Science-Based Medicine:Rebuttal to their "hit piece" on Black Salve
A Critique on "Double-Speak" in
Conventional Science Journals Why "Science-Based Medicine" isn't Fact-Based
Subsections ---
Previous Rebuttals Similar to This One / Beginning of SBM Article Sanguarine & Viadent / Dr. Jonathan Hartwell: Plants Used Against Cancer Tumor Biology & the Tsumani of Fake, Retracted Research Papers 
 Nov 10, 2019 -- Four days ago,
the publication,
Science-Based Medicine put out an article on "Black Salve," dated Nov. 6. As we would
expect from this conventional publication, the article was anything but science-based.
Since I take an interest in escharotic medicine, a successful modality whose roots
I trace all
the way back to Paracelsus, the founder of modern medicine, nearly 500 years ago, I am moved
to do a rebuttal, because not only is the article unusually vitriolic, but statements are
made that are not only breathtakingly and provably false, but clearly intended to mislead the
public.This is the sixth time in 11 years that I've had to write
a rebuttal to a publication or online article that devoted itself to denigrating Black Salve and/or
escharotic medicine in general. If medical propaganda is not questioned by those who know
better, such effrontery only serves to make a laughing stock of real science. My
previous rebuttals, for those who are interested include:
Here the short version -- black salve is a fake cancer cure that is dangerous pseudoscience.
It is one of those treatments that is so bad it pushes the limits of credulity, and in this case
it is directly harmful in the extreme.
This is the DNA -- as it were -- of everything that will
follow. That Black Salve is dangerous, fake, and harmful. No credcnce is given to the many
thousands of people who have come online to tell their success stories in using Black Salve.
No. We can't let any facts get in the way of the profit objectives of Big Medicine. Even on
Altcancer.com, with what little time I've had to devote to it,
I've still managed to post hundreds of pictorials and testimonials,
a fraction of the comments I've gotten over the 30 years I've worked with escharotics.Countless medical practitioners have told me over the years
that they use Black Salve personally, but they would never use it in their practice, for fear of
losing their medical license -- or worse. Would medical doctors be using Black Salve privately if
it were dangerous, fake or harmful? The medical researcher, Dr. Russell Jordan, who was my mentor
in escharotic medicine, was the founder of not one, but two, pharmaceutical companies. He was
a professor at the University of Michigan's school of medicine for years. I discuss this in
Chapter 1 of Meditopia.We now know the full extent of Big Medicine's need to suppress
the truth with its most recent actions -- using its influence to kill Facebook pages and groups that
deal in "anti-vax, anti-GMO, anti-cancer" subject matter.
I talked about this in a YouTube last July,
which, remarkably, hasn't been removed by YouTube. (When they do remove it --- and you can bet your ass that they will --
you'll be able to see the
same video on Brighteon. Mike Adams at NaturalNews.com created Brighteon specifically to address the massive
censorship that is taking place at Facebook, YouTube, Google, and the other tech giants who are now the leading
mouthpieces globally for Big Medicine, Big Pharma propaganda.)Two weeks ago, Amazon banned my book, Black Salve, as I
explained in my Buzzfeed rebuttal. I provided even more
detail in a mailer I sent out to our customers.
Would this kind of
behavior be necessary if Science-Based Medicine, or their overlords in the orthodox medical community
truly held the moral or factual high ground? Of course not.
As I have
discussed before (May, 2018), black salve is sold as a "natural"
herbal-based cancer treatment. It is an escharotic topical treatment, which means that it is corrosive to skin
and other tissue, resulting in the formation of a thick scab, or "eschar." The main ingredient is Sanguinaria canadensis,
which contains a number of phytochemicals and the alkaloid poison, sanguinarine. [emphasis added]
Sanguinarine [13-methyl (1,3)
benzodioxolo(5,6-c)-1,3-dioxolo (4,5) phenanthridinium]is a toxin that kills animal cells through its action on the Na+-K+-ATPase transmembrane protein." 
Damn! That sounds just awful! What's more awful is that it isn't true.
