Health & WellnessS


Info

Record manatee deaths, but 'experts' say no harm to humans

Sayer Ji
GreenMedInfo
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:00 UTC
Dead Manatee
© GreenMedInfo
Never before in the history of tracking red tide in Florida have so many manatees died as a result of exposure. Despite this concerning fact, 'experts' are towing the party line that there are no human harms associated with long-term exposure. Are they serious?

ABC7 interviewed Mote Marine Laboratory's senior scientist Dr. Barbara Kirkpatrick on Feb. 27th about whether there are any long-term effects of red tide on humans, to which she responded "I don't think there's any evidence yet that we have to worry about long-term exposure."

Really? What kind of evidence does Dr. Kirkpatrick think is lacking?

Is Dr. Kirkpatrick pointing to a lack of large-scale, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled human studies showing that chronic "low-dose" red tide exposure is anything but harmless? Because if this the standard of proof she requires in order to make a determination about possible health risks to an already exposed public, we shall never know the truth, as such a study is not only unethical to perform, but would be too expensive to attract the necessary funding. In the meantime, following Dr. Kirkpatrick's disregard for any reasonable sense of caution, you can view tourists and locals eating red tide affected shellfish and swimming in the Gulf, unaware that anything could be wrong or unhealthy with these routine behaviors.
Read More...
Black Cat

Canola oil: The blob that ate butter, olive oil, coconut oil and peanut oil threatens American cuisine

Catherine Shanahan, MD
Primal Docs
Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:59 UTC
Written with my husband Luke.

Today I need to make the following emergency public service announcement:

The restaurant world has been taken hostage - by Canola oil!

Over the past several months, Luke and I have eaten out at all sorts of restaurants here in the Napa Valley, from Mexican to Thai, from Chinese to French, from Italian to Fusion. And we've discovered there's one thing nearly every meal had in common.

Image
PUFAs oxidize in the factory during refining, creating from 2-5% trans and other distorted, toxic fats. When you cook with them, more trans fats form, thanks to a process called the Free-Radical cascade. All biochemistry professors understand this, however too few health professionals have any clue about the health hazards associated with consumption of refined vegetable oils.
If an American food product contains under 0.5 gm trans fat "per serving" it can legally claim "0 gm" canola oil.

This week, Cate and I celebrated our wedding anniversary, so we decided to go for a special night out. A friend recommended a place in the next valley over, so we took the drive in hopes that this quaint little eatery might provide a temporary shelter from the relentless Canola downpour. Maybe, just maybe, we wouldn't be offered yet another menu built on the viscous foundation of this "neutral" oil.

But alas, like a breached tanker foundering on a reef, our hopes were dashed.
Read More...
Cookie

Is schizophrenia an autoimmune disease?

Emily Deans, MD
Primal Docs
Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:51 UTC
Image
Psychopathology and particularly psychosis has had a bit of a research dance with immunology over the past several years. For example, women with post-partum psychosis are more likely than controls to have anti-thyroid antibodies. And folks with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are more likely to have strange anti-wheat protein antibodies than controls. In the recent, very large CATIE trial, 23.% of those with schizophrenia had IgA anti-AGA antibiodies (anti-gliadin) compared to 3.1% of a comparison group, and 5.4% had high levels of tTG antibodies compared to 0.8% of the comparison group.

No one is sure what these immune reactions mean. But it would be interesting to see how immune modulators might affect psychosis in a clinical trial. In evolutionary medicine, immune and inflammatory modulators could include a dietary intervention, probiotics, or even helminth therapies. To my knowledge, none of these have been applied to schizophrenia or post-partum psychosis in a clinical trial of any kind.

This week, a paper came out in the renamed Archives of General Psychiatry (Now JAMA Psychiatry) linking schizophrenia to a set of autoantibodies. The findings in this paper lend more credence to the idea that a subset of schizophrenia may be caused by an immune attack on the brain. Blood from a group of unmedicated, hospitalized schizophrenics was compared to blood from people admitted with major depressive disorder, borderline personality disorder, and healthy controls.
Read More...
Dreamsicle

Your brain on fructose

Emily Deans, MD
Primal Docs
Sat, 09 Mar 2013 11:40 UTC
Image
Right on the heels of the little case study I wrote about last time came a paper in JAMA that made a bit of a splash in the news: Effects of Fructose vs Glucose on Regional Cerebral Blood Flow in Brain Regions Involved With Appetite and Reward Pathways.

