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FDA Review: Long-term Use of Bone Drugs Useless For Preventing Fractures

Byron J. Richards
Wellness Resources
Fri, 11 May 2012 13:17 UTC
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It never ceases to amaze me how the most stunning conclusions by government officials can be watered down with political correctness to the point that virtually nobody pays attention to them. The following alternative headline would actually be blunt and truthful, while triggering massive and appropriate lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies: FDA Review Shows Bone Drugs are A Fraud, Many Women Injured Under the False Pretense of Improved Bone Health. Once again, escaping culpability is the incompetent medical profession, who maintains a perfect streak of near uselessness when it comes to preventive health, as well as actually improving the most common metabolic issues faced by millions of Americans.

This past week the FDA published a review of the bisphosphonate bone drugs in the New England Journal of Medicine. To their credit, the review sought to understand whether or not bone drugs actually did anything useful over the long haul (six to 10 years) in terms of fracture prevention. This is the kind of study that causes Big Pharma to cringe, as they would much rather the FDA look at only misleading pictures of swollen bones that Big Pharma falsely claims are an improvement in bone density. Indeed, if the standard for the use of drug dispensing were actually fixing a health problem, Big Pharma would be out of business. The FDA review showed that in those with a baseline of significant bone problems, after six to 10 years, those not taking bone drugs (taking a placebo) actually had slightly lower fracture rates than those on the drugs (8.0 to 8.8 percent for placebo versus 9.3 to 10.6 percent for drugs).
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Pills

SSRI Antidepressants Do More Harm than Good, Researchers Conclude

Byron J. Richards
Wellness Resources
Sat, 12 May 2012 12:49 UTC
SSRI
Researchers from Canada and the U.S. have published a bombshell article on the commonly used SSRI antidepressants, concluding they do far more harm than good. Unfortunately, due to misleading and illegal marketing of these drugs over the past 15 years,10 percent of the U.S. population, a majority of whom were not being treated for depression, have been placed on these brain-injuring drugs.

Over the past few years it has been exposed that Big Pharma selectively and intentionally suppressed negative SSRI studies in a way that created a false picture of benefit for marketing purposes. This was combined with illegal off-label marketing. Doctors began handing out SSRIs like candy, ignoring the emerging dangers that new science explains are quite significant.

This new study is interesting because it did not deal with the marketing scam, but rather with a rather stunning side effect profile of SSRIs that is still not well understood by doctors or the general public. The researchers point out that serotonin is a molecule of evolutionary importance that influences many aspects of health. Its natural balance and regulatory function are disturbed, not improved, by taking SSRI drugs. In keeping with my article of yesterday on bone drugs, I would also like to point out that one of the adverse side effects of SSRIs is bone loss.
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Health

Vitamin K2: New Hope for Parkinson's Patients


ScienceDaily
Sun, 13 May 2012 15:59 UTC
Neuroscientist Patrik Verstreken, associated with VIB and KU Leuven, succeeded in undoing the effect of one of the genetic defects that leads to Parkinson's using vitamin K2. His discovery gives hope to Parkinson's patients.

This research was done in collaboration with colleagues from Northern Illinois University (US) and was recently published in the journal Science.
"It appears from our research that administering vitamin K2 could possibly help patients with Parkinson's. However, more work needs to be done to understand this better," says Patrik Verstreken. Malfunctioning power plants are at the basis of Parkinson's.

If we looked at cells as small factories, then mitochondria would be the power plants responsible for supplying the energy for their operation. They generate this energy by transporting electrons. In Parkinson's patients, the activity of mitochondria and the transport of electrons have been disrupted, resulting in the mitochondria no longer producing sufficient energy for the cell. This has major consequences as the cells in certain parts of the brain will start dying off, disrupting communication between neurons. The results are the typical symptoms of Parkinson's: lack of movement (akinesia), tremors and muscle stiffness.
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2 + 2 = 4

Is Your Environment making You Toxic?

Captain Randall
Greenmedinfo,org
Sat, 05 May 2012 14:49 UTC
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© Unknown
Ever since humans discovered fire, our activities have been releasing a "dog's breakfast" of unnatural chemistry. The list has grown to well over 75,000 free elements, compounds and pharmaceuticals. Many of these are acidic, electron-hungry oxidants and free radical generators.

Conventional medicine seems to dismiss industrial pollutants, food additives, personal care products, household cleaners, building materials and pharmaceutical residues... unless lethal concentrations are involved. The fact is, many are cumulative, so even at tiny parts per billion or million concentrations, poisonous substances considered "safe" by the EPA collect in fat, brain and bone, even crossing the placental barrier into rapidly differentiating embryonic tissues.

There they compromise cell membranes, damage DNA and the enzymes it produces, affect nerve conductivity, alter glandular production and hormonal balances, and continually generate free radicals which attack chemical bonds that hold all cell structures together. We don't want our cell structures to fall apart.
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Pills

Ritalin use for ADHD children in the UK soars fourfold

Jamie Doward and Emma Craig
The Observer
Sun, 06 May 2012 06:07 UTC
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The BrainDead Generation: Normal children have been turned into zombies while psychopathic children have become better manipulators thanks to psychiatric intervention, brought to you by Big Pharma.
Pupils as young as three are at risk from untested drug cocktails, warn experts as prescriptions soar

Prescriptions of Ritalin for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have quadrupled in a decade, prompting fears it is being pushed on children at the expense of alternative treatments and without appreciation of long-term effects.

