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Pfizer Yanks Breast, Colon Claims for Centrum Vitamins

Ransdell Pierson and Anna Yukhananov
Reuters
Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:27 UTC
Pfizer
© Reuters
Pfizer Inc, bowing to allegations of deceptive advertising lodged by a consumer watchdog group, has agreed to drop "breast health" and "colon health" claims from the labels of its widely used Centrum multivitamin supplements.

Although Pfizer said it disagreed with complaints lodged by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), it agreed to remove the claims from some Centrum product labels over the next six months and to withdraw them from websites and advertising within 30 days.

Watchdog groups such as CSPI have taken the lead in recent years in policing the accuracy of supplements' health claims amid widespread criticism that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is not doing enough to help consumers navigate conflicting information. The Government Accountability Office has also said the FDA needs more power to regulate supplements.

The center sent a lengthy letter to Pfizer Chief Executive Ian Read in April alleging that separate Centrum products carried deceptive claims on their labels - that they support "energy and immunity," "heart health", "eye health," "breast health, "bone health" and "colon health."

The group threatened to sue Pfizer, which acquired the Centrum franchise through its purchase of rival U.S. drugmaker Wyeth three years ago, unless the claims were stripped from labels of the products.

Pfizer agreed to remove the claims related to breast health and colon health, and to modify language relating to heart health and energy.
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Health

Heat Wave Especially Dangerous for Kids


ScienceDaily
Fri, 06 Jul 2012 18:45 UTC
Image
© UnknownThough everyone needs to take precautions when it comes to dangerous heat, it's especially important to watch your kids.
Extreme heat continues to plague the nation with many areas seeing record temperatures. Though everyone needs to take precautions when it comes to dangerous heat, it's especially important to watch your kids. Children are at a greater risk than adults of sustaining a heat injury.

"Kids bodies don't acclimate to the heat as well adults. They don't sweat as effectively. They absorb more heat since they have smaller bodies and a higher ratio of surface area to body mass," said Jerold Stirling, chair of the department of pediatrics at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and pediatrician at Loyola University Health System.

According to Stirling one of the greatest dangers is leaving a child in a car unattended on a hot day.

"No matter the child's age this can be dangerous or even deadly. Even if it's for a short period of time and you leave the car windows down it's dangerous. Inside the car can be several degrees hotter than outside and places a child at greater risk for heat stroke or heat exhaustion," said Stirling.
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Attention

Monsanto's Roundup is Causing DNA Damage

Mike Barrett
Activist Post
Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:12 UTC
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© prometheanpost.comMonsanto's Roundup is Causing DNA Damage
There is a reason that masks are worn while applying herbicides, and warning signs are erected upon recently sprayed land plots; herbicide exposure is known to cause serious health complications.

New research has recently been released showing that glyphosate, the main active ingredient found in Monsanto's Roundup Ultra Max, is causing both DNA and cellular damage to cells found in the mouth and throat.

Seeing as the inhalation of herbicides and ingredients like glyphosate is very common, this research alone is enough to raise concern over the safety of such substances which are used on a major scale.

The Institute of Science in Society reports:
...Monsanto's formulated version of glyphosate called Roundup Ultra Max caused cellular damage and DNA damage including chromosomal abnormalities and ultimately killed the cells at higher concentrations. Importantly, DNA damage occurred at concentrations below those required to induce cell damage, suggesting that the DNA damage was caused directly by glyphosate instead of being an indirect result of cell toxicity.
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Cheeseburger

Junk Food Junkies: Dying For a Fix

Craig Stellpflug
Natural News
Sat, 30 Jun 2012 15:06 UTC
Image
© thefrisky.com
Junk food is over-processed and too easy to digest. Junk food requires very little processing by the body because it is mostly sugar, over-processed grains and empty fillers like hydrolyzed starches, cellulose and maltodextrin. The digestive system is like any other system in the body, if you don't use it, you lose it. Your gut becomes lazy.

The more junk food a junky eats, the more flaccid the digestive system becomes. The intestines are a long tube of muscles that contract in a rhythm that pushes food from beginning to end. On a junk food diet there is no significant fiber to exercise the intestines to keep them toned up and they become weak and distended. Digestion slows down, constipation happens and parasites flourish. Pouches of diverticula push through the wall of the weakened intestines causing pain and infection.

