There's Hope Yet

In a recent blog I spoke critically of Western Medicine.  Case in point.

In my daily pile of mail I have received another mailing from an outfit called City of Hope.  I have known about this outfit for 64 years.  They have been in business for 105 years.  Long known for their treatment for, and ‘research’ into, cancer, I note from their letter that they have expanded their operations to include treatment for, and ‘research’ into, diabetes.  To these sorts of outfits, ‘research’ always seems to mean research not into causes, and thus into possible prevention, but into drug treatment for the condition.  Else they would go out of business.  And they are not in business to go out of business.(1)

And synchronistically enough, I have also received in my daily digest another mailing from an outfit called the Sioux Nation Relief Fund,(2) whose mailing included a copy of their ‘2019 Member Newsbrief,’ the main story in which is about ‘Dialysis On The Rez,’ featuring the story of a Native American woman who lost a leg due to “complications from diabetes”.  Which condition apparently (from other mailings that I have received from other NA sources) is rampant on various reservations.  Where what goes on - the same as with us Other Americans - is to “help [them] manage their diabetes”.

It has all prompted me to go to my health bible, Adelle Davis’s ‘Let’s Get Well,’ and refresh my memory on knowledge about this condition, which information - to the public, from this source at least - is now some 53 years old.  Ah yes - here it is.  Under a whole chapter on Diabetes:  

“Insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, makes it possible for sugar (glucose) to enter the cells to be converted into energy or, if not needed immediately, to be changed into glycogen (body starch) or fat; and insulin is also necessary before stored fat can be used.  In diabetes the insulin supply becomes inadequate, presumably the result of a damaged pancreas.

“When too little vitamin B6 (pyridoxin) is obtained, an essential amino acid from complete proteins, tryptophane, is not used normally; instead it is changed into a substance known as xanthurenic acid.  If animals are deficient in vitamin B6, xanthurenic acid in the blood becomes so high that it damages the pancreas within 48 hours and diabetes is produced.  The blood sugar rises far above normal, and excessive sugar (glucose) spills into the urine…” etc. etc.

This information, as I say, was first published in 1966.  To the public.  The research that it was based on of course predated that time period.  So, for a good long while, they have known.  

‘They’.  Western medicine.

Go figure.

And I also note that the American Cancer Society, which raises oodles of money at least in part on their announced attempt to find ‘a cure for cancer,’ has a patent on a drug for the treatment of cancer.

As I say.

But hey -

there’s hope yet.

Although it will come from a different source.

And for a different reason.

P.S. And tryptophane, aka tryptophan, is a precursor to serotonin, the ‘feel-good’ neurotransmitter.  If tryptophan levels are lowered by this sort of biochemical process - i.e., the ‘for-want-of-a-nail’ consequences of low vitamin B6 levels - the serotonin levels are of necessity lowered.  But hey - Western medicine has all sorts of goodies to sell you for that sort of condition.  Many of which have terrible side effects.  Including murderous outcomes.  But that’s modern medicine for you…

     It is just as well that I didn’t go on with my medical-school ambitions.  I would never have fit into that paradigm, and would have wasted a lot of time and money finding that out.

  

—

footnotes:

(1) Not to deny the value of good palliative care.

   Different strokes for different folks.

(2) I say ‘another’ in these references because I have sent therm all requests to please take me off their mailing lists, for no longer having the discretionary income to continue to give them donations.  But many of these sorts of outfits seem not to be set up to respond in that manner, apparently leave it to their computer to tell them how many times a person on their mailing list has failed to respond to their numerous requests for donations.  But then, since I have found recently that many people in this country can no longer read writing, from not having been taught to read and write cursively, even if my notes to this effect were scanned by a human, that human may well not know what in hell - in a circle of hell - I had attempted to communicate with them anyway.  In these enlightened times.