White Spots in the Fingernails

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
41

Nothing.

I am a term short of a degree in Military Science.

I am two terms short of a degree in Business Administration.

I hold a degree in elementary education.

Graduated fromt he Defense Language School (Korean), and a year in Japanese with 17 years in the far east.

I have spent ten years in military psychological operations. Was damn good at it. North Korea is still paying for what I did to them with the printed word.

I am the self-proclaimed foremost authority on white spots in the nails.

However, within the military, I am the recognized foremost expert on the aerodynamics of falling paper. I wrote the Army’s hand book on it (which was later taken by the Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg, where they removed my name and printed it as their own. I still have a couple of copies with my name on it. I was recognized with the Army’s second highest award for meritorious service (The Legion of Merit). This award is normally given to Colonels and one and two star generals. There were three such awards given in my 800 man unit spread throughout the Far East (Korea, Japan, Okinawa, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos). One award went to the Commander (posthumously - died in the barbar’s chair). The other two went to me during two different five year periods with the Group. First recommended as a Captain. Almost unheard of.

Two foreign countries put a price on my head. One by name (their intelligence was good) and the other by job title.

Sorry to get off track but some might find it interesting.

42

I’m a member of the Triple Nine Society (99.9th percentile in IQ). Does that make me even more qualified than you (being a MENSA member) to discuss the topic of zinc deficiency?

43

:dubious:
I am the self-proclaimed foremost authority on little green men from Mars.

44

So you almost have a degree in a number areas that have nothing to do with the topic at hand, and you have no formal training in the subject you claim to be an expert in. Again, have you had anything published in a peer-reviewed journal?

45

You apparently missed it on my original posting. I’ve extracted it from there and repeated it here:

Two of the many clinical consequences of zinc deficiency is “behavioral disturbances,” and “depresses mental function.” There are over 300 more consequences of this deficiency.

It is known that "zinc is widely distributed throughout the central nervous system of the human body where it participates in diverse neuronal/glial metabolic processes, many of which directly influence the electrical excitability of the brain and subsequent behavior. In people with adequate intake of zinc, "there exists within the hippocampal mossy fiber system a unique pool of zinc. Above taken from the below desk reference (Autopsy of Alzheimer’s Disease reveal the "unique pool of zinc has been replaced with aluminum.)

The Manual of Clinical Nutrition, by Nutrition Publications, Inc. Fourth Printing November 1983 Library of Congress Cat card No 82-62508, Edited by David M. Paige, MD, MPH, Professor, Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Hygiene and Public Health and joint appointment in Dept of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, The John Hopkins University.

This 1000-plus page desk reference manual states:

“The zinc content of a mixed diet in the United States, for example, is about 3 mg/1,000 calories. An adult would have to consume 5,000 calories to ingest 15 mg level of zinc as specified by the RDA.”

46

Lt. Colonel, I am grateful for your service and your contribution to stopping the Red Menace on the Korean Peninsula.

However, that does not give you any authority to speak about cures for skin disorders, mental disorders or any other disturbances of the body. You will find this crowd a tough one to convince if you cannot provide peer-reviewed, clinical research using accepted double-blind methodology. You should expect no less rigor here than from those conducting military operations against the enemy.

Critical thinking is not negative thinking. It is the path to understanding and wisdom.

47

If you’ve been researching the subject since 1982 like I have, I might consede a point or two.

This is the last ??? that has no real bearing on the subject to which I will respond.

48

Three galaxies condemned me to death, and it was written about on tablets of a material that only NASA know about.

On preview - maybe we’re not talking about white spots anymore, just random items from whichever medical book is lying around. Let’s see what they say about erectile disfunction, shall we? Probably zinc deficiency.

49

So you will not answer questions about your qualifications on this topic, nor provide direct cites to the many claims you’ve made so far, nor provide your published reports in peer-reviewed periodicals, but you will continue to provide more anecdotal evidence, and you will continue to use your education in unrelated fields as an appeal to authority?

50

How about a more recent cite? Facts about Zinc.

51

It has no bearing on the issue of Zinc deficiency, but neither does your membership in Mensa or your other qualifications that you mentioned.

52

I though reputable journals had given that up.

Conflict of Interest?

