Letters to the Editor

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Oct, 2001

In Florida, an average of 28 parts per million (ppm) of arsenic has been found in dirt sampled from parks in Miami, Gainesville and Tallahassee; but levels as high as 217 ppm were found in other parks. [4] (Florida's Department of Environmental Protection considers a level of 0.8 ppm the acceptable high limit.) Numerous out door wood products in the United States are treated with arsenic.

The next troublesome finding was the documentation of significant arsenic in our researches on vitamin, mineral and calcium supplements. [5]

Finally, my concern about fluoridating water supplies [6] is compounded by the arsenic contamination of the industrial waste products involved therein (notably hexafluorosilicic acid and sodium hexafluorosilicate).

Arbitrary political and corporate decisions in such a grave matter involving the public health ought to be challenged by physicians.

H.J. Roberts, MD, FACP, FCCP

Director, Palm Beach Institute For Medical Research

References

(1.) Roberts HJ. Difficult Diagnosis: A Guide To the Interpretation of Obscure Illness. Philadelphia, W.B. Saunders Co., 1958.

(2.) Roberts HJ. Pentachlorophenol-associated aplastic anemia, red cell aplasia, leukemia and other blood disorders. J Florida MA 1990; 77:86-90.

(3.) EPA Position Document 4: Wood Preservative Pesticides: Creosote, Pentachlorophenol, Inorganic Arsenicals. Environmental Protection Agency 1984; July: 229.

(4.) Feature: Arsenic found in soil at 3 Miami-Dade parks. The Palm Beach Post 2001; March 22:B-3.

(5.) Roberts HJ. Potential toxicity due to dolomite and bonemeal. South MJ 1983; 76:556-559.

(6.) Roberts HJ. Toxicology of Fluoride. Critique for Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Reproduced in Townsend Letter for Doctors 1992; July :623-624.

CoQ10 Enzyme Most Effective Melted in Hot Coffee or Tea with Fat

Editor:

I must commend you for publishing a part of the new book by David Perlmutter, MD, on Brain Recovery.

In it he tells of the benefit to the brain of coenzyme Q10. I may add a bit to the treatment with coenzyme Q10. I was a friend of Professor Karl Folkers from 1969 until his death in 1998. Shortly before his death I talked to him on the phone at his summer home in New Hampshire.

He was concerned about oral administration of coenzyme Q10. He said that taken as the yellow crystals it is reluctant to pass through the intestinal mucosa and to get into the blood circulation. He said that he feared that several million dollars of it were getting into the sewers. He said that this problem was being looked into. He mentioned Dr. Hans Langsjoen of the University of Texas at Galveston who had said that the clinical experience with coenzyme Q1O in treating heart failure, is nothing short of dramatic and it is reasonable to believe that the entire field of medicine should be re-evaluated in light of this growing knowledge.

Professor Folkers said that it was of the greatest importance that a better way be found to get coenzyme Q10 into the blood circulation.

Some time following Professor Folkers' death I was talking to Dr. William Judy of Bradenton, Florida about his highly successful trial on treating hormone-refractory prostate cancer with coenzyme Q10. He told me that to get good absorption of coenzyme Q10 into the blood circulation, it helps greatly to melt the coenzyme Q10 (it melts at 104[degrees]F).