Banned from Healthboards.com for mentioning your site.

[adec]

The moderator claimed it was because I posted a link to a commercial website, as per the rules. But I actually only made mention of Dr. Graveline's book, with a suggestion to Google his name and find this informative forum. Someone simply wanted to know if mood swings and depression were attributable to Lipitor, or statins.... where better to find the answer? Although, the moderators seem to exercise these Draconian forum rules in an arbitrary manner, almost like an escape clause. It also couldn't hurt that they receive advertising dollars from many large pharma's, including Merck. I believe the message is getting out there, and it's frightening some. Keep up the great work!!!

By the way, 1 year ago I went frantically looking for information on my mom's memory loss. I just want to thank Dr. Graveline for his authoritative opinion making the process so easy and complete! I immediately had my mom stop Lipitor, and placed her on 300mg daily of CoQ10. Suddenly, the same woman who, for three days straight, couldn't remember if her medicine arrived in the mail -- the very same medicine that was slowly robbing her memory -- now sometimes has better recall than me.

I also started my mom on niacin, fish oil, a more complete diet rich with fruits and vegetables, and psyllium husks. The results were extremely dramatic. After a recent cholesterol test, her LDL actually dropped slightly, and her HDL showed a fairly dramatic increase. Of course, my mother also switched doctors, from one who reads from scripts and loves to be hyped, wined, and dined, to a doctor who is sentient, well-informed, and is actually not afraid to question the status-quo.

[sos_group_owner]

Hi "adec" & Welcome to the Forum,

Re: The moderator claimed it was because I posted a link to a commercial website, as per the rules. But I actually only made mention of Dr. Graveline's book, with a suggestion to Google his name and find this informative forum.

Wow, does that sound familiar! I used to post on Healthboards as "heart44"... I was banned 3 times before they gave me the permanent boot. There were so many great people there that needed answers. Draconian is the perfect description for Healthboards moderators.

So glad your Mom is recovering. We really need to keep a close eye on our parents. The doctors have a field day over-medicating them. It's especially difficult when our parents experience memory problems from statins. The doctors immediately assume dementia or Alzheimer's. My husband was only 60 when they mis-diagnosed him with Alzheimer's.

Be careful with niacin. Theraputic doses can cause elevated homocysteine. Elevated homocysteine is one of the risk factors that causes "oxidized" LDL (aka imflammation).

Also make sure your Mom takes B complex (that is rich in folic acid, B6 & B12).
* Folic Acid - 400-800 mcg
* B6 - 80-100mg
* B12 - 200-250mcg

Fran

[adec]

quote="sos_group_owner"]
Wow, does that sound familiar! I used to post on Healthboards as "heart44"... I was banned 3 times before they gave me the permanent boot. [/quote]

What the moderators probably don't realize is the ease at which one can: flush your DNS, renew your ip, and create a new account. Myself, I've been banned twice in the span of two weeks.

[quote="sos_group_owner"]
There were so many great people there that needed answers. [/quote]

Yes. I just went there for personal experience and some answers. But you find yourself wanting to help those people. Some of them make me so very sad. They're just barely computer literate, have very little medical background, with very little disposable income. All you want to do is point them in the right direction, to help
them make a more informed decision. But the board operators want sheep without an authoritative herder in sight... so these pharma wolves can pluck up the unsuspecting with their advertisements.

I'm actually considering contacting the FDA, FTC etc. about these type of forums, such as Healthboards.com. I believe they need to be regulated, as they start to proliferate the Internet landscape. Sure, these health forums can perform a powerful a public service; but they can also cause great harm with misinformation... especially in such a censored and restrictive atmosphere.

And thanks for your work on spreading the word in these forums. You're helping to save countless lives. We need more authoritative opinions out there, like Dr. Graveline's... someone who isn't afraid to go up against the system.


[quote="sos_group_owner"]
Be careful with niacin. Theraputic doses can cause elevated homocysteine. Elevated homocysteine is one of the risk factors that causes "oxidized" LDL (aka imflammation).

