One of the challenges in doing business in America today is how to navigate a marketplace that is controlled by oligarchs and government and news agencies that do their bidding.

I recently spoke with a young woman who works for a company in New York that places online ads for big companies on Google.  She told me her company wouldn’t accept a new client that didn’t embrace their political and social views — the social equality, LGBT agenda, global warming, Darwinian, godless viewpoint.   She said they would not want to make a company successful that operates contrary to their own views about the world.

So what if a company you manage had a product that cured blindness and the news media failed to report it?

Well now, that discovery has to somehow segue into these agendas or it may be ignored.

In this context, let me say that someone once whispered in my ear “don’t try to cure blindness, you will be cursed forever.”

Time to buy old US gold coins

So this past Monday independent researchers announced a very important discovery.

A nutraceutical (Longevinex®), a product I formulated, was demonstrated to shorten the time it takes for eyes to adapt to the dark after Useru2019s Guide to Ey... Bill Sardi Best Price: $1.39 Buy New $4.80 (as of 11:00 UTC - Details) exposure to bright light.  You may recall walking from a sunny street into a dark theatre only to find you couldn’t see things for a couple of minutes till the chemicals at the back of your eyes used for night vision were replenished after being bleached out by bright light.   Well, there is an FDA-approved dark adaptation test (AdaptDX by Maculogix) that can flash bright light into the eyes and measure how long it takes to recover visually.

The discovery, that a resveratrol-based nutraceutical shortens the time it takes to visually recover after exposure to bright light, is not enough in itself to generate news headlines.  Resveratrol is widely known as a red wine molecule.

But if it takes more than 6.5 minutes to refill visual chemicals at the back of the eyes used for night vision, then this is predictive for future onset of a sight-robbing eye disease called macular degeneration up to 4 years before any signs of symptoms of the disease can be detected.

That a nutraceutical reverses this measure of visual decline suggests this eye disease, for which there is currently no effective treatment, could be preventive as well as regenerative.

However, the news media has to be prodded to even cover the story issued this week that emanates from the Association For Research in Vision & Ophthalmology (ARVO) meeting in Baltimore this week.  The researchers involved aren’t from prestigious research centers like Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins Medical Center or the Mayo Clinic.

Who owns the news?

When contacting news agencies like the nearby Washington Post about this discovery one has to keep in mind that this newspaper is now owned by a man who manages Amazon.com. If a news story involves a product that isn’t sold at Amazon.com, what are the odds the Washington Post will cover the story?  And just what are the odds evening TV news, which is “owned” by advertising dollars from Big Pharma, will air this story?

Amazon.com actually advertises Longevinex® on Google and then diverts web traffic to a company that sells another resveratrol-based product at Amazon.com that appears to be covertly owned by Amazon itself!  Longevinex® has been attempting to halt this diversion of online traffic for some time now but imagine trying to deal with a $109 billion company like Amazon.

Dark adaptation test: bad news

A problem with the dark adaptation test is that it delivers bad news.  Being told that you will develop an untreatable sight-robbing eye disease like macular degeneration at some time in the near future has caused some fragile individuals to commit suicide.

But now there is good news.  An available nutraceutical could reverse progression towards disease. [Eureka Alert May 8, 2017]

The news report emanates from the James A. Lovell Health Facility (Veterans Health Center) in North Chicago, Illinois where Dr. Stuart Richer OD, PhD is charged with taking care of otherwise hopeless patients who have failed conventional treatments.  Dr. Richer operates under compassionate care guidelines in an attempt to restore functional vision to patients.  Dr. Richer works closely with Dr. Lawrence Ulanski, a retinal specialist and Dr. William Stiles MD and other colleagues.  (Dr. Richer has no commercial interest in Longevinex® though his laboratory has received funding for research from time to time.) You can visit Dr. Richer’s website online at www.eyedoctorricher.com to learn more. Nutrition and the Eyes Bill Sardi Best Price: $1.68 Buy New $24.95 (as of 07:45 UTC - Details)

Government conundrum

If a nutraceutical like Longevinex® is shown to delay or prevent the onset of vision loss altogether (which would categorically make it a drug), this represents true preventive medicine.  But this creates another conundrum.  If it isn’t an approved drug, eye doctors will summarily dismiss Longevinex® as unproven.

