Sunday, November 30, 2008

Varicella Outbreak Followed by Forced Vaccination

The only time I ever witnessed a severe reaction to chicken pox was in the 1970s while working in ICU at a hospital in Philadelphia. The wife of one of our GI doctors contracted chicken pox while pregnant. Sadly she died, but the baby survived. Her husband was devastated.

I had chicken pox as a child as did my children. Starch baths helped with the itching as I recall. We had no untoward effects, except that I experienced a shingles outbreak after my father died. But you can be sure I'm not heading out for the shingles vaccine.

Shingles is the same virus as chicken pox. The very painful patches can be treated naturally with valerian root and black walnut tincture. Additionally using St. John's Wort tincture acts as an anti-viral.

This recent event in Washington state shows how its health department is continuing to forcibly push vaccination without providing important vaccine information to parents. It also seems that in the usual style the health department isn't offering the no vaccination option, although the article mentions that the child can be kept at home.

The news station reported on this story while showing smiling children and the band aid covered spot on their arms. They did not provide the information that I've added below the report. You might want to read about problems with Varivax.

Other reports address a measles outbreak in the UK because people are not choosing the combined, yet problematic MMR jabs...

and some refer to the problems of Vaccines, adjuvants and potential toxicity
Spokane Regional Health District officials say at the very most two-dozen students at a north Spokane school have contracted chicken pox.

A letter was sent to parents at an elementary school in Spokane WA - instructing them to keep their children at home until the outbreak has ended if they can't provide proof of vaccination or immunity.

The decision is based on recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and made in consultation with the Washington State Department of Health, and Spokane Public School officials.

A Spokane Regional Health District said only three classrooms have been affected by the outbreak thus far.

“Although many people believe that chickenpox is a mild, expected disease of childhood, chickenpox can be very serious,” said Bill Edstrom, epidemiologist for the Spokane Regional Health District.

“For this reason, Washington State began a phased-in requirement for all school children to be vaccinated against this disease beginning in 2005. Vaccine has been available and recommended for all children since 1995.”

During an outbreak, all children, staff and other adults who are working or volunteering in the affected classrooms who are at risk for the disease are recommended by the CDC to be sent home in order to stop the spread of the illness.

Currently, children and staff in affected classrooms without proof of vaccination or previous disease are being sent home for up to 21 days.

If the outbreak continues, this exclusion will be expanded to include all Garfield students and staff without proof of vaccination or previous disease.

A letter will be sent to parents today recommending that parents of all Garfield students prepare for the possible expansion of the outbreak and exclusion order.

It is not possible to predict who will have a mild case of chickenpox and who will have a serious or even deadly case of disease.

Even with uncomplicated cases, children with chickenpox miss an average of 5-6 days of school, and parents or other caregivers miss 3-4 days of work to care for sick children.

Compared with children, adults are at increased risk of complications related to chickenpox.

Vaccination is the best way to prevent infection with varicella—the virus that causes chickenpox—both in an individual and in the community.

Widespread vaccination also reduces the risk of exposure to infection for persons at risk for serious disease who cannot be vaccinated because of illness or other conditions.

The vaccine is safe and effective, and should be used to prevent as many cases as possible.

The varicella vaccine is available at most doctors’ offices, and at the Spokane Regional Health District’s public health clinic.

"THE ARGUMENT THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF MEDICINE
PASTEUR: Non-changeable microbes cause disease. Monomorphism. The Germ Theory.
BECHAMP: Microbes change. How - function of terrain. Pleomorphism. Terrain (toxicity) Theory.
Ultimately, Pasteur won, but reveresed himself on his deathbed, “...the microbe is nothing, the terrain is everything.”
Unfortunately, the road was paved for the Germ Theory and it was too late for medicine to turn it around.
RESULT: Medicine today alleviates symptoms of disease,but rarely the cause."


What You Should Consider Before Taking the Chicken Pox Vaccine (VARIVAX)

1) VARIVAX is recommended by Merck for children 12 months and older.

2) Chicken pox has a better than 99.99% compete recovery rate followed by life-time immunity.

3) The FDA VAERS' (Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System) first year surveillance of VARIVAX included over 1,500 reports. 76 were serious adverse reactions that included 2 deaths. While a VAERS report does not prove a causal relationship between the vaccine and the death or disability that follows, the vaccine is highly suspect in all such reports.

4) The FDA has stated that fewer than 10% of serious adverse reactions and deaths following vaccines are reported; independent researchers cite lower rates. The federal government has paid families of vaccine killed and disabled children nearly $100 million in tax-payer dollars each year since 1986 through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVCIP).

5) Studies show that up to 3% of VARIVAX recipients contract chicken pox from the vaccine, and that some chicken pox cases may be contracted from recently vaccinated children. Vaccine recipients may therefore pose a health risk to pregnant mothers or family members with chronic health problems or compromised immune systems.

6) VARIVAX has an estimated effectiveness of 6 - 10 years. Vaccinated children may thus be unprotected as adults, when hospitalization and deaths from chickenpox occur at rates 10 and 20 times higher than in childhood, respectively. (Half of the measles cases in the late 1980’s outbreaks occurred in adolescents and adults--most of whom were vaccinated as children.)

7) California’s Pacificare Health Systems HMO chose not to recommend VARIVAX; medical director Dr. William Osheroff said, “The real issue is all of the unanswered questions about Varivax...This is a very benign disease in children, but the vaccine may create a false sense of security as these kids get older and find themselves non-immune. Chickenpox as an adult is a serious disease.”

8) A 1995 edition of Health Magazine stated, “As with any new vaccine, researchers won't have complete information on its effectiveness until it's been in use for at least a generation.”

9) Some parents reported a correlation between VARIVAX and seizures. (The FDA Vaccine Data Safety Link has recently reported that seizures following DPT are “common,” although the DPT vaccine has been in use for decades.)

10) VARIVAX was developed with the use of aborted fetuses. This may pose religious and/or ethical considerations for some people.

11) Infants today may be protected from chicken pox by maternal antibodies from their mothers. However, due to VARIVAX's temporary immunity, vaccinated girls may not have maternal antibodies as adults. Their future children may be susceptible to chicken pox as infants, when they are too young for the vaccine. (The percentage of measles cases in infants has increased significantly in the years following the widespread use of the measles vaccine).

12) Shingles, a sometimes debilitating condition, is caused by the chicken pox virus. It usually occurs after age 50 in a tiny percentage of persons who had chicken pox as children. The relationship between VARIVAX (a live virus vaccine) and shingles is unknown. In 10 years of use, nearly 1 out of 1000 vaccine recipients have developed shingles. There is no way to know how many of the remaining 999 out of each 1000 will also develop shingles in later years.

13) According to the National Vaccine Information Center, many healthcare professionals are very concerned that the live vaccine virus may “reactivate later in life in the form of herpes zoster (shingles) or other immune system disorders.”

14) Dr. A. Lavin of the Department of Pediatrics, St. Luke’s Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, strongly opposed licensing VARIVAX, “Until we actually know...the risks involved in injecting mutated DNA [the vaccine] into the host genome [children].”

15) Some studies suggest that chicken pox in a vaccinated child may be milder than in an unvaccinated child. However, some experts believe that this may be due to the vaccine suppressing the illness, which could actually signal a more serious underlying chronic condition. For example, “Atypical measles” is a disease that occurs only in people previously vaccinated for measles, and it is far more serious than regular measles. It is not yet known if “atypical chicken pox” cases will appear as a result of the use of VARIVAX.

16) VARIVAX contains MSG (monosodium glutamate) in 2 forms, according to Jack Samuels, an expert on MSG. According to the FDA, MSG is not advised for infants, children, or pregnant women or children of childbearing age, and people with affective (mental/emotional) disorders.

17) According to VARIVAX product literature, the vaccine contains gelatin and trace amounts of neomycin, and should not be given to people allergic to them; it should not be given to anyone with an immune disorder, or anyone receiving drugs which affect the immune system such as chemotherapy or steroids; it should not be given to people with untreated tuberculosis or certain other infections.

18) Those who may suffer from any chronic condition or who are taking medicine on a regular basis (or whose family members do) should also consider avoiding this vaccine. (This page courtesy of Informed Parents Vaccine Information Home Page)

For more information: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6531447125053615129&q=+Vaccines+Kill+&ei=ISCPSKGIN4OcrwK6yM3LCA

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

38 Cheap, Healthy Recipes for Thanksgiving Leftovers

Cheap Healthy Good will resume posting on Monday. Happy Thanksgiving!

