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IODINE FULFILLMENT THERAPY
From “Health Alert” Newsletter by Dr. Bruce West, December 2005, Volume 22, Issue 12]
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From 1900 to the 1960s almost every single U.S. physician used Lugol (iodine) supplements in his or her practice for both hypo- and hyperthyroid, as well as many, many other conditions-all with excellent results. In fact, iodine was considered a panacea for all human ills. (1) Today a phobia-generated by medical misinformation against iodine therapy-has caused physicians to avoid this powerful treatment like the plague. (2)
By avoiding iodine therapy, you could be missing out on the very link that could get you well. Today we know that total body iodine fulfillment or sufficiency can finally resolve tough, stubborn problems that resist all other treatments. Called orthoiodosupplementation, this treatment employs elemental iodine supplements until the thyroid gland and all other iodine-sensitive sites in the body have reached iodine sufficiency.
The most commonly difficult problems for which this therapy has been called a panacea are fibrocystic breasts, polycystic ovary syndrome, hypo- and hyperthyroid (with or without goiter), brain fog, constipation, obesity, diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), and even some heart problems-most notably irreversible arrhythmias like atrial fibrillation.
Why Iodine is Important
Iodine is detected in every organ and tissue in the body. It is found in high levels in the thyroid gland, liver, lung, heart, and adrenal glands. It is found in the highest concentrations in fat and muscle tissue. It is depleted out of the thyroid gland and other tissues when thyroid hormone medications are prescribed. Iodine has been considered so important that up until 20 years ago, it had been routinely added to bread as a supplement. Now because of politics and fear of iodine, the thyroid-toxin bromine has taken its place as a bread supplement. And in the past 20 years there has been an increased prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, as well as more thyroid and breast cancers.
According to Guy E. Abraham, MD, perhaps the world’s most knowledgeable expert on iodine and the thyroid, “Medical iodophobia has reached pandemic proportions. It is highly contagious and has wreaked havoc on the practice of medicine and on the U.S. population. More misery and death in the U.S. may have resulted from [medicine's unwarranted fear of iodine] than from both World Wars combined.”
That is quite a statement from a former professor of Endocrinology and a man who pioneered ways to assay iodine and minute quantities of hormones in the body. This man in the past 35 years has received more biochemistry, diagnostics, clinical chemistry, and hormone and iodine research awards than anyone I know of. And he has studied iodine therapy in high doses in over 4,000 people-publishing his findings in a document titled “The Iodine Project.” These findings once and for all dispelled the medical myth and fear of iodine therapy.
Whole Body Iodine Sufficiency
Thyroidologists like Dr. Abraham have learned of the tremendous benefits of what they call whole body iodine sufficiency-when the body is saturated with sufficient iodine to supply all the tissues. Along the way, they have also discovered some amazing things about current thyroid treatment, thyroid drugs, and iodine. The very first thing discovered is that iodine is the treatment of choice for hypo- and hyperthyroid problems-with or without goiter.
Doctors could get as high as a 90% cure rate with hyperthyroid (overactive thyroid) by using what would be considered high doses of iodine daily. Doses of six to 37 mgs daily seemed equally effective in resolving cases of hypothyroid (underactive thyroid). These doses, once considered normal, are now considered high by most people in the medical profession.
Whole body iodine sufficiency is also a critical means to counter the side effects of thyroid hormone medications (Synthroid, etc.). Long-term use of these drugs is associated with depletion of thyroid and tissue iodine levels, as well as increased rates of cancer. Fluorescent scanning of the thyroid clearly shows how drug and other medical thyroid therapies deplete the gland and body of critical iodine.
Therefore, Synthroid or thyroid-destructive therapies should never be taken without iodine therapy-something you will never hear from your endocrinologist. If all Thyroidologists and endocrinologists were forced to fluorescence scan their patients’ thyroid glands, they would then have to fact up to the damages they are causing to these glands and their patients!
In addition to thyroid therapy, all thyroid patients should be on iodine therapy, with the goal to reach a whole body iodine sufficiency. When this state is reached, the following results (gathered using sophisticated lab testing, fluorescence screening, clinical measurements, and a host of other high-tech medical testing procedures) have been observed:
- Goiter is reduced or eliminated.
- Stress on the pituitary gland with resultant high TSH readings is eliminated.
