Placebos, Fluoride and overwhelming 'Side Effects' - NewsGrabs 6 January 2008
Health Supreme's NewsGrabs - a selection of contrary and underprivileged news in health and related sectors. Find what you may have missed - watch out for NewsGrabs.
Here is this week's selection:
Cancer-fighting agent found in beer
Studies indicated xanthohumol, found in hops, inhibits a family of enzymes that can trigger the cancer process, as well as help the body detoxify carcinogens, science newswire Ivanhoe reported Monday. Preliminary studies at Oregon State University show that xanthohumol can kill breast, colon, ovarian and prostate cancers."It's very healthy. I think the ingredients in the beer are very good," Werner Back of Brewing Technology at the Technical University of Munich.
I knew there was a good reason I like beer ;-))
His parasite theory stirs a revolution
Weinstock, 59, specializes in studying why immunological diseases - everything from hay fever and asthma to diabetes and multiple sclerosis - are on the rise in developed countries but remain relatively uncommon in undeveloped countries. He believes these diseases, many of which were almost unheard of 100 years ago, are because of changes in our environment, a lack of exposure to something. And he thinks that something may be the worms. "We realized that one thing people always had was intestinal worms," he said. "But in the mid-20th century we started deworming children in developed countries.
Is Your Doctor Prescribing Placebos?
One of the most intriguing processes in medicine is the placebo effect: the healing power of a sham therapy, when it's offered to patients with the suggestion that it will help. Neuroscientists have even observed where and how the placebo effect may work in the brain. In one recent study by University of Michigan researchers, participants who were told they would receive painkillers showed increased production of endorphins — the brain's natural pain reliever — even though they got no analgesic at all.
'Second Thoughts about Fluoride,' Reports Scientific American
After 3 years of scrutinizing hundreds of studies, a National Research Council (NRC) committee "concluded that fluoride can subtly alter endocrine function, especially in the thyroid -- the gland that produces hormones regulating growth and metabolism," reports Fagin.Fagin quotes John Doull, professor emeritus of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Kansas Medical Center, who chaired the NRC committee thusly, "The thyroid changes do worry me."
Being shy is NOT an illness - so why are we treating it with drugs?
But in a damning new book, the academic - who has an interest in the use of drugs in "borderline" mental illness - documents how a handful of psychiatrists, together with leading drug companies, have "rebranded" shyness as a mental illness called social phobia.As a result, many people are now taking pills daily that they don't need.
An estimated six million people in the UK meet the official criteria for social phobia. The worry is that many will end up on medication.
Massachusetts mandatory mental screening for 460, 000 Medicaid Children
"As of Monday, annual checkups for the nearly half a million Massachusetts children on Medicaid will carry a new requirement: Doctors must offer simple questionnaires to detect warning signs of possible mental health problems, from autism in toddlers to depression in teens. The checklists vary by age but ask questions about children's behavior - whether they are spending more time alone, seeming to have less fun, having trouble sleeping..."
Disgraced Former FDA Official Marketing Lilly Drug
Scott Gottlieb, a 33-year-old Wall Street insider known for recommending hot medical stocks, is exactly the kind of person that should be kept out of regulating drugs. But then - the FDA is kind of famous for its revolving door with the industry it regulates...
The Cost of Pushing Pills: A New Estimate of Pharmaceutical Promotion Expenditures in the United States
From this new estimate, it appears that pharmaceutical companies spend almost twice as much on promotion as they do on R&D. These numbers clearly show how promotion predominates over R&D in the pharmaceutical industry, contrary to the industry's claim. While the amount spent on promotion is not in itself a confirmation of Kefauver's depiction of the pharmaceutical industry, it confirms the public image of a marketing-driven industry and provides an important argument to petition in favor of transforming the workings of the industry in the direction of more research and less promotion.Report on the study by Pharmalot: Marketing Outstrips R&D Spending 2-1
Recreational Drugs FAR Less Likely to Kill You than Prescribed Drugs!
Recreational drugs, including cocaine and heroin, are responsible for an estimated 10,000-20,000 American deaths per year [1,2]. While this represents a serious public health problem, it is a "smokescreen" for America's real drug problem. America's "war on drugs" is directed at the wrong enemy. It is obvious that interdiction, stiff mandatory sentences, and more vigorous enforcement of drug laws have failed.
