If this noble profession were to have this kind of ‘scientific’ base where will the poor patient look for succor? The hallo around that word, science, makes it easy for selling anything respectably under its banner

This is a book, with the above title, worth its weight in gold. The author, BV Gokhale, is an alumnus of IIT Mumbai where he got both his B Tech and M Tech degrees. He seems to have done extensive studies of the world literature on the science of coronary artery disease and its management. He has done such an exhaustive job that lesser mortals would have succeeded in presenting this as a PhD thesis! Interestingly, he has also studied an alternative therapy for coronary, nay, for all arterial blocks anywhere in the body, by way of chelation therapy.

The book basically has two parts— one of the two deals with chelation therapy and its scientific basis as shown by the available authentic randomized controlled studies on chelation therapy done at different centres all over the world. It also gives a detailed note on chelation therapy procedure, its benefits, and drawbacks as also the outcome studies following chelation therapy in various vascular diseases. Only after reading his details of chelation therapy I was wondering as to how big an ignoramus was I in that field! His revelation of the greatest fraud in cancer arena was another eye opener for me and I did some work to fish out the original Benedict Fitzgerald report to the US Senate in 1953 mentioned in Mr Gokhale’s book, which was suppressed for fifty years by the cartel and the government. The report came out only when the secrecy period was over and they had to get it exposed through the RTI Act! When the government of the land is in cahoots with the industrial cartels the poor common man suffers.  That is exactly what is happening in that arena even to this day.

I do not blame the cancer specialists in the area. Their books and their teachers teach what they are practising. I have been in this area of trying to understand human wellness and illness for little over half a century. I was not aware of this conspiracy up until I read the account of it in Mr Gokhale’s book. For the last one week, after reading his book, I have been researching the area to find out how deep rooted is the conspiracy as also to find out more about the “so called” linear reductionist science of modern medicine which seems to succeed in fooling the gullible public and the media in addition to brain washing the young impressionable minds of medical students and their brilliant teachers. Medical teachers depend on their textbooks and the “peer reviewed indexed prestigious” medical journals for their continued education and their teaching purposes. In addition, they get to listen to “experts” and “thought leaders,” mostly imported by the pharma lobby from the West, who present latest data with fascinating slides and their special English accent during the conferences which are again the accepted norms, so called CME credits, for teacher accreditation for promotion, etc. Richard Smith, the celebrated editor of the famous British Medical Journal for quarter of a century, wrote in one of his recent articles in PLOS medicine that the leading journals of medicine are but the extend arms of the pharma lobby!

I shall quote two examples; there could be million such, one my own personal encounter with one such leading thought leader from Texas whose name brings on goose pimples to doctors all over as the Ace researcher on hypertension, and another one of a third-year medical student at Harvard. One of the leading Harvard professors of pharmacology was teaching students about the cholesterol lowering statins. One student in the class who had studied statins in great detail got up to ask a question which went like this. “Listening to you makes me feel that you are a part of the statin producing drug firm and not an unbiased teacher. We come to Harvard to have the best teaching which is not biased in any way and is the best that is available at that point in time. I am disappointed.” 
Naturally, the student’s future was at stake as that teacher was considered one of the top researchers in his field and acclaimed to be so by his peers. The student would not leave it at that. He went on to research for the next two years about this professor and his wisdom. It was revealed that the said professor had thousands of shares in that company as also was on their payroll having received millions of dollars every year as consultancy fee, speaker assignments, and foreign travels as a research advisor! This revelation led to further research which found out that a sizeable per cent of leading US University professors were on the payroll of the industry. Most of the Ivy League universities lost their A grade in student assessment. The only university that did not have this kind of ties was Pennsylvania State University which still gets it’s A.

