Here is the reply of a doctor to a patient inquiry. The patient has asked me to respond to the issues raised by his doctor.
As background, the patient, a very fit and healthy young man, sought my advice for a condition diagnosed as Irritable Bowell Syndrome (IBS). Upon close questioning, the onset correlated with living and travelling through 3rd world countries and suffering food poisoning and possibly parasitic infections. The persistent symptoms raise suspicions that he continues to have a chronic subclinical disease, such as from a parasite or bacteria. Since returning to New Zealand, he has had no medical treatment other than drugs to manage his IBS symptoms and also by restricting certain foods identified that possibly make symptoms worse.
Treating symptoms alone without identifying and addressing the root causes will not cure anything, and matters will only worsen over time.
I have seen similar cases resolved with appropriate medical and nutraceutical interventions. However, this patient needs the assistance of a medical practitioner, especially with banning one of the most effective weapons in our parasite toolbox.
Read this:
Another weapon in the parasite toolbox is the Nobel Prize-winning and exceptionally safe and effective drug called Ivermectin, which has saved countless lives - millions - from the ravages of parasites and other infectious diseases. Unfortunately, however, this drug has been effectively banned and vilified in the leadup to the mass vaccination by mRNA drugs. This banning, by the way, has no science supporting it. Instead, the ban aims to protect the commercial interests of the drug companies and their apologist (your government).
So, with this in mind, I, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, asked the patient to query about Ivermectin as a possible treatment.
Here is his doctor's reply:
"This is a bit difficult, I am sorry.
I totally understand your wanting to get further benefits in managing your irritable bowel syndrome.
I would recommend a dietician in this instance - and can give you some recommendations for dieticians who I trust if you wish.
Hair tissue mineral analysis is not a science-based test that we use in medicine (if it worked, we would use it).
It can be useful for identifying someone's past drug use in some cases, but that is not the issue here.
There is a poor correlation between hair tissue mineral analysis and your actual nutritional state.
There is very good evidence that eating a balanced diet with lots of fresh fruit and veg and not a lot of processed foods, not a lot of saturated fat and not a lot of alcohol provides excellent nutritional balance.
Exercise is of further benefit.
There are no benefits to additional supplementation on top of what is sufficient (I.e. more than enough is not better than simply enough).
Vitamin supplements are not regulated the way medicines are, and there are endless examples of supplements either not containing what they are meant to or containing other (sometimes harmful) ingredients.
I would absolutely never prescribe Ivermectin to a healthy person without evidence of a relevant infection - most commonly scabies.
Ivermectin is a medicine with many potentially serious side effects. I need to get permission from an infectious diseases specialist to prescribe it at all.
Treating a person for 'potential' infections without proving an infection is a very unsafe way to practice, and you won't find many doctors willing to do that.
The hype in alternative medicine around Ivermectin has accelerated in the last couple of years thanks to some unhelpful pseudoscience about COVID19.
I am sorry I can not meet your requests, but I would not be a good doctor if I did so.
Very happy to review your abdominal symptoms etc, anytime."
Resources about Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis
This is one of the labs that use the technology I refer to: https://www.traceelements.com/. Go to the "Educational Resources" tab and read to your heart's content! The newsletters are particularly useful.
If you want to learn more about IVM, then here is the Google search link to some of the articles on my blog.