Obesity Drug Pulled for Heart Attack Risks
January 25th, 2010
dailymail.co.uk
By Daniel Martin and Jenny Hope
Tens of thousands of patients have been ordered to stop taking a popular fat-busting drug suspected of raising the risk of heart attacks and stroke. The European Medicines Agency last night suspended the licence of the drug Reductil, which was taken by 86,000 Britons last year.
The safety watchdog fears it could threaten the health of the overweight and obese – although it says any side-effects should not be fatal. However, some 17 deaths have been linked to the drug in Britain since 2001 – six of which were caused by heart attacks and strokes.
Some 1,105 suspected adverse reactions have been reported, a third of them serious.
Last night doctors and pharmacists were told to stop handing out Reductil.
And experts urged everyone who takes it to make an appointment with their GP to discuss alternative ways of losing weight.
It is the second popular antiobesity drug to have its licence suspended. Two years ago, the EMA suspended Acomplia over fears it could lead to suicidal thoughts.
The agency came to its decision on Reductil after examining an international clinical trial, which showed that its main ingredient – sibutramine – increases the risk of heart problems. Sibutramine tricks patients’ brains into making them feel full, meaning they eat up to 20 per cent less.Last night, Dr June Raine, of the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, said: ‘Evidence suggests that there is an increased risk of non-fatal heart attacks and strokes with this medicine that outweigh the benefits of weight loss, which is modest and may not be sustained in the long term after stopping treatment.
‘Prescribers are advised not to issue any new prescriptions for Reductil and to review the treatmentof patients taking the drug. Pharmacists are asked to cease dispensing the medicine.
‘There are no health implications if people wish to stop treatment before seeing their doctor.’
The international trial examined by EMA followed 10,000 patients over six years. It found a 16 per cent increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Many of those who took part in the trial had cardiovascular problems – even though one of the listed side effects of the drug is that it can raise blood pressure. The agency said that although the drug was off limits to those with heart problems, those needing it were likely to have undiagnosed cardiac conditions because of their weight.
It pointed to studies which showed that weight loss achieved with Reductil was often modest and may not be maintained after stopping. This meant the benefits did not outweigh the cardiovascular risks.
Reductil is made by Abbott Laboratories and its official side effects are listed as high blood pressure, insomnia, constipation and dry mouth.
It is prescribed to those who have made serious attempts to slim by other means, such as dieting and exercise. Treatments cost the NHS about £45 a month.
Last night, Eugene Sun of Chicago-based Abbott said: ‘Many people benefit from sibutramine and we respectfully disagree with the committee’s opinion and recommendation to suspend the medicine.
‘However we will act promptly to comply with the committee’s recommendations.’
David Haslam of the National Obesity Forum said he was surprised by the decision and knew of no study proving that Reductil had led to a death from a heart attack or stroke.
The EMA’s decision leaves Orlistat as the only anti-obesity drug still freely available in the UK.
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H1N1 Vaccine Fraud and Global Genocide
January 25, 2010
Natural Family Blog
By Jenny Hatch
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will hold a secret hearing next week into the apparent manipulation by BigPharma of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global H1N1 flu campaign. Experts predict the secrecy will be maintained by the PharmaMedia that controls mainstream news.
The PACE hearing currently advancing was prompted by Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, chief of health in the Council of Europe representing 47 countries. This inquiry will address the drug cartel’s “false flag” pandemic, and the WHO’s scandalous promotions of swine flu vaccinations that were “fast tracked,” inadequately tested, and now causing more harm than good.
The sanctioned vaccines and drugs, such as Tamiflu, are burdening governments financially and poisoning people globally, experts say.
During my interview of Dr. Wodarg on January 14th, he mentioned he was not re-elected by the German people last September. Studying his previous investigations into criminal drug industry operations and cover-ups, it is likely his defeat was rigged.
“As head of the subcommittee for health,” Dr. Wodarg reported from his home in Germany, “I made the motion. and there will be investigations. . . .
“Many countries in Europe are very angry about what the WHO did and how they decided to have a pandemic when there was just a mild flu; and this whole thing was in favor of those companies who had prepared the pandemic plans, and who only needed the judgment of the WHO to have them set in power, and to earn them money,” Dr. Wodarg explained.
The Council is expected to consider the sudden inexplicable proclamations of H1N1 vaccine shortages instigated by BigPharma’s advertising gurus paid to respond to widespread distrust of the manufactured flu fright and vaccine sales hype.
