Chemo Damage, Vaccine Side Effects, Radiation Poisoning - NewsGrabs 13 October 2007

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NewsGrabs

Health Supreme's NewsGrabs are a selection of alternative health and other underprivileged news. Find what you may have missed in your everyday reading - watch out for these weekly NewsGrabs.

In this issue:

EU LEGISLATION AND NATURAL HEALTH - The Appendix is not useless - Stored Blood Lacks Nitric Oxide - CAM Conference for Cancer Advocates - Integrative medicine - How Hospitals Harm People - Cholesterol metabolism linked to Alzheimer's disease - A Man's Shelf Life - Iowa Sues 78 Drugmakers - Breast cancer chemo may damage heart - ANTI-CANCER DRUG CAUSES CANCER? - Vaccines and Autism - New FDA Data Detail HPV Vaccine Adverse Reactions - HIV Vaccine strategy 'potentially dangerous' - Academic Psychiatrist Loses Medical License for Sexual Misconduct - Hidden menace of mobile phones - Radiation Poisoning Of America - Greenhouses - Global Warming: Prepare for Cooling

More information out there...

Of course there is much I cannot cover but other sources for this kind of information exist and are active.

You can subscribe to the Zeus Newsletter here. Appears twice monthly. If you would like to see some samples of Louise's collection of informative links, here are the archives.

The Alternative Medicine Yahoo Group is another great place to get information on what is happening in the world of nutrition and other natural health options.

For the influence of electromagnetic waves from radio, mobile phones and other radio emitting devices, check out the emfrefugee group on Yahoo.

If you are interested in a different take on the news that isn't health centered but is certainly fun, check out Robin Good TV News.

Some more sites to keep up to date with the other side of world affairs, the stuff you won't find on tv:

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com
http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.stratfor.com/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
http://rawstory.com/
http://www.truthout.org/

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EU LEGISLATION AND NATURAL HEALTH - The good, the bad and the ugly (PDF)
The Alliance for Natural Health has compiled a simple but complete guide to European legislation as it affects natural health. The document explains in simple words the effects of several recent pieces of European legislation on our ability to take responsibility for our own health - to map out an effective strategy of prevention based on nutrition and nature's pharmacy. It also makes suggestions on how to step up to the plate and help prevent certain supplements from vanishing from the EU market.

Appendix isn't useless at all: It's a safe house for bacteria
How many of you had your appendix surgically removed "because it isn't needed"? Well, it turns out that the appendix may have an extremely useful function. Some researchers think the appendix re-boots the digestive system by preserving a stash of the 'good bacteria' that are absolutely necessary for breaking down and digesting foods to assimilate nutrients in the intestine.

Studies: Stored Blood Lacks Nitric Oxide
"It doesn't matter how much oxygen is being carried by red blood cells, it cannot get to the tissues that need it without nitric oxide," said Dr. Jonathan Stamler of Duke University, leader of one of the research groups. Blood vessels relax and constrict to regulate blood flow and nitric oxide opens up blood vessels, allowing red blood cells to deliver oxygen, he explained.

The second research team, led by Dr. Timothy McMahon, also at Duke, studied the changes in stored blood over time. Currently blood is allowed to be kept in blood banks for up to 42 days. After that it must be discarded. An estimated 14 million units of red blood cells are administered to about 4.8 million Americans annually. "We were surprised at how quickly the blood changes - we saw clear indications of nitric oxide depletion within the first three hours," McMahon said in a statement.

Evidence-based CAM for Cancer Advocates
The Annie Appleseed Project, the premier resource on CAM from the patient perspective, is planning a two-day conference that brings together advocates from many communities, as well as those with information on studies in CAM to strategize, network, and more, would greatly benefit those with cancer. The conference will focus on a multi-disciplinary approach - scheduled for Thursday-Friday, January 10-11, 2008 in West Palm Beach, FL.

Integrative medicine is 'new way of healing'
For me, health is more than the absence of symptoms or disease -- it is the embodiment of wellness. It is this belief that led me to integrative medicine and a new way of viewing healing. Integrative medicine combines the best of both conventional, allopathic care and complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM. Examples of CAM include traditional Chinese medicine (e.g. acupuncture, herbs), naturopathy, chiropractic, and mind/body medicine (yoga, meditation). Integrative medicine is based on the incredible power of our bodies to heal themselves.

How Hospitals Systematically Harm People
In the U.S. alone, an estimated 2 million people a year contract infections in hospitals, and nearly 100,000 are expected to die from them this year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although such statistics are deeply troubling, hospitals around the world also contribute to a subtler but equally insidious threat: They expose patients and staff to a host of substances and practises that can harm their health.

Cholesterol metabolism links early- and late-onset Alzheimer's disease
In fact, the brain needs a high level of cholesterol, according to Bu. "The brain represents only about 2 percent of your body weight, but actually has about 20 percent of your body's cholesterol," Bu says. "There is strong evidence that cholesterol is important for synaptic function and is an essential component of cell membranes in the brain, and I believe partial defects in the regulation of cholesterol metabolism in the brain likely contribute to the development of Alzheimer's."

Past research by others implies that neural synapses, the junctions that nerves use to send impulses and communicate, are particularly sensitive to cholesterol levels and that interfering with cholesterol transport and metabolism could cause loss of synapses and degeneration of nerves.

If "interfering with cholesterol transport and metabolism" is detrimental to brain function and can cause loss of synapses and degeneration of nerves, perhaps taking statin drugs, whose only function is to interfere with the liver's endogenous production of cholesterol, is not such a good idea...

A Man's Shelf Life
As men age, their fertility decreases and the health risks to their unborn offspring skyrocket. But men who attend to their health can slow down the reproductive clock.

"Despite the new research, there's still a big difference between the female and the male biological clock," says Muller. "When the female's alarm goes off at the end, that's it. For men, the battery slowly winds down. Yes, chance of problems increase as the years pass, but some men have significant DNA damage at 35, while others go on forever—their sperm is fine in their 70s."

Iowa Sues 78 Drugmakers Over Medicaid Pricing
owa Attorney General Tom Miller announced Tuesday that the state has filed a lawsuit against 78 pharmaceutical companies, alleging the companies inflated drug p