Thursday, July 14, 2005

What You Might Not Know About Drugs and Death

In US Healthcare today drugs have become the leading cause of death-
The Leaflady has addressed this issue over many years, going back to the time about a decade ago when drugs were the fourth leading cause of death. Here is an update on this issue:

According to the latest government statistics from the Center for Disease Control, there are over 130 million drug prescriptions written in this country each year. Studies indicate that 90% of these prescriptions are unnecessary, or even worse, are causing great harm to the public health in the form of adverse drug reactions, prescription errors, and harmful side effects. Conservative research has shown that close to half a million people suffer adverse drug effects each year, that serious medication errors occur in over five (5%) percent of all prescriptions, and that one in four individuals using prescription medications will sustain observable side effects. Every year over 100,000 Americans die from adverse drug reactions.

Multi-billion dollar profit motives drive the pharmaceutical industry to expand its market of prescription-based revenue streams, regardless of the consequences to true health. Pharmaceutical sales reps and doctors are provided with lucrative rewards to generate ever greater numbers of prescriptions. These pecuniary rewards have created inherent conflicts of interest throughout the whole trillion-dollar health care delivery system.

The FDA, which should be protecting public health, has actually become the leading advocate for the pharmaceutical industry, and consistently approves drugs that have been proven to be unsafe and even deadly. The revolving door between the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry, the problem with former drug executives acting as government regulators, and how the unwary American public has been left with a hungry fox guarding the henhouse is now well known because of the efforts of Dr. David Graham. How and why the pharmaceutical industry, in tandem with the FDA, seeks to suppress, limit, and ban natural dietary supplements, and other methods of improving health, as competitive threats to their monopoly of patented drugs is a keen concern.

In current times modern medicine has become focused entirely on treating diseases through toxic medications instead of preventing the conditions that breed disease in the first place.

You have a stake in your health and in this issue. Act to keep your representatives and your doctors aware of these issues and call for accountability.

CHI has for years offered educational programs to medical professionals and general public on how to safely use natural approaches to health. Classes are available on-line and in your location, just contact us at www.leaflady.org for more information. Keep up-to-date by visiting our website, sign up for our newsletter and read our BLOG.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Is CODEX for Killing the Elderly?

This morning, as is fairly ususal, I start my day reading emails and posts to my website, www.leaflady.org. While perusing the mail I came across a note from a fellow who offered up a great comment. That comment stirred my thinking for this BLOG post.

I felt pretty strongly about his ideas because I have a large number of Elders who are clients and attend my educational programs. So here is what 'Deacon Elurby' has to say -
Codex is for saving social security systems!

All we have to do in the U.S. to stop CODEX is mobilize the elderly.

How? By explaining to those vitamin-popping seniors that CODEX's bottom-line purpose is not to make Big Pharma and doctors and pharmacists rich, but to reduce socialist nations' elderly populations, and to the reduce the life expectancy of the next crop of old people (you and me).

In other words, HIGH doses of vitamins, as nutrition-science journalist Bill Sardi would put it, SAVES AND EXTENDS LIVES!

CODEX is about killing off people who would otherwise live longer and strain the socialists' social security systems.

Who has contacted the AARP on the matter, to get those seniors mobilized against CODEX?

Again, CODEX is about killing people who would live more healthily and longer by taking LARGE DOSES of vitamins.

CODEX is about killing-off the elderly.

Who'll get the message to them (I've written to AARP magazine editors, have you?).

D.E.

P.S. I've been harping on this matter for months, and nobody - note even Bill Sardi - has thought to pick up on that tactic for saving us from tyrannical regulation of life-saving/life-extending vitamins.

Go figure!
I've written AARP a few times myself about their failure to address health issues with good natural health care information. Nothing ever came of that, not even a thank you. But AARP has a way of getting around this by saying "well you know we have millions of members." I don't think that is good enough but it's their way.

