As was evident from the previous chapter, arthritis is a systemic disease which affects the whole body. Therefore, the only measures that can be successful in correcting the disease, bringing it under control, and accomplishing a lasting cure, must be ones directed at correcting its underlying causes. This can only be accomplished by treatments which help to overcome the systemic disturbances, normalize the metabolic processes, and help restore all normal functions of the vital organs and glands. That the conventional remedies fail to accomplish this is evident

While drugs and injections may relieve pain and modify symptoms, they do not go to the bottom of the problem, they do not eliminate the underlying causes, nor do they correct the systemic disturbances. What is even worse, these conventional remedies, being suppressive in nature and having undesirable toxic side effects, interfere with the normal bodily processes and actually inhibit restorative and healing efforts of the body. Eventually they cause more damage than good and lead to a complete invalidism.

It must be emphatically stated that drugs do not possess curative powers. The cure is always brought about by the body itself, and the most that a wise doctor can ever do is assist the body’s own healing forces. The drugs used in conventional treatment of arthritis—aspirin, cortisone, gold injections, etc.— only suppress and mask the symptoms of the disease. They do not promote the healing processes, nor do they provide any lasting benefits.

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The United States District Court in Orange, California recently awarded a half million dollars in damages in a judgment against Advanced Labs of Redding, California as a result of a suit filed against them alleging trademark infringement, false advertising, and unfair competition, claiming that those practices resulted in consumer confusion and loss of sales of authentic CMO products.

The CMO mark has been used since November 1995 to clearly and specifically identify the proprietary cerasomal-cis-9-cetylmyristoleate product. CMO is a natural immunomodulator used by people suffering from such ailments as arthritis, Crohn’s disease, carpal tunnel syndrome, fibromyalgia, emphysema, migraine headaches, prostate inflammation, and several other ailments with autoimmune involvement.

Advanced Labs had adopted and was using the CMO trademark in its promotional literature and advertising for products of different composition. When Advanced Labs failed to respond to a cease and desist warning letter, the suit was filed against them.

The makers state, “The CMO trademark is distinctive and popular with the consuming public. We have worked long and hard to build up our name and reputation in the healthcare industry, and Advance’s actions are causing us to lose customers and sales, as well as seriously damaging our reputation.”

“It is grossly unfair for Advanced Labs to position itself in the marketplace through competitive confusion by using the CMO trademark,” said W. E. Levin the attorney who filed the suit. Our goal is to permanently enjoin Advance from further violating the trademark rights and to pay for the damage they have done. We hope this sends a clear message to other competitors.”

And we say that it’s time to clear the deck of products that are misrepresented as CMO, especially since virtually all of them are not only inferior, but ineffective. Many are just scams that take advantage of suffering people by fraudulently using the CMO name.

Although we at SDC have not devoted much energy to tracking down and exposing manufacturers who are fraudulently producing counterfeit CMO, the manufacturer and a number of distributors have been quite persistent in pressing legal action against them. We’d like to present here what some of those investigations found.

The marketplace seems to be sprouting new “CMO” counterfeit impersonators every day. Many consumers, distributors, nutritionists, scientists, physicians, and other health care professionals are confused and dizzy from the spin put on these phony products. We hope to clarify and differentiate between as many of these various fraudulent impostors as best we can. However, this cannot keep up with all the new ones as fast as they appear. Still, you should be able to apply many of the points you find here to other products as well.

First and foremost, let us emphasize that there is only one producer of CMO. It is strictly a proprietary product. There is no other. And it is a totally naturally derived product. As such it contains many beneficial closely related trace substances which aid in its effectiveness – just as the bioflavanoids accompanying vitamin C aid in its effectiveness.

For any product to act as an immunomodulator it must be made of some form of myristoleate. Myristates don’t work. And analyses revealed that virtually none of the imitators had even a trace of any form of myristoleate. Some had myristates, which are somewhat similar chemically, but don’t work for arthritis. Only one had any cetylmyristoleate at all, and that was in the unaltered form that is very hard to digest and absorb orally.

Our investigations finally led us to issue a brief but comprehensive memo summarizing the various classes of substances being marketed today. We apologize if you find some parts a bit too technical.

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