What's Good for the Goose...

Just before receiving this little gem, someone alerted me to the "Public Option" being tacked on to the TARP legislation that seems to be up for votes next week.

And while Congress just upped their budget, Obama gave a big chunk of change to NIH to research "cures" for health problems that already have known and effective cures, and they want more money to fund the fool's folly of war in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

So why isn't this good enough for Joe and Jane Six Pack?

The Real Public Option: Congress' Private Medical Clinic
— By Dave Gilson | Wed September 30, 2009 Mother Jones

You can't say this enough: While members of Congress are busy protecting us from the inefficiency and danger of government-run health care, they're receiving top-notch taxpayer funded health care—seemingly without complaint. The LA Times recently detailed the benefits: A choice of 10 insurance plans and access to a wide network of doctors and HMOs. Plus, they "get special treatment at Washington's federal medical facilities and, for a few hundred dollars a month, access to their own pharmacy and doctors, nurses and medical technicians standing by in an office conveniently located between the House and Senate chambers." ABC News has more on that in-house clinic for lawmakers, officially known as the Office of the Attending Physician:

Services offered by the Office of the Attending Physician include physicals and routine examinations, on-site X-rays and lab work, physical therapy and referrals to medical specialists from military hospitals and private medical practices. According to congressional budget records, the office is staffed by at least four Navy doctors as well as at least a dozen medical and X-ray technicians, nurses and a pharmacist.

Sources said when specialists are needed, they are brought to the Capitol, often at no charge to members of Congress.

Explains a former doc from the Congressional clinic, patients who can't get treated on-site get referrals to top specialists all over the country. "You would go to the best care in the country. And, for the most part, nobody asked what your insurance was." And the cost? $503. A year.

Scientists Clueless About Vaccination Side Effects

Not only are scientists cluless about vaccine side effects, they seem just as clueless about side effects and risks of pharmaceuticals.

This is something I hear daily from people who contact my health advocacy service looking for help. As a former provider in mainstream medicine I shudder with each new and ghastly report.

As far as the new genetically engineered "swine flu" vaccine, I suggest it is well worth your time to read the following from Dr. Len Horowitz, the dentist and public health expert who first exposed Ebola and AIDS on the vaccines -

America's leading promoter of getting vaccinated for the H1N1 flu, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has admitted knowing nil about how human immunity responds to vaccinations, according an interview published by Bloomberg.

I'll be posting another article today related to this concern.

Parade of the Pink Lids

Since I started Natural Health News over 5 years ago as an outgrowth of my original web site, Natural Healing through Natural Health, more than 100 articles have been posted here regarding cancer, and specifically breast cancer. You may locate those articles with our blog search box. Additional articles are found on that web site's Celebrating Women page.


After five years of asking consumers to collect and send in Yoplait pink foil lids to raise money for Komen, Yoplait sought a way to enhance consumer involvement and elevate its brand awareness in the crowded breast cancer field. Working with Cone Inc., Yoplait created an award celebrating 25 “Yoplait Champions,” ordinary people doing extraordinary things in the fight against breast cancer. The results: 125 million media impressions for the Champions program on top of the usual attention generated by Yoplait’s lids promotion, sponsorship of Race for the Cure and $2 million contribution to Komen. (Cause Marketing)

There is yet to be a "cure", don't you wonder why?

Beware TAMIFLU

UPDATE: September 2009
Following on reports of dosing and packaging problems with children's Tamiflu, we now learn that water treatment is unable to keep your water free from another drug that may have harmful side effects.

It certainly appears that makers of Tamiflu failed to include water quality considerations as they promote their product, with problematic issues.
Tamiflu Detected in Sewage Discharge and River Water in Japan

Another Comment on Swine Flu Vax Of 2009 - Unlicensed And Untested
--------------------------------------------------
Originally posted October 2005 -

For several years I have posted information on the risks of flu vaccines and medical treatment related to flu. This year (2006-present) we seem to have a high alert to drive citizens to the jab by fear more so that in the past. I would encourage you to take the following information under serious consideration.

FLU VACCINE HAS RISKS.

You can find more on leaflady.org about immunity, colds, flu, prevention and help. If you need further information send your request here: http://www.leaflady.org/feedback.htm


Human-To-Human H5N1 Transmission During Tamiflu Prophylaxis
By Dr. Henry L. Niman, PhD
Recombinomics.com

"An H5N1 influenza virus, A/Hanoi/30408/2005, was isolated on 27 February 2005 from a 14-year-old Vietnamese girl (patient 1) who had received a prophylactic dose (75mg once a day) of oseltamivir from 24 to 27 February and was given a therapeutic dose (75mg twice daily) for 7 days starting on 28 February. No virus was isolated from specimens after the administration of increased doses of oseltamivir. The patient recovered and was discharged from hospital on 14 March 2005.

The timing of infection in these two patients, together with the lack of known interaction of the girl with poultry, raises the possibility that the virus could have been transmitted from brother to sister."

The above comments from a pre-released Nature paper raise serious questions about the prophalactic use of Tamiflu and human-to-human (H2H) of H5N1. The sister, Nguyen Thi Ngoan, of the index case, Nguyen Si Tuan, was taking the FDA approved prophylactic dose of Tamiflu, 1 pill per day. However, even while on Tamiflu, she developed H5N1 bird flu symptoms. Genetic analysis of the virus suggested that she was infected by her brother, even though she was taking Tamiflu.

The above paper focuses on resistance markers in isolated clones from the sister. However, the brother and sister were part of a large case cluster of H5N1 infections. The grandfather of the two patients also tested positive for H5N1 antibodies. Although H5N1 was not isolated, it is not clear if the grandfather was taking Tamiflu when his grandson was in the hospital.

Similarly, the index case's nurse developed avian influenza. He maintained that he had no exposure to poultry, yet developed laboratory confirmed H5N1. It is not clear if the nurse was taking Tamiflu at the time of his infection.

There was a second nurse who developed bird flu symptoms. She tested negative for H5N1 by PCR. Results from serum tests were not disclosed.

The effectiveness of Tamiflu against H5N1 was also raised in in vivo mice experiments. Mice were given the equivalent of 20 pills of Tamiflu per day. This high level was justified by observations on species specific differences in metabolism. However, even after correcting for species differences, the mice were treated with an equivalent of two pills per day. However, the dose was based on treatment, even though the mice were give the drug four hours before infection. However, even with these favorable conditions, 50% of the mice died if treated for 5 days. If treated for 8 days, the percentage dead fell to 20%..These mice studies raised dosing questions for oseltamivir against H5N1. Use at the FDA approved level, priced less than ideal results.

Similarly, the cluster of human cases described above raises dosing question. The H5N1 appeared to be susceptible to a doubled dose of Tamiflu and the isolated H5n1 was sensitive to Relenza. However, nations are stockpiling Tamiflu, and the above results suggest that the FDA approved dose for prophylaxis may be inadequate.

Similarly, Tamiflu resistance is another concern. The number of H5N1 cases in Vietnam is still relatively small. It is unclear how many people in Vietnam are on Tamiflu. The identification of a Tamiflu resistant variant in the small number of people being treated is cause for concern. Similarly, prophylactic treatment in health care workers and family members may not have been sufficiently high to prevent H5N1 infections.

Thus, the proper dose of Tamiflu and the frequency of resistance in Vietnam remains unclear. Similarly, the impact of wider use of Tamiflu in Indonesia is another area of concern.

webmaster@recombinomics.com ©2005 Recombinomics. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Tamiflu dangers reported
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada has asked Swiss drug maker Roche AG to warn consumers of possible health risks linked to its influenza drug Tamiflu, the health department said on Wednesday.

Ottawa took the step after receiving international reports of side-effects such as hallucinations and abnormal behavior, including self-harm. The reports include cases involving children and teenagers, primarily in Japan.

"Health Canada has requested that the manufacturer ... update the Canadian prescribing information for Tamiflu to include this new information," the department said in a statement.

According to Health Canada, there have been 84 reports as of November 11 of Canadian patients having adverse effects when using Tamiflu. Ten of those cases involved fatalities...

Thank You DaVinci Labs

I could not resist borrowing this photo from DaVinci Labs plus a bit of my own editing -



Help Yourself to Quality Supplements.

Act now before baseball pundits convince Congress to block further access to these health promoting substances.

Gardasil death and danger update

October 4: JAB 'AS DEADLY AS THE CANCER'

How safe are vaccines?

UPDATE: 1 October
PR pundits rushed to publicize a claim that anyone who has severe adverse effects from this (or any) vaccine suffered from underlying bacterial infection. It's the common ploy to attack the vaccine victim. One has to ask these folks how they can support such an idea in healthy people who sadly opt for the jabs.

