What do European, British, and Japanese regulators admit that the FDA is flat-out refusing to acknowledge?
Recently, health agencies across the globe determined that there is quite enough evidence to say with certainty that numerous contrast agents, or dyes, used to enhance MRIs are just too dangerous to continue using — and many actually banned them!
Here in the U.S., however, millions of patients who undergo MRI scans are still being injected with those agents, which contain the heavy metal gadolinium.
It’s a crucial health issue that FDA bureaucrats have been hemming and hawing over for more than a decade now. But their most recent action — to merely add a warning label (on a product package you’ll never see!) — is just another indication that they’re more interested in protecting corporate profits than patients.
That’s why if you’re scheduled to take an MRI, you need to speak up and ask questions before an IV is placed in your arm.
Anything less, and you could be setting yourself up for a lifetime of organ damage.
‘Just a matter of time…’
“It’s just a matter of time before the metals deposited in the brain turn into disease.”
That ominous statement comes from Public Citizen’s Dr. Sidney Wolfe, who has called the FDA’s move to place a warning on the packaging of GBCAs “reckless” — and one that “will endanger people.”
The feds act like they’re protecting you by saying that anyone who will be injected with one of those contrasting agents should be given a patient “medication guide” to provide “educational information,” but when was the last time a nurse or doctor presented you with the packaging for any kind of medication so you could read the fine print?
And exactly when will you be presented with this so-called medication guide? Perhaps while you’re being wheeled in for an MRI?
Here in the eAlert, we’ve told you a lot about the dangers of these gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs).
And guess what? The FDA knows about them, too! In fact, the agency’s weak-kneed decision is based on the very same evidence that prompted European regulators to issue their ban.
But despite being more than abreast of all the risks involved, here’s the bald-faced lie this agency continues to tell you: “Gadolinium retention has not been directly liked to adverse effects in patients with normal kidney function.”
And time and time again, that’s been proven to be wrong, wrong, and wrong!
Look, the FDA can hide behind a rock on this issue forever, but that still won’t make these GBCAs any safer!
And since you’re not going to hear anything you can trust from the knuckleheads whose job it is to keep you safe, here are the fast facts you need to know about gadolinium and how it can damage your organs:
- It’s highly toxic.
- It’s linked to eye, skin, ear, nose, and throat problems.
- It’s not completely excreted by your kidneys (as we were told was the case years ago).
- It has turned up in the brain (as well as in brain tumor biopsies) and other body tissues.
- It has been linked to the rapid growth of cancer cells.
- It has caused a host of health problems in people who were perfectly fine up until they were injected with it (including a gruesome condition called “nephrogenic system fibrosis” that turns skin thick and hard like wood, often causing paralysis).
Just last month, I told you how tough-guy actor Chuck Norris had to give up his film career to care for his wife Gena, who is now suffering from kidney and memory problems, as well as muscle wasting — conditions the couple believes were directly linked to several GBCA-enhanced MRIs Gena received.
It’s a shame, because these GBCAs may not even be necessary. In fact, as Dr. Wolfe points out, there are other contrast agents available that don’t contain gadolinium!
When a doctor tells you an MRI is required, it seems like serious business, and you feel like you should do whatever he says.
But you should know that MRIs are highly overused and ordered for everything under the sun. You may not even really need the test — and if you do, you may not have to get one that’s enhanced using a GBCA.
Those are two absolutely essential things to determine… before they’re sliding you into that metal tube.
Remember: The choice is yours. And if the MRI turns out not to be necessary… or if the radiologist can’t (or won’t) offer a contrasting agent that doesn’t contain gadolinium… your best (and safest) bet is to follow the advice of HSI panel member Dr. Allan Spreen, who says that they should be “adamantly refused.”
“FDA warns about MRI contrast agents, while UK takes a tougher stance” Ed Silverman, December 19, 2017, STAT, statnews.com
