My dear Uncle, a Montana libertarian who has been involved in law and politics for decades, sent me this note today.  I wrote a response and thought to share it with my blog readers, as it touches on many of the sensitive issues surrounding freedom, science, and the herbal medicine business.  Even though I doubt he needs anonymity, I made it so.

I continue my investigation of how two Portland acupuncturist instructors I knew while getting my Master’s degree at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine caused Beverly Hames to have kidney failure and require dialysis, a kidney transplant and multiple surgeries in order to survive.  It has taken me a while to get this far, and the implications keep getting more disturbing.  I first learned about the involvement of my teacher Mitch Stargrove and well-known author/teacher/manufacturer Subhuti Dharmananda while reading journalist Dan Hurley’s book, _Natural Causes:  Death, Lies, and Politics in America’s Vitamin and Herbal Supplement Industry_.  I like to read books that challenge my mind and make me think, but I wasn’t expecting to see people I studied with in there!

While chewing on this issue and considering whether to write about it or not, I was dismayed to see a small movement in the Chinese herbal medicine world adamantly promoting the use of banned herbs containing Aristolochic Acid, the chemical now confirmed beyond doubt in causing severe irreversible kidney damage and vastly increased upper urinary tract cancer risk.  On the heels of that, a huge study from Taiwan was published showing that an incredibly large number of citizens have still been taking Chinese herbal medicines containing Aristolochic Acid and have a corresponding world-record level of kidney and bladder cancers, connected beyond doubt. Continue reading →

The recent study from Taiwan which definitely connected their world-record upper urinary tract cancer rate to the high use of artistolochic acid-containing Chinese herbal formulas has me thinking a lot about the ethical issues involved.  Unfortunately, I suspect that most patients who took the batches of Seven Forests Stephania Tablets, etc. known to have contained Aristolochic Acid (and contributed to kidney failure in a some cases) were never contacted and informed about their vastly increased lifetime risk of bladder cancer and chronic kidney disease (CKD).  If any readers have evidence to the contrary, please share it and I’ll update this post.

This is wrong on so many levels…  There are early signs of kidney disease and kidney failure that are hard to put together for most people.  If they know it’s from kidney damage, they can manage it with diet.  If they don’t know, and treat rashes with creams, fatigue with stimulants, and swelling with diuretics, it will probably get worse until they collapse due to kidney failure.  With luck they would be on dialysis or get a kidney transplant.  Without luck, they just die. Continue reading →