Side Effects Cause Many Older Women to Drop Breast Cancer Drugs

December 15, 2011

US News

By Health Day

“Just another example that pharmaceutical drugs are not safe and effective.” –KTRN

Severe side effects may be key to why so many older breast cancer patients stop taking drugs that can help prevent a tumor’s return, a new study finds.

The research also revealed a large gap between what these breast cancer patients tell their doctors about drug side effects and what they actually experience, according to the study authors from Northwestern University in Chicago.

Their study included 686 postmenopausal women with estrogen-sensitive breast cancer who were asked about their symptoms before treatment with estrogen-blocking drugs called aromatase inhibitors, which include medications such as Arimidex, Aromasin and Femara. The women were tracked at three, six, 12 and 24 months after starting treatment.

After three months, about one-third of the patients had severe joint pain, 28 to 29 percent had hot flashes, nearly one-quarter had decreased libido, 15 to 24 percent had fatigue, 16 to 17 percent had night sweats and 14 to 17 percent had anxiety, the investigators found.

Other symptoms included weight gain, breast sensitivity, mood swings, and feeling bloated, irritable and nauseous.

The number of women who experienced drug side effects rose the longer treatment continued, the investigators noted.

As a result of the side effects, 36 percent of the patients stopped treatment before an average of just over four years, the researchers said. Of this group, 10 percent had quit after two years and the remainder quit between 25 months and about four years.

Click here for the full report.

Apple Cider Vinegar: Tried and True Health Help or Hype?

December 12, 2011

DrAxe.Com

By Dr. Josh Axe

“Dr. Axe has a great apple cider vinegar detox drink. Check out the video below for the recipe. It’s easy and actually tastes pretty good.  It’s best if you use a cocktail mixing drink and shake it up – minus the vodka of course.” –KTRN

A few years ago it seemed that all most people wanted was their doctor to prescribe a pill for them to pop to cure all that was ailing them – body, mind, and soul. Today the story (thankfully) is beginning to change.

The tide has begun to shift from people wanting solely pharmaceutical quick fixes to a more all natural approach. Maybe it’s watching the rates of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes soar or people’s own personal experience with some of the nasty, unpleasant side effects of pharmaceuticals driving them to demand change. Either way change is coming as more people look to all natural solutions for health issues.

One of the forerunners in this movement is looking back to the age old apple cider vinegar to heal many ailments. From asthma to high cholesterol apple cider vinegar is touted to cure many disorders and diseases. But is it all true or just hype?

Apple cider vinegar is created from just what you imagine – the apple. Vinegar means ‘sour wine’ in French. Basically, apple cider vinegar takes apples crushes them, adds sugar and yeast, allows them to ferment two times thus becoming apple cider vinegar.

Vinegar has been used for more than 10,000 years as a medicinal treatment. It was used by the Babylonians, the Samuri’s, Hippocrates used it as an antibiotic treatment. More recently it was used during the civil war and in World War I.

Most recently apple cider vinegar was brought back into popularity when well known Vermont doctor, D.C. Jarvis, wrote a book in which he promoted the use of apple cider vinegar to cure many ails including migraines, diabetes, chronic fatigue, arthritis, and other common ills.

Today the same numerous claims about the healing properties of apple cider vinegar abound. However the science to back these claims is scarce. Now when it comes to science validating claims of all natural remedies I know that there isn’t always evidence from research on the books even though the cures are real.

There are three areas associated with the healing benefits of apple cider vinegar that recent scientific data does support. Let’s discuss them here.

4 Scientifically Backed Healing Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar

1. Apple Cider Vinegar and High Cholesterol

In an article published in the British Journal of Nutrition in 2006 a study was performed on rats to determine if consuming apple cider vinegar had any impact on their cholesterol levels.

The evidence showed that these rats levels of cholesterol were reduced by consuming apple cider vinegar in two stages. First the action in the liver and secondly the way the apple cider vinegar impacted bile acid secretion.

Yes, this study is on rats not humans but the results show promise.