Comment: Read the following articles for a deeper understanding about why 'Junk Food Junkies need their fix':

Experts Say: Junk Food Can Hijack Brain Like Drugs Do
Junk Food as 'Addictive as Drugs'
Junk Food-Addicted Rats Chose to Starve Themselves Rather than Eat Healthy Food
Junk Food Found to Deteriorate Pleasure Center of Brain
Why We Mindlessly Eat Junk Food - and How to Stop
How We Became a Society of Gluttonous Junk Food Addicts

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Alarm Clock

Are Everyday Plastics Causing Infertility?

Hethir Rodriguez
natural-fertility-info.com
Sun, 01 Jul 2012 14:51 UTC
Image
© natural-fertility-info.com
No matter where we look there is a piece of plastic vying for our attention. Maybe it is keeping our food wrapped in the refrigerator; or maybe it contains the water we drink all day long or maybe, it is the container we reheat out lunch in at work. Wait! Could all that plastic be affecting your fertility? Maybe, warn some fertility researchers.

In a research study conducted by Dr. David Lindsay, of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Monash University, Melbourne Australia, it was reported that nearly 40% of all infertility cases have no apparent cause - or at least one that is currently detectable. That alarming statistics has sent researchers on a type of scavenger hunt, looking for previously unknown causes of infertility to help correct this ever-growing problem among the world's child-rearing population.

One theory, leading researchers to more study is the possibility that an increase in plastics use in everyday lifestyles could be a contributing factor, causing an increase of infertility worldwide. After all, most plastics contain toxic chemicals that has been shown to have a negative effect on the body's immune system and even hormone regulation.
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Health

Can You Hear Me Now? New Strategy Discovered to Prevent Hearing Loss


ScienceDaily
Fri, 06 Jul 2012 14:50 UTC
Image
© UnknownWhen it comes to preventing hearing loss, keeping the volume down is still the best strategy.
If you're concerned about losing your hearing because of noise exposure (earbud deafness syndrome), a new discovery published online in the FASEB Journal offers some hope. That's because scientists from Germany and Canada show that the protein, AMPK, which protects cells during a lack of energy, also activates a channel protein in the cell membrane that allows potassium to leave the cell. This activity is important because this mechanism helps protect sensory cells in the inner ear from permanent damage following acoustic noise exposure.

This information could lead to new strategies and therapies to prevent and treat trauma resulting from extreme noise, especially in people with AMPK gene variants that may make them more vulnerable to hearing loss.

"Future research on the basis of the present study may lead to the development of novel strategies preventing noise-induced hearing loss or accelerating recovery from acoustic trauma," said Florian Lang, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Department of Physiology at the University of Tübingen, in Tübingen, Germany.
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Fish

Fish Mercury Levels: 1/4 Freshwater Fish Exceed 'Safe' Mercury Levels

Elizabeth Renter
Natural Society
Fri, 06 Jul 2012 14:06 UTC
Contaminated Fishes
© NaturalSociety
A study completed in 2009 and released by the U.S. government found that every single freshwater fish tested was contaminated with mercury. They tested fish from 291 different streams across the country and didn't find a single mercury-free fish. What's more, fish mercury levels were often alarming.

According to the report, fish mercury levels in more than one-fourth of the fish tested contained mercury levels exceeding those set forth for people by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). More than two-thirds exceeded EPA levels for other mammals.

Many people opt for fish over other "meats" to avoid many of the toxins found in modern livestock, but this research sheds light yet again on the toxicity and contamination of fish, and that these creatures are often not healthful alternatives to other animals.

The EPA's website cautions that a little mercury isn't necessarily bad for the average person, that all fish naturally contain mercury. But if 25% of freshwater fish had more mercury than the FDA prescribed back in 2009, how many of them are over that limit now?

