Dear Friends:

Bill Faloon, Editor and founder of the Life Extension Foundation has accurate and astute perceptions on government bureaucracies and failure to protect the citizenry from unscrupulous manufacturers endangering lives and in many cases ending the lives of unsuspecting victims.

 

CBS News enables FDA to Deceive Public, by William Faloon

If you watched CBS News 60 Minutes this week, you witnessed the kind of misleading reporting that enables federal agencies to gain unbridled power.

60 Minutes accurately told the story of an unscrupulous manufacturer of contaminated drugs that caused 48 deaths and over 700 serious illnesses.

60 Minutes omitted the fact that the FDA knew about this disaster-waiting-to-happen as far back as 2002, but failed to stop it until Americans started dying in 2012.

FDA officials were given free rein on national TV to blame this tragedy on a lack of regulatory authority. As you'll read here, the fault instead lies with bureaucratic incompetence at the hands of the FDA and the state pharmacy board that permitted these lethal deviations in good manufacturing practices to occur.

Particularly appalling is the FDA's inability to recognize that manufacturing as many as 17,000 vials of a drug all at once under filthy conditions was a far cry from compounding one drug at a time in a sterile environment.

The contamination problem, however, is not isolated to one bad drug maker. It turns out that these kinds of safely violations were routine at drug factories that the FDA had certified as being safe.

Instead of blaming the FDA for ignoring this lethal problem, CBS News let FDA officials blame Congress for not giving the FDA more regulatory power over pharmacies.

The FDA pretends to protect the public against contaminated drugs. The sordid facts reveal an agency incapable of acting in a logical manner, and when the FDA does something "after the fact," they often create worse problems.

Such is the case of a pharmaceutical manufacturer that made contaminated injectable drugs that have killed 48 and sickened over 700 Americans. The FDA identified problems with this manufacturer as early as 2002, but dropped the ball into a state pharmacy board's lap that failed to act. The FDA again identified dangerous problems in 2006, but once more failed to take actions other than send a "warning letter." The FDA now claims it needs more power and money to do its job.

This same unscrupulous drug manufacturer was the focus of a 60 Minutes broadcast on March 10, 2013.

What the FDA does not want the public to know is that the reason this shady manufacturer was able to take over such a significant part of the market is that FDA actions caused other companies to stop making certain injectable drugs.

CBS News ignored House and Senate investigations that documented the FDA's egregious failings in this matter. CBS instead allowed the FDA to blame this catastrophe on lack of regulatory authority over compounding pharmacies.

U.S. drug factories in 'terrible shape'

Here's how the New York Times described conditions inside FDA-registered drug factories:

"Weevils floating in vials of heparin. Morphine cartridges that contain up to twice the labeled dose. Manufacturing plants with rusty tools, mold in production areas and — in one memorable case — a barrel of urine."

The New York Times emphasized that these were not reports about the injectable drug maker that caused dozens to die from fungal meningitis. These quality lapses were found at large drug companies whose names are familiar to many Americans.

When these problems were discovered, the FDA sent out "warnings" to these companies. Instead of fixing the problems, many of these drug makers decided it was cheaper to simply discontinue making the drug(s). The result was severe shortages of the drugs cited by the FDA. This opened up the market for disreputable companies to make these drugs, who did so under the same kind of abysmal conditions the FDA found at large drug factories.

The FDA would like to take credit for stopping these problems, but in certain cases, it was people working at the drug factories that came forward to complain about unsanitary manufacturing conditions, or people dying from contaminated drugs that prompted FDA action.

The sad fact is that some drug companies are so greedy they will not stop their highly profitable assembly lines to perform even the most rudimentary sterilizing procedures.

Contaminated injectable drugs

Fungal meningitis causes inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord that result in dreadful sickness and sometimes death.

A drug factory made large quantities of a steroid (methylprednisolone) that was injected into the joints and spines of aging humans in chronic pain. It provided immediate but temporary relief.

The problem was this drug was contaminated with a black fungus that easily infected those who were injected with it. Since injectable drugs bypass the natural barriers afforded by an intact digestive/immune system, they have to be manufactured and maintained in a sterile environment to avoid killing patients.

FDA inspections in 2002 and 2006 revealed injectable drugs being made under substandard (non-sterile) conditions. It was not until hundreds fell ill and scores died that the FDA took meaningful action (in 2012).

How the FDA bungled investigation

The name of the company that made the fungus-laced injectable drug is New England Compounding Center (NECC). It pretended to be a compounding pharmacy, but instead functioned as a large drug factory.

The FDA claims that it lacks adequate regulatory authority over compounding pharmacies, but the FDA's inspection of NECC in year 2002 revealed problems with record keeping, sterility, and other issues. That same year the FDA informed the Massachusetts State Board of Pharmacy of an adverse reaction to methylprednisolone, which is the same drug that in 2012 caused the fungal-meningitis outbreak.

Had the FDA done their job back in 2002, they would have forced NECC to register as a drug manufacturer and subjected NECC to stricter regulatory oversight, which may not have prevented the problems since FDA-registered drug makers were later found to have similar unsanitary facilities.

The FDA and Massachusetts State Pharmacy Board's most blatant failure in this matter was to uncover horrific conditions inside NECC … and take no practical steps to enforce safety compliance before tragedy struck.