It pulls small pieces of truth to create disinformation. Here's one example of many that will show the reader just how ridiculously
out of touch with reality Science-Based Medicine really is --- which by now the reader should know should be more
appropriately titled "Propaganda-Based Medicine." Around 1990, Colgate Palmolive paid $88 million to buy
Vipont Pharmaceutical out of Fort Collins, Colorado. My mentor, Dr. Russell Jordan, was a principal in that company,
as was the inventor, Dr. Peter A. Ladanyi, with whom I talked several times in the 1990's. The foundation of the
company was a dentifrice called Viadent, which was very effective in getting rid of gingitivis.
To protect it's intellectual property, the company filed a flurry of U.S. patents to this Sanguinaria-based product
including
No. 4,145,821 (1979) and
No. 4,335,110 (1980). I discuss this in
Chapter 1 of Meditopia).What was the main active ingredient?You got it. Sanguinarine.It worked so well, it put other toothpaste products to shame. Colgate-Palmolive didn't buy the
company because they wanted to own a superior dentifrice. They bought the company to effectively
take the product off the market. After a series of completely fraudulently rigged studies came out
(which may or may not have had Colgate's participation) stating that Viadent caused
leukoplakia -- (here
is a LATER 2001 study that explains their approach), Colgate-Palmolive reformulated the product in such a way as
to neuter its effective properties. Dr. Russell Jordan told me this himself. They did this despite the fact that the
Viadent / leukoplakia connection had been
completely discredited. If there WAS a real connection, Colgate-Palmolive would never have purchased
Vipont Pharmaceutical in the first place.
(As an aside, I and many of my associates bought the original Viadent formula
from our local drugstores and used it for years. It worked incredibly well, and here it is 20 years later and I have
never met a person who got leukoplakia or precancerous lesions as these fraudulent studies report. Ultimately, I improved
upon the original Viadent toothpaste formulation -- for my personal use if nothing else -- and did so without the use of
bloodroot or any of its alkaloids. The result is something I make available to customers now under the brand name,
Alpha Omega III Herbal Toothpaste.) Let's step back for a moment and fully appreciate just how
ridiculous and unscientific Science-Based Medicine's position really is . . . You gotta love this.Major revelation: Toothpaste is something you put in your mouth.Major revelation: There is always some residual product that is swallowed when using
a dentifrice.Major revelation: All toothpaste products will penetrate, in varying degrees,
the mucous membranes of the mouth. All natural products that are administered sublingually rely on this simple fact.What Science-Based Medicine would have you believe is that a
a company that ranks 155 on the Fortune 500
like Colgate-Palmolive would pay $88 million for
a company like Vipont Pharmaceutical and not know that it's most active ingredient was toxic even in tiny amounts.
(Keep in mind, too, that some people brush three times a day, so I'm wondering where all the dead bodies are. Somebody
find them for me. Please!)
They would have you believe that no due dililgence was performed, that Colgate-Palmolive is not at all
risk averse, that the technical team which would have had to carefully examine all aspects of the formula
during due diligence is completely incompetent.
What unadulterated nonsense.I will grant you that bloodroot -- Sanguinaria canadensis -- which has over
60 bioactive alkaloids of which Science-Based Medicine focuses on one, is quite toxic when too much is taken. Even in small
amounts bloodroot is an emetic and considerable care should be taken in its use. But this is true of many medicinal herbs.
As Paracelsus so famously said, "Every medicine is a poison, and every poison is a medicine. It depends on the dosage."
If you read Science-Based Medicine's article, you get no sense of the long, noble
history of bloodroot's ethnobotanical use. Jonathan L. Hartwell's book,
Plants Used Against Cancer (1982) contains numerous references -- most of them taken from the 1800's -- of bloodroot's
traditional use in successfully treating cancer. Despite the fact that bloodroot's primary geographic distribution is in the
Appalachian mountains of the U.S., it was even used in the 1800's as far away as Russia to treat cancer. Despite it's enormous
popularity, Science-Based Medicine wants us to believe that the world is over-populated with so many dolts, that the general
population is just dying to kill themselves with a toxic herbal.Now back to the main article's text:You will notice that it kills "animal cells".
