Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Frank Shallenberger’s
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I told Michael that the pain would cuff becoming injured again. He was smart
return after the Novocain wore off in three to stop and come in for a third injection.
to four hours. I also reassured him that the Michael now has a fully functioning
injection was successful, and that his body shoulder. To be fair, he may have had a simi-
was already starting to heal his rotator cuff. lar success story after shoulder surgery. But
He was very impressed, and promised to Prolozone therapy was so much easier and
return in two weeks for another injection. safer. It required no general anesthesia, no
When I saw Michael two weeks later, it casts, no physical therapy, and no down time.
was hard to erase the grin from his face. He
told me that the pain in his shoulder was Why didn’t my doctor tell me
“at least 50% better.” It was the least pain about prolozone therapy?
he had felt for over three years. He was very
happy. I repeated the same treatment as Like many alternative therapies,
before, and scheduled another visit. Prolozone therapy is not taught in medical
schools, or in orthopedic training programs.
Michael never made that third visit. This is probably because the overall cost of
Instead he called me from Cleveland and Prolozone therapy is very small compared to
told me that his shoulder was now complete- surgery, and there simply is not enough
ly healed. He didn’t think he needed more profit incentive.
treatments. I was not all that surprised
because occasionally I see such quick recov- There’s no doubt that there are always
eries. But I did remind him to take care of those cases which will require surgery. But
his new shoulder because the healing it’s remarkable how often even severe rota-
process would not be fully complete for tor cuff injuries will respond to Prolozone.
another six to eight weeks. I have been teaching doctors Prolozone
I saw him once more about a year later. therapy for 12 years. So far there are well
He told me that he had been skiing aggres- over 500 doctors using it. You can find a list
sively down some deep slopes and had start- of the doctors I’ve trained at www.oxygen-
ed to notice a return of his shoulder pain. He healingtherapies.com. It’s great for shoulder
was not going to take a chance at the rotator injuries — and any other joint injury. Q
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Clinical
they are over used. Doctors perform more children are, to use the words of the
than 62 million CT scans every year in the authors, “irradiated unnecessarily.”
United States. And that’s just on adults. And to make matters worse, CT scans
They perform at least another four million use much larger doses of ionizing radiation
on infants. A recent article in the journal than regular x-rays. For example, the aver-
Pediatric Radiology estimates that about age CT scan of the abdomen uses over 200
one-third of all of these CT scans are not times the radiation of a chest X-ray. They
medically necessary. That means that use about 100 times the radiation of a stan-
around 20 million adults and 1.3 million dard abdominal X-ray. And they use about
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l Pearls
20 times the radiation of screening mammo- accumulates radiation over time, the more
gram. These numbers are based on two CT studies you have, the greater your risk
passes for each CT procedure, which is stan- of cancer. Let me give you an example.
dard protocol.
Lori’s case
However, studies show that 30% of
patients receive three to four passes. And 4% A few months ago I saw a 54-year-old
of these patients receive a whopping nine or woman named Lori. She decided to have a
more passes. The more passes, the greater “virtual colonoscopy.” This is a CT scan of
the radiation exposure. Also, since the body the abdomen that looks for possible cancers.
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Although I don’t think they are nearly as than adults from a given dose of radiation.”
accurate as a real colonoscopy, many people There’s good news in all this: In gener-
use them because they consider them to be al, the older you are when you have a CT
safer. But are they? scan, the less dangerous it becomes.
Lori’s scan used three passes. But it
didn’t end there. On one of the passes, the So exactly how dangerous is it?
radiologist saw a blip that he could not be The estimated lifetime risk of death
sure was not a cancer. So a few days later, from cancer for a person older than 35 who
she had another exam, with three more receives a one pass CT of the head is one in
passes to resolve the controversy. The sec- a thousand. That means that for every 1,000
ond CT failed to show the blip, and she was CTs performed, one person will die from
pronounced free of cancer. Of course, she cancer as a result of the exposure.
was happy about that.
The estimated lifetime risk of death
Then I had to break the news to her from cancer for a person older than 35 who
about how much ionizing radiation she receives one pass CT of the abdomen is twice
received from those two scans. I told her she that high — one in every 500. The risk is
received more than twice the average greater in CTs of the abdomen because the
amount of radiation that the survivors of digestive organs are more sensitive than the
the atomic bombs received in Japan in 1945. brain to radiation-induced cancer. Now you
Her jaw dropped open. But the number of might think that these risks sound rather
passes in a CT scan is not the only thing small, but there’s much more to the story.
that determines how much radiation you
receive in a CT scan. The risks become much greater when
higher doses or more passes are used, or
The other factor is the dose used in when more than one CT scan is performed
each individual pass. You see, how much in a lifetime. Remember that over 30% of
actual radiation you receive is up to the CT scans use three passes, not one. In the
radiologist or the radiology technician. The case of a three-pass CT of the abdomen, the
problem here is that it’s difficult to keep the risk would be up to three times greater, or
dose low. That’s because lower doses reduce about one in every 150.
the test’s accuracy. So there is a tradeoff –
the higher the dose, the more accurate the In Lori’s case, since she had two, three-
examination. But the higher dose increases pass CTs, the risk that she will develop can-
your risk of excessive radiation. This dose cer sometime in her life as a result of her
issue is an even greater concern in young virtual colonoscopy was one in 75. I don’t
people and children. know how everyone feels, but I call that a
very significant risk. And it even gets worse
According to the New England Journal for young people and children.
