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April 2009 Health in the News Archive[ Monthly Index of New Briefs ]Flu vaccines can carry big risksApril 30, 2009The renowned Dr. Russell Blaylock issued a very on-point essay about the fears surrounding swine flu: “I was in the military during the first swine flu scare in 1976. At the time it became policy that all soldiers would be vaccinated for swine flu. As a medical officer I refused and almost faced a court martial, but the military didn't want the bad publicity. Despite the assurance by all the experts in virology, including Dr. Sabin, the epidemic never materialized. “What did materialize were 500 cases of Gullian-Barre paralysis, including 25 deaths not due to the swine flu itself, but as a direct result of the vaccine. At the time President Gerald Ford, on advice from the CDC, called for vaccination of the entire population of the United States. “Today, the pharmaceutical companies are busy designing a vaccine for the swine flu in hopes that this administration will make the vaccine mandatory. And as before, a number of equally qualified experts are calling for calm, based on a number of carefully conducted studies. To no one's surprise, they too are being ignored by the media and government planners. “According to science reports, this current strain of flu is H1N1. It can be forcibly inoculated into pigs, but it has been shown not to spread among the pig population. This means that the danger of a swine-based epidemic is small. “There are several strains of this flu virus however, including H1N1, H1N2, H3N1, H3N2 and H2N3. What the science has shown is that when the virus passes through the pig, it becomes less virulent—that is, it is less likely to cause serious disease in people. With each passage, it becomes even weaker.” Dr. Grout’s Comment: Dr. Blaylock asks the timely question about where public health interests and financial concerns intersect. You can read his entire essay at http://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/dr-russell-blaylock-on-1976-swine-flu-and-current-outbreak/> Long term study links plastics to obesityApril 17, 2009Results from a long-term health study on girls who live in East Harlem, NY, and surrounding communities provide some of the first evidence linking human obesity and endocrine disruptors in plastic. Phthalates, found in personal care products and pliable plastics, affect the endocrine system - glands and hormones that regulate many bodily functions. Phthalates have raised concerns as possible carcinogens for more than a decade. Researchers measured exposure to phthalates by testing children's urine. "The heaviest girls have the highest levels of phthalates metabolites in their urine," said Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, a professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai, one of the lead researchers on the study. "It goes up as the children get heavier, but it's most evident in the heaviest kids." The phthalate study follows a group of about 400 girls who range in age from 9 to 11. Researchers found that the levels of phthalates measured in children are significantly higher than the average levels that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have measured in children. The findings may trigger a new approach to thinking about obesity, drawing environmental factors into a central part of the equation. "Most people think childhood obesity is an imbalance between how much they eat and how much they play," Dr. Landrigan said. But he thinks the impact of endocrine disruptors on obesity could be more significant than many people believe. "The $64,000 question is: what is causal pathway? Does it go through the thyroid gland? Does it change fat metabolism?" Meanwhile, Dr. Landrigan advised people to reduce their exposure to phthalates as a precautionary measure. "You can't avoid them completely, but you can certainly reduce their exposure," he said. Dr. Grout's Comment: Here are several ways to identify products that have, or are likely to have, phthalates or another compound that has raised similar concerns and is found in similar products, Bisphenol A (BPA): Drug prescription bonanza for kids' psychotic drugsApril 13, 2009The Los Angeles Times reports that although "children are most likely to suffer severe weight gain and metabolic disturbances" from a "new generation of antipsychotic medication" called atypical antipsychotics, "the use of these drugs to treat children has seen steady, steep growth." To date, "only risperidone (marketed as Risperdal) has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use by children diagnosed with schizophrenia," so "virtually all of that prescribing has been off-label." This new generation of antipsychotic medications - Abilify, Seroquel, Zyprexa, Geodon, Clozaril and Risperdal – are called "atypicals" because they work differently than the earlier generation of antipsychotic drugs. To date, only Abilify had been granted the legal right to market to a vast new population of patients beyond those with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. This week, an FDA advisory panel recommended that the same expanded rights should be give to a second atypical antipsychotic drug, Seroquel XR. Mounting research has made clear that atypical antipsychotics are not only less safe than originally thought; they are not, on balance, any safer or more effective than older medications for schizophrenia. Furthermore, among the population of depressed or anxious patients that