11.27.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:50 pm by Pit
Health Supreme's NewsGrabs are a selection of alternative health and other underprivileged news. Find what you may have missed in your everyday reading - watch out for these NewsGrabs on weekends.
Here is another week's worth of interesting stories and links collected for you:
High Percentage of Physicians, Nurses Take Supplements -
Black cohosh stops breast cancer -
Autism can be treated -
Garlic Extract Powder Capsules Are Not Medicinal Products - Says EU Court of Justice -
Cannabis may halt breast cancer -
Aristolochia: Manna from Hell - A health science detective story -
Africans as Guinea Pigs: Nigeria vs Pfizer -
Video:Sicko - Michael Moore on the American Health Care System -
Seroxat: Sufferers sue 'happy pill' firm for £30million -
Ritalin: The scandal of kiddy coke -
Atypical Antipsychotics for the Elderly: A Booming Business -
Houston TX - Drug Makers Accused Of Misleading Health Department -
Get kids vaccinated or go to jail? -
Children herded like cattle into Maryland courthouse for forced vaccinations -
Colorado Pandemic Drill Offers Drive-In Flu Shot -
"We Did a Beautiful Experiment, But..." AIDS Vaccine Increased Risk
THERE WILL NEVER BE A VACCINE FOR HIV-AIDS (by Beldeu Singh - PDF) -
Virus used in experimental HIV vaccines impairs immune response -
HIV TESTS: DANGER TO LIFE AND LIBERTY -
The Aids epidemic has been overstated, UN experts admit -
The Aids epidemic that never was and why political correctness influences too much medical spending -
HIV NONSENSE: TODAY AND EVERY DAY -
Psychiatry: Human Rights Group Accuses Serbia of Torture & Abuse of Disabled Children & Adults
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Higher Percentage of Physicians, Nurses Take Supplements than Consumers
The landmark "Life...supplemented" Healthcare Professionals (HCP) Impact Study found that more than three quarters of U.S. physicians (79 percent) and nurses (82 percent) recommend dietary supplements to their patients. The study also shows that an almost equal number -- 72 percent of physicians and 89 percent of nurses -- personally use vitamin, mineral, herbal and other supplements either regularly, occasionally or seasonally, which is a higher percentage than the 68 percent (1) of adults who report they take nutritional or dietary supplements.
Black cohosh stops breast cancer
The in vitro study, published in Phytomedicine, looked at extracts and compounds from black cohosh and related Cimicifuga species and found that the potential anti-cancer benefits were related to the triterpene glycoside content. The study adds to a small but growing body of research suggesting breast cancer prevention for a herb most commonly used by women to reduce menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes.
Autism can be treated
The other mom is Jenny McCarthy, who has just released a book about her experiences with bringing her son Evan back from autism . The book, entitled, Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism, was featured on the cover of People in the October 1, 2007, issue. She is spokeswoman for an organization called Talk About Curing Autism (TACA), which provides detailed information on what parents can do to help their children recover.
During their interview on Larry King Live, Jenny pointed out that while vaccines might not be the sole cause of autism, she believes they are a trigger, much like obesity is a trigger for diabetes. She also pointed out that her son had candida, a yeast infection, and as soon as this was cleaned up with an antifungal diet and an antifungal drug, Max started speaking complete sentences and his social development was back on track. Jenny said Evan’s experience is common among kids with autism.
Garlic Extract Powder Capsules Are Not Medicinal Products - EU Court of Justice
German health authorities have long held that garlic in capsules - although normally available as food supplements in other countries - may be sold in Germany only if registered as a medicine. The European Court of Justice has now decided a legal case initiated in 2005 by the European Commission against Germany over this restrictive view on garlic capsules. The outcome of the case: The German classification of garlic capsules as a medicine is excessive and violates the provision of free movement of goods inside the European Community.
'Cannabis' may halt breast cancer
The California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute team are hopeful that cannabidiol or CBD could be a non-toxic alternative to chemotherapy. Unlike cannabis, CBD does not have any psychoactive properties so its use would not violate laws, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics reports. The authors stressed that they were not suggesting patients smoke marijuana.
Aristolochia: Manna from Hell - A health science detective story
A long but well written article about aristolochic acid nephropathy, a kidney disease endemic to a certain area in Serbia that was thought to be caused by poisoned water. The cause of the disease was eventually found to be wheat contaminated with Aristolochia, a rather common weed and a medicinal herb that has been used in Chinese traditional medicine.
