting survival mechanism, no need to waste time in thinking
– an idea is like an infection that affects synapses
– once an idea is accepted there will be created a “mental block” to preserve the idea
– creativity will be reduced when ideas become fixated
Psychotherapy or meditation might be required to develop an open mind.
Or LSD…
I wonder if there’s an analogy with supporting football clubs? Once you start supporting a club, you tend to stick with it through thick and thin. Since I started supporting Chelsea in the mid-90s they’ve had 19 changes of management, yet here I am, still a supporter. It’s quite irrational in a way. All I get out of it is heartache and anger, with an occasional flash of joy. I can’t explain it.
Martin Back: It appears that an “opinion” resides in one part of the brain and will not change until challenged by conscious effort via the prefrontal cortex. Stubborn people might have a dysfunctional prefrontal cortex.
andy: My wife.
Gary
A question:
How many people do you know who are not stubborn?
Mr Chris: I must include myself, but I have mellowed a bit over the years. I suspect most stubbornness springs from deeply-held beliefs and ego. I have lost all personal religious beliefs while not denying their positive value for many. The question of whether or not God exists is of no interest to me, but I find pleasure in how the power of belief animates the lives of so many. I consider atheism a manifestation of close-mindedness. I’ve also come to realize only in recent years that much of what we’ve been taught is perfect nonsense. An intellectually-liberating discovery. What keeps me on an even keel and gives me great satisfaction in life, and joy in living, is the power of reason. Along with my basic optimism. While recognizing humans are capable of the full gamut of behaviors from angelic to the worst depravity, I prefer to give most the benefit of doubt. Plus being alive is so much better than the alternative. Nearly every morning I awake with anticipation of the day.
For a case study of total irrational support & brand-faithfulness,
– Ask any Land Rover owner !!!
Funny you should mention Land Rover. Just this morning I met a Landie owner whose wife had written his vehicle off on their first long trip. He had already grown to love it and so, because the chassis and engine were still in good nick, went to the trouble and expense of rebuilding it rather than replacing it. Crazy!
Then there’s money, and religious certainty
Malcolm, I had heard of the theory of the abiotic origins of oil, not from Gold, but from those ‘evil Russkies’.
‘Discovering Oil’ by Bruce Bartlett, June 10, 2004. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/brucebartlett/bb20040610.shtml
See also the paper ‘Recent applications of the modern theory of abiogenic hydrocarbon’
http://www.gasresources.net/DDBfields.htm
Excellent read–thank you so much, Malcolm!
Do they know, do they think they can’t be wrong, do they think they mustn’t be wrong? For instance, about SSRIs driving suicide:
https://www.bmj.com/content/366/bmj.l5102/rapid-responses
I stumbled upon the abiotic theory of oil generation several month ago and I find it interesting. I think the main reason why people cling to ideas is that they cannot distinguish knowledge from believes. There is a fascinating course at edx.org called Ignorance! (by Australian National University) that looks at this. It is rather disturbing at first as it shows that most of what we think we know we actually only believe but it is also very liberating.
Thank you for this. I will look up the course…
Abiotic oil, absolutely. I remember this and have always thought he had it correct. It doesn’t fit the big oil narrative though. I spent a lot of time due to work in the oil fields in middle east and I SAW they were drilling and capping wells non stop. They number in the high hundreds if not thousands by now. Oil is NOT finite.
Also, what is your opinion on the heart not being a pump but a ‘vortex generator’ in effect?
“The heart, an organ weighing about three hundred grams, is supposed to `pump’ some eight thousand liters of blood per day at rest and much more during activity, without fatigue. In terms of mechanical work this represents the lifting of approximately 100 pounds one mile high! In terms of capillary flow, the heart is performing an even more prodigious task of `forcing’ the blood with a viscosity five times greater than that of water through millions of capillaries with diameters often smaller than the red blood cells themselves! Clearly, such claims go beyond reason and imagination. Due to the complexity of the variables involved, it has been impossible to calculate the true peripheral resistance even of a single organ, let alone of the entire peripheral circulation. Also, the concept of a centralized pressure source (the heart) generating excessive pressure at its source, so that sufficient pressure remains at the remote capillaries, is not an elegant one”.
I have unravelled more than one heart and it seems to make more sense than this bulky pump idea. The Heart clearly twists rather than beats and uses the spiraling motion of the blood to move it round the body. This would also dispel the clearly ridiculous notion that everyone from a 90 yr old 70lb Chinese woman should have the same BP as a 250lb western man. And why is the BP in your arm any kind of indicator? Blood flow surely means more. If your brain needs more nutrients then the pressure must increase…Sorry the disjointed comment
Michael,
Abiotic oil is an interesting theory, but I haven’t found any convincing evidence that it is true. Do you have any to share?
I wonder what evidence you have seen that oil is from organic origin?
If so, then where does the high sulfur content come from in some oils?
Not trying to ‘gotcha’ you, but maybe most of us are too impregnated with ‘the narrative’ of fossil fuel that we aren’t even interested in evidence, because ‘Everybody know that…’.
You would find Dr Cowan’s book challenging… “Human heart, Cosmic Heart”
Or even better: read The Fourfold Path to Healing. In this book, Thomas Cowan tells his story from the viewpoint of the pressure needed for the circulation of the blood. I like his explanation there better than the one in Human Heart, Cosmic Heart.
It would be interesting to see a calculation of the amount of pressure that is needed to pump all blood at a realistic speed through passive arteries, arterioles, capillaries, venules, veins and see the heart explode as a result of that. Or not?
Its not just the heart pumping the blood out. Breathing in creates negative pressure in the thoracic cavity, which draws the blood in the great veins towards the heart.
What do you mean by unraveling more than one heart?
Dr. K.
In concert with your article above, here is a recent book (2018) that discusses several scientific “controversies” old (like Continental Drift) and new (like Climate Change) taking a truly scientific position that should appeal to most of the readers here. The book is Science Under Attack: The Age of Unreason by Ralph B. Alexander.
I thought that I had heard about this book on this website but when I searched drmalcolmkendrick.org I could not fine this book mentioned. Forgive me if I am repeating a title that you already listed.
Phil
In this vein, check out Paul Feyerabend’s ‘Against Method’ in which he argues that: ‘the most successful scientific enquiries have never proceeded according to the rational method at all.’ He uses Galileo’s defence of the Copernican revolution in physics to show that his (Galileo’s) success depended NOT on rational argument but on a mixture of subterfuge, rhetoric and propaganda! He thinks that Anachism must now replace rationalism in the theory of knowledge!
Sounds like Twitter . . . seriously though when “the science is settled” it stops being science. Then you get clever but unintelligent people carefully designing experiments to “prove” what they already decided to believe, then calling on Ethics Committees to stamp out research into alternatives.
It’s a breath of fresh air coming to your web sight and being able to post and read alternative theories. People can become so defensive over the smallest of doubts over official beliefs. I now that have Blind Melon song running through my mind. Don’t believe I’ll put on a bubble bee outfit on and run around outside though. That would scare the tourists.
I have heard of that theory before about bacteria in the earth creating oil. Another alternative oil/ carbon creation theory that I enjoyed reading about was written by gentleman Scottish researcher Robert Felix. His theory basically goes, it is possible when the earths magnetic core flips, when the magnetic poles are weak, that large quantities of carbon are able to rain down upon earth. It could explain why tree and plants are found in coal mines. Instead of the coal coming from plants, the plants were instead buried by the falling carbon.
Of course we have a small amount of carbon falling onto earth right now. Most often we hear about that when some living item is carbon dated.
It’s been awhile since I read the book, but believe Felix’s theory is similar to what happens on the Saturn’s moon Titan where it rains oil and natural gas is in abundance.
Very good. I have stolen some of the post to suggest to a climate alarmist (labels are horid aren’t they?) not all may be as it seems.
Right! Might be worse.
Malcolm,
The progenitors of new scientific ideas have a relatively simple marketing problem. One that is routinely solved by innovators in other realms.
The science community is a market like any other except that ideas are the coin of the realm. Step 1 is to quietly secure the support of domain experts who also enjoy change and like making a difference. Step 2 is to expand the circle to include recognized and influential voices who are encouraged by the “school of thought” built in step 1.
Finally, the idea is “launched” into the main population with the validation and voices of the community that has been built. Of course, execution is key. Results are not automatic.
This is the way of things in the world of marketing. It is the first stage of the Technology Adoption Life Cycle.
Hope this helps your future endeavours!
If you are interested, here is what I believe is the actual cause of heart disease:
calcium dysregulation.
I presented this hypothesis previously here in comments, and it is admittedly completely different than what most are chasing and/or blaming out there, but in spite of seeming ‘wrong,’ look at it again…please.
* Calcium regulation occurs at the cellular level – Ca++ is an important signaling molecule – and calcium is in mineral deposits such as hydroxyapatite, correctly in bones/teeth and incorrectly in arteries – CT scans can measure coronary artery calcium (CAC) as a measure of this hydroxyapatite, this inappropriate ossification and what everyone has accepted as an accurate measure of atherosclerotic plaque
* It is observed that when arteries and soft tissues accumulate calcium, bones tend to lose calcium concomitantly – (more on this phenomenon of concomitant diseases and calcium regulation beyond just cardiovascular disease and fracture later)
* Recently, it is recognized that coronary artery calcium (CAC) is the single best biomarker of risk of a cardiovascular event in a linear fashion (more CAC, more risk; less CAC, less risk) and a zero CAC is a 15 year warranty from death by all causes.1
* If this biomarker is such an accurate marker of risk for death by all causes as well as representing what seems to be directly involved in cardiovascular health – the inappropriate ossified tissue in arteries – then how does CAC start? What does this calcium gone awry represent?
* Most cardiovascular deaths are causes by thrombus rupture, a catastrophic event
* It appears that rupture is caused by calcium dysregulation where ubiquitous microcalcifications, – which can only be seen in recent times with improved technology (and the idea of actually looking) – can deposit in plaque caps to create mechanical instability and thus…precipitate a rupture. 2
* A LOT of folks have tried to determine what makes the so-called ‘vulnerable plaques,’ but what causes plaques in the first place? I say it is calcium dysregulation and that we have been obsessing over cholesterol, a component of these plaques, but we haven’t seen these microcalcifications because they are so small, yet THEY are the bad actors!
* CAC appears to begin with these microcalcifications and the length of time such microcalcifications have been around is the factor on whether they ‘grow up’ to be measurable CAC, which appears to grow in most of whom have identified CAC
* Vitamin K2 is a much bigger player than has been appreciated in how calcium is regulated, but this is changing with new identifications of many aspects of this vital nutrient/hormone: vitamin K2.
* By activating varying vitamin K-dependent proteins with vitamin K, calcium can be deposited in tissues where it should be and prevented from depositing where it shouldn’t. Proteins such as osteocalcin (OC), properly activated, are essential to make strong bones and teeth and their sheer numbers and presence in these tissues is controlled by vitamin D status in humans whereas matrix gla protein (MGP) is essential to make arteries and other soft tissues repel calcification and is found in VSMCs of arteries.
* Additionally, it has been a common mistake to only emphasize and measure dietary vitamin K of all forms when it is recently appreciated that dietary K is used to endogenously make the form of vitamin K2, MK-4:
Dietary K is cleaved in the small intestine and the ‘core’ of all forms of K, menadione (vitamin K3) is then created and this K3 is packaged into chylomicrons to be transported to distant bodywide tissues via the lymph system where this vitamin K3 is converted in menaquinone-4 (MK-4…the most common form of vitamin K2 found in us and the only form of vitamin K2 not made by fermentation) by an enzyme, UBIAD1. This created MK-4 can bind SXR to affect gene expressions – it’s a hormone. And the enzyme that made this MK-4, UBIAD1, also controls calcium and cholesterol.3
* So vitamin K insufficiency appears to lead to atherosclerosis by allowing calcium dysregulation
* Vitamin K-dependent proteins need sufficient vitamin K to activate them and this can be affected by a variety of factors: insufficiency of intake, but also by many drugs, by interfering with essential processes in the gut, lymph system, etc (such as the complex process of turning dietary vitamin K into endogenously-made MK-4, a hormone) – I am claiming that we have done ALL of these interventions in these essential roles of vitamin K in recent times and thus these many factors yield one devastating result: calcium dysregulation.
* Statins mess with the processes of vitamin K2 synthesis and increase CAC (!) while bisphosphonates mess with these processes to make dense but brittle bones and warfarin inhibits K cycles…all make more CAC and represent vitamin K actions gone awry, calcium gone awry. 3a
* Statins increase diabetes risk because OC is a huge player in insulin sensitivity and statins impair proper quinone actions (CoQ10 and MK-4 and probably others)
* You are absolutely right…cholesterol does not cause heart disease. However, cholesterol regulation and calcium regulation share that enzyme, UBIAD1, and this is the enzyme essential to create MK-4, so there is an association between K status, cholesterol, andcalcium regulation. When K2 is supplemented, cholesterol goes down, the various vitamin K-dependent proteins are activated…and calcium acts the way that it should because K status is improved.
* When high K1 oils such as soy or canola are hydrogenated, we have incorrectly identified the resulting ‘trans fatty acids’ as causative of bad health, but in reality, the K1 has been altered into dihydrophylloquinone, which cannot act as true vitamin K does and thus calcium is dysregulated, the MGP is inactivated.
* BEYOND CVD/fracture risk…Diabetes, obesity, CKD, AD, cancer and all the common chronic diseases appear to share vitamin K actions – and I am claiming that they represent calcium dysregulation. 4
* We need trials to show what K2 supplements do to cholesterol, the misguided biomarker. Observational trials have shown more K2, less CVD, less cancer – in fact, HCC was cured in a man who had stopped responding to conventional treatment. His metastases went away. 5
I further claim that we have used incorrect categories when evaluating fats. It is accurate that some are saturated or unsaturated or monosaturated or whatever, but these facts are NOT pertinent to their health effects. Actually, the fat soluble nutrients in them are what matter.
So…you want to go against dogma??
We have had it all wrong! Calcium regulation is a key aspect of human health and dysregulated calcium is a shared etiological factor in all the common chronic diseases. We have screwed with it in myriad ways including fouling up K status, messing with K actions, widespread fluoride (water fluoridation, the F in PFAS/PFOA, F in antidepressants and a bunch of stupid drugs [lipitor, prozac, etc], the F in firefighting foam…we have calcium dysregulation due to poisoning from F), less Mg in foods and so many, many ways.
We have messed with guts, where the beginning of the endogenous creation of the hormone, MK-4, begins.
Unless we look at all these diseases from the novel aspect of calcium regulation, we will miss this.
Thanks…if you made it this far.
1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26189116
A 15-Year Warranty Period for Asymptomatic Individuals Without Coronary Artery Calcium: A Prospective Follow-Up of 9,715 Individuals.
2 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3468470/
A mechanistic analysis of the role of microcalcifications in atherosclerotic plaque stability: potential implications for plaque rupture
3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4758632/
Role of UBIAD1 in Intracellular Cholesterol Metabolism and Vascular Cell Calcification
3a https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25655639
Statins stimulate atherosclerosis and heart failure: pharmacological mechanisms.
4 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6413124/
Vitamin K: Double Bonds beyond Coagulation Insights into Differences between Vitamin K1 and K2 in Health and Disease
5 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30051950
Complete response by vitamin K2 analog monotherapy in sorafenib-failure advanced hepatocellular carcinoma: A case report.
Calcium dysregulation caused by “Vitamin A” toxicity?!
@Andrew Shouler
While all the fat soluble vitamins ‘play’ together, I am emphasizing vitamin K2 and its role in calcium regulation.