I know. Sounds like a nail-biter.

The paper is a Tale of Two Sugars, glucose and fructose. Fructose is somewhat sweeter than glucose, and it is metabolized differently (as those in the paleosphere are no doubt agonizingly aware). Fructose, for example, only causes slight bumps in insulin, which is known to work in the central nervous system to increase the satiety and decrease the reward value of food. Compared to glucose, fructose also doesn't increase a satiety hormone glucagon-like polypeptide 1, and fructose doesn't decrease levels of ghrelin, an appetite stimulating hormone.

Let's translate into something simple rather than paperspeak:

Glucose: Increases insulin, increases GLP-1, decreases ghrelin: all of which increase satiety and decrease reward seeking behavior.

Fructose: Barely increases insulin, doesn't increase GLP-1, and doesn't decrease ghrelin, so after ingestion you will presumably still be hungry and looking for the next bag of skittles.

In rats, if you inject fructose into the brain, it stimulates food-seeking behavior. If you inject glucose into the brain, rats decrease their food intake. Please do not inject fructose or glucose into your brain. And while that rat factoid is certainly interesting, I'm hoping that when you drink a vat of agave nectar*, much of the fructose doesn't get past the liver anyway, as it is pretty oxidizing and toxic in the bloodstream.
Read More...
Syringe

BigPharma bonus! U.S. stockpiles costly smallpox drug, not approved by FDA and never tested on humans

Donald G. McNeil Jr.
The New York Times
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 00:00 UTC
Image
© AP
Associated Press

Lining up for smallpox vaccinations in 1947. The government is stockpiling a new drug for use if there is a bioterrorism attack.
The United States government is buying enough of a new smallpox medicine to treat two million people in the event of a bioterrorism attack, and took delivery of the first shipment of it last week. But the purchase has set off a debate about the lucrative contract, with some experts saying the government is buying too much of the drug at too high a price.

A small company, Siga Technologies, developed the drug in recent years. Whether the $463 million order is a boondoggle or a bargain depends on which expert is talking. The deal will transform the finances of Siga, which is controlled by Ronald O. Perelman, a billionaire financier, philanthropist and takeover specialist.

Smallpox was eradicated by 1980, and the only known remaining virus is in government laboratories in the United States and Russia. But there have long been rumors of renegade stocks that could be sprayed in airports or sports stadiums. Experts say the virus could also be re-engineered into existence in a sophisticated genetics lab.

As part of its efforts to prepare for a possible bioterrorism attack, the government is paying more than $200 for each course of treatment.

Siga argues that the price is a fair return on years of investment. And Robin Robinson, director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, the overseer of the contract for the drug, Arestvyr, defended the size of the order and the price paid. He said that two million doses was the amount analysts predicted would be needed to contain a smallpox outbreak in a large city and that the whole country would require 12 million, along with vaccines.
Read More...
Health

Health insurance application process under Obamacare won't be easy

Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
Yahoo News
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 00:00 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/J. David AkeA draft copy of the 21-page of a Health and Human Services Department form proposed for use to apply for low-cost insurance from Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program is photographed in Washington, Tuesday March 12, 2013. The government’s application for health insurance, which uninsured people will use to get taxpayer subsidized coverage starting next year. Applying could get complicated, with multiple questions about income, household composition, employer coverage and even race and ethnicity.
Applying for benefits under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul could be as daunting as doing your taxes.

The government's draft application is now on the Internet.

It runs 15 pages for a three-person family. The online version has 21 steps, some with added questions.

At least three major federal agencies, including the IRS, will scrutinize your application.

That's just the first part of the process, which lets you know if you qualify for financial help.

You'd still have to pick a health plan.

Some fear that consumers will be overwhelmed and give up. Administration officials say the application form is being refined.
Read More...
Question

Will new changes to Autism Diagnosis leave your child in the cold while filling big pharma's pockets?

