Health & WellnessS


Syringe

The modern tragedy of fake cancer cures

Matthew Herper
STAT
Fri, 01 Feb 2019 00:01 UTC
chemotherapy chemo
© Adobe
So it happened again. An underreported story about a half-baked advance in cancer medicine caught fire and scorched its way through social media, onto network TV, and into the minds of millions of people.

To start, no. There won't be "a complete cure for cancer" in a year's time, as the chairman of a small Israeli biotechnology firm predicted to the Jerusalem Post. The claim, absurd on its face, was particularly frustrating to those who work in medicine and drug development because it seemed so obvious there was not enough evidence to make it.

It doesn't take a lot of complicated biology to understand why. You simply need the information contained in the Jerusalem Post's article: that the data available so far are from a single study in mice and that they have not been published in a scientific journal.

Comment: What's not stated in the article is that these kinds of false hopes are sold to the public as part of an ongoing narrative meant to convince us of the awesome power of human science to overcome all our problems. The cure for [insert chronic disease here] is perpetually "just around the corner". The fact is, the human race, but particularly pharmaceutical companies, actually know very little about these chronic diseases, but few are willing to admit this.

See also:

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Biohazard

Health Canada is 'dead wrong' to OK weedkiller glyphosate, American lawyers say


CTV News
Wed, 30 Jan 2019 12:26 UTC
weed killer spray
© CTV NewsAmerican lawyers who successfully sued the makers of the glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup on behalf of a man dying of cancer say Canada is "dead wrong" to allow it to be widely used here.
American lawyers who successfully sued the makers of the glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup on behalf of a man dying of cancer say Canada is "dead wrong" to allow it to be widely used here.

Los Angeles-based lawyers Michael Baum and Brent Wisner were part of the team that secured a multi-million-dollar verdict against Bayer AG on behalf of a former groundskeeper who believes his terminal cancer is a result of years of exposure to the herbicide glyphosate in Roundup.

The two are in Canada meeting with environment groups and scientists to assess whether legal action is warranted and possible in this country.

Comment: With the amount of evidence against Roundup being severely toxic, that Health Canada would continue to allow its use shows how little regard they have for the health of Canadians. "Health Canada" indeed.

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Biohazard

Typhus epidemic worsens in Los Angeles as city Prosecutor contracts disease

Joel Grover
NBC L.A
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 20:00 UTC
los angeles
© Mike Blake/Reuters
A veteran Los Angeles City Hall official is one of the latest victims of an epidemic of the infectious disease typhus that continues to worsen across LA County.

For months, LA County public health officials have said typhus is mainly hitting the homeless population.

But Deputy City Attorney Liz Greenwood, a veteran prosecutor, tells NBC4 she was diagnosed with typhus in November, after experiencing high fevers and excruciating headaches.

Comment: While hygiene is surely one factor, considering that typhus isn't the only outbreak the US is struggling to understand and contain, perhaps there are others that need to be considered, see: And for more insight on the nature of outbreaks during similarly troubled times, check out:

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Recycle

Drugs in the environment: The importance of properly disposing of unused medications

Helen Lyle
Collective Evolution
Thu, 24 Jan 2019 13:43 UTC
drugs
Scientists have found evidence that common methods of household prescription drug disposal can contaminate the environment and produce unwanted effects in wildlife.

Recent studies have shown that chemicals associated with the breakdown of prescription drugs have been found in surface water and groundwater. According to this article published on the PBS website, scientists currently believe that this contamination does not pose a threat to people, but that it does have detrimental effects on wildlife.

Even though all releases of pharmaceuticals cannot be controlled, individuals can take precautions to dispose of unused or outdated prescription drugs properly in order to reduce their overall impact on the environment.

Comment: Pharmaceutical dumping poses risks to wildlife

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Bacon

Let them eat more fat? Researcher argues that a balance of types of fat is the key

Heidi Silver
The Conversation
Tue, 08 Jan 2019 13:36 UTC
steak
© Paolo Santos/Shutterstock.comStudies have shown that humans have a preference for foods that contain fat, such as this slab of steak.
Public health guidelines, such as the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, have long emphasized reducing dietary fat intake, but nutritionists and other health scientists now have more recent evidence that not all fats have adverse effects. Dietary fats differ with regard to their effects on health and risk for chronic diseases, particularly in regard to effects on risk for heart disease.

Indeed, some nutrition experts now believe that certain types of dietary fat may even reduce cardiovascular risk. Some dietary fats may lower fats in the blood called triglycerides. They may also increase levels of HDL, or what is known as the "good" cholesterol, and reduce LDL-cholesterol, or the less healthy type of cholesterol, thus improving the HDL to total cholesterol ratio.