Click here for the full report.

Drug Deaths Soar Past Traffic Fatalities

December 7, 2011

Newser

By Mark Russell

“A friend of mine is concerned he’s taking too much vitamin D3, yet he just popped pain killers and muscle relaxants today and doesn’t seem to be concerned at all.  They are trying to get people afraid of vitamins instead of pharmaceuticals.” –KTRN

For the first time since the government started tracking drug-related deaths in 1979, narcotics have topped traffic fatalities—37,485 for drugs vs. 36,284 for accidents in 2009 (the most recent year available), reports the LA Times. But the big culprit isn’t street drugs: it’s prescription pills like Xanax, OxyContin, and especially Vicodin, which kill more people than cocaine and heroin combined. “The problem is right here under our noses in our medicine cabinets,” says a Santa Barbara sheriff.

Click here for the full report.

FDA Cites Blood-Clot Risk Tied to Bayer Birth-Control Pills

October 27, 2011

Bloomberg

By Adriel Bettelheim and Naomi Kresge

U.S. regulators warned there may be an increased risk of blood clots connected with birth-control pills made by Bayer AG (BAYN), and said the issue will be further evaluated in a meeting with advisers in December.

Women taking pills containing the hormone drospirenone were 74 percent more likely to experience clots than those on low- estrogen pills, the Food and Drug Administration said in a report released today. An FDA advisory committee will meet Dec. 8 to discuss the findings.

Sales of the Yaz family of birth-control pills fell 13 percent in 2010 to 1.11 billion euros ($1.57 billion), making them the company’s second-biggest drug. North American revenue from the pills has fallen as the German drugmaker, based in Leverkusen, faces competition from generics made by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) The company earlier today said the pill’s risks weren’t higher than that of other oral contraceptives.

“We believe that the overall potential risk that Yaz or Beyaz present to patients is absolutely compared with that of other oral contraceptives,” said Joerg Reinhardt, head of Bayer’s HealthCare unit, in a conference call with analysts today before the FDA released the study results.

After the FDA made its statement, Astrid Kranz, a Bayer spokeswoman, said the company will comment further at the agency’s panel in December.
Similar to Progesterone

Drospirenone is similar to the natural female hormone progesterone. The study evaluated data from 835,826 women ranging in age from 10 to 55 taking pills containing the hormone over time, including Bayer’s Yaz, Beyaz and Angeliq, the FDA report said.

The FDA findings come on top of recent studies suggesting newer birth control pills, including those containing drospirenone, carry twice the risk of potentially deadly blood clots than older contraceptives.

Researchers in Denmark used the country’s health-care data base of women between the ages of 15 and 49 from 2001 through 2009 to find dangerous clots known as venous thromboembolism developed in 4,246 women for the first time during the study. The researchers reported their results in the British Medical Journal this week.

Click here for the full report from Bloomberg.

Sepsis Drug Pulled From Market

October 25, 2011

MedPage Today

By John Gever

“Keep taking your pharmaceuticals – they are good for you.”  –KTRN

Big-Name Drugs Are Falling Off The ‘Patent Cliff’

October 25, 2011

NPR

By Fred Mogul

“Look at how the only thing they care about is the money. Not once in this article do they even mention the drug’s effectiveness or safety. The only concern is that they are now generic which will make the drugs cheaper. Remember kids, healthy people don’t take pharmaceutical drugs.” — Chris KTRN

Some of the most popular and expensive brand-name drugs are about to go generic.

Take Lipitor, for example. In November, the heart drug comes off-patent — and by next June, there are likely to be multiple generic versions.

With almost $11 billion in sales last year, it’s the largest blockbuster to fall off what analysts call the “patent cliff.” And it’s just one of dozens of popular high-end pharmaceuticals whose prices are expected to plummet in the coming years, including drugs like Plavix (for heart disease), Seroquel (used to treat depression) and Nexium (for digestive problems.)

Patients often pay more for name-brand drugs, even when they’re covered by insurance. Sometimes they have no choice because — unlike Lipitor — many drugs don’t yet have generic competition.