Global pandemic promoters used frightful messages to convince scientists, doctors, and global populations that pandemic H1N1 threatened to kill millions. Instead, the virus caused only a tiny fraction of deaths reported during a normal flu season.
PharmaMedia to Squelch Crimes
Many observers believe the urgently needed investigation is unlikely to make any significant difference in public perceptions since drug industrialists have a knack for steering their allies in the media clear of controversy; especially this kind of explosive scandal.
“PharmaMedia controls the mass mind more effectively than any covert psychological operation in world history,” said Dr. Leonard Horowitz, a Harvard-trained media expert and world leading vaccine risk analyst. Dr. Horowitz is also the Editor-in-Chief of Medical Veritas journal.
Few people realize the connections between major drug companies that produce H1N1 vaccines and media moguls on the boards of directors of BigPharma’s leading companies.
According to Dr. Horowitz, media moguls spin the news and mass mindset impacting geopolitics, economics, and governmental policies on behalf of BigPharma because they are heavily invested in the drug cartel. News blackouts and promotional propaganda are all that is needed to maintain the status quo in favor of ongoing fraud and mass murder. This is his conclusion based on rock solid evidence his colleagues and contributors have published in the peer review science journal Medical Veritas.
What if Dr. Wodarg, Dr. Horowitz, and the Health Minister of Poland, Dr. Ewa Kopacz, who rejected the vaccine hype and sales contracts because of the obvious fraud, are all right?
To continue reading this report, click here.
Lack of Vitamin D Leads to Sharp Rise in Rickets
January 22nd, 2010
guardian.co.uk
By Owen Bowcott
Computer-obsessed children who spend too long indoors and over-anxious parents who slap on excessive sunscreen are contributing to a sharp rise in cases of the bone disease rickets, doctors are warning.
Vitamin D deficiency, which causes the condition, could be rectified by adding supplements to milk and other food, a research team at Newcastle University suggests.
There are several hundred cases of the preventable condition among children in the UK every year, according to a clinical review paper in the British Medical Journal by Professor Simon Pearce and Dr Tim Cheetham.
“More than 50% of the adult population [in the UK] have insufficient levels of vitamin D and 16% have severe deficiency during winter and spring,” they say. “The highest rates are in Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England. People with pigmented skin are at high risk as are the elderly, obese individuals and those with malabsorption.”
Most vitamin D is synthesised in the body by absorption of sunlight. Some comes from foods such as fish oil. People with darker skins need more sunlight to top up their vitamin D levels.
One of the main reasons for the reappearance of rickets – once considered a disease of the industrial poor in 19th-century cities – is the changing ethnic makeup of the population, Pearce explained.
The most commonly affected are people of Asian or African descent who live in northern cities. He has examined cases among young Somali speakers who live in east Newcastle. But changing lifestyles are also contributing to lowering vitamin D levels in the general population.
“Some people are taking the safe sun message too far,” Pearce said. “It’s good to have 20 to 30 minutes of exposure to the sun two to three times a week, after which you can put on a hat or sunscreen.
“Vitamin D levels in parts of the population are precarious. The average worker nowadays is in a call centre, not out in the field. People tend to stay at home rather than going outside to kick a ball around. They stay at home on computer games.”
Pearce has written to the Department of Health proposing that vitamin D is added to milk. It is already added as a supplement to artificial baby milk. He has also asked the Royal College of Paediatrics to record cases of rickets but said figures were not being collected.
“A more robust approach to statutory food supplementation with vitamin D (for example in milk) is needed in the UK,” the paper concludes.
Meanwhile, figures obtained by the Tories show the number of patients leaving hospital with malnutrition has hit record levels in the last year. Those affected are primarily elderly people. The NHS figures show that last year 175,000 people were malnourished on entry to hospital but nearly 185,500 were in a similar condition on discharge, meaning more than 10,000 patients were more malnourished after medical treatment.
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Pharmaceutical Companies Accused of Crying Wolf Over Swine Flu
January 25, 2010
RT.com
Swine flu is under scrutiny once again as pharmaceutical companies are being accused of hyping up a “false pandemic”. The Council of Europe has put the virus on its winter agenda, which starts on Monday.
A representative from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe claims the World Health Organization colluded with major drug companies and changed the definition of “pandemic” to ensure maximum profits with no risks for the pharmaceutical firms.
