The following is an excerpt from the FDA web site:

Disease-causing microbes that have become resistant to drug therapy are an increasing public health problem. Tuberculosis, gonorrhea, malaria, and childhood ear infections are just a few of the diseases that have become hard to treat with antibiotic drugs. Part of the problem is that bacteria and other microorganisms that cause infections are remarkably resilient and can develop ways to survive drugs meant to kill or weaken them. This antibiotic resistance, also known as antimicrobial resistance or drug resistance, is due largely to the increasing use of antibiotics. Other facts:

Though food-producing animals are given antibiotic drugs for important therapeutic, disease prevention or production reasons, these drugs have the downside of potentially causing microbes to become resistant to drugs used to treat human illness, ultimately making some human sicknesses harder to treat. About 70 percent of bacteria that cause infections in hospitals are resistant to at least one of the drugs most commonly used to treat infections. Some organisms are resistant to all approved antibiotics and must be treated with experimental and potentially toxic drugs.

Some research has shown that antibiotics are given to patients more often than guidelines set by federal and other healthcare organizations recommend. For example, patients sometimes ask their doctors for antibiotics for a cold, cough, or the flu, all of which are viral and don’t respond to antibiotics. Also, patients who are prescribed antibiotics but don’t take the full dosing regimen can contribute to resistance. Unless antibiotic resistance problems are detected as they emerge, and actions are taken to contain them, the world could be faced with previously treatable diseases that have again become untreatable, as in the days before antibiotics were developed.

“A University Of Toronto Study recently found that people need significantly more vitamin D than has been commonly accepted. The study involved 796 women between the ages of 18 and 35, And showed that the generally recommend amounts of vitamin D. for women are too low to offer any benefit.

Reinhold Vieth and his colleagues found that any amount of daily vitamin D. intake under 800 IU Wasn’t enough to prevent the vitamin D. deficiency . Although numerous other studies and epidemiological trends have been supporting these same findings, The U.S. Food And Nutrition Board for osteoporosis-relatedmatters still recommends only 200 IU per day for women under the age of 50.”

Dr. David Williams. Alternatives. April, 2002, p. 5.

Wintertime vitamin D insufficiency is common in young Canadian women, and their vitamin D intake does not prevent it.

Vieth R, Cole DE, Hawker GA, Trang HM, Rubin LA.

Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada. [email protected]

Eur J Clin Nutr 01:55(12):1091-7

OBJECTIVE: We asked whether women self-reporting the recommended consumption of vitamin D from milk and multivitamins would be less likely to have low wintertime 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels. METHODS: This cross-sectional study enlisted at least 42 young women each month (age 18-35 y, 796 women total) through one year. We measured serum 25(OH)D and administered a lifestyle and diet questionnaire. RESULTS: Over the whole year, prevalence of low 25(OH)D (<40 nmol/l) was higher in non-white, non-black subjects (25.6% of 82 women) than in the white women (14.8% of 702 white women, P<0.05). Of the 435 women tested during the winter half of the year (November-April), prevalence of low 25(OH)D was not affected by vitamin D intake: low 25(OH)D occurred in 21% of the 146 consuming no vitamin D, in 26% of the 140 reporting some vitamin D intake, up to 5 microg/day (median, 2.5 microg/day), and in 20% of the 149 women reporting vitamin D consumption over 5 microg/day (median, 10 microg/day). INTERPRETATION: The self-reported vitamin D intake from milk and/or multivitamins does not relate to prevention of low vitamin D nutritional status of young women in winter. Recommended vitamin D intakes are too small to prevent insufficiency. Vitamin D nutrition can only be assessed by measuring serum 25(OH)D concentration.

The Journal of the American Medical Association published a controversial study showing St. John’s Wort was no better than a placebo in alleviating major depressive disorder. What is not obvious to the casual reader is that sertraline (Zoloft) was used also in the study and did no better than a placebo on the primary measures of the study. Ergo, Zoloft doesn’t work either. See: Davidson, JRT. Effect of Hypericum perforatum (St John’s Wort) in Major Depressive Disorder. JAMA, Vol. 287 No. 14, April 10, 2002.

Here is ARHP’s response to the JAMA article: Silver Spring, MD, April 9, 2002 — A study on the popular herbal remedy St. John’s wort published in the April 10 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) concluded that neither St. John’s wort nor the widely prescribed antidepressant Zoloft are more effective overall than placebo in treating severe forms of depression. The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) and the National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA) are critical of the study saying that it ignores the traditional use of St. John’s wort and recent modern clinical trials that have demonstrated conclusively that St. Johnís wort is effective in the treatment of “mild to moderate” depression.