Good Manufacturing Practices overlooked

According to Massachusetts state regulators, the NECC drug factory failed to sterilize injectable drugs, something that is mandatory for a substance that is going to be injected into the body.

NECC did not keep manufacturing equipment clean, operated a leaky boiler near the "clean room" where injectable drugs were packaged, and shipped products before receiving test results showing the products were sterile, which violates good manufacturing guidelines.

In addition, NECC did not test the manufacturing equipment used to sterilize injectable drugs on a timely basis.

The result of a multitude of quality lapses was injectable vials that contained black matter inside, which turned out to be the fungus that caused 48 deaths.

FDA inspects after catastrophe

After hundreds had fallen ill from fungal meningitis, the FDA conducted a thorough inspection of NECC's drug factory.

The FDA's report cited greenish-yellowish discoloration on sterilization equipment and non-sterile raw ingredients. The FDA found that 25% of supposedly sterile vials were contaminated with greenish-black foreign matter and that 100% of these vials sent for analysis contained fungus.

The FDA noted that NECC was unable to provide documentation that its steam autoclave devices were capable of achieving product sterility, a critical factor when making injectable drugs. In fact, FDA inspectors found greenish-yellow discoloration inside the one cleaning autoclave and a tarnished discoloration inside another.

NECC turned off its air conditioning in "clean rooms" from 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m., which is improper because failing to keep clean rooms at low temperature and low humidity provides a fertile environment for fungal growth.

Particularly troubling in the FDA report was documentation that NECC had found microbial contamination, but did not enact cleanliness procedures to neutralize this lethal threat.

Furthermore, "clean rooms" used to make injectable drugs had been identified by NECC's own staff as detecting bacteria and molds in January 2012, but the FDA could find no evidence that the company acted to fix these lethal problems.

The FDA's belated inspection of NECC did nothing to prevent the suffering and death of hundreds of victims who contracted fungal infections from contaminated vials of methylprednisolone injected into their spines and joints.

Congress cites FDA failure

The House and Senate held oversight hearings on the NECC tragedy that sickened over 700 and killed 48 people.

Congress wanted to know why the FDA didn't do more to prevent the production and sale of the tainted steroids.

As anticipated, the FDA claimed that it didn't have enough authority to regulate pharmacies that compound drugs. FDA Commissioner (Margaret Hamburg, M.D.) warned that if Congress doesn't strengthen legislation, another similar tragedy is inevitable. Dr. Hamburg stated before the House committee:

"If we fail to act, this type of incident will happen again. It is a matter of when, not if."

What Dr. Hamburg may not have expected was irrefutable documentation that the FDA and the Massachusetts State Board of Pharmacy both repeatedly visited NECC and found problems, but the strongest action the FDA took was the issuance of a warning letter in 2006.

In response to Dr. Hamburg claiming the FDA needed more "authority," one representative responded:

"We're just not buying it, doctor "… "You lack the authority to do anything, yet you send a letter like this? " (In reference to the FDA 2006 Warning Letter).

This warning letter documented numerous violations of existing rules the FDA found in 2006, yet the FDA failed to take action until citizens started dying.

House members repeatedly berated regulators who failed to prevent the fungal meningitis outbreak, stating the FDA and Massachusetts state regulators both knew as far back as 2002 that there were problems at NECC, which distributed tens of thousands of doses of contaminated steroids.

Dr. Hamburg was lambasted by House Committee members who stated:

"This is a complete and utter failure on the part of your agency."

"This is one of the worst public health disasters ever caused by a contaminated drug in this country."

"After a tragedy like this the first question we all ask is 'Could this have been prevented?' After an examination of documents produced by the Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the answer here appears to be, 'Yes'."

"You can take a regulator to a problem but you can't make him regulate."

"It's an absolute tragedy without any question that 32 people have died."

Other House members came to Dr. Hamburg's defense, arguing that a solution needed to be found instead of seeking to "prosecute the Food and Drug Administration."

Senate more harshly critical of FDA

The day after the House hearing where the FDA asked for more authority, a bipartisan staff of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee issued a report detailing how federal and state regulators knew nearly a decade ago of serious safety concerns with the NECC tied to hundreds of meningitis cases, but failed to act decisively. The report concluded that "bureaucratic inertia appears to be what allowed a bad actor to repeatedly risk public health."

While acknowledging the lack of clarity in what the FDA's role should be in regulating compounding pharmacies, the Senate cited plenty of evidence that the FDA should have taken action against NECC, which clearly was functioning as a drug factory.

The Senate investigators wrote, "Both federal and state regulators were well aware that NECC and its owners posed a risk to the public health" and "repeatedly failed to demonstrate that the company could safely compound sterile products."

One senator told of an elderly patient from her state whose mouth had become infiltrated with mold that "she had to be swabbed free of black fungal matter before she died."

The Senate report uncovered an internal FDA memo in 2003 that concluded there was "potential for serious public health consequences if NECC's compounding practices, in particular those relating to specific sterile products, are not improved."

The Senate confirmed that NECC-produced methylprednisolone "had previously been a suspected cause of at least two cases with bacterial meningitis-like symptoms" in 2002, leading to an FDA inspection … with no meaningful action taken.

