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Fri, 15 Oct 2021
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Ibuprofen and Other NSAIDs Kill 2,500 a Year in the UK

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© Getty Images
As many as 2,500 people per year die in the United Kingdom each year from stomach bleeding, a well-known side effect of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin and ibuprofen.

NSAIDs function by blocking the action of bodily chemicals known as prostaglandins, which produce inflammation in response to illness or injury. This causes a reduction in pain, inflammation and fever symptoms in those who take the drugs, and has made them among the most popular over-the-counter drugs in the world.

But prostaglandins also play important roles in protecting the stomach's lining from being corroded by its own digestive juices. This is why use of NSAIDs can cause ulcers and dangerous stomach bleeding, and are meant to be avoided by people at high risk of the conditions -- such as those with a prior history of stomach bleeding.

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Understand and Prevent Autism with Seven Simple Steps

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Autism is a disease characterized by impaired communication and social development, and one in 110 children these days is being diagnosed with autism related problems. Autism is often associated with heavy metals in the body, particularly mercury, which is a toxic metal known to cause brain and neurological damage.

Unfortunately, mercury is often injected into infants in vaccines and it's not uncommon for toddlers to begin exhibiting autism symptoms shortly after being vaccinated. Mercury is also regularly present in the mother's body; common sources include the metal fillings in her mouth, her own vaccines, and even eating fish that have become polluted due to our toxic environment. In fact, when the umbilical cord blood of newborns is tested, mercury is regularly found.

Given the degree of the problem and the destruction it causes, perhaps taking some steps to prevent autism is something you'll want to consider.

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Hormone Replacement Therapy Drugs Shown to Cause Asthma

A new study out of France has revealed that women who undergo oestrogen-only hormone replacement therapy (HRT) are at a heightened risk of developing asthma for the first time. Several previous studies have also indicated that the oestrogen hormone increases a woman's risk of developing asthma.

Published in the medical journal, Thorax, the study involved more than 57,000 French women in their menopausal years who had never before been diagnosed with asthma. Researchers tracked them over the course of ten years and evaluated those who developed asthma based on what medications they had been taking. They found that women who took oestrogen-only HRT were 67 percent more likely to develop asthma.

Of the 57 or so women who were diagnosed with asthma each year during the study, 56 percent of them had taken HRT within the past two years. Participants who had previously had an allergic disease and who also took HRT had an increased risk of developing asthma as well. Researchers also saw a decreased risk of getting asthma in women who stopped taking HRT drugs for a few years.

Comment: See other articles regarding negative impacts of HRT:

Pfizer Hid Evidence That Hormone Replacement Therapy Causes Cancer

Hormone Replacement Therapy Now Linked to Cataracts

Study Shows HRT Decreases Mortality in Younger Postmenopausal Woman

Hormone Replacement Therapy Leads to Female Brain Shrinkage

Hormone Therapy Skews Breast Cancer Diagnosis


Bad Guys

Diabetes Drug Linked to Kidney Problems, But FDA Keeps It on the Market Anyway

Three days after approving the Eli Lilly and Amylin Pharmaceuticals drug Byetta as a stand-alone treatment for Type 2 diabetes, the FDA announced that the drug has been linked to kidney damage.

"Health care professionals and patients taking Byetta should pay close attention to any signs or symptoms of kidney problems," said Amy Egan of the metabolism and endocrinology products division.

Byetta (known generically as exenatide) was first approved in 2005 for use in conjunction with other diabetes drugs only if a patient's blood sugar was failing to respond well to primary treatment. In 2007, the drug was linked to an increased risk of acute pancreatitis, a severe and potentially fatal inflammation of the pancreas. Symptoms of the condition include severe abdominal pain, sometimes with nausea and vomiting.

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Natural Ways Control Your Blood Sugar

Diabetes has run rampant in our society today. The sad part is that the majority of diabetes cases here in the US can be prevented via dietary and lifestyle changes. Instead, we have been over medicated with insulin shots and other diabetic medications.

Granted, there are some people who are born with strong genetic predisposition to diabetes that need this type of more radical treatment. Those that are insulin dependent just may need to undergo medical treatment. However, the vast majority of diabetics have "acquired" diabetes. How does that happen?

Most of the time, those who get diabetes later in life had some sort of genetic factor which facilitated its development. Diet is the number one factor identified as causing this jump from pre-diabetic conditions to diabetes. The kicker is that these diet modifications not only apply to diabetes, but also positively impact every facet of your health.

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Natural Treatment Helps Hair Loss in Women

Many women are dismayed to see hair falling out in clumps, either following childbirth, during or after menopause or due to other causes. While some daily hair loss is normal, thinning hair and partial baldness is a frightening prospect for women. What causes hair loss in women and what natural treatments are available that are not chemically based or dangerous to health?

