Nutrition & Healing & Dr. Jonathan V. Wright

We received a renewal notice (1 year or 2 year) for something that we do not subscribe to.  My Dad, as he entered dementia, would write a check for every renewal notice that came in the mail.  This is an extremely common practice, and is particularly troubling because the elderly do not want to be forgetful and not renew a subscription.

So what is in the envelope besides the "renewal" that saves us 50%?

• "Urgent vitamin news!" because the "mainstream is still cheating you out of the best health possible"
• Journal of Anti-Aging Research, a newletter that warns "Beware of America's Vitamin D Fraud". Send for a 6-month supply of Healthy Aging pills for only $309.70.
• A "From the publisher letter entitled "You Could See Clearly Again" in bright orange, large font.  Send for a copy of the book The Read Without Glasses Method for only $39.95 plus shipping.
• A flyer entitled "The little pink secret to the hottest sex of your life" (Ultra Turbo HG is only $12.95).
• A flyer entitled "Scientists SOLVE the greatest joint challenge".  Send for 6 bottles of SynerFlex for only $219.70.  Gosh, there is also free shipping on this one.

So who is Jonathan Wright and how does he know more than the "mainstream"?

• Check out one of Wright's problems with the FDA at http://www.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/Nonrecorg/aqa.html 
• Check out QuackWatch's discussion of the American Quack Association: http://www.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/nonrecorg.html
• One of the addresses used in the newsletters is P. O. Box 925, Frederick, MD 21705-9838, is the same address as The Douglass Report, another medical "advisory" that sells newsletters, books, and cures.
• Another of the addresses used in the newsletters is P. O. Box 970, Frederick, MD 21705-9838, which is also the address for a "nutritional" company, NorthStar Nutritionals.  [Check out complaints about North Star Nutritional, at  http://www.ripoffreport.com/alternative-health/north-star-nutrition/north-star-nutritional-tainted-d46dc.htm] .
• Still another P.O. Box used is P. O. Box 969, Frederick, MD 21705-9900.
• Jonathan Wright seems to have significant support from others in the Alternative Medicine field.

This "us against them" approach to healthcare is worrisome.  I do believe that there are some natural remedies that can help someone (e.g., when I put a paste made of Adolf's Meat Tenderizer on a insect bite, this seems to help quite a bit), but the drama in these newsletters is a bit much.  There is no proof, with well-developed science, that supports some of what this company promotes. Also, no where are the ingredients of the promoted pills provided.  Even if the "remedy" is potentially helpful, drug interactions with other "nutritional" medicine or someone's prescriptions can be troublesome.  


Can it hurt anyone?  Absolutely.  These are often unproven, definitely unregulated "remedies".  There is nothing wrong with harmless nutrients, and there is nothing wrong with some good old folk remedies, but there is something wrong about taking some of the ingredients in these "cures".  

I once sat down with my Dad's "stash" of "nutitional products" and found he was taking a dangerous level of Bilberry, and that this may interact with a prescription that he was taking at the time. There was Bilberry in two of his "nutritional supplements", and this is dangerous along with the blood thinner the doctor prescribed.  Dad never thought that there could be any interaction between "natural" remedies and his prescriptions, and I suspect that he is not alone in this misconception.


The use of the "renewal" when no subscription exists, pushing specific pills from specific companies, and dramatic language should at least make you more cautious.