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Dr Stephen Barrett MD, Quackwatch, quackwatch.com, quackwatch.org lied that heavy metals are present and visible in the blood, and denied that they sit/hide in fatty tissue and have to be provoked out using a chelating agent, erroneously criticized Doctor's Data Inc Chapel Hill, North Carolina
I was doing a search for urine provocation testing on the Internet and came across an article by Dr Stephen Barrett MD of Quackwatch (www.quackwatch.com/www.quackwatch.org). It showed a Doctor's Data urine provocation test result for someone with elevated levels of heavy metals in their urine. Dr Barrett was claiming that the test result was a ripoff used to defraud patients as the results had been "artificially elevated" using a chelating agent and were measured against "unprovoked" reference ranges. He also disparaged the use of chelation therapy to remove the metals and said that blood testing was the appropriate method of measurement, and that even if this showed high levels of heavy metals, then all that was necessary was to remove the "source of the exposure" rather than chelation therapy.
Last year (2008) I had urine provocation testing with an ND in Canada that showed that I had extreme heavy metal toxicity: my mercury and lead levels were so high that they were off the chart, and I had elevated levels of aluminium and cadmium. At the time I had MS-type symptoms, both sensory and mobility. I underwent IV EDTA & DMPS + oral DMSA chelation therapy and experienced a dramatic improvement in my symptoms that related directly to the reduction in metals - a subsequent urine provocation test showed that the CT had got rid of all the lead, aluminium and cadmium + half the mercury.
I sent the results + my story to Dr Stephen Barrett and received the following reply disparaging both....
"The tests you sent are not evidence that you had abnormal heavy metal levels. Nor would chelation be appropriate even if they were valid. The way to determine whether chelation is indicated is a blood test. In addition, when blood levels are high, in nearly all cases, no treatment is needed -- just avoidance of the source. For most people MS has ups and downs. You attribute your improvement to the chelation. The more likely explanation is simply MS's variability."
This is NOT true! Firstly, heavy metals aren't present or visible in the blood; they sit in fatty tissue and have to be "provoked" out using a chelating agent so that they can be measured in the urine, which is collected for several hours afterwards and a sample sent off to a special lab: Doctor's Data Inc, which specialises in this kind of testing and is experienced, licensed and certified. DD don't/can't use provoked reference ranges because as they quite rightly say, there is no standardization in the provocation methods used by practitioners. The true test, however, is the actual measured numeric value + one's own readings over time, which always reduce with chelation therapy.
Secondly, heavy metal toxicity can cause an autoimmune reaction as in MS because they replace normal molecules in the myelin sheath, causing the body to produce antibodies that attack the myelin and resulting in demyelination. It will cause identical diagnostic results to MS - lesions on an MR scan and raised level of protein in a lumbar puncture. It will also cause identicial symptoms. Chronic mercury poisoning cannot be distinguished from MS! In addition, you can't always remove the source as this is unknown. I have no dental amalgam fillings, but I do eat a lot of tuna and swordfish + lived for many years in a property with an antiquated plumbing system that was possibly slowly poisoning me. Whatever the source, the damage was done and had to be repaired, ie the heavy metal toxicity had to be removed with CT.
Dr Barrett didn't/wouldn't answer my subsequent e-mails to him asking him to explain why my urine toxic metal tests that showed my mercury and lead levels as sky high weren't evidence of abnormal levels or address the fact that heavy metals sit in tissue not blood, nor comment on the link between heavy metal toxicity & MS, claiming that "I obviously thought I knew more than he did"! I guess this is true. How can you possibly measure something in the blood that isn't there?! Blood tests only show RECENT exposure to mercury poisoning in the last 90 days.
MDs are rarely able to help people with chronic illness/diseases. They are full of doom and gloom predictions, don't look for the cause, and only treat the symptoms with drastic measures and toxic drugs that tend to suppress the immune system and make you worse.
