6th December 2021
Here I am on vitamins again. I don’t wish to give the impression that all I care about is vitamins. However, I have been thinking about them recently for various reasons.
The first thing to say is that I do find it slightly strange that we have substances which are absolutely essential for life, that we must eat, because our bodies cannot make them. It seems a design flaw. I want my money back.
Added to this absolute reliance on them, we do not get any hint that we are running out. If we become dehydrated, we feel thirsty, and we drink. If our energy supplies are running down, we feel hungry and we eat.
On the other hand, if our Vitamin B12 supplies are becoming perilously low – we might end up feeling bloody awful. In the final stages we could end up paralyzed, then dead, without knowing why. Vitamin B12 is essential for the health of neurones (amongst other things). But there is nothing that triggers our desire to forage around for foodstuffs rich in vitamin B12. Supposing we knew what they were anyway.
I presume this means that whilst we were evolving from the primeval soup, there were plenty of vitamins (and minerals) about. We had no need to seek them out specifically, because they were always present in the things we ate. In ample supply? Always …? Of course, it is not just vitamins, there are minerals we need too.
Magnesium
Most people are probably blissfully unaware they need magnesium. If you don’t have enough, how would you know? The first recognisable symptom may be … suddenly dropping dead.
Israel gives us a stark warning of what happens when magnesium goes missing, with no-one noticing. For many years, most of the water supply in Israel has been provided by desalination. This process does not just get rid of salt (NaCl), it also removes the other salts, and minerals, at the same time.
In normal circumstances people get most of the magnesium they need from drinking water. Which means there was clearly a potential for a major deficiency problem building up in Israel. As most of their water contained nothing but pure H20.
Did anyone notice? As in, did anyone say, ‘golly I feel low in magnesium today, I must go and eat a substance high in magnesium…’ Nope. Did anyone die. Yup, they did. As outlined in the paper ‘Association between exposure to desalinated sea water and ischemic heart disease, diabetes mellitus and colorectal cancer; A population-based study in Israel.’ 1
There were possibly as many as 4,000 deaths a year:
‘An estimated 4,000 Israelis die in an average year due to an inadequate amount of magnesium in their bodies – and the amount they get from natural potable water sources is increasingly declining due to the growing desalination of sea water. The figure is 10-fold the death toll from road accidents.’ 2
The population of Israel is just over nine million. The equivalent death rate in the UK would be 30,000 deaths a year, or 180,000 in the US. A silent killer indeed.
Anyway, yes, magnesium is critical stuff. It is extremely important for health, especially heart health. It is required for the correct functioning of the electrical system in your heart, and a low level increases the risk of atrial fibrillation. Here from the paper ‘Low serum magnesium and the development of atrial fibrillation in the community: the Framingham Heart Study.’
‘…individuals in the lowest quartile of serum magnesium were ~50% more likely to develop AF…compared with those in the upper quartiles.’ 3
Unfortunately, despite its importance, we don’t feel magnesium depleted. We do not crave magnesium rich foods – as if we would have any idea what they might be … I certainly don’t. The symptoms of severe deficiency are also non-specific. The first symptom might be that your heart decides to stop beating.
It’s not just Israel. Here from the paper: ‘Subclinical magnesium deficiency: a principal driver of cardiovascular disease and a public health crisis.’
‘Furthermore, because of chronic diseases, medications, decreases in food crop magnesium contents, and the availability of refined and processed foods, the vast majority of people in modern societies are at risk for magnesium deficiency.’ 4
Have you ever heard of any of this? Did you even know you had magnesium in your body – or that it did anything important? I suspect not. However, from the same paper:
‘…magnesium deficiency can lead to serious morbidity and mortality and has been implicated in multiple cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, cardiomyopathy, cardiac arrhythmia, atherosclerosis, dyslipidaemia and diabetes. Unfortunately, the western diet is often low in magnesium due to the refining and processing of foods, and hypomagnesaemia is often underdiagnosed in hospitalised patients.’4
My advice, take a supplement. Especially if you live in an area with ‘soft’ water – which generally means not many minerals. Doubly especially if you have atrial fibrillation. It might just go away. How much do you need to take? Around 400mg a day is fine.
Back to vitamins – in this case, Vitamin(s) B
The reason for the detour is that I really wanted to make it clear that it is certainly not a given that we routinely get all the essential micro-nutrients we need from our diet.
Modern living, modern food production and farming, modern food processing … have all have a significant impact on what our food, and water, contains.
The lazy mainstream assumption that micronutrient deficiencies simply do not exist is, therefore, wrong. Try looking at Iodine deficiency in Switzerland sometime. In addition, I am extremely dubious that we truly know what the optimal intake of micronutrients may be. The research in this area is sketchy, to say the least.
This, eventually, takes us onto vitamins, more specifically, the B vitamins. There are many of them – eight, in fact.
- B1 (thiamine)
- B2 (riboflavin)
- B3 (niacin)
- B5 (pantothenic acid)
- B6 (pyridoxine)
- B7 (biotin)
- B9 (folate ak.a. folic acid)
- B12 (cobalamin)
The first question that springs to mind is the following. Where are numbers four, eight, ten and eleven? What happened to them? It’s a bit like clotting factors. We have VII, VIII, IX etc. But there is no factor one, or two. Who gets to name things in medicine anyway?
Moving on. My main interest in the B vitamins is that, if you are low in three of them, maybe four of them: three, six, nine and twelve, this can lead to an increased level of a protein in the blood called homocysteine. [I think B6 is more important than B3, but we shall let this go for now].
The reason why this is important is if you have a high level of homocysteine then this is strongly associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The mechanism of action appears to be that homocysteine is toxic to endothelial cells.
‘Elevated homocysteine (Hc) levels have a well-established and clear causal relationship to epithelial damage leading to coronary artery disease.’ 5
On the other hand, low levels of homocysteine are associated with a lower risk:
‘In observational studies, lower homocysteine levels are associated with lower rates of coronary heart disease and stroke. Folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12 lower homocysteine levels.’[i]
As you may have gathered from that short quote, if you have a high homocysteine level, and you take B vitamins, your homocysteine levels will fall. As confirmed in a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition:
‘Elevated levels of homocysteine is an indication of inadequate folate and vitamin B-12 in the diet, writes lead author Giovanni Ravaglia, a researcher with University Hospital S. Orsola-Malpighi in Bologna, Italy. His paper appears in the March American Journal of Clinical Nutrition….High homocysteine levels can be treated very easily with vitamins, including folate, niacin, and B-12.’ 6
I think the connection between B vitamins, and homocysteine, were first noted by Kilmer McCully. He studied the area in detail at Harvard University. At least he did so for a while, before he was unceremoniously booted out for carrying out research that threatened to undermine the almighty cholesterol hypothesis. A sorry tale, as reported in the New York Times:
‘Thomas N. James, a cardiologist and president of the University of Texas Medical Branch who was also the president of the American Heart Association in 1979 and ’80, is even harsher [regarding the treatment of McCully]. ”It was worse than that you couldn’t get ideas funded that went in other directions than cholesterol,” he says. ”You were intentionally discouraged from pursuing alternative questions. I’ve never dealt with a subject in my life that elicited such an immediate hostile response.”
It took two years for McCully to find a new research job. His children were reaching college age; he and his wife refinanced their house and borrowed from her parents. McCully says that his job search developed a pattern: he would hear of an opening, go for interviews and then the process would grind to a stop. Finally, he heard rumors of what he calls ”poison phone calls” from Harvard. ”It smelled to high heaven,” he says.’
McCully says that when he was interviewed on Canadian television after he left Harvard, he received a call from the public-affairs director of Mass. General. ”He told me to shut up,” McCully recalls. ”He said he didn’t want the names of Harvard and Mass. General associated with my theories.’ 7
And you wonder why researchers are wary of questioning the cholesterol hypothesis? Yes, crushing scientific debate has a long and inglorious history, starting long before COVID19 first appeared over the horizon. In the world of cholesterol, it has been going on for well over sixty years.
Homocysteine, B vitamins and dementia
Now, dear reader, having just focussed on B vitamins, homocysteine and cardiovascular disease, I am going to abruptly change tack. I shall now move away from heart disease to Alzheimer’s disease. The reason for this is straightforward.
As I began to research this area in more detail, it become increasingly clear that there was a worrying association between raised homocysteine, brain damage, and dementia. This certainly attracted my attention. Because I like my brain, and I want to keep it healthy for a long as possible.
I came across papers such as this: ‘Plasma Homocysteine as a Risk Factor for Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease.’
‘An increased plasma homocysteine level is a strong, independent risk factor for the development of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.’ 8
There were many more such papers, but you probably get the general idea. Raised homocysteine … Bad.
At this point I already knew that the B vitamins can lower the homocysteine level – if it is high. In addition, B vitamins are well known to have vital functions in the central and peripheral nervous system.
Here, from the paper: ‘B Vitamins in the nervous system: Current knowledge of the biochemical modes of action and synergies of thiamine, pyridoxine, and cobalamin.’
Neurotropic B vitamins play crucial roles as coenzymes and beyond in the nervous system. Particularly vitamin B1 (thiamine), B6 (pyridoxine), and B12 (cobalamin) contribute essentially to the maintenance of a healthy nervous system. Their importance is highlighted by many neurological diseases related to deficiencies in one or more of these vitamins, but they can improve certain neurological conditions even without a (proven) deficiency.’ 9
So, not only do certain B vitamins lower homocysteine levels. A number of them play a critical role in the growth and support of nerve cells, and suchlike.
None of this is exactly news. It has been known for centuries that excess alcohol consumption – which blocks Vitamin B1 absorption from the gut – can cause a specific form of dementia called Korsakoff’s dementia. Because of this, people with alcohol problems are often prescribed high dose vitamin B1 (Thiamine).
Which means that it was never a stretch to suggest that giving people B vitamins might be an extremely good thing if you want to prevent, or delay, the progression of Alzheimer’s/brain shrinkage. Either through the benefits on lowering raised homocysteine, or via the critical functions of B vitamins on the structure and function of the brain.
That, anyway, was the underlying science. But does giving B vitamins actually work? Well researchers at Cambridge University certainly believed it was a splendid idea:
‘In an initial, randomized controlled study on elderly subjects with increased dementia risk, we showed that high-dose B-vitamin treatment (folic acid 0.8 mg, vitamin B6 20 mg, vitamin B12 0.5 mg) slowed shrinkage of the whole brain volume over 2 years.’ 10
In a follow-up study, this group of researchers then found that, in people with raised homocysteine levels, who already had signs of dementia, B-vitamins reduced brain destruction and slowed, even halted, the progression of Alzheimer’s. In their own words, from the paper ‘Preventing Alzheimer’s disease-related gray matter atrophy by B-vitamin treatment’:
‘….we showed that high-dose B-vitamin treatment (folic acid 0.8 mg, vitamin B6 20 mg, vitamin B12 0.5 mg) slowed shrinkage of the whole brain volume over 2 years. Here, we go further by demonstrating that B-vitamin treatment reduces, by as much as seven-fold, the cerebral atrophy in those gray matter (GM) regions specifically vulnerable to the AD (Alzheimer’s Disease) process, including the medial temporal lobe. In the placebo group, higher homocysteine levels at baseline are associated with faster GM atrophy, but this deleterious effect is largely prevented by B-vitamin treatment. We additionally show that the beneficial effect of B vitamins is confined to participants with high homocysteine.’ 11
Yes, it was all looking quite good. By the way, this study came out in 2013.
But then we need to factor in the knowledge that B vitamins are very cheap. Very cheap indeed. In addition, they cannot be patented. Which makes it extremely difficult for any pharmaceutical company to make money from them. You can, of course sell them for a small profit, but pharmaceutical companies need billions to feed the machine. They require unique, patentable, blockbuster drugs. Drugs my precious.
Had any drug shown such a significant effect on brain shrinkage, I am one hundred per cent certain that the finding would have been shouted from the rooftops. We would be looking at a massive blockbuster. Probably the biggest selling drug in the world – ever.
As it was, the research from Cambridge was passed over in virtual silence … I suspect you never heard anything about it. Then, with a certain inevitability, the findings were, effectively squashed.
How was this done?
It was done through the power of the meta-analysis. A meta-analysis is a fancy term describing an attempt to bring together all the relevant trials that have been done in a therapeutic area. In order to construct a ‘meta’ study, or meta-analysis.
They can be a very useful way to bring together all of the relevant research, where there have been a large number of different studies done. In an attempt to establish the definitive answer to a medical question. Does drug x, or intervention y, actually work. If so, what are the true benefits? Assuming that the trials have all showed subtle, or not so subtle, differences in their effects.
Meta-analyses are often treated as though they are the very pinnacle of medical research. Tablets of stone handed down by Gods. In realty, they need to be treated with a very large pinch of salt, and a healthy dose of scepticism.
This is because meta-analyses often ram together studies with very different populations, using different doses of drugs, or vitamins. Or completely different drugs or vitamins, for different lengths of time.
Just to add to the potential messiness, studies can be included that have completely unrelated outcomes. You end up comparing apples and bananas, in order to decide if pomegranates actually work. In computing it would be called garbage in, garbage out – GIGO.
Moving on, in 2014, the year after the Cambridge study, a whole number of different studies on B-vitamins were brought together in a ‘meta-analysis.’ I use the term meta-analysis very loosely here. It was called: ‘Effects of homocysteine lowering with B vitamins on cognitive aging: meta-analysis of 11 trials with cognitive data on 22,000 individuals.’ 12
Sounds good, so far. In fact, the total number of individuals they looked at was 20,431 – which is a lot nearer to twenty thousand than twenty-two thousand. But, hey ho, what’s sixteen hundred or so people between friends? Having said this deliberate figure inflation is an important indication of researchers trying to ‘big up’ their findings – in my book.
Here’s another thing. A number of the studies had absolutely nothing to do with cognitive function … at all. One of the studies included was HOPE-2. Here is the background to the study.
‘In observational studies, lower homocysteine levels are associated with lower rates of coronary heart disease and stroke. Folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12 lower homocysteine levels. We assessed whether supplementation reduced the risk of major cardiovascular events in patients with vascular disease.’ 13
Yes HOPE-2 was a study on cardiovascular disease. It has absolutely nothing to do with Alzheimer’s, or any other form of dementia. The title of HOPE-2 was ‘Homocysteine Lowering with Folic Acid and B Vitamins in Vascular Disease.’ Cognition, or brain function, was not measured. Yet, it was still included in a meta-analysis of ‘11 trials with cognitive data on 22,000 individuals.’ [20,431 individuals, actually].
Moving on, and this is perhaps more mission critical. In only just over seven thousand of the individuals studied did anyone measure cognitive function at the start of the trial and then again, at the end. Leaving aside such studies as HOPE-2 where it was not measured at all. Which, straight off, means that the vast bulk of this meta-analysis is utterly meaningless.
How can you possibly know what happened to anyone’s cognitive state, if you only measured it once? Did it improve, did it worsen – not the faintest. In two thirds of the individuals included in this meta-analysis we have no idea what happened to cognitive function – at all.
It doesn’t stop here. There were others who felt that this was not meta-analyses finest hour:
‘First and foremost, this meta-analysis excluded trials on mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease. As a possible consequence, most of the trials included in this meta-analysis either did not see any significant cognitive change (between the start and the end of the trial) in the placebo group or did not look at such change. 14
Yes, they specifically excluded people with existing cognitive impairment, or Alzheimer’s, which would be, by far, most important group to study. As they actually have the condition you are interested in.
Which leads on to the next obvious problem:
… people included in these trials included in the meta-analysis were healthy and did not show any cognitive decline, whether they received B-vitamin treatment or not. So, B-vitamins could hardly prevent or slow down something not happening in the first place.’ 14
Just to make this point a little clearer, in the minority of studies, where they bothered to measure cognitive function at the start, and also at the end, they found that almost no individuals developed any degree of cognitive impairment – in either group. Not in the treatment group, or the placebo groups. As virtually nothing happened to anyone, nothing could have been proved one way or another.
Attempting to study the progress of dementia, in people who do not have dementia, and who may never get dementia, nor have any signs of cognitive decline … is like doing a blood pressure lowering study on people who do not have a raised blood pressure.
Then, on finding there was no difference in cardiovascular event in either arm of the trial, you proceed to claim that blood pressure lowering does not work. Because there was no difference between those given the drug, and those taking the placebo. Do you think this makes any sense? Answers on a postcard, that should be sent to the Willie Wonka chocolate factory. Care of A.N. Idiot.
Despite begin riddled with fatal flaws, this analysis was greeted as though it was the definitive study. B-vitamins have no effect on cognitive decline, end of. This is what the head of Alzheimer’s Research UK had to say:
‘Although one trial in 2010 showed that for people with high homocysteine, B vitamins had some beneficial effect on the rate of brain shrinkage, this comprehensive review of several trials shows that B vitamins have not been able to slow mental decline as we age, nor are they likely to prevent Alzheimer’s. While the outcome of this new and far-reaching analysis is not what we hoped for, it does underline the need for larger studies to improve certainty around the effects of any treatment.
New and far-reaching analysis. Comprehensive review … ho hum. If I were given the job of marking this meta-analysis, I would hand it back in a rather grumpy fashion. ‘I asked you to look at the benefit of lowering homocysteine, using B-vitamins, in people with cognitive problems, or early-stage Alzheimer’s. Yet, you have not even bothered to look at these groups. In fact, you deliberately excluded them.
In addition, you included trials where the researchers failed to measure mental decline. Added to this, in most of these trials, no-one even had a high homocysteine level to start with, so they cannot – by definition – have had low levels of B-vitamins. So, how could vitamin B supplementation possible have been of any benefit … I am most disappointed. Please try again, and this time READ the brief.’
One of the trials lasted for four months, another for six months. What measurable different in cognitive function can anyone possibly expect to see in those timescales… This was not a flawed meta-analysis. It was simply gibberish.
There was a time when I would have questioned my own sanity in reading a meta-analysis such as this. Surely, I had got it wrong. Researchers would never put together such a steaming pile. If they did, then no-one would publish it. Nowadays I find myself far more in agreement with Drummond Rennie: deputy editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association:
‘There seems to be no study too fragmented, no hypothesis too trivial, no literature citation too biased or too egotistical, no design too warped, no methodology too bungled, no presentation of results too inaccurate, too obscure, and too contradictory, no analysis too self-serving, no argument too circular, no conclusions too trifling or too unjustified, and no grammar and syntax too offensive for a paper to end up in print.’ 15
A famous quote… in certain circles.
As it turns out, this analysis was done by exactly the same people who rule the research world of cholesterol lowering, known as the Cholesterol Treatment Triallists Collaboration (CTT) in Oxford. This paper came under the banner of the ‘B-vitamin treatment triallists collaboration’. Who knew such a group existed? One wonders exactly why they exist? Does the world really require such an organisation?
They sure as hell slammed the door shut on vitamin B/homocysteine research in cognitive function. Which was, some may say, possibly whey they were set up in the first place.
In my opinion, you can either believe the B-vitamin treatment triallists collaboration from Oxford with their meta-analysis. Which some would call complete and utter rubbish. Not me, of course. Personally, I have never seen a more detailed and error free research paper. I can hardly praise it highly enough.
Or, you can believe the Cambridge researchers, who demonstrated a seven-fold reduction in cerebral atrophy with B-vitamins – in those with raised homocysteine levels. The choice is entirely up to you.
1: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29982150/
3: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23172839/
4: https://openheart.bmj.com/content/5/1/e000668
7: https://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/10/magazine/the-fall-and-rise-of-kilmer-mccully.html
8: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa011613
9: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6930825/
10: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3677457/
11: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23690582/
12: https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/100/2/657/4576556
13: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa060900
14: https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/blog/b-vitamins-and-alzheimers-disease/
15: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3005733/
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick 
Thank you — just finished reading your new book — quite enjoyable! Do you have a recommendation on amounts of B vitamins? Just a standard multiple is ok?
I take Thorne Research Basic B Complex containing Folate (natural)rather than Folic Acid (synthetic) I buy on-line. I also self-inject B12 weekly – bought from Germany. I suggest testing both B12 and Folate before supplementing as you may need more than a B Complex gives. B12 good around 500+ and Folate good mid-range. These tests are not routine and need to be requested – Ferritin and VitD too.
I’ve read many times that for maximum absorption by the body one should take all B vitamins together, such as in B-Complex. If the need for a specific individual B vit has been identified, an additional dose of this can be taken with the B Complex. I wonder if there’s general agreement about this?
Basically my understanding of b vitamin absorption is that for efficient absorption all b vitamins should be present. If you take one high dose ie vit B6 then you should take a b vit complex (or take 3 high strength brewers yeast tablets) at the same time. It has also been suggested (no clinical evidence to back this though) that taking a high does individual b vit can create low levels of other b vits in the body if a b complex is not taken at the same time. Yeast tablets contain most if not all the b vitamins in a naturally occurring manner. Also remember that B vits are water soluble and last for about 8 hours in the body so what it doesn’t use will be flushed out of the body within about 8 hours so splitting the b vit up over the day is also more efficient. ie rather than taking one 50mg vit b6 take two 25mg vit b6 a day at least 8 hours apart. Also some athletes take b complex to help improve athletic performance. However, when clinical trials were doen to prove this it made no difference. However repeated but using yeast tablets instead of a b complex did improve athletic performance. Further research showed it was actually the high levels of chromium in the yeast tablets and not the b vits that aided their performance.
I have pernicious anaemia. For me, B12 has to be taken separately by injection. I take a B-complex tablet too.
While a lot of effort by many has been put into combating Germ Theory, gone unnoticed is how the ‘covid’ crises has provided a vehicle for propagating ‘Gene Theory’. Like Germ Theory, Gene Theory is basically a lot of assumptions, central of which is the idea that “defective genes are the root cause of so many diseases.” Already it’s being touted that mRNA technology can be used to target ‘defective genes”. How long before we’ll be compelled to submit to preventive injections to stop us from developing cancer, and other ‘genetic diseases ?
karen, look up Thomas Seyfried on youtube. He presents a compelling case that canceris a metabolicdisease and not a genetc one.
Professor Otto Warburg in the 1920s, and Dr Wilhelm Reich, revealed oxygen’s central role in cancer, how reduced oxygen absorption by an organism was THE initiator of the cancer process. The research of both was conveniently forgotten, and the Cancer Industry has no interest in Oxygen Therapies… As Goldman Sach advised investors a few years ago, “Dont invest in start-ups researching cancer CURES. There’s no money in cures.’…
It’s worse than not making money, you may have heard of David Noakes who developed GCmaf to treat cancer.Well the MHRA saw this as a threat and had him arrested, imprisoned in the UK, and when that was finished had him extradited to France, to another prison. There’s plenty to research if you are interested, and if you wanted to help, you could look here https://www.gofundme.com/f/donations-for-the-legal-fees-of-david-noakes
AHN
keep having to pinch myself at the thought of what’s going on.
JS, at least you are pinching yourself. The vast majority of people are so frightened they believe anything they are told, as long as it is being told by confirmed liars like the UK government talking heads, or the arch liars in the media, Murdoch, BBC, Guardian, NY Times etc. If I try to get them to take a critical view I am an idiot, a denier, an anti-spear-in-the-arm propagandist.
Dr K and some others may know of people who died of covid, but there are many I speak to, who claim they know people who died of covid, but I doubt they have any idea what they died of. The undertakers have a good view of what’s happening, and they see increases coincident with the, er, JABS!!!
Thank you for this. Will be interesting to delve into this subject.
As someone who has inherited CHD from my mother and her mother I am enjoying reading The Clot Thickens your new book and chuckling at your jokes. It is a useful companion to your previous book on Doctored Data and Bill Bryson’s amusing and informative book on the human body. I have a high intolerance of medications so some useful indications that I am far from being alone contrary to my medic’s views. I notice my situation is also now being called “non-compliant”. Unfortunately taking vitamins also produce unwelcome side effects. I also have mild ulcerative colitis and some attribute this to my non-compliance. Others say vehemently this cannot be the case. Who knows? I am only the impatient patient and gastric and cardiac medics appear not to exchange views.
Great article. As someone who went undiagnosed for 3 years and now has permanent neurological damage, I wish more doctors would educate themselves on the symptoms of B12 deficiency and treat appropriately. They don’t follow NICE guidelines which is to treat symptoms not levels. Japan treat anyone who is below 500. In the UK you are lucky to get treatment, even at dangerously low levels. B12 deficiency should be treated as quickly as possible so irreversible damage doesn’t happen. If it hadn’t been for Tracey Witty and The B12 Society, I think I’d still be bedridden and well on my way out.
One of the easiest and measurable metrics to rectify with B12 and Folate
Sorry that I’m going off at a bit of a tangent here – although it does involve vit B2 – but I’m hoping you or your followers might have some useful thoughts to help me.
20 year old son has been diagnosed with a progressive eye condition of the cornea (Keratoconus). We’ve heard other things called progressive which have actually been reversible so I’m open to alternative views here. It’s caused by a weak cornea wall which bulges outwards affecting the vision.
One of the treatments is called “cross linking” where a vitamin B2 solution is put in the eye, a UV light is shined on it for 30 minutes and it encourages collagen growth to strengthen the cornea walls. This has got me thinking.
He wasn’t a child who liked to spend time outdoors and on sunny days would actively seek out shade. I’m now wondering if he is vitamin B/D or collagen deficient and whether supplementing (and more daylight) would be beneficial now to slow progression.
We know that Vit D needs K2 too to balance so I’d be interested to know whether supplementing B2 is likely to knock something else out of whack? To be honest, this whole area is new to me so any thoughts from anyone would be helpful right now!
Chris Masterjohn PhD has done extensive work on vitamins and used to have plenty of short YouTube videos on them ( he may have been deplatformed in recent months due to his opinions on covid!). I have a vague memory of him saying B2 was needed to help some of the other Bs work, sorry I can’t remember any more. The take home message for me was to start eating liver a couple of times a week!
Nope, https://youtu.be/yLBPTDT6ILw he’s still there
I follow him on Facebook and he has a website also. I think he is on other social media also and he has mentioned Telegraph also in case he gets kicked off Facebook.
December 6, 2021
I have a close family member who was diagnosed with keratoconus in his 20s. For a number of years, here in the U.S., he was prescribed a special contact lens for the affected eye; that may have helped. He has also, for most of his adult life, and especially following that diagnosis, taken lots of vitamin/mineral supplements. His eyesight in both eyes, some 20 or 30 yrs. later, is good and stable. (A quick search just showed me that development of keratoconus may be a condition that tends to limit itself to ages plus/minus 20 yrs. to 30-some yrs..)
I make this quick comment to encourage you to pursue healing and health for your son; and to encourage him in the same pursuit. As a Type 1 diabetic for most of my life, that pursuit is a daily discipline for me, and I suspect for most of Dr. Kendrick’s readers. In the world we live in, as Dr. K emphasized in his post above, vitamin/mineral supplementation is likely to be an essential part of a plan for recovery and continuing good health.
I am aware that currently over-the-counter (as per the U.S.) supplements which include lutein, zeaxanthin, and other, are recommended for eye health
Hoping that anyone with more/better information will comment, and wishing you and your son all the best.
My wife has the same condition. She was diagnosed at about age 30. She’s now 70. There’s been no noticeable change over those 40 years. Sadly, she cannot get lasic surgery or wear contacts. Honestly, I don’t know how she goes on living. But get an ironclad guarantee of no harm before injecting anything in eyes over something that may be of no real consequence.
A personal note: I am so grateful to you for highlighting the magnesium story a while ago, when you quoted the paper published in the BMJ Open Heart journal. I had had several episodes of AF – started daily supplements of Mg (375mg/day) – and they stopped – “just like that!” Magic!
We are seeing time and again how the medical establishment – driven by Big Pharma – is corrupt and cares not a whit about public health. Seeing how the Covid issue is being treated by the establishment, and being familiar with statins are being forced down people’s throats, I’ve lost all faith in the people who are supposed to be the ‘experts.’
Amen!
Meanwhile I keep taking my vits. Which is why I am sitting by my own fireside convalescing from The virus, and my OH is still in hospital, and they tell me he has very low vit. D. And we were taken ill at the same time, and had to go in in a convoy of 2 ambulances.
Thanks for the information.
Jean, so sorry to learn of your encounter with Covid, and trust your OH is soon back at home.
Now well into our 70s we both have taken supplements for well over 5 years, mainly at what we have learned from this wonderful blog. Fortunately we have both avoided Covid so far.
I was just about to review our supplement regime. So this new paper from Dr Kendrick gives me the encouragement to check that we are on the correct tracks.
We use magnesium flakes when bathing, but I am now inclined to introduce oral magnesium.
It is decades since a wonderful cardiologist I worked with was a great advocate of magnesium. And it is years since Patrick Holford educated me about homocysteine. But I was so much younger then, and still believed that a balanced diet ( whatever that is!), provided all I needed. ( because that was the line the NHS insisted on).
In a sense, a “balanced diet” does provide everything you need – if that is your definition of a balanced diet!
The phrase does have some convenience to bad or lazy doctors. If a patient suffers from any deficiency, they can say, “It’s your fault for not eating a balanced diet”.
How to obtain a balanced diet – well, now, that’s a difficult problem. A good start would be to ignore all government nutritional advice, and remember that many foods nowadays do not contain all (or sometimes any) of the advertised nutrients. Partly because of industrial food processing, but also partly because the vaunted “efficiency” of industrial farms has exhausted the soil.
There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
A diet based on animal products should take care of most vitamin needs – organic meat including offal, bone broth, sea food, eggs, yoghurt – and vegetables, if you like them. The Paleo gurus differ on details, but following the advice of any one of them is likely to be much better than following the advice of your doctor to cut out saturated fats and eat lots of pasta. Baths with a few handfuls of magnesium sulphate (very cheap if bought in bulk) thrown into the water are nice too.
Hello Valda, thanks for your response regarding magnesium, and the other people who kindly suggested ways for me to improve my magnesium levels. I have decided to not go down the oral route, but to continue with my magnesium flake bath soaks, ( magnesium chloride), as you point out, quite inexpensive when bought in bulk. I also make my own magnesium oil to spray on my legs and feet for more concentrated transdermal absorption. It is very easy to make at home, but an expensive solution to purchase ready made.
As with so many unknowns in our life, I haven’t a clue as to my magnesium levels, so I am merely erring on the side of caution, especially as I hopefully consume a decent, nutrient dense diet.
Dr Bryan Ardis in US has listed magnesium benefits relating to CV19 treatment protocol.
Thanks to Dr Kendrick for this reminder. I have been taking a magnesium supplement since reading an earlier post on this website, though maybe I need to increase the amount. Hard to say because I don’t know how much magnesium is already present in our water supply. I remember from school science that bread is routinely fortified with B complex vitamins but is this enough?
Thanks also for confirming what I long suspected about meta analyses. Take with a pinch of salt (yes, salt is actually good for you in modest amounts!)
I just checked a pack of flour, and the supplements are iron, calcium carbonate, niacin and thiamine.