Also make sure your Mom takes B complex (that is rich in folic acid, B6 & B12).
* Folic Acid - 400-800 mcg
* B6 - 80-100mg
* B12 - 200-250mcg [/quote]

I have my mom on 1000mg daily of niacin (as Inositol Hexaniacinate,) along with Folic Acid and Vitamin B12. It's actually included as part of Jarrow's Bone-up, which is also amazingly complete. I also had read about the potential for elevated homocysteine levels; the Internet is such an amazing tool. Niacin also has the potential to cause low blood platlet counts. Although, there's a tangible added benefit of elevating natural levels of HGH, only if taken on an empty stomach. And thanks for your concern and help. Though, I still haven't seen enough definitive studies on the effect of niacin vs. Inositol Hexaniacinate on blood lipid levels. I only wish there was a more definitive niacin study to be found.

Edit: Sorry for the mess. I'm afraid the forum's BBCode has been turned off, and it won't allow proper quoting.

[phecksel]

This is hilarious!

While I never advocate whining about one site at another, well, guess I'm falling into the trap I hate to see

I got banned so many times over there, it wasn't funny. At one point they banned my entire employers address!

Anyway heart44, good to see you again!

Phil

[sos_group_owner]

Hi Phil,

Great to see you over here. You will feel at home, as do I.

Fran (aka heart44)

[Betty32506]

[ I have been looking over these sites intending to ask if "shaky" or tremors like a bad case of caffeine shakes could be part of Staten side effects. Recently I have cut my dose Zocor down from 2mg to 1mg and recently my shakes are better. I don't know if this is coincidences or cause and effect.

But with this I am replying to the subject of being banned from healthboards. Those are great boards in that it is easy to go from one to another. Diabetes is my most knowledgeable subject and I see questions that the need answers. There are almost no helpful replies. Recently 2 questions were posted that shows the posters knew next to nothing about diabetes. I replied to those ok but soon found that the poster had no idea what foods did thinking that only sweets was bad for the sugar. These questions on any other diabetes list I am on would have brought immediate multiplies with good answers. I tried to direct her to the glycemic index to evaluate the foods. That index is on many sites and I tried to direct her to one. The response was I was banned and included an address to appeal. Then I received another e-mail from the admin. Both these e-mails had sentences structured so ambiguous that I don’t really know what they said except that I had been banned. I didn’t appeal and don’t intend to. When you were banned did you appeal or was there follow-up from admin or what?

[/b]

[phecksel]

[quote="Betty32506"][ I tried to direct her to the glycemic index to evaluate the foods. That index is on many sites and I tried to direct her to one. The response was I was banned and included an address to appeal. Then I received another e-mail from the admin. Both these e-mails had sentences structured so ambiguous that I don’t really know what they said except that I had been banned. I didn’t appeal and don’t intend to. When you were banned did you appeal or was there follow-up from admin or what?

[/b][/quote]

I went through the ban and appeal process. It was an interesting exchange, and wish I had kept the emails. It was literally incomprhensible sentences, from someone that has an anger problem. I noticed a huge drop in participation in several areas on the site. There will always be new people coming and mostly going away.

Thank you Spacedoc for making this site and forum available. This forum will probably benefit more people then anything else you have done.

[sos_group_owner]

Hi Betty,

Re: When you were banned did you appeal or was there follow-up from admin or what?

I was banned 3 or 4 times, then got the final axe by one of the admin's. The main reason was that I mentioned Dr Graveline's book and that was considered "advertising".

Fran

[Betty32506]

That was my question. In response to the e-mail saying I was banned I replied to the moderator or who ever, "sorry, I was thinking I was on another site". I received a reply from that that I have no idea what was meant. The first one was such that the only part I understood was "banned". I have not made appeal and don't intend to. The diabetic site was the one I had my problem on. Valid questions are asked and in general the response when there is one, has poor, or wrong information. One question asked about how long it takes for the oral to take effect that glucose was still high. One answer "about a month". I asked which med she was taking and when it came back almost identical to mine I told her it took about half an hour for me.

