Nutrition and Public Interest (Part III); Harm of Antibiotics; Arabs and Heart Disease; Formula 22684
Contents in this issue:
- “Nutrition and Public Interest (Part III),” by Kirkpatrick W. Dilling,
- “Biologist Warns on Possible Harm Caused by Introduction of Antibiotics into Nature,”
- “The Arab’s Answer to Heart Disease,”
- “Formula 22684.”
The following is a transcription of the December 1965 issue of Dr. Royal Lee’s Applied Trophology newsletter, originally published by Standard Process Laboratories.
Nutrition and Public Interest (Part III)
Kirkpatrick W. Dilling
This article begins in Part I (October 1965) and continues in Part II (November 1965).
Harassment by legal proceedings. All too often the small businessman in the food supplement industry is faced with legal proceedings instituted by FDA. Any such contest is uneven at best, the individual involved facing the almost limitless financial resources of the U.S. Government.
A high FDA official told the undersigned, regarding a lawsuit not proceeding well for the Agency, “If this case plays out, we will just work up another lawsuit, you know.” Understandably, the writer was shocked that a powerful official could make such an irresponsible statement.
Important Constitutional rights are often jeopardized by improper agency use of secret tape recorders and other “snooper” devices for legal proceedings. Recently Honorable Ellis Arnall, former Attorney General and Governor of Georgia, cited to the Chairman of a Senate Sub-Committee investigating these matters a criminal case wherein the FDA had secretly recorded statements to an inspector of the accused (later acquitted) and later sought to employ them at the trial. Governor Arnall also cited a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court holding that where criminal prosecution is intended, a government agent is required to advise those he interrogates of this fact and give them an opportunity to obtain counsel before making statements that could be subsequently used against them.
Unfortunately, the case cited by Governor Arnall is not an isolated one.
Harassment through legal proceedings has not only been the subject of comment by the select committee mentioned above but has evoked judicial criticism as well. Concerning a legal action wherein the FDA sought to bar a sugar product fortified with supplementary vitamins and minerals, a Federal Court recently observed:
“The basic flaw in the Government’s case against the product is that it is seeking, under the guise of misbranding charges, to prohibit the sale of a food in the marketplace simply because it is not in sympathy with its use. But the Government’s position is clearly untenable. The provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act did not vest in the Food and Drug Administration or any other federal agency the power to determine what foods should be included in the American diet; this is the function of the marketplace…
“The Court does not undertake to constitute itself an arbiter of nutritional problems involved in determining more or less desirable agents for vending vitamin and mineral supplements to the consumer. The Congress did not provide the necessity of such determination. Neither will the Court permit a federal agency to appoint itself such an arbiter under the guise of prosecuting an action under the Act in question. Plainly only Congress can or should regulate the use of vitamins and then only to prevent public injury.”
It is recommended most strongly that the Congress shall enact legislation that not only clearly enunciates the inalienable right of the American consumer to choose his own diet, free from any Governmental interference, but which bars discriminatory legal harassment of those engaged in the food supplement industry.
(Continued from Part II in the November 1965 issue of Applied Trophology. For Part I, see our October 1965 issue.)
Biologist Warns on Possible Harm Caused by Introduction of Antibiotics into Nature
Urbana, IL. – Warnings on possible deleterious effects following introduction of antifungal antibiotics into nature were sounded by a University of Minnesota researcher here recently.
While emphasizing that antibiotics have led to control of many diseases, Dr. S.G. Bradley cautioned that these antibiotics “can have unexpected and profound ecological consequences when intentionally or inadvertently introduced into nature.”
Both continuous presence of small concentrations of antibiotics as well as transitory presence of destructive concentrations of drug “can cause persistent changes in the flora and fauna,” the professor of microbiology said at the AIBS meeting.
Dr. Bradley emphasized that not only can plants absorb antifungal antibiotics and transport them systemically, but plants can sometimes concentrate antibiotics as well. “Herbivorous and omnivorous animals, therefore, may ingest substantial amounts of a fungicide even though it was applied diffusely,” he cautioned.
The investigator advised that all actions of antifungal antibiotics should be considered, not just their action on certain well-defined microbial populations. He pointed out that other actions may potentially limit the use of an antibiotic. Also, investigation may disclose a new attribute of a drug with greater utility than its antimicrobia1 application, he added.
