British Hospital Causes ‘Unimaginable Suffering’ To Patients
February 26, 2010
Times Online
By David Rose
Patients were routinely neglected or left “sobbing and humiliated” by staff at an NHS trust where at least 400 deaths have been linked to appalling care.
An independent inquiry found that managers at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust stopped providing safe care because they were preoccupied with government targets and cutting costs.
The inquiry report, published yesterday by Robert Francis, QC, included proposals for tough new regulations that could lead to managers at failing NHS trusts being struck off.
Staff shortages at Stafford Hospital meant that patients went unwashed for weeks, were left without food or drink and were even unable to get to the lavatory. Some lay in soiled sheets that relatives had to take home to wash, others developed infections or had falls, occasionally fatal. Many staff did their best but the attitude of some nurses “left a lot to be desired”.
The report, which follows reviews by the Care Quality Commission and the Department of Health, said that “unimaginable” suffering had been caused. Regulators said last year that between 400 and 1,200 more patients than expected may have died at the hospital from 2005 to 2008.
Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, said there could be “no excuses” for the failures and added that the board that presided over the scandal had been replaced. An undisclosed number of doctors and at least one nurse are being investigated by the General Medical Council and Nursing and Midwifery Council.
Mr. Burnham said it was a “longstanding anomaly” that the NHS did not have a robust way of regulating managers or banning them from working, as it does with doctors or nurses. “We must end the situation where a senior NHS manager who has failed in one job can simply move to another elsewhere,” he added. “This is not acceptable to the public and not conducive to promoting accountability and high professional standards.”
A system of professional accreditation for senior managers would be considered and the Mid Staffordshire trust might lose its foundation status.
Some NHS chief executives have received six-figure redundancy packages or moved to other trusts despite poor performance. Martin Yeates, the former chief executive at Mid Staffordshire, received pay rises that took his annual salary to £180,000, while standards at the trust deteriorated.
The Liberal Democrats claimed that he had also received a payoff of more than £400,000 after stepping down last March, though Mr Burnham said he had received “no more than his contractual entitlement”.
The Care Quality Commission, the NHS regulator, said that the trust under its new management was now “safe to provide services”. But it still had concerns about staffing, patient welfare, the availability and suitability of equipment at the trust, and how it monitored and dealt with complaints. The inquiry made 18 recommendations for the trust and the wider health service, which the Government accepted in full. They include a new review of how regulators and regional health authorities monitor NHS hospitals and a report on “early-warning systems” to identify failing trusts.
But the families of those who died or suffered poor care branded the inquiry a “whitewash” and repeated calls for a full public investigation. The Conservatives accused ministers of trying to blame managers rather than taking responsibility for problems with national targets.
Julie Bailey, who founded the victims’ campaign group Cure the NHS after her mother died at Stafford Hospital, said that the handling of the scandal was disgraceful and unacceptable.
“It is time that the public were told the truth about the very large number of excess deaths in NHS care and the very large number of avoidable but deadly errors that occur every day.”
The NHS Confederation, which represents health trusts, said: “The responsibility for the way this hospital was run rests with its board, management and staff but, as the report says, the framework of targets, regulatory systems and policy priorities it worked within are also very important.”
Click here for the full report
9 Food Label Lies
February 26, 2010
Mercola
Dr. Mercola
The healthiest food often has the least marketing muscle behind it. The Center for Science in the Public Interest recently published a comprehensive report on the subject, a persuasive indictment called “Food Labeling Chaos.”
Here are nine of the most common ways food labels lie, so you can prepare before your next trip to the grocery store.
“Made With Whole Grains”
Unbleached wheat flour is still the main ingredient; whole wheat flour is further down on the list, indicating that the product contains relatively little. One truth — the presence of whole grains — masks another; that whole grains make up an insignificant portion of the food.
Another factor to keep in mind is the presence of potassium bromate, a dough conditioner found in commercial bakery products and some flours, which is a major, but hidden cause of thyroid dysfunction. This ingredient may be used even in whole grain breads. For more information, please review this previous article.