Most senators expressed skepticism that the FDA could effectively use widened authority under any new law, one stating "the FDA has failed to use its existing authority," with another stating, "This has been going on since 2002 … It took all this time, and nobody did anything."

Regrettably, some senators still believe that giving the FDA more tax dollars will solve these issues of bureaucratic incompetence and mismanagement.

At the Senate hearing, FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg conceded:

"Perhaps we should have been more aggressive," referring to the FDA's failure to inspect NECC and follow up on the 2006 warning letter. "There was a lot of debate within the agency about whether to proceed."

Senators repeatedly questioned the FDA's sending NECC a warning letter in 2006 and a letter in 2008 saying that it planned to inspect, but not following through until after the fungal meningitis outbreak occurred in late 2012.

What Congress overlooked

What was not discussed in congressional hearings was the FDA's history of abusing and misusing whatever authority that Congress gave it.

For example, when the FDA first discovered problems at NECC (in 2002), it chose to direct its limited resources to prosecuting a man named Jay Kimball who sold a drug (liquid deprenyl) that harmed no one.

In 2006, while FDA did not think it needed to stop NECC's lethal manufacturing practices, it somehow found the time to censor claims by cherry growers that cited scientific studies on their website showing cherries conferred health benefits.

What few understand is how the FDA has abused its authority in a discriminatory manner. The new "authority" the FDA is seeking would enable the agency to pick out small, well-run compounding pharmacies and regulate them out of business using minor technical arguments that have no bearing on safety.

How much more FDA failure will Americans tolerate?

In 1906, a book called "The Jungle" was published that described appalling conditions inside America's meat packing industry. The revelations in this book resulted in the establishment of federal laws that mandated standards of strength, purity and quality of foods and drugs.

Conditions inside some of America's drug factories are eerily similar to those described in "The Jungle," yet the FDA has been around for more than 100 years! How much longer is the public expected to wait before the FDA effectively spends its $4 billion annual budget on real consumer protection, as opposed to threatening walnut and cherry growers for claiming health benefits for their foods?

No matter how many times the FDA fails to protect consumers against contaminated drugs, there are no calls for meaningful reform.

Instead of recognizing FDA ineptitude, cries ring out to give the FDA more money and power … as Americans perish from contaminated drugs the FDA should have stopped.

No free market!

What the public doesn't yet understand is that contaminated drugs are the result of draconian regulations that limit free market competition. By restricting drug factories to only those overseen by incompetent bureaucrats, the inevitable result will be shortages, poor quality and high prices.

One of the challenges in dealing with the NECC catastrophe is that there may be new shortages of injectable drugs because there are not enough drug factories in the U.S. to meet patient demand. Shortages create opportunities for unsavory companies to dump even greater amounts of overpriced and contaminated drugs into the bodies of unsuspecting victims.

This kind of problem would not continue in a free market, but ever-increasing regulations are exacerbating the problems of drug shortages, deadly manufacturing practices, and obscenely high prices.

We will re-publish this response to the FDA's deceptive tactics aired last night on 60 Minutes in greater detail later this year in Life Extension Magazine®.

I thought it critical to alert members immediately about this misleading propaganda as it may influence policy makers into giving the FDA more authority. The facts clearly show that the FDA failed to use the power it already has to stop contaminated drugs from poisoning the American public.

 

Sincerely,

 

Suzanne Somers

 

 

 

 

Dear Friends:

 

My dear friend, doctor and teacher, Dr. Jonathan Wright is wrongly under attack again. This Harvard twin major, western trained doctor is a staunch advocate of natural medicine using "nature's tools" (his quote) resorting to pharmaceuticals only when absolutely necessary. We need his voice, his expertise in a world of toxicity and a maze of pharmaceutical pills.

 

Please write to the link provided if you agree with Bob Reagan of Nutrition and Health. 

Dear Reader,

There's an old saying, friends, that if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.

Well, I'm not just outraged -- I'm spitting mad, and I need your help to stop a blatant and politically-motivated attack against one of the leading alternative health providers in the world.

The state of Washington has once again set its sights on Dr. Jonathan Wright for refusing to kowtow to mainstream medicine and its prescription pill addiction. These are the same folks that have worked to make Dr. Wright's life miserable since he opened his innovative and life-changing Tahoma Clinic in Washington 40 years ago.

The latest attack is so transparent it's absurd. The Washington State Medical Quality Assurance Commission (MQAC) is attacking Dr. Wright for a mistake MQAC made on its own website! Instead of taking responsibility for their own foul-up, MQAC is trying to pin the blame on their public enemy number one -- Dr. Wright. They might even come after his medical license!

The Alliance for Natural Health has done a great job laying out the sordid details, and the disgusting hypocrisy of MQAC. Give it a read, but please sit down first -- especially if you suffer from high blood pressure.

Make no mistake about it, friends. This is happening because Dr. Wright puts your needs and your well-being over Big Pharma's profits. His clinic has treated and healed thousands of patients who mainstream medicine had cast aside... people who were told there was nothing modern medicine could do for them.

Dr. Wright heals patients using the latest research -- not the latest fad prescription pill. And, believe me, that's the problem. If he shut his mouth, toed the mainstream line, and started handing out pills to every patient he saw, the state of Washington would leave him alone in a hurry.

