Firm Pushed Drug It Knew Didn’t Work

June 15, 2009

AOL News

Low Vitamin D May Be Root Cause of Cancer

June 15, 2009

NaturalNews.com

by S. L. Baker

(NaturalNews) What initially causes cancer to develop? The current scientific model assumes that a genetic mutation begins the genesis of a malignancy. But what if that assumption is wrong and there’s another key to the start of cancer? Scientists at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California (UC) in San Diego have raised that possibility. And they’ve come up with another, brand new model of how cancer develops.

Reporting online in the current Annals of Epidemiology, they point to a host of research that suggests cancer develops when cells lose the ability to stick together in a healthy, normal way -- and the key factor to this initial triggering of a malignancy could well be a lack of vitamin D.

In the article, Cedric Garland, DrPH, professor of family and preventive medicine at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, and his research team explain that previous theories associating vitamin D with many cancers have been tested and confirmed in over 200 epidemiological studies. In addition, more than 2,500 laboratory studies have been conducted that provide an understanding of the physiological basis of vitamin D’s link to cancer.

According to Dr. Garland, researchers have documented that with enough vitamin D present, cells adhere to one another in tissue and act as normal, mature epithelial cells. But if there is a deficiency of vitamin D, cells can lose this stick-to-each other quality, as well as their identity as differentiated cells. The result? They may revert to a dangerous stem cell-like state and become cancerous.

In a statement to the media, Dr. Garland suggested that much of the process that starts cancer in the first place could be stopped at the outset by maintaining enough vitamin D in the body. “Vitamin D may halt the first stage of the cancer process by re-establishing intercellular junctions in malignancies having an intact vitamin D receptor,” he said. And, he added, that if diet and supplements restore appropriate levels of vitamin D, the development of cancer might be prevented. According to Dr. Garland, vitamin D levels can be easily increased, if needed, by modest supplementation with vitamin D3 in the range of 2000 IU/day.

The “cure” for cancer already exists…

This new model of cancer’s cause has been dubbed DINOMIT by Dr. Garland and his colleagues. Each letter stands for a different phase of cancer development: “D” refers to disjunction, or loss of communication between cells; “I” is for initiation, where genetic mutations begin to play a role; “N” refers to natural selection of the fastest-reproducing cancer cells; “O” is a for overgrowth of cells; “M” stands for metastasis, the spread of a malignancy to other tissues; “I” refers to involution and “T” for transition, both dormant states that may occur in cancer and can potentially be altered by increasing vitamin D.

“Competition and natural selection among disjoined cells within a tissue compartment, such as might occur in the breast’s terminal ductal lobular unit, for example, are the engine of cancer,” Dr.Garland said in the press statement. “The DINOMIT model provides new avenues for preventing and improving the success of cancer treatment.”

In their Annals of Epidemiology report, the UC scientists point to a host of studies that show an apparent beneficial effect of vitamin D (and, to some extent, calcium) on cancer risk and survival of patients with breast, colorectal and prostate cancer. In fact, Dr. Garland and his team have published epidemiological studies about the potential preventive effects of vitamin D for some twenty years.

In 2008, Dr. Garland and his colleagues found an association between a lack of sunlight exposure, low vitamin D and breast cancer. In earlier work, they showed linkages between increased levels of vitamin D3 or markers of vitamin D and a lower risk for breast, colon, ovarian and kidney cancers, too.

As reported earlier in Natural News, clues about a possible cause-and-effect association between a lack of vitamin D and cancer’s development have rapidly accumulated over the past few years. For example, researchers have found that women who are deficient in vitamin D at the time they are diagnosed with breast cancer are nearly 75 percent more likely to die from the disease than women with sufficient vitamin D levels. Moreover, their cancer is twice as likely to metastasize to other parts of the body.

Healthy levels of vitamin D have been found to slash the risk of numerous cancers by 77 percent.

Click here to get more information on this NaturalNews.com article.

Genetically Modified Organisms are Unfit for Consumption

June 11, 2009

NaturalNews.com

by Ethan Huff

(NaturalNews) The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) has issued a warning urging the public to avoid genetically modified foods and has also called for a moratorium on GMOs until long-term, independent studies can prove their safety. The group has also called for required labeling of foods that contain GMOs, a move that has been strongly opposed by the Food and Drug Administration and Big Biotech which cooperatively purport that consumers should not have the right to know whether or not the foods they buy come from traditionally bred or genetically engineered sources.

While urging for more independent studies, the AAEM paper cites its own studies alleging that genetically modified foods cause serious adverse health effects, emphasizing more than a mere “causal association” as is commonly assumed. These effects include rapid aging, severe alterations to the major bodily organs, infertility, immune problems, gastrointestinal dysfunction, and disruption to proper insulin regulation, among others.

