US Health Care Continues to Rank Last

October 2010 - U.S. Life Expectancy Continues to Lag Behind Other Nations

Another non-surprise! Flaws in the nation's health-care system are the main culprit. 

"For example, 15-year survival rates for men and women ages 45 and 65 in the U.S. have fallen relative to the other 12 countries over the past 30 years. Forty-five-year-old U.S. white women fared worst. By 2005 their 15-year survival rates were lower than that of all the other countries."

and the article continues -  "Dr. David J. Ores, a general practitioner on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, said that the American health-care system is designed around profit, and aims to make a few people extremely wealthy.

"The system works flawlessly," he told AOL Health. "The same is true for our centralized national food supply system with fats and meats heavily taxed as well as ubiquitous toxic, high volume fatty foods. That's why we see chips, soda, cakes and toxic fast foods every 10 feet. Even schools have candy vending machines. All the focus is on profit, bottom line, how much money can we make? None of the focus is on wellness, healthy balanced diets or what is best for the health and wellness of the population.

"All that toxic, fatty food with little or no access to doctors adds up to a lot of tragic sickness, suffering and death," he continued. "All because the 'mission statement' of the American Corporate Machine is profit, profit, profit over all else in every sector. The system works exactly as designed. Too bad for us." Read complete article

June 2010 - This is no surprise to me as this trend has been continuing for years.  We have moved from a common sense approach to health to one ruled by pharmaceuticals and insurance.  Your health care provider really has little say in your care, and you have even less.

Also consider that while the pharma cartel keeps trying to take over all your supplements, and the ignorati in government tell you that vitamins are worthless, it is proven again and again - vitamins and minerals help your health.  You can't get enough from food. 

D. Mail 22.6.10 "EASE ASTHMA WITH A SIMPLE SUPPLEMENT"
Magnesium supplements may help reduce asthma symptoms. Trial results show patients given oral supplements daily for six & a half months needed fewer asthma medications. Although previous studies found a link between low magnesium levels & more frequent & worse asthma attacks, there has been little research into taking supplements. In the US study men & women with mild to moderate asthma were given 340mg of magnesium citrate daily or a placebo. Those on magnesium had improved lung function & improved quality of life. It's thought that low magnesium increases histamine levels which is released by the body's immune system
& is responsible for asthma symptoms.-

D. Mail 22.6.10 "HOW VITAMIN PILLS COULD SAVE YOU FROM A HEART ATTACK" By Jerome Burne.
Researchers recently found that bad cholesterol has a twin called lipoprotein (a) which can raise heart attack risks. Lead research by Dr. Robert Clarke of Clinical Trial Service Unit at Oxford Uni. The good news is that that LP(a) responds to vitamins such as the B vitamin niacin. "Niacin is a fantastic all-round treatment for protecting hearts" says Dr. Sarah Jarvis of Royal College of GPs. "It brings down both LDL & Lp(a) & pushes up HLD." 2 grams of niacin a day are given, more than could be received from food. Some clinicians say Lp(a) also responds to other supplements such as vitamin C.

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U.S. ranks last in study on healthcare

• United States ranked last and had a healthcare per capita cost of $7,290 
• For any category, the highest the United States ranked was fourth.

NEW YORK, June 24 (UPI) -- Despite paying almost double for healthcare compared to any other country, the United States ranked last in a study of seven developed nations, a survey says. 

The non-profit group, the Commonwealth Fund, used data from the 2007 International Health Policy Survey, conducted by telephone in Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States; the 2008 International Health Policy Survey of Sicker Adults and the Commonwealth Fund 2009 International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Physicians. 

The United States ranked last for access to healthcare -- 54 percent of U.S. adults with chronic conditions reported not getting a recommended test, treatment or follow-up care because of cost. 

U.S. patients are most likely to report being given the wrong medication or the wrong dose of their medication -- a preventable medical error, the study found. 

In measuring efficiency, the U.S ranked last due to high administrative costs, lack of use of information technology, re-hospitalization rates of patients and duplicative medical testing. U.S. patients were three times as likely as those in Germany or the Netherlands to visit an emergency department for something a regular doctor could have treated. 

For any category, the highest the United States ranked was fourth. 

The Netherlands ranked first and has a per capita cost of healthcare of $3,837, the United States ranked last and had a healthcare per capita cost of $7,290.  © 2010 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Related article : No Public Option, High Cost and Poor Results Continue in US Healthcare

and http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65M0SU20100623

Good News for Vitamin B and Your Brain

UPDATE: 19 October - Never too early to add B12 supplements as they commonly did half a century ago!

Vitamin B12 link to Alzheimer's backed by study  Evidence is mounting that levels of vitamin B12 may be connected to the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.  B 12

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I had a really happy morning begin when I read the following article -

Vitamin B 'puts off Alzheimer's'

And of course I was still shocked because it takes so long for mainstream health research to catch up with what I and others have known for decades.  I again have to suggest, first start in the stacks!

If you go back to the 1960s and earlier you will see that most doctors advised B12 shots and other vitamins along with natural thyroid support to people as they aged.  This of course acted to protect the brain and we rarely heard of dementia.

A colleague of mine from the Safe Harbor Project said in 1991 -

"Most cases of Alzheimer's dementia are actually missed B12 deficiency cases, because of the too-low normal range for B12," wrote John V. Dommisse, MD in 1991 in Medical Hypotheses. (3) Dommisse, who practices medicine in Tucson, Arizona, has confirmed (7,8,9) that Alzheimer's disease appears to result from too-low serum vitamin B12, and repletion of the vitamin succeeds despite other risk factors. Repleting B12, according to Dommisse, can reverse 75% of B12 deficiency dementias when the condition is discovered early enough. (10)
Other aspects of the therapy should be noted: The neurological and cerebral manifestations of B12 deficiency require dosages larger, (11) and extending over a longer time, (12) than to those needed to reverse hematologic effects. (13) B12 therapy appears to be perfectly safe; in other words, the risk of overdose is virtually nil. Patients of Dr. H.L. Newbold in New York City injected themselves three times daily with triple-strength doses of B12 (9,000 ug/micrograms/per day) indefinitely. Their serum B12 levels reached 200,000 pg/ml (100 times the normal level found in newborn babies and higher), but none had any significant side effects. (3) Complete article

As more and more focus came to look only at drug therapies, more and more problems in this area developed.  For example, look at one of the side effects of statins, dementia.  For more information read here.

Here's a list of the many articles found at Natural Health News about B vitamins.

• B vitamin depletion (4)
• B Vitamins (11)
• B vitamins and health (4)
• B vitamins and health during pregnancy (3)
• B12 (3)
• B17 (1)
• B3 (2)
• B6 (1) 

And there are some 76 B vitamin, Alzheimer's, and dementia related posts including those that address the related connection to fluoridated water, psychotropic drugs, diet, and other information.

Get the May 2007 issue of herbalYODA Says! on vitamin B12 with your donation

For your reference, here are a few -
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/12/vitamins-for-alzheimers.html

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/alzheimers-what-you-wont-see-on-hbo.html

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/11/vitamin-may-be-alzheimers-aid.html

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/12/additional-resources-health-vitamins.html

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2009/04/drugs-contribute-to-dementia-delirium.html

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/12/oldsters-and-bs.html

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/12/additional-resources-health-vitamins.html

My advice, look for high quality B complex food sources, like the organic nutritional yeast I get from Germany, high quality B complex supplements, B12 shots, or other healthy approaches for brain health as you age.

Taking Care of Your Brain is Possible!

Pauling Institute has this to say which may also interest Natural Health News readers. 

