The Muddled World of Medicine - NewsGrabs 10 February 2008

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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:

Supplements 'reduce malaria toll'
Many people living in malaria endemic areas suffer from malnutrition so researchers in Burkina Faso experimented with adding vitamin A and zinc supplements to the diets of children aged from six months to six years. Half of the children were given a placebo. After six months the scientists observed a 34% decrease in incidence of malaria in those children taking the supplements. Among those children who did catch the illness, those taking supplements were more resistant to the disease and suffered fewer fever episodes.

The researchers, from Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé, believe the combined supplements boosted the children's immune system, making them more naturally resistant to malaria. They believe the supplements could be an effective long term strategy to reduce the impact of malaria.

Folate deficiency associated with tripling of dementia risk
The onset of dementia was significantly more likely in those whose folate levels then fell further over the two years, while their homocysteine levels rose. People who were folate deficient to begin with, were almost 3.5 times more likely to develop dementia. The authors suggest that changes in micronutrients could be linked with the other typical signs that precede dementia, including weight loss and low blood pressure.

Vitamins, Minerals 'to cut prison violence'
Prisoners will be given vitamins and mineral supplements in an attempt to improve their behaviour and cut down on violence behind bars. The Ministry of Justice will fund pioneering research into the connection between the diet of young offenders and their behaviour.

This item was in last week's newsgrabs. I am repeating it here to point to additional information, a recent report of an inquiry held by the Associate Parliamentary Food and Health Forum. The report is titled The Links Between Diet and Behaviour and is available here as a PDF file. It discusses the influence of nutrition on behavior and mental health and the implications for public policy.

Button mushrooms contain as much anti-oxidants as expensive ones
Dr Jean-Michel said: “It can be reasonably assumed that white button mushrooms have as much, if not more, radical scavenging power as mushrooms currently touted for their health benefit. The good thing is button mushrooms are available all year round, are cheap and may be an excellent source of nutrition as part of a healthy diet.”

Action Alert: Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy
On January 9, 2008, the FDA sent numerous pharmacies, large and small, an order to stop using Estriol, and the term “bio-identical” in their hormone replacement formulas. This is an unprecedented attack on compounders, patients and physicians because until now NO compounded drug component with a USP monograph has been withdrawn from circulation unless there has been evidence of harm to patients. Yet that is what the FDA is doing! If they can do it to Estriol, they can do it to anything they wish to!

ROAD MAP TO AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE
Message by the Dr Rath Foundation published as a (paid) public service announcement in the New York Times
On January 15, 2008, the New York Times and others reported about a clinical study with a combination of two cholesterol lowering drugs (statins) that showed shocking results: Patients receiving these statin drugs developed coronary artery plaques – the cause of heart attacks – twice as fast as the control group. Worse, the drug makers had withheld this crucial data for almost 2 years – despite the fact that 5 million people are currently taking these drugs. Statin drugs are a $40 billion annual business built entirely on the perception that they prevent heart attacks.

We are not only faced with a tyranny of oil. As long as the fraudulent business with disease remains unchallenged today's major diseases can not be controlled. If we stay indifferent, the problem of skyrocketing health care costs that drive millions of people into unemployment and personal bankruptcy can never be solved...

Marketing Overdose
The pharmaceutical industry spends US$60 billion on drugs marketing each year, twice as much as it spends on research and development. Yet consumers know next to nothing about where this money is going. To expose where pharma companies spend this money, how it increases drugs sales, and why this irresponsible behaviour is putting consumer health at risk, Consumers International has produced a series of short films for the Marketing Overdose campaign.

I am not a great friend of "consumer" organizations. Most of them are little more than a fig leaf for government and big industry to show they care about you and me. It is a sign of the times though for one of these consumer federations actually being critical of big pharma. Of course it's only the advertising and marketing that's at fault. Nothing wrong with the drugs killing hundreds of thousands - yet.

Prescription Drugs that Can Kill You - Is there a safer way?
Too many pharmaceuticals just aren't safe. The shocking truth is that drug complications are the third leading cause of death in America! Only heart disease and cancer cause more deaths than our pharmaceutical armamentareum! How necessary is it to use drugs that can cause problems serious enough to put you in the hospital, cause permanent disability, or even kill you?

HIV drugs, Abacavir and Didanosine increase the risk of heart attack
A study to assess the adverse effects of anti-retroviral drugs shows that two widely-used HIV drugs are associated with an increased risk of heart attack/the formation of blood clots in the heart. With the use of Didanosine, the risk of developing a heart attack increases by 49%, with Abacavir; the increased risk is 90%. The effect is most pronounced in patients with a high underlying cardiovascular risk. The research findings also show that the adverse effect is reversible, if patients discontinue use of these particular drugs.

Medicaid and Psychiatric Drug Prescriptions
Psychiatrist Dr. Mark Olfson of Columbia University, had expressed astonishment at the findings of two studies that he had conducted (2006, 2007): one, showed a 40-fold increase in children diagnosed as "bipolar disorder." His study found that "psychiatrists made almost 90% of the diagnoses, and two-thirds of the young patients were boys."

Dr. Olfson's other study finding: "nearly one in five psychiatric visits for young people included a prescription for antipsychotics." These startling findings led him to acknowledge an "urgent need" to evaluate the drugs' safety and effectiveness.

Pharmalot reports that New York State Senator Tom Morahan says he wants answers about the money spent by the state’s Medicaid program on psychiatric meds for children after reading a report in The New York Post, which found Medicaid paid $82.8 million in 2006 for numerous pills for thousands of children, even though many of the meds were never approved by the FDA for treating kids.

UK: Care homes sedating Alzheimer patients could lead to early death
Dangerous drugs are being prescribed to sedate thousands of Alzheimer's sufferers in care homes, campaigners claimed yesterday. An official inquiry will be told today that the use of the so-called "chemical cosh" has serious side effects and can even lead to premature death. The campaigners say that dementia patients with behavioural problems are being "killed" to make life easier for staff looking after them.

UK and Irish Politicians Denounce Canadian Government Agent’s Dirty Tricks over GMOs
UK’s ex-environment minister, the Rt. Hon. Michael Meacher MP tabled an Early Day Motion in the UK Parliament, now signed by 27 MPs from different parties, the latest being Alex Samond, the leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party and Scotland's First Minister. The motion succinctly points the finger at the corporate corruption of science, most visible and ruthless when it comes to promoting GM crops, and every part of the corporate structure is complicit, the scientific establishment, the learned journals and big government held to ransom by the biotech industry.

Epilepsy Drugs double suicide risk
The risk of suicide or other suicidal behavior doubles for patients taking any one of 11 drugs prescribed to millions of people for epilepsy, pain, psychiatric illnesses and other disorders, the Food and Drug Administration said in an alert to physicians Thursday.