Dr. Doug Henderson and Dr. Gary Null
Global Research
It has been a particularly bad month for the pharmaceutical industrial complex in its ongoing litigations in American courts. Among the main pharmaceutical headlines, Merck’s Gardasil vaccine for HPV, now being widely administered to pre-teens, was found to be linked to amyltrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease; following a $1.4 billion fine in promoting one of its blockbuster drugs Zyprexa off-label, deceptive correspondence was uncovered by Eli Lilly gaming the system again by promoting another one of its drugs, Cymbalta, off-label for fibromyalgia; AstraZeneca was fined $160 million for scamming the Medicaid system in Kentucky after being fined $215 million for ripping off Alabama; Glaxo lost a Pennsylvania trial for failing to warn doctors and pregnant women of the dangers of its antidepressant drug Paxil related to birth defects; and Pfizer scored a record-breaking fine of $2.3 billion for illegally marketing several drugs over the years: Bextra, Zyvox, Geodon and Lyrica. These kinds of charges, among the many others, have become a habit for drug makers for the past dozen years.
Learning God's Healthy way to a better Life!
Drug Companies Paid 17,000 Docs to Promote Products
More than 17,000 doctors and other healthcare providers have taken money from seven major drug companies to talk to other doctors about their products, a joint investigation by news organizations and nonprofit groups found.
More than 380 of the doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other professionals took in more than $100,000 in 2009 and 2010, according to the investigation released on Tuesday. The report said far more doctors are likely to have taken such payments, but it documented these based on information from seven drugmakers.
The payments are not illegal and usually not even considered improper. But
6 Powerful Food Combos that Fight Cancer
Remember the old jingle that said you can "double your pleasure, double your fun" if you chew Double-Mint chewing gum because it combines two different mints? It turns out that combining ingredients may also be a good idea for warding off cancer.
Researchers have discovered that eating certain foods in combination may give more protection than eating either of the foods alone. While you may not be able to actually "double" your protection against all cancers, you may well be able to boost it by doubling up on certain foods, Karen Collins, who is the nutrition adviser for the American Institute for Cancer Research, told the Bottom Line.
The components of one combination chicken and broccoli actually boost cancer-fighting power 13 times more than either alone. Use these six combos to boost your cancer protection:
1. Tomatoes and broccoli
This is a particularly potent combination, says Collins. Rats with tumors fed a diet of both tomatoes and broccoli had much smaller tumors than those fed either tomatoes or broccoli alone. The combination works so well because tomatoes are rich in lycopene, an antioxidant that neutralizes free radicals that can damage DNA, while the compounds in broccoli help flush carcinogens from the body.
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Famous Smoking Chimpanzee Dies At 52
Charlie the chimp, known for his cigarette habit, has died at his home in a South African Zoo.
After picking up a smoking habit because of cigarettes being thrown into his enclosure at the Mangaung Zoo in Bloemfontein, South Africa, Charlie began to bum smokes from zoo visitors by gesturing to his mouth with two fingers, mimicking the actions of smokers he'd watched. (See photos of the world's most endangered primates)
Visitors continued to indulge the chimp, bringing on a hailstorm of accusations from animal rights activists when videos surfaced online not long after, prompting Bloemfontein zoo officials to try to cut Charlie's nicotine supply off entirely.
Zoo officials claim that smoking was not a factor in the Charlie's death, who at 52, lived ten years beyond the normal life expectancy of the average chimpanzee.
Is Your Favorite Organic Egg Brand a Factory Farm in Disguise?
Mother Jones
The chickens pictured on the egg producer Chino Valley Ranchers' Simply Organic site look pretty happy. And from the description of their digs, it sounds like they'd have good reason to be: "When you walk into the chicken houses and you see all the birds scratching around in the dirt, running around, flapping their wings and hear the soft clucking from each of them, you can feel their contentment," the copy below the little fuzzballs reads. "It is the way nature intended."
An industrial henhouse jam-packed with 36,000 birds, on the other hand, is probably not "the way nature intended." But that is exactly what investigators from the organic food advocacy group Cornucopia Institute found when they visited a Wisconsin henhouse that supplies Chino Valley Ranchers with organic eggs.
