Slimming Medicine: FDA asked to Eliminate Supplements - NewsGrabs 1 June 2008
Slimming Claims are Medical: Petition to FDA
The American Dietetic Association, the American Diabetes Association, the Obesity Society, and pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) have filed a Citizen Petition with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reclassify all dietary-supplement weight-loss claims as disease claims. It should be noted that in the Petition, GlaxoSmithKline freely states that it has and provides unrestricted grants to all of these groups.So we have an actual instance of disease mongering here. Pharma is declaring being overweight a disease, and is quite openly going after that pesky competition of food supplements by asking the FDA for a change of rules.I wonder whether anti-trust laws could swing into action here...
Canada: Standing Committee on Health on Bills C-51 & 52
Canadian Coalition for Health Freedom is the only group advocating our nutrients be treated as foods - no smoke and mirrors of third category or such that some are pushing for their own self serving interests. There clearly is no need for separating nutrients from foods as they, in the main, are already covered under our food regulations and are a safer subset of foods.An interesting point of view. We know foods are determining our health, so why make a separate legislative category for foods that are specially healthy? Nutrients are still foods, and like all other foods, they are determining our state of health.
Kiss And Make It Better? A Placebo Pill For Kids
Buettner, 40, who lives in Severna Park, Maryland, with her husband and two children, envisioned a tablet that would empower parents to do something tangible for minor ills and reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics and other meds. So she founded Efficacy Brands, which next week will sell chewable, cherry-flavored dextrose tablets, Obecalp, for placebo spelled backward.Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.
Bicarbonate 'could detect cancer'
Bicarbonate is involved in the body's balancing of acid and alkali. But cancerous tissue is known to turn it into carbon dioxide. The Cancer Research UK team found MRI scans were able to track changes in the chemical and therefore identify cancers even in the very early stages. Almost all cancer has a lower pH, meaning it is more acidic than surrounding tissue.The bicarbonate may have a "side effect". According to Italian oncologist Tullio Simoncini, bicarbonate will actually dissolve a tumor by inhibiting fungal growth. So rather than just providing a diagnostic tool, perhaps the bicarbonate marking of tumors could lead to a better cure...
Jane Goodall: Just Say No To Animal Testing
The world-famous primate expert and other scientists appealed to European Union officials today to end the testing of animals for science and medical research. “We need to recognize at the outset that what we do to animals from their perspective certainly, and probably from ours, is morally wrong and unacceptable,” Goodall says, according to the Associated Press.She presented a petition with 150,000 names to lawmakers at the European Parliament that calls on lawmakers and the EU’s executive office to find testing methods that do not involve animals.
Common Herbicide Disrupts Human Hormone Activity
Common herbicide disrupts human hormone activity Atrazine affects the endocrine systems of zebrafish at levels lower than U.S. drinking-water standards-and impacts human cells in tissue cultures. The second most widely used herbicide in the U.S. could cause serious problems for both fish and humans, according to new research.
Diet Coke to drop additive in DNA damage fear
Coca-Cola is phasing out a controversial additive that has been linked to damage to DNA and hyperactivity in children. Sodium benzoate, also known as E211, is used to stop fizzy drinks going mouldy.Here's what sufficient consumer pressure will do. Coke is already working to replace the artificial sweetener aspartame with a natural extract from the stevia plant, and now this - eliminate the sodium benzoate preservative, which likes to turn into toxic benzene if subjected to heat.
Canada: Family seed business takes on Goliath of genetic modification
For Meek and partner Frederic Sauriol, propagating local varieties is part of a David and Goliath struggle by small farmers against big seed companies. At stake, they believe, is no less than control of the world's food supply.Developing new seed varieties was long a congenial affair where federal government scientists shared information and distributed samples to farmers for testing, says Kuyek, a researcher for GRAIN, an international non-profit organization that promotes agricultural biodiversity. But in the 1980s, he says, the federal government began privatizing agricultural research.
US: Field studies find lower productivity with GM seeds
Last week the biggest study of its kind ever conducted – the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development – concluded that GM was not the answer to world hunger. Professor Bob Watson, the director of the study and chief scientist at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when asked if GM could solve world hunger, said: “The simple answer is no.”
Starving People for Profit: GM Foods the Problem, Not The Solution
The food crisis has prompted some looks towards genetically modified food production as a solution. That in turn has led to stronger warnings over the consequences of such food for health and the environment.Feeding the debate, scientists, farmers and environmental activists in many countries continue to warn that genetically modified agriculture presents a risk, and not a contribution, to food production.
Pesticides raising diabetes risk?
(link from stephentvedten.blogspot.com - blog censored by Blogger)
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health in the US studied more than 31 000 licensed pesticide applicators participating in the Agricultural Health Study. Five years after enrolling in the study, 1 176 had developed type 2 diabetes. Among the 50 different pesticides the researchers looked at, half were chlorinated, and 7 of these were tied to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. They are: aldrin, chlordane, heptachlor, dichlorvos, trichlorfon, alachlor, and cyanazine.
Chantix Causes Traffic Accident, Passengers Almost Die
Troubling news just keeps rolling on Chantix, the stop smoking drug, which was last week banned for use by pilots and air traffic controllers by the FAA and was also banned for use by commercial bus and trucks drivers due to the recent warnings about erratic behavior caused by this drug.Now, the Los Angeles Times reports about a Louisiana man who, two days after starting the drug, had his eyes roll back in his head while he was driving his truck with a woman. Then he steered the truck right into a bayou and the pair likely came close to losing their lives.
Truckers Banned From Chantix Use
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which regulates commercial trucking and bus driver licenses interstate, today issued a warning about Chantix, the stop smoking drug which yesterday was the subject of a ban by the FAA. The warning advised medical examiners for the agency "to not qualify anyone currently using this medication for commercial motor vehicle licenses."
Bayer & Glaxo Linked To Bribes In Italy
A drug licences-for-cash scandal has engulfed Italy’s medicines regulatory agency with leading officials arrested along with people linked to major drugmakers, PharmaTimes writes. The most senior figure to have been held is Pasqualino Rossi, vp of Aifa, the Italian Agency for Pharmaceuticals, and one of Italy’s most senior reps at the European Medicines Agency.Five lobbyists have also been arrested, and an eighth person is being sought. Arrest warrants were issued after an investigating judge saw a 400-word police report suggesting money had changed hands in return for falsifying clinical data required for drug licences ...
Disease Mongering Is Now Part of the Global Health Debate
Disease mongering is the selling of sickness that widens the boundaries of illness in order to grow markets for those who sell and deliver treatments. It is a process that turns healthy people into patients, causes iatrogenic harm, and wastes precious resources. Disease mongering is the contemporary form of “medicalisation.” It is a process now driven by both corporate and professional interests, and it has become part of the global debate about health care. International consumer groups now target drug company–backed disease mongering as a wasteful threat to public health, while the global pharmaceutical industry has been forced to defend its promotion of “lifestyle” medicines for problems like slimming and sexual difficulties.
Online gallery of modern and vintage psychiatric drug advertising
Dr. Bonkers presents The Nearly Genuine and Truly Marvelous Psychoneuropharmacological Mental Medicine Show
Doctor Challenges Profit-Driven Medical System While Bringing Healthcare to Poor Communities Worldwide
An Amy Goodman interview with Dr. Paul Farmer, Professor of medical anthropology at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Partners in Health, a charity that provides free medical care, starting in central Haiti but now branching out to several poor countries."Well, you know, when generics were brought in, the initial response of some of the industry was to bring lawsuits against African countries. I mean, and this happened again recently with Thailand, as you may recall. This is just last year. And it was an unwise move as a PR move, certainly, because the sympathies of a lot of people did not lie with the pharmaceutical industry, but rather with these emaciated people who were just trying to survive."
"And so, by the time the Global Fund, which became one of the first multinational funders of AIDS prevention and care, came about—that was 2002—the pharmaceutical industry was not in its combative stance with us anymore. And I think, in fact, you know, as far as I can tell, pharmaceutical industries are still peopled by people. So, you know, we can bring them on board. We can move them forward. But we have to have a strategy that involves generic medication. "
UK: more to get cholesterol drug
The number of adults prescribed cholesterol-busting statin drugs in England and Wales is set to soar under new national guidelines. GPs are being asked to trawl through patient records to pick out "high-risk" patients who would benefit from them. The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) estimate 1.5m extra adults will get treatment.Wonder how, in view of the extremely unpleasant and apparently quite frequent side effects, and the lack of proven efficacy, such an increase in prescriptions is justified. In other words, how much did it cost the manufacturers of those drugs to "convince" the regulatory authority?
Study: Antipsychotics Killing, Injuring Elderly With Dementia At Shocking Rate
The study was broken down into two main groups--those living in the community and those in nursing homes--and three subgroups--those getting no antipsychotics, those getting second generation antipsychotics and those getting first generation antipsychotics. The study was based upon the medical records of about 43,000 patients with dementia between 1997 and 2004.Dementia patients who lived in the community and got a second generation antipsychotic were 3.2 times more likely to die or be hospitalized than patients who got no antipsychotic. With a first generation antipsychotic the rate jumped to 3.8 times. And the deaths and hospitalizations were occurring within 30 days of getting the drugs.
European Medicines Agency: Prozac For 8-Year-Olds
Children as young as eight may soon be able to use the antidepressant drug, Prozac, following a recommendation by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA).Unbelievable.
Alert: Mainstream Media Attempts to Bury Homeopathy
Consumer Reports journalist, Doug Podolsky, took a stab at homeopathy in the recent issue of Consumer Reports. Despite over two-hundred years of successful use for a variety of ailments, homeopathy is quackery, according to Podolsky who writes, "Check whether over-the-counter products are labeled homeopathic. If they are, we think you should put them back on the shelf."Podolsky's Consumer Reports piece references a 2005 study indicating homeopathy is ineffective, but he fails to mention the study has since been debunked. Unfortunately, due to the prestige of Consumer Reports, the article has already gone viral, as marketing firms and pharmaceutical companies spread it far and wide in an attempt to snuff competition from the natural health world.
SICK MONKEYS: RESEARCH LINKS VACCINE LOAD, AUTISM SIGNS
Although couched in scientific language, Hewitson's findings are explosive. They suggest, for the first time, that our closest animal cousins develop characteristics of autism when subjected to the same immunizations – such as the MMR shot -- and vaccine formulations – such as the mercury preservative thimerosal -- that American children received when autism diagnoses exploded in the 1990s.
HIV, AZT, big science & clinical failure -
AZT: AN AIDS DEFINING DRUG part 1
This is an older article by Martin Walker. It explains how AZT was approved for use in AIDS patients and how the use of highly toxic AZT as a drug of choice in treating anyone testing positive to "HIV" may have re-enforced the unfounded hypothesis that AIDS is caused by a dangerous virus.
Scientists image a single HIV particle being born
Unlike a classical microscope, which shines light through a whole cell, the technique called total internal reflection microscopy only illuminates the cell’s surface where HIV assembles. “The result is that you can see, in exquisite detail, only events at the cell surface. You never even illuminate anything inside of the cell so you can focus on what you are interested in seeing the moment it is happening,” says Simon, professor and head of the Laboratory of Cellular Biophysics.So the formation of viral particles was observed in detail.What tells us that (1) those are HIV viral particles and (2) that those particles are "infective"?
Scientists Rail Against AIDS Dissent
At the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto in 2006 there was a panel entitled, "HIV Science and Responsible Journalism." There seemed to be a big problem. Independent journalists all over the place were challenging "establishment scientific theories." Let's see.The agenda of that panel seemed to be, "We scientists are right and those journalists are wrong so how do we rid the world of them and their insulting questions and poisonous claims?"