Every year, I suspend my healthy diet for one heralded November day. No, not Election Day, during which I’m usually too queasy to eat – but that most glorious of bird-based holidays, Thanksgiving.

Then, 24 hours later, I enter an equally magical shame spiral, since I’ve just consumed enough calories to keep me alive for eight years without ever having to eat again.

This year, I’m going to desperately try to avoid all that, hopefully by using at least 25 of the following 38 inexpensive, frugal leftover recipes. (Well … okay, 24.) I found them via a thorough, highly scientific search-and-paste process, not unlike previous Beef, Party Food, and Salad Dressing searches. In this case, here’s what determined a dish’s appearance on the list:
  • As always, if the recipe comes from an aggregate site, the reviews must come in at 80% approval or above, or have no reviews at all (in which case, they must look really, really good).
  • It was a little difficult to find low-fat recipes, since stuffing and mashed potatoes aren’t exactly health foods (meaning: they don’t miraculously lose their calories on Black Friday). So, I attempted to keep each recipe NWR, or Nutritious Within Reason. There’s little added butter, oil, dairy, lard, mayo, or canned soup in each dish.
  • If possible, I included notes about lightening the dish under each title.
  • As for price, there aren’t any exotic ingredients included, so costs should be pretty low. Caveat: you might have to purchase a little ginger or a bunch of green onions or something.
  • There is no Turkey Tetrazzini. Because I hate it. Muahahahahahaha! (Also, it’s 4 billion calories.)
Readers, if you have suggestions, I love to hear. In the meantime, happy Thanksgiving!

All Recipes: Apple Curry Turkey Pita
Use low-fat yogurt in place of regular to cut fat and calories.

All Recipes: Hearty Turkey Soup with Parsley Dumplings

All Recipes: Southwestern Turkey Soup

Bon Appetit: Asian Turkey-Noodle Soup with Ginger and Chiles

Bon Appetit: Cranberry Citrus Sorbet
This sounds AWESOME.

Bon Appetit: Pork Chops with Cranberry Port and Rosemary Sauce

CHG: Leftover Turkey Stew

CHG: Turkey Chili
Use turkey bits instead of ground turkey, add to pot with tomatoes

CHG: Turkey Noodle Soup
Sub in cooked turkey for chicken.

CHG: Turkey With Shallot Apricot Sauce
Sub in turkey for chicken, and use leftover warmed turkey

Chow: Turkey Pad See Ew
A little high in fat, but delicious-sounding just the same.

Confessions of a Stay-at-Home Mom: Thanksgiving Leftover Casserole (scroll down)
Sub in fat-free evaporated milk and make sure you use 2% cheddar.

Confessions of a Stay-at-Home Mom: Turkey Stock

Cooking Light: Cold Soba Noodles with Turkey

Cooking Light: Fiery Turkey-Pâté Crostini

Cooking Light: Turkey Pizza

Cooking Light: White Turkey Chili

Epicurious: Turkey Burritos with Salsa and Cilantro
Humina.

Epicurious: Turkey and Sweet Potato Sandwich

Fabulous Foods: Turkey Pasties

Fine Cooking: Turkey Soup with Ginger, Lemon, and Mint

Fine Cooking: Turkey and Sweet Potato Hash

Fine Cooking: Turkey Tortilla Soup

Food Network/Cathy Lowe: Turkey Soup with Rice

Food Network/Cathy Lowe: Turkey Stuffed Peppers

Food Network/Emeril Lagasse: Turkey and Vegetable Soup

Food Network/Michael Chiarella: Next Day Turkey Soup

Food Network/Ocean Spray: Smoked Turkey and Cranberry Gourmet Pizza

Food Network/Rachael Ray: Turkey Corn Chili

Food Network/Rachael Ray: Turkey and Stuffin’ Soup
Frankly, the picture kind of squicked me out here. But the reviewers (and there are quite a few) seem to LOVE it, so go nuts.

Food Network/Robin Miller: Turkey Soup with Egg Noodles and Vegetables
Looks like a good, quick recipe. Very well rated.

Food Network/Sunny Anderson: Second Day Turkey and String Bean Pot Pies

The Oregonian: Soba Noodle Salad With Cranberries and Apple
(Thanks to Slashfood for the link.)

The Oregonian: Turkey Picadillo
(Thanks to Slashfood for the link.)

The Oregonian: Turkey, White Bean, and Escarole Soup
(Thanks to Slashfood for the link.)

Seattle Times: Chili-Rubbed Turkey Sandwich With Red Onion Salsa

St. Louis Eats: Nigella Lawson’s Vietnamese Turkey Salad

Wise Bread: Turkey and Stuffing Casserole

Inhaled Steroids Bring Greater Risk of Pneumonia

Steroid inhalers may raise pneumonia risks
Nov. 26, 2008

BALTIMORE, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Steroid inhalers, commonly prescribed for people with pulmonary disease, can increase the risk of pneumonia, U.S. researchers said.

The Johns Hopkins University study also found that while inhalers helped, they did not extend a patient's life after a year of use, The Baltimore Sun reported Wednesday.

While medical experts have known for years that inhalers are effective in treating wheezing and breathlessness brought on by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, doctors raised questions about steroid inhalers' side effects and whether they extended a patient's life, said the study's lead author, M. Bradley Drummond, a pulmonologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

In the study, investigators examined 11 clinical trials, including 14,426 patients, comparing the incidence of pneumonia in those who used inhalers against those who did not.

Researchers said they weren't sure why inhalers increased the risk of pneumonia, but one theory is that they may weaken a person's immune system.

"Because these agents are so effective at controlling symptoms, we do feel there is a good role for inhaled steroids for treating COPD," Drummond said. "But for some patients there may be more harm than benefits."

Drummond said patients who use inhalers should not stop doing so, but talk with their physicians if they have concerns.

Common trade names for this class of drug in the US include Beclovent, Flovent, and Pulmicort, Aerobid and Azmacort.

For one example, using Flovent, also known generically as fluticasone, this is a fluoride based product. There would be an additive factor in that inhaler propellants have traditionally been fluoride based solutions (two chlorofluorocarbon propellants: trichlorofluoromethane and dichlorodifluoromethane).

People using these products should be closely monitored for respiratory function but adrenal insufficiency as well as immune and thyroid function and bone density.

It is not enough that the steroid use can impair immune and endocrine function but bone health as well, especially when the products have a higher than average percentage of fluoride compounds.

More likely than not the higher risk of pneumonia could be correlated with steroid induced immune suppression. Data show upper respiratory infection as a major side effect.

Calcium and DHEA may be depleted using these products also.

Inhaled steroids in the mouth promote Candida albicans(yeast)infections there and also disperse steroids throughout the body(absorbed via the mucous membrane).

Politics, HIV/AIDS and GMO Drugs

The AIDS epidemic has been a world wide environmental and public health issue wince the concept was thrown out in the Nixon Administration by Henry Kissinger. It was Kissinger that led the Department of defense to a plan for bio warfare contaminants that have brought about HIV/AIDS issues.

This has been a boon to Big Pharma with an avenue for creating a profit stream with genetically engineered pharmaceuticals. It has become a political issue too as many reports address the difficulty some groups and nations have in obtaining the drugs.

In some way the drugs have helped, in others the drugs have harmed. This is similar to the interferon use that has been problematic for people with Hep C, MS and correlated "auto-immune" disorders.

For some time we have tried to get funding for an approach to HIV/AIDS that involves the use of supplements to prevent the conversion of HIV to AIDS. (Hope Bill and Melinda are reading this; Sir Elton and Oprah too!)

We also would like to see more respect for groups in Africa that are getting very good response to a mixture with garlic, cayenne, and some other natural ingredients. Beet, especially raw grated beet, is an excellent anti-cancer remedy, so it should encourage mainstream medicos to get a little more open-minded on the cultural approach to health care and healing. (Recall that the AIDS vaccine trial failed.)

Others are questioning the SOP. Could this be that there seem to be some anti-HIV/AIDS nutrients that can probably cure the "dis-ease".

There are four and they involve the glutathione peroxidase mechanism. The key core components are selenium, cysteine, glutamine and tryptophan.

Certainly this is a simpler, safer and very less expensive approach. It is not, however, expedient to Big Pharma, Bill Clinton or politics as usual, and perhaps not the UN agendae.

Recently the Well Being Journal, a publication that has printed a number of my articles, reported on this nutritional supplement regimen and its positive effects. You might find the material interesting reading and very useful. (Additional data)

Other non-SOP approaches are retained at Keep Hope Alive, where I have served as a medical advisor.