But he would never do that, my friend. He's going to keep exposing secrets and lies that the mainstream and Big Pharma would prefer stay hidden forever. And he's going to keep bringing you safe, natural solutions that can keep you well without making the drug companies a dime.

And he's doing it all at great personal and financial cost. Because these government thugs are going to keep coming for him, unless we all band together and demand they stop the nonsense.

If you're a resident of Washington State please take a moment to contact your governor and your state senators and representatives. Tell them that this is a serious case of injustice and ask them to intervene in this hearing next week.

And if you're not a resident of Washington State you can still let your voice of support for Dr. Wright be heard by emailing MQAC at Medical.Commission@doh.wa.gov and demanding they stop the attacks on Dr. Wright and take responsibility for their own mistakes. And remind them that with billions of dangerous and under-tested prescription pills being handed out like candy all over Washington, they have much bigger fish to fry. 

Sincerely,

Suzanne Somers 

Dear Friends: 

Many of you were introduced to Life Extension's Dr. Mike Smith on The SUZANNE Show. Now I'll be joining him on Healthy Talk on WWNN-AM, 1470 in South Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 23 from 1-2 p.m. ET. The segment will also be live streamed on: www.lef.org/healthytalk. For more info, check out the press release for his new radio show below.  

(Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) Jan. 21, 2013 – Fresh off her successful Lifetime Network talk show, Suzanne Somers, one of America’s most popular and beloved personalities will join Michael Smith M.D. on Healthy Talk on WWNN-AM, 1470 in South Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 23 from 1-2 p.m. ET.

Somers, in her multi-faceted career has achieved extraordinary success as an actress, aNew York Times best-selling author, entrepreneur, singer, comedienne and lecturer.

Somers has authored 24 books, including 12 New York Times Bestsellers. There are currently over 25 million copies of Suzanne’s books in print.

As one of America’s most informed and dedicated health care advocates, Somers has been acknowledged for her leading role in bringing information on today’s groundbreaking anti-aging medical protocols, preventative care, long-term health and hormone-replacement therapies to women and men across the country.

Dr. Smith brings an engaging personality and ability to present complex health topics, be it diabetes, migraines or food sensitivity issues in a clear, conversational manner that has won him a sizable following of anti-aging and disease-prevention enthusiasts.

A recurring guest on The Suzanne Show last year, Dr. Smith is known to his devoted fans as “Dr. Mike, the country doctor with a city education.” Since launching the show, sponsored by Life Extension (www.lef.org), last Nov., Dr. Smith has attracted a large national audience as the show streams live on www.lef.org/healthytalk. All programs are also be archived at the same website.

A trailblazer in the $28 million dietary supplement industry, Life Extension is offering visitors to the Healthy Talk website a free six-month membership and bottle of Two-Per-Day multivitamins which was rated the number one multivitamin by www.ConsumerLab.com in 2012.

Dr. Smith is committed to providing listeners with the most current health information available, and his weekly show has quickly become the place to interact with respected experts in the fields of health, wellness, fitness, and medicine.

“I was taught that learning is the beginning of health,” said Dr. Smith. “And learning something new is what my show is all about. “My job is to focus on my listeners and engage them in the conversation, while helping them apply what they learn in their daily lives,” says Dr. Mike.

The last show in Jan. features Jeffrey Smith, the executive director for the Institute for Responsible Technology and leading consumer advocate promoting healthier non-GMO choices. Smith, often seen on PBS-TV, is also the director of the new blockbuster documentary film, Genetic Roulette: The Gamble of Our Lives, and author of the world's bestselling and #1 rated book on the health dangers genetically modified organisms.

For more information about the Healthy Talk email HealthyTalkInfo@lef.org or call 954.790.5512.

Sincerely,

Suzanne Somers

Dear Friends,

 

As the heartbreaking images of these beautiful children and heroic teachers emerge, we keep asking ourselves, "How could anyone plan and execute such a heinous act against innocent and helpless people?"  We'll never know for certain. We debate about access to guns, but the mental collapse precipitates the search for a lethal weapon.  How is this mental instability left unrecognized and untreated? And at what point does that person "snap" - and more importantly... WHAT made him snap?

 

I write and speak often of the dangers of toxins; that human beings are under the greatest environmental assault in the history of mankind.  In my book BREAKTHROUGH, written shortly following the Columbine tragedy, I interviewed renowned neuroscientist, Dr. Russell Blaylock, and asked him how this could have happened.  What he said has sadly come true with no end in sight. He said to expect more of these tragedies because toxins, be they from the poisons sprayed on our food, toxic cleaning products, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the over-vaccination of our children are affecting the chemistry of our brains. Young people's brains are not fully formed and are extremely susceptible to damage.

 

This is the elephant in the room. This is what no one wants to consider because it bites the hand that feeds big business.  I spoke to Dr. Blaylock this week in regards to his thoughts on the Newtown massacre.  I think his response is chilling and important.

 

 

Dr. Russell Blaylock:

 

This terrible tragedy is a reminder, or should be, that our society is populated by a growing number of adolescent and young adults who have serious mental disorders and psychopathology. The cause for such destructive events are numerous and a number of these factors interact, such as the use of certain psychotropic drugs in youth; a multigenerational culture of illegal drug abuse; exposure to a diet known to enhance criminal and psychopathic behavior; exposure to a number of environmental, neurodevelopmental toxic substances (such as fluoride, lead, mercury and aluminum), and exposure to far too many vaccinations. This murderous young man was known to suffer from Asperger's syndrome and possibly other psychopathologies.

