The EU

The EU and The Damage to Your Health and Freedom. Part I.

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Everyone who cares about their good health should read this newsletter, as well as Part II which we will be sending out in about a week.

Perhaps you think that the EU doesn’t affect your life, and rights. And perhaps you don’t think it matters if 75% of our laws are drafted by and then implemented by entirely unelected officials, who are not accountable to single person on the planet

That’s fine. But if you feel that having the right to take the health supplements of your choice, the right to be provided information on them, the freedom to take responsibility for, and make decisions for yourself about your health are important liberties, or that companies should have the freedom to publish legitimate opinion, provide traditional usage descriptions, and well documented information, then you would be highly mistaken not to be informed about some of the terrible EU laws that oppose these fundamental rights. The following directives affect us all, whether we like it or not.

  • The Food Supplements Directive (2002/46/EC). This directive requires all legally available nutrients to be on a rather arbitrary positive list in order to be allowed to be sold and consumed. As far as we could see, it seemed to depend primarily on whether that form of nutrient happened to be available in Germany at the time. In 2009 it was estimated that around 300 nutrients were banned by this irksome directive, though the real figure would be much higher given the fact that it completely blocked new forms of vitamins and minerals from coming onto the market. Examples include many perfectly safe and effective forms of magnesium, selenium and chromium. Although the situation is bad, this is set to become far worse if the Maximum Permitted Dosage levels for vitamins and minerals get set at useless Mickey mouse levels, which is a serious possibility at the next stage of implementation. Several organisations, including an entity called “Health Europe”, which is in reality an organisation lobbying on behalf of the bunch of self-interested pharmaceutical companies who have no interest whatsoever in public health, who actually fund this “organisation”,  are lobbying for maximum levels to be set at EU RDA levels, which will be useless for any kind of therapeutic usage – as well as a direct assault on your freedom of choice. It has been claimed that this market was completely unregulated before this directive (and the next one I am going to talk about) came in. But this is nonsense. Vitamins, minerals and herbs were regulated by the Drugs Act 1968, and personally I don’t remember noticing too many dead bodies lying about in the streets because someone or other took a high dosage Vitamin C tablet prior to 2009. Yes, it was light touch regulation, reflecting how safe most vitamins, minerals, herbs and other natural products usually were – but it was never unregulated. This is a total myth.
  • The Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (2004/24/EC) – in essence this is a spiteful and vindictive directive designed to protect the vested interests that successfully campaigned for it, which has created a huge black market where none previously existed. This directive has led to a tripling of the cost of many herbs, and their pharmaceuticalisation. Many have been banned outright. Many more have been chemicalised and pharmaceuticalised until they bare almost no resemblance to the 2000 year old traditions of herbal medicines, and contain all sorts of artificial chemicals which are at best questionable, and in some cases dangerous. We tried very hard to object to this horrible directive, but without success. You can read more about it here including the latest news. Before this directive came in, some clearly dangerous herbs were banned under the Drugs Act 1968 (and some others banned we think unfairly) along with psychoactive drugs like marijuana (which itself is a very controversial ban). But on the whole consumers were relatively free to buy what they wanted, and sellers relatively free to provide products. But with the new directive, the EU seems determined to stop you from actually making decisions for your yourself, about your body. Perhaps they fear that you might make the decisions that don’t serve their vested interests – just as some people genuinely believe we should never have a democratic vote on our membership of the EU (formed as a result of the 1991 Maastrict Treaty, when the EEC became the EU, which nobody was consulted on either), lest you vote the wrong way.
  • The EU Labeling Directives (2003 and updated in 2014) which if strictly enforced could make more or less all non EU imports illegal to sell, for reasons as petty as the font size on the label not complying the required size, the ingredients not being listed in the required order, or wording such as “expiry date” instead of “best before” on the label. Can the rules really get any more petty and frivolous than this? Presumably this rule is there because they think you are too thick to know what the words “expiry date” rather than “best before” mean. Mercifully, the UK authorities don’t seen to be enforcing this with an iron fist, and have avoided harassing companies over trivial nonsense so far, but who knows what’s around the corner? Certainly these regulations enable the powers that be to put companies out of business overnight – through the harsh enforcement of EU directives. And regardless of who it is claimed to help, who benefits from this in reality? The consumer? Or big pharma?
  • The Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (No 1924/2006) – This is the nastiest and cruellest of the lot. This is the directive which has made it illegal to say anything meaningful about virtually everything – leading to the total ban on the claims that water hydrates the body, or that prunes help with constipation – and tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers money spent on arriving at these preposterous conclusions. With some of the products we provide, this has led to an up to 90% drop in sales.This is the directive which caused products such as Optibac Probiotics For Bowel Calm (a nice and clear product name) to have to be renamed “Saccromyces Boulardii” (which is completely meaningless or ordinaryt people). Similarly Optibac Probiotics For A Flat Stomach to had to be renamed “One week flat”. That’s because even the name of the product was deemed an illegal health claim. If you are finding it hard to find useful information on the supplements you are interested in, or which supplements might help you, or why you end up with no choice but to view third party, non EU based web sites to obtain information, blame this directive. Blame the EU. The idea, perhaps noble of protecting the consumer, has ended with a Draconian directive which makes publishing legitimate opinion into a crime, and bans companies even telling you what scientific research has found – unless the European Food Standards agency gives you permission to do so, and of course only after they have spent up to a million Euros submitting a single health claim. This is impossible for small to medium sized companies like the Finchley Clinic – the businesses all the mainstream political parties agree are the life-blood of the economy, yet where it comes to protecting them from petty EU regulations when they are in power, at best do nothing, and at worse encourage it! Result: the industry is becoming more and more disincentivised to even try to provide worthwhile, helpful information. So when you find that the information available on a nutrient is that it “contributes to normal energy-yielding metabolism”, instead of something that is actually useful for you to know i.e.. what it may help with…it’s not the industry who are to blame – it’s the unelected EU commissioners, on their rather comfortable over £300,000 per year (plus expenses) salaries.
  • The Human Medicinal Products Directive (Directive 2001/83/EC). This directive can make any food, food supplement or cosmetic a drug at a regulator’s discretion – anything which has “a physiological effect”, or is claimed to have. This of course makes anything, theoretically even water into a medicine! After all, if you tried to avoid water for more than two or three days, you’d soon learn whether or not it has a physiological effect, even if as according to the EU geniuses, it does not hydrate the body!