Howard Weintraub, a cardiologist at New York University, says many patients on those drugs come in and beg for free samples. Others simply don’t fill their prescriptions — or they do, but then try to stretch their resources by taking the pricey pills less often than they’re supposed to.

“People come in with their blood pressure not as well controlled, or they come in and their cholesterol’s all of a sudden mysteriously higher. And you realize, OK, the medicine hasn’t stopped working, but you also realize the medicine doesn’t work when it’s still in the bottle,” he says.

Generics already represent 70 to 80 percent of drug sales — a dominance expected to grow in the future. Michael Kleinrock, of marketing research firm IMS Health, says patent expirations over the last half-decade are one of the main reasons why Medicare spent $50 billion less than federal officials projected five years earlier. Kleinrock says the average daily cost of drugs dropped one-third from 2005 to 2010, and should drop another third between now and 2015.

“We’re already at reasonably low cost relative to 10 years ago or so,” he adds. “That said, there’s still actually more to go, which is excellent for consumers.”

The drop in drug costs because of generics is one of the few bright spots in all of American health care. But it isn’t exactly a big bright spot.

“For sure it will be felt, but because the other things are on such a heavy rise, it will only temper where rates are currently,” says Dr. Dennis Liotta, the head of pharmaceutical benefits for Emblem Health, one of New York’s largest insurers.

Liotta says the generic drug savings is significant and especially visible to people with limited means and limited health coverage. But drugs are a relatively small factor in insurance premiums. And while blockbuster drugs like Lipitor are sunsetting, University of Michigan business school professor Erik Gordon says pharmaceutical companies are trying to replace them with new, more targeted drugs — like Pfizer’s recently approved lung-cancer medication.

“The interesting thing is it will work in only 5 percent of lung cancer patients. The other interesting thing is it’s going to cost $115,000 per year, per patient,” Gordon says.

Some analysts say the growing field of costly specialty drugs could undermine the growing savings from generics. But Gordon says drug companies will still have their work cut out for them. It’s getting tougher not only to come up with new drugs, he says, but also to convince insurers and the government to pay for them — unless they make meaningful improvements in health, at a reasonable cost.

Click here for the full report from NPR.

Eat Your Medicine: Food as Pharmacology

October 19, 2011

AOL

By Mark Hyman, MD

What you put at the end of your fork is more powerful medicine than anything you will find at the bottom of a pill bottle. Food is the most powerful medicine available to heal chronic disease, which will account for more than 50 million deaths and cost the global economy $47 trillion by 2030. All you need to do is eat your medicine and think of your grocery store as your pharmacy. The Chinese have known this for centuries.

A Revelation About Food from My Recent Trip to China

Recently I went to Asia to lecture on prevention, wellness, health, nutrition and the new field of nutrigenomics, the science of how molecules in food interact with our genes to support or interfere with our health. I came away feeling humbled and awed as I realized that the average Chinese person knows more about the medicinal properties of food than I do after years of research. Medicinal foods are part of their everyday diet.

The word for eating in Chinese is comprised of two characters: chi fan, or eat rice. The word for taking medicine is chi yao, or eat medicine. The ancient culinary traditions of China created meals for pleasure as well as healing.

Beyond simply being a mechanism for conveying calories, food is a source of special ingredients than can prevent and treat disease and transform your health. These are called phytonutrients — special plant chemicals that are not calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, but special molecules that interact with your biology, special molecules that act like switches on your DNA to heal your body.

Food contributes to your experiences of taste, texture, delight, energy and nourishment. In China, food is all that and a source of medicinal healing compounds known to support well-being and health.

I learned more about food from matter-of-fact discussions about the healing properties of food I shared with my Chinese hosts than from my hours researching medical journals.

A top executive of the Asian branch of a financial services company took me to dinner with his wife at a fine Chinese restaurant. Each dish not only delighted the palate and satisfied the stomach, but with each bite I was aware that I was eating medicine.