Unfortunately, those are stripped out in the processing, then added back in with the ‘fortified’ tag. Stick with organic if you can.
Alas, I was reading off a bag of organic flour!
I don’t think organic flour is much different from any other kind; it will have been processed in the same way. The “organic” label just tells you it was made from wheat grown without chemical fertilisers, weedkillers, insecticides, etc.
You might find “organic” is permitted to be grown with more chemicals than you think:
Ethanol
Isopropanol
Calcium hypochlorite
Chlorine dioxide
Hypochlorous acid
Sodium hypochlorite
Copper sulfate
Hydrogen peroxide
Ozone gas
Peracetic acid
Soap-based algicide/demossers
Sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate
Soap-based Herbicides
Newspaper or other recycled paper
Petroleum-based plastic mulch and covers
Biodegradable bio-based mulch film
Ammonium carbonate
Aqueous potassium silicate
Boric acid
Elemental sulfur
Lime sulfur
Sucrose octanoate esters
Ferric phosphate
Copper hydroxide
Copper oxide
Copper oxychloride
Hydrated lime
Potassium bicarbonate
Humic acids
Lignin sulfonate
Magnesium oxide
Magnesium sulfate
Soluble boron products
Zinc sulfates
Zinc carbonates
Zinc oxides
Zinc silicates
Copper carbonates
Copper silicates
Iron sulfates
Iron oxides
Iron carbonates
Iron silicates
Manganese sulfates
Manganese carbonates
Manganese oxides
Manganese silicates
Selenium sulfates
Selenium carbonates
Selenium oxides
Selenium silicates
Cobalt sulfates
Cobalt carbonates
Cobalt oxides
Cobalt silicates
Liquid fish products
Sulfuric acid
Citric acid
Phosphoric acid
Squid byproducts
Sulfurous acid
Ethylene gas
Sodium silicate
Hydrogen chloride
Microcrystalline cheesewax
Some you might not see as a problem, others might raise questions
Meta-analyses can be used to “bury the signal.” It’s utterly corrupt to use meta-analyses for this purpose.
A properly done meta-analysis can be useful for gathering numbers in order to show significance or insignificance of benefit. See Harvey Risch’s meta-analysis of retrospective studies of HCQ when used to treat high-risk patients, most of whom were in nursing homes, as an example.
I found Risch’s presentation riveting and compelling. And I absolutely HATE watching videos.
https://www.palmerfoundation.com.au/hydroxychloroquine-and-its-friends/
The Risch meta-analysis exemplifies all that can be wrong with a meta analysis. He had worked for the companies producing HCQ and the antibiotics in the past, and may have had a conflict of interest.
There were only 5 studies included in his analysis. The ‘infamous’ Raoult paper contained only 42 patients of which only 6 received the treatment of interest – nothing useful can be concluded from such a small study. Risch also misreported some of the findings reported in this study. A larger Brazilian study was included in which the patients chose their own treatment!! Confounding is certain. Finally there were 3 case series with no control groups.
No meta-analysis can overcome such serious faults in the inputs. Garbage in will lead to garbage out
“He had worked for the companies producing HCQ and the antibiotics in the past, and may have had a conflict of interest.”
This is the best you can do? Seriously? Risch was somehow getting rich off of repurposed drugs? (For novel therapies with promise of riches, this is a valid question, of course.)
“There were only 5 studies included in his analysis. ”
Ok. Some meta-analyses can work well with just a few studies.
“The ‘infamous’ Raoult paper contained only 42 patients of which only 6 received the treatment of interest – nothing useful can be concluded from such a small study.”
And this is why meta-analyses are done.
“Risch also misreported some of the findings reported in this study.”
What, precisely?
“A larger Brazilian study was included in which the patients chose their own treatment!! Confounding is certain.”
Ok, there might be a little effect on the outcome. But how much weight would the confounding produce? If we are talking 80% relative benefit, how important is a 10% error due to confounding?
Risch’s takedown of Skipper and Boulware was masterful. Poor design and poor implementation in both cases. Unsupported conclusions to boot. “No benefit was shown.” should have been “Benefit did not attain significance, possibly because of underpowerment.” But fools fell for the unsupported conclusions.
Why might a well-done retrospective study of 50 nursing home covid patients have more weight than a prospective study of 1,000 young covid patients who self-report?
“Finally there were 3 case series with no control groups.”
Retrospectives typically don’t have control groups. What is your point?
“No meta-analysis can overcome such serious faults in the inputs. Garbage in will lead to garbage out”
lol
Do you even see what Risch got right that almost everyone else got wrong? Do you even know what is the key hypothesis to test in the case of antivirals for covid?
Risch’s meta-analysis was so poor the editorial board of the American Journal of Epidemiology, which had published his paper, subsequently repudiated it. Considering he was a member of the editorial board at the time, this is a big deal. A couple of the editorial board’s comments are copied below.
The article contains numerous factual errors and ambiguous statements that need to be corrected or clarified. These issues, which we detail in the present article, are not open to interpretation; rather, they are a clear misstatement of the evidence from the cited materials or misstatements of epidemiologic principles.
Errors by Dr Risch in reporting the studies.
In summarizing the study by Gautret et al. (3), Dr. Risch referred to a 50-fold benefit of HCQ + AZT versus the control, but nowhere in the Gautret et al. article is a 50-fold increase reported.
Confounding effects are unmeasurable. The Brazilian study is useless because of this. You can argue either way; did the sicker patients opt for HCQ or did they opt for conventional treatment elsewhere? We just do not know.
For retrospective case studies, you can just choose a group that you think to be comparable in all aspects except the treatment under consideration for comparison. It might not be ideal, but better than nothing. The data has the scientific status of gossip otherwise.
Always a pleasure to cross swords with you.
The editorial board are a bunch of sheep panicked by pharma. Quelle surprise!
“In summarizing the study by Gautret et al. (3), Dr. Risch referred to a 50-fold benefit of HCQ + AZT versus the control, but nowhere in the Gautret et al. article is a 50-fold increase reported.”
Considering Risch did his own Cox regression test on the individuals in the Gautret study, this is unsurprising.
“Confounding effects are unmeasurable.”
You always have confounding effects in retrospectives, just like you always have confounding effects in RCTs. The constant confounding effects for RCTs is self-selection bias, design bias by the designers, implementation bias by the implementers, etc. I’ve seen it all in the HCQ smear articles, like Boulware.
“For retrospective case studies, you can just choose a group that you think to be comparable in all aspects except the treatment under consideration for comparison.”
No, you only have to have a group that is likely to do worse if untreated than the average population. That’s the power of nursing home studies wrt covid.
You and ian are making mountains out of mole hills.
Please answer a few questions for me…perhaps you can see how my thinking developed via these questions and how a certain perspective may be necessary before a person can understand how Risch’s analysis is spot on.
What is the key hypothesis to test for HCQ wrt covid? (It’s allowable to consider it as part of a cocktail.)
What is the mean time to max viral load for covid and why do you think that this is so? How does this affect your thinking about the key hypothesis to test wrt treating covid with HCQ?
How do you bury the benefit signal from covid treatment? List 5 that we’ve seen with HCQ.
Assuming good faith by the diagnostician, why can we be certain about a diagnosis of moderate covid and uncertain about mild covid?
En garde.
Oh, I found this gem in the Gautret paper…
“At day6 post-inclusion, 70% of hydroxychloroquine-treated patients were virologically cured compared to 12.5% in the control group (p= 0.001).”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924857920300996?via%3Dihub
What is 70 – 12.5?
Risch was correct (when measured by the standard of government statistics) when he claimed that Gautret showed 50% absolute benefit and the “correcting” editors were incorrect. Oops.
All the “correcting” editors criticisms of Risch’s letter amounted to mole hills, but they did serious damage with the following statement to public health for which they should be held accountable in court:
“Continuing to push the view that it is an essential treatment in the face of this evidence is irresponsible and harmful to the many people already suffering from infection.”
At worst, HCQ doesn’t help and at best, it saves lives. The risk/benefit is clear.
What is the key hypothesis to test for HCQ wrt covid? (It’s allowable to consider it as part of a cocktail.)
Unbiased evidence of hospitalisation or death, not as part of a cocktail.
What is the mean time to max viral load for covid and why do you think that this is so? How does this affect your thinking about the key hypothesis to test wrt treating covid with HCQ?
Not at all. The evidence base of medical practice is bedevilled with the use of surrogate measures.
How do you bury the benefit signal from covid treatment? List 5 that we’ve seen with HCQ.
By tossing out studies with the scientific status of gossip, ie all studies with bias, observational studies and retrospective studies. These should only be used to suggest prospective trials
Assuming good faith by the diagnostician, why can we be certain about a diagnosis of moderate covid and uncertain about mild covid?
Not sure what you mean by this.
“What is the key hypothesis to test for HCQ wrt covid?”
The key hypothesis to test is the following: “Does HCQ, as part of a cocktail (including zinc, azithromycin or doxycyclene, vitamin D, and vitamin C) given within 72 hours of symptom onset, reduce hospitalization and death by 50+% in high risk nursing home patients when compared with the statistical norm for covid?”
Why high risk? Because they are the people who need treatment. This also will show benefit or the lack of benefit quickly and clearly.
Why 72 hours post symptom onset? Because the mean time to viral load maximum is around 72 hours and you want the benefit early rather than late. It makes no sense to let a virus do damage unchecked, so you want to treat early. There is also a study showing that treating before 72 hours post symptom onset with HCQ was strongly correlated with survival.
I’m not mocking or wanting to patronize you, but your answer to this question indicates that you don’t understand covid and its treatment.
“How do you bury the benefit signal from covid treatment? List 5 that we’ve seen with HCQ.”
There have been several ways that HCQ benefit for covid has been hidden by pharma:
1) testing late treatment rather than early treatment
2) defining early treatment as when patients were enrolled in a RCT study rather than when first dose was given–the time to first dose was uncontrolled
3) defining early treatment as “first dose is given to anyone who has been symptomatic for a week or less” in a RCT study involving a moderate-sized cohort of low risk participants
4) split the signal of benefit among several days to first dose in order to avoid statistical significance of benefit which we saw in the Boulware study; the data was presented as first dose being given for day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4 post symptom onset;
5) do meta-analyses including studies with toxic levels of dosing, late treatment, and other signal-burying tricks outlined above
“By tossing out studies with the scientific status of gossip, ie all studies with bias, observational studies and retrospective studies. These should only be used to suggest prospective trials”
This shows that you don’t understand medical science. Most knowledge about covid is based on retrospective knowledge. For example, pathology reports (e.g., autopsies) are retrospectives and our definition of “high risk patients” wrt covid is based on retrospective knowledge. RCT fundamentalism isn’t science–it’s merely a dodgy filter created by pharma so that they could capture research. Cochrane did a few meta-analyses where it was found that there was no benefit for RCTs over retrospectives.
“Assuming good faith by the diagnostician, why can we be certain about a diagnosis of moderate covid and uncertain about mild covid?”
I required “good faith” in order to avoid corruption because of remuneration for a covid diagnosis like we see in the States. Diagnoses of mild covid have been based on over-cycled qualitative PCR tests, whereas diagnoses of moderate covid are based on things like neutrophil count and D-dimer level. So we shouldn’t believe the numbers of “cases” based on PCR testing, but we can have more confidence in covid hospitalization numbers (except for places like the US where numbers are inflated because of remuneration by the govt. for covid diagnoses).
Well this discussion has gone well off beam from the original post re vitamins so i will just close with a final comment.
Your study design of a cocktail would not answer your question about HCQ, as you could not tell if it was an essential or irrelevant component of the mix. There is no reason a RCT could not be done in care homes, at least in UK. Comparing the care home outcomes with actuarial norms would be useless.
To the best of my knowledge, big pharma did not do any studies on HCQ. Why would they? The responsibility for doing poor quality research lies with the investigators in this instance and the editors of the journals for publishing it.
“I’m not mocking or wanting to patronize you, but your answer to this question indicates that you don’t understand covid and its treatment.” “This shows that you don’t understand medical science.”
Might be better to avoid these sorts of derogatory comments. I spent my career in medicine and medical research; you did not.
No, I think the patronising comment stands. Just because you spent your career in medicine and medical research means nothing when it comes to covid. It is exactly this “I am an expert, do what I say” that has killed millions of people and disabled tens of millions more with the experts’ insistence on stupid ‘vaccines’. All after the RCT for the ‘vaccines’ showed an excess mortality of 25% in the ‘vaccine’ group. In the meantime, just to ensure the killing can’t be stopped, the experts ban doctors, on pain of large fines and deregistration, from prescribing ivermectin and HCQ for anything covid related. Two of the safest, most prescribed drugs in the world. Banned. Unbelievable. Evil.
iank,
asd: What is the key hypothesis to test for HCQ wrt covid? (It’s allowable to consider it as part of a cocktail.)
iank: Unbiased evidence of hospitalisation or death, not as part of a cocktail.
So, if each part of the cocktail contributes, say, between 10-40% benefit, we disallow the cocktail in order to check off an academic box even if the cocktail saves lives? So, we sacrifice lives in order to perfect our knowledge? Doesn’t this strike you as the sort of thing Mengele did?
asd: What is the mean time to max viral load for covid and why do you think that this is so? How does this affect your thinking about the key hypothesis to test wrt treating covid with HCQ?
iank: Not at all. The evidence base of medical practice is bedevilled with the use of surrogate measures.
Understanding the course of an infectious disease is somehow a surrogate measure? There are several different kinds of evidence pointing to about 72 hours post symptom onset as the mean time to peak viral load. One was a floor for PCR false negatives in a meta-review in a Hopkins study. Boulware’s data showed benefit to prevent progression when treatment began within 72 hours of symptoms (avoiding his dodgy statistics and conclusion, of course). Data from a study out of Peru showed that time from symptom onset to initial treatment with HCQ showed the strongest correlation with mortality, with no mortality occurring when patients were treated within 72 hours of symptom onset. These data points suggest that, for best results, treatment ought to begin within 72 hours of symptom onset. Or do you think that antivirals should be delayed and only given to covid patients in hospital?
asd: Assuming good faith by the diagnostician, why can we be certain about a diagnosis of moderate covid and uncertain about mild covid?
iank: Not sure what you mean by this.
We cannot be certain of a diagnosis of covid when the progression is mild without doing viral culturing. Any diagnosis is merely a crapshoot. This has implications for research on outpatient therapy and how we can use control groups. We have no basis for excluding people or including them in our study if our method of diagnosis has a high degree of uncertainty. All we know is that some patients have an influenza-like illness.
So, RCTs are out and all we have left are retrospectives which compare the results of our group with community data as regards hospitalisation and death.
Bryan Tyson’s clinic in El Centro, California has seen 30k covid patients, triaged them, treated 6k with his HCQ/IVM cocktail, and only had 3 deaths because covid had already progressed when the patients presented themselves to the clinic and early treatment didn’t benefit them, as expected.
So, iank, how many covid patients have you treated in the community with HCQ or IVM? Or maybe you know some gp’s who _have_ treated? Maybe you know someone who knows gp’s who treat with HCQ or IVM and they found that these treatments didn’t work? You might know someone who practices in a country where treatments are possible, perhaps.
Results from large studies where the organisation running it is conflicted are just as unreliable, probably more so. They historically cook the books, amazingly all the products tested are at least as efficacious as anything else on the market, Often they are more so. Why, in that case arethere so many more cases of chronic disease in populations?
As vitamins, minerals and enzymes from food all work in concert with each other, contributing to homeostasis, it is impossible to research the ‘effect’ of a single constituent. Ergo, drug research protocols cannot cope.
No doubt papers that don’t help to increase sales are simply not published. After all, that’s their purpose, and if they don’t contribute to the aim…
Wise people from Lao-tse onward have observed that the more laws a nation has, the more corrupt and lawless it tends to be.
One might also suggest that the more “advanced” drugs and treatments a nation has, the sicker its inhabitants will be. Not “in spite of”, but “because”.
There is another example of a study of Dementia being ignored
Professor David Smith spent his life’s work at Oxford studying the early stages of Dementia
He also showed that high Homocysteine was a very good early indicator of early cognitive impairment
However, the medical profession have ignored his work and much of his OPTIMA project has been removed from online view
His work is described at: http://www.foodforthebrain.org
They have an online test for people over 50 that tests for cognitive impairment
Over 250,000 people have now done the test and consistently 11% fail
If you fail, then you are given a letter for your doctor that invites them to test for homocysteine.
They have found that the cocktail of B-vitamins – PLUS Omega-3 – can often help to halt the decline
This is another great informative post Dr K and confirms many things that we,as sufferers of pernicious anemia and b12/folate deficiency have been trying so hard to get taken seriously,you will learn much from the PAS,a charity that supports us and does such hard work trying to educate the medical profession especially since Covid when it’s been a nightmare trying to keep our injections of this lifesaving vitamin,which as you rightly point out is of no financial interest to be pharma.
GPs were instructed to halt all b12 injections and replace with oral supplements but people with p.a have no intrinsic factor to process b12 via supplementation and can only access it via injections,worse still if you also have functional b12 deficiency you require high doses of b12 to flood the serum blood in the hope that enough of it will trickle over into the cells where it’s needed but here,in the U.K. we can only get approval for b12 injections every 3 months supposedly for life but sadly it’s a constant battle to get these life saving injections from gps who use any excuse not to give us them,apparently Covid shots are more important and we will get by from the invisible stores of b12 in our liver,which we just don’t have so we then relapse with illnesses that are completely avoidable if we got our shots.
Most of us have resorted to legitimately buying b12 ampoules from German pharmacies and self injecting,shock horror as far as gps are concerned,how dare we,we have no training to inject,well if we are diabetic we can inject without much if any training so why is it different for our life saving b12 shot and why do the surgeries refuse to teach us how to self inject,it doesent have to be intramuscular it can be subcutaneous there’s no evidence to say it must be IM. No profit there is there but look at the big picture,regular injecting keeps us well and away from the gps surgery it’s a no brainer.
Folate is another nightmare they won’t give us b12 even when presenting with neurological symtoms because we are “borderline or just in range” but if folate is low,which it usually is they then put us on high dose folate/b9 which ramps up the neuro symptoms and can cause irreversible neurological symptoms.
I’ve had to learn the hard way along with many thousands of other people,how to take care of my own pernicious anemia,found by private blood testing and research not by my lazy gp who offered me antidepressants and said one thing only when I presented with multiple symptoms because my health was getting worse week in week out,it’s a very common occurance suffered by p.a sufferers there’s actually around 40 symptoms.
I’m so pleased to see how you’ve read up and investigated this and if only our gps would be more open to the fact that just maybe their patients are a bit more up to speed than they are because we live with this daily and know our bodies and know what keeps us well and away from them then surely it’s worth listening rather than doling out useless drugs.
Ps my cholesterol has dropped from 8.1 to 6 since I’ve been self injecting weekly for the last 18 months,I must get it checked again when I save up.lol.take care Jeanie.
Great article as usual but the uninitiated amongst us need some B numbers please.
I personally take a good BioActive Complete B-Complex,one a day which works well with my b12 shots,always make sure you take the RDA in any vitamins (unless prescribed by a gp because you are deficient.) this will keep your levels topped up and keep you safe.If anyone’s planning on having blood tests for deficiencies then wait till after the tests before supplementing as it can skew results.I also take a d3/k2 oral spray as I was very low so need to maintain my levels.I’m unable to absorb from food thanks to HPylori infections combined with p.a so I try oral supplements to keep levels decent but I do eat very well just maybe a bit too often lol.
Yes, I’d like to know what is sufficient. Is the RDA, NRV or whatever the right amount for good health or are they too low ?
I suffer from cramp in my hands which renders them useless, so I take magnesium and I get the use of my back within an hour or so. So I would say that a magnesium deficiency can cause cramps, but I’m not a scientist.
I was getting bad leg cramps in bed at night and read that Mg deficiency is the cause. 75 mg /day fixed it all up, no worries.
You might find that a quick spray of magnesium oil does wonders for avoiding cramp.
So does a dab of salt on the tongue, not for avoiding it – magnesium is the champ there – but for easing it when afflicted by breakthroughs. Well, it works for me.
As my nickname shows, I live at the tropics (hot, humid and a lot of perspiration), and I always start my days with a generous pinch of salt and a glass of water, then I go to the gym to train fasted.
The difference in terms of stamina (compared with training without assuming salt) and even strength are significant.
An Italian Australian: I, too, take salt before vigorous exercise in warm or hot weather. Also, L-citrulline/ citrulline malate year-round. Both of these enhance exercise tolerance, and the citrulline enhances muscle growth.
Thanks for the timely reminder about magnesium. With a limited budget it always seems to fall down the pecking order of my essentials, especially against big hitters like vitamins c and d.
Under “Back to vitamins…”. Dr. Kendrick comments about crushing scientific debate:
“In the world of cholesterol, it has been going on for well over sixty years”.
Ancel Keys presented his diet-lipid heart disease hypothesis in 1955.
I’m reading Aldous Huxley’s 1939 novel “After many a summer” in which cholesterol was getting demonised years before Keys:
“Those sterols! (Dr. Obispo frowned and shook his head over them.) Always linked up with senility. The most obvious case, of course, was cholesterol. A senile animal might be defined as one with an accumulation of cholesterol in the walls of its arteries. Potassium thiocyanate seemed to dissolve those accumulations. Senile rabbits would show signs of rejuvenation under a treatment with potassium thiocyanate. So would senile humans. But, again, not for very long. Cholesterol in the arteries was evidently only one of the troubles”.
But I suppose he’s right expressing a concern about the accumulation of cholesterol in the arteries.
I did google “potassium thiocyanate cholesterol” and got a few hits including a 1936 study using rabbits which concluded “potassium thiocyanate exercises a protective action against the development of cholesterol atherosclerosis in thyroidectomized rabbits”.
“A senile animal might be defined as one with an accumulation of cholesterol in the walls of its arteries. Potassium thiocyanate seemed to dissolve those accumulations. Senile rabbits would show signs of rejuvenation under a treatment with potassium thiocyanate”.
Ah! A reference to the genius who decided to try the effects of copious animal fat on rabbits (obligate herbivores). Turns out it harmed them. Who knew?
In other news, putting tar into the petrol tank of your car isn’t good for it. And that proves tar is completely useless for any purpose.
Thanks Dr Kendrick for yet another riveting article!
I just wondered what sort of supplementary doses on a daily basis someone without any particular symptoms could consider safely taking of B3,6,9,12?
Kind regards
I would also like some guidance on this or a reputable link to advice, just did a bit of internet searching on it and very confused so didn’t purchase anything.
Thanks for that. If my confidence in recent studies could be further undermined, it would be.
Magnesium. I had violent ventricular ectopics after a period of prolonged stress and ended up in A&E and on Bisoprolol which didn’t stop them but made them less violent. I watched a dozen videos by Dr Sanjay Gupta (York Cardiology), and decided to try magnesium so I asked the hospital for the blood test results – specifically electrolytes – but was told – “We don’t routinely test magnesium.” I later learned that serum Mg is a poor indicator of magnesium availability for the body’s cells. Hyperventilation (even just shallow breathing resulting from anxiety) doesn’t lead to changes in serum Mg but does cause a marked drop in free magnesium. In layman’s terms – the magnesium that’s available for the heart (and other cells). My GP thought I was speaking a foreign language. She said, “I don’t know about that.”
I started taking a Triple Magnesium Complex daily and the VEs stopped so after 3 weeks I stopped the Bisoprolol. Six months later I had a review with the NHS cardiology team and the doctor was astonished and displeased that I wasn’t taking the drug.
It’s all about the drug. A friend who is an NHS consultant tells me that this is how they were taught in medical school. Is it true that British medical schools are funded by Big Pharma?
Thank you malcolm .Your blogs and articles are fascinating and enlightening. I have been reading so much on nutrition and health over the past 2yrs. Along with ivor cummins I have learnt so much contradicting orthodox medical teaching and it all is so logical, keep up the good fight , we need the debate. Dr John bush. GP. Sent from my Galaxy
Greetings jnoosh from planet Earth in The Milky Way. Hope you don’t have the same health problems as we do.
I see what you did there, Marty. Love it.
Thanks, Dr. Kendrick. I started taking thiamine a few weeks ago, but I think I’ll pick up the full B vitamin package. They don’t cost much.
I think that might be important. A nutritionist, or health consultant or someone advised my wife who was looking at B6 supplements that it’s important that you take the full Monty otherwise the ratios in the body can get out of whack. i.e. too much B6 will somehow lower your B12. Not sure how true, or why this would happen, but haven’t had time to check it out.
Eggs ‘n beer: That is similar to what the owner of the health food store where I bought my B complex said to me. She said they had to be “balanced.” What I would like to see is evidence, but I fear there is little, since vitamins don’t smell like money.
Victorian foundations set a mechanistic frame for life that inherently set the scene for a control system approach, with all the patterns previously associated with religious indoctrination and dogma. Theory substituted for Theology as if Science was God-given rather than man-made.
So Theory made us weak & susceptible to evil germs, augmented with genetic weakness, and an ‘immune system’ that required constant boosting – not unlike the coffers of the pharmers of sickness…
The body – or symbiosis of life is a continuum of what is closer to an electromagnetic event than the object modelling of a Fat Controller. Its complexity – like plasma & quantum physics – is beyond mapping out in any definitive model, yet the expansion of our models to include such hitherto unseen (but not unfelt) qualities, will release the basis for a blind and barbaric survival mode set in Getting rather than a living discernment of reciprocity and exchange.
What’s in a name?
Ask those WHO can redefine anything to support a protected agenda.
But likewise we use all kinds of names AS IF the same thing when they are not! Just as in metastasising error into meta studies.
Water is not just H2O. Just read Ling or Pollack or Mae-Wan Ho on living cells.
Cells are not victorian extensions of mechanical pumps. Heart is not really the pump for a plumbing system. But under name magic, the minds of a cultic or hypnotic identity hold the fort against an expanded perspective. Too big to fail!
Vitamins can be synthetic or not bio-available forms.
There are qualitative contexts that are Terrain for which the symptoms are expression.
If we are locked down in a sense of lack, risk, and inadequacy, such as to be driven to lockstep in solutions that actually mask out the true address or nature of the condition, then we have either a futility or an endless source of revenue capture, depending whether you identify in marketing and managing solutions or investing ever more deeply in dependency to such a business model.
Invested energy and identity will tend to follow the marketised and weaponised ‘opportunity’ that then structures or strictures what can come from it.
The zero-point of a balancing act we call being alive is not a product of our thinking but a source of true inspiration. However new wine gets stuffed into old bottles unless abiding in the qualities of life while the new consciousness gestates.
Vitality is a felt quality that also radiates or shines to our world and meets a different experience.
If we do not connect in all kinds of moments of our day with the living moment, we need ask what is operating to deny, rather than stuffing in more in the magical wish to get fixed.
Indeed, the things you mention I did know. I have taken vitamin supplements for many years because I realized that current farming and processing depleted the vitamin content of foods. Because in the past we ate un-metered amounts for vitamins, I make sure I have plenty except where dangers are known, as for vitamin A. I too despair at most meta-analyses. The other problem is that even where honest studies are used they average out any effects so that what may be good or bad in a particular age range for example becomes good or bad for everyone. Most absurd, on that other thing, is the drum beat of only by vaccinating the world …. I imagine this huge needle penetrating down through the earth’s mantle with a mega syringe driver on the surface.
Thanks for your usual incisive summary of the current state of our nations health. I worked in “Big Pharma” for many years and then retrained and have for the last 10 years worked as a Nutritional Therapist. I routinely measure homocysteine levels, and have seen extremely high levels in patients with CVD and other chronic health conditions. I recommend specific “homocysteine formulas” and retest after 6 to 9 months – in my experience it can take up to 18-months to reach optimal (low levels). And of course I ALWAYS start with food – encouraging my clients to eat real, minimally processed foods to increase their chances of getting the vitamin and minerals they need.
Thank you Malcolm
This is very interesting indeed
I’ll believe the Cambridge researchers I think. And vitamin B ‘…is cheap. Very cheap.’ Doctor Kendrick, I’m convinced. And thank you for not a single mention of the C….d word, or the V…x word. Let’s hope the commentators follow your example.
I’ve been taking Niacin (B3) for several years – usually in conjunction with a B-Complex.
There was a lot of groundbreaking work done on this vitamin in the Fifties and beyon by Dr. Abraham Hoffer MD.
And up to this point I thought those meta-analyses were just done by lazy researchers who wanted to be able to boast that they got something – ANYTHING – published.
Now I come to learn there are sometimes more devious motivations.
B2 (riboflavin)
I read, in a couple of places, that when we take B vitamins we should take all of them. Seems like taking just a few will unbalance the gut equilibrium.
I guess they all have an important role.
My mother had dry eyes and had to be always using lubricant eye drops.
I found out that it could be a B2 deficency, I bought her some and it was magic in just 2 days! She keeps taking it (plus a Comple B) and she never had that problem again.
HI Malcom – thank you for this B vitamins appear to becoming an obsession of mine. I recently saw two ladies in very early fifties who had had genuine heart attacks (proper STEMI) with absolutely zero traditional risk factors. A great mystery to the great and good- in the one case I spotted her ignored very low B12 form 2 yrs prior and in the second I checked it for the first time to find it also very low….
I also liken the B vitamins trials of those without cognitive impairment as assessing a drug for dysmenorrhoea in two groups of adolescent boys and unsurprisingly finding no difference in period pain between them!
There was a recent smear campaign study suggesting B12 supplement might be harmful -for those interested this is my rather long rebuttal of the tosh it spouted https://www.b12deficiency.info/?s=morris&et_pb_searchform_submit=et_search_proccess&et_pb_include_posts=yes&et_pb_include_pages=yes
You say “This was not a flawed meta-analysis. It was simply gibberish.” Why not “… it was simply fraud”? Let’s call a spade a spade.
I am reminded of my cardiologist, a great fan of Rory Collins, who in reply to my saying that I supplement with magnesium, said “oh yes, very good for your mood”.
Apologies, slightly off topic, but will be of interest to UK NHS users:
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/12/06/us-empire-seizes-uks-national-health-service/
Self medication is going to become the norm in the near future, thanks to the tories.
Steve. The health and Care Bill you mentions rarely gets a mention . My tory MP has not even replied to my questions about it.mit is an nightmare waiting in the wings,mand the public are hardly aware of it.
Dear Malcolm, As always your posts are excellent reading. I am going to up my B vitamin intake ( I already take magnesium daily plus others). I felt that as I was a lowly haematology technician in the 70s and had to do clotting times in a water bath as we hadn’t got automation as yet, to tell you that factor 1 is fibrinogen and 2 is prothrombin. Keep up the good work.
Best regards June
>
It is very unusual for your general practitioner to say anything about vitamins or to test for vitamin deficiency. I have certainly never heard any doc recommend magnesium. Perhaps this is because there’s no money in vitamins, or perhaps they think nobody in a Western country is going to be vitamin deficient. But I think the general attitude is dismissive – “oh yeah, I’ll test your vitamin D level if you want, go ahead and take a supplement if you want, but it’s not really going to do much for you.” Certainly I haven’t heard any increased emphasis on vitamin D in connection with covid, as there probably should be.
