Bill Sardi Affirmed My Own Research and Discovery Path
By Katherine A. Carroll
NHF Executive Director of Operations and Finance, NTP
In late 2010, my husband and business partner at Medical Vision Center (MVC) in Morton, Washington, Dr. Donald Carroll, and I were invited on a radio interview with a supplement manufacturer to discuss nutraceuticals and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Our clinic’s strong emphasis was on treating this potentially blinding disease nutritionally. We were both certified as Nutritional Therapy Practitioners (NTP) in 2004 and had opened an in-office natural dispensary. This led to meeting Bill Sardi, researcher, and author of articles on macular degeneration.1 I called him and asked if we could meet. He agreed.
If you are not familiar with it, AMD remains a leading cause of vision loss and blindness, with dysfunction and loss of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) central to the disease progression. The macula is part of the light-sensitive tissue in the center of the retina of the eye. AMD usually begins in one eye as early as age 50, causing progressive loss of central vision with the inability to see fine details, to read, or to recognize faces.
When a friend of mine in her fifties left MVC with a macular degeneration diagnosis, the magnitude of this potentially blinding disease really hit me. What we used to see in 70-year-old patients is occurring in much younger demographics now. In fact, search results on the internet typically find the words “incurable” and “macular degeneration” combined. However, “incurable” AMD is only true if you do nothing. We want to give hope that by dedicated action this diagnosis can be changed and the condition successfully reversed.
Bill Sardi Chose MVC for the First Office Trial
Flying to Southern California to meet Bill, after a warm welcome into his home, we drove to his favorite restaurant and enjoyed a never-ending, healthy Mediterranean dinner together as well as very stimulating conversation. This is how our 12-year relationship started, with visits back and forth between our two homes.
After that first dinner Bill selected our Vision Center for the first office trial that he wanted to initiate with lutein antioxidant supplementation trial (LAST)2 researcher Dr. Stuart Richer on Bill’s product Longevinex® (a red-wine extract combined with proprietary synergistic ingredients), which was being tested for its impact on AMD. The team would consist of lead study researcher Dr. Stuart Richer,3 Bill’s food-and-drug attorney Scott Tips, who would help oversee the trial, and Dr. Donn Carroll, who would examine the patients.
Bill most graciously bought and shipped to us a $60,000 Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) scanner, which uses light waves to take cross-section images of the retina. The OCT unit arrived for the macular degeneration study later in 2011.4 And once the study was completed the OCT remained with us at Bill’s insistence. Heretofore, MVC had been the first, not only in rural Morton but even in nearby cities, to provide retinal thickness analysis (RTA) using innovative technology from Israel. So, it was even more amazing that our practice now also had an OCT scanner available. Even the nearby optical surgery center in Chehalis was yet to get one.
The air was electrified with excitement having these great men at our retreat that late Summer of 2011 as Bill’s macular-degeneration study was planned and executed. We would see patients and gather data by day, while Dr. Richer, Bill, Scott Tips, and Dr. Carroll would pore over the data in the evening. And, indeed, the patients taking Longevinex® showed a stabilization of the macular degeneration and a reduced amount of “drusen,” which are small, yellow deposits of fatty proteins (lipids) that accumulate under the retina and are associated with AMD.
In passing, during that time, Scott Tips gave me a copy of Health Freedom News with an article in it that he had authored on ractopamine (a steroid-like drug given to food-production animals to increase their lean mass at the expense of the health of both man and animal). Overnight it turned me into an activist, leading to my now decade-plus of service with the National Health Federation, all while running a new B&B business and working at MVC.
Try Giving Yourself Away
The OCT scanner was Bill’s generous gift to us in our work, of which he never said a single word; and amazingly, over the next twelve years I witnessed Bill giving more and more without regard to being reimbursed. If ever anyone needed anything, it was given to them by Bill. We joked that you cannot outgive God, nor Bill Sardi!
In the 1970s, I read a book called Try Giving Yourself Away by David Dunn.5 Bill Sardi was the epitome of selfless giving. The benefits rippled to countless thousands, maybe even millions. Even up to the last month of his life when I stocked the supplements at MVC from his company, Lifespan Nutrition, Bill sent me supplement stock but no invoice. When queried, he replied that it was given at no charge as a matter of course and that was that. There was no arguing with Bill.
He helped one of my children and even my dying sister. When I visited him one time and was coughing, he gave me zinc. If he saw a need, he would fill it. He made a life with his habit of giving.