Words would be inadequate to describe how heartbreaking it is for us to be banned from providing many safe, effective natural health products and to tell you what they actually do even when we can sell them. And even more heart breaking for your health to be compromised as a result. Even more so in view of the estimated 40,000 deaths per year conservatively estimated by University College, London to occur in the UK as a result of CORRECTLY prescribed medical drugs (the numbers are even higher when the death rate for badly prescribed drugs is added to this).

(Source: Daily Telegraph December 19 1999. Similar article Daily Telegraph 30 Nov 2008).

However there is an alternative to having to comply with EU regulations which pose a threat to your health, your freedom of choice, and access to information. The alternative is to leave the EU, and be done with it. In the good old days, was there anything that bad about having our laws made by people who we actually elected, and can throw out if they do a lousy job? Call me old fashioned, but I rather like our laws to be made by democratically elected British politicians rather than unelected bureaucrats, who for all we know, have never even stepped on British soil, and have no reason to be especially concerned with what is best for the UK.

In the forthcoming general election, as the company director, me and most of our staff’s voting choices will be determined by what has been been done over the last 10 years to the industry we love and cherish as our direct result of our EU membership, and the resultant directives. These have all been rubber stamped without so much as whimper of protest by any government, whether from the left or right. (In fairness, they didn’t have much choice, as it is against EU law, not to pass and implement EU law – and it OVERIDES our own laws, whether we like it or not). If your health, not to mention your freedom of choice is important to you, please consider the points raised in this newsletter in who you choose to vote for, and pass this newsletter on to anyone else you think would want to know about what is going in the natural health sector.

In my next newsletter, I will tell you about the breathtaking damage being done to the NHS as a result of yet more inept and counter-productive EU regulations. If you thought that the EU was only harassing the natural health industry, you’d be wrong. In my naivity, this is what I used to think too, until I did some research. The damage being done to public health and the conventional treatment you get on the NHS as a result of yet more EU nonsense which simply doesn’t work – The EU Clinical Trials Directive, The Working Time Directive, Freedom of Movement Directive and other EU drivel is equally remarkable as the damage being done to the natural health industry. Look out for The EU and The Damage to Your Health and Freedom Part II – coming to a computer near you soon!

Mark G. Lester – Company Director – The Finchley Clinic Ltd – www.thefinchleyclinic.com

General Health & Nutrition

Ozonated Oils – What are they and what do they do?

Among the thousands of lotions, moisturisers and topical skin creams on the market, ozonated oils stand out. They’re simple, organic products with just two or three ingredients, but they have a list of uses as long as your arm. They have antioxidant properties and they can fight bacterial and fungal infections, protect your skin and help it to heal. This is one of the benefits of using products derived straight from nature: they retain all the good stuff from the plants they came from, so you can use them for a whole host of different remedies.

ocozone (Ozonated Coconut Oil)

Ozonated oils begin as natural oils like olive and coconut. The process of ozonation is done by taking pure organic oil, heating it slightly and infusing it with ozone gas over a long period. Though some ozonated oils have only been ozonated for a few hours, we only carry oils that have been ozonated for a period of at least two days for coconut oil or 4-6 months for olive oil.

The point of the ozonation process is that when released from the oil into your skin, ozone becomes a cleansing agent that reacts with anything that shouldn’t be there. Ozone gas (O3) is an unstable molecule, but it doesn’t change while it’s fixed in the oil. Once you apply the oil to your skin, the ozone breaks down into O and O2, and it’s the single oxygen atoms that are so great for your skin.

