Multicultural Community of Bugs - NewsGrabs 23 November 2008
Gut check reveals vast multicultural community of bugs in bowels
A new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine reveals in greater detail than ever before the full extent of the bacterial community inhabiting the human bowel - 10 times more diverse than previous research had suggested. The technology that yielded this result offers the potential for much more accurate assessments of people's complex internal ecosystems, as well as more-sophisticated monitoring of the degree to which they are affected by, for example, antibiotics.
The prospect of swallowing an antibiotic takes on a new meaning when you consider that for each human cell in your own body, there are roughly 10 single-celled microbes, most of which live in our digestive tracts.And let's not forget that these bacteria live in symbiosis with us, meaning they do useful work to digest food and transform it into usable nutrients that can be absorbed. So antibiotics are definitely a two-sided sword, to be used with extreme caution.
'Let the sunshine in' to protect your heart this winter
Vitamin D deficiency results in part from reduced exposure to sunlight, which is common during cold weather months when days are shorter and more time is spent indoors.
"Chronic vitamin D deficiency may be a culprit in heart disease, high blood pressure and metabolic syndrome," said Sue Penckofer, PhD, RN, study author and professor, Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing, Loyola University Chicago.
The review article cited a number of studies that linked vitamin D deficiency to heart disease. These studies found rates of severe disease or death may be 30 to 50 percent higher among sun-deprived individuals with heart disease.
What is the Real Cause of Influenza Epidemics?
A theory gaining weight in the scientific community explains influenza epidemics as a result of a dormant disease, which become active in response to vitamin D deficiency. This theory provides answers for many of the above questions. A disease that remains dormant until vitamin D-producing sunlight exposure is reduced by a winter or rainy season would explain a widespread seasonal disease with a rapid onset and decline.
There is compelling epidemiological evidence that indicates vitamin D deficiency is just such a "seasonal stimulus." Recent evidence confirms that lower respiratory tract infections are more frequent, sometimes dramatically so, in those with low levels of vitamin D. Researchers have also found that 2,000 IU of vitamin D per day abolished the seasonality of influenza, and dramatically reduced its self-reported incidence.
Garlic chemical tablet treats diabetes I and II orally
The drug is based on vanadium and allaxin, a compound found in garlic, and its action described in an Advance Article from Metallomics available free online from today.
Vanadium is an essential trace mineral that has been used as a supplement to help diabetics. Having been found to be effective, is it now being combined with a garlic fraction and re-defined to become a "drug" to be marketed exclusively by pharmaceutical manufacturers?
Scientists are high on idea that marijuana reduces memory impairment
The research suggests that the development of a legal drug that contains certain properties similar to those in marijuana might help prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Any new drug's properties would resemble those of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the main psychoactive substance in the cannabis plant, but would not share its high-producing effects.
THC joins nicotine, alcohol and caffeine as agents that, in moderation, have shown some protection against inflammation in the brain that might translate to better memory late in life. "It's not that everything immoral is good for the brain. It's just that there are some substances that millions of people for thousands of years have used in billions of doses, and we're noticing there's a little signal above all the noise," said Gary Wenk, professor of psychology at Ohio State and principal investigator on the research.
FAULTY STUDY TARGETS VITAMINS C AND E
Finding of No Cardiovascular Protection Was Predictable
The study by Howard Sesso and colleagues from Harvard, entitled the “Physicians’ Health Study II”, included over 14,600 male physicians over a ten year period. It used the least potent form of vitamin E and incorrect dosages of both vitamins C and E, according to an analysis conducted by ANH experts, Dr Steve Hickey, Dr. Damien Downing, and Dr. Robert Verkerk.
Agave Nectar, The High Fructose Health Food Fraud
There are notable differences in sugars - fructose, levulose, sucrose - which is healthy and which ones are not?
"High fructose from agave or corn will kill a diabetic or hypoglycemic much faster than refined white sugar," says Mr. Bianchi. "By eating high fructose syrups, you are clogging the veins, creating inflammation, and increasing body fat, while stressing your heart. This is in part because refined fructose is foreign to the body, and is not recognized by it."