Observational Studies
Early in my entrance into the optometric world in 1994, Jim (not his real name) came to Medical Vision Center as our patient after counseling at a practice in a nearby city. In his mid-seventies, he received the diagnosis of macular degeneration. He sold everything and bought a motorhome. He said, “If I’m going to go blind, I want to see all the places I missed.” His city OD did not give Jim empathy, much less any counseling, protocol, or any hope that he was not a victim to an admittedly serious diagnosis.
But I understood simply by observation that several of our patients who had impaired fat digestion or had their gallbladder removed were getting diagnosed with macular degeneration years later. Healthy fats support brain and eye function, heart health, and vitamin absorption, among other things. It is crucial that fat be broken down in order to be of use to the body, particularly for proper eye function and to add structure to the cells. But I knew better. Jim had sold everything for nothing. He had a chance to avoid blindness.
Around this time, Dr. Jonathan Wright, M.D., who was my doctor and helped me understand the role of nutrition in medical practice as we had attended his brain-boggling conferences that he hosted with Dr. Alan Gaby, M.D. for several years in a row, was using hydrochloric acid (HCL) as part of a protocol for macular degeneration.
But I was struck by the gallbladder/fat digestion association with AMD and sought to restore lost eye function by suggesting bile salts or sunflower lecithin to these patients to help break down fat-soluble lutein and zeaxanthin. And to ensure delivery of the carotenoids to the macula, I advised patients to have optimal levels of HDL which transports them. The WHAM chick study, noted its authors, provides an excellent model for understanding the role of HDL in the retinal uptake of lutein and zeaxanthin.6
In 2013, I wrote an article embracing simple nutritional therapy principles of providing nutrients and their transport to support optimal function and structure of the macula.7 By applying these principles, patients could possibly avoid or even reverse this potentially blinding disease.
Hope Is the Most Important Prescription
Bill Sardi and Scott Tips figured strongly in my life in the years ahead. I worked with both men from 2011 onward, and with Dr. Stuart Richer as well. It was Dr. Richer who kindly reviewed my 2013 article, “Best Kept Secrets to Prevent, Halt, or Even Reverse Macular Degeneration” that “went around the World” being published first in the very magazine Scott had shared with me, Health Freedom News, and later GreenMedInfo, Nexus magazine, and other venues, giving people hope that they were not condemned to losing their precious eyesight.8 Nine years later, I still receive emails related to the article and Dr. Carroll has consulted with people from other countries because of the emphasis on digestion – fat digestion in particular – to prevent macular degeneration.
Dr. Richer asked to use my discoveries on the impact of fat digestion, and HDL transport to the macula in his lecture slides. In turn, he shared his slides with me on the impact of nutrition on the macula, “picture worth a thousand words” images that I used in my article.
You Are Not Only What You Eat but Assimilate & Transport
Taking patient histories in the 1990s, noting who had had gallbladder surgery to remove the presumably non-functioning organ, I noticed that these patients tended to accumulate weight for years and many went on to receive the diagnosis of macular degeneration.
The gallbladder can and should be cleansed and is far from being disposable. It is a sophisticated, pear-shaped organ with the ability to determine how much bile to excrete in relation to fat consumed in the meal. Just like the oil in your car needs changing, so does the gallbladder need a flush and oil change. My 1994 education with Dr. Richard Shultze’s teaching on liver and gallbladder flushes, and changing the oil in our own “engine,” was invaluable. Consider beginning with the simple cleansing to regain proper function versus taking the extreme approach of removing an organ so incredibly valuable to not only eyesight but overall health.
Once removed, not one of the patients I questioned had been given the advice to replace the function of their now-absent gallbladder with exogenous (outside the body) bile salts or sunflower lecithin. And the struggle was evident in dry skin, dry eyes, excess weight, and the macula evidencing the lack of fat-soluble lutein and zeaxanthin to fill that vital role in vision. Dr. David Williams authored an excellent article on what to do if one’s gallbladder had been removed, now out of print; but this article cites the original and is worth reading if this is your situation.9
Macular Degeneration Basic Healing Tenets
The first most valuable lesson I learned was from Dr. Schultze: give hope. In the face of the literally or seemingly impossible, hope and the will to live, the will to heal, can triumph over therapies and medical interventions.
I learned the second most valuable lesson in my NTP class: Work from the standpoint of digestion and assimilation outward and you will solve most ills. Later I learned of a surgeon in a nearby city in Washington State, who quit cutting bowels out and began to heal them by restoring proper gut function, effective digestion, and assimilation. When asked, he replied that if he could work on just one system it would be the gut because it impacted everything.