NDs and alternative health practitioners look for the cause(s) on the other hand and treat with the least harmful methods. Chelation therapy is one of the best things you can ever do for yourself - it clears the arteries of toxins and metals in a very harmless way, and is very beneficial. One of its biggest uses is to bypass the need for heart bypasses. It is, however, very suppressed by the orthodox medical profession as the drugs companies have a vested interest in diagnosing people with "lifelong incurable progressive and debilitating conditions" so that that they can chuck drugs at you for the rest of your life. They have no interest in finding cures at all and CT doesn't offer enough financial return for them. Stephen Barrett said in the report that he wanted the FDA to step in somehow - the same FDA that approved DMSA CT as "safe and beneficial for use in children"!
All Quackwatch does is slander and defame NDs and alternative health practitioners. I have seen report after report from them using every possible method and lie to do this. They can offer no hope, but attack and criticize those who can to propagate and maintain the status quo and the ideological hegemony that permeates the dominant institutions. Don't believe a word they say!
9 Updates & Rebuttals
Stephen Barrett, MD
Chapel Hill,North Carolina,
USA
Provoked testing is misleading
#10REBUTTAL Individual responds
Wed, February 01, 2012
The person who complained about me does not understand what he has experienced. Testing the urine after a chelating agent has been administered will give a result that is falsely elevated. My article at http://www.quackwatch.org/t explains this in detail.
Susan
This City,Illinois,
USA
I am still confused
#10Consumer Comment
Sun, December 27, 2009
Debbie, I am still confused.
This Dr. never actually treated you?
You reported him here because you do not agree with an article he wrote?
Debbie
Other,United Kingdom
The MDs are the REAL Quacks
#10Author of original report
Thu, December 24, 2009
If you believe MS has no cause or cure, then YOU'RE the one who believes in aliens. There is a mountain of evidence out there and numerous success stories and case histories to suggest otherwise - people who have found the cause of their symptoms and treated it for their MS never to return. You clearly haven't done your research. The autoimmune theory is a fallacy, false propaganda - the body doesn't attack healthy tissue. MS is simply inflammation of the nervous system - find the cause, which is always external, and remove it and you're cured. It's been proven over and over with the cause being anything from food allergies to vitamin deficiencies, heavy metal toxicity to misaligned vertebra.
If your sister-in-law still has MS after all these years, it's because she has done nothing to help herself and believes the so-called "experts" - the MDs who are the REAL quacks and promote the lie that it is an incurable lifelong condition to perpetuate the profits of the greedy pharmaceutical companies.
Debbie
Other,United Kingdom
MS is NOT incurable and ALWAYS has a cause
#10Author of original report
Thu, December 24, 2009
If you believe MS is incurable, then you're the one who believes in aliens. There is a MOUNTAIN of evidence out there and numerous case histories that prove otherwise - people who have found the cause and cured themselves for it never to return. The body doesn't attack healthy tissue - MS is simply inflammation of the nervous system by something else; find the source of the irritation and remove it and you're cured, CONTRARY to what the MDs (the REAL quacks) tell you. Your sister-in-law obviously believes these quacks and has done nothing to help herself.
Debbie
Other,United Kingdom
Dr Barrett & Quackwatch are bogus
#10Author of original report
Thu, December 24, 2009
Dr Barrett's article is the bogus one, not me and he tries to use his status of MD to rip off everyone by making them believe his so-called "facts" and as I said, maintain the status quo so that doctors can continue to do their "real job", which is not to cure their patients but to make money for the pharmaceutical drugs companies by diagnosing people falsely with lifelong "incurable" conditions. There is another report about Dr Barrett & Quackwatch on this site making exactly the same claim.
