Europe: Herbal Medicine in Distress - Health Supreme NewsGrabs Monday, 8 March 2010
Europe: Traditional Herbal Medicines in Legislative Distress
When the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive was passed in 2004, many herbal producers, including those producing herbs for the great and ancient traditions of Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine, saw the Directive as a ‘godsend’. Here was a piece of law that would give these herbal products a proper medicinal classification, meaning they could actually be used to help make sick people healthier.Actually it did not turn out this way. The medicinal registration process is a hurdle so difficult to take that not one product of the prolific Ayurvedic and Chinese herbal traditions has successfully navigated its pitfalls. Even Europe's own herbal tradition is not in much better shape.This shows what happens when the pharmaceutical lobby convinces legislators to "regulate" their competition. The Alliance for Natural Health is working to change this obviously insane law by proposing amendments and, failing this, to mount a legal challenge to it.
USA: Senator McCain Defends Dietary Supplement Proposal
"Opponents have stated that the legislation would seek to limit consumers' ability to purchase dietary supplements, vitamins, or prescription drugs. That is completely false . If you take a vitamin now, this bill will in no way restrict your ability to take that vitamin."McCain clearly hasn't read his own bill. Perhaps he needs a plain English version...
Well, the latest news is that McCain has withdrawn support for that bill (see next link just after this one). So the question becomes: Who wrote the bill for him? I guess he is not going to trust those people in the future...
USA: McCain Withdraws Support For Dietary Supplement Safety Act
A Senate staffer confirmed that Sen. John McCain no longer supports a bill he introduced to significantly tighten regulatory requirements for dietary supplements.McCain offered the Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010, S. 3002, in February. The Arizona Republican will now collaborate with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, on revised legislation that allegedly provides for transparency and safety within the supplement industry but without the intensive regulatory intervention proposed in S. 3002. No timeline is set for introduction of a new bill.
Bacterial balance keeps us healthy
The thousands of bacteria, fungi and other microbes that live in our gut are essential contributors to our good health. They break down toxins, manufacture some vitamins and essential amino acids, and form a barrier against invaders. A study published today in Nature shows that, at 3.3 million, microbial genes in our gut outnumber previous estimates for the whole of the human body.... and remember - antibiotics kill those beneficial bacteria, leaving us weaker after each "cure".
Pharmacologic ascorbic acid concentrations selectively kill cancer cells: action as a pro-drug to deliver hydrogen peroxide to tissues
Human pharmacokinetics data indicate that i.v. ascorbic acid (ascorbate) in pharmacologic concentrations could have an unanticipated role in cancer treatment. Our goals here were to test whether ascorbate killed cancer cells selectively, and if so, to determine mechanisms, using clinically relevant conditions.Although ascorbate addition to medium generated H(2)O(2), ascorbate addition to blood generated no detectable H(2)O(2) and only trace detectable ascorbate radical. Taken together, these data indicate that ascorbate at concentrations achieved only by i.v. administration may be a pro-drug for formation of H(2)O(2), and that blood can be a delivery system of the pro-drug to tissues. These findings give plausibility to i.v. ascorbic acid in cancer treatment, and have unexpected implications for treatment of infections where H(2)O(2) may be beneficial.
Translation: Vitamin C was found to selectively kill cancer cells while not affecting normal cells in this experiment.Why is this therapy not in general use yet - what are we waiting for?
Cancer expert says treatment is the problem
Max Wicha is coming to Pittsburgh today to deliver a startling message.Standard cancer treatments not only often fail to eradicate cancer, but can make it worse.
That argument isn't coming from a fringe proponent of alternative medicine, but from the founder of the University of Michigan's Comprehensive Cancer Center and a pioneer in research on why cancers recur and spread to other parts of the body.
SWEET POISON - ASPARTAME
(link from stephentvedten.blogspot.com - blog censored by Blogger. Check out his other site at http://www.stephentvedten.com/ )
In October of 2001, my sister started getting very sick. She had stomach spasms and she was having a hard time getting around. Walking was a major chore. It took everything she had just to get out of bed; she was in so much pain...
Big Pharma trying to prevent long-term safety studies of ADHD drugs Ritalin, Concerta
by Janne Larsson
The companies producing methylphenidate products (like Ritalin and Concerta) are normally competitors, marketing ADHD as a disease and the narcotic drugs as its solution. But when they are threatened with marketing restrictions they have a common interest....the manufacturers were ordered [by the EU Commission] to submit data how they could do long-term studies of psychiatric adverse effects (e.g. depression, hostility and psychotic reactions) and of cognitive effects (effects on learning, intellectual function) of the drugs. The answer from the pharmaceutical companies was a confidential report Feasibility Assessment of a Study of Long-term Effects of Methylphenidate on Cognition and Psychiatric Outcomes written 30 October 2009 – now made public by a Swedish court.
As stated by the manufacturers: “This information is provided on behalf of the following Marketing Authorisation Holders for methylphenidate-containing medicinal products in the EU: Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Shire, Medice and Laboratorios Rubió (also referred to as the “Consortium”).”
