The Hemp Cure - NewsGrabs 2 March 2008

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NewsGrabs

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

Here is this week's selection for you:

Video: The Hemp Cure
In a series of seven short videos, Rick Simpson tells the story of a cure that is based on the hemp plant.

Since hemp got in the way of DuPont's Nylon in the early part of the 20th century, the plant has been demonized, classified as dangerous, called a drug, and growers have been punished for seeding it. Apart from obvious uses of hemp as a source of fiber and seeds as a nutritious food, the flower buds can be processed into an extract that has - according to Simpson and many who tried - curative properties. Yes, those flowers can also be smoked and - like with tabacco and alcohol - there are effects on your mental state. Hardly enough of a reason though to prohibit the use of a cure and the cultivation of a plant of many merits!

Vitamin Supplementation Prevents Anorexia
Anorexia is an acknowledged clinical marker of beriberi, the disease specifically caused by a deficiency of vitamin B1 (thiamine). Anorexia is also commonly observed as an early symptom of pellagra (niacin deficiency) and is a known complication of scurvy, vitamin C deficiency. Prevention is especially important, because beriberi/anorexia often does not respond well even to treatment with high doses of thiamine for months, and sometimes does not respond at all. But as a rule, high potency vitamin supplements are an effective cure for the loss of muscle mass caused by beriberi and the skin lesions caused by pellagra.

South Africa: Traditional medicines not subject to clinical trials
Medicines used for thousands of years should not become "bogged down in clinical trials", said South African health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. She was speaking during a meeting with traditional healers to discuss a draft policy to regulate the practice. "We cannot use Western models of protocols for research and development," said the minister, although she added that she was not against clinical trials per se.

JOURNAL OF ORTHOMOLECULAR MEDICINE NOW ONLINE
The archives of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine are now posted online. Past issues from 1967 through 2002 are available for downloading, at no charge.

The Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine has led the way in presenting, in advance of other medical journals, new health concerns and treatments including niacin therapy for schizophrenia and coronary disease; vitamin C for cancer; and the nutritional treatment of behavioral disorders, and drug and alcohol abuse. The JOM was also the first medical journal to publish papers on the nutritional treatment of allergies, autism, and AIDS. JOM published pioneering research on candiasis in 1978, mercury amalgam toxicity in 1982, and chronic fatigue syndrome in 1988. The Journal has published over 100 papers on nutritional medicine and cancer, and over 400 articles on schizophrenia and other psychiatric illnesses. JOM is peer-reviewed.

Curiously, and as I reported before, after over 40 years of continuous publication, JOM is still not indexed on MEDLINE.

Hawaii: Senate's Plan to Ban Aspartame 'Deferred': Health Committee Passes The Buck to the FDA
James Turner, renowned consumer attorney fought the approval of aspartame with world famous neuroscientist Dr. John Olney and explained: "The toxicity of this deadly carcinogen is well known. The FDA not only refused to approve aspartame for years, but asked the Department of Justice to indict G.D. Searle, the manufacturer, for submitting fraudulent test reports to get the poison approved.

The evidence was overwhelming and Searle's case was impossible to defend, so their attorneys seduced the federal prosecutors, Sam Skinner and Wm. Conlon, who negotiated for jobs with Searle's lawyers while they were supposed to prosecuting Searle! Before switching sides they stalled until the statute of limitations was about to run out so Searle couldn't be prosecuted in the future. Justice died, as have thousands of aspartame victims in the 25 years since.

Non-GM Breakthroughs Leave GM Behind
Does the mention of allergen-free peanut, salt-resistant wheat, beta-carotene rich sweet potato, and virus-resistant cassava make you think of GM? If so, you’ve missed the great unpublished story of 2007 – all the non-GM answers to precisely the problems (drought-resistance, salt-resistance, biofortification, etc.) that proponents claim only GM can solve.

Compost Can Turn Agricultural Soils into a Carbon Sink
Applying organic fertilizers, such as those resulting from composting, to agricultural land could increase the amount of carbon stored in these soils and contribute significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, according to new research published in a special issue of Waste Management & Research.

"An increase of just 0.15% in organic carbon in arable soils in a country like Italy would effectively imply the sequestration of the same amount of carbon within soil that is currently released into the atmosphere in a period of one year through the use of fossil fuels," write Enzo Favoino and Dominic Hogg, authors of the paper.

"Furthermore, increasing organic matter in soils may cause other greenhouse gas-saving effects, such as improved workability of soils, better water retention, less production and use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides, and reduced release of nitrous oxide."

Cancer and the bacterial connection
Today, some scientists think [that] germs can teach our bodies how to fight back against tumors. Dr. John Timmerman, a cancer immunotherapy expert at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center, says this revolution has produced "the most exciting sets of compounds in cancer immunology." New studies are revealing that certain cancers may be reduced by exposure to disease-causing bacteria and viruses.

The studies also imply that our cleaner, infection-free lifestyles may be contributing to the rise in certain cancers over the last 50 years, scientists say, because they make the immune system weaker or less mature. Germs cause disease but may also fortify the body, a notion summed up in a 2006 report by a team of Canadian researchers as "whatever does not kill me makes me stronger." In the 1980s, dermatologists began noticing that patients with severe acne, which is caused by another type of bacterium, have reduced rates of skin cancer, lymphoma and leukemia.

According to a paper by Dr. Mohammad Namazi at the Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran, studies showed that these bacteria, when injected into animals, appear to stimulate the immune system and shrink tumors. In reports published in the last two years, Harvey Checkoway, a University of Washington epidemiologist, has found that female cotton workers in Shanghai have a 40% to 60% lower risk of lung, breast, and pancreas cancer than other factory workers.

Other recent studies by Giuseppe Mastrangelo at the University of Padua in Italy found that dairy farmers exposed to high levels of manure dust are up to five times less likely to develop lung cancer than their colleagues who work in open fields.

Nitric Oxide and Silica: Smart Antibacterial
Mark Schoenfisch and his lab of analytical chemists at UNC have created nano-scale scaffolds made of silica and loaded with nitric oxide (NO) – an important molecule in mammals that plays a role in regulating blood pressure, neurotransmission and fighting bacterial infections, among other vital functions.

“There was evidence that nitric oxide kills bacteria, but the difficult part involved storing it in a manner such that it could be delivered to bacterial cells,” said Evan Hetrick, a doctoral student in Schoenfisch’s lab and lead author on a paper in the February issue of the American Chemical Society’s journal ACS Nano.

FDA undermines Public Safety: Congressman Calls for FDA Commissioner to Resign
Congressman Stupak called on Dr. von Eschenbach to step down because he has demonstrated "a total lack of leadership."

Underscoring FDA officials' disregard for the agency's mission--which is to protect the public health, and ensure that scientifically validated information is disseminated about prescription drugs - the agency has just issued proposed guidelines that would overturn the prohibition against drug manufacturers disseminating information to encourage doctors to prescribe their drug for "off-label" unapproved uses.

Georgia Surgeon Describes Aspartame-Induced Hand Tremors
I am a physician and truly disturbed by the continued availability of Aspartame in our food supply. As a resident physician I developed tremors in my dominant hand (right). These tremors affected my surgical performance to the point of having one of my professors inquire as to whether or not I had an alcohol problem. I can assure you that I do not, nor have I ever had a substance abuse problem of any kind.

My tremors persisted beyond my postgraduate training. I then had friends comment on noticing my hand shaking at rest outside of a clinical environment. After removing Aspartame from my diet, the tremors have been absent for over two years.

I have researched the issue and found tha