Natural Notes

B12 picture: bami

PINK Cause Marketing

4 September 2010 - The Pink Cause Marketing is getting underway once again.  I just received a spam from a PR firm about a massage clinic in Seattle that would give $15 from each massage to the Komen Foundation.  I wrote the fellow back and explained a few things about the Politics of Pink.

Here at Natural Health News we have well over 3 dozen articles on this topic. Here is one and here is another...

Our friends at Think Before You Pink have a great amount of information that you can use to learn more.  You can also sign on to their petition.

Please educate yourself, and consider thermography and ultrasound with breast self-exam as much better, safer, and more effective than breast cancer causing mammograms. (Many posts here and at leaflady.org)

Stay tuned, we'll be adding more as the madness gears up and the season continues through October.

from Natural Health News - October 2009
This month the sale flyer from my local market includes an half-page ad from the GoodCook's "Hope" line. GoodCook is a line of kitchen items including the Pink kitchen ware set you can get free if you purchase specific items manufactured by Proctor & Gamble.

Not too far of a stretch from the Yoplait lids campaign, just recall that P & G manufactures TIDE and Actonel (the risky bisphosphonate osteoporosis drug that's of late been hawked for breast cancer).

Seems to me there is another cause for concern because part of their "free" set is a pink non-stick skillet.

The problem with this pink skillet is not that it is pink, but that it is coated with aluminum oxide*** and then a layer of PFOA(Perfluorooctanoic Acid), a known carcinogen manufactured by DuPont.

PFOA stands for Perfluorooctanoic Acid, a man-made chemical which does not occur naturally in the environment. PFOA (also known as "C8") is used by companies, such as DuPont (Teflon®, Stainmaster®, Scotchguard®), to make fluoro-polymers for use in non-stick cookware and all-weather clothing.

Recently, scientists have found great concern, however, as levels of PFOA have been commonly found in many in humans across the globe and concerns abound about how exposure to PFOA could affect people's health. Thus the reason for the creation of this website. Our goal as scientists and concerned citizens is to both better understand this important chemical and to assess the possible risks and concerns of the global exposure to this fluoride-containing, unhealthy substance.

Surely it's up to you to decide if you want to support advertising in the name of a cause that has underlying concerns about just how healthy these free items might be.

Request a copy of our Breast Health Awareness Fact Sheet About the Risks of Mammography with your donation to our work. We aren't on the Pink Lid donation list although we've tried many times.

Women Kept in the Dark

"CANCER SCREENING 'BLIGHTS TEN LIVES FOR EVERY ONE SAVED"

1000s of women have unnecessary surgery, chemotherapy & radiotherapy as a result of routine mammogram breast cancer screening, doctors warned in The UK's Times on 19 Feb. 09.

For each woman whose life is saved, 10 healthy ones needlessly receive mastectomies & other treatment, a study found.

Experts said the NHS should do more to warn women of the high risk of a false positive.

23 doctors, surgeons, academics & health specialists claimed on 19 Feb. that "There is evidence to show that up to half of all cancers & their precursor lesions found by screening might not lead to any harm to the woman. Yet if found at screening, they potentially label the woman as a cancer patient: She may then be subjected to the unnecessary traumas of surgery, radiotherapy & perhaps chemotherapy, as well as suffer the potential for serious social & psychological problems."

Dr. Paul Pharoah, Cancer Research UK Senior Clinical Research Fellow, Cambridge Uni, & Prof. Michael Baum, Emeritus Prof. of Surgery, University College London, were among the experts who wrote this letter to "The Times."

They said none of the invitations for screening come close to telling the truth & that women are being unintentionally manipulated into attending.

Problems with New Sweetener

UPDATE: August 2010
Here's a toxic sweetener you most likely had never heard of, but I would caution you to make sure you do not ingest it:

^{HealthEdge's NaturallySweet} 

This is manufactured by these folks.

Truvia, Purevia, Zevia, Zerose, Zsweet are marketing names for this artificially blended  erythritol and rebiana mix.  Rebiana is a chemically modified form of  stevia, it is NOT pure stevia.

UPDATE 4, Consumer complaints regarding Truvia

UPDATE 3, 23 December 08: A reader comments on Erythritol as not causing her any problems as noted in our researcher's report. Just like all substances, the ingestion of a substance needs to be in the right form, the right amount, et al, and the effect and outcomes are individual. Please realize that our researcher is a former FDA investigator who has an indepth background in the sciences necessary to make such statements. Please note that the artificial sweeteners referred to, Truvia (Cargill) and PureVia(Whole Earth Sweeteners) are manufactured by these agribusness corporations with an extract of stevia (rebiana)and erythritol and are NOT whole leaf stevia or pure(whole leaf)stevia extract.

UPDATE 2, 22 December 08: Please note that contrary to other reports you may be reading, the FDA DID NOT APPROVE STEVIA. The FDA, in cahoots with Cargill and Coke, approved a synthesized product - as reported originally in this article - manufactured with rebiana (an extract from Stevia) and erythritol (a sugar alcohol).

As Dr. Evangelista states (quoted below): "DO NOT CONFUSE REBIANA (TRUVIA) WITH STEVIA"

UPDATE 1, 20 December 08: Zerose is the Cargill synthesized artificial sweetener made from stevia and erythritol. Zsweet is a similar product in UK and EU. There are numerous scientific studies presenting that this, and related products such as Truvia, may lead to calcium, potassium and phosphate loss with calcification (and lesions) in the kidneys (just like Splenda) and bowel alterations. Please read more.

As to Zevia soda, it seems to me to be quite irresponsible on the part of the company CEO (an attorney)to make the following quote, "Why not supplement a steady breast milk diet with some refreshing ZEVIA?" This quote is associated with a photo of an infant being fed soda by the mother on the company blog. I would suggest the mother is irresponsible as well. While the company web site does not state that Zerose is the sweetener used in their products it does mention that eryrithritol is an ingredient.

I am sure this fellow was not in my 'Social Responsibility of Business' class in grad school.

We suggest Just Like Sugar, unaltered Stevia (order the extract via the Starwest link on this page) and Agave.

We do not endorse the use aspartame or sucralose or any forms of these chemicals, first developed as inseticides, or any products containing them, as they are known toxins to human health, nor do we endorse the use of acesulfame K.
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12-19-08
The news this morning on NPR seems to be focused on helping you be in the spin on 'rebiana'(Truvia) and how it is "just stevia".

Coke (using Truvia) and Pepsi (using PureVia) are marketing this new artificial sweetener in their beverages but apparently aren't open to presenting both sides of the story.

Even the one TV ad I saw recently for "Truvia" would lead you to believe that this is a safe and natural additive.

Zevia(a soda), because it contains erythritol, may also have similar problems.

The problem is that is may come from natural sources but it is an extracted and modified chemical when it comes out the other end.

DO NOT CONFUSE REBIANA (TRUVIA) WITH STEVIA
Do not confuse this with pure stevia, it is a combination of chemicals with a dab of the stevia plant. Stevia itself is a sweetener and yet they are using Erythritol which is a sugar alcohol known to cause such things as bloating, diarrhea and cramps. That tells you they are not using much stevia. Nor are they removing the poisonous aspartame from Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi. They are simply trying to satisfy a part of the population that knows how deadly aspartame is and wants to use something else.

