You have been such an inspiration to me in my life…

You have been such an inspiration to me in my life, and I just want to say THANK YOU! You are such a great man to do what you are doing.

Thanks so much,
William Patrick 

I want to see your show grow beyond all expectations…

I love your show and am promoting it from my websites and Yahoo groups.  I want to see your show grow beyond all expectations.  If ever there is anything I can do personally, I’m there for you.  Keep bringing the truth to us!

David Yancey
King George, VA

CDC to College Students: Smooch With Surgical Masks to Curb Swine Flu

August 21, 2009

ABC News

By Dan Childs and Maxine Park

When it comes to swine flu, John Genovese of Scottsdale, Ariz., said he’s not taking any chances as he settles in the dorm for his freshman year at Arizona State University.

“Swine flu is a pretty serious thing, so I’d adhere to whatever the CDC advises,” Genovese, 18, said.

But even Genovese said that a new piece of advice issued Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta seems a bit strange. It’s a recommendation suggesting that if college students are ill, they should refrain from kissing but, if they must, wear a surgical mask while doing the deed.

“I studied abroad in Costa Rica when swine flu broke out over there and we had to wear masks for a while,” he said. “But I don’t think I’d kiss with a surgical mask.”

At least one of Genovese’s classmates said he would, although he did add that he imagined kissing with a surgical mask wouldn’t be comfortable.

“It just seems a little crazy and weird,” said 18-year-old freshman Jordan Wilhelmi of Rosemont, Minn. “But I’d wear a mask if someone asked me to.”

The recommendation is just one of several that federal health officials posted online in a document titled “CDC Guidance for Responses to Influenza for Institutions of Higher Education during the 2009-2010 Academic Year.”

The tips are aimed at dorm-residing college students and, for the most part, they are the same well-worn guidelines that the agency has promoted in light of the swine flu pandemic, mainly involving social distancing and proper hand-washing technique.

But one of the “recommended strategies under current flu conditions” has raised eyebrows.

“If close contact with others cannot be avoided, the ill student should be asked to wear a surgical mask during the period of contact,” the recommendation reads. “Examples of close contact include kissing, sharing eating or drinking utensils, or having any other contact between persons likely to result in exposure to respiratory droplets.”

CDC spokesperson Tom Skinner acknowledged that the language of the recommendation was confusing and that the agency would “look at rewording” the guidance.

“We’re not telling them to wear a mask when they kiss,” Skinner said. “What we’re trying to do is give examples of ‘close contact.’”

Some infectious disease experts agreed that despite the seemingly odd piece of advice, the overall intent of the guidelines is reasonable.

Mask Advice Is Strange, Doctors Say

“I believe the intent of the writer was to avoid close contact, including the examples cited, and to wear a surgical mask if close contact cannot be prevented such as when [you're in a] in room coughing and hacking with your roommate,” said Dr. Christopher Ohl, associate professor of medicine at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine’s Section on Infectious Diseases, in Winston-Salem, N.C. “Obviously, kissing with a surgical mask on is a bit technically difficult. I don’t think the writer was insinuating that ‘If you have to kiss, put on a mask.’ The verbiage could have been clearer.”

But others said the guidance, regardless of intention or verbiage, is simply unrealistic.

“It falls into that category of, ‘It’s the right advice, but impractical and hence not going to be followed,’” said Dr. Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “I think telling two college students in love not to kiss is neither practical nor informed about human behavior — don’t tell my grad student daughter I said the latter — and therefore less helpful than explaining the virus is transmitted by the respiratory route: sneezing, coughing, oral contact, etc.”

Dr. Pascal Imperato, dean of the SUNY Downstate Medical Center School of Public Health in Brooklyn, N.Y., was less charitable.

“Implying that kissing through a mask is fine probably refers to kissing on the cheek, not the sort of kissing college students usually have in mind when they think of kissing,” Imperato said, adding that in his view, even a kiss on the cheek through a mask would not be wise.

“I suspect that whoever drafted the wording for this recommendation may never have kissed while in college, nor anywhere else for that matter,” he said. “They really need to revise this statement.”

Meanwhile, Philip Alcabes, author of “Dread: How Fear And Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics From The Black Death To Avian Flu” and associate professor of Urban Public Health at Hunter College of The City University of New York, said that the recommendations will likely do little to curb the spread of the flu — and much more to spread fear.

“Of course, it isn’t crazy to tell people that kissing could spread flu virus,” he said. “But [Thursday's] CDC guidance — with masked kissing, flu buddy schemes, and shirt-sleeve sneezing — is further evidence that panic has set in among officials.