- Increased excretion of thyroid poisons and heavy metals occurs via the kidneys.
- The liver’s detoxification mechanisms are enhanced.
- Obesity is more easily overcome-in fact, iodine therapy may be a critical and unknown factor in obesity.
- Diabetes and high blood pressure are more easily controlled.
- Breast tissue normalizes with decreased occurrences of fibrocystic breast disease.
- Menopausal symptoms are improved.
- Polycystic Ovary Syndrome can be cured.
- Brain function is better, with less brain fog.
- Heart function is better, with reduced arrhythmia problems.
- And cancer rates, especially of the thyroid and breast, are reduced.
Additionally, through the Iodine Project studies, Dr. Abraham discovered that even patients with complete thyroidectomy (removal of the whole gland) benefited from iodine therapy. Therefore it became known that iodine not only improved the thyroid gland, but the other target areas of the body where iodine and thyroid hormone are active.
The doctors in the Project found that patients who achieved iodine sufficiency were often able to resolve diabetes problems without insulin. They could normalize blood pressure without medication. Goiters were resolved. And those taking thyroid hormone medication could greatly reduce or completely eliminate these drugs.
Heart, Arrhythmias, Fibrillation
As you have read over and over in Health Alert, there is an epidemic of cardiac arrhythmias and atrial fibrillation in this country. Expert Thyroidologists like Dr. Abraham are convinced that the medical iodine phobia has a great deal to do with this phenomenon. Adequate stores of iodine are necessary for a smooth heartbeat.
Amazingly, while medicine shuns iodine therapy, their most popular anti-fibrillation drug, Amiodarone, actually is iodine in a toxic, sustained release form. This drug can produce a smooth heartbeat when the body has accumulated about 1.5 grams (1,500 mgs) of iodine. This is exactly the same amount of iodine retained by the human body when iodine sufficiency is achieved by natural iodine supplementation.
The problem with Amiodarone is that this form of iodine (which the medical profession has a penchant for) is extremely toxic. The side effects are most often too great for patients to regain a normal heartbeat. Therefore it only makes sense to try to achieve iodine sufficiency with the natural form of iodine instead. That is why I always recommend iodine (in the form of either Cataplex F and/or Prolamine Iodine from Standard Process) with my arrhythmia and fibrillation patients.
Caution!
If you are about to try to achieve iodine sufficiency with slowly increasing doses of Prolamine Iodine, you must note that this is to be done in place of Amiodarone-not simultaneously with it. So you will need to have your doctor stop the drug therapy when you start the iodine therapy. Therapy usually starts at 1 tablet of Prolamine Iodine daily for a week. If no problem arises, the dose increases slowly (every week to 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 tablets daily). If there are no problems along the way, and especially if your heart begins to function more normally, you would stay at 5 or 6 tablets daily for three to six months. Or you might need three months of 12 Prolamine Iodine tablets per day to achieve full iodine sufficiency levels. This is, of course, in conjunction with your current heart protocol of phytonutrients.
Types of Iodine and Doses
For decades Lugol iodine has been used by expert Thyroidologists. But liquid iodine has problems-it tastes bad, can upset your stomach, and can stain your clothes. There is a Lugol tablet on the market called Iodoral. This is the type of iodine Dr. Abraham uses. It is the inorganic form and each tablet contains 12 mgs of iodine. Iodoral is sold only to physicians, but you may be able to buy it on the Internet by doing a Google search for Iodoral.
We use Prolamine Iodine, which is the organic form. Each tablet contains 3 mgs of iodine. Iodoral is less expensive, and some studies (at least with fibrocystic breast disease) show it to be more effective than Prolamine Iodine. Our results with all conditions show them to be equally effective.
Exactly what dose is best for you is difficult to determine. But we now know that what were formerly considered high doses of the right form of iodine are safe and effective. Some iodine-deficient people only need a tablet or two daily. For people with more serious iodine deficiency problems, iodine sufficiency must be achieved. This is accomplished with a daily dose of around 37 mgs for three months: four Iodoral or 12 Prolamine Iodine tablets daily.