One of the most exciting things about ozonated oils is their anti-fungal properties. Since we began stocking them, the Finchley Clinic has heard from plenty of satisfied customers who have used ozonated oils to help clean up candida infections. We swear by Cocozone, which is made from organic Sri Lankan coconut oil. Coconut oil is especially good for fighting candida because of its lauric acid content, which can also help to combat ringworm infections, vaginal thrush and athlete’s foot. There has even been a study suggesting that this particular fatty acid has a neutralising effect on chlamydia infections.

Medcare (Ozonated Olive Oil)

Ozonated oils are often used to help with skin inflammations, like dermatitis, eczema, psoriasis and acne. These same properties also help skin that has been damaged by outside forces, like cuts, burns, bee stings and sunburn – even surgical wounds. The antibacterial properties of the ozone help to prevent infection while the oxygen and oil feed your skin. Our ozonated olive oil product, Medcare, also contains shea butter which is packed with vitamins and fatty acids, for soft and healthy skin. Because all the ingredients in our ozonated oils are natural, organic and non-toxic, they can safely be used for babies with nappy rash or even on your pets. The ozonation process turns the oils to a thick paste when done properly, but they melt into liquids when applied, so they don’t cause any unnecessary dragging or irritation to damaged skin. They also feel very pleasant to apply, with a soothing, cooling effect.

Both our ozonatedoils are sold in paste form, and here’s why: liquid oils can only contain a certain percentage of oxygen, roughly 10% in most cases. As a paste, the oil can contain up to 50% ozone as well as releasing it slowly over up to 12 hours for longer-lasting benefits.

Whether you prefer to use coconut or olive oil is entirely up to you. We’ve heard from plenty of people who were satisfied with both. They have their differences: ozonated coconut oil needs to be refrigerated, since if it’s allowed to liquefy it will lose some of its beneficial properties, while ozonated olive oil can be stored in a cupboard. However, coconut oil smells a lot nicer and some find that it simply agrees better with their skin. We recommend you give both a try and see which works better for you. Don’t forget to tell us all about it!

– Experiences of nine years using Ozonized oil in Dermatology. L. Falc6n, D. Sim6n, S. MeneridezI, S. Moya, E. Garbayo, W. Diaz’. Dr. Carlos J. Finlay Military Hospital, Cuba 1987. ‘Ozone Research Center, Cuba.
– Therapeutic Effects of Ozonized Oil in the Treatment of Intractable Fistula and Wound” (2001). Akiyo Matsumoto, Shotaro Sakurai , NarikoShinriki ,Shigeru Suzuki  and Toshiaki Miura
– In vitro inactivation of Chlamydia trachomatis by fatty acids and monoglycerides. Bergsson G1, Arnfinnsson J, Karlsson SM, Steingrímsson O, Thormar H.Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1998 Sep;42(9):2290-4.

General Health & Nutrition

Vitamin C: What you need to know

Vitamin C

It’s an undisputed fact that vitamin C contributes to good health. Most of us already know that it helps us deal with coughs and colds. Linus Pauling’s popular book Vitamin C and the Common Cold discussed this some 40 years ago. We know that old-time sailors and the occasional broke university student have ended up with scurvy after leaving it out of their diets. But you might be surprised to learn just how much vitamin C does for your body. It’s much more than an orange-flavoured tablet to keep colds at bay; vitamin C is part of the glue that holds your body together.

When someone develops scurvy, they notice loose joints, loosened teeth, muscle pain, and haemorrhaging. They might seem unrelated but these symptoms all have to do with vitamin C and its role in forming collagen. Collagen is a vital part of the connective tissue found throughout the body in muscles, joints, cartilage, skin, blood vessels, teeth and bones. The amino acids that make up collagen – specifically hydroryproline and hydroxylysine, which bonds collagen molecules together – are produced by vitamin C-dependent enzymes, so without it, the body literally begins to fall apart.

Vitamin C also plays a role in producing many of the chemicals your body uses to function, including noradrenaline and serotonin.  Low vitamin C levels can result in not just physical symptoms, but also anxiety, fatigue and depression. It really is an all-rounder vitamin: it’s an antioxidant, it can aid synthesis of iron and folic acid, it can act as an antihistamine and, as we know, plays a role in boosting immunity to defend against viruses and infections.

Current recommendations say an adult’s daily intake of vitamin C should be around 65mg. However, many people fail to get even that much through their diet, and we also need to take into account that humans are one of the few animals which don’t produce their own vitamin C. Kinesiological studies have shown that the optimal daily intake of vitamin C to achieve tissue saturation isoftenmore like 10g a day. You may need even more if you’re recently been injured – your body needs to produce more collagen to heal – or if you are fighting off an infection.

Vitamin_C_Ultra_PureVitamin C supplements are of course readily available on the mass market. They’re usually orange-flavoured pills made from glucose, which is in turn produced from corn starch. The combination of corn products and the citrus bioflavonoids used to give it a pleasant orange taste actually contribute to allergic reactions in a significant proportion of people. Tapioca vitamin C avoids both these problems by sourcing the vitamin from tapioca and packaging it in capsules rather than pills. It’s hypoallergenic and may have better bioavailability than commercial pills – meaning you can take less for the same health-enhancing effects.

