Quackbusters, FDA and Food as Fuel - NewsGrabs 14 April 2007
Health Supreme News Grabs - a selection of alternative health news and related bits of information ... a window on emerging trends.
In this issue:
Toronto Health Show - Food Regulatory Summit - Diet cola - FDA: energy drink illegal - FDA: Herbs and Juices as "Drugs" - History of FDA Raids - Fat and vitamin C benefits - 'Rebuilt' immune system - Quackbuster Assaults - Pet Food Recall A GM Disaster? - Behind the pet food recall - Sex disease 'superbug' - India: Farmers Join Lawsuit Against Monsanto - Pfizer Lobby, Kickbacks - Diagnosed Bipolar To Boost Sales - FDA Advisory Panel Rigged - Panel Rejects New Merck Drug - Video: Aids Inc. - Crop-Based Biofuels Raise Food Costs - Air Car in India - Aerospace Market - Economics of equality - Freedom of Speech -
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Toronto Health Show: Total Health Turns 30
... Another panel which many people should care about discusses the global threat to our health freedom due to possible restrictions on the availability of natural health products, and what therapies we are able to choose. Several bodies including the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the FDA have proposals for regulations in the works, and the members of this panel are front-line experts who can clarify the issues at stake, and suggest the best course of action you can take as a concerned member of the public.
India: Ramadoss to inaugurate first International Food Regulatory Summit
New Delhi, Apr 10: Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss will inaugurate the first 'International Food Regulatory Summit' here today. Senior experts from leading international food regulatory bodies like FAO, CODEX Alimentarius Commission, European Commission and various countries from different regions of the world will discuss several key issues that are globally emerging and relevant for the food sector.
Diet cola can 'make you fat and rot your teeth'
A study by consumer group Choice warns drinking artificially sweetened soft drinks can stimulate the appetite, triggering cravings for sweet foods. Ironically, this can lead to consumers putting on more weight than they would have by drinking regular cola.
FDA: 'Cocaine' energy drink marketed illegally
This Cocaine is an energy drink produced by a Las Vegas company. It contains no actual cocaine, but is being marketed as "The Legal Alternative" to the illegal drug, according to its website.... dietary supplements cannot carry claims to prevent or treat a disease — something only drugs can do, according to the letter. The Cocaine website lists an ingredient called inositol and says it reduces cholesterol and helps prevent hardening of the arteries, among other health claims, the FDA said. "Your product, Cocaine, is a drug," the three-page letter reads in part. It's also a new drug and as such cannot be sold without FDA approval. In addition, the FDA said the product is mislabeled since it doesn't include "adequate directions for its intended uses."
FDA Attempting to Regulate Supplements, Herbs and Juices as "Drugs"
FDA "experts" will decide what's a drug or medical device Under these proposed guidelines, FDA "experts" (the same corrupt officials who reapproved Vioxx after it killed over 50,000 Americans) will decide whether herbs, supplements, vitamins or simple devices like massage stones are to be regulated as drugs and medical devices.
History of FDA Raids on Healers, Vitamin Shops and Supplement Companies
... a brief overview of some of the campaigns of terror the FDA has initiated against natural healers, nutritional supplement companies and other organizations. Many were conducted using armed agents wielding assault rifles and automatic weapons, dressed in body armor. All of them were intended to destroy natural medicine, thereby protecting the profits of drug companies and conventional medicine practitioners.
Fat 'counters vitamin C benefits'
In laboratory experiments, a team at the University of Glasgow simulated what happens in the human stomach. They found vitamin C (ascorbic acid) mopped up potential cancer-causing compounds that are made when saliva and food mixes with stomach acid. But when they added fat to the mix, the ascorbic acid could no longer convert the hazardous compounds into safe ones.
'Rebuilt' immune system shakes off diabetes
The technique, which uses patients' own bone marrow cells, has freed 14 of 15 patients with type 1 diabetes from their dependence on insulin medication. So far, participants in the trial have gone 18 months without insulin therapy following the procedure, on average. One patient has lasted three years without needing such injections. Scientists have speculated that "resetting" the immune system might stop it from attacking the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.
Quackbuster Assaults: Clark, the One that Worked in Reverse...
Tim Bolen rolls up some of the history of the downfall-in-progress of some of the people who have billed themselves "quackbusters", people who have done nothing but attack healing modalities that are outside of the medical (and pharmaceutical) "mainstream". Of course now that mainstream is no longer what it used to be - more people go to quacks than to the regular doctors. And with good reason. If you are one of the many people who prefer a quack to a doctor, you will enjoy reading Tim Bolen's piece on the failed persecution of Hulda Clark, PhD.
Pet Food Recall: A Genetic Engineered Food Disaster?
There is a distinct lack of transparency in the recent recall of deadly pet foods in the USA. One veterinarian believes that the cause may not have been rat poison or accidentally added melamine, but that the wheat that was used to produce the gluten seen fit for animals but not for humans may have been genetically modified. Organic Consumers has an article on how and why he reached that conclusion.
Bigger than you think: The story behind the pet food recall
The March 16 recall of 91 pet food products manufactured by Menu Foods wasn't big news at first. Early coverage reported only 10-15 cats and dogs dying. ...We started a database for people to report their dead or sick pets. As of March 31, the number of deaths alone was at 2,797. Pet owners were encouraged to report deaths and illness to the FDA. But ... there was no place on the agency's Web site to do so. The FDA kept confirming a number it had to have known was only the tip of the iceberg. It prevented veterinarians from having the information they needed to treat their patients. It allowed the media to repeat a misleadingly low number ... preventing a lot of people from really grasping the scope and implication of the problem.
Sex disease turns into a 'superbug'
HEALTH officials in the US have recommended nationwide use of a new drug to treat gonorrhoea because the sexually transmitted disease, now considered a superbug, is steadily becoming resistant to the long-time standard antibiotic. The disease has grown increasingly resistant to fluoroquinolones, the most common treatment for the bacterial disease since the early 1990s. The US federal Centres for Disease Control and Prevention recommended yesterday that a different class of antibiotics, cephalosporins, be used instead. "Gonorrhoea has now joined the list of superbugs for which treatment options have become dangerously few," Infectious Disease Society of America president Henry Masur said.
So much for the use of antibiotics on animals - see this earlier article which incidentally won't come up on Google, even if you search the exact title. Now I wonder Why...
Millions of India Farmers Join Lawsuit Against Monsanto & Biotech Industry over GMO Contamination
Over 6.5 million farmers from every state in India are asking the Supreme Court to let them join the case before the Court, saying GM crops risk irreversibly damaging India's farmland and biodiversity.
Pfizer Lobbies Against Negotiated Prices + Looming $400 Million Settlement for Bextra/Celebrex Kickbacks
Dr. Peter Rost, the former Pfizer vice president whose False Claims lawsuit blew the whistle on Pfizer's criminal conduct (thereby triggering the US Attorney's suit), identifies the unnamed pharmacy management company--ExpressScripts--and provides insight about what he believes is taking place behind the scenes. If he is right--and so far what he had claimed about Pfizer has been proven right--Pfizer and ExpressScripts have been concurrently engaging in far more substantive criminal activities.
Patients Diagnosed Schizophrenic and Bipolar To Boost Seroquel Sales
For over a decade, drug makers have been influencing doctors to diagnose patients, especially those covered by public health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid, with mental illnesses to justify the over-prescribing of the new class of drugs known as "atypical" antipsychotics. Seroquel, marketed by AstraZeneca, is only FDA approved to treat acute manic episodes associated with bipolar I disorder and schizophrenia, and yet it is one of the most widely prescribed drugs in the world.
FDA Rigged Advisory Panel
FDA administrators have not reappointed the four key safety experts who were the most vocal critics of the COX-2 pain killers. The arthritis specialists who voted to keep the COX-2 inhibitors on the market were reappointed. FDA apparently wants to avoid a full examination of the safety issues when considering approval of Merck's Vioxx replacement drug.
