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Bad Guys

WHO Issues Warning About Corruption of Pharmaceutical Industry

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently issued a fact sheet warning about the corruption and unethical practices that are endemic to every step of the pharmaceuticals business.

"Corruption in the pharmaceutical sector occurs throughout all stages of the medicine chain, from research and development to dispensing and promotion," the fact sheet reads.

The medicine chain refers to each step involved in getting drugs into the hands of patients, including drug creation, regulation, management and consumption. According to WHO data, unethical practices such as bribery, falsification of evidence, and mismanagement of conflicts of interest are "common throughout the medicine chain."

The fact sheet also highlights other forms of corruption specific to particular steps in the chain. For example, clinical trials may be conducted without proper regulatory approval, royalties may be collected through manipulation or disregard of the patent system, and products may be registered with incorrect or insufficient information.
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Info

Bent on Learning: Why Increased Accessibility to Yoga Is a Vital Endeavor

Eddie Stern
One News Page
Sat, 24 Apr 2010 19:35 UTC
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As a yoga teacher since 1989, I am at the point where I am almost embarrassed to say that it is what I do because it can sound like such a cliche. Everyone does yoga; sometimes it feels like everyone sells yoga. The yoga scene, which has always been pretty wacky (think the Omnipotent Oom's yoga harem of the early 1900's), seems to be getting wackier by the day (suede yoga mat bags, anyone?).

Yoga in India was originally - and by originally I mean more or less 3,000 years ago -- practiced by those living on society's fringes: those intrepid seekers of reality that left the cities and their Vedic lifestyles to search out truth, freedom and liberation. Vedas are the revealed sacred texts of the Hindus, and to be Vedic is to belong to the Hindu culture that produced and abided by the Vedas.
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Attention

New and improved flu scam for 2010: They're going to merge H1N1 vaccine with regular flu jab

HigherCalling88
YouTube
Sun, 25 Apr 2010 19:44 UTC
In a desperate attempt to force people to take the H1N1 shot, they're now going to combine the regular flu shot with the H1N1 shot. After having to discard over 72 million doses of H1N1, they've come up with this new scheme to push this vaccine. This interview was conducted on Sunday April 25, 2010.

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Bell

Not Aging Fast Enough? Drink a Soda!

Tom Laskawy
Grist
Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:11 UTC
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American as apple pie. But how bad for us is soda?

Hoo boy. The American Beverage Association isn't going to like this news one bit. Food companies now add significant amounts of phosphates to soda and other processed foods. And now researchers have found evidence that phosphates may accelerate aging (via Science Daily):
High phosphate levels may also increase the prevalence and severity of age-related complications, such as chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular calcification, and can also induce severe muscle and skin atrophy.

"Humans need a healthy diet and keeping the balance of phosphate in the diet may be important for a healthy life and longevity," said M. Shawkat Razzaque, M.D., Ph.D., from the Department of Medicine, Infection and Immunity at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. "Avoid phosphate toxicity and enjoy a healthy life."

"Soda is the caffeine delivery vehicle of choice for millions of people worldwide, but comes with phosphorous as a passenger" said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal. "This research suggests that our phosphorous balance influences the aging process, so don't tip it."
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Heart

Which Fruits and Vegetables Are Most Effective Against Cancer?

David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D.
Huffington Post
Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:14 UTC
We've known for many years that consuming copious amounts of certain specific fruits and vegetables reduces our risk of developing various types of cancer. But a recent study reminds us that this protective effect is not linked to all fruit and vegetables. Some foods contain larger amounts of anticancer molecules. Thus we need to be attentive to our choices.

Lifestyle and Cancer

Cancer is not a disease whose origin is principally genetic, as many people continue to believe. It is a pathology that is closely linked to a range of lifestyle factors, particularly smoking and obesity (which stems from our sedentary habits and our dietary choices). Several studies have shown a direct link between the regular consumption of certain fruits and vegetables and a reduction in risk of developing various types of cancer.
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Health

Airlines are ignoring studies revealing toxic effects of contaminated air entering the cabin and cockpit


Brasscheck TV
Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:40 UTC
Part 1

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Dogs Helped Kids Improve Reading Fluency

Catharine Paddock
Medical News Today
Tue, 27 Apr 2010 02:00 UTC
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© iStockphoto
Researchers in the US found that reading to dogs helped children improve their fluency by up to 30 per cent. Many animal organizations and libraries in the US already have reading improvement schemes where they pair up children and dogs, but until now the evidence has been more anecdotal than research-based.

