Reply #66: Source? "70% of doctors do not get a flu shot"

[RoyGBiv]

Oh, it's Donald W. Miller who is the source, the same person who wrote the article and the same person who cites no actual study nor even an informal survey from which to derive this percentage.

So, we can pretty much discount that as meaningless. Seventy percent of which doctors? All doctors? Doctors he knows, doctors he's heard of, people with PhDs in parapsychology? Doctors who showed up at his basement meeting of cranks who somehow have maintained their licenses?

It's interesting. I ran a search of databses of every peer-reviewed medical and scientific publication I could find going back to 1997, including an entire database of alternative medicine journals, and I did not see Donald Miller's name once. Of course, I suppose this could just be part of the conspiracy, or maybe the databases were intentionally programmed to ignore searches for "Donald Miller." Damn those evil medical professionals and peer-review scam artists anyway ...

What I did find was the kernel of truth upon which Miller and others of his ilk base their fanciful, illogical theories. Studies have shown the efficacy of combinations of massive doses of vitamin supplements in reducing (not eliminating) the severity and length of an influenza infection. They have studied and noted the role of vitamins and minerals in the spread and treatment have several diseases, including HIV and cancer. None have called them cures or preventatives in and of themselves. They have noted their *role* in a treatment regimen. To quote an abstract of a representative article that combines the results of various studies into one theory:

"The article reports on the beneficial effects of vitamins in the duration and severity of influenza. It is stated that the vitamins fights the flu by boosting the body's immune response and by accelerating healing. It is pointed out that influenza epidemic could be prevented by learning how to use vitamin supplements. The most important vitamins include ascorbic acid, vitamin D, niacin and thiamine."

A sampling of articles cited by this article:

Cannell JJ et al. Epidemic influenza and vitamin D. Epidemiology and Infection. 2006. Dec;134(6):1129-40. Click here for access to full text paper.

Tavera-Mendoza LE, White JH. Cell defenses and the sunshine vitamin. Scientific American, November 2007, 62-72.

Lappe JM et al. Vitamin D and calcium supplementation reduces cancer risk: results of a randomized trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jun;85(6):1586-91.

Abbas S, et al. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and risk of postmenopausal breast cancer - results of a large case-control study. Carcinogenesis. 2008 Jan;29(1):93-9.

Freedman DM et al. Prospective study of serum vitamin D and cancer mortality in the United States. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2007. Nov 7;99(21):1594-602.

Kaiser JD et al. Micronutrient supplementation increases CD4 count in HIV-infected individuals on highly active antiretroviral therapy: A prospective, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, 2006. 42(5), 523-528. "Micronutrient supplementation can significantly improve CD4 cell count reconstitution in HIV-infected patients…"

Murray MF. Niacin as a potential AIDS preventive factor. Medical Hypotheses, 1999. 53(5), 375-379.

Murray MF, Langan M, MacGregor RR. Increased plasma tryptophan in HIV-infected patients treated with pharmacologic doses of nicotinamide. Nutrition (NY), 2001. 17(7/8), 654-656.

Murray MF. Treatment of retrovirus induced derangements with niacin compounds. The Foundation for Innovative Therapies, Inc., USA, 2006. 9 p. US 7012086.

Pero RW. A method for increasing tryptophan and nicotinamide levels in vivo, and therapeutic and monitoring methods. Lynpete Trading 6 Pty., Ltd. Trading as Genetic Health Enterprises, S. Afr. PCT Int. Appl. 2008, 73pp. WO 2008008837 A2 20080117

Cathcart RF. Vitamin C, titrating to bowel tolerance, anascorbemia, and acute induced scurvy. Med Hypotheses. 1981 Nov;7(11):1359-76. Free access to full text paper at http://www.doctoryourself.com/titration.html See also: Cathcart RF. The third face of vitamin C. Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, 7:4;197-200, 1993. Free access at http://www.orthomoleculartherapy.net/library/jom/1992/pdf/1992-v07n04-p197.pdf or http://www.doctoryourself.com/cathcart%5fthirdface.html Other Cathcart papers posted at www.orthomed.com and http://www.doctoryourself.com/biblio%5fcathcart.html.

Duconge J et al. Pharmacokinetics of vitamin C: insights into the oral and intravenous administration of ascorbate. PR Health Sciences Journal, 2008. 27:1, March.

Shoji, Shozo et al. Thiamine disulfide as a potent inhibitor of human immunodeficiency virus (type-1) production. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 1994. 205(1), 967-75. "The results suggest that thiamine disulfide may be important for AIDS chemotherapy."

Wallace AE, Weeks WB. Thiamine treatment of chronic hepatitis B infection. American Journal of Gastroenterology, 2001. 96(3), 864-868.

If one peruses those articles, one will note a few things. This is not prevention. It is supplementary treatment. The doses required are massive and are only tolerated by the body during viral outbreaks and can in fact be extremely detrimental to normal body functioning if maintained during periods of no infection. Mr. Miller's "theory" about the effects of the sun or lack thereof are idiotic and in fact ignore the results of the actual scientifically controlled studies he cites himself. Also, if one wants to use the "big profit conspiracy theory" argument in this, take a look at the profits of the so-called alternative medicine industry, the vitamin supplement industry, etc., much of which is controlled by the very same people who are in charge of "Big Pharma."

OnEdit: For the sake of fairness, I should note that each of the studies that shows the role of vitamin supplements in fighting diseases has a countervailing study.