This is the title of an audio tape of a charismatic "doctor" -- a real down-home sounding guy, talking all about how mineral deficiencies are killing just about anyone who dies. He talks about life-spans of up to 200 years. He even tells us that an 80-year old man fathered ten children -- until he was past the age of 100! And all due to good mineral intake in order to live that long and still get it up to make new babies. (Presumably the mothers were younger).

I’ve received eight copies of this tape; two from distant friends, four mailed to my office and two sent to my home. It makes me wonder when, not if, you’ll get your own copy. If you do what is suggested in accompanying "supportive documentation," you can "be your own boss" and "own your own company." They’ll tell you all about how to do it. Supportive documentation, from current chart-toppers, shows income reports that run from $4,000 to $34,000 per month.

This is called pyramid marketing or multi-level distribution; they’re synonymous. "Business owners" don’t really sell products so much; they further the scam to "help" their friends feel better, remain alive, and make the Big Bucks. These friends are supposed to follow and set up their friends, etc. The "owners" get kickbacks from all the distributors they manage to collect from among their own friends, friends of friends, and their friends, etc. If you buy into this, who’s gonna get your extra percentages? Will you get to the top of the pyramid, to that 34-thousand a month level? If you believe this, I have some low-cost beach-front property in Montana to sell you -- for when you retire as a millionaire!

The pyramid scam proposition, my 8 tapes for example, doesn’t get to you until after the pyramid is totally top-heavy. If you’re suckered into this, you’ll start at the bottom. The top is not available -- ever, no matter what great and wonderful promises are made. Marketers at the top are already rich, they’re getting richer, and if you buy into it, they’ll get even richer still.

How to spot a pyramid: The first thing to look for is a line stating "not available in stores." Another is that we really don’t have to pay top dollar for the miraculous prophesies -- we get the goods for free after we’ve become distributors with lots of "friend action." The pyramid grows bottom-heavy as our friends find other scam victims to make percentages on what they sell. Do we ever get to the top? Sure -- when that Montana beachfront property becomes a real hot land deal.

The product of the "Dead Doctors" pyramid is "colloidal minerals." For a definition from Science 101, a colloid is a liquid containing particulate matter. Minerals are being touted in this scam as the particulate matter, and we are not told what liquid they’re suspended in, or which minerals are there -- nor are we told the levels of which minerals that are included in each dose (32 doses per bottle). There’s no ingredient list. But it works and saves lives that would otherwise surely be lost due to mineral deficiencies!

Tapes aren’t free to make and this 8-tape collection of mine leads me to think there’s a generous marketing and advertising budget. Remember, $30.00 a bottle of fluid that you don’t know anything about except that it will prevent nearly all deaths.

Ready for Montana yet?

Stating that the life-expectancy of a doctor is age-58, the tape would have us believe that the young doctors all died of mineral deficiencies. If you have Alzheimer’s, there’s a mineral deficiency at cause (selenium). Eating non-foods is called "pica." If kids eat non-foods like leaded paint chips or dirt from the kitty-litter box, it’s not just because they’re putting all sorts of things in their mouths regularly anyway -- no, they’re driven by a mineral deficiency (zinc). If your heart gives out on you, it’s also from a mineral deficiency (selenium, copper, chromium, iron, magnesium, etc.).

The list goes on. Mineral-deficiency killers include some of the most ridiculous notions I’ve ever heard. The diseases caused by most of the stated mineral deficiencies have nothing whatever to do with most of what this (apparently live) "doctor" states. Of course, some of what he says is true. Wrapping truths around falsehoods has been going on since entrepreneurism was invented. For example, they state, correctly, that a calcium deficiency can be responsible for osteoporosis. But they also go on to make the unproven claim that calcium deficiencies cause arthritis, low back pain, receding gums, kidney stones, insomnia, bone spurs, panic attacks, and Bell’s Palsy, to name a few. Then, he says, accurately, that chromium deficiency is associated with diabetes or hypoglycemia. But it won’t be at cause for manic depression, hyperactivity, coronary blood vessel disease, learning disabilities, impaired growth, peripheral neuropathy, high cholesterol or infertility.

The tape continually mixes up fact and fiction like this. Another fiction part is that copper deficiencies result in white hair or gray hair, sagging eyelids and breasts, hernias, varicose veins, arthritis, violent explosive behavior, Cerebral Palsy, learning disabilities, or ruptured vertebral discs. No to mention...aortic aneurysms (artery wall bulges). If you don’t believe me, come to my office and I’ll show you a few biochemical textbooks and other medical literature that will absolutely disprove these false statements. All of them. Heading for Montana?

