This evening a friend of mine sent me an email allegedly from John (sic) Hopkins, making a series of radical claims in numbered paragraphs about the nature of cancer and alternatives to conventional tmedicine for its prevention and treatment. My friend had been sent the email by her father, an elderly prostate cancer survivor, who thought the article was genuine and very important.Now, whether you are into CAM/non conventional medicine or not, you have to agree that Johns Hopkins is a seriously heavyweight institution with some outstanding physicians involved in cutting edge research , especially in fields like cancer and HIV/AIDS. At any rate, they would be likely to be able to spell the name of their organization correctly. (Danger sign 1). IN fact, for anyone reasonably literate in cancer research or clinical oncology, every single paragraph in the scammy text of the email that purported to be from Hopkins read as though it were written by someone semi-literate not only in the basics of cancer  but also in english grammar… for example

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person’s lifetime.   

Hmmm - pretty fishy? Oh yes. A quick google search reveals tens of dozens of sites reproducing the so called email letter … but none of them link to any reputable source, including Johns Hopkins. But stroll over to Hopkins’ web site and lo and behold….the following denial is posted…Email Hoax Regarding CancerFrom receipt of email to establishment of its hoax provenance took me less than 5 minutes. The fascinating thing is how mindlessly different people propagate and circulate these kind of myths - to the point where copies are posted and reposted all over cyberspace until they take on a life of their own - and it happens so FAST! Food for thought huh.The (bodged) text of the original email that is still circulating is reproduced here: you can google the title anywhere…

AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY AND ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHN HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY . 1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a f ew billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to dete ct the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person’s lifetime.3. When the person’s immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.5 To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.8. Initial treatment with ch emotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size . However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply. CANCER CELLS FEED ON:a Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important foo d supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal,Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but o nly in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color. Better alternative is Bragg’s aminos or sea salt.b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastrointestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk cancer cells are being starved.c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruit help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of health y cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetable s 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).e. Avoid coffee, tea, a and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrefied and leads to more toxic build-up.13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body’s killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.14. Some supplements build up the im mune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body’s own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body’s normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted anted, or unneeded cells.15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, resentment, and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells. CANCER UPDATE FROM JOHN HOPKINS HOSPITAL , U S A < /SPAN>1. No plastic containers in micro.2. No water bottles in freezer.3. No plastic wrap in microwave.Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army < /FONT>Medical Center as well. Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially breast cancer.Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies.Don’t freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plast ic.Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital , was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us.. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers.This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else.Paper isn’t bad but you don’t know what is in t he paper. It’s just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nu ked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead. This is an article that should be sent to anyone important in your life.   

If anyone is still interested in the MLM zeolite scam perpetrated by Waiora and their volcanic wonder supplement scam called NCD, take note that Lifelink Pharmaceuticals Inc. who hold Dr Harvey Kauffman’s patent on the Zeolite product, is currently suing Waiora (and its phony scientist and chief plagiarist Dietsch) for patent infringement. The link to the case is here. What is going on is not clear at this stage, but we look forward to seeing the brown stuff fly before long….note that downline distributors are also being sued in the case. Perhaps Kauffman is irked about all the money they are making by phony cancer cure claims…meanwhile the famous “about to be published” case of all those terminal cancer patients miraculously being cured by zeolite (NCD) referred to in much of the Waiora downliner literature has yet to surface. Don’t hold your breath.

Why are we not surprised? Amgen and Johnson & Johnson, manufacturers of recombinant erythropoeitin drugs Aranesp, Epogen and Procrit which had combined sales of 10 billion dollars in 2006, have been exposed by the NYT as paying hundreds of millions to doctors, especially to cancer centers who prescribe the drugs all the time for chemotherapy induced anemia. Read the NYT story here. Amounts are not detailed, although one oncology practice with 6 physicians in the Pacific Northwest received $2.7 million from Amgen for prescribing $9 million dollars worth of its drugs last year. At the same time there are new concerns that these drugs are potentially more dangerous than previously thought, and the FDA is looking into whether they are overused.

