I was reading some of the posts & saw one from AnnM dated June 20, 2005 concerning the above product. Has anyone else heard of this? It sounds like it would be wonderful if it truly worked. Please let me know if anyone else has had good luck with this product. I sent AnnM an email -- just today so have not had time to hear back from her. Thanks for any information anybody can supply.

LSC

You may want to check out http://www.quackwatch.org for medical scams, multi-level martketing scams, etc. Some of these types of nutritional supplements, herbal remedies, and natural cures promote their product by using a "professional" such as a doctor, and even reference a "research report" in a medical journal. These have repeatedly been proven to be ineffective and often times dangerous substances, and the "research" faulty.

These "unconventional" treatments prey on people who are afflicted with diseases such as Alzheimer's, or their caregivers. Since there are few effective medications for AD, and since the causes of AD have not yet been found, we often grasp for any sign of hope. Although we might be rational in dealing with our daily life issues, we may become irrational by desiring solutions to problems such as AD where no solutions yet exist. We might lose ourselves in a philosophy we would normally avoid, because that philosophy may be comforting. We might develop a distrust of the medical establishment and a fear of technology and conventional medical practices, because they do not provide all the answers we need right now. And our health, or our loved one's health is declining daily.

We need to concentrate on the task at hand. To use proven, effective treatments against AD, and to encourage and promote real scientific research to find improved treatments, to find the causes, and to find a cure. And we need to avoid quackery and scams, and the false promises they offer.

Dan

See www.nutritionadvisor.com/clinical_studies.htm

I don't know how this can be considered a medical scam if it's in the Physicians Desk Reference and the Pharmacist Red Book. It's covered under Medicare/Medicaid in most states. Also, Dr. Drogue, one of the researchers has published over 270 peer reviewed papers. I know someone who has personally benefited from Immunocal and regained their life back. The stuff has over 10 pharmaceutical patents too. Not only that, Dr. Bounous and Dr. Kongshovan are some of the most esteemed researchers in Canadian history. You can look them up because they were profesors at McGill Univ. for many years. You can't call that a scam.

Greetings,
I thought AnnM mentioned something called "NAC" as an ingredient in the formula. I have not researched the products, but I think NAC is N-acetylcysteine. It is an antidote for tylenol toxicity and is used to protect the kidneys during I.V. contrast radiographic tests. If it is coincidently protecting the kidneys and reversing liver damage (ammonia levels are toxic to the brain, but must be specifically requested on lab forms), then it makes sense patients' health and abilities improve. Despite nurses and pharmacies have the discretion to maximize tylenol dosing, 4,000 mg a day cannot provide benefit over risks. OTC meds dosed PRN are often not investigated for side-effects or Rx-Rx interactions. For example, Tagamet (cimetidine) and OTC heartburn pill (H2) has MANY serious side-effects AND drug interactions. Men can grow breasts and sperm count can decrease. Who would've thought??? BUT, the other OTC H2 blockers for GERD do NOT have these side-effects (PDR). Common side-effect of many drugs are electrolyte disturbances. Simply having too low sodiun (Na) can cause the patient to appear to have had a stroke. Correcting the sodium TOO quickly can cause permanent brain damage. Chronic low potassium can cause muscle wasting and weakness. etc. these are just a few treatable imbalances that can have dramatic improvement when corrected. Good Luck

quote:

Originally posted by indofcrafton:
You may want to check out http://www.quackwatch.org for medical scams, multi-level martketing scams, etc. Some of these types of nutritional supplements, herbal remedies, and natural cures promote their product by using a "professional" such as a doctor, and even reference a "research report" in a medical journal. These have repeatedly been proven to be ineffective and often times dangerous substances, and the "research" faulty.

Just so you know, Stephen Barrett, the MD from QuackWatch (who was unable to pass the exam to become board certified as a doctor), has been sued more than once for the claims he's made against others.

Three judges in a California Court of Appeals in a published decision even noted that his testimony and opinions on alternative healthcare were found by the court to be quote "biased and unworthy of credibility", which for a court is a very harsh admonishment to make towards an MD, but it was very deserved. Barrett's team lost the case.

quote:

Originally posted by indofcrafton:
These "unconventional" treatments prey on people who are afflicted with diseases such as Alzheimer's, or their caregivers. Since there are few effective medications for AD, and since the causes of AD have not yet been found, we often grasp for any sign of hope. Although we might be rational in dealing with our daily life issues, we may become irrational by desiring solutions to problems such as AD where no solutions yet exist. We might lose ourselves in a philosophy we would normally avoid, because that philosophy may be comforting. We might develop a distrust of the medical establishment and a fear of technology and conventional medical practices, because they do not provide all the answers we need right now. And our health, or our loved one's health is declining daily.

We need to concentrate on the task at hand. To use proven, effective treatments against AD, and to encourage and promote real scientific research to find improved treatments, to find the causes, and to find a cure. And we need to avoid quackery and scams, and the false promises they offer.

Dan

I'm opposed to healthcare quackery as much as you or anyone else, and there's quite a lot of it in the alternative healthcare area targeted at the ignorant who don't know better. The overriding myth, however, is that all naturally-occurring and non-patentable substances that pharmaceutical companies can't make billions off of are "quackery". Some of the most promising treatments for neurological diseases at this point are naturally occurring substances and are backed by university studies, and usually have no known adverse side effects in most people. Harvard researchers, for instance, are conducting very intensive research on a compound called resveratrol and what benefits it may have in neurological and other diseases.

