Nutritional Research Censored by National Library of Medicine-Contact Congress

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, January 15, 2010

NLM Censors Nutritional Research

Medline is Biased, and Taxpayers Pay for It

Comment by W. Saul

Editor-In-Chief, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service

(OMNS, January 15, 2010) Did you know that there are " good " medical

journals, and that there are " naughty " medical journals?

No kidding. The good journals are easy to access on the internet through a

huge electronic database called Medline This wonderful, free service is

brought to you by the US National Library of Medicine and the National

Institutes of Health. In other words, by you. By your tax dollars. Generally it

is money well spent, until you go searching for megavitamin therapy

research papers. Then you will find that you can't find all of them. That is

because of selective indexing.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) proudly describes itself as " the

largest medical library in the world. The goal of the NLM is to collect,

organize and make available biomedical literature to advance medical science

and improve public health. "

Hmm. Collect. Organize. Make available. Improve public health.

So, after over 40 continuous years of publication, why is the Journal of

Orthomolecular Medicine NOT indexed by Medline?

And what are the consequences of such exclusion? In a nutshell, it stops

the public from using their computers to learn about all of the scientific

research and clinical reports demonstrating the effectiveness of megavitamin

(orthomolecular) therapy. It also greatly hampers professionals from

seeing pro-vitamin studies.

Have you ever wondered why your doctor simply does not know about vitamin

therapy? Well, wonder no longer. He or she can't read

what isn't " collected, " electronically indexed, or otherwise " made

available " to them.

If the vast majority of journals indexed by Medline are

pharmaceutical-friendly, and yet nutritional research is censored, what can you

expect?

Your taxes should not be used to fund censorship in a public library,

especially the largest medical library on the planet. It is un-American.

Of course, Medline doesn't censor everything nutritional. Here is a

current example of some research that Medline does in fact choose to index:

PIZZA PREVENTS HEART ATTACKS

Gallus S, Tavani A, La Vecchia C. Pizza and risk of acute myocardial

infarction. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2004 Nov;58(11):1543-6.

" Some of the ingredients of pizza have been shown to have a favourable

influence on the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, there is no single

explanation for the present findings. "

PIZZA PREVENTS CANCER

Gallus S, Bosetti C, Negri E, Talamini R, Montella M, Conti E, Franceschi

S, La Vecchia C. Does pizza protect against cancer? Int J Cancer. 2003 Nov

1;107(2):283-4.

" We analyzed the potential role of pizza on cancer risk, using data from

an integrated network of case-control studies. . . Pizza appears therefore

to be a favorable indicator of risk for digestive tract neoplasms in this

population. "

But be careful of that olive oil:

Wong GA, King CM. Occupational allergic contact dermatitis from olive oil

in pizza making. Contact Dermatitis. 2004 Feb;50(2):102-3.

MORE PIZZA

Here is my all-time favorite: yet another article that Medline actually is

indexing. It is not even from a medical journal. I am not making its

mile-long title up, either. It is there at Medline, right now, just a few

clicks

away from you:

Simon HB. " My husband subscribes to Harvard Men's Health Watch, but I read

it even more than he does. I hope you can help us resolve a disagreement.

He wants to have pizza two to three times a week for his prostate, but I

don't think it's a healthy food. Who is right? " (Harvard Men's Health Watch.

2003 Jun;7(11):8.)

Evidently the very name " Harvard " is enough to get your foot inside the

Medline door. That, or " everything but anchovies. "

Oddly enough, the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine has not published a

single article on pizza. At least not so far. Maybe if it did, it would make

the cut at Medline.

On the other hand, the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine has a review

board including medical doctors, university faculty, and hospital-based

researchers. Since 1967, it has published over 600 papers by renowned authors

including J. , Emanuel Cheraskin, Carl C. Pfeiffer, Bernard

Rimland, Abram Hoffer, and Nobel Prize winner Linus ing. You should be able

to access abstracts (concise summaries) of these papers, instantly and for

free, via Medline.

Well, you can't.

My addition: Since the National Library of Medicine and the National

Institute of Health do not have to take your complaints seriously, I suggest

you

write to your Members of Congress, you each have one representative and 2

Senators. I am attaching 2 form letters for you to send asking your

congressmembers to contact the chairmen of the committees that have

jurisdiction

over these agencies and those who appropriate funds for their operation and

demand that rigorous scientific research on nutritional properties of foods

be included in medline. The authoritative medical database that

practitioners and consumers use should not be restricted to patented

prescription

drugs that inflate medical costs.

In order to write your representative using my form letter, download the

" representMedlinefmltr " I attached below.

Select the letter and copy it onto your browser, when you get to your

congressmembers page you can paste it onto area for your comments. Remember to

put in your Representatives name.

In order to find your congressional representative go to

(http://www.house.gov)

Click on Write your representative on left side. Select your state and put

in your zipcode. The representative contact page will come up. In order

to use my form letter.

In order to write your senators using my form letter download

" SenateMedlinefmltr " select the letter and copy it onto your browser.

go to (http://www.senate.gov) find your state at the

top right. Each state has 2 senators. Write to both.

Click on web form write page.You can go directly to your senators contact page.

When you get to the place for your message paste my form letter into the page.

Remember to put in your senators name.

Eventually we will get this information included in the medline index. If

possible call your legislators and ask who is handling Health Issues for the

Congessmember if they trying to contact the legislators in charge of oversight

of the National Library of Medicine on this issue.

" The National Library of Medicine refuses to index the Journal of

Orthomolecular Medicine, though it is peer-reviewed and seems to meet their

criteria. " (Psychology Today, Nov-Dec 2006)

NOTE: Four decades of papers from the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine

are now online for you to read, Medline or no Medline, at

(http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/) The JOM

Archive is a free service with no advertising.

( W. Saul taught nutrition, health science and cell biology at the

college level. He is the author of Doctor Yourself and Fire Your Doctor!

and, with Dr. Abram Hoffer, co-author of Orthomolecular Medicine for Everyone

and The Vitamin Cure for Alcoholism. Saul is featured in the documentary

film Food Matters. He is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of

Orthomolecular Medicine.)

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine

Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight

illness.

For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org

The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and

non-commercial informational resource.

Editorial Review Board:

Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D.

Damien Downing, M.D.

, D.Sc., Ph.D.

Steve Hickey, Ph.D.

A. , PhD

Bo H. Jonsson, MD, Ph.D

Levy, M.D., J.D.

R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D.

Paterson, M.D.

Gert E. Shuitemaker, Ph.D.

W. Saul, Ph.D., Editor and contact person. Email:

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