With all the benefits to so many from orthomolecular approaches over the past 60 or so years things might be opening up as chemical treatments fail and options dwindle to nothing.

This is just one quark of understanding the benefit of Chaos theory as applied to health and healing.
Universal HIV tests would have big impact: studyBy Michael Kahn Michael Kahn, Tue Nov 25, 2008
LONDON (Reuters) – Near-universal HIV tests and immediate drug treatment for people who test positive would almost eliminate transmission of the deadly virus within a decade, a computer model showed on Wednesday.

Doing this would cost more initially but then save money down the road because there would be fewer HIV-infected people to treat, Reuben Granich and colleagues at the World Health Organization wrote in the journal The Lancet.

The researchers emphasized their findings do not represent new WHO policy or any other guidance but rather stand as a call for discussion on how to better tackle the AIDS epidemic and the role of so-called antiretroviral drugs.

"Although other prevention strategies, alone or in combination, could substantially reduce HIV incidence, our model suggests that only universal voluntary HIV testing and immediate initiation of antiretroviral drugs could reduce transmission to the point at which elimination might be feasible by 2020 for a generalized epidemic, such as that in South Africa," they wrote.

Granich and colleagues used data from South Africa as a test case for a generalized epidemic in their model, which assumed all HIV transmission was through heterosexual sex.

This showed that voluntary screening in which at least 90 percent of the population took part, and immediate drug treatment for those testing positive, could reduce HIV transmission by more than 95 percent within 10 years.

The AIDS virus infects an estimated 33 million people globally, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, and has killed 25 million. There is no cure.

The advent in the 1990s of combination drug therapy called highly active antiretroviral therapy, or HAART, has extended the lives of many HIV-infected people, particularly in developed countries.

About 3 million people worldwide had received the drug cocktails by the end of 2007, far short of the estimated 6.7 million infected people still in need of treatment, the researchers added.

There are, of course, drawbacks which the researchers and other scientists pointed out. One is how health systems in poor countries can cope with widespread testing, and whether people can stick to the drugs they must take for life.

"At its best, the strategy would prevent morbidity and mortality for the population, both through better treatment of the individual and reduced spread of HIV," Geoffrey Garnett, a researcher at Imperial College London, wrote in a commentary in The Lancet.

"At its worst, the strategy will involve over-testing, over-treatment, side effects, resistance, and potentially reduced autonomy of the individual in their choices of care."

(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Will Dunham and Mark Trevelyan)
Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited

Faulty AIDS policies caused 365,000 early deaths in SAfrica: study

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The failure to provide anti-retrovirals to AIDS patients in South Africa led to the premature deaths of 365,000 people between 2000-2005, according to a new Harvard university study.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) said the policies of Thabo Mbeki, who was heavily criticized during his 1999-2008 presidency for the denial of scientific remedies for AIDS, contributed directly to the deaths.

"Many lives were lost because of a failure to accept the use of available (antiretroviral drugs) to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS in a timely manner," researchers said.

Mbeki's health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, was widely discredited for proposing lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and beetroot as AIDS treatments as the country battled one of the world's worst AIDS epidemics.

Some 5.5 million of the 47 million population are infected by HIV -- over 18 percent of the adult population.

The study, published online last month and available Monday in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, said the country lost at least 3.8 million years of life from the 330,000 adults who died for lack of proper treatment and the 35,000 babies who died after they were born with HIV.

For the study's model researchers compared the policies of the South African government with those of neighbouring Botswana and Namibia, which are suffering from comparable epidemics and did enforce a policy of treating patients with appropriate drugs.

According to the World Health Organization, 33 million people around the world are infected with the AIDS virus, mostly in the sub-Sahara Africa.

Some two million people died worldwide of AIDS in 2007.
Copyright © 2008 Agence France Presse

SSRI Drugs in Pregnancy Linked to Heart Abnormalities

Prozac use has shown that women who took the SSRI (and fluoride based) antidepressant during the first three months of pregnancy gave birth to four times as many babies with heart problems as women who did not. The levels were three times higher in women taking paroxetine(Paxil, also containing fluoride).

Two Antidepressants Taken During Pregnancy Linked To Heart Anomalies In Babies

ScienceDaily (2008-11-26) -- Women who took the antidepressant fluoxetine during the first three months of pregnancy gave birth to four times as many babies with heart problems as women who did not and the levels were three times higher in women taking paroxetine. ... > read full article


Once again, if you regularly follow the topics of discussion on Natural Health News you will recall that we posted these two articles earlier this year.

Fluoride is not a cure for mothers or babies, March 2008

Nutrition and Preventing Post Partum Depression, May 2008

We would also like to call your attention to the top 14 drugs identified by the FDA as requiring much more study for off label use. Of these 14, nine are SSRI or similar antidepressants (excepting Trazodone, a triazolopyridine derivative, which has its own unique set of problems).

14 Drugs Identified As Most Urgently Needing Study For Off-label Use

ScienceDaily (2008-11-26) -- Physicians and policy-makers know that drugs are frequently prescribed to treat certain diseases despite a lack of FDA approval, a practice known as off-label prescribing. Now researchers have developed a list of 14 widely prescribed medications most urgently in need of additional study to determine how effective and safe they are for their off-label uses. Antidepressants and antipsychotics are the most prominent classes of drugs on the list. ... > read full article


We do hope that Tom Daschle and Barack Obama take note of these additional damage points for the proposed use of SSRI antidepressants to allegedly meet some crazy notion that the drug use will stave off post partum depression.

Mr Obama, just like Oprah, as we have said, you can do better!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Exercise to Stay Healthy? Why of Course

Some years ago I was part owner in a Seattle business and was searching for a person to do our bookkeeping. My first stop on that search was the local senior center. And I lucked out!

I found a 76 year old retired banker who came to the office and we quickly started on a sound relationship. He did in two afternoons a week what it might have taken someone else five days.

And, even though he lived 17 blocks north and eight blocks east of the office he walked most of the way, only relying on the bus for a short part of the trip, both ways.

He told me one day that when he was younger the doctor told him that walking was the best thing he could do for his health, so he did it.

It is too bad that these researchers didn't know this fellow, but I'll vouch for the benefits.
Fitness and the Brain: Can a Walk a Day Keep Alzheimer's Away?

In the U.S. some five million people have Alzheimer’s disease and 10 million boomers will be at risk for memory problems over their lifetime. Worldwide, more than 100 million people may have Alzheimer’s by the year 2050. As clinicians, we have learned to recognize that jokes about “old-timer’s disease” and “Teflon brain” are often calls for help from seniors worried about their memory lapses. Living longer is obviously no fun if you cannot remember your home address or drive a car. Although we have made tremendous progress in understanding brain changes that accompany aging and dementia, no medications have proven effective for preventing Alzheimer’s to date. In recent years, however, more evidence is pointing to a non-medical way to bolster brain health as we age: exercise.

The Benefits of Exercise
Scientists are excited about the prospects of physical activity and exercise as anti-Alzheimer strategies for many reasons. Exercise training has been shown to reduce risk factors for dementia such as blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and depression. Studies in animal models of aging show that exercise can increase blood flow, stimulate nerve cell growth in regions associated with memory and reduce the pathologic changes characteristic of Alzheimer’s. Studies of exercise and memory in humans have been promising but not yet definitive. For example, some, but not all, observational studies of older adults time found that those who were more physically active (for example, in such activities as swimming, walking, ballroom dancing) or who exercised at least three times a week had a lower risk for dementia. Likewise some short-term clinical trials found that aerobic exercise improved certain cognitive abilities. The inconsistency across studies has hampered firm conclusions about the relevance of these findings, however. What was needed to move the field forward was a clinical trial testing whether regular exercise could produce sustained long-term improvements in older adults with memory problems.

In a study published in September 2008, Nicola Lautenschlager and colleagues at the University of Western Australia attempted to do just that. They studied 170 older people with memory complaints of whom 60 percent had objective memory deficits severe enough to be diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, a condition thought to be a precursor for Alzheimer’s.

Over the next six months, half of the study participants were assigned to a home-based exercise program. They were encouraged to do at least three 50-minute sessions of exercise (mostly walking) each week. Those who were already doing this level of exercise at study entry (about 25 percent) were asked to up their activity level by an additional 50 minutes. The other half were assigned to receive basic health education as a control group. At the end of six months, exercisers improved modestly (scoring about 20 percent higher than controls) on an overall measure of cognitive abilities. The subgroup of people with mild cognitive impairment also improved. One year after the trial ended, the exercisers still sustained a 10 percent edge on overall cognitive score compared with controls and also had significantly less decline on a memory measure. A host of other cognitive subtests did not differ between the groups, however. This study is important because it is the first to demonstrate that exercise benefits cognition in older adults with subjective and objective memory problems over 18 months.

