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Suit: Pfizer/Wyeth sought black patients for unsafe drug

Merrill Goozner
MedCity News
Tue, 25 May 2010 22:03 UTC
pfizer-pills
© Unknown
Pfizer's $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth last year has turned into a full-employment act for the drugmaker's outside law firms.

Yesterday the company was slapped with a whistle-blower lawsuit alleging Wyeth retailers promoted the off-label use of the immunosuppressant drug Rapamune for kidney transplant patients even though the Food and Drug Administration has explicitly warned about serious side effects and increased mortality associated with switching them from safer drugs. According to Jim Edwards' report on Bnet, the complaint alleges African-Americans were specifically targeted by salesmen since they are considered "high-risk" patients due to their higher organ rejection rates.
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Magic Wand

Courting the Cranberry

Bruce Burnett
Motherearthnews.com
Sat, 01 May 2010 00:00 UTC
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© iStockphoto/Kelly Cline
Research from the University of Wisconsin indicates that cranberry juice may help prevent the buildup of cholesterol plaque in arteries, which is the major cause of heart disease and stroke.
Science restores an old medicine, as studies show that regular consumption of cranberry juice cocktail decreased the frequency of urinary tract infection. Cranberries may also have broad-spectrum antibiotic value against E. coli and other harmful bacteria, and they are an excellent source of vitamins A and C and potassium.

By the 1960s, when doctors were dispensing antibiotics like candy, the use of cranberries to counteract urinary tract infections (UTIs) had fallen out of favor. Researchers claimed that tests showed that the acidifying effect of cranberries and cranberry juice was inadequate to prevent infection.

However, as late as 1994, a Harvard University study involving 153 elderly women with repeated UTIs showed that regular consumption of cranberry juice cocktail decreased the frequency of infections.
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Attention

U.S. Study: Pesticides Tied to ADHD in Children


Reuters
Mon, 17 May 2010 15:22 UTC
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© Reuters/Brian Snyder
A plane disperses pesticide over parts of New Orleans, Louisiana, September 13, 2005.

Children exposed to pesticides known as organophosphates could have a higher risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a U.S. study that urges parents to always wash produce thoroughly.

Researchers tracked the pesticides' breakdown products in children' urine and found those with high levels were almost twice as likely to develop ADHD as those with undetectable levels.

The findings are based on data from the general U.S. population, meaning that exposure to the pesticides could be harmful even at levels commonly found in children's environment.
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Bell

Endocrine Disruptors Really Do Suck

Tom Laskawy
Grist
Wed, 26 May 2010 15:06 UTC
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U.S. manufacturers and agribusiness are addicted to endocrine disruptors - dangerous chemicals that alter the natural function of the body's hormones. They are frequently used in plastics, in pesticides, and in personal care products and act in the human body as a "false" version of estrogen. They appear to be linked to a variety of diseases, including sexual dysfunction, heart disease, metabolic disorders, and cancer. New York Times columnist Nick Kristof wrote a frightening summary of the health and environmental risks of this class of chemicals about a year ago that's still timely.

Although the controversial plastic ingredient bisphenol-A, used in canned foods and baby bottles, is certainly the poster child for endocrine disruptors' ubiquity, it is merely one of many. The pesticide atrazine, banned in the European Union but still widely used in the U.S., is also a potent endocrine disruptor, as is the chemical oxybenzone, one of the most common ingredients in U.S.-sold sunscreen, though it too is banned in the E.U.
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Health

Natural Headache Remedies

Linda B. White, M.D.
Motherearthnews.com
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:28 UTC
Learn how herbs and nutritional supplements can be used to naturally ease and prevent headaches.

According to the American Headache Society, 12 million Americans endure chronic headaches, meaning they have headaches more than 15 days out of every month.

Almost everyone gets headaches. The good news is that many natural remedies can reduce headache pain and better yet, prevent it.
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Magnify

Brief Exercise Reduces Impact of Stress on Cell Aging, UCSF Study Shows

Elizabeth Fernandez
University of California - San Francisco
Wed, 26 May 2010 17:29 UTC
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© iStockPhoto
Exercise can buffer the effects of stress-induced cell aging, according to new research from UCSF that revealed actual benefits of physical activity at the cellular level.