And Chino Valley isn't alone. A recent Cornucopia investigation revealed that conditions at many facilities that produce organic eggs are often just as crowded and industrial as those at conventional egg farms. And although US organic standards require outdoor access for laying hens, Cornucopia found that at many organic farms, "outdoors" often consists of nothing more than a tiny concrete screen porch adjoining the tenement-like henhouse.
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Dana Delany Recalls Her Botox and Eating-Disorder Nightmares
Think getting Botox is just a silly little procedure with no potential long-term downside? Listen to actress Dana Delany’s story. “Seven years ago, I had never heard of Botox,” the former Desperate Housewives star tells Prevention magazine in its November issue. “My dermatologist was saying, ‘You should try it.’ He injected my forehead, hit a nerve, and created a huge hematoma. The nerve has been dead ever since. It affected the muscle in my right eye, so my eye has started to droop a little bit.” The experience left Delany, 54, wary of plastic surgery, and impressed by women in Hollywood who shun it. “I won’t do it, no,” she says. “My hat’s off to Jamie Lee Curtis. She’s so smart, and she doesn’t dye her hair or anything. And Meryl Streep still looks like herself. Diane Keaton, too. I think the really great actresses don’t worry about that kind of thing.” Delany, who stars in the new ABC medical drama Body of Proof, also relates her struggles as a young woman with an eating disorder. “When I was a teenager and in my twenties, I had eating issues,” she says. “I binged. I starved. I was one step from anorexia — a piece of toast and an apple would be all I would eat in a day.” But despite her misadventures with Botox and food, Delany says she has a healthy outlook when it comes to the heaviest issue of all — her own mortality. “I think I have a pretty good relationship with death,” she says. “Ever since I was a little kid, it wasn’t something I feared.” To hear more from Dana’s interview visit prevention.com, or pick up the November issue of Prevention magazine, on newsstands tomorrow. –Tim Nudd
Fitness & Diet Trends: Then and Now
The Oxford English Dictionary defines “trend” as a "general direction in which something is developing or changing." The world of fitness is no stranger to trends and fads of its own, some more successful than others. Who recalls the vibrating belt machines of the 1960s or the grapefruit diet? Most of these fads proved ineffective or only temporarily successful, inspiring dieticians, doctors and fitness experts to go back to the drawing board to devise other methods of effective exercise and weight loss.
Increasing obesity rates
According to the 2010 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, a whopping 63 percent of adult Americans are overweight or obese, but as the Boston Globe reported in 2008, only 26 percent of women and 16 percent of men are on diets, which may signal the frustration that many face in attempting regimens that promise quick weight loss, but result in even greater weight gain down the road.
The essentials of maintaining a healthy weight remain unchanged: eat right and engage in a few hours of exercise every week to stay healthy. With busy lifestyles and work schedules, though, many Americans are looking for alternative ways to stay fit without having to resort to expensive face-to-face personal training sessions at the gym or costly fad diets that are hard to stick to.
Online fitness programs
One solution has presented itself in the form of online fitness programs like FitOrbit and GymAmerica, which cost a fraction of in-person personal training sessions at the gym or pricey diet programs, while offering substantial benefits. With FitOrbit, for example, you train at your own leisure, whenever and wherever you want. Your personal trainer serves as a round-the-clock motivation expert, providing you with customized workout and meal plans. The main benefit of online programs -- which are also being embraced by celebrity fitness gurus like Jillian Michaels -- is that you lose weight and work out at your own pace in the comfort of your own home, all without breaking the bank.
Past and present trends
Exercise and diet trends have come and gone over the years, as doctors and fitness trainers have concluded that instead of extreme diets or rigorous workouts, it’s best to cultivate a “healthy lifestyle” -- embracing both moderate exercise and nutritious meal plans. Here's a trip down fitness memory lane, and the current trends that have replaced them:
Then: The grapefruit diet was a hit way back when, promising rapid weight loss by consuming a great many citrus fruits throughout the day. The result? Rapid weight loss initially (mainly water weight, according to experts) followed by inevitable weight gain after one presumably tires of eating all that grapefruit.
