Declaration of Asthma Drug as “Risky” by FDA Leads to Fall in Glaxo Shares
February 22, 2010
Reuters
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) shares fall 1 percent after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration takes steps to cut the use of certain asthma drugs because of serious health risks, hitting prospects for the company’s top-seller Advair.
The move also affects products from AstraZeneca (AZN.L) and Novartis (NOVN.VX), but Glaxo is most vulnerable because its two-in-one inhaler is the market leader, with global sales of $7.8 billion in 2009.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley say the tighter rules are likely to push Advair volume growth back into negative territory.
“We see a likely worst-case impact as up to around 3 percent downgrade to 2011 sales and around 7 percent impact to EBIT,” they say in a note. Glaxo also faces a key Advair patent trial in Germany on Feb. 23.
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Surgeon in New Zealand Blasts Overweight Patient
February 12, 2010
The Sydney Morning Herald
By AAP
A foul-mouthed New Zealand surgeon has been reprimanded after swearing at a severely obese patient.
A 44-year-old mother filed a complaint about the doctor after a tense consultation with him last year, The New Zealand Herald reports.
The doctor said f— at least three times to the Maori woman after she told him she didn’t like the word “diet” and preferred the term “lifestyle”.
He told her she was, “going on a f—ing diet”.
In the letter of complaint, the woman wrote: “[The doctor] said if I couldn’t handle the word diet then he challenged my motivation and stated that I would never survive surgery because I was still bullshitting myself and therefore my thinking was still f—ed”.
In response to the woman’s concerns, the doctor said they no longer had a “therapeutic relationship” and scratched her from the gastric bypass waiting list.
New Zealand’s Health and Disability Commissioner, Ron Paterson, said the doctor, who admitted using bad language, had been unprofessional and insulting.
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Weight Loss Craze in Hong Kong: Swallowing Parasite Worms
February 11, 2010
The Hindu
Dieters in Hong Kong were Tuesday warned by government doctors against a craze for swallowing parasite worms as a means of losing weight.
The city’s Department of Health has been alarmed to see websites offering products containing potentially fatal parasites as a means of weight control.
The products are thought to use Ascaris worms: giant intestinal roundworms which grow up to 40 centimetres in length in a host’s intestine and lay up to 200,000 eggs a day.
A Department of Health spokesman warned that swallowing the parasites could cause abdominal pain and distention, vomiting, diarrhoea and malnutrition.
“Parasite infestation may also be fatal if serious complications such as intestinal, biliary tract or pancreatic duct obstruction arise,” the spokesman said. “The worms may even invade such organs as the lungs.
“The infestation can be treated with medication that kills the parasite. The worms may require surgical removal if there are obstructions.”
He urged people to consult doctors before dieting and said the only natural, healthy and effective means of weight loss was through dietary regulation and regular exercise.
Dieting is big business in Hong Kong where obesity levels have soared because of sedentary lifestyles, fast-food diets and long office hours in the city of 7 million.
Clinics and websites offer a bizarre variety of questionable short-cut weight loss methods including hot wraps, fat-dissolving injections and even using controlled fire to literally burn off fat.
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Your radio show woke me up…
February 5, 2010 by Brandy
Filed under Testimonials
Dear Kevin,
Last winter was one of the worst winters I have ever experienced. A lot of things happened at one time and it was very overwhelming for me. My dog died, I got laid off from my job, I had family issues, self esteem issues, health issues, financial issues and it seemed like I was getting nowhere in life. I would spend my days going to the Wendy’s down the street from me and eat myself numb. I would have bags of candy throughout the day and watch House for hours. After a while, my friends noticed that I had gained quite a bit of weight and that I became a little “slow,” with my thinking process, in other more blatant words, that I was getting more stupid. Back then I weighed 230 pounds and I could not construct a proper sentence because of all the TV I was watching.
Today, I am a healthy 212 (I am currently on the McCombs Plan, it is my 7th week) and I expect it to go down even further. My relationship with my step-mom, who I once hated, is now flourishing. I have the greatest friends, who support me and grow with me, and SO much more.
But all that’s irrelevant. What is relevant is the way I feel and my outlook on life, and the person I am becoming. I am in the same predicament I was last winter, but not really! This time I am a different person and I’m constantly getting better. I do not have any money right now and I am still unemployed, but you know what, life to me is bigger than that and I FEEL fantastic and I know BIG things are in store for me.
I am enrolled in the lazy man’s way to a fortune program; I have no idea how I’m going to find the money, BUT I WILL GET THE MONEY. I go through the day sometimes getting very emotional at all the beauty and good around me. I feel so lucky to be alive! There is so much I can share with you, but it would honestly take 50 pages to write about it!