While modern scientists are rapidly discovering new molecules, the phytonutrients in food that have medicinal properties and enhance health through improving the function of genes and metabolism, the ancient Chinese have incorporated this knowledge into their cuisine for thousands of years. There is no distinction between food and medicine in Asia.

They Eat Their Medicine.

After 20 years of practice, treating thousands of patients with chronic illnesses, I recognized, yet again, that the most powerful tool in my toolkit is food. Not surgery, not medication. What I saw in China is what I have been teaching my patients for decades: to literally eat their medicine and heal through food.

However, the notion that food is anything other than calories for energy and sustaining life is foreign to most Westerners.

Beyond Calories: Food as Information

Food contains information that speaks to our genes, not just calories for energy. We are learning from research in the field of nutrigenomics, that good “talks” to our DNA switching on or off genes that lead to health or disease. What you eat programs your body with messages of health or illness.

In Asia, I was speaking to the converted, simply illuminating with science what they have applied every day for thousands of years.

For example, a recent scientific review of the effects of glucomannan, a soluble fiber derived from the Asian potato-like tuber, Amorphophallus konjac, and its effects on obesity establishes the value of traditional foods as medicine.

Long used to make konnyaku, a jelly prepared in Japan for more than 1,500 years, and whose medicinal properties were appreciated as early as the sixth century, konjac fiber or glucomannan has multiple benefits. Konjac is much more viscous than usual fibers, retaining up to 17 times its weight in water. Expanding in the stomach and small and large intestine, it absorbs fat, accelerates elimination, reduces cholesterol, blunts sugar absorption and facilitates weight loss, in part by increasing feelings of satiety.

In short, it helps you lose weight and get healthy.

This is only one among thousands of examples of what modern science is teaching us about the healing properties of food. But in Asia, dinner has long been a date with the doctor. Dinner with my hosts was full of wonderfully presented, delicious and sometimes mysterious ingredients. Some of the ingredients were unusual, such as the mild, crunchy white tree fungus, bai mu er, which enhances detoxification and improves the complexion.

A mixed vegetable dish also included sweet, oval and nutty ginkgo nuts to help increase circulation, improve cognitive function and acts as a powerful antioxidant.

The earthy shitake or Chinese black mushrooms boost immunity through special polysaccharide molecules.

The crisp, deep green gai lan or Chinese broccoli contains glucosinolates that improve detoxification, prevent cancer, and is rich in minerals such as calcium and magnesium, folic acid and many other vitamins and antioxidants.

The deep red crispy Peking duck skin is colored with Chinese red rice yeast, known to contain a statin-like substance that lowers cholesterol.

A mellow fish maw and ginseng soup increases energy, helps us adapt to stress and provides easily digested protein and omega-3 fatty acids. Chicken with ginger and bitter melon reduces inflammation, helps detoxification and balances blood sugar.

Even desert was healing. A warm, barely sweet longhan soup with lotus seeds and quail eggs was soothing and nourishing. Longhan improves blood pressure and anemia; lotus seeds enhance male sexual function, alleviate diarrhea, is calming and reduces palpitations. Quail eggs are an easily digestible source of protein, folate, choline and reduces the overall sugar load of this mildly sweetened desert.

A cooling gelatin of aloe and lemon balm washed down the dinner while reducing inflammation.

Aromatic Jasmine tea accompanied the meal, a green tea that improves metabolism, enhances detoxification, reduces inflammation and the risk for cancer as well as helps chelate heavy metals in food.

The limited knowledge of Western science about food is overshadowed by the centuries old Chinese wisdom of medicinal foods to fill the belly, nourish the soul and heal the body. If we recognize that we all chi yao or eat medicine, then achieving robust health may not be such a bitter pill to swallow. Here’s what to do:

Think Color!

Plants use colors as their protective mechanisms. Those colors are the sources of the phytonutrient that act like medicine in our bodies. We use their defense mechanisms to help our bodies function better — these are the anti-inflammatory, detoxifying, antioxidant and hormone-balancing compounds that we should eat every day to prevent disease and create optimal health or UltraWellness!