 

Despite what the media and vaccine proponents are telling you, the excessive number and the manner in which these vaccines are being given causes an abnormal development of the brain and the human brain, especially the portions that control social behavior and are linked to violence, are not fully developed until age 21. This means that constant stimulation of the brain's immune system (the microglia) can lead to chronic brain inflammation and excitotoxicity, which has been strongly linked abnormal brain development and to a number of the serious psychiatric disorders.  In addition, the vaccines contain aluminum and some still contain mercury, and these metals also cause chronic brain inflammation. Lead is not only known to trigger brain inflammation, but also is strongly linked to violent behavior and suicide. Fluoride in the drinking water has been shown to increase one's exposure to lead. Many foods contain a number of excitotoxin additives, such as MSG, hydrolyzed proteins, caseinate, etc, and these are linked to chronic brain inflammation and abnormal development of the brain, which continues decades after birth.

 

There is evidence that the combination of dietary excitotoxin excess combined with exposure to vaccines can significantly worsen brain inflammation and hence, psychological and social disorders. It is ironic that the very government that is promoting gun control as a solution to a growing psychological problem, is the most ardent promoter of vaccinations, a poor diet, fluoridation of drinking water, and refuses to stop the adulteration of our foods with excitotoxin additives. Other factors are also at play, such as fluorinated medications (known to produce homicidal behaviors and suicides). There are a number of culprits in this terrible crime, yet most will remain free to continue the destruction of our youths' minds.

 

Best Regards,

 

Suzanne Somers

Dear Friends,

As I watch the horrible aftermath of the victims of Hurricane Sandy, I know from my own personal experience that flooding leaves behind an enemy so dark and treacherous that few people understand the far reaching devastating effects.

My husband and I have personally have been affected by black mold, a condition I was unaware of when I moved into a leased house after my home burned to the ground several years ago.  It was a beautiful home that we leased; glass, spectacular views, space.  Luxurious… is how you would describe it, so beautiful it helped ease the pain of losing all our belongings to the fire.

A year after we moved in, both my husband and I began to have health problems. At one point a fungus attack put me in the hospital for six days, horribly misdiagnosed as cancer, until it was discovered to be mold fungus. I did not connect mold with my home. Around the same time my very healthy husband started experiencing hair loss, red irritated eyes, and a sinus and fungal nose infection that wouldn’t go away. We both started having GI tract problems; bloating, yeast, candida, and cramping.

It wasn’t until I was interviewing Dr. Rick Sponaugle of the Florida Detox & Wellness Institute that I started piecing together the puzzle that had been eluding both of us.

We had mold.  A professional remediator came to our home to test and found standing water all over a lower floor that had never been finished. Black mold was crawling everywhere, including into the air-conditioning and heating vents so it wasblowing into all the rooms.

We had to move.  And detox…

In walks Dr. Rick Sponaugle of the Florida Detox &Wellness Institute who has successfully treated over 2000 patients who, unknowingly, were suffering from Mold Toxicity.

This week on The SUZANNE Show, we discussed the dangers of mold and I wanted to get more detailed information to pass along to you in my blog from the preeminent expert in the field, Dr. Sponaugle.

SS:  Thank you, Dr. Sponaugle.  Can you explainmold and the affects that you can predict the victims of Hurricane Sandy might experience?

RS:  Well, I worry for all of them.  Mold toxins are toxic gases produced by indoor molds. From what I see of the houses devastated by Hurricane Sandy, it will be difficult to dry out those houses, especially now as the weather is wet, cold, damp, and snow is coming.  It is my experience that hidden mold is always present in water-damaged buildings.  Most of these people will be unaware that they are suffering from gases produced by mold infestations hidden behind water-damaged walls,shower tile, and above wet ceilings. These harmful toxins go unnoticed when mold is hidden because we cannot see or smell them.

SS:  I see… like the silent enemy.  You and I have talked before about the gene we both happen to carry, the HLA-DRBQ gene, making us more susceptible to mold and allergies of all kinds.  Will Hurricane Sandy victims be spared if they don’t happen to carry that same gene?

RS:  This is the irony:  three out of four Americans who naturally produce antibodies to mold toxins can live and work in water-damaged buildings without suffering significant demise in their health. But patients who carry the HLA gene have no antibodies to deactivate and remove mold toxins.  They develop excessive accumulation of these harmful toxins. Mold toxins are lipophilic, meaning their molecular structure consists of fatty acid molecules.  For this reason, mold toxins migrate to and deposit in the brain because the brain is the ‘fattiest’ organ, consisting of 60% fat.

SS:  What you are saying is that some of the victims will not be able to handle the toxicexposure to the mold but they won’t realize that this is the root of the problem?

RS:  Right.  Mold toxicity is the cause for many psychological and neurological disorders, including but not limited to: addiction, anxiety, bipolar II, chronic fatigue, depression, fibromyalgia, insomnia, multiple sclerosis (MS), Neuropathy, OCD, panic disorder, paranoia and schizoid syndrome.

SS:  How about your everyday conditions, like the ones my husband and I are experiencing: sinus, red watery eyes, fatigue, inflamed GI tract, unexplained weight gain?