The fact that it can be derived from a plant is irrelevant. It is a powerful caustic
substance that eats through all tissue. But of course, there are always layers of complexity
that can be cherry picked through motivated reasoning to pain [sic] an alternate reality.
There are studies that show that sanguinairine, in specific concentrations, may have more
toxicity to some type of cancer cells than to healthy cells. This is often the case,
because cancer cells are highly metabolic. At the same time, some forms of cancer are relative [sic]
resistant to its effect. None of this means you can safely slather it on your skin and it will
leave healthy tissue untouched while eating away all cancer cells. As one review notes:
However, in vitro studies of sanguinarine suggest it causes indiscriminatedestruction of healthy and cancerous tissue at doses higher than 5µM, limiting its practical utility." "Indiscriminate destruction" is not a feature rational people value in medicine.It's true."Indiscriminate destruction" is not a feature
that rational people value in medicine.It is the reason that rational,
informed people avoid chemotherapy --- something which is
clearly indicated as a big positive by Science-Based
Medicine, despite the fact that chemotherapy fails
97% of the time. It is the reason that
75%
of physicians surveyed indicated that they won't take chemotherapy themselves. It is the reason
why doctors are instructed to
carefully handle chemotherapy products with gloves, despite the highly protective plastic containers in which
they already come. Still confused?
Allow Jim Howenstine, M.D. to explain it to you.Also indiscriminate is cherry picking facts that have no meaning
or relevance in the real world. I have known hundreds of people who have taken bloodroot products
over my 30 years of working with it. I've never known a single adverse case, other than excessive nausea,
and in one case, vomiting -- all due to taking more than the suggested dosage. I'm not saying that
over my NEXT 30 years, I won't see a truly adverse case, it just hasn't happened yet. Speaking professionally, I've used
very little bloodroot in any of my primary salves -- primarily Cansema® or variations of it,
but this isn't because I fear toxicity for those I make products for. It's because chaparral
(Larrea mexicata, tridentata, or divarcata) works every bit as well, and there are fewer supply
issues. I've made one internal product involving very diluted bloodroot, and it is only because the
demand for this product is so great from end users -- who report very favorable results.
This is the fundamental difference between real life and
fake news, fake world, fake medicine that so-called "prestigious" medical journals attempt to
pass off as reality.
Even editors of major medical journals
have had to throw in the towel and confess that as many as 50% of medical studies --- you know . . . the
kind that publications like Science-Based Medicine love to quote and salivate over, are fake and fraudulent --
and not accidentally. They are fake and fraudulent by design.
In May, 2017, I penned an article
after reading
Jefferey Jaxen's impressive assessment, entitled,
"
Retractions and Errors Driving Loss of Faith in the Peer Review Process." The lead-off
sets the tone, and I'm going to repeat it here, though it appears in my original article:
"Establishment medical professionals are quick to hold up peer-reviewed studies
as the gold standard, argument-ending proof in an attempt to shut down valid discussions around
'alternative' health and healing. Major medical and science journals have long-been considered
the sacred cows from which information gets disseminated down through the roots of mainstream
medicine with unquestioning adherence mirroring religious dogma. What if this peer-reviewed research
was flawed? What if major medical journals acted as gatekeepers long-crafting a health paradigm
that favored only limited and dangerous pharmaceutical interventions?" [emphasis added]I then go into the 107 research papers that Tumor Biology
was forced to retract because of the fakery of it all.