Many doctors are warning their patients to avoid GMOs as well, recognizing the distinct correlation between GMOs and disease. Ohio allergist Dr. John Boyles believes genetically engineered foods are so dangerous that people should never eat them. Biologist Pushpa M. Bhargava, following the review of more than 600 scientific journals, has concluded that the drastic deterioration of Americans’ health in recent years can be attributed to GMOs being introduced into their diets.

Experimental studies of genetically engineered foods and their effects in the body are disturbing, to say the least. Biologist David Schubert of the Salk Institute has stated that children are the most likely people to experience the adverse effects of GMOs, noting that apart from adequate safety studies, children become “the experimental animals”. In truth, every citizen is a guinea pig when genetically altered organisms are introduced into the food supply without adequate safety studies let alone honest labeling.

In the animal studies that have been conducted, some noteworthy findings have been discovered about GMOs:
Female rats fed genetically modified soy saw most of their babies die within three weeks compared to the 10% death rate experienced by rats fed natural soy. The babies that survived in the genetically modified-fed control group were also born smaller and had problems getting pregnant later on.
Male rats fed genetically modified soy experienced a change in testicular color from pink to dark blue, as well as altered young sperm and significant changes in their DNA.
Indian buffalo that consumed genetically modified cottonseed experienced various birthing complications including infertility, abortions, premature delivery, and prolapsed uteruses. Many of the calves that survived birth died shortly thereafter.
In the United States, about 24 farmers reported that their pigs became sterile after consuming genetically modified corn.
Genetically modified corn and cotton, purposely engineered to create their own built-in pesticide called Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), have been indicted in several studies to provoke intense allergic and immune reactions and death. Since the levels of Bt produced in the plant represent thousands of times more a concentration of Bt than natural Bt spray, the effects are greatly amplified. Shepherds whose sheep grazed on Bt cotton after harvest witnessed thousands of their sheep die. Post mortem examinations revealed severe irritation and black patches in the intestines and liver, as well as enlarged bile ducts. All sheep fed the Bt cotton eventually died within 30 days while those that grazed on natural cotton remained healthy.
Bt corn was also responsible for the deaths of cows, horses, water buffaloes, and chicken in both Germany and the Philippines.
Genetically modified tomatoes fed to rats were shown to cause bleeding stomachs and eventually killed many of the rats.

These are just a few examples of the many catastrophic effects of using genetically modified organisms as food.

Probably the worst finding in the AAEM report is the fact that GMOs can live and reproduce in the intestinal flora of the body long after being eaten. The genes present in the genetically modified organisms transfer into the DNA of intestinal bacteria, the good bacteria that digests food and maintains bodily health. This reprogramming can cause the intestinal flora to begin reproducing Bt pesticides, for example, rather than producing the living bacteria it is supposed to. The permanent, deadly implications of these alterations are mind boggling since intestinal flora is crucial for life.

Despite consensus from most FDA scientists in the early ’90s declaring that genetically modified foods are inherently dangerous and could lead to all sorts of serious health problems, politics won out as mandates were given from Washington to promote biotechnology and GMOs in spite of apparent and obvious dangers. This led to the promotion of Michael Taylor, former attorney for Monsanto, as head of GMO policy at the FDA, a move that led to the official denial by the agency of any knowledge or substantiated concern by any FDA scientists about the safety of GMOs.

Despite findings in some 44,000 pages of internal FDA memos and reports released in 1999 due to a lawsuit, findings that contained the warnings from then scientists about the “unintended negative side effects” of genetic engineering, official FDA GMO policy has been scrubbed clean of the truth and purports blatant lies in its defense of GMOs as safe. In fact, current policy emphatically states that no safety studies on GMOs are even required or necessary; it is instead up to Big Biotech to determine the safety of its own genetically modified organisms if it so chooses.

Many people may remember the deadly epidemic in the late 1980s from the genetically engineered version of L-tryptophan, a food supplement, that was introduced into the market. An estimated 10,000 people became permanently disabled and about 100 died. Yet despite the rapidly occurring, deadly effects from this particular GMO immediately following its release, including noticeable changes in the blood, it took over four years to identify the existence of this epidemic.

Many concerned doctors hypothesize that the disease-causing symptoms of GMOs being consumed today will take years to show up, further besetting the efforts of those who are trying to expose the dangers of GMOs. Current data is showing that since 1996 when genetically modified crops were first introduced, the incidences of people with three or more chronic diseases has jumped from 7 percent to 13 percent.