“Probably, our officials are well meaning and concerned with the public’s health. But it often seems like their overriding concern isn’t real programs to stop disease, it’s that they’ll be criticized for doing too little. And since there’s nothing to be done right now, they just say something. Anything. ‘Masks.’”

Can Masks Cut the Spread of Swine Flu on Campus?

It’s not just the kissing guidelines that may pose a problem, SUNY’s Imperato said. Specifically, sharing of utensils is something that should never be done with an ill friend — regardless of whether they happen to be wearing a mask or not.

“What is additionally odd is that it implies that such students can share eating and drinking utensils with well contacts, provided that they, the ones ill with the flu, wear a mask,” Imperato said. “The bottom line here is that students ill with the flu should not be kissing other people nor sharing eating and drinking utensils with them.”

“I guess a mask is better than duct tape,” noted Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona whose work on microbes has earned him the nickname “Dr. Germ.”

“Some barrier is better than [none] at all, but I would just avoid kissing altogether and sharing utensils, or at least wash them,” he said. “I was trying to figure out how you drink or eat with a face mask on. I think they must mean if you are in a room where someone is eating or drinking.”

Eating and drinking aside, at least one student — a nursing major no less — appeared to agree wholeheartedly with Gerba’s advice.

“I’m a bit germaphobic in general, so I’d definitely wear a surgical mask, but not for kissing.” said Anna Salinas, 19, from Goodyear, Ariz. “It’s better to wait until you’re better.”

Click here for the full report from ABC News

Why You Should Think Twice Before Using Alli or Other Weight Loss Aids

August 25, 2009

U.S. News & World Report

By Deborah Kotz

When it comes to losing weight, we’d all love that quick fix: a pill, shake, heck, even surgery to ease our efforts. Unfortunately, weight-loss aids—even when approved by the Food and Drug Administration—come with risks as well as benefits. Yesterday, the FDA announced an investigation into reports of liver problems thought to be related to an over-the-counter weight loss pill, Alli, and the prescription version, Xenical. This came after the agency received information on 32 cases of serious liver injury, including six cases of liver failure, in those using either product, which contain different doses of the drug orlistat. (The reports spanned 10 years.)

The FDA hasn’t determined yet whether these liver problems are related to orlistat since overweight individuals—who are most likely to use these drugs—tend to have a higher risk of developing liver failure because of a condition called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. The agency is not putting a warning label on these drugs and hasn’t advised doctors to change their prescribing practices. Still, the FDA is telling folks to see a doctor if they’re experiencing signs of liver problems like jaundice (yellowing of the skin or whites of the eyes), brown urine, weakness, or abdominal pain.

I think, though, that the real take-home message is that we can’t assume that any weight-loss medication is risk free. Those who are severely overweight might find that the weight-loss benefits of orlistat are greater than its risks, but those with just a few pounds to lose may want to think twice, given what may be a small possibility of liver damage. (Alli and Xenical already have some nasty side effects like diarrhea and fecal incontinence if used incorrectly.) And unapproved drugs or weight-loss supplements should definitely be avoided altogether; those herbal weight-loss concoctions sold on the Internet may have harmful prescription drugs hidden in them. As tempting as these products may seem, they’re certainly not worth the price of good health. One New York doctor whom I interviewed recently told me that he frequently gets calls from female celebrities trying to get him to prescribe thyroid hormone pills that are meant for those with a slow-functioning thyroid. In healthy users, they boost metabolism and burn calories at a faster rate, but at the price of heart palpitations and bulging eyes, mimicking an autoimmune condition called Graves’ disease. While this doctor refuses to write such prescriptions, I have no doubt these actresses and models are finding other doctors who will.

On the flip side, I recently saw a photo in the September issue of Glamour depicting a full-figured model posed in a state of artful undress with her tummy sagging prominently. She looked radiant and beautiful even with this figure flaw, and Glamour was rewarded with letters from women thanking them for depicting beauty that real women could aspire to. If you’re already at a healthy weight but are looking to shed a few pounds with the help of drugs, take a moment to check out this photo. Perhaps plain old healthful eating and exercise—plus an acceptance of those small figure flaws—are really the fix you need.

Click here for the full report from U.S. News & World Report

FDIC List of Problem Banks Surges, Putting Reserve Fund at Risk

August 27, 2009

Bloomberg

By Alison Vekshin

The U.S. added 111 lenders to its list of “problem banks,” a jump that suggests rising bank failures may force the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to deplete a reserve fund that shrank 40 percent this year.