some are now proposed to treat, studies suggest the benefits are extremely modest. The FDA finally voiced concerns but experts said it too late, physicians have already been marketed to use atypical antipsychotics to treat mental disorders far less severe than schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The spreading use of these costly drugs is rising. The rates and the risks of weight gain, diabetes, strokes, fatal heart attacks, an array of movement disorders and potentially, suicide, according to a wide range of critics. "This is very worrisome; frankly I have serious concerns about these drugs," says Dr. Steven Nissen, who is chairman of the Cleveland Clinic's cardiovascular medicine department and serves as an ad hoc advisor for FDA panels. Studies point to a "very questionable balance between efficacy and safety" for the class, he said. But that message, he said, has been lost in an apparent "marketing bonanza" for the companies that make the medications. A recent report by the consulting firm Decision Resources found the makers of the atypicals spent $993 million in 2006 to promote the drugs to doctors and patients. Dr. Grout's Comment: The latest stats suggest that 1 in 6 American children has a developmental disability. There is a lot of money to be made in drugging them all. But let's not. Let's work with their brains to repair as much as we can. Biofeedback using hemoencephalography, or HEG, can retrain the brain and make new neural connections, and we find that we can often make significant achievements in the children we work with. In addition to neurofeedback, we look at the big picture for other elements that can impact brain function – allergies, food intolerances, digestive malabsorption, heavy metal toxicities, blood glucose regulation, and more. USA Today advocates more education, less drugs for ADHDApril 13, 2009According to the latest results from the government's leading, multiyear study of 579 children, the effectiveness of the popular drugs for ADHD can dissipate after 14 months of use. By the six and eight-year mark, across 30 measures of behavior and academics, children still given medication "fared no better than their non-medicated counterparts, despite a 41% increase in the average total daily dose, failing to support continued medication treatment as salutary," says a preview of an article in the May Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. USA Today wrote that if you look around a school lunchroom these days, odds are that one out of every 20 boys, and one in 43 girls, will have been diagnosed with ADHD. More than half of those boys will be on Ritalin, Concerta or Adderall, touted for over a decade as wonder drugs that help ADHD kids behave and learn better. School officials are prohibited from implying that medication is a requirement for school attendance but teachers, more than parents or doctors, refer children for an ADHD diagnosis. Drugs are the usual consequence. Yet most teachers surveyed are ignorant about many of the drugs' basic aspects, says a University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire study. The drugs can stunt growth. After three years, medicated children have grown an average .79 inches less than non-medicated ADHD kids. They also suffer from more muscle tics. USA Today editorialized that the website of Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, a leading ADHD advocacy and support group, buried mention of the study in a blog without noting any findings. "Perhaps not coincidentally, 30% of CHADD's revenue is from drug companies. Such denial risks real harm. It's time for those with ADHD children in their care to recalibrate their enthusiasm for long-term use of the drugs and to engage in some behavioral modification of their own." Dr. Grout's Comment: Stimulant drug therapy is the most common form of allopathic medical treatment for ADHD. In many cases, stimulants help to control behavior, at least in the short term. Critics point out that the stimulants is "like handing speed to your child," and there is evidence that early stimulant use doubles the risk of substance abuse in later life. There is substantial evidence that stimulant drugs increase the risk of hypertension, stroke and cardiovascular disease. Harvard Med School Students Rebel Against Ties to Drug IndustryApril 2009Two hundred Harvard Medical School students are confronting the school's administration, demanding an end to pharmaceutical industry influence in the classroom. The students worry that pharmaceutical industry scandals in recent years, including criminal convictions, billions of dollars in fines, proof of bias in research and publishing and false marketing claims, have cast a bad light on the medical profession. The students have criticized Harvard as being less vigilant than other leading medical schools in monitoring potential financial conflicts by faculty members. Harvard received the lowest possible grade, an "F," from the American Medical Student Association, a national group that rates how well medical schools monitor and control drug industry money. The students were joined by Dr. Marcia Angell, a faculty member and former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, who has vigorously advocated for an end to liaisons between academia and the drug industry. The revolt began when a first year medical student "grew wary" when a professor promoted cholesterol drugs and "seemed to belittle a student who asked about side effects." He later discovered that the professor, a full-time