Media Issues Propaganda To Boost HPV Vaccine Sales And Renewed Confidence Following Children's Deaths

UPDATE: September 2009
NHS (UKs FDA) in UK suspends all Gardasil shots following death
Cancer jab alert after girl dies
Health chiefs have launched a "full and urgent" investigation into the death of a 14-year-old girl after she was given a cervical cancer vaccine at school.
Full story
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Original Post Date, March 2009
PLEASE NOTE: HPV is more often than not a self-limiting infection. If your immune system is in good shape you do not need to worry about HPV.

Also there are very effective natural treatments to resolve HPV infection. Should you wish more information please contact us.

This new report is an important public health concern. If this does not outrage you then I am asking where is your conscience?

CDC Takes Closer Look at Gardasil and Paralysis

Jenny

Other Gardasil articles -

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/01/uk-report-on-more-gardasil-danger.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/01/are-you-in-dark-about-adverse-effects.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/06/this-puzzles-me.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/06/boys-now-targeted-by-big-pharmas.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/07/gardasil-reports-not-good-death-toll.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/07/hpv-vaccine-adverse-events-worrisome.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/07/gardasil-reactions-grab-cnns-attention.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/09/propaganda-tv.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/09/women-take-heed-gardasil-is-broadening.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/11/unwarranted-and-unwise-mandatory-hpv.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/11/merck-now-targeting-men-with-gardasil.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/11/natural-perspective-on-gardasil.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/12/another-gardasil-gaffe.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2009/02/spain-serious-about-gardasil-risks.html

Many lack sick leave as flu season looms

As I have said in many interviews and articles, the US is the only country that ties health insurance to employment.

Now we learn that half of employed people in this country have no sick leave as a benefit of employment.

Sounds to me as if we have been stuck at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution if we still maintain this kind of worker abuse for the benefit of profit and a select few.

Of course if you know me or read my articles you know I am in favor of economics as if people mattered.

This also means that the old ways of pyramidal hierarchy must undergo real change, become somewhat more horizontal, and inclusive.

Is it not the worker who makes the investor's dividend and the CEO mega slary with mega perks come on the back of workers?

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Nearly half of U.S. workers have no paid sick leave -- a problem that could worsen the spread of the fall flu season, officials said.

"A child can't stay home without a parent staying with them. So if the parent doesn't have paid sick time, the child mostly likely goes to school, and the parent goes to work," said Shula Warren, chief of staff for New York City council member Gale Brewer.

The second sweep this year of the H1N1 flu virus has re-ignited arguments about how much sick leave employers should offer and whether it should be mandated by law, CNNMoney.com reported Monday.

San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have laws requiring paid sick leave and 15 states are considering legislation for paid sick leave -- a benefit not available to an estimated 48-percent of the U.S. work force, the National Partnership for Women and Families said.

Many business groups, including the Chamber of Commerce, oppose such legislation as harmful to small business, CNNMoney.com reported.

Study links H1N1 to seasonal flu shots

REMEMBER: THERE ARE NO LONG TERM STUDIES ON VACCINES AND IT APPEARS, REPEATEDLY, THAT THOSE TAKING THESE SHOTS ARE THE ONES WHO ARE BECOMING ILL.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- A new study is about to be published in Canada that links the swine flu virus to seasonal flu shots, Canadian health officials say.

The report, which is under peer review, suggests that people vaccinated against seasonal flu are twice as likely to contract the swine flu, The Globe and Mail of Canada reported Monday.

Researchers Danuta Skowronski of the British Columbia Center for Disease Control and Gaston De Serrres of Laval University of Quebec are not allowed to comment on their findings until the study has been published.

An international panel is scrutinizing their research data.

So far, the study's impact has been confined to Canada, where Quebec's Health Ministry Sunday joined Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nova Scotia in suspending seasonal flu shots for anyone under 65 years of age.

"It has confused things very badly," says Dr. Ethan Rubinstein, head of adult infectious diseases at the University of Manitoba.

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2009/09/28/Study-links-H1N1-to-seasonal-flu-shots/UPI-84901254143500/

B.C. might suspend the seasonal flu shots as early as today, in the wake of a Canadian study that suggests people who get the flu vaccine are twice as likely to contract the H1N1 virus.

Listen to WA DOH with Extreme Caution: FLU SHOTS

WA DOH violating FDA recommendations on vaccines and pregnancy.

I am very disturbed by the article that appeared in the Seattle Times last Friday -

" State lifts limit on mercury preservative in swine-flu shots"
By Sandi Doughton, Seattle Times science reporter.

I am disturbed because this is another clear presentation of the ineffectiveness of Washington's Department of Health and Mary Selecky, as well as Chris Gregoire. (My experience with both Selecky and Gregoire involved intentional coverup of insurance fraud involving minor children's care. No real investigation of my complaint was undertaken so I had to go the HHS IG to get things out in the open. My complaint, ignored by Selecky and Gregoire while they protected the perpetrators, became part of a major interstate insurance fraud litigation by DOJ. DOJ won this case unlike the too many that were lost by Gregoire's office under her watch.)

Gregoire's record over the years as AG and Gov have left the citizens of our state with a very bad taste over the numerous cases lost on violations at DSHS and related departments. This also extends to the abusive activities against those in healthcare who practice outside the box, using less harmful and more healing approaches to health. A very large amount of money has been paid out in these cases.

Selecky, for this push to allow neurotoxic and fertility harming mercury, along with what may be higher levels of the preservative, should be considered for malfeasance in office and considerd for early retirement.

For more information about some of these issues, please refer to wachoice

Thimerosal neurotoxicity is associated with glutathione depletion
James SJ, Slikker W 3rd, Melnyk S, New E, Pogribna M, Jernigan S.

Department of Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute, Little Rock, AR 72202, USA.

Thimerosol is an antiseptic containing 49.5% ethyl mercury that has been used for years as a preservative in many infant vaccines and in flu vaccines. Environmental methyl mercury has been shown to be highly neurotoxic, especially to the developing brain.

Because mercury has a high affinity for thiol (sulfhydryl (-SH)) groups, the thiol-containing antioxidant, glutathione (GSH), provides the major intracellular defense against mercury-induced neurotoxicity. Cultured neuroblastoma cells were found to have lower levels of GSH and increased sensitivity to thimerosol toxicity compared to glioblastoma cells that have higher basal levels of intracellular GSH. Thimerosal-induced cytotoxicity was associated with depletion of intracellular GSH in both cell lines.

Pretreatment with 100 microM glutathione ethyl ester or N-acetylcysteine (NAC), but not methionine, resulted in a significant increase in intracellular GSH in both cell types. Further, pretreatment of the cells with glutathione ethyl ester or NAC prevented cytotoxicity with exposure to 15 microM Thimerosal. Although Thimerosal has been recently removed from most children's vaccines, it is still present in flu vaccines given to pregnant women, the elderly, and to children in developing countries. The potential protective effect of GSH or NAC against mercury toxicity warrants further research as possible adjunct therapy to individuals still receiving Thimerosal-containing vaccinations.

PMID: 15527868 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

To further this argument I am including comments from a medical colleague of mine from new Mexico. Perhaps his thoughts will encourage you to shed that lemming top coat, advocate for your health and questions the so-called "authorities".

Another reminder is to know if your child takes the nasal flu vaccine - This is a live vaccine and it will make your child contagious for at least three weeks, while they are sloughing off viral cells in their environment, putting you at greater risk of getting the flu.

We are recommending you consider this combination of vitamin C and vitamin D.

From Ken Stoller, MD
If you will read the post by the DOH (State of Washington):
http://www.doh.wa.gov/cfh/immunize/providers/h1n1-thimerosal.htm

You will see that they have suspended their normal operating procedures and will now give vaccine with Thimerosal to infants and pregnant women because they have already been notified there will be a severe shortage of Thimerosal free H1N1 vaccine.

This is exactly what I anticipated would happen and it was why I filed my complaint with the BoP. You closed the case inappropriately by getting assurance that only Thimerosal free vaccine would be given to pregnant women and children under 3. If the NM DOH follows the lead of the State of Washington, you received false assurance.

I was just sent an internal draft CDC Media Strategy, made public for the first time (see attached), which concedes that CDC does not have sound science supporting vaccine safety and must therefore resort to a program of misinformation and propaganda, referring to critical parents and safety first advocacy organizations as anti-vaccine.

