Aids Medication Syndrome, Mad Cows and Organic Bees - NewsGrabs 13 May 2007

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NewsGrabs

Health Supreme's News Grabs are a weekly selection of links to articles, alternative health news and related bits of information. Keep your finger on the pulse of health trends - watch out for NewsGrabs ... every weekend.

In this issue:

Hacking Bacteria - Food Labels - FDA Suppression of Complementary & Alternative Medicine - SENATE PASSED S. 1082 - Senators got millions from industry - IADSA action to retain additives - Does Aspartame multiply female MS? - FDA Flooded with Letters - Court Bans GM Alfalfa - GM: Herbicide Inside Our Intestines - Canada's Tenth Mad Cow - Organic Beekeepers Report No Losses - U.N. on biofuels - Autism - WHO Neglects Evidence - PSYCHIATRY DANGEROUS? - Corruption over anemia drugs - AIDS syndrome "IRIS" - HIV Fact Finder Award - HIV positive negative? - Cell Phones - Damning Evidence - Venezuela to quit World Bank, IMF - American Empire and 9/11 - Video: Nick Begich: electronic weapons

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Hacking Your Body's Bacteria for Better Health
Clinical trial data on probiotics is incomplete, but there are many indications that hacking the body's bacteria is beneficial. In sheer numbers, bacterial cells in the body outnumber our own by a factor of 10, with 50 trillion bacteria living in the digestive system alone, where they've remained largely unstudied until the last decade. As scientists learn more about them, they're beginning to chart the complex symbiosis between the tiny bugs and our health.

Codex Alimentarius Wrangles over Food Labels
The Codex Committee on Food Labeling met in Ottawa from 30 April to 4 May. The National Health Federation reports. Countries influenced by strong pharmaceutical industries vote to keep important information on nutrition-based disease prevention off food labels, while GM grain producing countries press to make sure consumers are not told whether the grain products they eat are genetically modified or not.

Leading Alternative Health Group Speaks Out on FDA Suppression of Complementary & Alternative Medicine
In December 2006 the FDA finalised a draft guidance document entitled "Draft Guidance for Industry on Complementary and Alternaternative Medicine Products ...". The document seeks to provide "industry" -­ practitioners and suppliers of products -­ the FDA's current thinking on the relationship between existing laws and the practice of 'complementary and alternative medicine'. The document has generated everything from internet hysteria, much of it triggered by a misinformed take circulated in early April by the Natural Solutions Foundation through to a non-plussed 'this guidance document changes nothing' approach, which is keeping the heads of others firmly planted in the sand...

SENATE HAS PASSED S. 1082 - Durbin Food Agency Idea Dropped
When the Senate started its consideration of S.1082, Senator Dick Durbin wanted to amend this bill and add his Food Safety Bill, S.645, to this bill. Acting on Durbin's intentions, the NHF's lobbyist contacted Senators and their staff members on the Senate HELP committee to register our objections to allowing this to occur. Subsequent pressure on Durbin by Democratic and Republican members led to Durbin having to withdraw this attempt. In its place, Durbin had to settle for a substantially reduced scope of change. This prevented yet another attempt by Durbin to have the FDA regulate supplements more like it regulates over-the-counter and prescription drugs. This victory, by the way, had absolutely nothing to do with comments sent in to the FDA over its CAM Guidance document – a separate issue.

Senators who weakened drug bill got millions from industry
The bill's chief sponsors — Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., — agreed after consultations with industry officials and others to modify a proposal that all clinical drug studies be made public, said Craig Orfield, Enzi's spokesman. Under the change, only those studies submitted to the FDA would be available. Enzi took in $174,000 from drug interests since 2001; Kennedy, $78,000. Their spokesmen said the money did not influence them.

IADSA’s action to retain additives yields positive results
Efforts to retain nine additives at IADSA’s proposed levels in the Codex General Standard for Food Additives list bore fruit last week, with all being recommended for adoption. Castor Oil, Polysorbates, Polyvinyl Alcohol, Acesulfame Potassium, Aspartame, Cyclamates, Neotame, Saccharin, Sucralose were endorsed at levels proposed by the International Alliance of Dietary/Food Supplement Associations (IADSA) during the Codex Committee on Food Additives meeting in Beijing last week.

Some of those additives should really never be used in anything that calls itself a health food. I am talking specifically about the artificial sweeteners Acesulfame Potassium, Aspartame, Neotame and Sucralose. IADSA being the Industry Alliance of Dietary Supplement Associations, I can only ask myself where their heads are at.

Does Aspartame multiply female MS? - New Study Report at Neurology Conference...
At the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting, Dr. Gary Cutter, professor of Biostatistics at the University of Alabama, said women are now four times as likely as men to get multiple sclerosis: “It started at two-to-one and is now four-to-one.” Researchers found the ratio of women-to-men is increasing by about 50 percent each decade...

FDA Flooded with 130,000 Letters from OCA & Public Interest Groups Opposing Cloned Animals in Food Chain
"More than 130,000 people have said 'No' to unlabeled food from clones," said Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association. "People are tired of the biotech industry meddling in the food system, tired of government rubber-stamping approvals, and tired of not having the right to choose what they eat and feed to their families."

An American Court Bans Genetically Modified Alfalfa
In a harsh decision, Judge Charles Breyer reaffirmed that the GM seed can harm the environment and contaminate naturally planted alfalfa. He also stated that the U.S. Department of Agriculture failed to discharge its responsibilities by ignoring the fact that there were doubts surrounding the likelihood of contamination by the GM seed. The ruling requires companies to reveal the locations of all their Monsanto Roundup Ready GM alfalfa fields in the U.S. within 30 days. Judge Breyer has also asked the companies to make the information public as soon as possible to enable conventional and GM alfalfa producers to determine whether their crops have been contaminated. In pronouncing the ban, Judge Breyer noted that contamination of natural alfalfa by its GM counterpart has already occurred, stating, "Such contamination is irreparable environmental harm. The contamination cannot be undone."

Genetically Engineered Crops May Produce Herbicide Inside Our Intestines
Pioneer Hi-Bred's website boasts that their genetically modified (GM) Liberty Link corn survives doses of Liberty herbicide, which would normally kill corn. The reason, they say, is that the herbicide becomes "inactive in the corn plant." They fail to reveal, however, that after you eat the GM corn, some inactive herbicide may become reactivated inside your gut and cause a toxic reaction. In addition, a gene that was inserted into the corn might transfer into the DNA of your gut bacteria, producing long-term effects. These are just a couple of the many potential side-effects of GM crops that critics say put the public at risk.