11.30.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:47 am by Pit
Ailing FDA May Need a Major Overhaul, Officials and Groups Say
Alarm about the agency began to spike after a series of highly publicized incidents, including the discovery that the painkiller Vioxx caused heart attacks. That has been followed by other safety issues, including questions about the widely used diabetes medication Avandia and several psychiatric drugs.
"I'm afraid we're going to see more horrible things happen if we don't get our act together on this," said David Ross, who was a drug reviewer at the agency for 10 years.
The FDA appears to be busy trying to eliminate nutrition as a competition to synthetic medicines. Perhaps they should be re-directed back to actually protecting consumers instead of the profits of pharmaceutical medicine.
FDA latest threat to dietary supplements
The FDA's highly controversial bid to ban interstate trade of food, food ingredients and—dietary supplements—that have been subject to clinical investigation is utter madness. The more effort a company spends in trying to verify the efficacy and benefit of its product, the more likely that it will not be able to trade the product between states!
Cancer Cured For Good
The weekly injection of just 100 billionths of a gram of a harmless glyco-protein (a naturally-produced molecule with a sugar component and a protein component) activates the human immune system and cures cancer for good, according to human studies among breast cancer and colon cancer patients, producing complete remissions lasting 4 and 7 years respectively. This glyco-protein cure is totally without side effect but currently goes unused by cancer doctors.
My comment: Fighting tumor formation is a secondary intervention in cancer. Tumors (uncontrolled proliferation of cells) form as a natural consequence of serious changes in the chemistry of cells, where the normal energy mechanism is no longer workable and the cell changes into a different type that survives by forming cell colonies (tumors) rather than by being part of an organism. So the ideal anti-cancer intervention would be to
prevent those changes in the cells' chemistry in the first place. But apart from that, the research seems to be a great advance from what we have today.
Doctors aren’t scientists, and medicine isn’t science
Whereas science left alone is universal, medicine left alone — in the unfettered professional hands of doctors — is not universal. What doctors believe to be the best treatment for a given condition varies from country to country, because the understanding of what that condition is, the explanation of that condition, also varies from country to country.
Unfortunately, there don’t seem to be radical differences between countries regarding HIV/AIDS theory. On the central mistaken points, that HIV causes AIDS and that HIV is sexually transmitted and that antiretroviral drugs are a good thing, there seems to be trans-national agreement.
Patient-led drug trials defy medical establishment
Dozens of ALS patients are testing treatments on their own without waiting on the slow pace of medical research. They are part of an emerging group of patients willing to share intimate health details on the Web in hopes of making their own medical discoveries.
Working online, Karen Felzer and Macedo recruited nearly 200 patients worldwide to take a specific lithium dosage and answer standard surveys to gauge their symptoms. They began running their study through a Web site called PatientsLikeMe.com, using it to attract volunteers and track their progress.
On the site, patients share detailed information about their symptoms and the drugs they are taking. The site focuses on conditions that have stubbornly resisted medical science, such as ALS, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis.
This is an illustration of the failure of the pharma-for-profit model of current western medicine. Patients must do their own studies while pharma stands by idle. Actually worse than idle, as the most widely sold drugs of pharma - statins - are said to be a
possible CAUSE of ALS and similar neurological problems.
Indonesia To Pharma: Build A Factory Or Else
“If they want to get licences (to sell their products) they have to invest here also, not just take advantage of the Indonesian market,” Supari told Dow Jones. “They can’t just operate like a retailer here, with an office size that’s three metres by three and make billions of rupiah. That is not fair.”
FDA Draws Fire Over Chemicals In Baby Formula
"When FDA claims there isn't any reason to worry, that's exactly what the consumer should do," said Ken Cook, president of Environmental Working Group. "The once-revered public health agency has morphed into a taxpayer-funded public relations arm for the very industries it was created to oversee."
J&J gave money in return for positive drug studies, court documents say
Johnson & Johnson gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to a research center run by an influential child psychiatrist explicitly to generate data to help expand sales of the company's antipsychotic drug Risperdal in children, according to court documents.
Bayer Pays $97.5M To Settle Kickback Charges
According to the Justice Department Bayer allegedly paid Liberty Medical Supply, one of the largest direct-to-patient suppliers, approximately $2.5 million to convert patients to Bayer supplies. The alleged kickbacks were based on the number of patients that Liberty successfully converted to Bayer products and were disguised as payments for advertising. In addition, Bayer allegedly paid kickbacks of approximately $375,000 to 10 other diabetic suppliers to convert patients to Bayer supplies.
US: Senate Probe Snares Major Bipolar Researcher, "Infinite Mind" Radio Show
Sen. Charles Grassley has caught yet another researcher in his conflict of interest probe. This time out, it's Fred Goodwin - perhaps the most influential researcher and writer in the world of bipolar disorder - and the well-known radio show "The Infinite Mind." As a result of these new revelations, the show is going off the air.
HIV Tests: Reduce the Burden - Remove the Stigma
It is morally and ethically wrong to rob someone of their right to live, by informing them, with the full weight and support of society, that they now and forever have been diagnosed with a disease that has “no cure,” and that their only recourse is a lifetime of potent drugging, with drugs which themselves can, do and have caused death.
We have robbed citizens not only of their lives, but of their ability to fight for life, to hope for life, to overcome illness, to prove us wrong, to surprise us, to teach us, to correct the errors of our too-sure judgment. Instead we enforce their death through daily reminders - drugs, tests, and the stigmatizing label: “unsafe, and permanently infected.”
State of HIV/AIDS Denial: Carcinogenic HAART
“Cognitive dissonance” is the social scientists’ way of saying, “Not seeing what we don’t wish to see”. “Being in denial” has crept into common usage to describe the same phenomenon. In states of denial, the same unwished-for discovery is made, reported — and then ignored; over and over again.
When you have a fundamentally wrong theory, facts become quite difficult to explain, and an endless variety of conundrums are generated — all of them suitable topics for grant proposals, of course.
“This thing is going to be studied long after our time. This is so much greater than the Lysenko Affair [which had set Soviet agriculture and biology back decades]. I’m urging all of my colleagues to save all of their papers and make the historical record as complete as possible. What was the dynamics of the events that led to poisoning people with AZT? Because this is a major historical event that is going to be studied for 100 years — how the United States gave AIDS to the world”.
Bush Administration USDA Rushing Through Dangerous New Rules on Genetically Engineered Foods & Crops
In the waning months of the Bush administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has joined the ranks of federal agencies rushing through new regulations that weaken protections for human health and the environment. USDA has released a proposed rule that would significantly weaken oversight of all genetically engineered crops, and which continue to allow companies to grow food crops engineered to produce drugs and industrial chemicals.
Corrupt to The Core
Health Canada, and I suspect all governmental regulatory bodies, more or less are usurped and essentially owned by the industry. Instead of scientists, Health Canada's upper management is now stacked with industry public relations men. A good account is made of how our science based institutions have been systematically overhauled into industry organs while maintaining the pretence of protecting the public.... Surely, under these circumstances one can never be safe given that the fox is guarding the hens...
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2008
If you're into watching corporate shenanigans, here's some food for thought.
- AIG: Money for Nothing
- Cargill: Food Profiteers
- Chevron: "We can't let little countries screw around with big companies"
- Constellation Energy: Nuclear Operators
- CNPC: Fueling Violence in Darfur
- Dole: The Sour Taste of Pineapple
- GE: Creative Accounting
- Imperial Sugar: 13 Dead
- Philip Morris International: Unshackled
- Roche: Saving Lives is Not Our Business
Free Currencies: the next global currency system
Money is an information system. It's made to measure and balance flows in the real world. Money needs not to be scarce otherwise it turns the world into artificial scarcity, even when it's abundant. Money should be in right supply to account for flows so that every marketplace in the world -- companies, neighborhoods, towns, regions, global communities, etc -- can grow their wealth without constraints.
