(Sites I recommend: Computer Security, Christian Healthcare Ministries, Swanson Health Products.)
We all want to live long, healthy and happy lives: that's natural. As my wife and I enter our sixties, we think about this more often. So I've written a little program that will help you calculate and suggest some steps you can take to lengthen it! And as you'll read below, I recommend sufficient exercise and sleep, a well-balanced diet including lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, and the right nutritional supplements such as a daily multivitamin plus extra vitamin A, C and D. People who live above the 35th parallel don't get any vitamin D from the sun from November to April, which leads to depression, lack of energy, bone calcium depletion and muscle pain. If 15 minutes of summer sunshine on your exposed skin can produce over 10,000 units of vitamin D and this amount is healthy, not harmful to you, then the recommended daily allowance of 400 units in a multivitamin is by far insufficient.
In spring of 2007 there was a spate of articles on the "obesity gene" that has led obese people to tell themselves and others - "See, it's not my fault, it's in my genes!" But buried deep down in these articles was the statement: "People carrying a single copy of this gene are on average likely to be 1kg heavier than people who do not carry the gene and people with two copies are on average almost 3kg heavier". One kilo is 2.2 pounds, and three kilos are 6.6 pounds. Two pounds or seven pounds doesn't make a person obese -- it's twenty or seventy extra pounds (10 or 30 kilos) that define obesity. This so-called "obesity gene" is no big deal after all. So if it's not just genetics, what is it? Other recent news articles explore the connection between obesity and a person's social network: see "Obesity: Believe it or not, it’s catching." People with compulsive-addictive behaviors such as drug addiction, alcoholism or overeating tend to seek out and hang around with others that have the same behaviors. We tend to do what our friends do, and if they eat french fries and butter burgers, so will we.
Jim Karas, the author of the book The Cardio-Free Diet, was formerly a cardiovascular exercise instructor for many years, but finally realized it wasn't working when he kept seeing and reading that more and more people were jogging, swimming, biking, speed-walking, treadmilling, etc. and yet more and more people were becoming obese. What's wrong with this picture? Obesity translates into "dementia" (Altzheimer's disease), "diabetes" (pancreas failure), "stroke or heart attack" (cardiovascular failure) "arthritis" (skeletal failure) "liver failure" and/or "cancer" (immune system failure): see What are the Health Consequences of Obesity?. Obesity leads to system failure because the human body is not built to carry around 150% of its designed weight. What can we do?
Karas' basic equation is "calories in (food) minus calories out (metabolism rate, not mindless exercise) equals weight gain or loss." That's how he expresses the equation.
I'd been saying for years "calories in - calories out = body weight" but people didn't like to hear me repeat this simplistic formula: "That's easy for you to say, skinny man!" - they'd reply. I had oversimplified the formula: what I didn't factor in was my basic metabolism. I have more lean body mass. That's the key: build lean body mass. Karas says that muscle burns 12 to 15 times more calories than fat does, even when we're at rest. Fat is designed to store calories. Muscle is designed to burn calories. Build muscle, and you'll burn many more calories. Another excellent article is Dr. Blaylock's Fat Cure that explains what supplements will help get rid of belly fat.
If we build lean body mass, it changes the body's shape from "pear" to "well-built," but most importantly that new lean body mass (muscle) increases the basic, resting metabolism rate enormously, so that our bodies burn many more calories 24 hours a day -- while we're sleeping, reading a book, working at a desk or exercising. We don't have to jog an hour a day seven days a week - that simply makes us hungrier, so we eat more. Just do strength training for 20 minutes three times a week, and we'll burn many more calories 24 hours a day. Also, if you tend toward obesity, don't just hang out with fat people: make a vow together with your fat friends to do strength training exercises three times a week for 20 minutes, or find a new set of slimmer friends. That may be a tough prescription, but dropping dead 15 years too soon from diabetes, heart attack, stroke, arthritis, etc. is even tougher on you, your family and friends.
"Modern medicine costs what it costs" - that's a circular definition. At the end of 2006 my wife Cheryl had a major surgery, and the other woman in her hospital room had $300 charged to her Medicare bill for a simple walker from Walgreens. The following Saturday at Wal*Mart we saw a similar simple walker for $55 and a nicer one with a seat for $115. It seems the hospital and/or Walgreens are jacking up the price simply because Medicaid or Medicare will pay most of it. If insurance exists, people will use it, and some will abuse it.
