From: altar@beaufort.sfu.ca (Ted Wayn Altar)
Subject: Re: Vegan dilemma concerning pancreatic enzymes.
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 10:42:56 GMT

>>>George B. Clark writes:
>>
>>>were written by medical doctors, however. They were written by
>>>people like Jane Heimlich, i.e. self-proclaimed medical journalists
>>>with no academic credentials.
>
>>Charles Van Duren writes:
>>Would you please quote her credentials?
>
>She is a "medical journalist." She is co-editor of a quack
>health newsletter called "Health and Healing." She is also the
>author of "What Your Doctor Won't Tell You," a paperbook book
>filled with misinformation about the merits of various unproven
>medical treatments. Her only credential is that she is a successful
>author in the popular press. I'm surprised you don't know who
>Jane Heimlich is, given your strong advocacy of the "alternative-
>medicine" movement. She is their main spokesperson.
 
Let's try to be fair and even-handed here.  Michael Traub has
brought to my attention that Lynne McTaggart is an investigative,
award winning journalist who used to work on a local paper called
the Sunday Times.  The newsletter "WHAT DOCTORS DON'T TELL YOU"
bases its credibility on:
 
     "Two dozen leading British and American doctors and
     organizations have agreed to sit on the editorial panel of
     WHAT DOCTOR'S DON'T TELL YOU and contribute what is in some
     cases groundbreaking research and clinical experience.
 
They include:
 
     Dr Leo Galland, author of "Superimmunity for Kids", noted
     for his work in
     immunology.
     
     Michael Odent, considered the father of 'active' non-
     interventionist birth.
     
     John Mansfield, author of 'The Migraine Revolution and
     Arthritis: The
     Allergy Connection'.
     
     J.  Anthony Morris, former American Food and Drug
     Administration and
     National Institutes of Health expert on immunization.
     
     Alan Franklin.  A pediatrician who decries the use of
     antibiotics and
     other drugs on children.
     
     Patrick Kingsley, who has arrested half of his more than
     2000 cases of
     multiple sclerosis through diet.
     
Now, what is wrong with this kind of newsletter, one in which the
public can be made aware of an alternative viewpoint?  I think the
public has a right to hear from the dissenters within the field.
Why bury this kind of information in journals that too few read
and which while valid might not yet established medical opinion?
As we know, many MD's are simply too busy with their practice to
keep abreast of the latest developments and warnings of their
trade and it has fallen upon the patient to seek second opinions,
one such source might well be "WHAT DOCTORS DON'T TELL YOU".  In
this way, an informed public can ask their doctors tough
questions, and reconsider their options.  This is what the
medical establishment itself constantly recommends, so what is
the problem?
 
Look, I don't hold with quackery or bamboozling the gullible and
weak either, and exploitation of people's ignorance and desparation
has occurred from within the medical ranks as well as from the
margins.  But what we have here with this newsletter, "WHAT
DOCTORS DON'T TELL YOU", is really something quite different,
namely a dissenting voice working with the same information
available to, but maybe not yet duly considered or adopted by, 
the mainstream of conventional practice.  There is a role for
these kinds of tertiary sources designed to be read by the public
at large.  We have the PCRM "Healthy Eating" newletter, the
Berkeley "Wellness Newsletter" (sic?), and so on.  Still, I will
admit that such newsletters designed for public consumption are
not the most respectable ACADEMIC sources to draw upon, but
they have their place.
 
Let us remember that with respect to the scientific validity and
political practice of medicine there are dissenting voices within
the profession itself.  I see no reason why such voices shouldn't
be available to the public through newsletters like that of "WHAT
DOCTORS DON'T TELL YOU" edited by Jane Heimlich.
 
 
>>"He said" or was this claim supported with evidence (since evidencee
>>seems to be very much in demand here)?
 
Yes, and as an intelligent and skeptical readership we demand and
deserve evidence one way or another.  Now, just to help advance
debate here a little further and show that good people like Anne
Nield are not to be dismissed so quickly, especially with rude
remarks, permit me to here post the relevant article from WHAT
DOCTORS DON'T TELL YOU.  Again, I agree with your call to return
discussion back on track with respect to vegetarianism.  And so
let us try to keep more or less focused on diet as such, rather
than attempt to debate the merits of colon cleansing per se.
 
Note that the article doesn't actually endorse "colon cleansing", 
but it does suggest that the idea is not entirely wrong (or right).   
Certainly, the importance of maintaining a healthy colony of 
bowel flora via diet is not to be offhandedly dismissed.
 
     
     Every other popular health book these days seems to contain
     the word "detoxification".  We are urged to change our diet,
     fast or purge our systems to facilitate internal
     "cleansing".
     
     In fact, recent scientific research suggests that many old
     ideas about the relationship between nutrition, the
     digestive system and disease, may be at least partly true.
     
     The research centres on the role of the bowel flora - the
     "bugs" that live in the large bowel or colon in all of us.
     In a healthy bowel, billions of bacteria - averaging a total
     of around four pounds in weight - act as a kind of living
     sewage disposal system, breaking down the remnants of our
     food, and producing immune secretions and nutrients as by-
     products of the process.  In a healthy bowel, most of these
     bacteria are "good guys" - such as those of the family known
     as "lactobacilli", holding the "bad guys" including
     pathogenic bacteria, virus and fungi - in check.
     