In addition to all the existing evidence, AAEM is urging its members, the scientific community, and those in medicine to continue gathering case studies and initiate epidemiological research to help determine, once and for all, the effects of GMOs on human beings in addition to their effects on animals.

It is wise to avoid foods that contain GMOs and ingredients that are genetically engineered. These include non-organic corn and soy derivatives, canola and cottonseed oils, andsugar from sugar beets. Ingredients such as corn starch, corn meal, and soy lecithin are great examples of common ingredients that are suspect. Unless labeled as non-GMO or explicitly organic, these common ingredients are most likely genetically modified and should be avoided at all costs.

Lastly, the mindful citizen should contact grocers, food manufacturers, and restaurants to inquire about genetically modified ingredients and oppose their usage. As increasing numbers of people begin to seek out this information across the food supply-chain and purposefully avoid products that contain GMOs, producers and retailers will phase them out in order to meet demand. This can be seen in the gradual elimination of toxins such as high fructose corn syrup from food as consumers learn about its effects and avoid products that contain it.

Call Congress and urge support for mandatory GMO labeling, perhaps even the elimination of GMOs entirely. Get creative. Tell friends and family about the dangers of GMOs, organize local campaigns, and pass out literature. The sooner people become aware of GMOs and the havoc they are causing, and demand their removal from food, the sooner GMOs will exist only in history books as one of the most detrimental scientific experiments ever perpetrated on mankind.

Click to read the full article from NaturalNews.com

Green Tea May Help Fight Prostate Cancer

June 22, 2009

ABC 7 Chicago

SHREVEPORT, La. (KABC) — Active compounds found in green tea may help slow the progression of prostate cancer.

Researchers at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport found that polyphenols lower levels of three proteins that help tumors grow and spread. Polyphenols have anti-oxidant properties.

Twenty-six patients, ranging in age from 41 to 68, were given four capsules daily containing green tea extract. The capsules were equivalent to drinking 12 cups a day for a month. At the end of the trial, the patients saw a significant drop in the levels of the dangerous proteins in their blood.

The American Cancer Society estimates there will be 192,280 new cases of prostate cancer in the United States in 2009. The organization predicts 27,360 men will die of prostate cancer. It is the second leading cause of cancer death in men, after lung cancer. The American Cancer Society says one man in six will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and one in 35 men will die of the disease.

Certain risk factors are associated with prostate cancer. Those include family history, age, smoking, obesity, and race.

The American Cancer Society says age is the strongest risk factor for prostate cancer. The chance of getting prostate cancer increases after a man reaches age 50. Almost two-thirds of every case is found in men over the age of 65.

Prostate cancer is also more common among African American men. Researchers are not certain why race and ethnicity is a factor but African American men are also more likely to die of the disease. Prostate cancer occurs less often in Asian-American and Hispanic/Latino men than in non-Hispanic whites.

Statistics complied by The American Cancer Society show that for all men with prostate cancer, the relative five-year survival rate is 100 percent, and the relative 10-year survival rate is 91 percent. The 15-year relative survival rate is 76 percent. The organization cautions that every case is unique.

Click here for the full report from ABC 7 News.

Key Health Care Senators Have Industry Ties

June 12, 2009

Marketplace

by Associated Press Writers, Larry Margasak and Sharon Theimer

Influential senators working to overhaul the nation’s health care system have investments and family ties with some of the biggest names in the industry. The wife of Sen. Chris Dodd, the lawmaker in charge of writing the Senate’s bill, sits on the boards of four health care companies.

Members of both parties have industry connections, including Democrats Jay Rockefeller and Tom Harkin, in addition to Dodd, and Republicans Tom Coburn, Judd Gregg, John Kyl and Orrin Hatch, financial reports showed Friday. .

Jackie Clegg Dodd, wife of the Connecticut Democrat, is on the boards of Javelin Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cardiome Pharma Corp., Brookdale Senior Living and Pear Tree Pharmaceuticals.

Dodd is filling in for ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which will soon start work on a health care bill.

Other publicly available documents show Mrs. Dodd last year was one of the most highly compensated non-employee members of the Javelin Pharmaceuticals Inc. board, on which she has served since 2004. She earned $32,000 in fees and $109,587 in stock option awards last year, according to the company’s SEC filings.

Mrs. Dodd earned $79,063 in fees from Cardiome in its last fiscal year, while Brookdale Senior Living gave her $122,231 in stock awards in 2008, their SEC filings show. She earned no income from her post as a director for Pear Tree Pharmaceuticals but holds up to $15,000 in stock in Pear Tree, which describes itself as a development-stage pharmaceutical company focused on the needs of aging women.

The annual financial disclosure reports for members of Congress are less precise. They only require that assets and liabilities be listed in ranges of values.

