Your article on osteoporosis was really encouraging. But it implied that the remedy, Osteo-Mins, was for women. Please comment in a future issue as to whether this product is efficacious and safe for men. I have osteoporosis and have no intention of taking the poison they are pushing for this disease. Thank you.

Patent medicine companies always attempt to justify the stratospheric prices they charge for their products by citing the enormous costs of research. But what they aren’t telling you is that a large percentage of this cost is created by their attempts to figure out how to copy the action of the natural molecules that produced the positive results in the first place. In order to profit from the benefits brought about by natural molecules, patent medicine companies need to make an artificial-patentable-version of the original substance. So they chemically twist, deform, and otherwise manipulate them to do a similar job. It can take quite a lot of time and resources to manipulate and, essentially, de-nature nature. That’s why patent medicines are so expensive. But if they just used the natural molecules to do the job that nature intended, costs would be much less, and hazards to patients, while not zero, would also be considerably less. Then again, profits would be a lot less, too.

Every week at the Tahoma Clinic I see one or two people who’ve been told by their doctor, or convinced by advertising, to take aspirin every day to reduce their risk of heart attack. I always advise a switch to a safer, more effective alternative but am frequently asked: “Is aspirin really that bad? It’s a lot easier!” It may be easier, but, yes, it really is that bad: Aspirin is a formerly patented molecule, never found in human bodies or nature before the 1890s, so any good it may do will inevitably be offset by unwanted side effects.

Research on green tea’s health benefits has been going on for quite awhile, but last year a group of Japanese researchers came out with one of the boldest statements ever written about it-or about any other substance, for that matter. They concluded that “daily consumption of green tea in sufficient amounts will help to prolong life.”1 A longer life just from drinking tea? It sounds too good, and too simple, to be true-but there’s solid evidence behind the claim.

When I write about estriol research, a lot of men tune out, thinking that the information doesn’t apply to them. But nothing could be further from the truth. While it’s true that women naturally have considerably more estriol and other estrogens than men, men actually metabolize a small amount of their testosterone into estrogens. And it’s just as important for men to have healthy (male) levels of the estrogen estriol as it is for women. Estriol “blocks” the dangerous effects of more “pro-carcinogenic” estrogens such as estrone and estradiol in both sexes.

A few months ago, my local newspaper, the Tacoma News Tribune, devoted three full pages of its Sunday edition to the “low-carb craze.” Three pages may not sound like much, but the News Tribune hasn’t devoted that much space to anything since the 9/11 disaster. So, needless to say, it caught my attention. The article did contain some useful information, but, overall, it was more nonsense than not. So it certainly seems like this topic could use a little clarification.

IN THIS ISSUE: Should you go low-carb?;Good news for men with autoimmune disease; The simplest secret to a longer life; Nature’s “cure-all” tackles Type 2 diabetes; Get all the benefits of aspirin-without the aspirin!; Opting out of the patent medicine system; Equal opportunity osteoporosis protection ;