Read my article.Research papers are, first and foremost, funded by
pharmaceutical companies and other entities within the Medical Industrial Complex, whose
interest is in furthering their corporate agendas and selling more of their high margin
products. Medical journals are not the domain of natural product producers with their
low margin wares -- who could never hope to compete with the clout possessed by these
much larger entities and their legions of lobbyists, stakeholders, and disinfo agents,
of which Science-Based Medicine is only one.Still those selling and promoting black salve claim the opposite of what the evidence shows. It is a dangerous distortion of reality. Black salves containing sanguinairine eat through any tissue, leaving behind horrific wounds and scars. There are many case reports of morbidity and even mortality from using black salve. Also, ironically, sanguinairine is potentially carcinogenic -- which means it may produce cancerous cells. Reviews of cases and research seem to employ ironic understatement when summarizing the clinical effects of using caustic paste to self-treat lesions and cancer. For example: . . . case
study reports of excessive scarring, deformity, and treatment failure . . .
or . . .
suboptimal therapeutic and cosmetic outcomes associated with its use.Yes, I consider causing a massive wound that later becomes infected, a disfiguring scar, and failing to actually remove the cancer, to be "suboptimal". Two points of contention here. First of all, the
author of this article, Steven Novella, is so ignorant of the nature of Black Salve that
he and the authors he cites, do not apparently know that bloodroot is a "potential" ingredient
in Black Salve. It is one of many that have the hydroquinones and other botanical components
necessary to make an effective Black Salve. Secondly, it my personal experience and the
experience of thousands of people that I know that Black Salve -- properly made -- does
not lead to infection, a disfiguring scar, or a failure to remove the cancer.Here . . . let's do this . . . I understand this is
an exercise in something anecdotal, but follow me anyway.
Here is a copy of Appendix F from my book Black Salve. It's primarily a pictorial of my
use of Black Salve over a 30 year period to treat both cancers and diagnosed actinic keratosis.
Are there any signs of infection? No, it never happened. Are there any disfiguring scars?
No, it never happened. In fact, the outcome is better than most people report with surgical removal.
Was there any failure to remove the cancer or the keratosis? No.Why were there many tens of thousands of members on the
Facebook Black Salve groups before they were taken down last week? Because the experience of the
vast majority of users was the same as mine. Black Salve has not attracted so much
attention and widespread use because it's toxic, or it leads to infection, or disfiguring scars,
or because it fails to work. Quite the opposite.Science-Based Medicine is gaslighting the public with
information that is clearly unscientific.Welcome to medical double-speak.It is also important to understand the psychology at work, especially from the perspective of someone trying to promote science-based medicine. People who consider using black salve for known cancer or a suspicious lesion are faced with two broad choices. On the one hand, you can have an expert evaluate your disease, and if necessary precisely excise the lesion, examining the borders microscopically to make sure they are clean, and therefore any potential cancer is removed. The treatment is evidence-based and designed to produce the optimal chance of a cure with the minimum scarring necessary. It is absolutely NOT science-based or evidence-based.Surgical intervention is preferred for two reasons:
one, it's highly profitable. Secondly, it insures metastasis, thereby sowing the seeds for
future business when there is a recurrence.
Conscientious physicians have known
this for the past 2,000 years.Or -- you can treat yourself with a black paste you purchased online, applying it to your skin until you leave a nasty hole in your body. You may have no idea if the lesion was cancer to begin with, you have no idea if you removed it all, and the scarring is far more than was necessary to remove the lesion. But, this treatment is "natural." You were also empowered to treat yourself, so you can take comfort from that every time you look in the mirror. This is just more scare tactics and propaganda for
the reasons I recount above.Black salve persists despite the obvious facts because a compelling narrative can be more powerful than reality. When people are plied on a regular basis with conspiracy theories and false narratives, even otherwise intelligent and well-meaning people can get to a place where incredibly bad decisions seem reasonable. "A compelling narrative can be more powerful than reality."Boy, isn't that the truth. And nobody does it better than those
in the Fake News, Fake Medicine, Fake Journalism crowd. I won't repeat my major rebuttal points above.