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Got something to say? Have news to share?
Join the healthfreedom group on Ning and start posting your messages. Healthfreedom on Ning is a social network and discussion forum for all who are interested in natural health and nutrition and in promoting a new medical paradigm.
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More information out there...
There is much I cannot cover but other sources for this kind of information exist and are active.
You can subscribe to the Zeus Newsletterhere. Appears twice monthly. If you would like to see some samples of Louise's collection of informative links, here are the archives.
Dr Mercola's health blog and Mike Adams' Natural News have great health information.
The Alternative Medicine Yahoo Group is a place where you can discuss and exchange information on what is happening in the world of natural health.
For the influence of electromagnetic waves from radio, mobile phones and other radio emitting devices, check out the emfrefugee group on Yahoo.
If you are interested in a different take on the news that isn't health centered but is certainly fun, check out Robin Good TV News.
A few sites to keep up to date with the other side of world affairs, the stuff you won't necessarily find on your tv or in the papers:
http://therealnews.com/
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com
http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
http://rawstory.com/
http://www.truthout.org/
... and remember,
The individual is supreme and finds its way through intuition
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11.26.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:45 am by Pit
Fear of the Invisible is a book by Janine Roberts that takes a deep look into the world of virus isolation and vaccine manufacture. It appears that isolation of a virus is not a clean-cut business, nor is the evidence that these little fragments of information from our cells' DNA actually do cause disease.
Since the data puts the causation of polio, the flu, and even aids into doubt, the advisability of vaccination as a practice to prevent "viral diseases" loses much of its appeal as a public health measure.
The book "takes its readers on a journey into the very heart of the hunt for viruses – to the key experiments performed to prove that these invisibly small particles cause diseases that often were previously blamed on toxins or bacteria. It sheds light on the extraordinary assumptions underlying much of this research into viruses – and the resulting vaccines and antiviral medicines."
From the book's Introduction
The word ‘virus' comes from the Latin for a poisonous liquid, and before that from the Sanskrit for the same. The hunt for them started when, towards the end of the 19th century, it was suggested that invisible living particles much smaller than bacteria might cause the epidemic illnesses for which no bacterial cause could be found. When the electron microscope found tiny particles in the blood serum of patients entering and leaving human cells, this was a Eureka Moment. The prediction was surely about to be proved true. These particles were assumed to be invading and hijacking our cells in order to reproduce. They were thus all condemned as poisons, as ‘viruses.'
As more of these were searched for and found in sick people, many illnesses became blamed on them. They became the invisible enemy, the nano-terrorist we must fear. We were instructed that one of our first duties for our newborn children is to vaccinate them against this dreaded foe. Thus was created an ever-growing multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical industry.
As an example of what passes for virology, the science of viral illnesses, on which rests the whole edifice of a multi-billion dollar vaccine industry and the 'preventive strategy' of much of western medicine, Martin Barnes has summarized a chapter of the book that details the scientific history of polio.
You may be amazed at some of the mind boggling blunders that are at the basis of the 'science' of vaccines. But to get the full story, do buy the book and if you are able to, spread the word.
We need honesty in medicine!
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Outline of the Science History of Polio
by Martin Barnes
This summary was created from information extracted from Janine Roberts' book 'Fear of the Invisible' (Impact Investigative Media Productions, 2008).
1909: Landsteiner and Popper
They ground up the spinal cord of a 9-year-old polio victim and injected a cup of the suspension directly into the brains of two monkeys. One died immediately and the other slowly became paralyzed.
1910: Flexer and Lewis
Ground up human spinal cord with polio and injected the suspension directly into a monkey's brain, the monkey became paralyzed, then they extracted some fluid from its brain, and injected it into another monkey's brain, and so on through a series of monkeys paralyzing all of them in the process. But making the monkeys drink the liquid or injecting into their arms did not paralyze them.
(These experiments are celebrated in modern textbooks as being the first time a 'virus' was proved to cause a major epidemic.' They could not find a bacteria in film preparations or cultures. They concluded: 'The infecting agent of epidemic polio virus belongs to the class of minute and filterable viruses that have not thus far been demonstrated with certainty under a microscope.' Toxic causes were not considered, or the shock of injecting this foreign stew directly into the brain, bypassing the immune system.)
However, the scientists were under a lot of pressure then to find a cure for the waves of polio hitting middle class kids in the summertime.
1948: Dalldorf and Sickles
Took excrement from a polio victim and prepared a 20% suspension with ether and centrifugation, then injected it directly into the living brains of suckling mice 3-7 days old. They became paralyzed.
1949: Enders of Harvard claims he can make this 'virus' from human embryonic cells, making it far easier to make a vaccine.
(Their conclusion was that this was the successful isolation of a virus that must be causing polio paralysis in humans! But all they proved was that a faeces-derived suspension of human cellular material caused illness in lab animals. They called this suspension 'polio virus' and it was to become a 'vaccine seed' for modern polio vaccines. Enders receives the 1954 Nobel Prize for this!)
1950: A small ball like particle, 24-30 nm in size, was isolated from human excrement, and made visible with an electron microscope. It was named the 'polio virus.'
(Gut enteroviruses like this are very common in humans. We all have many of them.
Where was the proof this was a causative agent? Why and how would a virus found in the gut go over to attack the nervous system as polio does?)
1951: Scientists report they cannot find the designated polio virus in many polio victims.
(This information was ignored. It was inconvenient. The public was demanding a solution to the polio epidemic attacking middle class kids.)
1952: Prof Konstantine Vinodouroff of the Institute of Neurology, Russian Academy of Medical Science, tells the Americans that Russia has never had an outbreak of polio. The Americans are amazed.
1954: Dr. Jonas Salk developed the first commercial polio vaccine with a virus found in 'the pooled faeces of three heathly children in Cleveland.'
(Dr. Salk did not even use the faeces from polio victims!)
The 'poliovaccine' is administered as a safety test to 400,000 US children. The official safety report stated that it protected '30-90 percent' of recipients.
(This was a vague statistic. However, manufacturers could make a 300% markup on the vaccine.)
1955: Salk marketed his patented vaccine 'seed' —derived from the excrement of healthy children— to manufacturers. The next step was to sprinkle it into vast quantities of minced monkey kidneys and allow the virus to multiply, then add formaldehyde to kill it. They made 27,000,000 vaccination doses.
1955: President Dwight Eisenhower awarded Salk the Congressional Medal declaring the polio vaccine a great victory for American science.
1956: Health Authorities change the rules for defining polio. Doctors are instructed to diagnose polio only if the patient has paralytic symptoms for 60 days or more. Milder cases of polio are no longer reported.
1958: CDC changes the rules for defining polio again. Cases of inflammation of the membrane that protects the brain and spinal neuron cells, causing muscular weakness and pain, but not paralysis, are no longer to be classified as polio. These cases must now be called viral or aseptic meningitis. Non-paralytic cases were now to be re-named meningitis even if the polio virus is present. The reported figures for polio were officially to exclude 'cases of aseptic meningitis due to polio virus or other entero viruses.' Reported cases of aseptic meningitis went from near zero to thousands, and polio cases dropped the same amount.
