Posted on 05/24/2005 9:10:47 PM PDT by jb6
When retired Boulder pharmacist and former pharmaceutical executive John Sichel saw his daughter Pam's test results, he knew he'd witnessed a medical miracle.
The pills came from a former Soviet laboratory in St. Petersburg, Russia. Pam Sichel had taken them for six months. Now, her 10-year battle with hepatitis C, a viral infection that attacks the liver, was over. Her liver was healthy, its function normal.
When Sichel saw what the drug did for Pam, he decided he had to bring it to the U.S., even if he had to do it on his own.
Its main ingredient: a bacteria isolated from unpasteurized cow's milk.
After several years of research, $100,000 of his own money, language lessons and two trips to Russia, Sichel is now selling the pills on the Internet, running the company from his house in Boulder.
It's a labor of love.
He has tens of thousands of loyal customers with stories as eye-opening as Pam's. Many have received thousands of dollars' worth of free product.
Del-Immune V, as Sichel has dubbed his product, is his passion.
Under his federal Food and Drug Administration nutritional supplement designation, Sichel can't make any legal claims about Del-Immune's disease-fighting powers. He markets the pills as immune boosters to fend off colds and flu-like illness.
Informally, he claims his pills can do much more. He says they are effective in treating everything from irritable bowel syndrome and high cholesterol to hepatitis and non-healing bone fractures.
"This is going to be a major influence on infectious disease and cancer," Sichel said.
Retired financier Jim Schwartz credits Del-Immune with helping him fight larynx cancer. During radiation therapy, he never lost his energy, driving himself to his own appointments, he said.
Schwartz is now cancer-free. His doctor "said it looked like it was never there to begin with," he said.
Was it the Del-Immune?
"The traditional doctors will go, 'Well, I don't know ...,"' Schwartz said, adding, "I'll take this forever."
He even gave some to his poodle, Elle, who had suffered for years from chronic ear infections.
The Russians' wonder drug was developed during the Cold War as an antidote to bioterror agents.
"I was skeptical. They were skeptical. We all were skeptical," Sichel said.
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"Frankly, I thought it was a bunch of crap." Sichel says the Russian scientists found a way to turn their lactobacillus strain into a super-potent treatment capable of shrinking cancerous tumors and preventing death from exposure to anthrax, smallpox and the plague.
Technically known as lactobacillus rhamnosis, the substance hails from the same family of helpful bacteria found in yogurt and cheese.
Health food stores sell several varieties of lactobacillus pills, mainly as digestion aids and immune-system boosters.
Such so-called pro-biotics, used by Europeans for decades, have this year become one of the hottest nutritional trends in the U.S.
"Americans have become much more aware," said Pat Baird, a New York dietitian and nationally renowned expert on gastrointestinal disorders, osteoporosis, weight management and cardiovascular health.
To be effective, such products must be consumed daily, she added.
Golden businessman Gary Huffman lost 11 inches of bowel after contracting an intestinal "bug" on a trip to Asia. Not long after, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and became frustrated by his ailing body.
"I was always very active," he said. "But I became a couch potato."
Sichel, a longtime friend, gave Huffman some Del-Immune pills.
"Within seven to 10 days, all my gastric problems seemed to go away," Huffman said.
His energy returned. And he's remained cancer-free for nearly five years. Huffman is back at work, running two companies.
"It's changed my whole life," he said.
Me neither, but the reported results are certainly attention-getters.
You know, on the one hand you've got the FDA which is the guardian of bureaucracy and the wall that keeps a lot of good drugs from reaching the sick. But on the other hand you have these totally unregulated supliment companies who make outrageous claims and occassional kill a bunch of people.
They need our prayers.
If the story is true, and this gentleman is truly a trained pharmacist, then it doesn't sound so much like the average snake oil huckster. Also, when you consider the fact that plants (including bacteria) are the greatest chemical laboratories in the world, it's not impossible to believe that some new medicine is out there waiting to be discovered.
A Russian doctor saw Woody Allen's "Sleeper", noted that the characters were wearing glasses, and told himself, "Something's wrong here. People will not be wearing spectacles two hundred years from now." He found research involving a man with corneal injury from a breaking airplane winshield, and the man went from being nearsighted to having near perfect vision. This doctor went on to develop radial keratotomy, the forerunner of today's Lasik surgery.