There are new data about it that are revolutionary, but the other three fat soluble vitamins may have similar situations, where they have unrecognized roles and have been negatively affected by their loss/reductions/alterations in diet via all the weird things we now do to fats.
I would like to confirm I am reading this with great interest. Looking forward to Malcolm’s view!
Excellent stuff! The current narrative doesn’t seem to have helped much so all alternatives are of interest.
@Chris C
This just in:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326190.php
Could bone-like particles in blood contribute to artery clogging?
Original:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/micc.12579
In plaques, microcalcifications are found as noted in the citation about mechanisms of plaque rupture.
So all these microcalcifications… what are they doing, are they ‘normal?’
This direction of considering calcium is a viable alternative to the dogma of cholesterol, of inflammation…it is calcium dysregulation when we see inflammation, BTW.
Full paper here
http://sci-hub.tw/10.1111/micc.12579
Quite astonishing! I assumed the calcium came from soluble forms in the blood which were precipitated out. I had no idea there was GRAVEL in the blood!
I recently restarted supplementing with K2, in addition to my usual grass-fed butter and cheese. My toenails and especially fingernails have gone berserk. Hopefully this would be calcium which is not depositing in my arteries.
chris c: Gravel? Good grief!
Nails are made from keratin, a hard protein. Calcium is not a constituient of nails as far as I know.
Micki Jacobs: Thank you. Most interesting. So there really is a vitamin K3!
Yes, vitamin K3 is quite real, but not found naturally in food.
You can’t naturally consume K3.
As a supplement, K3 is not approved for humans as it has shown damage, but it is added to some animal feeds.
Chickens, for example. Which makes them have more K2 in flesh.
K3 is often added to various cancer treatments as an adjunct.
UBIAD1 prefers K3, seeks it, waits for it.
But since we measure serum, we miss this in humans.
If you go digging, it is observed that consuming MK-4 and then trying to measure it in serum often finds none.
It is then claimed it is readily absorbed, but this complex process of cleaving dietary K in the small intestine to allow the ‘base’ of vitamin K, menadione or vitamin K3, freedom to be packaged in chylomicrons and then sent all over via lymph is newer info. Few are aware of this. This K3 will meet UBIAD1 and become MK-4 which can bind SXR. Calcium and cholesterol are affected.
I believe that understanding this is going to be revolutionary.
In rodents, the MK-4 created endogenously is extremely high in thyroid – higher than other organs, tissues.
I wonder if this is the case for humans, too.
Micki Jacobs: Fascinating stuff. It occurs to me that the vitamin K our bodies need should come from food rather than supplements, although with the correct bacteria in our intestines we can make at least some.
Could you please explain what these three abbreviations mean? Thanks.
VSMC
HCC
CKD
Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells
Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Chronic Kidney Disease
@Micki Jacobs a most fascinating read thank you. I shall have a read of the links you’ve provided but I have a question. How does this fit in with the observation that atherosclerosis never occurs in veins?
Apparently, the high pressure in arteries is the main factor…when arteries were surgically subbed into rabbits for veins, they began to change to be like veins and didn’t get plaques in spite of a high fat diet that is known to lead to plaques.
BTW,
https://www.blackmores.com.au/everyday-health/vitamin-k-linked-to-fewer-varicose-veins
So… while no plaques, veins do bear K-dependent proteins that need K.
And better K status is…well, better!!
In spite of widespread claims that K insufficiency is rare, it appears that this is incorrect and subclinical insufficiency is super common.
We had a truncated view of vitamin K when K1 and coagulation rate were all that was considered – this is still common thinking, dogma.
We STILL have a truncated view when we measure intake only and we truly need to understand the many processes of K and how we affect them negatively and positively.
There is pretty profound ignorance about K among all the medical specialties and in the nutrition world, too.
Cardiology, oncology, endocrinology, etc, etc all are missing the huge roles of K in what they do. Dopes.
All of them….
Micki Jacobs: re calcium dysregulation (CD)
Could be that CD is the result of insulin resistance. Cure for IR is a low carb diet. Chronic inflammation is also a problem. One cause of CI are plant toxins.
Seriously considering an all meat diet.
@Andy
https://www.diabetesresearchclinicalpractice.com/article/S0168-8227(17)31256-1/abstract
Effect of vitamin K2 on type 2 diabetes mellitus: a review
https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/34/9/e147
Vitamin K2 supplementation improves insulin sensitivity via osteocalcin metabolism: a placebo-controlled trial
I would suggest that you pursue a nutrient-dense omnivorous diet and learn where K2 is found in foods and ensure plenty of it.
I’m not a fan of extremes.
Good luck!
Micki Jacobs: thanks for K2 references
In addition to food sources I am taking supplemental K2 and D3. Appears that animal source foods are nutrient dense ie protein and fat. Plants on the other hand are apparently full of anti-nutrients. Only way to find out is to investigate with an open mind and self experiment. So far quite satisfied with results by limiting carbs, wheat and related seed protein, soybeans, oxalate rich greens, peanuts, almonds, berries and fruits. A bit of hormesis from plants might be all that is required.
Thanks for this very compact and dense summary about Dr. Weston A. Price’s ‘factor x’.
Indeed, another thing that was known for a long time but studiously ignored.
Micki Jacobs-
Fantastic post! Are you aware of people that had high CAC scores, and took MK-4 and then their scores went to normal? Would the recommended dosage for the MK-4 be whatever is on the bottle, or higher for high CAC score cases?
If you can cite a MK-4 trial with documented CAC removal, please share!!!
I’ve been hunting….
There are some who promote MK-7, they tend to be from the Netherlands. It is detected for longer in serum than MK-4, so this is something they cite.
Japan tends to MK-4.
You will primarily hear about these two forms of K2 – the two K2 forms available as supplements: MK4 and MK-7.
I have shared about the complex path to endogenous MK-4…I wonder how these two forms comparatively act in this pathway.
MK-9 is dominant in many foods.
When someone looked, MK-10 was high in pork. Huh.
So how do MK-7 and MK-9 or MK-10 compare?
They’re all long chain and with increasing chain length comes increasing lipophilicity.
Many foods have multiple forms of K.
Natto has lots of MK-7, but also MK-8 and some K1 (it’s a plant, after all).
Why is dietary MK-4 so often ‘missing’ in serum after intake? Is it better than or equal to K1 in that MK-4 process? How well do long chain K2 forms compare with short chain?
https://www.longdom.org/proceedings/recent-advances-in-vitamin-k-metabolism-25514.html
Lipoproteins carry these K forms in serum, too; K gets around in various ways.
Where is MK-4 found in our tissues and how do they compare amongst the various organs/tissues? How is calcium regulation in these tissues?
All need investigation.
Now.
Really.
Micki-
Found it! First here in the latest “Wise Traditions” Journal:
https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/caustic-commentary/caustic-commentary-summer-2019/ See “Vitamin K and Blood Pressure”
Quote: “Now we learn that new study published by the American Heart Association has linked higher vitamin K2 status (as measured in the blood) with “greater pulse wave velocity. . .central pressure, forward pulse wave, and backward pulse wave”—in other words, less calcium in the arteries and better blood flow.
The referenced American Heart Association study is here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6509723/
Is it your position that vitamin K2 is an important feature of dietary intake?
It appears so; K2 intake is high in the most healthy, centenarian-riddled cultures and K2 interventions have shown benefits of many kinds.
All forms of dietary K contribute to vitamin K status, a parameter that is contentious and which is not currently measured beyond coagulation rate except in rare instances.
But if we can convert a ton of greens into a sufficient K status – and there is no known guideline for such status, but most efforts measure some aspect of carboxylation, activation, of a K-dependent protein such as OC or MGP – then such diet would be sufficient in K.
We need to consume K as we store it poorly, but we recycle it for coagulation, a life-essential role, but even if coagulation is maintained, activation of K-dependent proteins beyond the coagulation cascade can be insufficient.
There’s evidence that K2 is different and better than K1 for several endpoints and some have found that K1 was unable to do what K2 can.
Based on that, I think dietary K2 is important and possibly essential.
It would be great to know more about absorption, transport of the various forms of K, but the long-held belief that gut-made long chain K2 is a large source of K for us is now seen as incorrect. The long chain K2 in our livers appears to source from the gut bacteria fermenting to create these, but they contribute little to our K status because of their deep location in our gut with no bile to facilitate absorption of the K2.
A lot more investigation about vitamin K is called for, but it is a vitamin…not a patented drug, so….
I’ve been taking D3 with K2 for years now, apparently they need each other to work effectively?
Calciferol – VitD supplement – has calcium in it. My sense is that Vit K2 is the ‘parking attendant’ for calcium. MK4 being the longer abiding and likely more helpful if supplementing or just eat natto.
But Weston Price found K2 served an enabling purpose for a whole range of nutrition. (He called it activating factor X or something similar – but it was made from spring, grass fed butter. Its ‘discovery’ as an observable electrochemical mechanism came later – but he’d already discovered its agency and effect in significant measure.
Does Vit D need or benefit from adequate levels of K2? In other words a mutual synergy?
I don’t know. Adequate is relative to something. Many have enough not to get rickets but that may not be adequate for full healthy development of mind and body.
Any reason you are no longer on this webpage:
https://www.dietdoctor.com/new
I noticed Wheat Belly is also gone.
Wow that’s disappointing, especially since Stephan Guyenet is still there.
As is Peter Attia (firmly believes that cholesterol causes heart disease, and takes a low dose statin because he thinks it’s healthy), Dr. Eades (whom I like, but his site has not been updated in forever), Fat Emperor/Ivor Cummins (who is great, but again all his stuff is youtube/podcasts, and not his blog), Eat Low Carb High Fat (another good one from someone who lost over half his body weight, but has not been updated in a long time), and Food Politics (whose author denigrated Virta Health’s studies because they made money while also reversing Type 2 diabetes in people).
It’s a confusing mass of paleo, low carb, keto, and not low carb. While I’m not a huge believer in only having keto websites, at least Wheat Belly and Dr. Kendrick’s site are related to low carb/keto more than some of these.
All so interesting…thank you!
And, so it ever was, that the establishment fights any suggestion that it is wrong about something.
“Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed.” T H Huxley
The Anointed versus the Wisdom of the Crowds
Another example was the idea that mitochondria developed from bacteria. I remember back in the 1960s professors mentioned that and continental drift as examples of wacko ideas and we all had a good laugh. Oh yes. Also acupuncture (“Asians cure diseases by sticking pins in people”). Guess I’m giving away my age.
BTW, I went to a talk by Lynn Margulis (about 2000?), who championed the idea of mitochondria as former bacteria, and even though that was generally accepted then, she said she was still having problems getting grants because she was seen as a maverick.
I find totally new ideas more interesting that little bits of evidence supporting old ideas.
When those professors were making fun of acupuncture, the Russians were studying it in hospitals and publishing some solid research. I have a book from 1961 “The Foundations of Chinese Healing Method Zhen Jui”, i.e. acupuncture. The Chinese, of course, have practiced it for centuries…
In about 1964 our geography teacher (GrammarSchool) told us aout the exciting new theory about tectonic plates and continental drift. Was she ahead of the game, or just ahead of the professors who didn’t like the new?
In the 1960s our geography teacher also mentioned this crazy theory of drifting continents by a German guy, Alfred Wegener. In fact, it wasn’t a new theory. Wegener, an astronomer, died in 1930 and had been publishing on the theory since 1912. https://opentextbc.ca/geology/chapter/10-1-alfred-wegener-the-father-of-plate-tectonics/
Nowadays, continental drift has gone from outrageous speculation to a damned nuisance.
Australia Is Drifting So Fast GPS Can’t Keep Up
Australia is not quite where you think it is. The continent has shifted by 4.9 feet since the last adjustment was made to GPS coordinates in 1994 [i.e. in 22 years]
So did mine, similar type of school, similar time. Perhaps something about the theory had just been published in some journal or other.
Coincidentally, I found a reference to Wegener in a book I’m reading, Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm’s autobiography Interesting Times. In 1933 he was a teenager staying with his uncle Sidney in Berlin. Sidney was working for Universal Pictures at the time and involved in preparations for a polar adventure film. Hobsbawm writes, “Technical advice came from members of the Alfred Wegener expeditions, one of whom came to the house and told me about the theory of continental drift, and how he had all his toes frozen off in the Greenland winter.” [page 51]
My suspicion is that the reason continental drift became accepted so late in the English-speaking world was there was a lot of anti-German feeling after both world wars, and German science was discounted, although much of it was more advanced than science in the English-speaking world. For instance, I believe we are only now coming to accept in nutrition what the Germans had established decades ago.
Martin Back: Indeed. The Germans were so far ahead in rocketry that the U.S. and U.S.S.R. were in competition to woo German scientists after WWII. In the U.S. it was called “Operation Paperclip,” and this is the title of a fine book about it by Annie Jacobsen. The most famous we snared was Werner von Braun, who played an essential role in the space race, but was also a decorated and dedicated SS officer. Sputnik made it seem the Soviets got the best of them though, as it caught us with our pants down.
I have yet to hear of any other known planet having such a feature as tectonic plates and continental drift. But I have heard that experts can be unable to admit that they don’t really know. And grateful for a cover story.
Here is a critical view with significant points:
https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2012/11/27/serious-issues-with-plate-tectonics-2/
Many thanks for yet another mood uplifting article, and for bringing Wilfred Trotter to my attention 🙂
I first read about abiotic oil in a book by astronomer Fred Hoyle, who was also a proponent of the Steady State theory. Fred Hoyle and Thomas Gold (who was an astrophysicist, not a geologist) were colleagues in their early days and developed the theories together. The origin of modern abiotic oil theory is credited to the Russian geologist Kudryavtsev in 1951. http://www.creationstudies.org/Education/abiotic_oil.html
IIRC, Hoyle speculated that Venus might be flooded with abiotic oil, and the clouds of Venus were hydrocarbon clouds. Obviously, with new knowledge thanks to planetary probes, that has been proven wrong.
Fred Hoyle is a hero of mine. I still believe in the Steady State theory, although evidence for the Big Bang seems overwhelming. In the late 1960s I attended a public lecture Fred Hoyle gave at the University of Cape Town. I have never forgotten one of his closing remarks. He pointed out that there are gaps in the solar spectrum. One of them is at the exact frequency that corresponds to the binding energy of the carbon-carbon bond. If it wasn’t for that gap, sunlight would break up the chains of carbon that form the basis of life as we know it and we would not exist. He said one of the tasks of science was to discover why there was that gap. I don’t know if anyone has tackled the problem.
Apparently there is research showing that teachers don’t like creative pupils , even when they claim they do. I think this is part and parcel of the whole (probably evolutionary) fear of change and ‘the different’. It probably gave us an advantage, when we lived in caves, to stick to the familiar and the tried and tested. If only we could get the scientific & medical communities out their caves now, what advances we might make…..
I’ve heard that especially of medical schools
No you didn’t! But gave me a good laugh! 🙂
Actually I’ve read that complaint from many proto-doctors and some that graduated – they were expected to rote-learn and regurgitate rather than think. I’ve heard worse of dietician schools and a number of people who dropped out for that reason. Obviously they are not all bad, hence Malcolm and others who survived with brain intact.
Perhaps, one ought to go back to one aspect of the medieval education system, where students were expected to both defend and attack a proposition, and were supposed to know all the (main) arguments and evidence for and against. Teaching for the Abitur (the grammar school leaving examination in Germany, around 1970 when I taught there) certainly used this method in some subjects. The students were meant to make their own judgments based on a critical evaluation of what they knew.
Excellent notion!
chris c: Agreed. Best idea yet!
