Health & WellnessS


Wolf

Let the Babies Eat BPA: Chemical Lobby Gets Its Way in US Senate


Organic Consumers Organization
Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:16 UTC
baby
© na

Washington- For several years now, Environmental Working Group (EWG) has been warning of the risks associated with bisphenol A (BPA) - especially the BPA in baby bottles, sippy cups and cans of infant formula. EWG has also been a leader in trying to get state and federal agencies to regulate this hazardous chemical.

Thanks to the efforts of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), there was briefly a deal this week - after months of negotiations - to include some regulation of BPA in a food safety bill that will probably pass the Senate soon after Thanksgiving. The deal, agreed to by leading Republicans and trade associations, including the Grocery Manufacturers Association, would have banned BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups in six months, directed FDA to finalize its assessment of the safety of BPA by December 2012 and protected the right of states to take even stronger action.

Then the American Chemistry Council (ACC) swooped in with last minute objections. The Council's lobbyists whispered in enough Republican senators' ears, and the agreement was scrapped. The chemical makers' trade group has spent millions of dollars over the last few years to fight regulation of BPA across the country.
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Health

Prescriptions: Beware the Seductive Strawberry

Joanne Perron, MD
Mission Local.org
Mon, 22 Nov 2010 07:18 UTC
Strawberries
© Shubert Ciencia
As a child growing up in the 1960s, even middle-class families considered strawberries a pricey, seasonal luxury. In fact, I was happy to have strawberry jam with my peanut butter sandwiches. When I was lucky enough to taste a fresh strawberry, my tastebuds contracted with intense ecstasy and wanted more. Nowadays, super-sized strawberries are practically year-round and plentiful. No longer modest and consumed in one bite, they are garish and grandiose, even tawdry and tarnished. Beautiful to behold and giving the illusion of wealth, modern-day strawberries may promise more risk than taste, research shows.

Just to set the record straight, I am not against progress.

But as a physician, I have been trained to consider and weigh the risks and benefits of decisions. How do we balance the economic viability of the $2 billion strawberry industry with the potential health risks to our children of the chemicals used to grow conventional strawberries? Are strawberries the poster child for what may be wrong with our current industrialized food system?

The answers lie in examining the extensive use of especially dangerous and numerous pesticides to produce the majority of strawberries in the marketplace. More than 2.1 million acres of California strawberry fields were treated with more than 9.8 million pounds of pesticides in 2008. Pesticides' adverse effects are not limited to the pests they target. Even low levels of some pesticides have been shown to disrupt human hormonal, neurological and immune functioning. Because of their underdeveloped detoxifying mechanisms and other factors, the most vulnerable humans are the developing fetus, babies and children.
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Question

Mystery disease kills 13 in Uganda: Health officials investigate deadly fever that appears similar to Ebola

Gregory Branch
Global Post
Thu, 18 Nov 2010 01:33 UTC
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© Marc Hofer/AFP/Getty Images13 people have been killed by a mysterious disease in rural northeaster Uganda. Here children walk on a road leading to a northern Ugandan village on August 26, 2010.
Thirteen people have died in northeastern Uganda from a mysterious disease.

The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control are investigating the outbreak of the disease that appears to be similar to the Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic viruses.

Twenty cases of the frightening illness have been reported in the remote Abim district. Due to the number of cases reported, the district has been labeled the epicenter of what many are calling it the "Abim disease."

Of the 20 cases in Abim, eight have died, two are quarantined and another 10 have been discharged after their conditions improved, according to Emmanuel Okech, a health official in Abim. Five more died in the neighboring Agago district.
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Pills

Drug maker to pay $750 million for defective meds

Pete Williams
NBC News
Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:12 UTC
GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical makers, has agreed to pay $750 million to resolve Justice Department allegations that the company sold adulterated and improperly made drugs.

The actions are the result of a long-running federal investigation of the company's former drug manufacturing plant in Cidra, Puerto Rico. A company subsidiary agreed Tuesday to plead guilty to allegations that the plant churned out medications that were mislabeled, mixed up in the wrong packaging, and even defective -- made either too weak or too strong. The defects affected such popular prescription drugs as the antidepressant Paxil and the ointment Bactroban, used to treat skin infections.

The government claimed that the plant mixed different strengths of some pills together, such as both 30 mg and 10 mg tablets in the same bottle, and that Bactroban and Kytril, an anti-nausea medication, were contaminated with microorganisms.
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Health

Cadmium, Lead Found in Drinking Glasses

Justin Pritchard
The Associated Press
Sun, 21 Nov 2010 00:00 UTC
Drinking Glass
© Kentucky.com
Los Angeles -- Drinking glasses depicting comic book and movie characters such as Superman, Wonder Woman and the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz exceed federal limits for lead in children's products by up to 1,000 times, according to laboratory testing commissioned by The Associated Press.

The decorative enamel on the superhero and Oz sets - made in China and purchased at a Warner Brothers Studios store in Burbank - contained between 16 percent and 30.2 percent lead. The federal limit on children's products is 0.03 percent.

The same glasses also contained relatively high levels of the even-more-dangerous cadmium, though there are no federal limits on that toxic metal in design surfaces.

