AUTHOR RESPONDS: I am the author of the original article. Where to begin answering Dr. Shafer’s pack of lies and cheap tricks?
1. Shafer: "Regarding Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. This is NOT caused by drinking. Some alcoholics have it if their entire nutritional intake is alcohol over a protracted period (years)."
The above is insane. No one could survive for years if their "entire nutritional intake is alcohol." You can not cover what Bush was admitted. He drank from about age 20 to 40 and once said he couldn’t "remember a day when he didn’t have a drink." Bush admits to his long-term drinking. Many acquainances have reported that it was heavy drinking. He likely did have a thiamine deficiency for years during his 20-year binge, and he drank heavily enough and long enough to cause Wernicke-Korsakoff.
Dr. Shafer should put down his medical dictionary and his shingle and have someone explain to him the peer-reviewed literature of his profession, if he is indeed a medical doctor. One wonders what state he is licensed in.
For an authoritative view of AF, the reader should ignore Dr. Shafer and do as President Bush just did on January 27: Consult the Cleveland Clinic, the No. 1 hospital for cardiac care. Specifically, please see:
–http://www.clevelandclinic.org/hear... .
(Personal medical consultation was probably one reason for the president’s PRIVATE conference at the Clinic on Jan. 27, 2005. If the trip were, as he claimed, to promote his medical agenda, including e-medicine, it would not have been private.)
2. Believe Dr. Shafer if you wish, but if you suspect you have AF, please do as President Bush did and consult Cleveland Clinic. Here is what their website at
–http://www.clevelandclinic.org/hear... says about the dangers of AF: -----------------------------------------
Is AF dangerous?
Many people live for years with atrial fibrillation without problems. For many years, AF was thought as a harmless annoyance. However, now it is known that chronic atrial fibrillation can result in future problems:
Because the atria are beating rapidly and irregularly, blood does not flow through them as quickly. This makes the blood more likely to clot. If the clot is pumped out of the heart, it can travel to the brain, resulting in a stroke. People with atrial fibrillation are five to seven times more likely to have a stroke than the general population. Clots can also travel to other parts of the body (kidneys, heart, intestines), causing damage.
Atrial fibrillation can also decrease the heart’s pumping ability by as much as 20 to 30 percent. Atrial fibrillation, combined with a fast heart rate over a long period of time, can result in heart failure.
Chronic atrial fibrillation is associated with an increased risk of death. --------------------------------------------------------------
Note it says, "now it is known"; but apparently it is not known by Dr. Shafer.
In susceptible individuals, AF can lead to ventricular fibrillation, which rapidly causes death. President Bush uses or used a LifeVest, which the manufacturer says is "for persons at risk of sudden cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death." http://www.lifecor.com
3. Dr. Shafer says: "No one uses statins for dementia."
Please do a Google search on the following and note the many refutations of Dr. Shafer’s above claim: statins, dementia.
4. Dr. Shafer says, "...some have recommended that virtually everyone over fifty be on 81 mg doses of aspirin."
Well, Bayer Aspirin certainly recommends this, but Dr. Shafer, would you recommend this for someone who had hearing loss, about the only acknowledged medical condition of George W. Bush? Aspirin is ototoxic (damages hearing) and would be contraindicated on that basis; but as the Cleveland Clinic quotation above says, effects of AF "make the blood more likely to clot." Obviously preventing (more) strokes is more important than preserving his hearing.
5. Dr. Shafer says (indirectly quoting the article): "He claims that Bush has Graves and that the likelihood of inheritance from a parent is 50%. This is ridiculous."
This Danish study of heredity and Graves’ disease (GD)
–http://patients.uptodate.com/abstra...
says that "Model-fitting analysis on the pooled twin data showed that 79% of the liability to the development of GD is attributable to genetic factors." I do not have time to complete Shafer’s medical education, but there are many sources I could quote on this and his other points.
6. Based on his misinterpretation of my comments on Graves’, Shafer says, "Everything else on the page is therefore not believable." I would say that since he was wrong and I was right about heredity being the main predictor of Graves’, that everything in my article is believable and everything in his defense of President Bush is not believable.
Thank you anyway, Dr. Shafer, for your response. But why do you find it necessary to defend President Bush when I am not indicting him, only pointing out his likely medical and mental conditions?
FACT: President Bush wears or has worn a LifeVest wearable cardioversion defibrillator "for persons at risk of sudden cardiac arrest or death."
FACT: President Bush has a heart arrhythmia, bradycardia.
APPARENT BUT DEBATABLE: President Bush has an acquired cognitive deficit and erratic behavior.
HIGHLY PROBABLE: The president has atrial fibrillation, a heart arrhythmia.
HIGHLY PROBABLE: The cognitive deficit and behavior have been caused by a stroke or vascular dementia.
ALTERNATIVE POSSIBILITY: The cognitive deficit and behavior are the result of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome or Alzheimer’s.
LESS PROBABLE: The president’s AF is caused by Graves’ hyperthyroidism and can be treated by treating the Graves’.