At about the same time, I went to my doctor with abdominal pain I'd been having for weeks. He prescribed Ranitidine (generic Zantac) for acid reflux and ordered x-rays, blood and urine tests that turned up nothing. The bill: $618.45. A week later, I spent all day in the emergency room with intense abdominal and back pain. They did the same tests: x-rays, blood and urine tests, then threw in a CT scan, and still found nothing seious, no tumors or obstructions, just a bloated abdomen and a full bowel tract. I already knew that! The E.R. doc gave (sold) me a bottle of magnesium citrate laxative and sent me home. It helped somewhat, but I still felt bloated and uncomfortable. The bill: $2,560.92 for that bottle of laxative!
As the E.R. doctor was poking and prodding my abdomen I commented, "It's amazing how much you can tell about my insides just by touching me." He replied, "Actually, doctors a generation or two ago could diagnose much more by their sense of touch. We modern doctors haven't ever developed that skill." It struck me that modern medicine is a science that relies on high-tech tests and equipment that weren't available a generation or two ago: MRI and CT scans, ultrasound, genetic testing, echocardiograms, colonoscopies, etc. - all which my wife and I have had done to us, and all very valuable if the problem can't be diagnosed and treated by simpler means. But once the hospitals and clinics purchase those expensive machines, they have to use them on patients in order to pay for the equipment. That's the "technological imperative": if you have the technology, you must use it!
Why don't they return to practicing the art of medicine, treating the patient as a human being who has a limited, finite bank account, rather than as a policyholder of an insurance company that has nearly unlimited funds? What if they would say, "You've had this condition for several weeks, so you're not in mortal danger. Let's control the pain with acetomeniphine, and try Ranitidine or a laxative first, and if you get a fever or have more severe pain after three or four days, call me and we'll run some tests." The reason they don't advise a conservative course of treatment, but instead take the this "defensive medicine" approach is not only the technological imperative, but also because of insurance: not only will patients' insurance pay for most of it, but patients also know doctors have professional liability insurance, so some patients will take advantage of it and sue if a doctor didn't order all sorts of high-tech tests to investigate all possible diagnoses. Thus we have the "insurance paradox" - an expensive cocktail when combined with the technological imperative!
A week after the above run-around, I woke up thinking "intestinal parasites" -- I had them twice in Russia several years ago, and recalled that the feeling of being bloated was similar. I researched "intestinal" on www.webmd.com, learned that abdominal and/or back pain and/or a bloated feeling were all symptoms of a full colon. Other places you can find out about this are: www.wholehealthmd.com, or www.abcnews.go.com/Health, or Dr. Blaylock's "digestion" article, or www.mercola.com, or the "Health Articles" tab at Swanson Health Products. (I also found products from "Dr. Schulze," "Dr. Hulda" and "Dr. Natura" -- they gave lurid descriptions of monsters living inside your gut, and wanted $150 or more for fiber and a colon cleanse "kit.") So I went to Wal*Mart and bought a big jar of store-brand psillium fiber for $5 and a bottle of "ColonCleanz" pills for $10. It began getting "stuff" movin' on out right away, and more followed in the next few days. Why couldn't the docs have thought of that? Why? Because they have fancy technological equipment, and both we and they have insurance that will cover almost everything, so it's almost free. Or is it?
In the long run, each individual pays for insurance because employers add the cost of health insurance to what they pay the employee in order to arrive at the total cost for each employee. So "free" health insurance isn't free, because you pay for it either in a lower pay rate, or in higher taxes that also decreases your net paycheck. The more people use "free" healthcare, the more overall costs go up and the overall level of care goes down. And as the population ages and is neither working nor paying much if anything in taxes, "free" government-mandated health insurance will become government-controlled and limited healthcare.
Government will control access to healthcare by means of restricting who gets "free" health care (we know that when elderly people in Russia call for an ambulance and state their age, the ambulance never shows up), a restricted list of procedures and drugs it pays the medical profession for, a less-than-market-price it will pay, which will result in lower-paid medical workers who will then change professions, causing long waiting lines at doctors' offices and hospitals, and finally, scarcity of drugs - all due to cost controls.
This is what my wife and I have experienced while living for over 20 years in Germany, Canada, Austria, England and Russia, countries where they have socialized medicine: unbelievably low prices for unbelievably-poor, long-waiting-lines or imaginary fairy-tale healthcare. But each of those countries also has a parallel, real healthcare system, either legal or underground, where the people pay real money to get real healthcare real quick. And of course, upper-level government officials have special access to their own semi-secret parallel healthcare system.
