(HealthDay News) — A special technique that uses laser light to sample a person’s breath can detect molecules that may be markers for a number of diseases, a U.S. study says.
This approach, called cavity-enhanced direct optical frequency comb spectroscopy, may one day help doctors screen patients for diseases such as asthma, cancer, kidney failure and diabetes, according to the team of scientists at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
“This technique can give a broad picture of many different molecules in the breath all at once,” lead researcher Jun Ye said in a prepared statement.
Optical frequency comb spectroscopy was developed in the 1990s. This study describes the potential use of the technology in detecting disease.
Each breath exhaled by a person contains more than a thousand different molecules, some of which may be indicators of disease. For example, excess levels of methylamine may indicate liver or kidney disease, ammonia may be a sign of renal failure, elevated acetone levels may indicate diabetes, and nitric oxide levels can be used to diagnose asthma.
In this study, Ye and colleagues used the technique to analyze the breaths of several volunteers. They exhaled into an optical cavity (a space between two mirrors) and a pulsed laser light was then aimed into the optical cavity. The laser light bounced back and forth between the mirrors, covering a distance of several kilometers by the time it exited the optical cavity. During this time, the laser light struck all the molecules within the cavity.
The technology was able to detect a wide range of molecules, the scientists said. The findings, published in the current issue of Optics Express, suggest this technique, which still needs to be evaluated in clinical trials, may offer a low-cost, rapid and noninvasive method of health screening, the researchers said.
More information
The American Association for Clinical Chemistry has more about health screening tests.
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Just as exercise and diet work in tandem to beat obesity, the same can be said for osteoporosis, according to a report by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (free link below).
Although osteoporosis affects about third of women and 20 percent of men over age 50, recent studies have found strengthening bone mass, especially during puberty, can build a good foundation that can last a lifetime, and exercise can be just as crucial as diet in that process.
The report cites a Finnish study that found young girls who are the most physically active can gain some 40 percent more bone mass than their more sedentary counterparts. And, a 2001 report by the foundation found the bone mass girls accumulate from ages 11-13 equals the same amount they lose during the three decades that pass after they reach menopause.
And, if you’re think exercise won’t help you with building and holding onto bone mass and keeping osteoporosis at bay once you reach your baby-boomers years, guess again, based on studies used in the report.
Jump-starting an exercise program can be frustrating, however, if you don’t know where to begin. Thankfully, I have plenty of free tools on my Web site to help you get started. My beginners exercise page includes links to other pages and a free table you can download to keep track of your progress.
International Osteoporosis Foundation October 20, 2005 Free Full Text Reports
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An interesting postscript behind the recent and sudden departure of former FDA commissioner 
Dr. Lester Crawford who lasted just two months in that role: He or his wife sold shares in companies regulated by the agency last year.
Among the companies the Crawfords owned stock in last year:
- Embrex (a biotech/agricultural company where Dr. Crawford was once a board member)
- Wal-Mart
- Wendy’s
- Kimberly-Clark
The details, first reported earlier this week by the Wall Street Journal (thanks to their Freedom of Information Act request), clear up why Dr. Crawford resigned so quickly. Sounds to me like another “business-as-usual” case of drug companies and federal regulators being way too friendly at the cost of your health and safety.
It appears we’re making a dent in reforming the conventional medical paradigm to one focused on treating the true causes of disease, and it couldn’t happen too soon for me…
New York Times October 27, 2005 Registration Required
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ExxonMobil profits were up 75 percent in the third quarter. That is nearly $10 billion. I have
not studied this at all, but if you ask me, this just doesn’t add up. The price of gas shot up beyond $3 per gallon and the oil companies — not the people who are selling oil to the oil companies — have record profits.
Two other numbers that greatly disturb me:
- Revenues have hit the stratosphere at $100 billion, a number greater than the gross domestic product (GDP) of all but 38 of the world’s economies.
- The oil industry is on a pace to earn profits approaching $100 billion too, more than this country’s industrial and telecom companies combined.
Makes you wonder what would’ve happened if Hurricanes Rita and Katrina wouldn’t have caused nearly so much trouble along the Gulf Coast where much of this country’s oil refining is done…
Sounds a bit like the shell game the mega-drugmakers use to justify “inventing” new drugs to take the place of older ones or to treat imaginary conditions.
By the way, we are getting very close to offering the capacity to allow you to post comments on this blog. I hope to have it up by the end of the year. I am sure some of you know the answer to this question, and I would really love to understand this dilemma.
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Today’s British Medical Journal features an editorial on the bird flu in which they state the following: The lack of sustained human-to-human transmission suggests that this AH5N1 avian virus does not currently have the capacity to cause a human pandemic.
While they do go on to say the virus could mutate with a influenza A virus and has the potential to acquire the means for rapid human to human transmission, it does NOT have this ability now. All the preparation and fear being created in the media is about a theoretical speculation.
I am a former Boy Scout and fully believe in being prepared, but this is nothing even close to following recommendations made by experts to New Orleans that if implemented would have saved 1,000 lives, 500,000 homes and well over $100 billion from Hurricane Katrina.
No, this is all about creating fear and panic to benefit the drug companies. Now, I am still not opposed to being prepared for this potential bird flu pandemic. It is POSSIBLE it might materialize. But if it did, there is no way that the flu vaccine or Tamiflu will mitigate its damage. No way!
If you want to know how to truly strengthen your immune system so will laugh when the flu bug or nearly any other infectious agent seeks to infect you, then start following the Total Health Program or read the quick tips I posted last year.
British Medical Journal, Vol. 331, No. 7523, October 29, 2005: 975-976 Free Full Text Article
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WiMax could receive a HUGE boost, thanks to a reported agreement between Sprint and the
Department of Defense (DoD), bringing fast, wireless and cheap Internet access to your home in the not-too-distant-future.
In an overhaul of the nation’s security infrastructure, the DoD will soon purchase Sprint’s iDEN network, so it can move its wireless communications to one encrypted wireless network. In return, Sprint will receive a huge amount of bandwidth in the 700 and 800Mhz bands to offer mobile WiMax broadband services over the next four to five years.
Here’s the kicker: Earlier this week, Sprint announced a deal to offer with cable broadband operators Comcast, Cox and Time Warner co-branded wireless services. If the Spring-DoD deal goes through as experts predict it will, cable operators will be better positioned to compete with telephony giants like SBC to offer fast WiMax connections and more cheaply too.
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Some of the more amusing and popular pieces I’ve posted on my Web site this year are the
humorous columns written by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger.
This time, Mike skewers the pharmaceutical drug culture surrounding us by adding a few new terms you may or may not see some day in your Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary:
- Medheads who take so many prescription drugs their brains stay foggy all the time.
- Black boxers are patients who ignore the safety warnings on the useless drugs they purchase in the pursuit of short-term relief from what ails them at the moment.
- Fictitious diseases are those fabricated by the mega-pharmaceuticals merely to create new markets and products.
- The Wall, being the place most medheads and black boxers hang out and buy their drugs to treat their fictitious diseases.
If you want a good laugh, take a look at Mike’s full list by clicking on the link below.
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A good incentive to take control of your health and weight immediately: Diabetes affects nearly
21 million Americans, according to the 2005 National Diabetes Fact Sheet released yesterday by the CDC, but almost a third of them don’t even know they have it…
Even worse, an estimated 41 million Americans suffer from pre-diabetes, a condition that can increase your risk of type 2 diabetes. Other facts that ought to make you pay attention:
- This country spends an amazing $132 billion annually on diabetes alone.
- Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death in America.
- Your risk of succumbing to diabetes increases as you get older. More than 20 percent of Americans over age 60 suffer from it already.