Africans as Guinea Pigs: Nigeria vs Pfizer
Pfizer has maintained it conducted the trials for humanitarian reasons. However, as Der Spiegel reports, "When they arrived in Kano, the Americans revealed that they were not on a humanitarian aid mission, but had been sent to administer medical tests. Physicians selected 200 sick children to test Pfizer's new antibiotic, Trovan. They had to be at least three months old and younger than 18, and they could not be HIV-positive or malnourished."
The central questions: Who should assume the risks and whose life should be put on the line to test new drugs and vaccines? How do you justify exposing impoverished people to the risks in the knowledge that they will not benefit even if the drugs prove safe and effective?
These questions are conspicuously avoided by the American medical research community--all of who have financial stakes in the business of clinical trials--either as shareholders or grant recipients, or their wages are dependent on industry.
Was this the template for John Le Carre's novel later made into an award winning film -
"The Constant Gardener"?
Video:Sicko - Michael Moore on the American Health Care System
I just had an opportunity to see Sicko - the film Michael Moore made to document some of the hardships the American health care system visits on those who have to rely on it. I highly recommend you see it. A really is worthwhile film - for you Americans to find out what's going on and for you outside the US to appreciate how well off you are!
Here is a trailer to whet the appetite:
Seroxat: Sufferers sue 'happy pill' firm for £30million
Pharmaceutical giant Glaxo-SmithKline is facing a £30million damages claim from users of its anti-depressant Seroxat. Lawyers representing patients who insist the bestselling drug is addictive have issued the first of 600 High Court writs against the company, each seeking compensation of up to £50,000. Since first prescribed in Britain in 1990, Seroxat has been linked to at least 50 suicides of adults and children.
Ritalin: The scandal of kiddy coke
Eight months ago, Daniel, now 14, was put on Risperdal - an antipsychotic drug usually given to schizophrenics.
"It was as if my son had been replaced by a doped-up zombie,' says Hayley, 35, who took him off it a month later. I could hardly wake him in the morning. It was as if all his personality was disappearing, like a patient in a mental institution."
Last week, it emerged that around 8,000 British youngsters are being treated with this powerful tranquilliser and another, similar drug called Zyprexa - despite the fact that their dangerous side-effects range from diabetes to brain tumours.
Atypical Antipsychotics for the Elderly: A Booming Business
Testifying at a congressional hearing, Dr. David Graham, a prominent FDA drug safety expert, was asked if he had issues with any medications already on the market.
"I would pay careful attention to antipsychotic medications. ... The problem with these drugs are that we know that they are being used extensively off-label in nursing homes to sedate elderly patients with dementia and other types of disorders. ...
"But the fact is, is that it increases mortality perhaps by 100 percent. It doubles mortality. So I did a back-of-the-envelope calculation on this and you have probably got 15,000 elderly people in nursing homes dying each year from the off-label use of antipsychotic medications. ...
Houston TX - Drug Makers Accused Of Misleading Health Department
The Texas whistleblower lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson promises to topple the house of cards upon which the public mental health system rests. The suit by Allen Jones, formerly assistant Inspector General in Pennsylvania, and the Texas Attorney General charges Johnson & Johnson with concocting TMAP (Texas Medication Algorithm Project) a marketing scheme to increase sales of its antipsychotic drug, Risperdal.
The suit will unravel the fraudulent TMAP prescribing guidelines that were promulgated by a consensus panel of psychiatrists from the University of Texas, and promoted with the help of public officials--all of who were paid by J & J (and other Big Pharma companies). TMAP is a prescription drug scheme ensuring that the most expensive psychotropic drugs would be used, the exorbidant cost paid for by taxpayers.
Get kids vaccinated or go to jail?
"It was very intimidating," Territa Wooden of Largo said of the letter. She said she presented the paperwork at the courthouse Saturday and resolved the matter.
School officials deemed the court action a success. School system spokesman John White said the number of children lacking vaccinations dropped from 2,300 at the time the judge sent the letter to about 1,100 Friday.
"It's cute. It looks like their parents are dragging them to church," [Circuit Court Judge C. Philip] Nichols said.
"People should have a choice" in getting their children immunized, said Charles Frohman, representing a physicians' group opposed to vaccines.
