Quackbusters, FDA and Food as Fuel - NewsGrabs 14 April 2007

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NewsGrabs

Health Supreme News Grabs - a selection of alternative health news and related bits of information ... a window on emerging trends.

In this issue:

Toronto Health Show - Food Regulatory Summit - Diet cola - FDA: energy drink illegal - FDA: Herbs and Juices as "Drugs" - History of FDA Raids - Fat and vitamin C benefits - 'Rebuilt' immune system - Quackbuster Assaults - Pet Food Recall A GM Disaster? - Behind the pet food recall - Sex disease 'superbug' - India: Farmers Join Lawsuit Against Monsanto - Pfizer Lobby, Kickbacks - Diagnosed Bipolar To Boost Sales - FDA Advisory Panel Rigged - Panel Rejects New Merck Drug - Video: Aids Inc. - Crop-Based Biofuels Raise Food Costs - Air Car in India - Aerospace Market - Economics of equality - Freedom of Speech -

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Toronto Health Show: Total Health Turns 30
... Another panel which many people should care about discusses the global threat to our health freedom due to possible restrictions on the availability of natural health products, and what therapies we are able to choose. Several bodies including the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the FDA have proposals for regulations in the works, and the members of this panel are front-line experts who can clarify the issues at stake, and suggest the best course of action you can take as a concerned member of the public.

India: Ramadoss to inaugurate first International Food Regulatory Summit
New Delhi, Apr 10: Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss will inaugurate the first 'International Food Regulatory Summit' here today. Senior experts from leading international food regulatory bodies like FAO, CODEX Alimentarius Commission, European Commission and various countries from different regions of the world will discuss several key issues that are globally emerging and relevant for the food sector.

Diet cola can 'make you fat and rot your teeth'
A study by consumer group Choice warns drinking artificially sweetened soft drinks can stimulate the appetite, triggering cravings for sweet foods. Ironically, this can lead to consumers putting on more weight than they would have by drinking regular cola.

FDA: 'Cocaine' energy drink marketed illegally
This Cocaine is an energy drink produced by a Las Vegas company. It contains no actual cocaine, but is being marketed as "The Legal Alternative" to the illegal drug, according to its website.

... dietary supplements cannot carry claims to prevent or treat a disease — something only drugs can do, according to the letter. The Cocaine website lists an ingredient called inositol and says it reduces cholesterol and helps prevent hardening of the arteries, among other health claims, the FDA said. "Your product, Cocaine, is a drug," the three-page letter reads in part. It's also a new drug and as such cannot be sold without FDA approval. In addition, the FDA said the product is mislabeled since it doesn't include "adequate directions for its intended uses."

FDA Attempting to Regulate Supplements, Herbs and Juices as "Drugs"
FDA "experts" will decide what's a drug or medical device Under these proposed guidelines, FDA "experts" (the same corrupt officials who reapproved Vioxx after it killed over 50,000 Americans) will decide whether herbs, supplements, vitamins or simple devices like massage stones are to be regulated as drugs and medical devices.

History of FDA Raids on Healers, Vitamin Shops and Supplement Companies
... a brief overview of some of the campaigns of terror the FDA has initiated against natural healers, nutritional supplement companies and other organizations. Many were conducted using armed agents wielding assault rifles and automatic weapons, dressed in body armor. All of them were intended to destroy natural medicine, thereby protecting the profits of drug companies and conventional medicine practitioners.

Fat 'counters vitamin C benefits'
In laboratory experiments, a team at the University of Glasgow simulated what happens in the human stomach. They found vitamin C (ascorbic acid) mopped up potential cancer-causing compounds that are made when saliva and food mixes with stomach acid. But when they added fat to the mix, the ascorbic acid could no longer convert the hazardous compounds into safe ones.

'Rebuilt' immune system shakes off diabetes
The technique, which uses patients' own bone marrow cells, has freed 14 of 15 patients with type 1 diabetes from their dependence on insulin medication. So far, participants in the trial have gone 18 months without insulin therapy following the procedure, on average. One patient has lasted three years without needing such injections. Scientists have speculated that "resetting" the immune system might stop it from attacking the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

Quackbuster Assaults: Clark, the One that Worked in Reverse...
Tim Bolen rolls up some of the history of the downfall-in-progress of some of the people who have billed themselves "quackbusters", people who have done nothing but attack healing modalities that are outside of the medical (and pharmaceutical) "mainstream". Of course now that mainstream is no longer what it used to be - more people go to quacks than to the regular doctors. And with good reason. If you are one of the many people who prefer a quack to a doctor, you will enjoy reading Tim Bolen's piece on the failed persecution of Hulda Clark, PhD.

Pet Food Recall: A Genetic Engineered Food Disaster?
There is a distinct lack of transparency in the recent recall of deadly pet foods in the USA. One veterinarian believes that the cause may not have been rat poison or accidentally added melamine, but that the wheat that was used to produce the gluten seen fit for animals but not for humans may have been genetically modified. Organic Consumers has an article on how and why he reached that conclusion.

Bigger than you think: The story behind the pet food recall
The March 16 recall of 91 pet food products manufactured by Menu Foods wasn't big news at first. Early coverage reported only 10-15 cats and dogs dying. ...We started a database for people to report their dead or sick pets. As of March 31, the number of deaths alone was at 2,797. Pet owners were encouraged to report deaths and illness to the FDA. But ... there was no place on the agency's Web site to do so. The FDA kept confirming a number it had to have known was only the tip of the iceberg. It prevented veterinarians from having the information they needed to treat their patients. It allowed the media to repeat a misleadingly low number ... preventing a lot of people from really grasping the scope and implication of the problem.

Sex disease turns into a 'superbug'
HEALTH officials in the US have recommended nationwide use of a new drug to treat gonorrhoea because the sexually transmitted disease, now considered a superbug, is steadily becoming resistant to the long-time standard antibiotic. The disease has grown increasingly resistant to fluoroquinolones, the most common treatment for the bacterial disease since the early 1990s. The US federal Centres for Disease Control and Prevention recommended yesterday that a different class of antibiotics, cephalosporins, be used instead. "Gonorrhoea has now joined the list of superbugs for which treatment options have become dangerously few," Infectious Disease Society of America president Henry Masur said.

So much for the use of antibiotics on animals - see this earlier article which incidentally won't come up on