Dodd sought a 90-day extension to file his report covering last year, giving him until mid-August to submit his report, but released his report Friday to The Associated Press.

Bryan DeAngelis, Dodd’s spokesman, said, “Jackie Clegg Dodd’s career is her own; absolutely independent of Senator Dodd, as it was when they married 10 years ago. The senator has worked to reform our health care system for decades, and nothing about his wife’s career is relevant at all to his leadership of that effort.”

DeAngelis said that Mrs. Dodd has hired a personal ethics lawyer to avoid any conflicts of interest and is not a lobbyist.

Other reports showed:

_ Rockefeller, D-W.Va., reported $15,001 to $50,000 in capital gains for his wife from the sale of a stake in Athenahealth Inc., a business services company that helps medical providers with billing and clinical operations.

Rockefeller is honorary chairman of the Alliance for Health Reform, a Washington nonprofit whose board includes representatives from the UnitedHealth Group health insurance company; AFL-CIO labor union; the AARP, which sells health insurance; St. John Health, a nonprofit health system that includes seven hospitals and 125 medical facilities in southeast Michigan; CIGNA Corp., an employer-sponsored benefits company; and the United Hospital Fund of New York.

_ Coburn, R-Okla., is a practicing physician. He reported slight business income, $268, from the Muskogee Allergy Clinic last year; $3,000 to $45,000 in stock in Affymetrix Inc., a biotechnology company and pioneer in genetic analysis; $1,000 to $15,000 in stock in Pfizer Inc., a pharmaceutical company; and a $1,000 to $15,000 interest in Thomas A. Coburn, MD, Inc.

Under Senate ethics rules, Coburn can’t accept money from his patients.

_ Gregg, R-N.H., disclosed $250,001 to $500,000 in drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. stock and $1,000 to $15,000 each in stock in pharmaceutical companies Merck & Co. and Pfizer, the Johnson & Johnson health care products company and Agilent Technologies, which is involved in the biomedical industry.

_ Kyl, R-Ariz., the Senate minority whip, reported $15,001 to $50,000 in stock in Amgen Inc., which develops medical therapeutics. Kyl’s retirement account held stakes in several health care businesses, including the Wyeth, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and AstraZeneca pharmaceutical companies; medical provider Tenet Healthcare Corp.; CVS Caremark prescription and health services company; Genentech, a biotherapeutics manufacturer; and insurer MetLife Inc.

_ Harkin, D-Iowa, has a joint ownership stake in health-related stocks. Harkin and his wife, Ruth Raduenz, own shares of drug makers Amgen and Genentech, Inc., each stake valued at $1,001 to $15,000; Their largest health care holding, Johnson & Johnson, was valued at $50,001 to $100,000.

_ Hatch, R-Utah, a member of the Finance and Health committees, reported owning between $1,001 and $15,000 worth of stock in drug maker Pfizer Inc. He spoke to two pharmaceutical industry conferences last year. Sponsors of the conferences donated $3,500 to charities instead of speaking fees, as required by Senate rules.

Like millions of Americans, several senators took a financial hit in 2008. A sampling:

_Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., lost some $100,000 in equity in his home in Springfield and $35,000 in his Chicago condominium. Durbin, who released his tax returns, reported losing $32,259 in various investments last year, including more than $10,400 in Berkshire Hathaway and $5,535 in Fidelity stock.

_Kennedy in 2007 had four trusts each valued between $5,000,001-$25 million. In 2008, only one trust was still in that category while the rest had slipped in value to $1,000,001-$5 million.

_Hatch’s investments suffered from the banking crisis. In 2007, he reported assets of between $2,002 and $30,000 in Countrywide Credit Industries Inc. stock. His 2008 financial disclosure lists the value at less than $1,000.

One of Dodd’s investments showed a vast improvement.

A new appraisal more than doubled the value of his vacation cottage in Ireland, which has been subject of a Senate ethics complaint filed by a conservative group questioning if the undervalued property was really a gift.

The property is valued at 470,000 euros, or about $660,000, on Dodd’s disclosure report.

The previous year’s report valued the seaside home, located in County Galway, at between $100,001 and $250,000.

DeAngelis, the spokesman, said Dodd and his wife decided to have the property appraised because they felt it was time to update the information.

Click here for the full article from Marketplace.

Dairy-Cow Kill to Double Milk Price After Slump

June 22, 2009

Bloomberg

by Jeff Wilson

June 22 (Bloomberg) — Dino Giacomazzi, whose great- grandfather started the Giacomazzi Dairy in Hanford, California, in 1893, said he had no choice but to sell 100 cows, or 11 percent of his herd, in the past four months. Rising feed prices and a world surplus meant it cost as much as $17 to produce $10 of milk.