Kevin, I understand that I create my life, and I alone have the say in everything that happens. I can’t help myself, but to give you most of the credit. Kevin, without your radio show and without your mission, I would be overweight, illiterate, UNHAPPY, kept in the dark, and wasting a life that I believe is going to make a difference on this earth.
Your radio show woke me up. And I KNOW it is going to be waking up a lot more people around the world. Kevin, I thank you, my family thanks you, my friends thank you, and planet earth thanks you. You are truly one of the only people who dare expose what really is going on in this country, and most importantly, making it better, by empowering people and stirring things up.
Kevin, I don’t like your radio show, I LOVE your radio show!! It is truly a way of life. My friends and I were driving to Chicago for the G.I.N. meeting from New Jersey because we were absolutely committed to going, no excuses. It was 13 hours each way and we had to drive through the night to be at the seminar on time. The whole 13 hours we were playing podcasts from your radio show! That’s 13 hours each way! It was absolutely hysterical because I only had 4 of your radio shows and I just kept listening to the same ones over and over again! It never got old!!!! May seem a little extreme, but what can I say, I love hearing what you have to say.
One of your biggest supporters,
Harry Panayiotou
South Orange, NJ
Thank you, Kevin Trudeau, for sharing these wonderful resources…
February 2, 2010 by Brandy
Filed under Testimonials
Hi Kevin!
I started the Candida cleanse in the New Year!!!
I am a 32 year old, mother of three children; my youngest being 10 months old. I have hypothyroidism, which I have had mostly under control with Natural Desiccated Thyroid. I didn’t get back to the gym until my baby was 6 months old, but it still took about 3 months of regular exercise before I saw a pants size drop and I was still not seeing much weight drop.
I had attempted this cleanse after my second child with a sharp weight drop, even though I only followed it for a couple of weeks. However, I was motivated to see if it could not only help with the weight, but help with the thyroid issue. I would love to get off medication!
Except for a couple of days where I caved in to some baking (kids kitchen activities) and for which I felt terrible afterwards, I have been following the food regimen, have managed to get to a sauna or hot bath almost everyday, and still regular exercise at the gym 3-5 times a week. I should be drinking more water, but being a busy mum of 3 kids, I can’t count how many cups of herbal tea have been left to go cold because of little sidetracks!
Still, the results after 25 days:
I have dropped 10lbs (155 – 145lbs)
I am no longer constipated (which I had always attributed to a thyroid symptom)
I have so much more energy
I am so much more alert and can concentrate better.
I am stronger with my exercise.
and yesterday I got into some of my size 10 jeans (at xmas I was just shopping for size 12 jeans)
Getting to the sauna (and gym) is also one of the best mum-time-outs ever!!! De-stress and detoxify!
I am yet to take a blood test to find out about the effect on my thyroid.
Also, I started taking Vitamin D in November and haven’t had a cold or flu ALL WINTER.
It has been such a learning curve to realize how much diet really does affect me. I used to think that I could eat anything and just exercise enough.
With these results, I am so motivated to keep on going and see it through, and I fully expect that by that time, my eating lifestyle will be rather profoundly changed!
Thank you, Kevin Trudeau, for sharing these wonderful resources! It is mind-blowing the amazing effects of what we choose in life. You really are what you eat!
Thanks again!
Jenny Lopez
Healdsburg, CA
Dr. Jeff McCombs
Click the picture or link below to hear Kevin’s interview with Dr. Jeffrey McCombs. Click here to order The McCombs Plan and click here to purchase LifeForce: A Dynamic Plan for Health, Vitality, and Weight Loss.
The Kevin Trudeau Show: 12-23-09
Today, Kevin gives you the hard evidence behind the September 11th conspiracy, the reasons why Barack Obama is merely a puppet and his solution to Obamacare!!
Plus, Dr. Jeff McCombs, the author of LifeForce, explains how Candida is polluting your body and what you can do to rid your body of this toxin! Also find out how antibiotics are hurting you and how the McCombs Plan can completely transform your body!
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Weight Loss Surgery Dangerous, can be Fatal
December 22, 2009
DNA News
By Vineeta Pandey
Losing weight is turning out to be a dangerous fad with more and more people going under the scalpel, either unaware of the risks involved or willingly taking the gamble.
But the consequences, which many surgeons and patients tend to ignore, could be fatal. A grim reminder of this came last Wednesday when a 25-year-old businessman died in Ahmedabad after undergoing bariatric surgery — a process where part of the stomach is stapled or bypassed to reduce the appetite of a patient to help him or her shed those extra kilos.