RS:  Yes, mold causes all those symptoms and also other odd effects including slurred speech, disorientation, feeling irritable or paranoid, insomnia, craving sweets, itching nose at night, static shocks, muscle aches, food allergies, antibiotic allergies, blurred vision, confusion, very high blood pressure, Mono-like symptoms, skin rash, cystic acne, joint pain, swollen gums, tongue swelling, odd periods, stuttering, and throat closing.

SS:  It’s shocking to know that mold is that damaging.  So little is understood about mold by most doctors, but your clinic is one of the only in the country that gets it. And I know we all benefit because you, too, suffered severe mold toxicity yourself, so you are able to grasp the enormity when apatient is sitting in front of you. Certainly no one would ever connect severe depression to mold toxicity.

RS:  There are three different mold toxins associated with depression, panic disorder and bipolar symptoms - aflatoxins, ochratoxin and trichothecene. The government set toxic level for trichothecenes, the family of mold toxins produced by Stachy Botrus (known as black mold) is 0.2 parts per billion. I routinely have patients with levels as high as 3.2, which is 16 times the government set toxic threshold.

SS:  What does this do to the body?

RS:  It can cause severe anxiety, insomnia, panic-disorder or bipolar.  I’ve treated (successfully) hundreds of toxic patients who were simply diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder or misdiagnosed bi-polar by psychiatrists who remain naive regarding the effect of mold toxicity on the brain.  Most doctors will give these patients drugs like Klonopin or Xanax to calm theiranxious brains.

SS:  But when they have these anxious or over-electrified brains from mold toxins, it’s clear to me that the mold needs to be detoxified from the body, rather than medicating it with a Band-Aid.

RS:  Mold toxic brains produce excessive levels of two powerful electrifying brain chemicals;  glutamate and PEA. It is the increased activation of glutamate and PEA nerve receptors throughout the body that produces an over-electrified nervous system producing symptoms of anxiety, insomnia, panic disorder, bi-polar and fibromyalgia. Mold toxic patients experience a gradual progression as they slowly accumulate more mold toxins.  Their symptoms usually begin with insomnia, then as they spend more time living and working in mold toxic buildings or houses, their symptoms progress from insomnia to anxiety which can then progress to full blown panic disorder, and in the most severe cases, bipolar symptoms of rage and paranoia.

Probably most patients who come to my clinic have been to 20 different doctors before me and not found an answer.  Many of these mold toxic patients have traveled to multiple states and various medical centers in their failed attempt to discover the underlying cause of their severe depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia syndromes. Many developed addiction issues because of their undiagnosed mold toxicity.

SS:  It’s sad.  I presume the addiction is a result of the over-electrified brains and the patients need to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol to calm themselves down?  It’s very understandable.  

RS:  Yes, it is.  Depression and chronic fatigue can be a result of mold toxicity suppressing the production of nor-epinephrine output from the A5 Nucleus. That’s the part of the brain that produces 90% of our nor-epinephrine. This is one of the primary mechanisms by which mold toxicity causes severe depression and severe chronic fatigue. When you have a mold toxic brain, specifically the hypothalamus, it can’t properly stimulate the brain’s primary hormonal factory, the pituitary gland. Pituitary insufficiency results in hormonal deficiencies, such as the downstream hormone factories - the thyroid, adrenals, and the sex organs. Mold toxin induced deficiencies of these hormones cause inactivation of the three adrenaline chemicals causing symptoms of severe depression, lethargy, and chronic fatigue.

SS: Can mold toxicity cause fibromyalgia?

RS:  Yes, mold toxicity is the primary cause of fibromyalgia in many middle-aged women.  It causes total body pain because of the excessive production of the electrifying neurotransmitters, glutamate and PEA. The excessive inflammation is derived from the toxic load and deficiencies of the calming neurotransmitters; taurine and serotonin. This causes mold toxin induced destruction of the intestinallining, which leads to poor absorption of the essential amino acids, tryptophan and taurine.  The resulting up-regulating of electrical voltage in the body’s nervous system can be dramatic, and it directly correlates with the measured level of mold toxins.  When these women go to their doctors, they are usually misdiagnosed and prescribed addicting pain medication and drugs like Lyrica, which treats the symptoms but not the true cause of fibromyalgia - which ismold.

SS: What about MS?  I once saw two side-by-side slides. One slide was a healthy person; the other was a person with MS. The healthy cells were moving around and in constant motion, all clumped together. The MS slides showed cells that werelumbering, moving very slowly. They were not clumped together, but moving slowly, slowly, and the strange thing was the MS cells all had a white filmsurrounding them. I asked what the film was and the scientist told me it was toxins.  So can MS also be caused by mold toxins?

RS:  Mold toxins destroy the myelin sheath on brain neurons, causing the classic white spotsseen in MS.  That’s why I have created the Brain Wellness Program combined with intravenous mold toxin removal protocol to reverse damage caused by MS.

