You’re a QUACK! Where has Natural Medicine been this whole pandemic?

(originally published in The Edge magazine, Nov. 26, 2021)

by SchaOn Blodgett, CCP, BTAT

The very first time I heard the saying “New Normal”, even before the lockdowns began, I knew. Very early on, Naturopathic Doctors in other states had their clinics raided by the CDC and FDA^[1]. Why? They dared to put forth ideas of possible treatment options in patients they were seeing and helping to recover quickly. About 6-months later, one of those treatment options, high-dose IV Vitamin C, was talked about on MedPageToday^[2] as a possibility for some patients, but it was put forth by Western Medical practitioners, not NDs. Hearing about a local chiropractor receiving a Cease and Desist letter from the MN State Attorney General for talking about supporting the immune system naturally so your immune system is hopefully in a better state if and when you got “it”. Then the lockdowns began.

Very quickly into all of this, we were told that things wouldn’t ease up until there was a vaccine, even though previously, no safe and effective vaccine had ever been created for a coronavirus, and some would argue still hasn’t. Why were they so dead set and certain there would be a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine? This was also after some government officials started sending known infected elderly, the most vulnerable population to this virus, into Long Term Care facilities instead of having them isolated in hospitals actually designed to contain viral pathogens. None of this made logical sense with the data given at the time, unless you listened to conspiracy theories and “quackery”.

Kelly, Publisher of The Edge Magazine, tells me that she is constantly getting questioned about what alternative practitioners are seeing and what are some natural options to help with this. Pretty much my first question back to her was, “Are you OK with possibly being censored, de-platformed, or more?” Sadly, we can’t safely and openly talk about these things, even if staying within our own scopes of practice based on MN law. It’s honestly very dangerous professionally at this time.

As many people in the community who know me, know that I am a pretty open book type person. I tend to be blunt, direct, logic-driven, honest to a fault, deeply compassionate and caring. Yet during this time, in my experience, that is often very dangerous. Questioning motives, logical reasoning and calculating likely outcomes, then seeing and hearing what seems to boil down to brainwashing and weaponized behavioral psychology techniques being used on the general public.

It has become clear that there is a war going on attempting to take out true Traditional and Natural forms of Medicine – worldwide, and getting rid of Health Freedoms and options. This is very similar to what happened in the early 1900’s in America with the Flexner Report^[3] and the complete defunding of medical schools that incorporated any positive teachings on any form of natural medicine. Yes, medical doctors used to be taught a wide variety of natural medicine – many of the original hospitals^[4] here in the Twin Cities actually started out using Homeopathy! Do you remember when chiropractors or others in our style of medicine were, and still sometimes are, openly and commonly referred to as witch doctors and quacks? Much of that results from the impact of the Flexner Report. It has become abundantly clear that “they” want Western Medicine to be the only option for people. We have to ask “Why?” because it can’t be all about the money.

So, what am I seeing in my professional and personal life? I see choice and the ability to freely think being eroded and taken away, because after all, we’re in an emergency – don’t think – just follow orders. An example, Western Medical nurses and doctors, from what I’m told, have it drilled into them from the beginning that when they hear “This is an Emergency” to just do, listen to authority, don’t ask questions or think because otherwise someone will die. How many times have we heard that phrase repeated in the last almost 2-years? These are people many trust, have held up as heros – yet, for the last 2-years, many have been just following orders and not thinking or questioning.

I’m also reminded of a series of articles back in 2015 and 2016 put together by Erin Elizabeth with Health Nut News with over 100 Naturopathic Doctors being found dead in about a years’ time, either murdered, died by apparent suicide, or just missing. I remember thinking back then, “What the heck are “they” planning?” Today I wonder if that was part of leading up to and preparing for what we have seen over the last almost 2 years.

