Senator Ted Kennedy has lost his battle with cancer. Over the next few weeks he will receive many well deserved accolades and condolences from around the world. His passing, in many ways, is the final chapter in an era of America.

On the subject that matters most to me, health freedom and access to natural health options, Senator Kennedy was no friend of the people. His utopian view of health care for everyone, with no way to pay for it, is rooted in a philosophy of excessive government control that is at odds with free choice and true health freedom.

Nevertheless, had he been at full steam in the past few months it is certain that he and Senator Orrin Hatch would have sat down across the table and worked out a compromise that the American people could have stomached. The Kennedy-Hatch era of making the Senate work, despite its follies, is now officially over. America will have to chart a new course.

Senator Kennedy’s health problems were by and large self-inflicted. He is an example of obesity leading to clogged arteries and high blood pressure, in turn leading to toxic and de-energizing medications, which taken together created an internal health situation conducive to aggressive cancer. He followed traditional cancer treatment, certainly the best care that money and power could buy. He shut out all possibilities of natural methods that could work with his traditional treatments. He also spent considerable energy in his Senate career making it difficult for Americans to have access to natural health options.

In many ways, his own personal health journey is an example for Americans of what not to do, and I am republishing the article I originally wrote on May 22, 2008, illustrating these points in detail:
Did Statins Cause Senator Ted Kennedy’s Brain Tumor?

Legions of well wishers look on as Senator Ted Kennedy struggles for his life, fighting against one of the most difficult types of brain tumors. Few men have had such an impact on the laws made in the United States. As a powerful member of the Senate HELP committee Kennedy has been a primary force shaping almost all health-related legislation for decades. Ironically, it may be the drugs he has so adamantly promoted that are the straw that broke the camel’s back, leading to his brain tumor.

Few Americans receive the preferential care given to an important Senator like Kennedy. It is interesting to note what the “finest” care enables a person to receive. He is being treated at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital, arguably one of the best hospitals in the world – the same place he had surgery for a significantly blocked carotid artery in October of 2007.

Now that the public’s attention will be diverted onto treating his cancer problem, not too many are going to explain that the care for his carotid artery problem could be a primary reason for his brain tumor suddenly emerging. Indeed, in Kennedy’s situation the fox and the hen house are the same hospital – do you really expect them to take a close look at his situation when such an evaluation is self incriminating? And on the larger scale such an evaluation could lead to millions of Americans dumping their statin drugs in the trash.
Kennedy’s Health History

Kennedy is no poster child for health, fitness, or a healthy lifestyle. He is overweight and out of shape and has been for a long time. Eight months ago doctors found his left carotid artery mostly blocked and performed surgery to clean out the plaque. It took many years of abuse to create that problem. In all fairness to his doctors, Kennedy is not a very healthy patient. On the other hand, that is what doctors are for – treating patients who aren’t healthy and getting them back to real health.

We know from publicly disclosed information that Kennedy was taking both blood pressure medication and statin drugs to lower cholesterol. We can assume that as part of the “finest medical care” his treatment to lower cholesterol was quite aggressive following his carotid artery surgery – now the “gold standard” of care being pushed on countless Americans. This means lowering cholesterol to abnormally low physiological levels, based on the idea that if a person can’t make much cholesterol then it can’t form plaque. Virtually no attention is given to the potential risks of starving the cholesterol synthesis system throughout the body – which is the core survival system of any person.

Kennedy was also on blood pressure medication. Most doctors think they have done their patients a real favor when they use enough drugs to get their numbers looking better on paper. Unfortunately, blood pressure medication typically reduces the flow of nutrition and oxygen to your brain, resulting in acid pH and an environment readily suitable for cancer growth. There is a huge difference between having normal blood pressure because you are healthy (meaning blood gets to your head properly) and good blood pressure numbers artificially produced with drugs (meaning blood doesn’t get to many areas of your body properly, including your brain). There is no short cut to real health.
Statins and Cancer

Statins cause cancer for a variety of reasons, a fact that is consistently covered up by the 20-billion-dollar-a-year statin industry – with the help of Senators from both sides of the political aisle, like Kennedy, who actively support the Big Pharma agenda. In fact, Big Pharma tries to promote statins as a cancer-protective drug based on the ability of statins to kill cancer cells in test tubes. They do this in test tubes because they are so toxic. In your body a dose required to kill cancer cells would kill you first.

Statins interfere with normal immune function in multiple ways. They are so effective at suppressing your immune system that they have been researched as immune-suppressing options for organ transplant patients. That is not good news for anyone having to fight the flu or combat cancer.