Ingredients
Even if the first ingredient listed isn’t sugar, the product may contain more sugar than anything else. How is it possible? Just add up all the sugars that go by different names, such as sugar, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup and white grape juice concentrate.
Serving Size
There are 2.5 official servings in a 20 ounce soda bottles, meaning that 100 calories per “serving” is really 240 calories per bottle.
Omega 3
Everyone knows omega-3 fats are healthy, but that doesn’t mean every product emblazoned with the word is a healthy source of it. The FDA allows certain foods that are rich in two of the omega-3 fats to advertise that they can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, but only if they’re also low in saturated fats or other risk factors. Which is why some unhealthy foods use a bit of marketing misdirection: the packaging has the word “omega-3,” but nothing specifically about heart health.
“Made With Real Fruit”
Usually the only thing approximating fruit is concentrate (sugar). If you want real fruit, buy real fruit. If you want candy, buy candy.
“0 Trans Fat”
Many reformulated foods are basically just as bad, but they scream one truth: “0 trans fats!” to obscure another: “still bad for your heart!”
“Free Range Eggs”
This means chickens must be granted the luxury of exactly five minutes of “access” to the outdoors every day. Those eggs you buy may have been raised ethically, with room enough for hens to roam the yard. But there’s no guarantee in the “free range” label.
Fiber
The fibers advertised in many foods are mainly “purified powders” called inulin, polydextrose and maltodextrin. These “isolated” unnatural fibers are unlikely to lower blood cholesterol or blood sugar, as other fibers can.
Tastes Like Medicine!
The FDA allows food manufacturers to make certain pre-approved “qualified health claims” about the health benefits of nutrients in food. But marketers have stretched this inch into a long mile. For instance, food makers can’t say that their product “helps reduce the risk of heart disease” without FDA approval, so they say that it “helps maintain a healthy heart.”
That’s why several public health groups, including the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society, have voiced concern about this trend.
Click here for the full report
Strokes Up Among the Young, Down Among the Old
February 26, 2010
WebMD
By Charlene Laino
Strokes are on the rise among younger people, a group not traditionally considered at high risk for the debilitating condition, researchers report.
A total of 7.3% of stroke victims were younger than age 45 in 2005, up from 4.5% in 1993, says Brett M. Kissela, MD, of the University of Cincinnati Neuroscience Institute.
The most likely culprits: rising rates of obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes — the major risk factors for stroke — among younger people, Kissela tells WebMD.
The average age of stroke patients dropped from 71 in 1993 to 68 in 2005, he says.
Even among people under 45, strokes are still a relatively uncommon event, striking 25 of every 100,000 whites and 55 of every 100 blacks in 2005, he says.
The findings were presented at the American Stroke Association’s (ASA) International Stroke Conference 2010.
So why would strokes be increasing in younger people, while decreasing in older people?
Kissela says it’s probably because stroke prevention efforts aimed at controlling high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity have largely been aimed at older people. And they’ve been successful, he says.
Because stroke is thought of as an older person’s disease, younger people fell through the cracks, Kissela says.
“If we don’t reverse this trend, there will be many years of productive life lost. Not just years of work lost; it can be as simple as a young mother no longer being able to hold her baby,” he tells WebMD.
So what’s the answer?
First, younger people need to be aware that they too are at risk, Kissela says.
Also, younger people tend to skip an annual exam if they’re feeling OK, he says. “Everyone should be checked regularly for treatable problems.”
Finally, you’ve heard it before, but Kissela says it’s worth repeating: The best way to ward off strokes, heart attacks, and a host of other diseases is to eat right, exercise, and refrain from smoking.
For the study, the researchers examined data from five counties in the greater Cincinnati and northern Kentucky region, which includes about 1.3 million people.
But the results apply to the entire U.S. population, says American Stroke Association spokesman Brain Silver, MD, a neurologist at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
Silver tells WebMD that he and colleagues nationwide are treating “a lot more patients in their 30s and 40s.”
Plus, rates of obesity and diabetes, the factors fueling the disturbing trend, are increasing throughout the country, Kissela says.