Re-run of 2012

This is precisely what happened in 2012 when Dr. Stuart Richer at the Veterans Health Center in North Chicago, Illinois, announced Longevinex® rescued some patients with wet-form macular degeneration from legal blindness who had failed conventional treatment (injections of medicine directly into their eyes) and had experienced no improvement with an ineffective dietary supplement formulated by the National Eye Institute (the Age Related Eye Disease Study or AREDS formula).

An estimated 15,000 patients with wet macular degeneration (a form of the disease that involves leakage of fluid at the back of the eyes) fail conventional treatment annually and progress to permanent and irreversible legal blindness.

Dr. Richer had reported on a hand full of hopeless cases that had been reversed by Longevinex®. [Nutrients June 4, 2013]

In October of 2012 Longevinex® filed a petition with the FDA to conduct a real-time study of these patients who had failed conventional treatment, in an effort to save their vision.  The FDA dragged its feet, responded three years later (just prior to the legal deadline) and rejected the petition to launch a study saying this would subvert existing new drug approval process.

A new drug application would require a 2-year study and cost ~$2 million for a very small target group (as small as so-called orphan drug studies that receive fast-track approval by the FDA).  Forty-five thousand more Americans slipped into possibly avoidable legal blindness during the time it took the FDA to respond.

Preventive medicine doesn’t exist

There is very little if any true preventive medicine being practiced in America.  Modern medicine masquerades tests like mammograms, PSA tests and colonoscopies as preventive medicine when in fact these tests are nothing more than explorations to find more disease (or pre-disease) to treat.

This is what I call the pervasive “detect and collect” mentality practiced by physicians today.  Everything in modern medicine is driven by financial incentives to treat, not to prevent.  If a remedy doesn’t have an insurance billing code, it won’t get much attention from physicians.

Modern medicine doesn’t really practice preventive medicine, defined here as an intervention that prevents disease from occurring in the first place.  The dark adaptation test combined with nutraceutical intervention may be an exception.

Oh, aspirin is said to prevent heart attacks, but not baby-sized aspirin (81 mg) and a full-size aspirin tablet (325 mg) would only be helpful at the moment a blood clot forms in a coronary artery.  And any size aspirin tablet may induce a bleeding gastric ulcer or a brain hemorrhage, which represents disease substitution, not disease prevention. Nutraceuticals and Fun... Best Price: $178.08 Buy New $107.90 (as of 09:25 UTC - Details)

Government muzzles

Due to FDA regulations that forbid dietary supplement companies from even suggesting their products prevent, treat or cure any disease, Longevinex® cannot inform consumers about the application of this recently announced discovery directly, but the public can be pointed to other sources of information. [EyeDoctorRicher.com]

In summary, Longevinex® must navigate a commercial, regulatory and medical practice minefield.  To make matters worse, confused patients with limited vision will predictably consult with their eye doctors when they hear about this discovery and hope Medicare will pay for the natural medicine.

Circling their wagons to protect their incomes, eye doctors will likely respond as they did in 2012 by saying Longevinex® is unproven.  The global market for injected drugs that a product like Longevinex® could replace is worth about $4 billion.  Imagine, no more needles in the eyes.  If the patient does venture to take Longevinex®, eye doctors have learned a trick.  Keep injecting the ineffective medicine and claim their drug kicked in, not Longevinex®.  And no, Medicare does not reimburse for Longevinex®.  So will the landmark news announcement issued today make any impact on the practice of medicine?

A final note

There is something else I have wanted to share with consumers for a long time now.  The Federal Trade Commission advertising guidelines for dietary supplements discourage the use of testimonials.  So in an attempt to be compliant with the rules, Longevinex® chose not to publish testimonials given that the experience of one is not the experience of all.

But this left the company at a competitive disadvantage next to marketing done by online distributors like Amazon.com that offer a customer review section on their webpages where consumers can rate (1-to-5 stars) and write of their personal experiences with such products.  Essentially, Amazon.com was breaking the FTC rules regarding testimonials all along.  But who was to stop them.

So here is a sampling of the closeted testimonials the public never got to read about Longevinex® and vision:

Case #1

“What I am reporting to you is to an ‘outsider’ impossible to believe.  After taking only 8 or 10 pills of Longevinex, my eyesight has already improved.  My friend took me last night to a function and I noticed that the previous jumble and disarray of traffic lights was transformed into recognizable headlights of oncoming traffic, taillights of cars in front, lane reflectors and my general ability to now recognize faces much easier. I was also in a depression (probably due to my wet MD) that appears to have been replaced by optimism!”