As supplements go, this is one of the easiest ways to give your health an all-round boost. A dose three times a day could be all it takes to see your immune system responses and energy levels soar.

General Health & Nutrition

How to beat your migraines naturally

If you’re lucky enough to have never had a migraine, it’s difficult to see how a “headache” can be so debilitating. But millions of sufferers struggle to live with the threat of a migraine hanging over their heads – so to speak. No one is sure exactly what causes migraines, and it’s quite possible that there is no single cause that applies to everyone. The good news is that we are not entirely in the dark, and there are still plenty of ways to prevent migraines.

Migrane_1

Most sufferers know the common-sense precautions: avoid caffeine, alcohol and stress; get enough sleep; watch your diet and get out in the fresh air. However, sometimes the trigger can be hidden. For example: how’s your magnesium intake? It’s one of the many dietary minerals that most people don’t pay much attention to – but more than one study has linked migraines to low magnesium levels. One of them found that 80% of participants experienced less frequent migraines if they took just 200mg. However, other studies have suggested a dosage of400-600mg magnesium daily, and this is the amount we usually recommend.

It’s thought that magnesium helps to stop blood vessels from suddenly tightening. This rapid vascular constriction and expansion is believed to be the source of the symptoms of a migraine. Magnesium may also reduce the frequency of attacks by stabilising the cell membranes in your blood vessels.

Other supplements make up for deficiencies in vitamins, antioxidants, fatty acids (crucial for brain health) and amino acids. For example, riboflavin, also known as vitamin B2, can reduce the frequency of migraines by up to 50% when taken daily in 400mg doses. For the best results, we recommend combining riboflavin and magnesium with feverfew: a traditional herb with a two-thousand-year history of migraine relief.

Don’t expect immediate results
Bio_MagnesiumOur usual recommendation is to combine magnesium 400-600mg per day, riboflavin (Vitamin B2) -400mg daily, and feverfew as per the dosage on the label, as the three nutrients have an excellent cumulative effect.  In other words, taking all three together is over three times more effective than taking one on its own. One book currently found in many health food shops suggests that combining these three nutrients will give the vast majority of sufferers their lives back again.

Individual response times vary, but the studies have mostly been based on 3 month trial periods.  We advise sufferers to regard their first 3 months using these nutrients as a trial period. If you find yourself getting far less severe and less frequent migraines, and we hope that you do, you can continue using them indefinitely.

 

Other natural solutions for migraines
Ginkgo_BilobaUsually the suggestions above work extremely well. But if they don’t, other herbs, like Ginkgo biloba, can help you reduce or manage your migraines, but you may need to take them for a couple of months before you notice an effect.

Co-enzyme Q10, or CoQ10, is an antioxidant that acts much like a vitamin. It supports energy production and your body produces it naturally, but as we age, we produce less and less. Studies show that sufferers of frequent migraines are often deficient in CoQ10, and supplementing with just 150mg a day could reduce migraine frequency by more than half.

If your migraines are infrequent but severe, you may be looking to control symptoms rather than decrease frequency. Migraine sufferers who supplemented with fatty acids, specifically omega-6 and omega-3, experienced shorter and less severe migraines along with a reduction in frequency and nausea.

Desperate for relief, many sufferers turn to drugs to control their symptoms, like methysergide – now no longer in use due to some pretty severe side effects – and propranolol, which ironically can cause nausea and trouble sleeping. The amino acid 5-Hydroxytryptophan has been shown to be just as effective as these two medicines, with the added bonus of not adding foreign chemicals to your body.

Ginger for migraines
Time_Release_GingerThe drug of choice for many migraine sufferers is sumatriptan, but a recent Iranian study found that powdered ginger was just as effective at decreasing the severity of migraines without the dangerous side effects. 250mg of ginger powder can result in less severe migraines within just two hours of use, while avoiding the common side effects of sumatriptan, which include heartburn, dizziness and mild sedation.

 

Final comments
Of course, no supplement can give you the best possible results if something deeper is wrong. If you experience migraines, try tracking your food and sleep, drink plenty of water and rule out any major illnesses. Give your body the best chance you can to let it heal.

 

Evans R W, Taylor F R. “Natural” or Alternative Medications for Migraine Prevention.Headache 2006; 46:1012-1018

Smith C B.The Role of Riboflavin in Migraine.Canadian Medical Association Journal 1946; 54: 589-591

Maizels, M., Blumenfeld, A., &Burchette, R. (2004). A combination of riboflavin, magnesium, and feverfew for migraine prophylaxis: a randomized trial. Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, 44(9), 885-890.

Sandor P S, Di Clemente L, Coppola G, Saenger U, Fumal A, Magis D, et al. Efficacy of coenzyme Q10 in migraine prophylaxis: a randomized controlled trial. Neurology 2005;64:713-5.

Titus, F., Davalos, A., Alom, J., &Codina, A. (1986).5-hydroxytryptophan versus methysergide in the prophylaxis of migraine. European neurology, 25(5), 327-329.