And this dose should be achieved slowly-starting with one Prolamine Iodine tablet daily, increasing one to two tablets daily each week. Without side effects, the dose should be increased weekly until the iodine sufficiency dose of 12 daily is achieved. With Iodoral, start with one tablet daily and increase by one tablet each week until you are taking four tablets daily. Either way, after achieving the full iodine sufficiency dose, it should be maintained for three months.
We now know that it is possible for some people to eliminate their need for medical thyroid drugs after achieving iodine sufficiency. We also now know that anyone taking thyroid drugs like Synthroid should also be on iodine therapy. At the very least, iodine therapy can decrease the need for thyroid hormone drugs.
We are just beginning to discover the amazing curative powers of iodine. While it may not be the panacea that old-timers have claimed, it is indeed critical. It is often the missing factor in “incurable” conditions like obesity, diabetes, breast disease, polycystic ovaries, thyroiditis, hypothyroid, autoimmune thyroid problems, and more.
While some doctors claim that no one is really allergic to iodine, I have seen sensitivities. If you do not know if you are allergic to iodine, then you are not. Those who are truly allergic know it and carefully avoid shellfish, iodized salt, most fish, kelp, and other foods that contain iodine.
The Iodine Test
If you are one of those who would like more proof that your body needs or does not need iodine, let me share a simple test. But a bottle of Tincture of Iodine at the drug store and paint a 2″ square spot on your inner arm. If it disappears in less than eight hours, you desperately need iodine. If it disappears in 24 hours, you also need iodine. If it simply stays on your arm and begins to slowly fade in color after a full 24 hours, you have already reached iodine sufficiency.
You can retest yourself every one to two weeks while on therapy. And you can use the test to help you judge your individual dosage need for iodine. Remember that contrary to current medical opinion, the real thyroid experts have proven that most patients who need iodine therapy require from three to 37 mgs/day. And that means from one to 12 Prolamine Iodine tablets daily. Always start out slowly. Judge your results, monitor your symptoms and any side effects, and use the thyroid patch test to help you along the way.
Proceed Slowly
As discussed, some people are sensitive to the iodine metal. That is why all iodine therapy must be accomplished with a good degree of caution. Use the patch test to help you determine dose. Always start out at a low dose of one Prolamine Iodine tablet daily. Increase your dose slowly-by adding one or two tablets daily each week. If you experience problems or side effects, stop your therapy. If you are like most people and continue to improve, your therapy is effective.
Side effects among sensitive individuals include skin irritation; watery eyes, nose, and saliva; nervousness or headache. Some sensitive people can experience tachycardia (racing heart). While iodine therapy has been shown to be a great aid to those with atrial fibrillation, if you experience a racing heart, you must stop iodine therapy immediately.
So use the patch test, start slowly, increase your dose slowly and only by one tablet a week (some people need only a tablet or two while others require six to 12 tablets daily). Iodine sufficiency (all tissues with adequate iodine) can require 12 Prolamine Iodine tablets daily for three months. After three months reduce your dose to three per day for a month, then one per day. Watch for problems, watch for improvements, and see for yourself if iodine therapy is the missing link in your stubborn health problems.
NOTES
(1)”Iodine in medicine and pharmacy since its discovery-1811-1961,” Proc R Soc Med, 1961:54:831-836.
(2)”Iodine therapy,” Health Alert, Vol. 21, No. 3.
By Byron J. Richards, CCN
January 28, 2009
NewsWithViews.com
The scene is comic: Bob Greene sitting next to Oprah on her TV show, kicking off the New Year, as Oprah tries to explain to her viewing audience why she gained forty pounds – again. Not once did she turn to Greene and say, “Bob, I guess your program is just a bit too hard to follow, something must be wrong with it.”
This spectacle first caught my attention in December when Oprah made her weight-gain story national news by featuring her balloon ride to 200 pounds in the January issue of her Oprah magazine. As she talked about her weight problems on her TV show it became obvious that her story coincided with a sales pitch for Bob Greene’s new cookbook, which goes along with his Oprah-sponsored diet book. I see from some of the news stories that I am not the only one who thinks this is bizarre. However, it is an interesting case study for future university-level marketing classes in how to market utter failure.
As one of the top clinical nutritionists in the country, the oddities of this story began to perk my interest. After reading through the gibberish in the January Oprah magazine and sitting through my first ever entire Oprah TV show, I went out and bought a copy of Greene’s diet book. Within moments of reading the book it was easy to visualize my working title for this article, “Why Bob Greene’s Diet Fails Oprah.”