Also, many diet plans that do not strictly limit the total amount of dietary fat a person consumes have been associated with better diet satisfaction, weight loss, and preservation of muscle mass.

Comment: Should we be eating more fat? Latest studies says yes!

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Syringe

Yale Researchers continue to promote vaccines after discovering a correlation between vaccinations and mental illness

Christina England
Greenmedinfo.com
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 13:27 UTC
vaccination
Over the years, a growing number of professionals have questioned whether or not the ever increasing number of vaccinations being added to the childhood vaccination schedule could be responsible for the number of children being diagnosed with mental illness. However, up until recently, there have been very few researchers willing to research whether or not there is a connection.

One of the few researchers who did write a study on the link between vaccinations and mental illness was Leonie J.T. Balter. However, although Balter and her team of researchers from the Birmingham University did find a significant link between the typhoid vaccination and mental illness, on closer examination, many professionals found her study to be extremely limited.

Not only did her study research a vaccine that was not included in the majority of vaccination schedules, but the only participants allowed to take part in her study were healthy males.

One study, however, did appear to confirm that a wide range of vaccinations were indeed linked to mental illness.
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Cow

Lab-created milk? California scientists developing cow-free dairy milk from GMO yeast and 3D printed milk proteins

Nick Meyer
althealthworks.com
Tue, 15 Jan 2019 19:41 UTC
lab milk
© New-Harvest.org.Perfect Day dairy-free milk founders Ryan Pandya and Perumal Gandhi.
While most countries across the world continue to eschew virtually all food creations originating from the lab rather than the farmstead (especially in Europe, where nearly 20 countries banned GMOs in 2015), the United States is charging full-steam ahead toward a completely new type of food system.

This emerging system places scientists at the forefront of food production, not farmers.

In many cases, lab-made food companies start with admirable goals of ending or minimizing animal suffering, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and other similar missions.

But critics wonder why these novel foods are being rushed to market without long term safety testing at a time when increasing amounts of synthetic foods are being allowed into the U.S. supply.

Comment: Want some plant-based bacon and steak with that Perfect Day milk like substance? The future of food looks bleak indeed:

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Red Flag

Nearly half of US adults have heart or blood vessel disease

Marilynn Marchione
Associated Press
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 18:03 UTC
exercise
© AP Photo/The Augusta Chronicle, Michael Holahan
A new report estimates that nearly half of all U.S. adults have some form of heart or blood vessel disease, a medical milestone that's mostly due to recent guidelines that expanded how many people have high blood pressure.

The American Heart Association said Thursday that more than 121 million adults had cardiovascular disease in 2016. Taking out those with only high blood pressure leaves 24 million, or 9 percent of adults, who have other forms of disease such as heart failure or clogged arteries.

Measuring the burden of diseases shows areas that need to improve, the heart association's chief science and medical officer, Dr. Mariell Jessup, said in a statement.
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Syringe

Arizona lawmaker wants to mandate that parents are fully informed of vaccine ingredients and side effects before children receive shots

Brian Shilhavy
Vaccine Impact
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 19:08 UTC
Senator Paul Boyer
© Tucson.comArizona State Senator Paul Boyer
The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson.com) is reporting that one Arizona lawmaker, State Senator Paul Boyer, is taking a different approach to "mandatory vaccine" policy.

Instead of requiring that all children should be mandated to receive vaccines even over the objections of their parents, this lawmaker wants to instead mandate that parents are fully informed as to the ingredients in vaccines injected into their children, as well as the known side effects, so that they can make an informed choice.

Comment: It's amazing that a move to give people more information about vaccines is being met with so much resistance. If vaccines were legit and carried no risk of complications, as the pro-vaxxers claim, there would be no harm in giving people all the information available so they could make an informed choice. The fact that there's push-back against the mere informing of parents just goes to show they've got something to hide.

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Cow

Nina Teicholz: EAT-Lancet report is one-sided, not backed by rigorous science

Nina Teicholz
Nutrition Coalition
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 00:01 UTC
vegan food grains nuts seeds
The EAT-Lancet Report published last week, with headlines globally, stated that to save both planetary and human health, the world's population needed to cut back dramatically on red meat and other animal products. The prescription is very close to a vegan diet.

Based on Fundamentally Weak Science

This report is disturbing on a number of fronts. Most importantly, its diet lacks the backing of any rigorous science. Indeed, it does not cite a single clinical trial to support the idea that a vegan/vegetarian diet promotes good health or fights disease. Instead EAT-Lancet relies entirely on a type of science that is weak and demonstrably unreliable, called epidemiology. This kind of science has been shown to be accurate, when tested in rigorous clinical trials, only 0-20% of the time.[1][2] One wouldn't bet on a football team with such poor odds, so why bet on the public health this way?

Comment: See also:

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