The other example is my personal experience. About twenty years ago I think, I was invited to Dubai to present my views against a then new drug, alpha blocker, for treating high blood pressure, by the organizers of a conference there—the Dubai Medical College for Girls. I used to be the General Medical Council of UK’s inspector for that medical college recognition; consequently, they knew about my views. Each time I visited the college I was invited to deliver a lecture. For this conference they had a great “thought leader” of America and an Ace hypertension researcher from Texas to speak for the drug. Little did I realise how “big” he was before being presented with him to speak on the dais. Luckily, his colleague from Texas knew me personally and presented me as the “only match for his University colleague, who was America’s best speaker.” That was my only solace as this ‘great’ man went on to tear every argument of mine with some wonderful (company made) slides that showed the drug as the panacea for high blood pressure. Naturally, the Arab world those days had a very high opinion of anything that was American. My considered view, presented with all my capabilities, that this dangerous drug could damage the heart in the long run, did not curry favour even with the audience, leave alone my opponent. Naturally, he stole the thunder except for an English professor who made a cryptic remark at the end that the American was using company data and slides while Professor Hegde was using his own data. He added that “professor Hegde spoke like a mature teacher.” I survived by the skin of my teeth!

Exactly a year later I was at the University of Northern Colorado for a “scholar speaker” assignment. Early morning my radio alarm news was blaring the hot news of the day: “There are one million Americans on the drug, alpha blockers, for their raised blood pressure. The drug has been shown to produce heart failure in the long run. Everyone taking this drug should immediately see his/her doctor for change of the drug. They should not stop the drug on their own.” I was happy that my prediction had been proven right. I called the ‘great’ thought leader in Texas and asked him about the radio news. His answer was very short and to the point. “Now our views seem to go together. Thank you for the call.” We will quickly look at the (in) famous Fitzgerald Report 1953 in some detail.
   
"In the 1950s, Congressman Charles Tobey enlisted Benedict Fitzgerald, an investigator for the Interstate Commerce Commission, to investigate allegations of conspiracy and monopolistic practices on the part of orthodox medicine. This came about as the result of the son of Senator Tobey who developed cancer and was given less than two years to live by orthodox medicine. However, Tobey Jr discovered options in the alternative field, received alternative treatment and fully recovered from his cancerous condition! That is when he learned of alleged conspiratorial practices on the part of orthodox medicine. He passed the word to his father, Senator Charles Tobey, who initiated an investigation. The final report clearly indicated there was indeed a conspiracy to monopolize the medical and drug industry and to eliminate alternative options.” The Fitzgerald Report was submitted into the Congressional Record Appendix 3 August 1953.

This is what Fitzgerald wrote then: “My investigation to date should convince this committee that a conspiracy does exist to stop the free flow and use of drugs in interstate commerce which allegedly has solid therapeutic value. Public and private funds have been thrown around like confetti at a country fair to close up and destroy clinics, hospitals, and scientific research laboratories which do not conform to the viewpoint of medical associations.” Benedict F Fitzgerald, Jr, Special Counsel, US Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, 1953. (Hon. William Langer, Congressional Record, August 3, 1953, p. A 5352.)

If this noble profession were to have this kind of ‘scientific’ base where will the poor patient look for succor? God help mankind! I think Mr Gokhale’s book, which ideally must be read by all those that are literate, will open a new avenue for research in this great conspiracy arena in ‘scientific’ medical field. Intelligent people should research all those areas where unscrupulous business masquerades as ‘science.’ The hallo around that word, science, makes it easy for selling anything respectably under its banner. The new catchword is evidence-based medicine. Recently, I had to have an unpleasant experience in a  TV debate on coconut oil as the best fat for man, next only to mother’s milk as the fat base of both coconut oil and mother’s milk is the vital immune booster, sodium monolaureate. Monolauric acid is found only in mother’s milk and coconut oil. The young cardiologist opposing me was lost for data to match to say that coconut oil is poison but he kept on repeating that his books and ‘guidelines’ say that coconut oil is bad! Little did he realise that all the ‘guidelines’ and books are written by company sponsored thought leaders.

(Professor Dr BM Hegde was awarded a Padma Bhushan in 2010. Prof Dr Hegde has a string of degrees to his credit like MD, PhD, FRCP (Lond, Edin, Glasg, & Dublin), FACC and FAMS. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Science of Healing Outcomes, Chairman of the State Health Society's Expert Committee, Govt of Bihar, Patna. He is former Vice Chancellor of Manipal University at Mangalore and former professor for Cardiology of the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, University of London. Prof Dr Hegde can be contacted at [email protected])