The vast array of colors in vegetables represent more than 25,000 chemicals that are beneficial. There is evidence that interaction between the colors provides additional benefits, so it’s important to have a diverse diet and eat different foods.

Fruits and vegetables are historically and biologically important. Our ancestors, the hunter-gatherers, ate more than 800 varieties of plant foods.

Each color represents a different family of healing compounds. Though we have selectively bred the colors we eat into very narrow ranges in nature vegetables comes in a painter’s palate of color. There are red carrots in India, we eat orange ones. There are 150 varieties of sweet peas, but only a few are available to us. We need to make an extra effort to eat many different foods to get the full range of benefits.

Here are a few tips to put healing medicines in your diet without swallowing a pill. If there were a better drug on the market I would prescribe it, but there isn’t, so eat your medicine every day.

Remember eat the rainbow!

Red Group (tomatoes, pink grapefruit, watermelon)

These contain the carotenoid lycopene, which helps rid the body of free radicals that damage genes. Lycopene seems to protect against prostate cancer as well as heart and lung disease. Processed juices contain a lot of the beneficial ingredients. One glass of tomato juice gives you 50 percent of the recommended lycopene.

Yellow/Green Group (spinach greens, collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, yellow corn, green peas, avocado, honeydew melon)

These are sources of the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin. These are believed to reduce the risk of cataracts and age-related macular degeneration. Lutein is a yellow-green substance that concentrates in the back of your eye. It may also reduce atherosclerosis.

Orange Group (carrots, mangos, apricots, cantaloupes, pumpkin, acorn squash, winter squash, sweet potatoes)

These contain alpha carotene, which protects against cancer. They also contain beta-carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A. It protects the skin against free-radical damage and helps repair damaged DNA. Beta-carotene is also good for night vision. It’s important to note that these beneficial nutrients can be received from other foods, too. For instance, vitamins found in dairy products and meat. But it’s not as beneficial because you get high calories and fat along with it.

Orange/Yellow Group (pineapple, orange juice, oranges, tangerines, peaches, papayas, nectarines)

These contain beta cryptothanxin, which helps cells in the body communicate and may help prevent heart disease. In addition, a single orange contains 170 percent of the recommended daily vitamin C. It’s interesting to note that the skin of an orange is high in a protective fat that has been found to kill cancer cells in humans and animals, which highlights the fact that two-thirds of all drugs come from the plant world.

Red/Purple Group (beets, eggplant, purple grapes, red wine, grape juice, prunes, cranberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, red apples)

These are loaded with powerful antioxidants called anthocyanins believed to protect against heart disease by preventing blood clots. They may also delay the aging of cells in the body. There is some evidence they may help delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Green Group (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, Chinese cabbage or bok choi, kale)

These contain the chemicals sulforaphane and isocyanate, and they also contain indoles, all of which help ward off cancer by inhibiting carcinogens. It’s a fact that 10 percent of the population — like George Bush Sr. — doesn’t like broccoli. But it is important in diets because of the beneficial chemicals it contains.

White/Green Group (leeks, scallions, garlic, onions, celery, pears, white wine, endive, chives)

The onion family contains allicin, which has anti-tumor properties. Other foods in this group contain antioxidant flavonoids like quercetin and kaempferol.

Now I’d like to hear from you:

How many fruits and vegetables do you eat a day?

How many colors do you eat?

How many different kinds of vegetables do you eat a day or week? (You might realize you only eat a few common ones over and over — branch out and eat all the colors and varieties.)

To your good health.

Click Here For The Full Report From AOL

Natural, Herbal, and Alternative Treatments for ADD/ADHD

October 19, 2011

Off The Grid

By Sarah

Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD) are behavioral conditions characterized by a short attention span, which may be accompanied by hyperactivity. Approximately 5 percent of Americans have ADD/ADHD and half to two thirds of children diagnosed with it will carry it into adulthood. Children diagnosed with ADD/ADHD may also have various learning disabilities and may be disruptive in school and other public places.