A total of 416 banks with combined assets of $299.8 billion failed the FDIC’s grading system for asset quality, liquidity and earnings in the second quarter, the most since June 1994, the Washington-based FDIC said in a report today. Regulators didn’t identify companies deemed “problem” banks.

The U.S. has taken over 81 banks this year, including Guaranty Financial Group Inc. in Texas and Colonial BancGroup Inc. in Alabama, amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The surge forced regulators to charge banks an emergency fee to raise $5.6 billion for its insurance fund, which fell to $10.4 billion as of June 30 from $13 billion in the previous quarter, the agency said. The total was the lowest since the savings-and-loan crisis in 1993.

“We’re right in the middle of the cycle and it’s a very tough place to be,” said James Chessen, chief economist at the American Bankers Association, a Washington-based industry group. “We’ll have another couple of more quarters where banks will be working through these loan-loss problems.”

An $11.6 billion increase in loss provisions for bank failures caused the decline in the reserve fund, the FDIC said. If the fund is drained, the FDIC has the option of tapping a line of credit at the Treasury Department that Congress extended in May to $100 billion, with temporary borrowing authority of $500 billion through 2010.

Line of Credit

The agency doesn’t expect to use the Treasury line of credit, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said in a news conference releasing the data. Bair said the number of problem banks and failures will remain elevated as banks and thrifts continue to clean up their balance sheets.

“For now, the difficult and necessary process of recognizing loan losses and cleaning up balance sheets continues to be reflected in the industry’s bottom line,” she said.

FDIC-insured banks reported a net loss of $3.7 billion in the second quarter, compared with a $5.5 billion gain in the first quarter. The quarterly loss, the second the industry has reported in 18 years, was driven by increased expenses for bad loans, the FDIC said.

Funds set aside by banks to cover loan losses rose to $66.9 billion in the second quarter from $60.9 billion in the first quarter.

Nonperforming Loans

More than 150 publicly traded U.S. lenders own nonperforming loans that equal 5 percent or more of their holdings, a level that former regulators say can wipe out a bank’s equity and threaten its survival, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The biggest banks with nonperforming loans of at least 5 percent include Wisconsin’s Marshall & Ilsley Corp. and Georgia’s Synovus Financial Corp., according to Bloomberg data. Among those exceeding 10 percent, the biggest in the 50 U.S. states was Michigan’s Flagstar Bancorp. All said in second- quarter filings they’re “well-capitalized” by regulatory standards, which means they’re considered financially sound.

The FDIC insures deposits at 8,195 institutions with $13.3 trillion in assets. The agency is a state-bank regulator that insures bank customer deposits, helps find buyers for failing banks and liquidates lenders that have collapsed.

The agency this week approved new guidelines for private- equity firms that invest in failed banks to increase the pool of buyers beyond traditional lenders and reduce costs to the banking industry and taxpayers.

Click here for the full report from Bloomberg

Antidepressant Commonly Prescribed for Autism Found Utterly Useless

August 26, 2009

Natural News

By David Gutierrez

The antidepressant Celexa, commonly prescribed to alleviate some symptoms of autism in children, has no medical benefit in such patients, while exposing them to a significant risk of side effects.

Researchers treated 149 autistic children between the ages of five and 17 with either Celexa (generic name citalopram) or a placebo for 12 weeks. While one third of the patients who took Celexa showed improvement in symptoms over the study period, just as many patients showed improvement on the placebo. Children who took Celexa were twice as likely to suffer from side effects, including insomnia and impulsiveness, as children who took a placebo.

Lead researcher Bryan King noted that doctors prescribing drugs for “off-label” uses not approved by the FDA — often uses for which few studies of effectiveness or safety have been done — may think the treatment is actually working because of strong placebo effects like that seen in this study.

Celexa is an antidepressant in the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class. Because many SSRIs have shown some effectiveness in treating the symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder in adults, growing numbers of pediatricians are turning to the drugs to treat obsessive, repetitive behaviors in autistic children. Many autistic children are prone to carry out repetitive behaviors like counting or arm flapping almost uncontrollably, often flying into a tantrum if interrupted.

The only drug approved by the FDA to treat irritability and aggression in autistic children is the atypical antipsychotic risperidone. Federal law allows doctors to prescribe drugs for any use they wish, however.

Treatment of obsessive symptoms in autistic children with Celexa or other SSRIs has been premised on the untested assumption that such symptoms stem from similar neurological pathways as those of adult obsessive compulsive disorder. The new study has cast serious doubt onto that hypothesis.

