herbal supplements

New malarkey on herbal remedies

It's another hit job on herbal supplements, custom tailored to increase fear, reduce sales and force people to turn to dangerous drugs instead of all-natural remedies.

And, as usual, this so-called study is full of you-know-what.

The headline, as I'm sure you've seen by now, claims herbal supplements are a major cause of liver injury.

That makes it sound like you're pointing a gun at your liver anytime you pick up an herbal remedy -- but the truth is nothing of the sort, because the injuries aren't among people who use, say, a quality Echinacea supplement to help fight off a cold.

No, the biggest jump in liver injuries is among bodybuilders who use all kinds of dubious supplements -- many of which claim to be herbal formulas, but in reality are filled with God-knows-what.

And among the rest of the herbal supplements, the researchers made no real effort to distinguish which ingredients were responsible for liver problems, or if the ingredients on the label were even in the bottle.

That means some -- maybe all -- of the rest of the problems were among low-quality dollar-store "herbal supplements" and the "herbal" junk you find sitting next to the cash register in gas stations and convenience stores.

But if you want to know how safe herbals REALLY are, consider this: Even with all that low-quality garbage floating around out there, herbal supplements represent only a tiny fraction of liver injuries.

The lion's share comes from medication. Drugs are responsible for 80 percent of those liver injuries -- four times as many as herbals -- and when people suffer liver damage due to drugs, they're far more likely to die, according to the same new study.

So what this really proves is just what I've been telling you all along -- what you already know yourself anyway: You have to be a smart consumer.

Gobble down dubious bodybuilding formulas and convenience store "herbal" supplements, and you're pretty much asking for it. Stick to a quality herbal remedy from a maker you trust, and you'll have nothing to worry about.

The only worry should be in Big Pharma sales offices -- because every person cured with a natural remedy is a person who won't need a liver-killing drug.

Bee propolis one, urologists zero

In the next issue of Real Health, I'm going to tell you all about an herbal treatment for benign prostate enlargement that performs better than the most common prescription. Of course, the pharmaceutical industry is working to ensure that doctors continue to dispense the prescription. You might think this is just one isolated case - our RESPONSIBLE medical community would NEVER push a prescription down our throats when an herbal supplement performs better, right? Hmmm

A recent study compared a popular prescription drug, Zovirax, to an herbal supplement available in most health food stores, bee propolis. (Bee propolis is a waxy substance collected by honeybees.) Ninety men and women were randomly divided into three equally sized groups and treated with propolis, acyclovir (Zovirax) or placebo ointments. The results were impressive and heavily in favor of bee propolis. The outbreaks of 80 percent of people in the propolis group were completely healed in just 10 days, compared with only 4 percent in the acyclovir group and 40 percent in the placebo group.

So how many urologists (the docs that treat most venereal diseases) do you suppose will not prescribe bee propolis instead of Zovirax? Probably only those with herpes themselves

A shot in the dark

In 1993, the NIH began an experiment on seven volunteers with hepatitis B. Everyone is eager to find a cure for this deadly disease, which kills millions. Before it was all said and done, four of the subjects had died of liver and kidney failure, prompting a Washington Post reporter covering the study to describe the disease as "maddeningly untreatable."

But hepatitis B is NOT "maddeningly untreatable." In treating AIDS patients over ten years ago, I found that those with hepatitis B infection responded without exception to UV light therapy (photoluminescence). Keep in mind that these were patients with severely damaged immune systems, yet they consistently responded to UV light therapy. Yet this is rarely offered as an option in traditional medicine.

So what's going on here? Why aren't they using a therapy that can save millions of lives, safely and cheaply? It's because of a strange blindness in the scientific mind that goes back throughout history, one that's mysterious and downright bizarre. Scientists-especially in medicine-have been mesmerized by what they think they know. Their cage of certitude is almost impenetrable, to the detriment of us all.

By the way, one of the more imbecilic medical assaults on the American people in recent years is the drive to immunize children against hepatitis B. Assuming that the vaccine even works, your six-year-old child is not at risk. Transmission is through sex and intravenous drug use. These children are in more danger from the shot than from the disease.