Video: Infectious Diseases and Public Health Policy
Dr Jonas Moses interviews Andrew Maniotis, PhD, Director of the Laboratory for Cell and Developmental Biology of Cancer at the University of Illinois, Chicago, Rodney Richards, PhD - Public Health Policy analyst and Research Scientist and Ms. Audrey Serrano, who was falsely diagnosed as HIV positive and who sued her doctor and won. The discussion centers around how to move on from a failed infective paradigm of Aids to actually saving people's lives. It's a series of 6 YouTube videos.
A SMALL HITCH IN THE (AIDS) BANDWAGON?
Perhaps free-market economics can slow the bandwagon?But I am not holding my breath. Too many careers and livelihoods depend on the disproportionate attention paid to HIV/AIDS. And what happens to drug sales and profits if TB, malaria, intestinal worms, malnutrition, become the focus? All those can be handled at far less expense than the provision of toxic antiretroviral drugs.
Glaxo 'downplayed' warning on heart-attack risk from Aids drug
The multinational drugs company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) downplayed an early warning about the rising number of people who have suffered potentially fatal heart attacks following the use of its £600m anti-Aids drug, which is taken daily by tens of thousands of people around the world.Some scientists involved with monitoring the safety of Aids drugs are privately furious with GSK for downplaying the significance of one of the biggest safety trials into abacavir – one of several anti-viral drugs taken by Aids patients as part of combined HIV therapy – when the findings were published last month.
CELL PHONE COVER-UP, IS YOUR BRAIN AT RISK?
It is always interesting to watch a handful of people take on an empire. The empire has enough money to buy votes in the governments of countries around the world, fund studies that reach conclusions it likes, suppress the publishing of information it doesn’t like (professional blackmail), parade a legion of “experts” before any court when a legal challenge is mounted, and create enough mystery about any potential problem in the minds of consumers that the net result is that nothing much is ever done.Such strategies also hijack the public health system and use it as a shield. In essence, governments are on the take from industry and the economics of the questionable industry are woven into multiple other economic benefits.
They don't just shop local in Totnes - they have their very own currency
The Totnes pound was pioneered by a group of local environmentalists led by Rob Hopkins and Naresh Giangrande. They set up a system in which £1 coins are exchanged for 1TP at one of four "change" points around Totnes. There are now 6,000 Totnes pounds in circulation and plans to introduce further denominations.The idea was partly based on a US model. "BerkShares" were launched in the Southern Berkshire region of Massachusetts in 2006.
Vandana Shiva: Why We Face Both Food and Water Crises
The globalized economic structure is simply incompatible with the basic physics of the planet and the principles of democratic governance, she says. And until we align the economic system with those of the ecological system, the problems will only get worse."India, under the perverse growth of globalization, has beaten out Africa in the number of hungry people. While we have 9.2 percent growth measured by GNP and GDP, 50 percent of our children have very severe malnutrition. Fifty percent of deaths for children under five are due to lack of food. That's about a million kids per year."
The Global War on Freedom, UK front arrests student for conducting his research
The Global War on Freedom has struck the UK front again. A graduate student at Nottingham University, Rizwaan Sabir, was arrested and held for six days because he downloaded an Al Qaeda manual from a US government web site for his research on Al Qaeda tactics. HJis friend, university staff member Hisham Yezza, whom Sabir had asked to print the 1,500 page manual to save costs, is scheduled to be deported to Algeria. If deported, Yezza is in danger of being detained and, possibly, tortured.After the "war on drugs" and the much older "war on germs", we slipped into a "war on terror" which is now, it seems, transforming into a "war on freedom".Had enough of wars yet?
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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.
...
Dr Mercola's health blog and Mike Adams' Natural News have great health information.
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:
http://therealnews.com/
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com
http://www.commondreams.org
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 June 1 2008
updated on Wednesday August 15 2012URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2008/06/01/slimming_medicine_fda_asked_to_eliminate_supplements_newsgrabs_1_june_2008.htm