Further Questions
But this study was not a clean win and raises additional questions. The effect size was too small for an average person to be able to notice a benefit (although any effect is better than nothing in a field with no alternatives). Compliance with exercise decreases over time: Can we motivate people to sustain exercise habits over long periods? Are memory benefits seen only with aerobic exercise or can any type of physical activity help? This study did not follow people long enough to address the billion dollar question: Can regular exercise postpone the development of Alzheimer’s disease? The study by Lautenschlager and colleagues provides an important proof of principle and will help us design future trials to test these issues further. The availability of newer brain scans will also help us directly track whether exercise can affect the progression of Alzheimer brain pathology in people at risk. It has been said that “a man’s health can be measured by which he takes two at a time—pills or stairs.” As our society grows increasingly reliant on medications, lifestyle strategies such as exercise seem like, well, a no brainer.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
P. Murali Doraiswamy, M.D. is head of the Division of Biological Psychiatry at Duke University and an author, with Lisa P. Gwyther and Tina Adler, of The Alzheimer's Action Plan, a consumer guide to memory problems. Benson Hoffman, Ph.D., is assistant clinical professor of Medical Psychology at Duke University.

Tuesday Megalinks

Lots of hypothetical questions today, along with a few extra Thanksgiving posts and a staggering four articles from Wise Bread. Really, it’s all a warmup to tomorrow’s piece, "Cheap Healthy Leftovers." But in the meantime…

Advertising Age: NIH - Banning Fast Food Ads Will Make Kids Less Fat
The National Institutes of Health is claiming that a “ban on fast-food advertising to children would cut the national obesity rate by as much as 18%.” EIGHTEEN PERCENT. Yeah, I think this needs to happen. But will cereal/candy/junk food companies comply?

Being Frugal: Reusing Storage Bags
I try to re-use these whenever possible (for vacations, makeup, etc.), unless the bag’s been holding meat. Because no one wants botchulism on their travel shampoo.

Casual Kitchen: How to Make a Simple Frittata
Inexpensive, quick, infinitely malleable, and all fancy-like, frittatas are the low-budget, high-quality indie movies in the Hollywood of food. I don’t know what that means either, but now I want eggs.

Consumerist: The Crappy Economy Means You’d Better Learn to Love Canned Soup
Does anyone know if Campbell’s is a publicly-owned company? Because if it is, we should all invest in their stock RIGHT NOW. We could build an empire on Chicken and Stars.

Eater: Hottest Chefs in NY Round 2 - Meet Your Chefs
Ladies, this is too fun to miss out on. Eater is conducting a tournament to determine the hottest chef in NYC. Voting for the first round’s over, but Round 2 begins this week. And not to play favorites or anything, but Akhtar Nawab of Eletteria is a stone hottie.

Elastic Waist: Can Your Weight Affect Your Paycheck?
Weetabix poses a great question here, and her first paragraph is equally provocative: “I often wonder how much I'm discriminated against at my day job. I am a great interviewee and have a reasonable amount of responsibility, but I also watched as a very slender peer was groomed for management and became my boss and then rose a tier above that. I strongly suspect that I'm not making as much money as my coworkers.” Readers, has this happened to you?

Endless Simmer: An Elitist Thanksgiving
If you’ve got a few thousand dollars hanging around, you might want to invest in this very very very upscale menu, which includes Capon (a type of poultry), fromage de Clon (cheese that costs more than your college education), ethical foie gras (like foie gras, but without the intense guilt), and a mixed drink featuring $6000 worth of Courvoisier. Or you could just get a Hungry Man. (Thanks to Slashfood for the link.)

Jezebel: "Cooking For One" Is Kind Of Like, Well, Regular Cooking
Come for the post, stay for the 400+ comments, in which all the single ladies describe how they get by buying for one. I cooked for myself for a looooong time, and portions and leftovers can both be pretty serious issues. (Serious in the bank account sense - not serious in the natural disaster sense.)

The Kitchn: A Low-Stress Thanksgiving - Recipes, Tips, and Advice
Nice comp of all The Kitchn’s best Turkey Day tips.

New York Times: It’s a Hit - Breakfast in the Classroom
I love this story because it’s chock full of simple genius. Apparently, serving kids their morning meal in the classroom before class has made a huge impact on their attention spans, behavior, and nutrition. Really, here’s all you need to know: “‘It makes me full and happy,’ Carol Osseili, 8, said as she patted her stomach. ‘I’m ready to study and learn.’”

Simple Dollar: On Hosting a Dinner Party
Are you tired of expensive restaurant visits? Wanna see your friends without having to sell family heirlooms to pay for it? Do you like the warm, comforting glow of your kitchen light? Host a dinner party. Here, Trent tells you how.

Slashfood: Last Meals – What’s On Your Plate?
40 people chime in on their final dinners on Earth. Most popular: sushi, burgers, ice cream, steak, pizza. Mine: mac and cheese. Four pounds of it, maybe with a side of sweet potatoes and/or a last-minute court appeal. Mmm ... leniency.

Wise Bread: Alternative Thanksgiving Menus for Nearly Every Situation
Ideas for healthy, vegetarian, non-turkey, barbecue, non-traditional, and restaurant-based Thanksgivings. Good for brainstorming, with a few recipes.

Wise Bread: 10 Tasty Ideas for Leftover Turkey
Whether you have 50 pounds or 5 ounces of turkey sitting in your fridge come Friday morning, this post will tell you exactly what to do with it. My favorite: Turkey Cranberry Roll Ups. Nothing in that title is unappealing.

Wise Bread: Restaurant.com 80% off Coupon Code with FatWallet 25% Cashback - $25 Gift Certificates for $1.50
This sounds like a great deal, and for some, it will be a Christmas goldmine. Just make sure to follow all the rules – there are a lot of them, and they preclude use of the certificates at certain times.

Wise Bread: Meat Money – Grocery Saving Tips for Carnivores
This headline makes me immediately picture a velociraptor, but I’m pretty sure they’re talking about humans who eat meat. PRETTY sure. You never know.

Zen Habits: How to Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half
Leo presents some pretty basic rules for frugal food shopping, but man, the guy does it in style.

(Photos courtesy of Concierge, Classic Yacht Charters, and My Recipes.)

Aspartame: Sweet, Sweet Poison

This is an article you most likely will never see in the US mainstream press.

You should however because aspartame is a toxic substance first developed as an insecticide, as was sucralose.

The article just might cause you to switch and lay off this chemical stuff that damages your mitochondrial DNA, leading to diseases of many kinds.

Just another way of covertly creating a cadre of lab rats, as I see it.
By Carlos H. Conde

During the past several weeks, an advertisement has been appearing in the Philippines’s major newspapers that extols aspartame, the artificial sweetener that goes by the brands Equal, Nutrasweet, to name two. The ad, about half a page in size, makes the assertion that aspartame is safe and that the food-and-drug regulatory agencies of the Philippines and of the United States, among other countries, have determined it to be so. The ad does not carry the name of any group or individual, thus it is safe to assume that the aspartame industry is behind it.

I am always convinced that if somebody tries to mislead the public, he would publish advertisements so frequently until the public accepts the ad’s assertion as the truth. This was the strategy that Joseph Goebbels used and perfected in selling Nazism to the German people. “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it,” Goebbels had said. This is the underlying principle of advertising and public relations.

The question is, Why would the makers of aspartame spend millions of pesos to convince the public about the safety of their product? Particularly at a time when the use of the sweetener, so far as I can tell, is exploding in the Philippines, what with Coca-Cola recently launching its Zero brand? Coke Zero, of course, uses aspartame.

I am sure the answer lies in the fact that there’s still much debate about the safety of aspartame.

Read the complete story here: Aspartame: Sweet, Sweet Poison.

Health Lobby Still Plans to Stick with Health Reform

With Tom Daschle now selected to head HHS, don't think he won't be followed by a pack of lobbyists. Don't expect anything different in the House or Senate.

The pack of thieves are circling the wagons, and guess who might just be the target...

I suppose if you say reform you have to ask by whose definition and on whose standards.

Daschle has been in a lobby group lately and he is for vaccines and mammogram.

Surely we can't believe that his tenure in the US Senate led him to stay clear of the rafts of rubles handed out by the lobby groups, even under the cover of supposed change and reform.