In addition to conceding that fear-based propaganda will have to substitute for basic science, the memo reveals how completely CDC has descended into a military them-against-us mind set. Critics of vaccine safety are labeled anti-vaccine, as hostile parents, or as adversaries of vaccination, with no acknowledgment that criticism and inquiries can be in good faith, can sincerely be interested in promoting vaccine safety as a sensible, indeed necessary, scheme to protect the benefits to public health of mass immunization.

CDC admits: Risk communication messages regarding vaccine adverse reactions are difficult to develop. Yes, exactly, because they just dont know the risks. How, then, can CDC claim as a strength of their media plan that the [b]enefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks? This is a hungry lie.

Instead of actually doing the science to accurately ascertain the risks of vaccination, and make appropriate changes to the schedule, screening, etc., CDC proposes an aggressive public/private media campaign: [C]ommunity acceptance of vaccination demands that we take a stand to not only explain the risks of complication due to natural disease, but also toward unfounded arguments or [sic] adversaries of vaccination.

CDC makes a stunning admissions: Some claims against vaccine cannot be disproved. And: CDC does not have complete adverse event surveillance data on which to base health messages.

As previously explained, the FDA does not recommend flu vaccine for pregnant women - that has not changed and the CDC has gone rogue in this area.

KP Stoller, MD, FACHM
President, International Hyperbaric Medical Assoc
Medical Director, Hyperbaric Medical Center of New Mexico
www.hbotnm.com

REMEMBER: THERE ARE NO LONG TERM STUDIES ON VACCINES AND IT APPEARS, REPEATEDLY, THAT THOSE TAKING THESE SHOTS ARE THE ONES WHO ARE BECOMING ILL.

Swine Flu and Vaccine information

I've posted these vaccine information pages many times before on my web sites and in this blog, as well as referred to the information in a number of articles I've written for print publications.

http://www.whale.to/vaccines.html
http://www.whale.to/vaccines/ingredients.html
http://www.whale.to/vaccine/west_edda.html

I think they are quite important today as so many this those of us who are raising questions about vaccines are a bit looney.

If that's the case why is a Mayo Clinic doctor saying this?

"The recurring question is, 'How do we know it's safe?'" said Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic.

And if that's the case, after HHS has let the vaccine manufacturers off the hook for litigation over vaccine adverse effects and damage, then why is this new effort to monitor the vaccine now underway?

The facts are that vaccines pose a risk to health, and we do know this. Vaccines are not proven, there are no long term studies, there are no double-blind/placebo controlled studies, they are linked to after effects of serious health problems. And we have to question the statistics so far to support the claim that we have a "pandemic".

I'd also encourage readers to question this theory that it is safe to give an infant these vaccines, because we know an infant does not have a developed immune system until they are many months older, yet these so-called scientists want you to believe otherwise -

Vaccine Expert Advises: Immunization Should Be Given As Early In Life As Possible

ScienceDaily (2009-09-27) -- Parents should not be worried that early vaccination would overwhelm their babies, a vaccine expert says. Recent data show that the immune system of newborns is able to respond to a world full of antigens already at birth. Therefore, vaccines should be given as early in life as possible to minimize the risk of damage by a potentially harmful infection, according to an expert in vaccinology and neonatal immunology. ... > read full article

But if this is true, then why do so many health professionals skip the jabs and withhold them from their children?

Swine flu shot: Intense tracking for side effectsBy LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer
WASHINGTON – More than 3,000 people a day have a heart attack. If you're one of them the day after your swine flu shot, will you worry the vaccine was to blame and not the more likely culprit, all those burgers and fries?

The government is starting an unprecedented system to track possible side effects as mass flu vaccinations begin next month. The idea is to detect any rare but real problems quickly, and explain the inevitable coincidences that are sure to cause some false alarms.

"Every day, bad things happen to people. When you vaccinate a lot of people in a short period of time, some of those things are going to happen to some people by chance alone," said Dr. Daniel Salmon, a vaccine safety specialist at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Health authorities hope to vaccinate well over half the population in just a few months against swine flu, which doctors call the 2009 H1N1 strain. That would be a feat. No more than 100 million Americans usually get vaccinated against regular winter flu, and never in such a short period.

How many will race for the vaccine depends partly on confidence in its safety. The last mass inoculations against a different swine flu, in 1976, were marred by reports of a rare paralyzing condition, Guillain-Barre syndrome.

"The recurring question is, 'How do we know it's safe?'" said Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic.

Enter the intense new monitoring. On top of routine vaccine tracking, there are these government-sponsored projects:

_Harvard Medical School scientists are linking large insurance databases that cover up to 50 million people with vaccination registries around the country for real-time checks of whether people see a doctor in the weeks after a flu shot and why. The huge numbers make it possible to quickly compare rates of complaints among the vaccinated and unvaccinated, said the project leader, Dr. Richard Platt, Harvard's population medicine chief.

_Johns Hopkins University will direct e-mails to at least 100,000 vaccine recipients to track how they're feeling, including the smaller complaints that wouldn't prompt a doctor visit. If anything seems connected, researchers can call to follow up with detailed questions.

_The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is preparing take-home cards that tell vaccine recipients how to report any suspected side effects to the nation's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting system.

"We don't have any reason to expect any unusual problems with this vaccine," said Dr. Neal Halsey, director of Hopkins' Institute for Vaccine Safety, who is directing the e-mail surveillance.

After all, the new H1N1 vaccine is a mere recipe change from the regular winter flu shot that's been used for decades in hundreds of millions of people without serious problems. Nor have there been any red flags in the few thousand people given test doses in studies to determine the right H1N1 dose. They've gotten the same sore arms and occasional headache or fever that's par for a winter flu shot.

But because this H1N1 flu targets the young more than the old, this may be the year that unprecedented numbers of children and pregnant women are vaccinated.

Then there's the glare of the Internet — where someone merely declaring on Facebook that he's sure the shot did harm could cause a wave of similar reports. Health authorities will have to tell quickly if there really do seem to be more cases of a particular health problem than usual.

So the CDC is racing to compile a list of what's normal: 25,000 heart attacks every week; 14,000 to 19,000 miscarriages every week; 300 severe allergic reactions called anaphylaxis every week.

Any spike would mean fast checking to see if the vaccine really seems to increase risk and by how much, so health officials could issue appropriate warnings.

Very rare side effects by definition could come to light only after large-scale inoculations begin — making this the year scientists may finally learn if flu vaccine truly is linked to Guillain-Barre, an often reversible but sometimes fatal paralysis. It's believed to strike between 1 and 2 of every 100,000 people. It often occurs right after another infection, such as food poisoning or even influenza.

But the vaccine concern stems from 1976, when 500 cases were reported among the 45 million people vaccinated against that year's swine flu. Scientists never could prove if the vaccine really caused the extra risk. The CDC maintains that if the regular winter flu vaccine is related, the risk is no more than a single case per million vaccinated.

So the question becomes, Is the risk of disease greater than that?

Mayo's Poland cites a study in Chicago that found the rate of preschoolers being hospitalized for the new H1N1 flu last spring was 2 1/2 times higher than that possible Guillain-Barre risk.

However the flu season turns out, the extra vaccine tracking promises a lasting impact.

"Part of what we hope is that it will teach us something about how to monitor the safety of all medical products quickly," said Harvard's Platt.

And just think about the benefit of facebook, alerting readers to other data that differs from AP reporters covering only one side of the discussion.

Vioxx maker Merck drew up hit list

This representation of corporate culture is just one reason why US healthcare costs are so high. It has nothing to do with helping people be healthy and well, its all about the product at what ever the price.

Interestingly enough a Merck detail rep in Anchorage is know to me to have engaged in a similar deceptive practice while making willful false statements about some help I provided him.

I guess Merck seeks out the unethical and dishonest to fill the ranks of their employees, they'll do what ever it takes to keep their job, or harm someone else, when they know they are lying.

When I think how degraded the health industry has become at the expense of people, I still fondly recall our neighbor from childhood, one of the top MSD executives.

Milanda Rout | April 01, 2009
Article from: The Australian
An international drug company made a hit list of doctors who had to be "neutralised" or discredited because they criticised the anti-arthritis drug the pharmaceutical giant produced.

Staff at US company Merck &Co emailed each other about the list of doctors - mainly researchers and academics - who had been negative about the drug Vioxx or Merck and a recommended course of action.

IN-DEPTH COVERAGE: The Vioxx Trial

The email, which came out in the Federal Court in Melbourne yesterday as part of a class action against the drug company, included the words "neutralise", "neutralised" or "discredit" against some of the doctors' names.

It is also alleged the company used intimidation tactics against critical researchers, including dropping hints it would stop funding to institutions and claims it interfered with academic appointments.