Upon further research a new question entered my mind, “Is there anything Bob Greene won’t do for money?”
I thought it was peculiar that Oprah was introducing Bob Greene as her long time friend and trainer, while allowing him to portray himself as a nutrition expert. Why wasn’t she introducing him in a factual way: “I just want to let all of you know that Bob Greene is part of Oprah, Inc. He doubles as my property manager for my 102 acre estate in Hawaii and together we have purchased a total of six other oceanfront properties nearby (one for a Bob Greene house, one for an Oprah guest house, and four to be left vacant). We have made over ten million dollars on the diet book that has resulted in my dieting failure. And Bob has made millions more promoting McDonalds and other junk food companies on my coattails. In fact, I’ve personally made Bob Greene a multi-millionaire many times over and I just can’t tell you how thrilled I am that I’ve gained back forty pounds while being an expert in, advocate of, and profiting from his advice.”
The New York Times interviewed him just before he and Oprah did their joint promotional webcast on January 12, a webcast that somehow managed an extremely accurate title: “Falling Off the Wagon With Bob Greene.” He told the paper, “It doesn’t bother me in the least, everyone knows she follows my plan, but when she doesn’t, she gains weight, and when she does, it’s the only thing that works for her. It’s a very positive thing for me and book sales aren’t suffering.”
Bob, that is not exactly what everyone knows. Oprah’s two big weight-loss experiences came on a liquid diet and by starving herself, not from following your diet and reaching an ideal weight. In fact Bob, following your diet is next to impossible – which is why Oprah so easily goes off it – and this simple fact is directly your responsibility and the fault of your diet program. Furthermore, Oprah’s following your program has resulted in her having a significant increased risk for breast cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and early death – nice friend.
Before I explain some of the many flaws in the Bob Greene diet approach, I first must get back to the subject of Oprah, Inc.
Please Don’t Super Size Me
I met Bob Greene briefly back in 2004. At the time, I did a popular one-hour segment every Wednesday morning on the local CBS radio station in Minneapolis (WCCO). The host of the program was the local media celebrity, Pat Miles. It was a very popular program as I answered non-stop call-in questions about how to use vitamins to fix your health – while continually pointing out the pitfalls of medications. The listening audience was a bit older, based on the high popularity of the radio station for many decades.
One day the show producer told me that next Wednesday we would be broadcasting from the Mall of America and I would be joined by Oprah’s trainer, Bob Greene. I’d never heard of Bob Greene and I didn’t know why he was coming – but it wasn’t long before I found myself in the middle of a rather surreal experience.
I showed up a few minutes before broadcast time. A typical WCCO crowd was filing in and taking up chairs, getting ready for the program. I asked the producer where Bob Greene was and she pointed to the children’s play area/stage about 200 yards away. There was quite a crowd of little children and their mothers – making a lot of noise.
As show time approached this crowd started moving towards the broadcast stage. In the front of the pack was Bob Greene, playing the role of the Pied Piper. And then my brain went almost numb – flanking him was none other than Ronald McDonald – dressed to the hilt.
I had no idea what was going on. The producer introduced me to Bob Greene and we sat down next to each other on stage. We had a few minutes so I attempted some shop talk. I mentioned how interesting all the new science on uncoupling proteins was, and that it was a huge breakthrough for exercise and weight loss (which I thought was his expertise). His eyes glossed over and he ignored my comment entirely, making an unrelated comment about the day. I thought to myself, “A fitness expert that doesn’t keep up with his own subject.” (Note: Uncoupling proteins are activated in muscle with a combination of sustained aerobics, healthy leptin function, and nutrients like Q10 – resulting in disposal of calories as heat without any adverse cardio effects.)
The program began and Bob launched into his promotion of McDonalds and how he was going to reach so many people with a health message and partnership. He was going to turn McDonalds addicts into salad eaters. As the audience began asking questions it was apparent that his knowledge of weight loss was extremely limited – based on exercising more and eating less fat – and mostly exercising more. His message fell on deaf ears for the WCCO crowd – who in many cases were lucky to be exercising at all.