“Producers are in an absolute state of panic,” said Giacomazzi, 40. “To spend 100 years building a dairy business and see much of that equity disappear in a year is very troubling.”

Farmers plan to shift the pain to consumers. The National Milk Producers Federation in Arlington, Virginia, will pay dairies to slaughter 103,000 U.S. cows in coming months. Milk futures prices will double next year to a record $23 per 100 pounds (43.5 kilograms) as the herd shrinks by 171,000 head, the most since 1989, said Michael Swanson, a senior economist at Wells Fargo & Co., the largest lender to U.S. farmers.

The cuts will lead to the first two-year drop in output in four decades and higher prices in 2010 for butter, cheese, milk and the non-fat dry powder that’s a benchmark for global exports, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts. Futures for delivery in September 2010 trade 56 percent above today’s prices on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Retail butter prices may rise above the record of $3.937 a pound and cheddar cheese may top $5.097 a pound, according to Jerry Dryer, 65, the editor of the industry newsletter Dairy & Food Market Analyst in Delray Beach, Florida.

‘Big Spike Up’

“We could easily see $20 milk again next year,” said Richard Bradfield, a vice president of the dairy business at International Ingredient Corp., a manufacturer of specialty feed products in Fenton, Missouri. “The longer these low prices last, the greater the potential for a big spike up in prices as dairies make larger cuts.”

Farmers are culling herds because exports plunged 26 percent in the first four months of the year, supplies rose and the cost of corn, the primary feed ingredient, averaged almost $4 a bushel.

At Tulare County Stockyard Inc. in Dinuba, California, more than three fourths of the cows Giacomazzi sold were purchased by beef processors including Cargill Inc., owner Jon Dolieslager said. Many smaller dairies that bought animals at auctions last year are out of business, he said.

Sold for Beef

“The Giacomazzi dairy is unique because of its reputation for taking care of its animals and the long history of superior genetics,” said Dolieslager, who also auctions hogs, beef cattle, goats, sheep and horses. “Less than 2 percent of dairy cows we sell will go out to other dairies.”

“No one is making money producing milk,” Wells Fargo’s Swanson said by telephone from Minneapolis. “The milk price remains well below the total cost of production.”

U.S. output increased to a record 16.73 billion pounds in May as cows on average produced 1,804 pounds each, the most ever, the USDA said June 18. A gallon weighs 8.6 pounds.

Wholesale milk fell 51 percent in the past year and reached $9.93 per 100 pounds on June 19 on the CME. The USDA forecasts average cash prices this year will drop 34 percent, the most since the agency began keeping the data in 1980. While corn fell to $4.195 last week from a record $7.9925 a bushel in June 2008, it’s still 54 percent above the decade average.

Cheese, Butter

Cheese prices on the CME have fallen 43 percent in the past year to $1.1175 pound, while butter dropped 17 percent to $1.215. The retail cost of cheddar cheese rose 4.7 percent to $4.605 a pound in May from a year earlier, government data show. The average supermarket price of butter fell 15 percent to $2.778 a pound last month from a year earlier.

“Wholesale butter and cheese prices could rebound $2 a pound next year,” as the herd declines, Dairy & Food Market’s Dryer said. “Low prices are not going to last because we will see inflation across the board next year.”

In California, the largest milk-producing state, dairies lost $1.07 per 100 pounds in April, compared with profit of $11.23 in July 2007, based on feed costs and milk prices, USDA data show. In January, the state was the most unprofitable in at least six years of record-keeping.

“We’re all in survival mode,” said John Gailey, 35, the general manager and a part owner of the 4,000-cow the Milky Way Dairy near Visalia, California. Gailey cut his herd by 400 head, or 9.1 percent, since March. “I’m surprised we are not hearing about more people filing for bankruptcy.”

24-Month Wait

It takes about 24 months and $1,600 to feed and care for a dairy heifer before it starts producing milk, Gailey said. The price of a young cow ready for milking has dropped by half in the past year to $1,200, he said.

Farmers spent most of the past decade expanding to meet rising global demand.

Futures peaked at a record $22.45 in June 2007 as a drought in Australia and New Zealand, the biggest exporters, curbed supplies. Demand increased in Asia as economic growth allowed consumers to switch to more protein-based diets.

U.S. exports jumped to a record 2.55 million metric tons last year (653.7 million gallons), up 16 percent from 2005, and the value of the shipments rose 25 percent, according to the U.S. Dairy Export Council in Arlington, Virginia. Overseas sales accounted for 11 percent of U.S. production, more than twice the share of 2002, the council said.