Click here for the full report from Natural News

Statins Cause Serious Structural Muscle Damage

August 27, 2009

Natural News

By S.L. Baker

If there is a super star in Big Pharma’s list of money making drugs, it may well be the group of medications known as statins. The New York Times reported last year that statins are, in fact, the biggest selling drugs in the world. Their names, like Lipitor and Crestor, are familiar from countless television and magazine ads and almost everyone knows someone taking a statin. Promoted widely as safe, they are actually known to cause a litany of potential side effects. For example, the National Institutes of Health web site notes that about one in 1,000 of those taking statins suffer from muscle pain. Usually, these aches go away. But not always. And now new research shows that in some people statins cause serious structural damage to muscles.

The study, just published in CMAJ (the Canadian Medical Association Journal) suggests that patients who are taking statins and who complain to their doctors about muscle tenderness or pain could well be describing severe muscle problems due to the drugs. Although muscle damage is usually associated with elevated levels of an enzyme called creatine phosphokinase, the CMAJ research shows that’s not always the case. And it may take muscle biopsies to show that underlying structural injury has occurred.

The study was conducted by scientists from the University of Bern, Switzerland and the Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. The research team investigated muscle biopsies from 83 patients. Twenty of these had never taken statins. The results showed significant muscle injury only in people who had taken statin drugs. Perhaps what was most surprising is that several people who were no longer taking statins were found to still have significant structural muscle damage.

“Although in clinical practice, the majority of patients with muscle symptoms improve rapidly after cessation of therapy, our findings support that a subgroup of patients appears to be more susceptible to statin-associated myotoxicity, suffering persistent structural injury,” Dr. Annette Draeger from the University of Bern and her coauthors wrote in the CMAJ article.

The study did not address whether statins might cause other significant body-wide damage. However, it is interesting to note that the very organ statins are supposed to protect, the heart, is a muscle. And that raises troublesome questions about possible long term, not-yet-known side effects statin drugs may have on the heart itself.

The researchers did note in a statement to the media that there is “a need to evaluate alternative treatment strategies for patients with significant muscle symptoms.” As Natural News readers are well aware, there are already well-known natural health strategies that lower cholesterol levels safely, without any possibility of muscle damage. For example, previous research has shown certain foods, including tofu, almonds, cereal fiber and plant sterols, can lower total cholesterol and LDL, the “bad” cholesterol, better than statins. Weight loss, increased intake of Omega-3 fatty acids and exercise are also drug-free strategies that lower cholesterol safely.

Click here for the full report from Natural News

This is my Free Money story…

My boyfriend and I are working parents that are trying to finish college and raise a child at the same time. I am two semesters away from getting my degree, but was recently dropped from financial aid due to my work schedule not permitting me to go to a certain evening class. We have been trying to save money but it has been a slow process. My boyfriend was the person that told me about the grants that were being offered in the Free Money book and I have seen the commercial on TV, but I never thought of trying to take advantage of anything like that. I had sent a letter of appeal to the financial aid office explaining my situation and asking them to please fund the last two semesters that I have left. I received a letter denying my appeal and thought I was just going to have to keep saving money and wait at least a year before I could start classes and finish my degree. My boyfriend reminded me again about the grants that are mentioned in the Free Money book and I figured I had nothing to lose. I was shocked when I saw that there was a way for working moms to get a complete FREE scholarship ride to go to school and get their degree while working. This was amazing news considering I only needed two semesters. I was able to locate a website that offered government grants for just about everything. After filling out an application and waiting just over a week, I received a letter in the mail advising me that I would be able to get a grant to finish school. (Fully paid for!!!) I can’t believe that I almost disregarded my boyfriend’s two attempts to get me to read the book. All I have to do is just forward some school info and I will be on my way to finishing my degree. The good thing is as long as I finish my schooling I don’t have to pay anything back and I get to keep all the money I already have saved! (I’m going shopping!)
 
So thank you Mr. Kevin Trudeau for writing this book! I can’t even begin to tell you how much time & money this has saved me and my family.
 
-Katrina T.

Your books have changed the lives of everyone in my family…

Your books have changed the lives of everyone in my family for the better! Thank you so much for bringing that information to the public.

-Carl Haroian

I keep you in my prayers to protect you…

You are a true human being for getting the TRUTH out at great personal risk. There is no way I can get to the next level without your extended “hand” because the system is so rigged. I keep you in my prayers to protect you. You are a forever friend. I look forward to all your shows. 

Darlene Early
Albany, NY

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