A question as to which foods make high glucose showed she knew nothing at all about food except to not eat sweets.

I thought both these deserved an answer and that readers didn't seem to know much. Oh well....
Betty

[Betty32506]

I wanted to add this...I asked if you appealed or any such as I am wondering if they make any effort to retain members.
Betty

[sos_group_owner]

Hi Betty,

Correspondence from HealthBoard adminmod's was usually very snippy and I don't feel they made any effort or cared one way or the other if a member stayed or was banned. Not even sure why they wasted their time running a forum.

Fran

[valger]

Hi~~
I am sorry, I might have posted something when I wasn't finished, so this might be the second posting. I'm still figuring this site out! I also was banned from Healthboards, and really am realizing that it was probably a good thing. The moderators there are very nasty, and give you conflicting information all the time. I went to the specific thread that you are supposed to go to when asking a moderator a question, and I only went there and asked about a former poster, I didn't even ask to try to get in touch with her, I just asked if I could find out why she was banned, and if she was ok or what. They wrote back very nasty, something like to respect other's privacy. The only reason I wrote back again, was to explain the situation, I figured that the moderator didn't understand the situation if she responded like that. I was totally respectful and just explained my question. Then, the next day, I noticed I was banned, and asked why, and she again wrote me a nasty letter and said that I ignored the rules, and how I am not supposed to e-mail from the site. This is absolutely not true, as when you are banned, right under your name, they give you an e-mail address saying to e-mail there if you want to appeal your banning. She wrote me saying not only could you not e-mail, but that all bans are permanent, which in the FAQ section, says something completeley different. There, it says that you are actually supposed to question your banning, and try to deal with it, and resolve it. In the FAQ section, it suggests that most bans are temporary, and some don't get lifted. In any case, there is no need for the moderators there to be so unneccesarily rude. They obviously enjoy using their power to ban people, and are very uncaring and don't want to listen to anything you have to say. I was a senior member over there, and I had been posting there for years, with no problems at all. I received alot of help over there from people, and in return, gave help when I could. And, then one question to the "moderator queen" and she has me banned. Ridiculous. Anyway, I had to write to you guys when I saw your posts, I am also very interested in pursuing this, because it is not right. I am not in any way interested in getting back on Healthboards, in fact, I don't want to get back on there. But, I would like for these moderators to stop bullying people, and get away with it. Something should be done, it's not right. Well, thanks for listening to my story, and I hope you are all doing great! Thanks, Val

[sos_group_owner]

Hi Val and Welcome to the Forum,

I subbed to Healthboards several times, got bashed and banned and finally decided it just wasn't worth the hassle. I'd much rather spend my time helping people here. You will find this forum to be very friendly and helpful.

Fran

[spacedoc]

Just wanted you to know how much I appreciated your feedback re your mom. In this misguided war on cholesterol I need all the help I can get. The drug company and its lackeys are a formidible force. To think that six years ago I was one of their lackeys. Now I consider MDs to be some of the most unfortunate victims of the statin industry through misinformation, dysinformation and incomplete information. Many of them have lost patient support. Doc

[Tham]

Same here.

I'm Tham, 48, from Malaysia. I found your board
after doing a search on Google with the keywords
"healthboards, banned, Gestapo and heart" !

They suspended two days me ago. After doing some
research on Medline to help a female poster in their
"Heart Diseases" subforum who had the difficult and
complex heart condition ARVD (Arrhythmogenic Right
Ventricular Dysplasia, which I knew nothing off before
reading her post ), I had made a very long post the night
before suggesting supplements, backed with studies from
Medline, which I had to reproduce in full since they did not
allow any kind of links to be posted.

The next day, when I tried to log in, there was a message that
my account had been suspended with the note "... posting
materials by other users" and asking me to get in touch
with their mods !