Thank you Dr Kendrick. I like the book Nourishment by Fred Provenza very much.
Great – as usual, thanks 😬
Did you see this new Scottish virus?
One big advantage: you can hear it coming from a long distance 🤣
Kind regards,
Adriaan Keij
= = =
Dr. Kendrick,
I have been a follower of your email blog for years, as well as owner of a couple of your books. I think that The Clot Thickens is your best—a true labor of love, I suspect, and one with which I (an eighty-three year old retired academic with several CV problems) agree.
Thank you for this work. I realize it will not overturn the current orthodoxy on these matters, but it had to be said and you said it very well.
Congratulations! Oh, and thank you again!
~Jack Williamsen
>
Thanks for your thanks. I live in hope
Very simple and very good advice on B Vitamins.
Thanks
I have my B vitamins. For those who’ve asked about doses, here are the “daily values” (for the U.S.): thiamine (B1) 1.2 mg; riboflavin (B2) 1.3 mg; niacin (B3) 16 mg; pyridoxine (B6) 1.7 mg; folate (B9) 400 mcg; methylcobalamin (B12) 2.4 mcg; pantothenic acid 5 mg; biotin 30 mcg. The Life Extension BioActive Complete B-Complex I got also has inositol and PABA. Odd thing is that the capsules I got have huge doses, from 170% of folate to 10,000% of panthotenic acid.
Gary Ogden: a fool. «I have my B vitamins…»
Gary Ogden has been a long time contributor to this blog and I appreciate his comments. Most of us are here to learn, since we don’t know everything. If knowing all things gives one the compulsion to call others fools, I am glad I know next to nothing.
Hello Don. There is so much good stuff on this blog, such as that from Gary and others who generously share their experiences. In the past I have left this blog, due to some obnoxious individuals who lower the tone. However, I have learned to manage their rudeness by simply never reading their comments any longer. I have said it before, and will say it again: this blog has been a lifesaver for me.
Agreed. I won’t harp on it, but I felt I had to say something once. I definitely don’t want comments deleted. I really appreciate the free flowing discourse here, provided by our gracious host. Freedom can allow the highest highs but also, sadly, the lowest lows.
Indeed
I bet I know less than you 😊. Others will confirm.
You know more than me.
Other than them, i don’t think i know more, or less, than you (all )
AhNotepad: Me, too!
Gary
Well known on this blog that I am very ignorant
But I try to learn from others
Always with the one downsmanship! Have you no decency? ; )
I craved chocolate like crazy especially when on period. When I start supplementing with magnesium the craving went away and now zero choco cravings. When I was low in iron all I wanted was red meat all day and also massive clay cravings (pica). When I started iron tablets cravings went away. So I believe the body does give you signals the problem is having the knowledge to interpret it. Sugar cravings go away with vitamin d supplements and so on…but again I had no idea vitamin d is great for hypoglycemia until I started taking it.
Absolutely. I would add that cravings during pregnancy are also the body crying out for dietary elements it needs. Of course, you need to have actually eaten a food for the body to know to crave it. If you’re low in magnesium and have never eaten pumpkin seeds, your body won’t crave them. Or low in K2 but have never eaten an emu.
Listen to your body. But be aware that there’s a difference between craving to satisfy an addiction, and craving for an essential chemical.
Eggs ‘n beer:
«Listen to your body». Very simple way of Nature acting.
Hi Dr Kendrick
Avid fan. Have all your books. We have corresponded before.
Thanks for the latest post on Vitamins.
I take 5mg of Ramipril every day for high blood pressure, and it appears its interaction with magnesium is risky. Drugs.com states: “Talk to your doctor (well, you are a doctor!) before using ramipril together with magnesium salicylate. Combining these medications may reduce the effects of Ramipril in lowering blood pressure. In addition, these medications may affect your kidney function, especially when they are used together frequently or chronically. “
It also appears that Ramipril doesn’t bode well with potassium. “It is recommended that if you are taking Ramipril you should be advised to avoid moderately high or high potassium dietary intake. This can cause high levels of potassium in your blood.”
As I rarely believe what’s written nowadays unless it comes from a highly credible source – i.e. Dr Malcolm Kendrick – so please could you give your view ( I know I can’t ask you for a diagnosis, etc, etc). But would you concur with these statements?
Many thanks
James Hammond
Ramipril is an ace-inhibitor. They can all raise potassium levels. So you do need to be careful
Malcolm,
I am a bit curious about your reply. I have taken Lisinopril for many years, and nobody ever mentioned caution about potassium – indeed I have a banana with my breakfast many mornings!
Is Ramipril particularly bad in this respect?
I’m not your patient, so a link to a relevant paper would satisfy me.
David. All the ACE-inhibitors can raise potassium levels. If you Google ACE-inhibitors and potassium, much information will cascade down. It is not normally a major issue, in most people it is not an issue at all, and I don’t believe that potassium intake is of much relevance – one way or another – over and above the effect of the ACE-inhibitor.
David Bailey: Bananas actually have very little potassium-<2 mg/g. Dr. Kendrick is correct that ACE inhibitors are potassium-sparing, so that taking a potassium supplement while on an ACE inhibitor may not be wise. This is actually one of the reasons I weaned myself from all BP drugs, so that I could supplement with potassium. Potassium in foods is good.
mollymowler,
I would stop any drug for HBP. I would increase a bit of sodium intake. I would test BP 3 days a week — 3 times every time because only the third (or forth) is free from the fear.
If no oedema appeared, I would decide after 2-3 weeks for a new life.
Proton pump inhibitors (omeprazole, lansoprazole etc) deplete magnesium especially in chronic use. Patients take them every day under doctor’s advice for gastroprotection when taking anti inflammatory drugs, for hiatus hernia, wen sometimes all you need is a swig of bicarbonate.
Mark Heneghan,
Almost no people need a PPI. Have a full human “diet”.
Indeed. It’s almost as if the drug companies want you to take them, so hard are they pushed.
Mark,
What exactly do you mean? PPI’s are used to stop acid reflux, are you saying people should take an H2 inhibitor instead, or use Gaviscon, or just ignore the acid reflux (which doesn’t sound like a good idea).
PPIs can have dramatic impact on Vitamin B12 absorption, magnesium and sodium levels. I see these things quite regularly. PPIs also have a serious impact on nitric oxide synthesis in the endothelium. I try to switch everyone off them, if possible.
Thankyou for this great subject getting an airing again. But where do we go from here?
I had very low B12 levels and believed it was Metformin at fault….’Oh no it isn’t’. I had severe abdominal bloating, and believed it was Metformin at fault…..’oh no it isn’t’, but let’s give you Lansoprazole…..Good grief, what a relief. I stopped all Metformin for the second time in 20 years, and this time for good. But B12 inevitably would suffer with Lanzsoprazole, so I privately supplement, and when (if) this barmy government deems my GP can monitor my bloods once again, fingers crossed all will be well.
As to magnesium levels….well goodness knows if the NHS will ever routinely monitor magnesium, and other vitamins and minerals essential to life.
But never mind, I will be pestered to have cholesterol monitored, despite it being recorded on my notes that I will not use statins ever again.
Hubby is 79 next week…I asked him how he felt about being written off by said government, in much the way I will be written off for at least 4 months because I am a long term diabetic, fortunately still under 75.
The National HEALTH Service ought to be concentrating on keeping us on the right tracks, rather than being used as a fire-fighting emergency service. Where has the morality in our NHS gone?
Yes, it’s me again…politics, politics, politics. Just follow the money for the answers.
Metformin causes malabsorption of iron as well as B12, and because it upsets your bowels, many a guideline driven doctor will do the sum low iron + variable bowel habit = possible bowel cancer, and before you know it you’ve been colonoscoped and nothing found. The problem with the standard medical approach to diabetes, is that everything concentrates on getting the blood sugar normal, whether you use insulin, or a drug that stimulates insulin production, or a drug that makes you pee sugar, or metformin, or the GLP 1 analogues injections. The latter 2 at least tend to make people eat less by causing a certain amount of anorexia, so that the patient unintentionally eats less carbohydrate, along with other foods, whereas if the diabetic patient eats a low carbohydrate diet in the first place, the same result is achieved from the point of view of blood sugar, but without having to take the drugs in the first place, and usually with a huge chunk of weight loss to boot.
This is very unscientific but . . . I had heartburn and acid reflux for years. Pregnancy hangover. At one time I was taking a PPI but only sporadically, since it didn’t help much. I had, one day, a craving for pickled onions with my bread and cheese, so thought “I can always take a pill if it all goes nasty” I have not had indigestion, heart burn or reflux since that meal. It seems that my stomach was short of acid, since that oesophogeal sphincter has been reliable ever since.
My body knows better than I realised.
Interesting, as I have read that heartburn and acid reflux can be caused by an insufficient level of gastric acid! Organic apple cider vinegar can often solve this problem.
Agreed. cider apple vinegar is very effective for indigestion. From what I read acid reflux can occur when stomach acid is too low because the stomach sphincter (or whatever it’s called) needs a certain level of acid for it to shut properly. It made a logical sense to me. I should like to add that cutting back to almost zero on most carbs about 9 years ago I have never had a bout of acid reflux/heartburn since nor have I been, er…how can I put this nicely?….jet propelled.
JanB
The heartburn & reflux began during my third pregnancy. I had constant nausea for seven months, and could only control it with glucose sweets – but had to be the acid drops. Then the nausea went and was replaced with the heartburn, which lasted for years. – I suspect my stomach was rebelling against the lackof acid in my diet. That remained until the pickled onion incident, after which I dropped all efforts to avoid what I thought were controversial foods.
It’s not a simple answer. In an ideal world, don’t get reflux. People in my profession are officially big supporters of preventative medicine, (and we have the non evidenced base QOF to prove it) but in reality we practice symptom treatment. In the case of reflux, which is probably the commonest cause of dyspepsia these days (in my opinion after 30 years as an endoscopist), the symptoms arise from the reverse flow of acidic stomach liquid up the oesophagus towards the mouth. The low ph plus digestive enzymes can erode oesophageal mucosa, leading to bleeding, ulcers, strictures and even cancer. It also hurts and tastes foul. Raising the ph with proton pump inhibitors or H2 antagonists makes the liquid less corrosive, but has almost no influence on the volume of liquid refluxed. This doesn’t bother the patient much because it has stopped hurting. If the patient takes the medication long term (more so with PPIs because they reduce acidity better) it leads to a build up of a hormone called gastrin, whose job is to stimulate the acid cells in to making more acid (a homeostatic feedback loop). Even though the acid cells are having their buttons pushed by gastrin, they don’t make acid because their output is being blocked by the PPI.Any time the patient tries stopping the PPI however, the high levels of gastrin will stimulate the acid cells to produce MORE acid than that being produced before starting the PPI and the patient very quickly goes back on the PPI, effectively addicted, because withdrawal is so unpleasant.
Chronic PPI use reduces calcium absorption as well, and they now have osteoporosis as an official possible side effect. The irony is that one of the drugs give for osteoporosis, bisphosphonates, cause reflux symptoms, and one of the previously recommended drugs to combat this was……PPIs!
So how can you treat reflux non medically? Well, what things are are associated with it?
A full stomach, a bloated abdomen, a fat abdomen, pregnancy, being horizontal after eating, reducing the effectiveness of the lower oesophageal sphincter with alcohol, caffeine, smoking.
Obviously pregnancy is short lived. My own success with reflux, which used to trouble me at night, was cured by eating less in general, boozing less, and reducing gas generating food (less bloating). Most of this I noticed after a few weeks on a low carbohydrate diet, which naturally reduced my hunger, reduced my gas fermentation, and reduced my abdominal fat.
I feel about reflux the way doctors were exasperated in the sixties when the anti smoking campaigns began – when people were told that smoking caused cancer, they wanted to find a non cancer causing cigarette rather than stop smoking.
Now, when people are told that their reflux is caused by eating too much, they want a drug to stop the symptoms of reflux rather than stop eating too much.
So, to answer your question, I would prefer to help a patient’s reflux by advising on eating than by turning off the acid.
Mark H. What an excellent explanation. It confirms my belief ( and many others here) that so many drugs necessitate requiring another drug, and thereby the merry go round gets faster and faster.
I would certainly like to reduce/ stop the Lanzoprazole, but don’t know how to; but I will consider the explanations you have offered, thankyou.
The general way is first get your dose down to the lowest available capsule, eg 15 mg, then stop and see how long you can go without them. Tell yourself that the returning symptoms are just ‘rebound’ excess acid, and try to deal with it with liquid antacids and ride it out. The best way to use PPIs if you have to take them, is a few days at a time with a break UNLESS eg a deliberate course for helicobacter pylori infection, or for a confirmed peptic ulcer.
This isn’t medical advice, just general comments.
Mark H. Many thanks for your quick reply. I will certainly reduce the frequency of the low dose 15mg I have been using this year. I have a supply of liquid antacid which I believe will be sufficient, bearing in mind the rebound effect that you mentioned. My memory reminds me from years ago that PPIs were prescribed for a finite time, although I didn’t know the reason why. Maybe it is the Covid interference that has permitted me to have mine on a repeat prescription basis, with no follow up, or have the guidelines been changed?
We have so many guidelines on gastroprotection for potentially stomach eroding drugs such as clopidogrel to protect against further strokes and heart attacks and anti inflammatory drugs for arthritis, then other guidelines on polypharmacy and how to avoid it, namely by not prescribing so many drugs!
Mark. Polypharma is a theme that has meandered throughout this blog for years.
I was prescribed ETORICOXIB ( unfortunately) due to a gammy hip…and within 2 weeks had a TIA because (I have since found out ), it was contra-indicated for diabetics. So….started on Clopidogrel, which I understood required Lansoprazole. You get the picture? Now I am 5 months down the line, and want off the merry go round, so that my body can eat properly and absorb the minerals and nutrients it needs.
I will go very steady doing so, and then my next hurdle will be getting off Candesartan! ( white coat hypertension, except when having TIA).I never even got started on the Ezitimibe ( offered because I am a statin refusenik) or Empagliflozin, because my HbA1c had misbehaved …just midgies above the guidelines, but now well back into the norm.
I do my own exercises, along with a tens unit when my hip plays up.
I do not expect anyone to advise me regarding anything on this blog….but I do take notice of the comments and then do my own research, so thankyou to all who contribute here.
We have great medics at our surgery, wonderful consultants at the hospital I attend, and at which I trained in back in the early 80s (mature student), but I see their hands are tied firmly behind their backs. Anyway, these days, they generally lend me their ears, unlike in years gone by.
Jennifer
Why do doctors push Ezetimibe on statin refuseniks? My lipidist pushed it on me, and when I read how it works I told him no way, so he refused to see me any more and I have never looked back
Mr Chris. I did use the Ezetimibe for 3 weeks following the TIA, as I thought it only polite to follow the guidelines of the stroke consultant who saw me within 24 hours. However….I did explain that I rather liked my cholesterol, and statins had been a disaster for me in the past. So, Ezetimibe it was….until the very same awful side effects of statins quickly returned….hair dropping out by the handful, leg cramps, lethargy, in fact the full Monty.
We can only take advice, given to us in good faith, but at the end of the day we are all individuals and know how our own body reacts. I still gawp at the research endocrinologist who, when I mentioned my very low B12 levels, insisted it had nothing to do with 2g Metformin daily. Crikey…it’s all over the Internet!
Low B12 is mentioned as a Metformin side effect in the British National Formulary, and has been for about two decades. We routinely check our type 2 diabetics on Metformin for this.
Mark. I think that is further confirmation of the blinkered approach to medicine that we are suffering from. I have reluctantly used Metformin, and after having 2 episodes of withdrawing myself from using it ( I use insulin, by the way) I was urged once again by the consultant to ‘please, at least continue with 500mg’. It’s the same with statins. I have yet to find a medic who has not raised their eyebrows at my decision to stop statin therapy, despite seeing the state my body had degenerated into whilst using Simvastatin 40mg.
And yet again, I have had 2 X 24 hour BP tapes over the years, which showed there was no problem. But, because the surgery check-ups showed elevated BP, even the one GP ( since retired) who recognised it as white coat hypertension, explained that he was beholden to prescribe an antihypertensive.
Sorry to harp on, but it gets my goat!
Now then….who is running this show?
I sympathise. To be fair it wasn’t till Malcolm opened my eyes with his book that I stopped following guidelines and believing the grownups and started to find out for myself. I appreciate that you don’t want to offend your GP, so you could either just accept the script and give the statins and hypertensives back to the pharmacist – they are legally allowed to re dispense them if they haven’t left the premises – or you could just ask the practice to code your refusal on the computer so that they don’t lose their financial encouragement to do this sort of thing. You could try looking at the website The NNT which shows how many patients needed to treat to prevent certain things (eg strokes and heart attacks) with statins and anti hypertensive drugs. It is eye opening.
Yes Mark. I have learned such a lot from Dr Kendrick’s blog, and I have found his books very interesting. I respond respectfully to all medics I seek help from, but the odd one has become quite tetchy when I question them. My NHS training emphasised my duty to know the ins and outs of all things medical, and I can’t change now. There is always something to improve my knowledge, and thank you for your contributions.
Brainwashed
Hello Mark. I am pleased to report that I have now been off Lansoprazole since 12 December. Yes, there was a degree of rebound, as you warned might occur, but I coped so well with the liquid antacid, that I now require it infrequently. My GP approves.
My next task is addressing Clopidogrel, which I think is a more serious adventure. I have asked for advice from my young GP and been supplied with information, so that I can make up my own mind. No ‘ifs’, ‘buts’, ‘tuts’. Just a sensible discussion, which I am so greatful for.
Now, that’s a step in the right direction, don’t you agree?
Agree. Grown up medicine. Good move.
Mark Heneghan, I once saw the serious effect of acid reflux when I was working in theatres a few years ago. A patient was having a section of his oesophagus removed – it was like a lace curtain. It was a bit of a stretch, attaching the incised ends together, and the surgeon didn’t give a good prognosis.
I wish I knew that 20 years ago. Instead I went to a GP who treated me with increasing doses of PPI for two years, causing me a number of serious side effects.
I was so miserable that I started researching the issue myself, and a good friend of mine at that time was a proponent of a primal/ketogenic diet and convinced me to try that regimen.
15 years later, I’m in the best health since my twenties (I’m in my late fifties), even if I still have issues with my hip, a degeneration most likely caused by the PPIs.
If I happen to eat too much, sit on the couch afterward, and I feel slightly bloated, a shot of ACV is a sort of miracle drug for me.
Mark H, you say alcohol reduces the effectiveness of the sphincter, do you know why this is? and is there anything one could do to reduce the effect of alcohol (other than drinking less!)? (Lately, if I have over approx. 130ml of wine, I get regurgitation in the night which I can partly alleviate with Gaviscon).
To everyone, I’ve heard Centaury bitters are good for increasing stomach acid but I can’t say they’ve done much for me (they are pretty foul but I’ve got used to the taste).
Always assumed it was from the general effect on smooth muscle, hence vasodilation (smooth muscle of blood vessels) too.
Mark. Still on my pet subject of Lanzoprapzole. A contributor mentioned that the lower oesophageal sphincter relies on acid to function. I understand it needs the acid to close up after food passes into the stomach. Some drugs erode the gastric mucosa, exposing the surface to damage by the acid, with potential ulcer formation. So, PPIs are used to reduce the production of acid by 80%. However, they interfer with the LES and reflux may still occur. There appears to be other drugs which affect the LES, such as some antihypertensives, and clopidogrel. I no longer use clopidogrel after discussing with my GP. ….so…’I takes me chances’!
I have a friend who has used clopidogrel and PPIs for over 5 years. She has endured nasty reflux and been ‘scoped 4 times. She is assured the clopidogrel is not implicated. For 2 years she has had eczema, requiring exhaustive hospital drug intervention, with little improvement. She questions her drug regime, but is assured there is no connection. I am amazed, because both reflux and skin problems are mentioned in the advice sheets in the box of tablets, with many articles on Dr Google.
Another example of PolyPharma?
Jennifer: Anything that ends in prazole needs to be avoided like the Plague! It’s addictive with unpleasant withdrawal symptoms; it does harm to the kidneys and worst of all, it’s unnecessary, there are alternatives that don’t mess with the body so much.
It is unwise to use antacids. With aging comes decreased stomach acid production. There are some betain/HCL tablets available that aid digestion. (Hypochlorhydria – low stomach acid).
I drink very little water. Some years back the difficulty i had swallowing food was medically diagnosed as GORD (Gastro Oesophageal Reflux Disease). I didnt take the prescribed medications. I increased my water intake. I had read Dr Batmanghelidj’s “Your Body’s Many Cries For Water.” I still occasionally can have trouble swallowing – when i’ve become dehydrated…
I am confused.
How could Brits be low on B-Vitamins?
Don’t they live on Marmite and Beer?
😉
Yes we do live on Marmite and beer, augmented with daily fish and chips and a nice cuppa tea. As the Americans exist solely on MacDonalds er … thingies. Hands across the sea eh? Stay snug ya hear?
I understand that Marmite has:
Thiamin
Riboflavin
Niacin
Folate
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B12
Potassium
Magnesium
Which sounds good to me!
About ten years ago, Denmark banned Marmite. Don’t know if that’s changed since, but this BBC clip from 2011 is pretty funny.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/health-13544886
I believe myself to be living proof of the dangers of low B12 and the restorative benefits of supplementing it. I developed trigeminal neuralgia, a severe neuropathic condition, some years ago and only by sheer luck discovered one of the very few books available on B12 deficiency (Could it Be B12? – Sally Pacholok). In it, the author happened to mention a case study of someone with deficiency who had developed TN and it set me off looking at mine.
Long story short, I had it tested by my GP, not without considerable persuasion on my part, and it was found to be just borderline ‘normal’ and no more, but fortunately I also knew from the same book that ‘normal’ B12 in the UK is not the same as normal B12 in other parts of the world. In many places I would have been considered deficient. I fought my doctor, literally, to be given injections (I had to compile a dossier of my research for him and I was lucky it won him over) and I was given injections. Within 3 weeks my TN started to improve and finally went into remission. It is not wholly cured, it still grumbles, but basically I live mostly in remission. Had I not been treated with B12 (and I still am now, despite not technically ‘needing’ it – I’ve had to fight for that too) I believe I would have been (more) permanently damaged and left with severe TN.
And for anyone who wishes to know what caused this, I had been on an enforced diet (due to gallstones) for a year and a half beforehand, wherein I ate no fat, as in NONE (other than in white fish). I then had an operation (anaesthetic depletes B12 severely) and promptly followed that up by trying vegan and vegetarian diets. In short, through lack of fat for a very long time, an operation, and then meat-free diets I effectively removed virtually all B12 from my diet. I believe that had it been tested immediately after my operation it would have been right through the floor and had, in fact, already been partially restored when it was measured, but not by enough, hence me finally developing TN.
I consider myself very lucky indeed that I discovered this connection because no doctor even thought of it, and also that my doctor was at least wiling to let me try it, even although he didn’t believe it. Incidentally, some time afterwards he announced it was merely a coincidence and that I’d just coincidentally happened to go into remission after three weeks of B12 treatment.
There’s no dogma like an old dogma, especially when it comes to the great God ‘normal range’ of the omnipresent ‘blood tests are definitive’ diktats of Western medicine.
Can you please share the document you send to your GP, so we can also share with our GP as our family has alot of symptoms ignored by the GP and so called specialists!
Hi Dev have a look on the PAS website and you will find all the documentation,including articles specifically created for and aimed at the medical profession.,you can print these off and go armed to your gp,wether they’ll read them or not is another story so it’s worth a try.
Yeah, whenever I send links or articles to my GP, ‘no time’, she cries! I think she’s too busy making phone calls to patients she never sees. And she’s actually quite a decent human being, who I like but she’s been transformed into a creature of rampant capitalism.
Physician, Heal Thyself!
My GP sounds similar. But I don’t think she understands cholesterol yet, even though she’s got two patients who have gone keto, raising their satfats and cholesterol intake but lowering their blood levels (I don’t know the other patient) even though she’s fascinated by the result. She still places a lot of emphasis on lipid levels in the bloods. No time for books.
Physician, Know Thyself might be more appropriate.
Chancery Stone,
The concept of normal is a mathematical idea.
We can not treat Life as a mathematical concept.
Life is simpler and the proof is it is that Life is billions of billions old.
Answer to your question about the missing B vitamins:
They originally named 12 different substances as B vitamins, but then discovered that 4 of them weren’t actually B vitamins at all.
Hence the 4 missing numbers!
The only useful thing I can add about B12, is that if you take PPI drugs (they are off prescription now) beware! I took them for a few months and they can lower the acid level in the stomach (raise the pH) so much that B12 isn’t absorbed from food. Back in 2013, when this happened to me, I would have been on regular B12 injections for life if I hadn’t realised the problem either here or somewhere else on the internet (I can’t remember). A re-check found I had normal B12 levels.
“On the other hand, if our Vitamin B12 supplies are becoming perilously low – we might end up feeling bloody awful. In the final stages we could end up paralyzed, then dead, without knowing why. Vitamin B12 is essential for the health of neurones (amongst other things). But there is nothing that triggers our desire to forage around for foodstuffs rich in vitamin B12. Supposing we knew what they were anyway.”
Put like that it does seem very odd, because many people seem to be able to survive some very extreme situations without harm, or they decide to become fruitarians, or whatever.
Is it conceivable that most healthy people can make small amounts of B12 by a pathway not yet known to biochemistry, but that in some this pathway is blocked?
Healthy people have store of B12 in the liver that is sufficient for several years.
Thank you for your sharing your knowledge. I look forward to getting your emails.
Hello Dr. Kendrick.I want to thank you for your excellent ideas, thorough review of primary data and, most of all, your tremendous courage. It is not easy to go against the grain in medicine and often very costly. I am enjoying your book “The Clot Thickens”. Even as a physician specializing in the care of the critically ill cardio-vascular patient,I have learned a great deal from you. Now, from one self professed nerd to another; there are two little details which may be inaccurate in your book. Why is it important? People are desperate to dismiss your opinions because, if you feel that you are an expert in an area, finding out you don’t really know as much as you thought is very threatening to your sense of self. If the bathwater is dirty people will be all too keen to throw your ” baby” out with it. 1. 120 mmHg is about 160 cm of water (or blood) about 5 feet 4 inches. Not 9 feet. 2. Coronary arteries are named for the organ they supply. “Cor” in lating is heart. Pulmonary arter, “pulmonis” etc. Minor details. I agonized briefly before writing this email to you but…I’d hate to see these things detract from the impact of your message when you talk to people.
Yours truly.
Edgar
Thank you for taking the time to check up on my writing. I am always aware that I can get things wrong. Hopefully these errors are not mission critical. I will go back and double check and see what I can do
Dear Dr K
You’ve done it again. That’s more money I have to spend! From a layman’s terms it all makes sense, not just this blog, but previous missives on coved / cardiac / endothelia – my monthly spend on supplements means that I’ve had to dip into my wife’s new slippers fund..
There was D with zinc, then C, now magnesium and all the Bs.
We try and eat well. Masses of leafy greens, meat, fish. And eggs, a conservative fifteen a week each. So free range are they that I have to batter flapping hens away from the budget toothpaste (which is now all we can afford!).
I looked over the garden wall last evening and saw a chap doing sprints up and down the footy field. I wondered if he felt as dreadful as me as I sipped my pre-dinner Merlot. I’ll have to get his email address and send him your blogs. That should slow him down a bit!
(Thank you once again, more great work)
Brilliant article. Thank you Dr Kendrick!
Be interesting to know what level of homocysteine is deemed high. Above 7 as some articles indicate or 11 as per the Oxford study?
People are suffering as a result of misinformed doctors and patients. Its people like Dr Kendrick, Prof David Smith, Tracey Witty, Dr Chandy, Dr Aseem Malhotra, etc that are helping to improve our health. The evidence clearly shows positive preventive simple measures that improve our health with no side effects except saving brain deterioration! What drug has even similar results?
GPs and do called specialist are NOT following the NICE guideline and patients are suffering or dying needlessly! That’s how key these vitamins are!
Its our previous GP who took our Dad off B12 injections (his levels at the time were just below 200ng/l resulting in high homocysteine (13) and strokes! And we still fight to rectify the situation!
Here’s what may help but research on duck duck go NOT google
Lowering Homocysteine (hcy 12 to 7 in 3 months but adjust to suit your needs) Life Extension brand does specific supplements to lower homocysteine
50g zinc solgar check on zinc / copper balance
1000ug B9 Folate
1000ug B12 methylcobalamin
100mg B6 Pyridoxal 5 phosphate
600mg N-Acetyl N cysteine
450mg Omega 3 Algae (DHA 250 & EPA 125mg Vit E 6mg)
Also worth testing your genes to find root cause too as MTHFR affecte B12 / B9 folate methylation. Simple solutions for better health outcomes!
https://www.flexyourbrain.com/mthfr-gene-mutation-mthfr-testing-treatment/#
https://mthfrgenehealth.com/mthfr-symptoms/
Dear Doctor, maybe it’s a Good Thing we dont produce internally all the vitamins etc necessary to keep us running. Maybe by designing us to be dependent on Nature was God’s way of ensuring we would just trash the place… We ARE bound to Mother Earth, bodily and energetically. Just read the things that happen to those who man the Spacelabs .Strip away the hubris and we’re just organisms that take foodstuffs in one end and excrete it out the other – the same as every other organism on this planet. Culture seems to be something humans invented / do to pre-occupy them in between food meals.
When will humanity recover from the bang on the head that caused us to believe we were something Special, that we were not part of the nature that grows on the surface of this planet ?
should read “wouldnt just trash the place.”
So much information! Thank you, Dr Kendrick, for the time and trouble you take X PS I’m enjoying the book
Why would anybody rate this comment down ?
Maybe friends messing with her?
Wouldn’t it be nice if we were told real health advice and people actually cared about our health? Imagine what kind of healthy world we could be living in…
Politicians and medicine have been captured by those who see us as lab rats and cash cows.
Wow! For years, I have quoted Marcia Angell’s and Richard Horton’s indictments of the garbage that can pass for modern medical research and still end up being published. I firmly believed that no one else could so accurately and succinctly identify the dross that goes into some research journals. But then, Dr. Kendrick introduces us to Drummond Rennie, deputy editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association. So, I shall have to replace the call-outs of Drs. Angell and Horton with Dr. Rennie’s — even more succinct and definitely more biting.
This may interest you and your readers
https://metatron.substack.com/p/does-covid-vaccination-reduce-covid?r=i378u&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=twitter
In your book Doctoring Data you mention the French Paradox, where despite having a high fat diet they also have a lower incidence of CVD.
Now in this your latest blog you discus the problems causes by lack of Magnesium and CVD.
Putting two and two together, can I make a simple observation: Having spent a number of years living in France, one thing that I noticed on moving back to England was the difficult of finding a reasonable sea salt, most salt in the UK is derived from rock salt.
