Health & WellnessS


Health

Medtronic medical supply products linked to thousands of deaths and injuries


Japan Times
Mon, 26 Nov 2018 14:29 UTC
George and Brenda Davis
© APGeorge and Brenda Davis look at his nerve stimulator and medical documents at their home in Milton, Florida, in October.
A world leader in medical technology, the American firm Medtronic, may be linked to as many as 9,300 deaths and 292,000 injuries in the U.S. alone, according to an analysis published Sunday by an international journalists' group.

Reports submitted to U.S. regulators last year indicate that 1 in 5 medical implants using Medtronic products proved problematic, twice the rate of any competing firm, according to a wide-reaching analysis by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

The ICIJ inquiry, titled "Implant Files" and drawing on contributions from reporters in 36 countries, found that authorities in Japan, Norway and Australia had also identified Medtronic products as the source of the largest numbers of complaints over the past five years.

Among the findings: Since 2008, insulin pumps or their component parts produced by Medtronic for diabetics have been potentially implicated in more than 2,600 deaths and 150,000 injuries in the US.

Comment: More on Medtronic:

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Cow

An open letter to vegans of the world

Alex Fergus
alexfergus.com
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 00:01 UTC
Alex Fergus
Dear Vegans of the World,

You may recognise my name and website from my immensely popular article '8 Proven Reasons Why Vegan and Vegetarian Diets Easily Ruin Your Body', or maybe it was my (rather unpopular) youtube video 'Why You Need To Eat Meat'.

If you have viewed either of these resources, you will know I make a rather compelling case behind the health dangers of eating a vegan based diet.

But this letter isn't about the health pros and cons of the vegan diet, I've said all I have to say about that and am not seeking further debates (arguments?) around that issue. What you eat or do not eat a choice that you are free to make.

Comment: Perhaps vegans that are not completely ideologically possessed would be open to the heartfelt letter above. But unfortunately, that's probably not going to be a very high number. But you can't blame the guy for trying.

See also:

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Bacon

Dietary fat: From foe to friend?

David S. Ludwig & Walter C. Willett
Science Magazine
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 21:38 UTC
dietary fat
© Rosewater Cooking & Science
For decades, dietary advice was based on the premise that high intakes of fat cause obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and possibly cancer. Recently, evidence for the adverse metabolic effects of processed carbohydrate has led to a resurgence in interest in lower-carbohydrate and ketogenic diets with high fat content. However, some argue that the relative quantity of dietary fat and carbohydrate has little relevance to health and that focus should instead be placed on which particular fat or carbohydrate sources are consumed. This review, by nutrition scientists with widely varying perspectives, summarizes existing evidence to identify areas of broad consensus amid ongoing controversy regarding macronutrients and chronic disease.

A report by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs in 1977 called on Americans to reduce consumption of total and saturated fat, increase carbohydrate intake, and lower calorie intake, among other dietary goals (1). This report, by elected members of Congress with little scientific training, was written against a backdrop of growing public concern about diet-related chronic disease, precipitated in part by attention surrounding President Eisenhower's heart attack in 1955.
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Brain

Edible agents of mental disease

Paola Bressan & Peter Kramer
Frontiers In Human Neuroscience
Fri, 25 Mar 2016 13:08 UTC
bread
Perhaps because gastroenterology, immunology, toxicology, and the nutrition and agricultural sciences are outside of their competence and responsibility, psychologists and psychiatrists typically fail to appreciate the impact that food can have on their patients' condition. Here we attempt to help correct this situation by reviewing, in non-technical, plain English, how cereal grains-the world's most abundant food source-can affect human behavior and mental health. We present the implications for the psychological sciences of the findings that, in all of us, bread (1) makes the gut more permeable and can thus encourage the migration of food particles to sites where they are not expected, prompting the immune system to attack both these particles and brain-relevant substances that resemble them, and (2) releases opioid-like compounds, capable of causing mental derangement if they make it to the brain. A grain-free diet, although difficult to maintain (especially for those that need it the most), could improve the mental health of many and be a complete cure for others.
Give us this day our daily bread (...) but deliver us from evil - Matthew 6:11, 13
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Beer