of Medicine article, “The situation is even
clearer for children, who are at greater risk For an abdominal CT, kids between the
ages of 15-25 years have three times more
Real Cures (ISSN 1062-4163) is published monthly by risk than those over 35. For a three-pass CT,
Soundview Publishing, LLC. Publisher: Wallis W. Wood; that amounts to a one in 50 chance of can-
Editor: Frank Shallenberger, MD. Subscriptions $49 per
year; foreign addresses add $13 U.S. per year. Send new
cer. And those younger than five years old
subscriptions or changes of address to our Business Office: have 10 times the risk, or a one in fifteen
P.O. Box 8051, Norcross, GA 30091-8051, 800-728-2288 or
770-399-5617. Real Cures is a newsletter containing gen-
chance! For a CT of the head the risks are
eral comments on health, nutrition, and medicine. Readers less, but are still scary.
are advised to consult with their own physician before
implementing any health idea they read about, whether
here or in any other publication. Copyright © 2009 by
The safest approach
Soundview Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.
Unauthorized reproduction of this newsletter or its con- So what’s the moral of this story? If
tents by xerography, facsimile, or any other means is illegal. your doctor recommends a CT scan, ask if
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it’s absolutely needed. Many times the hydroxyl free radicals, take the antioxidant
information they obtain from a CT can be supplements that destroy them. If possible,
seen just as well with imaging procedures take the following every six hours for at least
that don’t use radiation, such as an MRI or 24 hours before and after your scan: vitamin
an ultrasound scan. C (1,000 mg); lipoic acid (400 mg); n-acetyl
But if your doctor says you must have cysteine (200 mg); and melatonin (3 mg).
one, make sure the radiologist knows your Scientific studies have shown these supple-
concerns, and ask for the minimum dose ments will neutralize hydroxyl free radicals.
and number of passes possible. REFS: Brenner, D.J. and E.J. Hall. “Computed Tomography –
An increasing source of radiation exposure.” N Engl J Med,
And, finally, take some measures to pro- 2007; 357:2277-84.
tect yourself. Since a lot of the cancer-caus-
Slovis, T.L. and W.E. Berdon. Panel discussion. Pediatric
ing damage from ionizing radiation is from Radiology, 2002; 32:242-4.
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Q. Are dementia and Alzheimer’s the ments are not improving the patient’s condi-
tion do I conclude that he has Alzheimer’s.
same thing? — Henry F., via e-mail
Hi Henry, Q. Do you know anything about the
Dementia is a general term that refers new baldness treatment that creates
to loss of memory and mental confusion. new hair follicles? If so, can you
Alzheimer’s is a serious form of dementia. explain and give your thoughts on it.
In fact, it’s the worst form of dementia What do you recommend for thinning
because there’s nothing that has been hair? — Jack K., via e-mail
shown to reverse or improve it. The best we Dear Jack,
can do is slow it down.
I must say that I’m really skeptical
Other forms of dementia are different. about baldness treatments. I’m not aware of
We can often cure or significantly improve any treatment that would actually grow new
these forms. That’s because they are often hair follicles. That seems impossible. But so
caused by low hormone levels (particularly did landing on the moon! If you can give me
thyroid hormones), poor nutritional status, more information, I will investigate it for you.
poor circulation to the brain, or any combi-
There are two forms of hair loss. One is
nation of all of these.
the typical male pattern baldness. I know of
So it is very important for doctors to no natural treatment that can alter this
make sure that when they diagnose problem. The other is generalized hair loss
Alzheimer’s they have checked for and associated with aging. This is simply when
treated these other conditions. Now this your hair begins to thin once you’re in your
brings us to a very important question: How 60s or beyond. Very often, you can correct
can we determine if a case of dementia is this kind of hair loss with proper hormonal
caused by Alzheimer’s, or has one of these replacement. I would look specifically at
other causes? Sadly, the answers so far are a growth hormone and the sex hormones. The
lot less than desirable. best way to analyze growth hormone is with
Currently, the only diagnostic tech- a blood test called IGF-1. If the IGF-1 is less
niques that are conventionally used to sepa- than 100, hair loss could be a result. The
rate out Alzheimer’s from other forms of best way to diagnose sex-hormone deficien-
dementia are neuropsychological testing and cies is with saliva testing. For this I recom-
standard brain scans. And both of these mend that you see a doctor experienced with
techniques are far from being completely diagnosing and treating hormonal deficien-
reliable. However, there are some very cies. A good source would be the doctor
bright spots emerging in the specialized use referral section at www.worldhealth.net.
of both MRI and PET scans that are able to
not only diagnose Alzheimer’s, but also to
diagnose it up to 15 years before there are
any signs of memory impairment. I will Got a Question?
have a complete review of this subject in a
Do you have a question for Dr.
future issue of Real Cures. Shallenberger? If so, please send it (typed
When I first see a patient that may only) to him c/o Soundview Publications,
have Alzheimer’s, I always approach the P.O. Box 8051, Norcross, GA 30091-8051 or
case as if the patient has a treatable cause feedback@RealCuresLetter.com. While he
for his memory loss. This means an aggres- won’t be able to respond personally, he’ll try
sive trial of hormone replacement, nutrition- to answer as many questions as he can in
al therapy, chelation therapy, and ozone these pages.
therapy. Only when I see that these treat-
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