By the end of 2008, with the global economy in the first recession since World War II, U.S. milk production had grown to a record 190 billion pounds and the dairy herd was at a 12-year high of 9.315 million cows, according to the USDA.

European Protests

When global prices sagged, European farmers sought government aid and disrupted food supplies. Eight hundred producers from across Europe protested in Brussels last month, and in parts of France grocers ran out of cheese and yogurt because of farmer protests.

Dairy Farmers of Britain Ltd., the U.K. cooperative, filed for receivership this month after firing workers and closing dairies. Dairy Crest Group Plc, the biggest U.K. producer, lowered its milk price in April to 26.28 euro cents per liter ($1.40 a gallon), reflecting a 32 percent drop since October, according to the Web site of the Dutch farmers’ organization LTO-Nederland.

U.S. dairies are trimming the herd. The kill in the week ended June 6 rose to 60,800 head, 35 percent higher than a year earlier, according to USDA data. This year’s cull is up 13 percent from 2008.

Accelerating Cuts

Reductions may accelerate because government payments to small and medium-sized farmers begin to run out this month, said Sherman Toone, 58, a third-generation producer with 350 cows and 1,800 acres of wheat, barley and alfalfa near Grace, Idaho.

“This is the worst I’ve ever seen the imbalance” between feed costs and milk revenue, said Toone, whose grandfather started with 25 cows in 1923.

U.S. milk production will fall 1.3 percent to 187.5 billion pounds this year from last year’s record, and to 186.4 billion in 2010, the first back-to-back decline since 1969, the USDA said June 20.

Prices probably will rise at least 25 percent by the second half of 2010 as production slows and consumption rebounds with an improving economy next year, said Kelvin Wickham, the managing director of global trade at Auckland, New Zealand-based Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd., the largest dairy exporter.

“We do expect prices to trend higher toward the back half of the year,” Jack Callahan, the chief financial officer at Dallas-based Dean Foods Inc., the biggest U.S. processor, said June 2 at a New York conference. Shares of Dean Foods rose 2.1 percent this year, beating the 1.1 percent drop in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

Roadblocks to Rally

Fonterra’s Wickham cautioned that even a smaller herd may not be enough to turn the market around as rising subsidies and government stockpiling in the European Union and the U.S. delay the recovery.

“People haven’t been buying the stuff, that’s the problem,” said Lloyd Downing, 61, who farms 560 cows on 187 hectares southwest of Morrinsville, on New Zealand’s North Island. “It’s not until the American economy comes right that we’ll start doing any good.”

The U.S. economy contracted three straight quarters, including 5.7 percent in the first quarter. Economists expect a 2.7 percent contraction in 2009 before growth resumes in 2010, based on the median of 62 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. In the European Union, where growth was 0.63 percent last year, the economy will shrink 4.2 percent in 2009, a Bloomberg survey of 17 economists shows.

Global milk-production growth will likely slow to 0.5 percent to 0.7 percent in 2009, in line with the increase in consumption, Fonterra’s Wickham said.

Chinese Demand

China, the world’s third-largest fluid-milk consumer after India and the U.S., is recovering after melamine contamination last September slashed domestic output. Consumption growth that averaged 13 percent the past three years will likely return to pre-melamine levels by the end of 2009, Lausanne, Switzerland- based Tetra Pak Group, the biggest maker of milk and juice cartons, said in a June 1 report.

China increased imports of milk powder and other dairy products after the government shut 19 percent of the nation’s 20,393 milk-collection stations between November and April, the official Xinhua New Agency reported June 3.

“It only takes a relatively small amount of difference in production and we’re going to have a significant affect on international prices,” said Lachlan McKenzie, who owns a 600- cow dairy northeast of Rotorua on New Zealand’s North Island and is chairman of Federated Farmers’ Dairy Section.

New Zealand Exports

New Zealand exported 50.8 million kilograms of milk powder to China in the three months ended March 31, more than four times as much as the same period a year earlier, according to Statistics New Zealand. Dairies are the country’s biggest export earner, accounting for about 20 percent of trade receipts, government data show.

Whatever happens with demand, a recovery won’t be possible without a cull in the industry, said the Milky Way Dairy’s Gailey.

“We are in a depression right now,” he said. “I have to be an optimist that the dairy farmers can get together and find a way to reduce the cow herd about 5 percent so that prices can recover quickly.”

Click here to read the full story from Bloomberg.

New Zealand Moving Closer to Cashless Society

June 22, 2009

New Zealand Herald

Cash is no longer king in New Zealand, according to the Retirement Commission’s report.