In France the supermarket shelves are full of an often dirty grey coloured sea salt, from the minerals and algae it contains. This is almost impossible to find in the UK.
Now we know sea salt is high in Magnesium and other minerals, could this be a contributing factor to the lower levels of CVD in France?
It might also be a simple solution to solving the problem of low Magnesium level, perhaps we should just change back to using sea salt?
Sounds reasonable to me.
Isn’t rock salt formed from the remnants of very ancient bodies of water, therefore having a similar mineral profile to sea salt?
No from what I remember (from years ago) the underground rock salt we mine was laid down long ago in geological time, before our current oceans existed in the chemical form they existing now, and rock salt is mainly NaCl with little Potassium etc. (you might need to check this I have no references just an old memory?).
Himalayan rock salt apparently has 84 minerals; 98% sodium chloride and 2% trace minerals.
Frederica Huxley: Yes! This is why I use it.
In fact, (this is from memory from the Clot Thickens) I have changed partly to low sodium salt because it contains more potassium. And ordered some Magnesium tabbies which will hopefully help with the cramps!
Roy Bonney: I’ve stopped using sea salt because the junk we modern folks have put into the sea ends up in the salt. Land-based sources are purer, in my view. Himalayan salt is good. My preference, here in the U.S., is Redmond Real Salt, mined in Utah. Lots of interesting colors in it. But your point about trace minerals in salt is important, just as is Dr. Kendrick’s point about magnesium in water.
Two things that the French have a lot of are humor and hugs. Both of those things are good for our immune systems. Moderate intake of wine has a positive impact on humor.
There are many confounders.
However, sea salt is probably high in micro plastics nowadays
Malcolm
When you say take 400. Mg a day, I take it this is elemental magnesium and so as magnesium glycerophosphat that would be something like 20% per tablet as magnesium
Re the types of magnesium; I was advised that the most absorbent form was magnesium L threonate? I take it twice a day for leg cramps, not sure of the dose as it’s mixed with glycinate and taurate but it’s got to be around 600mg per capsule.
barovsky: Magnesium threonate is good in that at readily enters the brain. I take it along with magnesium glycinate.
Got that right then.
Yes, I take L-threonate as well and it certainly seems to have perked my brain – well, I can hope. I do still get breakthrough ramps though, especially in the feet an hands, which are EXCRUCIATING. I will try Glycinate as well. Thanks, Gary.
JanB
Thank you once again for your tireless efforts.
Dr Kendrick, you may like to have a look at the work of Dr Stasha Gominak, who suggests that all B vitamins are made by a particular set of gut bacteria in the presence of vitamin D. This appears to be a very primitive part of animal physiology and may explain why we don’t get cravings for vitamins.
It is often claimed that organic produce is not significantly better than the inorganic. Why do I disagree? Because I’ve read Merlin Sheldrake’s ‘Entangled Life. How fungi make our worlds, change our minds, and shape our futures’.
He describes how fungi and plants are in partnership. Plants provide fungi with energy-giving sugars and lipids produced in photosynthesis. Fungi feed plants nutrients from the soil via their prolific mycelium. Entire forests rely on fungi for their survival.
When soils from fields that are conventionally managed are compared with organically managed ones it is consistently found that the organically have a greater abundance of mycorrhizal (mykes = fungi; rhiza = root) fungi and that these fungal communities are more complex. In one recent study 27 species of fungi were identified as highly connected or keystone species in the organic, compared with none in the conventional.
But mycorrhizal fungi do more than feed plants. Their mycelium is a sticky living seam that holds soil together and prevents leaching of nutrients. And they increase the quality of a harvest. Modern farming methods destroy fungi yet a healthy soil relies upon them.
My husband and I prioritise eating organically now but I know that many people cannot afford to. But if it can be afforded, it must be better than taking supplements. It’s not just a few vitamins and minerals that are reduced with conventional farming. It is all of them.
P.S. If you are shopping for Christmas I really recommend Sheldrake’s book. (He has a Ph.D. in tropical ecology and seems to have conferred with everyone who knows anything of the subject). It’s beautifully and enthusiastically written to make an easy read (despite there being 40 pages of references). Fungi could be our and the planet’s salvation. They can
1. Nurture plants and nutrients
2. Feed on or breakdown our rubbish, including plastics, pollutants…
3. Be used to make clothes, lampshades, furniture
4. Be used to make building materials
5. Be used to fight illness
6. Etc, etc. There seems to be little that they cannot do and amateur enthusiasts are enjoying experimenting with them.
Perhaps we are at last waking up to the huge and diverse possibilities. Perhaps we won’t always need supplements.
Brilliant! Thank you for your excellent explanation of synergy at work in Nature. And those fuckwits in Big Pharma think they know it all!
I forgot one of Merlin Sheldrake’s bits on fungi for alcohol:
‘About ten million years ago, the enzyme our bodies use to detoxify alcohol, known as alcohol dehydrogenase, or ADH4, underwent a single mutation that left it forty times more efficient. The mutation occurred in the last common ancestor we shared with gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos. Without a modified ADH4, even small quantities of alcohol are poisonous. With a modified ADH4, alcohol can be consumed safely and used by our bodies as a source of energy. Long before our ancestors became human, and long before we evolved stories to make cultural and spiritual sense of alcohol and the cultures of yeast that produce it, we evolved the enzymes to make metabolic sense of them.
Why would the ability to metabolise alcohol arise so many millions of years before humans developed technologies of fermentation? Researchers point out that ADH4 upgraded at a time when our primate ancestors were spending less time in trees and adapting to life on the ground. The ability to metabolise alcohol, they speculate, played a crucial role in the ability of primates to make a living on the forest floor by opening up a new dietary niche: overripe, fermented fruit that had fallen from trees.’
So we evolved to use fungi fermented alcohol. Use it or lose it eh?
A very MERRY Christmas to all.
Hmmmm… there’s a comparable theory/hypothesis? about Cannabis; why does the human brain have a specific receptor for the active ingredient in dacca, THC? An anthropologist proposed that tens, hundreds of thousands of years ago, our ancestors were exposed to THC accidentally and natural selection favoured those who got high and had ‘visions’, special people that came to be called shamans or sangomas, and favoured people by the community which of course, gave them evolutionary advantage until they dominated, like the favoured alcohol gene. There’s no other explanation except evolutionary advantage, is there?
Tish,
A very nice post. Simple and True.
Merry Christmas.
Do the elephants in South Africa that binge on plums have the ADH4 enzyme?
Apparently they can get roaring drunk when the plums ferment in the gut, and aside from occasionally sitting on cars, it would appear that they emerge unscathed for the next harvest.
Came across this excellent essay on the role of FEAR in enforcing our compliance during this ‘pandemic’:
Fascinating blogpost. A few years ago I read detail of experiments on this kind of thing, really thought-provoking;
“In one typical experiment, Provenza looked at the mineral phosphorus, which the body uses to make things like bones and teeth and for a variety of functions (such as intracellular communication). Phosphorus is essential for life. Without it, you’re done for. Scientists had long suspected that animals get phosphorus by liking salt. Salt itself is only one mineral—sodium chloride (also essential)—but in nature salt often shows up alongside other minerals. By liking salt, the thinking goes, an organism gets all its minerals. But Provenza didn’t think it was so simple. He’d noticed, for example, that phosphorus-deficient cattle often lick and chew on old bones. There is phosphorus in old bones, but no salt. So how could liking salt explain bone chewing? It couldn’t.
Provenza placed ten sheep in a pen and put them on a diet that was low in phosphorus. When the sheep developed a deficiency, he offered them some feed laced with maple flavoring. And then came the important part: After the sheep ate the maple-flavored feed, Provenza pumped phosphorus directly into their stomachs through a tube that went down their throat. This sounds bizarre, perhaps even cruel, but Provenza had to ensure the sheep didn’t taste the phosphorus. He fed them maple-flavored feed and pumped phosphorus into their stomachs for six days. He wanted to set up an “association” between the flavor of maple and the nutritional payload of phosphorus. A few days later, when these same phosphorus-deficient sheep were offered maple-flavored feed, they gobbled it up, even though there wasn’t so much as a speck of phosphorus in it. To their bodies, maple flavor meant one thing: phosphorus. The less phosphorus in their blood, the more they liked the maple feed.
How do we know sheep aren’t just natural-born maple lovers? Because Provenza had another pen full of sheep, and in that pen phosphorus was paired with coconut flavoring, not maple. And when these sheep became deficient in phosphorus, they went for coconut. In fact, when all the phosphorus-deficient sheep were given a choice between coconut and maple, they always went for the flavor they associated with phosphorus, which demonstrated the sheep weren’t just looking for anything other than their phosphorus-deficient feed. When the phosphorus deficiency went away, so did the flavor preference. But the sheep didn’t forget it. All Provenza had to do was make them deficient again and back came those very specific flavor cravings.
Provenza was measuring a phenomenon known as “post-ingestive feedback,” which is a technical way of saying flavor preferences are learned (as with the goats and the blackbrush tannin). The sheep didn’t like coconut or maple the first time they tried it. The preference set in once their bodies connected the dots between the flavor of what they ate and the needed mineral their bodies received.
Provenza did a similar experiment with calcium, and the same thing happened. And it wasn’t just minerals. He got the same result with carbs. When lambs on a low-calorie diet tasted a flavor paired with a stomach drenching of carbs, they quickly learned to love that flavor. (Just like those carb-craving women in Chicago.) In another study, Provenza showed that it happened with protein, too. Sheep, in fact, were very particular about just how much protein they wanted. Growing lambs, which require more protein than mature sheep, formed a preference for more protein. Sheep, like goats, were woolly little nutritionists.”
This is why biodiversity is so important in grazing areas. Animals know which plants they need for whatever deficiencies they have, and will seek them out accordingly. An Aussie breeder wondered why horses raised on one farm performed better than those in a different state. Initially he simply moved them all to the better farm, but later went to Europe and the US to try to find out. At a top breeder in the UK, he complimented the old boy on the high quality of his paddocks, not a weed in sight. The guy stumped off in disgust muttering unprintable things about penal colony descendants etc. Turning to his lad, Peter asked what he’d said? “You’ve greatly insulted him by saying there’s no weeds. The paddock is full of variety. It hasn’t been ploughed for 600 years, or ever had pesticides or fertilisers. It’s full of everything the horses need.”
“But” said Peter, “you had to plough it during the war, surely. That was compulsory?”
The lad laughed and said “When the government inspectors arrived, him and his Dad met them at the gate with their shotguns loaded, and explained what was going to happen with their land. Never saw them again.”
He returned to Australia and set about restoring the rubbish farm. He sowed hundreds of acres with scotch thistles. He changed the hydrology. When the thistles had seeded, he slashed them, and left them. After a couple of cycles, the grass started to take over. The deep tap roots of the thistles brought trace elements back to the surface. The land was rejuvenated. The horses thrived.
I’m not sure that his neighbours appreciated the scotch thistle seed technique though.
Roots…
My lawn’s roots go down 6 ft. I mow as little as possible and like to leave about 6″ of grass leaf during the spring and fall. I shock the grass once during the summer with a close trim. I don’t fertilize or spread weedkiller. It’s all green.
There was a summer of drought a few years back. Evey lawn turned brown. All my neighbors had to re-seed or sod their lawns. Not me.
But my sodding neighbors (pun intended) probably wish I would mow more often.
If you have some perennials like asparagus in your garden, it will help with the mineralization of the soil. You just have to not harvest the asparagus every three years or so.
As long as you aren’t trying to maximize throughput of the soil, and let your crops grow slowly, their nutritional value ought to be high.
At the risk of seeming a bore, I feel I must yet again plug the “Perfect Health Diet” by Paul ,and Shou-ching Jaminet. It is comprehensive (well, almost) and seems to me to be very thoroughly researched and balanced. (It may strike you as too long and detailed at first reading – but that’s what you get if you want a complete account of nutrition).
In the early pages you can read about the ideal balance of calorie intake between protein, fat and carbohydrate. I had been minimising carbohydrates, but the Jaminets convinced me that was a mistake. The trick is to eat enough protein to maintain your body, enough carbs for your daily energy needs, and enough fat to convey essential fat-soluble vitamins. It turns out that animals do this automatically and quite accurately.
They also explain that any “reducing” diet may succeed brilliantly for weeks or months, but if it causes any deficiencies (which almost all such diets do) your body will eventually rebel and compel you to eat more in search of the missing nutrients. Thus the key to health is first of all to optimise your intake so you get all the nutrients you need, in sufficient but not excessive amounts. Then you can start to think about gradually losing weight, perhaps through more exercise or by cutting down a little on fat intake.
Do they say why you get your energy from carbs, rather than fat? When the energy content w/w of fat is 80% higher than carbs, it requires no effort for us to convert it to a useable energy supply and it requires a lot less effort to produce for eating.
They say that animals do the balancing act automatically. Lions eat nothing but meat, cows eat nothing but grass and other plants, humming birds nothing but nectar and swallows nothing but flies. Tits will drink the cream off the top of your milk, but are so cute that we forgive them and still feed them bacon rinds and nuts.
So why do humans need to consciously perform a balancing act, including carbs which were only introduced into our diet in volume about 11,000 years ago?
The pathways for glucose -> ATP is a lot less convoluted than for fat. Also, the brain needs some glucose which must be synthesized if absolute no carbs are available.
Still, there is a lot to be said for skewing your intake towards fats, preferably sat and mono-unsat. I don’t think I could do very low carb (I like some grain based foods just way too much), and I certainly would not strike veggies from my menu like Peter at hyperlipid seems to have done to get rid of phytines.
We need no carbohydrates in our diet – although, like you, I would not wish to get rid of them. Each trigylceride (three fatty acids attached to a glycerol molecule – the way we store ‘fats’) when broken down, releases one glycerol molecule. Two glycerol molecules, when joined together in the liver, makes a glucose molecule. Which is sufficient to power our brain… in truth is not the brain that needs the glucose, is the red blood cells – without which no oxygen can be released into the brain.
If, despite the glycerol to glucose conversion, we run short of glucose, it is also possible to synthesize it from proteins. Alternatively, most of our tissues run very efficiently on ketone bodies – made in the liver from fatty acids.
In short. Carbs are non-essential for human life. Fats and proteins are all we need (from a macronutrient perspective). They do, however, taste very pleasant in many forms.
Thanks for a more succinct answer than I could give. It took three or four years for me to finally give up bread. Even now I look upon it lustfully. I certainly have more empathy for those trying to give up smoking, drugs or alcohol. Not that I’ve given up alcohol, which chemically is, I suppose, a carb (with an hydrated carbon atom), but I’ve persuaded myself that the body processes alcohol quite differently to typical carbs. Pure guinness.
Eggs ‘n beer: After a few years, I don’t miss bread at all, nor vegetables, but don’t mess with my Jack Daniels! The good carbohydrates.
Apparently my body doesn’t know that it need carbs, after 15 on keto (mostly zero carb carnivore or with just a little green leaf salad per day).
As I wrote before, I train fasted in the morning at the gym, then I usually go to the beach for a swim and some sunbathing, lunch is usually 2 hours after finishing at the gym, no cravings or hunger. Same for my wife.
Funny thing, the rare occasions I have some carbs dining out with friends (once every few months maybe, the following day I’m hungry first thing in the morning, and strength performances are affected especially on a 5 reps program.
There is a very easy and cheap way to take magnesium. And it is a form that is very bioavailable: magnesium chloride.
In my country a 100g cost about 1 euro. The way to use it is: Dissolve 20g in a liter of water. Take a shot glass of it daily. It’s very effective. It tastes salty but we get used to it. I drink it in meals so the next bite of my food will take the flavor out.
Anamado: Thanks! Excellent idea.
Or as an alternative you could try soaking in a bath containing a couple of cups of Epsom Salts (Magnesium sulfate) a local chiropractor recommended it for back aches, it is apparently absorbed through the skin. A bag cost about 2 quid in the UK (5 baths ?).
I was a bit sceptical of the need for the supplementary of vital minerals and vitamins, I thought it was an industry based on snake oil salesmanship.
But that view is changing, my mother is an elderly 92 with vascular issues in the legs (common with women) recently she developed an ulcer in her left shin, a common place for ulcers to develop because of the lack of flesh in that part of the leg. No matter how this ulcer was treated it refused to heal, it also had a white crust form on the surface.
I’m not a great patient because I ask a lot of questions and make suggestions that some doctors take as a questioning of their abilities.
But I made a suggestion that maybe Zinc could help heal and could some of the drugs she is on be contributing?
He seemed annoyed but looked at her blood tests and took her off Rampril and said taking Zinc was ok, another doctor took over while the first was on holiday and put her on antibiotics to clean up an infection and ordered a bone scan.
To cut a long story short she had a bone scan and was diagnosed with possible calciphylaxsis, not a good prognosis.
But she has improved, the ulcer is healing, something in her treatment is working maybe it is a combination of efforts, only time will tell.
But my curiosity on vital minerals and vitamins has been awoken.
As soon as you give it some thought, it stands to reason that billions of people living mostly in towns and cities cannot obtain all the nutrients, in the right proportions, that are easily to be had by hunter-gatherers living a traditional life. Especially when you insert into the picture agricultural, chemical, food processing, medical and pharmaceutical industries all of which profit hugely from making people sick.
In the 18th century the very first scientific nutrition studies were done at the behest of manufacturers, plantation owners and other bosses. They came up with the required answers to the question: which foods will keep my workers highly productive for 10-20 years and enable them to have children – after which they can die for all I care.
The answers were, essentially, white flour, sugar, and tea as a cheap treat. Those do provide the maximum calories at the minimum cost, and so marvellous is the human body that young people can work hard for a decade or two on such a diet. Then they become obese, weak and sick and usually die young.
I am looking for the optimum magnesium supplement, but it is a minefield out there on the Internet. Magnesium citrate? Or Magnesium glycinate? Or Magnesium Malate? Or all 3?
I would appreciate comments from other bloggers on here please.
See my comment about Magnesium L Threonate for best absorbtion
I have settled on magnesium citrate, e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07M6R2T5F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It’s important to get the desired amount of elemental magnesium – some manufacturers cite the weight of the compound (in this case magnesium citrate) rather than the pure magnesium, which is always less. In the example, 500 mg of magnesium citrate supplies 150 mg of elemental magnesium. We take a couple every evening.
https://br.iherb.com/pr/now-foods-magnesium-citrate-180-softgels/22552
In the case of this magnesio, what would be the elementary amount?
Probably less than 150mg?
Sorry to have delayed replying, svrst11. Looking at the product to which you linked, you can see the answer byt zooming in on the second image – the label at the back of the container. It says “Serving Size 3 Softgels” and then “Magnesium… 400 mg”. I understand that to mean the 3 softgels give you 400 mg of actual elemental magnesium.
I don’t know, i don’t know. It just says that the 400 is the sum of the three forms of magnesium, among them citrate, which in your case is 30% as elemental.
His citrate: “Hi , our Magnesium Citrate is buffered with an elemental Magnesium level of 30% to boost the Magnesium delivered without having to take too much Magnesium Citrate”. So I have doubts
Jennifer I have found this works for me. ReMag. Check it out https://rnareset.com/products/remag-magnesium-solution
Dr Dean formulated ReMag in order to allow a ‘therapeutic dose’ without the laxative effect, which is common with higher doses of magnesium. It is absorbed at a cellular level, so doesn’t have to be processed through the digestive tract. Unless you need a therapeutic dose, you could save yourself a lot of money by making up your own supplement from magnesium chloride (which ReMag is).
So Sticky, what is the magnesium chloride recipe?
Hi Ruth. Simply magnesium chloride crystals stirred into water!
This is what I do: I put 100 g of MgCl into a jug, then add water to the 200 ml mark. You have to stir it, but it dissolves easily. Then it goes into one of those standard brown 200 ml bottles.
According to Dr Dean, 500mg of magnesium chloride yields 60 mg of elemental magnesium. You can work out that a 5ml teaspoonful thus contains 300 mg of magnesium. I take this in a small amount of water twice a day.
Thank you Sticky
I take 600 mg of magnesium every day in the form of magnesium chloride, which is very cheap to buy online. In her book ‘The Magnesium Miracle’, Dr Carolyn Dean has a table showing the yield in elemental magnesium for all the available supplementary compounds. For example, 500 mg of magnesium chloride gives 60 mg of magnesium, so it is easy to work out the dilution required.
If using MgCl, it is important to store it in an absolutely airtight container, since it is hygroscopic and will turn to mush otherwise.
Sticky
Thanks, bought it immediately
It’s a great read!
Could you transmit the table quoted here?
I did find a comparable table online, but the site was undergoing maintenance. I hope I’m not infringing copyright here (fair use?), but I scanned it from the book:
https://imgur.com/a/xT6UEbd
For my own specific problem (ventricular ectopics) Dr Sanjay of York Cardiology said it seemed that Magnesium Taurate was the one that worked best although he couldn’t say why. Plus we’re actually different. One human body doesn’t do the same things with all nutrients as another human body. I found the triple magnesium worked for me and when I later tried cheaper alternatives (including magnesium citrate) the VEs came back.
Jane. As you say, we are all different. What suits one person may not suit another. I find the topic rather confusing. I will stick to transdermal magnesium oil and magnesium flake soaks.
High magnesium salt
Celtic sea salt from nowhere near the “Celtic” countries.
I have been trying to understand the “scientific” approach to medical treatment. It seems to be:
1) blind everyone except the statisticians
2) establish a control group
3) match cohorts
4) randomize treatment
5) run statistical analyses
When I looked at HCQ for treating covid, I took a somewhat different approach. Ethically, denying treatment that a doctor believed to be effective is unacceptable–so placebos are out. And if a patient wants a particular treatment, they ought not be denied, so that pitches randomization and blinding. RCTs are therefore out. So that leaves retrospectives and unmatched control groups. This means that for retrospective research to have credibility, it must show quite a large benefit–maybe at least 50% relative benefit compared to community statistics which rely on treating with remdesivir and mabs or nothing. Of course, statistical analyses can be run on retrospective data, so we don’t throw out #5.
The biggest failure I see in the “scientific” approach is that it never really tries to understand the clinical progression of covid. So, of course, it won’t have any clue about time factors in using outpatient treatment. I looked at the data about covid and concluded that treatment with HCQ, for best results, must begin within 72 hours of the onset of symptoms. I also concluded that the people at highest risk resided in nursing homes and that any studies of treatment should aim for treating nursing home patients. The idea that nursing home patients are at highest risk from covid is based on retrospective data and is hardly controversial. So the hypothesis of interest wrt to treating covid with HCQ is whether it works when given early to high risk outpatients–within 72 hours. Dosing looks to be 800 mg the first day and 400 mg on subsequent days.
I am well aware of confounders and such, but the data for early treatment of covid with HCQ cocktails is consistently in the direction of benefit–especially in the case of high risk groups like nursing home patients, where the signal of benefit is strong.
And I have become aware thanks to Drs. Kendrick and Rushworth of the games played by pharma to drown the benefit signal in moderate numbers of low-risk patients and to test late treatment and such. Boulware was quite clever (and corrupt) in hiding the benefit signal by breaking up the data into days when treatment was started so that no single day could show statistically significant benefit, although if you lumped the data for those where treatment was started within the first three days of symptom onset, benefit could be seen even though the patients tended to be low-risk young health care workers. Boulware and company must have been surprised to see benefit even though their participants were low-risk and must have done some brainstorming to figure out how to hide the benefit signal. But they have been caught and several people have published statistical analyses which uncovered the benefit signal which had been hidden in the published paper.
Then I found that 75% of western people lack sufficient levels of vitamin D and that vitamin D deficiency is a useful predictor of poor prognosis for covid. Vitamin D must be in the cocktail. And some groups are also at risk for zinc deficiency, which is important for immune health, so add that to the cocktail. And vitamin C, of course.
I saw that diagnosing mild covid is impossible, so I concluded that treatment must be based on suspicion. Qualitative PCR tests are unhelpful, although perhaps quantitative tests may be helpful, if you can find them. The RAT tests seemed like a crapshoot.
I thought your book excellent. As to vitamin C / D why do they barely get a mention on NHS rapid Covid guidance? I dare say you have see Ivor Cummin’s Covid Chronicles (as I think he interviewed you once) https://covidchroniclesmovie.com/ Parallel universe. Allan Pollock (p.s. we spoke briefly when you gave a talk to the Laurence Society of Holistic Medicine in London a few years back. Your origin is Dunfermline where I lived until ending up in Southampton)
On Mon, 6 Dec 2021 at 13:33, Dr. Malcolm Kendrick wrote:
> Dr. Malcolm Kendrick posted: ” 6th December 2021 The Clot Thickens is > available in paperback and eBook. > https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/books-by-dr-malcolm-kendrick/the-clot-thickens/ > Here I am on vitamins again. I don’t wish to give the impression that all I > care about is vitamins” >
Thank you for this excellent piece. Regarding Magnesium, leafy greens should containplenty of magnesium because chlorophylls are comprised of this. Whether it is bioavailable? Probably more so than the anorganic Mg salts in drinking water.
And now for something completely different:
We have talked before about what kind of actor RT is or isn’t.
https://meduza.io/en/feature/2021/11/11/the-two-faces-of-rt-s-coronavirus-propaganda
“When they’re writing in Russian, RT’s columnists welcome virtually any restriction in the fight against COVID-19, and the network itself has vigorously urged Russians to get vaccinated, denouncing skeptics and uncooperative physicians as “imbecile murderers” bent on “sabotaging” the nation’s recovery.
Russia Today’s English-language broadcasts exist in another universe. In Moscow, the network’s heroes are the doctors and nurses working tirelessly to keep COVID-19 patients alive. In English, RT’s focus pivots to healthcare workers who have protested “medical experiments” and been suspended for resisting vaccine mandates. In Great Britain, for example, Russia Today airs comments comparing vaccine passports and other restrictions on unvaccinated persons to “Big Brother.” RT columnists writing in English complain routinely that they’re “forced” to accept vaccination even though they’ve been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past (despite the fact that medical experts, including Russia’s own Health Ministry, advise people with naturally acquired immunity to seek inoculation within six months of recovery).”
Spinach, Bananas, Fruit and Nuts, Salmon, eggs, etc, etc. there are plenty of natural foods people can eat to get their Magnesium and B Vitamins. BUT, you have to be conscientious in your food choices and when preparing your daily menus. If your meal choices tend to be random and based on convenience then you’ll need supplements.
RT (english) tends to be a bit like Al Jazeera – essentially MSM with some interesting reports you won’t get anywhere else. Sputniknews is a bit better. Mix and Match is the only way to get a handle on what’s really happening. The alternative Blogs are the best source for alternative news and intelligent analysis; although they all have their own particular views. which may or may not match yours ! RT may be hypocrites but is the BBC any better ?
“Haven’t you heard? It’s a battle of words
And most of them are lies.”
— Pink Floyd, “Us and Them” from “Dark Side of the Moon”
Eric, there is plenty of scepticism about the vaccines here, and my partner and I are not vaccinated. I’d say the English RT is superior in its coverage of COVID compared to anything here.
Malcolm has also posted a number of times on RT.
To be honest, I use it as my first choice for important world news.
Well, you wouldn’t use Good Morning Britain!
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/tv-show-mysteriously-deletes-poll-after-vast-majority-oppose-mandatory-vaccination
Good point. Chlorophyll does contain magnesium and is easily absorb by the body. Also bare in mind chlorophyll is chemically similar to haemoglobin. Haemoglobin contains iron whereas chlorophyll contains magnesium. It can be used to treat anaemia as the body can replace the magnesium in the chlorophyll with iron and hence increase iron levels in the blood. It basically converts the chlorophyll into haemoglobin which is why chlorophyll supplement can be used to treat some types of anaemia where the body has a problem absorbing iron rather than not having enough iron in the diet. So any green plant contains chlorophyll and hence magnesium
Hence the Popeye legend about how he eats a tin of spinach and acquires super strength. I remember being urged to “eat up your greens” as it would “give me iron” – not quite right but the spirit was in the right place.
I enjoyed hearing my own children reply to “Eat up your greens; it will put colour in your cheeks” with “Who wants green cheeks?”
They were (and are) not short of cheek.
Prudence Kitten: Maybe Popeye didn’t know it, but spinach is exceptionally high in oxalates (755 mg/110g), second only to turmeric powder (2,190mg/110g). Kidney stones, anyone? I used to have both of these in my salads during my rabbit-food days. Sheesh!
You should always cook spinach, since this destroys the oxalic acid.
sticky: References, please, regarding the effect of heat or cooking on oxalates.
@Gary Ogden. Are you not able to search?
Is 400 mg, elemental magnesium?
I think that is the normal convention. Consuming it in its elemental form, would be undesirable, however 🙂
I just recalled reading some years ago that our gut bacteria can and does make B vitamins, possibly all of them:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6977713/
That is interesting, but unfortunately I can’t see any indication of the amount of B vitamins that we could acquire from our guts – i.e. could it act as a supplement or is it too small?
Off topic, but fun:
https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/family-whose-dog-wandered-off-was-surprised-to-find-him-on-the-roof-of-a-bungalow_4128240.html
Dr Mercola quotes Dr Kendrick (again, probably, as it is a revised article):
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/12/08/have-statins-reduced-heart-disease.aspx
How important is it to reduce bias in research? If you are a RCT fundamentalist, it is the Holy Grail. But what does the research say?
Cochrane performed several meta-analyses where it compared prospective and retrospective studies for effect and found no statistically significant difference between them. So, generally speaking, bias is rather a mole hill. This has to be a bit of a shock to Evidence-Based Medicine proponents. Calling retrospective evidence “anecdotal” is simply wrong.
“Our results provide little evidence for significant effect estimate differences between observational studies and RCTs, regardless of specific observational study design, heterogeneity, inclusion of pharmacological studies, or use of propensity score adjustment. Factors other than study design per se need to be considered when exploring reasons for a lack of agreement between results of RCTs and observational studies.”
https://www.cochrane.org/MR000034/METHOD_comparing-effect-estimates-of-randomized-controlled-trials-and-observational-studies
I’d just point anyone obsessed with RCTs as the holy grail to Dr David Heal’s blog. The most recent episode is https://davidhealy.org/where-does-the-misinformation-come-from/ but the first recent one on RCTs is https://davidhealy.org/clinical-trials-are-unsafe/ He is a UK physchiatrist
I’m not a scientist, however, I understand that there is now a lot of Gates money / influence in the Cochrane organisation. Reading between the lines of the quote…could it be that the ground is being laid to develop a belief system that observational studies are equally as good as RCT’s?
How rigorous is the research into the research methods I wonder? 🙂
If Gates is trying to do anything, it’s to control research. Cochrane was aiming to diminish the influence of pharma on research, so now they might be compromised.
Cochrane have, unfortunately, joined the dark side.
My reference was from 2014. When did Cochrane go mostly dark? Was it when Goettsche was terminated by Cochrane in 2018?
I find it so ironic that the Israelis had this problem with magnesium deficiency, since they are sitting right next to the Dead Sea, one of the world’s most important sources of magnesium chloride.
