Modern Medicine Based on Error - NewsGrabs 16 December 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 NewsGrabs on weekends.

Here are this week's stories and links, collected and posted for you:

Pomegranate Juice 'can slow prostate cancer'
Drinking a daily eight ounce (0.24 litre) glass of pomegranate juice can significantly slow the progress of prostate cancer, a study suggests. Researchers say the effect may be so large that it may help older men outlive the disease. Pomegranates contain a cocktail of chemicals which minimise cell damage, and potentially kill off cancer cells.

Products With Good Bacteria Get Popular
Bugs in baby food? Microbes in your milkshake? Relax, this is not the latest tainted food scare - it's a growing trend in foods designed to boost health, not make you sick.

These products contain probiotics, or "friendly" bacteria similar to those found in the human digestive system. There are supplement pills, yogurts, smoothies, snack bars and cereals, even baby formula and chocolate. Sold by major names like Dannon and Kraft, they're spreading like germs on grocery store shelves and in supermarket dairy cases. And they come with vague health claims of "regulating your digestive health" or "strengthening your body's defenses."

Sugary drinks linked to Alzheimer's
Using a genetic mouse model that develops Alzheimer's-like symptoms in adulthood, the scientists supplemented the balanced diet of half of the animals with 10 per cent sugar water. After 25 weeks, they found that the sugar-fed mice had gained around 17 per cent more weight than the controls, had higher cholesterol levels, and developed insulin resistance.

Following memory skill and brain composition tests, the sugar-fed mice were also found to have worse learning and memory retention and their brains contained over twice as many amyloid plaque deposits, an anatomical hallmark of Alzheimer's.

France Suspends Commercial GMO Seed Use, Studies Safety
France formally suspended on Thursday the commercial use of genetically modified (GMO) seeds in the country until early February and ordered a biotech safety study. The French agriculture ministry said it had charged a newly set-up committee with assessing the environmental and health implications of using GMO seeds reliant on the MON 810 technology developed by U.S. biotech giant Monsanto.

Antibacterial chemical disrupts hormone activities
Called endocrine disruptors, or endocrine disrupting substances (EDS), such chemicals have been linked in animal studies to a variety of problems, including cancer, reproductive failure and developmental anomalies. This is the first endocrine study to investigate the hormone effects of the antibacterial compound triclocarban (also known as TCC or 3,4,4′-trichlorocarbanilide), which is widely used in household and personal care products including bar soaps, body washes, cleansing lotions, wipes and detergents.

FDA Sleeps While Common Medications Poison the Elderly
On November 29, 2007 the FDA made a rather surprising, almost honest announcement. It said that it could not protect Americans from the dangers of drugs. A 56-page report by its Subcommittee on Science and Technology stated the FDA “suffers from serious scientific deficiencies and is not positioned to meet current or emerging regulatory responsibilities.” This blistering report on the life-threatening shortcomings of the FDA was released with the stamp of approval of the head of the FDA, Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach.

The flagrant disregard for human health by the FDA is not news to people who follow the subject closely. The FDA has been mostly dormant while 100,000 Americans die needlessly from drugs every year and another 3 million are injured so seriously they require hospitalization (half of those were already in the hospital!). The FDA management’s neglect of duty and follow up on drugs already on the market is unconscionable and has been for a long time.

Cholesterol drugs may raise brain hemorrhage risk
The use of cholesterol-lowering "statin" drugs, such as Lipitor (atorvastatin) and Zocor (simvastatin), may raise the risk of brain hemorrhage in patients who have experienced a recent stroke or a transient ischemic attack (TIA), new research suggests.

Cholesterol: Is Your Ticker a Ticking Time Bomb?
Why Haven't You Been Told about the REAL Cause of Heart Attacks?
The Sordid Story of Statistics & Spin...

Action: Statin Drug Investigation Proposed - Sign Petition
Much evidence suggests that a low serum cholesterol is associated with depression, suicide, muscle damage, memory loss and general ill-health. As the signature count begins to climb, we can see the impact of having patients telling of their own bad experiences with statins. It has been the case for far too long now that the medical profession, as a whole, has not seen the obvious nor has it listened very well to what the patients on statins have been telling it.

Avandia And Actos Linked To Heart Risks
Yet another study suggests problems with Avandia. This time, however, Actos also gets tagged. An article published in this week’s edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association concludes the two drugs pose a significantly greater risk of heart attack, congestive heart failure and death in older patients compared with other diabetes meds.

Strattera side effects
The FDA created MedWatch, a computerized Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS) for post-marketing surveillance of all FDA-approved drugs. Between 2004 and 2006 MedWatch received over 31,000 adverse event reports identifying Strattera (atomoxetine) as the Primary Suspect Drug. These reports cite a total of 1,878 distinct adverse reactions caused by Strattera, ranging from abasia and abdominal discomfort to yellow skin and zinc deficiency. All 1,878 Strattera side effects are listed below in alphabetical order.

"This is not a complete list of possible side effects." You've heard those words many times, but have you wondered what a COMPLETE list of side effects would look like? Well now you can see for yourself...

Gardasil: Analysis shows more adverse reactions, 10 vaccine related deaths
What this has just told me is that the chances of getting cancer have just increased because of this vaccine. It also means that before any female starting at the age of 9 decides to get this dangerous vaccine they need to get a pap smear to rule out HPV first. If you do not you have just increased your risk of cancer and I do not want to see any woman go through that horror.

This goes out to all the parents out their considering this vaccine for their daughters. What do you think your 9 year old daughter is going to feel like after she gets her first pap smear? My opinion is that she will feel rather violated by her trusted medical professional.

Is Modern Medicine Founded On Error?
Modern medicine is firmly founded on the “Germ Theory of Disease” promulgated by Louis Pasteur in the 1860’s. Pasteur’s 140-year-old theory is still the medical paradigm upon which Western medicine fights disease as we enter the 21st century.

Koch’s contribution to the germ theory was to prove that a specific type of germ caused a specific disease, that the germ would be found in all people suffering from that particular disease but not healthy people, and that every person exposed to these germs would fall ill with disease.

However, Koch had to abandon part of his first postulate when he discovered that healthy people could carry the germs of certain diseases and yet show no symptoms. He also had to revise his third postulate when it was shown that some people could be exposed to virulent germs yet not catch the disease.

‘Bird flu fight not equitable’
The Indonesian health minister, Siti Fadilah Supari raised the issue of transparency in the virus sharing issue. He alleged, “The affected countries are asked to send H5N1 virus collected from avian flu victims to WHO-CCs. After the virus are sent, the originating countries do not have any right about the destiny of the shared virus. I do not really know whether they are used for researches and publications or they are shared with vaccine manufacturers for vaccine production or they are utilised for development of biological weapons.”

Antiretroviral Drugs: History and Rhetoric - Hiding the Side Effects
Drugs too toxic for cancer chemotherapy were approved for use at a time when a few months of extra life seemed a worthy objective. Infection by HIV is believed to produce no serious symptoms for an average of 10 years. Where is the rationale for feeding highly toxic medications to asymptomatic people? When moreover the mechanism by which HIV is supposed slowly or eventually to destroy the immune system is unknown? When it turns out that people being treated with these drugs are experiencing typical drug toxicities, and cancers, within the 10-year period during which it is officially acknowledged that HIV by itself on average does no harm?