AARP is also selling vitamins. The ingredients are low quality, the prices are too high, but then it's all about money. Remember that AARP supported the Bush drug plan for Elders. This plan is about the biggest corporate welfare plan to come along in years; it surely doesn't do much for health.

I'm not sure why Bill Sardi no longer is the outspoken health writer he once was. Might be because he is supported by a large global corpoaraion that just happens to be in the vitamin business.

I'm for vitamins, I'm against CODEX. I'm against killing people with pharmaceutical drugs, GM food, and a whole list of other health restricting measures. Gee aren't a lot of these Members of Congress on the right pro-lifers?

Don't think I can think of something more pro-life than your right of freedom of choice and your right of access to vitamins and minerals to protect your health.

Hope you'll get mobilized when you read this!

Visit the leaflady on the net and see what you can learn for yourself to stay well and be well in these toxic times. Thank you for supporting our work with your donations and purchases.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

New JAMA Study Unfairly Attacks Vitamin E

In the typical biased slant of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), an article published in the July 6th edition bashes vitamin E once again. In the latest report from the Women’s Health Study – a long-term analysis of the health of female health-care professionals that has been ongoing since 1992 – the authors state that women who took 600 I.U. natural source vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) every other day for 10 years had no reduction in major cardiovascular events (heart attack, stroke) or incidence of cancer during the trial. However, vitamin E supplementation DID result in “decreased cardiovascular mortality in healthy women.” This result is a significant finding and should have been emphasized in the article’s conclusion. Instead of stating that women who took vitamin E for 10 years had a 24-percent reduction in risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, the authors concluded, “These data do not support recommending vitamin E supplementation for cardiovascular disease or cancer prevention among healthy women.” Even though their data can substantiate their conclusion regarding cancer, the beneficial cardiovascular data is very important and highly significant, and should have been emphasized.

Learn more about the health promoting aspects of vitamin E by clicking on the link

JAMA itself is not without fault. In their weekly press release they put forth the “negative” aspects of the study with the headline “ Long-Term Vitamin E Supplementation Shows No Overall Benefit For Major Cardiovascular Events Or Cancer In Women.” The positive aspects of the study (the long-term safety of vitamin E and a 24-percent decreased risk of cardiovascular death) were buried in paragraph four with no commentary about these findings. Of course, the television networks and newspapers ran with the negative aspect of the story as spoon-fed to them by the JAMA press release.

JAMA has a long and inglorious history of publishing negative studies regarding the use of nutrients, and this latest article shows that even a positive result can be turned into a negative by biased researchers and/or publishers.

The bottom line – vitamin E supplementation has not been shown to be harmful for healthy human beings, and decreases the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

Fake Research Hits New High

Martha Mendoza, AP National Writer, is on to something. That something is much of what herbalYODA has been educating about for years. Too bad that doctor who won't give out any real information about herself other than claim she is a 'pundit' (someone who thinks they know a lot) can't come to terms with her own profession that has sold itself out for false fame and fortune, all at the expense of human lives.

Here's what Mendoza says for starters -

"Allegations of misconduct by U.S. researchers reached record highs last year as the Department of Health and Human Services received 274 complaints - 50 percent higher than 2003 and the most since 1989 when the federal government established a program to deal with scientific misconduct."

Read the full article via the link.

Monday, July 11, 2005

Nutraceutical Hype

Well folks, here we are. Vioxx and other COX 2 inhibitors have caused havoc for thousands who have pain and inflammation. When its not drug we are worrying about it might be patented nutraceuticals on their way to glutting the market with high priced products that just might be no better than what Grandma used to tell you about, or have you eat, in the days when there was real food. There weren't to many cases of difficult diseases in those days, and there might not be so many today if most of us weren't having problems getting a wholesome diet.

Earlier today I had to send off this missive to my local food co-op. I've tried for the past few years to instill some education about the products glutting the natural food marketplace, but in this area there has been little hope. (Thank goodness for Friends of CHI or it would be pretty lonely here.)