I know this, because I did the research on it myself before I had the operation in 1983. Even out of backwards Russia, there are things that will change the world.
I say keep them unregulated!
Wow, sounds like this pill cures almost as many things as pot does. Not that I believe the claims about the pills. ;-)
"I'm not sure what to make of this, but I'm highly skeptical."
I'm skeptical, too, but probiotics are a good thing otherwise. They keep the gi tract in balance and are a must with some of the more potent antibiotics. The Russians have also done some really interesting research on bacteriophages.
Here's an interesting abstract from the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology (Publisher: Taylor & Francis Issue: Volume 38, Supplement 239 / December 2003 Pages: 15 - 23)
(My emphasis in bold)
Probiotics in gastroenterology: indications and future perspectives
D. Goossens, D. Jonkers, E. Stobberingh, A. van den Bogaard, M. Russel, R. Stockbrügger
Depts. of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Medical Microbiology University Hospital Maastricht The Netherlands
"Nowadays, there is a growing interest in probiotics as a safe way of changing the intestinal bacterial flora. Probiotics may have potential in several gastroenterological conditions, especially when the intestinal flora has been disturbed. Most scientific evidence is available for diarrhoea patients treated with Lactobacillus GG, Lactobacillus reuteri or Saccharomyces boulardii.
Meta-analyses have shown an overall reduction in the risk of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea during treatment with probiotics, and benefits have also been demonstrated for patients with rota-virus-associated diarrhoea.
Patients with inflammatory bowel disease, an inflammatory disorder characterized by a change in the intestinal flora, are another important target group for which probiotics may be beneficial. It has been claimed that in ulcerative colitis and Crohn disease patients, lactobacilli, S. boulardii and Escherichia coli reduce relapses, but most studies were not placebo-controlled. A reduction in relapses has also been demonstrated in pouchitis patients treated with a multispecies probiotic.
Irritable bowel syndrome might be another clinical indication for probiotic therapy, but results of clinical trials performed in these patients are inconsistent. Additionally, probiotics may improve lactose absorption, Helicobacter pylori eradication and constipation.
Finally, in animal models of colorectal cancer, treatment with probiotics reduces the prevalence of this disease, and in humans the amount of genotoxic substances in faeces has been reduced.
In conclusion, the results of studies on the effects of probiotics in gastrointestinal conditions are encouraging, but well-designed placebo-controlled studies are warranted before recommendations for therapeutic or preventive use can be given. Many issues still have to be resolved, including optimal dose and duration of treatment, selection of and differences between the several available probiotic strains, and, importantly, their mechanisms of actions have to be elucidated."
Pot cures stuff now? LMAO! All it does is destroy brain cells my friend. It's not a pain reliever either, but it does help you munch out if you have a depressed apatite. That is proven.
It makes you paranoid. That is proven. It makes you laugh at stupid things, that is proven.
It makes you stupid, and people laugh at pot heads, that is proven. it makes you lazy and unproductive, that is proven.
It makes you waste long periods of time thinking about stupid things, that is proven.
Another thing about yogurt, make sure you eat the stuff that has the living bacteria culture in it. Some brands don't have it.
That says it all. So secret that only this guy knows? ;)
I'm not sure what to make of this, but I'm highly skeptical.....
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Not me. My guess is there's something to it. 70% chance. Won't work for everyone but works for many where nothing else does.
And for good reason. Just another alternative medicine snake oil salesman.
Regulation is good, it maintains standards- just not government or conflict-of-interests entities.
You want to believe, and hopefully, all this is wondrously true. But, the great, great grandfather of a friend of mine used to travel around the country with a suitcaseful of his homemade, Taylor's Elixir, guaranteed to cure everything from blindness, baldness, fallen arches, toothache, diarrhea, etc.. He did quite well for an 'Indian Medicine Man'.
Website makes more claims!
http://www.outletnutrition.com/devfdeim100c.html
I'm not so sure. We need more testimony from people who have taken this product. I have a feeling there might be something worthwhile looking into here. After all, new drugs are being invented and discovered all the time.
We also need to know if there are side-effects.
The thing with these alternative medicine cures is they invariably claim origins from remote mysterious parts of the world.
Secondly, they never consider placebo effects.
Thirdly, they always claim to be simple, safe and natural.
Finally, they frequently claim to provide relief for a broad spectrum of conditions.
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