Christina England
Vactruth.com
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 14:53 UTC
Image
Changes in the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5) for the criteria of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) could mean a high percentage of children currently diagnosed with autism, as per the DSM 4, could lose their diagnosis. Professionals are worried that the change in criteria will put many autistic children at considerable risk.

Age of Autism reported that Dr. Allan Frances, the psychiatrist who headed the development of the current DSM 4, is concerned that the new changes could cause children currently diagnosed with the condition to lose their health insurance, school placement, Medicaid and other services when the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition (DSM5) is published by the American Psychiatric Association in May. [1]

What this means for your child

Due to a rise in the numbers of children currently diagnosed with autism, the cost to the government is considerable. According to Autism Speaks, the world's leading autism science and advocacy organization, research has shown that the annual cost of autism had tripled to a whopping $126 billion in the USA and £34 billion in the UK last year.

Comment: Read the following articles carried on SOTT.NET to learn more about how the DSM-5 is a financial boon for Big Pharma:

Profit Motive? Big Psychiatry Invents and Redefines Mental Illnesses

Harvard Expert Ties Mental illness to Big Big Pharma's Agenda Since the 1980's

The American Psychiatric Association's DSM5 proposal for ADHD - Making lifelong patients of even more healthy people

Why the newest Psychiatric Diagnostic Bible will be a boon for big pharma:
The DSM-5 will likely lead patients down a road of over-diagnosis and over-medication.

Herb Kutchins and Stuart A. Kirk are coauthors of two books investigating this claim of "new and improved" reliability of the DSM-3 and DSM-4: The Selling of DSM: Rhetoric of Science in Psychiatry (1992), and Making Us Crazy, DSM: The Psychiatric Bible and the Creation of Mental Disorders(1997).

Kutchins and Kirk detail a major 1992 study done to examine the reliability of the supposedly new and improved DSM-3. This reliability study was conducted at six sites in the United States and one in Germany. Experienced mental health professionals were given extensive training in how to make accurate DSM diagnoses. Following this training, pairs of clinicians interviewed nearly 600 prospective patients. Because of the extensive training, Kutchins and Kirk note, "We would expect that diagnostic agreement would be considerably lower in normal clinical settings." The results showed that the reliability of the DSM-3 - even with this special training - was not superior to the earlier unreliable editions of DSM, and in some cases it was worse. Kutchins and Kirk summarize:
What this study demonstrated was that even when experienced clinicians with special training and supervision are asked to use DSM and make a diagnosis, they frequently disagree, even though the standards for defining agreement are very generous....[For example,] if one of the two therapists....made a diagnosis of Schizoid Personality Disorder and the other therapist selected Avoidant Personality Disorder, the therapists were judged to be in complete agreement of the diagnosis because they both found a personality disorder - even though they disagreed completely on which one!...Mental health clinicians independently interviewing the same person in the community are as likely to agree as disagree that the person has a mental disorder and are as likely to agree as disagree on which of the...DSM disorders is present.
Kutchins and Kirk report there is not a single major study showing high reliability in any version of the DSM, including the DSM-4.

Is there any good news about the DSM-5? The APA just announced that its price for the DSM-5 will be $199 a copy, and this is good news for Allen Frances who reacted:
"People are not likely to rush out to buy a ridiculously expensive DSM-5 that has already been discredited as unsafe and scientifically unsound...The good news is that its lowered sales and lost credibility will limit the damage that can be done by DSM-5."


Read More...
Attention

Big dairy petitions FDA to allow unlabeled use of Aspartame in dairy products

Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:17 UTC
Image
The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) have filed a petition with the FDA1 requesting the agency "amend the standard of identity" for milk and 17 other dairy products.

This was done to provide for the use of any safe and suitable sweetener as an optional ingredient - including non-nutritive sweeteners such as aspartame to deceive you by not having to indicate its use on the label.

It's a move that could endanger your health for decades to come, and disproportionally harm underprivileged children who rely on school lunches for the bulk of their nutrition.

If the amendment goes through, that would mean anytime you see the word "milk" on the label, it could include aspartame, sucralose, or any other dangerous artificial sweetener, but you could never be quite sure, since there will be no mention of it - not by listing the artificial sweetener used, nor with a no- or low-calorie type label, which is a tip-off that the product might contain a non-nutritive sweetener.

