Sodium Benzoate, deadly drugs and the Chinese FDA - NewsGrabs 3 June 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:

Omega 3 for heart attack - vitamin D - Cancer and ATP - Sodium Benzoate in soft drinks - Coca Cola goes for Stevia - Deadly Prescription Drug Effects - Violent Attacks correlated with prescribed drugs - anthrax vaccine contracts - Pfizer Experiment on Nigerian Children - China: drug chief sentenced to death - The Chinese Solution for the FDA's Problems - Bayer Pesticide Blamed for Deaths of Honeybees - Pesticides 'up Parkinson's risk' - My war on electrosmog - Families ditch Wi-Fi - U.S. fights mad cow testing - Video: AIDS Inc. - Gary Null

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Heart attack victims to be given omega 3
Tens of thousands of heart attack victims are to be prescribed fish oil supplements under guidelines to be published today. Doctors will tell heart patients to eat at least two portions of oily fish per week or take omega 3 fatty acid tablets for up to four years to reduce the risks of a second attack. Previous research has suggested that eating oily fish or taking the supplements has a range of health benefits including reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke, better immune system functioning, and improved behaviour in primary school age children. A clinical trial found daily 1g doses of highly concentrated omega 3 within three months of a heart attack cut the risk of a patient later dying suddenly by 45 per cent.

Intake of vitamin D and calcium associated with lower risk of breast cancer before menopause
"A possible explanation for the evident difference by menopause status may be related to the joint relationship among calcium, vitamin D and insulinlike growth factors (IGFs). In vitro studies have suggested that calcium and vitamin D exert anticarcinogenic effects on breast cancer cells expressing high levels of IGF-1 and IGF binding protein 3. Calcium, vitamin D and IGF binding protein 3 have been shown in vitro to interact with each other in promoting growth inhibition in breast cancer cells."

Cancer and ATP: The Photon Energy Pathway
The essential components of mitochondrial cell respiration are light absorbing molecules that react to frequencies from the near ultraviolet band down to the yellow/orange spectral range of visible light. Yet, the source of energy for these cellular power plants is not sunlight, as one might easily be led to assume. The flow of para-magnetically aligned electrons in the respiratory organelles gives rise to a low frequency pulsating electromagnetic field which, enormously accelerated through catalytic processes activated by enzymes, in turn activates a spin-mediated information and energy transfer from the physical vacuum, the zero point field, to the biological entity.

Caution: Some soft drinks may seriously harm your health
Research from a British university suggests a common preservative found in drinks such as Fanta and Pepsi Max has the ability to switch off vital parts of DNA. Concerns centre on the safety of E211, known as sodium benzoate, a preservative used for decades by the £74bn global carbonated drinks industry. Sodium benzoate derives from benzoic acid. It occurs naturally in berries, but is used in large quantities to prevent mould in soft drinks such as Sprite, Oasis and Dr Pepper. Sodium benzoate has already been the subject of concern about cancer because when mixed with the additive vitamin C in soft drinks, it causes benzene, a carcinogenic substance.

Cargill, Coca-Cola develop natural sweetener
Agribusiness Cargill has teamed up with Coca-Cola to market a new calorie-free natural sweetener made from the South American herb Stevia.

Most non-diet soft drinks in the United States are currently sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, which has come under increasing criticism for contributing to obesity. Lower-calorie sodas are made with artificial sweeteners such as saccharin, aspartame and sucralose. UK newspaper The Times has speculated that the development could be an indication that Tate & Lyle's sucralose is falling out of favour.

US House may prevent states from protecting food supply

"no State or locality shall make any law prohibiting the use in commerce of an article that the Secretary of Agriculture has inspected and passed; or determined to be of non-regulated status."

The preemption language has been traced to Iowa Representative and Subcommittee Chair, Leonard Boswell. His intention is to prohibit state and local policies banning the sale of products approved by USDA and other regulatory agencies. The broad scope of the language would affect state and local prohibitions on the cultivation of genetically modified crops, bans on the sale of rBGH milk, and the outlawing of foie gras for starters.

Researchers Find Deadly Prescription Drug Effects Six Years Before FDA
"The old way of doing business was a large number of incomplete reports that took an average of seven years to find adverse reactions to drugs," Bennett said. "We propose with our system we can cut that to between one to two years. That's a six-year savings. For a billion dollar drug, can you imagine how many people that's affecting."

Increased Violent Attacks-- correlated with prescribed drugs
Psychiatrist Stefan Kruszeuski-who is a board member of AHRP--points out that: "There is a significant relationship between restlessness and agitation induced by medicine and the propensity for violence. But this has not been adequately studied at any psychiatric hospital." A common side effect of ALL antipsychotics (neuroleptics) and SSRI antidepressants is akathisia, an excruciating physical and mental restlessness and agitation which has led patients to leash out in violent outbreaks. Akathisia was thought to be an uncommon side effect with the newer anti-psychotics. But company data for three of the atypicals in common use at Western, show that akathisia is a common adverse drug effect.

Well-connected drug company obtained anthrax vaccine contracts despite side effects
Last month, Emergent BioSolutions announced that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) intended to purchase more than 18 million doses of its Biothrax vaccine for the Strategic National Stockpile. Last year, the Department of Homeland Security granted BioThrax special protections under its Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technology Act, or SAFETY Act. It was the first vaccine to receive protection under the Act.

“The pharmaceutical industry is a strong case in point of the corruption of revolving doors,” says Craig Holman of Public Citizen, a national, nonprofit consumer advocate and government watchdog group. To help jump-start its lobbying effort, from September to November 2004 Emergent board member and former Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Louis Sullivan provided “consulting services for a fixed fee of $25,000 per month”...

Pfizer Faces Criminal Charges For Conducting Experiment on Nigerian Children
The government alleges that Pfizer researchers selected 200 children and infants from crowds at a makeshift epidemic camp in Kano and gave about half of the group an untested antibiotic called Trovan (trovafloxan). Researchers gave the other children what the lawsuit describes as a dangerously low dose of a comparison drug made by Hoffmann-La Roche. Nigerian officials say Pfizer's actions resulted in the deaths of an unspecified number of children and left others deaf, paralyzed, blind or brain-damaged." The lawsuit further charges researchers with failure to obtain consent from the children's families and with knowledge that Trovan was an experimental drug with life-threatening side effects that was "unfit for human use."

A civil suit for restitution of damage was also filed. See Nigeria sues Pfizer for $2 billion

China: Corrupt drug chief sentenced to death
CHINA'S former top drug regulator was sentenced to death in a Beijing court this morning on charges of bribe taking and negligence. Zheng was convicted to accept bribes from eight pharmaceutical companies from June 1997 to December 2006 and seek profits for them by taking advantages of his post. Drugs improperly approved by Zheng's agency reportedly included an antibiotic that killed at least 10 patients last year before it was taken off the market.