Book Review: Natural Cures (2004)

“They” don’t want you to know about
by Kevin Trudeau


Natural CuresKevin Trudeau is one of those guys you either love him or you hate him. So I buck the trend by really liking him for the essential things and questioning his judgment on some less consequential matters, e.g. of various claims or assertions on health items. On balance, I feel the thumbs should point substantially up for this energetic, courageous individual… who, no doubt, at least borders on hucksterism in some areas. [Remember caveat emptor?]

Let’s put it this way. The federales, particularly the FDA and the FTC, would like to ban his books and throw him in jail forever. So he may not be Mohandas Gandhi, but he can’t be all bad.

Who is Kevin Trudeau? Well, let’s go to Wikipedia—whose objectivity is often elusive, but usually gets out some facts—where we discover that Mr. T was an adopted boy who grew up in Lynn, Massachusetts, and was voted in his 1981 high school class to be Most Likely to Succeed. You don’t have to read very far to find that Kevin was convicted of fraud—Wikipedia doesn’t get specific, and, in the book, Trudeau in fesses up to his early crimes immediately and often—and served time, then met another man in prison with whom he formed a multilevel marketing (MLM) firm in the nutritional products industry.

The business was successful, and, reading between the lines, the state regulatory bodies (whose mission it is to protect entrenched corporate interests) harassed his firm, causing it to be shut down. [There were never any indictments for fraud or criminal conduct toward persons.] The following descriptive segment from Wikipedia brings us up to date:

Trudeau then produced and appeared in infomercials, broadcast frequently on late night TV in North America and promoted a range of products, including health aids, dietary supplements (such as coral calcium), real estate investment strategies, memory-improvement courses, baldness remedies, addiction breaking strategies, and reading improvement programs, among others. The claims made resulted in regulatory actions by the FTC, based on his alleged misrepresentations and unsubstantiated claims. In 1998, he was fined, and in 2004 Trudeau settled an FTC contempt-of-court action by agreeing to a settlement that banned him from using infomercials to promote products, except for those publications protected by the First Amendment. He also agreed to pay a $2 million settlement.

So you can see Mr. T has, with extreme prejudice, determined to become the modern natural-remedy movement David to the federal government’s various and sundry Goliaths. At this stage, I would give the score as David 2, Goliath 1. Kevin documents the evils and corruption of government officials and bureaucracies—especially the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)—and,more important, the murderous behavior of the food cartels (Big Ag), the big pharmaceutical corporations (Big Pharm), and the American medical orthodoxy (Big Sick) who use the coercion of the State as a funnel of wealth from us unto them.

“You have to know that publicly traded corporations routinely take advantage of their employees; take advantage of and destroy the environment; take advantage of, lie to, deceive and mislead their customers—all to increase profits. It’s important to know that it’s always about the money. You have to know that politicians are making millions of dollars buying and selling stock, primarily pharmaceutical stocks, using insider information. You have to know that these politicians have passed a law allowing them to legally trade on insider information, and that if you and I did the exact same thing, we would go to prison for breaking the law. You have to know that the government wants to promote and push drug use because the individual politicians in Washington are making millions of dollars in the process. You have to understand and know that the administration uses the FDA and the FTC to squash competitors, wipe out independent thinking people, and suppress people’s First Amendment rights of free speech. You have to understand how massive the[ir] campaign of [attacking and undermining] the truth is.” — Page 127

Right arm! Any libertarian worth his counter-economy alternative health care plan is going to stand up and cheer for Trudeau’s counterattack against the modern American Sickness-Infliction System (SIS). And Trudeau is generous with documented examples of specific government and Big Ag/Big Pharm/Big Sick antisocial behavior. His 100-page “Appendix B: No-Hunger Bread FDA Horror Story” will have you reaching for the signup papers of the next Appleseed shoot in your neighborhood.

When he goes into true health care and disease prevention, he mostly stays on solid ground as well. The casual reader will find that Trudeau’s discussions seem polemical and full of assertions unsubstantiated by immediate references. And I concur that the author rides the high-horse of over-generalization too often. But mainly it’s a style preference. If you look at “Chapter 12: Still Not Convinced,” several source documents are identified for each assertion. And I’m satisfied that the great majority—I’m going to give him a 30 out of 33—of his claims are manifestly true, even obviously true, based on reason and common sense.

For example, fluoridation of municipal water supplies poses health risks that need to be examined. Further, introduction of a chemical to a common good is a violation of the consent of those who must use the supply of that good. Trudeau—and a number of medical and scientific professionals— presents a number of disturbing facts about fluoride, especially, flouridation of water supplies. For one thing, chemicals used for fluoridation are not high-purity, pharmaceutical-grade, rather byproducts of aluminum and fertilizer manufacturing: they contain a high concentration of toxins and heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, and chromium—all proven carcinogens.

So that’s only one of many health concerns Mr. T addresses in his book, which takes on the multiple systems that adversely affect human health on this planet, but specifically in this country. You will learn a lot from Natural Cures, and practicing most of what he preaches will produce a substantial health benefit to your living, breathing person. I have two comments of reservation, the first somewhat major, the second somewhat minor:

    • In Kevin’s discussion on the origins of disease, he completely ignores or dismisses the existence of genetically caused issues. For example, my family has a history of latent polycystic kidney disease, which certainly arises in individuals because of an error in the genetic code. A host of diseases stem from such DNA missteps, from Mongoloidism to becoming a Democrat or Republican.

 

  • I feel Kevin presents an extreme position on some recommendations, for example, that it is hazardous to be drinking tap water. While the evidence for some ill effects is reasonable, too many people live far too long and in robust health drinking tap water, or not having multiple colon cleanses, and eating out all the time, etc. As one of my engineering teachers was fond of expressing, “Brian, the human body was made to tolerate a significant amount of abuse.”

I have to make another serious reservation to Trudeau on the basis of extremism. He seems to feel that one should never take a prescription or a nonprescription drug: “The bottom line is all and, I repeat, all over the counter nonprescription drugs and prescription drugs CAUSE illness and disease.” [emphasis his] That sort of assertion is simply silly … something you might hear at a Christian Science convention. What about anesthetics? No one natural is ever going to need surgery?!!

So, aside from his occasional lapses into infantilism, thumbs up for Kevin Trudeau and Natural Cures. The proof will be in the pudding. Certainly, nothing he recommends will hurt you—unless you buy the occasional extreme injunctions against drugs, surgery, or conventional medicine—and virtually everything he recommends is worth a try. I disagree with some of his ideas, but find the whole of the work to be a tonic. Salud!

This post has been read 7659 times!

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *