Health Supreme NewsGrabs - 14 November 2006
Health Supreme's News Grabs - alternative health news and interesting bites of -sometimes only slightly- related information ...
In this issue:
Toxic chemicals harm children, overfishing, depleted uranium, natural pain relief, medical errors major risk, the China Study, Unscientific Depression Screenings, dangers of SSRI drugs, Tamiflu - FDA warning, White House lobbies for pharma access in UK, HIV paradigm collapses, ADA warns of fluoride in infant formula, ecology of money
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Millions of children damaged by toxic chemicals
An explosive report from American and Danish researchers talks of a "silent pandemic" of disorders caused by toxic chemicals spilling into the environment. They include conditions such as autism, attention deficit disorder, mental retardation and cerebral palsy. The scientists identified 202 industrial chemicals with the potential to damage the human brain and said they were likely to be the "tip of a very large iceberg". More than 1,000 chemicals are known to be neurotoxic in animals and are also likely to be harmful to humans.Counterpoint: 'The reality is that everything is made of chemicals'
Prof Nigel Brown, of St George's, University of London, said: "It is possible that there is a problem, we should be aware of this and we should study the problem, but there is currently not a shred of evidence of a pandemic. This is a campaigning article and should be treated as such. The campaign is worthwhile. However, in their enthusiasm, the authors verge on scaremongering."
The apparent synthesis: Danger: chemical hazards
This week, two scientists called for curbs on the use of 200 chemicals - to protect very young children. They were accused of scaremongering, but anyone who dismisses worries about our toxic world, writes Sarah Boseley, should remember what happened to the Romans ...
Study: 90% of the ocean's edible species may be gone by 2048
Oversight of commercial fishing must be strengthened or there may eventually be no more seafood ... 29% of those species have "collapsed," meaning a 90% decline in the amount being fished from the sea, said Boris Worm, lead author and a professor of marine conservation biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.
AMERICA'S GREATEST CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY / MILITARY USE OF DU
" By illegally using hundreds of tons of depleted uranium (DU) against Iraq ~ Britain and America have gravely endangered not only the Iraqis but the whole world: " Dr. Chris Busby, the British radiation expert and UK representative on the European Committee on Radiation Risk .
Depleted Uranium Death Toll among US War Veterans Tops 11,000
The death toll from the highly toxic weapons component known as depleted uranium (DU) has reached 11,000 soldiers and the growing scandal may be the reason behind Anthony Principi’s departure as secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department.This view was expressed by Arthur Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, writing in Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter.
Of the 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are now dead, he said. By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on permanent medical disability. More than a decade later, more than half (56 percent) who served in Gulf War I have permanent medical problems. The disability rate for veterans of the world wars of the last century was 5 percent, rising to 10 percent in Vietnam.
Antioxidants: New Kid On The Block For Pain Relief?
Antioxidants neutralize free radicals, substances that damage cells. While our bodies constantly produce free radicals, healthy tissues inactivate these damaging substances and keep their levels in check. It's when free-radical production somehow exceeds the body's natural defenses that problems occur... A handful of studies published in the last 10 years suggest that free radicals may also contribute to chronic pain. Left unchecked, free radicals build up in the body and can further damage already-injured tissue.
Natural chemical 'beats morphine'
When given to rats, the chemical, called opiorphin, was able to curb pain at much lower concentration than the powerful painkiller morphine. The researchers isolated the chemical in human saliva, although they believe it may also be present in other parts of the body.
Medical error death risk 1 in 300
Clinical misjudgments or mistakes mean that the odds of dying as a result of being treated in hospital are 33,000 times higher than those of dying in an air crash, according to the chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson. "In an airline industry, the evidence ... from scheduled airlines is the risk of death is one in 10m. If you go into a hospital in the developed world, the risk of death from a medical error is one in 300," he said.
The China Study
A book detailing unsuspected links between what we eat and how we feel
Drawing on the project findings in rural China, but going far beyond those findings, The China Study details the connection between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes and cancer. The report also examines the source of nutritional confusion produced by powerful lobbies, government entities, and opportunistic scientists. The New York Times has recognized the study (China-Oxford-Cornell Diet and Health Project) as the “Grand Prix of epidemiology” and the “most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease.”
Unscientific Depression Screenings and Front Groups Boost SSRI Sales
Prior to the arrival of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants (SSRIs) on the market, depression was estimated to affect only 100 people per million. And those 100 people per million sought help from a medical professional trained in psychiatry and the treatment of depression. Since the introduction of SSRIs, rates for depression are now considered to be in the range of 50,000 to 100,000 cases per million...
UpHill Battle - Warning Pharma Customers About Dangers of SSRIs
Recent concerns about the adverse effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants (SSRIs) have focused on suicide risks. However, a new study published in the September 2006 journal, Public Library of Science (PLoS), reports that in addition to self-harm, the drugs can also cause some patients to become violent and homicidal.
FDA Posts New Tamiflu Warning
The new warning notes reports of self-injury and delirium in flu patients taking Tamiflu, mainly among children in Japan. The FDA knows of 103 reported cases -- 95 from Japan, five from the U.S., and three from other countries. Sixty of the 103 cases featured delirium with prominent behavioral disturbance such as panic attack, hallucinations, and convulsions; only one of those cases occurred in the U.S.
Open up NHS to our drug firms, White House demands
The White House is lobbying British ministers to allow the world's main drug companies unrestricted access to the NHS as part of a package of free market reforms for the service. The US government is positioning itself behind the giant pharmaceutical firms, predominantly based in America, which have been piling pressure on the body that approves drugs for use in hospitals and for prescription by GPs.
WHO report: HIV / AIDS paradigm collapses
... when people with low pre-infection cell counts did contract HIV, and received anti-retrovirals, they survived for about nine years - the same as people with high counts (Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol 194, p 1450). The new findings call into question just how much we understand about CD4 cells and their interaction with HIV, says Williams.
No Fluoride for Infants, Say Dentists
The ADA reports, " ... infants could receive a greater than optimal amount of fluoride through liquid concentrate or powdered baby formula that has been mixed with water containing fluoride during a time that their developing teeth may be susceptible to enamel fluorosis."
Solarclarity: The Ecology of Money
“From coin to paper currency, and from currency to credit card there is a steady progression toward commercial exchange as the movement of information itself. This trend toward an inclusive information is the kind of image represented by the credit card, and approaches once more the character of tribal money. For tribal society, not knowing the specialisms of job or of work, does not specialize money either. Its money can be eaten, drunk, or worn like the new space ships that are now designed to be edible. “Work,” however, does not exist in a nonliterate world. The primitive hunter or fisherman did no work, any more than does the poet, painter, or thinker today. Where the whole man is involved there is no work.”
From Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, p. 137-8.
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Tuesday November 14 2006
updated on Friday November 26 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2006/11/14/health_supreme_newsgrabs_14_november_2006.htm