A Potpourri of Health and Alt Medicine-Related News as Another Year is Almost History
by Peter Barry Chowka, a widely published writer and investigative journalist who writes about politics, health care, and the media. Between 1992 and 1994, he was an advisor to the National Institutes of Health. His Web site is: http://chowka.com
Wall Street Journal gives Big Pharma a bitter pill
Shed a tear for the pharmaceutical industry. Its golden age is on the wane.
Learning disability drug warning
Doctors are being warned not to routinely give people with learning disabilities anti-psychotic drugs to curb aggressive behaviour. An Imperial College London study of 86 patients found the drugs were no more effective than being given none at all. Researchers said it was more important to address the underlying causes. In the UK, 200,000 people with learning disabilities are given anti-psychotic drugs ...
Risperdal Side Effects
Between 2004 and 2006 the FDA MedWatch program received 4,956 Individual Safety Reports naming Risperdal (risperidone) the Primary Suspect Drug for 1,935 distinct adverse reactions including abnormal respiration, respiratory arrest, respiratory distress, respiratory failure and respiratory tract infection.
All 1,935 Risperdal side effects are listed below in alphabetical order."This is not a complete list of possible side effects." You've heard those words many times, but have you wondered what a COMPLETE list of side effects would look like? Well now you can see for yourself...
Side Effects Made Simple: Shopper's Guide to 22 Worthless Drugs
Click on drug name to view complete list of side effects (aka adverse events) sorted alphabetically for your shopping convenience.
Is death an acceptable side effect?
Would you take a medicine that listed death as a possible side effect? Lots of people do. If you read drug ads in popular magazines, you might end up wondering who would ever beg a doctor for a prescription.
More 'Guinea Pig' Kids
An ongoing investigation by the Vera Institute of Justice, has uncovered 59 additional New York City foster care children--between July and September--who may have been used in AIDS drug / vaccine trials in violation of federal regulations. This brings the tentative total number of mostly minority children involved, to 773.
Book: "Overtreated" by Shannon Brownlee
"We spend between one fifth and one third of our health care dollars," writes Ms. Brownlee, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and former writer for U.S. News & World Report, "on care that does nothing to improve our health." Worst of all, overtreatment often causes harm, because even the safest procedures bring some risk. One study found that a group of Medicare patients admitted to high-spending hospitals were 2 to 6 percent more likely to die than a group admitted to more conservative hospitals.
Scientist who claimed GM crops could solve Third World hunger admits he got it wrong
Professor Sir David King recently caused uproar with his assertion that GM crops could help feed the hungry of the Third World. He called on the Government to campaign for the adoption of GM technology and said the Daily Mail's campaigning stance against it was holding up progress. Yesterday however he was accused of "letting off blasts of hot and sometimes rancid air" after it emerged his latest GM crop claims were wildly innaccurate.
Video: Tens of millions of birds disappearing across North America
Is it agriculture crowding out bird habitats, deforestation, pollution, pesticides and chemtrails, or perhaps does out electromagnetic environment get too saturated with microwaves for the birds to live?
New efficient bulb sees the light
Experts have found a way to make Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) brighter. The project, being developed along with the Institute of Photonics at the University of Strathclyde, involves making microscopic holes in the surface of LEDs to increase the level of light they give off.
Mass complaint filed against German anti-terror law
The law, which goes into effect Tuesday, requires telecommunications firms to keep detailed records for six months of telephone calls and Internet use including the date and time of use and who contacted whom. Data from mobile phones are also to include the location of the callers.Berlin attorney Meinhard Starostik, who filed the complaint on behalf of civil rights activists and Internet users, told AFP he was optimistic the court would strike down the law, saying there were "weighty constitutional arguments" against the measures.
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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 another great place to get information on what is happening in the world of nutrition and other natural health options.
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.
Some more sites to keep up to date with the other side of world affairs, the stuff you won't find on tv:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com
http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.vialls.com/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
http://rawstory.com/
http://www.truthout.org/And remember ...
"The individual is supreme and finds its way through intuition."
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Sunday January 6 2008
updated on Wednesday August 15 2012URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2008/01/06/placebos_fluoride_and_overwhelming_side_effects_newsgrabs_6_january_2008.htm