In separate testing to recreate regular handling, other glasses shed small but notable amounts of lead or cadmium from their decorations. Federal regulators have worried that toxic metals rubbing onto children's hands can get into their mouths. Among the brands on those glasses: Coca-Cola, Walt Disney, Burger King and McDonald's.
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Bulb

Why Plants Are (Usually) Better Than Drugs

Dr. Andrew Weil
Huffington Post
Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:04 UTC
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© Huffington Post
I have always been fascinated by the difference between plants and the drugs that are isolated from them. This goes back to my student days at Harvard in the 1960s, where I received my undergraduate degree in botany, and then went on to medical school. It's rare - too rare, I have to say - for botanists to become doctors. The experience gave me a unique perspective on health and medicine.

For four decades, I've been skeptical of a prevailing belief in Western medicine: when a plant shows bioactivity in humans, we must attribute that effect to a single, predominant compound in the plant. We label that the "active principle," isolate it, synthesize it, and make a pharmaceutical out of it. Then, typically, we forget about the plant. We don't study any of the other compounds in it or their complex interactions.

This belief persists for two reasons. First, it makes research much easier. Single compounds can be manufactured in pure, standardized dosages, which simplifies clinical trials. (However, technology has largely solved this problem. Modern growing and processing methods make it possible to produce standardized, complex, whole-plant-based medicines. Clinical trials of these compounds have become quite sophisticated, especially in Europe.)

Second, and this is clearly the major reason, it makes drugs far more profitable for drug companies. Isolating and synthesizing a single molecule allows a drug company to patent that molecule. Making slight chemical modifications allows further patent potential. Such exclusivity can be worth billions, whereas a whole plant offers little opportunity for profit.
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Health

Garlic 'Remedy for Hypertension'

Helen Briggs
BBC News
Tue, 16 Nov 2010 14:14 UTC
Image
Some experts recommend taking a clove of garlic a day
Garlic may be useful in addition to medication to treat high blood pressure, a study suggests.

Australian doctors enrolled 50 patients in a trial to see if garlic supplements could help those whose blood pressure was high, despite medication.

Those given four capsules of garlic extract a day had lower blood pressure than those on placebo, they report in scientific journal Maturitas.

The British Heart Foundation said more research was needed.

Garlic has long been though to be good for the heart.
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Magnify

Melatonin Temporarily Improves Dialysis Patients' Sleep


ScienceDaily
Sat, 20 Nov 2010 00:00 UTC
Sleep disorders are common in kidney disease patients on dialysis due to a disturbance in their biological clocks. Marije Russcher, PharmD, Birgit Koch, PharmD, PhD, (Meander Medical Center, in Amersfoort, the Netherlands) and colleagues previously found that giving dialysis patients melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate sleep and wake cycles, can improve sleep over a short period of time.

Now, these researchers have investigated whether the benefits of melatonin on sleep persist over the long term, and if long-term use of melatonin could improve patients' quality of life. 70 dialysis patients received melatonin or a placebo for 1 year. At 3 months, the previously shown beneficial effect of the short-term use of melatonin on sleep onset was confirmed.

The investigators also noted improvement of sleep efficiency and sleep time. In contrast, at 12 months none of the measured sleep parameters differed significantly from placebo. Regarding quality of life, melatonin had a positive effect on social functioning and a trend in improvement of mentality. "We confirmed the short term beneficial effects of melatonin on sleep; however, we found no indication that these beneficial effects persist in long-term usage of melatonin," said Ms. Russcher. "Further research should focus on optimizing melatonin dosage and time of dosing, specifically in kidney patients."
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Pills

15 Dangerous Drugs Big Pharma Shoves Down Our Throats

Martha Rosenberg
Alternet
Fri, 19 Nov 2010 13:07 UTC
Image
© Ragesoss
In the pharmaceutical industry's rush to get drugs to market, safety usually comes last. And the public suffers.

Long studies to truly assess a drug's risks just delay profits after all - and if problems do emerge after medication hits the market, settlements are usually less than profits. Remember, Vioxx still made money.

The following drugs are so plagued with safety problems, it is a wonder they're on the market at all. It's a testament to Big Pharma's greed and our poor regulatory processes that they are.
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Pills

Doctors disciplined by Texas earn money from drug firms, records show

Ryan McNeill and Marina Trahan Martinez
The Dallas Morning News
Thu, 18 Nov 2010 08:51 UTC
The 33-year-old woman suffered from bulimia, anorexia and drug addiction. Her psychiatrist, Dr. Wayne C. Jones of Richardson, prescribed stimulants, antidepressants, anti-psychotics and a drug used to treat a thyroid condition.

After the woman died of an overdose, a suicide, the Texas Medical Board found in 2000 that Jones "failed to thoroughly document his rationale for administration of dangerous drugs."

Jones has had other troubles with the medical board since then: A pending complaint accuses him of "negligence in providing medical services ... poor medical judgment, poor decision-making and non-therapeutic prescribing."

But that hasn't stopped drug companies from seeking - and paying for - his expertise. For example, Glaxo-SmithKline recently reported paying Jones $27,000 as a speaker. Pfizer paid him $1,126.

Jones is not alone. An investigation by the journalism website ProPublica, in conjunction with The Dallas Morning News, found that 46 physicians in Texas who have been disciplined by the state medical board have received more than $800,000 from pharmaceutical firms since 2009.
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