Re: Caveat Emptor
- From: "Robert Cohen" <robtcohen@xxxxxxx>
- Date: 22 Dec 2005 06:13:44 -0800
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/clayton/1205/22henryside.html
copyrighted by atlanta journal-constitution 2005
Weedkiller never OK'd for humans
By PATRICIA GUTHRIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/22/05
The weedkiller chemical reportedly used in cancer treatment by Dr.
Totada R. Shanthaveerappa, the Stockbridge physician accused of health
fraud and other federal offenses, has a long history as an alternative
therapy.
It's also banned for human use by the federal government and known to
have killed individuals using it for weight loss or in cancer therapy,
said Gaylord Lopez, director of the Georgia Poison Center.
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Used and approved as a pesticide for lawns and as anti-mold treatment
for lumber, the chemical called dinitrophenol, or DNP, was widely used
in the 1930s as a weight loss product. It even underwent scientifically
controlled clinical trials that new medicines must complete to prove
they are safe, effective and produce no harmful side effects.
"But they had to stop it because of problems caused by side effects,"
Lopez said. "People developed cataracts, and some died."
In recent years, the FDA and authorities in many states have cracked
down on doctors who use it as an unorthodox medical treatment. They
have also gone after online vendors of the substance.
Despite its dangers and status as a banned human substance, DNP is
still being used, illegally, as a weight-loss product and for cancer
therapy.
When used in humans, DNP is much more diluted than in the commercial
grade used to kill weeds and mold.
In humans, the substance alters a person's metabolism by rapidly
killing cells. "What some of these quacks could be thinking is that the
substance would make cancer cells heat up and cause the cancer to die
off," Lopez said. "But there's been no proof of that."
Doctors in Texas and Florida have also been charged with using
dinitrophenol in cancer treatment but wrongfully telling Medicare and
private insurance they were using standard treatments.
Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued a Florida
pharmaceutical company for fraud in a case that involved failing to
tell investors that its "breakthrough" cancer treatment used
dinitrophenol.
Lopez said the state poison center has never received any reports of
people poisoned by DNP in Georgia.
Ingesting or being injected with the substance could lead to symptoms
similar to those seen in aspirin and cyanide overdoses, Lopez said. The
drug increases the body's metabolism, which can lead to rapid
breathing, neurological damage, seizures and death.
The other therapy Shanthaveerappa is said to have offered to cancer
patients is an anti-tumor drug called Ukrain. It's not approved by the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration for any medical treatment.
However, it's used in Germany and other countries for the treatment of
pancreatic cancer, which has a 90 percent fatality rate. Overseas
studies have found it to be effective in extending life for cancer
patients who have exhausted standard therapy.
.
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