“This is a quintessential case of the ‘Emperor’s New Clothes,'” said Steven Dentali, Ph.D. vice president for scientific and technical affairs for AHPA. “It is inexplicable that JAMA has created such fanfare over the fact that St. Johnís wort is not shown to be effective for a condition that it was never intended to treat. The real story here is that if this study is believable it showed that a blockbuster drug, with sales of over $2 billion and prescribed to millions of Americans for severe forms of depression, may be no more effective than placebo.”

St. Johnís wort is one of the top five selling herbal products in the United States and is the number one antidepressant used in Germany for the treatment of mild to moderate depression. The new multi-million dollar National Institutes of Health study was conducted on 340 patients diagnosed as having major depression. The study broke patients into three groups assigning one group to take a leading brand of St. Johnís wort, another group to take the anti-depressant pharmaceutical Zoloft and the third group a placebo (a sugar pill). The researchers reported that neither St. Johnís wort nor Zoloft were significantly different from placebo.

“This research in no way invalidates the scores of clinical studies and analyses that have clearly demonstrated that St. John’s wort is effective for mild to moderate depression,” said Phil Harvey, Ph.D., director of science and quality assurance for NNFA. “In fact, contemporary researchers have found evidence that St. Johnís wort extracts are “therapeutically equivalent to” and “at least as effective as” some commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs. Researchers also note that people have better tolerance for the herb.”

Relevant Facts:

According to Web MD, in the U.S., approximately 10% of people suffer from major depression at any one time, and 20-25% suffer a major depressive episode at some point during their lifetimes. According to Nutrition Business Journal, St. Johnís wort sales in 2000 were $180 million. According to Med Ad News, Zoloft is the third best-selling selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor and the leading antidepressant in terms of share of new prescriptions. According to IMS Health Inc., 2000 Zoloft sales reached $2.14 billionVol. 287 No. 14, April 10, 2002.

Most people in the U.S. die of heart disease. There has been a significant reduction in deaths due to heart disease in recent years. The second leading cause of death is cancer. As indicated in Bailar and Gornik’s paper below, there has been no significant reduction in deaths due to cancer in recent years. The third leading cause of death is medical error and that has most likely increased in recent years.

It was well known in 1975 when I joined the faculty of the University of Colorado School of Medicine that the risk of accidental death increased 10-fold upon signing in to a hospital. That risk is probably higher today because people are sicker, many more drugs are given, and an increasing number of antibiotic-resistant hospital induced infections cause an estimated 80,000 deaths per year (JAMA, July 26, 2000, p 483).

A wise person would avoid hospital admission unless they have a condition where the risk of dying outside of the hospital is significant. When it is necessary to be in the hospital it is wise to have a loved one present at all times to monitor proceedings, or to hire a healthcare professional to help oversee care.

In a Johns Hopkins study, Starfield reported that medical error is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. with an estimated 225,000 deaths/year and medication errors are the largest component of these deaths. An estimated 7000 deaths/year occur from medication errors in hospitals and 106,000 deaths/year occur from adverse drug events (ADEs). Bates et. al. reported that 42% of serious ADEs were preventable and that errors resulting in preventable ADEs occurred most often at the stages of ordering (56%) and administration (34%); transcription (6%) and dispensing errors (4%) were less common. Errors were much more likely to be intercepted if the error occurred earlier in the process: 48% at the ordering stage vs 0% at the administration stage. Leape showed that dosage errors, in particular, were primarily due to the physician’s lack of knowledge about the drug or about the patient for whom it was prescribed.

Studies have shown that automating drug orders and administration reduce errors by 60-100% depending on type of medication error and that preventable ADEs cost $4685 and increase length of hospital stay by 4.6 days on the average. Automation of order entry and drug administration may be the fastest and cheapest way to reduce medical error and savings will typically more than pay for cost of automation.

Eldar provides an excellent recent review of the worldwide literature on medical error in an unlikely source, the Croatian Medical Journal. The author notes that in the 1995 Australian study found adverse events in 16.6% of 14,179 admissions vs. 3.7% in a 1984 Harvard study. However, 2/3 of the adverse events were omission, rather than commission. Perhaps this explains the discrepancy. Almost 50% of the errors were caused by surgery and only 20% by medication errors. Of the later 20%, ordering caused 56% and medication administration caused 24%. Careful observation in a teaching hospital in Israel indicated an average of 1.7 errors per day per patient was the norm. This has been my personal experience in a Boston hospital.