FDA Advisory Panel Nixes New Cox-2
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted 20-1 today against approving Merck's new arthritis pain pill, known as Arcoxia. After listening to the company's presentation, the FDA reviewer's analysis, and a devastating critique offered by FDA safety officer David Graham, one could only wonder why Merck brought this Vioxx clone before the committee. It also makes one wonder why over 60 European countries have approved the drug, which appears to have all the same heart attack risks of other Cox-2 inhibitors.
Video: Aids Inc. by Gary Null
“Documentary filmmaker and health expert Gary Null, Ph.D., shows footage that has not been seen from around the world, especially in Africa, in his new film. This is the first film on AIDS to bring together the most compelling arguments of dissident scientists, physicians and public health advocates. In AIDS Inc, Dr. Null shows how greed and corruption have prevented any real progress in fighting the epidemic and its underlying causes. The film challenges the notion that AIDS or HIV is an African monkey virus that is spread sexually and can be "treated" with harmful drugs. It considers the common underlying conditions of the epidemic, such as malnutrition, unclean water, poverty, illness such as TB, malaria and dysentery, and poor lifestyle choices.”
The link goes to a six minute trailer. Please watch on YouTube, rate it and/or leave a comment ... and if interested, order the DVD here.
Soaring Demand for Crop-Based Biofuels Raising Food Costs Woldwide
"Soaring prices for farm goods, driven in part by demand for crop-based fuels, are pushing up the price of food world-wide and unleashing a new source of inflationary pressure. The rise in food prices is already causing distress among consumers in some parts of the world -- especially relatively poor nations like India and China. If the trend gathers momentum, it could contribute to slower global growth by forcing consumers to spend less on other items or spurring central banks to fight inflation by raising interest rates."
Aircar to be manufactured in India
ata Motors, India largest automotive company, on Feb. 5, 2007 announced that it has signed an agreement with Moteur Development International (MDI) of France, inventors of the car, to develop a car that runs on compressed air, thus making it very economical to run and be almost totally pollution free. This technology competes with the electric car. The claimed advantage of compressed air over electric storage is that it is less expensive, has a faster recharge time and pressure vessels have a longer lifetime compared to batteries.
Bigelow Aerospace Aims for an International Market
Robert Bigelow, founder and president of Bigelow Aerospace, detailed his firm’s business agenda for space at the 23rd National Space Symposium. Speaking in front of a backdrop which read, “Making Orbital Dreams Reality,” Bigelow said it is a misnomer to consider his company as a space hotel company. Rather, it should be viewed as a wholesaler of destinations in space, he said. “What we’re out to do is try and identify maybe 50 or 60 countries…to provide them “hang time” – a term he identified as the activity of foreign nation’s astronauts flying for four weeks in a Bigelow Aerospace-provided orbital complex, conducting that nation’s experiments or other activities and returning those individuals to Earth after their respective missions. “Our forecast for this service to be available is 2012.”
Economics experiment finds taste for equality
The results suggest that a form of material egalitarianism is more than just a long-held ideal of utopian philosophers and political theorists. With not only self-interest but also group cooperation removed as factors, people still, at a cost to themselves, gave money to the poorest players and took it away from the richest. Fowler and colleagues believe that their experiment shows that egalitarian motives, to some extent, underlie the evolution of cooperation and reciprocity in humans.
Freedom of Speech? - Not for Germans!
... the German Government has quietly admitted that over the last twelve months it prosecuted over 18,000 Germans for offences of "right-wing extremism," of which only a few hundred involved actual violence: i.e. they prosecuted over seventeen thousand thought-crimes -- people unwitting displaying the old swastika emblem, or even worse, National Socialist ideas, and perhaps even "denying the H."
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Saturday April 14 2007
updated on Saturday December 4 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2007/04/14/quackbusters_fda_and_food_as_fuel_newsgrabs_14_april_2007.htm
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