When I described all the above to a friend, she told me that she has come to similar conclusions, and has dropped her health insurance down to just major medical coverage. That's what insurance is for, to cover huge expenses you can't pay for yourself. Then she researches her own maladies when they occur, and if she decides to visit doctors she advises them to first take a conservative approach because she would have to pay for all those high-tech tests herself. Hmm... let's compare $15 for my self-researched, over-the-counter treatment of psillium fiber and a bottle of "ColonCleanz" pills that worked, against $3,179 for two doctors' exams plus an array of tests that were inconclusive. It's time for me to take charge of my own body, to be proactive, research my own symptoms and try my own diagnosis of a chronic condition while I'm still capable of thinking rationally, rather than imagining "Everything will be just fine, the government and modern medicine will take care of me," and passively waiting until symptoms become acute and too painful for me to think straight, then running to the doctor or hospital who will bill me and/or the insurance company exhorbitantly, with marginal health benefit. What about you? What if, instead of paying for health insurance that's getting out of reach because costs are out of control, Christians would band together to encourage one another toward a healthy lifestyle, and when medical problems arise (not "if" but "when" - they eventually but inevitably will!) this band of Christians follow a set of agreed-upon guidelines to help each other with medical bills that are too high for one individual or one family to bear alone? Well, there is such a group: it's called Christian Healthcare Ministries. They require that members be practicing Christians leading a healthy lifestyle, they have a co-pay for each incident instead of a per-year deductible, and they ask for a monthly contribution of just $150 with a co-pay of $500, $85.00 with a co-pay of $1000, or $45.00 with a co-pay of $5000 per "unit" (1 unit = 1 person; 2 units = a married couple; 3 units = a family) that goes into a fund to help other members pay their excessive medical bills. This co-pay amount encourages members to be proactive, responsible for one's own health, not to run to the doctor for every "Owee!" and keeps the monthly contribution amount small. My wife and I have joined, and if you join on our referral (mention "Robert Hosken, membership number 30023 on the application), we'll get a month's free membership. So please click on the above link and take a look at this idea!
In spring of 2006 I'd been noticing that my vision would more and more often become "fuzzy," so I went to an eyeglass clinic in Moscow to see if I needed new glasses. The eye doctor did a thorough examination, and gave me the shocking news: "You have a well-developed cataract in your left eye, and in your right eye the cataract is just starting to develop. Otherwise, your vision is actually getting better - your old prescription is actually too strong." (This often happens when near-sighted people like me get older and the shape of the eyeball changes.) I ordered a new pair of glasses and they helped, but I still was in shock: I was going blind unless I would have eye surgery!
So I investigated "cataracts" on the Internet, and learned that a Russian research doctor had discovered a way to combine "Carnosine" so that it could penetrate the surface of the cornea. Carnosine is the chemical our bodies naturally produce that keeps the cornea from becoming cloudy. But as people get older their bodies produce less Carnosine, and until now researchers hadn't been able to get enough Carnosine past the protective surface of the cornea using pills or eyedrops. This Russian researcher invented "N-Acetyl-Carnosine" and added it to eyedrops so it penetrates the cornea surface. These eyedrops containing N-Acetyl-Carnosine have been tested extensively in Russia and China, with about 80% of cataract patients experiencing total or partial cures. These eyedrops are also sold in Western Europe, but in the U.S. they can't be sold as a treatment for cataracts because the F.D.A. hasn't approved them. So N-Acetyl-Carnosine is listed as an "inert ingredient." But after five months of treatment with these eyedrops costing just over $100, my cataracts are completely gone! The cost for cataract surgery on both eyes would be at least $30,000. And cataract surgery is the most common operation in the U.S. Hmm... I wonder why the medical establishment doesn't want the F.D.A. to approve N-Acetyl-Carnosine eyedrops as a treatment for cataracts?
When I was a teenager, I used to say, "I'd rather burn out than rust out!" But now I've realized that those aren't the only two options: when caring for your car, proper maintenance can keep the engine from burning out and the body from rusting out. And it's the same for our bodies: sufficient rest and exercise can keep us from burning out, and the right diet can keep us from rusting out. What we need is... My wife and I have been "through the mill" with doctors, having spent many thousands of dollars on exams, treatments, surgeries and prescriptions that produced little benefit and sometimes much harm. So we have begun relying more on faith in the living God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the One Who answers prayer, and relying on prayer along with fasting (from my book The Ministry Driven Church), a healthy diet that includes lots of fruit and green, leafy vegetables, dietary supplements from Swanson Health Products and proper exercise as the key to health and a long life. Swanson's products are less expensive across the board than even Wal*Mart's supplements, and far less expensive than health food stores or multi-level marketing companies. But don't forget to eat your fruit and veggies -- a great program to calculate the vitamin, calorie content and cost of your groceries is Vitamin Cart.