Dr K,
Thanks for the excellent book The Clot Thickens. I have almost finished it. It’s the kind of book the I want to finish quickly in order to get all the information, and yet I don’t want it to end.
I have a questions about ACE inhibitors vs ARBs. You mention how bad angiotensin II is and that ACE inhibitors block its production. Wouldn’t ARBs actually increase angiotensin II level in the blood?
I just thought of a related question – have you seen any indication that ARBs would also block the Covid-19 virus from attaching to the ACE2 receptors?
Great. So now all birds are in lockdown for 16 weeks. But they are still allowed to be called “free range”. How much more ridiculous can things get?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59585618
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/04/all-hens-and-other-farm-birds-to-be-kept-inside-in-gb-avian-flu-crackdown
It happens every winter. The notices from 2020 are still up on our allotments. Birds can still run around freely as long as there is a roof on their run so wild birds can’t get in, and, as we all know, viruses can’t pass through any sort of mesh when they’ve been told not to. I think I’ll tell the quail to make sure they are sitting down as well, just in case – but they should be fine as they are almost always eating and viruses can’t get you when you are eating and drinking
This is one explanation https://standpointmag.co.uk/june-2017-online-only-clive-james-mass-death-dies-hard/. Because the interminable stupidity of the great and the good in their propaganda, people are largely incapable of rational thinking. Far better to ask a sheep, they have a better grip on things.
Yes, AhNotepad, I have been aware of the pharmaceutical’s corruption for many many years but this covid nonsense, greed and wickedness has shown me that all along I have been somewhat naïve. I have been shocked to the core by the reaction of most people and I can’t stop feeling disappointed in them. I no longer want to rely on anyone. After all, whose judgement will one be able to trust when our trust and admiration has been so badly hit?
I think you could trust, in general, the people on blogs like this, who confirm your bias. After all your bias is probably better informed than those who believe the propaganda, and are in the medical world pedalling divoc jabs (and now getting £15 a shot).
Apparently a close relative (who works in a divoc clinic) thinks vit C and D are only any good if you have the jabs. If I asked whether they knew that the jabs were gene therapy, I would probably get abuse, which I could follow up by suggesting they research Stefan Oelrich, since he said that’s what it is, and he is head of Bayer pharmaceutical.
Well I would suggest you follow the advice of an article in the BMJ entitled “The more certain someone is about covid, the less you should trust them” If you put your faith in the writers in forums, you will likely enter an echo chamber. Things do not become facts just because someone asserts them to be so, and there is no shortage of certainty in many post.
I would suggest look up Sebastian Rushworth’s article on the scientific process, and that will give an idea on how to assess medical evidence yourself. Then never believe the results of a single paper. About one third of all original medical research turns out to be exagerrated, not generalisable or just plain wrong.
That also applies to articles published in the BMJ and The Lancet, to name but two.
As for echo chambers, hardly. I have had several suggestions on various forums I should leave, including this one.
AHnoteoad
Suggestions you should leave.? Please don’t
You? Leave? Perish the thought! The only ones who should leave are the trolls, those whose only object is to disrupt the forum, usually with repetitive comments or personal attacks. Any dissent you put forward is thought provoking, not disruptive. I enjoy your posts.
There was a similar story about a young boy who was totally convinced that his emperor was wearing no clothes, but the emperor’s scientists assured everyone that the emperor, in fact, was clothed in invisible garments.
Trust is for children, n’est-ce pas? Adults ought to do their due diligence and focus on data, shouldn’t they?.
Dr. Rushworth’s philosophy of science, unfortunately, puts overwhelming faith in RCTs which leads one into the morass of pharma-controlled research. Dr. David Healy’s philosophy of science looks quite sound, though.
Good news for honest doctors and other medical practitioners (well, for everybody, come to think of it): the High Court has just ruled in favour of Dr Sam White, who was suspended by the NHS earlier this year for speaking out about the covid/vaccine scam.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/suspended-uk-doctor-unmasks-the-mask-mandate-and-gets-reinstated_4138315.html
Let’s hope we get the same quality of justice when ‘Nuremburg 2.0’ launches early next year.
Masks for birds?
Where are the cartoonists?
You don’t need cartoons when you have the real thing https://www.goldismoney2.com/attachments/chicken-jpg.183978/
My wife has suffered from Psychosis every waking moment of every day for over 25 years.
A stint locked away, numerous years on anti psychotics and 7 overdoses later we finally stumbled on the fact she was b12 deficient last year.
NHS refused to treat her in line with NICE guidelines so she’s been SI b12 since November 2020.
She has now been psychosis free for 12 months.
Rob, just fantastic. What led you to the conclusion that it was B12 deficiency?
December 9, 2021
Rob Jones, If I properly understand your comment, you indicate that your wife’s psychosis has likely been associated with Vitamin B12 deficiency; and, even more important, addressing her B12 deficiency has resulted in significant recovery.
Much of Dr. Kendrick’s post above addresses recovery from/mitigation of, age-related dementia through administration of B12. Both dementia and psychosis are what we can broadly address as mental disorders. How much benefit could be realized from the correction of vitamin deficiencies, in those with mental disorders- and other disorders as well? Like Dr. K, and others who have tried to draw attention to these issues, I suspect a great deal.
The importance of guarding against Vitamin B12 deficiency, in those taking metformin, is remarked on by Dr. Bernstein, in his recent Teleseminar 70 (at YouTube).
Thanks to Dr. Kendrick for his post above, and all others commenting, on the requirements of adequate levels of Vitamins for good health. Right, come to think of it , that’s why we call them VITAMINS.
UK doctor wins in the High Court against the medical authorities. His crime was questioning the use of masks.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/suspended-uk-doctor-unmasks-the-mask-mandate-and-gets-reinstated_4138315.html
I hope we will hear a lot more about him soon
Dr. Kendrick,
I have not read all the comments so may have missed any reference to domestic water softeners which remove magnesium. Do you think that they play a significant role in magnesium deficiency?
You shouldn’t be drinking water that has been through a softener.
How do you get rid of the fluoride the water utility so generously supplies? What if you live in a soft water area? How do you keep the statins out when they start adding them in?
Our water is fluoridated and very hard, so the drinking and cooking water goes through a RO filter, and we make sure that we eat well and supplement as necessary.
Rainwater is magnesium free too.
As far as I know, the only way to get rid of fluoride is to distill the water, then there’s no other minerals either.
The reverse osmosis filters provide pure water too, eliminating fluoride and everything else too. It’s worth noting that soft drinks are usually made with water treated through a reverse osmosis filter to ensure taste consistency.
AFAIK, the osmosis filters do not remove fluoride
Don’t water softeners work by using salt (in some form) to soften the water ?
If so would that impact the magnesium in water ?
I believe they do, and water filters that you can buy do much the same thing.
Thé salt is used to flush the chalk that has accumulated on the resin. It does not enter the water
Yet I remember, when we had our ordinary household water softener installed, we were warned that people on a low-sodium diet should not drink the softened water. I understand that at least some salt gets through – although not enough to cause any harm to a healthy person.
I compromise by using softened water for coffee and tea, as we don’t like scale and I don’t want to have to descale with dangerous chemicals every week. But we also drink several glasses a day from the hard water tap, and take magnesium pills.
Prudence
We live in a very chalky water area. Rather than make tea and coffee with bottled water’ we had a separate pipe for hard water installed.
The plumber told my son we were a bit strange, but the tea and coffee taste good.
Mr Chris, our water softener came with a separate drinking (unsoftened) water tap.
Descaling if your have hard water. Here in Florida our water is about as hard as it gets, the entire State basically being sand atop limestone. The “dangerous chemical” I use to remove scale* from cookware is white vinegar. I guess you could use apple cider vinegar if you wanted to be organic.
*With the exception of how I flush out my hot water heater. I pour in a gallon or two of muriatic (hydrochloric) “pool” acid and then fill up the tank, then flush out the home’s hot water lines. Note this is not the approved method, wear eye protection and gloves, and so forth.
I work 46 hours a week looking after people with advanced dementia, reading this makes me angry, there is no toilet deep enough for these “researchers”. As an aside, one of the harshest critics of mainstream medicine is Peter Goetsche kicked out of the Nordic Cochrane Centre though he was one of it’s founders. Meta analysis is what the Cochrane Centres do of course
“Court-Ordered Pfizer Documents They Tried to Have Sealed for 55 Years Show 1223 Deaths, 158,000 Adverse Events in 90 Days Post EUA Release”
https://www.globalresearch.ca/court-ordered-pfizer-documents-they-tried-sealed-55-years-show-1223-deaths-158000-adverse-events-90-days-post-eua-release/5764094
Prudence Kitten: Now they’ve doubled down, and want until 2096-75 years! Yet it only took them 108 days to completely digest them and pronounce them marvelous, good for one and all.
This is good. Ambient temperature affects the results of common blood tests:
https://www.cell.com/med/fulltext/S2666-6340(21)00377-9?utm_source=EA
If you want trace minerals in your water, maybe get spring water delivered or dig a well?
Pay special attention to the last sentence.
“In a depression trial, investigators focus intensely on one thing – does Prozac have an effect on mood. Pretty well everything else is ignored. The statistics we use don’t work unless there is an intense effort to collect everything we can about this one outcome.
And so, depression trials miss something that happens to almost everyone who takes an SSRI within 30 minutes of the first pill – your genitals go numb. You can search the RCTs on these drugs and all you will find is that perhaps 5% of people have sexual issues on these drugs.
Emotional numbing is another extremely common effect almost completely missed. This is how these drugs help. This is how these drugs might help someone diagnosed as depressed but the key point is that it is much more common than depression recovery.
Similarly in the vaccine trials, the common thing is a multiplicity of Spike protein effects – doing this we hope might help but if we are hypnotized by what is hoped for we will miss and have missed what these Spike proteins are actually doing.
If we just depend on RCTs, we end up knowing almost nothing about a drug.”
Healy understands evidence-based medicine very well. Most doctors, not so much.
RCTs are expensive to run, because of numbers and time. Only pharma is able to fund most RCTs, so this gives it a lot of impact on research. However, people like Healy, who do proper analysis of pharma’s data from RCTs and especially of data from retrospective studies, can have a major impact.
Pay attention to people like Healy who dig down into data rather than to people who made their living off of pharma.
Due diligence gets rewarded. Abstract skimming and herd-following, not so much. Doctors have much to answer for in this pandemic. They ought to have done their work and informed the public, but by and large they just went along with the death-dealing narrative, didn’t treat early, and engaged in reckless, dangerous, and irresponsible behavior by encouraging the ill-informed public to take the clotshots.
https://davidhealy.org/where-does-the-misinformation-come-from/
I regret to say that I have only just joined the discussion re vitamins, and would like to say that the way I get around the problem of the absorption of magnesium is to massage my legs regularly with Magnesium Oil – it works like a dream for me. I also use Epsom Salts in the bath. Perhaps this will be helpful to someone.
Very true, and an excellent example of a curse of our times: specialisation resulting in blinkered vision.
The whole Covid business arises from experts who are not even concerned with anything except “cases” – when everyone who takes the trouble to inquire knows that “cases” means positive PCR results, which means nothing.
Some US senator asked Dr Fauci about the collateral damage of lockdowns and masks, and Fauci said quite openly that such things were not his concern.
Of course, no responsible citizen – let alone public health supremo – should ever allow his judgment to be swayed by one single consideration. All the factors must be weighed together.
I take no pleasure in laying blame at the feet of the vast majority of doctors and take note of exceptions.
But my main point in my previous comment was to show one of the primary weaknesses of RCTs, as noted by Dr. Healy:
“If we just depend on RCTs, we end up knowing almost nothing about a drug.”
I learnt most of this from Kendrick’s “Doctoring Data” book where he looks at several studies. Often times the very trial that Pharma funded, that they claimed has good results, actually shows the drug is of little effect. See his coverage of the JUPITER trial or look at the trial yourself. There was a slight reduction in absolute terms, of CVD events. There were the same number of deaths in treatment as control [grin.]
Major point: unless outright fraud is involved, it’s not to hard to find that absolute efficacy rates are rather low, or that all-cause deaths are nearly identical in treatment and control. I’ve seen this in many studies I’ve looked at.
OK dear Doctor, but you are in a very small & rare minority as far as UK general public opinion is at the moment. The accepted consensus is that we get sufficient Vitamins and Minerals from our normal everyday diet and that supplementation is a waste of money and carries a possible health risk unless dictated by a GP (NHS). The same goes for things like lowering bad cholesterol – you use Statins & Statins only, all the rest is junk science. For example my Wife was told to take Statins or face a possible stroke by her GP (NHS) although she has no history of any bad health and a friend of hers is in perpetual fear of not obtaining the correct Statin dose.
Yes it does appear that the modern world in indeed indebted to the Pharmacological industry for the great advances in lifespan and general health of our population during the last 60 years – out of the dark ages into a new enlightenment.
Dear doctor you have a lot to learn about the “Science”© and how embedded it has become. There’s no place in General Practice for deviant views. Only time, and I’m talking many Decades, has a chance of effecting a reform.
Oh they have some alternative to statins now for those who have had problems with statins, so on Wednesday I will be having a telephone conversation with my doctor in which I will have to explain once again that I don’t even want to lower my cholesterol!
I’m not sure how much health I would attribute to Big Pharma in the last 60 years. A fair bit of our extra lifespan is probably because of the drop in smoking and other factors of that sort.
If Big Pharma’s role in the COVID crisis is ever fully exposed, I think there will have to be some change.
Not that I intend ever again to speak to my doctor, but if he asked me about cholesterol I would say something like, “Doctor, what would be the point of my gobbling all that Gruyere and Brie and steaks, chops and salmon if I didn’t like cholesterol and want plenty of it? Besides, Doctor, are you aware how much of the brain and the membrane of every cell consists of cholesterol?”
Dear Ray, you have a lot to learn about dear doctor.
Start with his book, Doctoring Data. A naive little bunny he is not.
Eggs, I fear you have fallen for a spoof. A close reading of Ray’s comment suggests to me that it is heavily ironic.
Ray, unless you want people to misunderstand you I suggest some warning to the wise – such as closing with “/sarc”.
I’ve no problem with Dear Doctor’s utterances. In fact I was onboard even before I came across him, I welcomed his well researched and reasoned approach which gave some professional credence to the importance of nutrition and trace minerals in our diet.
No, its not me that needs to learn but the “Great Unwashed” the vast majority who have been literally brain washed by a corporate Behemoth.
One of my pass-times over the last decade has been ancestry research which has opened up the concept of mortality and ultimate death. To some extent lifetime has greatly increased as time goes on but the very old have been with us over the centuries. What I believe to be termed “The Terrain Hypothesis” seems to be at work? Those living in relative poverty in a country setting – plenty of space – seem to greatly outlast the inhabitants of the new conurbations which followed the first industrial revolution. I don’t credit the pharmacological behemoths for greater health but people like Joseph Bazalgette and Dr John Snow – the true pioneers.
I didn’t suggest you had any problems with his utterances. It was your comment in your third paragraph that the “Dear doctor you have a lot to learn about the “Science”© and how embedded it has become.” that was off the mark. I still can’t see the irony or sarcasm in that sentence.
I agree wholeheartedly with the terrain hypothesis.
The issues with improvements in mortality rates compared to earlier times are complicated by the death rates in the 0-5 age group. Food scarcities do not favour the very young, and in eras when food supplies were limited, but birth rates were not, child exposure ensured that populations were kept within the bounds of survival. About a quarter of infants died before they were one. How much of this was deliberate is impossible to determine. But if you think we have improved dramatically on this number, the ratio of abortions in the USA (c. 700,000, estimates vary between 620k and 860k) to live births (3.61m) is 1:5.2, or 16.2% of pregnancies.
If you made it past five years old, your life expectancy improved enormously.
I took the comment as a joke.
Sorry. Sense of humour failure!
I took the comment as a jab (pun intended) at Fauci the “I am Science©” guy.
I believe Ray is being ironic !
I also believe that the increased lifespan and health of my parents generation is more down to the deprivations brought on by the war and the resulting hardy constitutions and sensible eating and exercise regimes than big pharma and the NHS. I don’t believe the modern fast food, couch potatoes lives will benefit to the same extent.
I think you missed Ray’s sarcasm. (or irony? I must need more B vitamins.)
Ray,
I think if you want to criticise Dr Kendrick on his blog it would surely only be polite to do so explicitly. For example, you could tell him that Statins were marvellous if you had some evidence to prove that point.
However having read a fair bit about statins and the large scale studies that were done on them. I don’t think you do.
Manganese:
Ok, all this chat about essential minerals in your water or not in your water has me curious:
I have plenty of manganese in my 188 foot deep semi-artesian well.
Is that cause to be glad,
or sad?
JDPattern,
I guess it depends what you mean by ‘plenty’ – here is what GOOGLE says:
If you have an infant who never drinks tap water or formula made with tap water, a safe level of manganese in your water is 300 µg/L or less. If everyone in your household is more than one year old, a safe level of manganese in your water is 300 µg/L or less.
JDPatten: I think you should be glad. We don’t need much manganese, but this is the mineral glyphosate binds in plants, making it unavailable to the eaters of those plants, be they humans or grazers.
The trouble is, many trace minerals are both necessary in minute quantities, but definite poisons at higher doses – think also of selenuim, copper, etc – so I don’t think it makes sense to ask or answer such a query without some actual figures.
While you are covering nutrients and heart disease, I wonder if you’ve seen this study? https://www.dovepress.com/melatonin-alleviates-age-associated-endothelial-injury-of-atherosclero-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-JIR
Regarding the endothelium: it’s composed of cells which have a lifetime and have to renew themselves. How does an endothelial cell get removed and replaced without leaving a temporary hole in the artery wall?
I imagine that cells reproduce in the usual way: by splitting in two. Any cells that judge (or judge themselves) to be unfixable or surplus to requirements would die through apoptosis or the ministrations of the immune system, whereupon neighbouring cells would reproduce to fill the gap.
But there need never be an actual physical gap, as if some outside player were to pick up a cell suddenly and remove it. Cells seem to be squishy, able to expand and contract as appropriate.
Martin Back: For that matter, what about heart cells?
my SWAG…bioscaffolding…collagen…temporary scars…maybe some temporary local inflammation to keep cellular boundaries intact…maybe clotting to block holes until new cells are produced in place.
Thank you
In subtle but tangible ways I feel better since starting the B complex. I just feel better. I’ve always slept well, but am sleeping better, and awake feeling refreshed. Exercise is easier. I think ti’s true what they say that we old farts need more vitamins because we don’t produce or absorb them as well as in youth or middle age.
OOPS Sorry Gary. Thumbs up, not down. I totally agree…as we get older the absorption reduces.
Gary,
As an example of needing certain vitamins as we age (I’m 74), my blood work a few years ago indicated that I was deficient in B12. My doctor wrote me a prescription for B12 500mcg once a day. I was taking a B-complex supplement irregularly but at the prodding of this article I added Thorne B-complex #12 to my daily supplement program. I has 600 mcg B12.
Phil
Philip. How interesting! After years of having my ‘diabetic bloods’ monitored, I was NEVER checked for B12 levels, despite Metformin 2g daily. However, once over, presumably inadvertently, the lab did the test, and the results came through and I learned that I was very low. It was at that stage I questioned the research endocrinologist, who insisted the Metformin was not at fault(!). So, on next being requested to have my bloods taken I asked for the B12 to be checked. The phlebotanist explained that I was only to have my ‘ diabetic bloods’ done, and it did not include B12. I explained why I wanted it checked, so she discarded the original request form, and added B12 to the requests saying ” well I’ve requested it, but it’s up to the surgery MANAGER to sanction it, and we shall have to wait and see”. It was done, but I ask again….who is running the show?
So, if we don’t look for problems, we can’t find them, even though there are known risks associated with certain medications. A further example is low magnesium and B12 after long term PPIs. I have never been tested for magnesium either. Is this a problem with living within the confines of the NHS in UK? Have our medics become so down trodden that they have to practice under the rules of a non-medical manager? Surely, the Royal Colleges must have a say in such things.
Jennifer,
Here in the US it is rather easy to get almost any test you want if your GP (general practitioner MD) approves asking for the test. Most recently I asked for and got an LDL particle size (LDL_P) test. As part of my next blood work I’m going to ask for an apoB test.
Phil
It seems to me that there is a lot of difficulty in the UK regarding patient-physician (or should it be client-physician? Unknown these days) communication and consent. I don’t live there, haven’t done since 1977, but in the interim have gained a great deal of medical and biochemical knowledge thanks to my career in drug development. This has caused me to ask a lot of questions and/or form some opinions, some of which may be relevant here.
(1) Any doctor-patient interaction surely has to be accompanied by full disclosure of the tests to be conducted, their purpose, and their value in guiding any subsequent treatment or therapy.
(2) No test, no matter how “routine” (there is no such thing, really, because if one is at the doctor’s office, one is not there as a matter of routine in the same sense as having a cup of coffee every morning) — should be conducted without the full approval of the patient/client. Nor should the result be placed in any medical record not immediately accessible and recordable by the patient him/herself if the patient does not wish it to be recorded. The test result should be conveyed first to the patient so he or she can decide if it is something he or she wants recorded. Example: if a patient does not want their BP checked, or their lipid levels measured, so be it, and the act of refusing any of these must not be recorded anywhere absent written permission from the patient.
(3) No medication should be offered without absolute and relative risk reductions, absolute benefit and relative benefit, number-needed-to-treat data, and the context in which these values are calculated. Any patient who declines a medication or any other intervention should be permitted to do so without fear of retribution. Informed consent has to be king.
(4) A copy of all records should be given to the patient at the end of the visit, including (if the patient requests) any subjective notes recorded by the physician, nurse, or other caregiver. Failure to provide these records should be grounds for legal action.
I realize I’d make a horrible patient. So shoot me now and be done with it, but I have a horrible mistrust of the general medical practice, many of whom toe the party line without using their brains. But I think I’d trust Dr. Malcolm Kendrick.
What is described is perfection. We live in an untidy world, where people cut corners all the time. I fully agree that informed consent, which also means fully understanding what you are consenting to, is king. However, I think many people are happy to trust the doctor, and cannot be bothered with too much information. It is all a tricky area.
What a wonderful world would that be! Not likely, though…
Dr. Kendrick,
How much freedom is there in the UK for gp’s to speak their minds to patients about vaccines and early outpatient treatment? In the States, many (most?) docs are employed by hospitals and other medical corporations and hospitals exhibit signs like “Doctors recommend that everyone be vaccinated” and medical corporations have policies against opposing the party line. Going against the party line can get them fired.
Maybe some legal protection from termination for doctors would allow more discussion and perhaps wake people up.
The pressure is there, and it is considerable and a doctors was recently struck off, but went to court and had the verdict overturned. It is not a good idea to criticise vaccination in any way shape or form
Dr Kendrick, my GP is a pretty decent person but she’s not her person! She’s the official mouthpiece of the NHS, hence the government, so whatever her personal views are on this ‘vaccine’ or other NHS policies, she has to put the official line, or else! In other words, once she crosses that line, she is no longer a doctor but effectively a political extension of the state! So what happened to the Hypocratic Oath? What happened to ‘do no harm?
So, Dr Kendrick. How do the powers that be find out that my GP and I have discussed vaccination, termination, anti statins, mental health issues, etc etc ad infinitum? I thought such discussions were private and confidential, in as much as opening up to a priest in confession. Not that I have been involved in such matters with either profession, but I did believe we had the right to a meaningful discussion in the few minutes we are granted.
All professionals ought to keep contemporaneous notes. In my own line as a Registered Nurse, I stuck to the salient facts, aware that ANYONE could access patients’ notes. All the more reason to be ultra careful, lest a third party could misconstrue my notes.
I can only think that such medics are standing on the proverbial street corner ( i.e. the Internet)
spouting out generalised medical advice, which in my opinion, is of no value whatsoever to any individual. My GP knows my wants and needs, and I will listen carefully to advice, and then weigh up the pros and cons. No one is entitled to know what we have discussed, and no court of law could demand to know the contents of a private discussion, with the exception of a risk of potential insurrection.
If this https://stuartbramhall.wordpress.com/2021/12/29/finally-police-open-criminal-probe-into-uk-vaccine-rollout/ is being reported correctly then it is a opportunity for doctors everywhere in the UK to report to the police any gbh or deaths they consider directly due to the ‘vaccines’.
Lingulella, thank you for this link. One of the most uplifting in the past two years. I need to find a funding page, they deserve support.
Thanks, Phil. I’m just a mere lad of almost 73. I note my B-complex contains 300 mcg of B-12. The daily value is listed as 24 mcg. I’ve eaten 100-150 g of beef liver per week for years, so I’m getting 80-120 mcg from that alone. Since B-12 only occurs in animal foods, and that’s almost all I eat, I suspect I’m getting enough. But then there is the question of absorption. I’ll just have to rely on faith I guess.
Hello. You mention that B12 only comes from animal stuff. The only exception I know to this rule is that Aloe Vera juice also contains B12!
Aloe vera doesn’t have any vitamin B12, it helps with absorption, though.
I’ve been sleeping better since I started melatonin. I started with a low dose and I would wake up in the middle of the night, I suppose when the level dropped. I now take a 2mg. sublingual and 5 mg. timed release. I also lay a 2mg. quick release on the nightstand to take in case I awake and can’t fall back asleep. Works wonders.
Don: Thanks. I’ve been wondering about melatonin. Since starting the B-complex, I’ve been sleeping like a rock and wake feeling refreshed. I sleep best on my back. I often wake once to pee, but then fall right back to sleep. The cat, who likes sleeping next to my head, usually doesn’t even bother to wake up at all.
Gary,
I just ordered some slow release Melatonin as I’m having a hard time sleeping but does it help? Is it better than a toke before bedtime? Does it interfere with dreaming? Inquiring mind wants to know.
barovsky: It may very well help. Give it a try, I say.
One for the Christmas cracker rather than publishing on the blog.. Recently my elderly neighbour told me that his GP had added “frolic” acid to the list of the many pills he has to take. I expect to see him vaulting over the fence any day now for a cup of coffee chez moi.
That’s a real coffee-snorter! 😎
More grist for your mill Davis Chris
On Mon, Dec 6, 2021 at 1:32 PM Dr. Malcolm Kendrick wrote:
> Dr. Malcolm Kendrick posted: ” 6th December 2021 The Clot Thickens is > available in paperback and eBook. > https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/books-by-dr-malcolm-kendrick/the-clot-thickens/ > Here I am on vitamins again. I don’t wish to give the impression that all I > care about is vitamins” >
Who is Davis? cb
On Mon, Dec 6, 2021 at 1:32 PM Dr. Malcolm Kendrick wrote:
> Dr. Malcolm Kendrick posted: ” 6th December 2021 The Clot Thickens is > available in paperback and eBook. > https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/books-by-dr-malcolm-kendrick/the-clot-thickens/ > Here I am on vitamins again. I don’t wish to give the impression that all I > care about is vitamins” >
Former Vaccine Taskforce Chief Clive Dix has said the “vaccines were not designed to end transmission”.
https://dailysceptic.org/2021/12/14/vaccine-taskforce-ex-chief-the-vaccines-were-not-designed-to-end-transmission/
Isn’t it the case that you cannot ‘design’ a vaccine to do what the government and experts claim they do ?
Not news here, but certainly unreported by the MSM.
This is lovely if you have the time. It’s Neil Oliver speaking out for the reasonable man and Britain.
Thanks Tish—-I really enjoyed this—Neil Oliver is a great speaker in my opinion—and his message certainly resonated with me—Thanks again—Errett
Before anyone takes megadoses of folate (B9), I’ve read that taking an excess of this vitamin increases your risk for several cancers, including breast cancer. There is an optimum dose which minimises your cancer risk, but taking more than this means your risk is increased.
Also, we’ve been told that alcohol increases breast cancer risk, but I read that for women who have the optimal intake of folate, there is almost no increased breast cancer risk from alcohol.
Any comments?
Eat foliage!
David Healy thoroughly smashes the pharma propaganda, “Randomized Controlled Trials are the gold standard of medical research.”
Healy notes, accurately, “If we just depend on RCTs, we end up knowing almost nothing about a drug.”
So are RCTs therefore useless? Quite the contrary. Healy also notes, “The idea that an RCT shows there is a favourable Risk-Benefit ratio for a drug or vaccine can only hold true if the thing we are looking at is the commonest thing this vaccine does – like a parachute for instance.” RCTs can possibly show a favorable risk/benefit ratio.
https://davidhealy.org/where-does-the-misinformation-come-from/
Let’s consider a current application of Healy’s ideas. It’s worth noting that the data from the Pfizer trial shows more total deaths in the vaccine arm than in the placebo arm and that the vaccine arm’s protection from covid mortality was not statistically significant. The Pfizer vaccine was given an EUA based on transmission, not protection from mortality, because the data didn’t support protection from mortality. And even the transmission test was based on cooked books/methodology and the dodgy qualitative PCR test which can’t distinguish between someone who is symptomatic due to covid and someone who is symptomatic due to flu, but had an asymptomatic infection from covid in the past.
Thanks for that link, which left me with the tantalising feeling that I was reading something very important, but I wasn’t grasping exactly what it was!
Can you spell it out for me a bit? I mean, if you have a drug that does A, but also does B how exactly does that produce a situation where the RCT produces a misleading result?
The examples he has, seem to involve too much psychology – I mean if a drug lifts someone’s mood but also makes them inclined to commit suicide, I’m not clear what is going on – is it that someone starts to feel more optimistic and then seizes on the fact that suicide would be a good solution, or is it that the induced mood swing can suddenly reverse?
I had to read Healy’s article 3 times before I understood all his points. So it’s not just you.
Basically, the drug effect and the symptom confound one another.
David Bailey, I had a think about this. I think trying to rationalise the ways and reasons for the adverse effects of drugs, is taking a simplistic view of how our biology works. That is of course what big pharma does. “Take this jab, you won;t get sick”. The reality is you might not display the symptoms of being sick as the jab has damaged the system so it can’t respond appropriately to provide protection, so the now damaged system develops a chronic response which prevents repair. I may be wrong, but in the current situation, big pharma and all their accomplices definitely are.
Came across this on Swiss Policy Research in an article on the different treatments being used to treat the ‘Bug’:
Barovsky
I am definitely old, over 80
taking 8000 IU of Vitamin D3
No Covid up til now
Did swprs give a hat tip to Robin Whittle?
Seen this yet? Short video talk – absolute gold IMHO.
https://21stcenturywire.com/2021/12/15/gmo-chemical-farming-and-the-loss-of-human-health-dr-zach-bush/
https://thehighwire.com/videos/episode-244-omg-omicron/
See inter alia 1 h 30 min. The MD interviewed was de-licensed for, er, doing medical research by keeping records of his patients’ health … and that of their ‘innoculated’ or less-innoculated children. He has apparently been re-licensed.
Are people born in the 1940s or 1950s the lucky ones in this? They escaped most of the OTT ‘medical intervention’. They’re now retired and may manage to live ‘below the radar’ for another 30 y or so.