I’ve written before about vitamin and mineral supplements and have urged readers to take them, but to get good information/advice first from someone knowledgeable such as myself. Such modesty. Recently (July 1995 issue), I wrote "the first necessary thing to say [about minerals] is don’t ignore them." They really are important, but with colloidal minerals, at two doses per day (as recommended), one bottle will only last 16 days. A bottle of 100 tablets from the very best, most highly bio-available/absorbable multi-mineral I’ve found, even double dosing, will last you nearly two months and the cost is only $6.00 (plus tax, if applicable).

The "Dead Doctors" tape is not specifically targeted to an HIV audience. In fact, neither HIV nor AIDS is mentioned in the tape. However, I suspect that it won’t be long before word-of-mouth on this "hot-new-product" grabs hold of the HIV community. And that’s why I’m issuing this warning now!

The supportive written documentation that comes with the tape does (correctly) list HIV/AIDS in the selenium deficiency category. (This is the only mineral they associate with HIV/AIDS, though zinc might have, correctly, been included -- I can’t begin to imagine why it isn’t.) Non-HIV selenium-deficiency problems result, they claim, in fatigue, scoliosis (curved spinal cord), Cystic fibrosis, Multiple Sclerosis, cirrhosis of the liver, infertility, and again, aortic aneurysms. As it happens, I also wrote about selenium last July for HIV/AIDS use and I think it’s so important that I’ll quote myself here:

Selenium is hot and will probably get much hotter as further time and study happens. First, the mineral Selenium is an antioxidant. This benefit may be independent of other "hot-stuff" on Selenium. From a study first reported about a year ago, a long research article in the A-list biochemical Journal of Medicinal Chemistry is really exciting.

The "bottom line" was summed up by Dr. Will Taylor, primary study author, saying it suggests that "HIV slowly depletes the body’s store of selenium. The hope: This can lead to specific ways of using selenium supplements to help people with HIV/AIDS keep their virus in check. Many HIV/AIDS patients have low selenium levels, and some already take supplements. It had been reported that these patients had trouble absorbing the nutrient from food."

"The new theory" is that HIV produces proteins that consume the body’s supply of selenium. HIV needs selenium (which normally preserves the elasticity of body tissue) to grow. Once the virus exhausts the selenium in an infected cell, it breaks out in search of more, spreading the infection to other cells."

If this is true, then why not take colloidal selenium (and other minerals)? I’ve always suggested a three-question method for decisions on any "alternative" treatment. The first question is: "Can it cause harm?" This is an absolute; if it can cause harm, we must decline. And colloidal minerals do not pass this test. If you don’t know what you’re taking, there’s always a potential for harm. Brazil nuts, are the best food-based selenium source, and are safe. Just don’t overdose on them. There are 458 mcg in one ounce of these delicious nuts. Stay under 900 mcg to be sure-safe.

I digress: If you were to see me, walking down the sidewalk looking good and carrying a styrofoam cup with a lid on it, and offering it to you, telling you that it’ll make you feel good and prevent deadly mineral deficiencies, so you should drink it -- are you going to? Will you? Now that’s playing with fire! You won’t have any idea what’s in the cup regardless of what I tell you. But, you’ll drink expensive unknown "beverages" from mail order? Let’s all go get a tan in Montana!

I have three questions I always ask. #1: Will it do harm? Medicine has a "first do no harm" philosophy, and so do I. In fact, I insert a line at the end of all of my articles to that effect (see below). If you’re burning to know the other two questions, they are #2: Will it help? And #3: Can I afford it? Suppose colloidal minerals help -- a real stretch if you believe me so far. Again, not knowing what minerals are there, and in what doses, and costing a lot, there’s more than sufficient evidence that this product should be avoided. Spend about the same amount of money on an appointment with me or another well trained HIV-nutrition expert. That will help you understand minerals, and you won’t get scammed.

Please pass this bulletin around wherever it can be published, read or archived. Dead people, doctors, industrialists, or nutritionists don’t lie -- they’re dead! It’s the live ones to watch out for.

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First do no harm. If any of this advice is, or seems to be connected to adverse consequences, contact your primary healthcare provider and your dietitan/ nutritionist.

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