Notice this sentence: "Stevia was not approved as a food additive by U.S. regulators, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued letters to the companies on Wednesday saying it had no objections to their sweeteners, which are derived from the plant." The FDA has made themselves clear. Industry can do anything they please but they have no intention of approving something safe for the general public. They don't want to displease the aspartame industry who is powerful and takes care of those who defend their poison. Make sure you understand this is a combination of sweeteners and chemicals and not real stevia. The pop companies feel "a dab will do you, so just buy our product regardless of how its made". The public again will be the guinea pigs and lab rats. Also, see the admission that Pepsi's Purevia is being developed with Merisant, an aspartame manufacturer. Nobody should use these products until they are analyzed. Industry is constantly adding small amounts of aspartame because its addictive. If they do this to these products aspartame victims will react because aspartame is so poisonous it causes chemical hypersensitization.

Lab Tests Point to Problems with New Sweetener
Consumer group says product can increase cancer risk
September 2, 2008

A consumer group says a new commercial sweetner, said to be 200 times sweeter than sugar, may cause health problems and needs more study. Coca-Cola and Pepsi are planning to introduce new drinks made with the sweetner, rebiana, an extract of stevia leaves.

In a letter to the Food and Drug Administration, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) says the agency should require additional tests, including a key animal study, before accepting rebiana as Generally Regarded as Safe, or GRAS.

The letter cites a new 26-page report by toxicologists at the University of California, Los Angeles, several, though not all, laboratory tests show that the sweetener causes mutations and DNA damage, which raises the prospect that it causes cancer.

"A safe, natural, high-potency sweetener would be a welcome addition to the food supply," said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson. "But the FDA needs to be as sure as possible that rebiana is safe before allowing it into foods that would be consumed by tens of millions of people. It would be tragic if the sweetener turned out to cause cancer or other problems."

One key animal study has not been conducted, according to the UCLA experts and CSPI. The FDA's guidelines advise testing prospective major new food additives on two rodent species, usually rats and mice. The new sweetener has only been tested on rats, but not mice.

The toxicologists' report said that because several studies found mutations and DNA damage, a lifetime mouse study designed to evaluate the risk of carcinogenicity and other health problems was particularly important.

The UCLA toxicologists emphasized the need for more genotoxicity tests, because of the evidence that derivatives of stevia that are closely related to rebiana damage DNA and chromosomes.

Their report noted that much of the recent research on rebiana was sponsored by Cargill and urged the FDA to obtain independently conducted tests to ensure that corporate biases don't influence the design, conduct, or results of the tests.

Rebiana is shorthand for rebaudioside A, a component of stevia. It is obtained from the leaves of a shrub native to Brazil and Paraguay. Coke, Pepsi, and other companies are excited about rebiana, because it supposedly tastes better than crude stevia, which is sold as a dietary supplement in health-food stores.

After all the controversies pertaining to saccharin, aspartame, and other artificial sweeteners, the food industry expects many calorie-conscious consumers to eagerly opt for this natural sweetener.

Two companies -- Cargill and Merisant -- have told the FDA that rebiana should be considered GRAS, a category given less scrutiny by the FDA than ordinary food additives. A third company, Wisdom Natural Brands, has declared that its stevia-based sweetener is GRAS and will market it without giving evidence to, or even notifying, the FDA. That company gave CSPI only a heavily redacted report prepared by scientists it hired to declare its stevia derivative, which is of unknown purity, is safe.

Stevia is legal in foods in Japan and several other countries, but the United States, Canada, and the European Union bar stevia in foods because of older tests that suggested it might interfere with reproduction. New tests sponsored by Cargill did not find such problems.

"I am not saying that rebiana is harmful, but it should not be marketed until new studies establish that it is safe," Jacobson said.

Cargill's version of rebiana is called Truvia and would be used by Coca-Cola. Pepsi's version is called PureVia and is produced by Merisant's Whole Earth Sweetener division. Merisant is best known for marketing the Equal brand of aspartame.

CSPI has not questioned the safety of two artificial sweeteners, sucralose (Splenda) and neotame, but says that suggestive evidence indicates that saccharin, aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet), and acesulfame-K pose small risks of cancer.

"The whole issue of what gets GRAS status needs to be reviewed by Congress," Jacobson said. "It's crazy that companies can just hire a few consultants to bless their new ingredients and rush them to market without any opportunity for the FDA and the public to review all the safety evidence."

Two of the most harmful ingredients in the food supply are considered GRAS: salt, which raises blood pressure and causes thousands of unnecessary heart attacks and strokes every year, and partially hydrogenated oil, which is the source of artery-clogging artificial trans fat. CSPI has long campaigned to get partially hydrogenated oil out of the food supply and to reduce salt to safe levels.
From Consumer Affairs

We hope to give you a different view of education as you review the many posts of interest found in Natural Health News

H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not "to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. ... Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim ... is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States whatever pretensions of politicians, pedagogues other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else."

http://www.natvanbooks.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_prod.html?p_prodid=924

Unidentified Flying Flavors Now Arriving in Your Food

Senomyx is a flavor enhancer and it can be designed to have salt, sweet, cooling, or bitter blocking flavors, or perhaps the range is unlimited.  Combination and permutations of chemical tweaking probably can allow your imagination to conjure up anything your taste-altered taste buds might imagine.

Time to get out of the box on the shelf or the can in the cupboard and get back to scratch.  Cooking that is!

SENOMYX, SWEETER THAN SWEET; SALTIER THAN SALT; MORE SOUR THAN...
By Robert Cohen, http://www.notmilk.com
Posted: 13 March 2009

We are witnessing the dawning of a sci-fi food revolution. A new technology. A new food group. Amazingly, my research uncovered something nobody has ever revealed before in a column, newspaper article, or magazine expose. The next time you read "artificial flavor" on a food label, you should be aware that a component of that new genetically engineered food additive may be embryonic kidney cells from aborted human fetuses.

The new high-tech artificial flavors are not flavors at all. Instead, they contain chemicals which have been engineered to fool human taste buds. Future foods will need no salt, sugar, MSG, or artificial sweeteners. Instead, sensory perceptions will become warped by modern science. Brains will taste things that are not really there. Illusions. Deceptions. Memories of taste which are now artificially induced.

The Abstract:J Biol Chem. 2008 May 2;283(18):11981-94.
Small molecule activator of the human epithelial sodium
channel.Lu M, Echeverri F, Kalabat D, Laita B, Dahan DS, Smith RD, Xu H, Staszewski L, Yamamoto J, Ling J, Hwang N, Kimmich R, Li P, Patron E, Keung W, Patron A, Moyer BD.
Senomyx, Inc., San Diego, California 92121.

The epithelial sodium channel (ENaC), a heterotrimeric complex composed of alpha, beta, and gamma subunits, belongs to the ENaC/degenerin family of ion channels and forms the principal route for apical Na(+) entry in many reabsorbing epithelia.

Although high affinity ENaC blockers, including amiloride and derivatives, have been described, potent and specific small molecule ENaC activators have not been reported. Here we describe compound S3969 that fully and reversibly activates human ENaC (hENaC) in an amiloride-sensitive and dose-dependent manner in heterologous cells. Mechanistically, S3969 increases hENaC open probability through interactions requiring the extracellular domain of the beta subunit. hENaC activation by S3969 did not require cleavage by the furin protease, indicating that nonproteolyzed channels can be opened. Function of alphabetaG37Sgamma hENaC, a channel defective in gating that leads to the salt-wasting disease pseudohypoaldosteronism type I, was rescued by S3969. Small molecule activation of hENaC may find application in alleviating human disease, including pseudohypoaldosteronism type I, hypotension, and neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, when improved Na(+) flux across epithelial membranes is clinically desirable.