My mother was vaccinated in her left shoulder in 1946. It became infected and the doctors wanted to amputate her arm at the shoulder. She absolutely refused, and survived with a pit like a shell crater in her shoulder.
In 1949, when about ten months old, I was vaccinated in the leg. That went bad too, followed by various swellings and a poisoned finger. After much prevarication, a doctor gave a penicillin injection and lanced the finger.
In 1962 my brother was advised to get vaccinated (again) because of an outbreak in Cambridge. He did so, only to find out afterwards that the “outbreak” of smallpox was actually nothing more than… vaccine reactions!
Also in 1962 I was vaccinated again for some reason. My arm swelled up a week later, and I couldn’t use it for some time.
In 1967 I underwent a Heaf test for TB – admittedly a slightly different procedure – and that went septic. After it healed I had another Heaf test which worked normally. (I was diagnosed not to have TB).
The Mayor of London, ‘Khan the magnificent’, has declared a major incident for the Moronic variant. And still no-one has died OF this variant only, allegedly, WITH it – although the government won’t release any details of the deceased: Age, medical status, vaccinated, …
Ain’t politics grand ? Merry F**n Xmas Khan.
Just a thought, the last lying mayor of London became the current lying prime minister, and at the time he was seen by enough to be a jolly, libertarian sort of chap. Not even the chance of that for kahn, but dishonesty and stupidity seem to be the main requirements for the job.
I have never written. But after reading this, I had no choice. I’ve been reading your blog for years and I can’t hold it in anymore. You’re a funny motherfucker. Cheers! And thanks for caring enough about us to write about stuff that by nature isn’t that entertaining…and make it entertaining (and informative duh)
Merry Christmas Doc
WCW3 Confucius say: “man who walk through airport turn style sideways going to Bangkok”
>
I now have the pleasure of beginning my second reading of “The Clot Thickens,” since I just finished “The Real Anthony Fauci..” Took me a month. I urge everyone to read it. The B vitamins continue to make me feel good every day. The Sierra Nevada now have about 18″ of snow, and my hike today, with mostly a well-beaten trail was effortless. Joy to the world, and merry Christmas to all!
“The Real Anthony Fauci..”
Newly released emails show Anthony Fauci and his boss at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) wanted to conduct a “quick and devastating” take-down of health experts who proposed a lockdown-free Covid-19 control strategy.
https://www.rt.com/usa/543684-emails-fauci-collins-herd-immunity/
I seem to remember Dr Kendrick advocating the same response, way, way back, last year. Protect the vulnerable. This entire nightmare is not about the Bug! The Bug is endemic and in the UK it was probably endemic by the middle of 2020 already. This is ALL about control, about preparing us for Der Tag, as they say. A very English Fascism.
Central to the success of convincing people that the ‘covid’ pandemic is real has been the widely held belief in The Germ Theory… And though many have done their best to expose Germ Theory as being comprised mostly of assumption and next to no scientific evidence, what has gone unnoticed was the propagation and unquestioned acceptance of ‘Gene Theory’…Gene Theory too is mostly assumptions, and will be far more difficult to root out of popular misconceptions…
‘Covid’ has provided the Trojan Horse for allowing Gene Theory into debates about Health…
When it’s widely accepted that “faulty genes” are the root cause of so many diseases there will be many ‘experimental’ preventive ‘vaccines’ being imposed, just like the ‘covid’ ones…
IMO, it seems that the problem with gene therapy is the assumption that every gene is essentially independent of all others. Given that we have tens of thousands of genes making up our body, I would suggest the potential knock on effects could be enormous if there is inter dependence?
A bit like introducing rabbits into Australia!
“would suggest the potential knock on effects could be enormous if there is inter dependence?”
But if there is inter dependence we seem to be managing ok.
There is much inter dependence in the body, why might it not extend to genes ?
I agree the law of unintended consequences comes into play.
On 17 December Celia Farber poster her interview with Richard Strohman, “The Machine Model of Biooilgy….” It’s well worth a read, and worth bringing others attentions to…
About an hour ago i received a post that highlighted an October 2021 comment by the head of Beyer-Monsanto, “mRNA vaccines are an example of that cell and gene therapy which 95% of the people rejected in 2019.”
The Covid marketing campaign was the means to popularise and gain wide acceptance of gene manipulating technologies, as i’d twigged… The Authorities have been indifferent to the levels of injuries and deaths from the ‘covid ‘ vaxxes. Can we expect the same from all the ‘gene therapies’ that’ll be dreamed up ?
Re gene ‘therapies’:
Bet your biome on it!
apoplexiatkaren elliot,
I am curious as to how you would completely replace the germ theory. I am aware of the remarkable evidence by Dr Hope-Simpson that the Spanish flu was not caused by a germ. However, I can’t really see how something like COVID-19 could have been caused completely by environmental factors.
I am extremely open to alternative concepts in science, but I’d like a coherent explanation that applies to well nourished populations. I’m also aware that well nourished people have travelled all over the globe in recent years – often without being vaccinated for anything – and have very rarely kicked off an epidemic when the return – one exception was the Aberdeen typhoid outbreak back in 1964.
Of course, COVID seems to be partially a product of hysteria – the first epidemic in which you could walk around and see no signs of anything except the masks (which I avoid wearing) and the fear in some people – gradually waning, I think. Because I don’t trust inadequately tested genetic therapies applied to well people, my partner and I remain unvaccinated.
Hysteria waning? Not here in Canada, where the unvaccinated are no longer allowed to associate with the virtuous.
Conflicting reports on hysteria here in Queensland. One one hand the government is moving to three monthly stabs, but on the other the Chief Health Officer is saying we have to get immunity, either by being jabbed and stabbed until we die or by catching the virus. I want to know where I can catch the virus. There are plenty of jab and stab labs around, I want a covid clinic where I can get infected. In the meantime I’m doing my best by ignoring mask restrictions and hugging everyone I meet.
As far as the environment is concerned, the virus is only being spread by fully jabbed travellers, whether by air, train or car, as they’re the only ones allowed to cross borders. Plus nearly all the hotspots are places only accessible to the fully stabbed. So the environments seem to be travel methods and restaurants and bars, but only if you’re vaccinated. Two years ago that would have been pure sarcasm. In today’s lunatic life, there could be an element of truth.
😄😄😄😄 love it. Yep that’s Queensland alright
Re Hysteria in Queensland, how about hysteria throughout the entire world? Elsewhere, sometime ago, I stated that I’d waited about a year to catch the bug and finally caught it last December. I was on penicillin for 5 days, end of story. But, I was roundly condemned for wanting to catch the Bug; “What about the people who caught it and died, do you have no feelings?”
From reports of which I suspect you are aware, most of the people who caught “the bug” could have been treated with ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine or sodium hypochlorate, and other common substances. The problem was Trump could put out only half a story and so they all got ridiculed. That, and of course the evil weasel Fauci. (apologies to weasels, no offence meant)
You, and many, many other people may already have immunity. If you haven’t had it by now, you probably are immune.
re immunity, I suspect I have natural immunity, being in that population of 50% to 80% who have cross-reactive T cell immunity from other coronaviruses. I very rarely get colds; plus my D levels, necessary for the T cells to react properly to a virus, are high. But we haven’t been allowed to be exposed to the virus until this month when state borders were reopened. So no, nobody in Queensland has acquired immunity to covid yet. But lead me to the Covid party!
Yes, aware of HCQ (banned immediately here as a covid treatment but still available for other prescription purposes) and ivermectin, banned a few months ago likewise. If doctors prescribe them for covid, they will be struck off and heavily fined. 200m Uttar Pradeshi have obviously succumbed to some sort of placebo effect, all taking ivermectin and thus eliminating covid from their state.
Mike Yeadon stated that people who had been exposed to the SARS Cov 1 had immunity to this covid thingy. I suspect that people would have immunity through being exposed to other corona viruses too.
Ditto! I caught an evil flu in NYC in 1975, put me out for about 3 weeks. I’ve never caught the flu since or the ‘common’ cold and my VitD levels are good, so whenI finally caught the Bug almost exactly 1 year ago, in spite of being 75, 2 heart attacks and an underactive thyroid, I was sick for just a few days.
Good luck with trying to be infected.
Fellow Queenslander here, but I have many friends back in Italy who are trying really hard to be infected so they can go to work without spending half their wages to get tested.
None of them has been so lucky yet, after a good month trying, but one who is obese, diabetic and on statins.
That’s very interesting. Assuming that they are consistently getting checked hoping for infection, it implies that even on exposure they aren’t managing to become asymtomatically infected. At least, as far as whatever test protocol they’re using. It’s a bit of a worry, really, as the only way to prove immunity is thus a blood test for T cell immunity, which isn’t available here, and probably wouldn’t be acceptable to the authorities anyway.
Doomed to wander a half life, not vaccinated and unable to prove immunity.
E&B, how reliable are those blood tests? Given PCR is a joke (unless you make loads of money out of them), and LFT are similarly pointless, do the blood tests reveal anything trustworthy?
The reliability of the blood tests is irrelevant for my purpose. All I want is a positive. False or true. Then I have an argument to be allowed to buy a cup of coffee unvaxxed. I have a bureaucratic proof of immunity, a stronger immunity than the double/triple/quadvaxxed have.
The T cell test is a lab conducted test, time consuming and expensive. If that came back +ve I would trust that as part of my defences against covid. The cornflake packet tests not at all, +ve or -ve.
AhNtoepad says: “E&B, how reliable are those blood tests?”
Does it really matter? What ain’t real, they make up anyway. It’s not the test, it’s the intention. This system’s abuse of science, real science, not this fake, phony shit the govt peddles, has done irreparable damage to our civilisation, to the very idea of science, of what the word means:
‘the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment’
Well, we can kiss this one goodbye. What else is left?
Well, according to the Italian government not reliable at all, since they stopped accepting a negative test as condition to enter bars and restaurants starting a couple of weeks ago.
On the other hand, the same government, just a couple of days later, imposed the tests to fully vaccinated people who wanted to attend to parties and other events.
I’m sure they’ll make up their mind, eventually…
On the subject of how likely a contagion is, I just spoke with some friends in Italy, the daughter of one of them (she has MS and other serious medical issues) apparently caught the bug “drinking from the same glass” of someone else, worked a whole day after experiencing some mild symptoms, the father is now also sick (morbidly obese with diabetes and heart issues) while the mother, the other sister (all living together) and all the other 18 people working in close contact with her are fine.
Hardly a modern day black plague, even my obese and sick friend all he was worried about was not being able to cook the Christmas lunch.
I wish more people had your obese, diabetic statinised friend’s sense of perspective.
As for the PCR test, it’s now officially useless:
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/bombshell-admission-cdc-drops-post-isolation-pcr-test-because-they-can-remain-positive-12
Eggs,
You must be prescient…
“Cross-reactive memory T cells associate with protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection in COVID-19 contacts”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27674-x
Not at all. This “news” is over 18 months old.
https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-35331/v1
And even that paper was building on previous observations.
Eggs… have you read this?
Yes I have, thanks.
It is an echo of a get-together with a few friends almost exactly two years ago. The virus news was in its very early stages, only in China at the time but already the huffing and puffing had started. Fauci seemed the voice of reason. We agreed that, based on the few known symptoms leaking out of China, and everything coming from there to be treated with a huge pinch of salt anyway, that the biggest threat would be government overreach and incompetence. But we certainly underestimated the governments’ skills in overreaching and incompetency! And didn’t appreciate how divided society would become.
It’s worth noting that simply because T-cells recognize epitopes is no guarantee of immune protection.
True, good levels of D are needed for them to be able to produce antibodies, for a start.
Covid is certainly the biggest example of mass hysteria but it is not the first.
The Salem witch trials comes to mind as an early example.
Common factors ? Ignorance, poor education and state manipulation.
Plus ca change !
We surely had equal ignorance and poor education on the part of ‘lay people’ in the 1957-8 and 1968-9 flu outbreaks, but no state manipulation. Possibly there was some understatement of the risks, because it seems that a genuine 86,000 died of H. Kong flu; the diagnoses were done relatively honestly.
Anyway, the N Y Post had a nice article on the Hong Kong flu pandemic and a photograph of a festival in full progress. Available online.
Fast forward ~50 years and two years’ worth of festivals were cancelled, e.g. Glastonbury. It’s more than manipulation, I’d say. But maybe mass hysteria feeds on itself and all the opportunistic feeding at the trough is from actors who are like ‘sceptics’, i.e. they’ve spotted mass stupidity and they’ll do what it takes to make a fast $$$$.
Anyone who knows enough facts to challenge them should e-mail people like Ferguson (ICL), Farrar (Wellcome Trust), or one or more of the government medical/scientific officers, like Whitty, Vallance, van Tam & Harries. One can be both exceedingly polite and devastatingly critical; the ‘professional’ language on this is an art form.
The covidiots come primarily from the upper middle class, college-educated.
One interesting detail I missed the first time around (I eat a lot of fat, all animal): “Once bound with bile salts, saturated fat is absorbed into the gut wall, where it is packed into the very large lipoprotein known as a chylomicron. A new best friend, the gut wall. Who new.
Kyle Omicron? Your new best friend?
Cahil O’Micron?
My daughter’s real new best friend is that welsh/Irish chieftain, Ivor Mec Tin. He’s done wonders in alleviating the vaccinosis symptoms of POTS (official diagnosis) and associated MS symptoms. Two doses so far, marked improvement each time.
Eggs ‘n beer: I’ll stick with Jack Daniels.
The new best friend of all of us. One of many, especially including the glycocalyx. What I hadn’t considered before is that our intestines function as factories, producing these massive (compared to HDL) lipoproteins. We should give them thanks and wish them a Merry Christmas.
Who knew. It’s late here.
Brilliant vid. Lots of collapsing.
https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-clotshot/
The video is pretty scary and of course, just because they collapsed, doesn’t mean the ‘shot’ was responsible for it.
Maybe it was martians zapping earthlings with sleep-inducing invisible ray guns.
Anyway, think of the vid as a comic illustration of reality. Darkly comic. It’s cultural propaganda, for sure, with some basis in reality. People are in denial about the clotshots and this is a way to rub their noses in it. It’s kind of mesmerizing.
A woman I know, who is also unvaxxed, told me about a funeral director that she knows. He became puzzled by the number of people who had died from deep vein thrombosis. Apparently this has risen sharply in recent months.
He tried to report the anomaly, but nobody was interested.
Is there any reliable publicly available data about deaths from various illnesses (other than COVID)?
thecovidpilot,
I don’t think it is wise to post videos in this blog that are exaggerated – humorously or otherwise.
It’s those kind of videos that persuade those not scientifically-minded and it’s good to make them available for use by all.
tcp, that claim is, like so many, just belief unless you can provide evidence
Yes, the video is irrational, but that isn’t a problem. Persuasion often relies on irrational factors. The current vax cult delusion is based on irrational factors–especially fear and irrational appeal to authority. The only way to persuade someone who has made a commitment to an irrationally-based position is via another irrational argument. Or else send tanks into their capital. I don’t see any tanks handy.
A question. How much magnesium does or can one absorb by adding Epsom salts to one’s bath?
Skin absorption of magnesium seems to be a topic you cannot get a certain answer on.
However I myself am sceptical. Skin is a good barrier to ions such as Na+ etc. You don’t absorb salt through the skin, in fact bathing in very salty water will extract water from your skin. There is no transport of the salt itself, only water by osmosis. Mg++ is a cation that should be highly similar to Na+ in this regard.
There is a paper out there which says a small amount of Mg is absorbed by the sweat glands. It is an insignificant amount relative to the intake of Mg that we require. Also terribly inefficient, since 99.999% plus will go down the plughole with your bathwater.
I know all that, and yet my and my wife real life experience are quite different. We usually train at the gym quite intensely in the morning, fasted, and since we live in a hot and humid climate that means that we are quite exhausted after that. We usually take a pinch of salt with water right before training, it helps but still the effect of sweating significantly, blood retention in the muscles, heat and humidity can often cause symptoms of hypotension.
A quick dip at the beach seems to be incredibly beneficial to restore the electrolyte imbalance, just half an hour lying in the water chatting and not moving much works like a charm. If the ocean is rough, we go to the outdoor pool, it helps somehow (you still have the vasocostriction due to the temperature of the water, but not as much as the ocean.
Now, I’m pretty conscious of the placebo effect, but could that last all day long? After the pool, I still need to get some salt/potassium otherwise the symptoms can persist for hours.
Again, it’s just an experiment with N=2 and no control group, but it’s probably as scientific as most of the garbage on PubMed… 😀
It’s more likely that your bodies are being cooled after overheating with the exercise. That is why it feels so good. I get the same effect by having a cool shower in our rare heatwaves, and that is just tap water.
Biological membranes are impermeable to ions. Ion transport across cell membranes is tightly controlled. If the barrier breaks down we die.
If you put a slice of potato in concentrated salt solution it will go floppy. This is due to water being extracted from its cells by osmosis. It’s the water that moves not the electrolytes.
As I said, the effect seems to be different when we go to the pool instead of the beach.
It could be a placebo effect, and it’s probably counteracted by the risk of finding a crocodile lurking under the water 🙂 but it really feels better. Of course the ocean water is rich in many minerals, and when you swim you akso have water swirling through your mouth as well, you ingest some, there is sublingual absorption… things in the real world are often more complex that a simple cause/effect as read in books.
I am old enough to remember the Aberdeen typhoid outbreak. I gathered at the time that it had beent tracked to a dodgy catering size tin of corned beef. W as that an early example of the lying?
Advice on Magnesium please.
I took my first tablet last night two hours before bed. Woke up in the middle of the night with stomach cramps and nausea, unpleasant, It took an hour to go, fine since. This was 740mg Magnesium Citrate providing 220mg Elemental Magnesium. I think the nausea is probably connected. Any thoughts or advice (e.g. links to info). Thank you.
Magnesium citrate is usually used as a laxative, no wonder it caused havoc on your gut.
Try another form, go for chloride if budget is an issue (1 kg bags are cheap as chips) or glycinate.
Magnesium L-Threonate – good for the brain as well as. (I take the L-Threonate, Bigvits (dot) com is a good and informative site to use. Carry excellent brands and are reasonably priced. For those living in Europe, they have an arm in Ireland, so are able to avoid the swinging ‘Brexit’ postal services shenanigans. .
Here’s some useful, and interesting information : 10 Different Types of Magnesium, and What to Use Each For :-
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/magnesium-types#9.-Magnesium-glycinate
Try pumpkin seeds. A handful of pumpkin seeds taken every day cured my long tern insomnia, or at least made into manageably mild insomnia.
Trying to find a provably bioavailable Mg supplement was too bewildering for me. In this case I think it’s a matter of “you know where you are with whole foods.” And they won’t cause weird sides.
Christmas cheer for light relief:
https://www.monologues.co.uk/John_Bilsborough/Christmas_in_Jailhouse.htm
There is yet another way in which pharmaceutical and food companies and governments make family get-togethers difficult and that is that society has created an abundance of faddy children. Young children who have developed a preference for carbohydrates have little room or desire for traditional fare. Do we pander to their tastes for pasta, etc., and forego sirloin joint treats and the like or do the “When in Rome” bit? Either way, it can create unnecessary bother or misery.
Great quote on p. 49. Slam-dunk destruction of the cholesterol hypothesis: “…three point five quadrillion of the little blighters. . .” LDL molecules, that is, to make the first teeny-weenie plaque.
Thanks for all that you do Doc. You’re a compendium of wisdom for us all and one of the first bloggers I plugged into my RSS reader.
Have you perchance ever written about nitric oxide and nitrates in the diet? There seems to be some connection to COVID outcomes and also to vascular disease.
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3271/10/1/3
This is a useful summary of the evidence that COVID-19 was created deliberately.
And, Fauci was explicitly involved in these projects. Go figure.
Here’s to the freak show brought to you by SAGE..
https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/mask-nazi-arrested-on-delta-flight-woman-goes-full-psycho-slap-spits-on-passenger/
Here are three articles from the Daily Telegrph:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/f/fp-ft/fraser-nelson/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/12/25/dodgy-data-used-push-tighter-covid-restrictions/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/26/experts-called-one-wrong-boris-right-not-give/
Together I think they are somewhat encouraging, in as much as they recognise that some scientists are prepared to lie to keep lockdowns going.
You need a subscription to access them, but you can read the headline itself without, and you can also access the DT free of charge for a week (I think).
Slightly off track, but …
Day by day, more and more exposés indicate that the UK regime is moving towards a government that has frightening similarities with Nazi Germany. Consider, the Gestapo were the political police of Nazi Germany which ruthlessly eliminated opposition to the Nazis within Germany and its occupied territories. Within the UK now, today, we have ‘political police’ such as “the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations,” funded and supported by the UK Government, its security services and the equivalent US bodies. These organisations are being used AGAINST the UK population – we are their enemy !
Now.
“Leaked documents have revealed a state-sponsored influence operation designed to undermine critics of the British government’s coronavirus policies … The project aims to conduct psychological profiling on British citizens dissenting against policies such as mandatory vaccination and lockdowns, then leverage the data to establish a YouTube channel that portrays these critics as dangerous “superspreaders” of “disinformation.””
These operations involve the BBC, Syrian activists, the Royal Institute and others. Valent Projects is a key player, who has its security linked tentacles spread throughout the middle east and now the UK homeland. These players are being used to try and concoct a link between extremist activities and anti-lockdown, vaccine hesitant views – as championed by the likes of Patel.
See the revealing report below. a good read.
So Abigail Thorn has over 1 million sheep and 7,000 collaborators. These type of people are going to get a nasty surprise when they find themselves in the same totalitarian prison as the rest of us. We know what’s coming if we can’t stop it, they have a rude awakening coming.
As witnessed by the football fans in Glasgow yesterday. They have had the jabs and/or have the required test results, and they still weren’t allowed in to watch the match. I wonder if they will wake up soon.
Reading your daft stuff makes me realise why i shrug and decide not to get involved’ Sieg Heil ? I don’t think so.
Reading the Clot Thickens (best Christmas gift). Your acronym SLAD could be adjusted to Systemic Athersclerotic Large Artery Disease or SALAD. But maybe that leans too close to the stupid idea of avoiding dietary cholesterol.
Here’s an encouraging take on the current situation:
Yes Sticky. Thank you. I like the way Krishnamurti spoke about conditioning and encouraged his young pupils to see stereotyping and brainwashing for what it is. And to actually see what is and to be free to make our own choices in manner of education and all aspects of life. He pointed out that joining is a form of segregation. He encouraged pure fresh observation without labelling according to our past prejudices and brainwashing. More quiet awareness and less noise and fear in our heads. He was a good man and his schools continue but still have their work cut out to have a significant effect on the world, alas.
Dear Dr Kendrick,
I really enjoyed listening to you being interviewed by Patrick Holford on his blog earlier this month. For once, Patrick rarely interupted you, allowing you to fully discuss your thoughts on Vitamin Bs and Homocysteine. Patrick also made reference to Dr David Smith from Oxford University who he also interviewed on his blog in September. Sadly, Dr Smith has become disillusioned that his research studies on the incredible impact that Vitamin Bs have made on Alzheimer patients, have been largely been ignored due to there being no money to be made from something that is not patentable, unlike Big Pharma who use meds which don’t work! Now where have we heard that before?
Thanks for continuing to hold our corner and continuing to stick your neck out but also, a million and one thanks for creating this forum from which, I have continued to learn so much. I have been in the health industry for over 25 years and it never ceases to amaze me how much I don’t know. I have also learnt the impact that an underlying infection in teeth can have on the body, in addition to mercury fillings but that is a whole different story that might be discussed the future.
It is a worry that there are still toxic carriers used in many vaccines, but the latest Covid vaccines are the ultimate mockery with a blank information sheet enclosed with the vaccine https://www.bitchute.com/video/XR8oorE7qSpV/. I have also consistently used the term “Emperor’s New Clothes” with regard to Covid 19 (as someone previously remarked)!
Corinna, your post makes me happy. I hoped that people could come here and learn, and teach, and share information in a forum that allowed all (or as near to all as possible) views to be expressed without fear of criticism, or ad-hoc attacks. It is very difficult to get the balance right, and I am sure I get it wrong a lot of the time.
My overwhelming philosophy is that open debate is essential for scientific progress. There should be nothing (or almost nothing) that should be censored. I try to stop direct personal criticism, I block people advertising stuff and if something is completely incoherent I don’t approve it. In addition, if the discussion strays far too far away from the matter in hand I try to bring it back again. Again, a vey difficult balance.
Malcolm,
I too think your blog is amazing. I wish it were possible to compile a role-call of all the people who have come here and been helped by your comments – both here and in your books. I vividly remember back in 2013 reading “The Great Cholesterol Con” in a cafe, and staying there longer than I would have because I could not stop reading.
I’d just discovered that statins had been damaging me, so it was amazing to learn that not only were statins as near as useless as a protection against CVD, but their very mode of action – lowering Cholesterol – was undermined by lack of evidence that Cholesterol was harmful! There was also essentially no evidence that saturated fat was harmful!
After I learned that salt was also not harmful, I felt the change was complete – I could just eat all the things I’d always been told were bad for my heart!
Frankly I wouldn’t have believed you if it were not for all the references to the medical literature in your book that back you up – if unintentionally.
As a result I felt armed against any future efforts to ‘find a statin that suited me better’ or indeed in due course, to accept PCSK9 inhibitor injections. Butter and bacon returned to my diet.
Your blogs have also helped me to take a pretty casual view of my COVID risks, while dosing myself with vitamins C and D to lower that risk further.
Please keep up the good work!
Well I think you do an excellent job maintaining a balance.
This blog certainly informs many of us. Debate is an essential way to discuss controversial issues. Some contributors intentionally cloud difficult issues by sniping at others, without adding anything to enhance knowledge. Just saying.
Corinna. I would so like to hear the podcast between Dr K and P. Holford. I am unable to open it up after finding site on the Internet. Any ideas please?
Hijacking a bit but this should get you there just been listening myself:https://patrickholford.podbean.com/e/healthy-heroes-series-what-really-cause-heart-disease-the-clot-thickens/?token=8d8df23c497d637e4a331277c9c38c73
3 Dec – Health Heroes Series – What really causes heart disease – The Clot thickenshttps://feed.podbean.com/patrickholford/feed.xml
Enjoy, Corinna
Many thanks. Well worth the listen.
What do you think of this? Some corroboration would be useful.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/scqjlr0aBFIA/
AhN, here’s an interview with one of the researchers:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/NHJsVBcSJ7PR/
Thanks sticky
Here’s another video showing what is claimed to be electronic components. Sr Delgado becomes rather vexed at several points, with what he is showing.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/H28Bpbsztk0c/
More on graphene oxide nanotechnology:
https://www.richplanet.net/vaccine.php
My hunch is that because the creators of COVID don’t seem to have control of the basic internet process (they can block things on YouTube or other platforms, but they don’t seem to be able to block people starting wholly new domains, such as
https://off-guardian.org ), the best they can do is to try to pollute that information with pseudo-scientific stuff of this sort.
I agree. Some of the nonsense doesn’t stand up to most casual enquiry. Graphene oxide is a solid – try injecting 99% graphene oxide …..
It was a bit of a shock though when the Japanese announced some phials of vaccine were magnetic, though.
5G. The energy levels are too low to penetrate your skin from transmitters. You may experience some slight warming holding your phone close to your ear, but water is a great absorber of most 5G frequencies and your body is 70% water. As for nanoparticles of graphene oxide responding to 5G if it reaches them, what’s the power source for the nanoparticles?
As you commented in an earlier post, well referenced books and articles are important for credibility. There are plenty out there, but 99% of the people have the attention span of a goldfish and won’t look beyond the sensation grabbing headline.
If you wanted to undermine alternate views then a proven tactic would be to sow in some nonsense amongst the sense. Using chaff to confuse the enemy (us) ? Look at some of the stories that were spread to undermine Ivermectin. Our friends in the 77th Brigade shouldn’t be underestimated.
With oblique reference to Phil above and The Clot Thickens….
I have just listened to Dr K’s podcast with Ivor Cummins.
(An hour and a half of logic and common sense interrupted midway by a shopping trip to Lidl, which is uncomfortably close to LDL!).
Interesting particularly what he said near the end. That the scientific elite will never (publicly) agree with his hypothesis. They can’t, they have too much of a vested interest in current / historical theories both academically and financially. No way they can reverse thirty years of ‘beliefs’.
But what he can do is try and influence future experts, those studying today, and potentially open to a new (and correct?) theory.
Seems to me that those born in the latter end of the millennial age are able to make an astonishing noise if they so desire.
I listened to various interviews on You Tube over the holidays (as a digestive aid). One such was with Stephen Fry in which he said that the majority of us can be disproportionately influenced by a tiny minority who basically make a lot of noise.
The cholesterol ‘elite’ ‘are not for turning’. So, like Dr K, I hope the ‘new breed’ are as determined to change our view of heart disease as they are about trumpeting other crucial causes, like statue-toppling or providing the requisite number of lavatories for all the new genders that have sprung up.
Here’s that podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czUUrWdKoVc
Here is an example of the tiny, noisy (and ignorant) minority who took part in wrecking the world. https://brownstone.org/articles/how-fanatics-took-over-the-world/.
For those who like face nappies, like this sub-human being (https://youtu.be/81nsjv7E-OE) there is an article on brownstone.org citing more than 150 studies on them.
“One such was with Stephen Fry in which he said that the majority of us can be disproportionately influenced by a tiny minority who basically make a lot of noise”.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb explains this in great and persuasive detail in Chapter 2 (“The Most Intolerant Wins”) of his book “Skin in the Game”.
PK, I would very much like to spend an afternoon with you and Dr K in the pub. Anyway, thank you for all your contributions.
Hi, Tish. I had never heard of Krishnamurti until I read this, but his teachings are relevant to how we can deal with what is happening around the world, and the destruction of our rights and freedoms. I am not religious (I was brought up a Catholic), but know that I am ‘spiritual’, in being aware of a higher power, or energy, that we are all part of, and can tap into or, indeed, feed into.
I was intrigued by the part about entropy, and how internal disorder creates external disorder: everyone ought to practise meditation, which would surely feed into the ‘Power’ that we are. I had a work supervisor who believed that meditation would make the world a better place, and used to go on weekend meditation retreats.
Over the past few months I have been persuaded, by various things I have read or watched, that what is happening is what those with fundamental Christian or Judaic beliefs would describe as the biblical Final Battle Between Good and Evil.
This ties in with the much-talked-about Great Awakening, which will tip the balance against those who would do us harm (they say knowledge is Power . . . ).
I have seen many instances online recently of spiritually-inclined people stating quite confidently that ‘we have already won’, and that, although things might get bad in the meantime, it will be over in a matter of months.
But what really geed me up was James Delingpole’s interview with Gregory Paul Martin:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/x4TMLFd7N8NT/
Fifteen minute Sucharit Bhakdi talk about vaccine and coroner’s autopsies being wrong 93% of the time when they don’t find the covid vaccine to be the cause of death.