1958: Officials reduce the definition of polio again. Now all cases with classic polio paralytic symptoms are to be diagnosed initially as Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP). Two turds are taken from the patient and sent to the CDC to see if they can find polio in them. If not, they are declared as not polio, even if the children have all the classic symptoms.
(Making fewer cases of polio by changing the definition was a fraudulent way to make it seem like the polio vaccinations were working.)
1958: Officials triumphantly declared large parts of the world polio free, even while the newly defined Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) suddenly became common. Credit for this great victory over disease was given to Salk, Sabin and the vaccine manufactures.
Report in JAMA Feb 25, 1961: "It is now generally recognized that much of the Salk vaccine used in the U.S. has been worthless." Live strains produced by Sabin and put in sugar cubes were adopted instead.
2008: Ordinary doctors still do not have the power to diagnose polio by observing symptoms. The World Health Organization still demands that two turds from each victim of infantile paralysis be sent to their laboratories. If no polio virus is found in these, the cases are declared not to be polio, even if these children are suffering from the same severe paralysis symptoms and pain as found in the worst cases of polio during the American epidemics.
Question: Could something else be causing polio besides the virus? Finding the polio virus in human excrement is natural, and finding it there does not prove it causes polio, symptoms of paralysis in the motor neuron cells of the backbone.
2008: On the CDC website Dr. John Lienhard explains that too much hygiene was the cause of the polio epidemics. Most kids pick up the virus in garden soil and become naturally immune to it, but not the kids subjected to the overly hygienic parents of the 50's.
Conclusion: The effectiveness of the Salk vaccine (and Sabin live vaccine in sugar cubes) is something that we have all come to accept, but it is nothing more than a scientific myth, fraudulently promoted by the political and medical authorities of the time, and still believed today. Millions of polio vaccine injections are still given worldwide every year for essentially no purpose. Causation by a virus has not been shown.
The Case for Toxins Causing Polio
1824: Metal workers had suffered for centuries from a paralysis similar to polio caused by the lead and arsenic in the metals they were working with. English scientist John Cooke observed: 'The fumes from these metals, or the receptance of them in solution into the stomach, often causes paralysis.'
1890: Lead arsenate pesticide started to be sprayed in the US up to 12 times every summer to kill codling moth on apple crops.
1892: Polio outbreaks began to occur in Vermont, an apple growing region. In his report the Government Inspector Dr. Charles Caverly noted that parents reported that some children fell ill after eating fruit. He stated that 'infantile paralysis usually occurred in families with more than one child, and as no efforts were made at isolation it was very certain it was non-contagious' (with only one child in the family having been struck).
1907: Calcium arsenate comes into use primarily on cotton crops.
1908: In a Massachusetts town with three cotton mills and apple orchards, 69 children suddenly fell ill with infantile paralysis.
1909: The UK bans apple imports from the States because of heavy lead arsenate residues.
1921: Franklin D. Roosevelt develops polio after swimming in Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick. Toxicity of water may have been due to pollution run-off.
1943: DDT is introduced, a neurotoxic pesticide. Over the next several years it comes into widespread use in American households. For example, wall paper impregnated with DDT was placed in children's bedrooms.
1943: A polio epidemic in the UK town of Broadstairs, Kent is linked to a local dairy where cows were washed down with DDT.
1944: Albert Sabin reports that a major cause of sickness and death of American troops based in the Philippines was poliomyelitis. US military camps there were sprayed daily with DDT to kill mosquitos. Neighboring Philippine settlements were not affected.
1944: NIH reports that DDT damages the same anterior horn cells that are damaged in infantile paralysis.
1946: Gebhaedt shows polio seasonality correlates with fruit harvest.
1949: Endocrinologist Dr Morton Biskind, a practitioner and medical researcher, found that DDT causes 'lesions in the spinal cord similar to human polio.'
1950: US Public Health Industrial Hygiene Medical Director, J.G. Townsend, notes the similarity between parathion poisoning and polio and believes that some polio might be caused by eating fruits or vegetables with parathion residues.
1951: Dr. Biskind treats his polio patients as poisoning victims, removing toxins from food and environment, especially DDT contaminated milk and butter. Dr. Biskind writes: 'Although young animals are more susceptible to the effects of DDT than adults, so far as the available literature is concerned, it does not appear that the effects of such concentrations on infants and children have even been considered.'
1949-1951: Other doctors report they are having success treating polio with anti toxins used to treat poisoning, dimercaprol and ascorbic acid. Example: Dr. F. R. Klenner reported: 'In the poliomyelitis epidemic in North Carolina in 1948 60 cases of this disease came under our care... The treatment was massive doses of vitamin C every two to four hours. Children up to four years received vitamin C injection intramuscularly... All patients were clinically well after 72 hours.'
1950: Dr. Biskind presents evidence to the US Congress that pesticides were the major cause of polio epidemics. He is joined by Dr. Ralph Scobey who reported he found clear evidence of poisoning when analyzing chemical traces in the blood of polio victims.
Comment: This was a no no. The viral causation theory was not something to be questioned. The careers of prominent virologists and health authorities were threatened. Biskind and Scobey's ideas were subjected to ridicule.
1953: Clothes are moth-proofed by washing them in EQ-53, a formula containing DDT.
1953: Dr. Biskind writes: 'It was known by 1945 that DDT was stored in the body fat of mammals and appears in their milk... yet far from admitting a causal relationship between DDT and polio that is so obvious, which in any other field of biology would be instantly accepted, virtually the entire apparatus of communication, lay and scientific alike, has been devoted to denying, concealing, suppressing, distorting and attempts to convert into its opposite this overwhelming evidence. Libel, slander, and economic boycott have not been overlooked in this campaign.'
1954: Legislation recognizing the dangers of persistent pesticides is enacted, and a phase out of DDT in the US accelerates along with a shift of sales of DDT to third world countries.
(Note that DDT is phased out at the same time as widespread polio vaccinations begin.)
1962: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring is published.
1968: DDT registration cancelled for the US.
2008: Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) is still a raging, but little mentioned, epidemic in many parts of the world where pesticide use is high, and DDT is still used.
2008: WHO states on its website: 'There is no cure for polio. Its effects are irreversible.'
Conclusion: Modern belief that polio is caused by a virus is an ongoing tragedy for the children - poisoning victims - involved. Public funds are wasted on useless and dangerous vaccines when the children could be treated with antitoxins.
This graph shows that polio death rates were already in steep decline when polio vaccines were started. This directly throws into question the effectiveness of the vaccines.
Martin K. Barnes
www.maisondemartin.com
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See also:
Polio Vaccine Page
The Polio Vaccine Myth
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11.22.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:43 am by Pit
Gut check reveals vast multicultural community of bugs in bowels
A new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine reveals in greater detail than ever before the full extent of the bacterial community inhabiting the human bowel - 10 times more diverse than previous research had suggested. The technology that yielded this result offers the potential for much more accurate assessments of people's complex internal ecosystems, as well as more-sophisticated monitoring of the degree to which they are affected by, for example, antibiotics.
The prospect of swallowing an antibiotic takes on a new meaning when you consider that for each human cell in your own body, there are roughly 10 single-celled microbes, most of which live in our digestive tracts.
And let's not forget that these bacteria live in symbiosis with us, meaning they do useful work to digest food and transform it into usable nutrients that can be absorbed. So antibiotics are definitely a two-sided sword, to be used with extreme caution.
'Let the sunshine in' to protect your heart this winter
Vitamin D deficiency results in part from reduced exposure to sunlight, which is common during cold weather months when days are shorter and more time is spent indoors.