If PACE is putting forward the theory that the swine flu hysteria was engineered by pharmaceutical companies to generate revenue, then Ukraine is a perfect example.
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Latisse’s Side Effects Have Some Folks On The Fringe
January 25, 2010
Stylelist.com
By Julie Redfern Davis
It seems too good to be true: small, skimpy lashes grow into thick, lush fringe in a matter of weeks. That’s the promise of Latisse, an FDA-approved prescription treatment that helps the eyelashes grow thicker, longer and darker in as little as 12 to 16 weeks.
In recent weeks, Consumer Reports reviewed the product (watch the video, below) and called it risky given its possible side effects. Among the most alarming: increased brown pigmentation of the colored part of the eye, which is likely to be permanent.
According to Eric Schweiger, a New York City-based dermatologist who has prescribed Latisse, the active ingredient, bimatoprost ophthalmic solution, is also used to treat glaucoma. The difference between the usage for eyelash growth and glaucoma, he notes, is that when treating the latter you place it directly into the eye. In some cases with direct interior eye contact, increased iris pigmentation was reported, however, with Latisse, the product is applied to the lash lines and not directly into the eye.
But with every prescription drug there are potential side effects (just read the fine print and listen carefully to commercials) and the naysayers that question its safety. So then, should we avoid Latisse completely?
Clearly some say yes while others say no (several users have reported successful results with no ill effects). And as Schweiger reminds us, it’s important for doctors to inform patients of all the pros and cons before prescribing any drug treatment, and for patients to understand and accept the potential side effects and risks.
Side effects and controversy aside, Latisse does have a high price tag (an out of pocket expense of approximately $100 a month) and the results are temporary-as soon as you stop using it, your lashes revert back to normal. “You have to remember this is a cosmetic treatment, and most cosmetic procedures are not permanent,” says Schweiger. “A lot of my Latisse users decrease their frequency of use after three months and change to using it every other day. This mostly maintains the results the patients have already achieved, and using it every other day literally cuts the cost in half,” he adds.
A daily dose of mascara is likely to create the same full, thick eyelash effect for a fraction of the price, which has many asking if Latisse is worth it given the risks, price and temporary results.
The same question was posed when Botox was introduced, along with a glut of “wrinkle relaxing” skincare creams to compete with it. Given the demand of that procedure and many other cosmetic treatments, it seems there may be no price or risk too high when it comes to beauty.
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Vitamin D Fights Bowel Cancer
January 22nd, 2010
Telegraph.co.uk
According to a study published in the British Medical Journal, those with the highest levels of the vitamin were at 40 per cent lower risk of developing the disease compared with those with the lowest levels.
Scientists looked at vitamin D quantities in 1,248 people with bowel cancer and 1,248 controls in the largest ever study of the subject.
The research was carried out by scientists at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France, and Imperial College London, and was funded by World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF).
It comes after medical experts expressed concern yesterday about the rising number of cases of rickets – caused by vitamin D deficiency – and called for it to be added to milk and other food products.
The main source of vitamin D is sunlight, through skin exposure, but it is also present in a small number of foods, such as oily fish or cod liver oil.
According to the research team, although the latest study provides evidence of a link between vitamin D and bowel cancer it does not prove that taking vitamin D supplements prevents the disease.
More studies are needed to find out the potential impact on other cancers and the effects of taking extra vitamin D doses, scientists said.
Dr Panagiota Mitrou, science programme manager for WCRF, said: ”This is the biggest ever study on this subject and there is now quite a lot of evidence from studying populations that people who have low levels of vitamin D are more likely to develop bowel cancer.
”The next step is to carry out new clinical trials to try to confirm whether vitamin D supplementation can reduce the risk of bowel cancer and whether there are any harmful effects of higher levels of vitamin D.
”Looking at the figures in this latest study, it suggests that increasing the UK’s vitamin D intake by 10% could prevent 7% of cases.
”And when you think that there are about 37,500 cases diagnosed in the UK every year, that could have a big impact.
”But we need to emphasise that, for the moment, the findings need to be treated with caution and they are certainly not enough evidence to suggest that we should be taking supplements to increase levels of vitamin D.
”The best advice for reducing risk of bowel cancer remains to stop smoking, maintain a healthy weight, be regularly physically active, to eat more fibre and less red and processed meats and to cut down on alcohol.”