Mercury Dental Amalgams Banned in 3 Countries
FDA, EPA, ADA Still Allow and Encourage Heavy-Metal Fillings
Any science teacher encouraging students to put mercury in their mouths would be fired for gross negligence and likely prosecuted for endangering the health of a child. Yet dentists do it every day. And the US Food and Drug Administration lets them, all the while fully aware that there are serious safety concerns.
Transgenic Animals for Food Not Proven Safe
FDA's Guidance Document provides little or no substantive information on the introduction of transgenic animals, particularly those used as bioreactors, into the environment in general and into the human food supply to be specific. FDA seems to take a passive stance on the matter. Environmental assessment is mandated by FDA but no guidance was provided on the substance of the assessment. It does not call for any health impact assessment that is urgently needed. It does not even call for labelling of the food products of transgenic animals, which is a prerequisite for health monitoring.
GM Maize Reduces Fertility & Deregulates Genes
Austrian scientists carried out long term studies that showed GM maize fed to mice significantly reduced their fertility over three to four breeding cycles within one generation. Similar effects were found in mice fed GM maize and bred over four generations; although the results did not reach statistical significance in any one generation, the trend was unmistakable, more pups lost and smaller litters in the GM-fed mice.
The studies are by far the most meticulous and comprehensive feeding trials to-date, and confirm deleterious reproductive and health impacts obtained by scientists independent of the biotech industry and farmers’ observations in the field.
GM Maize Disturbs Immune System of Young and Old Mice
The Italian government’s National Institute of Research on Food and Nutrition has just published a report online in the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry documenting significant disturbances in the immune system of young and old mice that have been fed the GM maize MON 810. This follows hot on the heels of results released by the Austrian government showing that GM Maize Reduces Fertility & Deregulates Genes in Mice (SiS 41). These revelations confirm a string of previous findings on adverse health impacts of GM food and feed...
Popular Radio Host Has Drug Company Ties
An influential psychiatrist who served as the host of public radio’s popular “The Infinite Mind” program earned at least $1.3 million between 2000 and 2007 giving marketing lectures for drug makers, income not mentioned on the program.
In a program broadcast on Sept. 20, 2005, Dr. Goodwin warned that children with bipolar disorder who are left untreated could suffer brain damage, a controversial view. “But as we’ll be hearing today,” Dr. Goodwin reassured his audience, “modern treatments — mood stabilizers in particular — have been proven both safe and effective in bipolar children.”
That very day, GlaxoSmithKline paid Dr. Goodwin $2,500 to give a promotional lecture for its mood stabilizer drug, Lamictal, at the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Fla. Indeed, Glaxo paid Dr. Goodwin more than $329,000 that year for promoting Lamictal, records given Congressional investigators show.
EU to ease drugs ad rules in upcoming 'pharma package'
A proposed new Directive on information to patients is expected to be the most controversial element of the Commission's 'pharma package', but professional doctors associations, health NGOs and member state officials remain on high alert and wonder what more information patients could possibly need.Sounds like the pharma industry of Europe has its foot firmly planted in the door and is yanking hard to open up the EU market for their ads, suitably disguised as "information".
Chemotherapy can do more harm than good, study suggests
The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) found that more than four in ten patients who received chemotherapy towards the end of life suffered potentially fatal effects from the drugs, and treatment was “inappropriate” in nearly a fifth of cases.
Half of primary-care doctors in survey would leave medicine if they had an alternative
Of the 12,000 respondents, 49 percent said they'd consider leaving medicine. Many said they are overwhelmed with their practices, not because they have too many patients, but because there's too much red tape generated from insurance companies and government agencies.Medicine has become a business and health care is an industry profiting on sickness. The more sick people, the more profit. It's the wrong business model and it has worsened the health of populations world wide. Someone needs to come up with a bright idea.
Anti-smoking drug linked to 10 British suicides
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) website says a total of 24 people taking the nicotine-replacement have died, of whom ten took their own lives.
A further 213 claimed they had experienced suicidal thoughts and 407 said they were suffering depression.
Effexor Linked to Murder in Arkansas
"A police report said an autopsy found Effexor, an antidepressant, in [Timothy Dale] Johnson's blood. Investigators said the drug may have played a part in his 'irrational and violent behavior....' "
Pfizer And Wyeth Sued By Nevada Attorney General
Attorney General Cortez Masto claims Nevada consumers and doctors were misled about the safety of Wyeth’s Premarin, Prempro and Premphase, and Pfizer’s Provera.