Children herded like cattle into Maryland courthouse for forced vaccinations as armed police and attack dogs stand guard
Organized medicine believes the People are too stupid to be allowed to make their own health decisions. Bureaucrats and physicians should be the ones making these decisions, we're told, and any person who disagrees with such decisions should be labeled a criminal, arrested and prosecuted. This is no exaggeration. It is, in fact, a shockingly accurate description of Maryland's current vaccination policy.
Following the American example, also
Britain Plans Flu Shots for Everyone.
Colorado Pandemic Drill Offers Drive-In Flu Shot
The emergency health drill was well manned with health care professionals, media and local police fully capable of distributing large amounts of the vaccine, in a timely fashion, but the majority of volunteers spent most of their time standing around.
TruthAlliance.net and WeAreChangeColorado.org turned out with signs that said “Don’t drink the kool-aid”, “Vaccines cause autism” and a large banner that read “What is the Endgame”. As participants walked into the area they were handed informational fliers on the dangers of mass vaccinations, an Alex Jones documentary Endgame DVD, and a sticker that said “I want the Mercury Free Vaccine”.
"We Did a Beautiful Experiment, But..." AIDS Vaccine Increased Risk
"The Merck setback means that 25 years into the AIDS epidemic doctors are still far from having a protective vaccine. An international team of scientists has been recruited to determine precisely what went wrong. Meanwhile, leading researchers are re-examining their vaccine strategies, said David Ho, who has studied HIV since the epidemic began. "It's a giant step backwards," Ho, scientific director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York, said in a telephone interview. "It calls into question all the vaccines using related strategies that have been leading the field."
A giant step backward ... could it mean that vaccines as such are on their way out? Perhaps not, but vaccination sure has its dark points and a slew of
critics.
There really cannot be a vaccine for Aids, if we consider this logically. In every other illness, vaccination leads to the production of antibodies. In Aids, the presence of antibodies is interpreted as having the infection! A stark contradiction in terms.
In a message to Liam Scheff, the journalist who blew the whistle on drug experiments on orphans in New York, Beldeu Singh from Malaysia explains why THERE WILL NEVER BE A VACCINE FOR HIV-AIDS.
Virus used to create experimental HIV vaccines directly impairs the immune response
Leading efforts to create an HIV vaccine have hinged on the use of viruses as carriers for selected elements of the HIV virus. Recently, however, evidence has emerged that some of these so-called viral vector systems may undermine the immune system and should not be used for vaccine development. Now, a new study from scientists at The Wistar Institute provides strong support for the idea that some viral-vector vaccines may cause more harm than good. The findings show that an HIV vaccine construct incorporating one of these viruses, called adeno-associated virus, or AAV, directly interferes with the immune response to the HIV virus. Specifically, while it induces HIV-specific T cells, as intended, those cells are functionally impaired in important ways.
HIV TESTS: DANGER TO LIFE AND LIBERTY
There are two types of tests. The more recent and less frequently applied type uses the polymerase chain reaction, PCR, to look for bits of RNA or DNA said (but not proven) to be characteristic of HIV; the inventor of PCR, Kary Mullis, concurs with what the manufacturers of PCR tests say in their instructions: these tests cannot be used to diagnose infection by HIV.
Hodgkinson’s comment applies to the more traditional tests which look for proteins said (but not proven) to be characteristic of HIV–the so-called ELISA and the so-called Western Blot tests. The accepted “best practice” is to use ELISA and to confirm a duplicated positive result by the Western Blot.
But the Western Blot is no better than the ELISA. It is anything but well defined or unambiguous...
The Aids epidemic has been overstated, UN experts admit
Top scientists at the United Nations have finally admitted they have long overblown the scale of the global Aids epidemic. Flying in the face of its own doomsday forecasts of an ever-expanding Aids nightmare, a UN report published today reveals that the threat has been declining for nearly a decade.
The significant downward revision of the number of AIDS cases world wide confirms what critics have been saying for years: the epidemic is blown up out of all proportion. The motives range from money to control and power.
Actually, with HIV tests reacting to more than 60 unrelated conditions, there is no way of telling what the numbers might really be. Pregnancy is one of the conditions that produce false positive test reactions. Yet in Africa, pregnancy clinics are where HIV tests are done and so the estimates cannot be but wrong. The tests are based on circular reasoning, says Neville Hodgkinson.
The Aids epidemic that never was and why political correctness influences too much medical spending
Just as the Aids scare in Britain galvanised the bureaucracy of the state into expensive action, so the international agencies, such as the UN, the World Health Organisation and a host of Third World charities, were gripped by a sense of urgency about the need to tackle Aids. Yet it has turned out that much of this panic, however understandable, was misplaced...