- An estimated 1.5 million people (older than age 20) will be diagnosed with diabetes this year.
Here’s some simple steps you can take If you want to stay ahead of the game and don’t have diabetes, or to help you gain control over it if you do:
- Get the right amount of sleep.
- Retool your diet based on body’s unique metabolic type.
- Start an exercise program today.
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Teeth whitening is the most requested cosmetic procedure performed in this country, according
to Dr. Lina Garcia (who practices biological dentistry and works with me at the Optimal Wellness Center). And, it can be dangerous and damaging to your teeth and health too.
Hydrogen and carabamide peroxide are used in various concentrations in combination with lasers to create enough force to whiten teeth that can also hurt them as well as your gums. Other problems associated with whitening:
- Sensitivity
- Calcium loss
- Tooth enamel decay
- Damaging nerves and losing teeth
Here’s why those peroxide agents can do so much damage to your health: U.S. standards allow 30 times the concentration of peroxide than the upper limit (0.1 percent) established by the European Community Cosmetic Directive.
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If you want to know why I urge you so often to restrict your kid’s TV time, here’s a good 
reason: A British study found the more TV kids watched on weekends, the greater risk they had of becoming obese.
Researchers studied the health of more than 11,000 children born in 1970 through age 30 to determine if the timing and kind of TV programs kids watched as well as their moms’ attitudes toward the “idiot box” affected their weight as adults.
Although parental attitudes, weekday TV viewing or the kind of shows kids watched had no effect on obesity, each hour children spent on weekends in front of the tube increased their risk of obesity at age 30 by 7 percent.
However, another study in the same journal doesn’t let parents off the hook for their bad habits. Forty percent of the 173 girls (ages 9-11) studied watched more than two hours of TV a day, exceeding the American Academy of Pediatrics looser standards. Girls who typically watched more than two hours a day weren’t limited by their parents (and did more of it together as a family) and leaned on it as a vital recreational activity.
The latter study certainly matches statistics I posted here earlier this year in which only 23 percent of parents restricted their child’s media viewing habits.
If you’re looking for things to do with your child that have nothing at all to do with sitting in front of a TV, I urge you to review a comprehensive list I posted last year that can help you stem the tide of obesity in your home.
Journal of Pediatrics, Vol. 147, No. 4, October 2005: 429-435
Journal of Pediatrics, Vol. 147, No. 4, October 2005: 436-442
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Major congratulations are in order to the Chicago White Sox on capturing their first World Series in 88 years. I am not a huge baseball fan, but am a life-long Chicago resident being born here and attending kindergarten to post graduate medical training so it was wonderful to see the Chicago White Sox capture the World Series.
The media made a great deal out of Boston winning after such a long drought but the White Sox hadn’t won a World Series Championship for two years longer than Boston. We still have the Cubs streak to deal with, the longest drought in professional sports, nearing 100 years.
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Thanks to pressure from the FDA’s true constituents — drug company executives — along with, surprisingly, academia and patient advocate groups, the agency will back away from their previous plan to require long-term studies of new psychiatric drugs before they’re approved for market.
The now-dead plan called for drug companies to conduct studies for up to six months before submitting new drugs to the FDA for their approval, which mirrored the way regulators in the European Union operate (also because doctors typically prescribe antidepressants for long periods of time).
Despite the concerns, a federal panel — unanimously and emphatically — rejected the FDA’s longer, more deliberate time table for approving such drugs.
News like this merely re-enforces just how broken this conventional health care model truly is, and why more people are taking better responsibility for their health by seeking alternative methods that treat their conditions more safely.
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If you ever wondered why I’m so concerned about the health dangers tied to the rampant use of soy products — especially in processed foods — twin infant brothers living in Brooklyn may have died from porridge made from EdenSoy Extra milk and cornmeal their mother bought at a local supermarket.
Because medical examiners found no evidence of choking as a result of consuming the food, or any signs of foul play, New York police cleaned out two nearby supermarkets of EdenSoy milk and cornmeal for testing.
Even though the results aren’t yet available, this isn’t the first time soy milk has been investigated for its toxic side effects. Separate incidents in California and Arkansas prompted the FDA to issue a 1990 warning against using soy milk as a formula substitute. Most brands have followed the tougher FDA labeling guidelines, except EdenSoy, says Dr. Kaayla T. Daniel, author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food.
In fact, the deaths of three infants prompted the Israeli Health Ministry to issue a health advisory earlier this year, recommending babies not be fed soy formula — except as a last resort — and severely limiting a child’s intake of soy products.
Please, please breastfeed your baby if possible, as it is the healthiest source of milk you can give to your infant. I believe very strongly all soy formula should be avoided and is not fit for human consumption. But, if you can’t, seek out a local dairy farmer in your area via the Real Milk Web site who sells raw milk, a safer and far healthier alternative to pasteurized milk.
NYNewsDay.com October 22, 2005
New York Times October 21, 2005 Registration Required
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Earlier this year, I reviewed a little-discussed side effect of the obesity epidemic that could be
hurting many of you daily: How all those extra pounds hamper your ability to earn a better salary. Folks, the damage you may be doing to your health and career may be far worse than you think…
A study conducted by Personnel Today (free text link below) found a great many sobering perceptions felt by many of some 2,000 British human resources professionals polled. These numbers, particularly if you’re fighting a losing battle with obesity, should scare you.
- When given a choice between identically qualified candidates — one being obese, and the other of a normal weight — 93 percent chose the latter based on the extra pounds.
- Fifteen percent would be less likely prone to promote an obese employee.
- Almost half of the respondents believe obesity affects an employee’s work output.
- More than 10 percent believe obese workers shouldn’t be hired for jobs that entail client contact.
- Close to a third believe obesity is a valid reason not to hire someone.
The best way to avoid being victimized by such narrow thinking is by taking a safe and proven path to optimize the health of your mind and body, with the help of free resources available on my Web site. Some great ways to get started on the path toward optimal health:
- Retool your daily diet based on your body’s unique metabolic type.
- Catch up on your sleep.
- Begin to resolve the troubles that led you to this low place by learning a proven energy psychology tool like the Emotional Freedom Technique.
- Start an exercise program today!
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Viagra — the impotence drug responsible for blinding patients — could be used one day soon to treat heart failure, based on a Johns Hopkins study.
This latest news comes on the heels of previous work that found Viagra reversed the damage done by hypertrophy, a condition in which heart muscles are weakened by heart failure and enlargement, in mice.
To approximate heart problems, 35 healthy men and women were injected twice with dobutamine (a drug that increases one’s heart rate and pumping strength) over three hours. In between the dobutamine injections, patients were given a placebo or Viagra. Scientists found Viagra had slowed heartbeats in those who took it by 50 percent.
This “good news” has led researchers to test Viagra’s effectiveness further in a clinical trial on patients with heart failure. Unfortunately, folks, this is a great “real world” example of how conventional medicine will throw drugs at a condition in a vain attempt to “cure” it at the drop of a hat, and ignore safer, better treatments.
In fact, one of the more effective treatments for heart disease is exercise. That costs you and your body nothing more than the time you put into it, and, certainly, not your eyesight.
Besides, if erectile dysfunction drugs were really safe, Public Citizen probably wouldn’t be asking the FDA to add black-box labels to Viagra, Cialis and Levitra, warning potential victims about their risk of non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) — sudden vision loss when blood flow to the optic nerve is blocked.
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How Exercise Benefits Asthmatics
People who suffer from asthma may be unnecessarily avoiding the benefits exercise provides, 
according to a recent review of 13 studies, involving more than 450 patients above age 8.
Although exercise can trigger asthma attacks in some patients, scientists found those who exercised regularly increased their ability to take in oxygen and improved their ventilation, leading to better cardiopulmonary fitness.
Among the significant benefits asthmatic patients enjoyed, thanks to 20-30-minute aerobic sessions at least twice a week for four weeks:
- Maximum oxygen uptake
- Maximum heart rate
- Work capacity
- Maximum ventilation
Just another great example of the wonderful way exercise works like a drug that needs to be precisely prescribed to achieve maximum benefits. Most people believe, however, if they merely invest some time, somehow exercise will magically give them all the benefits they’re seeking.
To achieve the incredible benefits exercise has to offer, it needs to provide a significant cardiovascular stress to induce biochemical changes, like increasing mitochondria in the muscle to burn fat while one is sleeping.
If you need guidance to get started on an exercise plan, I urge you to review recent articles written by contributing editors and well-known experts Ben Lerner and Paul Chek.
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If you expect fast-food chains to pay for your poor health choices in the courts, guess again. Multi-national fast-food chains may control the prime real estate near your child’s school, but they won’t be penalized for it in the courts, if Congress has anything to say about it.
Last week, the House passed — by an overwhelming majority — the Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act, nicknamed the “cheeseburger bill,” that would ban obesity-related lawsuits by consumers against food manufacturers and restaurant chains.
Although 20 states have laws on the books protecting companies from such lawsuits, Capitol Hill supporters said the intent of the “cheeseburger bill” is to force Americans to take personal responsibility for an obesity epidemic with no apparent end in sight.
For the record, this is the second time the House has passed such legislation. Last year, however, the Senate never considered the bill and observers believe that could happen again with a logjam of legislation for them to considered before a Thanksgiving recess.
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A proposed depression “patch,” another strange way to treat this harmful condition (but not as
insane as placing a pacemaker in your brain), currently being considered by the FDA may come with a black box warning if it’s approved.
Drugmakers Bristol-Myers Squibb and Somerset Pharmaceuticals are hoping to avoid the label for Emsam, a monoamine oxidase inhibitor in the form of a depression patch to be marketed to treat difficult cases of depression by psychiatrists rather than doctors.
The drug already merits strong warnings about the heart disease risks attached to its use from eating heavily processed foods such as dairy products and smoked meats that contain tyramine.
The dispute stems from companies balking at a black box warning for Emsam in its lowest “effective” dose: 20 mg.
Fact is, you don’t need a potentially toxic drug to treat your depression safely and effectively, if you’re willing to make some simple lifestyle modifications.
- Start moving today with an exercise program.
- Begin to balance your intake of omega-3 and omega-6 fats by taking a high quality fish or cod liver oil daily.
- Eliminate sugars and grains from your diet.
- Learn the Emotional Freedom Technique, the effective energy psychology tool I use in my practice.
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That demanding, insensitive boss you believe is treating you unfairly and badly — ramping up 
that costly stress you feel every day — can be killing you, albeit very, very slowly, according to a study of civil servants in the U.K.
Researchers tracked the incidence of heart disease over a decade in some 6,400 males who were asked how fairly they were being treated, or not, in the workplace. The numbers speak for themselves: Employees who felt their bosses treated them with a high level of fairness were 30 percent less likely to succumb to coronary heart disease, than those who didn’t, something I warned you about seven years ago.
The fairness factors that come into play in the workplace, according to the study:
- Treating employees truthfully and fairly.
- Respecting their opinions.
- Sharing information about decisions that affect them.
Here’s the real kicker: One U.S. labor expert believes a comparable study in our country would reveal even more serious problems due to a longer work day.
Just more evidence of the vital and powerful link between emotional stress and its effect on one’s health. Since it may not be possible for you to change jobs immediately, the best thing you can do today to better handle the stress you’re feeling is to learn some new tools to help you compensate for the bioelectrical short-circuiting that can cause serious disruption in many of your body’s important systems.
One invaluable tool I’ve used to deal with stress is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), the energy psychology tool I use daily in my practice. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and stressed, I urge you to learn EFT with the help of my free manual.
Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 165, No. 19, October 24, 2005: 2245-2251 Free Full Text Article
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The FDA’s Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee wasted little time late last week to determine antibacterial formulations are no better than ordinary soap and water for fighting illness, something I’ve been telling you about since 1998.
You’re probably also aware — besides being completely unnecessary — antibacterials frequently do more harm than good, because the compounds found in most of these soaps contribute to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In fact, antibacterial soaps didn’t reduce the number of infections in households versus soap and water, according to the panel’s review of existing studies.
Although the committee recommended no immediate regulatory action be taken, they agreed the FDA should investigate the health risks of antibacterials versus the benefits. The agency certainly has the authority to require warning labels on these products and place restrictions on how they are marketed, but how, if and when that happens is anyone’s guess.
If you’re at all uncertain about antibacterial soaps, remember this: Triclosan, the active ingredient in most antibacterial soaps, kills human cells along with the bacteria.
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Baby boomers appear to be taking better care of themselves than previous generations ever 
did. Many have planned well for their retirement and are dealing with their health issues aggressively. In fact, the U.S. Census Bureau predicts by 2050, more than a million Americans will be centenarians (count me among them). That’s certainly good news.
What happens, however, when that avalanche of aging baby boomers begins tapping into Social Security and Medicare, underpriced and oversold social programs?
USA Today, one of my favorite newspapers in the world, hit this theme hard this morning in their week-long series, “Living Longer, Living Better” (free text link below).
One of the interesting facts that came up in the piece: Seniors who live longer, albeit through medical intervention — for example taking useless drugs like statins to regulate their cholesterol levels or using gastric bypass to tame their obesity — are a big drain to government programs like Medicare and Social Security.
Here’s a great quote that sums up the dilemma we’ll be facing very soon: The dirty little secret of public health finance is that cigarettes are a very cost-effective killer. Living longer is great for society but a disaster for government programs.
As medical innovations prosper in number and cost, according to Rand Corp., Congress, in an effort to control soaring social programs, may be forced to make life-and-death decisions about the benefits and costs of specific treatments.
Sounds pretty grim, especially if you’re closer to retirement than your college years… My best prescription for beating these alarming numbers is to get healthy as soon as you can. Here are a number of basic strategies I write about regularly on my Web site that you can follow and a good way to remember them:
- Metabolic Type
- Exercise and lower insulin
- Replace trans fat with fish oil
- Clean water
- One hour of daily sunshine
- Learn to sleep well
- Avoid artificial sweeteners
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Walking is a wonderful and low-impact way to jump-start your personal exercise program, as it is easy on your joints doesn’t require much training. What’s more, the only equipment you really need is a good pair of shoes. Two interesting studies in this morning’s USA Today highlight the value of regular, brisk walking as exercise, however, with two caveats that will certainly affect your success.
In the first study, 191 overweight or obese women were placed on reduced-calorie diets and walking programs of various intensity levels that they followed for two years. Most patients chose brisk walking ranging from less than 150 minutes to more than 200 minutes each week.
Those who lost the most weight — and kept it off — exercised more than 300 minutes a week by the end of the first year, and no less than 270 minutes a week at the end of the study. The beauty of exercise that a growing number of experts and patients are finally figuring out: The amount of time you devote to exercise each day, as well as the frequency and intensity, are difference-makers if you want to make a huge dent in that exercise debt you’ve accumulated over the years.
The latter study is interesting because it too prescribed a walking regimen for obese women that gradually increased over time by distance and speed. Half of the patients were given portable CD players so they could listen to their favorite music while they exercised. Not surprisingly, those who listened to music as they exercised followed the prescribed exercise plan more closely and lost about twice as much weight and body fat than those who didn’t.
So, if you’re looking to ramp up your exercise program, you may want to invest some dollars in an inexpensive MP3 player, but take great care in protecting your ears.