OK, so what does it all mean? Another question: What's $6 today and $100 in the Near Future? SNMX trades on NASDAQ http://www.senomyx.com

From the Senomyx website: Translation: Senomyx is re-inventing food and flavor by genetically engineering taste bud receptor cell triggers. Foods of the future will contain "flavor enhancers" which fool human taste buds into perceiving the sensations of sweetness, sourness, saltiness, and bitterness.

Remember the artificial sweetener controversies? Chemical sugar-replicating compounds are listed on food labels. The new chemicals made by biotech companies will require no such labels. Although they are not actual flavors, they will be called "artificial flavors."

How did Senomyx accomplish the task? A (multi-hour) review of their patents reveals that it all began with the cloning of human embryonic kidney cells. Step two was a recombinant process involving the combination of genetic material from embryonic kidney cells and human adeno-virus. If I had the ability to recall ten thousand abbreviations for the amino acid sequence, plus hundreds of complex combinations of ACTG (adeneine, cytosine, thymine, guanine) I'd describe the structure to you. For those curious scientists, do a google search with the keywords 'Senomyx and patents' and the third link (bioportfolio.com) will provide more info than you need to know. See: United States Patent #5,993,778.

How far into the future will these new biotech wonders appear in our food supply? The future is now. The next time you read "artificial flavor" on a food label, pause to consider what you've read here today. Content labels should read: Embryonic kidney cells from aborted human fetuses.

Senomyx is presently developing new products with many of the world's largest food manufacturers including Campbell's and Coca Cola. In fact, if you eat Nestle's foods, your taste buds are being artificially stimulated by biotech products developed by Senomyx. You may now know what you are eating, but I take this opportunity to paraphrase 17th century author Miguel Cervantes, who wrote in Don Quixote: "The proof is in the pudding."

Senomyx Q2 Revenues Up 91%; Outlook Encouraging, Source: Senomyx, Inc

August 5 - Senomyx, Inc., a company focused on using proprietary taste receptor-based technologies to discover novel flavor ingredients for the food, beverage, and ingredient supply industries, today provided a corporate update and reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2010.

Revenues were $5.7 million for the second quarter of 2010, compared to $3.0 million for the second quarter of 2009, an increase of 91%. Revenues were $13.4 million for the six months ended June 30, 2010, compared to $6.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2009, an increase of 107%. As of June 30, 2010, the Company had cash, cash equivalents, and short term investments of approximately $55.4 million.

“The second quarter of 2010 has been very active for Senomyx,” stated Kent Snyder, Chief Executive Officer of the Company. “During the quarter we were informed that the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has provided a ‘favorable opinion’ for Senomyx’s Savory Flavor Ingredients, S336 and S807, which means that no further evaluation is required. The successful conclusion of the evaluation is a key step toward receiving an approval to use these ingredients in the European Union.”

Senomyx’s Savory Flavor Ingredients are intended to reduce or replace added monosodium glutamate (MSG) in foods and beverages. Final regulatory approval and commercialization in the EU is contingent upon the ingredients being included in the EFSA Union List, which EFSA has targeted for publication by the end of 2010.

“Nestlé, the world’s largest food and beverage company, is currently conducting marketing activities in the Pacific Rim, Latin America, and Africa with both new and reformulated established products that incorporate Senomyx’s Savory Flavor Ingredients. Approval in Europe could create a new market opportunity for Nestlé,” Snyder noted.

“In addition, Ajinomoto, a leading global manufacturer of food and culinary products, is introducing products that contain a Senomyx flavor ingredient in Asia and another key region,” Snyder stated. “Ajinomoto has increased the number of products launched and has also selected several new Senomyx flavor ingredients for potential marketing.” Selection of the new ingredients, which are all currently being evaluated by Ajinomoto, triggered a $500,000 milestone payment to Senomyx.

“Another Senomyx partner, Firmenich, is continuing commercial activities for Senomyx’s extremely effective enhancer of the high-intensity sweetener sucralose (S2383),” Snyder said. Firmenich SA, a global leader in providing ingredients and flavor systems to major consumer companies, has exclusive worldwide rights to market the sucralose enhancer as either a stand-alone ingredient or as part of a flavor system in all food and beverage product categories.

“Senomyx’s recent scientific achievements include important progress in our Bitter Blocker Program during the past quarter,” Snyder noted. “Development activities, including primary safety studies, have now been completed for our S6821 Bitter Blocker, allowing Senomyx to submit regulatory filings for S6821 in the second half of the year. S6821 is effective in reducing the bitterness of a variety of product prototypes. We are encouraged by the accelerated pace of our development activities and the potential long-term value of our Bitter Blocker Program.

“We are also enthusiastic about the success Senomyx has had with our Sweet Enhancer program,” Snyder commented. “As announced on June 24, our advances in this program have led to Senomyx and PepsiCo, the world’s second-largest food and beverage company, signing a letter agreement and entering into an exclusive 60-day negotiation period regarding the completion of a definitive agreement for a new collaboration related to Senomyx’s sweet taste technology.”

Senomyx’s letter agreement with PepsiCo includes key commercial and financial terms for a potential multi-year collaborative research program focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of new artificial sweet enhancers, natural sweet enhancers, and natural high potency sweeteners for the non-alcoholic beverage category. Under the letter agreement, Senomyx has received a payment of $7.5 million from PepsiCo. The payment, which is non-refundable except under limited circumstances, will be applied as partial payment towards an upfront license fee if Senomyx and PepsiCo enter into a final definitive agreement.

“PepsiCo is an innovative company that shares our commitment to providing healthier, great-tasting products to consumers. We believe that our potential new collaboration would include a commercialization timeframe and other terms that are beneficial for both companies,” Snyder stated.

In addition to other accomplishments, the Company increased its intellectual property portfolio during the past quarter. As of June 30, 2010, Senomyx is the owner or exclusive licensee of 207 issued patents and 362 pending patent applications related to proprietary taste receptor technologies in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere. Technologies covered in the Company’s patents include taste receptor sequences and functions, screening assays, new flavor ingredients, and product applications.

Senomyx achieved its recent scientific advances under the leadership of Donald S. Karanewsky, Ph.D., who has served as Senior Vice President, Discovery since joining Senomyx in June 2007. In recognition of his valuable contributions to the Company, Dr. Karanewsky was appointed to the position of Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer during the past quarter. Dr. Karanewsky received his Ph.D. and Master’s degrees in Chemistry from Harvard University and was granted a B.S. in Chemistry, Magna Cum Laude, from Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey.

Discovery & Development Program Updates:
Sweet Enhancer Program: The primary goal for this program is to identify flavor ingredients that allow a significant reduction of sweeteners in food and beverage products while maintaining the desired sweet taste. Senomyx has received a GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) regulatory designation for S6973, the Company’s sucrose enhancer that enables up to 50% reduction of sugar in certain foods and beverages while maintaining the sweet taste of natural sugar. The GRAS designation allows it to be used in the U.S. and in numerous other countries for most food products and selected beverages such as flavored milk, as well as ready-to-drink and instant coffee and tea. The sucrose enhancer is currently being evaluated by potential collaborators interested in using it for these beverage categories. Firmenich has exclusive worldwide rights to commercialize this sucrose enhancer for virtually all food categories, and co-exclusive rights for the powdered beverage category. Firmenich has initiated pre-commercialization activities with major clients in anticipation of conducting its first product launches during 2011.

Additional advances with the Sweet Enhancer Program include the identification of a new family of sucrose enhancers with distinct physical properties that may be advantageous for a broader range of beverages and other product applications. A recently discovered sucrose enhancer from this family enables up to 50% reduction of sugar in preliminary taste tests.