Let's go back a bit: What is rust, anyway? It's oxidization, as when oxygen combines with an element such as iron to form that reddish dust we call rust. Similarly, in our bodies when oxygen molecules missing an electron ("free radicals") combine with other molecules to recover that missing electron, they form more free radicals that cause inflammation. Doctors and medical researchers are beginning to find out that cholesterol isn't the big villian behind heart disease -- there are whole civilizations around the Mediterranian and in Asia that have high LDL ("bad") cholesterol but very low rates of heart disease -- rather, it is inflammation caused by free radicals that causes LDL cholesterol to "go rancid" and stick to the walls of our arteries. So we should get sufficient rest, the right kind of exercise, and have a good intake of antioxidants from fresh fruits and veggies, as well as from supplements, to reverse this oxidization.
Dr. John Abramson, a professor at Harvard Medical School, has written Overdosed America, a book that details how the drug companies manipulate the health care system in the U.S. Read chapter 9, "A Smoking Gun, The 2001 Cholesterol Guidelines."
Read the article on heart attack by Russell Blaylock, M.D.
Also read http://www.mercola.com/2001/aug/1/oil.htm - cholesterol isn't the problem!
We found out about this after my wife's four-year cholesterol-lowering runaround involving four doctors, six prescriptions and over $3,000 in medical appointments and prescriptions that nearly killed her. Read on:
My wife Cheryl is a Registered Nurse (RN, BS) with over 40 years of experience, and also a Vocational Rehabilitation Counsellor (MS in Psychology). I am a translator, telecommunications programmer, educator and theologian (dipl. translator, BA, AA, MMin, DMin). We live and work in Moscow, Russia, and travel back to the U.S. once or twice a year. Several years ago during minor surgery my wife suffered cardiac arrest due to an overdose of anesthesia. I was in the waiting room and sensed a need to pray for her. A few minutes later the surgeon came out and said, "We almost lost your wife: her heart stopped beating for nine minutes." After that episode she became athsmatic and allergic to many drugs - once she choked up and couldn't breathe after taking a sulfa drug.
In 2003 her doctor put her on Niaspan to reduce her LDL cholesterol, which was about twice as high as the "acceptable limit." Cheryl soon began to experience adverse symptoms of extreme fatigue and rashes all over her body. She decided to go off Niaspan and look for another doctor. In early August 2004 she went to a new doctor who was recommended to her, who found her cholesterol was 2.5 times higher than "acceptable" and prescribed her a six-month supply of Lipitor and a couple of other drugs so they would last during our next trip to Russia. That doctor did not ask Cheryl to have a test of her liver enzymes after going on Lipitor. By November 2004 she was experiencing extreme fatigue and muscle pain, especially in her left shoulder and upper left arm. This is a classic indicator of a heart problem for women, so she went off Lipitor and notified her doctor. When we returned to the U.S. in December, the doctor immediately ordered a liver enzyme test that showed her enzymes were high (no surprise!), and prescribed nitroglycerine just in case Cheryl were to have a heart attack due to a weakened heart muscle. Now she must keep this vial of nitroglycerine with her at all times.
Then that doctor referred her to a cardiologist who prescribed a stress test (monitored by yet another doctor), an echocardiogram and a blood albumin analysis ($1015.31 for this one clinic visit). The results were borderline, but "just to be safe" he prescribed Atenolol to bring more blood to her heart and another statin drug, Zocor. Now, after doing some research on the Internet, we find that Atenolol reduces the "GOOD" (HDL) cholesterol and has a possible adverse interaction with statin drugs, as well as other adverse side effects. She began to experience:
cold, tingling, or numb hands or feet These are some of the possible adverse side effects listed at: As I continued searching the Internet about Lipitor and other statin drugs that reduce LDL ("bad") cholesterol, after wading through the first several pages of advertisements for statin drugs placed there by the drug companies and others marketing those drugs, I found the following information:
Adverse effects of statin drugs: Lipitor - the human cost: Cholesterol is NOT the Cause of Heart Disease Lipitor: Thief of Memory, Statin Drugs and the Misguided War on Cholesterol Sinatra's Supplements for Heart Health Read the paragraphs "Vitamin D and heart disease" and "Cancer reduction" in this well-researched article on the health benefits of Vitamin D, by Bill Sardi: Cholesterol Drugs May Increase Cancer Risk More Evil Behavior from Merck The Truth about Cholesterol "Two years ago Dr. Julian Whitaker proposed to the FDA that the package insert supplied with a statin drug contain information that statin drugs decrease the levels of the critical nutrient CoQ10 in patients. He wisely suggested that all patients taking statin drugs should also be taking 100 to 200 mg. of CoQ10 daily to avoid complications (heart failure, muscle breakdown with potentially fatal kidney failure [myoglobulinuria], muscle weakness, peripheral neuritis, transient global amnesia etc. The FDA ignored Dr. Whitaker's suggestion because admitting that there was a danger from statin drugs, even if true, might hurt the sales of statin drugs."