Meanwhile, cancer patients mostly are aware that these “legal” kick backs are actually widespread, and chemotherapy drugs used by oncologists are one of the biggest sources of income for cancer centers, along with imaging. In other words, there is every financial incentive for mainstream oncology to prescribe as much toxic chemotherapy and carcinogenic imaging/scanning as possible, because it is quite simply their major income stream.

Fortunately the zeolilte zombies have been giving me a wide berth these days: the “science heavies” from Waiora who contacted HERBLOG threatening to set me straight about the science of my challenges to their rubbish literature in person never materialized. Pity. However, in the MLM universe it appears that zeolite is continuing to mint money for its upliners and dupe its gullible downliners. There’s one born every minute as they say. Today we received an interesting note from an editor of “LITMUSZINE” an informed but informal science on-line zine with the first of a feature series on the zeolite scam. Author Jake Reimer ruthlessly debunks the so called credentials of Rik Deitsch, Waiora’s so called chief scientific advisor who authored the shabby “Scientific Research Document” that purports to underpin the science of zeolite as a cure-all. Read the article here. But particulalry amusing is a neat pdf file from Reimer showing Dietsch’s document side by side with abstracts of articles which he literally cut and pasted to “write” his article. Read the pdf here.
Now there is nothing wrong with quoting another author’s conclusions or discussions, providing you clearly do so with attributions, but this is simple plagiarism. And the intent is clearly to fool the lay reader into thinking that the author knows what he is talking about - which he clearly does not - as was pointed out in many earlier HERBLOG posts. So Dietsch tries to bamboozle his cohorts not just about his non-existent scientific credentials, but he plagiarizes abstracts while claiming he is writing a scientific monograph.
Chief scientific advisor? You pays yer money and makes yer choice… (more…)

That’s right. Essiac, at least in its promotional aspect, is a scam. Sure, a couple of the herbs contain compounds that have anti-cancer activity in vitro, ( so do all berries - so what) but to imagine that a tea blend is going to deal with advanced malignancy is delusional. Its really time that herbalists stopped tacitly promoting the stuff and got on with the job of meeting challenging diagnoses with the best botanical tools available rather than promoting misconceptions about this uninteresting and unproven formula.

Trial of Essiac to Ascertain Its Effect in Women with Breast Cancer (TEA-BC).:
Zick SM, Sen A, Feng Y, Green J, Olatunde S, Boon HJ Altern Complement Med. 2006 Dec;12(10):971-80

Background: Breast cancer is a major cause of morbidity, mortality, and medical expenditures among women in Canada. Essiac (Resperintrade mark Canada Limited, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada), a blend of at least four herbs (burdock root [Arctium lappa], Indian rhubarb [Rheum palmatum], sheep sorrel [Rumex acetosella], and the inner bark of slippery elm [Ulmus fulva or U. rubra]), has become one of the more popular herbal remedies for breast-cancer treatment, secondary prevention, improving quality of life, and controlling negative side-effects of conventional breast-cancer treatment. Objectives: Our primary objective was to determine the difference in health-related quality of life (HR-QOL), as assessed by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Breast Cancer Version, between women who are new Essiac users (since breast cancer diagnosis) and those who have never used Essiac. Secondary endpoints included differences in depression, anxiety, fatigue, rate of adverse events, and prevalence of complications or benefits associated with Essiac during standard breast-cancer treatment. Additionally, we described the pattern of use of Essiac in this cohort of women. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study in 510 women, randomly chosen from the Ontario Cancer Tumour Registry, with a diagnosis of primary breast cancer in 2003. Results: With the exception changes in a Physical well-being subscale and a relationship with doctor subscale, Essiac did not have a significant effect on HR-QOL or mood states. Even for Physical well-being and relationship with doctor, Essiac seemed to have a negative effect, with Essiac users doing worse than the non-Essiac users. This might be attributed to the fact that the group of users comprised younger women with more advanced stages of breast cancer, and both of these subgroups of patients have been shown to be at a significantly increased risk for negative mood states and/or a decreased sense of well-being. The women were taking low doses (total daily dose 43.6 +/- 30.8 mL) of Essiac that corresponded to the label directions found on most Essiac products. Friends were the most common source of information, and most women were taking Essiac to boost their immune systems or increase their chances of survival. Only 2 women reported minor adverse events, whereas numerous women reported beneficial effects of Essiac. Conclusions: Essiac does not appear to improve HR-QOL or mood states. Future studies are needed to determine whether other clinical outcomes, such as cancer reoccurrence, are affected by Essiac.

