Hawaii Aspartame Bill, Cholesterol Ruse and Gardasil Deaths - NewsGrabs 27 January 2008

Categories

NewsGrabs

Health Supreme's NewsGrabs - a selection of contrary and underprivileged news in health and related sectors. Find what you may have missed - watch out for NewsGrabs.

Here is this week's selection:

Oil Of Oregano Rivals Modern Antibiotic Drugs
(older article, but interesting nevertheless)
Oil pressed from oregano leaves that contain the active ingredient carvacrol may be an effective treatment against sometimes drug-resistant bacterial infection. Georgetown University researchers have found that oil of oregano appears to reduce infection "as effectively as traditional antibiotics." Oil of oregano at relatively low doses was found to be efficacious against Staphylococcus bacteria and was comparable in its germ-killing properties to antibiotic drugs such as streptomycin, pencillin and vancomycin.

Low vitamin E levels associated with physical decline in elderly
“We evaluated the effects of several micronutrients and only vitamin E was significantly associated with decline in physical function,” said Bartali, a nutritionist and a Brown-Coxe Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale School of Medicine. “The odds of declining in physical function was 1.62 times greater in persons with low levels of vitamin E compared with persons with higher levels.”

Bartali added, “It is unlikely that vitamin E is simply a marker for poor nutrition because our results are independent of energy intake, and the effect of low levels of other micronutrients was not significant. Our results suggest that an appropriate dietary intake of vitamin E may help to reduce the decline in physical function among older persons. Since only one person in our study used vitamin E supplements, it is unknown whether the use of vitamin E supplements would have the same beneficial effect.”

Health Threat From EU and UN
No widespread problems plague the supplement industry, but the UN and European regulators, along with the FDA, are intent on looking for them and fixing them anyway. Groucho Marx was surely thinking of agencies like these when he quipped, “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.”

The European Union has already enacted severe restrictions on the nutrients that can go into supplements. The UN’s Codex Alimentarius group has recently followed suit, aided by aggressive multi-national pharmaceutical companies. The World Trade Organization (WTO) and other groups can now force compliance with the new standards. And in this hemisphere, an obscure trade agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, called the Trilateral Cooperation Charter, could usurp our food and supplement laws even further.

FDA Destroys Incriminating Records On Aspartame
In 2002, I spoke with Jerome Bressler, author of the damning FDA audit that exposed the corruption of the G. D. Searle Co., originator of aspartame. Bressler reported that rats killed by the poison were resurrected on paper, neoplasms filtered out and cancers caused by aspartame, were ignored and deleted from Searle's records.

Hawaii Moves to Ban Aspartame
Senate Bill 2506 introduced by Senator Hawaii State Senator Kalani English, and also signed by Senator Suzanne Chun-Oakland, as well as House Bill 2580 sponsored by Representative Millie Carroll will move to ban aspartame from the State of Hawaii. "This is wonderful news coming from Hawaii; the Legislators and their bill drafters saw the merit in keeping almost all of the same language from the 2006 and 2007 New Mexico bills, especially regarding the states' rights and their obligation to protect citizens health, which are not "preempted" by massive failures at the FDA.

Bill Calls for Sugar-Substitute Ban
In just a few days since the bill was introduced, it's already generating a lot of talk -- and if nothing else, Carroll is glad it's got people thinking about their health. "We as a people have to make our own choices, but we should know exactly what we're putting into our bodies,” Carroll said.

Type 2 Diabetes May be Linked to Pesticide Exposure
People with high levels of POPs in their blood are more likely to develop insulin resistance, a precursor for type 2 diabetes, according to a study by researchers in Korea that is cited by Jones and Griffin. Previous research by the same group found a link between POPs and type 2 diabetes. This study confirms that background exposure to chemicals such as organochlorine pesticides and PCBs is also associated with insulin resistance among people who do not yet have diabetes.

Antidepressant Claimed "Efficacy" : 31% of Trials NOT Published
An analysis of 74 antidepressant trials reviewed by the FDA, 38 were judged to be positive. Most of the studies found to have negative or questionable results were not published. Yet, the published literature would have doctors believe that 94% of the trials conducted were positive. By contrast, the FDA analysis showed that 51% were positive.

FDA - Lights on, nobody home
We were shocked, SHOCKED to learn that psychiatric drugs have psychiatric side effects!! And that the FDA is going to ask drug makers to include questions about suicidality in clinical trials of some new drugs. In the new spirit of transparency, FDA officials would not say which drugs or how many drugs would be examined.

OTC cough medicine: Not worthwhile for children or adults?
Alert parents know that small children should not take over-the-counter cough medications. Now researchers say the stuff might not help adults much, either.

Study raises questions about diagnosis, medical treatment of ADHD
Interestingly, the study showed that these deficits are only present in about half of adolescents diagnosed with ADHD. Part of the explanation may lie in the common method for diagnosing the disorder. The researchers found that ADHD is an extreme on a normal continuum of behavior that varies in the population, much like height, weight or IQ. Its diagnosis, and thus its prevalence, is defined by where health professionals "draw the line" on this continuum, based on the severity of the symptoms and overall impairment.

Congress questions Jarvik's Lipitor lip service, credentials
House Democrats are investigating whether consumers are being misled by advertisements for Lipitor, featuring the world-renowned inventor of an artificial heart. In the ads, which began their heavy rotation in 2006, Dr. Robert Jarvik talks about the benefits of Pfizer's cholesterol-lowering drug, the world's best-selling medication.

Government Health Agencies Complicit in Cholesterol Ruse
Articles posted at websites administered by the Food & Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health repeat this misleading claim. In fact, a recent posting by the NIH claims statin drugs reduce the risk for a sudden death heart attack by 19%, when in hard numbers it is actually just 0.8% (reduction from 3.8 to 3.0% over 4.4 years).

How did the FDA ever approve these drugs except to ignore these facts? Why did the FDA allow pharmaceutical companies two years to report critical data on the effectiveness of a life-saving drug?

Jury Trials In 2008 Expected To Expose SSRI Maker's Dirty Secrets
The standard line used to sell SSRI's is that mental illnesses are caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain and that SSRI's correct the imbalance. The Lexapro website even states: "Antidepressant medicines relieve the symptoms of depression by restoring chemical imbalances in the brain." However, "Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect between the Advertisements and the Scientific Literature," in the November 8, 2005, PLoS Journal, by Jeffrey Lacasse, a visiting lecturer at the Florida State University, and Jonathan Leo, an Associate Professor of Neuroanatomy at Lincoln Memorial University, reports that, "there is not a single peer-reviewed article that can be accurately cited to directly support claims of serotonin deficiency in any mental disorder, while there are many articles that present counterevidence."

Gardasil Scrutinized Over 2 Deaths In Europe
One death occurred in Austria and the other in Germany. In both cases, the cause of death could not be identified, says the agency. However, the EMEA will continue to monitor Gardasil for safety issues. The cases were widely reported in the Austrian and German press earlier this month.

Alert over jab for girls as two die following cervical cancer vaccination
A jab that could be given to hundreds of thousands of schoolgirls this autumn was at the centre at a safety scare last night following the deaths of two young women. European regulators are investigating the "sudden and unexpected" deaths of the women who received Gardasil, one of two jabs to protect against cervical cancer licensed for use in the UK