Case #2

“Thank you so much. My grandmother was totally blind in her right eye and could only see dark objects in her left eye. She tried the shots with no luck. I bought her a 4-month supply. After taking it for 3 days she could see faces and read the ticker on the bottom of the TV in her left eye. Her right eye, she is seeing light and some movement. She can’t make it out just yet. We are both very excited by the progress. You have given her back a life.”

Case #3

“I have been taking your resveratrol product for about 5 years.  My eyesight has steadily improved every year to the astonishment of my  
eye doctors.  I am 67 years old and no longer need reading glasses at all for the past 2 years.  My nearsightedness has improved from a prescription of -5.75 to -3.0 yesterday.  I am ecstatic and my eye
doctor is now going to order your product.  I have also grown 1/4 inch taller despite my age.  My sister has shrunk 1 inch while I am growing taller.  I tell my story to everyone. In my wildest dreams, I would never have expected these results.  My eye doctor said he had never seen a reversal of presbyopia (reading glasses needed) in any patient, especially one my age.  He said: “what the hell are you taking to get this result?”  I forgot to mention that I had the beginnings of a cataract prior to this and there is no sign of a cataract, glaucoma or any macular degeneration.”

Case #4

“I had heard your commercials for Longevinex on the radio for a long time.  Frankly, most Americans do not like to take pills. It’s the deceptive practices between physicians and drug companies that keep most Americans on pills.  I have worn glasses since first grade.  I am now 61 years old.  They thought that I may have had some brain damage, or was of low IQ in school, until they figured out that I just could not see well.  Over the years, my eyesight has deteriorated, naturally.  About 6 years ago when visiting the eye doctor, I grabbed my chart when he was out of the room, and saw the diagnosis, macular degeneration.  I just resigned myself that I would most likely be blind before I passed on, facing tri-focals in the near future.  My husband had me buy your product.  I have been taking it for about 4 months.  I can tell you that I no longer need the “focals.” I can see just fine for reading or what ever through the top of my glasses.  I will be going back to my eye doctor in a few months and am anxious to hear the results of my examination.  Your product really does help with eyesight, along with a general better well feeling, and a bit of energy.  I am not an idiot, having been in the natural foods industry for a great part of my life, and have seen supplements come and go.”

Case #5

“K developed wet macular degeneration about 2 years ago.  Doctor said there was nothing that can be done. Wife said: He got really bad.  Knocked glasses of water over at the dinner table.  He couldn’t stay on the road when driving. Eye doctor said he was hemorrhaging behind the eyes. It’s been over a year getting the shots with no improvement. He totally lost eyesight in his right eye.  They said he had a stroke in that eye. I woke up in the middle of the night, heard about it on the radio and I ordered it right away. He has gone through 1 box. The other day the eye specialist took a lot of pictures and they initially didn’t say anything. Both eyes improved and the hemorrhaging stopped.  He is seeing license plate numbers.  He couldn’t see that well before. ‘The doctors went ahead and gave him another shot. I didn’t tell the doctors what he was taking. He said it was the first time he could see my face in over a year. It’s a miracle.  I was thanking God.  I get emotional about it. I can’t stop from crying over this. We are ecstatic.   He can read the newspaper now.  He can see a little bit out of the right eye that had totally lost all of its vision.”

Case #6

“About nine months ago, I noticed a dark spot in my vision in my right eye.  Everything was blurry in the spot.  I consulted with the specialist with perhaps the worst bedside manner possible.  After several scans and tests, he bluntly said, ‘Mr. E, you’re going blind and there’s nothing we can do about it.  Prepare for the worst.  You have wet macular degeneration at a fairly young but not unheard of age, which means you’ll have more years of suffering than the average victim of this disease.’

I’m not sure that I can describe the next couple of days.  No sleep, and worried that, as a lawyer (who needs to see to read and write and try cases) my career was finished and that life as I knew it was over.

I went to the retinologist, who set me up with an extremely expensive and painful regimen of injections (the first of which set me back about $4,000).  On my own, I started to look at possible other treatments.

A few months back, I read an article on Lew Rockwell’s website by Bill Sardi about Longevinex.  I figured that the claims were a lot of hype (although Lew is usually pretty careful about who he’ll let post on his site), but that if the results were only one-tenth as good as advertised, they would be a lot better than I was dealing with.