Thanks. Yes I had heard the oil theory. Made sense at the time and now we are supposed to be twenty or more years into the period when it is All Gone, so, why must we stop using it for other reasons?
Isotopic discrimination “is the preferential fixation by photosynthetic organisms of the lighter (and vastly more abundant) isotope carbon-12 compared with the heavier carbon-13. The relative abundance of these two stable isotopes in biological material, whether living or dead, differs from that in the atmosphere” — https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100013377
I can’t find the reference now, but they studied the carbon isotope ratios in CO2 in our current atmosphere, and compared them with the ratios in CO2 trapped in air bubbles in ice cores dating back to pre-industrial times.
What they found is that carbon-12 is slightly more abundant these days. Where did the extra carbon-12 come from? Not from volcanic vents, which have the same carbon isotope ratios as pre-industrial air. They conclude it must have come from burning fossil fuels, which are richer in carbon-12 because they are derived from plant material (coal) or the animals that eat that plant material (oil). Calculating the mass of extra carbon-12, it roughly correlates with the mass in the estimated amount of fossil fuel burned in modern times.
So it looks like human activity is the source of increased CO2, and abiotic oil is a non-starter.
Why not measure the levels of C-13 in various oils – that would provide a more direct measurement wouldn’t it?
This is a typical we-don’t-know-what-else-could-have-caused-this-so-it-must-be-humans argument. This is called the ‘argumentum ad ignorantiam logical fallacy’ and it really doesn’t prove anything, except that actually we don’t know.
I forgot to mention (where’s the ‘edit’ button on this blog?) that the ‘organic carbon’ in the supposedly ‘fossil’ fuel could as well come from heat loving bacteriae that have been found abundant in deep regions. So there goes the evidence that ‘we did it’.
Back on heart disease and I’m going to comment on prevention because the book I’m going to mention is due back at the library soon…
…I’m reading Norwegian explorer (and much more) Fridtjof Nansen’s “Farthest North” – his account of his attempt to reach the North Pole by allowing his ship to be frozen into the polar ice cap and travelling north using the sea’s drift.
Why am I mentioning this?
Because as the crew settled into life aboard their ship during their first arctic winter night (months of darkness) in 1893, Nansen’s comments on the causes of their health and happiness reminded me of Dr Kendrick’s Jan 2019 post on CVD prediction and how to reduce risk. Actually, it reminded me of previous posts by Dr Kendrick where he provided recommendations (and others here too) on this topic.
Here is what Nansen said:
“I may say the same of my comrades as I have said for myself; they all look healthy, fat, in good condition; none of the traditional pale, hollow faces; no low spirits – anyone hearing the laughter that goes on in the saloon would be in no doubt about this. But how, indeed, should there be any illness? With the best food of every kind, as much of it as we want, and constant variety, so that even the most fastidious cannot tire of it, good shelter, good clothing, good ventilation, exercise in the open air ad libitum, no over exertion in the way of work, instructive and amusing books of every kind, relaxation in the shape of cards, chess, dominoes, halma, music and story-telling – how should anyone be ill?”
Thanks, Malcolm, for this amazing post. In this web there is a collection of mavericks and heretics, who fought for their ideas… https://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/mavericks-and-heretics/
… and wouldn’t it be funny, if Dr Tom Cowan eventually makes this list. !
(Author of ‘Human heart, Cosmic Heart” )
Seriously, I know of someone who’s head will do him in before his heart does.
Another way of looking at the problem of stubbornly holding on to fixed opinions. Opinions and facts reside in the basal ganglia (reptilian brain). To rewire the neurones and synapses associated with an opinion requires input from the prefrontal cortex. Habits and opinions are hard to break and require a lot of conscious effort. Holding on to old concepts is a form of self preservation.
Wow! I find the abiotic theory of petroleum generation interesting. It is most certainly plausible, and makes me wonder what direct evidence exists for the ancient fern- or whatever it is theory of petroleum generation. This may open a new can of worms. If so, let’s have at it! But to change one’s mind, especially for one with a reputation and way of life to protect, takes far more courage than most of us possess. We are herd animals I’m afraid to say. At least we have sense enough to eat meat rather than grass.
Forgot to click the box. Really long hike yesterday, and the brain is a bit tired.
Very interesting post, thank you something happened here in Oz yesterday we had a huge change of mind regarding heart health, apparently good fats are beneficial for the heart, we can now eat eggs (I never stopped) and have cheese, full cream milk again never stopped there is a short film and the article however still hanging on to cholesterol not if you have high cholesterol or T2 Diabetes so possibly just a half turn of mind.
https://www.9news.com.au/national/what-foods-can-cause-a-heart-attack-health-news-australia/a65e9963-7a63-4d69-b764-0824b37ade51
Thinking about it this is HUGE!
Not so long ago, Gary Fettke grew tired of his day job, amputating the feet of diabetics, and started recommending low carb diets.Just like Tim Noakes The Anointed came down on him like a ton of bricks. They also went after dietician Jennifer Elliott and I believe also Caryn Zinn though she workd in New Zealand and was out of their purview.
Recently they actually apologised and reinstated him, Now this. Gary and Belinda Fettke and Michael West among others have dug out the huge influence of Seventh Day Adventists via Sanitarium on Australian dietary guidelines. So far it looks like as the rest of the world becomes vegan they are fighting back in Australia. Even the American Diabetes Association recently stopped attacking low carb. We live in interesting times.
“What causes heart disease part 64 – Not changing your mind”
Just to poke a little fun at the title of this post…
I’m not so sure “not changing one’s mind” is a cause of heart disease, although one might invoke stress concerns to link the two.
But, “not changing one’s mind” will likely not lead to prevention nor a cure.
Proverbs Ch. 15, verse 13 for the Middle-aged and beyond.
Or…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3HQMbQAWRc
I am getting more and more confused about the state of affaires in the medical “community” the more I read and learn, e.g. on this excellent blog, but also from the “thick” textbooks.
One thing I though do “believe” in is that of refutation as stressed by the philosopher Karl Popper. You can never prove that you are right but always refute any categoric claim of “truth” by a counter proof.
As far as I understand this is the essence of all science.
Yes. But the problem is that is seems possible to throw almost endless ad-hoc hypothesis at a refutation. I have come to believe that the essence of science is to come up with a better hypothesis. Otherwise you simply hammer away at your opponents on the same old battleground. You think you have an inarguable refutation, they simply change the angle of attack, and find reasons why your refutation is not, actually, a refutation at all. It is like theologians arguing the existence, or non-existence, of God. If you believe in God, there can be no refutation that you will accept. If you do not believe in God, your refutations are inarguable. It is like in the UK at present. Brexit, or Remain. Two camps that will never, ever, listen to each others arguments. Tedious, and pointless. Flat-ender or pointy-ender. Unfortunately, I have no other, superior, EU hypothesis.
Ever so slightly Off Topic ! But then again….. ??
Basic data is important in science. Otherwise GIGO- Garbage In; Garbage Out
In recent weeks I have been helping out a bit with some practical basic science, checking out the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s local weather stations.
So far 47 BOM weather stations are Not compliant with the bOM’s own guidelines for them. And this all started off with me finding the at the BOM’s local station was 150 meters away over the back fence.
Of course almost all these stations have been reporting higher temperatures and fueling the Global Warming scare campaign. There are lots more to check out. And so I am busy.
Of course this issue is not an on topic one here on your blog Malcolm. But I would not be surprised if similar antics have happened in the UK or elsewhere.
Meanwhile I am staying healthy. And keeping an eye here as well for news on how to do that even better.
Bill In Oz
Hi Bill in Oz: NOAA says that land and sea surface temperatures are blended to arrive at a global temperature. Are you measuring air temperature? How confident are the experts in measuring the global temperature to two decimal places? This is important because global warming could finish us off before we discover cause of heart disease.
Malcolm , of course you are right. It is all about hypothesis and and with growing complexities as “science” advances.
I was just venting my increasing frustration with all “obvious” fundamental lies coming from the establishment on so many issues.
The Right Climate Stuff
https://www.therightclimatestuff.com/
Our experience during the early days of manned spaceflight proved the importance of this motto:
“In God we trust, all others bring data”
These were not only words that guided us during Apollo, but more importantly, words that defined how we did our work. This is what made us proud to be called “Astronauts,” and “Rocket Scientists.” Our study team will continue to adhere to these attitudes in order to achieve the goals of this study.
(The phrase “Climate Change”, currently used by politicians and popular media, has been a politically driven evolutionary change from the more specific scientific phrase “Anthropogenic (Human-Caused) Global Warming” (AGW). The phrase has become political shorthand for the theorized worst case effects of the increasing atmospheric CO2 and other Greenhouse Gas (GHG) levels during the Industrial Age, believed to be caused primarily from the use of fossil fuels to provide the energy for the industrialized world. These GHG concentrations in our atmosphere (other than the strong naturally occurring GHG provided by water vapor) will always be at trace gas levels, though much less than at previous times of our planet. The theorized worst case effects are predicted by un-validated climate simulation models whose alarming projections have not been supported by the actual data observed so far.)
Göran Sjöberg: Agreed. We can best preserve our sanity by being skeptical of everything except death and taxes.
Perhaps in human history having to think about “the truth” was occasionally a practical issue most of the time incidental to what the group thought, and what the group thought was what made it cohesive though it may have been a theological construct or superstition, besides which no one had the remotest idea about the scientific structure of the Universe, the Earth or the human body. And if you had to work out which of two people was telling you the truth about some happening there most likely wasn’t any paper trail. But sometimes it was practically necessary to try and define the real. So mostly people thought with the group but it might occasionally be necessary not to. And the reality of the group was mostly not likely to be real in any way we would understand, and still isn’t.
Hallelujah! We are all about to be saved yet again, and it must be true because the Daily Mail has it as today’s headline! FOUR ON ONE PILL THAT SLASHES HEART RISK, and could stop thousands dying! This new discovery is a combination of….wait for it……A Statin, Aspirin and two drugs to lower blood pressure (why didn’t I think of it and make myself a few billion?) Anyhow, it slashes the risk by up to a third, so it must be good mustn’t it? Off to the chemist, hope they do it in Strawberry flavour! 😉
Pity they haven’t worked out nothing anybody takes will stop them dying.
This is how the Guardian reported this miracle pill:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/aug/22/single-polypill-reduces-risk-of-heart-attacks-and-strokes-study-finds?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX1VTTW9ybmluZ0JyaWVmaW5nLTE5MDgyMw%3D%3D
barovsky: re polypill
If 3,417 people took the pill and there were 99 people who saw a benefit, how good is the miracle polyill? Relative risk reduction was used to inflate benefit to 30%. Closer to 3% in real life. How many were harmed?
It’s crazy. It’s just a composite of all the drugs they’ve given me for the past 12 years; statins, aspirin, ramipril and a beta blocker. Didn’t work for me.
True Notepad, apart from a good few deep breaths of course! but that doesn’t fill the coffers does it? We need to feed the fear of death, because of course you can live for ever if only you take the correct medication! Must be true, I read about it all the time in a myriad of scientific studies. 😉
barovsky,
Sounds like you have been “treated” for CVD 🙂
Myself I refused all the CVD-pills = the present poly pill now 20
years ago after having done my home-work and I am still “kicking” (to the surprise of the latest cardiologist – “You have just been lucky!”). And BTW I also refused the comprehensive CABG at the same time.
Yes Göran, twice, once over 12 years ago and then last October. When you’re lying on a trolley, shot full of morphine, it’s very difficult to make ‘informed’ judgements about treatment (the first time). The 2nd time, the ‘heart attack’ was much less dramatic, pains on either side of my chest that didn’t go away, so I went to A&E and they tested for the enzyme (tribulin?) and it was 300 and then a couple of hours later, it was 500 or so. So I’d had a heart attack. Two days later, 3 stents inserted. I suppose I had a ‘choice’ not to have them inserted but how then would my narrowed arteries have reversed themselves? it seems that it’s now quite ‘normal’ to have stents put in. One guy I met in the cardiac dept had one put in in the AM and he left in the afternoon. I could barely walk the following day yet they still kicked me out, telling me that ‘hospitals are dangerous for my health’. Go figure.
They are quite dangerous for your health, especially (or so I hear) in June/July when there is rotation of residents.
You did the best you could with what you knew at the time.
The heart doesn’t reverse blocked arteries, but grows new ones – that are often very many side roads rather than motorways.
But of course this requires you survive and act so as to help rather than hinder your recovery.
http://heartattacknew.com/heart-catheter-film/
this shows a normal beating heart that according to angiogram has a blocked artery.
Trust what you have lived as part of learning to be You. No one else can do it!
PS – Hospitals are dangerous for your health – but if you have to use one – bring trust in not fear.
barovsky,
Statistics is against GABG and stents although in acute situations they may save lives as far as I have understood this.
Collaterals is natures own healing way to bypass arterial blockages which usually come on gradually with time. This is the only reason why I am still alive.
Göran: I don’t understand your response; ‘Collaterals’?
Perhaps my link to a video showing this – and explaining it did not get through?
Barovsky; Goran,
Articles explaining collaterals:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3689049/
https://dmm.biologists.org/content/6/2/312
Does this represent your experience, Goran?
Collaterals look a bit iffy to me. Apparently, they only take up a small part of the ‘slack’ in blood flow and there’s nothing in the study that tells you how to get ‘collaterals’ to improve the flow.
Perhaps you overlooked my answer and link to videos and information that established the ‘iffiness’ belongs to the stent as saviour mindset?
barovsky: The first study JDPatten posted, in a previous comment, explained how collaterals can become fully-functioning replacements for blocked arteries.
And more:
Counterpulsation as a means to increase collaterals.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3968595/
JdPatten: Thank you very much for reposting this very important paper. A bit of a slog to wade through, but a few of the more important gems: 1. “. . .[the] presence of NO is critical in arterial growth. . . .” 2. Physical exercise and ECT “appear to be the most promising means for the stimulation of collateral artery growth. 3. “. . .these therapies decrease rather than increase systemic inflammation. . . .” So, what can anyone do on their own? Take exercise under the sun under the influence of NO-enhancing supplements such as citrulline, beets, beet juice, and so forth. No downside. They are clear that exercise improves collateral growth and blood flow. I would add that it improves joy in life.
JD, Gary you are quite right.
There is a logic in the formation of collaterals by physical exercise but with barovsky I don’t believe (from my own experience) that you can fully compensate for all totally blocked arteries even by severe exercise although continuous exercise is necessary if the collaterals should not retrograde. So, you must keep “fighting” and I exercise daily basically to the limit of my performance ability when the nasty effort angina is knocking on my shoulder and tell me to “relax” for a while.
I have just loaded my truck with all my equipment to go working for two weeks in the forest on our small farm in northern Sweden.
When I nursed on a general medical ward in an NHS hospital over 35 years ago, combined drugs with several active ingredients were frowned upon. Different patients often required different dosages of the components to get the optimum effect. On admission, the patients would usually be prescribed their normal regimes using single component drugs. These would gradually be reviewed, and simplified wherever possible, as the patients recovered. Drugs causing adverse effects could be identified more readily and hopefully the revised medication, prescribed on leaving hospital, would improve the patients’ condition and quality of life, and defer their next hospital admissions for months rather than weeks.
I can see some advantages of the polypill where medical services are thinner on the ground than in the UK. But it would take an expert physician to evaluate the benefits vis à vis the risks in any particular home environment, and this is unlikely to happen.
They only ‘invent’ those poly-therapies when the patents on the mono-therapies expire.
The Polypill is a really old idea that Zombie-like rises from the dead every 5-10 years. this is the 3rd time to my knowledge.