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There’s more good news than meets the eye about the spread of Wi-Fi networks throughout the country, again at the expense of broadband voice and cable operators. To the good, cities of varying sizes — like Madison, Wis., Rio Rancho, N.M., and Manassas, Va. — are joining other municipalities like Philadelphia to bring cheap, fast Internet access to their residents.
But, as I’ve warned you, the country’s major broadband providers haven’t been too happy with that kind of development encroaching on their high-tech monopoly either.
Here’s one more reason you may want to opt for municipal services rather than the monopolies: Verso Technologies is perfecting software for the larger cable and telephony companies that blocks voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services like Skype and Vonage that bring cheap or free voice phone connections to your home.
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We all know too much of a good thing can be harmful for you, and it turns out exercise is no exception to this rule. Although it’s true the vast majority of people in this country are severely underexercised, there are a few people who can overdo it and actually harm their health.
This first gained widespread attention when Jim Fixx, a marathoner and author of The Complete Book of Running, died some two decades ago of a heart attack at the age of 52 while he was running.
Well, it seems — aside from heart attacks — a study of Australian Ironman Triathlon finishers strongly suggests ultra-endurance athletes can cause damage to their heart muscle that can result in abnormal heart rhythms. This specifically affects the right ventricle and was found in nearly 90 percent of ultra endurance athletes.
A good rule to remember about exercise from contributing editor Paul Chek: If you can’t improve your performance by 1-3 percent each time you go to the gym, you are not rested and should stretch, meditate or get a massage. In other words, do some relaxing instead of training.
Family Practice News, October 1, 2005: 2
International Journal of Sports Medicine, Vol. 25, January 2004: 45-49
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Earlier this month, I told you about eBay’s major purchase of Skype, the Internet voice service
that allows you to make free voice calls via your computer. At the time, I predicted the possibility that traditional phone services might even be free at some point down the line. I wasn’t the only one thinking about that…
During last week’s conference call to stock analysts, eBay CEO Meg Whitman admitted her company’s purchase of Skype was a bold move by her company in that direction. By combining online payment systems, Web-based communication and electronic markets, eBay can become a market leader in those businesses.
Moreover, eBay believes Skype’s great growth will drive down voice communications costs — over the next three to six years — down to nothing. Here’s how: eBay oversees Skype as well as the dominant payment service (PayPal) consumers use to purchase minutes and buy and sell products in its electronic marketplace (68 million active users).
If you haven’t considered Skype before, and you have a broadband Internet connection in your home and friends and family in other parts of the world, it’s certainly worth checking out.
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Three of my blog posts last Friday were devoted to the shell game mega-drug companies play to get their toxic products to market, with the help of the FDA, with the worst being the poor excuse that passes for drug safety in this country.
Thanks to my friend Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, I learned about a new report which has uncovered evidence that British patients are suffering in much the same way as Americans do because the FDA routinely conceals drug safety information.
Just to remind you, this is the same federal agency that has put drug profits and the business of selling potentially and useless toxic drugs way ahead and public safety always on the back burner.
The real disgrace, Mike points out, is what this British report implies about the American mass media and its lack of interest in drug safety. It’s hard to find a domestic outlet for information — aside from a handful of sources like my Web site or Mike’s — that accept no advertising from drug companies. That means your favorite news outlet is probably soft-pedaling or ignoring bad news that doesn’t fit its ad client base.
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We may find out just how safe or dangerous some cosmetics, soaps and other toiletries really
are, thanks to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) decision to apply its organic food standards to personal care products.
This sounds like good news, considering consumers spent $4 billion in 2004 for products labeled organic or natural, and have mostly relied on a manufacturer’s largely unproven and often bogus claims.
But this may create another problem, and it could be big: Very few beauty products are expected to qualify for the USDA organic seal, meaning those made with at least 95 percent organic ingredients. Far more will be labeled with a confusing, gray area-like “made with organic ingredients” claim.
The changeover started last summer when the Organic Consumers Association and a maker of natural soaps filed a lawsuit against the USDA to spur federal officials to include personal care products in their organic certification program.
Considering all the chemicals found in common products we use every day — and all the harm they can do to you and your children — these changing federal regs certainly make it easier for you to make better and safer decisions. And there’s nothing wrong at all with that…
New York Times October 20, 2005 Registration Required
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Ever wonder why you see, hear and read about the same drugs “curing” the same symptoms — not to mention the seemingly countless off-label uses — all the time.
A new study has found 70 percent of the panels who make decisions about clinical guidelines (meaning the toxic drug regimens they recommend) have been compromised, no surprise, due to their cozy relationships with the mega-drug companies.
In fact, experts believe drug companies have mastered the art of misinformation and disinformation to distort and soft-pedal countless conflicts of interest with regard to how their products are prescribed.
Based on sets of 215 drug guidelines generated around the word, less than half (90) contained details about various conflicts of interest. However, more than a third of some 700 authors involved in writing guidelines admitted having them. And only some 14 percent of those guidelines were free of any drug company influence.
So, if you’re sitting in the examination room and you’re wondering how your doctor can remember all those medications he’s prescribing to “cure” your condition, and in such detail, he or she may be following these predetermined protocols that have served the drug companies all too well. At least until the drug machine fueling the disaster that is conventional medicine falls for good.
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A few months ago, I told you about candymaker Mars unveiling a patented process that preserves the beneficial flavanols in dark chocolate often destroyed during standard processing. Seems The Hershey Co. is getting into the act in a big way too.
Hershey funded a recent Yale University study that, once again, confirmed how the flavanols contained in dark chocolate can provide great benefits to your health. This time, it’s short-term improvements in arterial functioning and blood pressure, similar to results I reported to you last summer.
Scientists measured the blood pressures of 45 moderately overweight patients two hours before and after they ate two servings (74 grams) of dark chocolate. No surprise, patients had better readings and increased dilation and blood flow.
Of course, this research, like the work Hershey’s rival Mars has done, provides a new and improved way for candymakers to sell you on the benefits of the brand — meaning all of its products — not just dark chocolate, so use caution.
Consuming small amounts of dark chocolate whose flavanols aren’t leeched out by processing can be good for you in moderation, and if you aren’t struggling with a serious disease. By the way, you can also get those very same benefits from eating most vegetables and fruits like blueberries and apples too.
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The same researchers at the Cleveland Clinic who first uncovered the lethal side effects of 
Vioxx may have saved even more lives with their latest discovery: A new diabetes drug on the brink of FDA approval appears to double a patient’s risk of heart attack, stroke and death.
Scientists analyzed data on some 2,400 patients who took muraglitazar (Pargulva), a new drug that reduces blood fats and sugars, and about 1,400 who took a similar drug, pioglitazone (Actos), versus a placebo. During the study, 35 patients taking muraglitazar experienced a heart attack or stroke or died. And, when heart attacks and mini-strokes were considered alone, a patient’s risk of a dangerous side-effect jumped by a factor of three.
This study (free text link below) was rushed to the Journal of American Medical Association’s Web site for good reason: Two days before the study was released, the FDA found muraglitazar to be an approvable drug, although the agency asked drugmaker Bristol-Myers to address the drug’s heart risks.
An FDA advisory committee ruled 8-1 to recommend muraglitazar for approval last month, yet didn’t cite the drug’s cardiac risks as significant… Now, do you have a better idea why I believe the FDA, as it’s currently structured, is completely unable to adequately protect you?
Journal of the American Medical Association October 20, 2005 Free Full Text Article
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Ever wondered how American drug companies can afford to buy off Congress and spend so much on marketing their toxic products to you?
A brilliant British Medical Journal (BMJ) story (free text link below) provides the answer, thanks to debunking the myth that American pharmaceutical companies charge more for their toxic products because they claim to spend more than their fair share on research and development than firms in the rest of the world do.
If that’s the case, why do U.K. drug companies spend proportionately more on R&D than their counterparts in this country, while British drug prices remain much lower than those here?
Also, consider the drift of prescription drug sales from this country to Canada in recent years. Despite Canadian drug prices being 40 percent lower than those in this country, annual sales among 35 companies there are an average 10 times higher than their R&D costs.
One more myth unsupported by the facts: A former FDA official blamed low drug prices in other countries for slowing down the development of new drugs which forced some U.S. drugmakers to close their European operations. The fact is, European drug companies more than doubled their R&D spending between 1990-2003 while their American counterparts quadrupled it.
The BMJ piece argues convincingly American drugmakers could cut costs, because there’s plenty of room to do so: They invest three times more money on advertising, marketing and administration than on research.
So, the next time you complain about the cost of a prescription drug, think about that branded calendar in your doctor’s office or the free sample he or she gives you. Or, all those annoying ads, selling useless drugs that feature “cute” characters all designed to separate you from your hard-earned cash.
British Medical Journal, Vol. 331, No. 7522, October 22, 2005: 958-960 Free Full Text Article
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If you read my blog regularly, you already know the answer to the question posed in the 
headline above (neither one). However, an informal study conducted jointly by Cornell and the University of Illinois, called The McSubway Project, demonstrates how consumers fool themselves into believing they’re eating healthier food than it really is…
Researchers stopped 300 consumers after finishing their lunches at Subway and McDonald’s, then asked them what they ate and to estimate how many calories they consumed. Then, scientists calculated the actual amount of calories people ate, subtracting any leftovers from the final total.
McDonald’s customers were much closer to the real calorie totals than those frequenting Subway. McDonald’s consumers estimated they ate an average 670 calories, only about 40 calories off the real number (710).
However, people who chose Subway, researchers said, experienced a “halo effect,” allowing them to believe they ate more smartly than they actually did. The numbers certainly prove it, as customers estimated they ate 335 calories, some 67 percent less than their actual total (560).
More evidence, your best bet is to avoid fast-food restaurants altogether. As is the case with many people, I have very little free time. However, I prepare almost all of my meals myself to preserve my health. It is a commitment, but it can be done. If you’re looking for some healthy alternatives to junk food, you’ll want to review Colleen Huber’s awesome piece about some healthy and inexpensive whole food options.
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Here’s a good example why drugs — especially new ones merely pumped out to keep the coffers of the mega-drug manufacturers flush with cash — so often cause harm: Medications used to treat elderly patients greatly raise their risk of death.
Based on an analysis of 15 studies encompassing more than 5,000 elderly dementia patients, those who took an atypical psychotic drug — Zyprexa, Risperdal, Seroquel and Abilify — increased their chances of death by 54 percent within 12 weeks of first taking it! Three times as many patients died after taking those atypical psychotic drugs versus the placebo group.
These needless deaths merely add to the body of evidence that shows more off-label use and abuse allowed by the FDA (as so vividly described by Dr. David Graham in a lengthy interview).
And, if you thought this kind of abuse was confined to the elderly, guess again: A study I posted last year found Risperdal to be a safe and effective long-term solution for below-average children with disruptive behaviors.
Nonsense like this makes my blood boil, and fuels my passion to transform the existing conventional medical paradigm from one addicted to pharmaceuticals, surgeries and other methods that only conceal or remove specific symptoms to one focused on treating and preventing the underlying causes.
Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 294, No. 15, October 19, 2005: 1934-1943
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I’m glad to see more of the national media — you can’t get more national than Time magazine — is finally taking a critical look at fluoride. It’s certainly about time (pun not intended), considering the CDC and American Dental Association swasted some of our hard-earned tax dollars to celebrate the 60th anniversary of water fluoridation in Chicago last summer.
In some parts of the country, like Bellingham, Wash., the fight is getting very nasty. This normally quiet college town is a hot bed of controversy, thanks to a Nov. 8 referendum that will decide if fluoride will be added to local water systems.
It’s obvious people are becoming more skeptical of fluoride’s dubious worth by the day. Legislation that would have added fluoride in water systems has been defeated or tabled in Arkansas, Hawaii, Nebraska and Oregon and new battles are brewing in Massachusetts and New Jersey as well as Canada. (And that doesn’t include 11 EPA employee unions calling for a moratorium on the fluoridation of drinking water either.)
If you’re still not convinced about the dangers of fluoride, I urge you to read Dr. Paul Connett’s awesome piece that summarizes the heated and toxic history behind fluoride.
Then, take a look at recent studies that have shown how fluoride spikes the risk of bone cancer in young boys and all the places you’d never expected to find it.
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Although I love technology and all the wonderful things it can do — in addition to making a valuable connection with you to protect your health — these conveniences can sometimes be a mixed blessing. In fact, some believe the daily use of e-mail may have unfortunately jump-started the sedentary lifestyles that have led to the obesity epidemic.
Moreover, one international heart expert believes our society is losing “millions of hours of exercise through the explosion of e-mail” that has created a screen slave culture in many offices.
Interestingly, this expert estimated boosting activity levels merely by 10 percent could save as many as 6,000 lives in England alone. Imagine all the lives around the world that could be saved by doing so little…
That’s why some physicians have turned to writing prescriptions for exercise, instead of potentially toxic medicines, to treat obesity. It’s also far more logical, inexpensive and can radically reduces your risk of most every chronic disease known to man.
With that in mind, I urge you to take a look at my recently revised exercise guidelines to learn more about exercise debt, and how exercise can actually cause one to go into permanent remission for diabetes.
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Today, the FDA’s Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee takes a look at the impact of antibacterial soaps, and it’s about time considering all the harm these products can do to your health.
Interestingly, briefs posted before today’s hearing pointed out the FDA has found no medical studies that link specific antibacterial products to reduced infection rates, leading critics to recommend they be banned, except for use in hospitals and with high-risk patients.
A growing number of critics, including me, believe antibacterial soaps are no better than regular soaps in reducing infections. Regular household soaps separate bacteria from the skin so germs go down the drain or get attached to towels when drying your hands. On the other hand, antibacterial soaps kill germs on the spot. At least, most of them…
The few that survive, with the help of antibacterial compounds — synthetic chemicals like triclosan — create germs resistant to soaps and antibiotics over the long haul.
Included among those critics: The mainstay of conventional medicine, the American Medical Association.
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If you’re a cancer patient using at least one kind of complementary and alternative medicine
(CAM) to treat your disease, you’re certainly not alone and probably not telling your physician about it either.
Close to half of the cancer patients being treated with chemotherapy and radiation use at least one form of CAM treatment, according to a new study. And 75 percent of those patients didn’t tell their physicians, even while they received conventional cancer treatments.
A review of the numbers provides just more evidence how patients, in increasing numbers, are turning to alternative medicine:
- Almost two-thirds of the patients being treated with chemotherapy alone using alternative therapies versus just 35 percent of those only receiving radiation.
- Virtually all patients who opt for CAM treatments (88 percent) were satisfied with them as a cost-effective cancer treatment and used an average of two (either vitamin, herbal or botanical).
- Only 36 percent of patients believed their doctors were an important source for information about CAM.
That last number was a major concern to the lead researcher and me, considering some alternative therapies like black cohosh may interfere with the way some drugs respond to cancer. That’s why it’s important to tell your primary care physician about any alternative therapies you’re using.
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You may recall a study I posted recently about the strong connection between prostate cancer and obesity. No big surprise here, one of the logical outcomes of the obesity epidemic — diabetes — also worsens a prostate cancer patient’s long-term survival.