What happens can cgange but only if you are wililng to stand up to the status quo and fight for your health rights, level the playing field, and get the agenda to truly be people first!
Health Care Reform Stays in the Picture; Health Lobby Probably Does, Too
By Andrew Green
Conventional wisdom had it that the current economic morass might temporarily sideline President-Elect Obama’s push to reform health care. But today brings news that a handful of influential Washington players might not be willing to wait.

Senator Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat and the chairman of the Finance Committee, today released a 104-page position paper mapping his vision of health care reform. Meanwhile, Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy is convening a spectrum of stakeholders in hopes of getting legislation together by Obama’s inauguration, according to The Washington Post.

And health care reform advocates are likely not the only ones excited by this news. The health care lobby — one of Washington’s largest — is probably already gearing up for a fight similar to that of the early ’90s, when the Clinton administration unsuccessfully attempted to overhaul the health care system. The Center spent a year documenting the millions of dollars and thousands of hours spent lobbying various players in the health care reform effort, culminating in our 1994 report, Well Healed: Inside Lobbying for Health Care Reform.

The landmark investigation ripped the lid off the special-interest hijacking of the Clinton administration’s efforts to reconstitute our country’s health care system. Among its findings: At least 80 former congressional and executive branch officials had gone through the “revolving door” to work for health care interests. Almost a hundred public relations, lobbying, and law firms were hired to influence the debate. Hundreds of special interests cumulatively spent in excess of $100 million to affect the outcome.

Now, 14 years later, is there any doubt that those numbers will do anything but go up?

Breast Cancer, Natural Regression

Might this be a blow to the massive breast cancer industry if further study proves this finding.

If you follow this blog (4 pages of articles) and the long standing material found at www.leaflady.org you will know we stand behind the facts of mammogram as a cause of breast cancer.

We have been educating the public, and especially women, on this issue for at least 20 years. Our information has come from the 1960s HHS/FDA/CDC and other data provided to us during the years we worked in concert with the eminent researcher John Gofman, PhD, MD.

While others are claiming to be first up with the data we stand on our track record.

The data against mammogram has been known since the 1960s by the US government health agencies. Almost 50 years later the same campaign runs rampant.

In Spokane a woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer (I'd like to see that proof)was put through six rounds of standard treatemnt (SOP) including chemotherapy. She now has leukemia.

She prbably was never told that chemo is a causative factor for leukemia, and as the local news report stated, she has been fighting for months with insurance over a bone marrow transplant that could save her life.

This is SOP for insurers who manipulate their data to stave off treaments and payouts, even if it leads to death.

Had the TV station not gotten involved, the insurance company might not ever had started to back peddle on its denial scheme and approve treatment.

Of course the treatment is costly and of course the woman has, more likely than not, failed to be advised that IV vitamin C, B12 shots, thyroid support, T cell support and iodine just might help her out, along with solid nutriton and other natural therapy tailored for her situation; most aimed at correcting the deficiencies and damage caused by the exccessive chemo. And is she was treated at the Sokane area cancer center she probably was overloaded on chips and candy they offer during the chemo sessions that only feeds the cancer.

And you do have to ask, once again, did she really have it. And was she given all the information or even a chance for healing.

But then the woman most likele was never told mammogram causes breast cancer and the treatment statistics are so bad that it takes screening of 1,200 women for 14 years to save one life from breast cancer while during that time scores would suffer anxiety, surgery and mastectomies, chemo or radiation for suspicious lumps that turned out to be benign.http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/04/still-covering-up-risks-after-all-these.html

This new Norwegian study may support the 1970s data.
The researchers said their findings provide new insight on what is "arguably the major harm associated with mammographic screening, namely, the detection and treatment of cancers that would otherwise regress."

By Michael Kahn

LONDON (Reuters) - Researchers who tracked breast cancer rates in Norwegian women proposed the controversial notion on Monday that some tumors found with mammograms might otherwise naturally disappear on their own if left undetected.

But leading cancer experts expressed doubt about the findings and urged women to continue to get regular mammograms, saying this screening technique unquestionably saves lives by finding breast cancer early on when it is most treatable.

Dr. Per-Henrik Zahl of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo and Norwegian and U.S. colleagues examined invasive breast cancer rates among nearly 120,000 women age 50 to 64 who had a mammogram -- an X-ray of the breast used to find evidence of cancer -- every two years over a six-year period.

They compared the number of breast cancers detected with another group of about 110,000 Norwegian women of the same age and similar backgrounds who were screened just once at the end of the six-year period.

The researchers said they expected to find no differences in breast cancer rates but instead found 22 percent more invasive breast tumors in the group who had mammograms every two years.

This raises the possibility that some cancers somehow disappear naturally, although there is no biological reason to explain how this might be, according to Zahl, whose findings were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"We are the first ones to publish such a theory," Zahl said in a telephone interview. "What we say is many cancers must spontaneously disappear or regress because we cannot find them at later screenings. I have no biological explanation for this."

Mammography and breast self-examination for tumors are standard methods used for early detection of breast cancer, the leading cause of cancer deaths among women worldwide.

The American Cancer Society estimated that about 465,000 women die of breast cancer globally each year, and 1.3 million new cases are diagnosed.

"I think generally when we look at studies like this it is important to keep in mind there are some studies that change practice and others that make us think a little bit more, said Dr. Eric Winer, director of the Breast Oncology Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

"The idea that somehow these cancers go away entirely is, I would say, an intriguing hypothesis, but one we don't have a lot of evidence to support," said Winer, who was speaking on behalf of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

In much of Europe women undergo mammograms every two years after age 50 except for in Britain where it is every three years, Zahl said. The American Cancer Society recommends that women get an annual mammogram beginning at age 40.

Bob Smith, director of cancer screening for the American Cancer Society, said Zahl's team misinterpreted the data, and expressed doubt about the idea that a significant number of breast tumors "spontaneously regress."

"I imagine there are still some people who believe the Earth is flat, but there are not very many of them," Smith said in a telephone interview. "It's not usual -- it happens every day that research is published that gets it wrong."

The researchers acknowledged many doctors might be skeptical of the idea but they cited 32 reported cases of a breast cancer regressing, a small number for such a common disease.

The researchers said their findings provide new insight on what is "arguably the major harm associated with mammographic screening, namely, the detection and treatment of cancers that would otherwise regress."

(additional reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Will Dunham and Angus MacSwan)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE4AO03H20081125

It's Old News and You Aren't Getting It

This blog and material found on our original domain, www.leaflady.org, will help you find quite a bit of accurate, scientific information about viruses, cold and flu.

We aren't offering sensationalistic rants as seems to be the driving factor on some other sites. We offer facts and we try to provide information that will help you face health concerns in a more informed and educated approach. We also hope to encourage your enquiring mind so you will seek other corroboration.

Another medical colleague has provided some sound analysis on the current state of flu and vaccines. This doesn't surprise us because the track record for this vaccine, Tamiflu, has been abysmal if you have been tracking the data since the product got the FDA stamp to pass go in exchange for money.

Tamiflu really has been a failure for health but perhaps not for money.

However, since you most likely won't see these latest reports, we'll put them here for your edification.

And remember, the best prevention for flu is good health and sound nutritional status. If you get on this tract, you'll be amazed at the difference, and you'll save a bundle of money over the long term of a healthy life.

Commentary by Dr. Henry Niman www.recombinomics.com

H1N1 Tamiflu Resistance Reporting Delays in North America
November 23, 2008

Based on the level of oseltamivir resistance observed in only one influenza subtype, H1N1, and the persisting high levels of resistance to the adamantanes in H3N2 viruses, CDC continues to recommend the use of oseltamivir and zanamivir for the treatment or prevention of influenza in the United States. Use of amantadine or rimantadine is not recommended.

The above comments from the latest influenza weekly report from the CDC comments on the levels of anti-viral resistance “observed”. However, reports from Europe and North America suggest that virtually all influenza A in the United States this season will be resistant to at least one anti-viral. The resistance rate for H3N2 for amantadines remains at or near 100%. Although test results for this season has been very limited, all H3N2 tested thus far has been resistant to amantadines. Similarly, last season the rate of resistance for the H1N1 sub-clade 2C (Hong Kong) was also 100%. Last season there were two H1N1 sub-clades in circulation in the US, and the rate of Tamiflu resistance for clade 2B (Brisbane/59) was around 10%. However, the level rose to 100% in several countries in the southern hemisphere in the 2008 season, and initial reports from Europe and North America (England, 12/13; Scotland, 2/2; Norway, 1/1; Canada, 1/1; United States, 1/1) suggest the level for clade 2B will be at or near 100% this season.