"We may need to seek them out and destroy them where they live," a Merck employee wrote, according to an email excerpt read to the court by Julian Burnside QC, acting for the plaintiff.

Merck & Co and its Australian subsidiary, Merck, Sharpe and Dohme, are being sued for compensation by more than 1000 Australians, who claim they suffered heart attacks or strokes as a result of Vioxx.

The drug was launched in 1999 and at its height of popularity was used by 80 million people worldwide because it did not cause stomach problems as did traditional anti-inflammatory drugs.

It was voluntarily withdrawn from sale in 2004 after concerns were raised that it caused heart attacks and strokes and a clinical trial testing these potential side affects was aborted for safety reasons.

Lead plaintiff Graeme Peterson, 58, claims the drug caused him to have a heart attack in 2003 after he took it for back pain and arthritis every day from May 2001.

Merck last year settled thousands of lawsuits in the US over the effects of Vioxx for $US4.85billion ($7.14 billion) but made no admission of guilt.

The company is fighting the class action in Australia.

The Federal Court was told yesterday that Merck wanted to gain the backing of researchers and doctors - or "opinion leaders" - in the fields of arthritis to help promote the drug to medical professionals when it was launched in 1999.

Mr Burnside said internal emails in April 1999 from Merck staff showed the company was not happy with what some researchers and doctors were saying about the drug.

"It gives you the dark side of the use of key opinion leaders and thought leaders ... if (they) say things you don't like to hear, you have to neutralise them," he said. "It does suggest a certain culture within the organisation about how to deal with your opponents and those who disagree with you."

The court was told that James Fries, professor of medicine at Stanford University, wrote to the then Merck head Ray Gilmartin in October 2000 to complain about the treatment of some of his researchers who had criticised the drug.

"Even worse were allegations of Merck damage control by intimidation," he wrote, according to Mr Burnside.

"This has happened to at least eight (clinical) investigators ... I suppose I was mildly threatened myself but I never have spoken or written on these issues."

Mr Burnside told the court Dr Fries went on to describe instances of intimidation, including one colleague who thought his academic appointment had been jeopardised and another who received phone calls alleging "anti-Merck" bias.

Dr Fries said in the letter that Merck had been systematically playing down the side effects of Vioxx and said the company's behaviour "seriously impinges on academic freedom". The court was also told a rheumatologist on Merck's Australian arthritis advisory board was angry he did not find out about Merck's decision to withdraw Vioxx until an ABC journalist rang to tell him. Mr Burnside said James Bertouch wrote to other members of the board saying he was "extremely disillusioned" with the company.

"In every possible way the company exerted itself to present the impression to the world at large that Vioxx did not provide any increased cardio risk ... when (a) it probably would and (b) it probably did," he wrote, according to Mr Burnside.

Peter Garling, acting for Merck, accused Mr Peterson of not taking the drug Vioxx in the months leading up to his heart attack in December 2003.

He said Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme figures showed he did not fill a Vioxx prescription for the drug in the two months before his heart attack.

Mr Garling put to Mr Peterson during his cross-examination that this was because he had retired from his job as a safety consultant and therefore he did not need to take Vioxx because his back pain lessened.

Mr Peterson denied this meant he was not taking the drug.

"No, I wouldn't accept that at all," he said. "I can remember taking Vioxx regularly."

The trial, before Justice Chris Jessop, continues.

Further reading on Corporations -

When I was first in college in the 60s, the popular book to read was "The Organization Man", now it seems that this is a replacement.
Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy by Ted Nace

"A good book to read is called: "The Gangs of America"; which chronicles how with about one dozen supreme court cases (because the northeastern railroads payed off congress to pack the Supreme Court with pro corporate constitutional personhood rights justices) that have given corporations with the "myth" of constitutional personhood....the second american revolution's central causes are twofold: the first being the federal reserve controlling our politics; business and quality of life through inflation and deflation and control of the issuance of money.....the second cause will be the corporate oligarchy and the mythic "rights" that have been fraudulently bestowed on the corporate entity in our nation beginning in the 1870's....if you don't believe me; purchase and read the book that I mentioned in the beginning of this paragraph....and make up your own mind....if we all work together we can get back to a nation where most of the American population is self employed; or work for small locally owned businesses; a nation where we are once again self reliant; and we can in this nation place the corporate charter model and the anti democratic and anti republican tendencies of it into the dust bin of history forever...."

Texas Doctor Files Against Big Insurance

More power to another Mad As Hell Doctor and his effort to stop Big Insurance methods that destroy medical care for profit.

Texas Doctor Files Case Pro Se in U.S. Supreme Court Against Insurance Giant on Integrity and Unethical Practices

DALLAS, Texas, Sept. 24 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Dr. Dralves Edwards, a board-certified family physician in Dallas today filed a civil case in the U.S. Supreme Court against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, the contractor for Medicare. For the past 13 years, Edwards has challenged the integrity and unethical practices of Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) and is confident that the U.S. Supreme Court will rule in a responsible way that every Medicare provider and patient benefits.

In 2003, the original suit was filed in Dallas district court alleging that BCBS engaged in fraud, gross negligence, and criminal acts that, according to Edwards, forced him to close his doors. Today, he works as a hospital emergency room physician.

BCBS responded to the suit by removing it to federal court, but the case was remanded back to district court. BCBS then filed a "No Evidence" Motion for Summary Judgment that was granted sovereign immunity by the lower courts.

Edwards acknowledges that lower court decisions have historically disagreed with well established U.S. Supreme Court cases (i.e., Ardary vs. Aetna; Heckler vs. Ringer; and Kelly vs. Advantage Health, Rochester vs. Travelers).

In 1997, Edwards says BCBS caused irreparable harm to his thriving practice and marred his professional name when he was placed on a 100 percent prepayment review. For three consecutive years, 96 percent of his claims were denied; his practice was 90 percent Medicare.

"I provided free transportation and made house calls that saved Medicare millions of dollars," reports Edwards. "These were patients who probably would have ended up in the emergency room."

In October 1996, Edwards was featured in USA Today as, "One of the few doctors in America making house calls."

BCBS denied most of Edwards' claims as "non-covered services and not reasonable and medically necessary."

Medical conditions like breast cancer, diabetes, and decubitus ulcers were denied. However, after the course of five years, claims were appealed through Medicare's administrative process and paid.

"Something was terribly wrong," Edwards says. "Other doctors were being paid by BCBS for these same medical conditions, but payment continued to be denied to me."

Edwards alleges that, "BCBS was tested for profiling and got caught."

He explains what happened. One doctor employed by him applied for a new Medicare group number. Dr. Edwards' name was deliberately left off of the original application. The group number was granted, 300 claims were submitted, and BCBS paid 98 percent of them. A month later, Edwards' name was added, 300 claims were submitted and all were denied.

BCBS told Edwards he had a documentation problem. However, after meeting with a Medicare representative to review the denied claims, no problems were discovered. It was recommended that he sign his progress notes and resubmit the claims for payment. He did and they were still denied as "non-covered services and not reasonable and medically necessary."

Edwards then obtained the list of 100 doctors on the prepayment review list for 1997 through 1998. He contacted most all of these doctors and discovered that they knew nothing about a "prepayment review."

"This evidence was highlighted in the suit, but ignored by the courts," says Edwards.

It was becoming apparent that some unethical practices were in play.

To date, this 13-year ordeal has led to thousands of dollars spent; countless hours; a five-year administrative process; five summary-judgment hearings; numerous investigations; nine attorneys; 19 judges; a 100 percent prepayment review; and protectionism from the lower courts.

"Justice for the innocent has not been served," Edwards says. "The guilty remain in business. Right now, it rests in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court."

To view the video: "D.G. Edwards vs. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas," visit YouTube: www.youtube.com/sevlard or follow on Twitter at: twitter.com/sevlard.

Media Contact: Dr. D. G. Edwards
+1-214-215-4425
Dralves51@msn.com

NEWS SOURCE: Dr. Dralves Edwards

Send2Press® is the originating wire service for this story.

PRESS RELEASE PERMALINK: http://www.send2press.com/newswire/2009-09-0924-001.shtml

For more information about this news release, contact Dr. Dralves Edwards directly through their Web site found in the above press release, and NOT Send2Press.

Judge Reverses Approval for RoundUp Ready Beets

Background information about the litigation -
Food Safety Fact Sheet

Findings of Fact and a win for the average consumer-

September 22, 2009
Judge overturns approval of Roundup Ready beets
By JEFF BARNARD, AP Environmental Writer

A federal judge overturned government approval of a variety of sugar beet genetically engineered to resist a popular weed killer produced by agricultural giant Monsanto, according to a ruling released Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in San Francisco found the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service violated environmental law by failing to take a "hard look" at whether "Roundup Ready" sugar beets would eventually share their genes with other crops.