Click here for the full report
Judge refuses to act on pitchman’s request to travel
February 25, 2010 by JP
Filed under KT In The News
February 24, 2010
Chicago Tribune
By Jeff Coen
A federal judge today told infomercial pitchman Kevin Trudeau he’ll have to take his request to travel to Canada up with an appeals court now considering his challenge to a 30-day jail sentence for contempt of court.
U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman imposed the punishment last week after Trudeau supporters inundated his computer with e-mail messages.
Gettleman is presiding over a lawsuit brought against Trudeau by the Federal Trade Commission. It alleges he used deceptive practices in some advertising.
Trudeau appealed the contempt citation and jail sentence to the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
That court postponed Trudeau’s surrender to jail while it quickly decides his appeal.
Trudeau wants to travel to Canada for unspecified business purposes.
Click here for the full report
Another Station in Pennsylvania!
February 25, 2010 by JP
Filed under Radio Stations
February 25, 2010 - CHICAGO, IL – The Kevin Trudeau show is proud to announce that starting February 27th, 2010, it will be airing on WPPA 1360AM in Pottsville, PA!
The show will air on WPPA every Saturday at 1pm eastern.
Listeners have compared Kevin Trudeau’s radio show to the best parts of Michael Savage, Howard Stern, Art Bell, John Tesh and Rush Limbaugh.
Mr. Trudeau is one of the most read authors of all time. His books have all been best sellers and have sold over 30 million copies globally. Mr. Trudeau’s most controversial book, Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About was number 1 on the New York Times best sellers list for 26 weeks in a row becoming the best selling health book of all time.
The Kevin Trudeau Radio Show originates from studios at Trudeau’s World Headquarters in Chicago. For information regarding affiliate relations visit www.KevinOnAir.com
Cleveland and Canton are next!
February 25, 2010 by JP
Filed under Radio Stations
February 25, 2010 - CHICAGO, IL – The Kevin Trudeau show is proud to announce that starting February 27th, 2010, it will be airing on WELW 1330AM in Cleveland, OH and WCER 900AM in Canton, OH!
The show will be on Saturdays at 5pm eastern on WELW and Saturdays at 4pm eastern on WCER.
Listeners have compared Kevin Trudeau’s radio show to the best parts of Michael Savage, Howard Stern, Art Bell, John Tesh and Rush Limbaugh.
Mr. Trudeau is one of the most read authors of all time. His books have all been best sellers and have sold over 30 million copies globally. Mr. Trudeau’s most controversial book, Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About was number 1 on the New York Times best sellers list for 26 weeks in a row becoming the best selling health book of all time.
The Kevin Trudeau Radio Show originates from studios at Trudeau’s World Headquarters in Chicago. For information regarding affiliate relations visit www.KevinOnAir.com
Cities Shorten Yellow Lights to Boost Revenue
February 24, 2010
Alternet.org
Reeling through a 21st century addicted to technology and surveillance, citizens may be too overwhelmed to complain of increasing cameras popping up atop red lights at intersections across the nation, most of which are designed to catch them breaking traffic laws. That is, until they’re caught in those intersections as the yellow lights unexpectedly change, and cars in front and back of them hit the brakes or punch the gas to avoid tickets. And when they find out those cameras and lights are being gamed, sometimes lethally, in the pursuit of quick profit? Then they get mad, and maybe even, for being used as motorized money pits.
“With all of the stories we hear on a daily basis, there is little doubt that the desire for ticket revenue trumps safety concerns,” Gary Biller, executive director of the National Motorists Association told AlterNet. “A quick current example is California’s governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who a few weeks ago proposed state budget including a proposal to add speed sensors to 500 existing red-light cameras. The reason? Safety wasn’t mentioned, but an expected additional annual revenue of $338 million was.”