Watching as Dr. Mercola and others – once respected scientists, doctors, etc, being deplatformed, publicly shamed, accosted in open public and on national TV – being called quacks and conspiracy theorists, though in reality that all started a few years ago with being delisted in search platforms, like Google who’s parent company also owns a biomed company (Verily Life Sciences). Having in-person and online friends, even some that I had once considered closer friends, calling me (and others) a quack for questioning, pointing out various facts, figures, data – talking about what I was reading in the news didn’t match the data when you actually looked at the numbers, manually calculating the percentages, error rates, etc. Being told by some, flat out, that natural medicine is complete quackery, and seeing “we are in an emergency, how dare I even suggest things in a quack field could help”. Being fired by a client after sending articles from what other countries were seeing with kids in school during the pandemic, attempting to give some balance, ease some anxiety, and give hope to the client that their kids would very likely be OK based on data and statistics at the time. Being unfriended or ending business relationships because I dared talk about the potential dangers of suicide, drug overdose, domestic abuse, and alcohol-related deaths due to the measures put into place.

In my “free” time, I’ve been reading study after study, article after article about this virus, masks, and various medical interventions – plus attempting to keep up with the deluge of new government orders. All this was to try and figure out how to best support and better protect my clients, friends, family, as well as myself. Early on in the pandemic, I came across some ethnopharmacological studies on Andrographolide, a specific part of the herb Andrographis, and found a few studies that talked about how it was beneficial, in study, for combating Influenza, Hep B/C, HIV, SARS-CoV-1, and even Ebola as well as others. I was hopeful that they would do a study for this.

Several months later information came out about a study done in India^[5] that used a combination of two remedies, Immunofree and Regimmune. Immunofree contains Andrographis, and from what I was hearing about this study, it had some pretty amazing results. It included patients up to the age of 70 with comorbidities, and all patients in the trial recovered – and quickly! Shortly after, the country of Thailand approved the use of Andrographis for mild to moderate cases after human trials showed if given within the first 72-hours, 86% of patients tested negative by day 5, and by day 10, 100%. No one died, and this was even published in Bloomberg^[6]! I posted the Bloomberg article to Facebook and said something to the effect of “Way to go Natural Medicine! Winning!” – I was flagged and told by Facebook that information would kill people. Over time, I read more studies that seemed to show a wide variety of options for reducing severe issues and death with it – or helping with long term issues, from aspirin to Zinc, Vitamin D, Quercetin, N-Acetyl-Cysteine (NAC), NAD+, L-Arginine, L-Lysine, Melatonin, Turmeric, and more.

Now to be clear, and it’s sad that I have to qualify this, yes, some people have issues after getting the natural infection, including possibly dying, not denying or minimizing that. One of the biggest things I’ve seen repeatedly in studies is that early treatment, treatment within the first 72-hours of symptoms, is crucial. Sadly, finding any treatment options can be very difficult because most of that information is censored, possibly blacklisted, and as we have seen through example, natural health professionals cannot come out publicly and give suggestions.

What about the “other way” of dealing with this? As with any medical treatment, there are potential risks and in my opinion those should not be minimized or denied either. Questions should be welcomed, not belittled – statistics should not be skewed. When someone does have a potential adverse event with that “option”… we need to stop shaming and censoring them. We need to be mature, rational adults about this. Be a support structure because honestly – those that might have had an adverse event are often going through hell, especially if they are staying within the Western Medical system, the system they realized harmed them, in an attempt to get help and answers. From what I’ve heard they are often gaslighted, shamed, and some even told it’s all in their head.

Yes, I’ve had friends and clients that have had some “coincidental” odd issues after that option, and much of that, yes, is anecdotal. An example, recently I was suspecting a certain process was happening in a friend of mine after that certain decision. Issues they themselves had attributed to that decision because their body just didn’t work or respond how it used to shortly after. Someone originally pro, had started to question. A few days after their death by suicide, I came across a study that was published about a week before they died in October. The study talked about exactly what I had suspected was going on to them since May. While we don’t know exactly why they ultimately decided to end their life, in the deepest parts of my being I truly believe these newer “issues” they had to deal with played a major role in that decision and not getting the help or answers they needed in Western Medicine.

To say the least, we are still learning and finding out new things almost daily – even 2 years later, and many are struggling to keep it together. One of the biggest things I’ve learned in over a decade in practice: work directly with a professional about your individual needs in a confidential setting because one size does not fit all, keep doing your own research, you MUST advocate for your health and wellbeing because you don’t truly know if someone else has your best interest at heart, don’t be afraid to get a second or third opinion, and please do not give up Hope… oh and remember, I might be a quack.