The Quack who wrote, “The Quack Behind the MSG Scare”
By Harrell Guy Graham
Every age has its minions who try and protect the status quo. And the 21st Century has a lot of status quo that is begging (and paying!) for these minions to arise and act as propagandists and apologists. The article titled “The Quack Behind the MSG Scare is Still Stoking Fear for Profit”, by Ian Birnbaum, is misinformed. The actual quack is the author himself, but of course he doesn’t understand that. The article was published on the theoutline.com which disseminates propaganda beneficial to the food, drug and chemical companies.
Greed, corruption and phony science
Multi-billion dollar industries are founded on greed, corruption and phony science. It is important to have a high degree of skepticism when reading or hearing things that are beneficial to the big pharmaceutical and food industries. For example, the pharmaceutical companies ‘control’ Mainstream Media through buying advertising. Channel surf in the USA now and every ‘click’ of the remote, it seems, produces yet another ad for a drug. Little wonder, then, that these networks accepting these millions in advertising refuse to air any news or programs critical of those industries. So the viewer is left hearing primarily lies and propaganda. We never hear, for example, any news programs in Mainstream Media on the role of MD prescribed antidepressants in rage shootings in the United States. Most, if not all, of these horrible school, etc shootings involve people who were under the influence of these meds we know can cause violent behavior: just read the package inserts that come *with* the drugs: even the drug companies admit as much. The news reports will never come out and say ‘the shooter was taking antidepressants’; instead, the wording is “he was under the treatment of a psychiatrist”, or “he had been treated for depression”. But I digress. (Stay tuned for an article on this very topic).
MSG is multi-billion dollar per year business
Hilariously, Ian Birnbaum fails to realize the simplest of facts: it is not a retired neurosurgeon who profits from MSG but rather the giant food corporations. Because Ian Birnbaum has gotten things so completely, bizarrely backwards one wonders if he munches from a bag of pure MSG—causing mini-convulsions and small electrical fires in his brain–while he writes these laughable pieces.
MSG is the abbreviation for Mono Sodium Glutamate.
One of the most important discoveries in neuroscience is the role of the amino acid, glutamate in the brain and nervous system. Many know amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, but it was not that long ago that several of the amino acids were discovered to be crucial neurotransmitters, substances which cause nerve cells to fire and communicate with each other and thereby ‘orchestrate’ parts of the body and brain.
Glutamate: the major excitatory neurotransmitter
Glutamate turns out to be the major excitatory neurotransmitter of the brain. The body contains both excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters and, like so much of the body’s marvelous machinery, are in exquisite balance with each other. And, importantly, these neurotransmitters are produced and used in extremely tiny doses.
This article throws insults and innuendo directly at one of the more brilliant people teaching about the dangers of MSG and other medical/pharmaceutical/food disasters—the retired neurosurgeon, Dr Russell Blaylock, MD.
From reading his article and from personal correspondence with the author, it is clear his science knowledge was next to none. Which begs the question: why did he write this piece? Obvious answer: someone paid him. And that ‘someone’ would most likely be those that do not like the science and medical literature cited by Dr Blaylock when he criticizes the pharmaceutical, medical, vaccine, cancer and food industries. Angering just one of those powerful multi-billion dollar industries is enough to end up at the receiving end of disinformation and smear campaigns. Dr. Blaylock has angered all of those industries. Hence websites such as quackwatch and articles like the authors devote themselves to smearing the words of those such as Dr Blaylock. The industries such as Big Pharma and the gargantuan food corporations cannot stand anyone who effectively reveals them for what they are—money making machines intent on profits regardless of the so-called ‘side effects’ of the products they sell. So the big pharmaceutical and food industries throw some sacks of money at the issue, underwriting medical schools, paying for phony-data science papers to be published, threatening to withhold advertising dollars from media outlets who air critical stories, etc. Enter ‘useful idiots’–paid hacks who smear and undermine with lies, misinformation and innuendo those who challenge corporate behemoths, whose stock price depends on keeping the dangers of their products hidden.