Maghbooli M, Golipour F, Esfandabadi A, Yousefi M. Comparison between the efficacy of ginger and sumatriptan in the ablative treatment of the common migraine. Phytotherapy Res 2014;28:412-415

General Health & Nutrition

Spring Sale

We have some really great discounts on around 60 products on our spring sale page. These include (but are not limited to) the following products…

Adult Multivitamins

Biocare Bio-Acidophilus, Bifidobacerium, and a few other probiotics
Advanced brain nutrients – for memory, concentration, cognition etc

Aeterna Gold natural beauty  / anti aging capsules

Cervagyn – probiotic vaginal cream for thrush

Get Up and Go Breakfast Energy Shake

Gingko Biloba – memory / brain support / antioxidant / circulation support

Liver health and support products

Mega GLA Complex (fish oil – very high GLA content)
MaleForte Plus 30 Capsules – helps low testosterone in men – helps increase sex drive and fertility

Megahydrate powder (but not the capsules) – Antioxidant – 10 x more antioxidant power than Vitamin C

Micro-Floragaurd (Probiotic with anti fungal oils for candida sufferers – Winner of the “Best Product” award at the Natural Trade Show, Brighton 2004 – this is a product which should be flying off the shelves!)

Mindlinx – Bio-Acidophilus probiotics + Glutamine for healing the gut – designed with the brain / gut axis in mind
Mixed Ascorbates (great tasting Vitamin C powder from a balance of magnesium, calcium, zinc, potassium and manganese ascorbate – very well balanced and easy on the stomach)

Mum-2-Be tablets – multivitamin for use in pregnancy

Neversnore Anti Snoring capsules

Omegacare – great tasting fish oil product

Hemp Seed Oil

Hemp Protein

Sprouted flaxseeds
Superphyte – Amazingly powerful antioxidant product combining free radical protection from Grape seed, Green tea, Bilberry, Turmeric, Oregano, Broccoli sprout, Olive leaf, Alpha Lipoic acid, Lycopene, Lutein, Astaxanthin, Beetroot, Watercress, Carrot and Garlic.
Performax (Electrolyte Re-hydration Sachets for sports performance)

Theanine – natural relaxtion aid
True Food (food state) Vitamins and mineral products – several products including Vitamin B, Vitamin C etc.

 

We only have very small volumes of these special offers, so click here to avoid disappointment. When we say it’s first come first served, we aren’t trying to put a gun at your head, we genuinely only have a few units of most of the sale items. So if you want to save a few quid, get your order in now.

I’d like to mention incidenally that many of these are fantastic products, and the only reason you don’t know more about them is that we are banned by the inept, petty minded, totally unqualified interferring bureaucrats from the EU, who have no interest in public health, from being able to tell you what the products actually do! This is thanks the EU Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (No 1924/2006), which bans all health claims including stating what the traditional uses are, the expression of legitimate opinion, and suppresses your human right to be provided information – even including well documented academic studies which prove any claims are true! That’s despite the the European Convention for the protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms which states (in theory, but not in reality) that EU action should be directed towards improving public health, including ‘promoting… health information and education..’ (Article 168, ECHR). But hey, big pharma making money, doing everything in their power to put companies like ours out of business, and finding work for EU officials to waste £55million per day of UK taxpayers money on, is obviously a more important priority than your health, longevity, freedom of choice, freedom of publication and right to information.

Best wishes, and enjoy the sale

Mark G. Lester – Company Director

www.thefinchleyclinic.com

General Health & Nutrition

The Saatchi Bill: An Update

SAATCHI BILLA few days ago, we posted a blog about the Saatchi Bill – the great step forward for medical innovation that would allow doctors to try new and radical treatments to save dying cancer patients without fear of legal repercussions. But on February 28th, we found that Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb has announced that his party will refuse to debate the bill when it comes up for debate in the House of Commons.

In the words of Lord Saatchi himself: “They have killed the Medical Innovation Bill. It is dead. By killing the Bill they have killed the hopes of thousands of cancer patients…It is as simple as that. Nick Clegg has handed down a death sentence to cancer patients. It is an extraordinary turn of events.”

This is a great blow to so many – to patients, to their families and to any of us who might find ourselves in the same unfortunate position. The Bill has gone through two years of close scrutiny and plenty of amendments and debate in the House of Lords. Lamb cites pressure from medical unions and patient organisations among his reasons for killing the bill. But instead of debating it in the precious amount of time left before Parliament goes on election break, the Lib Dems have chosen this utterly nonsensical route. And as a result, people will die.

Politics aside, we still hold out hope that the Bill will get another shot when MPs return from break. However, if there is a chance, it is a slim one. The Finchley Clinic will continue to back Lord Saatchi and his supporters’ honourable fight against undemocratic MPs, shady corporate practices and a medical world that runs on the fear of litigation. We know that dying patients will one day be given the ray of hope they desperately need.

General Health & Nutrition

The Saatchi Bill: too little, too late?

The Saatchi Bill

The so-called Saatchi Bill passed the House of Lords last week – a ray of hope for cancer patients and pioneers of innovative medicine. After three years of revisions, amendments and debates, it’s ready to face the House of Commons. We can only hope that our MPs know that they hold in their hands a chance for a better life for thousands of British cancer sufferers.