Now: The current craze is gluten-free food, which is actually used to treat patients with celiac disease. Popular with a number of celebrities, this diet eliminates gluten, which can be found in foods such as wheat and rye.
Then: Aerobics became the craze in the early '80s, and developed legions of fans who followed in the footsteps of Jane Fonda to group classes in gyms across the nation. “Step” aerobics took off in the late '80s, promising a more rigorous workout by jumping on and off the "step," thereby increasing one's heart rate.
Now: You can’t throw a stone without hitting a Zumba enthusiast these days. The workout is more of a dance routine set to peppy Latin music. Its popularity appears to be based on the idea of revolving a workout around fun dance moves, which feature aspects of Latin dance.
Then: Dr. Robert Atkins hit the jackpot with his revolutionary low-carb Atkins Diet, which no doubt made him a very rich man at the height of the craze (although Atkins Nutritional eventually filed for bankruptcy). The low-carb fad was popular for many years until some health experts started questioning its benefits, and dieters gradually opted for more balanced meal plans.
Now: A new trend comes courtesy of Twitter. Dieters are actually tweeting about their food intake and overall weight-loss progress. The moral of the story is: Would you really eat that gallon of ice cream and then tweet about it to others? Probably not.
Then: Commercials featuring Suzanne Somers and the Thigh Master bombarded TV sets in the '90s. The small, simple contraption was designed to exercise your lower and upper body, and proved to be a hit -- it’s still on the market and has inspired copycat versions.
Now: Bikram or ‘hot’ yoga studios are springing up everywhere. Hot yoga requires a sequence of 26 postures. The catch is that you do this in a hot room --at a temperature of 105 Fahrenheit -- which, according to founder Bikram Choudhury, helps make the body more flexible.
Increasing obesity rates
According to the 2010 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, a whopping 63 percent of adult Americans are overweight or obese, but as the Boston Globe reported in 2008, only 26 percent of women and 16 percent of men are on diets, which may signal the frustration that many face in attempting regimens that promise quick weight loss, but result in even greater weight gain down the road.
The essentials of maintaining a healthy weight remain unchanged: eat right and engage in a few hours of exercise every week to stay healthy. With busy lifestyles and work schedules, though, many Americans are looking for alternative ways to stay fit without having to resort to expensive face-to-face personal training sessions at the gym or costly fad diets that are hard to stick to.
Online fitness programsOne solution has presented itself in the form of online fitness programs like FitOrbit and GymAmerica, which cost a fraction of in-person personal training sessions at the gym or pricey diet programs, while offering substantial benefits. With FitOrbit, for example, you train at your own leisure, whenever and wherever you want. Your personal trainer serves as a round-the-clock motivation expert, providing you with customized workout and meal plans. The main benefit of online programs -- which are also being embraced by celebrity fitness gurus like Jillian Michaels -- is that you lose weight and work out at your own pace in the comfort of your own home, all without breaking the bank.
Past and present trends
Exercise and diet trends have come and gone over the years, as doctors and fitness trainers have concluded that instead of extreme diets or rigorous workouts, it’s best to cultivate a “healthy lifestyle” -- embracing both moderate exercise and nutritious meal plans. Here's a trip down fitness memory lane, and the current trends that have replaced them:
Then: The grapefruit diet was a hit way back when, promising rapid weight loss by consuming a great many citrus fruits throughout the day. The result? Rapid weight loss initially (mainly water weight, according to experts) followed by inevitable weight gain after one presumably tires of eating all that grapefruit.
Now: The current craze is gluten-free food, which is actually used to treat patients with celiac disease. Popular with a number of celebrities, this diet eliminates gluten, which can be found in foods such as wheat and rye.
Then: Aerobics became the craze in the early '80s, and developed legions of fans who followed in the footsteps of Jane Fonda to group classes in gyms across the nation. “Step” aerobics took off in the late '80s, promising a more rigorous workout by jumping on and off the "step," thereby increasing one's heart rate.
