More on Vanadium and Dr. Julian Whitaker

I came across the following BLOG and as a follow up on my recent blog post concerning the trace mineral "Vanadium" as vanadium sufate, I am going to copy and paste this post from "The Daily Skinny".  His BLOG deals with a number of different topics, however this one is pertinent to my BLOG.  I have NEVER ordered any of Dr. Whitaker's products or read any of his books. The page in his book concerning vanadium sulfate while waiting for a prescription in the local Rite Aid pharmacy is an exception to the above. I have seen his ads, visited his website etc. a few times but decided not order any products or books due to the HIGH cost of the information. I am not a big believer in "Instant Miracle Cures" for anything, EXCEPT WHEN THE LORD OF THE UNIVERSE IS INVOLVED IN IT. God is in the "miracle" business and always has been, and I do not think that Dr. Whitaker's remedies qualify.

LINK to the Daily Skinny BLOG

Excerpt from BLOG post on Dr. Whitaker:

RATHER lengthy, however I feel an EXCELLENT READ:

Dr Julian Whitaker

Okay here is the Skinny on Doctor Julian Whitaker. First of all, if you are new to The Skinny, for the sake of easy reading I am not including references. This is not meant to be a scholarly paper, but an educational introduction. This of course contains my opinions, but based on my research I think my opinions are well founded. Please note that sarcasm and ad hominem attacks are not logical arguments and should not be considered evidence against him. However, he really irks me so I will be including them anyway.

I am not joking when I say that Julian’s main premise is that he is the savior of modern medicine and that the medical community are all lying to us for evil reasons and do not really want to help us.

Let us look at what Julian Whitaker claims in HIS OWN materials.

1. Chronic ulcers are curable without drugs within 15 days.
2. A miraculous (read “magic”) plant preparation can cures arthritis within 14 days
3. An ancient cure that dissolves pain on contact. (I love really specific claims like this)
4. Alzheimer's disease cured by purging the body of elements that hypothetically cause the disease
5. Permanently end irritable-bowel pain without drugs
6. A topical cream that reverses osteoporosis
7. Foods that reverse hearing loss
8. Asthma is erasable within four days
9. Become Almost Immune To Breast Cancer
10. Become Almost Invulnerable To Disease & Aging
11. Cure Diabetes with a common mineral (and/or sugar depending on where you read)
12. Become almost invulnerable to disease. Miracle nutrient reduces risk for ALL disease 36%
13. Make High Blood Pressure & Heart Disease Extinct.
14. Cure your cataracts without surgery with Magic Eye Drops
15. Almost instantly improve macular degeneration
16. Prevent joint replacement surgery with a 4 week treatment
17. Reverse chronic lung damage in just 14 days.
18. Cure Lyme disease in 72 hours
19. Parkinson's tremors disappear 20 minutes after nutrient treatment
20. 8-minute miracle rebuilds shapely muscle even into your 90s!
21. Postmenopausal women made their bodies 15 to 20 years more youthful
22. Cure prostate cancer in two weeks

Wallace I. Sampson, M.D., a co-founder of the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF), and a medical professor at Stanford University, says of these claims: “Don't [they] sort of speak for themselves? I found myself chuckling out loud and I got louder as I neared the end. Not a true statement in the lot . . . .”

Ruth Kava, Ph.D., R.D., American Council on Science & Health (ACSH) Director of Nutrition, said that the “statements he made are misleading, incorrect, or ridiculous.”

None of us have time to discuss the stupidity of all these items. Let us once again refer to Occam’s Razor. It says, “entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitate”. If you don’t speak Latin, it roughly says that when considering two explanations or alternatives, the one which has the fewest assumptions or leaps of logic is most likely to be true.

NCAHF member David W. Ramey, D.V.M., observes: “No one has a cure for many of the conditions described. Anyone who did would make Bill Gates look like a pauper.”

Let’s Play The Occam’s Razor Game! (Choose the option which Occam would choose)

Option A: There are numerous diseases with which the medical community struggles to find a quick and easy cure. There IS much progress in many areas, but because progress is slow some people assume it is not happening.

Option B: EVERYONE in the medical community in the ENTIRE WORLD is clueless, stupid, greedy and/or part of a secret organization dedicated to preventing the curing of disease because they wants us to be dependent on them. AND somehow a man who was educated by those same people discovered 22 cures without even practicing as a real doctor. AND many of the cures were right in front of our noses the whole time. AND ALL doctors, nurses, drug companies, and medical professionals either missed it or have been hiding it.

Who is Doctor Julian Whitaker?