Cancer treatment is a long, painful and sometimes futile road. On top of the agony of their disease, a patient currently faces gruelling months of harsh chemical treatments that weaken their immune system, isolate them from loved ones and ravage their bodies. For elderly patients, it’s often too much. Doctors and carers chirp that a patient’s best hope for recovery is a “positive attitude” – but that’s tough to maintain when your body and your world are falling apart around you.

The cancer treatments currently available are almost all in the same vein, but in laboratories and hospitals all over the world, a rebellion has long been brewing. The Medical Innovation Bill gives better legal protection to doctors who want to try new techniques on patients in desperate need. In a medical world where a patient’s health is often weighed against the risk of failure and legal action, it gives doctors the freedom to “treat outside the box.”

While this is great news for health advocates promoting alternative remedies as well as to patients unable to bear the pain and indignity of current treatments, the reality is that the Saatchi Bill might just be too little, too late. When unfamiliar treatments are combined with timid doctors, the outcome is that only the most hopeless cases are likely to reap any benefits from this bill. Experimental, radical treatments tend to be used as a last resort, on patients who have already been through gruelling rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy with no results.

The bill could give these patients another precious shot at life – however, their damaged state means the likelihood of any kind of successful treatment is extremely low. After disease and medicine alike take a toll on their bodies, they are often too weak to fight on. Those unsuccessful results could mean negative publicity for new and brilliant innovations, and patients in need will have fewer opportunities to take control of their cancer treatment.

We also still have the Cancer Act 1939 to contend with – a rather archaic piece of legislation which hasn’t been entirely repealed by the Saatchi Bill. The Act prohibits advertisements for cancer treatments, including offering advice and regardless of format. How can patients request a new remedy, or doctor’s find the answer to their prayers, when the entire industry is gagged?

Hurdles aside, this is still a great step forward for innovative treatments in the UK. It’s inspiring to see such progress being made despite often draconian EU laws governing alternative remedies. We can only hope that the benefits of this law go not just to ease the passing of critical patients, but to give a second chance to those who still have a hope of recovery.

Threelac and Fivelac

Threelac cheapest price too good to be true?

Threelac cheapest price
Threelac

Hi everyone.

Nope, this email isn’t what you think. I haven’t suddenly stopped believing that Threelac, used patiently and persistently, preferably with one of the liquid oxygen products is an excellent anti candida solution for many people. So why have I written “buyer beware” in the subject header? Well, recently I discovered a company selling Threelac on Amazon at what I could only describe as a silly price, which meant neither they nor anyone else could be making a profit on it. This went on for some weeks, and I was both frustrated and puzzled. I complained to the supplier, who told me they have never heard of this company, and they were not selling it to them. They asked me to buy a box, which I promptly did, and then found out why it was so cheap. Basically the box was badly damaged, but more importantly there was no expiry date on the box. Since the expiry dates are actually etched onto the box, and the distributor cannot falsify the expiry date, I am not sure how it is even possible to provide stock with no expiry date whatsoever on it. I was puzzled, but the one thing i did know was that was something dodgy about this supplier, and this stock. Was it stolen? Was it counterfeit? I don’t know, but personally I would not take it.

Recently this supplier has stopped selling the Threelac cheapest price stock that they were previously advertising. Good job, as I would hate to think of customers being ripped off with what looked like a great deal but only because the stock is counterfeit or beyond it’s expiry date.

So my conclusion, biased as I am, is rather than just googling “Threelac cheapest price” and deciding to buy purely based on price, do consider who you are buying from before making your purchase. Just as all that glitters is not gold, all that looks cheap is not necessarily being sold with integrity.

Colon cleansing

GREEN DOES NOT EQUAL GOOD

Colon health is a big deal here at the Finchley Clinic. We are big on keeping your colon free of toxins and maintaining a healthy population of friendly bacteria; it’s one of the most widely-used ways to promote overall good health.

We also want you to fully understand what you’re getting when you use supplements. After all, it is your body and your health so you should be the one to make informed decisions about what goes into it.

You might have heard a lot about herbal supplements and taking extra fibre to keep your bowels in order. While it is true that a fibre-rich diet is good for your guts, taking fibre supplements might actually do you more harm than good. Herbal supplements can contain toxic contaminants and allergens – and that’s just the side effects. Their intended effects can be directly harmful to your internal health.

Oxy-Powder Colosan and Mag 07

Take psyllium, for example. Widely promoted as a healthy way to cleanse your bowels, it’s been known to cause serious allergic reactions,so it isn’t suitable for everyone. While reactions are fairly rare, psyllium can also result in the exact opposite of its goal by causing new bowel obstructions. Although we don’t doubt that they can provide great results in the right situation, some people, our company director included, find psyllium products to be extremely bloating and constipating even when taken as directed with plenty of water.Ironically, psyllium treatments can actually be very risky for those already suffering from painful constipation. Using psyllium in the long term may also affect your ability to absorb vital minerals such as iron.