Dr Mazda Jenab, the lead author of the study from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, said: ”Our results support a role for vitamin D in the etiology of colorectal cancer, but this has to be balanced with caution regarding the potential toxic effects of too much vitamin D and the fact that very little is known about the association of vitamin D with either increased or reduced risk of other cancers.”
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Radiation Offers New Cures, and Ways to Do Harm
January 25, 2010
New York Times
By Walt Bogdanich
As Scott Jerome-Parks lay dying, he clung to this wish: that his fatal radiation overdose — which left him deaf, struggling to see, unable to swallow, burned, with his teeth falling out, with ulcers in his mouth and throat, nauseated, in severe pain and finally unable to breathe — be studied and talked about publicly so that others might not have to live his nightmare.
Sensing death was near, Mr. Jerome-Parks summoned his family for a final Christmas. His friends sent two buckets of sand from the beach where they had played as children so he could touch it, feel it and remember better days.
Mr. Jerome-Parks died several weeks later in 2007. He was 43.
A New York City hospital treating him for tongue cancer had failed to detect a computer error that directed a linear accelerator to blast his brain stem and neck with errant beams of radiation. Not once, but on three consecutive days.
Soon after the accident, at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan, state health officials cautioned hospitals to be extra careful with linear accelerators, machines that generate beams of high-energy radiation.
But on the day of the warning, at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, a 32-year-old breast cancer patient named Alexandra Jn-Charles absorbed the first of 27 days of radiation overdoses, each three times the prescribed amount. A linear accelerator with a missing filter would burn a hole in her chest, leaving a gaping wound so painful that this mother of two young children considered suicide.
Ms. Jn-Charles and Mr. Jerome-Parks died a month apart. Both experienced the wonders and the brutality of radiation. It helped diagnose and treat their disease. It also inflicted unspeakable pain.
Yet while Mr. Jerome-Parks had hoped that others might learn from his misfortune, the details of his case — and Ms. Jn-Charles’s — have until now been shielded from public view by the government, doctors and the hospital.
Americans today receive far more medical radiation than ever before. The average lifetime dose of diagnostic radiation has increased sevenfold since 1980, and more than half of all cancer patients receive radiation therapy. Without a doubt, radiation saves countless lives, and serious accidents are rare.
But patients often know little about the harm that can result when safety rules are violated and ever more powerful and technologically complex machines go awry. To better understand those risks, The New York Times examined thousands of pages of public and private records and interviewed physicians, medical physicists, researchers and government regulators.
The Times found that while this new technology allows doctors to more accurately attack tumors and reduce certain mistakes, its complexity has created new avenues for error — through software flaws, faulty programming, poor safety procedures or inadequate staffing and training. When those errors occur, they can be crippling.
“Linear accelerators and treatment planning are enormously more complex than 20 years ago,” said Dr. Howard I. Amols, chief of clinical physics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. But hospitals, he said, are often too trusting of the new computer systems and software, relying on them as if they had been tested over time, when in fact they have not.
Regulators and researchers can only guess how often radiotherapy accidents occur. With no single agency overseeing medical radiation, there is no central clearinghouse of cases. Accidents are chronically underreported, records show, and some states do not require that they be reported at all.
In June, The Times reported that a Philadelphia hospital gave the wrong radiation dose to more than 90 patients with prostate cancer — and then kept quiet about it. In 2005, a Florida hospital disclosed that 77 brain cancer patients had received 50 percent more radiation than prescribed because one of the most powerful — and supposedly precise — linear accelerators had been programmed incorrectly for nearly a year.
Dr. John J. Feldmeier, a radiation oncologist at the University of Toledo and a leading authority on the treatment of radiation injuries, estimates that 1 in 20 patients will suffer injuries.
Most are normal complications from radiation, not mistakes, Dr. Feldmeier said. But in some cases the line between the two is uncertain and a source of continuing debate.
“My suspicion is that maybe half of the accidents we don’t know about,” said Dr. Fred A. Mettler Jr., who has investigated radiation accidents around the world and has written books on medical radiation.
Identifying radiation injuries can be difficult. Organ damage and radiation-induced cancer might not surface for years or decades, while underdosing is difficult to detect because there is no injury. For these reasons, radiation mishaps seldom result in lawsuits, a barometer of potential problems within an industry.
In 2009, the nation’s largest wound care company treated 3,000 radiation injuries, most of them serious enough to require treatment in hyperbaric oxygen chambers, which use pure, pressurized oxygen to promote healing, said Jeff Nelson, president and chief executive of the company, Diversified Clinical Services.
