There is a story running around on the intertubes which I am blogging about just to increase the Streisand effect, not because this has much of anything to do with nitric oxide. Check out the whole scoop at the Quackometer (a site I highly recommend for the quackometer).
Doctor's Data has sued Dr Stephen Barrett of QuackWatch for a bunch of stuff, mostly for pointing out that Doctor's Data is facilitating the exploitation of parents of children with autism by participating in the bogus testing of urine for heavy metals including mercury. I happen to share Dr Stephen Barrett's opinion that this is fraudulent behavior on the part of Doctor's Data.
What reinforces my opinion that Doctor's Data is engaging in fraudulent behavior is that they object to posts by Dr Stephen Barrett that are only reports of individuals suing Doctor's Data for fraud.
I think the description of Doctor's Data use of chelation provoked urine tests for mercury by Quackwatch is accurate and does describe actual fraudulent behavior by Doctor's Data.
Unnecessary chelation is harmful, and does cause intellectual declines in experimental animals. There is zero evidence that mercury is involved in autism, much evidence that mercury is not involved in autism, no evidence that chelation helps autism symptoms. It is pure quackery.
I recommend that everyone go to Quackwatch and donate to help defeat the forces of darkness, now epitomized by Doctor's Data.
18 comments:
Hi Daedalus2u
Your theory on low NO in CFS / Autism is very interesting; if possible, I would like to fire a few questions on this subject.
My email is: ?@inbox.com, where ? represents the name of a Hellenic historical figure, 11 letters beginning with H, who is considered the Father of Medicine.
IF you could be so kind as to email me.
While your ideas about low NO seem very much on target, I cannot understand your depreciation of the role that mercury and/or other heavy metals play, too. Here is what happens to a nerve in the presence of mercury:
http://movies.commons.ucalgary.ca/mercury/
and mercury is blamed for impared brain functionng in children in this statement by the Harvard School of Public Health: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/5803.php
If chelation increases the body's excretion of heavy metals such as mercury, what is wrong with that? Sounds like a good idea to me.
If you have read what I have written on it.
http://daedalus2u.blogspot.com/2007/03/discussion-of-false-mercury-causes.html
You would know why the "mercury causes autism" idea is complete bs. Mercury is toxic, no one has said it is good for people. But it doesn't cause autism.
Chelation is not without adverse side effects. Treating rats with chelation causes long term neurological problems.
Is there any basis for chelating children to remove the microscopic quantities of mercury they have? No, there isn't.
Doctor's data is scamming naive parents into wasting lots of money on chelation while injuring their children.
What they are doing is a scam and it hurts children.
Hello Daedalus - WRT your recent comment at SBM and the role of NO2 in diseases including asthma, I would be interested in learning more about your work. Reply by email greatly appreciated.
C, a paper that discusses the role of the bacteria I am working with in allergies is here
http://books.google.com/books?id=a3mwmXzpsjkC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA103#v=onepage&q&f=false
There is a discussion about your interest in NO and your approach to science etc. currently at Bad Science forums:
http://www.badscience.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16659&start=1100#p542895
You may wish to comment yourself
M, thanks for the heads up. I don't think I will respond there. It seems to be a no-win forum filled with people who's default is “I don't understand it therefore it must be wrong”.
You mentioned you've taken relaxin before. What was the dosage and justification? Thanks.
I have never taken relaxin. It is a peptide hormone like insulin but more related to pregnancy.
It is hard to imagine what it would be good for. It would have to be injected and I can't think of any reason to do so.
I would seriously doubt the qualifications of anyone who would prescribe it.
Ah. Thanks for the prompt reply. I attributed a commenter's post to your post. Apologies
You seem to grasp NO (with a theory I would argue that is a bit backwards), but it seems you have little understanding of methylation.
Heavy metals may not be a cause in these diseases, but they can be a consequence of the break down of the methylation cycle and low glutathione.
I feel you are trying to do good, but at the same time, it seems that you are on an unintentional misinformation campaign.
Anon 1:22. Ah no. Low glutathione and disrupted methylation are both secondary to low NO. It is low NO that is primary, what you are talking about are symptoms of low NO. You have to fix the low NO first, or the GSH, oxidative stress, methylation can never recover.
It is the quacks pushing chelation, supplemental GSH and handfuls of other supplements that are pushing disinformation.
That was the whole point of this post. Quacks using Doctor's Data and chelation challenge testing to defraud patients into using chelation and supplements.
Daedalus2u
I enjoy your comments to the extent that I read some blogs (eg NeuroLogica) I would not otherwise. I wonder if you would be open to a private discussion. Through personal experimentation (mainly dietary) I seem to have reversed some aging biomarkers. I am fairly certain of my observations but (very) dubious about the mechanisms and would appreciate some critical input. The gist of my experiments concerns control of microbes (periodontal, gut, connective tissue). Please note I lack a background to understand your NO hypothesis. By experiment, I have found slight benefits of not using soap or shampoo. If this is of interest, I have checked the “e-mail follow up box” with my comment so you may be able to obtain my e-mail address that way.
Best
Morris, I didn't get an email address that could be responded to.
what about hair analysis? do you also consider this bogus? As it is logical that metals find their way in to biological organisms from the polluted enviroment and then in turn exspress themselfs in the tissue of that organism.
Sites such as thi I see offering a valuable alternative service for people who often find their doctor is no interested in taking the time to investigate their symptoms.
http://www.novadetox.co.uk/acatalog/hair-mineral-analysis.html
Lee, the post is about looking at heavy metals in urine following chelation and then inferring that "toxic" levels of metals are present. This is clearly fraud. There is no data to support the idea that chelation provoked metals in urine are diagnostic of heavy metal poisoning.
If anyone suspects heavy metal poisoning, what they need is competent treatment by competent medical professionals who know what they are doing. Being scammed by quacks selling tests and treatments that are not needed is worse than useless, it is actually harmful.
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