     The theory has it that if the balance of bugs in the bowel
     is knocked out for some reason, the "bad" guys can get the
     upper hand, leading to the production of harmful toxins in
     the bowel, and possible invasion of the body from an
     infectious "pool" of viruses and hostile bacteria resident
     in the gut - all of which adds up to what could reasonably
     be described as immune deficiency.
     
     Conventional concepts of immunity start at the bowel wall,
     and work inwards, not recognizing the contents of the bowel
     as part of the immune system.
     
     Nevertheless, Dr Alan Ebringer at the Middlesex Hospital has
     discovered that ankylosing spondylitis - a painful arthritic
     disease resulting in progressive stiffening of the joints -
     is caused by a particular bacterium which lives in the bowel
     and feeds off carbohydrate residues.  The bacterium
     resembles a particular type of body tissue, so when it
     enters the bloodstream an "auto immune" reaction - in which
     the body attacks itself - is triggered, causing inflammation
     and symptoms.  Patients with this condition improve
     dramatically when put on a low carbohydrate diet.  Some
     doctors now believe that other "auto-immune" diseases, such
     as motor neurone disease, myasthenia gravis, rheumatoid
     arthritis and some forms of diabetes, could be triggered in
     a similar way.
     
     The example of ankylosing spondylitis lends powerful support
     of the notion that what goes on in the bowel can cause
     symptoms elsewhere in the body - one which many doctors
     still find hard to accept.
     
     Doctors at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, have taken the
     first steps in redefining the term "food allergy" in terms
     of changes in the bowel flora.  True food allergy is caused
     by a usually rapid immune-mediated response to and offending
     food and is probably quite rare.  Food intolerance, on the
     other hand, tends to be a much slower reaction - hours or
     even days - and may involve a food which is eaten regularly
     and in quite large amounts, like wheat or dairy products.
     
     At Cambridge, a relationship has been established between
     food intolerance and the bowel flora - particularly in
     patients with irritable bowel syndrome.
     
     It is thought that symptoms may be brought on by shifts in
     the population of bacteria in the bowel, as particular foods
     favour the proliferation of particular bacteria.
     
     The implications of this work are that if the reason for
     these imbalances in the bowel flora can be found, and the
     imbalances corrected, a whole range of chronic diseases
     previously thought to be unconnected may be successfully
     treated.
     
     Practitioners of natural medicine, including some today who
     use "fringe" methods such as colonic irrigation and enemas
     to wash out the bowel as part of the treatment of any
     chronic illness, believe that imbalances occur because the
     bowel quite simply becomes "clogged up" with mucous and old
     faecal debris and is unable to eliminate efficiently.  As one
     famous naturopath put it: "death begins in the colon".
     
 
Anyway, we can see that there is some support, at least in
theory, for what one day might become a properly designed and
accepted colon rehabilitation program.  More relevant to our 
vegetarian interests; at the very least we do have here some 
further support that dietary changes of some sort can produce 
marked changes in one's intestinal flora, something that Steve 
Dyer earlier disputed (or at least underappreciated) by his
initial remarks.
     
I would of course, prefer if somebody could provide references
from more academic journals, but it seems that nobody here
during this summer's rump end is very inclined to do a literature
search at an university library.  I've not been able to make the
trip to our other university where there is a school of medicine
and so I guess I should not complain if no one else has the
opportunity or interest to do some library work.  So, I guess
we are stuck with at least giving some thought to what the
above article from the "WHAT DOCTORS DON'T TELL US" newsletter
reports.

Frankly, I'm still very skeptical about any use of "enemas" and
"irrigation" since a short-term fast or fruit diet should work
just as well to `clean' out the large intestine, and I don't see
why vegetarians (particularly vegans) would ever need to resort
to such means since their large intestinal tracts are more
regularly evacuated and their bacterial flora has been documented
(I've already provided good references in an earlier posting) to be
more "healthy" in both its population composition and density.
 
If such colon rehabilitations programs are ever empirically
cross-compared (if they haven't already been), my guess is that a
simple vegan diet, (possibly supplemented with a short-term fruit
fast) will suffice and prove to be the most effective and
practical.  But this is admittedly my best guess on this topic.
 
 
 
>>> She's the kind of person, like so many others, who would
>>> rather listen to the clerk in a health-food store.
>>
>>This is a totally unwarranted statement.  There is nothing in the
>>preceding sentence that justifies it.
>
>Let Anne speak for herself.  She posted an unprovoked, angry reply to a
>recent posting of mine, and that was the basis for my comment. Anne is OK,
>though.  I would feel badly, if I thought I hurt her feelings.
 
George, rudeness like this is uncalled for and I do think that it
is in everyone's best interests that we all speak up and make
known our disapproval of such remarks when they occur.  Maybe in
this way we can help reduce the occurrence of such remarks (hey,
we all may be guilty at one time or another of such lapses, and
I've publicly apologized for one of mine).  There is no need to
be stubborn on this, and you would help advance debate and the
tone of this conference if you would simply admit to this lapse
on your part and send her a simple apology.  Is this really so
very difficult to do?
 
                                       ted

Newsgroups: rec.food.veg