Vitamin Determination: An oilman becomes a health care renegade

Maclean's ^ | May 26, 2015 | Jane Macdougall

[rickmichaels]

Allan Markin, a retired oil patch executive and one of Alberta’s most prominent philanthropists, shines a flashlight into Jean Pronovost’s mouth. The two men are at a clinic operating out of a former Quality Inn on Calgary’s Macleod Trail that is run by Pure North S’Energy Foundation, which Markin funds.

Minutes earlier Markin and Pronovost had struck up a conversation and found they both had more than a passing interest in hockey. Over the course of two decades, starting in the 1960s, Pronovost had played for the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Washington Capitals, and the Flames (when they were in Atlanta) while Markin remains part-owner of the Calgary Flames. It was after a brief conversation about Pronovost’s career that Markin asks to look into the hockey veteran’s gullet. “No, no, no. Those have got to come out. Immediately,” the former chairman of Canadian Natural Resources says.

Markin believes mercury amalgam fillings are a toxic source of a host of ailments. He excuses himself and returns with Pronovost’s file, telling him that, if he can get to a dental clinic that Pure North runs in downtown Calgary, his mercury fillings can come out right away. Then, as the Pure North team sets Pronovost up with a battery of vitamin supplements, Markin turns to the greater concern he has with Pronovost’s health—one that has transformed Markin from oilman into arguably Canada’s wealthiest and most unorthodox health care renegade. Shaking his head, Markin—who, it should be noted, has no formal medical training—expresses concern about Pronovost’s low vitamin-D level, which was revealed in his blood work.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Why don’t we call Al Gore and Bill Nye ‘Science Renegades’?

[Secret Agent Man]

Most people are low on vitamin D. Also the B vitamins, many minerals like selenium, magnesium, and iodine. Certainly others I am not mentioning at this moment.