PMID: 17212569 [PubMed - in process]

Well well well. Today HERBLOG was contacted by a couple of rather serious zeolite upliners. It seems that there is some unhappiness in the zeolite upper echelons about HERBLOG posts regarding fraudulent cancer claims made by the downline distributers of the MLM product NATURAL CELLULAR DEFENCE. Two very concerned and apparently well-credentialed gentlemen contacted our clinic demanding that our front desk put them through to your BLOGMASTER because they wanted to correct the misinformation posted here on HERBLOG about zeolites.

It appears that, despite the claims made by their distributors, that the top people at Waiora are very concerned (so they tell me) about the links between NCD and cancer cure claims that are currently running amok in the MLM world. So they should be. If the FDA gets a whiff of this, they know full well they will be in big trouble - false cancer cure claims tend to be too much even for the overworked, understaffed and generally ineffective FDA and if NCD is investigated that just might threaten a lucrative business for the ground floor upline people - who profit most from the MLM system.

Of course, it is a little unfortunate for them that the original US patent for zeolite relates to its claimed ability to treat “epithelial” cancer. And even more unfortunate that a document being circulated by ignorant downline distributors which is a so-called “white paper” entitled “scientific research document” by company scientist Rik J Dietsch makes frequent references to the properties of zeolite in relation to certain aspects of cancer biology. Hmmm. Not a lot of wiggle room here. Of course the downline zombies zealots lackeys distributors who are scientifically and medically illiterate, and are primarily motivated like all MLMers by personal greed and gain, cannot begin to understand that the aforementioned document is a cosmetic exercise entirely lacking any evidence about the effect of the NCD product in humans at all. The upline people who phoned me did not voluntarily disclose their financial interest, and when it became clear that our telephone messengers could not, despite their apparent elevation in the hierarchy, answer the most elementary scientific questions about the NCD product, they hastily concluded the call suggesting that I should talk to none other than Rick Dietsch himself. No problem i said, have his people call my people.
Let us be clear here. In relation to cancer, zeolite belongs in the same category as mangosteen, juice plus, noni, and all the other fad products that are marketed largely on the basis of financially interested “distributors” who have no clinical, scientific, or natural product training or expertise but who have vested interest in product promotion. These are not proven therapeutic agents - period. I have no complaint about MLM or any product sold via MLM, as long as it is washing powder or water filters etc. among consenting adults. When it comes to exploiting the vulnerability of patients with cancer diagnoses on the basis of hokey science and fraudulent cure claims (and many of our clinic cancer patients have been forcefully approached in this way) then there is, methinks, a problem. In particular, once an MLM “scam” is rolling, the upline can claim that they do not promote cancer cure, but meanwhile, uncontrollable downline zealots are doing the dirty work for them.

If Mr Rik Dietsch of Waiora indeed communicates with HERBLOG, y’all will be the first to know. Stay tuned.

One of the more scurrulous documents circulating in support of zeolite anticancer purports at least to be authored by new-age-spiritual-psych-MD-global peace-visionary-notforprofit-rabbi Gabriel Cousens. Cousens is by pure coincidence listed as “number one enroller” (upline) on the Waiora MLM web site. er….smell a rat? This rubbishy document, used by zeolite zealots to promote their product Natural Cellular Defense (sic) , implies that research scientists under the aegis of “NDA consulting” and “Waiora Scientific Advisory Board” led by Rik Deitsch (see below) have …

“discovered in zeolites one of the most potent natural preventatives and perhaps even treatments for cancer.”
Serious stuff huh. It goes on in the next paragraph to say that in a completed study…

