From the "Voices From The Shadows" website -
‘Trial By Error’ – by David Tuller.
‘Voices from the Shadows’ shows
the devastating effects some patients have suffered following exercise
programmes. These treatments of Graded Exercise Therapy and Cognitive
Behavioural Therapy, used as the primary treatment for CFS and ME on the basis
that patients have become de-conditioned from resting too much, caught in a
cycle of boom and bust as a consequence of mistaken ideas about this illness,
have become the accepted treatment across the NHS for patients.
David Tuller is academic coordinator of the concurrent
masters degree program in public health and journalism at the University of
California, Berkeley. He has spent the last year or more pursuing an in-depth
investigation into a major research project – the UK’s PACE Trial – which received what was a disproportionate
amount of money from the MRC in comparison with other research projects for CFS
in the UK. The distorted publicity give to the trials results, which
misrepresented the illness, impacted very badly on public and health
professionals perceptions of patients.
David Tuller’s investigation,
‘Trial By Error’ was published in three instalments on October 21st, 22nd and
23rd 2015 in Virology with links to each instalment at
He says “Top researchers who have
reviewed the study say it is fraught with indefensible methodological
problems.” and includes quotes by a number of highly respected scientists –
Dr. Bruce Levin, Columbia
University: “To let participants know that interventions have been selected by
a government committee ‘based on the best available evidence’ strikes me as the
height of clinical trial amateurism.”
Dr. Ronald Davis, Stanford
University: “I’m shocked that the Lancet published it…The PACE study has so
many flaws and there are so many questions you’d want to ask about it that I
don’t understand how it got through any kind of peer review.”
Dr. Arthur Reingold, University
of California, Berkeley: “Under the circumstances, an independent review of the
trial conducted by experts not involved in the design or conduct of the study
would seem to be very much in order.”
Dr. Jonathan Edwards, University
College London: “It’s a mass of un-interpretability to me…All the issues with
the trial are extremely worrying, making interpretation of the clinical
significance of the findings more or less impossible.”
Dr. Leonard Jason, DePaul
University: “The PACE authors should have reduced the kind of blatant
methodological lapses that can impugn the credibility of the research, such as
having overlapping recovery and entry/disability criteria.”
The Brain Destroying, Cancer Causing Ingredient Hidden In Your Food
There’s a widespread and silent
killer that’s hidden in most foods that is slowly destroying millions (maybe
even billions) of people’s health. It’s worse for you than alcohol, nicotine
and even many drugs. And it’s likely
lurking in your kitchen cabinets right now. What is this harmful substance that
is so pervasive and unfortunately legal for food manufacturing companies to
use? You’ve probably heard of it, but likely didn’t know how widespread its use
was because it is allowed to be disguised under many different names. The
ingredient is “monosodium glutamate” or MSG. You will learn here how MSG harms
your brain and your health as well as its other “secret” names so you can avoid
it and protect your health.
I used to think that MSG was just
in Chinese food, but the truth is that it’s actually added to thousands of the
foods you and your family regularly eat, especially if you are like most
Americans and eat the majority of your food as processed packaged foods or in
restaurants.
MSG is one of the most harmful additives on the market and is used in
frozen dinners, crackers, canned soups, processed meats, barbeque sauce, salad
dressings, and much more. It’s found in your local supermarket and
restaurants, in your child’s school cafeteria and, amazingly, even in baby food
and infant formula.
Why is MSG so harmful? It’s an excitotoxin — substances, usually
containing amino acids that react with specialized receptors (neurons) in the
brain in such a way as to lead to the destruction of certain types of brain
cells. Humans lack a blood-brain barrier in the hypothalamus, which allows
these excitotoxins to enter the brain and cause damage. Simply put, as described in Dr. Russell
Blaylock’s excellent book, Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, they are exactly
what they sound like: toxins that excite
your brain cells to death!
How does this happen?
As Dr. Blaylock explains, “MSG enters the brain past the blood-brain
barrier and triggers neurons to open their calcium channel. The glutamate
causes the cell to remain stuck in the open position then calcium floods into
the cell in large amounts. This triggers the cell to react in emergency mode
and starts its special pump that will start pumping out the excess calcium
using up large amounts of energy (ATP).
The cell then swells up with excess calcium and eventually the cell is
depleted of energy and dies within a few hours. The pump couldn’t pump out the
excess calcium fast enough. It’s like trying to bail water out of a boat with a
large hole in the bottom. You use up a ton of energy and eventually the boat is
filled and sinks. The cell shrivels up and the body’s defense mechanism sweeps
away the dead cell debris.”
No strain of rat or mice is
naturally obese, so the scientists create them. They make these morbidly obese
creatures by injecting them with MSG when they are first born. The MSG triples
the amount of insulin the pancreas creates, causing rats to become obese.
MSG creates a lesion in the
hypothalamus that correlates with abnormal development, including obesity,
short stature and sexual reproduction problems.
MSG has also been shown to kill brain cells as well as to cause nausea,
vomiting, migraine headaches, depression, and heart problems.
As I mentioned earlier, MSG is
often disguised under many other names and therefore, you may not be able to
detect it in a list of ingredients unless you know what to look for.
According to Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD, the following are hidden MSG
derivatives listed on ingredient labels that should be avoided.
Natural Flavors/Flavoring
Corn oil
Glutamic Acid
Yeast Extract
Soy Protein
Soy Isolate
Carrageenan (often in almond and
other nut milks)
Stock
Broth
Natural Beef Or Chicken Flavoring
Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein
TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein)
Glutamate Textured Protein
Gelatin Yeast Nutrient
Autolyzed Yeast
Caseinate
Citric Acid
Food companies learned that MSG
increased the flavor and aroma and enhance acceptability of commercial food
products, so it is doubtful that they will ever quit using this brain killing
additive to our food supply. Take a
quick trip to your kitchen and check your pantry and fridge. You will likely
see that MSG is in almost everything processed: soups, chips, ramen noodles,
gravy, sauces, salad dressings, corn oil, broth and so many other items.
If you want to avoid MSG, learn
to read ingredient labels and better yet, eat foods that are whole foods –
foods from nature that are unprocessed. Your
health and your family’s are worth the extra effort!