First of all, he actually does have a doctorate degree so he passes test number one. His degree is from Emory University Medical School. Following school he became an orthopedic surgical resident at a hospital affiliated with the University of California at San Francisco, but he never finished the program because he “discovered” that most of the medical knowledge he had been taught was nonsense. (Is this like finding out that everyone is crazy except you? I smell narcissism… and believe me… I know narcissism. ) His own website says that he does not see patients, and I can find no evidence that he ever practiced as an actual doctor. He has, on the other hand, practiced being an opportunistic jerk and is excelling at it.

Someone might say, “But I read his brochure and he is support by the Wellness Institute Medical Clinic, the California Heart Medical Clinic, California Orthomolecular Medical Society and the American Preventative Medical Association!”

Dang. You got me. Oh wait! The Wellness Institute Medical Clinic was formed by Julian Whitaker! He was the director California Heart Medical Clinic, and co-founded the American Preventative Medical Association (APMA) and the California Orthomolecular Medical Society. So it is a surprise to no one that the organizations he founded support him. (I think I will begin claiming I am strongest person in the world. I will then form the Global Physiological Puckish Miraculum Institute to prove it.)

It should be noted that all of these are somewhat dubious organizations. For one thing, the APMA can be joined by anyone who makes medical claims. (I use unicorn powder to heal dysentery!) You do not have to be a doctor to join. This is just as well, because a real doctor would never join them anyway.

Whitaker also states that he is “board certified in anti-aging medicine” and that he practices preventive medicine. Wow! That sounds impressive! But if you check, he has never been certified in ANY specialty acknowledged by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), or by the American Medical Association (AMA). Despite his claims, there is no such thing as an “Anti-aging” specialist. The NCAHF points out that he is also not certified in preventative medicine.

In fact, the NCAHF (National Council Against Health Fraud) has been receiving complaints Julian’s patients. Doctor Whitaker claims that “the medical profession” tells “three big(gest) lies”: (1) disease just happens; (2) older people always have medical problems; (3) there's nothing you can do about it. These are not just idiotic claims. They are not even true. Regular medicine neither believes nor advances these ideas. So saying they DO say them and then calling the medical community stupid for it is just… well… stupid. It is called a “straw man” tactic. You make up a lie about what someone claims that is easy to shoot down, and then you pat yourself on the back for making them look bad. This technique was invented by third graders. Get a life, Whitaker.

The Cures

By digging for a long time in the cesspools of the internet, I found some descriptions of his cures without having to pay him.

How do you cure Lyme Disease? All you have to do is poison yourself MEGADOSES of vitamin C. Never mind that the Journal of the American Medical Association notes that massive infusions of vitamin C can cause Kidney Failure. (JAMA 1984;252:1684)

Want to be sexier in 8 minutes? Don’t bother exercising, changing your diet, and fixing your life. All you have to do is… oh wait. The fine print says it requires MILES of walking a day. Well that is not so amazing.

Curing diabetes with sugar? Seriously? His evidence for this is that he put sugar on a diabetic ulcer that was one someone’s leg. It healed! It can cure diabetes! Oy. Sugar and salt are both preserving agents. That’s why it is put into jam. Concluding that because it helped a wound it can cure the disease is a HUGE jump. I put Neosporin on a cut, but you don’t see me drinking it to cure my GERD. Want to try his cure? You can “Reverse Permanent Diabetes Damage” in 3 days.” All you have to do is take some vitamins and minerals. That's it. Then you can get back to drinking out of soda cups the size of popcorn buckets and eating like a grizzly bear.

Do you need to cure your prostate cancer? It also works for breast cancer! Well it is pretty easy and only requires 49.95 for a very complex “gene therapy”. The therapy essentially is drinking your own urine. (When I picture someone paying him 50 bucks to drink their own pee I laugh until I snort.)

Do you have back pain? I have a great quotes from the infamous Doctor Whitaker: “4 out of 5 bad backs [are] cured for good by corn syrup.” Of course, you’ll have to pay $50 to find out which .99 cent bottle of corn syrup to buy.

Other Reasons Why He Should be Kicked in the Shins

He publicly agrees with Tom Cruise that all mental illness should be treated with only vitamin supplements, diet and exercise. In an interview the interviewer asked him what sort of progress he sees when he treats people with mental illness. He said, “[We] see their energy levels increase, or their happiness ratio increase…” Gaah! What in the world is a “happiness ratio!” I WANT TO SCREAM! He went on to say, “I have been successful at helping people enhance their mood and their quality of life.” Enhancing the mood of someone is NOT NOT NOT the same as curing mental illness. I would like to poke his eyes out.

He uses faith in God as a weapon against desperate people. He says that God created a perfect body and if you trust God, you will use natural treatments supplied by God. (It is interesting to note that God’s treatments are all sold by him. I was unclear on whether or not he was claiming to be God.)