HIV NONSENSE: TODAY AND EVERY DAY
What a mystery calling for further sophisticated research! The drug that treats herpes has no direct effect on HIV, yet when herpes is present as well as HIV, it eliminates some of the HIV! Maybe this offers a way of treating HIV/AIDS? Infect HIV-positive people with herpes, and then treat the herpes?
Henry Bauer comments on absurdities in the world of HIV and Aids. It may feel a bit disorienting to read what he has to say, but it certainly is liberating the mind to start working again in the face of inconsistencies that tend to shut down any possibility of logical analysis... I like his take on the Aids statistics in Russia.
Human Rights Group Accuses Serbia of Torture & Abuse of Disabled Children & Adults
An investigative report released on November 14, 2007 by Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI), "Torment not Treatment: Serbia's Segregation and Abuse of Children and Adults with Disabilities," details gross abuses against children and adults with disabilities who are forced to live out their lives in institutions. A 21-year-old man with Down syndrome tied to a metal crib for 11 years. Children, naked from the waist down, left to eat and defecate in their beds.
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More information out there...
There is much I cannot cover but other sources for this kind of information exist and are active.
You can subscribe to the Zeus Newsletterhere. Appears twice monthly. If you would like to see some samples of Louise's collection of informative links, here are the archives.
The Alternative Medicine Yahoo Group is another great place to get information on what is happening in the world of nutrition and other natural health options.
For the influence of electromagnetic waves from radio, mobile phones and other radio emitting devices, check out the emfrefugee group on Yahoo.
If you are interested in a different take on the news that isn't health centered but is certainly fun, check out Robin Good TV News.
Some more sites to keep up to date with the other side of world affairs, the stuff you won't find on tv:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com
http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.stratfor.com/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
http://rawstory.com/
http://www.truthout.org/
And remember ...
"The individual is supreme and finds its way through intuition."
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11.25.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:48 pm by Pit
"Only a large-scale popular movement toward decentralization and self-help can arrest the present tendency toward statism... A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors and schoolteachers." -
Aldous Huxley - (1894-1963) Forword to 'Brave New World', 1932
Brave New World - Image from HuxleyNet.
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD is said to be a developmental disorder. All but unknown as little as two decades ago, word has it that now about 5 % of children suffer from it. Whatever the cause, the rise of ADHD has been explosive, and it seems that schools, rather than doctors, may be a driving force behind the diagnosis.
Officially, there is no cure for ADHD, yet children, once diagnosed, are prescribed all manner of psychotropic drugs - Ritalin, Adderall, Concerta, Strattera, Methylphenidate - to quiet them down and 'make them pay attention'. We are down on illegal drug use, even to the point of putting people in prison for smoking a joint. Yet here we are pushing mind altering drugs on millions of children. The side effects of the drugs prescribed - amphetamine and methylphenidate and even antipsychotic drugs like Risperdal, Zoloft and Zyprexa - are horrendous. Violence and suicide are often associated with their use.
Let's take a look at the diagnosis itself. We're talking about children who, in school, don't give close attention to details and make mistakes in their schoolwork. They don't listen well, don't follow instructions, are unwilling and are easily distracted or "forgetful". They are unable to sit still, are fidgety, "can't play quietly" and worst of all, they talk a lot. Disruptively blurting out answers before the teacher even finishes asking the question, they tend to interrupt others. In other words, those kids are a nuisance to teachers. Does that, by the way, bring back any memories of your own time in school?
Rather than being a sign of illness however, this kind of behavior tells us something about the dismal state of today's educational system! We are indoctrinating children with useless knowledge, trying to make good robots out of them. Since we still believe having a job should be the only way for people to make a living, we extend education to keep kids out of the job market for as long as possible. The brighter ones rebel at that. They are telling us: "let me go out and learn something". They are bored by what schools have to offer. They want to learn and do something useful, have adventure and feel they are part of society.
Most kids know computers better than their teachers. No wonder they are impatient. Home schooling may be an alternative for some, but not all countries allow it. What we do need, it seems, is a re-tooling of the educational system to support critical thinking, creativity, as well as the capacity to evaluate data and make decisions. There is nothing like learning something you want to learn. Active learning seems to fit the bill.
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TMAP and TeenScreen
A program in US schools called TeenScreen, billed as a suicide prevention tool and mental health screening program, seeks to find those kids that don't fit the brave scheme. According to TeenScreenTruth, the test has an 84 to 94 % likelyhood of falsely labeling any kid taking it as either suicidal or mentally ill.