Researchers compared the health of more than 1,500 men with prostate cancer, including some 200 who also suffered from type 2 diabetes. There were no significant differences between diabetic prostate cancer patients as far as PSAs, Gleason scores and T-stage numbers. And long-term radiation treatment outcomes were close statistically too.
The major difference comes into play, however, when it came to mortality. More prostate cancer patients with type 2 diabetes died than those without it, a significant finding, even after adjusting for key pretreatment factors, researchers said.
A good time as any to remind you one of the major contributors to the obesity epidemic and prostate cancer is eating way too many fried foods prepared with omega-6 trans-fatty oils, which is why you need to stay as far away from processed foods as you possibly can.
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For the longest time, the so-called “medical experts” have claimed the potential benefits of 
gastric bypass procedures always outweighed the risks, meaning malnutrition, among many medical problems, and death. So, it’s no big surprise a new study in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association (free text link below) reports those risks are much greater than the “experts” and patients ever realized.
Based on about 16,000 Medicare patients, some 3 percent of women and 5 percent of men between ages 35-44 who had a gastric bypass procedure died within a year.
Folks, the news is far worse for senior patients, a growing profit center for these ridiculous procedures, as they age. The mortality rate associated with gastric bypass rises to 13 percent (men) and 6 percent (women) among the 65-74 age group.
And, if you’re older than that, gastric bypass increases your mortality risks exponentially: Forty percent of the women and half of the men died from it.
Of course, the American Society for Bariatric Surgery claims these results are suspect, based on the assumption Medicare patients are generally sicker than the norm. That said, researchers defended their results as a real-world look at the bigger picture and risks involved versus reports from the best surgeons reporting their best results.
Here’s hoping these disturbing numbers will slow down the recent explosion of gastric bypass procedures, an extreme solution to a serious medical lifestyle concern that can be treated far more safely without surgery or drugs.
Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 294, No. 15, October 19, 2005: 1903-1908 Free Full Text Article
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Because I believe a very important part of our future will rely on as many people as possible accessing the Internet cheaply and quickly, I thought you’d want to know about the largest Wi-Fi hotspot in the world: A 700-square-mile stretch of north central Oregon near and around Hermiston.
Politics — in the form of lobbying from cable and phone providers — have stymied many projects in major urban markets across the country. So much so, Philadelphia’s plan to build a citywide Wi-Fi network sparked state legislators (prompted by phone and cable companies) to limit every other town in the state to do the same thing!
Out in this desolate stretch of Oregon near the Washington border, however, an entrepreneur attracted little resistance in spending $5 million to build a Wi-Fi network free to the public. But he could afford to build a network in an area where the local phone company couldn’t justify one, thanks to profitable contracts with city and county agencies and big farmers in the region.
Again, the biggest obstacle to creating these cheap wireless networks isn’t the building of them, according to experts. According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, it’s more a matter of “who’s-going-to-get-a-piece-of-the-action?”.
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Finally, the pieces of the puzzle start to add up. Last week, President Bush sought to instill panic in this country by telling us a minimum of 200,000 people will die from the avian flu pandemic but it could be as bad as 2 million deaths in this country alone.
This hoax is then used to justify the immediate purchase of 80 million doses of Tamiflu, a worthless drug that in no way shape or form treats the avian flu, but only decreases the amount of days one is sick and can actually contribute to the virus having more lethal mutations.
So the U.S. placed an order for 20 million doses of this worthless drug at a price of $100 per dose. That comes to a staggering $2 billion.
We are being told that Roche manufactures Tamiflu and, in yesterday’s New York Times, they were battling whether or not they would allow generic drug companies to help increase their production.
But if you dig further you will find that a drug was actually developed by a company called Gilead that 10 years ago gave Roche the exclusive rights to market and sell Tamiflu.
Ahh, The Plot Thickens…
If you read the link below from Gilead, you’ll discover Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was made the chairman of Gilead in 1997.
Since Rumsfeld holds major portions of stock in Gilead, he will handsomely profit from the scare tactics of the government that is being used to justify the purchase of $2 billion of Tamiflu.
For more on the nonsense of the avian flu hoax, you’ll want to review my post from yesterday.
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Whenever I’ve written about the benefits of drinking red wine or alcoholic beverages of any kind in moderation, I’ve always recommended not drinking either of them because I am convinced the alcohol itself is a neurotoxin, meaning it can poison your brain. A new study explains why alcohol consumption — even in moderation — affects how your blood clots in a very bad way.
Scientists examined the effect of alcohol on platelets, particles in the blood that affect clotting. Moderate alcohol consumption (defined as three to six drinks a week) was found to slow the means by which platelets activate and aggregate (confirming earlier research that showed moderate drinkers had less sticky platelets).
Essentially, alcohol works on your body much the same way as aspirin does as a blood thinner, which also elevates your risk of suffering from a bleeding stroke.
If you’re drinking red wine, in hopes of loading up on the powerful polyphenolic bioflavonoids, your health would benefit much more from eating grape skins and passing up the meat of the grape (that has no resveratrol but lots of extra fructose).
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Earlier this year, I told you about the dangerous use of fake BOTOX by more than 200
physicians who purchased it from Toxin Research International (TRI). The Arizona-based company accused of marketing and selling the unapproved botulinum goes on trial in federal court next month in Florida.
Here’s the real kicker: More than 1,000 people may have been treated with the fake stuff, and many of them were completely unaware the substance they were injected with wasn’t BOTOX.
And the two couples who ignited the investigation after injecting themselves with the bogus BOTOX late last year have partially recovered. Good news, considering they were paralyzed, breathing with the help of ventilators and unable to see or swallow after their “treatment.”
About 180 physicians ordered a five-dose vial of Botulinum Toxin Type A from TRI for $1,250, a deadly bargain compared to $2,000 for BOTOX.
Just a reminder, people are so desperate for quick-fix cures, they’ll use a useless drug like BOTOX to treat conditions, apart from removing wrinkles, like excessive sweating, cerebral palsy and migraines.
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If you want to better understand why I’m so concerned about patients — especially young
children — taking useless sleep drugs like Lunesta and Ambien, you’ll want to review a new study from Medco Health Solution (free text link below).
Prescription sleep aid use among kids (ages 10-19) rose a frightening 85 percent based on an analysis of prescription drug claims from more than 2 million Americans from 2000-2004. And spending for these sleep drugs among that age group climbed an amazing 223 percent!
More by the numbers:
- Spending on sleep meds among adults in the 20-44 age category spiked upward 190 percent.
- Children in the 10-19 age bracket showed the highest dual usage of prescription sleep aids as well as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drugs at 15 percent.
- Women used prescription sleep aids far more often than men, particularly among young women under 19 (37 percent) and those between 20-64 (58 percent).
- Although adults over age 64 take more sleep medications, the increased use was lower among that age group (16.5 percent) than all the others in the study.
Getting the right amount of sleep is one of best things you can do to optimize your health, as well as reduce your risk of obesity, and you don’t need to rely on a potentially toxic drug to do it for you.
If getting the right amount of sleep is a problem for you, I urge you to review my free Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep.
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Here’s another great reason to lose those extra pounds: You’ll feel better and so will your 
libido, according to Duke University researchers. In fact, patients who lost just 13 percent of their body weight over two years felt more sexually attractive, had greater desire and experienced other improvements in the sexual quality of their lives.
Although weight loss improves one’s quality of life, few studies had tackled the sexual benefits a person receives from it. Scientists explored this little known realm by studying about 200 obese dieters in Minnesota (mostly women who weighed 248 pounds on average).
Before losing weight, some two-thirds of participants felt unattractive on occasion. After losing more than 10 percent of their weight at the end of three months, patients started feeling more attractive and sexier, a benefit they held onto for two years.