The IDFA and NMPF claim the proposed amendments would "promote more healthful eating practices and reduce childhood obesity by providing for lower-calorie flavored milk products" since many children are more inclined to drink flavored milk products than unflavored milk.
According to the Federal Register:
"[T]he proposed amendments would assist in meeting several initiatives aimed at improving the nutrition and health profile of food served in the nation's schools. Those initiatives include state-level programs designed to limit the quantity of sugar served to children during the school day."
As if that's not nonsensical enough, the IDFA and NMPF argue that the proposed amendments would "promote honesty and fair dealing in the marketplace." How could altering the definition of "milk" to include unidentified artificial sweeteners possibly promote honesty or fair dealing in the marketplace, you might ask? Read on...

Comment: Read more about Aspartame: The Politics of Food

Aspartame: Toxicology
ASPARTAME - The Silent Killer
Aspartame Can Mess Up Your Body and Brain
Aspartame's Sweet Dreams; Who Are We to Disagree?
Does Aspartame Cause Human Brain Cancer? (Hint: Yes!)
Aspartame: Safety Approved In 90 Nations, But Damages Brain
'New', (meaning now being reporting in MSM), fears over Aspartame
America's Deadliest Sweetener Betrays Millions, Then Hoodwinks You With Name Change
Aspartame A Risk To Public Health: Made from Genetically Modified Bacteria Waste
Propaganda Warning! Expert panel, funded by a major maker of aspartame, says, 'Aspartame is safe'Aspartame has been Renamed and is Now Being Marketed as a Natural Sweetener
Adverse Reactions to Aspartame: Double-Blind Challenge in Patients from a Vulnerable Population

Read More...
Question

New mystery virus kills ninth victim


Medical Daily
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:32 UTC
norovirus
© Desconocido
As we have previously reported, the new virus has claimed victims in the UK, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Now, it has claimed its nineth victim, bringing the total confirmed infected to 15. According to the World Health Organization, the 39-year-old became ill with symptoms of the virus, on Feb. 24 but then after spending days in the hospital died on March 2.

Medical professionals are worried that this virus may have the ability to spread from person to person because one victim in the UK who died had not traveled to Saudi Arabia. The leading theory is that the patient had most likely caught the virus from an infected family member who brought it back from the Middle East to the UK.

This virus is in the family of coronaviruses, the same group that was responsible for the 2003 outbreak of SARS that killed over 700 people and sickened thousands before disappearing.

This new virus has been known of since September when its genetic code was sequenced. It was determined that a patient that had died in the UK under mysterious circumstances fell victim to a new virus, previously unknown to mankind. The victim was a Qatari man who had traveled to Saudi Arabia shortly before becoming ill.
Read More...
Handcuffs

So why are we still drinking fluoride, again?

Anthony Gucciardi
Natural Society
Wed, 13 Mar 2013 02:19 UTC
Flouride
© Natural Society
We know that over 20 studies, many of which come from prestigious organizations like Harvard and are published in federal government journals, have told us how sodium fluoride is crushing our IQ. We know that a major head at the National Cancer Institute revealed decades ago that fluoride was causing 'cancer waves' in the United States.

So, remind me again, why are we still drinking fluoride in our 'clean' tap water around the entire world?

As it turns out, it's because Harvard and federal government journalists must all be wackjob conspiracy theorists! The peer-reviewed research warning that fluoride can cause permanent damage to unborn babies by affecting their neurological development is all a big conspiracy theory to the mainstream media. The sodium fluoride that is literally assaulting the brain in mega-high doses of 5,000 PPM in 'prescription fluoride' toothpaste being dished out by dentists who say their childhood patients are 'deficient' in the IQ-destroyer is perfectly safe in their eyes.

When analyzing the Harvard research, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, a component of the United States National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, we find quite a few concerning details. The study makes it explicitly clear how damaging sodium fluoride can be, with writers explaining:
"The children in high fluoride areas had significantly lower IQ than those who lived in low fluoride areas."
Read More...