During the first quarter of 2010, the Company identified the first Senomyx flavor ingredients that demonstrate a statistically significant amplification of the sweet taste of fructose, a key component of high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup is the primary sweetener used in carbonated and certain other beverages, especially in North America. A number of new samples have been active in the fructose enhancer screening assay. These are being optimized to increase their potency and improve their physical properties, followed by evaluation in taste tests.

Bitter Blocker Program: The primary goals of this program are to reduce or block bitter taste and to improve the overall taste characteristics of foods, beverages, and ingredients. Taste tests have demonstrated that S6821 and S0812, alone or in combination, can provide statistically significant reductions in the bitterness of a variety of product prototypes and food ingredients including tea, cocoa, menthol, various proteins, and the sweeteners Rebaudioside-A (a derivative of the stevia plant), Acesulfame potassium (Ace-K), and saccharine. Senomyx expects to submit regulatory applications for S6821 during the second half of this year. In addition, the Company believes development activities with S0812 will conclude by year-end and regulatory filings are planned for 2011.

Salt Enhancer Program: The goal of the Salt Enhancer Program is to identify flavor ingredients that allow a significant reduction of sodium in foods and beverages yet maintain the salty taste desirable to consumers. Senomyx discovered SNMX-29, a protein with characteristics that indicate it could be involved in human salt taste perception, and identified samples that are active in screening assays based on this protein. These active samples have not provided significant enhancement of saltiness in taste tests, which leads the Company to believe that SNMX-29 is not the primary receptor responsible for human salt taste. The Company is exploring the role of other proteins that may be integral to the sensation of salty taste. This high-priority effort involves chemistry and biology approaches, including assessing components of Senomyx’s proprietary database of proteins found in taste buds. Senomyx believes that discovery of the protein or proteins that function as the salt taste receptor could lead to identifying a salt taste enhancer.

Cooling Flavor Program: The goal of the Cooling Flavor Program is to identify novel cooling flavors that do not have the limitations of currently available agents. Senomyx has discovered new cooling flavors that demonstrated a taste proof-of-concept and displayed cooling properties that exceed those of commonly used agents. Senomyx and its partner for this program, Firmenich, have prioritized sample classes that are the focus of further optimization.

Financial Review: Revenues were $5.7 million for the second quarter of 2010, compared to $3.0 million for the second quarter of 2009, an increase of 91%. Revenues were $13.4 million for the six months ended June 30, 2010, compared to $6.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2009, an increase of 107%. The increases in revenues for the second quarter and the year-to-date were primarily due to the recognition of license fee and R&D funding revenue related to the Company’s August 2009 Sweet Enhancer collaboration with Firmenich. License fee and R&D funding related to the collaboration contributed $3.3 million and $6.2 million for the three and six month periods ending June 30, 2010. Also contributing to the increase year-to-date was a total of $3.0 million in non-recurring milestone payments and cost reimbursements from collaborators.

Research and development expenses, including stock-based compensation expense, were $7.1 million for the second quarter of 2010, compared to $7.8 million for the second quarter of 2009, a decrease of 10%. Research and development expenses, including stock-based compensation expense, were $13.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2010, compared to $15.4 million for the six months ended June 30, 2009, a decrease of 13%. These decreases were primarily due to reduced expenditures for compound acquisition and related high-throughput screening activities and reduced personnel-related expenses.

General and administrative expenses, including stock-based compensation expense, were $3.3 million for the second quarter of 2010, compared to $3.2 million for the second quarter of 2009, an increase of 3%. General and administrative expenses, including stock-based compensation expense, were $6.4 million for the six months ended June 30, 2010, compared to $6.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2009, a decrease of 1%.

The net loss for the second quarter of 2010 was $0.12 per share, compared to a net loss of $0.26 per share for the second quarter of 2009. The net loss for the six months ended June 30, 2010 was $0.18 per share, compared to $0.50 per share for the six months ended June 30, 2009.

2010 Outlook: “Due to the receipt of $7.5 million from PepsiCo related to the June letter agreement, we are revising our cash utilization guidance for 2010 from a range of $14 million to $16 million to a range of $6 million to $8 million. At this time, we are not revising our other financial guidance metrics; however, we will update our financial guidance as necessary if we enter into a definitive agreement with PepsiCo,” stated Tony Rogers, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

For the full year 2010, Senomyx now expects: Total revenues of $20 million to $24 million Total expenses of $42 million to $44 million, of which $5 million to $6 million is non-cash, stock-based compensation expense Net loss of $18 million to $21 million Basic and diluted net loss of $0.48 to $0.56 per share Net cash used in operating activities between $6 million and $8 million
http://www.flex-news-food.com/

More from Natural Health News -

School Lunch Improvements Don't Limit Sugar

Oct 21, 2009

... salt and fat (as trans-fats), as well as the addition - not mentioned by Kessler - of artificial coloring, flavorings, HFCS, aspartame and sucralose, flavor enhancers such as MSG and Senomyx all add to the problem. ...

Salt: The Health Promoting Kind

Nov 20, 2007

Nov 20, 2007

Senomyx is the manufacturer. Humans and animals require salt (sodium and a little chloride) for health. Even as little as a lick of really natural salt can lower blood pressure (or two celery stalks a day) and help your heart. Dr. ...

New Pact: Pepsico & Senomyx

Jun 25, 2010

June 24 - Senomyx, Inc. , a leading company focused on using proprietary technologies to discover and develop novel flavor ingredients for the food, beverage, and ingredient supply industries, announced today that it and PepsiCo, ...

Natural Health News: ALERT: Splenda to be Senomyx-ed

Feb 09, 2010

If you haven't heard about Senomyx think of a flavor enhancer like MSG. The bad news doesn't stop there, but the FDA says they don't have to label it. It comes under artificial flavors. Of course, we've told all consumers never use ...

Watching Processed Salt in Your Food

Jan 11, 2010

Campbell's is one of the biggest sodium, MSG, and Senomyx users; they aren't required to list Senomyx on the label either. Watch Your Salt And some other good information you may want to know so you understand why you need natural salt, ...

Further Doubt on Risk of Death from Higher Salt Intake

May 19, 2008

We also warn against synthetic flavorings like Senomyx that is used in place of salt. They make a similar product for sweet tastes as well. This is not required to be on labels, and may lead to damage to your taste buds. ...

Childhood Obesity Campaign: Issues in Health

UPDATE: 4 August, Sugar Cut in Cereals

Remember that most of the big name cereals have been loaded with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) for years.  And also consider that it is the organic brands of cold, boxed cereal that is also loaded with sugar, only they use the organic kind.  Either way you look at it the sugar has to go, the HFCS has to go, and all of the cereals with any GMO grain or other ingredient - like beet sugar that now is about 100% of the market -) nneds to come out of these and any other product containing them.

15% cut in sugar coming in 2011 to Coco Pops

3 February, 2010  Michelle Obama Kicks Off Childhood Obesity Drive
Mrs. Obama is taking on her first substantive policy role in overseeing the Obama administration programs and partnerships dealing with what is considered a national epidemic of childhood obesity.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/02/01/michelle-obama-kicking-off-childhood-obesity-drive-feb-9/

My hope is that Michelle addresses the role of vaccines, fluoride, environment, lack of physical education in schools, the USDA food pyramid that promotes obesity, unhealthy school lunches, artificial sweeteners proven to cause obesity, HFCS, soy formula, microwave cooking, GMO soy and canola oil disguised as " plant sterols" and not healthy saturated fat, TV ads and cold cereals, and some of Tom Vilsack's GMO buddies, and more to be concerned with.  We are just a nation of starving children who are malnourished because of the focus of today's government guidelines.