While the National Institute of Medicine has declared this a national emergency, I am constantly amazed in discussions with intelligent and highly educated people, that they find it impossible to grasp the seriousness of the problem. Their consciousness reinterprets the data to mean that sick people who are probably close to death anyway are just dying. This is not the case as these are unnecessary deaths that are largely preventable and they occur in healthy young people as well as older sick people.

“There is a growing conviction in all hospitals, even in those which are best conducted, there is a great and unnecessary waste of life. “ Florence Nightingale, 1859

Since the posting below to the Rifers group, I have seen mild recurrence of rosacea which is easily treated. I’ve found this parasite in other people who do not have rosacea. It seems to be endemic and will be passed between family members so entire family has to be treated. Is this case the cause is clearly a parasite. Other cases may or may not be the same.

From: Jeff Sutherland

Date: Tue Oct 16, 2001 5:13 pm

Subject: Rosacea update

After facial treatment by skin specialist at a spa, volunteer’s face was red

and raw. Tested for rosacea and found one more frequency in addition to

previous treatment reported on the list, which is presumably another form of

the organism causing redness. Remaining frequencies were within 100-200

hertz of treatment several months ago. Treating at the frequencies below

eliminated virtually all redness within a few minutes. Going from high to

low eliminates body burden. Going from low to high then eliminates the

remaining organisms before any eggs can hatch.

Treated with FSCAN with Carolina slide 31-4522 Human, Skin Nonpigmented sec.

lying on top of cyclinder that comes with FSCAN. This maximizes power

transfer to skin. FSCAN effects are not dependent on electrical current.

Holding electrodes near the skin has same effect, i.e. magnetic field around

the electrode does the work.

9551, 5133, 3311, 1131

After redness was eliminated, tested for herpes frequencies because of other

postings saying rosacea was curable by treating for herpes. Test was

negative. This case is not associated with herpes, or the parasite

frequencies also killed the herpes. Next time will test for herpes first.

Rosacea is one of the easiest conditions to eliminate with the FSCAN, and

with dramatic and immediate visual effect. Unfortunately, I did not have my

digital camera with me to document the change.

Jeff Sutherland

LIFE EXTENSION WEEKLY UPDATE EXCLUSIVE

Bruce Ames on megavitamin therapy: “I suspect that the big impact is going to be in aging”

A review article coauthored by researcher Bruce Ames PhD of the University of California, Berkeley, published in the April 2002 issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition featured the assertion that over fifty genetic diseases are successfully treated with high doses of vitamins, particularly those of the B complex, and that the vitamins may slow the effects of aging. Dr Ames suggests that there may be many more diseases treatable with megadoses of vitamins, and that the similar biochemical deficiencies of aging may be responsive to megavitamin therapies as well. Young people as well, may find vitamin supplementation useful to tune up their metabolism.

Dr Ames believes that the effectiveness of megavitamins are due to their role as coenzymes, which work with enzymes to perform metabolic functions. Certain genetic mutations reduce the ability of an enzyme to bind to its coenzyme, therefore decreasing the rate of the enzyme to catalyze a reaction. High levels of the right vitamins will raise the amount of coenzymes to a level sufficient to overcome the defect, reversing the effect of the mutations. Dr Ames and his coauthors have estimated that up to one-third of all genetic mutations result in the corresponding enzyme having a decreased binding affinity for a coenzyme. Examples of diseases that can in some instances be caused by mutations and which are responsive to high doses of vitamins cardiovascular disease, migraine, some cancers, alcohol intolerance, blindness, kidney disease, mental retardation, hemolytic anemia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr Ames commented, “These 50 diseases are just the tip of the iceberg. Individual doctors have noticed this, but nobody put it all together. Now, doctors are going to try high-dose vitamin therapy the minute they know a coenzyme is involved in a disease or there is a problem with the substrate. It makes sense, since many of the vitamins are generally recognized as safe in large doses. I think this kind of thing will turn up all over once people start looking.”