He is adamant that for our “safety” we must get rid of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, The American Diabetic Association, Medical Insurance, the National Council Against Health Fraud, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and all drug companies. (That sounds pretty safe to me.)

He says he uses orthomolecular medicine. It sounds fancy, but he’s just saying that all disease is caused by imbalances in the bodies main substances. This seems to be just another form of Humorism. (It’s not funny though.) It showed up about 400 B.C. and has only been shown to be false about A BILLION GILLION TIMES. His treatments involve huge doses of vitamins and minerals and hair analysis.

His brochure says that you can get a free home diagnosis. What it does not say is that you get your “free home diagnosis” by checking a few boxes on a post card and mailing it in. Gilbert Ross, M.D., ACSH's Medical Director, says of this process: “This offer is grossly mercantile and potentially dangerous. For one thing, it could delay a sick person's seeking bona fide medical attention. And there can't be much that is personal—or medically useful—about sending a report to someone about whom you know little more than what he or she has jotted concerning just one health problem.” I put Julian Whitaker in the same category as Sylvester Stallone’s mother who can tell your future by looking at your butt cheeks. Some people have called her a “rumpologist” but I prefer to call her “The Butt Whisperer”.

His anti-aging treatment is based on taking Human Growth Hormone. (This is dangerous and I am running out of ways to call this guy a stupid poopoo head.) The FDA is vehemently against taking HGH except for VERY specific medical conditions. It is not for people who want to stop aging. Eli Lilly & Co. and Genentech Inc. produce HGH in the U.S. and say it should not be used to stop or slow aging (which is unstoppable). Then again, if Chuck Norris can count to infinity (twice), then I suppose Whitaker could stop the unstoppable. The Wall Street Journal reported a U.S. manufacturer of HGH as saying, “At the dosage levels you have to go to [to] get helpful anti-aging effects, [HGH] runs amok on side effects.” No one should be surprised then that Human Growth hormone is HIGHLY restricted in the U.S. and can only be sold to pediatric endocrinologists. Don’t worry though. Doctor Whitaker has found a way around this. He has his HGH imported from Mexico. The founder of the company he works through has no medical training and in fact dropped out of high school.

In 2001 he sued the FDA for not allowing him to claim his herbal supplements cure cancer. (I wonder why not?) The FDA refused to evaluate the [anticancer] claim even though his proposed labels had a million disclaimers. Apparently they do not have time to investigate every crackpot claim that is submitted to them. Whitaker uses this as evidence that there is a conspiracy against him.

In 1995 he was charged with chelation therapy abuses. (Meaning he was performing it in ways considered unsafe, or using it for diagnoses that were inappropriate.) He claimed other doctors don’t do the same thing because they don’t make enough money at it. (Besides being dangerous, and possibly illegal) He seems to have forgotten that he made over $300,000 in 1995 doing this therapy. Poor guy just can’t make any money at it.

His medical studies are HORRIBLE. They are not scientific. They are a joke to actual scientists. The “evidence” Healing Miracles (his lame publication) presents as evidence: anecdotes, testimonials from individuals, allusions to studies, and oversimplified, non-contextualized exaggerations of handpicked findings from other people’s scientific research. Not to worry, his is not completely lazy. He has done studies. Let’s discuss one. It was a study on sexual function (let’s keep it PG) and the study involved one couple. (Big Study!) The proof that Whitaker's hocus pocus treatment worked is that the subject's wife rated him “a sexual 11” on a scale of 1 to 10. This evidence is indisputable proof.

As support for Whitaker’s claims, he points out that he has the support of two time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling Ph.D. That is really something! He won the Nobel Prize twice in chemistry! Twice! And if I recall correctly, he is one of the only people to win a Nobel Prize in chemistry that was not shared with other people. That is pretty impressive. Although, I should point out that winning a Nobel Prize does not make a person infallible. Linus Pauling also claimed to have discovered methods to cure cancers using vitamin C. That is a strong endorsement from a Nobel Prize winning chemist! Well you can flush all that down the toilet because both Linus Pauling and his wife died of cancer.

I close with a personal comment and then a quote.

A personal comment. “I hate your stinking guts. You make me vomit. You are scum between my toes!"

Saul Green, Ph.D., biochemist and immunologist with 23 years of experience as a cancer researcher said, “Whatever the case may be, patients who need nonpartisan advice should not expect to get it from Whitaker. Whitaker is smart. He knows what the public wants. He knows what scared patients want. With catchphrases and antiestablishment rhetoric, he tells the public what it wants to hear about health, aging, and cures.”

MY Input:

"He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions." (Psalm 107:20