Some 30+ related articles on obesity can be found here at Natural Health News

Originally posted  3/6/09

Somehow I think the lineal thinking process, or lack of any kind of meaningful thinking, is a very real issue as we address the needs for health care change and reform in the US, and of course in the world.

I also think that as long as we have this mind set those who see themselves as power brokers just might not be hitting the target, so to speak.

Try to put a few puzzle pieces together here as I give you food for thought.

First of all, look at the USDA. This is the place where dietitians get their basic education. Since most of this is funded by Big AG is it no wonder RDs end up on the short end when it comes to how this translates to a role in health care delivery. Remembering too that the ADA (American Dietetics Association) wants to control ALL nutrition education, and they support aspartame, sucralose (both known obesity promoters) and the faulty food pyramid.

Luise Light, PhD, the originator of the first food pyramid with real food, might give you more to think about. Her opinion of grains is certainly not the same as ADA or USDA or for that matter, Big AG.

Today, you can read about a culture of bias in ADA education. If it is found in students of dietetics (dietetics is not nutrition) then you can be sure it is in the faculty and the field as well.

Bias Against Obesity Is Found Among Future DietitiansBy Carolyn Colwell Healthday Reporter
Mar 5, 2009

THURSDAY, March 5 (HealthDay News) -- Just 2 percent of those training to be dietitians have positive or neutral attitudes toward people who are obese, and the rest are moderately biased against their prospective patients, a new study has found.

"Essentially, this shows that future dieticians are not immune to weight bias, and there are negative attitudes toward obese patients that may have a negative impact on the quality of care," said Rebecca Puhl, the study's lead author and the director of research and stigma initiatives at Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

Most of the almost 200 dietetic students who participated in the study had pejorative views about the attractiveness, self-control, overeating, insecurity and self-esteem of people who are obese. They also rated obese patients as being less likely than non-obese patients to comply with treatment recommendations. The findings were published in the March issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

But the students aren't alone in their beliefs and share the biases with other health-care providers, Puhl said, adding that other studies have shown that many health professionals have negative perceptions about very overweight patients. Patients have reported "very many examples of providers who really make very stereotypical comments that suggest that they are making assumptions about a patient's character, intelligence or abilities because of their weight," she said.

Other signs of professional insensitivity, Puhl said, include weighing obese patients on freight scales because scales in a doctor's office don't accommodate their weight and not having blood pressure cuffs big enough for a heavy patient.

She said that the attitudes expressed by the dietetic students in the study show a lack of appreciation for how difficult it is to lose weight and for the biological factors involved. Also, the message that obesity results from a lack of self control ignores mounting scientific evidence that it's difficult to lose weight and keep it off for a sustained period of time, she said.

"Most people, when they walk into an office, have already tried to lose weight and, more likely, they've lost weight and regained the weight," Puhl said. "I think a better understanding and appreciation of the complexities and difficulties of weight loss are needed to reduce the stigma."

The 182 students who completed the study were from 14 universities and had been enrolled in an undergraduate dietetics program for about two years. With an average age of 23, 92 percent were women, and 85 percent were white.

The researchers asked the students to respond to questions about a normal-weight male and female and an obese male and female. The people they were asked about shared the same health characteristics except for weight.

Dr. Nicholas H.E. Mezitis, an assistant professor of clinical medicine and nutrition at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, said that the findings might be misleading because of the small number of minority students and the predominance of white females among the participants. "If you get into ethnic communities, such as a black population, they all have different views," he said. In some groups, he explained, being thin might not be seen as desirable.

"We also have to bear in mind that a lot of what these students are reading in magazines and such are taking them to the other extreme," Mezitis said. "What's desirable is very thin, and … these [obese] patients are way on the other extreme."

Lona Sandon, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, added that students' mentors need to provide positive role modeling. "If mentors reflect weight bias, then students are likely to do the same," she said. "In addition, one's own attitudes about body image may influence attitudes towards other's weight."

The study recommends adding stigma reduction to the standard curriculum for dietetics programs. The Obesity Society has more on weight-related bias.

Then we have to give some attention to this announcement of the joint venture between the heart association (AHA), Nickelodeon and Bill Clinton's organization to allegedly fight childhood obesity.

Then consider the Healthy School Lunch Program and what actually took place over a decade ago in Wisconsin, and you have to wonder about why all of this has been taking so long.

Then remember when the push started for the Hepatitis B vaccine? It was pretty clearly established that no long term studies had been done with this vaccine, and it contributed to the development of diabetes and some other scary for parents kinds of issues.

Then, if you recall history, Mr. Bill awarded the developers of the Hepatitis B vaccine the National Technology Award.

Is it guilt, is it greed, or is it that there is a real interest in change this issue for our children.

One has to ask because we haven't seen a response on aspartame even though the FDA knows it causes diabetes and obesity.

And certainly there has to be consideration of cultural concerns because in the American Indian and other ethnic and forgotten communities, nuttrition, diabetes and weight issues are major public health problems.

Now you have some real food for thought.

A New Addition to our Natural Health Family and Upcoming Events

I've just launched a new BLOG in our Natural Notes series and you'll find some summer health related articles posted now.

We'll continue this new Natural Notes venue with a focus on desert living.

Thanks for following us with your subscription to herbalYODA Says!, on Natural Health News, our Natural Notes venue found on the Seattle PI web site, at Green Muze, HealthierTalk, and the myriad of places around the net where others post or link to our work.

You can also follow us at our original domain since 1991, www.leaflady.org, and also at www.simply4health.org, as well as in our print publications, classes, other print publications, and radio interviews.

Upcoming: At the invitation of a client I'm guesting on a fall program about homeopathy for healing (date TBA).

Federal Panel Limits Preventive Care

How an Obscure Federal Panel Limits Preventive Care

This time is isn't Big Insurance limiting your access to health care, its Big GOV!

By requiring that insurers cover certain screening tests and other kinds of preventive services, the Affordable Care Act has thrust an obscure federal advisory panel into the spotlight. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force(USPSTF), which has been around for a quarter of a century, grades preventive services by their clinical value, and the reform law requires that all services with a grade of “A” or “B” be covered. But what Congress didn’t reckon with in adopting this mandate is the conservatism of the USPSTF, which includes primary care doctors but not specialists.

Read Complete Story: 
http://industry.bnet.com/healthcare/10003056/healthcare-reform-how-an-obscure-federal-panel-limits-preventive-care/

Big Insurance: Another Hidden Agenda

Insurers Push Plans That Limit Health Choices
NYTimes.com17 July, 2010, By REED ABELSON