Statins interfere with core survival systems that are “branches” in the normal production of LDL cholesterol. Such interference in health is a major side effect of statins – and widely ignored by prescribing physicians. For example, selenium-containing genes are reduced/blocked by statins, including the production of cellular glutathione – your cell’s most important antioxidant that protects against cell mutations that can lead to cancer.

Important anti-cancer nutrients such as vitamin D and coenzyme Q10 are also reduced by statins. And a primary anti-cancer cell-modulating substance known as isoprenoids are reduced by statins. Isoprenoids in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are the reason eating these foods is associated with less cancer. Blocking your body’s natural production of them with statin drugs is not a good idea.

Brain cells are weakened by statins, as every brain cell has a naturally higher level of cholesterol in its cell membrane so it can live longer (brain cells do not split and divide like other cells).

Thus, super high levels of statins are immune toxic, cripple your body’s natural cancer defense system, and weaken nerves. The longer a person stays on these high doses the worse the problems become – as damage is cumulative and insidiously progressive over time. When combined with blood pressure medication this creates an environment within the nervous system ripe for cancer growth, a fact that simply cannot be denied based on the timing of Kennedy’s problems.

When a person develops cancer while taking a statin the statin is never blamed – even though it is an obvious causative agent that cannot possibly be ruled out. The risk for cancer is especially true when cholesterol levels are being suppressed to abnormally low levels that virtually no person who is healthy possesses. The “finest” medical care money can buy enables an individual to be poisoned by statins and the brightest medical minds on earth don’t seem to have a clue what they are actually doing to people such as Senator Kennedy.
Kennedy and Health Freedom

Ironically, in the case of Kennedy his health care is a direct result of the health policies he has forged. He is one of the most anti-vitamin and anti-natural health senators. He has now slid down the health ladder to the point he has no options but surgery, toxic drugs, or FDA-sanctioned experiments. Can the cancer be killed before his body gives out? He has very aggressive cancer and poor underlying health – not a good combination.

No place on the internet will he find a credible explanation of what vitamins he should be taking right now, which ones would support his medical options, and which ones would help him recover from his treatments most effectively. You would think he would like to know which nutrients would help turn off the inflammatory gene signals in his brain that are driving the spreading of his cancer. He certainly won’t get that information from his doctors. At least he might like to know what to do if his medical treatments are successful enough that he has some time to try to fix himself.

I’d be happy to post such information on my website, but the FDA won’t allow it. Indeed, it is Kennedy and mostly Democratic members of the Senate and House (along with a large number of Republicans) that are adamantly opposed to Americans understanding how to be healthy or how to use natural health options to support medical care to increase their likelihood of a positive outcome – even though the science behind such support and benefit could help millions of Americans without any side effects.

While Kennedy is being praised by friend and foe alike for his health policies that provide care to the less fortunate – it is overlooked that such plans carry with them the sacrifice of health freedom under the false pretense of “safety” and strict governmental public health enforcement.

Hillary Clinton has always seen eye to eye with Kennedy on health freedom suppression and a desire to excessively regulate vitamins. Dick Durbin, Obama’s fellow senator from Illinois and national co-chair of his campaign, is at the very top of the list of vitamin-hating senators. The Democratic Party motivation behind such health freedom suppression is to have an iron grip on “herd mentality” and public health initiatives – and health freedom and access to natural health options are not compatible with this unspoken objective.

Republican politicians also favor this iron grip on public health, but for somewhat different reasons – historically to forward the sales of Big Pharma at the expense of any potential competitors. Although under the Bush administration a similar political control agenda (forced vaccinations in a pandemic flu, etc.) have blurred any differences between Republicans and Democrats on core health freedom issues. There is no candidate in serious contention for president that actively stands for and supports health freedom.

What we have is a Big Pharma model of health that Kennedy is in no small part responsible for. His own actions have drastically limited his access to solutions that actually work and could help him. Does he care? Probably not, after all he has the “best” health care that money can buy. However, there are millions of Americans who do care and are being denied their right to helpful information and safe and effective remedies. This issue should be central to a national debate on health care.

For more information on the science and side effects of statins read my article, The Statin Scam Marches On and Chapter 19 – Death by Statin, in my book, Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA’s Betrayal of America.

Author's Bio: 

Byron J. Richards, Founder/Director of Wellness Resources, Inc., is a Board-Certified Clinical Nutritionist and a world renowned natural health expert. Richards is the first to explain the relevance of leptin and its link to solving obesity.