Diet Soda Now Promoted as Medicine to Stop Kidney Stones : Opinion
by Amy Norto, bibliotecapleyades.netMay 18th 2010
by Mike Adams
the Health Ranger
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:
below Reuters article
Diet soda for preventing kidney stones?
by
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:
below Journal of Urology (online April 19, 2010.)
Volume 183, Issue 6, Pages 2419-2423 (June 2010)
Citrate, Malate and Alkali Content in...
- 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:
Diet Sunkist® Orange
Diet 7Up®
Sprite Zero™
Diet Canada Dry® Ginger Ale
Sierra Mist® Free
Diet Orange Crush®
Fresca®
Diet Mountain Dew®
Colas, including,
Caffeine Free Diet Coke®
Coke Zero™
Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi®
Diet Coke with Lime,
...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
Original Page: http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_industryweapons77.htm
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