Health Supreme NewsGrabs - 27 October 2006
Health Supreme's News Grabs - alternative health news and interesting bites of -sometimes only slightly- related information ...
In this issue:
A nation of pill takers, medical errors kill 1.5 million, overmedication in foster care, EU moves to kill internet, benefits of high cholesterol, tsunami radiation sickness, vaccine induced brain disease, mobile phones damage sperm, court challenge to existence of HIV, no increase in life expectancy through anti-retrovirals, warning over RFID in credit cards, flu vaccines not effective, and ... the US nuclear menace.
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A Nation Of Pill-Takers
Ad man Jerry Della Femina, who has no pharmaceutical clients, said just look at what's happened with cholesterol. "People discuss their cholesterol count on their first date. They go out and, 'Hi. My cholesterol count is 150.' - Well mine happens to be 175. The more they see something on television, the more they react to these commercials, the more that they will sell. And, then you'll start to see everyone is taking it," Della Femina said.
(From the July 2006 issue of Health Freedom Watch, by way of Scott Tips)Institute of Medicine Reports that Medication Errors Harm 1.5 Million Patients Annually
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) reports that medication errors harm at least 1.5 million patients every year. This figure includes drug errors in hospitals, nursing homes, and among Medicare outpatients. But it is a conservative estimate because it does not account for drug errors in doctors‚ offices or by patients themselves.
All told, there are more than 300,000 over-the-counter medications and over 10,000 prescription drugs on the market, according to the IOM study. It also points out that four out of five U.S. adults take at least one medication in any given week. It also notes that „When all types of errors are taken into account, a hospital patient can expect on average to be subjected to more than one medication error each day.‰ The IOM study, titled Preventing Medication Errors, provides recommendations for reforming the health-care system to prevent and reduce medication errors, including electronic prescribing. The study is online at http://www.iom.edu/CMS/3809/22526/35939.aspx.
Sources:
"Study: Medication Errors Harm 1.5M a Year" - USA Today, July 21, 2006
"Report: Drug Errors Injure More Than 1.5M" - Associated Press, July 20, 2006
Overmedication In Foster Care (Video)
CBS News - Byron Pitts talks to former pharmaceutical rep Gwen Olsen about children being overmedicated in foster care.
Europe Moves To Kill The Internet
A proposed EU directive could extend broadcasting regulations to the internet, hitting popular video-sharing websites such as YouTube, reports the London Times. This would mean that websites and mobile phone services that feature video images would have to conform to standards laid down in Brussels. Personal websites would have to be licensed as a “television-like service”.
The Benefits of High Cholesterol
People with high cholesterol live the longest. This statement seems so incredible that it takes a long time to clear one´s brainwashed mind to fully understand its importance. Yet the fact that people with high cholesterol live the longest emerges clearly from many scientific papers.
Tsunami Radiation Sickness Raises Suspicions
... thousands of people in several East African countries and of the Arabian Peninsula have begun to fall sick with what the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) says is radiation sickness brought on by the tsunami. Men, women, and chilren of all ages are experiencing the horrible woes of nuclear aftermath, including sudden ear, nose, and mouth bleeds, internal hemorrhages and other symptoms of radiation sickness, according to a UNEP report named "After the Tsunami: Rapid Environmental Assessment", released in March.
12 cases of brain disease after vaccines
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said 12 cases of a neurological disorder have been reported following the application of a meningococcal vaccine. The FDA said the 12 cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome have been reported after administering of the vaccines, which are manufactured by French company Sanofi Pasteur, since October 2005, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
Heavy mobile use 'damages sperm'
It was found that the heaviest users, those who used their phones for more than four hours a day had the lowest average sperm counts, at 50 million per millilitre (ml) and the least healthy sperm.
Man to challenge existence of HIV in court
Mr Borick will call evidence from two Western Australian based scientists, who will argue that the virus has never been isolated, current testing regimes are inconclusive and that there is no proof HIV is transmitted sexually.
Anti-retro drugs fail to increase HIV patients’ lifespan
If patients with active TB, for example, test HIV-positive, they are held to be “co-infected” and suffering from Aids. Yet as reported ... HIV antibody tests have never been validated as specifying the presence of HIV. The same is true of so-called “viral load’ tests. There is also clear evidence that the bacterium which causes TB can itself cause people to test false positive for HIV. This raises the urgent question of whether TB should be included in the list of nearly 30 illnesses considered diagnostic of Aids, and sufferers treated with potent antiviral drugs for an infection they have not been proved to have. Since TB affects millions of malnourished people, removing it as an Aids-indicator disease would radically reduce estimates of HIV/Aids incidence in countries where many still live in poverty.
CASPIAN Advises Consumers to Immediately Remove Cards from Wallets
"For these financial institutions to put RFID in credit cards, one of the most sensitive items we carry, is absolute lunacy," said Dr. Katherine Albrecht, founder and director of CASPIAN, a consumer group with over 12,000 members in 30 countries worldwide. Researchers are showing how a thief could skim information from the cards right through purses, backpacks and wallets. This information includes the cardholder's name, credit card number, expiration date and other data that would be sufficient to make unauthorized purchases.
Winter flu jabs evidence queried
There is not enough evidence to support the policy of immunising people against seasonal flu, an expert has claimed
Mr Jefferson, who works for the Cochrane Library - a body that determines the relative effectiveness of health interventions ... said the most reliable way to judge their effects was to use systematic reviews - impartial summaries of evidence from many different studies. But when he did this, he found flu vaccines had little or no effect on many influenza campaign objectives such as hospital stay, time off work, or death from influenza and its complications.
Forget North Korea, America is the Nuclear Menace
Depleted uranium remains a nagging problem for the US Army, which extensively used such munitions during fighting in Gulf War I, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq. DU is a chemically toxic, radioactive element with a half-life of 4.5 billion years that damages the kidneys and lungs, causes genetic mutations and cancer, and is associated with a number of medical problems.The US nuclear industry has produced 1.2 billion pounds of DU waste as a by-product of nuclear energy and weapons production. This nuclear waste is being recycled into DU munitions, which many believe were given to Israel in the form of armor piercing shells for use in the 1973 Sinai war. Since then, DU has been tested, manufactured and sold to a number of countries by US arms manufacturers. Considered highly-effective in penetrating armor, uranium munitions are used by the main US Abrams battle tanks, Bradley Fighting vehicles, A-10 attack aircraft and a host of other ammunition, including bunker busters.
Upon impact, DU munitions burn at 3000 to 6000 degrees Centigrade and combust into a radioactive gas of fine particles of uranium oxide dust, which remain suspended in the air and, once inhaled, become a chronic source of uranium heavy metal and contact radiation poisoning. Estimates vary on the total tonnage of DU used by the US and include: during the US bombing of Yugoslavia, 34 tons of DU; in Gulf War I, up to 375 tons; in Afghanistan in 2001, 1,000 tons; and in Gulf War II in 2003, up to 2,200 tons.
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Friday October 27 2006
updated on Wednesday December 8 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2006/10/27/health_supreme_newsgrabs_27_october_2006.htm