Use of CoQ10 to Treat Malignancies "He had become very interested in CoQ10 which Merck could not pursue because it was not patentable as [it is] a natural substance. Dr. Folkers had learned that CoQ10 was able to slow the progression of muscular dystrophy. After leaving Merck he took a position as professor at the University of Texas in about 1965.
"Dr. Folkers began to raise money to pursue his dream of using CoQ10 to treat malignancies. Folkers persuaded one of his financial backers, who had developed small cell carconoma of the lung with widespread metastasis, to try CoQ10 by pointing out that CoQ10 would do no harm and it might help. His oncologist had advised him he had less than a year to live. He began to feel better and had no sign of metastases one year later. [Several more case studies are reported in the article.]
"CoQ10 is found in every cell in the body. Animal species have exhibited a direct correlation between CoQ10 levels and longevity.[1] The use of statin drugs produces significant falls in CoQ10 blood levels which may be the reason for the rising incidence of heart failure as statin drugs are widely used in the U.S. to lower cholesterol."
While we're on the subject of malignant cancer, let me refer you to The Overlooked Cancer Cure From Japan by health journalist Bill Sardi. This natural rice bran extract IP6 is available from Swanson Health Products, as is CoQ10.
The "How to Lower Your Cholesterol" Phobia Perhaps more important than reducing cholesterol, you should also reduce the level of free calcium in the blood. Instead of depositing in your bones where it belongs, free calcium can be deposited on artery walls, leading to heart disease. A fascinating vitamin that directs calcium to the bones is Vitamin K2, see the article "Vitamin K2 (MK-7): The Pinnacle of Bone and Heart Health" at: Patient-reported side effects of Lipitor: Side effects of Lipitor and Zocor: Many people have experienced and/or researched these side effects. Several natural alternatives to lipid-reducing prescription statin drugs are: Red Yeast Rice, Cinnamon, Garlic Extract, Grapefruit, Policosanol (sugar cane extract), Guggulipid Extract, Green Tea Extract, Tumeric Extract, Beta Sitosterol, Omega-3 fatty acids (found in fish oil), and others. See -
Swanson Health Products and
Naturally Lowering Cholesterol.
By the way, the drug company that produces Mevacor analyzed Red Yeast Rice, which has been used in Asia for centuries, and discovered that it contains the same statin chemicals in natural form as this company had synthesized and patented. Do you know what this company did next? It went to the FDA and petitioned to have Red Yeast Rice taken off the market because it violates their patent. Consumers ought to demand just the opposite -- that the patent for that drug be revoked and the drug be taken off the market because a patent cannot be issued for a natural substance.
Another interesting note -- the statin drugs info sheets warn against eating grapefruit because it has a "harmful interaction" with these drugs. Other sources, however, point out that grapefruit actually attenuates the effectiveness of the drugs, i.e., if you eat grapefruit you don't need as much of these drugs. So the drug companies tell you not to eat grapefruit which costs less, but take their drugs instead, which brings them more revenue. What is their motivation: your physical and financial health, or their profits? Go figure!
My wife Cheryl has now gone completely off Zocor, and has gradually weaned herself from Atenolol. She is feeling much better - the tiredness and muscle ache disappeared within days of going off Lipitor and Zocor, and the dizziness and cold in her exremities has gone away after cutting back on and then dropping Atenolol. She is taking 1/4 tsp. of cinnamon at breakfast, 2 garlic extract tablets and 2 red yeast rice capsules a day. She had a blood workup done in Moscow, and her LDL cholesterol was down, even after going off Zocor. She had another blood workup done in Moscow six weeks later, before we returned to the U.S. It showed that her LDL cholesterol level was almost normal, just by taking Red Yeast Rice, Cinnamon, and Garlic Extract. Now she's added half a grapefruit for breakfast four times a week.