More boys than girls are afflicted with this disorder. Many are rightly diagnosed with these maladies, but there are those who have been so “branded” just because they are very active, rambunctious children—again boys more often than girls. Just because a school psychologist or other doctor has told you your child’s overactive behavior is ADD/ADHD, it may not be true. Some teachers and school administrators don’t want to have to deal with disciplining active children, so they have them diagnosed and medicated. For peace of mind, get more than one opinion. You may want to have two other doctors, who aren’t connected to the school district, check out your child(ren).

More than 2 million children with ADD/ADHD are being treated with drugs that are equivalent to “legal speed”— stimulant drugs by prescription. There are concerns with this type of treatment. The first is that stimulants can suppress their growth. Next, the side effects they carry and their addictive nature are troublesome. There is also the possibility that those that have these prescriptions may not be taking them, but passing them on to their friends for the “high” that most people get from stimulants.

Dietary Changes:

Once you have determined if you or your child has ADD/ADHD, you will want to choose how to treat it without drug therapy. The first thing to try is changes in diet. Some people are sensitive to refined white flours and sugars. Others are sensitive to chemical additives in food. Before making any dietary changes, talk with your healthcare provider. Among the usual dietary suspects are:

Any artificial flavorings
Any artificial colorings (yellow, green, and red are the worst offenders)
Chemical additives and preservatives (like BHA and BHT)
Milk
Chocolate
Eggs
Wheat
Bleached/Refined Sugar and Flour
Gluten
Foods containing salicylates (chili powder, apples and cider, cloves, grapes, oranges, peaches, peppers, tomatoes, plums, prunes, and all berries)

An elimination diet is the best option to start with. In brief, eliminate the above usual suspects from your diet. Continue this way for several weeks before adding them back in. If there are no behavioral changes, good or bad, you will want to try something else. If behavior improves, then you can begin adding allergens to the diet one at a time. Eat that one allergen, in small quantities, once a day for two or three days. If behavior doesn’t change, you may add another possible allergen and continue in this manner until you have found if any trigger the ADD/ADHD symptoms and behaviors.

Feingold Diet – A type of elimination diet that is well known for its use among ADD/ADHD patients. It eliminates all chemical additives and all foods containing salicylates. It requires vigilant control over the sufferer’s eating habits. It also prohibits aspirin, as it contains salicylates. There has been some successes reported by patients who have tried it, but it would be hard to compel one to stick to it. In any case, it is wise to avoid foods with artificial flavors, colors, and chemical additives in order to ensure a healthy, natural diet.

Essential Fatty Acids – Omega-3 fatty acids found in fatty fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel) and certain vegetable oils (flax seed, hemp seed) are essential to proper brain function. These may also be beneficial to those with ADD/ADHD. But it is not clear if docosahexaenoic (DHA) and eicosapentaneoic (EPA) are advantageous.

Zinc – This mineral is essential for proper metabolism of certain neurotransmitters that have a role in ADD/ADHD. Deficiencies have been found in some with this disorder. However, long-term use of zinc can cause anemia and other side effects in those without deficiencies. Zinc also has no effect on ADD/ADHD in those patients. But testing for trace minerals, like zinc, is not typical when assessing those who are suspected of having this disorder.

Feedback Approaches:

Biofeedback and auditory feedback have shown some success in increasing the attention of children with low academic performance levels.

Neurofeedback – An approach that uses electronic devices to help patients (usually children) control their own brainwave activity. Electrodes are pasted to the head and pick up signals from the brain. Patients watch images, like moving graphs, on a computer monitor reflecting patient’s brain wave activity. Patients are taught certain high-level mental activities when screen images show that they are fully concentrating. Treatment typically recurs in fifty-minute sessions twice a week. Some studies report significant improvement in attentiveness, response time and less impulsiveness.