"Chronic vitamin D deficiency may be a culprit in heart disease, high blood pressure and metabolic syndrome," said Sue Penckofer, PhD, RN, study author and professor, Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing, Loyola University Chicago.
The review article cited a number of studies that linked vitamin D deficiency to heart disease. These studies found rates of severe disease or death may be 30 to 50 percent higher among sun-deprived individuals with heart disease.
What is the Real Cause of Influenza Epidemics?
A theory gaining weight in the scientific community explains influenza epidemics as a result of a dormant disease, which become active in response to vitamin D deficiency. This theory provides answers for many of the above questions. A disease that remains dormant until vitamin D-producing sunlight exposure is reduced by a winter or rainy season would explain a widespread seasonal disease with a rapid onset and decline.
There is compelling epidemiological evidence that indicates vitamin D deficiency is just such a "seasonal stimulus." Recent evidence confirms that lower respiratory tract infections are more frequent, sometimes dramatically so, in those with low levels of vitamin D. Researchers have also found that 2,000 IU of vitamin D per day abolished the seasonality of influenza, and dramatically reduced its self-reported incidence.
Garlic chemical tablet treats diabetes I and II orally
The drug is based on vanadium and allaxin, a compound found in garlic, and its action described in an Advance Article from Metallomics available free online from today.
Vanadium is an essential trace mineral that has been used as a supplement to help diabetics. Having been found to be effective, is it now being combined with a garlic fraction and re-defined to become a "drug" to be marketed exclusively by pharmaceutical manufacturers?
Scientists are high on idea that marijuana reduces memory impairment
The research suggests that the development of a legal drug that contains certain properties similar to those in marijuana might help prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Any new drug's properties would resemble those of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the main psychoactive substance in the cannabis plant, but would not share its high-producing effects.
THC joins nicotine, alcohol and caffeine as agents that, in moderation, have shown some protection against inflammation in the brain that might translate to better memory late in life. "It's not that everything immoral is good for the brain. It's just that there are some substances that millions of people for thousands of years have used in billions of doses, and we're noticing there's a little signal above all the noise," said Gary Wenk, professor of psychology at Ohio State and principal investigator on the research.
FAULTY STUDY TARGETS VITAMINS C AND E
Finding of No Cardiovascular Protection Was Predictable
The study by Howard Sesso and colleagues from Harvard, entitled the “Physicians’ Health Study II”, included over 14,600 male physicians over a ten year period. It used the least potent form of vitamin E and incorrect dosages of both vitamins C and E, according to an analysis conducted by ANH experts, Dr Steve Hickey, Dr. Damien Downing, and Dr. Robert Verkerk.
Agave Nectar, The High Fructose Health Food Fraud
There are notable differences in sugars - fructose, levulose, sucrose - which is healthy and which ones are not?
"High fructose from agave or corn will kill a diabetic or hypoglycemic much faster than refined white sugar," says Mr. Bianchi. "By eating high fructose syrups, you are clogging the veins, creating inflammation, and increasing body fat, while stressing your heart. This is in part because refined fructose is foreign to the body, and is not recognized by it."
Mercury Dental Amalgams Banned in 3 Countries
FDA, EPA, ADA Still Allow and Encourage Heavy-Metal Fillings
Any science teacher encouraging students to put mercury in their mouths would be fired for gross negligence and likely prosecuted for endangering the health of a child. Yet dentists do it every day. And the US Food and Drug Administration lets them, all the while fully aware that there are serious safety concerns.
Transgenic Animals for Food Not Proven Safe
FDA's Guidance Document provides little or no substantive information on the introduction of transgenic animals, particularly those used as bioreactors, into the environment in general and into the human food supply to be specific. FDA seems to take a passive stance on the matter. Environmental assessment is mandated by FDA but no guidance was provided on the substance of the assessment. It does not call for any health impact assessment that is urgently needed. It does not even call for labelling of the food products of transgenic animals, which is a prerequisite for health monitoring.
GM Maize Reduces Fertility & Deregulates Genes
Austrian scientists carried out long term studies that showed GM maize fed to mice significantly reduced their fertility over three to four breeding cycles within one generation. Similar effects were found in mice fed GM maize and bred over four generations; although the results did not reach statistical significance in any one generation, the trend was unmistakable, more pups lost and smaller litters in the GM-fed mice.
The studies are by far the most meticulous and comprehensive feeding trials to-date, and confirm deleterious reproductive and health impacts obtained by scientists independent of the biotech industry and farmers’ observations in the field.
GM Maize Disturbs Immune System of Young and Old Mice
The Italian government’s National Institute of Research on Food and Nutrition has just published a report online in the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry documenting significant disturbances in the immune system of young and old mice that have been fed the GM maize MON 810. This follows hot on the heels of results released by the Austrian government showing that GM Maize Reduces Fertility & Deregulates Genes in Mice (SiS 41). These revelations confirm a string of previous findings on adverse health impacts of GM food and feed...
Popular Radio Host Has Drug Company Ties
An influential psychiatrist who served as the host of public radio’s popular “The Infinite Mind” program earned at least $1.3 million between 2000 and 2007 giving marketing lectures for drug makers, income not mentioned on the program.
In a program broadcast on Sept. 20, 2005, Dr. Goodwin warned that children with bipolar disorder who are left untreated could suffer brain damage, a controversial view. “But as we’ll be hearing today,” Dr. Goodwin reassured his audience, “modern treatments — mood stabilizers in particular — have been proven both safe and effective in bipolar children.”
That very day, GlaxoSmithKline paid Dr. Goodwin $2,500 to give a promotional lecture for its mood stabilizer drug, Lamictal, at the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Fla. Indeed, Glaxo paid Dr. Goodwin more than $329,000 that year for promoting Lamictal, records given Congressional investigators show.
EU to ease drugs ad rules in upcoming 'pharma package'
A proposed new Directive on information to patients is expected to be the most controversial element of the Commission's 'pharma package', but professional doctors associations, health NGOs and member state officials remain on high alert and wonder what more information patients could possibly need.
Sounds like the pharma industry of Europe has its foot firmly planted in the door and is yanking hard to open up the EU market for their ads, suitably disguised as "information".
Chemotherapy can do more harm than good, study suggests
The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) found that more than four in ten patients who received chemotherapy towards the end of life suffered potentially fatal effects from the drugs, and treatment was “inappropriate” in nearly a fifth of cases.
Half of primary-care doctors in survey would leave medicine if they had an alternative
Of the 12,000 respondents, 49 percent said they'd consider leaving medicine. Many said they are overwhelmed with their practices, not because they have too many patients, but because there's too much red tape generated from insurance companies and government agencies.
Medicine has become a business and health care is an industry profiting on sickness. The more sick people, the more profit. It's the wrong business model and it has worsened the health of populations world wide. Someone needs to come up with a bright idea.
Anti-smoking drug linked to 10 British suicides
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) website says a total of 24 people taking the nicotine-replacement have died, of whom ten took their own lives.
A further 213 claimed they had experienced suicidal thoughts and 407 said they were suffering depression.
Video:FDA ignores dangers of antipsychotics
Effexor Linked to Murder in Arkansas
"A police report said an autopsy found Effexor, an antidepressant, in [Timothy Dale] Johnson's blood. Investigators said the drug may have played a part in his 'irrational and violent behavior....' "
Pfizer And Wyeth Sued By Nevada Attorney General
Attorney General Cortez Masto claims Nevada consumers and doctors were misled about the safety of Wyeth’s Premarin, Prempro and Premphase, and Pfizer’s Provera.