The examples are worryingly in plenty.
A businessman from Khar (Mumbai) died a few months after a similar surgery in 2007.
Early this year, BJP leader Jagat Bhushan Johar died while undergoing a weight-loss operation.
In 2006, a Mumbai girl, who weighed 180kg, died a week after undergoing stomach-stapling surgery — she reportedly had a heart attack.
Similar cases have been reported from other parts of the country, but it hasn’t deterred those wanting to lose weight quickly. The number of people undergoing bariatric surgery has almost doubled in the last two years, according to weight management experts.
“There are clear guidelines delineating at what weight and on whom bariatric surgery should be performed. Adherence of these guidelines minimises the risks,” said Dr Anoop Misra, a former AIIMS specialist and now director, department of diabetes and metabolic diseases, at Fortis Hospital, Delhi.
Though the risk of developing complications after bariatric surgery is 1:400, Misra said because of the lack of effective regulation, some doctors are performing the procedure on patients who do not require it.
“Advertising bariatric surgery as a cure for heart disease and diabetes, or performing it on patients below a certain age or those who do not fit the bill, is unethical and should be strictly curbed,” he said.
Dr Vijay Arora of Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said bariatric is a high-risk, super-specialty surgery. “The evaluation has to be complete, taking into account the will power, and changes in the diet and lifestyle of the patient. And surgery should be the last resort,” he said.
Arora said there is a strong possibility that the patient in Ahmedabad died due to anaesthesia complications.
But Dr PK Ganguly of Delhi government’s Ram Manohar Lohia hospital said surgery is the only option for patients suffering from co-morbid conditions like hypertension, cardio-vascular diseases and diabetes. Doctors, however, have to be careful as one cannot predict how a patient will react to surgery, he said.
Agrees Dr Sandeep Malhotra, an expert in minimal access abdominal and weight-loss surgery with Gurgaon’s Artemis Hospital. “For many people, there is simply no other choice,” said Malhotra, who has conducted 80 weight-management surgeries this year, compared to 30 in 2008.
Dr Sanjay Borude, Breach Candy Hospital, said patients and their relatives should be made fully aware of the risks involved. “However, the risks mostly arise when the patient does not follow the post-operative guidelines,” he said.
Dr Shashank Shah, a bariatric surgeon from Pune who performed 250 such operations last year, said it is an emerging fad and even youngsters look at it as a short-cut to reduce weight.
Though its costs more than Rs3 lakh, most people don’t mind paying up, hoping that they will look slim and fit after the surgery, he said. “We, however, treat surgery as an option only if medical treatment fails,” Shah said.
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Weight Loss Can be About When You Eat, Too
December 15, 2009
NaturalNews
by Sherry Baker
Researchers have long noted that shift workers — folks like nurses, security personnel and others on the night shift — are extremely prone to developing metabolic syndrome, a pre-diabetic condition marked by insulin resistance, weight gain around the middle and high cholesterol levels. But why? Do they tend to simply eat too many snacks as they try to stay alert at night or is it related to disruption of the circadian clock, the body’s internal master clock in the brain that’s set by light exposure? Turns out, according to new research by scientists at the Salk Institute, there’s probably another crucial factor: not only is what you eat important to health but when you eat appears to be crucial to weight control and healthy metabolism.
In experiments with mice, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies discovered there’s a daily waxing and waning of thousands of genes in the liver, the organ that’s the body’s metabolic clearinghouse. And this revving up and slowing down is primarily controlled not just by food intake and not by the body’s circadian clock, as was previously assumed.
“If feeding time determines the activity of a large number of genes completely independent of the circadian clock, when you eat and fast each day will have a huge impact on your metabolism,” said the study’s leader Satchidananda (Satchin) Panda, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Salk Institute’s Regulatory Biology Laboratory, in a press statement.
The Salk researchers’ findings, which are set for publication in an upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could explain why shift workers are at an unusually high risk for metabolic syndrome, diabetes, high cholesterol levels and obesity. “We believe that it is not shift work per se that wreaks havoc with the body’s metabolism but changing shifts and weekends, when workers switch back to a regular day-night cycle,” Dr. Panda explained.
The new research involved putting mice on a strict feeding schedule. They could eat during an 8 hour period but they had to fast for the next 16 hours. The result? The scientists found that genes that encode enzymes the body needs to break down sugars soar immediately after a meal, while the activity of genes which encode enzymes needed to break down fat increases the most during fasting. Bottom line: a clearly defined daily feeding schedule causes healthy regulation of the enzymes needed for metabolism and optimizes burning of sugar and fat.