Interactive Metronome/Musical Therapy – This therapy uses feedback from sound to improve the patients’ attention, motor control, and some academic skills. Patients wear headphones as well as sensors on the hand and feet. They perform various exercises to a rhythmic computer beat. Sessions continue for three to five weeks. Some studies report improvements. Also, parents of some with ADD/ADHD report those who learned to play musical instruments significantly helped.

Non-Drug Treatments:

Some with mild ADD/ADHD symptoms have tried daily massage therapy. This can improve mood and attentiveness and reduce hyperactivity. Some may find relief with relaxation training, prayer and meditation, and music therapy.

Herbs and Supplements – Some find relief with one or a combination of these herbal remedies instead of prescribed drug treatments. Check with your healthcare provider as some do not recommend these for children.

St. John’s Wort
Ginko Biloba
Panax Ginseng
Melatonin
Pine Bark Extract
Listol, a combination of:
Vitamin B6
Iron
Magnesium
Copper
Phosphatidlserine
Di-Methyl Glycine
Glycine
GABA Powder
DMAE Bitartatrate
Huperzine A Extract

As with all alternative health treatments, you should always check with your doctor or healthcare practitioner before starting treatment for any condition.

Click Here For The Full Report From Off The Grid

Recent Attack On Vitamins A Fabricated Scare Campaign

October 18, 2011

Natural News

By Mike Adams

TIME, USA Today, MSNBC, NPR, CTV, the LA Times and numerous other mainstream media outlets have all been running a juvenile hoax over the last week. Through various misleading headlines, they’re all claiming that vitamins might kill you. Here are some of the headlines:

Study links vitamins to higher death rates in women – CTV

Study: Vitamins may increase death risk in older women – USA Today

We’ve Been Wasting a Ton of Money on Vitamins and Dietary Supplements – TIME

Some common vitamin supplements could increase death risk – MSNBC

Dietary supplements risky for older women, study finds – LA Times

Supplements Look Risky In Study Of Older Women – NPR

Vitamins do more harm than good, new suggest says – News.com.au

Women Who Take Vitamin Supplements May Have Increased Death Risk – Huffington Post

There are literally hundreds of headlines from mainstream news sources that essentially say the same thing.

There’s only one problem with all this: The whole thing is a HOAX! And NaturalNews is stepping forward to expose this hoax using data from the published study itself.

Caught yet again, the mainstream media has been exposed pulling off a juvenile, simplistic hoax that attempts to scare people away from good nutrition. To accomplish this hoax, they took a poorly-constructed “scientific” study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine which was itself based on erroneous conclusions (see below) and then blatantly misreported what the study data actually showed.

This journal is owned, not surprisingly, by the American Medical Association, which has a long and sordid history of openly attacking vitamins and nutrition, even to the point of committing crimes that violate federal law. Remember, the AMA has been found guilty of conspiracy in federal courts.

All this is yet another case of quack journalism on the part of the mainstream media, which is largely funded by pharmaceutical interests, of course. They never miss an opportunity to try to attack vitamins and dietary supplements, even if it means revealing they are total Big Pharma “presstitutes” who pretend to be real journalists.

But don’t take my word for it: Let’s do something the mainstream media presstitutes never do and actually look at the study data for a change!

What the study actually reveals
The study is entitled “Dietary Supplements and Mortality Rate in Older Women” – Arch Intern Med. 2011;171(18):1625-1633

The study claims to have reviewed the vitamin and mineral supplement use in 38,772 older women by mailing them 3 surveys over 18 years, asking them to recall what vitamins and minerals they were taking.

So hold the presses. This is a “survey study” — or what’s commonly called an “observational study” — which are notoriously inaccurate to begin with. As Dr. David Brownstein told me in a groundbreaking InfoWars Nightly News interview, “This study says absolutely nothing about vitamins,” Dr. Brownstein said. “If this study was done in reverse, where vitamins were shown to be effective, no journal would have printed this study because it was so poorly done.”

