The statements in this book have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not meant to diagnose, prescribe, treat, or cure any illness or disease. Carolyn Dean, MD, ND, author of THE MAGNESIUM MIRACLE, states: CONTRAINDICATIONS TO MAGNESIUM THERAPY 1. Kidney failure. With kidney failure, there is an inability to clear magnesium from the kidneys. 2. Myasthenia gravis. Intravenous administration could accentuate muscle relaxation and collapse the respiratory muscles. 3. Excessively slow heart rate. Slow heart rates can be made even slower, as magnesium relaxes the heart. Slow heart rates often require an artificial pacemaker. 4. Bowel obstruction. The main route of elimination of oral magnesium is through the bowel. Dean, Carolyn, MD, ND. The Magnesium Miracle. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003, 2007, p. 240 Dr. Dean's website lists one other condition, heart block: [C]ontraindications to magnesium are caused in people with outright kidney failure, bowel obstruction, Myasthenia gravis, or heart block. Also, if you have a heart condition you may find that taking magnesium can lessen the need for heart medication and you should be under doctor's supervision to guide this process. Dean, Carolyn, MD, ND. The Magnesium Miracle. 2008-2013. Dr. Carolyn Dean and Doctor of the Future Publications. December 9, 2014 <drcarolyndean.com/magnesium_miracle/>. 2014, Pamela Nakano
This book is dedicated to the memory of my mother, Minnie, who spent her entire life taking care of me. Thank you, Mom.
TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: WHY READ THIS BOOK?... 1 CHAPTER 2: THE IMPACT OF LANGUAGE ON THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE IN THE UNITED STATES AND YOUR HEALTH CARE DECISIONS... 5 CHAPTER 3: THE IMPACT OF LOGIC ON THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE IN THE UNITED STATES AND YOUR HEALTH CARE DECISIONS... 29 CHAPTER 4: PHYSICS AS MEDICINE OR NOT-MEDICINE... 42 CHAPTER 5: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?... 45 REFERENCES... 53 2014, Pamela Nakano i
2014, Pamela Nakano ii
CHAPTER 1: WHY READ THIS BOOK? The term gotcha is the title of this book because two of its meanings are: I fooled you, and I understand you. For years I wandered around, lost in the maze we call the American medical system. My physical condition deteriorated at an alarming rate and medical treatments seemed to accelerate the deterioration instead of reversing it, until I examined the American medical system in the same way I would examine any system from the viewpoint of a system analyst. As I unraveled the mysteries of my own case and ideas for this book trickled in, I began to notice that gotcha happened in almost every conversation I had. Everyone used words, terms, or expressions that had more than one meaning, and my brain was always attracted to a meaning that the speaker had not intended. I also noticed that common sense isn't as common as we'd like to think, because logical thinking isn't as easy as we like to believe it is. Logic is a complex science, and even highly intelligent people can make errors in logic if they haven't been taught how not to. As I cut through the mess of multiple meanings and avoided the pitfalls of erroneous logic, I discovered that I had a lot more health care options than I had originally thought. I found myself making health care decisions that yielded good results so good that medical doctors began to ask me what I was doing. In this book, you will learn how language and logic can shift your perception of the American medical system and health care in the United States. As you practice being aware of language and logic, you may find that every aspect of your life including finances and personal relationships are also affected by your understanding of language and logic. The possibilities are endless when you learn to apply what you read about here. 2014, Pamela Nakano 1
You can't believe anything you read on the Internet unless I posted it there. Rob Armstrong New information is being posted to the Internet every hour of every day. As you read this book, I encourage you to fact check everything. To help you do that, I provided the words I used in my searches. I don't believe using different search engines would produce radically different results but in case I'm wrong about that, it might help you to know that I used Google for the searches. When reading literature, always consider how old the information is. While some things are as true today as they were 100 years ago, other things that we are sure of today are proven incorrect tomorrow. There is no enforcement agency that makes sure outdated information gets removed from books, magazines, or the Internet. Understanding this book and medical literature The format for quoted material is the one that was used in law offices I have worked in: When you see a capital letter in [ ], this means that in the original text the letter was in lower case. I quoted part of the sentence, not the whole sentence. Original: However, it was a dark and stormy night. Quoted: [I]t was a dark and stormy night. (Emphasis added.) means that italics or bold print were added by me and were not in the original text. Original: However, it was a dark and stormy night. Quoted: However, it was a dark and stormy night. (Emphasis added.) When you see something in ( ), this means that I added a word or a number to the quote. I used red so you can distinguish this from any ( ) that was part of the original text. Original: However, it was dark and stormy night. Quoted: However, it was (a) dark and stormy night. Original: Last year we went on a picnic. Quoted: Last year (2013) we went on a picnic. Foonotes are shown as numbers in ( ), because the superscripted numbers were so small that I couldn't read them. Sources of information for this book include books, articles in magazines and on the Internet, and YouTube videos. 2014, Pamela Nakano 2
Here are some terms you'll want to be familiar with as you read this book and medical literature. When researchers complete their study, they will write an article that normally includes: An abstract a brief summary of what they investigated, what test results they found, and the conclusion(s) they drew from their findings. The abstract is the first section of the article. A history of what they're investigating, and the reasons for their study. How they conducted the study how they chose their test subjects, how they tested their subjects, how they collected the data. The test results and whether they were statistically significant. The conclusions that the researchers drew from their study. Researchers submit their articles to peer-reviewed journals for publication. In a peer review, experts on the topic being researched who were not involved in the study will examine the article, looking for errors or other factors that would disqualify the paper from being published. When the article is published, a press release may be sent to news reporting television stations, magazines, and newspapers. The press release is written in plain English so that most people can understand it without expertise in the topic that was researched. A copy of the full article may or may not be made available to news reporters. If the article is published online, the full article will be published and the abstract itself may be published separately as well. Some organizations that publish full articles online require paid membership or subscriptions to access these articles; some organizations do not. For this book, wherever possible I selected online information sources that are available to the public without having to pay for membership or a subscription. If your first search results lead you to an information source that requires you to pay to see the article, searching for the article title might lead you to a free source. Some of the general interest books might be available at your local public library. If you have access to a medical library, you might be able to find some research articles in print. Qualified health care providers None of the information in this book should be taken as medical advice. I always advise people to check with a qualified health care provider on changes to diet, exercise, or anything else that might affect a person's health. For some things, medical doctors are the best qualified providers to advise you. For some things, the best qualified providers may be doctors of naturopathy, doctors of chiropractic, 2014, Pamela Nakano 3
practitioners of Chinese medicine, etc. Check with your provider to make sure they have expertise in the topic you need help with. Doctors who see and treat patients are practicing doctors; they run a practice. Remember that a practice is a business that needs to make money. Some providers can spend time on your questions without being paid for it; other providers may not be able to. Sources of information If something is common knowledge, it is not necessary to provide a reference to a source of information. Of course, what may be common knowledge to one person may not be to another. I provided references for all information that I thought might not be considered common knowledge. For books, here is the format I followed for the references: Author(s). Book Title. City: Publisher, year, page(s). For web pages, here is the format I followed for the references: Author(s). Name of page. Date of publication. Name of organization. Date of access <URL>. For articles published in journals, I copied the format that accompanied the article and provided the URL where I found the online copy of the abstract. To help you find the sources, there is a copy of the footnotes at www.gotchainfo.com. Since it could be a violation of copyright law to provide direct links without the permission of web page authors, all URL's appear as unformatted text that you can copy and paste into your browser. Please report dead links to e-mail address pam@gotchainfo.com. Thank you! 2014, Pamela Nakano 4