I heard it slashed risk by an additional 3% when administered as a suppository! /s
Angelica Nelson: re statin suppositories
Could not find any studies but makes sense. Similar principle to administrating tobacco smoke rectally. Different pathway (shorter path to loo) and much safer.
Was not the ‘polypill’ idea floated quite some time ago?
A long time ago. Law and Wald – who patented it, and thought they would become as rich as Croesus. Sadly for them….not.
Repost link to stenosis videa
http://heartattacknew.com/heart-catheter-film/
OFF-TOPIC
Sorry doc, you’re wrong. I *had* heard of it, even years ago (about 8?).
It’s not exactly clear who is the inventor of the idea, the Russians (who also produced for the IPCC the climate model with the most realistic results of the few hundreds submitted in that only they included the sun’s influence in their model) or Thomas Gold. His book however had a greater impact, whereas the Russians proved their point by drilling for oil in an ‘impossible’ location near Vietnam, finding oil of course.
The idea doesn’t seem completely new however, as I quote: “An abiogenic theory of petroleum is not new, dating from the 16th century .In the 19th century two very accomplished scientists, Alexander von Humboldt and Dimitri Mendeleev( of the Periodic Table fame) advanced the concept. In the 20th century the Russian- Ukrainian School of geology emerged in the Soviet Union to vigorously formulate the modern theory of abiogenic oil and gas. In the West, the most eloquent and determined proponent was the famous astronomer Thomas Gold. After his death, Jack Kenney of Gas Resources Corporation has become the leading Western exponent.”
( https://peakoil.com/geology/abiotic-oil-and-gas-a-theory-that-refuses-to-vanish )
And _if_ ‘fossil’ fuels aren’t mineral, then where does the methane come from that seems to be found on asteroids and Titan, Saturn’s moon? Bacteria? Not likely…
( https://principia-scientific.org/russians-nasa-discredit-fossil-fuel-theory-demise-of-junk-co2-science/ )
The conspiracy theorists have it that Rockefeller engineers came up with the idea of fossil oil deposits in order to implant the idea of ‘peak oil’, i.e. oil as a scarce commodity, so that price could be made artificially high, because scarcity.
Re Marshall: the story goes (don’t remember where I saw it) that he read in a book of, at that time, 100 years ago, that in an opened up stomach of a dog ‘things’ were observed that ‘looked like’ as if there were bacteria inside the stomach.
Well, since Semmelweis we all know what tends to happen to people with disruptively new theories in the medical community. Wakefield is a more recent example, and he wasn’t even _against_ vaccines but only wanted to postpone the measles vaccination with 6 months.
And contradictory to Trotter’s statement, I get a kick out of new ideas, such as:
Helicobacter pilory living in the stomach,
General deficiency in vitamin D3 in the western population,
Pauling and Rath’s ‘general theory of cardiovascular disease’,
Christopher Exley’s ‘no Alzheimer’s in the absence of aluminium in the brain’,
Galactic Cosmic Radiation and the solar dynamo (and not CO2) as drivers of climate change.
It seems to me, there is methane and other hydrocarbons being generated inside the earth, there is another issue that climate worriers need to consider. Methane is a more potent greenhouse than CO2, and presumably all that methane ultimately escapes to the atmosphere. Thus on that basis, perhaps we should frack for methane and consume it as fuel to prevent it escaping unburned – thus saving the planet!
But in reality, science just provides a fig-leaf to cover the growth of a political movement. Like all political movements, they ultimately become about trying to expand their power-base.
Methane is 86 times as big at capturing heat as is CO2. Most of it is (was?) locked up in permafrost, ie Siberia for the most part.
Barovsky,
You need to realise just how slight the warming attributed to extra CO2 has been so far. They measure the global average temperature (something of a misnomer) since 1880 and over the 140 years since then, the rise in temperature has been 0.8 C. You need to ask yourself if the earth is really so sensitive to a 0.8C temperature rise as to melt the permafrost, or do any of the other things attributed to it.
I didn’t write your quote, so why is it directed to me?
Harry, I was with you until you included that heretical Vitamin C doctrine of Pauling/Rath… –
The real problem is, it can happily co-exist (as another causative agent) with everything Dr Kendrick has suggested so far.
🙂
The polypill is back:
https://www.malaymail.com/news/life/2019/08/23/study-shows-daily-polypill-reduces-heart-disease-stroke/1783369
Also, has anyone read about the theories of the expanding Earth? These say the Earth was smaller in the past, which is why the dinosaurs were able to be so big, as there was less gravity. The Earth is slowly expanding. It makes logical sense to me, though I’m not sure about how the Earth expands, and there are multiple theories (accretion, some kind of core that causes expansion, etc.).
BobM: It is eating too many carbohydrates. Getting the middle-age bulge.
Now there’s a thought to conjure with!!
Harry de Boer: It is true that the Israeli lobby is very powerful in the U.S, and with Trump’s son-in-law being both a close adviser and ardent supporter of the Netanyahu government, it is not a healthy relationship for anyone, in my opinion. As to what happens when Middle East oil runs low, impossible to say. Won’t be pleasant.
‘Middle East oil’, and any other oil for that matter, won’t ‘run low’ in my opinion as there will be plenty of abiotic oil to be drilled and pumped up.
No, it’s the fact that the UN Agendas 2020, 2030 &etc. will make us reduce the consumption of it with the same effect: M.E. (and Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Syria) will see their national incomes reduced considerably.
This kind of makes me laugh in a perverse way. Many people are like this though and it makes me wonder why.
This afternoon I’m meeting a lady who’s husband has many health challenges. My understanding is that he has join pains, arthritis, heart problems, and blood pressure issues. For his numerous conditions he takes numerous medications. Medications include a statin. For the joint pains/ arthritis he takes steroids. Soon after taking that medication he gained copious amounts of weight. He ballooned up to near 400lbs I believe. He then was told he would need a new artificial hip. He could not have the operation till he lost a great deal of weight. He also battles fatigue problems which is expected.
So that is where the conversation will start today, hip replacement and weight loss, if her husbands health issues arise in conversation.
It has occurred to her that her husbands health issues might be due to entirely or partly the medications he has been taking. The conversation stops there though. Doctors know best, we must follow orders.
It’s a very strange belief for me. I don’t pretend to be wiser. I was to ill myself to obtain a college degree. I have learned I don’t enjoy pain where ever it comes from, and am curious enough to fall out of line, when it is to my advantage.
For sure there is an element of personal clinging to a comfortable idea, and Max P had a point.
But there is now such a vast stone wall of such individuals, each having a professional reputation and income to defend, with the iron discipline to make sure none breaks the party line. Who dare say ‘I was wrong’ ? Tim Noakes was one honorable exception, and look at the s**tstorm he endured.
Apart from that, putting it in context, we live in capitalism and so the protection of profits forms a powerful alliance with such professional cowardice.
In short, it’s not simply psychology.
John Burton: need psychology to understand motives
Psychopaths cannot be cured ie their minds cannot be changed.
https://www.businessinsider.com/professions-with-the-most-psychopaths-2018-5
The 10 professions with the most psychopaths
http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/opinion/article_828703aa-0e61-11e6-8866-fb5dab31ddc0.html
Big Pharma CEOs, obvious psychopaths
AhNotepad – “But what other shape could it be?”
Tri-axial ellipsoid – which means pear shaped – apparently.
Charles, no sorry, it’s flat. If you lay a map on a table it demonstrates this is so. On another forum I am called a “flat earther”. I assume this is a form of adulation.
Many years ago I read a comment that there are no fossils in fossil fuels. Also Russian and Ukrainian scientists have, over several generations, tenaciously propounded the notion that oil and gas are abiotic, and can be found deep below the surface of the earth in most parts of the world and in very large amounts. Further, I understand the cosmonauts took rhodiola rosea supplements for endurance.
Your understanding about Rhodiola and Cosmonauts is correct. it works for mild (?) ‘depression’ as well.
Rhodiola has been used for a long time in traditional Chinese medicine and by Siberians. It’s considered to be a strong tonic and in the highest class of medicines. Together with ginseng, reishi, cordyceps, etc.
WPedia states believed benefits but goes on to say ;
“As of 2019, there is no high-quality clinical research to indicate it is effective for treating any disorder,and the United States Food and Drug Administration has issued several warnings to manufacturers of R. rosea dietary supplements for making false health claims about its safety and efficacy” So wisdom handed down generation to generation counts for nothing. !
I admit I hadn’t heard of the abiotic theory of oil formation. But I had a wonderful geology professor who explained tectonic plate theory very well including the acrimony around its acceptance. Also he said that the final nail in the coffin of “continental drift” was the periodic reversal of the earth’s magnetism. I admit that part was beyond me. It was just an undergrad course after all. But it was fascinating stuff. If I were better at looking at rocks and figuring out if they were chert or granite I’d probably have switched majors. But my labs were a disaster in geology. I saw my professor years later and said, “It’s a rock, right?” I’m much better at memorizing cyclic chemical reactions and math. Your article reminded me of how much I enjoyed geology though.
We need to create a society in which the number of times you’ve changed your mind is a sort of test of character. So if you’ve changed your mind a thousand times, meh, maybe not reliable. But if you changed your mind at least 10 times on important issues, then you’re earmarked for leadership. Right now the only people allowed to double down on a “bad” idea are card carrying fools with no real insight or capacity for reflection. I think current events make it imperative that we find a way to separate the insightful, reflective people from the foolish bullish types. But that may be an idealistic perspective, I’ve been guilty of that before.
Angelica, until WW2 people believed the bottom of the oceans was flat. Then warships with sonar cruised the oceans looking for submarines and the mid-ocean ridges were discovered. Then magnetometers were dragged across the ocean bed, still looking for submarines, and it was discovered that the ocean floor had alternating bands of magnetism, some N-S, others S-N.
Since it was known that the Earth’s magnetic field reversed on a regular basis (although we don’t know why), and igneous rock preserves the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field when the rock solidifies, the explanation had to be that the sea floor was spreading outwards from the mid-ocean ridges, and the magnetic stripes were a record of the magnetic field at the time the igneous rock oozed out of the mid-ocean ridges.
Further, because the approximate dates of magnetic reversal were known, it was possible to imagine the process reversing and getting an approximate date for when the continents were joined together, and confirm this by knowing the dates of fossils common to adjoining continents.
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/geophysical/chapter/sea-floor-spreading/
I agree with both previous posters. I know of at least 4 doctors who have been reprimanded by the GMC, one for not writing enough prescriptions and the other for prescribing vitamins. I don’t blame doctors for wanting to keep within the rules but it is clear to see that other forces are acting behind the scenes to make sure they don’t step out of line. There is no profit in health, only disease. Should the NHS be re-named the NDS (the national disease system)?
Soul: interesting that your friend should come to the conclusion that medications are making her husbands health conditions worse. I have a friend who has more or less embarked on the same path, 1 medication, then 2 and now we are up to 5 with diminishing results and increasing health issues, knee replacement already done and severe swelling. It all started with PPI’s and then statins and so it went on….. I did suggest that perhaps she might try to reduce the load but I got a very short shrift reply – do you think I would want to listen to you instead of the doctor. Says it all really.
I often wonder if anyone out there has the slightest notion of how the body works. It has been thousands of years in the making, has intricate and complex systems to keep us alive. Medications work against the bodies natural systems, have side effects, and many deplete the body of vitamins and minerals. For instance why would anyone want to take statins, the body can make its own cholesterol and can regulate production according to intake. Every cell in your body needs it, its needed to aid digestion, process Vitamin D from sunshine and more…and the NHS spends millions each year in trying to reduce it, and every time you look around the reference range goes down. Does anyone actually know what it really should be? there is one thing for sure….the lower the reference range the more statins can be prescribed and the bigger the profits. If cholesterol is considered above reference range this can be a sign of ill-health, for instance an underactive thyroid. If the thyroid is treated levels will return to normal – no Statins required.
Jessie Speaking to a heart patient recently who recorded a 4.1 for cholestoral over a year ago. Very pleased with himself – 2 weeks later – heart attack !!
Jerome: Very sad for the person concerned (hope he survived). Question is does he remain on statins or has he changed his mind?
I don’t pry too much but I do know he changed his lifestyle to include much more outdoor recreation & social activities. From what I recall the tone of the conversation was that cholestoral was certainly not a factor so statins cannot be beneficial.
The targets and achievements of ‘markers’ are substitutes for wholeness or health.
Which gives rise to a medicine model that gets the disease but loses the patient.
An unfortunate side effect.
There’s proof that his cholesterol was not yet lowered enough. I wonder how often this has to happen before the light goes on. Like the dieticians who see people getting fatter and less healthy on their low fat diets and conclude they need to eat even less fat. The meme takes hold and reality fails to be noticed.
Jessie,
I really sympathise with you, it is very, very hard knowing the controversy that surrounds certain areas of medicine, and yet not being able to say much to someone who believes in their doctor. I used to find comfort in that belief myself, so i know how people can cling to it.
In my experience alternate practitioners (or at least the one I went to) are aware of these problems, and possibly your friend might take advice from someone like that more easily – particularly after they have used some of their techniques to improve his/her condition.
David,
Thank you, I certainly do agree that there is great comfort to be had from trusting and believing in one’s doctor, its exactly how it should be and probably how it was around 50 years ago but not today, the pharmaceutical industry has gained too much power over that relationship.
She just sees me as a heretic, but a few bad experiences makes you sit up and think. I was referred to a Professor in neurology after a couple of year of complaining about severe tingling/burning in my legs, most of my toes were completely numb, I had developed an awkward gait, plus a few other things – the outcome was “idiopathic” (no known cause) and I was offered anti-depressants and analgesics, which I refused and was just left to get on with it with, no further tests being offered. I sought the assistance of an alternative practitioner who diagnosed a severely neglected B12 deficiency. This is a classic case of doctors relying on blood readings and ignoring the patients symptoms, my B12 serum levels apparently weren’t low enough for the NHS to consider a deficiency but without treatment things would have got progressively worse and I could have been left with permanent nerve damage or worse.
In an ideal world the shortcomings of the NHS could in my opinion be enhanced by Naturopathic/alternative doctors working together, but that’s never going to happen, you cannot patent vitamins and all alternative doctors are looked upon as quacks!! My friend would probably think the same and in any case she will only consider anything that is free – regardless of a better outcome.
Jessie,
I happened to read a book the other day which was in part about a theory the author has that many of our modern illnesses are caused by side effects from to much medication taken. It had me thinking that is likely correct. For what ever reason though many people do not want to hear alternative health theories. The book had a nice quote from George Orwell I thought also ” If freedom has any meaning at all, it’s the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear.” For what ever reason the medical field has many people unquestioning theories being presented. The medical field is great at marketing but in my opinion the sales pitch all to often doesn’t live up to expected results.
With our friend and her husband, his health did not come up in conversation. My mom came up though. She asked how mom was doing. Mother had experienced a good deal of health issues. These problems largely went away once she stopped taking the statin drug she was on. I mentioned that, but didn’t bring up her husband and how similar might be happening with him. Figured if I was direct I wouldn’t get far.
Soul,
Do you have the title and author of that book please?
It is good that your mother is recovering from her statins. People should realise that a two week holiday from statins is likely to be revealing as to whether they are causing side effects – then at least a person can make the choice whether to continue with the discomfort (and likely reduction in exercise) or not.