Medical Journal Changes Policy of
Finding Independent Doctors to Write
By John McKenzie
June 12, 2002 - Is it a case of,
“If you can’t beat 'em, join 'em?”
The New England Journal of Medicine will
announce Thursday that it has given up
finding truly independent doctors to write
and review articles and editorials for it, as
a result of the financial ties physicians have
with so many drug companies in the United
States The Journal says the drug companies’
reach is just too deep. In 2000, the drug
industry sponsored more than 314,000
events for physicians - everything from
luncheons to getaway weekends - at a cost of
almost $2 billion. On top of that, many
doctors accept speaking and consulting fees
that link them to drug companies. No
publication in this country influences the
way your doctor treats an illness more than
the New England Journal of Medicine. Since
1812, the Journal has scrutinized and
published thousands of clinical studies.
These “review” articles on drug therapy that
can be pivotal. They tell doctors the strengths
and weaknesses of new medications for
everything form high blood pressure to
obesity to cancer. Now, the Journal will allow
these critical evaluations to be written by
people with financial ties to drug companies.
“This change will allow us to recruit the best
authors, the people who have experience with
new treatments to write these editorials and
review articles,” said Dr. Jeffrey Drazen, the
medical journal’s editor-in-chief.

Under the new policy, doctors writing reviews
in the Journal can accept up to $10,000 a
year from each drug company in speaking
fees and consulting fees.

Concerns About Possible Bias

Not everyone thinks this is such a good idea.
“So if a doctor is doing that kind of business
with four or five companies, he or she can get
as much [as] $40- to 50,000 a year and not
violate the new New England Journal policy,”
said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, the director of the
Public Citizen Health Research Group, one
of the country’s largest medical consumer
groups. “The bias introduced by drug
companies paying writers of review articles
a large amount of money can have the
consequence of slanting articles and
influencing physicians in a way that isn’t
really in the best interests of their patients,”
said Wolfe. The Journal, in a letter to its
readers, says the policy change is necessary
because it simply could not find enough
qualified authors who did not already have
ties to drug companies. “There are areas
where we simply have not published
anything because we didn’t think we could
get a person who was good to write in an
area that had absolutely no interaction with
a commercial entity,” said Drazen. But
Jerome Kassirer, who was the Journal’s
editor between 1991 and 1999, says he had
no problem finding independent authors.
“There’s a lot of depth in academic medicine,
sufficient depth, so that it’s almost always
possible to find a first-class person to write
an editorial or review article in which they
do not have a conflict of interest,” said
Kassirer, now a professor at the Tufts
University Schoolof Medicine. Some doctors
are concerned that by relaxing conflict-of-
interest standards, the Journal is reducing
the prestige and influence that it has taken
190 years to build.

53

Is this your way of saying,“No, I have not had anything published in a peer-reviewed periodical.”?

54

Will be happy to answer all related questions.

I do not consider the single fact that an individual had a 99% an no study in the area a responsible question. That prompted my comment to no longer respond to that type of question.

55

Why is your supposed high I.Q. pertinent to the topic at hand, then?

56

And the answers are…?

57

Do you have any online cites for your claims?

58

I’ve looked at that cite in the past.

Also the Journal of American Medical Association’s Physician Desk Reference sites grains as a good source of zinc.

Cereal grains act to chelate (claw-like) zinc, (bind with it) and carry it out of the body. Breakfast cereal manufacturers started adding “everything” with a shotgun approach in the late 70’s/early 80’s after taking a black eye in the media with so much sugar in their products.

I was taking a business law class at Portland State University at the time and it was one of the business activities that we studied.

Recently, Kellogg has started removing zinc from the product
because they know (and probably knew at the time) that
the zinc was not absorbed when eating cereals.

If your child is a breakfast cereal eater, check the various
side panels of Kellogg’s Cereals. I have a collection of
side panels, over a period of years and they have recently
dropped zinc from some, and I suspect will eventually drop
it from all their products.

I would ask again that you look at the nutritional content as listed by the USDA.

On May 16th, 2007, I stopped by Smiths to check cereal side panels on status of zinc.

Here is the results:

Kellogg’s
Cocoa Krespies, 10%
Rice Krispies, none
Rice Krispies with real Strawberries, none
Fruit Loops, 10%
Corn Flakes, none (contains trace of Soy Beans) That is new to me.
Eggo Cereal, 10%
Honey Snacks, none
Corn Pops, 10%
Frosted Flakes, none
Apple Jacks, 10%

Post Cereals (% of RDA)
Cocoa Pebbles, 10%
Fruity Pebbles, 10%
Selects Great Grains, 8%
Honey Bunches and Oats, 2%

General Mills
Cinnamon Toast Crunch, 25%
Cheerios, 25%
Lucky Charms, 25%
Lucky Whole Grains, 25%
Kix, 25%
Cocoa Puffs, 25%
Reese’s Puffs, 25%
Golden Grahams, 25%

Miscellaneous
Nature’s Path
Organic Pumpkin ZEN, none
Hearts and Basics, none
Flax and Granola, none
Acai’apple Granola, none
Organic Optimum Slim, none

Inasmuch as a 75 year supply of zinc costs under $2.00 (plus the greater cost to process and distribute), I feel that if it was doing any good added to cereal, companies would continue adding it.

59

I have never submitted anything for peer-review.

60

As Yogi Bear would say “Smarter than the average bear.”