“When drug companies purposefully misrepresent the safety and efficacy of their drugs, or promote their drugs in a deceptive way, everybody loses,” Masto says in a statement. “We’re confident we have the facts necessary to prove this case, and we hope this lawsuit and its outcome will deter improper drug company practices in Nevada.”
Use of Antipsychotics in Children Is Criticized
The committee's concerns are part of a growing chorus of complaints about the increasing use of antipsychotic medicines in children and teenagers. Prescription rates for the drugs have increased more than fivefold for children in the past decade and a half, and doctors now use the drugs to settle outbursts and aggression in children with a wide variety of diagnoses, even though children are especially susceptible to their side effects.
FDA Finds Zyprexa Has Killed 3,400 People
What startles me is that last fall I reported on a study of the FDA's adverse events database in which researchers reported that Zyprexa had killed 1,005 people from 1998 to 2005, so this new accounting represents a large increase in deaths associated with the drug. Even more, according to that same study, Vioxx had killed 932 people. So why do Vioxx cases get all the media attention while Zyprexa does not? Why is Zyprexa still on the market and raking in $4 billion or so a year in sales while Vioxx is off the market?
The Almost Useless FDA Refuses To Comment On Antipsychotic Being Advertised As Anti-Depressant
I've been noting the presence of the Abilify for depression TV ad, which has been running late nights. Abilify is an atypical antipsychotic, carries black box warnings for all manner of problems associated with that class of drugs, and yet nowhere in the ad is it mentioned that the drug is an antipsychotic. Instead, throughout the ad it's only referred to as an anti-depressant.
Last week, I asked the FDA if the agency had reviewed the ad or if it had plans to...
Alaska: Foster kids say medication is overprescribed
In May, a group of foster care youth and those who have aged out came up with eight ways to improve the system. Among the identified problems: Overprescribed psychiatric drugs.
Too many foster children are prescribed psychiatric drugs, the kids said. They are labeled as disturbed, defiant or anxious when in reality they are just reacting to the trauma of their broken families and the difficulties of living in state custody.
Oil and Drug Cartel Plans "Global Coup" through IMF
For about a century the rule of the oil and drug cartel was compatible with democracy. But the oil business could last only as long as renewable energies were hidden from the public. Four decades ago, the space age began with rockets propelled by hydrogen (water) energy – but we never learned that this energy can also run cars, heat houses and light cities.
Similarly, the drug investment business – which thrives on expanding diseases as markets for patented drugs – could only exist so long as it was hidden behind false promises of cures. In the 21st century, these fraudulent business models – the status quo’s economic base – are no longer compatible with democracy. The IMF coup is designed to defend this status quo.
Law professor fires back at song-swapping lawsuits
Nesson argues that the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999 is unconstitutional because it effectively lets a private group - the Recording Industry Association of America, or RIAA - carry out civil enforcement of a criminal law. He also says the music industry group abused the legal process by brandishing the prospects of lengthy and costly lawsuits in an effort to intimidate people into settling cases out of court.
Nesson, the founder of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, said in an interview that his goal is to "turn the courts away from allowing themselves to be used like a low-grade collection agency."
Amish sue US government for 'mark of the Beast' on livestock
A group of seven Amish farmers in Michigan say the state's insistence that they use radio frequency ID devices on their animals "constitutes some form of a 'mark of the Beast' and/or represents an infringement of their 'dominion over cattle and all living things' in violation of their fundamental religious beliefs," according to their lawsuit.
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More information out there...
There is much I cannot cover but other sources for this kind of information exist and are active.
You can subscribe to the Zeus Newsletterhere. Appears twice monthly. If you would like to see some samples of Louise's collection of informative links, here are the archives.
Dr Mercola's health blog and Mike Adams' Natural News have great health information.
The Alternative Medicine Yahoo Group is a place where you can discuss and exchange information on what is happening in the world of natural health.
For the influence of electromagnetic waves from radio, mobile phones and other radio emitting devices, check out the emfrefugee group on Yahoo.
If you are interested in a different take on the news that isn't health centered but is certainly fun, check out Robin Good TV News.
A few sites to keep up to date with the other side of world affairs, the stuff you won't necessarily find on your tv or in the papers:
http://therealnews.com/
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com
http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
http://rawstory.com/
http://www.truthout.org/
... and remember,
The individual is supreme and finds its way through intuition
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11.18.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:41 am by Pit
There is a climate of elation in the world of pharma: A recent study seems to suggest that cholesterol lowering medication should perhaps be given to everyone, regardless of their level of cholesterol, to prevent future heart attacks. This is big money. At present, sales of cholesterol lowering medications are worth tens of billions of dollars, on a much more limited set of prescribing guidelines.
Yet, there are huge numbers of people suffering from the side effects of statins, which include severe muscle pains, cognitive trouble and even Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease.
Vera Hassner Sharav of the Alliance for Human Research Protection discusses the JUPITER study and its implications for our health in an article that looks at the study's limitations and inherent conflicts of interest, as well as the financial aspects of medicating healthy people to lower cholesterol.
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Pharma Marketing Tactics Threaten Public Health and Wealth
by Vera Hassner Sharav
Amid much fanfare, on Sunday, November 9, AstraZeneca announced the results of its drug trial, Justification for the Use of Statins in Prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin (JUPITER). The results were announced at the American Heart Association conference and simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine (Nov. 9). The study was hailed as a watershed event in heart disease prevention: "In this trial of apparently healthy persons without hyperlipidemia but with elevated high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels, rosuvastatin [Crestor] significantly reduced the incidence of major cardiovascular events."
Current treatment algorithms for the prevention of myocardial infarction, stroke, and death from cardiovascular causes recommend statin therapy for patients with established vascular disease, diabetes, and overt hyperlipidemia. Last year Statins commanded a $34 billion market share.
Not satisfied with selling pharmaceuticals to the sick, drug manufacturers seek to expand the market for prescription drugs to healthy people. They promote drugs as though they were toothpaste - disregarding the drugs' hazardous effects. Companies do this by persuading an unsuspecting public about the need to take drugs as a preventive measure against presumed risks of future illness. And, more importantly, drug companies set out to convince doctors - providing cash incentives - to prescribe drugs for healthy people despite documented, even life-threatening risks.
To their credit, the NEJM published an editorial by Mark A. Hlatky, M.D., who took a more critical view of the study design, its reliance on a single biomarker, CRP. He raises doubts whether the findings warrant expanded use of statins. Dr. Hlatky points to other flaws in the JUPITER study design:
"...the study provides only limited and indirect information about the role of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein testing in clinical management, since the trial did not compare subjects with and those without high-sensitivity C-reactive protein measurements, nor did it compare the use of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein with the use of other markers of cardiovascular risk."
"The relative risk reductions achieved with the use of statin therapy in JUPITER were clearly significant. However, absolute differences in risk are more clinically important than relative reductions in risk in deciding whether to recommend drug therapy, since the absolute benefits of treatment must be large enough to justify the associated risks and costs. The proportion of participants with hard cardiac events in JUPITER was reduced from 1.8% (157 of 8901 subjects) in the placebo group to 0.9% (83 of the 8901 subjects) in the rosuvastatin group; thus, 120 participants were treated for 1.9 years to prevent one event."
"On the other side of the balance, of concern are the significantly higher glycated hemoglobin levels and incidence of diabetes in the rosuvastatin group in JUPITER (3.0%, vs. 2.4% in the placebo group; P=0.01). There are also no data on the long-term safety of lowering LDL cholesterol to the level of 55 mg per deciliter (1.4 mmol per liter), as was attained with rosuvastatin in JUPITER, which is lower than in previously reported trials. Long-term safety is clearly important in considering committing low-risk subjects without clinical disease to 20 years or more of drug treatment. Finally, the cost of rosuvastatin (roughly $3.45 per day or $1,250 per year) is much higher than that of generic statins."
