Heart of Health – installment #3

Is it time to quit viewing EDTA chelation therapy for heart disease as medical heresy, and start using on a more wide spread basis in this new age of medicine?

This is Part 2 of Effective Alternatives for Treating Cardiovascular Disease – EDTA Chelation as Front-Runner.

Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy, TACT trial: We discuss this placebo-controlled trial sponsored by the National Institute of Health. This research is worthwhile, but in our opinion we already have enough empirical and research-based evidence to be offering intravenous EDTA chelation therapy to cardiovascular disease patients now. Regardless, and unfortunately, it appears that the so-called ‘quack busters’ – the phony ‘experts’ from the ‘National Council Against Health Fraud’ – are trying to sabotage the TACT trial in attempt to expunge this safe, simple, effective and inexpensive alternative treatment for cardiovascular diseases. Next week we shine the TGM spotlight on the ‘quack busters.’

EDTA Monograph by Cardiologist Dr. Stephen Olmstead: “The preponderance of clinical reports in the medical literature support a claim of efficacy for symptomatic angina, intermittent claudication and critical leg ischemia.” Note: we are currently trying to get in touch with Dr. Olmstead to find a digital version of the Monograph and link to it from the TGM website.

EDTA Chelation Therapy as ‘Holistic’ Therapy: EDTA is not a ‘natural’ product. It is an artificial, synthetic drug. However, one could argue that it is a ‘holistic’ therapy since it is infused systemically, and reaches and potentially detoxifies heavy metals from most of our tissues and organs.

EDTA Package Insert Altered by Abbott Labs to Remove Cardiovascular Disease as an Indication for the Drug: Even by the 1960s existing evidence for EDTAs efficacy to treat cardiovascular disease was enough for Abbott Labs to include it as one of the ‘indications’ for the drug. Later the language was arbitrarily changed, stating that EDTA is ‘not’ indicated for this purpose. To the best of our knowledge, this mysterious manipulation of medical product information is unprecedented in medical history.

Off-Label Drug Legislation the Result of One Doctor’s Fight Against the FDA to Be Able to Offer EDTA Chelation to His Patients. In 1981, during a ‘David and Goliath’ type battle, Dr. Ray Evers from Alabama fought the US Food and Drug Administration for his right to use EDTA to treat his patients with cardiovascular disease. With EDTA in his ’sling’ he toppled the FDA. The federal court ruling in favor of Dr. Evers stated that the FDA’s arguments against Dr. Evers were “nonsensical.” This was a huge victory for patients and the advancement of good medicine not only because it lessened the FDA’s tyranny against our medical freedoms, but also because it resulted in today’s doctors’ ability to prescribe drugs ‘off-label.’ This means we  can now legally use any medication for any purpose, even though that purpose – that ‘indication’ – is not necessarily approved by the FDA. All this because of Dr. Ever’s fight for EDTA! Kevin asks the logical question: Why was the FDA trying to regulate an Alabama doctor’s medical practice? And Dr. Douglass asks: What political influences – what constituencies/vested interests – may have teamed up with the FDA to start that battle against EDTA and Dr. Evers in the first place? We’ll may never know.

Dr. Rogers vs. the Florida State Board of Medical Examiners: Dr. Robert Rogers, MD fought the Florida Medical Board all the way to the Florida Supreme Court over his right to provide EDTA to his patients with cardiovascular disease, and won. The Florida Supreme Court ruled that the action of the Florida medical board restraining Dr. Rogers from utilization of chelation therapy for his patients was “an arbitrary and unreasonable exercise of the state’s police power.”

Note: To download full report as a pdf file click on the document.

Negative Published Studies On EDTA Chelation Therapy For Treating Cardiovascular Disease: There have been six negative studies. We discuss them, and how they all either have major irregularities from a scientific standpoint, or have negative conclusions even though the results reported in the studies were positive. For an excellent online resource with commentary and analysis of each one of the studies, go to http://www.drcranton.com/chelation.htm And as we’ve mentioned on previous shows, a good resource for finding physicians who are likely to be offering intravenous EDTA is the organization American College for Advancement in Medicine at acam.org.