Cascara sagrada or buckthorn bark was banned in the US in 2002 for use in laxatives, but still finds its way into bowel cleansers. Like senna, another popular cleanser, buckthorn is a type of anthraquinone – a naturally-occurring but nevertheless harsh compound that irritates your bowels to cause contractions and force a bowel movement. Apart from causing diarrhoea, nausea and a fair amount of physical discomfort, this irritates your colon’s population of healthy bacteria – so you end up with a less healthy gut than you started with.

 

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This is why we usually recommend a mineral colon cleanser like Oxy Powder over and above fibre based products– even though we sell a few of them. It’s an oxygen-based product that uses magnesium oxide compounds to slowly release nascent oxygen into your bloodstream and digestive system. The oxygen creates an environment hostile to harmful anaerobic gut bacteria, but rather than forcing your bowels to move, it simply loosens and breaks down toxic build-up. At the same time, it feeds beneficial aerobic bacteria, to encourage them to multiply and create a healthier, more stable colonic environment.

Many of us fall into the trap of believing that because something is “herbal” or “natural”, it must be good for us. It’s important to stay informed and realise that not everything green is your friend.

Fighting colds and flu

A healthy immune system in Winter

Before I was into all this stuff, I used to get 2-3 colds or flu infections per year, mostly in the winter. Now I rarely get them at all, and if I do, they are so mild I barely notice them. I don’t think there is anything especially amazing about my inherent immunity – it comes down to the products I take. I avoid milk products in the main as they are extremely mucous forming and contribute to catarrhal states, and I take quite a few supplements. But I think my rare contracting of winter viral infections primarily comes down to three core immune supporting products, and if you take them, you will get far fewer, if any winter sniffles too. So here we go with my tips for a healthy immune system all winter.

First take liquid oxygen – Vitamin ‘O’

Liquie Oxygen - For a healthy immune system in winterTrying to be healthy whilst your body is improperly oxygenated is rather like trying to build a house on a swamp. In my opinion, optimal oxygenation is foundational to good health, but especially for warding off winter viruses bacterial and fungal infection. In this newsletter, I can’t go into the level of detail that Ed “Mr Oxygen” McCabe goes into in his seminal 650 page book “Flood Your Body With Oxygen” (you can buy it on Amazon though). All I will say is that taking any of our liquid oxygen products will do wonders for keeping cold’s, flu’s and other virus’s at bay, as well as help you inhibit those candida overgrowth and other dysbiotic micro-organisms that make a nuisance of themselves with so many of us. It’s impossible to say which of the four rival brands we provide is the “best” one – you might as well as ask me which is the “best” variety of apple, or which is the “prettiest” flower. Individual results do vary, and it is possible that if you try more than one, that one will work better for you than another one. However they all aim to do the same thing, which is flood the body with oxygen. Take the oxygen on ongoing basis – not just a few weeks – and countless health benefits will arise including the inhibition of winter time viremia.

A word of warning

Those that dabble do not get good results. This seems to happen particularly frequently with the liquid oxygen products for some reason. So don’t waste your time phoning us to tell us they didn’t work, only to then mention “Well actually, I kept forgetting to take it” or “I took it now and then”. It’s amazing how many people tell us it “didn’t work” when the reality was that they were messing about with it, and it never stood a chance of working.

Second, take Vitamin C – foundational immune support.

After all the the thousands of papers published on the benefits of therapeutic dosages (i.e… at least 1000mg per day) of Vitamin C over the last 50 years for a  healthy immune system, it’s quite amazing that some of the more narrow minded doctors and scientists, are still arguing with us over this one. Like the smoking question, where naturopaths were warning the public that smoking was dangerous as far back as Victorian times, while the conventional medical profession looked on and sneered for literally 100 years, it is quite obvious they have completely lost this argument. So I am going to state here very clearly that I think that more or less everyone benefits from Vitamin C supplementation – beyond what they get in their diet.

How does Vitamin C support the immune system and reduce winter colds and flu?

It does this in several ways, including the boosting of the levels and activity of interferons (antiviral proteins), B-lymphocytes (which produce antibodies), T-lymphocytes (which attack invading organisms directly), or complement it (through an enzymic system that attacks bacteria and viruses). Enhanced T-Lymphocyte function probably results at least partially from Vitamin C’s action in raising prostaglandin E1 levels.

Vitamin C is also a powerful antioxidant nutrient, which means that it can protect us against toxins produced in the body called free radicals. These are implicated as being involved in increased risks of cataracts, arthritis, atherosclerosis, premature aging, and several other more serious pathological states.

Which Vitamin C and how much?

For optimal health, I believe in taking Vitamin C the whole year, without any breaks at all. In the summer 1g (1000mg) per day is enough. In the winter, I recommend 2-3g per day for those whose immune systems are vulnerable. If you are following all the advice in this newsletter and still get a cold (which is much less probable), take 1g every couple of hours. We well quite a few Vitamin C products, and all of them will do the job, but when asked, my opinion is that the best one we provide is our Tapioca Vitamin C (formerly Ultra Pure Vitamin C) 1000mg 90 caps.