Noting that pollen from genetically altered sugar beets could be blown by the wind long distances to related crops, such as chard and table beets, the judge ordered the agency to produce an environmental impact statement examining the issue.

"The potential elimination of farmers' choice to grow nongenetically engineered crops, or consumers' choice to eat nongenetically engineered food ... has a significant effect on the human environment," White wrote.

The plant inspection agency is reviewing the ruling, said spokeswoman Suzanne Bond.

A lesser level of review, known as an environmental assessment, found no significant impact from introducing a ground bacteria gene tolerant of the herbicide into the sugar beet genome, noting that if pollen spread the genes to wild beets, they were considered a weed, and no cause for concern.

The ruling was a second blow for St. Louis-based Monsanto's Roundup Ready crops. While soy beans, corn, cotton, and canola genetically engineered to withstand the company's popular weed-killer have been in wide commercial production for years, a similar ruling in 2007 forced a ban on planting Roundup Ready alfalfa until a re-examination was done. That environmental impact statement is not yet done.

It was not immediately clear what impact the ruling would have on the U.S. sugar crop, about half of which comes from Roundup Ready sugar beets. The judge did not address the harvest of the current crop. Roundup Ready beet seed saves growers on labor, fuel costs and equipment wear.

But the organic farmers, food safety advocates and conservation groups that brought the lawsuit will ask the judge Oct. 30 for an injunction banning new plantings until the re-examination is done, said Earthjustice attorney Paul Achitoff.

American Sugar Beet Growers Association spokesman Luther Markwart said he did not know how much nongenetically altered seed was available if the judge grants the ban.

"Clearly we are going to vigorously defend our farmers' freedom to plant Roundup Ready sugar beets," Markwart said. "All this has to do with how we make our case."

Most of the seed is produced in Oregon's Willamette Valley, but the crop is grown on 1.1 million acres in 11 states from Michigan to California, Markwart said.

Frank Morton, an organic seed grower in the Willamette Valley town of Philomath and plaintiff in the lawsuit, said steps were taken to keep similar crops apart to prevent cross-pollination, but Roundup Ready seed growers would not divulge which fields were growing genetically altered crops.

He added that he had to pay $300 each time he tested his seeds for genetic contamination, and the first time it is found the crop becomes worthless.

"This industry could be destroying the crop value of organic growers and organic growers would not have the slightest idea they were in danger until their stuff turned up contaminated," he said. "This is why I made a stink about this."

Achitoff said besides genetic contamination, they were concerned Roundup Ready crops were creating new strains of weeds resistant to herbicides.

Monsanto spokesman Garrett Kasper said from company headquarters in St. Louis that the ruling was largely procedural and did not question the safety of Roundup Ready crops.

"The issue of weed resistance, as far as we are concerned, is something that is able to be controlled through the properties of chemicals and working with our technical advisers in the field," he said. "Roundup Ready technology uses less herbicide than conventional, which is why it was so readily adopted by growers."

BetaSeed Inc. in Tangent, which produces sugar beet seed, did not immediately return a call for comment.

2009 Associated Press. Permission granted

No "Cure" for Breast Cancer, data review from 1980

This leads the authors to conclude that the 2 phenomena, treatment advances and screening, have not led to a cure.

1: Ann Oncol. 2009 Aug;20(8):1331-6. Epub 2009 May 22.
Ann Oncol. 2009 Aug;20(8):1291-2.
'Cure' from breast cancer among two populations of women followed for 23 years after diagnosis.Woods LM, Rachet B, Lambert PC, Coleman MP.
Cancer Research UK Survival Group, Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK. laura.woods@lshtm.ac.uk

BACKGROUND: Although survival from breast cancer has greatly improved over the past three decades, there is little consensus as to whether a population of women diagnosed with breast cancer can ever be considered 'cured' of the disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We examined population 'cure' among women aged 15-99 years diagnosed with breast cancer from 1980 to 1995 in the West Midlands (England) and New South Wales (Australia). We calculated interval-specific excess mortality rates and fitted a number of statistical models to evaluate 'cure'. RESULTS: There was little evidence that these women could ever be considered cured of the disease because excess mortality due to breast cancer was evident among young and middle-aged women up to 23 years after their diagnosis. Older women diagnosed in New South Wales displayed some evidence of 'cure'. However, this was estimated to occur only after the women's 75th birthday.

CONCLUSIONS: There is no strong evidence of the existence of a 'cured' subpopulation among young or middle-aged women diagnosed with breast cancer in either West Midlands or New South Wales during the period 1980-1995. Additional follow-up data would permit 'cure' to be assessed for women diagnosed more recently than 1995.

PMID: 19465419 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Pink Lids Marching

Now that we are once again in the Pink Pandemonium I would like to comment on a recent interview aired from Portland OR about the fact that the woman interviewed said there is no cure for breast cancer.

Well there is cure, and there is also prevention. All of this has been on the record for decades, and little attention is given to it because of the influence of the breast cancer industry.

How about reporting on the well known fact that mammogram promotes breast cancer and it increases the incidence when you promote the "Annual Screening Mammogram" to women who are 40 years old.

Why not report on Thermography, a non-carcinogenic screening system that detects earlier and even identifies very minute real tumours. Mammogram, on the other hand, can't detect tumours until they are about 8 years old. And if you recall, the problem of reading the x-ray was seriously lacking, leading to many false findings, so another machine was developed to re-read your x-ray (digital mammography).

Why not report on the damaging effects of chemo and radiation and the miserable statistics proving that chemo really cures about 1-2% of people.

The politics of this is that there won't be a cure until the "race racket" stops subsidizing paychecks for researchers. Maybe it should subsidize the families of women who die from breast cancer or provide accountability to women who have been conditioned to believe there will be a cure.

AP should start doing some real investigative coverage of this issue. I've done the research and I've been educating women for several decades on these topics.

I direct a 501c3 organization and I can't get General Mills/Kraft to donate to it for our educational efforts, like this blog for example, as they give only to Komen. Komen refuses to communicate with my office.

Maybe there is a hidden agenda, or more likely a political issue, that keeps everyday people in the dark, at the cost of many lives.

TV News Harmful to Health
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2009/09/tv-health-news-harmful-to-health.html

John Gofman, PhD, MD
"His 1985 book X-rays: Health Effects of Common Exams, co-written with Egan O'Connor, stated that 75 percent of cancer cases are caused by medical radiation, including X-rays, mammograms and CT scans."

Baucus Bill Gets Mixed Reception

Hoping to keep you informed, and alert you to the fact that there is too much of a hand out to Big PhARMA and Big Insurance in this proposal, along with cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, NO CUTS to members of Congress' insurance plan.

And BTW, where is dental and vision coverage for citizens and parity for fitness programs equal to Congressional gym privileges?

I could say more but the bottom line for me is that this isn't good for consituents by a long shot.

Baucus Health Plan Gets a Mixed Reception
Wayne J. Guglielmo

September 17, 2009 — After Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus released his healthcare reform plan yesterday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs characterized it as "an important building block" and a reform measure that "makes progress on the issue" in a briefing with reporters.

It was tepid praise for a bill that was so long in the making and so eagerly anticipated — but Gibbs's comments were also a clear acknowledgement that the "chairman's mark," as this kind of initial legislative draft is known in Washington-speak, will be amended in the week or so ahead, as both disgruntled Republicans and Democrats on the Finance Committee weigh in.

The Baucus plan as released garnered no Republican support, despite months of intense negotiation among the so-called Gang of Six, a bipartisan group of Finance Committee members that included on the GOP side Ranking Member Charles Grassley (IA), Olympia Snowe (ME), and Michael Enzi (WY).

In their postrelease statements, the Republicans voiced a variety of objections. Among other things, Sen. Enzi criticized the proposal's $856 billion price tag as still too expensive, although that 10-year cost is the lowest of any of the other major Congressional health reform bills and may even be overstated by $82 billion, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis released Wednesday afternoon.

Enzi also said that the bill "does too little to cut cost for those with health insurance; expands "the unsustainable Medicaid program"; and calls for payment reforms in private Medicare or Medicare Advantage that could end up reducing beneficiary coverage. For his part, Sen. Grassley called for tougher measures in the bill to prevent "taxpayer funding of abortion services" and to prevent healthcare subsidies for "illegal aliens." He also called for a tougher stance on medical malpractice reform — as of now, the Baucus bill calls simply for the Senate to push Congress to establish "a state demonstration program to evaluate alternatives to the current civil litigation system" — and for cost-saving alternatives to the bill's "individual mandate" provision, which would require most Americans to have coverage or be subject to a penalty.