Two months ago, when I went in for my next injection, my retinologist shook his head and said, “Mr, E, I’m not sure how to say this, because I’ve never said it to a patient before, but it appears that you’re cured.  Your eye is better – completely better.  This is a one in a hundred thousand case.  Check back with me in a couple of months and we’ll see where we are.

Now, I’m not usually one to tout so-called “miracle cures,” and I’m naturally a skeptical and logical guy (I am, after all, a litigation attorney, so I rarely take anything anyone says at face value), so probably the best I can say is that before I was blind and now I can see.”

Case #7

MM of Las Vegas called today to recount the experience of his wife, age 68, with wet macular degeneration and Longevinex.

She had been diagnosed with the wet form of macular degeneration in November 2012 and her eye doctor sadly said there wasn’t much he could do to save her sight and that she would eventually go blind. She underwent 1 injection of medicine into her affected eye and then, purely by chance, saw a KLAS-TV broadcast about a lady named Joyce Brown and her positive experience in overcoming this eye disease with an oral nutritional supplement.  Within 2.5 weeks after taking Longevinex her vision dramatically improved.  Her night vision improved to where she could resume driving.  Her eye doctor said: “It is completely gone!” referring to her eye disease.  “I’ve never seen this before,” the doctor said. MM says he began taking the pill and his vision improved also.

Case #8

JC, a plumber, reports on his father, age 72 today. His father was born 10/17/1940 and lives in Whittier, California Father is a diabetic “taking 14 or 15 medications.” His father just recently had macular degeneration diagnosed. He also was unable to respond verbally to anyone (unable to speak). The father began taking Longevinex about 4 weeks ago. The son spoke with him a week later and said he could see a lot better. The son spoke with him two days ago and he said he is now “seeing and talking again.” Father said he couldn’t remember anything before.  Now he is back to normal. Also reports his impotence has abated. Father has resumed driving and other activities.

Case #9

A man reports his mother was diagnosed with the slow-progressive form of macular degeneration with yellow cholesterol spots called drusen at the back of her eyes.  When she re-visited the eye doctor’s office two years after diagnosis, having taken Longevinex since then, it was reported her drusen spots had completely cleared.

Case #10

I am 60. I have dealt with severe dyslexia all my life. Since taking your product not only have I seemed to overcome much of that problem, but I have an available, much more rapid transmitter connection brain-wise that enables a quicker mental responses and added physical agility, also my energy level has improved by about 1/3rd. I am most sensitive to myself and these kinds of changes. I have an incredible schedule with art classes and illustration for multiple clients. I can say my anxiety level has ceased to exist!! That alone is worth the price of admission!!

Case #11

VH reports her husband who sustained a brain injury due to an automobile accident thirty years ago has experienced recovery of his long-term recall and memory as well as his eyesight and he can now strum a tune on his banjo (he plays from memory) that he hasn’t been able to do for decades.  This all spontaneously occurred after taking 3 boxes of Longevinex.

Case #12

“I’ve been suffering from dry macular degeneration for the last 13 years and had to quit a very good job, a six-figure job, last year.  I am a licensed therapist and wellness trainer.  I have been taking the Longevinex Advantage for only three weeks.  I’m driving, seeing a lot better, my central vision is getter clearer, colors are coming out, better contrast and definition.  I’m reading highway signs.  This is a miracle.

I’ve spent thousands and thousands of dollars.  I used electro-stimulation therapy, unsuccessfully.  Over the years, with medications, machines and vitamins, I spent $23,000.  I could write a book on this.  I took this natural vision improvement course.  It didn’t work.

Also, my arthritis in my fingers is not bothering me.  My energy is up.

I first began taking a product with 30 mg of resveratrol and I had a little bit of improvement.  Then I began taking Longevinex.

I smoke about a pack of cigarettes a week.  I’m 64 years of age.  I worked for a major corporation for 30 years.   I was diagnosed in 2000 at the age of 50.  My brother was diagnosed at age 43 and now has a white cane.”

These accounts are so astounding I don’t think anybody could have even made them up.  It is humbling to think a nutraceutical I formulated has changed people’s lives in such dramatic and unexpected ways.  Sadly, these reports will be summarily dismissed as anecdotal by modern medicine.

Even if Longevinex® does receive coverage by the news media, there are 510 competing resveratrol pills on the market ready to pounce and say their untested product does the same thing.  Imagine 510 brands of automobiles.  The market would be divided up so thin that no one would make any money.  That is the present state of affairs with resveratrol pills.