The report found electronic funds transfer (Eftpos) had displaced cash as the most common method used to pay for things such as groceries, power bills and mortgage. The number using Eftpos in the latest survey (83 per cent) is the same as in 2005, but the number using cash dropped from 84 per cent to 77 per cent. There have also been declines in all other methods of payment except internet banking, where users have increased from 34 per cent of adults in 2005 to 47 per cent.

Those most likely to use internet banking are households earning over $100,000 (70 per cent), people aged 35 to 44 (63 per cent), people in paid employment or with tertiary education (both 57 per cent), Asians (54 per cent), males (51 per cent) and Europeans and urban residents (both 49 per cent). The least likely internet bankers are provincial residents (37 per cent), Maori (34 per cent) and those aged 65 and over (12 per cent).

CLICK HERE FOR THE NEW ZEALAND HERALD ARTICLE

Swine Flu Tolls Leaps Past 52,000 Cases

June 22, 2009

Raw Story

The World Health Organisation on Monday reported a huge leap in the swine flu pandemic toll to more than 52,000 people infected and 231 dead.

The toll has risen by more than 7,873 cases and 51 deaths since Friday, highlighting the steady spread of the A(H1N1) virus.

Swine flu has now been reported in 100 countries and territories.

And figures yet to be incorporated into the UN health agency’s official figures indicate an even higher toll. The Philippines has reported the first swine flu death in Asia, Iran joined the countries reporting their first cases, while Singapore quarantined a Hong Kong football team.

The United States led a group of countries that have seen dramatic increases in cases of virus, according to the new WHO figures.

There were an extra 3,594 cases taking the US total to 21,449 with 87 deaths. Mexico was stable with 7,600 cases and 113 deaths.

But Chile, which is entering the southern hemisphere winter has also been badly hit with 1,190 more cases (4,315), including four deadly.

There have been an extra 805 extra cases in Canada (5,710), where there have been 13 deaths.

Britain remains the worst-hit country in Europe. It has recorded 754 extra cases taking its total to 2,506, including one death.

In Australia there are 237 extra cases at 2,436, with one death. In Japan there are 160 more cases at 850. China has an extra 220 cases at 739. China’s health ministry website on Sunday said 414 people had fallen ill with swine flu.

A 49-year-old woman in the Philippines became Asia’s first fatality linked to swine flu, health authorities said.

She had been suffering from heart and liver ailments for some time, and the department said in a statement that her infection with the influenza A (H1N1) virus had worsened her condition.

The woman’s case had gone undetected until a doctor visited her in her home when she was already in critical condition, the department said.

Singapore on Monday quarantined 18 members of the Hong Kong youth football team after three players tested positive for swine flu ahead of the Asian Youth Games.

Thirteen players, three coaches, a physiotherapist and a team official were placed under quarantine at a suburban beach resort, a Games spokeswoman said.

Singapore authorities quarantined 19 members of the Philippine football squad at the weekend after one player tested positive for A(H1N1).

The spread of swine flu was highlighted when Iran’s health ministry reported the country’s first virus case in a 16-year-old boy who had just been to the United States, the the official IRNA news agency said.

The WHO said that its figures could not be considered reliable because some countries were no longer keeping total figures while other poor countries did not have the means to reliably detect cases.

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Homeland Security Drone Patrolling Northern NY

June 18, 2009

News Watch 50

A monitor inside an operations trailer shows a close-up view of a boat skimming across the water on Lake Ontario.

The image was taken from an unmanned aircraft more than three miles away.

A Predator B Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) has been temporarily based at Fort Drum since early June in an experiment by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office.

The Department of Homeland Security is using the extensive restricted air space over Fort Drum to test whether the drone could be a good fit along this stretch of the northern border.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has five of the aircraft but so far none of them based permanently in the Northeast.

The Predator will operate out of Fort Drum for about three weeks for testing and training, and to evaluate its use to law enforcement.

John Stanton, director of CPB’s Office of Air and Marine, said state, provincial and local law enforcement agencies were quick to take up the offer of added surveillance of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.

“So while we were flying, we were asked by our partner law enforcement agencies if we would be kind enough to be on the lookout for suspicious activities,” Stanton said.

The surveillance also includes the land border between the U.S. and Canada after the border peels away from the St. Lawrence River.

By flying in restricted air space at 19,000 feet, the Predator avoids lower-level air traffic, cutting the risk of collisions, Stanton said.

The aircraft is virtually identical to Predators used by the military, with the exception of lower-power engine and no weapons, he said.

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SF Chronicle Promotes Prescribing Antipsychotics for Kids

June 22, 2009

SF Chronicle

by Erin Allday

Increasingly powerful antipsychotic drugs are available on the market.  And growing evidence that shows starting these medications early can help children with conditions like bipolar disorder is putting doctors under more pressure than ever to diagnose and treat young people with mental illnesses.