Highly recommended by Mike Yeadon.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/fHIT55iM4Zv9/
The accompanying paper is here:
Click to access end-covax.pdf
“Histopathologic studies: the patients
Histopathologic analyses have been performed on the organs of 15 persons who died after vaccination.
The age, gender, vaccination record, and time of death after injection of each patient are listed in the table on the next page. The following points are of utmost importance:
Prior to death, only 4 of the 15 patients had been treated in the ICU for more than 2 days. The majority were never hospitalized and died at home (5), on the street (1), at work (1), in the car (1), or in home-care facilities (1). Therefore, in most cases, therapeutic intervention is unlikely to have significantly influenced the post-mortem findings.
Not a single death was brought into any possible association with the vaccination by the coroner or the public prosecutor; this association was only established by our autopsy findings.
The initially performed conventional post-mortems also uncovered no obvious hints to a
possible role of vaccination, since the macroscopic appearance of the organs was overall
unremarkable. In most cases, “rhythmogenic heart failure” was postulated as the cause of death.”
Lots of T-cell infiltration into organs, including the heart.
No slides, unfortunately. This is a preliminary finding and needs more support. And slides.
Dr Bhakdi’s short talk is terrifying. He actually says that he and his wife are planning to leave Germany to save their four-year-old child from being poisoned. It takes a lot to get such a gentle, cultured person to swear repeatedly – but he cannot stop himself.
He’s absolutely right. Mother in law admitted to hospital today after a couple of TIAs. 90. No meds, but demented. Happy in own home with husband‘s support. Two weeks after second Pfizer.
Daughter can’t get out of bed after first Pfizer.
Rare side effects my arse.
Here’s a Japanese paper looking at covid vaccine cause of death being hdden by authorities:
Click to access Med%20Check%20Tip-20-2021-08&12.pdf
It’s a comparative incidence study.
h/t Steve Kirsch
I had a comment notification in my inbox for lingulella, but I can’t find it here, not even by searching. Here it is:
“If this https://stuartbramhall.wordpress.com/2021/12/29/finally-police-open-criminal-probe-into-uk-vaccine-rollout/ is being reported correctly then it is a opportunity for doctors everywhere in the UK to report to the police any gbh or deaths they consider directly due to the ‘vaccines’.”
I just wanted to add this further information:
https://covid-unmasked.net/well-done-these-men-at-hammersmith-police-station/
Here is more news on this:
” . . . the most important breakthrough so far anywhere in the world”
https://drtrozzi.org/2022/01/15/now-covid-culprits-in-uk-gov-under-criminal-investigation/
I just found this (sometimes I feel as though I’m not keeping up . . . )
https://dailyexpose.uk/2022/01/08/mark-sexton-invites-bbc-and-sky/
More grist for the mill:
https://cjhopkins.substack.com/p/the-last-days-of-the-covidian-cult
Nice piece, but a bit worrying!
Only just a bit worrying?
I’m an optimist.
Apologies if this has been posted previously but I came across a video courtesy of twitter* tonight titled ‘Harm – Part One: The PCR Test Deception’.
I was aware of the Kary Mullins & the PCR deception right from the early days of covid. What piqued my interest in this video was picture of Dr K featuring. The tweet showed it was on filmforfreedom.co.uk. Didn’t work but watched it on Bitchute at:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/PGj5No8Q9EEn/
It is 40 mins long. As well as Dr K (who starts to appear more prominently from about 19 mins), there are clips of Dr Sucharit Bhakdi (someone else that I admire) that are intermingled.
On the subject of Dr B (again sorry if this has already been posted), this is from a week ago titled ‘Organs of dead vaccinated proves auto immune attack’ & is 16 mins (recommend watching if you can spare the time) – can be found in a few places, the bitchute address being:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/fHIT55iM4Zv9/
For those anyone that doesn’t look at the UK death statistics (can download as an excel file at ons.gov.uk) –latest (30 Dec 21) came out today. I’m well versed in the numbers on weekly basis c.f. last year & the 2014-2019 five-year average (as was the German bloke on his bike in the 1st video above who tried to engage with German MPs**).
* Though I don’t have a twitter account, & I ought to contribute to some great people and threads, the level of censorship is obvious to the enlightened [Robert Malone suspended (though has same address on Gab)].
** I wrote a letter to my Conservative MP (formerly a ‘redwall’ Labour safe seat) on the Sunday before the UK vote in the middle of Dec. 21 on new covid restrictions. I will give him credit that he replied on all my points and has offered to speak with me – I haven’t replied yet but I plan to go to one of his surgeries in the New Year (plus the 101 Conservative rebels will have given him more food for thought).
Aside 1 – for those with good memories, I’ve mentioned that my Dad is now 84 & plays golf regularly with 3 mates who have tried to coerce him to getting jabbed. When he re-started golf after a month or so off (after having covid late September), apparently it was lucky that he was still alive (among other things, I make sure he takes plenty of Vit D). One of his mates had bad blotchy legs earlier in 2021 after his 1 & 2 AZs then, after the P booster, got shingles and is now (Dec.) positive for covid. Another of his mates phoned up to say he couldn’t play as he has tested +ve.
Aside 2 – the narrative is crumbling. Those who were ridiculing a few months back are now much less vocal.
Aside 3 – I did once say that I thought that my Mum would succumb to the jab but I’m now not so sure as two plus two can’t keep adding up to more or less than four – -until I’m almost blue in the face I’ve told people to wait until the end of March (2022).
Aside 4 – my two kids were here for Christmas (avoided mentioning covid – except after picking up my daughter when she started it then I was told off for talking about it). I hope my daughter has avoided it but I won’t ask and she won’t tell. I know that my lad has been jabbed – hopefully he’ll not, or eventually stop, have / having ‘boosters’ (twigging that his paternal grandparents, his conspiracy theorist tinfoil hat nutter headcase Dad [who can provide RCTs against his BBC’s and Wikipedia quotes], auntie & uncle are still alive in the middle of whatever this deadly thing is supposed to be).
Aside 5 – if you have got this far, you will have realised that I’m on the jungle juice, though I seem to sometimes make more sense when on the JJ.
I’ve been on the JJ too. But I’ve just won two on-line blitz chess games so so what.
Aside no 3; my mother in law is in hospital due to two mini-strokes two or three weeks after her second Pfizer. History of clotting thirty years ago after a very bad car accident. Age ninety. No meds. Exercises ok. Demented, but happy and capable in her own home with husband. Confused in hospital, pulling heart sensors off, doesn’t know why or where she is but we can’t visit her because we’re not stabbed. Neither can her husband for the same reason.
My aside; daughter suffered severe reaction to Pfizer 1. Can’t get out of bed. Can’t look after kids, aged 3 & 1, so we do.
A friend’s whole extended family, all double/triple stabbed, have covid.
What a ph%#@ing mess.
If we’re to believe the PR about Covid deaths, then I guess we also have to believe that for the first time in recorded history the common cold, (normal) Flu and Pneumonia has virtually disappeared. Maybe the Covid Flu eats the other bugs …
What is jungle juice?
Dr Kendrick
Have you watched this? Bret Weinstein with Gruff Davies and Linda Benskin on the subject of Vitamin D as a preventative measure for Covid. Compelling I’d say.
Controlling our behaviour sneakily.
The predictable BBC website continues to fulfil our expectations. Boris and his crew are pretending to be gentle in England with the no new rules statement but at the same time know full well that the public, wanting to impress one another with their ‘sense’ and ‘kindness’, will obey all the urging and recommendations that accompany the suggested leniency. E.g. do covid tests before getting together, open some windows, group outside if possible, make it a New Year’s resolution to get jabbed…..
My resolution is quite the opposite. I need to be popular with myself rather than with everyone else.
Happy New Year. Here’s to freedom and the health to enjoy it.
Instead of covid tests, which mean absolutely nothing as regards the potential of transmission, how about staying home if you’re symptomatic?
Peer pressure, one of the governments tools. EG.
A local health club has been closed during December and plans to close for most of January. Why ? Apparently the Covid is rife locally and therefore it makes sense. No state or local restrictions but the Club manager watches the BBC and reads the Mail. Go figure.
We need a COVID vaccine protest anthem. May I suggest the following (to the tune of another brick in the wall):
We don’t need no coagulation
We don’t need no shot control
No vaccinations in the classroom
Fauci, leave them kids alone
Hey, Fauci, leave them kids alone
All in all, you’re just a buck for pharma
All in all, we’re just a buck for pharma
Another prick in the classroom.
We don’t need no vaccinations
We don’t need masks and hectoring
No social distancing in the classroom
Teacher, don’t send those kids home
Hey Teacher, don’t leave those kids alone.
All in all, it’s another experimental prick in the classroom
All in all, you’re enabling experimental pricks in the classroom.
A side note about magnesium. My father was a subject in the ‘doctors study’. That is where the recommendation for regular aspirin for heart health came from. Only there is a catch – the study had a major flaw – it had a confounding variable. The group that got aspirin – got magnesium as well. Why it wasn’t in the placebo I never could find out. This experiment needs to be run again.
Very interesting karl. And it looks like other studies have been done. Here’s a general article about the issues.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/heart-health-aspirin-study-harvard-beth-israel-deaconess-medical-center/
karl: Are you talking about Bufferin (a buffered aspirin)? I think the buffer in Bufferin is a magnesium compound.
If I am not mistaken, “Malignant Medical Myths” talks about this
Sasha: Correct. Myth #1, p. 16.
Sasha: I’ve never before had a niacin flush from eating any organs. In the future, though, I won’t be taking the B-complex on days when I have liver!
Now we know just how to be!
Be a fool for all to see,
Be a twat with all your might
Then you may be made a knight.
Oh dear. I had hoped that the New Year would have welcomed only decent responses on the blog.
Looks like we will be enduring degrees of degeneration in manners yet again.
Jennifer. It is clear to anyone who does not bury their head in the sand that governments all round the world are being controlled by a powerful, unelected group of obnoxious people. They get their work done by placing fools in prominent important positions to act like puppets. 70 years of peace has given rise to complacency. If we politely kowtow to these people what will life be like for our grandchildren? You may think that these issues have nothing to do with this blog but this blog would hardly need to exist if it were not for decades of corruption in the pharmaceutical companies and their effect on research.
Jennifer, to what do you refer in respect of manners? I read most of the posts. Some I get only a short way in as they are not relevant at present to me, and they can be long. People have different ways of putting down their thoughts, and sometimes I think they could have worded it better, but that applies to me as well and is something I notice just after I have pressed “Post Comment”. However, in general people have the right to write as they wish, until Dr. K. says it’s time to get back on track. The alternative is the road to censoring, just because someone considers the word collection unacceptable. Governments are trying to do this bu calling “hate speech” if someone could claim they are offended. It’s a problem of discussions, you risk offending someone, does that mean it shouldn’t be said?
For some light entertainment https://youtu.be/y7eVr-IuvBI is to me, amusing, to others it might be bad manners.
Great….thanks….my kind of entertainment.
This might not be to everyone’s taste, but he makes me chuckle:
https://www.youtube.com/c/AndrewLawrenceComedy/videos
AH notepad
You put that better than I would have. I don’t always agree with everything written here, by you or anybody. I think the fact that some outlets are highly censored, which can mean a certain Inbalance in opinions expressed here, because they feel they have nowhere else to go. I marvel at the time some must spend compiling their contributions.. nobody forces me to read this blog, and I have learnt a lot here.
Let’s stay respectful and polite
Interesting podcast (or whatever you call an interview these days) featuring Dr Robert Malone inventor of mRNA technology. Wide-ranging and very interesting chat, including the worldwide manipulation of news and views, relevant in the sense of lack of debate or alternative around Dr Ks work. https://www.bitchute.com/video/4BBJoJK37Q3E/
A discussion featuring Dr Sam White, who seems full of energy in his battle against the NHS hierarchy incl the GMC
https://odysee.com/@Corona-Investigative-Committee:5/sam-Session-85-en.mp4:3
They discuss the ‘batch hypothesis’ in detail. I hadn’t been convinced of this but it now looks real. If this turns into criminal liability, people may now get some compensation?
A friend of mine who’s ultra-keen on the scientific method points out that the UK psy-ops. made a minority of the population terrified of a ‘deadly disease’. Stress, fear and anxiety make us more susceptible to respiratory infections? Did this further affect ‘COVID-19 deaths’?
BTW I hope to ‘see’ almost everyone from this forum, so to speak, at the marches for freedom on 23rd. Jan.
Yes, well I’ve written about the Cabinet Office’s ‘Nudge Unit’, spawned by Imperial College and assorted fellow travellers/opportunists (one member of SAGE is even a member of the Communist Party!). About these travesties of scientists talking about the fact (in early 2020) that the British public “wasn’t frightened enough”. This was a calculated psy-ops campaign, about a decade in the making, complete with a couple of flase runs (SARS-COV and SARS-COV1). And yes, this incompetent, crooked political class called the ToryLab goverment, did bollocks all kinds of things up, made a bunch of the govt’s pals into billionaires, blew £50 Billion on Test and Trace [sic,™] and eventually just gave up on the whole thing, but, and this is crucial, left in place, the kinds of laws and methodologies, that Hitler would have been proud of! All to fight a bug? We have all been royally duped by this operation and I fear that by the time enough of us wake up to what’s been done to us, it’ll be too late. Thank goodness there are still populations (like millions!) in Europe who are not taking this power grab lying down, because that’s exactly what is, a power grab by the state because it knows times are going to get a lot tougher. When the going gets tough for capitalism, bet your boots it’s either, some kind of fascism, or revolution.
Very interesting post from Dr. Grimes:
http://www.drdavidgrimes.com/2022/01/covid-19-vitamin-d-malaysia-and.html
One thing I’ve recently learned, in reading about breathing, is that NO is produced in the nose when inhaling. Pretty impressive what the nose does, and what NO does. I was thinking about breathing during my hike on Saturday. Mostly I both inhale and exhale through the nose, but often when hiking I exhale with a sharp burst through the mouth. Works for me.
Already 40 years ago, when I used to do half marathons as a teenager, the first thing taught by the coach was to do a double quick in from the nose and a double quick out from the mouth. I doubt he or anyone else in the athletic department had any idea about NO.
Exhaling from the mouth probably preserve the NO being produced in the nostril and that is then inhaled with every subsequent breath.
Returning to the original topic re: supplementation of vitamins and minerals.
I have been a great subscriber to using a selection of them over the last 7 years, so have enjoyed this blog reminding me of why I have decided to use the ones I use. However, following on from the concept of NNT for prescription medicines, I am wondering if such research is available regarding supplements? The reason I ask, is that having been advised to take another bucket full of prescription drugs in the last year ( following a TIA), I have used the NNT data in my decision as to whether I follow the recommended regime. I have to say…I find the standard regimes, as defined by the NHS, less than convincing for TIAs.
I will continue with supplementation, none of which I take to excess, but I do have a little niggle as to their true effectiveness.
I’m not a doctor so take what I say with the appropriate amount of sceptism.
Supplements (vitamins, et al) are never going to be the whole solution, and that’s true for prescribed drugs.
Our lifestyles are very sedentary and that, IMO, has a major impact on our overall health. I believe it’s therefore important for everyone to involve themselves in some sort of regular, physical activity that gets the heart going and tires the muscles. Also, particularly, for the ladies impact exercise is important, to counteract Osteoporosis. It doesn’t have to be extreme but if you have health issues then maybe it should be more than you currently do ?
The NHS rarely prescribes exercise and a large proportion of NHS staff are overweight so it’s important for us, in the present climate, to take responsibility for our own health.
I’ve been an athlete at international level, and I pretty much trained all my life, and yet I don’t agree with you. The importance of exercise is overestimated, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t move our arses (we should), but that nutrition and lifestyle, of which exercise is only a part, are the key to a healthy and long life.
Running an hour on a treadmill five times a week will do nothing for your health or for your waistline, weight lifting is good for bone density and strength (and loss of strength causes a number of issues getting older) but again does nothing for your waistline, walking with the dog half a day or spending a day at the beach is surely better than spending an hour at the gym and then the rest of the day inside, under fluorescent lights and in front of a screen until late in the night, with 4 or 5 wifi/BT devices all around you and a shitty electrical wiring.
Then of course there is nutrition, and the old saying “you can’t outrun a bad diet” is still very much true.
“You need to move your arse more” is a gimmick often used by crap food companies to shift the responsibility, “you aren’t diabetic and with a fatty liver disease because you live on seed oils and starches, but only because you are lazy”.
I don’t believe we are in disagreement at all. Maybe I expressed my self badly (?), but I agree mostly with all of what you said.
A lot of people DO need to do more, in terms of exercise, than they currently do – particularly if they have health issues related to a sedentary lifestyle. It IS a personal responsibility because you and your loved ones (and the tax man) are the only ones who care if you live or die.
I believe exercise, like a sensible diet should be a part of your life not something extra you do just to correct self inflicted abuses.
Exercise doesn’t need to be extreme or obsessive, little changes are more achievable and liable to be adopted long term. Walking the dog, cycling to work, taking the stairs, going to the beach/pool with the family, joining a club, dancing !!! To mention a few.
Agreed diet is very important, but the word is part of the problem being associated with punishment and short termism. It comes back to long term lifestyle. I tend to live by the adage ‘eat like my parents’ – born in the 1930s – prepare and cook your own food, avoid processed foods and eat seasonal and local foods. All within reason, of course.
And, as I’m sure you will agree ? As an amateur sportsman, I’ve known many top level athletes over the last 40 years, and a large proportion had food, diet and exercise issues related to ‘the need to improve’ – not necessarily the best examples – Alf Tupper good, Paula Radcliffe bad.
Alf Tupper is my hero, since fish ‘n’ chips are my favourite food of all time.
(No, I’m not an athlete, nor am I obese).
Yes, I believe we agree on pretty much everything… 😀
Regarding athletes, people often think that if you are fit, you are also healthy, but that’s often not the case. Swimmers eating 5000 calories per day mostly of starches and sugars are surely fit and with very low body fat, but the metabolic damage created is often evident once they reach their forties.
I have friends with CVD, diabetes and kidney disease, they are still very healthy looking, with just a few kgs more now than when they were 20, but still below the average (well, looking around me even a small whale would be below average).
And yes, diet is a terrible word, most nutritionists now use way of life instead of diet when referring to the proposed nutritional regimen.
An Italian Australian at the tropics:
Agreed. Staying active, physically and mentally is crucial to health, but giving the body the nutrients it needs and avoiding toxic foods like industrial seed oils and excess sugar is foundational. Also, for me, finding joy in simply being alive and practicing forgiveness are powerful tools for health and well-being.
My wife seems surprised because I’m calm and relaxed, while I have to admit than for most of my life I had quite a short fuse… Still, being positive, loving and laughing, having fun, enjoying the little pleasure of life is probably as important as nutrition.
Since I become almost completely carnivore, my mood has significantly improved, or maybe I’m just getting older and wiser. The thing that I increasingly find difficult to do is forgiving, I’m working on it but it doesn’t look good, I’m afraid.
An Italian Australian at the tropics. The carnivore diet has had a calming and relaxing effect on me, too. Plus it just tastes so good. You’re right, forgiveness ain’t easy, but it is incredibly powerful. Gratitude also.
I believe that resentment is the number one cause of dysfunctional behavior, addiction, and ill health. Bitterness and resentment triggered the colon cancer that killed my mother at the early age of 45, IMO.
Doesn’t the effectiveness of a supplement depend on whether you are short of it? I guess in general it is easier and cheaper to just take them rather than get your levels tested to decide if you need them.
I deduce from what I have learned over the years that we are likely to be lacking in certain vitamins due to standards of food production and processing, unlike my NHS years when I was repeatedly told that we get all we need from our diet. This blog has highlighted how some prescription medicines interfere with vitamin and mineral absorption, but I suspect that any deficiency is not addressed,except on a personal level by those who do their own research. In the 70s I recall prescriptions for vitamin B complex and vitamin C being given alongside antibiotic therapy. Once the prescription charge was changed to £X for EACH item, I think the habit was dropped.
So, without knowing my actual vitamin and mineral status, I consume supplements as an insurance policy.
I just wonder if the advertising blurb for them may be as suspect as the blurb is for prescription meds, which pressurise medics into signing endless scripts.
Do I sound paranoid in these suspicious days?
David Bailey: I am following the principle of reduced absorption of nutrients by those verging on ancient, as many of us are. I don’t like tests anyway. And the B-vitamins don’t cost much. What interested me in Quercetin is that it is on;y found in plants, and I avoid most of them (except coffee, fruit, and the Tennessee sour mash plant).
You, sir, are my kind of vegetarian. I would add some grape juice to the list, fermented and then distilled, preferably in a certain region of that annoying country between Italy and Spain. But since I’m forcibly retired due to the plandemic, that kind of “fruit” is present in my pantry only sporadically.
“…the Tennessee sour mash plant…”
😎 😎 😎
Of course, the problem is that we only know the minimum recommended level, but there are no studies to check the optimum levels. Of course, we have millions of anecdotal pieces of evidence, since vitamins and minerals as supplements are widely used by athletes all around the world, I remember (before my time, I’m not that old!) pills of desiccated liver being probably the first supplement in modern times.
There are also a lot of doctors using high doses of vitamin, mostly C and D, to (apparently) successfully treat patients without making too much noise, this being due to the fact that the habit of suspending heretic doctors didn’t start with this last emergency.
Jennifer: I became curious about Quercetin, so I bought some and began taking it. It is linked to so many good things, but here are those which obviously affect CVD risk:
Quercetin and eNOS:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006295212004984?via%3Dihub
Quercetin and Angiotensin 2:
https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/412020
Quercetin and Platelet Aggregating Factor:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S094471132030194X?via%3Dihub
Quercetin and C-Reactive Protein:
https://www.nature.com/articles/ejcn201755
Re quercetin: How much and for how long? And it won’t reverse existing condition, will it?
barovsky: I’m just beginning to learn. My capsules are 500 mg, but the normal therapeutic dose is 600-1,500 mg. Those who eat lots of plants (and red wine, as grapes have a lot) will get lots of it. My view is that it is bound to assist various metabolic processes necessary for optimal health.
I have read that Quercetin is a zinc ionophore, that is, it helps zinc enter into the cells, where it can protect against virus replication.
sticky: That is what I’ve read, too. I first heard of this from Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, a New York physician who successfully treated many ‘Rona patients, and was on the consultant team for Trump, when he got it.
Gary. How generous of you to send these links. I find the info about quercetin most interesting. Along with my ‘insurance policy’ supplements,I am always looking for ways of consuming good quality foods that ought to provide nutrients, fingers crossed!
For instance, paying attention to flavonoids, nitric oxide and the like, is as important as measuring macro nutrients of the foods we consume. We are educated to understand carbs, fats and proteins, but that is quite narrow minded, and telly programmes rarely get any deeper in 30 minutes. It’s what the best of macros carry with them, as you have highlighted with quercetin, and why I am so grateful for the links on this wonderful blog.
Many thanks.
I was just looking at the healthline page for quercetin https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/quercetin#benefits.
It says “In one study, mice with Alzheimer’s disease received quercetin injections every 2 days for 3 months. By the end of the study, the injections had reversed several markers of Alzheimer’s”.
What I would like to know is, how did they afflict the mice with Alzheimer’s? (I don’t suppose they chose geriatric mice that were a bit doolally).
Maybe they bred them on a diet lacking in quercetin?
I had an interesting experience with vitamins on Wednesday. I ate liver and took the B complex in the same meal. I had the niacin flush shortly afterwards. It wasn’t terrible, and only lasted ten minutes or so, but I was a bit surprised. Beef liver contains 17.5 mg/100g, which is about how much I ate. The B complex has 100 mg.
Excuse my ignorance, but what is a ‘niacin flush’?
Feels like a hot flush. You can get it from eating a bunch of liver. Or kidney
sticky:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/niacin-flush-what-it-is-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/ar-AAI4d4G
Reading last night about the phospholipid bilayer which functions as our cell membrane (Chapter 5), in my inbox this morning is this gem about salmon roe. A large portion of the Omega 3 fatty acid are in phospholipid form:
https://www.vitalchoice.com/article/benefits-of-salmon-roe-the-other-caviar
You would have to have RCTs to derive NNTs for supplements and I am not sure that there are any or how good they are. Supplement market is largely unregulated. Look into the work of Consumer Lab. Their annual membership is very inexpensive and they do some of the best work on supplements (that I know of).
This is a wonderful summary of the probable COVID plan. It is up to everyone here to make sure this is thwarted as much as possible.
https://vimeo.com/662886962
David Bailey, thank you for that link, 6 others now have it in their inbox.
Here is Dr Chetty in an interview with Reiner Fuellmich. Much more details, and may explain the signs Dr. K was seeing years ago now, when just two weeks in gaol would fix everything.
https://by-julietbonnay.com/2021/12/were-heading-into-a-pandemic-of-vaccine-side-effects-dr-shankara-chetty-tells-reiner-fuellmich/
Jan. 8, 2022
Thx, AhNotePad, for the link to the Juliet Bonnay website, presenting Dr. Shankara Chetty, with the German group who have been studying the COVID19 vaccines, on Oval Media.
I have listened to selections from this nearly 2-hour long discussion. First, Dr. Chetty describes his observations and treatments, of more than 6000 COVID19 patients. From early on, he has TREATED EARLY, and he has focused on the hypersensitive, or allergenic, (“hypersensitivity…pneumonitis”) aspect of the illness in those who progress into serious (life-threatening) COVID19. His treatment of the seriously ill has featured prednisone (a steroid).
Somewhere around 1 hour and 15 minutes and following, discussion focuses on his observation that “different variants had an ethnic propensity” ; for him, in South Africa, these groups included a number of different genetic-ethnic groups.
Following on, Dr. Chetty and the German group discuss whether bio-engineering is responsible not just for the initial Wuhan virus, but succeeding variants, and that variants may have been designed to categorize various genetic-ethnic groups with respect to susceptibility to different variants. In other words, ongoing bio-engineering of the initial Wuhan virus, itself bio-engineered.
The term “Bio-engineering” is used – although, if we continue to define viruses as Non-Life Forms, there may be a better term.
However, Viral mutation is stated by the discussion group as a reality; I would want to listen again to determine to what extents discussion participants blame A) ongoing bio-engineering; and /or B) natural viral mutation, for the progression of the COVID19.
After my first, incomplete listening, I did get the impression that the group almost entertained the idea that the spike protein itself may be transmissible, from person to person, and may be replicatable, as an independent agent of disease. Brief remarks were made, plus a cartoon picture, showing the spike with manufactured coating, the armor, of the spike mRNA in the vaccines.
Has anyone listened closely to the last half of the discussion ? Speak !
Meanwhile, here in the U.S. the Supremes are engaged in oral arguments over vaccination mandates. Lucky for us, at least one of them has made quite clear that she or he has not skimmed over even the most basic primer of COVID19 and the vaccines. So we know where they are coming from- best case is that the Supremes are a mixed group, with some having studied up, and grasped for common sense awareness of :
a protean, chthonic disease;
the failure of big governments in trying to banish the disease;
the failures and ill effects of the vaccines themselves
and the pursuit of good health by good nutrition, exercise, and:
YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS, AS USUAL, DR. KENDRICK, FOR VITAMINS AND MINERALS AND SO ON, AS GIVEN IN SOME DETAIL IN YOUR LATEST BOOK, and in the current blog, high above. Thank you again.
(When I enter my details, email and name, I see that a new icon comes up. Let’s think a metamorphosis rather than a protean change. Words and pictures matter !)
Back to my usual icon, when the comment preview comes up….Kind of a relief; on with my usual disciplines now. LOL
Alternatively, it’s possible that this is a mix of
‘mass formation’
small sub-conspiracies
opportunists grabbing contracts while they can from their mates
and last but not least
incompetence.
‘Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity’.
Jon Rappoport has some things to say about the plandemic:
https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/2022/01/06/covid-if-there-is-no-virus-why-are-people-dying-why/
Why are people dying?
One reason is spiked protein.
Yes, fom the ‘vaccines’.
A team of hackers and analysts – including Dr Mike Yeadon – have obtained data relating to the toxicity of specific batches of ‘vaccine’:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/fW53RlhMHvWx/ (I wish Dr Jane Ruby would learn the NATO phonetic alphabet)
https://howbad.info/
Does anyone know how a coroner would rule out covid vaccines as a cause of death? How do NHS and the CDC do it? What are their tests? Does anyone know of a pathology blog where one might ask this question? If the spike protein is involved in mortality in covid vaccines, I would think that the death would resemble a covid death. Burkhardt found infiltration by T-lymphocytes, but has anyone that’s a member of a major public health organization (CDC, NHS) looked at this? Do any pathologists work for those organizations??? I mean any REAL pathologists who know how to investigate suspicious cause of death? You know, like cardiac arrest in a healthy 13 yo double vaccinated boy who died playing with his friends.
“Does anyone know how a coroner would rule out covid vaccines as a cause of death?”
It’s not a question of ruling them out. More that they are never considered as possible causes of death in the first place.
More info getting out to the Great Uninformed –
https://thewhiterose.uk/english-newspaper-publishes-full-page-ad-with-jab-injuries/
Not sure if this has been linked but here is Ivor Cummins film……
A bit of sanity in a crazy world.
One question for you: If there was no media coverage and no testing, would we really know there was a pandemic on?
(I hope the link works)
Maybe you wouldn’t know Jeremy. Unless you were a patient waiting hours outside a hospital in an ambulance, or maybe having a heart attack and trying to call a taxi because so many of the NHS staff had fallen victim to the ‘non-existent’ pandemic. And, by the way, wasn’t this post of Doctor Kendrick’s discussing the benefits of vitamins?
To be clear.
When ONE person has a cold/Flu/Covid then all their direct colleagues/family/friends are required to isolate – ie. stay at home/not work.
The reality is ONE person ill, many people impacted. That’s the issue.
And, much of it is driven by dubious testing practices.
Question: What did the NHS do before Covid with regard to someone having ‘something’ ?
I think one of the points Jeremy was making was that,if there were no media coverage and no “testing”, there would be no concern whatever and very few people actually sick enough to need treatment.
ShirleyKate, you refer to “a patient waiting hours outside a hospital in an ambulance, or maybe having a heart attack and trying to call a taxi because so many of the NHS staff had fallen victim to the ‘non-existent’ pandemic”.
But the grotesque (and quite unwarranted) delays due to staff shortage are wholly due to government restrictions. Ambulances are not available, and patients are having to wait, because so many NHS staff had “positive tests” (NOT because they had “fallen victim” to anything). The great majority of those quarantined are probably perfectly well.
In case you still believe that a positive PCR test means anything, you might read up on how PCR works, the effect of changing the cycle count, and the fact that the inventor of PCR – Dr Kary Mullis – who won the Nobel Prize for that invention, specifically stated that PCR cannot be used for diagnosis. In short, PCR is not a “test” at all. Why have governments been enforcing its use? Because no proper test exists, and they have been desperate since March 2020 to make it look as if there is a real pandemic.