Once labeled, the most likely thing is a drug regime, and apparently only the latest, most expensive and at the same time most damaging drugs are good enough. A pharmaceutical company initiated program called TMAP has established a reference list of the drugs to be used. The Texas Medication Algorithm Program, pioneered in Texas and later extended to other states in the US, tells school psychiatrists and psychologists what drugs are to be used.
Many parents say no, but a great many accept the teacher-initiated diagnosis and agree to medicate their kids. Thus the brightest, most rebellious children are sacrificed on the altar of pharmacology in ritual appeasement of the gods of a brave new world.
Video by Citizens Commission for Human Rights
See also:
ADHD drugs could stunt growth
DRUGS used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have no long term effectiveness and could stunt your child's growth.
Stop drugging our children
The workings of the human mind are still almost as much of a mystery to psychiatrists as they are to the general public, so it is hardly surprising that the treatment of psychological problems is often controversial. But handing out drugs like Smarties to thousands of children with behavioural difficulties is reckless beyond words. An estimated 8,000 young people are being given anti-psychotics, according to a BBC Panorama report, even though they are linked to numerous side-effects. Although sometimes used for conditions such as schizophrenia, many are prescribed simply because a child has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder - even though there is debate over whether this exists or is simply a fancy way to describe bad behaviour.
Vital Information About Ritalin, Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder and the Politics Behind the ADHD/Ritalin Movement
Our society has institutionalized drug abuse among our children. Worse yet, we abuse our children with drugs rather than making the effort to find better ways to meet their needs. In the long run, we are giving our children a very bad lesson--that drugs are the answer to emotional problems. We are encouraging a generation of youngsters to grow up relying on psychiatric drugs rather than on themselves and other human resources.
High on life: the biggest health care fraud in history?
Had I been born a decade or so later, I doubt I’d be writing this today. Rather than spending almost 20 years inventing new ways to terrorise a succession of teachers, lecturers and employers – fuelling other forms of creativity, including writing, in the process – I’d have been given a massive dose of Ritalin and left in a corner to rot.
Mental Screening Dragnet Targets "every fifth-grader and ninth grader"
TeenScreen's developer, Dr. David Shaffer, chairman child psychiatry, Columbia University, tested his screening questionnaire on 1,729 New York City high school students. Of these, 475 students tested "positive" - as being suicidal. When the students were retested, the predictive accuracy of TeenScreen was only 16%.
Houston TX - Drug Makers Accused Of Misleading Health Department
The Texas whistleblower lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson promises to topple the house of cards upon which the public mental health system rests. The suit by Allen Jones, formerly assistant Inspector General in Pennsylvania, and the Texas Attorney General charges Johnson & Johnson with concocting TMAP (Texas Medication Algorithm Project) a marketing scheme to increase sales of its antipsychotic drug, Risperdal.
The suit will unravel the fraudulent TMAP prescribing guidelines that were promulgated by a consensus panel of psychiatrists from the University of Texas, and promoted with the help of public officials--all of who were paid by J & J (and other Big Pharma companies). TMAP is a prescription drug scheme ensuring that the most expensive psychotropic drugs would be used, the exorbidant cost paid for by taxpayers.
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11.21.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:46 pm by Pit
Last week, the Committee for Nutrition and Dietary Foods of Codex Alimentarius, an international food standard setting body, met in Germany, discussing matters ranging from nutrients to baby foods, from sustainable health care to the promotion of healthy foods. The National Health Federation (NHF), an international non governmental organization representing consumers and practitioners in the natural health area, was there to keep tabs and intervene in defense of health freedom.
A Codex Alimentarius Commission meeting in Rome, earlier this year - Image: Sepp
The three NHF delegates could speak, but only national health authorities really have a say, and only when it pleases the chairman of the meeting, Dr Rolf Grossklaus, who is also the head of the ultra-conservative - meaning they're opposed to supplements - German Federal Risk Assessment Institute. Accordingly, progress was all in the direction of more control, tighter limits, and less freedom to choose for you and me.
It's the European model that is being followed, according to the NHF. No wonder, that model was worked out by the Germans and it's being exported to the US next. The FDA seems content - they have always wanted a good reason to clamp down on those nasty supplements. Vitamins have become a mainstream health enhancer and a real thorn in the eye of the pharmaceutical industry, which the FDA is set up to protect.