All the while this was going on Ronald McDonald kept jumping around in the background – either suffering from hyper-stimulation from the chemical flavorings in the McDonalds food he must have eaten that morning or in dire need of some ADD medication. The whole scene was beyond comprehension.
I wonder what I might have said if I had known what the program was going to be. As it was, I bit my tongue out of respect for the radio station, which was obviously being paid by McDonalds to do this. I couldn’t believe I was sitting on stage with a phony health advocate who actually thought people would eat salad when they went to McDonalds – a place that in my opinion epitomizes the evil empire of junk food that is causing disease in America.
It wasn’t until I started doing research for this article that I even understood what happened that day. McDonalds was having a PR dilemma expecting extreme negative publicity from the film Super Size Me. They teamed up with Bob Greene to help promote his new book, offering a 60% off coupon the day he went on Oprah and promoted his new book, his salad campaign with McDonalds, and his bike trip across the Southern United States where he would be stopping at various McDonalds locations. After that day’s Oprah appearance Bob Greene sold 50,000 copies of his book – and that was just the start.
McDonalds struck a PR gold mine, using Bob Greene and Oprah to get 1 billion favorable media impressions, which completely negated the effect of Super Size Me on their sales. For its part, McDonalds produced 8 million promo flyers for Bob Greene’s book. The program was a financial win-win for McDonalds and Bob Greene – but not for little children.
The Bob Greene campaign was dreamed up to lure young mothers into McDonalds under the guise of eating a salad, who would bring their children for junk food feeding. And so it is that a pretend health expert, acting like the Pied Piper, helped keep children coming to McDonalds, and on the fast track to obesity and diabetes. On this point alone, Bob Greene should be banished from the national health scene.
The Bob Greene Business Model
Bob Greene’s business model is based on endorsement deals that provide a link to the Oprah marketing machine via Bob Greene. This is not a small-time operation. He has a lot of large corporate sponsors – which invariably means fake foods masquerading as health foods.
The foods he promotes are laden with metabolically disrupting amounts of soy (which is often genetically modified), highly processed ingredients, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, Splenda, artificial flavors, and various chemicals. There are so many anti-metabolites in the foods he promotes that it is a wonder any person’s metabolism wouldn’t gag to a halt eating the foods he promotes for profit.
His business couldn’t be better. After his recent exposure on Oprah he has now secured a new two-year deal on another product – Nestlé Pure Life brand bottled water, a line of water that is not quite so pure, as it uses Splenda as a sweetener.
Scientific evidence clearly shows that Splenda significantly alters healthy digestive balance. If Bob Greene knew anything about nutrition he would know that such a problem will help cause food cravings and obesity – as well as other potentially serious digestive problems. I guess this will now be Bob’s beverage of choice.
Bob Greene is Nutritionally Deficient
One of the themes of Bob Greene’s diet is that you walk around all day in a self-introspected condition while carrying on a psycho-babble conversation with yourself. Obviously you are an emotionally defunct, weak-willpowered individual. Therefore, you must get to the bottom of your deep-rooted emotional disturbances. Keep yourself focused: What are you hungry for? Why are you overweight? Why have you been unable to maintain weight loss in the past? Why do you want to lose weight? What in your life is not working? (This last question must have been ripped off from another Oprah weight-loss guru, Dr. Phil.)
You have to keep yourself introspected all day long because the hunger pains are never going to go away on Bob Greene’s plan. Why? When you eat all the snacks, carbohydrates, sweeteners, and artificial sweeteners he thinks you should have so that you don’t feel deprived – you will never get over your addictive problems with food.
You have leptin receptors on your taste buds and they can no longer tell which end is up. This means you are stuck craving and eating more food than you really need because you have a misguided sense of fullness based entirely on his high carbohydrate, sugar-and-sweetener-laden plan. Since you’ll never get rid of these ghosts on Bob’s plan, you better assign their cause to the lack of love you felt as a child – and if you happened to have had a great childhood then you better figure out what else is whacked out in your head. And then you can just keep focusing on that when you are hungry.
The only other alternative would be for Bob Greene to give up all of his endorsements, so that you could un-addict yourself from highly processed garbage “health” food that he promotes, which is loaded with addiction-enforcing chemicals.
