New rule:
You must stop using the words “toxins” and “detoxify” unless you are referring to
dialysis, alcohol/drug rehab or chelation to remove heavy metals.
The Internet, magazines and numerous other media outlets
trumpet the words detox and toxins just like they really knew something.
Numerous studies have shown time and time again that there are really no such
things as “toxins” other than actual chemical poisons(including drugs and
alcohol). Detoxifying products, usually
herbal diuretics with no real medicinal value whatever are the new “anti-oxidants.” As previously discussed, anti-oxidants taken
to excess can remove all the free radicals and oxidants, some of which the body
needs to kill germs, in other words, the “anti-oxidants” which are the bugaboo
of the health food industry are actually necessary in reasonable quantities for
good health.
The “health” food and nutrition industries and their distributors like GNC and
many others are protected by laws passed by an ignorant Congress influenced, of
course by huge contributions and influence from the moguls of said industry. It
is easier to get a colon cleanse, detox, or vitamin supplement or other product of questionable value to the market than a drug which really has
therapeutic value. Many Americans and in fact, consumers world - wide take many times the required
daily dose of numerous vitamins daily, apparently on the theory that if the
recommended amount is good, then five times that amount is better. Linus Pauling,
Nobel laureate and later certifiable nut job started this craze with vitamin C .
Unlike his early work, genius level bio-chemistry, his fascination with Vitamin
C came from a meeting with a charismatic charlatan, who convinced the aging Pauling
that Vitamin C would cure “almost anything.”
Pauling died clinging to this belief although it has been debunked and
disproven too many times to count in double blind studies. Of course the real
danger of choosing mega vitamins over real medical therapy is that a disease
treatable in early stages can be beyond help by the time that the duped consumer
finally realizes that they’ve been had.
In
like manner, fish oil and Vitamin E in huge doses have been trumpeted as
anti-aging “wonder drugs.” New research disproves
that claim, but has shown increases in
prostate cancer among those overdosing on fish oil and Vitamin E. Similarly, there is a current craze, started by
a true loony- Suzanne Somers, that certain “natural” vitamins are better than “chemical”
vitamins. Of course any serious chemistry student can find the flaw here – All vitamin
molecules of a given vitamin are identical – not close, not similar, identical!
This is the same with the “Organic”
crowd who somehow believe the nitrogen in rotting cow feces is better than
nitrogen in chemical fertilizers. Hello! It’s nitrogen, and it’s all the same,
like the ammonium and phosphate. Atoms are atoms and molecules are molecules, I
just like mine not having fermented in a bovine colon prior to use.
Back to “detox.” No company who manufactures detoxifying cleanses
and drinks in any of their scurrilous advertising will name any “toxin.” Know
why? Because there is no evidence that there are these diet related toxins and
even worse no proof that any product they sell could remove them if they
existed. A human with normally functioning kidneys has natures perfect detox system
already, and it was original equipment, no extra cost. These detox “cleansing
drinks” are frauds, shams, and rip-offs – diuretics and nothing more. Drink
more, pee more. Duh!
We really shouldn’t be too
surprised at the gullibility of some of us, though. There are still many
persons who think Chiropractic is real medicine. Take a one year course and
hang up a sign! Mr. Palmer, the founding father of the trade, believed that spinal
maladjustment caused smallpox. In like manner he thought he could cure deafness
by spinal manipulation. Of course this was before we knew that no nerves
connected with the hearing process are spinal nerves! He even made up a term for these phantom
misalignments – subluxations. Try to find a definition for it today. Many Chiropractors
shy away from even using the term now, since it is meaningless. The fact that
chiropractic survives in the present is a monument to gullibility and false
hope. There are some practitioners out
there who are really more like physical therapists and use pain management techniques, massage and other manual therapies
with varying results, but in its heyday, Chiropractic practitioners claimed to
cure liver disease, Tuberculosis and other germ related diseases. Colds are
caused by rhinoviruses, of which there are over 800 varieties, and even though
spinal manipulation is of no benefit at all, many go to their local quacks for
cold treatment. It’s shameful and embarrassing.
A dear friend had a stiff neck, and
went to his chiropractor. When I advised him to see a licensed massage therapist,
since they actually can relieve muscular pain, he said his chiropractor did
make some progress in relieving the pain. I asked him what was done he replied “He
rubbed it for about 15 minutes!” Hello – that’s massage! Ask your chiropractor
to do that for an hour and see how much he’ll charge you!
Lastly, let’s look at Homeopathic
medicines. They, and other supplements made from the same herbs are over the counters of Wal-Mart, GNC and many
other stores, even though most of these stores have pharmacies which dispense
real medicine. Homeopathy and Naturopathy are old therapies which should have
been discredited ages ago, but we are a gullible people. A certain Mr. Hahnemann
in the late 1700s came to the conclusion that the best treatment for any
ailment was a dose of a substance which could produce the same symptoms. He
took Cinchona bark (contains quinine) and got a fever, which led him to this absolutely ludicrous conclusion. That would be bad enough, but here’s the real
topper: The drug would only be effective as a cure if administered in the
smallest detectable amount possible. Another example makes this easier. If one
supposes quinine might “cure” malaria, one would take a solution containing
quinine and dilute it 100 to one in sterile water. “But wait, Mike, you say ,
that would leave very little quinine in the sample!” And you’d be right, Leroy,
but we aren’t done. Take the already very dilute specimen and dilute it again
200 to one in sterile water. There now might well be no molecules of the “drug”
in the dose, but not to worry, before you pour it off, you must bang the sample
down in a specified manner on a specified mat! Why? So that the water “remembers” the chemical
which is, in almost absolute certainty, no longer there. This then is a dose of
homeopathic medication.
Why do people fall for this scam?
Too many times to mention, double blind studies have proven there is no therapeutic
value in homeopathic drugs. The simple truth is the placebo effect is at work
in homeopathy, detox scams and chiropractic to a huge degree. If one’s parents
were gulled by these scams, so will the children be and their children’s children.
The real shame here is that any prescription medication has to pass close
scrutiny to prove it (they) are “safe and effective, taken as directed” and
even these precautions are sometimes not enough (can you say “Thalidomide?”)! Detoxers,
Vitamins in ludicrous doses and these other sham therapies are free of such
burden of proof, and to a great degree are unregulated to any real standard.
The
words “caveat emptor” have rarely been as appropriate as in the world of these pseudo-medical
quacks, frauds and charlatans.
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