She is feeling normal and is experiencing no adverse side effects from these natural remedies. A study done in the mid-1990s showed that prescription drugs produced 400 times as many adverse side effects as herbal remedies. That is why prescription drugs require a prescription -- because doctors are supposed to know about these possible adverse side effects and monitor each patient for those side effects and for interactions with other drugs. But do they really have the time to do that?
The sad fact is that, with today's "managed medical care" (assembly-line eight-minute appointments), many doctors usually just write a prescription without studying the patient's medical history and thoroughly questioning and examining the patient, then call out "Next!" and move on to milk the cash cow in the next stall. Drug company representatives provide "educational seminars" with free luncheons for medical clinic doctors and staffs, lots of free lectures and company literature touting the positive benefits of their drugs and minimizing the negative effects, and of course, free samples. Doctors are not omniscient demigods, they have to rely on such outside sources for their continuing education. Drugs for heart disease, cancer and HIV/AIDS have become big business. Did you think the drug companies exist mainly for the benefit of the patient? Think again!
Taking Responsibility For Your Health: Two Approaches
Proper Maintenance of our Bodies
Adverse Effects of Statins and Other Drugs
difficulty breathing, wheezing
dizziness or fainting spells
slow heart rate (very low blood pressure)
vomiting
weight loss
headache
unusual tiredness
http://www.drugdigest.org/DD/DVH/Uses/0,3915,54%7CAtenolol,00.html
http://medicine.ucsd.edu/SES/adverse_effects.htm
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2004/01/31/lipitor_the_human_cost.htm
"I believe the manufacturers report that 2 percent or less of statin patients develop most of the known side effects, while other researchers are reporting problems in up to 15 percent of patients."
by Ron Rosedale, M.D.
http://www.mercola.com/2005/may/28/cholesterol_heart.htm
by Duane Graveline, M.D.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0741418819/ref=ase_masternewmedi/002-2972734-3807256?v=glance&s=books
interview on "People's Pharmacy" radio program with Stephen Sinatra, M.D., FACC, FACN, a board-certified cardiologist, author of The Sinatra Solution: New Hope for Preventing and Treating Heart Disease
http://www.healthcentral.com/peoplespharmacy/408/61143.html
http://www.lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi70.html
by Dr. Joseph Mercola
http://www.mercola.com/2000/sep/10/statins_cancer.htm
by Dr. Joseph Mercola with Dr. Daniel Chong
http://www.mercola.com/2005/jun/14/merck_behavior.htm
by Dr. James Howenstine, M.D.
http://www.newswithviews.com/Howenstine/james23.htm
"Cholesterol is dissolved and kept in solution as a flowing liquid when there are adequate amounts of essential fatty acids. The melting point of cholesterol, [below which] it would deposit on artery walls, is 300 degrees F. When lecithin is present, the melting point of cholesterol falls to 180 degrees where it is still insoluble. However, when the essential fatty acids linoleic and linolenic are present in sufficient quantity, the melting point of cholesterol falls to 32 degrees which is below normal body temperature."
by Dr. James Howenstine, M.D.
http://www.newswithviews.com/Howenstine/james2.htm
"Biochemist, Dr. Karl Folkers Ph.D, was employed by Merck where he discovered vitamin B12 and learned how to make a synthetic version of it that sold all over the world ending pernicious anemia. He was considered for a Nobel Prize but did not win this honor.
by health journalist Bill Sardi
http://www.naturalhealthlibrarian.org/1002_cholesterol.asp
"...only 1 in 71 patients who take statin cholesterol-lowering drugs avoid a future heart attack. With odds like these, why spend so much money on a drug like this?"
http://www.mercola.com/forms/vitamin_k2.htm.
But the Vitamin K2 at Mercola.com is quite expensive, so we ordered it from Swanson Health Products. Cheryl's doctor recommended Fosamax to "strengthen" her bones, but when we read the above article about its toxicity we decided to use Vitamin K2 instead, and at about 1/6th the cost.
http://www.rxlist.com/rxboard/lipitor.pl?read=1152 - congestive heart failure
http://www.rxlist.com/rxboard/lipitor.pl?read=1153 - 2 deaths
http://www.rxlist.com/rxboard/lipitor.pl?read=1162 - extreme tiredness
http://www.rxlist.com/rxboard/lipitor.pl?read=1178 - class action lawsuits
http://www.healthy-heart-guide.com/side-effects-of-lipitor.html
http://www.always-health.com/zocor5.html