Diabetes UK's £500,000 tie-up with soft drink giant

Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Suzie Barrett
The Sunday Times
Sat, 24 Nov 2018 18:00 UTC
pepsi mountain dew
© Getty ImagesPepsi is one of the brands sold by Britvic, the soft drinks giant.
The country's leading charity for people with diabetes has been criticised over a £500,000 partnership with the soft drinks giant Britvic, which sells brands such as Tango and Pepsi.

Diabetes UK said it has agreed the three-year deal with the beverage producer despite the link between consuming too many sugary soft drinks and the life-threatening disease.

There are 3.8m people in England with type 2 diabetes, with about 200,000 new diagnoses every year. About 90 per cent of people with the disease are obese or overweight and consuming sugary drinks can increase the risk. The disease is associated with heart disease, amputation and blindness.

Comment: Fund "vital work" while killing the people they're supposed to be helping. How nice. Do the ends really justify the means, here?

See also:

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Arrow Up

Europe curtails use of cipro antibiotics

Megan Brooks
Medscape
Fri, 16 Nov 2018 10:39 UTC
fluoroquinolone antibiotics
A committee for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recommended suspending entirely or restricting the use of fluoroquinolone and quinolone antibiotics because of the risk for "disabling and potentially permanent" adverse effects, the agency announced today.

The EMA Committee for Human Medicinal Products (CHMP) endorsed recommendations put forth in October by the agency's Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC). The committee concluded that marketing authorization for medicines containing cinoxacin, flumequine, nalidixic acid, and pipemidic acid should be suspended.

The CHMP also confirmed that the use of the remaining fluoroquinolone antibiotics should be restricted.

PRAC began its review in 2017.

Updated prescribing information for healthcare professionals and information for patients will describe the disabling and potentially permanent adverse effects and will advise patients to stop treatment with a fluoroquinolone antibiotic at the first sign of an adverse effect involving muscles, tendons or joints, and the nervous system, the EMA said.

The new restrictions on the use of fluoroquinolone antibiotics advise against their use for the following:
  • To treat infections that might get better without treatment or are not severe (such as throat infections);
  • To treat nonbacterial infections, eg, nonbacterial (chronic) prostatitis;
  • For preventing traveler's diarrhea or recurring lower urinary tract infections (urinary infections that do not extend beyond the bladder);
  • To treat mild or moderate bacterial infections unless other antibacterial medicines commonly recommended for these infections cannot be used.

Comment: Check out The Health & Wellness Show: Floxed: A cautionary tale for more information and testimonials.

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Cow

Rare footage of Vilhjalmur Stefansson the Arctic explorer and early carnivore advocate

श्री माहिष्मती साम्राज्य नरेश भल्लालदेव
YouTube
Thu, 21 Jun 2018 00:01 UTC
Vilhjalmur Stefansson


From Wikipedia:

Vilhjalmur Stefansson (Icelandic: Vilhjálmur Stefánsson) (November 3, 1879 - August 26, 1962) was a Canadian Arctic explorer and ethnologist...

Stefansson is also a figure of considerable interest in dietary circles, especially those with an interest in very low-carbohydrate diets. Stefansson documented the fact that the Inuit diet consisted of about 90% meat and fish; Inuit would often go 6 to 9 months a year eating nothing but meat and fish - what was perceived to have been a no-carbohydrate diet. He found that he and his fellow explorers of European descent were also perfectly healthy on such a diet. While there was considerable skepticism when he reported these findings, they have been borne out in later studies and analyses. In multiple studies, it was shown that the Inuit diet was a ketogenic diet although a percentage of its calories are derived from the glycogen found in the raw meats, although the native Eskimo ate a diet of primarily stewed (boiled) fish and meats. When medical authorities questioned him on his findings, he and a fellow explorer agreed to undertake a study to demonstrate that they could eat a 100% meat diet in a closely observed laboratory setting for the first several weeks, with paid observers for the rest of an entire year. Stefansson was compensated for his efforts by the American Meat Institute.