This issue IS being noticed. To a degree. AND by the “Establishment”! They’re not all of them totally corrupt and/or blinded by their own formal antiquated training.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/851189
Malcolm, I am sure you will have noted the resurrection of the Polypill in the editorial of recent newspapers … it seems that the medical profession is determined to turn us into a nation of pill poppers. No doubt someone at Nice will decide we need to eliminate this scourge once and for all … the only question is how young will be too soon to start prescribing this ‘wonder drug’ (sic) …
Very disappointing that this sort of stuff is still being touted. Would luv to see this study analysed & disected to reveal the underlying tectonic plate colisions that produce the very shaky medical narratives that plague our world today. Either this is the greatest lie & brainwashing exercise ever unleashed on a gullible world, deserving of a medical negligence label (i said it) or I’m living in another Orwellian type world where truth & logic is incidental & ignored.
Jerome: You are right on both counts, yes it is the greatest brainwashing exercise ever unleashed and Yes you are living in another Orwellian type world, Orwell was just a bit out on the date!!. I am nearer my 8th decade than my 7th and was born just before the NHS came into existence and have watched the scenario unfold. My g/mother and gg/mother lived well into their 90’s without a statin in sight and neither of them died from a heart attack or dementia. Now there is a medication for every human condition you can think of in the vain hope we will all live longer.
When I look back the one thing that has changed more than any other single factor is food and I strongly believe that the quality of food today has deteriorated to such an extent that it is perhaps unsurprising that everyone relies on medications to resolve the ill effects of inadequate nutrition. But we know the NHS is not interested in nutrition, you just have to look at hospital food!!
Answer B – but logic is always unerringly consistent with its active premise.
If you give the polypill such a score then you are blissfully or woefully ignorant of the capacity to market failure as progress. Banksters recently were exposed for doing it – but too big to fail can also mean the whole belief system – or ‘worldview’ would collapse if truth were to come out.
Nothing exists in isolation – its a house of cards.
Individuals can go to the roots of their presumptions and check their veracity – but the establishment cannot. My sense is that the new has to grow alongside the old – despite persecution – until there is a practical transfer.
Pupation gives some cause so attend the new rather than despair of the old.
Is it logical for one set of DNA to operate as two different bodies (and functionality) that for a time co-exist?
Perhaps one has to zoom out to join up the dots, or ascend!
Janice – NYT agrees with you.
“And Americans are sick — much sicker than many realize. More than 100 million adults — almost half the entire adult population — have pre-diabetes or diabetes. Cardiovascular disease afflicts about 122 million people and causes roughly 840,000 deaths each year, or about 2,300 deaths each day. Three in four adults are overweight or obese. More Americans are sick, in other words, than are healthy.” “What is making us so sick, and how can we reverse this so we need less health care? The answer is staring us in the face, on average three times a day: our food”
By heating the water slowly, a frog can be boiled without jumping from the pan
The estimable David Grimes has a go
http://www.drdavidgrimes.com/2019/08/the-polypill-statistical-spin-and.html
Chris C
Many thanks. From that, this is the nub,
“Of those without a history of cardiovascular disease (primary prevention) and receiving advice only, 229 out of 3068 experienced a cardiovascular event during the study, that is 7.5 %.
Of those without a history of cardiovascular disease and receiving advice plus polypill, 136 out of 3033 experienced a cardiovascular event, 4.5%.
Thus the absolute benefit was a reduction of 7.5-4.5 = 3% in cardiovascular events in those receding the polypill.
More spin
A 3% reduction in events is not very dramatic. How can this number be increased?
The statistical manipulation becomes the expression of 3% as proportion of 7.5%. This is (7.5-4.5)/7.5 expressed as a percentage = 40%.”
Shouldn’t there b a law against this deliberate intention to mislead ? Maybe because it’s not advertising as such that it doesn’t come under any regulatory spotlight. But it should !!
Jessie Agreed tho the other significant change is the reduction in physical movement which is only partly compensated for by the growth in organised activities & “classes”. Otherwise people are to a large extent inert, endemic driving, in a vehicle with push button windows, living in a house with every convenience. Walking thro the supermarket for burgers, sausages, pies, cake & bikkies is about as challenging as it gets (unless delivered). Exercise is no longer natural but requires special time out. But our DNA remains as it was aeons ago, the sudden de-escalation in a few generations deserves attention so as to determine it’s affects. Recalling physical labour as a 19 year old brings thoughts of feeling much better, more alert, healthy etc. Later office work brought a reduction in that sense of wellbeing.
Indeed these observations reveal a false sense of protection and comfort from perceived risk or responsibility. Does the corporate sector ‘make us’ choose weakness and dependency under their control and ‘protection’ or do we choose by default of an unwatched mind that regards such a world as a promise of freedom that comes at a cost only realised somewhere downstream – in such a world of entanglement of deceits or self-illusion as to break down as the disease of the body politic. But principally I feel there are core beliefs that operate this ‘default’ that need be uncovered and released to a more truly aligned account. Nothing is so dangerous as the illusion of safety – believed! (be-lived).
Jerome: Agreed on both posts. Food is the one factor that affects us all on a daily basis. Have people forgotten why they eat food? Of course we get hungry but it is intended to replenish the body’s needs for nutrients, once you deny the body what is essential then symptoms appear and ill-health follows. Its not a co-incidence that food manufacturers/supermarkets spend millions each year using techniques and psychology to entice shoppers to buy unhealthy products full of additives that most people don’t even understand. But….. it is still one of the things that we do have some control over.
The other thing that I think impacts on our health is the chemical industry, its not only sprayed in copious amount onto our food but is found in every corner of our homes. Soft furnishings, bedding and many more contain fire retardants which we happily breath in every day – try buying a sofa without fire retardants – its virtually impossible .
Which leads onto exercise which is absolutely essential. Whatever we ingest/inhale will require the body to rid itself of the toxins for which it has an adequate system, that is…. adequate if we don’t overload it with toxins, we have adequate amounts of the minerals its uses to do so from food and we help it along with exercise, enough to work up a sweat. When I was a child living in a rural location I walked 2.5 miles each way to school every day, parents had transport but didn’t consider it essential – I am sure it would be considered child cruelty these days – I wish I had that energy now!!!!
We live in a toxic world and if we are ever going to uncover the reasons why so many people succumb to heart disease, dementia and so forth, we need to start with the basics – what goes in our mouths. I am not suggesting that all the answers will be found in food, there are most likely many other factors that impact our daily lives that contribute including stress.
Jessie: re toxins in food
Just purchased organic apple cider vinegar after reading this article
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/08/04/glyphosate-health-risks.aspx
“Solutions for glyphosate toxicity
As the realities of glyphosate toxicity grow, there are steps you can take to protect yourself, starting with limiting your exposure by eating organic or biodynamically grown food as much as possible. Consuming organic, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar is another strategy, as it contains acetobacter, which can break down glyphosate.
“We make salad dressing [with apple cider vinegar],” Seneff says. “We have salad for dinner and I think it can actually help you to break down whatever glyphosate is in your mouth, because it will get right to work turning glyphosate into useful phosphorous. It completely gets rid of it.”
Seneff also suggests eating garlic and cruciferous vegetables, which are good sources of sulfur. Glycine supplementation may also be a good option to help detoxify glyphosate. To eliminate glyphosate, you need to saturate your body with glycine.
Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, who is a specialist in metal toxicity and its connection to chronic infections, recommends taking 1 teaspoon (4 grams) of glycine powder twice a day for a few weeks and then lower the dose to one-fourth teaspoon (1 gram) twice a day. This forces the glyphosate out of your system, allowing it to be eliminated through your urine.
Collagen is naturally rich in glycine, but if going this route, I recommend looking for organic grass fed collagen only. Organic bone broth is another excellent source of glycine-rich collagen.”
Andy,
Agree!
I am very keen on “Organic bone broth is another excellent source of glycine-rich collagen”. It makes sense to me. My freezer is full of bones from grass fed, only, cattle. I’ve got a slow cooker where the bones can simmer for a couple of days.
“It’s supposed to be automatic, but actually you have to press this button”
John Brunner, c. 1968
Now remember, children, illegal drugs are BAD. Legal drugs are GOOD. You should take as many as you can.
Trying again, or look up White Rabbit on YouTube
A negative consideration from your opening line.
A bunch of lies fed to the unwitting doesn’t become established by virtue of any support in fact but of the walling out and dying off of anyone who knows the truth.
The power to effect this was alive and well for Rockefeller philanthropy to capture the medical model through its elite institutions.
Steal the kingdom and they call you kind extends to the ability to hack the law so as to hack the educations system, media and any other vector of influence.
I am confidant in the truth – but it may be that our presumptions of the manner of its uncovering are naive.
Same ridiculous polypill story in our local rag, about one column-inche… there’s a reason such little stories are called “space – fillers”.
(35+ years in the Newspaper industry.)
Oh, is that why it was a lead story on the BBC News Channel?
The other day they were championing “cholesterol injections”. Saves you the bother of having to take a pill every day. Look at the price of PCSK9s, no wonder the NHS is bankrupt
Malcolm,
I am really looking forward to your analysis of the polypill paper – that should solve your writer’s block! The research was done in rural Iran, and randomised at the level of whole villages. As far as I could tell, no placebo pills were used.
I also wonder if the primary end-point was fixed.
Frankly, not sure if I can be bothered. It has been a desperate idea for at least twenty years. This seems almost the final act of desperation.
Well, it is topical, so there might be a great many people interested in your response. I suspect you can refute the whole thing fairly easily, and you might get a whole newspaper article in which to do it.
Going back 10 years, I’d never have believed that the exceedingly dubious concept of global warming would have reached its current prominence – with billions being spent on decarbonising – without some better evidence that there is even a real effect at all. The problem is, we live in a hysterical world. If you miss a chance to kick the polypill, it might pick up an equally crazy head of steam.
David
I think you would find that the percentages are changes in relative risk, so in terms of absolute risk much much less eye watering,
Relevant figure is two lives saved( ha ha) if the the same number of people took it for five years according to the Guardian
NB even that does not add up
I vote for Dr Kendrick’s judgement here.
The polypill’s components have already been analyzed to death (here and elsewhere) and found wanting (or not, depending on the writer).
David Bailey and Mr Chris already did the work.
David Bailey said, “As far as I could tell, no placebo pills were used.”.
Mr Chris said, “I think you would find that the percentages are changes in relative risk, so in terms of absolute risk much much less eye watering”.
What’s left to analyze?
Another radical idea is that a bacteria responsible for gum disease also causes an array of other “lifestyle” diseases including heart attacks. Quoting from New Scientist, 7th August 2019:
“P. gingivalis may literally break our hearts too. There is growing evidence for a causal link to atherosclerosis, or “hardening of the arteries”. Researchers have found P. gingivalis in the fatty deposits that line arterial walls and cause blood clots. When bits of clots clog blood vessels in hearts or brains, they cause heart attack and stroke.” This is not inconsistent with Dr Kendrick’s proposed mechanism for the first stage of endothelial damage, in this case caused by the bacteria itself. It does not explain why it does not happen in veins.Just as an aside, at least 30 years ago I was told by my vet that if I did not clean my dog’s teeth he was at risk of heart disease..nothing new under the sun?
Vets are often in advance of human medical practices.
For example. Great apes in zoos are worth a lot of money, and keeping them alive and healthy keeps the revenue coming in. So back in the 1970s it was worth their while to do studies that no-one bothered to do with humans, such as really finding out how much Vitamin C they actually needed to keep them in good health. Great apes in zoos now have their diet supplemented up to anywhere between 4 and 8 grammes of Vitamin C daily.
So is this equally applicable to humans? Many medics say not, but I would argue that, as a precautionary principle, it would seem sensible for us to ingest a proportional amount. I take somewhere between 3 and 4 grammes a day. it won’t harm me, and is quite likely to do some good.
Ties back to Micki Jacobs calcium K2 and D3 – there have been examples but don’t know how common of people reversing dental caries by improving calcium metabolism. Better teeth, less infection. I read that increased dental caries was seen as a likely outcome of low fat diets but the issue was seen as trivial. Er, perhaps not.
Probably not the best place to post this but don’t want to look on cancer sites. My 3 year old nephew hs been diagnosed with type b leukaemia which is the Philadelphia one. Anyone on here had any experience with this. We are at our wits end.
Sorry to hear this biddy99, but look up Tom Seyfried.
biddy99,
Fenbendazole is cheap and quite effective, with very low toxicity. You can buy it yourself without a prescription. Read about it here:
https://www.mycancerstory.rocks/
I am at a Mexican cancer clinic right now but I don’t know much about leukemia. I believe in alternative medicine, though. There’s a guy named Ryan Sternagel who got his little son through some sort of cancer. He might be a good place to start.
I am also taking fenbedazole.
Google seems to have joined the war against non-pharma medicine.
Do you know how these things are measured? I ask because I would assume that Google itself has plenty of employees who probably prefer non-pharma solutions…
The research was done by Selfhacked, who noticed their traffic was going down and tried to do something about it. Details and a longer list of websites here: https://selfhacked.com/blog/health-websites-that-have-been-crushed-by-googles-censorship-and-those-crushing-it/
“There seems to be some naive people in the SEO [Search Engine Optimization, i.e. tuning your website to get a higher Google rating] world that think that the declines are mostly due to technical issues. Most of the larger websites here, including SelfHacked and Examine, consulted with many SEO experts and implemented a variety of changes, while our traffic continued to decline after each successive update.
Some of the websites that declined may indeed have some technical SEO problems, but Google is smart enough to not place much emphasis on this.
When looking at all the data, it’s hard for me not to think that up to 95% of the variation in health websites have nothing to do with anything SEO technicalities.”
Google has big plans to use search data in the medical field. https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/google-strategy-healthcare/ (Warning: long report)
“Google is betting that the future of healthcare is going to be structured data and AI. The company is applying AI to disease detection, new data infrastructure, and potentially insurance. In this report we explore Google’s many healthcare initiatives and areas of potential future expansion.”
In addition, in 2016 Google announced a $715 million partnership with British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline to develop biomedical devices. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/aug/01/google-gsk-bioelectronic-medicines-verily-life-sciences-alphabet
Then there’s this: Pharma company GSK is taking control of Google data to find out more about its customers
‘”We work directly with Google and actually have a deal that we signed with them recently which actually allows us to own the data that we use … (It) allows us to have much more visibility, much more capability and understand how consumers are behaving, how they react to certain messages, how they’re searching for our products,” ‘
Fair enough. You want to understand how customers find your products, but what does it mean to ‘own the data’? Have they paid Google to modify their search algorithm so as to favour GSK? It looks like it.
‘”If you look at (search term) ‘how do I treat arthritis?’ we actually bring them to an arthritis site that isn’t very heavily branded as (anti-inflammatory) Voltaren, because we think that it’s a great destination where they’ll get lots of in-depth (information) in terms of answering that question. It’s just the first step of their path to purchase,”‘
If that’s true, Google has become evil…
Sasha: Indeed it has. Exceedingly dangerous it is. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Google is now partnered with GSK, the world’s number one vaccine maker, and is assisting the Peoples Republic of China in their propaganda and population-control schemes.
Sasha: Yes, Google has lots of employees who are good, honorable people (including a relative of mine). This is how we know management has taken it to the dark side. Project Veritas has interviewed several whistleblowers. We also have the Senate testimony of Google flipping millions of votes to the Democrats in 2016, and to a greater degree in 2018. Perhaps this is why the Dems pushed the Russian meddling in the election hoax so strongly, when it was them, through a whole host of shady characters such as Christopher Steele, Fusion GPS, the Democratic National Committee and Clinton canpaign, and a partisan cabal in the CIA, FBI, and DOJ who invented the hoax out of whole cloth in an attempted coup against Trump, and partisan Google management actually did profoundly influence the election(s). I am no fan of the Republicans either, but it is they who uncovered these dirty deeds, and AG Barr has taken a close look at the evidence. Expect some fireworks in September when his and the Inspector General’s reports are published. Indictments will be forthcoming, if our government hasn’t completely ceased to function in its law-enforcement mandates. You can watch the incendiary Senate testimony by searching Sen. Ted Cruz + Google. Only 19% of Americans still trust our government. Epstein was just the knockout punch in a long process.