Bob is trying his best to improve his neophyte understanding of nutrition. On page 152 of the January Oprah magazine he makes a rather feeble attempt to explain the pleasure of eating and dopamine levels in your brain – as if such information is brand new. I recall giving a lecture back in 2005 to the American Society of Bariatric Physicians titled, “Thyroid, Food Addiction, and the Metabolically Unfit Fat Cell.” Back then, I explained the science on how dopamine-related problems fuel food addiction and cravings, and what needed to be done to solve the problem.
The issue of dopamine and pleasure is very problematic for dietician-minded “experts” like Bob Greene. The information means that you have to have some saturated fat in your diet while you are losing weight, much more than a dietician or Bob Greene ever recommends, or the next time you are under high stress and your adrenals start crashing you will eat a bowl of ice cream, a bag of potato chips or corn chips (like Oprah), or you will be off to McDonalds or your other favorite junk food stop – so that you can get a pleasure fix to stop the acute trauma in your brain.
Diets that lack saturated fat set you up for this problem – as well as forcing you to overeat carbohydrates in an attempt to satisfy the lack of dopamine-related pleasure resulting from the lack of saturated fat in your diet. In other words, you may be able to stay with a low saturated fat diet as long as you don’t get too stressed. As soon as stress levels get too high, you must have salt and fat to calm your brain down. This relieves the feeling of stress in the short term, but it is a disaster to your weight-loss efforts. The combination of adequate saturated fat with increased soluble fiber will make you much more resistant to stress-induced binges.
After Bob Greene attempts to explain dopamine, on the next page he gives you his diet strategies for improvement, which all center on reducing saturated fat intake. His advice sounds fine on the surface, but it sets you up for eating binges. People don’t live in stress-free bubbles.
The only way anyone could lose weight on Bob Greene’s diet is if whatever they were doing before they started his plan was far worse – which lucky for Bob is a lot of people like the 237 pound Oprah of many years ago. The low protein nature of his diet means that you will lose muscle and bone while doing it, even though he has you exercising (you’ll just end up more tired rather than more fit). This sets you up for yo-yo dieting, like his prize student, Oprah.
Sure Oprah had a tough childhood. And she maintains an incredibly demanding and stressful schedule. And now her metabolism has taken another numbing hit from menopause. And she has a terrible yo-yo diet history. Bob Greene is clogging her thyroid with soy. And he has her addicted to the sweet garbage that he’s promoting. Over the years, his diet has made her insulin resistance and leptin resistance much worse. He’s increasing her risk for disease. And Bob Greene is totally out of his league.
Related reading:
1. Oprah’s Thyroid Problem Explained
2. Insulin, Leptin, and Blood Sugar – Why Diabetic Medication Fails
3. How Protein Helps Weight Loss
4. Byron’s lecture notes to the American Society of Bariatric Physicians presentation:
Thyroid, Food Addiction, and the Metabolically Unfit Fat Cell
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Byron J. Richards, Board-Certified Clinical Nutritionist, nationally-renowned nutrition expert, and founder of Wellness Resources is a leader in advocating the value of dietary supplements as a vital tool to maintain health. He is an outspoken critic of government and Big Pharma efforts to deny access to natural health products and has written extensively on the life-shortening and health-damaging failures of the sickness industry.
His 25 years of clinical experience from the front lines of nutrition have made him a popular radio guest who callers find impossible to stump. He has personally developed 75 unique nutraceutical-grade nutritional supplement formulas with a focus on thyroid nutrition, healthy weight loss supplements, cardiovascular nutrition, and stress management.
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New Study of Splenda and Sucralose Reveals Shocking New Information About Potential Harmful Effect on Humans
MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 22, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — James Turner, chairman of the national consumer education group Citizens for Health expressed shock and outrage after reading a new report from scientists at Duke University. “The report makes it clear that the artificial sweetener Splenda and its key component sucralose pose a threat to the people who consume the product. Hundreds of consumers have complained to us about side effects from using Splenda and this study, published this past week in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health Part A, confirms that the chemicals in the little yellow package should carry a big red warning label,” said Turner.