The carotenoids build up in the skin and fat, so it is imperative that a healthy diet full of lutein and antioxidants be a daily habit, not just taking supplements used in the LAST and AREDS2 studies. Equally important is what you don’t put into the body. Brian Peskin’s work sheds light on the need to oxygenate cells versus suffocating them (with fish oil). Bill Sardi’s highlighting Vitamin B1 to oxygenate cells stands in stark comparison as does the use of good Omega-6 oils. The breakdown, assimilation, and transport of nutrients is key to refilling the retinal pigment epithelium.
Always Learning
And the third most valuable lesson that Bill embodied: never stop researching, questioning, and thinking. Many new studies on AMD have been published since 2013, yet my article is still valid in its main points. Michelangelo said at age 87, “I am still learning.” An update to my article is in the works as I have changed my opinion on fish oil, replacing it with the more valuable Omega-6 oils. Fish oil is not all it’s cracked up to be, and my view is that it can actually suffocate cells. Omega-6 oils hold the key to health of the eyes, brain, and more.
Based on Nobel Prize-winner Otto Warburg, M.D.’s discovery that lack of cellular oxygen causes cancer, Professor Brian Peskin,10 co-authoring with Dr. Robert Rowen, M.D., PEO Solution – Conquering Cancer, Diabetes and Heart Disease with Parent Essential Oils, provides alternative advice when it comes to using fish oil. Forty percent of the cell wall is composed of Omega-6 oils, which oxygenate cells. Bill Sardi’s 2019 article postulates that oxygen deprivation is the genesis for macular degeneration, making Peskin’s work all the more valuable.11
Bill Sardi, a Remarkable Man
Bill returned again to our home retreat the following year in 2012, this time along with his then-wife and young son Matthew. He affirmed in me the power of observation and research. He was not a doctor but knew more than most doctors because of his keen intellect, relentless research, writing, and dedication to solving health problems. This inspired me that a layperson like me or one with nutrition training (which is more than most doctors receive) could create a powerful impact on potentially devastating diseases like AMD.
Bill once told me last year, in 2021, that the success line was divided between those who quit working at 5:00 p.m. and those who kept on working. I would sometimes email Bill at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. His response was instant. And he was often to be found in his office working late into the night. He gave his life to helping others, to giving without expectation of return, and led most powerfully by example. He left that legacy for us all to emulate.
© 2022 Katherine A. Carroll
[1] https://knowledgeofhealth.com/ignored-vitamin-cure-for-macular-degeneration/
[1] Stuart Richer, William Stiles, Laisvyde Statkute, Jose Pulido, James Frankowski, David Rudy, Kevin Pei, Michael Tsipursky, Jill Nyland, ”Double-masked, placebo-controlled, randomized trial of lutein and antioxidant supplementation in the intervention of atrophic age-related macular degeneration: the Veterans LAST study (Lutein Antioxidant Supplementation Trial),” Clinical Trial Optometry, 2004 Apr;75(4):216-30, doi: 10.1016/s1529-1839(04)70049-4.at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15117055/.
[1] http://eyedoctorricher.com/
[1]David Turbert, “What Is Optical Coherence Tomography?” American Academy of Ophthalmology, March 8, 2022, at https://www.aao.org/eye-health/treatments/what-is-optical-coherence-tomography
[1] Connor WE, Duell PB, Kean R, Wang Y, “The prime role of HDL to transport lutein into the retina: evidence from HDL-deficient WHAM chicks having a mutant ABCA1 transporter,” Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 2007 Sep;48(9):4226-31. doi: 10.1167/iovs.06-1275, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17724211/.
[1] Katherine A. Carroll, “Best Kept Secrets to Prevent, Halt, or Even Reverse Macular Degeneration,” Health Freedom News, Vol. 31, No. 1, Spring 2013, at www. https://thenhf.com/2019/04/02/best-kept-secrets-to-prevent-halt-or-even-reverse-macular-degeneration/.
[1] Ibid.
[1]Jeff Apthorp, “What you MUST do if your Gallbladder has been Removed,” Nutrition, January 9, 2016, at https://wellnessrepair.com/what-you-must-do-if-your-gallbladder-has-been-removed/
*Not his real name
[1] https://brianpeskin.com/ [1] https://knowledgeofhealth.com/ignored-vitamin-cure-for-macular-degeneration/
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