Thanks for the info, Martin, John, and Gary. I also look at this as a good omen. When powers resort to book burning (even digital), it means they are feeling the heat. In the end, Truth alone prevails. Or so I would like to think…
Sasha,
My wife and I (she is also a health practitioner) have used google for years doing searches like “natural treatment for xxx”. We used to get many search results linking to very good natural medicine sites. Now, every single search result is drug oriented, or tells how you are going to die if you try natural medicine. Clearly, censorship is happening in the extreme. At least when books were burned, you knew they were being burned, and curious people like me could seek them out. Now, with “digital book burning” no one know the books are being burned. Sad.
Simple: don’t use Google!
Dr John H
What I find boring with Google is when you do a search say on « does hip cartilage regenerate itself you have to wade through pages of fake advertising before you get to anything serious or relevant.
After looking at ten useless answers, I can’t always be bothered
I’d just like to endorse what Gary has written – mainly because it sheds light on the wider problem of GOOGLE making money in extremely underhand ways. I have taken an interest in US politics, and indeed, it would seem that the collaboration with Russia thing was simply fabricated to try to bring down Trump! AG Barr is gradually shedding light into some very, very dark places.
There are a variety of alternatives to GOOGLE, including “Duck Duck Go!” (For some reason, search engines have to be called insane names). I have seen it pointed out that these may seem a little less effective than GOOGLE, but that is because they don’t store any personal information about you to focus a search based on your previously selected links.
As the truth about the effectiveness of various medicines, vicious political tricks, probable scams such as ‘climate change’, we need the internet more and more, and we need people to have effective ways to search it.
Yes, I will make an effort to use duck duck go from now on
To illustrate the change of perspective associated with a change of search engine, try typing “diseases caused by modern medicine” into both GOOGLE and “Duck Duck Go”.
The second search engine took me to this location (first item):
https://drsircus.com/general/modern-medicine-disease/
This in turn lead me to this remarkable item:
http://preventdisease.com/news/17/012717_Biologist-Proves-Measles-Isnt-Virus-Wins-Supreme-Court-Case.shtml
Thank you, I will look it up.
Sasha: Read Dr. Robert Epstein’s Google research. He is a real scientist. He is the one who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He is a Hillary supporter who wasn’t happy that Trump won, but is even more alarmed at the power of Google to meddle in elections (worldwide) by manipulating search results to favor certain candidates without the user having any idea they’ve been manipulated. The company is doing this intentionally, as documents published by whistleblowers have shown. It is his contention that virtually all of Hillary’s popular-vote margin over Trump was likely due to this manipulation. Google represents an existential threat to fair elections. Congress is so mired in partisan disputes stirred up by the plutocrats for their benefit that they probably won’t do anything meaningful about this before 2020. Nero fiddles.
I didn’t realize or, rather, never thought about this. I just did a Google search and assumed results are what they are… I switched to Duck Duck Go since we’ve been having this conversation.
Sasha: In order to understand how things work in the U.S. (and probably most places), another good read is Tyler Durden’s “The World According to Larry Summers: Government via Depraved Insiders,” (Zero Hedge, 8/27/2019).
preventdisease.com seems to have a lot of interesting articles. For example https://www.preventdisease.com/news/09/073009_soy_lecithin.shtml, and the bizarre universal, one-size-fits-all, flu vaccine https://www.preventdisease.com/news/11/021111_hogwash_alert_universal_flu_jab.shtml
AhNotepad: Thanks. Diane Harper is in a video on the second link you posted. She is one of the researchers Merck hired for the Gardasil trials. She is a truth-teller.
To be honest, when this talk about Google started on here some time ago, I thought it was some weird conspiracy theory. Now, I will need to look into this further…Thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts on this.
David Bailey: Isn’t that amazing. Momentous. I well remember when the German court verdict was published. To complete silence nearly everywhere! This is part of my skepticism of virology. “Viruses are too small to be seen, and are usually detected by indirect means.” Right.
I didn’t follow the link but recognize the story. The first hearing was found against Stefan Lanka but on appeal he was vindicated in his claim that no one can prove Measles is a virus and a prize of 100,000 Euros to anyone who could. There is a significant disinformation to smear out his work – or if you want you can believe it and trash him. If you considered what his disclosures would entail were they accepted currency – it would change the world of course – which as we all know is too big to fail.
The following has the classic phrase: “None of the six articles alone are enough to prove that measles exist, but together they prove this beyond any reasonable doubt.” – er… no proof multiplied x 6 – sounds like a scientific consensus (sic).
http://www.pepijnvanerp.nl/2017/01/disappointing-outcome-of-bardens-vs-lanka-measles-proven-to-exist-but-anti-vaxxer-lanka-keeps-his-money/
http://whale.to/a/lanka_h.html
If the germ theory is incomplete and in many ways incorrect but nonetheless a politically expedient (!) fiction – would you prefer not to know? This is a blue pill red pill moment.
Dr John H
My GP advised me over a year ago that up to 30% of liver failures resulted from herbal treatments.
What caused the other 70% of liver failures?
Most liver failure in the USA is due to alcohol and prescription drug abuse. In developing world it is due to viral hepatitis.
“Larson et al. showed that acetaminophen [paracetamol] was responsible for 42% of all cases of ALF [Acute Liver Failure] in the USA. The use of this medicine by the elderly, alcoholics and those taking overdoses with suicidal intent would be situations considered high risk for the precipitation of ALF.
The indiscriminate use of herbal medicines with a false idea that they are harmless, or with an obsessive desire to lose weight, because of consumer ingenuity or misleading advertisements, would complement other motivations that have led many people to serious liver injury.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4743226/
When the internet as started they said “information wants to be free”
Thanks to Google (and Wikipedia) we now know it wants to be $9.99
JDPatten: re counterpulsation
Looks like procedure works short-term, but in long term need to address cause of restenosis. Otherwise there will be never ending therapy.
andy: Wouldn’t continuing, frequent exercise of at least moderate intensity and sun exposure maintain these new arteries?
Gary Ogden: So someone gets new collaterals by counterpulsation, stents or CABG because of clogged arteries. My suggestion is to find out what caused the problem. Probably need more than exercise and sunshine to prevent restenosis. Addressing insulin resistance is high on my list , followed by chronic inflammation.
andy: Agreed. We don’t want it to happen in the first place. But if we can stop or reverse it, so much the better. It seems to me that the development of the collaterals is another arrow in the quiver. I think it likely true that nearly everyone would benefit by reducing carbohydrate consumption.
Andy; barovsky,
Do I read genuine skepticism in your comments about collaterals, or just pessimism?
I, fortunately for me, have not (yet?) reached the stage of having to choose. Given the choice, and if I were able, I would opt for the least invasive fix. If you do CABG for stenosis or angina, you chop out the offending bit of artery and pop in a new one. (Vein, usually.) What you’ve done is remove any natural collaterals that might have gotten a head start. If you stent, you’ve probably crushed those poor collaterals and put up a barrier to them. You will also be on an anticoagulant indefinitely.
Me, I’d optimistically go for enhancing the collateral’s chances: Exercise, endothelial targeting supplements, “enhanced external counter-pulsation”, whatever.
Of course, if you address an MI, your choices would be nuanced. Ask Goran for his MI details.
JDPatten: collaterals are good
My observation is that exercising and developing collaterals can still lead to CABG. A person I know exercised and followed the doctor recommended diet until there was 90% blockage and and then had CABG. The cardiologist commented that the heart had developed collateral circulation. There will be restenosis of the CABG if the food pyramid diet (low fat high carb) is maintained.
Performing EECP looks like a good intervention, but diet will determine the outcome.
Causes are not always persistent. Ie: a specific shock or series of events can align a systemic weakness – and ‘blow the fuse’. But of course any health challenge can serve as a call to increased vitality and greater resilience. Life is what we make it.
Andy,
Yes, a reasonable diet would be very helpful, but don’t forget that our own Dr Kendrick instructs that it’s not the whole story. There are more essential factors to consider. He provided an excellent review in blog post #59.
JDPatten: I changed my mind about health benefits of consuming 5 servings per day of fruits and vegetables. One reason is formation of oxalate crystals due to plant consumption that can lodge anywhere in the body. What would be effect on endothelium from tiny oxalate crystals whizzing along arteries?
andy: What I am doing is being more selective, eating fewer leafy vegetables, and more root vegetables and fruits. Fruits, after all, are intended to be eaten. Not very many of them though. Five servings is a comically meaningless term; as Dr. Kendrick says, plucked out of thin air. My diet consists mainly of meat, eggs, cheese, fish, and small amounts of nuts, all of the highest quality.
Gary Ogden
five fruits a day was a marketing trick. Fruits now are much ore sugary, and this business of oxalate crystals worries me.
I am currently suffering from a bout of Osteoporosis Arthritis flare up. Anybody got any ideas for the pain?
Not paracetamol please
Mr Chris, vitamin C. See Suzanne Humphries where she describes osteoporosis as scurvy of the bones. Insufficient vitamin C will also lead to arthritis. Have plenty, 1 gram a. day is just about scurvy level. 10 to 20g a day might help. It also has an analgesic effect.
AhNotepad: Thank you for reminding us of the need of bone for vitamin C. I just read this: “All mammalian bone consists of the same components: collagen, water, and inorganic mineral.” So collagen is essential for bone as well as the soft tissues which attach bone to muscle (and good skin, as my daughter reminds me). I’ve been trying to understand what osteoarthritis means. Is it pain in the bones, or pain in the soft tissues, or both? My brain hurts from trying to figure this out.
For addressing kidney stones and reducing risk, read the links JDPatten just posted (Thanks, JD!). There are some easily available plants which taste good, and relatively inexpensive supplements listed. The second article links kidney stone risk with CVD risk, something we wish to avoid like the plague. For the pain of osteoarthritis, I don’t have any knowledge, but think strategies to reduce inflammation would help, and heat (such as a warm pad) will help reduce pain and shorten healing time. Rest when your body tells you, but no longer than necessary. For preventing or reducing osteoarthritis, chondroitin sulfate is useful. I would also recommend collagen (to everyone!), either in the powder or bone-broth form, or both (as I do). Also vitamin C. Also citrulline. Be certain to eat the optimal amount of protein (1.6g/kg/day, about twice the usual recommendation), and I would argue that protein mostly from animal sources is best. One way to get both the muscle-building protein, and the soft-tissue building protein (collagen) is to eat nose to tail. Eat all the reasonably chewable chewy parts. Save the extremely tough parts for the stock pot. Chewing is good for the health, too. I’ve been physically active most of my life, and have suffered occasional bouts of osteoarthritic pain, mainly from overdoing exercise, but none since I started the regimen (collagen/vitamin C/sufficient protein). I’ve always used heat for relief, and our good country doctor convinced me of its value by using it and nothing else to miraculously cure a muscle injury. I think the nutrients in fruit are worth the fairly small insulin response from fairly small amounts of them. I eat fruit (what is locally and seasonably available: citrus, figs, grapes, pomegranates, berries, apples) about once a day.
Mr Chris: pain
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5690292/
Conclusions
This study showed for the first time that local CBD administration inhibited pain and peripheral sensitisation in established OA. Topical treatment with CBD reduced leukocyte trafficking and joint hyperaemia during the early stages of MIA. By attenuating this initial inflammatory response with CBD, end-stage OA pain and peripheral neuropathy were abrogated. Thus, CBD may be a safe therapeutic to treat OA pain locally as well as block the acute inflammatory flares that drive disease progression and joint neuropathy.
Apparently, we homo sapiens are omnivores with historically, 80% of our diet vegetable, ie fruit, nuts, seeds, legumes, leafy veg and 20% meat/fish based. Just look at our closest relatives the chimpazee/bonobo, for them meat is a treat, it’s also the only food they share as obtaining it involves collective action. Thus surely common sense, no, good sense indicates that the best diet for us is mixed, with never too much of one or a few things predominating. I try to vary my diet as much as possible, constantly changing the mix, just as I would have done if depending on ‘nature’s bounty’, season to season and so forth.
barovsky: just did a quick comparison of ape and human guts. Apparently apes depend on gut fermentation of fibre to obtain energy in form of short chain fatty acids. Our digestion is more similar to cats and dogs. Until further notice I will stick to a high fat and animal source of protein.
JDPatten: Re-read post #59, inflammation is key
We are all different. The most important factors for me would be anything that creates blood glucose spikes. A high carb meal would do it.. Other dietary factors are PUFA seed oils, lectins, oxalates, fructose, and plant anti-nutrients.
andy,
You have stones, yeah?
These might be interesting:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5877626/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27882414
JDPatten: never had stones
Apparently calcium in food will bind oxalates and prevent absorption. Vitamin C will also prevent stone formation. To be on safe side I am cutting back on high oxalate greens, vegetables and nuts.
Understandable in that though the regulated cause problems while the unregulated web based pill producers cause many more problems & sometimes immediate fatalities.
Sad to see, but I’m not surprised to see Google manipulating search results against alternative medical ideas. Google has been doing similar to other areas for awhile now.
Not health related, but somewhat similar in that I saw this morning this video of a former Google employee discussing how and why Google manipulated search results for Covfefe. I suspect what the fellow says is true.
Just been advised by a young student, well familiarised with the subject, that Google has a built in bias, search results not so random as we might believe. If you hav certain political persuasions but have a difficulty with prominent personality, your search results will drift in favour of that personality so as not to spoil your google experience – reinforcing your allegiances & the user’s feel good factor. Plus, they are watching you ! Just changed to Duck duck go – thanks to D Bailey.
It’s the algorithms. The Google ‘search’ engine is actually a RANKING engine. If you enter a search term eg, homeopathic, it will look for a site with the most hyperlinks with this term and it will be at the top of the list, in theory anyway. But the equation can be tweaked so that every site WITH the term homeopathic in the link can be EXCLUDED. That’s how websites disappear. They’re doing the same thing with lefty sites.
Few people go past the first page of Google results. 90% never go past the first ten results, so getting a high ranking is vitally important.
In theory, Google serves up those links that most other people have clicked on for the same or similar search term. But then it applies a further filter, based on your assumed preferences.
Google knows a lot about you — what language you speak, where you live, what your interests are (from previous searches and the results you clicked on) — so it tries to be helpful and serve up first those items it has calculated will be of most interest to you.
This is a good thing because it saves you wading through pages and pages of irrelevant stuff. But in order to do this there must be somewhere in the Google matrix a data file on you which can be manipulated. It might say for instance “Interest in alternative medicine +10” which is easily downgraded to a +5 and “Interest in pharmaceuticals +2” upgraded to a +10.
Then as more people click on pharma results, it pushes them automatically higher up the rankings, resulting in more people clicking on them, resulting in an evil (or beneficent, depending on your point of view) spiral of ever-better rankings.
interesting that you mention Mr. Gold. I have read his book and after 35 yrs in the business I would say he most likely is correct. The well in 1984 was drilled 2 km deep in solid granite and did recover a heavy thick black hydrocarbon although i have not seen the analysis. Ironically my father in law supported him and i believe contributed to the drilling project. He also was a geologist with a mind of his own who had radically different points of view to the norm or established. I have yet to find an instance where he turned out not to be correct. That is why I read your blog and books. Soldier on! regards Dennis
Well, I have heard of him and I have his book on my shelf. I read it perhaps 10 years ago.