The document can only be characterised as an aggressive effort to explain why long-term studies about adverse psychiatric outcomes of methylphenidate treatment could not and should not be done, together with distorted facts about the beneficial long-term outcomes of drug treatment. The intention with the feasibility assessment study is clearly to stop or delay needed safety actions for methylphenidate drugs...
Decisive Safety Action Needed on Methylphenidate
Janne Larsson, the Swedish investigator and writer of the previous article, has asked the European Commission to take decisive action to clarify, once and for all, what are the damaging side effects of these drugs. Here is his letter...
Ghostbusting in Paxil Birth Defect Litigation
by Evelyn Pringle
A month before the first Paxil birth defect trial against GlaxoSmithKline was set to begin, the Associated Press ran the headline, “Glaxo Used Ghostwriting Program to Promote Paxil,” in reporting on a program called “CASPPER,” which allowed doctors to “take credit for medical journal articles mainly written by company consultants.”“Drug companies frequently hire outside firms to draft a manuscript touting a company's drug, retain a physician to sign off as the author and then find a publisher to unwittingly publish the work,” the Associated Press said on August 19, 2009. “Drug company salespeople often present medical journal articles to physicians as independent proof that their drugs are safe and effective.”
Paxil Birth Defect Cases - Six Hundred and Counting
According to Vickery, Glaxo conducted a study on Wellbutrin (bupropion), another antidepressant, after discovering a possible link to birth defects. "The review found no problems with Wellbutrin, but discovered that a significant number of mothers who had been prescribed Paxil (nearly twice as many as those who had not taken the drug) had children born with heart defects," he says.
Australia: Merck Loses Vioxx Case, Must Pay Damages
Federal Court Justice Christopher Jessup found Vioxx doubled the risk of heart attack for users and was a defective product unsuitable to treat arthritic pain under the Trades Practices Act. He told the court a 2000 clinical trial showed “worrisome and important signals” of cardiovascular risk, although he dismissed claims Merck “turned a blind eye” to the results. At the same time, he ruled that Merck’s failure to warn doctors of the risks, instead emphasising its safety, amounted to misleading conduct.
Hormone replacement therapy linked to increased lung cancer risk
Women aged 50 to 76 who take estrogen plus progestin may have an increased risk of lung cancer, according to a new study published in the pre-print online edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology."Although HRT use has declined and is not recommended except for short-term treatment of menopausal symptoms, our results indicate millions of women may remain at risk of developing lung cancer," said Chris Slatore, M.D., principal investigator and an assistant professor of medicine (pulmonary and critical care medicine) in the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center; and a member of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute.
Is the Gardasil Vaccine an Experiment on your Children?
To say that a virus is the main cause of cervical cancer is no more than a hypothesis. We all know that there are many environmental influences that cause one to have cancer. We are giving "False Hope" to parents when we state this vaccine will reduce the chances of their children getting cervical cancer. Another concern, like all the other vaccines recommended, there are no long-term safety or efficacy studies done on this vaccine and the short- term studies are of great concern.
Video: Gardasil Primer: Doctors & vaccine injured families speak out!
Vaccine injured families and Doctors speak out about the risks of Gardasil. More information on ProgressiveConvergence.com
Video: No Vaccines No Autism
http://homefirst.com/ "We have a fairly large practice. We have about 30,000 or 35,000 children that we've taken care of over the years, and I don't think we have a single case of autism in children delivered by us who never received vaccines," said Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, Homefirst's medical director who founded the practice in 1973.
Video: Migranes, Maladies and [Mobile Phone] Masts
'To watch this big piece of tower go up 30 metres from your bedroom window and know that that is going to be radiating through your home 24/7...'We all want the technology that connects us to the 21st century, but nobody wants it in their back yard.
But, as a woman interviewed in this video says: "Would you stick your head in a microwave oven?"- - -
You can contribute to these newsgrabs...
just tell me about a link to an article or a site you think is interesting. Email me at (sepp -at- lastrega -dot- com)
facebook (facebook.com/hasslberger)And, by the way, there is much more information out there...
There is a lot I cannot cover but other sources for this kind of information exist.
Dr Mercola's health blog, Mike Adams' Natural News and the One Click Group in the UK have good health information. The Dr Rath Foundation is also putting out a weekly collection of health related news. Here is the link to their Newsletter Archive.
For the influence of electromagnetic waves from radio, mobile phones and other radio emitting devices, check out the emr-updates group on Yahoo. Genetic modification and issues around agriculture and foods are reported on the Organic Consumers Association site.
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://www.whatreallyhappened.com
http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
http://www.truthout.org/- - -
and remember...
The individual is supreme and finds its way through intuition
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Monday March 8 2010
updated on Wednesday December 15 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2010/03/08/europe_herbal_medicine_in_distress_health_supreme_newsgrabs_monday_8_march_2010.htm