Two Big Medical Lie
By Dr. Tony Vendryes
LIES CAN be very dangerous things, particularly when they relate to life and death issues. Unfortunately, deliberately or unconsciously, the medical industry (modern medicine is big business) has perpetuated a number of deceptions that have, over the years, resulted in unnecessary misery, suffering and untimely death to millions and millions of human beings.

Someone once said, "A lie unopposed becomes a truth". You see, the mind is so powerful that once you believe and buy into a lie, it becomes your truth. Many of us have been brainwashed into believing and accepting a number of statements about our health that are not factual. Today, I call to your attention two big and deadly medical lies.

Diabetes is incurable

In a recent visit to one of Jamaica's most prestigious hospitals, I entered a waiting room to be confronted by a large poster that proclaimed, "Diabetes cannot be cured". This is the official dogma of conventional mainstream medicine. I know this to be a lie, because I personally have scores of patients and friends who had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and who no longer have any trace of the disease.

The epidemic of Type 2 diabetes (more than 95 per cent of all diabetics) is a lifestyle-related disorder that is extremely correctable with what the experts call lifestyle modification: diet, exercise and nutritional supplements. The medical literature carries many studies proving the superiority of diet and lifestyle changes over medication in treating this disorder. In a well-publicised research conducted at University of California, Los Angeles' School of Medicine, Type 2 diabetics completely reversed their diabetes in a few weeks with a few simple changes in their diet and physical activity.

This huge deception has been perpetrated by the $400-billion diabetes industry on the world's more than 300 million diabetics. Then health insurance companies (another arm of the medical industry) refuse to reimburse doctors for "patient education" about diet and lifestyle.

Educating and motivating diabetic patients takes more than the average eight-to-12-minute visits that modern doctors provide their patients. So doctors have no financial incentive to learn what really works because writing prescriptions pays better and involves less time and effort. Sadly, the current medical system is just not designed to help the body heal conditions like diabetes.



Cholesterol causes heart disease

Cholesterol is a soft, waxy fatty substance found in the bloodstream and in every single cell in your body. It is an extremely important substance used to build the membranes of the cells, and is needed for many other bodily functions, including the manufacture of our hormones and vitamin D.

It is not an enemy and we cannot exist without it. There is no evidence whatsoever that normal cholesterol floating around in the blood is harmful. It only becomes harmful when it is excessive and oxidised. A diet that is full of antioxidants protects cholesterol from the oxidation process that causes the damage.

Sadly, cholesterol has been made into a villain on the assumption that an elevation in blood cholesterol causes heart disease. Although there is an association between an elevation in one type of cholesterol in the blood and heart disease, many experts believe that this is not a cause and effect relationship. An indepth discussion of the issues is beyond the scope of this article, but consider this: despite the billions of dollars worth of cholesterol-lowering drugs consumed each year, there is no reduction in the incidence of heart disease, which continues to be the number-one cause of death worldwide.

Elevated cholesterol can be considered at best a secondary risk factor for heart disease, but yet tremendous profits continue to be made from selling expensive and dangerous cholesterol-lowering drugs. Most of the people who suffer heart attacks have normal blood-cholesterol levels, while many with high cholesterol never have a heart attack.

In most cases, elevated blood cholesterol is simply your body sending you a signal that something is out of balance and appropriate modification in lifestyle will often solve the problem. Also, there are several natural non-toxic substances like soluble fibre, soy, green tea, garlic and vitamin B3 (niacin) that safely help to balance cholesterol.

There is another test that is a far better predictor of risk for heart disease than cholesterol. Medical research published in The British Medical Journal showed that a simple blood test for a substance called homocysteine is a more useful indicator of your chance of dying from a heart attack.

So why has this not been given the publicity that cholesterol has got? I suspect that it is because high homocysteine levels can be easily corrected by taking a few inexpensive vitamins: B6, B12 and folic acid. No expensive prescription drugs are needed. By the way, elevated homocysteine also increases your risk of Alzheimer's disease.