Malcolm, Slightly Off Topic for your information…
I subscribe to Dr john Whitcomb blog posts, News In Nutrition”. In his most recent post he discusses fasting as a way of ‘curing’ high blood pressure. He suggests fasting for up to 10 days. He mentions that this fasting break gives the endothelial lining of the arteries time to heal from the damage caused by inflammation generated by eating crap food.
This seems all a bit radical to me. But then I have used 1 days intermittent fasting each week for the past couple of years, So maybe there is something in this. What do folk here think ?
https://blog.newsinnutrition.com/2019/08/fasting-for-high-blood-pressure/
My high blood pressure has responded to nothing. I fasted for 11 days. Have lost at least 25 pounds (I’m skinny now) and I took up daily running last January. I’ve tried different diets, especially keto. I’m not prediabetic but was perhaps drifting toward that.
Anna,
Have you tried simply boosting your intake of potassium?
It’s well known, though not widely known, that an ample sufficiency will lower BP.
Potassium is cited by Dr Malcolm as being one of the dietary helpfuls in this regard.
Anna,( Third attempt at replying )
I have never done a 10 day fast. So I have no direct experience of it. However the NCBI 2001 source cited by Whitcomb has this in the abstract :
“One hundred seventy-four consecutive hypertensive patients with blood pressure in excess of 140 mm Hg systolic, 90 mm Hg diastolic (140/90 mm Hg), or both were treated in an inpatient setting under medical supervision. The treatment program consisted of a short prefasting period (approximately 2 to 3 days on average) during which food consumption was limited to fruits and vegetables, followed by medically supervised water-only fasting (approximately 10 to 11 days on average) and a refeeding period (approximately 6 to 7 days on average) introducing a low-fat, low-sodium, vegan diet.
RESULTS:
Almost 90% of the subjects achieved blood pressure less than 140/90 mm Hg by the end of the treatment program. The average reduction in blood pressure was 37/13 mm Hg, with the greatest decrease being observed for subjects with the most severe hypertension. Patients with stage 3 hypertension (those with systolic blood pressure greater than 180 mg Hg, diastolic blood pressure greater than 110 mg Hg, or both) had an average reduction of 60/17 mm Hg at the conclusion of treatment. All of the subjects who were taking antihypertensive medication at entry (6.3% of the total sample) successfully discontinued the use of medication.”
I am not a fan of a low fat vegan diet. In fact I think it is bunk. And the fact that is is cited here, is a classic case of “Post hoc, Propter hoc” . (This happened afterwards but it must be causing the effect. ) Utter garbage !
But the report that the 174 people were able to come off their med for high BP after the 10 day fast is interesting, yes ?
Bill in Oz: A restricted eating window is my preference for the following reasons
– better sleep if not eating within 4h of bedtime
– chance for cells to clear mis-folded proteins
– extended period of lower insulin level, catabolic state
I came to the conclusion that my body actually knew what it was doing once I stopped poisoning it with excess carbs causing me to have to eat more carbs a couple of hours later to avoid falling over (reactive hypoglycemia).
I eat a small breakfast, usually a thickly buttered oatcake with smoked salmon, then I mostly don’t bother to eat again until I become hungry, generally 6 – 8 hours but sometimes up to 14 or even 24. Obviously I am metabolising the food from my previous meal(s) properly and don;t need more until it is used up.
IMO that’s one of the biggest changes in the modern world – people are eating (and drinking sugar drinks) more or less non-stop. Back in the day we had meals and no snacks, except on special occasions. That gave the opportunity for insulin, glucose, etc. to drop in between.
Malcolm,
Over the years I have read many books written by Naturopathic doctors and some MD’s (almost exclusively from the US) and have written in my own little note book – “Heart disease” 3 main causes (1) largely inflammation (2) Vitamin deficiency & (3) lack of Omega 3’s. From what I gather manufactured oils from plant sources (not real food) oxidise pretty quickly and produce free radicals causing inflammation and damage to the cells. Of course everyone is familiar with antioxidants but can we ever eat enough. Below is a summary of how it all began:-
“In 1948 Proctor & Gamble, makers of Crisco, made the American Heart Association the beneficiary of the popular Walking Man Radio Contest, raising $1.7 million for the American Heart Association, transforming it from a small underfunded professional society into the powerhouse that it is today. And what did the American Heart Association have to do in return? They had to tell everyone in the United States to stop eating butter, stop drinking full fat milk, stop eating animal fats and start eating vegetable oils and Crisco. Thus was born the heart disease epidemic. During this time the French were still consuming fats, paying no attention to the U.S. diet hype, and their incidence of heart disease remained low. France is the 9th healthiest nation in the world, the United States is the 53rd.”
Yes, but as Malcolm has pointed out, does it make sense to blame inflammation as such when most inflammation is in response to some sort of injury, and is the first phase of healing.
I think that is true of most inflammation but when you cause chronic inflammation by irritating the body with something, that may be a different story. In other words, that irritating substance is like a source of constant injury.
Micki Jacobs – vitamin K2 and arterial calcium
You asked “if you can cite a MK-4 trial with documented CAC removal…”
Here’s a link to an interview between Ivor Cummins and Prof. Matthew Budoff:
At approx 11.40 to 13.10 the conversation turns to vitamin K2 and Ivor talks about the mechanisms of calcification:
(1) those who believe vitamin K2 can stop the calcium getting into the arteries (a bad thing) and
(2) those who see calcification as a response to injury to shore up the damage.
Pro. Budoff states they have done some research on this (with patients on warfarin, a K2 antagonist) and that K2 is critical. He agrees it is 2 fold i.e. response to injury but it accumulates faster under certain circumstances.
He says K2 helpful to slow the plaque but “you certainly can’t reverse it once it’s embedded in the artery…but can slow it”.
I don’t take vitamin K2, but I take aged garlic, which is something Dr. Budoff has recommended. I suspect it is the sulfur in the garlic that is helpful. Most reading I’ve seen on sulfur says it’s good at helping the healing process. Along with garlic I drink a glass or two of alcohol to thin out the blood, sunbathe a few times a week as that raises NO levels which thins out the blood. Sun exposure is thought to help with healing also I’ve read. I also take a NO supplement 3 times a week. I also exercise. And I earth also known as grounding, which also results in odd looks when I do it and talk about now. Now I tend to just do and not say why. Grounding is though to make blood less sticky and improve the healing process, at least that is how it is described.
Soul: Good for you. I do all those things, too. except the NO supplement 3 times per day.
Charles,
I looked through some of the youtube comments, clicked some links and found several reports of people with high CAC that got it to normal with K-2 and some other things, so definitely worth doing more research on.
I am a little confused about the situation in the UK and Europe generally with corruption and control over things medical. Is the NHS not a government body and isn’t the government free to run it as it sees fit? Why is it beholden to big pharma? Why wouldn’t the NHS be interested in streamlining care to those things which are necessary and jettisoning boondoggles like statins?
In the US, we have insurance companies, no doubt in collusion with one another and with pharma, and we have pharma with its lobbyists infesting congress. Prices are kept hidden from the public although Trump is trying to outlaw that. It is only the govt programs medicare and medicaid that have the power to stand up to hospitals and knock down the bills and tell them what they will pay. And the person receiving the treatment has no idea until after they get the paperwork from medicaid what the procedure costed.
Yet what I am reading here indicates that doctors in the UK are even less free than in the US. I guess that is because they are govt employees. Here, they are increasingly employees of large insurance outfits, or of hospitals.
Yes you would think so – but it is not so. The late Tessa Jowell’s pleading in the House of Commons for some relaxation of restrictive cancer treatment law begs the question; to whom does she plea?
The medical model is NOT just for money. It is for power.
Unaccountable shadow power.
Heartful. Thanks
Anna M: Medicare would save vast sums if were allowed to negotiate drug prices, but during the George “Dubya” Bush administration Congress passed and he signed a bill outlawing this. Industry owns the Democrats; it owns the Republicans; and it owns the media. No doubt something quite similar is true in the UK. In short, we’re screwed. Doctors are between a rock and a hard place because industry owns the state medical boards, too. They use alternative treatments, despite good evidence they work, at their peril. It is clear in the kangaroo court case in the GMC against Dr. Wakefield, Professor Walker-Smith, and Dr. Murch, that industry owns the GMC, too. What government actually represents the interests of the public?
Malcom, WordPress does NOT like the brouser I use nowadays : Dissenter. It loses my comments when I use Dissenter. But not when I use Chrome, which is owned by Gurgle & which we all now suppresses dissenting views in so many areas including medicine.
Is it time to give WordPress the flick ?
My 86 year old mother in law is being put on statins to lower her cholesterol. Of course, the doctors know much more than I do. I’m crazy for even suggesting that she shouldn’t take it. Fear is a powerful motivator. They also told her not to take Vitamin E since it could interfere with her Warfarin by thinning her blood too much. Wouldn’t it make more sense to drop the rat poison? I also begged them to give her CoQ10, but again, who am I compared to the all knowing doctors? All I can do is hope for the best.
Don,
If you and your mother want to learn about statins, I suggest:
1. watching the movie “Statin Nation”
2. Then get 2 copies of Malcolm’s book “A Statin Nation” (1 for each of you).
3. Then read this free short ebook book “Reversing Heart Disease”
Thank you. I will keep on trying!
Someone upthread mentioned that we will not run out of fossil fuels if they are abiotic.
I don’t know why some people think this. Even renewable resources can be used faster than replenishment, such as in deforesting.
Someone upthread mentioned that if oil is abiotic, we won’t run out. I don’t know why some people think this. Even renewable resources can be stripped faster than replenishment.
New paper in the European Heart Journal: Statins increase L(p)a;
https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz310
High LDL protective against dementia in Shanghai-dwelling Chinese:
https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2018.00952
No association with dairy product consumption and mortality in Italians:
https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz183
Did a 65 mile cycle today against a decent wind. Pretty hungry (& thirsty) at end. Rewarded myself with 9″pizza. Glass of red was nice and i enjoyed the complimentary choc biccie with the coffee. Did I do wrong ?
Assume pizzas are full of carbs !
But then it’s staple diet for Italians who are not – the unhealthiest race on the planet.
Somebodys gonna tell me though, that their dough is different dough ! No ?
Jérôme
I often ask myself the same question.
Take France for example. I usually spend a month in the summer in Normandy. The french stuff themselves with bread. Where we are, a town of 2900 inhabitants, there are three bakeries and à Carrefour selling decent bread. I was once doing a cycle event if Normandy for charity, at lunch time a local asked me etc how come I wasn’t overweight. He said that they thé French don’t get at the sugar. Incidentally the French do go to seed and take sugary things and have a very low rate of CVD
Mr Chris They asked you why U weren’t overweight ? because you’r not French ? Meanwhile French body size appears to be on the increase since the early 90’s. They have succumbed – or are succumbing !
Jérôme
As Malcolm never tires of repeating, it is not about diet.
Thé French diet rapidly becoming like all western diets.
But the soi-disant French paradox exists
Mr Chris. Good point. It is only about diet in some individual cases.
Agreed Chris. This is where the stress hormone cortisol becomes relevant. Its why I was interested in getting Dr K’s insight to Robert Sapolsky’s texts. One comment of Sapolsky’s that struck me was his reference to “joyless striving” in our world. Do the French have less of the old J.S. ?
Jérôme
Dr K has several times commented on the French outlier.
As I remember he seemed to think it was more to do with a relaxed way of life.
Thé French, relaxed?
Mr Chris Could it be the gauloises cigs that helps them chill ? Lol.
They do use older types of wheat, from what I understand.
Sasha: Which contains less gluten. Here in the U.S. commercial bakeries add, in addition to the higher gluten in modern wheat varieties, extra gluten to speed up the rising, and thus the production process, lowering production costs in the process.
It’s money, customers? Who cares? There’ll be a few more million along in a little while.
Yes, they keep to the old ways, I think. Maybe, part of the reason why so many of them can eat pasta 3-4 times a week and bread pretty much daily and still maintain healthy weight and good metabolic health.
Sasha: Yes. But I think the most important factor in the good health of Italians, and the French, too, is the social aspect, especially the family ties.
Gary: I would argue with that. I know plenty of urbanized northern Italians and their family ties are no different from tightly knit American or Russian families.
Sasha/Garry: re healthy non fat Italians eating spaghetti, could be the olive oil or lack of soybean oil
https://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com
Sasha: Perhaps, for Italians (and the French and others), they are culturally more resilient to avoiding the strain from stressors everyone in every culture is subject to. Dr. Kendrick has discussed this at some length in previous posts, and I think he has hit upon the biggest factor in CVD, and health in general. Certainly the 20th Century was not kind to Russians, and I suspect that this is a major factor in their high rate of CVD. And the cold weather, perhaps?
Gary: I think you are right about stress. There’s a book (I forgot the title) on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) and how they correlate with health. The hazard ratios for those with ACE’s for virtually any serious disease are insane.
Italians do have an easy going attitude and it probably serves them well. As far as Russia, I think the rough times go further than the 20th century, maybe as far back as Ivan the Terrible. There’s been so much strife here, I am surprised anyone survived.
Regarding cold, I actually think it has more of a beneficial effect. As far as I know, there are only three approaches that have been scientifically proven to extend life: calorie restriction (hence fasting), exercise or regular physical activity, and exposure to certain stressors – cold, heat (sauna), and so forth. Russians, and possibly other Northerners, have been using cold for centuries to strengthen body and spirit. The current promoter of cold exposure is a Dutchman Wim Hof, it’s amazing what he’s been able to achieve with regular cold exposure. But he’s only the latest reincarnation of cold lovers.
Sasha: Thanks. Very interesting about cold in regard to health; I knew this already in regard to sauna. I think what I meant was insufficient vitamin D in high latitudes. By the way, Adverse Childhood Experiences is one of the newer ways the health establishment is trying to deflect attention to the vast harm done by vaccination. Read it with a skeptical eye. The Russian people not only survived, but seem to be doing quite well today. More power to them.
Andy: possible. Because I was so surprised at all the anti-grain sentiment out there, I actually went to normal weight Italians in Italy who I am friends with and asked them: “how much bread and pasta would you say you eat, on average?” I also wanted to see how their responses correspond with what I saw them do in their “natural habitat”.
Their typical response was: “pasta 3-4 times per week. Bread almost daily”. If someone wants to lose weight, they cut down on bread, typically.
Sasha
Understand it is semolina flour
Yes, very possible. I haven’t looked into details of this
David oops. Apologies. My editor needs to b spoken to. “would have AVOIDED an earlier misdiagnosis”
Gary Ogden – statins increase lp(a)
Thanks for posting the link. That’s another reason to be wary of statins, along with:
– statins won’t stop the progression of your coronary artery calcium score and
– statins lower/block the body’s production of CoQ10
and many more! These are 3 tested side effects of statins which any doctor shouldn’t dispute.
As opposed to subjective, self diagnosed, n=1 side effects. Which are valid and which your a doctor will probably dismiss.
Charles,
“statins won’t stop the progression…”
Actually, statins proudly INCREASE the laying on of calcification, their proponents declaring that it stabilizes plaque.
That’s as may be, but I’d rather have none of it.
If statins increase lp(a) and if we are satisfied, as a result of the content of these pages plus the common sense of orher science influenced medics, that an increase in lp(a) is of no consequence and possibly (probably ?) Beneficial then is that not a good(ish) thing?