AUTHOR RESPONDS: I am the author of the original article. Where to begin answering Dr. Shafer’s pack of lies and cheap tricks?
1. Shafer: "Regarding Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. This is NOT caused by drinking. Some alcoholics have it if their entire nutritional intake is alcohol over a protracted period (years)."
The above is insane. No one could survive for years if their "entire nutritional intake is alcohol." You can not cover what Bush was admitted. He drank from about age 20 to 40 and once said he couldn’t "remember a day when he didn’t have a drink." Bush admits to his long-term drinking. Many acquainances have reported that it was heavy drinking. He likely did have a thiamine deficiency for years during his 20-year binge, and he drank heavily enough and long enough to cause Wernicke-Korsakoff.
Dr. Shafer should put down his medical dictionary and his shingle and have someone explain to him the peer-reviewed literature of his profession, if he is indeed a medical doctor. One wonders what state he is licensed in.
For an authoritative view of AF, the reader should ignore Dr. Shafer and do as President Bush just did on January 27: Consult the Cleveland Clinic, the No. 1 hospital for cardiac care. Specifically, please see:
– http://www.clevelandclinic.org/hear... .
(Personal medical consultation was probably one reason for the president’s PRIVATE conference at the Clinic on Jan. 27, 2005. If the trip were, as he claimed, to promote his medical agenda, including e-medicine, it would not have been private.)
2. Believe Dr. Shafer if you wish, but if you suspect you have AF, please do as President Bush did and consult Cleveland Clinic. Here is what their website at
– http://www.clevelandclinic.org/hear... says about the dangers of AF:
-----------------------------------------
Is AF dangerous?
Many people live for years with atrial fibrillation without problems. For many years, AF was thought as a harmless annoyance. However, now it is known that chronic atrial fibrillation can result in future problems:
Because the atria are beating rapidly and irregularly, blood does not flow through them as quickly. This makes the blood more likely to clot. If the clot is pumped out of the heart, it can travel to the brain, resulting in a stroke. People with atrial fibrillation are five to seven times more likely to have a stroke than the general population. Clots can also travel to other parts of the body (kidneys, heart, intestines), causing damage.
Atrial fibrillation can also decrease the heart’s pumping ability by as much as 20 to 30 percent. Atrial fibrillation, combined with a fast heart rate over a long period of time, can result in heart failure.
Chronic atrial fibrillation is associated with an increased risk of death.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Note it says, "now it is known"; but apparently it is not known by Dr. Shafer.
In susceptible individuals, AF can lead to ventricular fibrillation, which rapidly causes death. President Bush uses or used a LifeVest, which the manufacturer says is "for persons at risk of sudden cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death." http://www.lifecor.com
3. Dr. Shafer says: "No one uses statins for dementia."
Please do a Google search on the following and note the many refutations of Dr. Shafer’s above claim: statins, dementia.
4. Dr. Shafer says, "...some have recommended that virtually everyone over fifty be on 81 mg doses of aspirin."
Well, Bayer Aspirin certainly recommends this, but Dr. Shafer, would you recommend this for someone who had hearing loss, about the only acknowledged medical condition of George W. Bush? Aspirin is ototoxic (damages hearing) and would be contraindicated on that basis; but as the Cleveland Clinic quotation above says, effects of AF "make the blood more likely to clot." Obviously preventing (more) strokes is more important than preserving his hearing.
5. Dr. Shafer says (indirectly quoting the article): "He claims that Bush has Graves and that the likelihood of inheritance from a parent is 50%. This is ridiculous."
This Danish study of heredity and Graves’ disease (GD)
– http://patients.uptodate.com/abstra...
says that "Model-fitting analysis on the pooled twin data showed that 79% of the liability to the development of GD is attributable to genetic factors." I do not have time to complete Shafer’s medical education, but there are many sources I could quote on this and his other points.
6. Based on his misinterpretation of my comments on Graves’, Shafer says, "Everything else on the page is therefore not believable." I would say that since he was wrong and I was right about heredity being the main predictor of Graves’, that everything in my article is believable and everything in his defense of President Bush is not believable.
Thank you anyway, Dr. Shafer, for your response. But why do you find it necessary to defend President Bush when I am not indicting him, only pointing out his likely medical and mental conditions?
FACT: President Bush wears or has worn a LifeVest wearable cardioversion defibrillator "for persons at risk of sudden cardiac arrest or death."
FACT: President Bush has a heart arrhythmia, bradycardia.
APPARENT BUT DEBATABLE: President Bush has an acquired cognitive deficit and erratic behavior.
HIGHLY PROBABLE: The president has atrial fibrillation, a heart arrhythmia.
HIGHLY PROBABLE: The cognitive deficit and behavior have been caused by a stroke or vascular dementia.
ALTERNATIVE POSSIBILITY: The cognitive deficit and behavior are the result of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome or Alzheimer’s.
LESS PROBABLE: The president’s AF is caused by Graves’ hyperthyroidism and can be treated by treating the Graves’.