Causes of Hair Loss in Women

There are various reasons why a woman's hair may thin or fall out. If hair loss occurs as a result of an underlying condition or disease, the specific condition needs to be treated first.

A woman's hair loss is different to the typical receding hairline and crown loss in men. Instead, androgenetic alopecia causes a general thinning of women's hair, with loss predominantly over the top and sides of the head.

Health

Medicated in the Cockpit: FAA Says Pilots on Psych Drugs Can Fly Commercial Airliners

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© NaturalNews
What would happen if the Columbine high school rampage shooters who were psyched out on mind-altering antidepressant drugs had been piloting a jet airliner instead? On Friday, the FAA issued a new rule that says pilots taking psychiatric medications are now allowed to pilot passenger airliners while medicated!

This "permission to fly while medicated" decision by the FAA covers pilots taking the antidepressant psychiatric drugs Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa and Lexapro. Not coincidentally, these are the same drugs that, in the minds of many industry observers, are linked to acts of aggression, suicide and mass murder. People on these drugs may simply lose touch with reality and feel like they're playing out a video game rather than acting out in the real world.

It begs the question: Why is the FAA putting medicated pilots in control of jet airliners? What happens if a psych drug medicated pilot suddenly thinks he's in a video game and aims his Boeing 767 at a civilian target "just for the fun of it?" Or what if he goes raving mad, strangles the copilot and then crashes the jet airliner nose-first into the ground?

While this kind of scenario may seem remote, you have to remember: It only takes one such event to cost the lives of hundreds of air passengers (and perhaps thousands of people on the ground).

Arrow Up

Service dogs help ease war veterans back into life: Relief for PTSD

Service dog in training
© STEPHEN CROWLEY | THE NEW YORK TIMES
A psychiatric service dog in training in the Puppies Behind Bars program
Just weeks after Chris Goehner, 25, an Iraq war veteran, got a dog, he was able to cut in half the dose of anxiety and sleep medications he took for post-traumatic stress disorder. The night terrors and suicidal thoughts that kept him awake for days on end had ceased.

Aaron Ellis, 29, another Iraq veteran with the stress disorder, scrapped his medications entirely soon after getting a dog - and set foot in a grocery store for the first time in three years.

The dogs to whom they credit their improved health are not just pets. Rather, they are psychiatric service dogs specially trained to help traumatized veterans leave the battlefield behind as they reintegrate into society.

Because of stories like these, the federal government, not usually at the forefront of alternative medical treatments, is spending several million dollars to study whether scientific research supports anecdotal reports that the dogs might speed recovery from the psychological wounds of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Attention

AIDS Vaccines Stop Working After a Few Months, Shocked Researchers discover

An experimental new AIDS vaccine is proving to be effective for only a very short time, according to researchers who have been finding it difficult to explain whether or not the drug is actually useful. Dr. Nelson Michael, a colonel at the Walter Reed Army Research Institute of Research in Maryland, and his team observed only a minor, temporal benefit in patients who took the vaccine, followed by a decline in efficacy.

The experimental vaccine is a combination of Sanofi-Pasteur's ALVAC canarypox/HIV vaccine and VaxGen's AIDSVAX. After AIDSVAX was found to be ineffective in 2003, researchers decided to combine it with ALVAC to see if that combination would work. Early results appeared to show that the vaccine reduced the risk of becoming infected with AIDS by 31 percent. However within a year, the risk level seemed to return back to normal.

At the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in San Francisco, the team explained that they may be able to come up with a new trial to verify the legitimacy of the vaccine. Dr. Michael said he plans to work with Dr. Anthony Fauci from the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop new trials to be conducted in Asia or Africa.

Family

What Pregnant Mothers Eat Affects the Skin Health of Newborns

A recent study conducted by researchers from Fukuoka University in Japan found that babies born to women who eat high amounts of green and yellow fruits and vegetables, and those rich in beta carotene, have a reduced risk of being born with eczema, a type of condition where dry, itchy red patches emerge on skin.

Most people recognize, even without a study, that eating habits affect a person's health. Nevertheless, Dr. Yoshihiro Miyake and his team evaluated 763 women and their babies to see if there was a link between the mothers' eating and lifestyle habits and the health of their children.

The women who participated in the study were roughly 30 years old and about 17 weeks pregnant when they were asked to provide pertinent information about their lifestyles and medical history. When their babies were between 16 and 24 months old, researchers gathered a second set of data from the women regarding birth and breastfeeding history, family information, and if their children were exposed to any second-hand smoke.