As the Obama administration begins to enact the new national health care law, the country’s biggest insurers are promoting affordable plans with reduced premiums that require participants to use a narrower selection of doctors or hospitals.
The plans, being tested in places like San Diego, New York and Chicago, are likely to appeal especially to small businesses that already provide insurance to their employees, but are concerned about the ever-spiraling cost of coverage.
But large employers, as well, are starting to show some interest, and insurers and consultants expect that, over time, businesses of all sizes will gravitate toward these plans in an effort to cut costs.
The tradeoff, they say, is that more Americans will be asked to pay higher prices for the privilege of choosing or keeping their own doctors if they are outside the new networks. That could come as a surprise to many who remember the repeated assurances from President Obama and other officials that consumers would retain a variety of health-care choices.
But companies may be able to reduce their premiums by as much as 15 percent, the insurers say, by offering the more limited plans.
“What we’re seeing is a definite uptick in interest because, quite frankly, affordability is the most pressing agenda item,” said Dr. Sam Ho, the chief medical officer for UnitedHealth’s health-care plans.
Many insurers also expect the plans to be popular with individuals and small businesses who will purchase coverage in the insurance exchanges, or marketplaces that are mandated under the new health care law and scheduled to take effect in 2014.
Tens of millions of everyday Americans will buy their coverage through those exchanges, a vast pool of new customers, including many of the previously uninsured, whom insurers expect will be willing to accept restrictions to get a better deal.
“What this does is eliminate the Gucci doctors,” said Peter Skoda, the controller of the Haro Bicycle Corporation, a Vista, Calif., business that employs 30 people. Facing a possible 35 percent increase in its rates, Haro switched to an Aetna plan that prevents employees from seeing doctors at two medical groups affiliated with the Scripps Health system in San Diego. If employees go to one of the excluded doctors, they are responsible for paying the whole bill.
“There wasn’t any pushback,” Mr. Skoda said. Haro’s employees are generally young and healthy, he said, and they rarely go to the doctor. Instead, they want to make sure they have adequate coverage if they go to the emergency room.
The company’s premiums average $433 a month, Mr. Skoda said, with employees paying one-fourth of the expense. A few employees opted for more traditional coverage, enabling them to go where they please. But they are paying significantly higher deductibles and out-of-pocket costs that could add thousands of dollars to their medical bills.
The last time health insurers and employers sought to sharply limit patients’ choice was back in the early 1990s, when insurers tried to reinvent themselves by embracing managed care. Instead of just paying doctor and hospital bills, insurers also assumed a greater role in their customers’ medical care by restricting what specialists they could see or which hospitals they could go to.
“Back in the H.M.O. days, it was tight networks, and it did save money,” said Ken Goulet, an executive vice president at WellPoint, one of the nation’s largest private health insurers, which is experimenting with re-introducing the idea in California.
The concept was largely abandoned after the consumer backlash persuaded both employers and health plans that Americans were simply not willing to sacrifice choice. Prominent officials like Mr. Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton learned to utter the word “choice” at every turn as advocates of overhauling the system.
But choice — or at least choice that will not cost you — is likely to be increasingly scarce as health insurers and employers scramble to find ways of keep premiums from becoming unaffordable. Aetna, Cigna, the UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint are all trying out plans with limited networks.
The size of these networks is typically much smaller than traditional plans. In New York, for example, Aetna offers a narrow-network plan that has about half the doctors and two-thirds of the hospitals the insurer typically offers. People enrolled in this plan are covered only if they go to a doctor or hospital within the network, but insurers are also experimenting with plans that allow a patient to see someone outside the network but pay much more than they would in a traditional plan offering out-of-network benefits.
The insurers are betting these plans will have widespread appeal in the insurance exchanges as individuals gravitate toward the least expensive options. “We think it’s going to grow to be quite a hit over the next few years,” said Mr. Goulet of WellPoint.
The new health care law offers some protection against plans offering overly restrictive networks, said Nancy-Ann DeParle, head of the office of health reform for the White House. Any plan sold in the exchanges will have to meet standards developed to make sure patients have enough choice of doctors and hospitals, she said.
Ms. DeParle said the goal of health reform was to make sure people retained a choice of doctors and hospitals, but also to create an environment where insurers would offer coverage that was both high quality and affordable. “What the Congress and the president tried to accomplish through reform is to transform the marketplace by building on the existing system,” she said.
But most of these efforts have been limited to a small number of markets. How widespread these plans will become is anybody’s guess, and some benefits consultants wonder if these plans represent any real solution to high medical costs. The narrow network, if it is based on the insurers’ ability to demand low prices, may be “just another short-term fix,” warned Barry Schilmeister, a consultant at Mercer.
What’s more, no one is predicting a wholesale return of the classic H.M.O. as an employee’s only option of health plan. “We went through the choice battle with the managed care wars,” said Andrew Webber, the chief executive of the National Business Coalition on Health, which represents employer groups that purchase health care.
A lot has also changed in the last 15 years. The average premium for family coverage is now more than $13,000 a year, and many businesses have already asked their employees to pay a much greater share of their premiums and more of their overall medical bills.
UnitedHealth is experimenting with a more limited plan in California and Chicago and plans to expand to four or five other markets next year. Patients are allowed to see a doctor who is not in the network the insurer established, but they pay much higher out-of-pocket costs than they would in a traditional plan offering out-of-network benefits.
UnitedHealth is also starting a new plan in San Diego, which was developed for a collection of school districts, representing some 80,000 people. The plan creates tiers of doctors, and employees who use physicians deemed to offer high-quality care at low price will pay the least for their medical care.
Even large employers, worried that the new law will result in higher prices for care as government programs pay less, are reconsidering their earlier stance.
When Cigna informally asked some of its clients about their interest in these plans before the legislation passed, very few were receptive. But that has changed, said David Guilmette, a senior executive for the insurer.
One way insurers say they hope to prevent another consumer backlash is by emphasizing that they are not choosing doctors on price alone. The insurers say they look to see how quickly a doctor’s patients recover from surgery, for example. But how much the insurers emphasize quality remains to be seen.
But many insurers say they are still figuring out how to persuade people to choose these plans rather than force them to enroll. “What’s not changed are the old techniques of black-belt managed care,” said Mark T. Bertolini, Aetna’s president. “We have to create the same kind of model without the ‘Mother, may I.’ What we want is the ‘Mother, should I.’ ”

More Asthma and Risk of Asthma Drugs

UPDATE: 15 July, 2010 - Interferon is known to cause liver and kidney failure.  St. John's wort is a natural interferon.

Interferon may help stop asthma

DALLAS, July 15 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers suggest the protein interferon may help block immune cells known to cause asthma.

Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas say interferon -- an immune-system protein used to treat multiple sclerosis, hepatitis C and a number of cancers -- may help asthma patients breathe easier.

The study, published in the Journal of Immunology, finds interferon blocks the development of immune T lymphocytes cells known as T helper 2 cells, which help protect against infection but in some individuals also promote allergic responses to substances such as animal dander and pollens. Once these cells become reactive they promote all of the inflammatory processes common to an allergic disease like asthma.

"This finding is incredibly important, because humans are being treated with interferon for a variety of diseases, yet no one has tried treating asthma patients with interferon," Dr. J. David Farrar, the study senior author, said in a statement. "The current therapies for asthma are inhalers and steroids, both of which offer only temporary relief."

Farrar and colleagues determined in isolated human cells that interferon blocks the development of the T helper 2 cells by interfering with a transcription factor.

"By targeting this transcription factor, we've turned off the key component that regulates the entire process," Farrar said. 

© 2010 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

----------------------------------------------
Originally posted: 12/10/08

Most people of color, it has been shown, receive second class health care, when compared to white males in the US.

I think we all get second class health care, on the way to third, because of the drug issues, failure to deliver good health care, discrimination and other factors.

I do know that there are quite a number of questions about asthma that probably aren't being asked, and there are quite a few natural approaches that aren't even considered.

One of these happens to be low magnesium levels that is an issue in heart disease and other health problems.

Then of course there is pollution, poor food supplies, food allergy, and untoward effects of vaccines and prescription drugs.

Asthma rate higher in US-born blacks, Dorchester study finds
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff | December 1, 2008

A landmark survey conducted on street corners in Dorchester shows that African-Americans born in this country are nearly three times more likely to have asthma than their black neighbors born abroad, a finding that could yield important clues about a national epidemic.