As a result, some doctors say, mental illness, especially bipolar disorder, has been overdiagnosed much the same way attention deficit hyperactivity disorder was in the 1980s.

“ADHD was the diagnosis du jour in the ’80s. Now it’s become bipolar disorder,” said Dr. Andrew Giammona, who heads the psychiatry department at Children’s Hospital Oakland. “We’re in a quick-fix society, and parents want to believe that if we had this treatment we can get it fixed and move on.”

Before the 1990s, bipolar disorder was a rare diagnosis in children under age 19. By 1994, U.S. doctors were reporting about 25 cases per 100,000 young people, and by 2002 that number had jumped to 1,000 cases per 100,000, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Medication was prescribed for about two-thirds of those patients, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Antipsychotic medications are among the most popular made by pharmaceutical companies. Earlier this month, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel recommended approval of three antipsychotic drugs for use in treating schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in children and teens. The FDA will make a final decision on Geodon, Seroquel and Zyprexa in the coming weeks.

While better drugs and increased diagnoses have been a blessing for many families, at FDA hearings in Washington, doctors and parents voiced concerns that the medication can cause long-term health problems – specifically, extreme weight gain that can lead to metabolic disorders like diabetes.

NOT A TRIVIAL DECISION

“It would be controversial enough if it was just a diagnosis, but the diagnosis comes with these very potent medications,” said Glen Elliot, chief psychiatrist and medical director of the Children’s Health Council in Palo Alto. “My main message is parents need to be apprised that this is a cost-benefit analysis. You don’t trivially put somebody on a medication.”

As with ADHD, many thousands of children and teens really do have a mental illness that can be treated effectively with medication and therapy. Oakland parent Barbara Carlson said her son was 7 when he started having fits of violent rages, smashing windows and throwing chairs. After several days of testing, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder – but she was reluctant to put him on medication. “He was just so young,” Carlson said. “I thought, ‘He has his whole life ahead of him, what if this is the wrong diagnosis?’ It was very scary to put him on medications.”

Seven years later, she said the drugs have improved his life dramatically. He’s had weight problems, but he’s excelling in school and is active in sports and making friends.

Many mental health experts said they’ve felt pressure from families with troubled children to make a diagnosis and start treatment – a reaction that’s understandable if the child is clearly having problems. But if doctors don’t have the proper training to accurately diagnose a mental illness, children may not get the right treatment, said Dr. Robin Dey, director of mental health services for Northern California Kaiser Permanente.

DEPRESSION AND MANIA

“I tell doctors, ‘You have to be honest with yourself about your own level of experience with this condition,’ ” Dey said. “We have to be honest with ourselves about whether the medications are working, and if they’re not working you need to keep questioning the diagnosis.”

Bipolar disorder is thought to affect about 1 percent of children, although studies vary and some experts believe it affects as many as 5 percent of children.

The disorder in adults is marked by extended cycles of depression and mania, although people can have long periods of time where they have no symptoms at all. During manic periods, adults may get grandiose ideas, feel euphoric and be impulsive and make poor decisions.

Children with bipolar disorder tend to cycle through moods faster than adults, and they are more likely to be extremely irritable than euphoric, said Dr. Kiki Chang, director of the Pediatric Bipolar Disorders Program at Stanford University School of Medicine. Experts note that these children are not just kids with behavior problems.

“An irritable kid is most likely not bipolar, he’s probably just upset about something,” Chang said. “Bipolar kids may be extremely explosive, extremely angry. But they have to have these other symptoms: they’re not sleeping as much, their mind is going faster and they’re making poor decisions.”

HARD TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE

It’s not always easy for doctors to tell the difference between a kid with bipolar disorder and one who’s dealing with teenage angst or has some other problem, like post-traumatic stress. Giammona at Oakland Children’s Hospital said he once diagnosed a child with bipolar disorder only to discover later that the patient had a food allergy that was making him extremely irritable.

“There’s a lot of overlap with other potential diagnoses,” he said. “There can be lots of reasons for symptoms that look like bipolar disorder. Just because they have the symptoms of the disorder doesn’t mean they have it.”

Dale Milfay, vice president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in San Francisco, said it’s crucial that children with mental illness get a correct diagnosis as soon as possible and start treatment right away. There may be medical advantages to early treatment, she said, but children also benefit from staying in school and developing crucial relationships with friends and family.

“The earlier people are diagnosed, the better their chances,” Milfay said. “But you wouldn’t want these drugs to be overused. There needs to be some real criteria that this is not something a primary care doctor can just diagnose.”

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