Now: You can’t throw a stone without hitting a Zumba enthusiast these days. The workout is more of a dance routine set to peppy Latin music. Its popularity appears to be based on the idea of revolving a workout around fun dance moves, which feature aspects of Latin dance.
Then: Dr. Robert Atkins hit the jackpot with his revolutionary low-carb Atkins Diet, which no doubt made him a very rich man at the height of the craze (although Atkins Nutritional eventually filed for bankruptcy). The low-carb fad was popular for many years until some health experts started questioning its benefits, and dieters gradually opted for more balanced meal plans.
Now: A new trend comes courtesy of Twitter. Dieters are actually tweeting about their food intake and overall weight-loss progress. The moral of the story is: Would you really eat that gallon of ice cream and then tweet about it to others? Probably not.
Then: Commercials featuring Suzanne Somers and the Thigh Master bombarded TV sets in the '90s. The small, simple contraption was designed to exercise your lower and upper body, and proved to be a hit -- it’s still on the market and has inspired copycat versions.
Now: Bikram or ‘hot’ yoga studios are springing up everywhere. Hot yoga requires a sequence of 26 postures. The catch is that you do this in a hot room --at a temperature of 105 Fahrenheit -- which, according to founder Bikram Choudhury, helps make the body more flexible.
Studies: Beetroot Juice Increases Energy, Exercise Stamina small
When Chris Carver ran an ultra-marathon in Scotland last year, which challenges athletes to run as far as possible within 24 hours, he ran 140 miles (225 kilometers).
Determined to do better in this year's race, Carver added something extra to his training regime: beetroot juice. For a week before the race, he drank the dark purple juice every day. Last month, Carver won it by running 148 miles (238 kilometers).
"The only thing I did differently this year was the beetroot juice," said Carver, 46, a professional runner based near Leeds, in northern England.
He said more exercise would have improved his endurance, but to get the same result he attributes to the juice -- an extra eight miles -- it would likely have taken an entire year.
Some experts say adding beetroot juice to your diet -- like other foods such as cherry juice or milk -- could provide a performance boost even beyond the blood, sweat and tears of more training.
MORE FROM AP
Determined to do better in this year's race, Carver added something extra to his training regime: beetroot juice. For a week before the race, he drank the dark purple juice every day. Last month, Carver won it by running 148 miles (238 kilometers).
"The only thing I did differently this year was the beetroot juice," said Carver, 46, a professional runner based near Leeds, in northern England.
He said more exercise would have improved his endurance, but to get the same result he attributes to the juice -- an extra eight miles -- it would likely have taken an entire year.
Some experts say adding beetroot juice to your diet -- like other foods such as cherry juice or milk -- could provide a performance boost even beyond the blood, sweat and tears of more training.
MORE FROM AP
Controversial STD drug tied to 16 more deaths
19-year-old reported chest pain, nausea; died of 'cardiac arrhythmia'
Posted: September 28, 2010
8:50 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
The case report is terse about the 19-year-old woman who was given Gardasil, a vaccine intended to guard against a sexually transmitted disease, and reported, "Headache, nausea, dizziness, chilling, tiredness, shortness of breath, complained of chest pain, severe cramps."
She died of "acute cardiac arrhythmia." Said the report, "Attempts to resuscitate her resulted in a sternal fracture, but were unsuccessful and the patient died."
'SCARY MEDICINE: Exposing the dark side of vaccines'
That's just one of the 16 new reports that have arrived since the middle of last year that document deaths linked to Gardasil.
"To say Gardasil has a suspect safety record is a big understatement. These reports are troubling and show that the FDA and other public-health authorities may be asleep at the switch," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, the government watchdog organization that investigates and reports on government corruption.
"In the meantime, the public-relations push for Gardasil by Merck and politicians on Capitol Hill continues. No one should require this vaccine for young children," Fitton said.
Judicial Watch launched a comprehensive investigation of Gardasil's safety record in 2008 after the drug's manufacturer, Merck & Co., began a major effort to lobby in state legislatures to impose requirements that girls be given their product. Eventually the Centers for Disease Control suggested the maker back off its campaign.