Among the results in the study by Drs. Mohamed B. Abou-Donia, Eman M. El-Masry, Ali A. Abdel-Rahman, Roger E. McLendon and Susan S. Schiffman is evidence that, in the animals studied, Splenda reduces the amount of good bacteria in the intestines by 50%, increases the pH level in the intestines, contributes to increases in body weight and affects the P-glycoprotein (P-gp) in the body in such a way that crucial health-related drugs could be rejected. Turner noted that the P-gp effect “could result in crucial medications used in chemotherapy for cancer patients, AIDS treatment and drugs for heart conditions being shunted back into the intestines rather than being absorbed by the body as intended.”
The study was conducted using male rats over a period of twelve weeks. The manufacturers of Splenda also used a rat study when they applied for and received approval to market the product from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. At the time, the findings from their rat studies were extrapolated as to possible effects on humans. This is standard FDA practice and this study is consistent with that practice.
Turner said, “This report followed accepted policies and procedures and the results make clear the potential for disturbing side effects from the ingestion of Splenda. It is like putting a pesticide in your body. And this is at levels of intake erroneously approved by the Food and Drug Administration. A person eating two slices of cake and drinking two cups of coffee containing Splenda would ingest enough sucralose to affect the P-glycoprotein, while consuming just seven little Splenda packages reduces good bacteria.” Although the effect of consuming Splenda does not result from a one time use, the side effects do occur after accumulated use. Turner also noted unmistakable evidence that Splenda is absorbed by fat, contrary to the claims of Johnson & Johnson.
Turner announced, “We are calling today on the FDA to immediately accept our petition filed over a year ago and initiate a review of its approval of sucralose and to require a warning label on Splenda packaging cautioning that people who take medications and/or have gastrointestinal problems avoid using Splenda. The new study makes it clear that Splenda can cause you to gain weight and lose the benefits of medications designed to improve and protect your health. The FDA should not continue to turn a blind eye to this health threat.”
Citizens for Health will testify in Sacramento, CA, on October 3, 2008, before the California Assembly Committee on Health which is examining the use of deceptive advertising to promote sales of potentially unhealthy food additives, particularly artificial sweeteners.
About Citizens for Health
Citizens for Health (www.citizens.org) is an international non-profit consumer advocacy group working to broaden healthcare options, create an integrative health system based on wellness, and advance the freedom to make health choices. The group promotes the fundamental policies needed to improve health choices and information in the U.S. and internationally. The group works with grassroots and education organizations and partners to ensure consumer access to dietary supplements, safe foods, a healthy environment and a wide range of healing therapies. Citizens for Health fosters active citizen leadership and organizes natural health consumers to create political and legislative solutions that support those rights.
CONTACT: Citizens for Health
Jim Turner
202-255-8040
jim@swankin-turner.com
Published on July 25th, 2008
By Consumer Health Advocate, Frank Mangano
When it comes to losing weight, there’s no shortage of options on how best to go about it. The grapefruit diet was a bit too “sour” a diet to stand the test of time, but diets like Jenny Craig, Slim Fast, Atkins and Weight Watchers have been around for what seems like time immemorial.
While each of these diets has its own “personality,” all of them are variations of being either low in fat, low in carbohydrate or at least resembling “Mediterranean” – i.e. diets based on consuming lots of fruits, vegetables, seafood for protein and healthy fats found in olive oil and nuts.
That said, inquiring minds want to know: which diet variation is the most effective one? To answer this, researchers from several different universities and schools of medicine collaborated and conducted their research in Israel. The study involved 322 participants living in Israel and the researchers followed their eating behaviors over the course of two years. The participants were split into three groups; each one assigned a low-fat diet plan, a low-carb diet plan or a Mediterranean diet plan.
The goal of the study? Simple: Find out the average weight loss among the participants, and hopefully put to rest the argument of which diet’s best for losing weight.
July 15th, 2008
By Consumer Health Advocate, Frank Mangano
The human body was meant to sit. Our legs bend at the knees, allowing us to move downward toward a chair in a smooth fashion. Our behinds are cushioned (some more than others), allowing for prolonged sitting periods. And when we sit, the invariable “Ahhhhh…” comes out of our mouths – the body’s way of telling those around us it’s happy when it’s relaxed.
But many of us, myself included, relish the ability to stand, especially when we’re forced to sit for long periods of time. I’m an antsy person by nature, so to say that I don’t particularly care for non-stop flights, road trips or watching 2 ½ hour-long movies at the movie theater is a major understatement (thank goodness for DVDs and the “pause” feature).
Tatiacha
Randy
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