The cost-for the drug alone--of treating 120 people for 1.9 years to prevent one serious cardiac event would be $ 285,000.
Dr. Hlatky further notes: "Ridker et al. suggest, from their meta-regression analysis, that the risk reduction observed in JUPITER was greater than that expected on the basis of previous trials. Meta-regression is not a reliable technique, however, and the early termination of JUPITER owing to the efficacy data probably exaggerated the results to some degree."
Which brings us to the issue of conflicts of interest:
AstraZeneca funded the JUPITER study in order to justify prescribing its cholesterol-lowering statin, Crestor for people with normal cholesterol levels. Needless to say, a favorable result would exponentially increase the sales of the drug. The potential profit is in the trillions of dollars.
The research objective had a built-in bias, and the sponsor and principle investigator had a strong stake in a desired outcome. Furthermore, in light of the increased incidence of diabetes among the group prescribed Crestor (3.0%, vs. 2.4% in the placebo group), the trial's early suspension raises red flags about the extent of that (and other risks) that are known to occur mostly after extended exposure.
Not disclosed in the NEJM, is the discovery by Merrill Goozner: "the first thing you need to know about this trial is that its lead investigator, Paul Ridker of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, owns a patent on the $20 test that measures CRP." (posted below)
The JUPITER trial screened nearly 90,000 people to find the 17,800 with elevated CRP measures who were eligible for the trial. If 10 million people are tested to find the estimated two million with elevated CRP levels, "it's $200 million in test sales, which, if the royalty is only 1 percent, amounts to a hefty $2 million a year in extra income for Dr. Ridker." If AstraZeneca can get two million more "apparently healthy men and women" on rosuvastatin, it's an additional $2 billion-plus in sales."
In light of AstraZeneca's record of corrupt practices[*], the following authors' statement should taken with a high degree of skepticism: "The trial was financially supported by AstraZeneca. The sponsor collected the trial data and monitored the study sites but played no role in the conduct of the analyses or drafting of the manuscript and had no access to the unblinded trial data until after the manuscript was submitted for publication."
American medicine has been derailed from its therapeutic focus and ethical principle, "first, do no harm," into a commercially driven enterprise since it aligned itself with the pharmaceutical industry. Industry's unconscionable marketing strategy - promoting the use of drugs for healthy people - is accomplished with assistance from professional medical societies and influential physicians at prestigious academic centers.
Doctors have adopted a specious corporate rationale to justify prescribing drugs for healthy people as "preventive therapy." All-too-often, doctors accept findings from company-controlled, biased studies, ignoring the indicators for potential serious hazards posed by drugs. In the case of the JUPITER study, there was "a higher incidence of physician-reported diabetes" in the group exposed to Crestor.
Doctors at the American Heart Association, lent legitimacy to prescribing statins for long-term use in healthy people, simply on the basis of a screening test that showed they had elevated levels of CRP, a biomarker for inflammation. They predicted that the JUPITER study might lead as many as 7 million more Americans to consider taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, such as: Crestor, Lipitor, Zocor,
Similarly, the prescribing practices of US psychiatrists are driven by industry's marketing agenda with no scientific medical evidence to support the widespread prescribing of psychotropic drugs. Dubious screening tests - such as DISC, TeenScreen, KiddieSADS, TRAYY - provide the basis for "diagnosing" mental disorders in millions of otherwise healthy American children who are then exposed to harmful toxic drugs that interfere with normal physiological and neurological development. Even as these drugs' labels now carry black box warnings, the most severe drug warnings mandated by the FDA-including the increased risk of suicide-prominent psychiatrists promote the use of these drugs in children. Financially compromised psychiatrists regularly pen their name (for hefty fees) to industry-generated clinical trial reports and clinical practice guidelines whose prescription drug recommendations have propelled the most toxic psychotropic drugs into blockbuster sellers.
*AstraZeneca in the news:
Nov. 6, 2008: Astra Zeneca Reps Told To Use Disney Characters In Seroquel Marketing
How is this for creative selling? The idea was conveyed at a national sales meeting and on field rides with sales reps, who were told to use Tigger as a bipolar patient and Eeyore - the down-in-the-mouth donkey - as a depressed patient. The reps were allegedly encouraged to use Tigger dolls as giveaways." See:
http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/11/tiggergate-using-disney-icons-to-sell-seroquel/
June 19, 2008: Judge Price of the Montgomery County Circuit Court upheld the fraud verdict obtained by the State against AstraZeneca in the Medicaid drug pricing suit. Judge Price upheld the compensatory damage award of $40 million and, pursuant to the statutory cap on punitive damages, cut the punitive damages from $175 million to $120 million, making the total verdict $160 million. AstraZeneca has stated they will appeal, so the Alabama Supreme Court will be looking at it. For more information, follow the link to an article on Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/06/19/ap5134622.html
May 6, 2008: AstraZeneca released limited performance data for a trial using its antipsychotic, Seroquel for depression. The company released the data during a poster session at the American Psychiatric Association's convention. The data has not been published yet in a peer-reviewed journal, so we have no information on drop out rates or whatever statistical methodology may have been used. The expanded use of antipsychotics for depression would represent a "huge tectonic shift" in treating depression - and a huge influx of profits. AZ hadn't released any efficacy data for Seroquel XR's performance versus placebo in treating depression (or Major Depressive Disorder, as AZ has it). See Furious Seasons article:
Astra Zeneca releases limited Seroquel data for depression
April 6, 2007: AstraZeneca, 'Bucket of Money'
Group of 7 Whistleblowers Allege Off-Label Campaign for cancer drug, Faslodex, "There is a big bucket of money sitting in every office. Every time you go in, you reach your hand in the bucket and grab a handful. The more times you are in, the more money goes in your pocket. Every time you make a call, you are looking to make more money." See:
http://www.brandweeknrx.com/2007/04/az_bucket_of_mo_1.html and
http://tinyurl.com/5sjuq7
June 21, 2003: AstraZeneca, the large pharmaceutical company, pleaded guilty today to a felony charge of health care fraud and agreed to pay $355 million to settle criminal and civil accusations that it engaged in a nationwide scheme to illegally market a prostate cancer drug. The government said the company's employees had given illegal financial inducements to as many as 400 doctors across the country to persuade them to prescribe the drug, Zoladex. Those inducements included thousands of free samples of Zoladex, worth hundreds of dollars each, which the physicians then billed to Medicare and other federal health care programs, prosecutors said. The company also gave doctors financial grants, paid them as consultants and provided free travel and entertainment, the government said.
See: AstraZeneca Pleads Guilty In Cancer Medicine Scheme By MELODY PETERSEN,
The New York Times
Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav
veracare@ahrp.org
212-595-8974
http://www.gooznews.com
November 09, 2008
CRP -- The Next Chapter in Medical Waste?
The latest study on statins and heart disease, which appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine website yesterday and in all the major papers this morning, is worth a second look, not because of what it says about heart disease, which is mildly interesting at best, but because of what it reveals about profit-driven medical research and how it contributes to making the U.S. health care system the most bloated and wasteful in the world.