The Minneapolis scientist describes the actions of cycloheximide griseofulvin and nystatin on a variety of plants, animals, and protista. In the first study, the ability of these antibiotics to inhibit certain groups of microbes was determined with the following results:
None of the drugs retarded growth of the bacteria Streptomyces griseus and Rhodospirillum rubrum nor of the blue green alga Anacystis nidulans; only cycloheximide was active against the protozoan Tetrahymena pyriformis.
Nystatin was fungicidal for Candida stellatoidea and Trichophyton mentagrophytes. Griseofulvin was active against Trichophyton, and cycloheximide for neither. Cycloheximide, it was found, adversely affected all tested green algae, nystatin markedly inhibited only Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, and griseofulvin had no effect on any of the algae tested.
Experiments on the effects of these antibiotics on flora and fauna were also carried out.
It was found, for example, that guppies in water containing cycloheximide “showed a higher incidence of mortality than fish in untreated water or in water containing cycloheximide and 24 µg. per ml. streptomycin or chlortetracycline.”
Nystatin was also harmful to fish and snails. According to Dr. Bradley, “as little as 10 µg. antibiotic per ml. killed all of the snails, and markedly increased the incidence of mortality in the guppy population.”
Higher concentrations of the drug, he noted, caused death of all fish as well as brine shrimp.
—Research and Technology, Drug Trade News, September 13 1965
The Arab’s Answer to Heart Disease
It has recently been reported in Tel Aviv, Israel, that in a systematic study by a team of Israeli scientists, in their physical examinations only one case of coronary thrombosis was found among 510 Bedouins over the age of 30.
This confirmed clinical conclusions previously determined that coronary heart disease is very rare among these nomads of the semi-arid Negev area. The published conclusions disclosed that the blood cholesterol of these desert people is much below that considered normal in modern western populations. In fact, even the men over the age of 30 did not have a significant increase in blood cholesterol. Further investigation revealed simple foods as the all-important factor in normal vascular circulation.
Some 18,000 tribesmen live the Negev area, and in years of good rainfall they raise grains, mostly wheat and barley, some of which, as in biblical times, is stored against the years of drought. Whole grains are used in making flour for an unleavened bread, “rarif,” resembling early times matzo. This is their main food, although their diet may include milk as available from camels, goats, or sheep. They consider camel’s milk the most nutritious. Usually, the milk is allowed to sour as a protective measure, since harmful bacteria such as typhoid cannot live in sour milk.
The top fatty layer of the sour milk is skimmed off to make a butter called “samneh.” The sour milk itself is made into a cheese called “afik.”
The Israeli scientists further established that the Bedouins never eat fish and that meat is only eaten about once a month and then only on special occasions or when visitors are served. Chicken is the favored meat and eaten more often.
The study further revealed that both sexes have thinner layers of fat beneath the skin and low body weights when compared to our western people and standards.
Formula 22684
Certain doctors have reported Formula 22684 to be of nutritional benefit as a dietary adjunct and “Food for Special Dietary Use” to nutritionally aid weakened ligaments, muscles, and tendons.
Manganese and vitamin B12 supply trace mineral elements, which have been demonstrated as essential in animal nutrition.
Vitamin B12 has, as an indispensable part, cobalt, a deficiency of which has been demonstrated to be responsible for wasting diseases of cattle. The slipped tendon and perosis syndrome of chickens and the lameness and tendency for bones to deform because of lack of ligamentous support in calves have been attributed to lack of manganese. Manganese also is an activator of a number of different enzymes, phosphates in particular.
Vitamin E is best known as an antioxidant vitamin. In guinea pigs, rabbits, sheep, goats, hamsters, and calves, severe degeneration of skeletal muscles develops on rations devoid of vitamin E. In man creatinuria, noted in patients with cystic fibrosis and xanthomatous biliary cirrhosis, was reduced by administration of alpha-tocopherol. In addition, a slight decrease in erythrocyte lifespan, as well as a small but statistically significant increase in reticulocyte response to tocopherol administration was noted in male adults with low normal hemoglobin levels who had been on a low tocopherol diet for several years.
Vitamin C is essential, among other things, for the formation of bone and cartilage. Overgrowth of subperiosteal bone and perosis have been observed in animals suffering from prolonged vitamin C deficiency. The response to treatment with vitamin C is dramatic. Within 24 hours new intercellular substance is formed and capillary formation, which is essential in growing tissue, is resumed.
Nutrient contents:
- Manganese phytate
- Vitamin E
- Veal bone nucleoprotein
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin B12
Formula 22684 is sold for dispensing by licensed practitioners of the healing arts. Bibliography furnished on request.