The numbers “observed” in the United States is low, because the reported number tested is low. In the latest report, the United States has reported 62 H1N1 isolates, but none have been tested for both oseltamivir and amantadine resistance. One isolate collected in September, prior to the official start of this flu season was amantadine resistance, strongly suggesting was clade 2C. One of two isolates tested for Tamiflu resistance this season had H274Y, and it is likely that the other will be amantadine resistant (but test results have not been released) and clade 2C.

Since the level of Tamiflu resistance is expected to be near 100%, it is somewhat surprising that more test results have not been released. The UK has issued an initial report on the 12/13 with H274Y in southwestern England, and has noted that two resistant isolates were also identified in Scotland, indicating the Tamiflu resistance is widespread.

Canada announced the resistance in its first influenza A isolate, but that was over a month ago, and Canada has also not released addition data. Thus, even though the Tamiflu resistance levels of clade 2B are expected to be at or near 100%, each country has only released test results on one clade 2B isolate, and both were resistant, consistent with frequencies reported in Europe this season.

Since most clinicians in North America are unaware of the expectation that the vast majority of Brisbane/59 H1N1 will be Tamiflu resistant, prompt release of test results would be useful.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Drug Trials Only Adverts?

An exquisite essay on just how it is!
Clinical Drug Trials: See them for what they often are — advertisements
by Warren Bell, MD

Just about every week, an announcement is made about research concerning some sort of new treatment. In just about every case, the treatment is a drug.

This does not mean, however, that drugs are the most important or valuable type of therapy, but rather that modernday, multi-national “big pharma” drug corporations have enormous, financial clout. Due to their patent-based monopolistic profits, drug companies earn 10 times more than all other types of treatment combined. Cnsequently, they can afford to hire the best advertising and public relations experts to relentlessly promote their products in the industry and public media.

So-called announcements from big pharma can more accurately be described as advertisements. They are, in point of fact, carefully crafted propaganda for the latest product generated by clever drug development teams, whose most important members are often public-relations experts and lawyers.

Reading between the profit lines

Let’s look at a hypothetical but typical drug announcement, one piece at a time:

“The results of a double-blind, multicenter trial of the new drug Zaronda, announced today by a research team at the University of Great Hill, reveal that this new breakthrough treatment significantly lowered levels of LDL cholesterol compared to placebo. Dr. Ronald McDonald, chief researcher and Head of the Department of Internal Medicine at UGH’s University Hospital, noted that this new drug represented “An exciting development in the battle against the growing epidemic of heart disease.”

Zaronda was developed in the research laboratories of Muck, Rake and Klink. Share values for the company rose 18 percent after the results of this study were announced.”

Double blind, multi-center trial:

This kind of phrase is used to make the ad sound scientifically impressive. “Double-blind” is thought of as the golden star of study models because neither the subject nor the researcher knows who is receiving the actual treatment in comparison to the placebo (dummy pill). The model and term are used in this case to create the impression of impartiality and rigour.

Multi-center trial: Using such a phrase suggests that large numbers of experimental subjects were involved, implying that it was a serious trial that cost a lot of money.

In actual fact, of course, size counts for nothing in many cases. In 1747, an experiment using only 12 subjects proved that limejuice prevents scurvy and ensured British naval dominance for 150 years.

The new drug: Drug companies want you to believe that what you’re reading about is “hot off the press,” creating the impression of excitement and hope.

Zaronda: Believe it or not, advertising geniuses in the drug industry have
figured out that certain letters are more “sexy.” The letters Z, X, and Y, for example, sell more drugs than most others. That’s why you see strange names for drugs, such as Xanax, Zostrix and Zyloprim.

Research team at the University of Great Hill: Drug companies know that there is still a veneer of respectability attached to educational institutions. They strive to mention either a university or hospital in association with any new drug research. Even if the research is carried out in the company’s own laboratories, the university or hospital connection will likely always come first.

Breakthrough: A key of almost all drug advertisements is the “breakthrough.”
Once again, the word creates the sense of excitement and drama that drug companies know will help to sell their product to desperate people. However, in a typical year, with say 800 new drug submissions, no more than half a dozen can actually be termed useful, let alone a breakthrough.

Significantly lowered levels of LDL cholesterol: Contrary to what many people think, high or low cholesterol is not a significant measure of your health, which makes this phrase a surrogate marker. Getting sick or dying is significant, but changing the amount of a substance in your bloodstream is not. (Some skeptical experts believe that there is no direct connection between cholesterol and heart disease.)

By taking advantage of the fact that many people—including many doctors—mistakenly
equate the lowering of cholesterol with improving a person’s health, drug companies cleverly create the impression that their drug can help. One of the most famous drug trials in medical history involved a drug that lowered cholesterol dramatically but markedly increased the number of deaths from gallbladder disease.

Compared to placebo: Here is one of the best tricks of the drug industry. Instead of comparing a new treatment to older, established treatments, the industry almost always compares a new product to a placebo. That way, they don’t have to worry that the public will compare the new drug to something already on the market—something that might be as good as the new product or even better.

Dr. Ronald McDonald... Chief...Head: The impression created here is of a researcher with an armload of qualifications and exceptional scientific expertise. What is never mentioned is that the good doctor is undoubtedly receiving substantial sums of money from the company making the drug being tested. Numerous studies in medical literature have shown that when this happens, research studies almost always show that the drug works well. He who pays the piper, plays the tune.

An exciting development in the battle against the growing epidemic of heart disease: Once again, this phrasing is attempting to drum up the impression of action, movement and excitement.

Heart disease is mostly caused by over consumption of food, lack of exercise and other lifestyle factors. Taking an expensive pill to deal with this behaviour can hardly be considered an effective weapon. Nevertheless, drug companies use military jargon and scare tactics to drum up business.

Share values for the company rose 18 percent: This kind of information is increasingly tagged onto the end of these ads. The fact that it’s there at all
reveals the true underlying purpose of these so-called treatment creations. They are designed to make money for shareholders of giant multinational corporations.

Patents for profit

By now you may think I’m against all drug companies, but I’m not. Evidence shows that approximately one percent of new drugs are significantly useful. I feel that the real problem with clinical trials is that the vast majority are done on patented drugs.

No one is eager to do trials on vitamins, herbal preparations, homeopathic remedies, physical therapies, or any of the other numerous non-pharmaceutical interventions that many people use every day. Why? Because the profit margin on these approaches
is trivial compared to the windfall profits earned by patented drugs.

If even one-tenth of the money currently wasted on patented drug trials were diverted into independent studies of natural health products, manual treatments and community health-related programs, therapy would be revolutionized overnight.

Treatments and interventions would become safer, less expensive, more accessible
and more sustainable.

Until that happens (and it will require public funding to be done properly)we’re going to have to go on swimming in a sea of flagrant advertisements for drugs of questionable value and unknown risk, disguised as legitimate.

My hope is that this article throws you a modest life raft to help you avoid
drowning.

Warren Bell, MD, is a HANS member practicing in the heart of the Okanagan Valley. He’s also President of the Association of Complementary and Integrative Physicians of BC.
Courtesy HANS.org magazine.

Natural Perspective on Gardasil

Sweden now will provide this vaccine free of charge. Perhaps they have over looked the facts and other risks.
Gardasil is a vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) that’s manufactured by Merck & Co. and marketed as “anti-cancer.” However, Canada has one of the lowest cervical cancer rates in the world.

In addition, 70 percent of women with HPV infection clear it spontaneously within one year, and 90 percent within two years.

This means that even if a woman has a high-risk strain of HPV, there is a very good likelihood that her immune system will be able to resolve it naturally.

The risk of any cervical disease is greatly decreased with a yearly Pap smear and safe sexual practices. There is a concern that this vaccine will give women a false sense of security and decrease yearly Paps and safe sexual practices.
Other factors that increase the risk of cervical cancers include:
long-term oral contraceptive use,
poverty,
stress,
smoking
and nutritional deficiencies.

Addressing these factors, irrespective of vaccination, is very important.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic Vinegar, Parmesan, Pine Nuts, and Apologies to Mr. Zimmerman

(It’s two Brussels sprouts recipes for the price of one today, everybody! Over at Serious Eats, I write about Golden-Crusted Brussels Sprouts from 101 Cookbooks, and here, it’s Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic, Parmesan, and Pine Nuts from Kalyn’s Kitchen. The recipe is pasted below this stunning new song, crafted just in time for Thursday's high holiday.)