The scientists learned that vigorous physical activity as brief as 42 minutes over a 3-day period, similar to federally recommended levels, can protect individuals from the effects of stress by reducing its impact on telomere length. Telomeres (pronounced TEEL-oh-meres) are tiny pieces of DNA that promote genetic stability and act as protective sheaths by keeping chromosomes from unraveling, much like plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces.

A growing body of research suggests that short telomeres are linked to a range of health problems, including coronary heart disease and diabetes, as well as early death.
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Info

Scientists Link ADHD in Kids to Routine Pesticide Exposure

Tom Laskawy
Grist
Mon, 17 May 2010 17:48 UTC
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Writing in The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan detailed how, following World War II, nerve-gas factories were converted en masse into synthetic pesticide factories. These weapons reborn as pesticides are organophosphates, as are both Sarin and VX gases. For farmers, they work by, as Wikipedia tastefully puts it, "irreversibly inactivating" an essential neurotransmitter within insects - just as they worked for military generals by irreversibly inactivating the same equally essential neurotransmitter within soldiers.

The dangers of organophosphates are thus nothing new, though industrial agriculture continues to drop tens of millions of pounds of them on fields across the country every year. The argument in favor of their use has always been that, whatever their devastating effects at high doses, general exposure through the environment was far too low to do any harm.
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Attention

President's Cancer Panel Warns of Toxic Effects of BPA

Dr. Samuel Epstein & Gail S. Prins, PhD
Huffington Post
Tue, 25 May 2010 15:52 UTC
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Bisphenol-A (BPA) is widely used as a plasticizer in polycarbonate baby bottles, besides adult personal care and cosmetic products, food can linings, microwave oven dishes, dental sealants and also medical devices. Other recently recognized major sources are cash register and credit-card receipts, which are coated with microscopic powdered BPA, and which many of us handle daily.

The 2010 President's Cancer Panel report explicitly cited BPA as a "chemical of concern," and warned that "more than 130 studies have linked BPA to breast cancer, obesity, and other disorders." The Panel rejected the March 2009 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) safety assessment of BPA as "incomplete and unreliable because it failed to consider all the relevant scientific works." The Panel also warned that FDA's "safety assessment on BPA" had been rejected by a March 2009 consortium of independent experts from academia, government and industry. The Panel report further emphasized that "science at the FDA is deficient, and the Agency is not prepared to meet regulatory responsibilities."
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Red Flag

Toxic Glue Used in Supermarket Food Packaging 'Poses Severe Risk to Health'

Amy Oliver
Daily Mail
Wed, 26 May 2010 15:38 UTC
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Toxic: A chemical used in the packaging of supermarket food can seep through and contaminate meat and vegetables, according to a study (posed by model)

Supermarket food is at risk of being contaminated by a 'highly toxic' chemical found in the glue of packaging labels.

The chemical, which is in the same class of toxicity as mercury, asbestos and hydrochloric acid, can seep through and contaminate food, according to a study.

It has been found in high levels on some of the sticky labels attached to packages of fresh meat, vegetables and tubs of sauce.
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Pills

Veterans' Sudden Cardiac Deaths Are Not Suicides or Overdoses


PRNewswire
Wed, 19 May 2010 14:17 UTC
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El Cajon, California - Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD today announced the results of his research into the "series" of veterans' deaths acknowledged by the Surgeon General of the Army.

Upon reading the May 24, 2008, Charleston (WV) Gazette article "Vets taking Post Traumatic Stress Disorder drugs die in sleep," Baughman began to investigate why these reported deaths were "different." And, why they were likely, the "tip of an iceberg."

Andrew White, Eric Layne, Nicholas Endicott and Derek Johnson were four West Virginia veterans who died in their sleep in early 2008. Baughman's research suggests that they did not commit suicide and did not overdose as suggested by the military. All were diagnosed with PTSD. All seemed "normal" when they went to bed. And, all were on Klonopin (a benzodiazepine), Paxil (an SSRI antidepressant) and Seroquel (an antipsychotic).
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