Dr Ames notes that B vitamins are sold in dosages hundred times the recommended daily allowances and are considered safe for most people. The review’s authors write, “There is potentially much benefit and possibly little harm in trying high-dose nutrient therapy because of the nominal cost, ease of application and low level of risk.”

http://groups.yahoo.com/fscan

Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2002 03:28:15 -0000

From: “jsutherland”

Subject: Pollens

I’ve been using the FSCAN for several years now and the more

interesting things are the unexpected results I find with it. On the

Rifers list I mentioned last year that pollens can be killed with

the FSCAN and it eliminates the allergic response.

Right now the pollen count in the Boston area is medium and it is

heading to high by mid week. While www.pollen.com says it is mostly

tree pollens, the offender for the last couple of days is actually

mold.

This was determined using Delisos homeopathic allergy kits. I have a

complete set and the one that eliminates symptoms is North Atlantic

Mold Mix.

Later I zapped with the FSCAN at 499583 and that also eliminates

symptoms. Tree pollens seem to be in the 497KHZ range and molds in

the 499KHZ area.

Walking around town today, the pollens induce lung symptoms, cough,

and I couldn’t carry my FSCAN around so I took one of Don Croft’s

Terminator II small zappers and stuck it in my belt. I think it puts

out around 15KHZ. It was pretty effective at eliminating symptoms.

This evening I put a microscopic slide on the top of the cylinder

that comes with the FSCAN (Mold types w.m. 25-7656 from

www.carolina.com) and the combination of the frequency and plate

zapping with the slide eliminated all symptoms in about 30 seconds.

Extremely effective.

I always us homeopathic as complementary therapy and low potency

Antimonium Tartaricum in water sipped several times a day when

exposed is very helpful for the current pollen exposure in Boston.

These combination strategies can keep a very allergic person

completely free from allergy symptoms.

Tomorrow morning and the rest of the week when I go jogging in the

middle of the high pollen count will be the extreme test.

Jeff Sutherland

Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 07:52:40 -0000

From: “John”

Subject: Re: Re: Comments on postings on SIDS and measles

—– Original Message —–

>From: “jsutherland”

>To:

>Sent: Saturday, March 30, 2002 10:36 PM

>Subject: [SymphonicHealth] Re: Comments on postings on SIDS and measles

> John,

> The papers you posted on Smallpox were really interesting. This week’s

> New England Journal is entirely devoted to Smallpox and can be freely

> downloaded. They included some historic writings and photos. To their

> credit there were a couple of photos of people who were horribly

> inflicted with aftereffects of the vaccination, pointing out that

> Smallpox vaccination is not without risk.

I’ll have a look. It is one thing they can’t deny–vaccinia http://www.whale.to/v/vaccinia-necrosum.html

Over 200 years they have had to admit that but the new vaccines are “safer” of course although they do admit smallpox vaccine is one of the most dangerous and even admit it was killing 20 kids a year. Which is why they haven’t jumped at vaccinating the whole country although they have 500 million doses–could happen though, depends on who owns the stock I suppose.

>

> In the case of the historic homeopathic experience, Robin Murphy

> quotes similar material in his tapes over and over for many different

> diseases. He has spent a lot of time digging into old journals in

> major U.S. hospitals that were former homeopathic hospitals and may be

> able to provide references. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to

> Murphy’s records.

>

> The papers you posted make my point. Homeopathic treatment can work as

> well or better than vaccination without vaccinations nasty side

> effects. Not only that, it can cure the vaccinated patients that come

> down with Smallpox.

Yes, and when you look into it they thought smallpox was less of a problem than measles. They make it into a wizard of oz disease to make out they have saved us from the wiz, and to be able to scare us when needed. They must have killed millions with the vaccines and by ignoring the real reasons for smallpox–poor diet, sanitation etc.

“In a recent number of the Leicester Free Press, it is said :-” So far as we are concerned in Leicester, a town containing 120,000 inhabitants, with many thousands of unvaccinated children, smallpox seems to be about the least dangerous of all diseases, and is not to be named by the side of scarlet fever, measles, whooping cough, diarrhoea, or even consumption. If a case of small-pox is discovered, instant isolation is adopted, and during the last five years we have hardly had five deaths. That being the state of the case, one need not wonder that the fear of the disease should disappear, or that resistance to vaccination should increase.”–William Tebb 1881 http://www.whale.to/v/smallpox2.html

I’ll have to get some of those Murphy tapes.

I have bought Coulters, vol 3 I think, but not much on measles in there.

Talking to a homeopath he says measles shouldn’t be suppressed anyway, and lack of it is a sign of energy weakness.

john

This weblog will gather Jeff Sutherland’s internet conversations on complementary and alternative medicine in one place.