One thing about the natural foods marketplace these days is that United is the corporate kingpin and pretty much dictates what products get to your local co-op shelves, that is of course unless you have a pretty active group in the co-op membership that demands better. United recently purchased Select Nutrition Distributors so they now have a big chunk of the supplement marketplace, being what it is with mostly junk products out to make bucks but no real health impact (stick with those things granny told you about for safety and benefit please).

So here is my two cents about a new nutraceutical for those of you that are suffering.

There is a jab in this article because the co-op that I pay a membership fee to every year tells me that I can't have articles published because "I'm not a regular contributor". The editor doesn't regard the co-op newsletter guidelines very well, but then I'm not one to kow-tow to cliques either.

Since the 1970s a great amount of dietary misinformation has been promoted in the form of claims that a non-fat or low-fat diet can prevent many health conditions. In past months there has been a discussion of saturated fat in the diet. Unfortunately, because of lack of understanding, some people have been unwilling to accept the idea that the right kind of saturated fat promotes health. Now comes Celadrin, a patented nutraceutical that turns naturally occurring foods into a drug because so many are suffering these days with inflammation and arthritis. Celadrin is an esterified fatty acid. The base fatty acid is sourced from beef tallow. Beef tallow is the source of myristolic acid, which is then bonded to cetyl alcohol to create cetyl myristoleate. CM is also high in butter. CM has been known since the 1950s, after it was discovered by Harry Diehl who was a researcher at the National Institute for Arthritis, a federal agency in Rockville, MD. In addition to the beef tallow, EPA and DHA, mainly from cod liver oil is beneficial. In the 1970s, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine proved that cod liver oil was extremely beneficial for arthritis and other joint problems and inflammation. The Naturade product containing Celadrin and Glucosamine in the lotion form. The 1.5 ounce bottle retails for about $15. A bottle of 45 caps retails for about $26. Maybe it might be helpful to look at changing your diet to one with healthy saturated fats or weighing in for the very low cost of taking cod liver oil daily. Thank you for the opportunity to comment, Dr. Gayle Eversole Fat Facts and Your Health can be read here: http://www.leaflady.org/fatfacts.htm PS, Diet Hansen's Soda is made with Splenda. It might help shopper's looking for low cal drinks to know that Splenda aids in imparing immune function and calcifying the kidneys, along with other risks. Educational information about these products should be made available to shoppers to help them select wisely. Gayle Eversole, DHom, PhD, MH, NP, ND is Executive Director of Creating Health Institute, a founding member of Sno-Isle Co-op and a member of the Moscow Co-op. She is an internationally known natural health practitioner, author and speaker. She was recently awarded a patent for a nutritional supplement used for extreme sports and health conditions. CO-OP members receive 10% discount on all CHI natural health services.

Now maybe this might help you re-discover your inquiring mind when you are out shopping!
and three cheers for Bill Spear's pin that encourages me to Write Hard, Die Free.

Needless Attacks

I'm a true believer in the right of free speech and the First Amendment. I believe I have a right to express my opinion as I do those who might not see the world in the same way I do.
I think in these times with the horror of CAFTA and CODEX looming over all of us, we might do better to join together, put aside our differences, and defeat those whose greed wishes to deny our basic rights to health care of our choice.
There are some BLOGGERS on this 'channel' that seem to think otherwise and have gone to the extent of attacking the web site connected to this BLOG, Natural Health News.
On the surface you might think these folks would do some homework of their own to see that I present well researched information based on a scientific foundation. Well they haven't. In both cases, the authors, one a physical therapist, and the other, a doctor. Neither identify themselves and the doctor uses the pseudonym so her patients won't know she is writing a BLOG.
Both these folks seem not to have read any of the solid data on my site related to the items they are protesting.
Well, I'm not attacking them, just questioning their integrity a little, and stating that I'm happy she isn't my doctor and he isn't the local physical therapist.
So much for supporters of BIG PHARMA that just parrot what the drug detail folks spout out, as if it had anything to do with helping people get well.