One of the principles of naturopathic medicine is "doctor as teacher" and I know a lot about MS and heavy metal toxicity, urine provocation testing and chelation therapy because my Canadian ND honoured this. Dr Barrett is a LIAR when he tries to claim that a) a blood test is the appropriate method for heavy metal toxicity and b) the only thing necessary if this is positive is to remove the source of the exposure. Heavy metals are not present or visible in the blood; they sit/hide in fatty tissue and have to "provoked" out with a chelating agent so that they can be measured in the urine, which needs to be collected for several hours and sent to a specialist lab like Doctor's Data Inc. Also, removing the source of the exposure does not repair damage already caused.
Another principle of naturopathic medicine is "first do no harm" and chelation therapy is a lot less harmful and far more beneficial than the methylprednisone steroid treatment, beta interferon and baclofen drugs that MDs give to people with MS, which just make them even worse.
Re how I got such high levels of heavy metals, I already explained this in the report. Also, we all accumulate metals as we are exposed to them all the time in our surroundings. Most of the time our bodies can cope with these until we are emotionally and/or physically traumatised and our immune systems break down. This is what happened to me.
Ramjet
Somewhere,Michigan,
U.S.A.
Wrong
#10Consumer Comment
Thu, December 24, 2009
First of all, there is no such thing as 'Alternative Medicine'. There is Scientific Medicine and 'everything else.
A huge part of Scientific Medicie relates to preventative medicine contrary to what these quacks try to tell you.
I have a sister-in-law with MS and over the last 20 years it appears to go away for long periods of time and then returns. Quack medicine uses these normal remission periods as proof their silly treatments work. They don't.
Forget these quacks and see a real doctor and accept and deal with real siruations and treatments.
You probably believe 'them aliens' make crop circles too.
Debbie
Other,United Kingdom
Dr Barrett & Quackwatch are bogus
#10Author of original report
Thu, December 24, 2009
Dr Barrett's article is the bogus one, not me and he tries to use his status of MD to rip off everyone by making them believe his so-called "facts" and as I said, maintain the status quo so that doctors can continue to do their "real job", which is not to cure their patients but to make money for the pharmaceutical drugs companies by diagnosing people falsely with lifelong "incurable" conditions. There is another report about Dr Barrett & Quackwatch on this site making exactly the same claim.
One of the principles of naturopathic medicine is "doctor as teacher" and I know a lot about MS and heavy metal toxicity, urine provocation testing and chelation therapy because my Canadian ND honoured this. Dr Barrett is a LIAR when he tries to claim that a) a blood test is the appropriate method for heavy metal toxicity and b) the only thing necessary if this is positive is to remove the source of the exposure. Heavy metals are not present or visible in the blood; they sit/hide in fatty tissue and have to "provoked" out with a chelating agent so that they can be measured in the urine, which needs to be collected for several hours and sent to a specialist lab like Doctor's Data Inc. Also, removing the source of the exposure does not repair damage already caused.
Another principle of naturopathic medicine is "first do no harm" and chelation therapy is a lot less harmful and far more beneficial than the methylprednisone steroid treatment, beta interferon and baclofen drugs that MDs give to people with MS, which just make them even worse.
Re how I got such high levels of heavy metals, I already explained this in the article. Also, we all accumulate metals as we are exposed to them all the time in our surroundings. Most of the time our bodies can cope with these until we are emotionally and/or physically traumatised and our immune systems break down. This is what happened to me.
Susan
This City,Illinois,
USA
Maybe
#10Consumer Comment
Thu, December 24, 2009
Maybe but you said " my mercury and lead levels were so high that they were off the chart, and I had elevated levels of aluminium and cadmium. "
How did you get all of that in your body?
No matter, you are complaining because you emailed someone at a place called quackwatch who isn't your doctor, didn't like the answer and are mad.
Stephen Barrett, MD
Chapel Hill,North Carolina,
USA
This complaint is bogus
#10REBUTTAL Individual responds
Thu, December 24, 2009
The writer of this "complaint" didn't agree with something on my Web site and decided to file a "Ripoff Report" even though she has no connection with me and was not ripped off. The that she disliked describes how a phony urine test is used to trick people into thinking they have toxic metals stored in their body.