Could the life of one of Canada’s great Ministers of Finance have been saved by medical treatment? You did not have to be a doctor to see the change in his facial appearance and realize he was not well.

But when he apparently died from a massive heart attack, was he denied a natural remedy that might have saved his life? And could his son, who suffered from a disability, have been saved by the same treatment?

Jim Flaherty developed a rare skin disease called Bullous pemphigoid. It’s an autoimmune disease in which a person’s immune system produces antibodies that attack the body. In effect, it’s as if soldiers suddenly decided to turn their guns on each other, rather than on the enemy.

During these attacks the skin develops painful blisters that may last for months. The diagnosis is made by taking biopsies of the skin. Treatment consists of using steroids, such as prednisone, to help heal the lesions.

But what is it that actually killed Jim Flaherty? J.B. Moliere, the French playwright, once remarked that, “Nearly all men die of their medicines, not of their diseases.” It was an astute observation by a playwright. And there is reason to suggest that this is what happened to Jim Flaherty. The majority of specialists agree that patients suffering from Bullous pemphigoid die with it, rather than from it.

I’ve often stressed in this column that the problem with prescription drugs is you rarely get something for nothing. The outward sign with Bullous pemphigoid, is the bloated, rounded face due to the collection of fluid.

Prednisone also triggers things you cannot see. For instance, bone loss and an increased risk of cataracts. But much more lethal are factors that increase the risk of heart attack, such as elevated blood level of LDL (low density lipoprotein) the bad cholesterol, hypertension and increased blood sugar, sometimes resulting in Type 2 diabetes.

Diabetes is notorious for causing atherosclerosis, the rust that gradually decreases blood flow to coronary arteries, which could have been responsible for Jim Flaherty’s massive coronary.

So what could have saved Flaherty’s life, particularly when side effects of his medication are known to increase the risk of coronary attack? Dr. Sydney Bush, an English researcher, has photographic evidence that high doses of Vitamin C and lysine can not only prevent, but can also reverse atherosclerosis (narrowing of coronary arteries). You don’t have to be a doctor to see these dramatic changes on my web site www.docgiff.com. You can also read more about the advantages of Vitamin C and lysine in my book What I Learned as a Medical Journalist.

But I’d be my last dollar that Flaherty did not receive this natural, safe and effective remedy. In my 64 years of practicing medicine I cannot think of one discovery that is more important than the fact that atherosclerosis can now be prevented and reversed, important because this generative problem triggers a ton of cardiovascular problems.

Yet cardiologists continue to believe that cholesterol-lowering drugs are the be-all-and-end-all to prevent heart attack. This is the world’s greatest example of how hundreds of millions of pharmaceutical dollars can brainwash the minds of highly educated specialists. It’s unfortunate because a high concentration of Vitamin C and lysine, called Medi-C Plus, is now available in Health Food Stores in Canada that could decrease these deaths.

About Jim Flaherty’s son, one he loved so dearly. It’s reported that his young son was stung by an insect and developed encephalitis, resulting in lifelong disability. Could this have been prevented?

Decades before Flaherty’s son developed encephalitis, Dr. Frederick Klenner, a North Carolina doctor, showed that high doses of intravenous Vitamin C could cure patients stricken with polio, encephalitis, meningitis, measles and could even neutralize the venom of rattlesnakes. This information is available for anyone to read on the Internet. But 99.9% of physicians remain unaware of this research.

History shows that the closed minds of physicians, by resisting new therapies, have caused needless deaths of millions of people. It’s still happening. Isn’t it ironic that medical consumers can see the logic of these before-and-after photos, and doctors ignore them?

See the web site at www.docgiff.com. Email at info@docgiff.com.