Good Medicine Word Of The Week: Off-label use – in commemoration of Dr. Ray Evers and his ‘David and Goliath’ fight against the FDA. Now American physicians can use EDTA, and any other drugs, for purposes other than what the FDA approves them for.

Next week: If intravenous EDTA chelation really is a safe, effective and inexpensive alternative to bypass surgery and angioplasty, do you think there might be attempts by conventional medicine to squelch it? We’ll shine the TGM spotlight on the phoney ‘quack busters‘ and the so-called National Councel Against Health Fraud (or is it the ‘National Councel of Health Frauds’?) in their obvious efforts to supress the TACT trial and our access to EDTA chelation therapy for treating heart disease.

Bias and Error in MSNBC Story, Mainstream Doctors Join Anti-Aging Bandwagon. We discuss flaws in the story that are of importance to our listeners

Contemporary Doctors Moving Toward Empiricism on the E-to-R Spectrum: The current shift in thinking from rationalism to empiricism is exemplified by the growing numbers of ‘anti-aging’ doctors, and the growth of other integrative medicine professional organizations – such as the American College for the Advancement of Medicine (ACAM) – embracing many healing approaches (not just ‘anti-aging’).

The Growing Use of Bio-identical Hormones: They’re among the most potent and powerful therapies in the modern-day empiricist’s medicine bag. The natural, normal hormone-receptor electromagnetic interactions are specific and delicate. Why should we be predominately using the foreign, ‘space alien,’ ‘designer drug’ hormones provided by the pharmaceutical industry, instead of the natural, bio-identical hormones?

Anti-Aging Medicine = Modern-Day Empiricism, and Big Pharma Not Happy About It. Wyeth pharmaceuticals petitioned the FDA to regulate compounding pharmacies – our only source of the bioidentical hormones prescribed by integrative medicine doctors. Wyeth’s was successful: In January the FDA ordered a number of compounding pharmacies to stop using one of the three, normal, natural, bio-identical female hormones, estriol, in their compounded products. This is unprecedented in the history of medicine. It’s an obvious attack by a pharmaceutical giant colluding with the FDA. This latest assault on ‘natural medicine’ is part of the ongoing empiricist versus rationalist tensions throughout medical history.

Big Pharma Via FDA Violating our Constitutional Rights? The FDA also ordered the compounding pharmacies to stop using the term “bio-identical” in their hormone replacement formulas. Now, like never before in the history of medicine, we need the new media of podcasting – and probably the likes of Congressman Ron Paul – to protect our medical freedoms, significantly limit government corruption by the pharmaceutical industry and allow for the advancement of good medicine. We need to continually remind ourselves and our government officials: They work for us.

Take Action through the American Association for Health Freedom (AAHF): The FDA has banned the importation of the bio-identical, female hormone estriol into the United States, but a U.S. House resolution deemed FDA’s ban on estriol to be “not in the public interest.” CLICK HERE to: tell your members of Congress to protect your access to natural, bio-identical hormone replacement therapy and to sponsor H. Con. Res. 342.

Good Medicine Word of the Week: Bio-identical hormones. They’re chemical messengers that have the same exact, unique structure that our bodies make naturally, and for which we have perfectly matching receptors on each of our cells. This is in contrast with pharmaceutical hormones: designer drugs with molecular structures similar enough to result in a similar effects on our cell receptors, but still without the same ‘perfect fit’ that the natural hormones have with our receptors. From earlier show: ’space alien’ molecules have ’space alien effects.’

Next Week’s Show: Historical importance of medical serendipity, adaptogens (natural anti-stress medicines), and much more.

Send TGM #7 to a friend: click here.

Drugs – pharmaceuticals – are ’space alien molecules’: As Dr. Jonathan Wright described them on last week’s show, drugs are foreign to earth and foreign to our bodies. Drugs aren’t ‘just another consumer product’ advertised on TV. They affect our metabolism – our ‘bio-chemistry’ – powerfully and profoundly.

