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July 17, 2005
A New Dawn Revisited – PCOS and Inflammation
A New Dawn Revisited – PCOS and Inflammation
One of the objections I am getting to my previous post about Ian Stoakes, author of “A New Dawn” and his past as a scam artist, is that I haven’t read his books and so I don’t really know the information. Well, given my last post, I am certainly not going to spend $25 on them to find out, but I have been reading some other stuff about PCOS and inflammation that is of some interest to the issue.
From the other information provided on Mr. Stoakes’ website, it appears that he is making 3 premises:
1. PCOS is caused by inflammation.
2. That inflammation is caused by food.
3. Mr. Stoakes test can accurately test which foods cause the inflammation in each person.
The previous post certainly casts an awful lot of doubt on premise #3, but while we’re at it, let’s take a look at premise #1 – that PCOS is caused by inflammation.
Inflammation and PCOS is something that has been in a lot of research papers lately. In fact, these studies have found increased levels of inflammatory markers in women with PCOS.
Gonzalez F, Thusu K, Abdel-Rahman E, Prabhala A, Tomani M, Dandona P. Elevated serum levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha in normal-weight women with polycystic ovary syndrome. Metabolism 1999;48:437-41.
Kelly CC, Lyall H, Petrie JR, Gould GW, Connell JM, Sattar N. Low grade chronic inflammation in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2001;86:2453-5.
Kelly CJ, Lyall H, Petrie JR, Gould GW, Connell JM, Rumley A, et al. A specific elevation in tissue plasminogen activator antigen in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2002;87:3287-90.
Atiomo WU, Bates SA, Condon JE, Shaw S, West JH, Prentice AG. The plasminogen activator system in women with polycystic ovary syndrome. Fertil Steril 1998;69:236-41.
Atiomo WU, Fox R, Condon JE, Shaw S, Friend J, Prentice AG, et al. Raised plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) is not an independent risk factor in the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Clin Endocrinol (Oxf) 2000;52:487-92.
However, unlike what many seem to think, just because two things are related, doesn’t mean we can immediately assume that one causes another. While Mr. Stoakes and others who think inflammation is the cause of every disease on the planet might think that these studies prove that inflammation causes PCOS, there are in fact three possibilities:
1. Inflammation causes PCOS.
2. PCOS causes inflammation.
3. Some third problem (such as insulin resistance, for example) causes both inflammation and PCOS.
Lets take a look at another research paper on this subject and see what we can conclude.
Insulin resistance, insulin sensitization and inflammation in polycystic ovarian syndrome
Year : 2004 | Volume : 50 | Issue : 2 | Page : 140-144
Dhindsa G, Bhatia R, Dhindsa M, Bhatia Vishal
Department of Internal Medicine, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA
Thiazolidinediones have been shown to decrease inflammation in obese and diabetic subjects.[74],[75],[76] TZDs have also been shown to reduce carotid intimal medial thickness, normalize vascular endothelial function and improve fibrinolytic and coagulation parameters.[77] Rosiglitazone therapy for 26 weeks reduced MMP-9 (a matrix metalloproteinase, implicated in atherosclerotic plaque rupture) and C-RP levels in type 2 diabetics.[78] In studies in PCOS women, Troglitazone reduced PAI-1 levels[53] and improved endothelial-dependent vasodilation.[79] It is possible that the beneficial effect of TZDs in PCOS may be partly due to the decrease in inflammation. Metformin has also been shown to decrease PAI-1 and C-RP levels in PCOS women.[80],[81]
So, to summarize in non-medical jargon, patients with PCOS (as well as obese patients and patients with diabetes) were treated with insulin sensetizers such as metformin and subsequently had their inflammatory markers decrease. This seems to imply that insulin resistance causes inflammation. If instead, as Mr. Stoakes implies, inflammation caused insulin resistance, treating the insulin resistance would not improve inflammation.
In fact, research is beginning to suggest that this inflammation is what contributes to the greater incidence of cardiovascular disease in patients with insulin resistance.
So Mr. Stoakes first and third premises really have no legs to stand on, unless of course there’s some secret research papers about PCOS and inflammation he will only give to people who pay him. I’m not feeling particularly confident about his second as he certainly hasn’t proven himself capable of logical scientific interpretation.
He has perpetrated scams in the past. They ban anyone from their forum who mentions Mr. Stoakes' past or asks too many insistant questions. He avoids giving direct answers to technical questions. People have told me privately in email about high-pressure sales techniques. I’ve also heard that he offers to perform tests for free to those who are able to convince others to buy the test. One of his associates even made a half-hearted attempt to threaten me with legal action.
What possible reason would I have to waste my time and money on his book? What reason would anyone have?
Posted by illuminaria at July 17, 2005 11:32 PM
Comments
Thank you for putting up this website. It should be pretty obvious to people that this is a scam but I guess that people have tried so many things that they hope this will work. I hope that before too many people pay for the test that they do a Goggle search and read this site.
Posted by: Candice at July 26, 2005 08:55 AM