 

One of the most glaring total fabrications in this particular study is the alteration of the raw data using statistical voodoo. If you go to table 2 of the study (page 4 of the study PDF, which we can’t post here because it’s not a public document), it shows a “Hazard Ratio” number associated with each of the nutrients covered in the study, such as vitamin D, vitamin D, calcium, copper, iron, and so on. There’s also a number associated with “multivitamin.”

With these numbers, a 1.0 means “neutral” or “no increase in mortality.” A number below 1.0 — such as 0.92 — means a reduction in mortality. For example, 0.92 would mean an 8% reduction in mortality associated with that particular vitamin.

A number higher than 1.0 means an “increase” in mortality. So something like 1.15 would mean a 15% increase in total mortality.

So what do these numbers really say?

• Vitamin B complex was associated with a 7% reduction in mortality

• Vitamin C was associated with a 4% reduction in mortality

• Vitamin D was associated with an 8% reduction in mortality

• Magnesium was associated with a 3% reduction in mortality

• Selenium was associated with a 3% reduction in mortality

• Zinc was associated with a 3% reduction in mortality

I bet you didn’t read that in the mainstream media, huh? That’s because they never reported these numbers! Once again, they just cherry picked whatever scary data they wanted to show you while ignoring the rest.

On the negative side of the findings:

• Folic acid was associated with a 9% increase in mortality

• Copper was associated with a 31% increase in mortality

“Multivitamins,” which the mainstream media viciously attacked with their lying whore headlines, were associated with — guess what? — only a two percent increase in mortality.

Click Here For The Full Report From Natural News

Milk Thistle Saves Your Liver And Your Life

October 7th, 2011

Natural News

By: S. D. Wells

Over 1,000 new synthetic food agents have been approved for consumption in the United States in 2011, and the human liver is the body’s primary detoxifier, bearing the brunt of filtering these chemical agents out so cancer cells don’t develop and multiply. Milk thistle, also known as Silymarin, prevents the metastatic process, stopping the spread of cancer in its tracks.

A powerful antioxidant that protects against nerve damage and abnormal brain aging, milk thistle also fights off Atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes.

Natural remedies represent the most intelligent and least expensive way to prevent and combat ailments and disease, and milk thistle offers these outstanding functions with zero side effects. It has been used for over 2,000 years to prevent and treat liver disease. Silymarin is actually the extract of the seed-like fruit of the milk thistle plant, which comes in capsules, liquids and teas, but since it doesn’t dissolve well in water, the most popular form is the standardized extract.

Currently, there are two ways to address America’s chronic care management system. The first way is to make sure you have enough health insurance coverage to pay for the ultra-expensive treatments offered by doctors prescribing pharmaceuticals and for surgeons, who charge an arm and a leg (no pun intended) for cutting organs out of your body when they fail.

The second way is to wait until you are sick and possibly dying, and then to scramble to find natural remedies for your ailments, hoping it’s not too late to save you from the massive over-indulgence of chemicals you failed to regulate along life’s path.

Fortunately, there is preventive care, which cuts off disease’s fuel and heads it off at the pass. This method requires consumers to read a few informative articles every week and to head to the local health food store to purchase the proper, effective vitamins, supplements, and yes, milk thistle.

The liver performs hundreds of critical metabolic functions, including filtering out drugs and alcohol. Research shows that antibiotics and pain relievers increase the liver’s stress and damage. In fact, Tylenol is the number one cause of acute liver failure in the United States.

Today, hormones and antibiotics pollute drinking water. In addition to the ones we take for sicknesses, millions of Americans, who eat meat, consume and then excrete more of these same chemicals because they are given to chickens, turkeys, cows, and pigs in order to prevent infection from over-breeding, unkempt quarters, and abnormal growth.

Since the FDA and the CDC have already allowed over 80,000 chemicals to be approved for consumption without testing and without labels to warn consumers, it’s a cold hard fact that at some point, everyone will consume toxic food agents that create acid in the body and foster disease. The battle must be fought on both ends – by consuming organic foods that most likely do not contain chemicals, and then by detoxifying the body on a regular basis using herbs and supplements.

Click here for the full report from Natural News

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