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by Mike Adams
the Health Ranger
May 18, 2010
from
NaturalNews Website
The "most retarded science journal of
the year" award goes to the Journal of Urology which has published
an article suggesting that diet soda is actually an effective type
of medicine for preventing kidney stones (far
below report - April 19, 2010 issue).
The research was led by Dr Brian H.
Eisner, a urologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in
Boston, who is apparently completely clueless about human
nutrition and the toxicity of
aspartame.
According to Dr Eisner, diet sodas are not only good medicine for
preventing kidney stones; they're also a good source of water
hydration.
Noting that patients need to consume 2-3
liters of water each day, Dr Eisner said in a Reuters article
(below),
"If drinking these sodas helps
people reach that goal, then that may be a good thing."
If you're thinking this is some sort of
April Fools joke, it isn't.
Dr Eisner and the Journal of Urology
are somehow convinced this is good research and that diet sodas may
actually have a positive medicinal effect on the human body.
Instances of such "scientific"
stupidity appear to be increasing in western medicine where
doctors remain wildly ignorant of the effects on the human
body caused by processed ingredients or toxic chemical additives.
Aspartame, used as the primary sweetener in diet sodas, is a potent
neurotoxin according to experts like Dr
Russell Blaylock. Many believe
it promotes headaches, vision problems, endocrine system problems
and nervous system disorders. It has never been proven safe for
human consumption by any honest testing.
Most diet sodas also contain alarmingly high levels of phosphoric
acid, a substance that causes a huge increase in acidity throughout
the body, suppressing immune function, weakening bones and
contributing to kidney stones (not preventing them).
The truth
about diet soda
There is absolutely no question that drinking diet soda is atrocious
for your health.
That a mainstream western doctor
would somehow conclude diet soda to be a medicine for preventing
kidney stones is equivalent to declaring "pizza prevents heart
disease" or that smoking cigarettes prevents cancer. It shows not
merely the shocking nutritional ignorance of Dr Eisner himself, but
the utter lack of nutritional knowledge among his peers at the
Journal of Urology who somehow saw fit to publish his study.
This is called science?
Keep in mind that the entire claim is
based on the idea that certain diet sodas contain citrate and
that frequent consumption of citrate from natural sources (lemonade,
lime juice, etc.) is well known to prevent kidney stones. Consuming
natural lemonade actually does prevent kidney stones, but you can't
extrapolate from that and claim a lemon-flavored diet soda will
accomplish the same thing.
That's like saying that since fruit
helps prevent cancer, then drinking fruit punch must prevent cancer,
too.
This research, by the way, never even tested diet sodas on human
subjects. It's really just a "thought experiment" from someone
who isn't even very good at thinking.
The entire paper is the scientific
equivalent of saying,
"Hey, I betcha that thar diet
soda might prevent them kidney stones 'cuz there's citrate in
it!"
And the Journal of Urology was
just silly enough to actually publish it as science.
It makes you wonder: What are the
requirements for having a scientific paper rejected by the Journal
of Urology?
No coverage of
medicinal herbs
I bet a paper touting the very real benefits of the Amazon
rainforest herb Chanca Piedra would be rejected by the
journal.
Chanca Piedra is known as the
"stonebreaker" herb throughout South America. It really works to
dissolve and eliminate kidney stones, but you'd never see that in a
science journal in North America. No, they're too busy touting the
"medicinal benefits" of diet soda, if you can believe that.
At this point in the article, I would normally point out how little
credibility remains in the world of western medicine and its loony
research conclusions.
This is
an industry,
-
that calls homeopathy
"witchcraft"
-
that thinks medicinal herbs are
dangerous
-
that now apparently believes
diet sodas are a form of medicine
Any discussion of "credibility" about
such an industry is frankly just pointless.
If
aspartame
and phosphoric acid was somehow good for you, America would
be the healthiest nation in the world! And if diet sodas actually
worked, then all the people drinking them wouldn't be so obese,
would they?
And if diet soda prevents kidney stones, they why are most of the
people suffering from kidney stones the very same people who drink a
lot of soda? If anything, diet soda causes kidney stones.
But I suppose the Journal of Urology can
print exactly the opposite and call it "science" if they want,
right?
That's exactly why modern "science" has lost so much credibility
these days. Because practically any corporate-sponsored idea,
no matter how ridiculous, can end up being printed in a "scientific
journal" even if its conclusions violate the laws of the known
biological universe.
If diet soda prevents kidney stones, then
mammogram radiation prevents
cancer, too.
Sources for this story:
Diet soda for preventing kidney stones?
by Amy Norton
May 14, 2010
from
Reuters Website
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)
Certain diet sodas may have the
potential to prevent the most common type of kidney stone, if
new lab research is correct.
In the study, researchers found that the diet versions of
several popular citrus-flavored sodas - like 7Up, Sunkist and Sprite
- contained relatively high amounts of a compound called citrate.
Citrate, in turn, is known to inhibit the formation of calcium
oxalate stones, the most common form of kidney stone.
The findings, reported in the Journal of Urology, suggest that diet
sodas could stand as an extra weapon for some people prone to
forming kidney stones.