Roughly multiply that revenue by 50 states, and you quickly get an idea why red-light cameras designed by companies like Arizona’s Redlfex Group and American Traffic Solutions (ATS) are an increasingly attractive crutch for America’s cash-strapped cities. But they’re unsafe short-cuts, because they haven’t necessarily proven very effective at anything other than generating ticket revenue — and accidents, lots of accidents. In fact, studies have repeatedly shown that red-light cameras can cause more accidents, not less.
They’re not particularly good at generating legitimate tickets either: Illegal camera set-ups at intersections in Seattle are issuing invalid citations, around 80 percent of red-light violations in Los Angeles are comparatively safe rolling right turns, and so on. Meanwhile, 15 states have elected to prohibit red-light cameras, and more are surely to come as motorists learn that some American cities have been shortening yellow lights for deadly profit, as countries like Italy quickly follow suit.
“While several cities have been caught shortening yellow lights to increase revenue from red-light tickets,” said Biller, “I think the larger issue today is that the duration of so many yellow lights has never been adequately set for optimal safety results. An increase of approximately one second can reduce the frequency of red-light-running by at least 50 percent.”
The standard definition of a safe yellow light is arguably hard to nail down, depending on the intersection. The Federal Highway Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices specifies a wide-ranging duration of three to six seconds. But the application is more important than the theory, which is why it should be left to the scientists to decide which goes where, according to Justin McNaull, director of state relations for the American Automobile Association.
“Yellow light intervals should be determined by engineers,” he told AlterNet. “If yellow lights are too short, motorists can’t stop in time. If they’re too long, motorists will continue to accelerate when they shouldn’t. To borrow from ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears,’ yellow lights need to be just right.”
If they’re not, the statistics get scary. Shortened yellow lights usually increase accidents by a significant percentage. In fact, in some cities they have caused more accidents than they have stopped. But they have also pulled down millions in fast, easy money, and that is often evidently worth the cost in human lives to politicians and industry heavyweights.
“The camera does have a place in the traffic safety toolbox,” said McNaull. “But it’s not a cure-all. There’s a temptation for local governments to see it as a revenue tool. And as a safety tool, but one that produces revenue.”
With profit as the red-light camera’s primary motive, it’s hard for an already disenfranchised citizenry to find friends in those money-hungry local governments. But it’s not impossible: State Representative Christopher Hurst in Washington is sponsoring a bill to mandate a four-second duration for yellow lights and severely downsize violations to $25. Given the opportunity to decide on the need for such lucrative surveillance, citizens have always opted to just say no.
“Red-light cameras have never survived a public up or down vote,” said Biller. “The problem is that many photo enforcement programs have yet to be put on a public ballot.”
To continue this report, click here.
Bill Gates Weighs in on the Climate
February 24, 2010
Alternet.org
On Friday, the world’s most successful businessperson and most powerful philanthropist did something outstandingly bold, that went almost unremarked: Bill Gates announced that his top priority is getting the world to zero climate emissions.
Now, I’m not a member of the Cult of Bill myself (I’m typing this on a MacBook), but you don’t have to believe that Gates has superhuman powers of prediction to know that his predictions have enormous power. People who will never listen to Al Gore, much to less someone like me, hang on Gates’ every utterance.
And Friday, Gates predicted extraordinary climate action: zero. Not small steps, not incremental progress, not doing less bad: zero. In fact, he stood in front of a slide with nothing but the planet Earth and the number zero. That moment was the most important thing that has happened at TED.
What, exactly, did he say, and why is it so important?
Gates spoke about his commitment to using his massive philanthropic resources (the Gates Foundation is the world’s largest) to make life better for people through public health and poverty alleviation (“vaccines and seeds” as he put it). Then he said something he’s never said before: that is it because he’s committed to improving life for the world’s vulnerable people that he now believes that climate change is the most important challenge on the planet.
Even more importantly, he acknowledged the only sensible goal, when it comes to climate emissions, is to eliminate them: we should be aiming for a civilization that produces no net emissions, and we should be aiming to live in that civilization here in the developed world by 2050.