Mercury enters the water system through contaminants "spewed" into the atmosphere, according to Reuters. They say these emissions from industrial plants (particularly coal-fired plants) then settles into the water systems.
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Health

Why A Protein Meal Tells Your Brain You're Full

April McCarthy
PreventDisease.com
Fri, 06 Jul 2012 14:01 UTC
Full
© PreventDisease.com
Feeling full involves more than just the uncomfortable sensation that your waistband is getting tight. Investigators reporting online on July 5th in the Cell Press journal Cell have now mapped out the signals that travel between your gut and your brain to generate the feeling of satiety after eating a protein-rich meal. Understanding this back and forth loop between the brain and gut may pave the way for future approaches in the treatment and/or prevention of obesity.

Although levels of fats and sugars have been shown to influence the desire to eat, until now no team had demonstrated how protein molecules regulate appetite.

Food intake can be modulated through mu-opioid receptors (MORs, which also bind morphine) on nerves found in the walls of the portal vein, the major blood vessel that drains blood from the gut. Specifically, stimulating the receptors enhances food intake, while blocking them suppresses intake. Investigators have now found that peptides, the products of digested dietary proteins, block MORs, curbing appetite. The peptides send signals to the brain that are then transmitted back to the gut to stimulate the intestine to release glucose, suppressing the desire to eat. Mice that were genetically engineered to lack MORs did not carry out this release of glucose, nor did they show signs of 'feeling full', after eating high-protein foods. Giving them MOR stimulators or inhibitors did not affect their food intake, unlike normal mice.
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Info

13 Animal-to-Human Diseases Kill 2.2 Million People Each Year

Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience
Fri, 06 Jul 2012 08:45 UTC
Pig
© Martine De Graaf | Dreamstime.comResearchers found many livestock, such as pigs, were infected with zoonoses.
Diseases that can be transmitted between animals and humans, such as bird flu and tuberculosis, can wreak havoc on the health of both organisms. Now researchers have found 13 so-called zoonoses are responsible for 2.2 million human deaths every year.

The study, detailed this week in the report "Mapping of Poverty and Likely Zoonoses Hotspots," shows the vast majority of these illnesses and deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. For instance, Africa's Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania, along with India, had the highest rates of associated illness and death.

"From cyst-causing tapeworms to avian flu, zoonoses present a major threat to human and animal health," lead study author Delia Grace, a veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Kenya, said in a statement. "Targeting the diseases in the hardest-hit countries is crucial to protecting global health as well as to reducing severe levels of poverty and illness among the world's 1 billion poor livestock keepers."

The new global zoonosis map, an update of one published in the journal Nature in 2008, also revealed the northeastern United States, Western Europe (particularly the United Kingdom), Brazil and parts of Southeast Asia may be hotspots of "emerging zoonoses."

An emerging zoonosis is a disease that is newly infecting humans, has just become virulent, or has just become drug-resistant.
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Pills

FDA: Dr. Drew was paid $275,000 to promote antidepressant

Alexander C. Kaufman
TheWrap
Thu, 05 Jul 2012 19:00 UTC
Image
© Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesDr. Drew Pinsky
Dr. Drew Pinsky has come under fire for helping to market an antidepressant for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

A Boston judge on Thursday approved a record $3 billion guilty plea by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, which paid the "Celebrity Rehab" doctor -- known as Dr. Drew -- $275,000 to tout Wellbutrin, approved by the FDA to treat depression, as a drug to treat other conditions including obesity, addictions and sexual dysfunction.

At one point, Pinsky, then hosting sex and romance radio program "Loveline," told a woman that ingredients in the drug explained her having 60 orgasms in one night, a by-the-books talking point from Glaxo in what the federal government called its "nationwide scheme" to market the drug for alternative uses.

In a statement to Forbes, Pinsky defended his comments about the drug, claiming they were in line with his clinical observations of its side effects.

"In the late 90s I was hired to participate in a 2 year initiative discussing intimacy and depression which was funded by an educational grant by Glaxo Wellcome," he wrote in the e-mailed statement. "Services for the non branded campaign included town hall meetings, writings and multimedia activities in conjunction with the patient advocacy group the National Depressive and Manic Depressive Association. My comments were consistent with my clinical experience."

But the Justice Department's complaint against Glaxo alleged that Pinsky highlighted the drug's libido-enhancing effects without revealing that he was a paid spokesman.

It is unclear whether Pinsky will face any legal issues.

Neither Pinsky nor Glaxo responded to emails and calls from TheWrap for comment.
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