The findings are the result of a collaboration between the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and Tony La Russa's Animal Rescue Foundation of Walnut Creek, California. Together they studied participants of the Foundation's already established animal assisted therapy scheme called the All Ears Reading Program, according to a statement released by UC Davis earlier this month.

Lead researcher Martin Smith, a veterinary school science educator with UC Davis, told the press that:

"The dogs, in contrast to a human, don't judge the individual, aren't grading the individual, and hopefully that allows the children to build some confidence in their reading skills."

Smith and colleagues explored changes in reading skills among third graders at school and among home-schooled students. They found reading fluency went up 12 per cent in the school-based students and 30 per cent in the home-schooled students. Reading speeds also increased by up to 30 words per minute.
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Want Some Cancer with that Burger? Eating Meat Linked to Bladder Cancer

S. L. Baker
NaturalNews
Thu, 29 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© NaturalNews
No one wants cancer served up with their steak or hamburger. But that's just what you may be getting. As NaturalNews has previously reported, numerous studies have linked meat consumption with cancer. Now comes evidence from scientists at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center that eating meat frequently, especially meat that is well done or cooked at high temperatures, significantly raises the risk of developing bladder cancer.

These research cancer findings, recently announced at the American Association for Cancer Research's 101st Annual Meeting held in Washington, D.C., indicate that heterocyclic amines (HCAs), substances formed when meat (including beef, pork, poultry and fish) is cooked at high temperatures, may be what links meat to malignancies. Earlier research found strong evidence that 17 types of HCAs contribute to cancer.

"It's well known that meat cooked at high temperatures generates HCAs that can cause cancer," study presenter Jie Lin, Ph.D., assistant professor in M. D. Anderson's Department of Epidemiology, said in a statement to the media. "We wanted to find out if meat consumption increases the risk of developing bladder cancer and how genetic differences may play a part."
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Health

Hormone Replacement Therapy Drugs Based on Medical Fraud

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Thu, 29 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© Google ImagesHRT Drugs
Court documents unsealed as part of a lawsuit against drug giant Pfizer reveal how drug companies used deception and fear to manipulate women into taking dangerous hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs.

"The information coming out in litigation helps us understand how a belief in a 'protective benefit' of estrogens on the heart was able to spread like wildfire through the medical community," said Jerome L. Avorn of Harvard Medical School.

Pfizer, which purchased Wyeth in October 2009, is being sued by more than 13,000 people who claim that they developed cancer and other health problems after taking HRT drugs. The plaintiffs claim that Wyeth knew of these risks all along, and downplayed them even as it exaggerated the drugs' benefits.
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Pills

Drug Giant AstraZeneca to Pay $520 Million to Settle Fraud Case

Huma Khan and Pierre Thomas
ABC News
Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:21 UTC
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© Drago Prvulovic/AFP/Getty ImagesThe sign of the Swedish-British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is pictured at the plant in Lund, Sweden, March 2, 2010. Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca will pay $520 million to settle charges that it allegedly marketed the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel to children and elderly patients for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Justice Department Alleges Pharmaceutical Firm Illegally Marketed Schizophrenia Drug

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca will pay $520 million in fines to settle charges by the federal government that it illegally marketed the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel to children and elderly patients for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

AstraZeneca, one of the country's biggest drug firms, allegedly pulled in hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars through Medicare and Medicaid kickbacks and scams. Seroquel is used to treat schizophrenia in patients older than 13, and bipolar disorder in patients older than 10.

The FDA approved Seroquel to treat only psychotic disorders, specifically short-term treatments of schizophrenia, bipolar mania and bipolar depression. The government claims that AstraZeneca intentionally marketed the drugs -- by paying kickbacks to doctors -- for a variety of illnesses for which it had never been tested, including aggression, Alzheimer's, anger management, anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dementia, depression, mood disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and sleeplessness. It was given to the elderly, children, veterans and inmates, who were treated as "guinea pigs," according to the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
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