Of course, the author of the “Quack Behind the MSG Scare” cited not one scientific paper or reference to back up his moronic claims that eating loads of MSG is just fine. One of the hottest topics in neuroscience is, in fact, excitotoxicity and excitotoxicity often involves glutamate. Just go to pubmed.gov—the repository of ‘all’ articles on life sciences and biomedical topics—and type the word excitotoxicity in the search window and see for yourself: the word glutamate is in virtually every one of the thousands of articles on excitotoxicity. After all, the author’s task was to write a smear piece so of course he didn’t do one iota of basic research using google, much less pubmed. To smear someone now all you have to do is make a bunch of unfounded claims, throw them around, and see what sticks.
Excitatory/Inhibitory in exquisite balance
The body uses both excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters to maintain balance. Because glutamate is necessary for nerve transmission there must be systems to counter the excitotoxicity caused by glutamate. Goldfrank’s Manual of Toxicologic Emergencies’ says it this way:
“Glutamate is the main excitatory neurotransmitter in the CNS (central nervous system). Although glutamate receptor stimulation is necessary for normal brain activity, excessive glutamate receptor activation can produce convulsions, neuronal damage, and death. Conversely, glutamate antagonists demonstrate anticonvulsant activity and neuroprotective action in animal models of brain and spinal cord injury. Glutamate may be important in the development of drug abuse and subsequent withdrawal symptoms. Glutamate antagonists decrease drug craving and withdrawal symptoms in patients dependent on ethanol (alcohol), benzodiazepines (valium, etc), and opioids. The excitatory amino acid receptor system is the most complex of all neurotransmitter systems. This complexity is necessary for protection against the devastating effects of uncontrolled excitatory neurotransmission. At present, 11 different glutamate receptors are recognized”.
(p 129 Goldfrank’s ‘Manual of Toxicologic Emergencies’ 2007 ed.)
Seizure Meds are glutamate blockers
Note that some of the major medicines seizure patients take for their seizures work at the glutamate receptor to block the action of glutamate. It is worth noting that Dr Blaylock gets many of his seizure patients completely off of their seizure meds and those patients stop having seizures by doing nothing more than the following two things: 1) gets the patient off of all hidden forms of glutamate and 2) gets them to take a magnesium supplement. (Magnesium blocks the glutamate receptor and protects against excitotoxicity). The hidden forms of glutamate include trick words on labels such as ‘hydrolyzed vegetable protein’, ‘autolyzed yeast’, ‘natural flavors’, ‘broth’ etc. For a more complete list see the brochure below “What Does Whole Foods have in Common with Safeway and Walmart Groceries?”
Alcohol Withdrawal & glutamate
When an alcoholic goes into withdrawal, it can be life-threatening. Delirium Tremens—DT’s—is a medical emergency and must be carefully managed in the Emergency Department in order to save the patient from uncontrolled seizures, coma and death. Those seizure are happening because the alcoholic has even more glutamate receptors than an ordinary person and those receptors are firing so fast and hard as to cause convulsions, coma and death. And the reason the alcoholic is in danger of the DTs is because the chronic alcohol use has unnaturally ‘calmed’ the cells too much and the cells responded by making more glutamate receptors—many more.
The author might try explaining to the M.Ds who are toxicologists and emergency room physicians how they are quacks for recognizing glutamate’s role in seizures and alcohol withdrawal. Maybe Ian Birnbaum can gets some selfies—Click—of himself as he hands his quack ideas to the doctors as they are saving someone survive uncontrolled seizures due to glutamate imbalance. These pictures would surely involve doctors laughing Quack Birnbaum out of the room, laughing him back into his cave full of other useful idiots working diligently to keep the fortunes of Big Food & Big Pharma intact.
Why do food companies use so much MSG?
Some readers might wonder: just why the food companies put MSG in so many foods.
The reason the food companies put MSG in so many products is because it makes you eat more than you otherwise would. Ja-Jing! Up goes the stock price of the food corporations. Up goes obesity, chronic illnesses, asthma, diabetes, heart disease, learning disorders, mood disorders, seizures, headaches, cancers–because they are all tied to too much glutamate.
Thanks, Quack Ian Birnbaum, useful idiot, for spreading lies and propaganda to keep this system humming along just fine.
(See the piece by Harrell Guy Graham that follows this article, titled “What does Whole Foods have in common with Safeway and Walmart groceries”? and you may also find and download it from this Google Drive link: bit.ly/2ZcPby3 This piece explains in detail the many reasons you want to make a transition away from eating MonoSodium Glutamate, MSG, especially the forms of MSG hidden under trick words on food labels).