The author doesn't really add anything substantive here. He's just ranting.Psychologically, people want the magic salve. Medicine always involves some trade-offs, and practitioners should be transparent about what those trade-offs are. They may be minor, like you have to take medicine or change your lifestyle, or it may be significant, like undergoing a major procedure or getting the equivalent of chemotherapy. Alternative medicine often promises magical treatments without trade-offs -- no risk, no side-effects, etc. The lure of such false promises is just too great for some people, especially if it is packaged inside a comforting narrative. This is just unsupportable garbage. Nobody I know
who deals in Black Salve fails to discuss potential pain management issues. The process is
not quick and it isn't magic. For many years, I've provided
User Instructions, along with pain
management guidelines, as well as an
explanation of the process, which is expanded upon on my
Black Salve book, because nobody
should use a natural product from a vendor under false pretense --- something that
occurs a majority of the time in conventional cancer therapy, which is why there are so
many people attempting to avoid it.Nobody likes getting lied to.The marketing of unrealistic promises with compelling narratives has been given a huge boost by social media, which is increasingly a battleground between the forces of quackery and consumer protection. A recent investigative report shows how the promotion of black salve is still thriving online, despite promises from major outlets to crack down. Youtube, for example, says it is against its policy to promote health misinformation on its platform, and it will remove videos if reported. However, it is still easy to find videos promoting black salve on Youtube, so whatever process it is using is not adequate. More Doublespeak. Consumer protection is not
about protecting the consumer. It's about shoving orthodox approaches down people's throats
and eliminating effective, inexpensive natural solutions -- that is, competitive threats to big business.
I devote hundreds of pages to explaining
why this is the case in my book, The Joys of
Psychopathocracy (2017). Also, note that the
recent investigative report cited is none other than the Buzzfeed article
that was so factless and deceptive that I had to
write a rebuttal for that article, as well.
What we have here is Fake News quoting Fake News.Facebook is much worse, and will not categorically ban pages promoting black salve (like "SW Florida Black Salve", which is directly selling it). They will, instead, change their algorithm to not promote such pages. But of course they are easy to find if you search. This isn't journalism. The goal of the writer, just like
the one at Buzzfeed is clear. They are agents for Big Medicine. They aren't objective.
What they do goes even beyond advocacy. Katie at Buzzfeed bragged in her article about
contacting Amazon and getting them to censor my book, Black Salve. Where was I when
journalists became censors of "unacceptable language"? Perhaps it is because the people
who write these articles are no longer journalists. As to "SF Florida Black Salve," I have
no idea who these people in Florida are, but it obvious that the author is directly involved
in trying to put them out of business. I didn't know that journalists were supposed to be
proactive in determining who is and who isn't allowed to remain in business.It is illegal to sell black salve in the US, but you can still buy it online from international sellers. I would think that promoting or selling an illegal health product is a pretty bright line for banning content. I understand the complexity of banning something as vague and sometimes subjective as "misinformation," but illegal products banned by the FDA are not ambiguous or subjective. It is illegal to sell Black Salve with health information.
It is not illegal to sell these Salves without health advice. This is why -- at the advice of counsel --
I have kept my sales activity apart and separate from the articles I write. I do not link them.
Granted, great ambiguity has been created inside the U.S., where the
two click
rule has been unevenly enforced so that it's difficult to figure out what is and isn't acceptable.
But conscientious makers of natural products have justification, even in the legal arena, for what
they're doing.I did submit a report to the FDA concerning SW Florida Black Salve, so we will see what kind of response we get. Reporting often does work, as does complaining to Youtube and to a lesser extent Facebook. Vigilance on the part of consumer protection outlets will always be necessary, but it is a game of whack-a-mole. Systemic protections are necessary. Black salve is clearly dangerous quackery, so it is low hanging fruit, and therefore a good indicator of how the system it working. At present -- not good enough. So ends this anti-Black Salve tirade. In my experience,
the complains of these "faux"-journalists, just in the past two weeks has lead to the censoring of
my book on Amazon, the removal of about a half dozen Black Salve groups on Facebook, and the removal
of several YouTube testimonial videos.This isn't protecting the consumer. This is bold competitive
interference using the tools of the State and Big Tech to squash opposition. Where this leads is a world
without effective natural cures, a world where true remedies are replaced with molecular structures, all
patented, of course, with horrific secondary side effects, where the only products left on the market
as those that provide maximum profits and the least degree of accountability for Big Pharma producers,
and little to no choice for the consumer . . . but most of all it leads to a world where medicine
is anything but Science-Based Medicine. |