By the numbers (for women):
- The amount of patients who didn’t feel sexually attractive dropped by more than half to 26 percent.
- Obese women who didn’t like being seen undressed fell sharply as well from 63 percent to 34 percent.
- Diminished sexual desire among patients was down to 15 percent, more than two times lower than before.
Just goes to show, you don’t need a potentially blinding and toxic drug to boost your sexual desire, when more natural solutions as simple as eating better based on your body’s unique metabolic type and exercise can do the trick.
NASSO, The Obesity Society October 17, 2005 Free Full Text Article
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Asthma can be such a frightening and frustrating condition, it’s no wonder people will try
anything — including a toxic drug — to stop it. Researchers from China and the United States have discovered a potentially safer treatment: A natural, plant-based compound that produces about the same results as the corticosteroid drug prednisone.
The anti-asthma herbal medicine intervention (ASHMI), composed from three extracts, is a simplified version of a 14-herb medication used by physicians in China.
After a successful trial on mice, scientists studied the benefits of ASHMI versus a placebo and prednisone on 91 patients. Although both ASHMI and prednisone users had greater lung functioning, prednisone patients improved only slightly better than ASHMI patients. However, ASHMI didn’t affect adrenal gland functioning, a big problem with prednisone.
If you’re looking to reduce your dependence on any asthma drug, here’s some simple lifestyle changes you can make:
- Boost your level of omega-3 fats by taking a high-quality fish or cod liver oil daily.
- Replace conventionally pasteurized milk in your daily diet with raw milk.
- Eat a healthy diet based on your body’s unique metabolic type while reducing your intake of grains and sugars.
- Allergy skin testing — via the Provocation Neutralization approach — may be appropriate for extreme cases of asthma.
Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Vol. 116, No. 3, September 2005: 517-524 Free Full Text Article
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Avian Flu Epidemic Scare is a Hoax
“If you have been viewing the media you must have seen the scare the media and the president are seeking to orchestrate on you and the public. According to a draft of the government’s plan to fight a potentially cataclysmic pandemic this new avian super-flu could kill nearly TWO MILLION Americans.
But I nearly fell out of my seat in the airplane as I was flying back from a conference in
Then they post the frightening picture from the 1918 flu epidemic to heighten the fear. It just amazes me how they can get away with this type of reporting that is so obviously manipulated by the government and drug companies to scare you into taking the flu vaccine.
The popular media continues to reinforce this unbased fear. In the editorial section of the October 17, 2005 issue of the Wall Street Journal, Dr. Henry Miller, former director of the Office of Biotechnology at the FDA, seeks to frighten the
Ah there’s the rub. 50% fatality rate sounds pretty scary to me. What Dr. Miller and the other experts fail to explain is how these numbers were derived. Did they examine everyone who contracted the avian flu and use those numbers or did they examine the sickest of the sick who had come down with the avian flu and determine the mortality from there?
Of course it was the later, and from the 60 people who have died from this in THIRD world countries we are being told that anywhere from 200,000 AT BEST to two million people at worst will die from the avian flu.
This is shody science at best and beyond belief that any reputable scientist could get away with such nonsense.
Daily Show Parody
Fortunately contemporary comedians can see right through this nonsense. Here are the links to Jon Stewart’s scathing and brilliant Daily Show piece on bird flu. But I have to warn you that it may cause you to hurt yourself from laughing so hard, especially the World Health expert comments on the avian flu killing 150 million people and even funnier comment of George Bush on bird to people transmission.
Quicktime Link (106 MB) MP3 Link (6.7 MB)
What Happened to Common Sense?
The avian flu epidemic hoax reminds me just how uncommon “common sense” is. Folks where is the sound basic science here? How do they make the giant leap of faith that 60 deaths will translate to 2 million or even 200,00 deaths in the
Most of the people who acquired this infection were bird handlers who were in continuous contact with these sick birds. Does anyone in their right mind envision similar circumstances in the
Research like this would typically be thrown in the trash if it did not strongly support some ulterior purpose.
What might the purpose of these scare tactics be you ask?
Well how about the US purchasing huge quantities of antiviral drugs and an increase in flu vaccine production along with purchasing 20 million doses of the highly questionably effective Tamiflu. Guess how much one treatment of Tamiflu costs? Give yourself a slap on the back if you guessed $100.
Donald Rumsfeld to Profit Big Time
So those 20 million doses the government has authorized will cost US Taxpayers 2 BILLION dollars.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will likely profit handsomely from the announcement the government is purchasing $2 billion of Tamiflu, the drug developed by Gilead Sciences when Rumsfeld was president of the company. He is reported to hold major portions of stock in Gilead
Not very different from his previous experience with aspartame where he was president of Searle and was able to get asparatame approved after being blocked by the FDA for more than a decade.
Now I think very few of us would mind if this drug actually worked and prevented even a few people from dying. But does it do that? Not really. About all anyone can expect from this drug is that it might make the symptoms a bit less severe. On the downside (aside from setting you back $100) Dr. Tenpenny explained in her Flu Tele Clinic last week Tamiflu can actually cause the virus to mutate into a more dangerous and potent viral strain.
Yesterday US Congress asked Roche, the maker of Tamiflu to suspend its patent and have others make it because they could not likely keep up with the demand, but of course Roche refused saying Tamiflu is hard to make and it would take another company three years to “get up to speed”.
What they were really saying is they could care less about the public, what their primary focus on was to not share their windfall profits mandated by the US Congress.
Worthless Flu Shots
Of course let us not forget the flu shots which many will use get when they confuse avian flu with the regular flu. Please understand even if you believe the flu shots work, the flu shot you can now purchase is in no way shape or form designed to protect you against the flu. They are completely different strains. (Avian flu is H5N1 strain).
But rest assured the makers of flu vaccines will not lose this unusal opportunity to rape the American public of even more profits. Today we learned that those getting the flu shots may see a 25% increase in prices at clinics, doctors’ offices and medical centers because of increases in the wholesale cost of the vaccines.
History Repeats Itself
Investigative journalist Ida Honorof for decades published a consumer newsletter and broadcast a regular radio program. Honorof received a first prize award from Associated Press for investigative journalism. The Los Angeles Times and other publications credited her with breaking some of the biggest horror stories of our time.
Ida Honorof wrote, “the most brazen, obscene electioneering ploy” ever and added that it was proposed by the President “and his coterie of scientific hacks, fabricated to cause pure unadulterated panic and guarantee political capital, rammed through without consideration of people’s health and lives and approved by a band-wagon Congress” eager to make the nation’s “health” a bipartisan concern.
The above quote was not written about the avian flu epidemic but the 5 million swine-flu vaccine program of 30 years ago. The hastily contrived program for swine flu resulted in hundreds of Guillain Barre Syndrome paralysis victims as well as countless deaths for a flu pandemic that never materialized.
The pocketbook purloining proposed by the Senate is more than 3,000 per cent greater than that of 30 years ago! Has your paycheck increased 3,000 per cent in the last 30 years?
Practical Options
First step for anyone caught up in this avian flu hype nonsense is to take a deep breath and relax and realize the truth here. Unless you are full time bird handler in a third world country that has a seriously challenged immune system you probably have a much better chance of wining the lottery than dying from the proposed avian flu epidemic.
Review the simple lifestyle measures I outlined earlier this year that will serve to boost your immune system to not only address any form of the flu but also other infectious illness like the cold. When you have a healthy lifestyle and follow basic steps of the Total Health program, for the most part you just don’t get sick.
This is the routine surprised comment that most patients tell me after they have been on the program. The Total Health program works for me, most of my patients and can work for you. Just give it a try and let’s stop enriching the drug companies for toxic alternatives that don’t solve the problem.