Inverse logic at work here.
tenacious, persevering, determined, resolute, purposeful, dogged, single-minded, tireless, indefatigable, patient, unflagging, untiring, insistent, importunate, relentless, unrelenting; more stubborn, intransigent, obstinate
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190831155846.htm
“There is now overwhelming evidence from experimental, epidemiological, genetic studies, and randomised clinical trials, that higher LDL cholesterol is a potent cause of heart attack and stroke,” said Professor Colin Baigent, Chairperson of the guidelines Task Force and director of the MRC Population Health Research Unit, University of Oxford, UK. “Lowering LDL cholesterol reduces risk irrespective of the baseline concentration. It means that in people at very high risk of heart attack or stroke, reducing LDL cholesterol is effective even if they have below average starting levels.”
Effective at what? I say, show us the evidence. Show us the data. We will graciously eat crow if we are wrong to question your royal decree, but I think not. He who hideth data has something to hide (like Michael Mann and his hockey stick).
I mentioned an acquaintance who tested 4.1 cholestoral over a year ago. Heart attack 2 weeks later. On phone to a friend Thurs night who tells me her brother with cholestoral 3.6 had a similar experience. His GP had diagnosed him with a gastro condition until his bloods revealed the true story.
I said goodbye to statins many years ago & feel better for it & angio 2 years ago showed no cause for concern. And 65 mile cycle yesterday, 44 today.
Is it conceivable that these blood tests for heart attacks may throw up false positives?
David – not in this case, as further examination has revealed. If the blood test had been done earlier it would have an earlier misdiagnosis.
David oops. Apologies. My editor needs to b spoken to. “would have AVOIDED an earlier misdiagnosis”
People with below average LDL levels are at increased risk of CVD. I think someone must have lost contact with the concept of average here.
I am not always able to respond directly to comments. I do have potassium at home but I would have to take 10 per day to get enough. However, it is a good suggestion. I also take magnesium. Maybe that’s why it’s higher lately – I’m not home.
As to the fast and the vegan diet – well I don’t know what to make of it but I am going to become a reluctant vegan because of cancer. I have finally become convinced that there is something to the idea that cancer patients should not eat dairy or much meat. Cancer does not only love sugar. It loves iron, IGF1, glutamine and even fat.
Anna, best of luck with following a vegan diet for treating your cancer. Just thought to quickly mention if you have not already you might enjoy reading Professor Jane Plant’s books. A number of years ago she was close to passing away from cancer. Out of desperation she began avoiding dairy products and limited eating meat. Much to her happiness her cancer went away, and remained at bay for 20 years.
Anna, look into the work of Dr Valter Longo, if you get a chance
I saw a lecture of his. He promotes the idea that blue zones eat little animal products. I believe he focused mostly on Italy. But I think these people are lying. There are several aspects of the lifestyle besides diet – like sunny climate, relaxed schedule, local gardening and family connections. But if I understand correctly, these people eat far more animal products than they are letting on. And Longo is Italian and should know better?
I don’t think they are lying, what would be the motivation? I agree that there are lots of factors: sunshine, family ties, simple food and more relaxed lifestyle, etc.
Longo’s family is from the area so I think he just observed their food habits and then studied it from the standpoint of longevity research. Hence, his thoughts on mTOR, etc…
People lie about all sorts. You would wonder what the motivation is, but for example the people who believe in anthropogenic climate change will say anything to maintain the belief. Michael Mann, he lies, and for what benefit?
I can’t say about Michael Mann, I don’t know anything about that topic. But I doubt that Sardinians (or wherever Longo’s family is from) lie about their dietary habits. Or that Dr Longo does, for that matter. IMO, this whole LCHF vs vegan debate is unique to modern societies, not those that stick to traditional ways.
Anna M: And it turns out that the places purported to have high numbers of super-centenarians are also places with poor birth records. All is not as it seems in the world of longevity.
Anna,
The Weston Price Foundation has written several articles about the bizarre notion that the blue zones diet is plant based (it is not!). Here is one: https://www.westonaprice.org/the-blue-zones-by-dan-buettner/
Also, in regards to your protein concerns you may want to consider Nicholas Gonzales’ work with pancreas enzymes. He used very high doses of pancreas glandulars to eat cancer cells. If you take the glandulars with food, it digests proteins and more. Away from food, they digest cancer cells. He used pork pancreas glandular made by Allergy Research Group (others make it too). Not having sufficient pancreas enzymes could be a reason why some people’s cancer improves when they cut out animal proteins, because there is not enough pancreatic enzymes left to digest cancer cells after digesting food. I’m looking at the protocol for a patient that he saw, who I see now. He had her taking 14 5x/day during waking hours with water only at least 1 hour away from food. Also 3 with each meal and 14 again at 3:30 am.
Thomas Cowan uses the pancreas glandulars in his cancer protocol, along with low dose naltrexone and some other things. Low dose naltrexone can be purchased from International Anti-aging systems online without a prescription. I have used them for years, and they are legit though some of their prices are crazy high (naltrexone price is ok). See his protocol here: https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/modern-diseases/a-holistic-approach-to-cancer/
Fenbendazole has gotten amazing cancer healing results for many people. I have learned that it needs to be taken with vitamin E to potentize the effect. Daniel Cobb, who I have talked about before says vitamin E from A.C. Grace is the best. Read Joe Tippens to learn about Fenbendazole here: https://www.mycancerstory.rocks/single-post/2016/08/22/Shake-up-your-life-how-to-change-your-own-perspective?fbclid=IwAR0BO2s2fsLpxCbpQEqcg5ehgAPB-3b4X3voGwdi6EV2hcsoqYNF2uZtqtw
Good Luck!
Thanks for this. A wealth of information.
Dr John Hunt –
LDN – Naltrexone : 4.5mg capsules. All EU countries require a prescription for LDN.
Dr John,
How are the glandulars able to distinguish between malignant and benign cells?
AhNotepad,
What benefits does Michael Mann get for lying?
He has an expensive big house in (I think) Boulder . His papers are published, he has a well paying job, he gets lots of media attention. And perhaps most importantly, he never has to admit he was wrong.
Dr John H, I think that answers the question. He invented the hockey stick after getting rid of the medieval warm period. That’s lying in my book, since he also refuses anyone access to his data.
AhNotepad: Since Tim Ball prevailed in the defamation lawsuit Mann filed against him, there might be some justice in the wings. The reason Mann (who loves to sue people) lost is that he refused to disclose the data and the software he used to create the phony hockey stick. Apparently Canadian law is pretty strict on the need for evidentiary proof, and he refused to provide it after promising to do so. Apparently there is in the works a RICO (a statute which is open to citizen complaints) lawsuit to force Mann to put up or face charges of scientific fraud. What prompted the defamation suit on Mann’s part was Tim Ball saying that he “belongs in the state pen rather than Penn State” because of the hockey stick nonsense, which apparently was based on a single tree-ring series (that of the bristlecone pine, an incredibly long-lived [5,000+ years] species), but contradicted by all other tree-ring data. These are proxy data, but, in aggregate, have value in reconstructing the climate of the past few millennia. More of this story on WUWT. Also, Tim Ball’s graph, based upon actual data, showing the MWP climate was clearly warmer then todays’.
AhNotepad,
This may be the best climate skeptic article I have read yet, written by an environmentalist who studies trees.
http://www.landscapesandcycles.net/listen-to-the-trees.html
Tony Heller provides a wealth of documented history that reveals climate change (fluctuation) is being hijacked to political ends. This also would be nothing new but the amount of leverage, money, energy and ingenuity being applied to its agenda is witnessed by about 30 years of failed predictions and growing only stronger in both assertions and a globally insinuated legal framework of thought along with a cultivated subversion of an environmental movement to guilt-capture under the theme of carbon-guilt economy.
The evils of the oil and coal era are primarily in its energy cartel. The shift to a global energy (and thought) control system (Under the IoT) is only a token sacrifice by which to extend and expand power of control through regulated scarcity. Pharma is an extension of that cartel. Rockefeller medicine is monopolistic under the aegis of a cartel of apparent competition sharing a regulatory capture.
The first order of vigilance to any call to action is to discern its basis in fact. The means of its delivery can reveal it has none. You do not need to be a scientist to recognise all the hallmarks of a deceit, but you do need to be in your own integrity or else the targeted appeals to sympathies and antipathies of emotional response will set the frame of your thinking. That is how it works!
As for the bandwagon effect – tie your research or project to Environmental correctness to attract funding – or design the projects to target and milk the immense funding diverted to fear-driven agenda. “War on Climate!” is war on misguided primates. Self effected.
>
Cancer likes sugar and l-glutamine. Go very low carb. You can’t do much about l-glutamine, though, unless you have the correct drugs.
The “evidence” that red meat = cancer is suspect, at best.
https://www.diagnosisdiet.com/meat-and-cancer/
In fact, in the WHI dietary intervention trial, the women under test ate 20% less red meat (a statistically significant amount) and the study was powered to find cancer indications, and there was no difference between the group under test and control group in any type of cancer.
Thank you and Dr. John for all this.
Dr. John, I have been taking fenbendazole for about 8 weeks now. I am not sure about the vitamin E! I have been influenced by a game changer of a book, called How To Starve Cancer. It is not just about diet. It is about blocking all the metabolic and fuel pathways that cancer can morph into. She says vitamin E will neutralize the free radicals you need to kill cancer cells. She also says that glutathione can fuel cancer. Here at my Mexican cancer clinic, they give IV glutathione and I refused my last dose. All this is very complicated.
Cancer also likes iron and even fat. I’ve read it also utilizes fat and can even learn to eat ketones. Very versatile is cancer. Red meat has more IGF1. Unfortunaely, dairy has the most. this is a growth factor. It may be the reason so many report success with near vegan diets – there just isn’t much for the cancer to eat. I’m not pleased about it, but I have eaten high fat and fairly low carb and my cancer grew.
And yes, you need the right drugs. I’m looking into that whole approach right now.
Anna, if you’re in the US, you will be out of luck. Using ketogenic diets and techniques such as l-glutamine drugs are not the standard of care. You can’t do them. Thomas Seyfried studies these, but studies them mainly overseas.
Anna,
Here is an article about Fenben including vitamin E usage.
https://www.cancertreatmentsresearch.com/fenbendazole/
Someone sent me this podcast with Joe Tippens, I haven’t listened to it, but the woman who sent it thought it very good.
https://castbox.fm/episode/Episode-040%3A-Wellness-Speaks-With-Joe-Tippens-About-His-Cancer-Story-id2133807-id156188188?utm_campaign=a_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=a_share&country=us
Good article by Stephanie Seneff on biochemical and physiological mechanisms of statin damage. It’s from heart disease reversal book Dr John H linked earlier:
https://people.csail.mit.edu/seneff/why_statins_dont_really_work.html
You may like to add for information, that sadly Jane Plant died Of recurring Breast Cancer in March 2016.
Joyce, Yes, I saw that about Professor Plant’s passing. There were many problems with Jane’s book. It kind of made me chuckle reading in some respects. She starts out in her first book how her book is going to be based upon science and evidence. Her back ground as a Professor required only the facts. She then writes about items that can be disputed for the lack of science backing. I don’t know if she realized that or not.
Regardless I thought Jane Plants story remarkable. Conventional treatments had failed her. Her doctors believed she had only a month or two remaining to live. She still wanted to continue living and decided to try tinkering with her diet. She avoided dairy and most meat and the result was that her deadly cancer went away. She lived for an additional 20 years. I find that rather remarkable considering the circumstance.
What I took from it is that diet likely can play a roll in fighting cancer for some. Maybe not all, but some people can benefit from diet change when combating cancer.
Why avoiding diary products worked for Jane Plant I’d say we don’t know. She didn’t know but had guesses why it worked. Possibly she had an allergy to dairy, and being that dairy was toxic for her body, avoiding it allowed her body’s immune system to successfully fight the cancer she had. That is my guess on what happened. It is only a guess though.
On another person’s successful fight against cancer, in a couple days my parents will be at a party to celebrate Professor Martin’s successful 20 years of being cancer free. I have a good guess on what worked for Dr. Martin. He has UC, took many toxic medications to treat his IBD condition, and when he developed colon cancer doctors removed his colon. I believe he also stopped taking some of the toxic medications for UC as they were no longer needed.
We hope Dr. Martin remains cancer free for many more years. He won’t live forever and it’s possible he could redevelop cancer, but since he does’t have a colon it will be some other type if that should happen.
Soul…I too read Jane Plant’s book many years ago, but gave up on it half way through. I don’t personally believe in all of these magic “fixes”. That’s not to say I am right of course, there may well be a magic bullet one day! When most of us are struck down with one cancer or another, we tend to quickly grasp whatever “cure”/potion is currently available. In my own case it was extremely aggressive Triple negative Breast Cancer, which was treated(without many complaints for me!) for 11 months of Chemo/Surgery/more Chemo/Radiotherapy, alongside a bloodyminded attitude that I wasn’t ready to die! Whether or not the attitude bit worked I don’t know, but the medical intervention certainly did, or has done for the last 16 years! Like you, I believe it is patently obvious that a good diet/healthy lifestyle helps greatly, but overall I think life is a lottery whatever you do! After a cardiac arrest almost four years ago, I’d have used up two of my nine lives were I a cat! I feel life is for living, (sort of sensibly of course). Searching for the magic bullet I leave up to the lovely Malcolm Kendrick and Co. 😉
You haven’t done an update on Lp(a) for a while, but my level is very high, as in three+ times the “bad” level. I had a CAC scan done, however, and got a score of zero. I’m in the lowest 10% for my age (55, male) for CAC. Low carb/keto since 1/1/14, with intermittent and long-term fasting. Currently, I primarily eat meat (concentrating on eating red meat), some dairy, a tiny amount of vegetables. This is also more evidence that saturated fat does not “clog” arteries, at least over a 6 year interval.
Well, I believe those people eat goats, goat milk, cheese, yogurt, occasional beef, lots of pork and sheep. I’m pretty sure they eat chickens and eggs. He made it seem these were rare foods. I don’t believe that.
Research grants, Kudos, speaking tours
I’m currently reading a book about Edward de Vere. Some believe de Vere was the author of the plays attributed today to William Shakespeare. I’d heard of de Vere in the past. Even in High School many ages ago he was talked about in class as possibly the correct author of the plays. It had me thinking as I read the book, I wonder what would happen if de Vere papers were found showing in all likely hood he was the author of the famous plays. Would that proof be enough to over throw the current belief that Shakespeare was the author? I have doubts that would happen. A legend and industry has been formed around the current belief. Change is hard to make.
I get the same opinion about the medical field. It wouldn’t surprise me if 400 years from now the same arguments were going on about cholesterol in the medical field over if it causes heart disease or not. Would be shame if that happened.
Soul: The evidence is pretty overwhelming that de Vere was the actual author; that Shakespeare, though a successful businessman, had not a book in his house, had travelled little, and couldn’t possibly have written this great body of work. The attribution was purely for political reasons, to protect the monarchy. What’s new?
Absolutely. Makes sense. I haven’t gotten to the point in the book where the author theorizes why de Vere didn’t receive the credit he likely deserves but I’m looking forward to reading that part.
This likely isn’t known in the UK, but I used to frequently visit Ashland/Medord, Oregon, the American hub for all things Shakespearian. An Edward de Vere festival certainly would require a few changes of scenery around my old stomping grounds.
Soul: I’ve been there, too. Lovely part of Oregon, and a fine festival.
BobM,
I do live in the US but I can eat whatever diet I want. As for the antiglutamate approach, that isn’t sufficient by itself. You have to close off all pathways. That is just one. It’s true it isn’t the standard of care but I believe there are ways to get the prescriptions that are needed.
I am in Mexico right now at a clinic and have also been able to go to the pharmacy and buy a couple of things on the list without prescription.
According to today’s Lancet, NICE has further tightened the BP treatment guidelines, calling this a “compromise.” Oh boy!