The study was conceived in 2005 by frustrated residents of Dorchester who wanted to understand why asthma is rampant in their neighborhood. The results appear in the November edition of the Journal of Asthma.

It is believed to be the first study to show varying asthma rates among African-Americans based on place of birth - although scientists can't say for sure why Dorchester blacks born outside the United States suffer less from asthma.

"It has a through-the-looking-glass feel to it," said Doug Brugge, the researcher at Tufts University's medical school who presided over the study. "We're used to thinking that people coming from developing countries have worse health."

Theories for the disparity range from more sunlight exposure for foreign-born African-Americans during childhood, to less time spent cooped up inside, where mold, cockroach droppings, and other triggers dwell.

One of the most provocative - and even paradoxical - suggestions involves something called the hygiene hypothesis: Because natives of other nations, especially those in the developing world, may encounter more infections growing up, their immune systems often ignore threats such as dust mites and mold. When the immune system does not regularly confront life-threatening diseases, its ammunition instead is directed at lesser enemies, provoking allergic reactions that can spawn asthma.

"There may be a price to be paid for growing up in a more sterile, hygienic environment with fewer infections as a child," such as the United States, said Dr. George O'Connor, director of the Adult Asthma Program at Boston Medical Center. "And the price to be paid is that your immune system may develop more along the lines of promoting allergic responses."

The Dorchester findings did not come as a total surprise: Earlier research had shown that foreign-born Asians and Hispanics appear less prone to the disease.

The discovery is another piece in the emerging jigsaw puzzle of asthma, which has roughly doubled in prevalence nationally during the past three decades.

Evidence of the epidemic can be heard all across Dorchester, as the sounds of suffering ricochet through homes: coughing jags, raspy wheezing, chest-clenching gasps for air - and time spent in clinics rather than at school and work.

Everywhere Mary White turns, the Boston native finds someone whose life has been defined by the disease, she says, starting with her own. She has asthma and so do her three sons, and her mother. So did her deceased father.

"When you ask a person, 'Do you have asthma? Do you know what asthma is?' and then you look in their eyes, you see something, because everyone has someone in their family with asthma," said White, a member of the Boston Urban Asthma Coalition, an advocacy group. "But we wanted to get it on paper."

So they approached Brugge and asked him to study asthma in Dorchester, as he had done in Chinatown. He agreed - and then enlisted the people of Dorchester to help collect the data.

They stationed themselves at T stations, grocery stores, and laundromats.

"You're sitting there waiting for your clothes to dry, and you're always talking to the person next to you - so why not talk to me?" said Neal-Dra Osgood, coordinator of the asthma coalition's Strengthening Voices project, which works to provide support for families of asthma sufferers.

Using a carefully constructed survey, nearly 20 parents and Harvard medical students fanned out across Dorchester in 2005 and 2006, with findings on 290 adults and 157 children included in the analysis.

"The idea is that community members know something about the disease that outsiders don't, both how it affects their bodies and their families, but also, more importantly, about the community context," said Jason Corburn of the University of California at Berkeley, who studies the intersection between community involvement and urban environmental health, an ethos neatly summarized in the title of his book "Street Science."

The study found that 30 percent of African-American adults who were US natives had been diagnosed with asthma, compared with 11 percent of blacks born elsewhere. Researchers cautioned that the study is a snapshot of only one neighborhood.

Still, it reflects an emerging recognition that scientists should stop regarding racial and ethnic groups as monoliths. "We have to be really aware that using a broad brush, you're going to miss some really important differences," said Dr. Lauren Smith, medical director of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

Asthma has rampaged across New England in recent years; one study estimated that the number of people in the region diagnosed with the condition rose by 400,000 from 2001 to 2004. The disease is more common here than anywhere else in the country, with one in seven adults and children affected.

Studies have shown that children who spend pivotal growing-up years in farming areas are strikingly less likely to develop asthma. Researchers theorize - and biological tests suggest - that exposure to germs during childhood reduces reaction to allergens. But it remains unclear what to do with that finding.

"Do you definitely want people here to start dealing with all the issues other countries have outside the United States in order to get rid of asthma and allergy?" said Dr. Wanda Phipatanakul, an allergist at Children's Hospital Boston.

Mary White dealt with her family's asthma by moving out of the mold-ridden, vermin-attracting apartment in the South End where they lived. Now, home is a two-family in Dorchester. Shoes never touch the living room floor. Dust is quickly banished. And the floors glisten with shiny wood instead of wall-to-wall carpeting. All help reduce the asthma symptoms.

She always knew in her heart, White said, that asthma placed an especially heavy burden on her neighborhood. But with the study, "someone's going to listen to you now," she said. "It's proof. And proof is important."

FDA advisers weigh risks of asthma drugsBy RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press Writer
Wed Dec 10, 2008
WASHINGTON – In recent years, millions of asthma patients have started using long-acting drugs to help them breathe more normally, allowing for nights of uninterrupted sleep or workouts at the gym.

Now the Food and Drug Administration is investigating whether the medications, in rare cases, can increase the risk of serious asthma complications, the kinds that send patients to the emergency room gasping for air. At a two-day meeting that begins Wednesday, independent medical advisers will hear the scientific evidence and make recommendations on whether the drugs should continue to be used to treat asthma.

At issue are four inhaler medications: Advair, Foradil, Serevent and Symbicort. Within the FDA, opinions appear to be divided. The safety office is recommending that Foradil and Serevent no longer be used for asthma, and that none of the drugs be used by children 17 and under. But the head of the FDA office that oversees respiratory medications has written that banning the drugs would be "an extreme approach," and could backfire by leading to more cases of uncontrolled asthma.

The companies that make the medications say they are safe, and that at least some of the medical evidence that has raised questions from the FDA is of poor quality. Doctors who treat asthma patients are worried that the drugs could be banned.

"We would lose a medicine that patients find helpful," said Dr. Paul Greenberger of Northwestern University in Chicago, president-elect of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. "We would be going backward, and the consequences of that would be more untoward effects of asthma. That's a major deal, because asthma hospitalizations continue to be too high."

The four drugs contain a kind of long-acting medication known as a LABA (for "long-acting beta 2-adrenergic agonist"). The drug relaxes tight muscles around narrowed airways. Medical guidelines for treating moderate to severe asthma recommend use of a LABA together with a steroid, which treats inflammation deep inside the airways.

Foradil and Serevent are LABA-only products. Advair and Symbicort combine a LABA and a steroid in one inhaler that patients use every 12 hours. Asthma patients must also carry a "rescue" inhaler to deal with the sudden onset of symptoms.

Some experts believe that using a LABA drug alone can mask developing symptoms, and unexpectedly get patients in trouble. That's why medical guidelines call for LABA medications to be used along with a steroid.

In preparation for the meeting, the FDA analyzed findings from 110 clinical trials involving nearly 61,000 patients, comparing patients who took a medication containing a LABA with those who used a steroid alone to control their asthma. Experts looked for deaths, hospitalizations and cases in which a patient had to have a breathing tube inserted.

The analysis found 20 deaths from asthma complications, of which 16 were in patients taking a LABA-only drug, Serevent.

Advair, a widely used medication made by GlaxoSmithKline, did not appear to have a higher rate of serious complications when compared with treatment on steroids only. Foradil, Serevent and Symbicort all had higher rates of problems, but the increase was statistically significant only in the case of Serevent.

About 22 million people in the United States suffer from asthma, and children account for nearly one out of every three patients. Asthma claims nearly 3,600 lives a year in the U.S.
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press