Slimming Medicine: FDA asked to Eliminate Supplements - NewsGrabs 1 June 2008

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Slimming Claims are Medical: Petition to FDA
The American Dietetic Association, the American Diabetes Association, the Obesity Society, and pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) have filed a Citizen Petition with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reclassify all dietary-supplement weight-loss claims as disease claims. It should be noted that in the Petition, GlaxoSmithKline freely states that it has and provides unrestricted grants to all of these groups.

So we have an actual instance of disease mongering here. Pharma is declaring being overweight a disease, and is quite openly going after that pesky competition of food supplements by asking the FDA for a change of rules.

I wonder whether anti-trust laws could swing into action here...

Canada: Standing Committee on Health on Bills C-51 & 52
Canadian Coalition for Health Freedom is the only group advocating our nutrients be treated as foods - no smoke and mirrors of third category or such that some are pushing for their own self serving interests. There clearly is no need for separating nutrients from foods as they, in the main, are already covered under our food regulations and are a safer subset of foods.

An interesting point of view. We know foods are determining our health, so why make a separate legislative category for foods that are specially healthy? Nutrients are still foods, and like all other foods, they are determining our state of health.

Kiss And Make It Better? A Placebo Pill For Kids
Buettner, 40, who lives in Severna Park, Maryland, with her husband and two children, envisioned a tablet that would empower parents to do something tangible for minor ills and reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics and other meds. So she founded Efficacy Brands, which next week will sell chewable, cherry-flavored dextrose tablets, Obecalp, for placebo spelled backward.

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Bicarbonate 'could detect cancer'
Bicarbonate is involved in the body's balancing of acid and alkali. But cancerous tissue is known to turn it into carbon dioxide. The Cancer Research UK team found MRI scans were able to track changes in the chemical and therefore identify cancers even in the very early stages. Almost all cancer has a lower pH, meaning it is more acidic than surrounding tissue.

The bicarbonate may have a "side effect". According to Italian oncologist Tullio Simoncini, bicarbonate will actually dissolve a tumor by inhibiting fungal growth. So rather than just providing a diagnostic tool, perhaps the bicarbonate marking of tumors could lead to a better cure...

Jane Goodall: Just Say No To Animal Testing
The world-famous primate expert and other scientists appealed to European Union officials today to end the testing of animals for science and medical research. “We need to recognize at the outset that what we do to animals from their perspective certainly, and probably from ours, is morally wrong and unacceptable,” Goodall says, according to the Associated Press.

She presented a petition with 150,000 names to lawmakers at the European Parliament that calls on lawmakers and the EU’s executive office to find testing methods that do not involve animals.

Common Herbicide Disrupts Human Hormone Activity
Common herbicide disrupts human hormone activity Atrazine affects the endocrine systems of zebrafish at levels lower than U.S. drinking-water standards-and impacts human cells in tissue cultures. The second most widely used herbicide in the U.S. could cause serious problems for both fish and humans, according to new research.

Diet Coke to drop additive in DNA damage fear
Coca-Cola is phasing out a controversial additive that has been linked to damage to DNA and hyperactivity in children. Sodium benzoate, also known as E211, is used to stop fizzy drinks going mouldy.

Here's what sufficient consumer pressure will do. Coke is already working to replace the artificial sweetener aspartame with a natural extract from the stevia plant, and now this - eliminate the sodium benzoate preservative, which likes to turn into toxic benzene if subjected to heat.

Canada: Family seed business takes on Goliath of genetic modification
For Meek and partner Frederic Sauriol, propagating local varieties is part of a David and Goliath struggle by small farmers against big seed companies. At stake, they believe, is no less than control of the world's food supply.

Developing new seed varieties was long a congenial affair where federal government scientists shared information and distributed samples to farmers for testing, says Kuyek, a researcher for GRAIN, an international non-profit organization that promotes agricultural biodiversity. But in the 1980s, he says, the federal government began privatizing agricultural research.

US: Field studies find lower productivity with GM seeds
Last week the biggest study of its kind ever conducted – the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development – concluded that GM was not the answer to world hunger. Professor Bob Watson, the director of the study and chief scientist at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when asked if GM could solve world hunger, said: “The simple answer is no.”

Starving People for Profit: GM Foods the Problem, Not The Solution
The food crisis has prompted some looks towards genetically modified food production as a solution. That in turn has led to stronger warnings over the consequences of such food for health and the environment.

Feeding the debate, scientists, farmers and environmental activists in many countries continue to warn that genetically modified agriculture presents a risk, and not a contribution, to food production.

Pesticides raising diabetes risk?
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health in the US studied more than 31 000 licensed pesticide applicators participating in the Agricultural Health Study. Five years after enrolling in the study, 1 176 had developed type 2 diabetes. Among the 50 different pesticides the researchers looked at, half were chlorinated, and 7 of these were tied to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. They are: aldrin, chlordane, heptachlor, dichlorvos, trichlorfon, alachlor, and cyanazine.

Chantix Causes Traffic Accident, Passengers Almost Die
Troubling news just keeps rolling on Chantix, the stop smoking drug, which was last week banned for use by pilots and air traffic controllers by the FAA and was also banned for use by commercial bus and trucks drivers due to the recent warnings about erratic behavior caused by this drug.

Now, the Los Angeles Times reports about a Louisiana man who, two days after starting the drug, had his eyes roll back in his head while he was driving his truck with a woman. Then he steered the truck right into a bayou and the pair likely came close to losing their lives.

Truckers Banned From Chantix Use
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which regulates commercial trucking and bus driver licenses interstate, today issued a warning about Chantix, the stop smoking drug which yesterday was the subject of a ban by the FAA. The warning advised medical examiners for the agency "to not qualify anyone currently using this medication for commercial motor vehicle licenses."

Bayer & Glaxo Linked To Bribes In Italy
A drug licences-for-cash scandal has engulfed Italy’s medicines regulatory agency with leading officials arrested along with people linked to major drugmakers, PharmaTimes writes. The most senior figure to have been held is Pasqualino Rossi, vp of Aifa, the Italian Agency for Pharmaceuticals, and one of Italy’s most senior reps at the European Medicines Agency.

Five lobbyists have also been arrested, and an eighth person is being sought. Arrest warrants were issued after an investigating judge saw a 400-word police report suggesting money had changed hands in return for falsifying clinical data required for drug licences ...

Disease Mongering Is Now Part of the Global Health Debate
Disease mongering is the selling of sickness that widens the boundaries of illness in order to grow markets for those who sell and deliver treatments. It is a process that turns healthy people into patients, causes iatrogenic harm, and wastes precious resources. Disease mongering is the contemporary form of “medicalisation.” It is a process now driven by both corporate and professional interests, and it has become part of the global debate about health care. International consumer groups now target drug company–backed disease mongering as a wasteful threat to public health, while the global pharmaceutical industry has been forced to defend its promotion of “lifestyle” medicines for problems like slimming and sexual difficulties.

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