Warning

It’s best to take Vitamin C a couple of hours away from any of our liquid oxygen products for optimal results.

Third, take Vitamin D – the sunshine Vitamin

Vitamin D is a vital nutrient for optimal immune function, as shown in study after study. It is primarily sourced from the reaction between ultra violet light from the sun and cholesterol in the skin (yes, cholesterol isn’t all bad, in fact you would be dead without some presence of this substance in your body). In the days when we enjoyed outdoor agrarian or hunter gatherer lifestyles,we wouldn’t have as didn’t badly for uptake for vitamin D as today. In my opinion most people today are vitamin D deficient in winter, and research seems to be demonstrating that this is one of the big causes of increased risks of getting colds and flu’s.

Even conventional medicine is largely on our side on the deficency question. On the NHS web site, surprisingly, it states that ” A 2007 survey estimated that around 50% of all adults have some degree of vitamin D deficiency.” An American study reported that 32 percent of children and adults throughout the US were vitamin D deficient. However we think both of these are gross underestimates because the recommended minimal levels of Vitamin D that these surveys are based on are ludicrously low.

We think that Dr Joseph Mercola, a conventionally trained doctor who has ‘gone natural’ is getting much closer to the truth where he estimates that 95% of elderly people are vitamin D deficient “not only because they tend to spend a lot of time indoors but also because they produce less in response to sun exposure (a person over the age of 70 produces about 30 percent less vitamin D than a younger person with the same sun exposure)”. However I would go even further by saying in my opinion, if you live in northern Europe and work indoors, your vitamin D levels are probably significantly sub-optimal for ideal immune function, almost all the time but more so in winter, no matter what age you are.

Vitamin D and colds or flu

In the largest and most nationally representative studof its kind to date, involving about 19,000 Americans, people with the lowest vitamin D levels reported having significantly more recent colds or cases of the flu — and the risk was even greater for those with chronic respiratory disorders like asthma. (Reported in the The Journal Of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine February 3, 2009; 169(4) 384-390) At least five additional studies also show an inverse association between lower respiratory tract infections and vitamin D levels. Clearly Vitamin D is important for a healthy immune system.

 

Which Vitamin D product to take?

Almost any Vitamin D product would be better than nothing, and our full list of such products is found here. However vitamin D works synergistically with Vitamin K2 (this is NOT the same as Vitamin K1, which is derived from green leafy vegetables) for its benefits to be most efficiently realised. For this reason, of the various Vitamin D products we provide, I believe the best one, , is Vitamin D3 5,000iu with Vitamin K2 – 90 tablets. This also happens to be our highest strength one. The government RDA for Vitamin D is 200iu per day, which in my view is ridiculously low. If you are serious about boosting your immune system, rather than taking the minimum amount to avoid dropping dead, you need to take one per day of this product. (Children can take it with less frequency, to get to an equivalent amount relative to their weight compared to an adult).

Is Vitamin D safe?

It has been claimed that taking Vitamin D is potentially toxic, but is this really true?

Vitamin D is normally measured in i.u.’s which stands for International Units.

Perhaps the screen shot on the left from a lecture I watched recently on Vitamin D on YouTube will help you make up your mind. Remember our highest strength vitamin D product contains 5,000 i.u. per tablet – not 7 million i.u.!

It has also been suggested that taking over 40,000 units per day for more than three months is potentially toxic, but even this seems to be an exaggeration. I have seen other research showing that Vitamin D was not shown to be toxic even on as high a dosage as 75,000iu’s taken every day on a long term basis. It also seems illogical because the body can naturally produce up to 30,000i.u’s in the summer just from 30 minutes of sunbathing!In the winter time in the UK, the sun’s angle to the horizon is too low to produce Vitamin D even if you were outside all day and the sunning is shining. Nonetheless I do not recommend taking amounts higher than 5-000 to 10,000i.u’s per day, which still keeps things vastly lower than any estimates of the toxicity threshold.

In another video found on YouTube, Dr. Kate Rheaume-Bleue claims that vitamin D when combined with K2 has no known toxicity on any dosage. That’s because vitamin D ‘toxicity’ is not really toxicity at all, but an increased requirement for Vitamin K2 when Vitamin D is taken. ‘Toxicity’ occurs if there isn’t enough Vitamin K2 in the body for Vitamin D to function appropriately in the body – and even then you would need to take a ludicrous dosage for this to occur.

The big three for a healthy immune system – Liquid Oxygen – Vitamin C – Vitamin D

So those are my big three. It is true that many other products can also be used to prevent or shorten a cold or flu – such Colloidal Silver, Zinc, Selenium, Cat’ Claw, Pau d’Arco (Lapacho), Echinacea Cold Flu Relief, and quite a few others, found here.  As always I have only scratched the surface of what I would like to say, but if you follow these steps, I am confident you will get a lot less colds and flu’s this winter.

The next newsletter is going to on natural pain relief…

Mark G. Lester

Director – The Finchley Clinic Ltd

www.thefinchleyclinic.com

Supplier of Natural Health Supplements for candida management and colon cleansing