Of the 3 GOP members, Maine's Olympia Snowe was the most tempered in her reaction, which has given some Democrats heart that she may still join them to form a fillerbuster-proof 60-vote majority if and when reform legislation finally makes its way out of committee and onto the Senate floor. But Snowe has her own cost concerns — and she was clearly instrumental during negotiations in moving the Baucus proposal "in the right direction away from," as she says in her postrelease statement, "a government-run system contained in bills that have passed other Congressional committees."

In fact, in stark contrast to the Senate HELP Committee legislation and the House Tri-Committee bill, the Baucus proposal jettisons the much-debated "public option" — the government-run health program that would compete in the marketplace with private health insurance plans — in favor of a series of nonprofit member-run, member-oriented plans or co-ops. "Six billion dollars of federal seed money would be provided for start-up costs and to meet solvency requirements," notes the Senate Finance Committee press release.

Thumbs Down to the Co-op Alternative

But it is precisely this substitution of the public plan option with the co-op alternative that has some Democratic Finance Committee members seeing red.

West Virginia's Jay Rockefeller has been especially vocal in his opposition. "The proposed co-op model is untested and unsubstantiated — and should not be considered as a national model for health insurance," he said in a statement after the release of the Baucus plan. In a postrelease letter to Chairman Baucus and Ranking Member Grassley, he went a step further, not only reiterating his strong support for a public-plan option as "the only way to guarantee that all consumers can purchase affordable, meaningful, and accountable health insurance," but educing evidence from a variety of federal and private agencies that, as he puts it, "causes me even greater concern about the direction of the Finance Committee package."

Rockefeller makes 4 points. First, there has been little historical research done on consumer co-ops "as a model for the broad expansion of health insurance," and the research that has been done shows a history of failure. Second, there is no consistent data on the number of existing co-ops or their effect on consumers. Third, the majority of co-ops today "operate and function like existing health insurance companies." And fourth, because existing co-ops are regulated by the individual states in which they are headquartered, there have been no overall analyses of how successful regulators have been in preventing fraud and abuse, in guaranteeing adequate consumer representation, and in making sure co-ops actually fulfill their mandate to reduce costs.

But if the co-op alternative is a deal breaker for Democrats like Rockefeller, the public option is almost certainly a nonstarter for even moderate Republicans like Olympia Snowe. Which side will prevail during the "markup" or amendment process? And if the bill does make to the Senate floor, will the losing side try to make up during floor debate what it lost in committee?

As for President Obama himself, some observers think he has sent mixed signals about his commitment to the public-plan option. Is it simply a means to an end — enhanced competition and lower costs — as he indicated in his recent speech before a joint session of Congress, or is it something more? And if the former, can he keep Democrats like Rockefeller from bolting while enlisting moderate Democrats and a Republican or two to his cause?

Debate over the Baucus proposal in the next week or so ahead is likely to provide at least some partial insight into many of these questions.

Full text of Sen. Baucus' healthcare plan.

Refuse Risky Vaccine, Get Deportation Threat

There are at least 20 articles here at Natural Health News dating back to 2006 raising a red flag on the risk and dangers of Gardasil vaccine.

This one has to be the most outrageous, in response to a vaccine that has serious risk and extremely limited benefit for a self limitng infection.

PORT ST. JOE, Fla., Sept. 12 (UPI) -- An adopted teen who has lived in Port St. Joe, Fla. since she was 3 faces possible deportation to England for refusing a vaccination, she and her mother say.

Simone Davis, 17, said she has no need for the vaccine Gardasil, which guards against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus virus, because she is not sexually active, ABC News reported.

But the U.S. government requires female immigrants between the ages of 11 and 26 to receive Gardasil shots before they can become citizens.

Simone was abandoned as a baby in England and adopted at 3 by her paternal grandmother, Jean Davis, who married an American and moved to Port St. Joe, Fla.

Jean Davis started applying for citizenship for Simone nearly 10 years ago, ABC said.

As a devout Christian who has taken a virginity pledge, Simone argues she is in no danger of getting cervical cancer and sees no reason to get the vaccine.

American-born girls are encouraged, but not required, to get the vaccine.

Simone and Jean Davis sought a waiver on moral and religious grounds, but were turned down. They have 30 days to appeal the ruling. Without citizenship, Simone can be sent back to England, ABC said.

"I kind of feel like they may be experimenting with immigrants to see how we will react and then give the vaccine to citizens," Simone said. "If it is such a great vaccine, why isn't it mandatory for everyone?"

Health Care Philosophy

The highest ideal of cure is rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of the health, or removal and annihilation of the disease in its whole extent, in the shortest, most reliable, and most harmless way, on easily comprehensible principles.

Samuel Hahnemann, founder of Homeopathy

Gluten allergy boosts death risk

This is a timely report in terms of the article below about current cancer therapies, and the fact we have known for decades that cancer is most often a nutritional disease.

Not too long ago I wrote to a physician who is doing gastrointestinal work and with people who have rheumatoid arthritis. I asked him if he was screening his patients for gluten and gliaden allergy and allergy to other foods.

You guessed it, the answer was 'NO'.

I think this article represents a start, but the movement has to continue. It may be up to you, instead of asking for reflux drugs, to demand proper food allergy testing. The system I use tests for 250 different foods.

Don't overlook the impact of vaccines in this equation either.

Tue Sep 15
CHICAGO (AFP) – The risks of gluten allergies have been underestimated, according to a study published Tuesday which found increased mortality rates among people with celiac disease.

Celiac disease is triggered by exposure to gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley.

Found in about one percent of the Western population, it damages the small intestines and interferes with the absorption of nutrients from food.

People with celiac disease often also have other diseases which attack the immune system such as diabetes or arthritis.

However, celiac disease often goes undiagnosed until substantial damage has been done to the digestive system.

Using data taken from biopsies taken between July 1969 and February 2008 in Sweden, researchers were able to examine the overall risk of death in individuals with celiac disease and digestive inflammation and compare it to the general population.

They found the risk of death was "modestly increased."

Patients with inflammation had a 72 percent increased risk of death; patients with celiac disease had a 39 percent increased risk; and patients with latent celiac disease had a 35 percent increased risk of death.

Lead author Jonas Ludvigsson of the Orebro University Hospital concluded that there could be several explanations for the increased mortality risks.

"Malnutrition of energy and vitamins and chronic inflammation may increase the risk of death," he wrote, noting that even patients who maintain gluten-free diets have persisting lesions.

Those with inflammation who had not been diagnosed with celiac disease may have an overall worse prognosis because institution of a gluten-free diet often leads to normalization, the authors concluded.

"Until recently, gluten sensitivity has received little attention in the traditional medical literature, although there is increasing evidence for its presence in patients with various neurological disorders and psychiatric problems," Peter Green of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons wrote in an accompanying editorial.

"The study by Ludvigsson and colleagues reinforces the importance of celiac disease as a diagnosis that should be sought by physicians. It also suggests that more attention should be given to the lesser degrees of intestinal inflammation and gluten sensitivity."

The risk of death was highest in the first year of follow-up but decreased with age at diagnosis, with risk being higher for those diagnosed before age 20.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Patrick Swayze and Cancer Thoughts

I am not much of a TV watcher and for the most part I have one so I can watch movies or play the workout videos I use as part of my daily fitness plan.

Last evening I made a deviation from the norm by watching the Patrick Swayze interview with Barbara Walters.

I was really most interested in what Patrick had to say, and his wife of almost four decades.

I also wanted to hear about the treatment he chose.

I admit I'm a Swayze fan of many years. I too enjoyed some youthful romantic escapades in the Catskills, and I hope his "ghost" hangs around from time to time.

He's been most courageous in his ability to be open and public through his illness and hopefully this stand will help many others. One thing he said that resonated with my work was what he said about how the chemo tore up his insides.

This is important on several levels. First of all this is such a common issue in chemotherapy and its one that is too frequently not addressed.

I have a friend who was just recently diagnosed with AML, a form of leukemia. I sent his wife a abstract I put together on nutrient deletions of chemotherapy drugs. This is a critical issue because of the wasting that so often is related to lack of nutrition and toxic body states caused by the chemo.

I also sent his wife another article written by Dr. H. Kenneth Schueler from New York. Dr. Schueler recently had one of his articles, "Clinical Trial of Pancreatic Enzymes: One View" included in Ralph Moss's newsletter.