The Link Between Nutrition and Brain Function
December 8, 2009
Boston
by Bina Venkataraman
Not all foods are created equal, whether the goal is having a healthier heart or losing weight. And the same could be true when it comes to what we eat and how depressed or happy we feel, how well we learn, and whether we suffer from mental illness.
A study published last month in the Archives of Internal Medicine divided a group of 106 overweight and obese people into two groups: About half spent a year following a diet low in fat – say goodbye to steak and pastries – and high in carbohydrates (breads, pastas, beans, potatoes, and rice). The other half went for a year on a low-carb, high-fat diet – have a burger, but skip the bun. In both groups, people lost an average of 30 pounds each and generally said they felt happier two months into the diet.
But after a year on the diet, the people who ate less fat and more carbs continued to report feeling happier and less depressed and anxious than they had before. The other dieters, who ate more fat and less carbohydrates, felt their moods decline from the early rise they had noted.
One reason for the difference, the researchers argued, might be that eating more carbohydrates than fat and protein pumps up the production in the brain of serotonin, a chemical that has been linked with improved mood and mental health.
“There’s tremendous interest in how nutrition is related to brain function,’’ said Dr. Perry Renshaw, who formerly directed the Brain Imaging Center at McLean Hospital in Belmont, and currently is a psychiatry professor at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Renshaw is studying whether creatine – a chemical found in fish, meat, and eggs – helps women respond more quickly to antidepressants known as SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). Examples of SSRIs include Prozac and Zoloft. “It does seem there are natural products that have effects on mood.’’
Scientists haven’t yet developed clinically proven methods to treat mental illnesses and learning impairment with food, but many are working on it.
“Most people thought, until maybe five or 10 years ago, that food’s biggest effect on the brain was through regulation of the cardiovascular system and through the rest of the body,’’ said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, principal investigator for the Neurotrophic Research Laboratory at the University of California-Los Angeles, and the author of a review published last year in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience on food and the brain.
“The new research shows that the effect of food can be direct on the brain, and that it can be directly related to mood and behavior,’’ Gomez-Pinilla said. Advances in physiology, molecular biology, and brain imaging have allowed more of this research to come to light, he added.
No consensus exists among scientists about which foods are most important to mood and mental health. But a number of studies suggest connections between certain nutrients and brain functions. For example, several studies have linked deficiency in omega-3 fatty acids – especially one found in salmon and other fish – to psychiatric disorders, including depression, bipolar disorder, dementia, and schizophrenia, as well as learning and memory problems. Researchers have also drawn links between the antioxidants found in blueberries and improvements in mood and the ability to stay focused. Folic acid, found in spinach and boosted via vitamin B supplements, has been associated with the brain functions needed to prevent depression, and learning and memory problems.
Judith Wurtman, co-author of “The Serotonin Power Diet’’ and former director of the Triad Weight Management Center at McLean Hospital, advocates a carbohydrate-rich diet for women, whose brains seem to deplete their store of serotonin more rapidly than men, as a way to prevent depression and anxiety. Wurtman’s research has shown that carbohydrates found in pretzels, popcorn, or bread – when eaten without protein or fat – can increase serotonin, which improves mood. She recommends that women eat plain pretzels, crackers, or bread, daily at around 4 in the afternoon, when they feel themselves lacking energy or becoming irritable. This can be especially helpful to those suffering from premenstrual syndrome.
Some of the most extensive research linking nutrients to mood, learning, and behavior has focused on omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s are an important part of cell membranes vital to brain functions, said Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, acting chief of nutritional neurosciences at the National In stitute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The role of those membranes in the nervous system could be compared to the plastic that surrounds wires in the electrical system of a house. Without them, the neurons lack protection and do not function as well.
“If you eat a diet that is deficient in omega-3 fatty acids, it can alter your brain,’’ Hibbeln said. “Omega-3 fatty acids can actually reduce suicidal thinking and depression,’’ as well as violent behavior.
Over the past century, Hibbeln added, American consumption of foods with omega-3 fatty acids, such as fish, has declined, while we’ve eaten more fast food and processed foods rich in omega-6 fatty acids (found in soybean oil and seed oils). The omega-6 fatty acids not only do not help brain function, they harm it – by pushing omega-3 fatty acids out of body tissue, according to Hibbeln.
As neuroscience advances, researchers hope to better understand how food and diet influence mental health and behavior. But understanding how nutrients change brain chemistry will not necessarily mean scientists will know how to treat psychiatric disorders with food. The challenge lies on the level of human decision-making.
