----- Original Message ----- From: "Garnet" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 8:21 PM Subject: CS>Potassium - Debunking this very irresponsible series of articles
> There are a few pointers in this series of articles that cause me to > have serious doubts about their validity. Garnet, Thanks for your sharp eye for details that I overlooked at 5 in the morning. I do, however, question some of YOUR questions about the article. > 1) The author claims his blood electrolytes were NEVER checked in over > 25 years of care by a physician, and one would assume cardiologist. > > This is absurd. Electrolytes are checked with great regularity. It is > part of a standard blood panel on any heart patient and has been so for > a very long time. After hearing so many horror stories about doctors, I can believe that that his electrolytes were never checked. I say, let's not make assumptions without asking the man. > 2) He claims that sodium is a poison and that potassium is more > important. He states that "unlike toxic sodium, potassium is essential > to our health" > > It is the balance of minerals that is important, not one single mineral. > Sodium is required by the body and is as important as any of the > electrolytes, to maintain the potential across cell membranes, due to > the relative concentrations of all of the electrolytes. Without sodium > we would also die. I agree that we need sodium. However, one thing that's very interesting is that the body conserves sodium while excreting potassium. When I was doing research for my book on sauna therapy, all the sources I consulted said that after a short while of excreting both sodium and potassium (as well as other minerals), the body then LEARNS to hold on to the sodium but cannot help eliminating potassium. Knowing this, I read the article with great interest. I don't think it's such a big deal if we don't supplement the diet with sodium. > Sodium does NOT cause high blood pressure. Restricting excessive sodium > consumption in a hypertensive patient will help lower high blood > pressure. But to turn the converse into sodium is toxic or causes high > blood pressure is a grave error in logic. I also think we need to describe WHAT FORM that sodium takes -- which I did catch on reading the article but didn't think to mention while posting it. Pure sodium chloride without being balanced by other trace minerals is a whole different kettle of (salty) fish than "whole food" salt. > 3) Potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium and phosphorous are macro > minerals. > > This author refers to some of these as trace minerals. I didn't catch this either. > 4)"...'research" proved longa go that simple deficiency can not cause > life threatening conditions." > > This too is absurd, it is well known in the medical community that > potassium deficiency can kill you, indeed that any electrolyte > deficiency if severe enough will kill you. It was widely spoken of in > response to the number of people using "liquid" protien diets in the > 70's, some of whom died with big follow ups in the media. Yet the thrust of his article seems to be that simple deficiencies are life-threatening. I'm still giving him the benefit of the doubt, and regard this simply as sloppy writing and editing. Maybe I'm being naive. > 5) By the seventies, all meaningful references to serious mineral > deficiencies had been removed from the curriculum. > > Again not true. I attended classes in medical physiology with medical > students as a graduate student in pharmacology in 1979 - 1981. The > nutrition part of this course most certainly did deal with mineral > requirements and deficiencies. Remember too that this guy is living in Australia. He doesn't specify WHICH curriculum had eliminated these studies. > We were not taught all a person needed was "a diet rich in fruit and > vegetables". In fact this top ten medical school brought in Dr Linus > Pauling to lecture on Vit C. As well as one of the biochemists telling > us personally what he took each day in the way of supplements and why. You were taught well. LOTS of doctors and health care practitioners I know are taught that a diet rich in fruits and veggies is adequate. In fact, this is the official line nowadays of many US government departments. > The author is also, after scaring his readers which he so neatly accuses > modern doctors of doing, soliciting donations!!! > > Follow the money . . . . Yet the author is still making his article freely available to people without their having to pay for it. And he isn't leaving his readers hanging: he's suggesting a concrete, easy remedy to what he posits as the problem. I am willing to overlook the flaws in the article, because it underscores so well the importance of potassium. For me, it was a good wakeup call. Thanks for your critique. Best, Nenah -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver List archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html Address Off-Topic messages to: [email protected] OT Archive: http://escribe.com/health/silverofftopiclist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