At the Linus Pauling Institute in Oregon, much of the research there is with natural substances for diseases, and some of the people involved are some of the most brilliant scientists in the world studying substances R-Alpha lipoic acid, etc.

Arguably the world's most well-known and respected biochemist (or very close to it), Bruce Ames, is also involved with intense research of natural substances for diseases of aging like acetyl-l-carnitine and alpha lipoic acid.

The problem is, these various substances cannot be patented by pharmaceutical companies who have the hundreds of millions to put them through very large scale human trials. So, they will not be FDA approved anytime soon.

I don't equate this with "quackery".

The university animal studies are actually showing more promise for dementia at the current time with natural compounds like Ashwagandha extract, R-alpha lipoic acid, resveratrol, etc.

And lipoic acid "was" put through a small human trial for Alzheimer's and was found to stabilize and prevent further cognitive decline during the course of administration. There's another thread running about it.

This is not to say that all of these naturally occurring substances will be beneficial for human Alzheimer's, but there's a very good chance that some of them will be, and for most of them there's a long history of human usage without significant side effects (or even improving general health in the already healthy), and they often do not cost much at all.

On the other hand, the pharmaceutical man-made drugs for treating various symptoms often have difficult side effects, are only minimally helpful (if at all), and cost a fortune often.

Dan

Bottom line... 2 years after the original inquiry and no one has responded with anything positive about either Immonocal or Pronutra. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Immunocal's only function is to provide the body with the precursors it needs in order to produce glutathione.

In order to determine the potential benefits of increased intracellular glutathione on a specific disease like Alzheimer's, focus should be on the relationship between Alzheimer's and glutathione exclusively.

Incidentally, FDA approval means nothing. People are killed by substances approved by the FDA everyday. Furthermore, it has been documented that the FDA is a corrupt body, and is not a trustworthy source of the good or bad of any substance.

Indeed Immunocal increases the glutathione levels in the body by helping the liver to produce glutathione. Indeed todate there is no proof that it helps with dementia. However, if someone has low levels of glutathione and as a result suffers form a deficiency that can cause directly to dimentia, taking Immunocal can correct this. It is not however a broad solution it all cases of dimentia. If it was, we whould have seen miracles with the many dimentia pleopel using it.

There is an Immunocal forum on line that has questions and answers to many issues regarding Immunocal http://www.immunocal.us.com maybe you can relate to that site for additional information.

Immunocal is a wgey protein isolate. Check the overall protein input before taking it. For example, in case of renal failure protein intake has to be monitored.

Regards

I searched the Immunity Board in the Immunocal forum and found the following refernce:

"
Indeed, there are evidences that Immunocal as part of a whey protein isolate group can improve cognitive levels significantly. In one research it was attributed to the alpha lactalbumin available in whey proteins such as Immunocal.

The article discussing this study can be find at the following link:

http://www.immunolead.com/images/Whey_protein_for_dementia.pdf
"

PLease read the article . It is quite interesting

Hello People.
I came across this post doing a google search.

Here is a google search through government sites using Immunocal as the main key word.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Immunocal&btnmeta%3Dsearch%3Dunclesam=Search+Government+Sites

And some other news.
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/cnw/article.jsp?content=20071113_122507_3_cnw_cnw

And...
I'm not a man of works so please excuse the directness of my post.

The following products have been screened for substances prohibited by the Olympic Movement Anti-Doping Code (click here for more information about Substances Tested, Testing Methods & Passing Criteria). In the first column, the products are listed alphabetically by name. There are also links to related Product Reviews on ConsumerLab.com where these and other products are listed by ingredient category for which they were additionally tested.

http://www.consumerlab.com/results/Athletic_Banned_Substance_Supplement_Tests_Approved.asp

Here we have some patent here in Canada

(C*&^er Prevention and Treatment Patent)
http://patents.ic.gc.ca/cipo/cpd/en/patent/2142277/summary.html
(Chemically induced c&^*er)
http://patents.ic.gc.ca/cipo/cpd/en/patent/2090377/summary.html
(H&^ Patent)
http://patents.ic.gc.ca/cipo/cpd/en/patent/2090186/summary.html
Food Supplement
http://patents.ic.gc.ca/cipo/cpd/en/patent/1338682/summary.html

WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE AS FOOD SUPPLEMENT (improved active systemic humoral immune response)
http://patents.ic.gc.ca/cipo/cpd/en/patent/1333471/summary.html

And for those of you in the U.S.A.

Anti-c***er therapeutic compositions containing whey protein concentrate

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT5888552

Method of tre***ent of HIV-seropositive individuals with dietary whey proteins

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT5456924

Undenatured whey protein concentrate to improve active systemic humoral immune response

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT5230902

Biologically active whey protein concentrate

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT5290571

Biologically active undenatured whey protein concentrate as food supplement

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT5451412


If you want more info, just ask and I will post years of research and findings but really, ask yourself. How can a substance like Immunocal be a scam?

Randy Grover

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