Whole article at http://www.gooznews.com/archives/001243.html
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Posted in Uncategorized at 11:41 am by Pit
David Korten's Agenda for a New Economy: Beyond the Bailout
"When we recognize that GDP represents cost, not gain, it becomes clear why making it grow is a mistake. A number of researchers have been pointing out that happiness, as well as other indicators of human, social, and environmental health, have been declining even as GDP increased, but their appeals have been largely ignored. We continue to manage our economies to maximize the cost, rather than the benefit, of economic activity."
CAPE TOWN CAPERS – CODEX MEETS AGAIN ON NUTRITION
"I argued that the Committee should not be bound to follow the three-year-old definitions set forth by a simple report from a technical workshop hosted by FAO. It’s not the Bible or the Koran. It should not be set in stone. When the Chairman refused to budge, it became even more evident to me than before that one of the major problems with the entire Codex process is that it will create a huge edifice of standards and guidelines based upon yesterday's news. Then, it will become, as it was at this Committee meeting, impossible to change the edifice to match advancing human knowledge. In essence, Codex will still be debating gas lighting standards while cold fusion is powering the planet. How many people will die because of outmoded standards?"
Generation Rx - Movie by Kevin Miller released
GENERATION RX documents how an entire era of children have been caught in the middle of an unprecedented change in Western culture: that of drugging children with psychiatric medications earlier—and more often than ever before.
For decades, scores of doctors, government officials, journalists, and others have extolled the benefits of psychiatric medicines for children. GENERATION RX presents "the rest of the story" and unveils how this era of unprecedented change in Western culture really occurred - and what price has been paid by our society.
GENERATION RX is a film about families who confronted horror and found nowhere to turn for help - and how scores of children have been caught in the vortex of mind-bending drugs at the earliest stages of their growth and development.
EFSA approves two forms of vitamin B 12
Two forms of vitamin B 12 have been approved for use as an ingredient in food supplements by EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority which is located in Parma, Italy. The forms of vitamin B 12 approved are methylcobalamin and 5’-deoxyadenosylcobalamin.
The opinion excludes methylcobalamin produced from genetically modified micro-organisms, stating that for that source of the vitamin, a specific submission would be needed that takes into account the use of GM in production.
What About Those "Wasted" Vitamins?
Ever heard this one before? "Your body doesn't absorb extra vitamins. All you get from taking vitamin supplements is expensive urine."
"Expensive urine," writes veteran nutritional reporter Jack Challem, is "a bizarre argument because a $50 restaurant meal and a bottle of fine wine also lead to expensive urine, but no one seems to be complaining about those things. Numerous studies have shown, however, that vitamin supplements do increase people's blood levels of those nutrients."
Good nutrition saves lives. The therapeutic use of vitamin supplements, to both treat and prevent serious diseases, has tens of thousands of scientific references to support it.
Magnesium, the Mineral Marvel
Older Americans often have inadequate magnesium levels, a significant health risk because the mineral helps relax the arteries and is integral to energy production.
Magnesium intake is linked to reduced chances of stroke and heart attack. It reduces arterial tension — preventing spasms within the blood vessels — and helps discourage clotting within the arteries.
See also a book by Dr Carolyn Dean:
The Magnesium Miracle
Vitamin B6 Reduces Colon Cancer
Many of us are not getting nearly enough B6 from our diets. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (May, 2008) published a study of nearly 8,000 people showing that B6 inadequacy is common throughout the United States. "Across the study population," the authors said, "we noticed participants with inadequate vitamin B6 status even though they reported consuming more than the Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamin B6, which is less than 2 milligrams per day." Three out of four women using oral contraceptives are vitamin B6 deficient, unless they also take vitamin B6 supplements. Smokers and the elderly are also especially likely to be at risk. Remarkably, even among people who take B6 supplements, one in ten is still B6 deficient.
UK: Ministers agree to food colour ban
Ministers have agreed that six artificial food colourings should be phased out after research found a link with hyperactivity in children.
FDA Faulted for Stance on Chemical in Plastics
On Wednesday, a panel of toxicology experts said the FDA hadn't properly assessed the potential health risks posed by the chemical bisphenol A (BPA), which some studies have linked to cancer, diabetes, heart disease and developmental delays in children. The toxicologists said the FDA had relied too heavily on studies funded by the chemical industry to make its decision, and had failed to consider other studies that questioned the safety of BPA.
Campaigner wins pesticide victory
The judge said "defects" in Defra's approach to pesticide safety contravened a 1991 EC Directive. He ruled that the result of his judgment was that Environment Secretary Hilary Benn "must think again and consider what needs to be done".
Ms Downs said she was very pleased with the ruling. "The UK government's relentless and extraordinary attempts to protect industry, as opposed to people's health, has been one of the most outrageous things to behold in the last seven years of my fight."
Research finds that low concentrations of pesticides can become toxic mixture
Ten of the world's most popular pesticides can decimate amphibian populations when mixed together even if the concentration of the individual chemicals are within limits considered safe, according to University of Pittsburgh research published Nov. 11 in the online edition of Oecologia. Such "cocktails of contaminants" are frequently detected in nature, the paper notes, and the Pitt findings offer the first illustration of how a large mixture of pesticides can adversely affect the environment.
... and human health, one might add.
Supplement or Drug?
The FDA is currently receiving comment about Section 912 of its Amendments Act (FDAAA), which deals with the regulation of foods containing substances that have undergone clinical trials.
Further clarification is needed because the provision could prevent products from being marketed as dietary supplements if they (a) contain substances that have been subject to clinical trials, and (b) if those clinical studies have been made public.
US: Decisions That Will Impact Your Health Freedom
The November 4th elections in the United States have just concluded and many people throughout the World are celebrating what they see as wonderful news. Yet, lost in the glow is the very real fact that the Congressional and Executive Branch public-policy impact of the elections will not be favorable for health freedom. For health-freedom advocates and their Washington Representatives, the election of Barack Obama as our next President is troubling, but it is probably not the worst of the "change" that is coming to the nation's capital. The increased control of Congress by Congressional Democrats is the bigger threat to health freedoms, all across the public-policy board.
Europe's secret plan to boost GM crop production
The documents – minutes of a series of private meetings of representatives of 27 governments – disclose plans to "speed up" the introduction of the modified crops and foods and to "deal with" public resistance to them.
And they show that the leaders want "agricultural representatives" and "industry" – presumably including giant biotech firms such as Monsanto – to be more vocal to counteract the "vested interests" of environmentalists.
Austrian Government Study Confirms Genetically Modified (GM) Crops Threaten Human Fertility and Health Safety
A long-term feeding study commissioned by the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, carried out by Veterinary University Vienna, confirms genetically modified (GM) corn seriously affects reproductive health in mice. Non-GMO advocates, who have warned about this infertility link along with other health risks, now seek an immediate ban of all GM foods and GM crops to protect the health of humankind and the fertility of women around the world.
Johns Hopkins Clinicians Declare the Current RDA Guidelines Inadequate to Correct Vit. D Deficiencies
John Hopkins University researchers have termed the current RDA guidelines inadequate to correct the widely prevalent vitamin D deficiency in children suffering from cystic fibrosis. In their attempts to restore normal vitamin D levels, their trials used the recommended 50,000 IU of vitamin D once a week, increased it to twice a week, and finally to three times a week, yet produced less-than-optimal results. They concluded that adult and pediatric patients with vitamin D deficiency need 50,000 IU of vitamin D3 daily for four weeks to optimize their levels of vitamin D.
Oxfam calls for complete revamp of medical R&D
Oxfam, which will be attending a conference on the issue hosted by the European Commission in Brussels, says that after years of scientific progress, still less than ten percent of all medical research is being dedicated to diseases afflicting more than 90 percent of the world’s population.
