Comments on: Patrick Holford Goes Beyond a Pill for Every Ill to a Pill for Every Occasion

By: Ben

Ben — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 08:32:27 +0000

Just read PH’s book “The Alzheimer’s Prevention Plan”, as I work with people with the condition and know i’ts devestating consequences for the person and family/carers. The book is frighteningly optimistic and simplistic. It infers that AD is preventable and that brain damage repairable. Ii it is so simple, why isn’t it part of a national NHS strategy? No NHS treatment regime has adopted this aparently cheap and simply remedy to a terminal condition. On trying to link into the two websites he repeatedly promotes in his book they are both “in error” and unobtainable. I wonder why?!!!

By: Claire

Claire — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:11:26 +0000

I’m now wondering just how one is supposed to remember when to take all these pills … Oh, wait a minute, for £44.90 per month you can have the ‘memory pack’:
http://www.healthproductsforlife.com/content.asp?id_Content=2159&id_Content_Parent=0

Another niche covered!

By: Kat

Kat — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:56:01 +0000

sounds remarkably like “Airborne”. Quote from Wikipedia:

“On March 4, 2008, Airborne Health Inc. agreed to pay $23.3 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought against the company claiming that there is no evidence that the supplement wards off harmful bacteria and germs. Customers will be refunded for any Airborne they have ever bought.”

May Holford’s products have the same “success”

By: jdc325

jdc325 — Tue, 20 May 2008 12:16:51 +0000

I think his next supplement will simply be called ‘Kerrching’ – is it just me or do these ‘…guard’ supplements seem a bit pricey? I wouldn’t pay 60p-£1 or so per pill unless it was something supported by fairly robust evidence.

The point of Cabinguard seems to be basically to keep the blood flowing. I started thinking about this and whether half an aspirin would do the trick. Or a relatively cheap meal rich in EPA. Then I looked at the Department of Health advice – who advise that blood-thinning drugs should only be taken on the advice of one’s doctor. They have lots of other handy advice too – including what to wear, how to sit and what exercises to try. Most interestingly, they point out that “while there is evidence that graduated compression stockings may be useful there is no evidence that aspirin is effective in preventing travel-related DVT”. I think I’d go for the socks first myself, aspirin would be taken only if my GP advised it and I would avoid un-evidenced, expensive pills. Pine bark and Grapeseed for DVT? D’oH!

By: dvnutrix

dvnutrix — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:49:03 +0000

Yes, the supplements aren’t cheap, particularly when one has no way of measuring their efficacy and no comeback if they don’t work.

I’m not entirely confident that the same lactobacilli that look after your gut bacteria in the UK are up to the job of coping with seriously adverse gut pathogens that you might pick up elsewhere. And, that double capsule layering trick, I could stand knowing a bit more about how they time tested that to make sure that the ‘correct’ layer self-destructs at the appropriate part of your GI tract.

This thing about the increasingly specialised supplements, will there be a personalised pill trolley (as opposed to box) to organise them. The pill I take when I realise the baby has deposited a posset on my only clean jacket. The pill I take when the bus is late. The one on the bus because it is full of squabbling children. The one I take when I step in a puddle. Etc. etc.

By: jonhw

jonhw — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:28:29 +0000

Looks like the pills aren’t cheap, either – more expensive than things like travel insurance (a rather more important precaution, if you’re leaving the country), and in most parts of the world you could get a couple of tasty meals for the price of the pills :)

By: tifosi246

tifosi246 — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:33:09 +0000

I look forward to whole range of CabinGuard meta-supplements. Start with “No 74 bus” then add more pills for “with schoolkids on board” or “full of Xmas shoppers”. Of course, for those of us in London, maybe a special supplement to counter-act the sick bus syndrome of “bendy buses” with a pair of smiley faces on the bottle – Holford and Boris!

I’m pretty sure most car climate control systems (and certainly the Beemers and Maybach’s) have mulitple climate zones for different areas of the car, more meta-supplements here for “Beemer air con on for men” and “Beemer heater on for women”. The combinations are truly endless. This is the equivalent of the ring tone for the mobile phone.