Actually, Prudence, you miss the essential issues as to why people wait for hospital admissions and it’s simple:
Over the past 10+ years, the government has cut health spending by a staggering amount! Leaving us with:
20,000 fewer beds!
40,000 fewer nurses!
20,000 fewer doctors!
Hospitals closed
Every winter we see the same thing. It has NOTHING to do with Covid19 and everything to do with privatising the NHS! Wake up folks!!
But, but, … the tories promised in their election manifesto to build 40 new hospitals and supply 40,000 new nurses. We have no need to worry do we ? It’s not as if they are a bunch of incompetent, corrupt liars is it ?
Keep voting tory/labour/lib dem/Green what could possibly go wrong?
So Steve, you believe what they tell you? No of course you don’t but what depresses me is the almost total lack of reaction by people over NHS privatisation. I remember visting the UK during Thatcher’s reign when she first tried to privatise the NHS and people came out in their 1000s to protest! Of course, not helped by the craven bastards called the Labour Party and that agent of MI6, Starmer.
With respect, barovsky, I did not miss the facts you cite. I was addressing the specific issue mentioned by ShirleyKate, that in some places the basic ambulance service has simply ceased to function.
Certainly overcrowding has been artificially stimulated by government reductions in bed numbers, staff, equipment, and everything else except BMWs, deep pile carpeting, large desks, computers, and big offices for “administrators” who, on balance, contribute nothing – or less than nothing – to health.
But the excuse of “Covid” has emboldened the bureaucratic parasites who have stolen the NHS to push their impudence to lengths that previously would never have been tolerated.
Dear Prudence
I know or knew four people who died of Covid
I know one who spent two months in an artificially induced Coma
I know 60 people who have had Covid including twelve members of my family.
The symptoms were all similar, verified by either PCR or LFTs
I realise that that I cannot affirm anything about whether they were really infected by Covid etc. I know no one who has died of influenza.
I find it difficult to go along with the either non existant Covid narrative or the dark power plot theory.
I tend to follow the « à qui profite le crime ? »
I know this leaves me in a minority off this subject here, but there you go.
Mr Chris. I have spent this morning wondering what I have gleaned from the blog this month, and it is a pretty impressive list. However, I was thinking I was quite alone when feeling that this pandemic is real and dangerous, until I read your response today. I have worked in the NHS through horrible times, but nothing like this situation. I believe it has been badly handled by the Tory Government, and that the good and honest scientists and researchers have been sidelined by BJ et al, at our peril.
Hi Mr Chris,
I do know that I have never come across such levels of deceit and misinformation on any subject (possible exception of cholesterol). It also appears that the overall death rate has not changed to any significant degree over the past 2 years. I know of one person whose death is attributed to our viral friend, I know of another positive who appears to have been doing well up to the night before until put on a ventilator – RIP.
“qui profite le crime” – the industry of course along with the shareholders, investing institutions, hospital particularly in the US financially encouraged to diagnose a positive, the marketing agents, recipients of “market research” support and we do know that our pfizer friends have not been shy about spreading their love to interested influential parties – Old news now of course but worth remembering. The medical market appears to have very dark corners.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pfizer-settlement-idUSBRE8760WM20120807
I’m with you in that minority Mr Chris. Especially about the ‘dark power plot’. Qui Bono? Who could possibly benefit from endangering the health of the whole world’s population? Even the perpetrators of this ‘plot’ must be members of the world population. Aren’t they? Or is that another conspiracy theory waiting in the wings? Take care of yourself Mr Chris.
Mr Chris: It is always a terrible thing to lose someone close, even an acquaintance, Yet it is without question that the government response to covid was long planned, and rehearsed on 16 occasions over the past 20 years. Read Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s “The Real Anthony Fauci.” Meticulously documented, it shows the main players in this destructive response were Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates, aided and abetted by WHO (where Gates calls the shots), the Pentagon (who funded the gain-of-function research in Wuhan), and the CIA. And indeed, during Anthony Fauci’s entire leadership at NIAID, the health of Americans, especially children, has dramatically declined, as he turned NIAID into a pharmaceutical development factory.
“I know or knew four people who died of Covid”
I know one–a relative.
“I know one who spent two months in an artificially induced Coma”
Me, too.
“I know 60 people who have had Covid including twelve members of my family.”
Everyone has been exposed by now.
“The symptoms were all similar, verified by either PCR or LFTs”
Flu-like symptoms + positive overcycled PCR test means covid. lol Can’t possibly be flu with covid exposure.
You don’t need a PCR test to diagnose covid that has progressed from mild to low PO2.
“I know no one who has died of influenza.”
How do you know? Why did influenza suddenly go on vacation in 2020? That seems very odd. Maybe it was from shutting down the schools? Kids are little germ incubators. But day care wasn’t shut down, so it’s not likely that flu actually went away because of school shutdowns.
“I find it difficult to go along with the either non existant Covid narrative or the dark power plot theory.”
I see the non-existent covid narrative as being part of a disinformation campaign by pharma to discredit covid vaccine skeptics.
“I tend to follow the « à qui profite le crime ? »”
That was my position beginning in January 2021 until recently.
I was initially resistant to the vaccine death plot theory, but my resistance is waning the more I learn and think about things.
Near as I can tell, about half of 800k or so US deaths were WITH covid and half were FROM covid. And 80% of those who died FROM covid actually died from failure to treat early. So that leaves about 80k who would have died from covid no matter what, which is about like a bad flu season and doesn’t do much to the excess deaths count.
What really kicked up excess deaths in 2021 are depression-related illnesses, deferred medical care, mask requirements leading to people avoiding medical care, and likely covid vaccines as well.
US working age deaths look to be up 40% for 2021, which is HUGE. As in 12 sigma huge.
When the CDC and NHS are giving no guidance about how to confirm covid vaccines as cause of death, that is a signal that the CDC and NHS don’t want any deaths from covid vaccines to be found, if they are occurring. And we know from the German pathologists (Peter Schirmacher, Arne Burkhardt, Walter Lang, etc.) that covid vaccine deaths are being missed.
It’s quite possible that all the focus on myocarditis is a distraction from covid vaccine deaths from cardiac arrest. Arne Burkhardt, one of the German pathologists, has given guidance about what to look for, including 1) dead endothelial cells in the vascular lumen, 2) T-lymphocytes clustered around damaged vessels, and 3) T-lymphocytes invading nearby organs, especially the heart and lungs.
Why is it some random person on the interwebz knows more about these things than doctors? Maybe Dr. Kendrick has something to do with it. He makes us–his readers–think and we converse and look at the data together. And we search out the data.
I am curious on how you distinguish a death FROM Covid versus a death WITH Covid? Any viral infection (not just covid) may exacerbate pre-existing problems, something a person had prior to getting infected with a virus. That’s why, for example, a person with a flu may get “cold sores”. Immune system is weakened by fighting the flu virus which allows the dormant herpes virus to become active temporarily. Similarly, an active viral infection may exacerbate whatever other problems the person already had but the body was able to keep in check until the virus came along and further weakened it.
So, in light of this, I am always curious how people distinguish: this person died from covid but this person died with covid…
Curiosity is more than justified. A poster on one of these blogs mentioned about a year ago that over a thousand samples of possible covid were sent to their lab. None, as far as I remember were covid, all were influenza type A or B. They sent some samples to another lab to confirm the results, and they found the same.
With the number of rats jumping ship now, it seems to support the non-covid notion.
Sasha: Good question. One that is almost hopelessly muddled.
Well, the government can provide the data distinguishing between the two for the ‘flu.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/adhocs/007849numberofdeathswhereinfluenzawastheunderlyingcauseofdeathorwasmentionedonthedeathcertificatebyfiveyearagegroupenglandandwales2001to2016
The divergence is quite alarming. Anywhere between 1 cause of death per 6 cases mentioned on death certificate, to 1 per 20. But if you were to apply even the 1 per 6 to covid deaths worldwide, that would reduce deaths mentioning covid (5.5m) down to 917,000 deaths from covid. Worldwide. Over two years. 408,500 per year.
408,500 is 0.5% of the annual 85,000,000 population increase
My question had more to do with my understanding that any viral infection exacerbates existing pathologies: latent viruses, inflammatory conditions, cardiovascular problems, etc. For example: I just had covid. The first symptoms were a lot of pain in the thoracic area around T3-T6 and pain in the right leg where I have a varicose vein. It’s not that I didn’t have those problems before. I have kyphosis in the thoracic area and the varicose vein has been there for years. But normally they don’t give me any problems because of yoga, regular sports, etc. Even though I know that there is low level inflammation in those areas that the body keeps in check. Covid just exacerbated the inflammation.
So, if a person becomes infected with a virus, dies, and an autopsy shows a heart attack, it’s quite possible that that heart attack would have been a few years out, had the person not become infected with a virus (be that covid or a flu) which “pushed them over the edge”, so to speak. When that happens, how does a coroner determine whether a person died of covid versus with covid?
Coroners being human it comes down to their judgement in each case. Unless they have received instructions that any medical death (as opposed to accidents, suicides, murders etc) involving covid is a covid death. Which would seem to be the case in many parts of the world, especially in the first couple of waves. The tide seems to be turning now that the ineffectiveness and dangers of the vaccine are starting to be acknowledged and they want to wind back the fear. So now there is a distinction between ‘with’ and ‘of’.
Otherwise, if it just their judgement, it comes down to their training, intelligence, political leaning, whether they had an argument with their spouse that morning, the kids kept them up all night, they missed a six inch putt last Sunday or it’s five to five on Friday afternoon ….. they’re only human.
“Revisiting the 1957 and 1968 influenza pandemics”
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31201-0/fulltext
20,000 and 30,000 respectively dead in the UK. I lived through both, as a 10-year-old and an undergraduate, and I can honestly say that there was no panic, no exaggeration, and very little attention was paid to the virus – except when someone became seriously ill or died.
As for PCR and lateral flow tests (which even HMG admits to be even less reliable than PCR, if that is conceivable), as Dr Kary Mullis who invented PCR warned us, you can use PCR to find anything in anyone.
If PCR had been used for the past two years to search for, say, flu, TB, pneumonia, or the common cold, any one of those could have notched up as many or more “positive tests” as Covid-19 supposedly has.
I concur on the effect of the ’57 Flu epidemic, ie not very much even though factories, offices, transportation was shut down, there was no panic, no massive propaganda campaign, people just got on with their lives (( was 12 in 1957). Flu was and is, a part life.
Mr Chris . I am sorry for your losses.
The real questions you have to ask though is the background of the deceased – age, health, ethnicity. None of my business but please consider.
I also know someone who ended up on a ventilator in an induced coma. They were obese and unfit and caught covid, from work, but the NHS sent them home where they got worse and ended up in an ambulance – all entirely preventable – but they survived.
I also have half a dozen family members isolating after Xmas all with the covid, all fully vaccinated – all no worse than a winter cold.
Before covid, the flu killed around 20,000 or more people every year !!
Pandemic or not, we are being played.
“Qui Bono? Who could possibly benefit from endangering the health of the whole world’s population? Even the perpetrators of this ‘plot’ must be members of the world population”.
The following article (published nearly a year ago) might set you on the right track, ShirleyKate:
“Two shocking headlines that sum up Covid: Billionaires MADE $3.9 trillion during the pandemic, while workers LOST $3.7 trillion”
https://rightedition.com/2021/01/30/two-shocking-headlines-that-sum-up-covid-billionaires-made-3-9-trillion-during-the-pandemic-while-workers-lost-3-7-trillion/
Shareholders, executives and employees of Big Pharma and almost any huge corporation have made out like bandits. Banks have thrived exceedingly. Lenders have been able to foreclose and acquire vast amounts of valuable property for nothing, or pennies on the pound. Even ordinary doctors and nurses have profited from government bounties awarded for every injection.
In the USA, individual hospitals and healthcare corporations have received enormous amounts of taxpayers’ money from the federal government. Payments of around $20,000 for every patient recorded as suffering from Covid-19 were routine – do you think that might conceivably bias a few diagnoses and death certificates?
Similar practices have no doubt taken place in the UK, but we don’t hear about them because our government is even less transparent than the US one.
“I know or knew four people who died of Covid
I know one who spent two months in an artificially induced Coma
I know 60 people who have had Covid including twelve members of my family.
The symptoms were all similar, verified by either PCR or LFTs”
I repeat that there is no reliable way to diagnose Covid-19 as distinct from other respiratory viruses. PCR is simply not a diagnostic test – period. And LFT is even less reliable, if that is possible. So any assertion that relies on “cases” or “infections” is wrong.
The symptoms of Covid, as advertised by medical authorities in the UK and the USA since March 2020, are virtually indistinguishable from those of other viruses. The only reliable way of diagnosing Covid seems to be a post mortem, which of course can happen only after death. Curiously, the authorities seem not at all keen on allowing such examinations to take place.
I am interested that you say you know no one who has died of influenza. That suggests your experience is rather limited, both spatially and in time. It is true that influenza was “disappeared” last year and for most of this year, but I am sure it did not really cease to infect people. As I have cited in another recent comment, flu epidemics in 1957-8 and 1967-8 killed a total of 50,000 people in the UK.
Prudence,
“The symptoms of Covid, as advertised by medical authorities in the UK and the USA since March 2020, are virtually indistinguishable from those of other viruses.”
That is true for _mild_ covid, but not for covid that has progressed. If we are to discuss a disease, we really should know about it.
Title: “This is real experience from ER doc from New Orleans !”
“Patients are coming in hypoxic (even 75%) without dyspnea.” covid’s virtually unique silent hypoxia
“CXR- bilateral interstitial pneumonia (anecdotally starts most often in the RLL so bilateral on CXR is not required). The hypoxia does not correlate with the CXR findings. Their lungs do not sound bad. Keep your stethoscope in your pocket and evaluate with your eyes and pulse ox.
Labs- WBC low, Lymphocytes low, platelets lower then their normal, Procalcitonin normal in 95%
CRP and Ferritin elevated most often. CPK, D-Dimer, LDH, Alk Phos/AST/ALT commonly elevated.”
Click to access this_is_real_experience_from_er_doc_from_new_orleans.pdf
PK, when the legal actions are launched, this PCR ‘test’ issue is going to be one of the main planks used to prove criminality in the staging of the ‘pandemic’.
And very incompetently staged as well but then the elite are only mildly inconvenienced, so screwing things up makes no difference to them.
I’m afraid it won’t, it worked in thr past with AIDS, zika and all the avian/swine flus in between, it’s working now with covid and it will work again with the next pretended virus.
Dr Kendrick, you cleared a comment of mine (January 8, 2022 at 3:44 am), which was a reply to an another earlier comment I posted, but you haven’t cleared the original comment (January 8, 2022 at 2:35 am). It doesn’t make any sense on its own, and is probably also feeling quite lonely.
Oh dear, the video I intended to display above had morphed into one on Vitamin D. Interesting but not Ivor Cummins as intended. Sorry. Try here. https://www.mercola.com/ (mercola.com).
The Covid Chronicles? You can watch it for free here:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/PRZgKQ4hkl1V/
Jan. 10, 2022
I have just listened to the entirety of this production- BITCHUTE, Ivor Cummins (thx, sticky, for the link). Well worth listening to. Much on the story of how Khayelitsha, South Africa, dealt with the Covid19. Name of young man apparently from Ireland, working in South Africa ? Not enough names given repeatedly throughout this video of about one hour and 15 minutes (plus multiple short intro bits, seems like those were additional minutes )
Somewhere far above, a link was given to Dr. Malcolm Kendrick at Ivor Cummins, talking about lipids, cholesterol. heart disease…..
Points of light in the world we live in.
Dr Fuellmich discussing the upcoming legal action. Riveting! There is an index of salient parts of the discussion https://freewestmedia.com/2022/01/10/reiner-fullmich-and-50-lawyers-the-vaccines-are-designed-to-kill-and-depopulate-the-planet/, or just the video can be seen here https://www.bitchute.com/video/p3MWg94mfHBn/
I had read about the preponderance of deaths and serious effects being concentrated in certain batch/lot numbers and their being used only in certain states and not in others. Now that it appears to be ‘real’, can we used the Swedish app to add in batch numbers known to have killed here in the UK? And does anyone know how to access the app?
If Dr Fuellmich, Dr Yeadon, Dr Malone and Mr Kennedy are right, this is by far the most important revelation since the start of the “pandemic”. Not just a random disease, or even a designed disease – but a clever, cold-blooded plan to commit mass murder on an almost unimaginable scale.
Well, well, a prominent anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist getting on mainstream tv? Whatever next?
GBNews is not mainstream TV.
I have a problem with Mike Yeadon. A lot of his argument rests on his assumption that there is no such thing as asymptomatic transmission. Well, I think he is flat-out wrong. Conventional (CDC-based) advice is that you are most infectious two days before and three days after symptoms appear. You might not think much of the CDC, but another very careful study seems to support asymptomatic transmission in about 20% of those infected. University of Colorado students who were not allowed on campus without a negative PCR test were regularly tested and several became infected, and subsequently infected their roommates, before symptoms developed.
“This means that symptoms tell you very little about what is going on inside a person’s body,” said Sawyer. “Some of these asymptomatic people are carrying a viral load as high as someone who is intubated with COVID in a hospital bed.” — https://scitechdaily.com/super-carriers-2-of-people-carry-90-of-covid-19-virus/
I often think of the flu epidemic of 1989. I remember it well because I was a GP on call the weekend it hit hard. I saw over 100 patients, mostly home visits in rural West Wales. It wasn’t as bad as some of the other famous flu epidemics like Spanish and Asian, but it gets a mention in the text books, with attributable deaths estimated between 19000 -29000. It contributed to the argument for annual flu jabs.We did very few viral swabs because they took ages to come back, and made no difference to management. Self isolation advice was ‘go home till you’re better’. Those that died were certified as things like ‘bronchopneumonia’, ‘respiratory failure’, ‘COAD’(the precursor name to COPD’, ‘Asthma’ ,’Coronary’ etc. ‘Flu’ wasn’t usually put on the death certificate. Did I catch it? Well, I certainly wasn’t ill, apart from being a bit tired after 100+ consultations. I was 31 and probably had a robust immune system. Diagnosis was made on clinical grounds, and many would not have seen their GP either, suggesting that estimates were probably lower than the truth. Even so, at it’s peak, 600 per 100,000 were believed to have it. How much higher would that figure have been had there been widespread population level freely available testing methods to diagnose all those asymptomatic contacts? And would it have made any difference knowing that? For all I know I was carrying the virus in my nasopharynx the whole time. I appreciate that Covid is not flu, and they differ in their main transmission method, and I understand the reasoning behind lockdown nearly 2 years ago, but bearing in mind how widespread covid is now, probably endemic, is their any point in isolating asymptomatic carriers now? If no, is their any point in widespread testing anymore? Shouldn’t we return to concentrating on those that are ill and assume that the horse has long bolted re quarantine?
I fully believe that if we weren’t testing, we would not, currently, know that COVID19 was here.
And that’s the real issue, isn’t it? But those wise words must be whispered, or we risk being labelled as heretics.
And maybe what we know ain’t so. So much is up in the air with supposed asymptomatic active infections based on tests that only show exposure. Can we really tell the difference between someone who has been exposed and someone who has an asymptomatic active infection? Can we really tell the difference between someone who has mild ILI symptoms due to covid and someone who has mild ILI symptoms due to influenza?
Last I heard, the floor for false negative PCR tests was 20% on the third day after symptom onset and was worse in either direction in time. Is there a new study that found that the number have changed due to fewer backlogs? (High false negative PCR rates will confound the asymptomatic-spread studies.)
I’m skeptical about the asymptomatic-spread studies. Young people are highly skilled at violating quarantine, including US marines.
People who have symptoms but conceal the fact, or think they just have a cold, are effectively asymptomatic spreaders, and there must be millions of them.
Further, it is admitted by the authorities that many people have been infected without being aware of the fact (i.e. no symptoms) and they must have been spreaders at some point during the course of their infection.
Mark. In 1989, as a fit 42 year old, I developed bronchitis ( my diagnosis) putting me in bed for 2 days. I was phoned up at home saying that if my temperature was down, I had to get back to work asap. (RGN). No suggestion of any tests as to what had floored me, but the staffing situation was dire, and I was told I was needed.on duty. I am concerned that conscientious NHS personnel are being threatened with dismissal if not COVID jabbed by April 1st. As you point out, over the years we have worked through contagions, much like the NHS staff did before the Covid vaccines were developed . It does not mean I am against the vaccine, it means I think we need to keep up to date with the way the pandemic is progressing, and respond accordingly.
I was fully behind the restrictions imposed at the beginning of the pandemic, and as a vulnerable 74 year old I am thankful to have had my 3 jabs, but I feel that after 2 years we need to move on.
I was pointing out what I believe is a flaw in Yeadon’s argument. That is not the same as advocating the current restrictions, which I strongly oppose.
I wrote to a radio host regarding the Djokovic affair, “Allow Djokovic to play and tell the old, the obese, and the diabetic to stay away from the tennis. That way you allow normal commerce and flatten the curve at the same time. Win-win.” The suggestion was not kindly received, but it’s the most rational course of action.
(Djokovic is probably the healthiest person on the planet. Evicting him to protect the health of Australians is irrational. It’s a blow to the face with a rubber stamp for the gratification of petty officials and insecure politicians. But I am getting off topic…)
No masks, no lockdowns, and no testing for healthy people would be my policy. Sample test the population for academic and planning purposes only, e.g. to update models and gauge the demand for hospital beds and oxygen. Publicise who is most at risk (the old, the obese, and the diabetic) and tell them it is their responsibility to take precautions against infection. Introduce regulations to protect those in care homes etc who cannot look after themselves. And for God’s sake allow early treatment with HCQ, ivermectin, or whatever else people come up with that won’t kill them.
‘Novaxx’ Djokovic must be one of the most intelligent people in the world of sport!
Your mistake is in believing that symptoms are always obvious, which they clearly are not, and that potential infections are always looked for by someone who knows what they are looking for. Note that there are now well over 150 ‘symptoms’ that are ‘associated’ with the viral infection but none, as far as I know are uniquely due to the infection.
As long as you believe the CDC, everything in the garden will be rosy. It may be a working, bring your own booze, garden party, but there will be several, if not many, CDC supporters. They can confirm everything the CDC says, by employing their own fact checkers.
Call that a party?
This is in Whitehall – I have never seen the Remembrance Day commemorations attract such a crowd!
GBNews is not mainstream TV
They are a national terrestrial broadcaster operating with a licence from Ofcom. As far as I am concerned, that makes them mainstream.
Fauci knew
About HCQ
Back in two thousand five.
Had he just
Alerted us,
How many would still be alive?
Well, well, well…look at what the hell just surfaced
nw-connection.com
‘The Virology Journal — the official publication of Dr. Fauci’s National Institutes of Health — published what is now a blockbuster article on August 22, 2005, under the heading — get ready for this — Chloroquine is a potent Inhibitor of SARS coronavirus infection and spread. Write the researchers, “We report…that chloroquine has strong antiviral effects on SARS-CoV infection of primate cells. These inhibitory effects are observed when the cells are treated with the drug either before or after exposure to the virus, suggesting both prophylactic and therapeutic advantage. ”
‘This means, of course, that Dr. Fauci has known for 15 years that chloroquine and its even milder derivative hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) will not only treat a current case of coronavirus (“therapeutic”) but prevent future cases (“prophylactic”). So HCQ functions as both a cure and a vaccine. In other words, it’s a wonder drug for coronavirus. Said Dr. Fauci’s NIH in 2005. “concentrations of 10 µM completely abolished SARS-CoV infection.” Fauci’s researchers add, “chloroquine can effectively reduce the establishment of infection and spread of SARS-CoV.”‘
Possibly bad news on the toxicity of one ingredient: https://www.notonthebeeb.co.uk/post/dangers-of-cationic-lipid-alc-0315
Added to that, batches clearly seem vary in strength by accident or more likely design. They’re experimenting on us. It was Robert Kennedy I think who documented a vac producer some years ago shuffling vials around so that lapses in quality control couldn’t be proved.
These are useful videos on the present evidence for poor quality control or worse
https://www.bitchute.com/video/WMUvLcmP1Wtk/
https://www.bitchute.com/video/CB49QokMgGV5/
They’re a mafia, aren’t they? … totally above the law, governments obey them and waive all liability.
My (Tory) MP thinks all restrictions will be gone by summer 2022. I don’t think he has a clue on the skulduggery and like most people still assumes a ‘vaccine’ gives immunity or if that fails then, er, it has ‘net benefits’, like reducing the severity of symptoms. In the Pfizer trial, that was untrue too.
I fear that only mass deaths will change peoples mindsets, so complete was the psyops fear campaign waged on us. I think someone described as a form of mass psychosis.
The Mafia have killed far fewer people than the pharmaceutical and medical industries.
Good talk by ex-army lawyer Anna de Buisseret on the common law and medical freedom
https://www.bitchute.com/video/IKu0XZP9Tpl6/
She thinks that the ‘military-grade psy-ops’ render the ‘consents’ that patients granted invalid. So the episode seems to have gone from malpractice to manslaughter to murder to crimes against humanity in two years flat.
Phew … did anyone reading this forum expect this? ‘Doctoring Data’ was alarming enough.
Neil thank you for that link, I can confirm that ukcolumn now know of it.
The problem we’ve got is that the govt simply ignores the law when it doesn’t suit them, it’s a farce.
Another thank-you, Neil, for the link to Anna de Buisseret’s presentation which surveys legal grounds, including principles from Common Law, and Nuremberg; for self-direction in health and medical decisions (including choice in whether or not to accept vaccinations for Covid19). Her group has gone beyond existing law, and, if I understood correctly, has made some new comprehensive statements (she reads a Preamble).
Very informative and useful for those of us wanting some awareness of principles in existing law which bear on rights to self-determination in health and medicine.
I don’t see any British MPs with the honesty and persistence of this man:
[video src="https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/095/846/967/original/e0b89d32187c31fc.mp4" /]
Sorry, I’ll re-frame this:
[video src="https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/095/846/967/original/e0b89d32187c31fc.mp4" /]
Some more interesting stuff:
https://covid-unmasked.net/another-bomb-from-david-clews-our-uk-man-on-the-ground/
Magnesium Is Essential for the Immune System – Important in the Fight Against Cancer
“Now, researchers led by Professor Christoph Hess, from the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel and the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge, have discovered that T cells can eliminate abnormal or infected cells efficiently only in a magnesium-rich environment. Specifically, magnesium is important for the function of a T cell surface protein called LFA-1.”
— https://scitechdaily.com/magnesium-is-essential-for-the-immune-system-important-in-the-fight-against-cancer/
Two things are rich in magnesium…pumpkin seeds and vitamin C (that’s ‘C’ for ‘dark chocolate’)…almonds also have a bit of Mg (15% US RDA)
When it comes to nutrients in my diet, my preferences are, in this order: animal sources, vegetable sources, and supplements.
Found this interesting for people who liked The Clot Thickens,
“AstraZenica described the mechanism by which its vaccine causes clots:
“They found that the shell of the vector vaccine — the weakened cold virus used to teach cells how to neutralise Covid — sometimes acts like a magnet and attracts platelets, a protein found in the blood. For reasons the scientists are still probing, the body then mistakes these platelets as a threat and produces antibodies to fight them. The combination of the platelets and the antibodies clumping together leads to the formation of dangerous blood clots.”
As someone whose mother has fairly recently been diagnosed with Alzheimers and mild vascular dementia, I am curious as to whether or not the high level dosage of B vitamins in the article above would be of any help in the case of someone who did not have raised homocysteine levels. I expect the answer is probably no and I have to say I have no idea as to what her actual levels might be, but I am always hopeful that I will discover something somewhere that could help.
I have been supplementing the incredible amount of prescription medication she is taking with a quality multivitamin, a vitamin B complex, 1000mg of Vitamin C and 9000IU of Vitamin D3 as recommended by Dr Kendrick for those in these latitudes, 200mg of Coenzyme Q10, 1000mg of fish oil, 2000mg of turmeric with black pepper and finally some coconut oil. The latter four being considered beneficial for the condition. She was found to be deficient in Vitamin B and had to received a series of injections as a result hence the B complex I added afterwards. She hasn’t consumed meat in many years, and rarely goes outside so B and D3 are a given I suppose.
What deflates me quite considerably regarding her condition is that six of the daily medications she is prescribed and most of which she has been taking for years, have been linked to cognitive decline. I brought the subject up at one of her appointments, cited the relevant studies, asked why the potential of these drugs to be at the very least a contributory factor was not even being considered and was rewarded by being talked past. It didn’t stop me from continuing though I suspect I will now be a “know it all”, but when someone’s health is at stake don’t we all have not only the right but the absolute duty to open our mouths?
So much for “first, do no harm”. I imagine were that to be the case, pharma sales might fall and we can’t have that…..
Hello Michael, I am not a doctor but, if it were my loved one I would try to get them off those pharmaceutical medications.
I agree with your use of coconut oil: you may have read about Dr Mary Newport, who reversed her husband’s Alzheimer’s disease: https://humansarefree.com/2016/09/dr-newport-reversed-her-husbands-alzheimers-with-4-tbs-of-this-oil-per-day.html (in the article, it actually says 6 tablespoonfuls).
I would also look into CBD oil – there appears to be some promising research.
I am reminded of the famous cannabis researcher and activist, the late, great Jack Herer: I remember him talking about having his mother, a dementia sufferer, staying with him for some months. He treated her with whole cannabis during this time, and noticed a great improvement in her condition. When the time came for her to return home, to the other side of the USA, he sent her off with a few months’ supply of ready-rolled ‘joints’. Unfortunately, much to Jack’s anger and frustration, her husband would not allow her to continue the treatment, and her condition deteriorated.
I can vouch for the medicinal efficacy of CBD, at least from a cancer perspective. In late 2018 my partner discovered a lump in her left breast, and was subsequently diagnosed with triple-negative cancer. This type of cancer does not have a good prognosis, and was an unusual diagnosis, as it is more normally found in black women, and those under 40 (my partner was 72 at the time).
She was due to start chemotherapy in February 2019 but, due to my showing her some anecdotal evidence, agreed to try taking CBD oil in the meantime. After some research, I settled on this company* https://www.lovecbd.org/ . I bought her the Entourage capsules, and she took 6 (120mg) per day for 3 months.
When February came, she could no longer feel the lump, and her oncologist told her that it had ‘flattened’. However, she decided that she would still have the chemo (wtf?). It was her prerogative, though. She came through this, then had surgery to remove some lymph nodes, and a small amount of tissue in her breast, with no reconstructive surgery or anything. Then a course of radiotherapy.
She has since been fit and well, despite having been double-jabbed and ‘boosted’.
*I don’t have any connection to this company, other than having put several hundred (well-spent) quid in their account.
Magnesium’s role in heart health is something I encounter in my medical work. The mention of its connection to atrial fibrillation is intriguing. I’ll share this information with my colleagues to enhance our patient care. Considering Magnesium and B complex supplements for patients dealing with cardiovascular issues might be a prudent approach.