For more information about the avian flu you can obtain the Flu Tele Clinic I did last week with Dr. Tenpenny.
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Scientists recently discovered a new use for Remicade, the Johnson & Johnson drug often 
used by rheumatoid arthritis patients: Treating incidents of psoriases ranging from moderate to severe.
A British study found the symptoms of 57 percent of the psoriasis patients who were treated with Remicade versus a placebo improved as much as 90 percent. And the benefit was sustained over as long as 50 weeks. Patients also reported improvements in nail psoriasis, considered by many experts to be a sign of treatment-resistant disease, by those taking Remicade by week 24. And 25 percent of psoriasis patients enjoyed a complete clearing of their skin, versus none in the placebo group.
Sounds awfully extreme to me to use Remicade to clear away psoriasis, especially when it puts patients at risk of developing even worse of medical problems like tuberculosis and lymphoma, a form of blood cancer.
An excellent two-part piece by Dr. Carolyn Dean I posted a year ago provides far better, safer and more natural solutions to tame psoriasis than the toxic Band-Aid that is Remicade:
- A high quality fish or cod liver oil, rich in omega-3 fatty acids
- Chamomile
- Dandelion
- Calendula
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If “designer” sports drinks, that claim to make you stronger, fitter and healthier than the average bear, can do “great” things like dissolve your tooth enamel, and, with the right mix of alcohol, kill you, it’s hard for me to imagine a candy labeled as “Sport Beans” is much of an improvement.
Taking a cue from marathon runners who use jelly beans for a quick energy boost, Jelly Belly Candy recently introduced Sport Beans to compete for business in the $3 billion sports drink/food industry. I suspect the only difference between the jelly bean candies Jelly Belly makes and its Sport Beans are the amount of vitamins C and E and extra carbs, sodium and potassium the latter contains. But does it really do anything beneficial for your health? I think not…
As Dr. Ben Lerner pointed out in one of his more recent columns, some energy foods — full of sugar and caffeine — may be somewhat beneficial when used properly by athletes training at a high level, but certainly not for most people.
The vast majority of these useless energy drinks, bars and powders, only add hazardous toxins, chemicals and useless calories to one’s diet. However, you can improve your energy levels if you retool your diet based on your body’s unique metabolic type and increase your intake of omega-3 fats by taking a high quality fish or cod liver oil every day.
Chicago Tribune October 16, 2005 Registration Required
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About a year ago, we began to hear more and more about the potentially fatal risks associated with gastric bypass surgeries, snatching away much of its “quick-fix, cure-all” allure. Researchers have identified a new and potentially very dangerous side effect: A severe hypoglycemic reaction that may require emergency treatment.
The study features details of three non-diabetic gastric bypass patients who experienced such high insulin levels after eating their meals, their cognitive abilities became impaired and, sometimes, blacked out. In two cases, those blackouts led to two car accidents.
After their bypass surgeries and significant weight loss, patients developed postprandial hypoglycemia (low blood sugar after meals) that failed to respond to any dietary or medical treatment. Eventually, the condition required partial or full removal of their pancreas.
Researchers blame their patients’ severe hypoglycemia on what’s called the dumping syndrome, a condition that occurs when the small intestine fills up too quickly with undigested food from the stomach.
As I’ve said before, when you use the wrong tool to “cure” any medical condition — especially when it’s a lifestyle medical concern like obesity — you’re virtually guaranteed to have problems. Of course, that hasn’t stopped people, like the former half-ton man, from doing it anyway. People forget it didn’t take them a day to gain all those extra pounds, and it will take considerably longer to lose it safely and smartly.
Some guidelines for normalizing your weight naturally:
- Modify your diet based on your body’s unique metabolic type.
- Reduce, with the plan of eliminating, grains and sugars from your daily diet.
- Treat the emotional issues that brought your health to this low spot by learning a valuable, effective and non-invasive tool like the Emotional Freedom Technique.
- Get moving on an exercise plan today!
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A few months ago I warned you about Merck’s over-the-counter (OTC) statin drug under 
consideration by the FDA. Thank goodness it never happened here, although it did in the U.K. with Zocor.
If you’re still taking a statin, it’s probably Lipitor, the world’s best selling drug. By next summer, many insurers and government agencies will be moving you from Lipitor made by Pfizer to a far less expensive generic version of Zocor, perhaps a fallback position on Merck’s part for losing out on Mevacor (lovastatin).
Between now and then, Pfizer won’t take that dent in their pockets out without a fight and plans to use all their marketing might to fight that migration. Pfizer argues Lipitor is unique among the class of statin drugs, especially for those at high risk for heart attacks.
I suspect Pfizer will have a hard time proving Lipitor is worth the higher price, based on a German study I posted last month that found it to be no better benefit-wise than other statins and that it may pose worse side effects for patients too.
Fact is, you don’t need to be taking a statin drug — a generic or patented toxic “Band-Aid” — at all, if you make two basic lifestyle changes:
- Reducing, with the plan of eliminating, grains and sugars from your diet.
- Starting a daily exercise program focusing on improving your cardiovascular system.
New York Times October 15, 2005 Registration Required
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Scientists at the University of Manchester have discovered a new source of millions of fungal spores in a place where you probably spend the most time resting: On your bedroom pillow.
The fungal species commonly found in pillows — aspergillus fumigatus — is the most likely cause of disease, with aspergillosis being the leading cause of death in bone marrow transplant and leukemia patients.
The 10 pillows researchers analyzed– made from feathers and synthetic sources and used from 1.5-20 years — contained several thousand fungal spores per gram. As many as 16 different species were identified in each pillow (even higher numbers were found in synthetic pillows).
Aspergillus can also worsen asthma, particularly in adult patients who have suffered from it for many years, and create sinus problems in those who suffer from allergies.
A spore is structure of protein encapsulating bacterial DNA. It is formed by certain species of bacteria in conditions of low moisture, nutrients, temperature, etc. They are metabolically inactive and are incredibly tough to destroy. Once a spore finds itself in a suitable environment (like your nose or throat), it will germinate into a single bacterium and attempt to multiply.
Getting back to killing spores, bleach is a good sporicide, but your solution should be about 1:5, or at least 1:10 (You want a minimum of 2,500 ppm of chlorine in your solution, and normal household bleach is 5 percent available chlorine).
Hot water will not kill spores. Boiling water will not kill spores. Spores require a temperature of about 121 degrees (Celsius) to be destroyed, and boiling water only reaches 100 degrees (Celsius). Hospital supplies have to be autoclaved for 15 minutes to be sterilized. Basically, autoclaving involves superheated steam at high pressures to reach the required temperatures. Also, remember there are various levels of disinfectants. A cleaning agent doesn’t kill spores unless it specifically says it’s a sporicide, which is different from it being “antibacterial.”
By the way, here is a list of contributors to the Fungal Research Trust, the “charitable organization” that funded this research: Fujisawa Corp., Oxford Glycosciences, F2G Ltd, Chronic Granulomatous Disorder Research Trust, Aventis, Janssen Research Foundation, Roche, Schering Plough Corporation, The Liposome Company, Merck, Imedex, Bristol Myers Squibb, Aronex Ltd, Vestar Inc, Eli Lilly, BioMerieux, Alza Corporation, Pfizer Inc, Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Phairson Ltd., GlaxoWellcome, The Gossett Trust, The Clear Group, British Medical Association, Basilea, Valeant and Orthobiotech.
Question: Are the pharmaceutical companies funding this trust out of the kindness of their hearts, or is it a way of maximizing shareholder value? If a pharmaceutical company wants to do some research that is risky to people, the company can avoid liability by having the work done by a “charitable” trust. The trust can even collect money from the public, and use it to fund research that will eventually end in a profitable product.