Comment: Fascinating interview and one that should be played for every dietitian and advocate for government dietary recommendations. It's also rather interesting that Stefansson says "You don't have to eat any organs, that's a peculiar folklore. We feed the organs mostly to the dogs". The idea that one can survive, and indeed thrive, on nothing but muscle meat and fat is one that flies in the face of pretty much all modern dietary wisdom, and yet the evidence for its effectiveness is mounting. Note also that, as Stefansson tells it, the only two members of his expedition who died of malnutrition were the two who insisted upon eating "ship food" rather than going on the all-meat diet of the natives.

See also:

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Eye 2

Congo approves clinical trials for Ebola treatments to more than 150 patients

Giulia Paravicini
Reuters
Sat, 24 Nov 2018 08:16 UTC
Ebola outbreak
© REUTERS/Fiston MahambaA doctor cares for a patient inside an isolate cube at The Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA) treatment center in Beni, North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo September 6, 2018.
Health workers have already administered therapeutic treatments to more than 150 Ebola patients since August in an effort to contain the worst of Democratic Republic of Congo's 10 outbreaks of the hemorrhagic fever since 1976.

But until now doctors have decided which treatment to use on a case-by-case basis. In the clinical trial, the choice of treatment will now be randomized.

Treatment will still be free of charge, the ministry added in a statement.

"Precious information about the effectiveness of the treatments obtained during the clinical trial will allow for the development of these treatments on a wider scale to save more lives," the ministry said.
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Cheeseburger

Just a few months of the Standard American Diet changed the microbiome of Thai immigrants

Olga Khazan
The Atlantic
Thu, 01 Nov 2018 20:26 UTC
diet
© Nguyen Huy KhamA Hmong woman carries grass in Vietnam.
In Thailand, a small group of Hmong women lived in a rural village, far from the nearest town. They grew everything they ate, mostly rice and vegetables. They boiled most of their food, and they rarely consumed meat.

But then something happened to these Hmong women that shocked their systems, permanently altering, in just a short time, the course of their health-as well as the very germs that dwelled inside of them. They immigrated to the United States.

In their new homeland-Minneapolis-they began to eat more protein, sugar, and fat. They indulged, like most Americans do, in processed food. Within a generation, the Hmong women went from having an obesity rate of 5 percent to one of more than 30 percent.
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Biohazard

Baby monkeys given standard doses of MMR vaccines develop symptoms of autism

Vicki Batts
Newstarget
Tue, 12 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
Monkey with baby
The mainstream media and conventional medicine have done everything in their power to convince the world that vaccines don't cause autism. But if that's really true, then why are the very same vaccines that are given to people causing autism in primates? A recent study conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found that some of the most commonly administered vaccines caused autism in monkeys. The monkeys were given standard doses that simulated the same doses given to children - the researchers naturally adjusted the vaccine doses based on the monkeys' weights to keep everything on an even keel.

The team, led by researcher Laura Hewitson, conducted the type of analysis on regularly-used vaccine regimens that should be done before they are given to children, of all people. This was the kind of experiment that should have been conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, but naturally, they have never conducted such a study before. What are they doing with our tax dollars again?

What Hewitson and her team discovered has completely destroyed the myth that vaccines are harmless and well worth their salt. Their findings showcased how what were considered "appropriate" doses for the monkeys' weights and sizes still led to the development of symptoms characteristic of autism. The monkeys' unvaccinated counterparts did not develop any signs of autism or exhibit any similar symptoms of vaccinated monkeys. The researchers analyzed the effects of several vaccines, including flu shots and the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine.
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