While the worst accidents can be devastating, most radiation therapy “is very good,” Dr. Mettler said. “And while there are accidents, you wouldn’t want to scare people to death where they don’t get needed radiation therapy.”
Because New York State is a leader in monitoring radiotherapy and collecting data about errors, The Times decided to examine patterns of accidents there and spent months obtaining and analyzing records. Even though many accident details are confidential under state law, the records described 621 mistakes from 2001 to 2008. While most were minor, causing no immediate injury, they nonetheless illuminate underlying problems.
The Times found that on 133 occasions, devices used to shape or modulate radiation beams — contributing factors in the injuries to Mr. Jerome-Parks and Ms. Jn-Charles — were left out, wrongly positioned or otherwise misused.
On 284 occasions, radiation missed all or part of its intended target or treated the wrong body part entirely. In one case, radioactive seeds intended for a man’s cancerous prostate were instead implanted in the base of his penis. Another patient with stomach cancer was treated for prostate cancer. Fifty patients received radiation intended for someone else, including one brain cancer patient who received radiation intended for breast cancer.
To continue reading this report, click here.
NY Dairy Farmer Kills his 51 Cows and Self
January 22nd, 2010
Associated Press
State police found the body of 59-year-old Dean Pierson in his Copake barn on Thursday. A visitor found a note Pierson had left on the barn door that said not to come in and to call police.
State police would only say that Pierson was having personal issues.
The Columbia County hamlet of Copake is about 115 miles north of New York City.
Local farmers buried the cows outside the barn Friday. They would not discuss Pierson or what had happened, but one of the men said these are hard times to be a farmer.
Click here for the full report
The Flu Pandemic Downgraded to Harmless
October 29th, 2009
Karma Singh’s Health Blog
Parts of the USA government are saying that the “pandemic” is now over. Finland has also downgraded Swine Flu to “harmless” and vaccination a waste of money.
The “World’s Best Friend” and Nobel Laureate, Mr. Obama, however, has authorised a state of emergency which, when he brings it into force – which he now can at any moment, suspends the rule of law, the constitution, all human rights and places the USA under the control of a “Nazi SS style” private army called FEMA. He justifies this using the “imminent catastrophic epidemic” which his own health ministry and health agencies categorically state no longer exists. Which part of the US govenment is lying???
Last week, Sweden and Hungary were the first countries to begin “vaccination” with the “Baxter brew”. Initial indications are a 30% serious illness rate and a 19% death rate amongst those injected within days of injection, some within minutes.
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Genetically Modified Wheat Now Invading Your Life
January 25, 2010
Natural News
By E. Huff
Monsanto, the multinational agriculture giant most known for its propagation of genetically-modified (GM) crops, has decided to resurrect its pursuit of GM wheat. Abandoned in 2004 due to opposition from American growers, merchants, and consumers, Monsanto’s GM wheat program is making a comeback.
Apparently many American wheat growers have since changed their mind about the issue. A survey conducted back in February revealed that more than 75 percent of wheat farmers are now interested in growing GM wheat. Citing concerns about pestilence and disease, farmers are reevaluating GM wheat based on claims by Monsanto that GM wheat will fare better than conventional in resisting bugs, disease, drought and frost.
Many nations around the world, including industrialized nations in Asia and Europe, have wholly rejected GM crops and foods that are made with them. Since 45 percent of the U.S. wheat crop is exported to Europe and Japan alone, the decision to allow GM wheat to be grown in the States will have a huge negative impact on the wheat business.
Hinged upon the recent food crisis in 2008 that caused the price of wheat to more than triple, Monsanto’s endeavors to capitalize on wheat by altering it genetically could not have been timed more precisely. Both China and Australia have been researching and running trials on Monsanto’s GM wheat for years and North America looks to be next if the AgriGiant has its way.
Earlier this year, Monsanto purchased Montana-based WestBred, a company that specializes in germplasm wheat breeding. This move indicates that the corporation intends to move forward with its plan to bring GM wheat to North America.
Concerns about the negative effects of GM crops, which include a variety of illnesses and digestive tract problems when consumed, continue to warrant opposition to their use. Conventional crop fields have also been shown to become contaminated with GM seed through pollination and cross-contamination.
If the public hopes to prevent wheat from taking the same GM course that corn and soy have, it is going to have to express loud and clear opposition to its introduction.
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