It’s Time For Some Thanksgiving
(to the tune of “The Times, They Are A-Changin’” by Bob Dylan)

Come gather 'round family
Friends, countrymen
And submit to the turkey
Thick with tryptophan
And accept it that soon
You'll be asleep in the den.
Hurry, they’ll be nothin’
Worth savin'
So you better start eatin’
Like a pig in a pen
‘Cause it’s time for some Thanksgiving.

Come cousins and uncles
Dig in, don’t be shy
There’s stuffing and taters
And sweet turkey thigh
And don't leave too soon
For you’ll miss all the pie
And I'm not listenin'
To any complainin'
So loosen your pants
And maybe your tie
‘Cause it’s time for some Thanksgiving.

Come brothers and sisters
Bring all your spawn
Emma, Jack, Sarah
Jake, Jalen, and Shaun.
I need someone here
To occupy Mom.
Dr. Phil said it
Would help me stop ragin’.
So clean up their faces
Hurry up and come on
‘Cause it’s time for some Thanksgiving.

Come mothers and fathers
From Jersey and Maine
California and Texas
And West Pennsylvain-
Your sons and your daughters
Are awaiting your train
Since your car
Has started breakin’
Please buy a new one
Or next time take a plane
‘Cause it’s time for some Thanksgiving.

The corn it is boiled
The bird it is roast
And after the dishes
I’m officially toast.
Next year, please
Someone else be the host
Cause my patience is
Rapidly fadin'.
Who am I kidding?
It’s my command post.
‘See you next year for some Thanksgiving.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic, Parmesan, and Pine Nuts
Makes 3-4 servings
Adapted from Kalyn’s Kitchen

1 lb. brussels sprouts, trimmed and cut into quarters
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoon Parmesan cheese (preferably fresh grated)
1 tablespoon pine nuts (or another nut of your choice), toasted
Salt and pepper

1) Preheat oven to 450°F. Line a baking sheet with tin foil and spray with cooking spray.

2) In a medium bowl, combine Brussels sprouts, olive oil, and vinegar. Stir until sprouts are coated.

3) Pour sprouts on to prepped baking sheet in a single layer. Roast 20 minutes, shaking the pan once or twice, until veggies are golden browned and beautiful.

4) When sprouts are done, pour them in to a medium bowl. Add cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. Toss to combine. Top with pine nuts. Serve.

Approximate Calories, Fat, and Price Per Serving
Three servings: 139 calories, 7.9 g fat, $0.92
Four servings: 104 calories, 6 g fat, $0.72

Calculations
1 lb. brussels sprouts: 195 calories, 1.4 g fat, $1.71
1 T olive oil: 119 calories, 13.5 g fat, $0.12
1/2 T balsamic vinegar: 5 calories, 0 g fat, $0.05
1 1/2 T Parmesan cheese: 32 calories, 2.1 g fat, $0.25
1 T pine nuts: 67 calories, 6.8 g fat, $0.62
Salt and pepper: negligible calories and fat, $0.01
TOTAL: 418 calories, 23.8 g fat, $2.86
PER SERVING (TOTAL/3): 139 calories, 7.9 g fat, $0.92
PER SERVING (TOTAL/4): 104 calories, 6 g fat, $0.72

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Correcting One of Those Cholesterol Myths

I notice from time to time that people are searching for information about keeping arteries clean and healthy. This may be associated with the rash of anti-cholesterol drug-dosing-on-a-rampage panic, or earnest queries.
Order lecithin granules through simply4health.org to help us continue this work.

I am not a fan of soy. It might be said that if I suggest a soy based supplement that I am ignoring my own best advice. My greatest concern about soy today are the facts that it is generally a GMO crop and it does have many negative health effects.

On the up side, a long used supplement, especially for those who have been convinced that eggs are evil, you might find some salvation in lecithin.

Lecithin is good for you in that it contains phosphatidyl choline, phosphatidyl inositol and essential fatty acids as linoleic acid in a tablespoon of granules. It also contains fish-oil-like, omega-3 linolenic acid. Any one of these substances is not found in a standard daily diet.

Choline & Inositol are essential for the breakdown of fats and cholesterol. And lecithin helps prevent arterial congestion, helps distribute body weight, increases immunity to viral infections, cleans the liver and purifies the kidneys.

Dr. Michael Sharon suggests that it "improves the condition of patients with neurological disorders such as tardive dyskinesia (a side effect of anti-psychotic drugs), Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease or pre-senile dementia."

It may help with improving attention span which would certainly benefit ADD/ADHD issues.

Lecithin helps in maintaining the surface tension of cell wall membranes. Without enough lecithin, the cell wall hardens. This condition contributes to premature aging of the cells. The surface tension of the cell, maintained by lecithin is also responsible for transmitting nerve impulses and messages through or from the cell.

Udo Erasmus, PhD shares some lecithin function facts -
"Lecithin helps keep cholesterol soluble. In a food like eggs, which contain a large amount of cholesterol, it is especially important that lecithin be of high quality.

"Lecithin keeps cholesterol isolated from arterial linings, protects it from oxidation, and helps prevent and dissolve gall and kidney stones by its emulsifying action on fatty substances.

"Lecithin is necessary in our liver's detoxification functions, which keep us from slowly being poisoned by breakdown products of metabolic processes that take place in our body. Poor liver function is a common forerunner of cancer. According to some healers, cancer always involves the liver. Deficiency of either Choline or EFAs can induce cancer in experimental animals, and is likely involved in causing some human cancers.

"Lecithin increases resistance to disease by its role in our thymus gland. Here, EFAs are precursors of several prostaglandins, as well as being vital as part of the ammunition made by our immune cells to kill bacteria (fatty acid peroxides are used to produce bacteriocidal hydrogen peroxide).

"Lecithin is a phospholipid that makes up 22% of both the high density (HDL) and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol-carrying vehicles in our blood. These vehicles keep cholesterol and triglyceride fats in solution in our bloodstream and carry them to and from all parts of our body.

"Lecithin is an important part of membrane phospholipids that are involved in electric phenomena, membrane fluidity, and other functions for which EFAs are responsible.

"Finally, lecithin is an important component of bile. Its function in digestion is to break food fats into small droplets (emulsify them), to increase their surface area, speeding up the digestion of fats by enzymes."


Other helpful information about lecithin is that each serving (1 tbsp.) contains:
Choline 275 mg, Inositol 168 mg, Potassium 108 mg, Linoleic Acid (omega 6 EFA) 2,025 mg, Phosphatidylcholine 1,760 mg, Phosphatidylethanolamine 1,530 mg, Phosphatidylinositol 1,070 mg, Linolenic Acid (omega 3 EFA) 260 mg.

and Lecithin
Breaks up fats and cholesterol, Excellent for a healthy heart
Contains the Highest Phosphatide concentration available (98% or more!)
Is a Rich source of GLA (Gamma Linoleic Acid)
Helps the body utilize Vitamins A,D,E and K
Is Excellent for memory, concentration and recall
Cleanses liver and kidneys
Helps the body absorb nutrients

Lessen Chronic Inflammation
People whose diets supplied the highest average intake of choline (found in egg yolk and soybeans), and its metabolite betaine (found naturally in vegetables such as beets and spinach), have levels of inflammatory markers at least 20% lower than subjects with the lowest average intakes, report Greek researchers in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Detopoulou P, Panagiotakos DB, et al.)

Compared to those whose diets contained <250 mg/day of choline, subjects whose diets supplied >310 mg of choline daily had, on average:

* 22% lower concentrations of C-reactive protein
* 26% lower concentrations of interleukin-6
* 6% lower concentrations of tumor necrosis factor alpha

Compared to those consuming <260 mg/day of betaine, subjects whose diets provided >360 mg per day of betaine had, on average:

* 10% lower concentrations of homocysteine
* 19% lower concentrations of C-reactive protein
* 12% lower concentrations of tumor necrosis factor alpha

Each of these markers of chronic inflammation has been linked to a wide range of conditions including heart disease, osteoporosis, cognitive decline and Alzheimer's, and type-2 diabetes.

In an accompanying editorial in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition entitled, "Is there a new component of the Mediterranean diet that reduces inflammation?," Steven Zeisel from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill noted that choline and betaine work together in the cellular process of methylation, which is not only responsible for the removal of homocysteine, but is involved in turning off the promoter regions of genes involved in inflammation.