Figures released by the NHS business services authority to the Liberal Democrat MP Tessa Munt reveal the number of prescriptions of methylphenidate hydrochloride, the generic name for Ritalin, rose in England from 158,000 in 1999 to 661,463 in 2010.

Ritalin is a psychostimulant drug most commonly approved for treatment of ADHD in children. It is also used to treat conditions such as narcolepsy and in certain cases may also be prescribed for lethargy, depression and obesity.
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High-fat diet lowered blood sugar and improved blood lipids in diabetics


Linköping University
Fri, 11 May 2012 08:45 UTC
People with Type 2 diabetes are usually advised to keep a low-fat diet. Now, a study at Linköping University shows that food with a lot of fat and few carbohydrates could have a better effect on blood sugar levels and blood lipids.

The results of a two-year dietary study led by Hans Guldbrand, general practitioner, and Fredrik Nyström, professor of Internal Medicine, are being published in the prestigious journal Diabetologia. 61 patients were included in the study of Type 2, or adult-onset diabetes. They were randomized into two groups, where they followed either a low-carbohydrate (high fat) diet or a low-fat diet.

In both groups, the participants lost approximately 4 kg on average. In addition, a clear improvement in the glycaemic control was seen in the low-carbohydrate group after six months. Their average blood sugar level dropped from 58.5 to 53.7 mmol/mol (the unit for average blood glucose). This means that the intensity of the treatment for diabetes could also be reduced, and the amounts of insulin were lowered by 30%.

Despite the increased fat intake with a larger portion of saturated fatty acids, their lipoproteins did not get worse. Quite the contrary - the HDL, or 'good' cholesterol, content increased on the high fat diet.
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Attention

Surprise! Monsanto-Funded Research Finds Their Products Safe

Sayer Ji
GreenMedInfo
Fri, 11 May 2012 14:00 UTC
Monsanto
© GreenMedInfo
Increasingly, the front lines of the information warfare being perpetuated by corporations upon the people are moving into peer-reviewed biomedical and life sciences journals.

Once considered a place where rigorous, empirical science -- i.e. the truth -- is vindicated and publicly acknowledged, these journals, and the scientists who publish in them, are no longer capable of maintaining the once hard and fast illusion that they are immune to the corrupting influence of industry.

Corporations like Monsanto, whose GMO-agriculture inventions (Bt corn; Roundup herbicide) now threaten human and environmental health alike, have moved beyond the stage of simply denying or minimizing the science revealing the harm being done by their products (there is too much science now to maintain this strategy!); rather, they are now investing in the burgeoning, multi-billion dollar industry practice known as "check book" science: find willing researchers, research institutions, and journals to create and publish information favorable to the company writing the check, and you're in business.

Case in point....
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Stop

America Consumes 80% World's Painkillers


RedOrbit
Fri, 11 May 2012 14:11 UTC
Drugs
© Photo.com
According to a congressional testimony by the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, 80 percent of the world's painkillers are consumed in the U.S.

BBC News reports that Americans consume enough painkillers for each of its citizens to have 64 Percocets or Vicodin.

The report said that prescription drug abuse leads to 14,800 deaths a year, which is more than what heroin and cocaine total combined.

The number of those who are taking painkillers is a 600 percent increase from where it was 10 years ago.

Also, police reports across the country have increased for crimes done by people addicted to oxycodone and hydrocodone, which are key ingredients in most prescription painkillers.

Long Island, New York, pharmacist Howard Levine told the BBC that "we've become a society of wusses."

He said that he stopped carrying all of the major addictive prescription drugs after he was robbed by addicts who were looking for their fix.
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Health

Mild Traumatic Brain Injury May Contribute to Brain Network Dysfunction


Science Daily
Fri, 11 May 2012 00:00 UTC
Even mild head injuries can cause significant abnormalities in brain function that last for several days, which may explain the neurological symptoms experienced by some individuals who have experienced a head injury associated with sports, accidents or combat, according to a study by Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine researchers.

These findings, published in the May issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, advance research in the field of traumatic brain injury (TBI), enabling researchers to better understand what brain structural or functional changes underlie posttraumatic disorders -- a question that until now has remained unclear.

Previous research has shown that even a mild case of TBI can result in long-lasting neurological issues that include slowing of cognitive processes, confusion, chronic headache, posttraumatic stress disorder and depression.
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Gluten & Schizophrenia: Maternal Gluten Sensitivity Linked to Schizophrenia Risk in Children


Science Daily
Fri, 11 May 2012 00:00 UTC
Babies born to women with sensitivity to gluten appear to be at increased risk of developing schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders later in life, according to new findings from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Johns Hopkins University, United States.

Maternal infections and other inflammatory disorders during pregnancy have long been linked to a greater risk for schizophrenia in the offspring. However the current study, which will be published in the June issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, is the first to point to maternal food sensitivity as a possible culprit in the development of such disorders later in life.

"Lifestyle and genes are not the only factors that shape the risk of developing a certain disease, but factors during the pregnancy and immediately after birth can also be involved in the pre-programming of our adult health. However, this does not mean that sensitivity to certain foods invariably will cause schizophrenia, on the contrary ," says Dr Håkan Karlsson, who led the study together with Dr Christina Dalman, both at Karolinska Institutet.
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