SS: Anyone reading this blog who has any of these symptoms now has something new to consider.  Maybe their diagnosis has been wrong.  Maybe they are not truly suffering from autoimmune diseases or addictions.  Maybe the cause isthat musty smell in your house or the black fuzz in between your tiles.   Up until I was affected, these signs were annoyances I thought could be handled by deep cleaning.  But now I know mold lurks deep in the roots of the house and anyone who has water damage, in particular those affected by Hurricane Sandy or those devastated by Katrina, now know that there is likely a hidden enemy in the home. There is an answer to this problem. You, Dr. Sponaugle, seem to be one of the few in this country who understands mold, its effects, and how to treat and detoxify it from the body at The Florida Detox & Wellness Institute.  I know you have already helped so many people and many more are going to be helped by this interview and the important work you are doing. I thank you for your great work.

RS:  My pleasure, Suzanne. 

For more information, go to www.floridadetox.com. 

Sincerely,

 

 

Suzanne Somers

 

For more information on Suzanne Somers, please visit her Facebook page. 

 

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

When it comes to sharing cutting-edge information, I am often criticized for citing "crazy, whacked doctors without clinical evidence to support their findings". While these erroneous attacks are unfounded, it brings me great pleasure in this case to bring you a MAJOR BOMBSHELL from Dr. Abraham Morgentaler. He's a Harvard University trained urologist and a member of the faculty at the prestigious university… yes, Harvard. He has completed a small, but important groundbreaking clinical trial; that for the first time in this country an orthodox doctor is confirming that men with active prostate cancer can take natural testosterone and their prostate cancer regresses!

 

This new information goes against all mainstream theories. It was a profound honor and pleasure to present this medical break-though from Dr. Morgentaler in my book, BOMBSHELL. Recently I had the chance to interview him on The SUZANNE Show to discuss these findings. WATCH SEGMENT HERE.

 

   

Sadly, those men who have been robbed of their testosterone due to expensive and debilitating Lupron shots are not good candidates for this therapy, as their testosterone has been depleted as a result of these injections. In other words, the mechanism just isn’t working anymore. But for those men who declined conventional treatment, for those men who want to save their prostates, for those men who refuse to enter "menopause" which comes about as a result of the testosterone depletion from the present standard of care, there is now a new option, and to my thinking the only sensible protocol. Simple changes in diet, eating well, and using the prescribed amount of testosterone daily, individualized for each man according to his needs determined by lab work is, (in most cases) all that is necessary to live a normal life. Indeed exciting. The other benefits of testosterone replacement are obvious; renewed bone strength, protection for the heart, lowered risk of diabetes, weight management, and of course, renewed sexual vigor, are all exciting manifestations of putting back what the body once made, bioidentical testosterone, "biologically identical to the human hormone."

Sincerely,

 

 

Suzanne Somers

 

For more information on Suzanne, please visit her Facebook page. 

Dear Friends,

 

I am constantly amazed at the lack of understanding from our elected and unelected officials relative to obesity and poor health. Yesterday the Los Angeles City Council introduced "Meatless Mondays" as an initiative to combat obesity. There was no mention of switching to grass-fed beef, the connection between toxicity and obesity, the dangers of consuming genetically modified foods, or to the side effects of preservatives and chemicals in bagged and boxed food. I was most alarmed that there was no mention of the solution - eating real, clean food. 

 

When are we going to wise up as people and realize it's not meat that's the problem?  It's what they put INTO the meat!  When will the facts be a matter of public discussion? Poison is being sprayed onto foods in the form of pesticides, which people are consuming.  And it doesn't stop there - nature is being turned upside down with genetic engineering!

 

The lack of understanding or willingness of our government officials to fess up to the real problem is putting us all in danger. The human body cannot continue to withstand the bombardment of chemicals. So what can we do to avoid these issues? Eat real whole foods: real grass-fed beef, organic chicken, wild caught salmon, real fats, organic fruits and vegetables. When we take the toxins in, our body is triggered to store these unusable chemicals in our fat tissue and other organs.  The more toxins, the fatter we get.  Simply changing the way we eat could go a long way towards solving the obesity and health problems that are now epidemic.

 

To read the full article, click here.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

 

Suzanne Somers 

 

 

For more information on Suzanne Somers, please visit her Facebook page. 

Dear Friends,

 

Read this report from the esteemed New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and see for yourselves what even those in mainstream are now admitting as the frequent futility of chemical poisoning, confirming what I have been saying in my books for so long; that the war on cancer is a dismal failure.  

 

My book KNOCKOUT, published in 2012, explained the ineffectiveness of chemotherapy as the present standard of care for cancer patients.  Because of this information many thousands of people have had the courage to try another way utilizing the protocols of qualified western trained doctors such as those presented in my book.

 

I spend much of my time routing cancer patients to the right doctors for their particular cancers and personality types.  When people decide to choose chemo as their protocol, I often have a heavy heart because in many cases it is useless.  I realize we all do the best we can with the information we have at the time.  Cancer is a scary diagnosis.  I’ve been there, twice. The greatest decision I have ever made is to say no to chemo.

 

The doctors featured in my books KNOCKOUT and BOMBSHELL, published in 2012, are true leaders in the real war on cancer knowing that many forms of cancer can be managed and dealt with using non-toxic approaches such as nutrition and detoxification. Read for yourselves.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Suzanne Somers

 

 

 

For more infomation and updates, visit the Suzanne Somers' Facebook page.