I wrote in, giving them a piece of my mind. The transcript of
my mail and their reply is reproduced below. Within moments
yesterday, I was banned, and several moments later, my IP
was .... blocked. I further replied to this, telling them that a
quick check on the net (with one of the links to your post here)
appears to reveal that their forum moderators have a reputation
of Nazi Gestapo or SS concentration camp officers, to which
they did not respond, but I forgot to save a draft of this mail.


From: "HB Admin" <headmod@yahoo.com>
To: Tham Wai Keong <tham@linuxmail.org>
Cc:
Subject: Re: Account Suspension and Removal of Post
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2007 20:28:08 -0800 (PST)

Hello,
The purpose of a forum is the choice of the owner.

Your derogatory assessment of this website is
incorrect and inappropriate. Please do use those other
websites more to your preference.

admin



--- Tham Wai Keong <tham@linuxmail.org> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Why was my account under the username "Waikeong"
> suspended
> and my recent post under "Got Bad News" removed ?
>
> I did not post material by others, merely reproduced
> Medline
> studies, since your forum does not allow links,
> which virtually
> all other professional forums which I have been to
> allowed,
> and even advocates as long as they are not spam or
> porn,
> which is after all the purpose of the Internet - to
> disseminate
> useful information, including medical studies, for
> the good of
> all other users ? Without such links, what is the
> purpose
> of an internet forum anyway ?
>
> As an example, look at the forums of the Immortality
> Institute
> (Imminst.org) and Life Extension Foundation. Even
> this
> internet security forum, Wilders Security
> (wildersecurity.com)
> a highly professional and respected forum, allowed
> my entire
> and totally offtopic post about the benefits of
> vitamins in slowing down aging, which included Medline links as
> an example of the benefits of tocopherol succinate inducing
> apoptosis of breast, prostate and colon cancer cell lines, when I was
> replying to one user's
> questions as to the purpose of ordering vitamins
> online - which
> compromised one of my friend's (from Dayton) credit
> card details
> and was the original subject of my thread !
>
>
[http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=848499&postcount=18]
>
>
> Or is it, as I suspected, that this "peer-review
> board" (controlled
> by the AMA ?) is biased against information on
> vitamins against
> diseases and aging, considers the value of
> cutting-edge
> supplements in life extension worthless,
> intentionally bans the
> advocacy of alternative medicine such as homeopathy
> - and does not want the public to have access to such info ?
>
> If this is the case, I would not want to accept such
> a policy and
> will take part in other more ethical and open
> boards, such as those of the Immortality Institute, in future.
Thank you.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Tham
>

[vipergg22]

Yeah I got canned over there too . The person sounded like an idiot . Whoever is running that board must be in the pharm companies back pocket.

[the hittman]

I just found this thread after being on this site for several months----I found it very funny---I was banned from healthboards too----about 3 days ago---for the same reason as "adec"---for mentioning this site !!! Basically for trying to help people, which I thought was the reason behind such boards in the first place---Apparently I was wrong---The reason behing HEALTHBOARDS is to further promote their owner--WebMD, and their sponsors--some of the very guilty parties that necessitated people looking for help in the first place !!! Censorship !! Amazing. There are some very nice, and helpful people over there that I will create a new profile for, and say "good-bye", and "Thank-you" to and that's it for HEALTHBOARDS !! Those moderators need to get a life !!...This site is amazing because of the free exchange of ideas---Thank-God I found it !!

[vipergg22]

They are probably being sponsored by a drug company so they get rid of anyone that says anything negative about those so called wonder drugs that ruin peoples lives.

[sos_group_owner]

Hi 'the hittman',

I tried the same thing (creating another profile) and I think they traced it to my ISP and bounced me AGAIN !!! So much for free speech!

Fran

[Brian C.]

Fran: "So much for free speech!"

Never underestimate the reach of corporate power in any and every aspect of our lives.

Brian.