Obviously, that’s a big goal. Because he is the world’s biggest geek, to explain how he plans to achieve that goal, Gates put up a slide with a formula (which we can call the Gates Climate Equation):
CO2 = P x S x E x C
Meaning this: the climate emissions of human civilization are the result of four driving forces:
* Population: the total number of people on the planet (which is still increasing because we are not yet at peak population).
* Services: the things that provide prosperity (and because billions of people are still rising out of poverty and because no global system will work unless it’s fair, we can expect a massively increased demand for the services that provide prosperity).
* Energy: the amount of energy it takes to produce and provide the goods and services that our peaking population uses as it grows more prosperous (what some might call the energy intensity of goods and services). Gates believes it’s likely cutting two-thirds of our energy waste is about as good as we can do.
* Carbon: the amount of climate emissions generated in order to produce the energy it takes to fuel prosperity.
To continue reading this report, click here.
The Kevin Trudeau Show: 2-24-10
Today, Kevin explains who really controls the mainstream media outlets and gives you detailed proof that they are deceiving the public, especially with his court proceedings. Plus, find out how high fructose corn syrup is like crack cocaine!
Take Trudeau on the Go! Click here to download this show to your iPod, mp3 player, or PC through iTunes!
Click below to hear The Kevin Trudeau Show RIGHT NOW!!!
Buy Farmland and Buy Gold – Sound Advice for the Future
February 24, 2010
TimesOnline.co.uk
By Leo Lewis
The world’s most powerful investors have been advised to buy farmland, stock up on gold and prepare for a “dirty war” by Marc Faber, the notoriously bearish market pundit, who predicted the 1987 stock market crash.
The bleak warning of social and financial meltdown, delivered today in Tokyo at a gathering of 700 pension and sovereign wealth fund managers.
Dr Faber, who advised his audience to pull out of American stocks one week before the 1987 crash and was among a handful who predicted the more recent financial crisis, vies with the Nouriel Roubini, the economist, as a rival claimant for the nickname Dr Doom.
Speaking today, Dr Faber said that investors, who control billions of dollars of assets, should start considering the effects of more disruptive events than mere market volatility.
“The next war will be a dirty war,” he told fund managers: “What are you going to do when your mobile phone gets shut down or the internet stops working or the city water supplies get poisoned?”
His investment advice, which was the first keynote speech of CLSA’s annual investment forum in Tokyo, included a suggestion that fund managers buy houses in the countryside because it was more likely that violence, biological attack and other acts of a “dirty war” would happen in cities.
He also said that they should consider holding part of their wealth in the form of precious metals “because they can be carried”.
One London-based hedge fund manager described Mr Faber’s address as “excellent, chilling stuff: good at putting you off lunch, but not something I can tell clients asking me about quarterly returns at the end of March”.
Dr Faber did offer a few more traditional investment tips, although their theme fitted his general mode of pessimism.
In Asia, particularly, he said, stock pickers should play on future food and water shortages by buying into companies with exposure to agriculture and water treatment technologies.
One of Dr Faber’s darker scenarios involves growing military tension between China and the United States over access to limited oil resources.
Today the US has a considerable advantage over China because it has free access to oceans on both coasts, and has potential energy suppliers to the north and south in Canada and Mexico.
It also commands an 11-strong fleet of aircraft carriers that could, if necessary, secure supply routes in a conflict situation.
China and emerging Asia, meanwhile, face the uncertainty of supplies that must travel from the Middle East through winding sea lanes and the Malacca bottleneck.
American military presence in Central Asia, Dr Faber said, may add to the level of concern in Beijing.
“When I tell people to prepare themselves for a dirty war, they ask me: “America against whom?” I tell them that for sure they will find someone.”
At the heart of Dr Faber’s argument is a fundamentally gloomy view on the US economy and its capacity to service a growing mountain of debt.
His belief, fund managers were told, is that the US is going to go bankrupt.
Under President Obama, he said, the country’s annual fiscal deficit will not drop below $1 trillion and could rise beyond that figure.
Arch bears have predicted that US debt repayments could hit 35 per cent of tax revenues within ten years.
Dr Faber believes that the ratio could easily hit 50 per cent in the same time frame.
Click here for the full report.