Harvard Medical faculty member, was a paid consultant to 10 drug companies, including manufacturers of cholesterol drugs. The school said it was unable to provide annual measures of the money flow to its faculty. The dean, Dr. Jeffrey S. Flier, says that the Harvard Medical faculty may lead the nation in receiving money from industry, as well as government and charities, and he does not want to tighten the spigot. Dr. Grout's Comment: The statement made by David Tian, 24, a first-year Harvard Medical student, sums it up: "Before coming here, I had no idea how much influence companies had on medical education. And it's something that's purposely meant to be under the table, providing information under the guise of education when that information is also presented for marketing purposes." A better light bulb and mercury-free?April 10, 2009Although compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL) are heralded as "green" because they use less energy, they are also a new source of mercury in the environment. The New York Times reports a Seattle company plans to introduce a fully dimmable, mercury-free, instant-on bulb for recessed ceiling fixtures by the end of this year. The company says it last about 6,000 hours – or six times the lifespan of an incandescent – and have a price tag similar to high-end C.F.L. reflector bulbs: about $18 to $22.  The company, Vu1, describes its technology as "electron stimulated luminescence" (ESL) and it shares some of the same basic science on which cathode ray tubes in older televisions are based. Electrons are sprayed uniformly over a broad area inside the bulb, which is coated with a phosphor mixture. This causes the entire surface of the bulb to glow and create light. No filament, plasma, coils or mercury vapor.The company says it plans to have a demo that will operate in household sockets ready by June, and to begin high-volume mass production by the end of the year. "I'm very excited to see a technology that has all the promise of CFLs without the mercury," said Sean Gray, a senior analyst with the Environmental Working Group, which has been critical of mercury standards for Energy Star CFLs. "It's an incredible chance to move forward." Dr. Grout's Comment: Good news and a timely reminder that the ingenuity of the private sector can create a cleaner, less toxic environment when the public creates the demand. Study shows nearly 1 in 5 preschoolers is obeseApril 7, 2009Almost 1 in 5 preschoolers is obese, and the numbers are even worse for minority groups, according to the largest analysis of obesity among 4-year-olds based on race and ethnicity. The study, published in this week's Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, found that 18 percent of 4-year-olds are obese. Researchers, including epidemiologist Sarah Anderson of Ohio State University's College of Public Health, looked at body mass index of 8,550 U.S. children involved in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. Almost 13 percent of Asian children were obese, along with 16 percent of whites, almost 21 percent of blacks, 22 percent of Hispanics, and 31 percent of American Indians. Overall, boys were more likely to have weight problems than girls. Anderson encouraged parents to talk to their child's doctor about weight concerns at an early age. Dr. Grout's Comment: Thank you Sarah Anderson for your study, people need the wake-up call. But "encouraging parents to talk to their doctors" is a non-starter. Most parents see the pediatrician regularly for "well baby visits." Obviously neither the pediatrician, nor the gynecologist who preceded him, talked about healthy food and diet. And no wonder, conventional American medical schools give doctors about 6 hours on nutrition. From the makers of Aspartame comes AdvantameApril 6, 2009Ajinomoto Company Inc., a leading supplier of aspartame, has applied to the FDA for approval of Advantame, a sweetener for use in foods and beverages. The company describes Advantame as having "a sweet, clean sugar-like taste, and is much sweeter than most low and non-calorie sweeteners currently available. Heightened attention to the importance of healthy body weight has significantly increased demand for ingredients that deliver a good, sweet taste without adding extra calories." The press release says the "sugar-like taste means that it blends very well with sugar and high fructose corn syrup, providing food and drink companies with an alternative that has both nutritional and environmental advantages." Brendan Naulty, President of Ajinomoto Food Ingredients LLC, said, "Advantame can be used very successfully by product formulators in the sweetening systems of low calorie and no calorie product." The company press release does not speak to the chemical make-up of the new product, nor does it elaborate on its "nutritional and environmental advantages." Public skepticism about aspartame has filtered through to food retailers. In Britain, the Wal-Mart-owned supermarket chain Asda targeted aspartame for removal from its "Good for You" range of foods. Ajinomoto is suing on the basis that Asda has suggested that aspartame is unhealthy and is something that consumers concerned for their health should avoid. An Ajinomoto spokesperson is quoted as saying: "This is a UK initiative and a relatively cynical one," adding: "It doesn't reflect concerns at a consumer level—it is just bandwagoning." However, an Asda spokesperson maintains that: "We have removed some of the ingredients our customers tell us they don't want in their