“When drug companies purposefully misrepresent the safety and efficacy of their drugs, or promote their drugs in a deceptive way, everybody loses,” Masto says in a statement. “We’re confident we have the facts necessary to prove this case, and we hope this lawsuit and its outcome will deter improper drug company practices in Nevada.”
Use of Antipsychotics in Children Is Criticized
The committee's concerns are part of a growing chorus of complaints about the increasing use of antipsychotic medicines in children and teenagers. Prescription rates for the drugs have increased more than fivefold for children in the past decade and a half, and doctors now use the drugs to settle outbursts and aggression in children with a wide variety of diagnoses, even though children are especially susceptible to their side effects.
FDA Finds Zyprexa Has Killed 3,400 People
What startles me is that last fall I reported on a study of the FDA's adverse events database in which researchers reported that Zyprexa had killed 1,005 people from 1998 to 2005, so this new accounting represents a large increase in deaths associated with the drug. Even more, according to that same study, Vioxx had killed 932 people. So why do Vioxx cases get all the media attention while Zyprexa does not? Why is Zyprexa still on the market and raking in $4 billion or so a year in sales while Vioxx is off the market?
The Almost Useless FDA Refuses To Comment On Antipsychotic Being Advertised As Anti-Depressant
I've been noting the presence of the Abilify for depression TV ad, which has been running late nights. Abilify is an atypical antipsychotic, carries black box warnings for all manner of problems associated with that class of drugs, and yet nowhere in the ad is it mentioned that the drug is an antipsychotic. Instead, throughout the ad it's only referred to as an anti-depressant.
Last week, I asked the FDA if the agency had reviewed the ad or if it had plans to...
Alaska: Foster kids say medication is overprescribed
In May, a group of foster care youth and those who have aged out came up with eight ways to improve the system. Among the identified problems: Overprescribed psychiatric drugs.
Too many foster children are prescribed psychiatric drugs, the kids said. They are labeled as disturbed, defiant or anxious when in reality they are just reacting to the trauma of their broken families and the difficulties of living in state custody.
Oil and Drug Cartel Plans "Global Coup" through IMF
For about a century the rule of the oil and drug cartel was compatible with democracy. But the oil business could last only as long as renewable energies were hidden from the public. Four decades ago, the space age began with rockets propelled by hydrogen (water) energy – but we never learned that this energy can also run cars, heat houses and light cities.
Similarly, the drug investment business – which thrives on expanding diseases as markets for patented drugs – could only exist so long as it was hidden behind false promises of cures. In the 21st century, these fraudulent business models – the status quo’s economic base – are no longer compatible with democracy. The IMF coup is designed to defend this status quo.
Law professor fires back at song-swapping lawsuits
Nesson argues that the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999 is unconstitutional because it effectively lets a private group - the Recording Industry Association of America, or RIAA - carry out civil enforcement of a criminal law. He also says the music industry group abused the legal process by brandishing the prospects of lengthy and costly lawsuits in an effort to intimidate people into settling cases out of court.
Nesson, the founder of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, said in an interview that his goal is to "turn the courts away from allowing themselves to be used like a low-grade collection agency."
Amish sue US government for 'mark of the Beast' on livestock
A group of seven Amish farmers in Michigan say the state's insistence that they use radio frequency ID devices on their animals "constitutes some form of a 'mark of the Beast' and/or represents an infringement of their 'dominion over cattle and all living things' in violation of their fundamental religious beliefs," according to their lawsuit.
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More information out there...
There is much I cannot cover but other sources for this kind of information exist and are active.
The Alternative Medicine Yahoo Group is a place where you can discuss and exchange information on what is happening in the world of natural health.
For the influence of electromagnetic waves from radio, mobile phones and other radio emitting devices, check out the emfrefugee group on Yahoo.
If you are interested in a different take on the news that isn't health centered but is certainly fun, check out Robin Good TV News.
A few sites to keep up to date with the other side of world affairs, the stuff you won't necessarily find on your tv or in the papers:
... and remember,
The individual is supreme and finds its way through intuition
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Friday November 21 2008
updated on Wednesday August 15 2012
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