This treatment used by Dr. Gonzalez, is based on the work of a dentist, Dr. William D. Kelley. Dr. Kelley was diagnosed in 1962 with pancreatic and liver cancer. He passed away in 2005.

Dr. Kelley's method is soundly based in nutrition. It is also brilliant in its understanding of physiology and biochemistry in the human body. It is one in which I have been educated, and I've seen the good results.

Gonzalez addresses the issue of toxic overload resulting from chemo and how current treatment models do not allow the body to process this waste. He also addresses nutrition and just how important this is in any cancer treatment plan. His research has shown about an 83% cure rate.

As Dr. Schueler says, we need to look again at this program, especially for pancreatic cancer. I couldn't agree more!

Nutrient Depletion in Chemotherapy- general to all chemo drugs in relation to side effects: dysbiosis, stomatitis, pancreatitis, adynamic ileus, gastric mucosa damage and realted damage to microvilli in small intestine, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and constipation.

All of the above side effects relate to malabsorption issues and to a high state of inflammation. The end result is malnutrition. Natural approaches can help substantially with all of the above. (GE)

Consider too the impact of over use of acid reflux drugs and the rising incidence of gluten allergy. There's more to it than smoking.

And you do not have to lose your hair! There is a natural supplement that not only can fight cancers but it protects you from losing hair.

More articles -

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2009/03/cancer-nutritional-and-environmental.html

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/09/finding-gene-is-only-one-part-of.html

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2009/03/supplements-reduce-adverse-effects-of.html

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2009/04/black-cumin-and-pancreatic-cancer.html

Many more articles may be found by putting "cancer" in the search box in the header.

Pink Lid Parade is on the way

October is coming quickly and once again we'll see the pundits roll out the Pink Parade to help you believe you are really contributing to the "cure". Of course you should know by now this is just a campaign to allow scientists to continue chasing down paths that fail to offer a cure.

To help alert you to important issues in women's health, breast health and options for cancer, related articles till be tagged with the pink lid.

Remember, cures and better care along with better screening is already available, you just aren't getting the message from standard venues.


Breast cancer drugs raise blood clot risk

PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Drugs used to lower the risk of breast cancer in women have the side effect of increasing the likelihood of blood clots, researchers in Oregon say.

The study, published in the current issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, examined the effects of tamoxifen, raloxifene and tibolone reduce the risk of invasive breast cancer by 30 percent to 68 percent. But it also found tamoxifen and raloxifene increase the chance of blood clots by 60 percent to 90 percent, and that tiboline, which is not on the U.S. market, is associated with strokes in women over 70.

"They did differ on the harm side. That's important to know," said Dr. Heidi D. Nelson, a research professor at Oregon Health & Science University who was the lead author.

See also

Tumors fueled, in part, by free radicals

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- The growth of cancerous tumors is fueled, in part, by the buildup of free radicals, or oxygen-containing molecules, U.S. researchers say.

Chemical biologist Kate Carroll of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and colleagues say their method monitors an early tip-off of oxidative stress -- sulfenic acid in proteins produced when the oxidant hydrogen peroxide reacts with the protein building block cysteine.

The researchers managed to use a chemical probe to "trap" the small, transient, hard-to-detect sulfenic acid and tag it for recognition with a fluorescence microscope in a panel of breast cancer cell lines.

"For each line, we saw a very distinct pattern of sulfenic acid modifications, indicating different oxidative stress levels and hinting at differences in the underlying molecular events associated with tumor growth," Carroll, the study leader, said in a statement.

"Whether the patterns we see will correlate with response to anti-oxidant treatment or other therapies that modulate oxidative stress level remains to be seen, but now we at least have a way to investigate that question."

The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Natural Health and Psoriasis

I'm listening to NPR and their story about psoriasis. Of course it is only medical, with the standard comment "there is no cure".

Because so little is known in medicine about this situation, there isn't any approach other than drugs and the new "biologicals" that severely suppress the immune system and can lead to cancer.

No mention is made of very helpful natural approaches to correcting this concern, including evaluation of food allergy, especially wheat gluten and gliaden.

Of course there is the psych referral...under the guise of "mind-body medicine" because as you know, everyone with a chronic health problem is depressed, and there are drugs for that.

Stories like this make me think about the high number of people I have helped over the years with psoriasis. In those who wanted to be fully well, the condition cleared.

Nature surely does a good job if we just take the time to listen.

See also

TV Health News Harmful to Health

UPDATE: September 22 -

Mainstream Media Miss the Point on Swine Flu Vaccine
The Associated Press is reporting on a study that indicates about half of all health workers, including doctors, would reject the swine flu vaccine due to concerns about its effectiveness, side effects and safety. The AP emphasizes the risk of doctors and nurses spreading swine flu if they don’t get vaccinated. We’d like to suggest a different thrust for this particular story, that doctors and nurses don’t think the swine flu vaccine is either safe or effective!

Health workers are not like everyone else. They have knowledge about health and illness that the general public lacks. They are trained to diagnose and treat disease. So when they reject a course of action, everyone should pay attention. Doctors and nurses do more good by acting according to their consciences and their training than by blindly parroting the will of government or BigPharma. Why should health workers — or anyone, really — be obliged to do something they believe is both harmful and useless?

Health workers aren’t just rejecting the swine flu vaccine. Almost two thirds of health care workers in the United States also reject the seasonal flu vaccine. The percentage is even higher in the United Kingdom. What do most of these professionals do to prepare for flu? Nothing. That’s right, nothing. Why? Could it be because the best way to deal with a virus is to let your immune system fight it off? Could it be because flu vaccines and pharmaceuticals do nothing to strengthen the immune system so it can do its job? Perhaps the rest of us could learn something from health professionals’ approach. From AAHF

I regularly read a health journalism report that grades news articles and reports by a list of standards. The report is operated by a journalism professional who is also an educator in the field.

Recently he notified list members that his organization would no longer evaluate TV health news because of the consistent poor level of reporting.

You might want to weigh the value of what you see and hear from broadcast media.

Network TV morning health news segments may be harmful to your health 08/03/09

By reviewing health news coverage every day, we are able to see big pictures of clear patterns unfolding that the casual day-to-day news consumer may miss.

One picture is quite clear. The morning health news segments on ABC, CBS and NBC do the following regularly:

Unquestioningly promote new drugs and new technologies
Feed the “worried well” by raising unrealistic expectations of unproven technologies that may produce more harm than good
Fail to ask tough questions
Make any discussion of health care reform that much more difficult

Influenza Vaccination During Pregnancy: NO

A Critical Assessment of the Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices

ABSTRACT: Influenza vaccination during all trimesters of pregnancy is now universally recommended in the United States. We critically reviewed the influenza vaccination policy of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP) and the citations that were used to support their recommendations.

The ACIP’s citations and the current literature indicate that influenza infection is rarely a threat to a normal pregnancy. There is no convincing evidence of the effectiveness of influenza vaccination during this critical period. No studies have adequately assessed the risk of influenza vaccination during pregnancy, and animal safety testing is lacking. Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative present in most inactivated formulations of the vaccine, has been implicated in human neurodevelopment disorders, including autism, and a broad range of animal and experimental reproductive toxicities including teratogenicity, mutagenicity, and fetal death.

Thimerosal is classified as a human teratogen.

The ACIP policy recommendation of routinely administering influenza vaccine during pregnancy is ill-advised and unsupported by current scientific literature, and it should be withdrawn. Use of thimerosal during pregnancy should be contraindicated.

Complete Article

Teratogen: Any agent that can disturb the development of an embryo or fetus. Teratogens may cause a birth defect in the child. Or a teratogen may halt the pregnancy outright. The classes of teratogens include radiation, maternal infections, chemicals, and drugs.

See also: Vitamin C Facts

A small dose of mercury will kill 1 in 100 rats.
A small dose of aluminum will kill 1 in 100 rats.

When combined there is a different and striking effect: all the rats die.

Doses of mercury that have a 1 percent mortality will have a 100 percent mortality rate if aluminum is added.

Vaccines contain both aluminum and mercury.

FDA / CDC do not test for synergistic effects, just as in the current concern over chemicals in cosmetics and beauthy aids.

REF:
Dr. Donald W. Miller, Jr., Mercury on the Mind

J. Shubert, E. Riley & S. Tyler. Combined Effects in Toxicology--A Rapid Systemic Testing Procedure: Cadmium, Mercury and Lead. J.Toxicology and Environmental Health v4, p763, 1978

Mercury is also implicated in fertility issues.