“of 65 terminal stage cancer patients , sent home to die, 51 or 78% of these patients experienced complete remissions. It appears to be effective for all forms of cancer, leukemias and lymphomas”

Despite the hokey language and extremity of the claim, which is clearly more than a little ’suspicious’, this is clearly intended to imply that a real study has been done on real cancer patients with the product which cured them of their incurable disease. Absolutely no details of this “study” are provided - who did it, who the patients were, what their diagnoses were, what their treatment was etc etc. Nothing. There is no study to be found by searching available medical literature inlcuding MEDLINE or CANCERLIT at this time relating to any cancer patients and zeolites.

The zeolite “patent”documents record that when zeolite powder was applied superficially on a few dogs with skin lesions, or injected directly into tumors, the results were unremarkable. In fact meaningful details are not given (as is usual in patents) and the claims therein are unevaluable from any rigorous point of view, but interestingly the words “mammalian patients”are used to refer to these test subjects in the patent claim.

If there is such a study, it would behove the MLM upline of Waiora et al to publish the details PDQ before their distributors get carted off to jail for making fraudulent anticancer claims. The Cousens document containing these claims lists www.mywaiora.com as the contact website. That web site itself makes no claims about cancer of course, but does introduce us again to Rik Deitsch who authored another document circulated by the zeolites: a so called “white paper” which attempts to present a scientific spin on the whole subject of zeolites and their unique medical properties. Deitsch is apparently a chemistry graduate who is described as an “adjunct professor” at Atlantic Florida University in the dept of continuing business education. Not according to that university’s web site, where there is no trace of him. Deitsch is also listed as CEO of Nutra Pharm corporation whose web site by coincidence looks suspiciously like that of waiora ( or vice versa). Anyway, maybe the downliner zealots should look into this obvious facade of pseudo-scientific respectability and Mr Deitsch’s credentials before they push their MLM product and make anticancer claims based on these phony “authorities” and their junk white papers with fabricated study claims about cancer cures.

We just may go into details of this so called “white paper” later, but right now, enough already.

While the zeolite zealots are exhorting their MLM downline dummies to consume inorganic aluminum /silicon salts to cure everything from cancer to chronic fatigue, disturbing new evidence about the possible effects of aluminum salt cosmetic ingredients in breast cancer has been published out of Reading University UK.

It has long been known that many breast cancers occur in the UOQ area of the breast. This led to the suspicion that organic chemicals in underarm deodorants may act as endocrine disrupters and promote breast cancer by affecting estrogen receptors. Most endocrine disrupting carcinogens are organic compounds including parabens, the commonest preservative additive in cosmetics. The Reading research shows that aluminum salts, (common excipient ingredients in deodorants) belong to the expanding group of metallic elements that are capable of modulating estrogen effects both by direct binding to estrogen receptors and by affecting estrogen regulated gene expression in MCF7 breasts cancer cells.

As my favorite Oregon herbalist Cascade Anderson Geller used to say, if you wouldn’t spread it on your toast, don’t spread it on your skin. Surface absorption is rapid, efficient, and by-passes the liver. Aluminium salts in cosmetics are no exception. As for zeolites - ‘nuff said.

Darbre PD. Aluminium, antiperspirants and breast cancer. J Inorg Biochem 2005;99:1912-1919.

Darbre PD. Metalloestrogens: an emerging class of inorganic xenoestrogens with potential to add to the oestrogenic burden of the human breast. J Appl Toxicol 2006.

It seems that the Zeolite MLM people are just getting more persistent. We have already pointed out that this material in its fibrous form is associated with serious carcinogenicity (mesothelioma). Quite puzzling for a material that is supposed to be the latest miracle cure for cancer, but zealots don’t usually worry about bothersome details; in fact both zeolite distributors who approached our clinic demanding audience were blissfully unaware of the fact at all. As mentioned before, the main real world use of the stuff is as a cheap throw away substitute for activated charcoal in removing toxic metals from industrial waste water in third world countries that cannot afford the superior efficacy of charcoal due to its expensive recycling costs. The main ingredients are inorganic (it is ground up volcanic ash) principally aluminium and silicon; both these elements are associated with significant toxicity in humans.