Will the Real Alternative Medicine Please Stand Up? Drugs – as recent inventions – are the real ‘alternative medicines’ (alternatives to natural therapeutics).

Alien Molecules Have Alien Effects: Dr. Wright asked: “Any time we take a molecule that has never been found naturally on the planet (and thus never found in the human body) and give it to humans, what should we expect?” Answer: Expect ‘alien effects’ on our chemistries (our biochemistries). We can’t and shouldn’t throw out all drugs, but it’s time to put more emphasis on science-based natural therapies.

If It Isn’t ‘Bio-Logical, It Isn’t Logical: We think our baby boomer listeners need to remember that we’re all animals living in nature, and we need to start integrating into our own health care plans a lot more of the molecules and modalities which nature has to offer, including lifestyle medicine approaches (we’ll cover lifestyle on upcoming Start-a-New installments).

Control Means Power, Power Means Control: Listen and learn why patent medicines – pharmaceuticals, drugs – give the FDA extensive power, and why the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry have so much control over our health care choices. Why are drugs so entrenched into US health care, while many effective, inexpensive natural products continue to struggle for a place in the market? And why do patent medicines set the FDA up for corruption by pharmaceutical companies? We discuss why.

Approval Power Means Control: We highlight the natural omega-3 fatty acid, DHA (docosahenoic acid) as an example of a natural product (for prevention of Alzheimer’s dementia) which – due to FDA politics – is unlikely to ever get FDA approval, and thus to ever become ’standard of care,’ and covered by our health insurance policies.

We Become Silent (the movie): click here. Government intrusions into our freedoms and privacy aren’t just from of the effects of 21st century religious terrorism, but also from issues around natural therapies. See why our federal government and global forces – the W.T.O. and U.N. – want to take control of the supply of natural products with Codex Alimentarius. What’s the simplest way to acquire that control? Simply reclassify natural products as drugs. Now there’s a twist.

Good Medicine Word of the Week: Patent Medicines – human-altered or human-synthesized chemicals, designer drugs, which can be patented. Nature holds the ‘creative rights’ to natural molecules, which therefore cannot be patented.

Next week’s show: 1st installment of History of Killing/History of Healing – the real history of medicine – to continue laying the foundation for That’s Good Medicine.

Send TGM #3 to a friend: click here.

Learn the whos, whats, whens and whys of That’s Good Medicine:

Why: To teach science-based health and healing modalities – especially natural approaches – not just drugs and surgery. And to help listeners sort through the plethora of health information. Imparting health wisdom for making wiser choices.

Who: Dr. Douglass and host, Kevin Kilpatrick are introduced, as are medical social worker Kathy Jo King and audio engineer Chester Cruise. And who are in our target audience? Intelligent, open-minded baby boomers around the world (folks born between 1946 and 1964, currently between 44 and 62 years old).

What: Content will consist of ‘integrative medicine’ topics (previously called ‘alternative’ or ‘complementary-alternative’ medicine). Employing topic-specific installments (such as this ‘Dropping the Bomb’ series) we’ll look at the science behind subjects like nutrition, herbal medicine, energy medicine, stem cell therapy, body work, detoxification strategies, and lots more.

When and How Much: Weekly 15-20 minute shows.

Good Medicine Word of the Week: Integrative Medicine – integrating the best evidence-based therapies from all medical disciplines.

Next week’s show: On the second part of this 2-part Dropping the Bomb series, we’ll interview medical maverick and integrative medicine pioneer Dr. Jonathan Wright. Focus: the concept of how ‘modern man’ uses – almost exclusively – only synthetic, artificial medications in our system of disease care – drugs which are not only foreign to the body, but foreign to nature too. We’ll discuss why this has come about. Prior to the interview we’ll discuss the famous Tahoma Clinic FDA Raid of 1992 when Armed FDA agents smashed through the door of Dr. Wright’s clinic during clinic hours and confiscated patients’ records, the clinic’s computers and Dr. Wright’s medical/nutritional supplies. And what was Dr. Wright’s ‘crime’? He was administering intravenous vitamins to his patients.

Send TGM #1 to a friend: click here.