And consider this comment made during a well known conference discussing vaccines -

“One, up until this last discussion we have been talking about chronic exposure. I think it’s clear to me anyway that we are talking about a problem that is probably more related to bolus acute exposures, and we also need to know that the migration problems and some of the other developmental problems in the central nervous system go on for quite a period after birth. But from all of the other studies of toxic substances, the earlier you work with the central nervous system, the more likely you are to run into a sensitive period for one of these effects, so that moving from one month or one day of birth to six months of birth changes enormously the potential for toxicity. There are just a host of neurodevelopmental data that would suggest that we’ve got a serious problem. The earlier we go, the more serious the problem.”

“The second point I could make is that in relationship to aluminum, being a nephrologist for a long time, the potential for aluminum and central nervous system toxicity was established by dialysis data. To think there isn’t some possible problem here is unreal.”

And then there is the high correlation between chronic otitis media (ear ache)and the Hep B vaccine (Diabetes 1 as well).

Consider if you will, the half-life of mercury or aluminum. If mercury has about a 50 day half-life and you keep injecting vaccines containing mercury ingredients the levels of mercury or aluminum really do not decrease, and may continue to appear in proper hair analysis. This indicates their presence in the human body.

Speak Out for Animal Health

I love Mickey Rourke for speaking out for Spay & Neuter campaigns.

State of Affairs

Glenn A. Warner, MD was a highly regarded physician in the Seattle area that was well known for his commitment to his patients, their health and healing. He was responsible for many people with cancer overcoming the disease. He was a forerunner in the effective use of nutrition and supplements to fight and cure cancer, combined with other sound medical practice.

The sad part of Dr. Warner's career was the abusive and unfounded attack on him and his practice by the Draconian Washington State Department of Health. Dr. Warner ended his highly respected career because of the abuses of this agency (Learn more).



Last evening Larry King interviewed Andrew Weil, MD and it was a good program. Weil stated many of the things I have stated about the disease management system that we have in the US, passed off as "health care".

Recently, in the Pacific NW, a group of doctors who seem to clearly have the same understanding have formed a group called "Mad as Hell Doctors". They are on a trip to D.C. to make their concerns known.

"The MAHD team doesn't want any reform that doesn't offer up comprehensive results and a single payer system to the American people. This is not a political campaign as much as it is a campaign for truth in this debate.
And the truth is that what is offered in the present bills and what the President says he wants are inefficient ways of solving the health care crisis. We resist any reform that seeks to protect the private for profit business of health insurance and denies EVERYONE access to quality health care through a publicly funded privately provided system.
It is all about being fiscally conservative.
No new money needs to go into the system. We must just redirect the money now from the premiums and deductibles that fatten investors stock options and fund campaigns of our elected leaders."

So far Obama and people in Congress have come up with nothing that brings about the(real)change that is needed. The current proposals are to continue the same system controlled by Big PhARMA and Big Insurance.

It is time that we say NO to corporate control of what once was a great country that was the top of the heap in health care delivery, now at an all time low - 37th - along with excessive cost and limited benefit because of greed and profit driven motives.

Just recall that the Harvard School of Public Health found that only 20% or what is delivered in the health industry is effective. The other 80% is totally unproven and ineffective.

Make sure you know what you are asking for because you just might get it.

Swine Flu and Tamiflu: A comment

According to a recent study conducted by the Indian health ministry on the first 82 deaths due to swine flu in India, patients admitted to hospital died on average 3 days after commencing treatment with Tamiflu.

Ditto

Thanks to my colleague Dr. Carolyn Dean for saying the same thing I tell my clients-

Old Fashioned Vitamin C: These days, new wonder herbs, super-nutrients and “celebrity” supplements take center stage while the basics get ignored. Vitamin C is essential not just for your immune system but also for your body's ability to deal with stress. Today's fruits and vegetables don't offer the same quality and quantity of Vitamin C they did "back in the day."

This coincides with recent articles I sent out from @hebalYODA about how even organic fruits and vegetables are so low in nutrients today.

And of related interest.

Dual Standard at FDA

Remember SARS?

I do, and back in 2002(2003 and 2004) there was a similar campaign by the FDA to ban any information about natural products useful for respiratory illnesses including the mass marketing of SARS.

Sound familiar? Seems like another mass marketing campaign is underway on the latest version of a created respiratory illness. The same ploy seems to be apparent according to Marc Ullman's article below about Alli and competing products from the natural products industry.

This has been a repetitive behavior for decades now, includes the tryptophan / Prozac war and a few other events.

I happened to have been attacked by the FDA when the SARS controversy was raging. In typical government style due process was absent and the charge of the light brigade was in full force.

How I learned about it was from an article in the Seattle PI where reference was made to the product I offered for flu at that time (and still offer) that may be helpful. The PI staff writer quoted me yet never made any effort to contact me and speak with me directly. I tracked him down and eventually after getting to the top gun managed to get a retraction in the on-line version of the PI.

Not being alone in the number of products attacked by Mark McClellan's goons I created a web page listing the products attacked along with information about them. Most of the data on this page, except for using Echinacea, works well for the current "swine flu" issue. (Echinacea and some other natural products cause too much of a stimulation of your immune system for this created virus compound.)

The other action I took was to contact McClellan, a Harvard grad, and provide him with the clinical data about the product on my web site. This product was studied thoroughly in clinical research at Dana Farber, the well known cancer institute, a part of Harvard. The product was also proven effective.

The only data that FDA allowed to be in the news was about experimental product under development at Roche, and not proven to be effective.

The mind set is that nothing can be used or considered effective against anything unless it comes from Big PhARMA. This of course is one major reason why the mainstream "health"industry is on its self-created collision course.

Now you see another instant replay over liver damaging Alli and a weight loss/diet supplement.

Another word to the wise from Natural Health News...

GSK vs. The Supplement Industry: Who Wins? Written by: Marc Ullman 8/26/2009

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FDA receives “32 reports of liver injury including 27 requiring hospitalization” in users of GlaxoSmithKline’s Alli OTC weight loss drug. FDA receives 23 reports of liver injury including one death in users of the dietary supplement Hydroxycut. Guess which one is still on the market.

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On May 1, 2009 FDA issued an urgent alert warning consumers “to immediately stop using Hydroxycut products by Iovate Health Sciences Inc., of Oakville, Ontario.” According to the Agency’s press release, it had received 23 reports of serious health problems, including one death, that appeared to be associated with the use of the dietary supplement. At the same time, Iovate issued a “voluntary recall” of 64 different Hydroxycut products, covering, according to some news reports over 9 million product units.

On June 6 and June 18, 2009 FDA updated its list of drug products it was monitoring for “potential signals of serious risks” indicating that the Agency was reviewing the status of GSK’s Alli (orlistat) OTC weight loss drug and was “continuing to evaluate this issue to determine the need for any regulatory action” Alli was, however, allowed to remain on the market. On August 24, 2009 FDA issued an “Early Communication about Ongoing Safety Review of Weight Loss Drug Orlistat” stating that the “Review includes both prescription drug Xenical and OTC drug Alli”. The “communication” stated that “FDA received 32 reports of serious liver injury in patients taking orlistat. Of those cases, 27 reported hospitalization and six resulted in liver failure. Thirty of the adverse events occurred outside the United States. The most commonly reported adverse events included yellowing of the skin or whites of the eyes (jaundice), weakness, and stomach pain.” Despite this, the Agency advised that “consumers taking Xenical should continue to take it as prescribed, and those using over-the-counter Alli should continue to use the product as directed.”

Just in case you’re still wondering who wins as between the supplement industry and GSK, consider the following:

● In April 2004 FDA banned the sale of ephedra containing dietary supplements based upon the Agency’s conclusion that such products constituted an unreasonable risk to public health. As part of the basis for its action FDA cited a 2003 Rand Corporation study that concluded, in part, “Over the short term (four to six months), ephedrine, ephedrine plus caffeine, and supplements containing ephedra or ephedra plus caffeine promoted modest increases in weight loss, about 2 pounds per month more than the weight loss of persons taking the placebo.” This level of weight loss was found to offer no benefit to public health.

● On February 7, 2007 FDA approved the sale of Alli as an OTC weight loss remedy. The Agency took this action despite reports of severe side effects including “incontinence” (uncontrollable diarrhea) and “oily spotting” (anal leakage). Among the factors cited by FDA in support of its decision was evidence that Alli users lost 5-10 pounds over 6 months, about a 50% increase compared with diet and exercise alone. Unless FDA uses some kind of “new math” that I have yet to hear of, this amounts to slightly less than the 2 pounds a month it found insignificant for ephedra.

9 million units of recalled Hydroxycut and one ban of ephedra later, it seems that as between the supplement industry and GSK there is little doubt who wins at FDA.