food. That includes aspartame." Dr. Grout's Comment: Throughout the history of aspartame's approval process and presence in the marketplace, there has been evidence that aspartame causes a range of harm from seizures to cancer. Industry-funded research invariably finds in favor of aspartame, independently-funded work almost always comes to the opposite conclusion. California is moving forward with consideration of aspartame as a carcinogen under Proposition 65, which would allow them to label it as "a chemical known by the state of California to cause cancer." Pesticide exposure at conception increases birth defect riskApril 6, 2009Researchers analyzed all 30.1 million births in the United States between 1996 and 2002 and found that birth defect rates were highest among women who'd conceived between April and July. Pesticide exposure might help explain why, according to a new study reported in the journal Acta Pediatrica. During those same months, surface-water concentrations of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals generally increase. Some of the chemicals tracked in the study, such as the weed killer atrazine, are suspected of causing harm to developing embryos.  "While our study didn't prove a cause and effect link, the fact that birth defects and pesticides in surface water peak during the same four months makes us suspect that the two are related," lead researcher Dr. Paul Winchester, of the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, noted in a written statement."What we are most excited about," he said, "is that if our suspicions are right and pesticides are contributing to birth defect risk, we can reverse or modify the factors that are causing these lifelong and often very serious medical problems." Dr. Grout's Comment: In WWI, mustard gas and other poisons were used to kill human beings by way of destroying their nervous system. Then chemists got the bright idea that a less potent formulation would kill just bugs and thus the pesticide industry was born. Economy Is Down, Vitamin Sales Are UpApril 4, 2009Sales of vitamins and nutritional supplements, which have grown consistently for years, have surged in recent months, rising as the stock market has fallen. People are clearly cutting back on many items, from bread and milk to designer jeans and flat-screen televisions, but they are stocking up on pills that they think can spare them expensive doctor visits. For the three months ending Dec. 28, sales of vitamins rose nearly 8 percent compared with the same period in 2007, according to Information Resources Inc., a market research company in Chicago. At the same time, sales of other health-related products — like cough and cold remedies, first-aid products and pain relievers — have been dipping, according to the Nielsen Company. The strong sales of vitamins and supplements have continued into this year. "Our best January and February in history are the ones that just happened," said Tom Newmark, chief executive of New Chapter Inc., a 26-year-old supplements manufacturer in Brattleboro, Vt. Supplement sales have been a rare bright spot for Whole Foods. "We just reported our first quarter of negative growth in our company's history, but the supplement area is performing better than the rest of the store," said Jeremiah McElwee, a senior coordinator who oversees supplements sales for the company. Dr. Grout's Comment: This is an interesting trend. People are taking responsibility for their own health and realizing that Mother Nature has a big toolbox for preventive medicine. In June, 2008, Science Daily reported that supplementation with vitamins can often restore some deficient enzymes to full working order and thereby correct genetic defects. But what are you really getting when you buy a supplement? You hope it is truly "natural," but that is too often not the case. When prescription drugs do not workApril 2, 2009The New York Times reports that studies show that the early administration of beta-blockers to heart attack victims does not save lives, and occasionally causes dangerous heart failure. While two studies support the use of beta-blockers after heart attack, there are 26 studies that found no survival benefit to administering beta-blockers early on. Moreover, in 2005, the largest, best study of the drugs showed that beta-blockers in the vulnerable, early hours of heart attacks did not save lives, but did cause a definite increase in heart failure. Remarkably, the medical community has continued to strongly recommend immediate beta-blocker treatment. Why? Because according to the theory of the straining heart, the treatment makes sense. It should work, even though it doesn't. Ideology trumps evidence. The practice of medicine contains countless examples of elegant medical theories that belie the best available evidence:
Dr. Grout's Comment: Too often, truth is blinded by money. Bed bugs are increasingly resistant to pesticidesApril 1, 2009 A new report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that infestations of bed bugs are on the rise all over the world, and these insects are becoming more resistant to pesticides.In San Francisco, reports of bed bug infestations doubled between 2004 and 2006, according to the study. In Toronto, during a six month period, reports of bed bugs jumped 100 percent in 2002, and in Austria, the number of bed bug samples submitted to the government went up 400 percent from during 2001 to 2004 compared to 1997 to 2000, reported the study. "They're extremely difficult to get rid of, and they're not going away anytime soon," said study author Jerome Goddard, an associate professor of entomology at Mississippi State University in Jackson. "They can live for a year without food, and they're becoming resistant to many of the pesticides used to kill them." Travel, immigration, and resistance to insecticides have contributed to a resurgence in reports of infestations. Goddard and his colleague, Dr. Richard deShazo from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, reviewed 53 studies on bed bugs published over the past 50 years. They found that only about half of the people who are bitten show signs of a bite. Bed bug bites do not appear to transmit illness, according to the report. "Evidence for disease transmission by bed bugs is lacking." Because bed bugs feed on blood, the concern has been they might transmit illness. Pest control and eradication is challenging due to insecticide resistance, lack of effective products, and health concerns about spraying mattresses with pesticides. Dr. Grout's Comment: My good friend, Dr. Doris Rapp, met with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors during the summer of 2004 to warn them of the dangers of saturating Monsanto on trial for PCBs in AlabamaApril 1, 2009The first 5 of 47 personal injury lawsuits are coming to trial for exposure to PCBs from old Monsanto's Anniston, Alabama, plant. The company manufactured PCBs there from the 1930s to 1971. Monsanto is now known as Pharmacia Corp. Litigants claim that Monsanto was negligent in its handling and disposal of the chemical at its factory, that it routinely discharged toxic waste into a west Anniston creek and dumped millions of pounds of PCBs into oozing open-pit landfills which flowed off the factory property in stormwater. Litigants claim that PCB exposure caused health conditions including diabetes and arthritis. Lawsuits against Monsanto and its affiliated companies began in 1996. In 2003, Monsanto, Solutia, Pfizer and Pharmacia agreed to a settlement that included $600 million in cash payments and community health services, resolving both state and federal lawsuits. Current lawsuits come from plaintiffs who did not benefit from the previous settlement. Five plaintiffs whose cases were randomly selected for the first trial in Jefferson County range in age from 67 to 89. Augusta Dowd, an attorney representing Pharmacia, said there is no credible scientific evidence that PCB caused any of the illnesses. She said diabetes and arthritis are common for people their age. The trial is expected to last at least two weeks. Dr. Grout's Comment: The now-banned industrial coolants known as PCBs were once known as miracle chemicals. They are unusually nonflammable, and conduct heat without conducting electricity. Many safety codes once mandated the use of PCBs as insulation in transformers and other electrical equipment. They also were used in paints, newsprint, carbon paper, deep-fat fryers, adhesives, and even bread wrappers. Although internal Monsanto memos warned of PCBs dangers, the warning bell did not ring publically until the late 1960s. Overuse of antibiotics has led to MRSA showing up in food supplyApril 1, 2009Five out of 90 samples of retail pork in Louisiana tested positive for MRSA – an antibiotic-resistant staph infection. A study of retail meats in the Washington, D.C., area found MRSA in one of every 300 pork samples, according to Jianghong Meng, the University of Maryland scholar who conducted the study. A new strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is called ST398 and seems to find a reservoir in modern hog farms. Research by Peter Davies of the University of Minnesota suggests that 25 percent to 39 percent of American hogs carry MRSA. "Unlike Europe and even South Korea, the United States still bows to agribusiness interests by permitting the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in animal feed," wrote Nicholas D. Kristof two weeks ago in the New York Times. "That's unconscionable. Legislation to ban the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in agriculture has always been blocked by agribusiness interests. For the sake of faster-growing hogs, we're empowering microbes that endanger our food supply and threaten our lives." Dr. Grout's Comment: When penicillin was discovered in 1929, it was truly a wonder drug. Since then, it has been so overused, we are now losing the ability to stop infections in humans. MRSA already kills more than 18,000 Americans annually, more than AIDS does. Let me say that again – MRSA kills more people than AIDS. |
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Anti-aspartame advocate Betty Martini, founder of Mission Possible World Health International, fears that Advantame is "another biochemical monstrosity of unknown constitution."
The Organic Consumers Association recently launched a "Nutri-Con" Campaign to "expose the hazards and limited effectiveness of synthetic vitamins and supplements, and strive to create mass consumer awareness and marketplace demand for truly organic, ‘naturally occurring' vitamins, botanicals, and supplements. Part of this campaign will be … to expose the fact that 90% or more of the vitamins and supplements now on the market labeled as ‘natural' or ‘food based' actually are spiked with synthetic chemicals."
the landscape with pesticides in an attempt to control Serving the Phoenix metro area including Scottsdale, Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, Tempe,
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