"Exposure to oxidative stress is a potent trigger for inflammation. Betaine is formed from choline within the mitochondria , and this oxidation contributes to mitochondrial redox status ," Zeisel continued.

"If the association between choline and betaine and inflammation can be confirmed in studies of other populations, an interesting new dietary approach may be available for reducing chronic diseases associated with inflammation," he concluded.

Recommended daily intakes of choline were set in 1998 at 550 milligrams per day for men and 425 milligrams a day for women. No RDI has been set for betaine, which, since it is a metabolite of choline, is not considered an essential nutrient.

Practical Tip: Egg yolks are the richest source of choline, followed by soybeans. Spinach, beets and whole wheat products are primary sources of betaine. (Olthof MR, van Vliet T, et al. J Nutr)

FDA Unapproved Drugs Cost Millions

Safety and Effectiveness are two keywords in the forefront at the FDA that seem to be disregarded.

This is not surprising at all since the real control over drugs and their use relies more on junque science from the pharmaceutical industry rather than the supposed watch-dog agency.

Certainly this is one more example of an ineffective bureaucracy that has little interest in either serving or protecting as is its mandate.

This isn't surprising under the lame duck administration we've all suffered under during the past eight years. What remains to be seen is how effective the new crew is going to be at bringing about massive change needed in this agency and others, or will we have MOS...

Find out about unapproved drugs - and be sure to let your members of Congress know just how you feel about this, especially those who struggle with the high cost of pharmaceuticals and Medicare's payola otherwise known as the Senior Drug Plan (D). Perhaps now that things are "changing" the deep hole might get filled in a bit.

Of course one thing you may want to consider is signing up for one of our natural health classes so that you can learn how to use natural health to get well and stay well in this toxic world.
Govt pays millions for unapproved drugsBy RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and FRANK BASS, Associated Press Writers
23 November, 2008

WASHINGTON – Taxpayers have shelled out at least $200 million since 2004 for medications that have never been reviewed by the government for safety and effectiveness but are still covered under Medicaid, an Associated Press analysis of federal data has found. Millions of private patients are taking such drugs, as well.

The availability of unapproved prescription drugs to the public may create a dangerous false sense of security. Dozens of deaths have been linked to them.

The medications date back decades, before the Food and Drug Administration tightened its review of drugs in the early 1960s. The FDA says it is trying to squeeze them from the market, but conflicting federal laws allow the Medicaid health program for low-income people to pay for them.

The AP analysis found that Medicaid paid nearly $198 million from 2004 to 2007 for more than 100 unapproved drugs, mostly for common conditions such as colds and pain. Data for 2008 were not available but unapproved drugs still are being sold. The AP checked the medications against FDA databases, using agency guidelines to determine if they were unapproved. The FDA says there may be thousands of such drugs on the market.

Medicaid officials acknowledge the problem, but say they need help from Congress to fix it. The FDA and Medicaid are part of the Health and Human Services Department, but the FDA has yet to compile a master list of unapproved drugs, and Medicaid — which may be the biggest purchaser — keeps paying.

"I think this is something we ought to look at very hard, and we ought to fix it," said Medicaid chief Herb Kuhn. "It raises a whole set of questions, not only in terms of safety, but in the efficiency of the program — to make sure we are getting the right set of services for beneficiaries."

At a time when families, businesses and government are struggling with health care costs and 46 million people are uninsured, payments for questionable medications amount to an unplugged leak in the system.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has asked the HHS inspector general to investigate.

That unapproved prescription drugs can be sold in the United States surprises even doctors and pharmacists. But the FDA estimates they account for 2 percent of all prescriptions filled by U.S. pharmacies, about 72 million scripts a year. Private insurance plans also cover them.

The roots of the problem go back in time, tangled in layers of legalese.

It wasn't until 1962 that Congress ordered the FDA to review all new medications for effectiveness. Thousands of drugs already on the market were also supposed to be evaluated. But some manufacturers claimed their medications were "grandfathered" under earlier laws, and even under the 1962 bill.

Then, in the early 1980s, a safety scandal erupted over one of those medications. E-Ferol, a high potency vitamin E injection, was linked to serious reactions in some 100 premature babies, 40 of whom died.

In response, the FDA started a program to weed out drugs it had never reviewed scientifically. Yet some medications continued to escape scrutiny.

Sometimes, the medications do not help patients. In other cases, the FDA says, they have made people sicker, maybe even killed them. This year, for example, the FDA banned injectable versions of a gout drug called colchicine after receiving reports of 23 deaths. Investigators found the unapproved drug had a very narrow margin of safety, and patients easily could receive a toxic dose leading to complications such as organ failure.

Critics say the FDA's case-by-case enforcement approach is not working.

"The FDA does not appear to have a systematic mechanism to report these drugs out," said Jon Glaudemans, senior vice president of Avalere Health, a health care industry information company, "and there doesn't seem to be a systematic process by which health insurance programs can validate their status. And everyone is pointing the finger at someone else as to why we can't get there."

In most cases, doctors, pharmacists and patients are not aware the drugs are unapproved.

"Over the years, they have become fully entrenched in the system," said Patti Manolakis, a Charlotte, N.C., pharmacist who has studied the issue. Only a few unapproved drugs are truly essential and should remain on the market, she added.

Tackling the problem is made harder by confusing — and sometimes conflicting — laws, regulations and responsibilities that pertain to different government agencies.

Medicaid officials said their program, which serves the poor and disabled, is allowed to pay for unapproved drugs until the FDA orders a specific medication off the market. But that can take years.

Compare that with Medicare, the health care program for older people.

Medicare's prescription program is not supposed to cover unapproved drugs. Medicare has purged hundreds of such medications from its coverage lists, but continues to find others.

It might be easier to sort things out if the FDA compiled a master list of unapproved drugs, but the agency hasn't. FDA officials say that would be difficult because many manufacturers do not list unapproved products with the agency. Yet, the AP found many that were listed — a possible starting point for a list.

Among the drugs the AP's research identified were Carbofed, for colds and flu; Hylira, a dry skin ointment; Andehist, a decongestant, and ICAR Prenatal, a vitamin tablet. Medicaid data show the program paid $7.3 million for Carbofed products from 2004 to 2007; $146,000 for Hylira; $4.8 million for Andehist products, and $900,000 for ICAR.

Grassley said the system is failing taxpayers and consumers.

"The problem I see is bureaucrats don't want to make a decision," Grassley said. "There is no reason why this should be such a house of mirrors when so much public money is being spent." Grassley is considering introducing legislation to ensure that consumers are told when a medication is unapproved.

FDA officials say they tell Medicaid and Medicare when the agency moves to ban an unapproved drug, so the programs can stop paying.

"The situation is complicated by the fact that Medicaid and Medicare have a different regulatory regime than FDA does," said FDA compliance lawyer Michael Levy. "There are products that we may consider to be illegally marketed that could be legally reimbursed under their law."

The FDA began its latest crackdown on unapproved drugs two years ago and has taken action against nine types of medications and dozens of companies. Typically, the agency orders manufacturers to stop making and shipping drugs, and it also has seized millions of dollars' worth of medications. But federal law does not provide fines for selling unapproved drugs, and criminal prosecutions are rare.

Some manufacturers of unapproved drugs say their products predate FDA regulation and are "grandfathered in."

"These are drugs that don't require an FDA approval," said Bill Peters, chief financial officer of Hi-Tech Pharmacal in Amityville, N.Y. "These are products with active ingredients that have been on the market for a long time." The company is moving away from older products, Peters said, and its new market offerings are FDA-approved.

Levy said the FDA is skeptical that any drugs now being sold are entitled to "grandfather" status. To qualify, they would have to be identical to medications sold decades ago in formulation and other important aspects.

The agency is targeting drugs linked to fraud, ones that do not work and, above all, those with safety risks. While the crackdown has helped, it does not appear to have solved the problem.

The gout drug banned by the FDA this February is not the only recent case involving safety problems.

Last year, the FDA banned unapproved cough medicines containing hydrocodone, a potent narcotic. Some had directions for medicating children as young as age 2, although no hydrocodone cough products have been shown to be safe and effective for children under 6.

In a 2006 case, the agency received 21 reports of children younger than 2 who died after taking unapproved cold and allergy medications containing carbinoxamine, an allergy drug that also acts as a powerful sedative. Regulators banned all products that contained carbinoxamine in combination with other cold medicines.

"We as Americans have a belief that all the prescription drugs that are available to us have been reviewed and approved by the FDA," said Manolakis, the pharmacist. "I think the presence of these drugs shows we have a false sense of security."

 
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