 

 

Dear Friends,

Last week on The SUZANNE Show, Brenda Watson joined me to discuss one of my favorite topics – the gut! Brenda owns RenewLife and is one of my greatest teachers on gut health. This is an area that causes me constant problems, and Brenda always helps me get to the bottom of it. Brenda will be appearing four times this season on my show because her information is vital and it’s important for people to know the cause of this new epidemic in our country. And I hate to tell you, but those antacids you are taking will not help!

You know the feeling—your belly feels bloated, pants are tight, and embarrassing gas has you staying in for the evening. Yet you can’t figure out if food is to blame since you ate the same things you usually eat. While gas and bloating are definitely symptoms produced by certain foods, many women are unaware that something else may be underlying the discomfort—Candida overgrowth.

Candida albicans is a sugar-fermenting yeast that is naturally present in small amounts in many areas of the body such as theskin, the digestive tract, and the vagina. (Candida is to blame for those pesky yeast infections!) In small amounts, this yeast is an integral part of the intestinal ecology in most people and, when kept in balance with other intestinal microbes, does no harm.

The trouble begins when Candida is allowed to flourish. There are three main causes of Candida overgrowth:

• Immune dysfunction
• Change in intestinal pH
• Dysbiosis (gut microbial imbalance)  

Let’s focus on the main cause—dysbiosis, or an imbalance in the ratio of good to bad bacteria in the intestines. Dysbiosis sets the stage for Candida overgrowth. Normally, beneficial bacteria, or probiotics, in the gut help to keep the potentially pathogenic microbes (such as Candida and other harmful bacteria) in check. When there aren’t enough “good guys,” or probiotics, to maintain balance, Candida has free reign to multiply. There are a number of factors that reduce the amount of beneficial bacteria in the gut, including antibiotic, poor diet, stress, age, toxin exposure, and impaired digestion.

When Candida overgrowth occurs in the gut, the yeast feed on sugars and carbohydrates that pass through as they are digested. And the more Candida feast, the more the yeast. Candida feeds on sugar and digested carbohydrates by way of fermentation, which produces the characteristic gas and bloating that we are all too familiar with. This is why sugar and starchy carbohydrate avoidance is recommended for people dealing with yeast. Are gas and bloating causing you discomfort more than you’d like to admit? Don’t worry, you’re not alone! If you think Candida overgrowth may be to blame, I recommend a Candida cleanse and Candida enzyme formula to help inhibit yeast overgrowth, and a high-potency probiotic to help rebalance your gut. After all, better health begins with a healthy digestive tract.

Sincerely,

Suzanne Somers

 

This fall, I’m launching a TV show that tells it like it is.

 

I am Suzanne Somers and I am passionately involved in healthcare, music, entertainment, lifestyle, and family. 

 

That's  The SUZANNE Show !

 

The SUZANNE Show is ‘me,’ unplugged — my interests and my passions and honest talk, from new ways to achieve optimal health, to my friends, great foods, and important questions that others aren’t asking. I’m mixing glamour and innovative science in a way that America’s never seen before.

 

I present the doctors who impress me with their ability to understand the changing planet and how to live a long time with health … true health, mostly non-drug health. Hormones are topics #1, #2,and #3. Women can’t get enough information about their changing hormones and I am giving it to them.

 

The SUZANNE Show is like putting my books on TV. Information that generally never reaches the American public. 

 

My famous friends will also visit me. One day it might by my pal, comedy icon Kathy Griffin, one day Larry King, music legend David Foster, or my dear friend, the fabulous Fran Drescher, all speaking as they would in a private conversation in my living room.

 

Somedays I cook with famous chefs teaching how to prepare amazing food that improves health using the sustaining basics, plus the right oils, herbs, and spices.  Food that keeps you healthy and able to maintain the figure you want, and tastes unbelievable.

 

I give all my guests, whether they are doctors, scientists, professionals,or entertainers, an opportunity to speak in a way they generally can't due to sponsor commitments. The doctors and scientists' messages will rattle the medical orthodox “stuck” protocols. These professionals can tell us why they are passionate about their particular areas of expertise, and why they decided to step outside the confines of conventional medicine to practice health care rather than disease care.

 

There will also be a “tech-y” segment for all the women—myself included—who are hanging on by a thread to understand the potential of their computers. My “tech” guy happens to be real cute and knowledgeable, and I’m not just saying that because he is my son, Bruce Somers.

 

Hopefully, my viewers will look at me, a 65-year-old (my husband of 44 years says “hot”) woman, and want what I have in the way of health, energy, and sexuality. You don’t have to age-out of a fulfilling sex life. I will have doctors on my show explaining how to get the most out of sex without drugs. A healthy person is a sexual person. No sick person wants or is capable of being sexual. Sexuality isa language from the body saying in essence: “All is well.”

 

Superb health is the greatest of all gifts. This is discussed at length on The SUZANNE Show. Nothing else really matters if you don’t have optimal health. Look around you. Who are the people you would never trade places with—people who are sick. My books, lectures, and TV appearances all say: Health is a choice and you are in control of your health and how you age. My show will teach my viewers how and why to live a glamorous, upbeat, energetic,informed, and sexy life. What’s not to like? There has never been a morningshow like this … ever.

 

Premieres Wednesday, Sept. 26th on Lifetime at 7am eastern and pacific.     

 

Tune in! If for no other reason than to see my fabulous shoes!

 

Suzanne

 

Stay in touch and receive upates through The SUZANNE Show Facebook page.