Health & WellnessS


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
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© 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.
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Health

Health insurance application process under Obamacare won't be easy

Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
Yahoo News
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 00:00 UTC
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© 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.
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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
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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."


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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
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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

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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.
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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."
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Cheese

Milk doesn't do your body good

Breaking the Set
Russia Today, U.S. Edition
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:13 UTC
Abby Martin takes a look at milk, its association with radiation and the facts pointing at how milk consumption is unnatural and certainly doesn't do your body good.

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Info

The inflammation and breast cancer connection

Helayne Waldman
Greenmedinfo.com
Mon, 11 Mar 2013 19:35 UTC
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© greenmedinfo.com
Consider the simple pimple, sunburn or mosquito bite. Minor events such as these produce inflammation. So do larger events like a sprained or broken ankle. Experts now believe chronic inflammation in the body may be linked to various forms of cancer as well as other major diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, and heart conditions. New studies continually increase our understanding of the complex inflammatory process and how it relates to breast cancer. In 2010 several piece of the puzzle came together when researchers at Thomas Jefferson University reported they could definitively show that inflammation in the breast is key to the development and progression of breast cancer. (Liu, et al. 2010)

While the relationship between inflammation levels and breast cancer continues to be closely examined, there are steps you can take to lower chronic inflammation naturally, reduce your risk of recurrence and improve your overall health at the same time. But first let's take a closer look at what inflammation is, its causes and its effects on the body.
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Magic Wand

How to be independent of the medical industrial complex

Dr. Mark Sircus
Activist Post
Sun, 10 Mar 2013 15:47 UTC
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If there was ever a time to learn about the Natural Allopathic Medicine protocol and how to use iodine, bicarbonate, selenium and magnesium chloride, as well as its other components of the protocol, that time is now. The walls of Modern Medicine are falling, and if people were smart they would run out from under the falling stones and learn how to be independent of the medical industrial complex.

A "nightmare" bacteria that is resistant to powerful antibiotics and kills half of those it infects has surfaced in nearly 200 U.S. hospitals and nursing homes, federal health officials reported Tuesday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 4 percent of U.S. hospitals and 18 percent of nursing homes had treated at least one patient with the bacteria, called Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), within the first six months of 2012.

What is happening already in Greece is like the canary in the coal mine. Greeks are in a panic as drug firms slash medicine supplies by 90% on bad debts.

This tragedy is coming to the rest of the world as the world economy contracts and as austerity bites harder, like it will start now in the USA.
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Attention

Expert warns antibiotic-resistant 'superbugs' pose 'catastrophic threat' to population

Sarah Boseley
The Guardian
Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:00 UTC
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© Shutterstock
Warning over rising death toll as antibiotics fail to tackle rising incidence of 'gram negative' bacterial disease

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria with the potential to cause untreatable infections pose "a catastrophic threat" to the population, the chief medical officer warns in a report calling for urgent action worldwide.

If tough measures are not taken to restrict the use of antibiotics and no new ones are discovered, said Dame Sally Davies, "we will find ourselves in a health system not dissimilar to the early 19th century at some point".

While antibiotics are failing, new bacterial diseases are on the rise. Although the "superbugs" MRSA and C difficile have been reduced to low numbers in hospitals, there has been an alarming increase in other types of bacteria including new strains of E coli and Klebsiella, which causes pneumonia.
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