It was in 2008 when Judicial Watch obtained documents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration documenting "anaphylactic shock," "foaming at mouth," "grand mal convulsion," "coma" and "now paralyzed" descriptions of the complications from Gardasil. The drug is intended to address the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, believed by researchers to be an indicator for future cases of cervical cancer. The company wanted it to be mandatory for all schoolgirls.
At that time, the organization's work uncovered reports of about one death a month, bringing the total death toll from the drug to at least 18 and as many as 20 at that time. The new report documents that there have been at least another 16 fatalities in the months since, along with 789 "serious" reports of reactions submitted to the FDA. Two hundred thirteen of the cases in the most recent reporting period resulted in a permanent disability and 25 resulted in Guillian Barre Syndrome.
According to Judicial Watch, the 19-year-old had "no medical history except occasionally cases [of] bronchitis."
She was given Gardasil and died within 53 days, following health problems that included the long list documented in the federal report.
In another case documented for the current time period from May 2009 to this month, a 13-year-old girl was vaccinated and 10 days later, developed fever.
According to federal reports she "did not recover and was admitted to the hospital. … She developed dyspnoea and went into a coma .. she expired [that day]."
Yet another documented case revealed a 10-year-old developed "progressive loss of strength in lower and upper extremities almost totally ... nerve conduction studies [showed Guillain Barre Syndrome]." The case was considered "immediately life-threatening," Judicial Watch said.
Merck officials did not respond to a WND request for comment.
Judicial Watch said federal documents reveal the mother of a 13-year-old who died 37 days after getting vaccinated reported, "I first declined getting her the vaccination but her doctor [assured] me that it was safe."
Her daughter soon reported no feeling in her foot and a tingling in her leg. A doctor's appointment was scheduled for Oct. 23, 2009.
"My daughter never made it to Oct. 23, which is also her birthday," the mother wrote. "She passed on Oct. 17. I found her cold unresponsive in her room at 7 a.m."
WND has reported on the aggressive push by Merck to lobby state legislatures to make the vaccination mandatory for schoolgirls across the nation.
In 2007 alone, Merck's lobbying campaign and contributions to the Women in Government organization for women state legislators resulted in proposals in at least 39 states to institutionalize such vaccinations. Most of the campaigns failed.
Officials with the Abstinence Clearinghouse had noted at the time in a position paper that groups including the Texas Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, and the American Academy of Environmental Medicine have come out publicly against mandatory vaccination.
"The reasoning of these medical associations is clear. They are not opposed to medical progress, and certainly support all efforts to combat life-threatening diseases. The problem, as these organizations see it, lies in the fact that the drug only went through three and a half years of testing, leaving the medical community somewhat in the dark as to what serious adverse effects might result in the long term," the group said at the time.
"Along with the potential of serious adverse effects is the question of efficacy. There is evidence that after approximately four years, the vaccine's potency significantly declines. The long-term value of the vaccine has yet to be determined; if it wears off within six years, will girls and women need to repeat the battery of injections they originally received?" the organization wondered.
Eat Nuts to Fight 8 Ailments
Looking for a nutty way to improve your health? Nuts offer a wealth of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients in a compact, portable, and tasty package. Scientific research indicates that nuts can help prevent or fight a number of diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and macular degeneration. Moderation seems to be the key, and a handful every day provides health benefits. So enjoy them daily just don't go nuts and help protect yourself against the following eight ailments.
1. Heart disease
A study of 31,000 Seventh-day Adventists at Loma Linda University in California found that eating a serving of nuts daily (about a quarter of a cup or one handful) lowered the risk of heart attack by up to 60 percent when compared with those who ate nuts less than once a month. The Iowa Women's Healthy Study found that women who ate a serving of nuts more than four times a week lowered their risk of dying of heart disease by 430 percent. Another study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health found similar results, and the Physician's Health Study found that men who ate nuts at least twice a week reduced their risk of sudden cardiac death.
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