Tropical diseases such as dengue fever or sleeping sickness affect millions of people in developing countries and yet only receive $1 out of every $100,000 spent globally on medical R&D, according to the report Ending the R&D Crisis in Public Health.
IODINE: Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It
“The reason there is so much iodine deficiency present is not only due to inadequate iodine intake, it is also due to the toxicities we are exposed to on a daily basis. These toxicities include the toxic halides bromine, fluoride and the chlorine derivatives.”
Time to fight iodine deficiency disorders
Iodine deficiency was once considered a minor problem, causing goiter, an unsightly but seemingly benign cosmetic blemish. However, it is now known that the effects on the developing brain are much more deadly, and constitute a threat to the social and economic development of many countries.
Pediatrician Believes ADHD Does Not Exist
In the book, "The Diseasing of America's Children: Exposing the ADHD Fiasco and Empowering Parents To Take Back Control", the authors not only hold the ADHD Establishment's feet to the fire -- they toss the establishment into the fire, using such pointed phrases as "a travesty of science," "flimsy evidence," "a scandal waiting to erupt," and "an effort that has resulted in the manufacture of diseases that do not exist."
Specifically, the authors contend that those "diseases that do not exist" -- namely, ADD (attention-deficit disorder), ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) and ODD (oppositional defiant disorder) -- are based on bad science, most likely do not derive from a genetic brain disorder, and therefore do not require potentially harmful medications for treatment.
Study shows direct link between leptin and obesity-related cardiovascular disease
Tadeusz Malinski and colleagues have published the first study to directly observe how high levels of leptin can create a cascade of harmful biochemical changes in the body. Leptin, a peptide hormone produced by fat cells, helps regulate body weight by acting on the hypothalamus to suppress appetite and burn stored fat.
But an excess of fat in the body can produce too much of the hormone, which, in turn, can lower levels of bioavailable nitric oxide. Nitric oxide, produced by the endothelial cells, supports healthy cardiovascular function by relaxing blood vessels and maintaining good blood flow, explained Malinski, who has developed special nanosensors that can detect levels of the substance.
Cancer: Doctors 'rely on chemo too much'
A review of 600 cancer patients who died within 30 days of treatment found that in more than a quarter of cases it actually hastened or caused death.
The report by the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death said doctors should consider reducing doses or not using chemotherapy at all.
England's cancer tsar Professor Mike Richards said he was "very concerned".
Gardasil Linked to Seventy-Eight Outbreaks of Genital Warts
The Gardasil vaccine has been linked to 78 outbreaks of genital warts, according to an article in The Fiji Times entitled "Are our girls guinea pigs?" by Matelita Ragogo. That's right. In addition to all of the other adverse reactions to this controversial vaccine, children who receive it are subject to outbreaks of genital warts.
Gardasil Should Not Be Mandatory
A trio of academics is joining the debate over the notion requiring girls to be vaccinated with Merck’s Gardasil is not a good idea. And in a recent issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Gail Javitt of Johns Hopkins’s Berman Institute of Bioethics, Deena Berkowitz of George Washington University School of Medicine and Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University Law Center they offer five reasons...
Flu Shots For The Elderly Are Ineffective
As with all immunizations, flu shots can have harmful side effects. Vaccines may contain, among other things, ingredients such as mercury and aluminum, which are widely regarded as toxic. The elderly are more likely to be injured by, or even die from, flu vaccine side effects. Such incidents may remain unreported by hospitals or physicians. One man, aged 76, had a flu shot and immediately had to be hospitalized for a week. When family members suggested to the hospital staff and physicians that it was probably a reaction to the shot, their views were disregarded. Two years later the man had another flu shot, and was promptly hospitalized a second time. Family members once again said it was a reaction to the flu shot. The hospital said it was a low-grade infection, probably a bladder infection. The man died.
Flu Shot Dangers Far Outweigh Benefits
This interview was conducted 2 years ago. In light of the major flu propaganda now reaching fever fitch (no pun intended), it's time to examine the facts once again on the flu shot. This year is a very dangerous year for the flu. The CDC has approved the use of a vaccine containing 3 virsuses, at least 2 of which have been genetically engineered, including the Spanish flu virus from 1918. Just how are we supposed to fight off the flu with attenuated virus being in the flu shot derived from dead bodies from the 1918 flu pandemic?
Shot or Not - The Influenza Vaccine and FluMist
Today I caught part of an episode of Regis (Philbin) and Kelly (Ripa). They were getting their flu shots on air. Regis was obviously more nervous than usual. Then he stated that in the past he had pain in his arm for 8 weeks following the administration of a flu shot. He was noticeably scared. The nurse assured him that it is totally safe – this time...
Researchers use chemical from medicinal plants to fight HIV
A new UCLA AIDS Institute study has found that a chemical from the Astragalus root, frequently used in Chinese herbal therapy, can prevent or slow progressive telomere shortening, which could make it a key weapon in the fight against HIV.
And this may not be the only use of the Astragalus extract, since aging depends to a large degree on this mechanism, meaning our cells lose the capacity to renew themselves when their telomeres get too short.
When HIV/AIDS comes in, thinking departs and ignorance reigns
The facts are, of course, that HIV isn’t sexually transmitted, and neither is AIDS. Even the mainstream acknowledges that male-to-female transmission (which is, as we know, only apparent transmission) is merely on the order of 1 per thousand, and female-to-male an order of magnitude lower still. But Mrs Kakariba and other nurses, and indeed practicing physicians, can’t spend their time delving into the technical literature. They have to accept what the authorities tell them.
“Needle ZERO” again; or, HIV pops up magically out of nowhere
Points 2 and 3 in particular are some of the many data that show “HIV-positive” to be a highly non-selective, non-specific indicator of physiological stress or immune activation. There’s also overwhelming evidence that “HIV-positive” is not a contagious condition, and that “HIV” doesn’t correlate with “AIDS”.
BBC shunned me for denying climate change
"When I first stuck my head above the parapet to say I didn’t believe what we were being told about global warming I had no idea what the consequences would be."
"According to official data, in every year since 1998 world temperatures have been getting colder, and in 2002 Arctic ice actually increased. Why, then, do we not hear about that?"
"The sad fact is that since I said I didn’t believe human beings caused global warming I’ve not been allowed to make a TV programme."
Organizing to Heal Nature and Produce Abundance
Keep in mind that the wealth of Bill Gates is not dollars in a bank account. His wealth is an ownership interest in the assets and profitability owned by Microsoft. With the right kind of organization, every member of your community could have an ownership interest in the assets to produce all the food, clothing, shelter, education and health care that your community needs – and that would be real wealth – no matter what the market does.
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More information out there...
There is much I cannot cover but other sources for this kind of information exist and are active.
You can subscribe to the Zeus Newsletterhere. Appears twice monthly. If you would like to see some samples of Louise's collection of informative links, here are the archives.
Dr Mercola's health blog and Mike Adams' Natural News have great health information.
The Alternative Medicine Yahoo Group is a place where you can discuss and exchange information on what is happening in the world of natural health.
For the influence of electromagnetic waves from radio, mobile phones and other radio emitting devices, check out the emfrefugee group on Yahoo.
If you are interested in a different take on the news that isn't health centered but is certainly fun, check out Robin Good TV News.
A few sites to keep up to date with the other side of world affairs, the stuff you won't necessarily find on your tv or in the papers:
http://therealnews.com/
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com
http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
http://rawstory.com/
http://www.truthout.org/
... and remember,
The individual is supreme and finds its way through intuition
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