Kidney stones develop when the urine contains more crystal-forming
substances - such as calcium, uric acid and a compound called
oxalate - than can be diluted by the available fluid. Most kidney
stones are calcium-based, usually in combination with oxalate.
One reason that certain people are prone to being "stone-formers" is
that their urine contains relatively little citrate, explained Dr.
Brian H. Eisner, a urologist at Massachusetts General
Hospital in Boston and the lead researcher on the new study.
Potassium citrate supplements have long been a common treatment for
preventing calcium oxalate stones, as well as another type of stone
called uric acid stones, in people who are prone to them. And in a
study 10 years ago, one of Eisner's fellow researchers found that a
homemade lemonade concoction was effective at raising stone-formers'
urine citrate levels.
Exactly how effective "lemonade therapy" is at preventing stones
remains unclear, but some doctors do recommend it to patients,
according to Eisner.
The goal of the current study, he told Reuters Health, was to
see whether any commercially available drinks had a similar citrate
content as the homemade lemonade. The researchers chose diet soda,
rather than regular, to avoid the high sugar and calorie content of
the former.
Overall, the study found, citrus-based diet sodas, including,
-
7Up
-
Sunkist Orange
-
Sprite
-
Fresca
-
Canada Dry ginger ale,
...had somewhat higher citrate levels
than the homemade lemonade.
Dark colas, on the other hand, had little to no citrate.
Whether citrus-flavored diet sodas can actually help prevent kidney
stones is still unknown. Eisner said he and his colleagues are
currently conducting a study to try to answer that question.
For now, the researcher said he is not advocating that stone-formers
"run out and get diet soda."
However, he pointed out that patients
are routinely advised to get 2 to 3 liters of water or other fluids
each day.
"If drinking these sodas helps
people reach that goal, then that may be a good thing," Eisner
said.
He added that even in people who do not
have naturally low urinary citrate levels, moderate amounts of the
diet sodas are unlikely to do harm as far as stone formation goes.
Many sodas do contain some sodium and/or
caffeine; but again, Eisner and his colleagues say, when it comes to
stone formation, there is no evidence that the sodium and caffeine
levels in diet soda would present a risk.
SOURCE:
Volume 183, Issue 6, Pages
2419-2423 (June 2010)
Citrate, Malate and Alkali Content in...
Commonly Consumed Diet Sodas
-
Implications for Nephrolithiasis Treatment
-
by
Brian H. Eisnerabab†,
John R. Asplinc‡, David S. Goldfarbd‡,
Ardalanejaz Ahmada, Marshall L. Stollera§
received 11 September 2009
published online 19 April 2010
from
TheJournalOfUrology Website
Purpose
Citrate is a known inhibitor of calcium stone formation. Dietary
citrate and alkali intake may have an effect on citraturia.
Increasing alkali intake also increases
urine pH, which can help prevent uric acid stones. We determined
citrate, malate and total alkali concentrations in commonly consumed
diet sodas to help direct dietary recommendations in patients with
hypocitraturic calcium or uric acid nephrolithiasis.
Materials and Methods
Citrate and malate were measured in a lemonade beverage commonly
used to treat hypocitraturic calcium nephrolithiasis and in 15 diet
sodas. Anions were measured by ion chromatography. The pH of each
beverage was measured to allow calculation of the unprotonated anion
concentration using the known pK of citric and malic acid. Total
alkali equivalents were calculated for each beverage.
Statistical analysis was done using
Pearson's correlation coefficient.
Results
Several sodas contained an amount of citrate equal to or greater
than that of alkali and total alkali as a lemonade beverage commonly
used to treat hypocitraturic calcium nephrolithiasis (6.30 mEq/l
citrate as alkali and 6.30 as total alkali).
These sodas were:
Colas, including,
...had the lowest total alkali (less
than 1.0 mEq/l).
There was no significant correlation
between beverage pH and total alkali content.
Conclusions
Several commonly consumed diet sodas contain moderate amounts of
citrate as alkali and total alkali.
This information is helpful for dietary
recommendations in patients with calcium nephrolithiasis,
specifically those with hypocitraturia. It may also be useful in
patients with low urine pH and uric acid stones.
Beverage malate content is also
important since malate ingestion increases the total alkali
delivered, which in turn augments citraturia and increases urine pH.
References
a - Department of Urology,
University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco,
California
b - Department of Urology, Massachusetts General Hospital,
Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
c - Litholink Corp., Chicago, Illinois, and Nephrology
Section, New York Harbor Veterans Affairs Medical Center,
New York, New York
d - Department of Urology, St. Vincent's Hospital and New
York University School of Medicine, New York, New York
† - Financial interest and/or
other relationship with Boston Scientific, PercSys and
Ravine Group.
‡ - Financial interest and/or other relationship with Ravine
Group.
§ - Financial interest and/or other relationship with
PercSys and Ravine Group.
Corresponding Author
InformationCorrespondence: Department of Urology, GRB 1102,
Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit St., Boston, Massachusetts
02114 (telephone: 617-726-3512; FAX: 617-726-6131)
Study received institutional review board approval.
Supplementary material for this article can be obtained at
www.massgeneral.org/journalofurology.
PII:
S0022-5347(10)02656-X
doi:10.1016/j.juro.2010.02.2388
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