The zeolite zealots are claiming all sorts of magical anticancer properties for zeolites based on a composite paper by 15 authors from Zagreb published in 2001. Before going into the paper, the initial question that should be asked by anyone taking zeolite as an oral medicine is – are zeolites absorbed following oral ingestion? The likelihood is, as with most mud, charcoal, clay etc, that internal ABSORPTION of the stuff is minimal. Even earthworms, adept at extracting soil nutrients, poop mud out. Charcoal and clay are both administered clinically in humans by mouth to ADSORB poisons from the gut, and are completely eliminated without being absorbed into the body at all.

No figures are available at all for the absorption of the zeolite material in animals or humans. The toxicology “studies” in the Croation paper gave rats a diet enriched with zeolite for months but if the stuff is 100% pooped out that hardly establishes lack of toxicity merely lack of absorption. No toxicity studies were done on injecting the animals to obtain the massive concentrations used in the in vitro cell line studies. The underwhelming in vitro cell line study results of zeolite were only observed at high concentrations (50mg/mL) studies. Apparently the tests at 0.5 mg/mL and 5.0 mg/mL were without effect. How could these concentrations possibly be achieved by oral dosing of zeolite? The answer is obvious – they can’t. The zeolite zealots having undergone a religious conversion experience are focussed on downline and the pot of gold at the end of the downline rainbow, and are apprently unconcerned with mundane biological realities. The bottom line is, zeolite is likely not absorbed at all. (If it was you would likely be in trouble from aluminum or silicon toxicity.) Either way, meaningful data establishing absorption levels or toxicity is unavailable.

To be continued.

Watchout for “zeolite”. Zeolite is being touted as the latest MLM snake oil… at least down here in Southern Oregon where due to high unemployment and a high proportion of gullible wealthy folk there are lot of people involved in pushing MLM health products from Rain Forest Herbs to “glyconutrients” and stem cell supplements.

I was asked by a patient whether they should take zeolite ( a “volcanic” mineral complex) for their malignancy. A quick down dirty MEDLINE search revealed that zeolite, unlike most MLM scams has hundreds of studies relating to cancer. OOops! I thought for a split second as the downloads started coming that I had been mistaken. Until I started reading them - they are all about how zeolite CAUSES cancer!!

Not only does zeolite cause cancer, it causes pleural mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is the most deadly and almost untreatable form of lung cancer known, and is associated with exposure to asbestos and silicon fiber. The form of zeolite that causes meothelioma is fibrous, and is not the powdered crystal form pushed by the MLMers. But they have been told by their “UPLINE” marketors that zeolite cures cancer (among other things). Like babes in arms the new recruits sally forth promoting a “cancer cure” that causes mesothelioma. Well, ok the “fibrous” form causes mesothelioma not the powdered product. So would you eat ground up asbestos rather than inhale the fiber form? At least have a sales-chat line ready to explain away the embarrassing facts of the carcinogenic properties of the material to people who are not complete morons.

Now, I believe in the inalienable constitutional right of the American citizenry to inflict self abuse by any means, whether high velocity automatic weapons or MLM products. At least as consenting adults in private. What is objectionable is touting them as snake oil cure-alls to people with a cancer diagnosis. And especially my patients.

A single Croatian lab has recently put out TWO lame studies claiming limited antioxidant and anticancer effects for this material. The studies are so underwhelming that one wonders how they were even financed. Half a clove of garlic probably has more anticancer effects than a volcano full of zeolite, and is a lot better for your lungs too. Hmmm. What else is zeolite used for? Well as a silicate based mineral complex (= mud) it has physical adsorbent properties - a little like charcoal or bentonite clay. It can therefore complex certain metal ions, and has been used in industrial animal husbandry (=factory farming) for these purposes. Needless to say, that makes it a miracle “detox”agent - and detox = “cancer cure”.
Caveat emptor!