Here is what the NHF says about the meeting:
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CODEX MOVES CLOSER TO EU BLUEPRINT
November 18, 2007
(National Health Federation report - original here)
The 29th session of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses, held at Bad Neuenahr, Germany, ended on Friday, November 16, 2007, following a week of deliberations. This Codex committee, more than any other, is deciding the fate of international principles, guidelines, and standards affecting natural health products and health claims. The U.S.-based, international non-governmental organization (INGO), the National Health Federation (NHF), was the only INGO present representing consumers' rights to freedom of choice in healthcare, and its three-person delegation was responsible for more interventions during the course of the meetings than all other INGOs put together.
The NHF and its European partner organization, the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH), have long argued that risk assessment of nutrients could pose one of the greatest threats to the future availability of food supplements used for the purpose of promoting health by millions of people around the world. The ANH has recently released a position paper that demonstrates major flaws in proposed risk-assessment and risk-management procedures, which, unless modified, will result in the European Commission setting, within the next two years, excessively low maximum permitted levels for food supplements to be sold throughout the European Union. This paper demonstrated that, for example, the maximum permitted beta-carotene level in supplements could be less than that found in two carrots, while that for selenium could be less than that found in two brazil nuts.
Paul Anthony Taylor, Chairman of the NHF, and one of the three members on the NHF delegation in Bad Neuenahr, said: "Although we made some important interventions during the Electronic Working Group last Sunday, it is worrying to see how fast the Committee's host country, Germany, is wanting to finalize a document that details the principles to be used by the Committee in its work on risk assessment. They got the document to Step 5 of the 8-step procedure this meeting, and, once finalized, it will be included in the Codex Procedural Manual. This could happen as early as the next session of the committee, due to be held in November 2008 in South Africa. What's particularly worrying for all of us working to protect health freedom is that the principles run so tightly with the approach used in Europe, which has itself been heavily influenced by the ultra-cautionary Federal Risk Assessment Institute in Germany, the very organization from which the Codex committee's chairman, Dr. Rolf Grossklaus, hails."
Another key issue being dealt with at last week's Codex committee session was the development of internationally agreed-upon Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs), which would establish the daily amounts of particular vitamins and minerals required by adults and infants. Speaking about one of the NHF's many interventions during the meeting, Scott Tips, both President and Legal Counsel for the NHF as well as its Codex delegation head, said: "The Committee noted in its report our intervention suggesting that there should be an additional NRV for adults, one that caters to population groups with the greatest need. We were demonstrating that an average value simply doesn't work. For example, in the case of iron, most children need extra iron in supplementary form as do menstruating women. But most adult men do not; indeed, it is unhealthy for most men. If we could have at least one extra category, we could cater to the higher amounts required by pre-menopausal women rather than them having to accept the fact that half the population, in this case men, lower the value of the average that is then imposed on all adults. The bad news was that, despite the logic of this, and the fact that the intervention was recorded in the final report of the meeting, the Committee did not accept it. Codex, as so often happens, trundles on regardless of the needs of particular population groups who don't fit the law of averages."
Dr. Robert Verkerk, scientific advisor to the NHF and executive and scientific director of the ANH, indicated that this was a critical time to re-appraise the principles and methods applied to and in risk assessment. "This area of risk assessment is really the ticking time bomb for natural health," said Dr. Verkerk, "it's high time that we see some top academic groups contributing to this rapidly developing field, which is now at the mercy of politics and economics, more than it is to science. You can't expect regulators lacking a thorough grasp of the science to get it right, particularly when pressure by large food and pharmaceutical interests is pushing for such low nutrient dosages that they could never be used for health-promotion purposes. Governments need to recognize that health promotion using foods and food-based ingredients, in conjunction with modified lifestyles, is the new, sustainable paradigm in healthcare."
The NHF also intervened at one point to make the argument that NRVs should reflect the fact that the nutrient levels in soils had been greatly depleted over the last 50 years, as confirmed by a major UK study which analyses government records over this period. Similar findings have been found through analyses of U.S. Department of Agriculture records in the United States. The Chairman of the Codex Committee, though, strongly disagreed with the NHF position, saying that a German study had stated otherwise. NHF responded that both U.S. and Canadian studies had also confirmed the UK study. The Chairman, unmoved, refused to let the report reflect this intervention by NHF.
Another crucial agenda item of contention was the scientific basis of health claims. Just as with risk assessment, the progress of the meeting confirmed that Codex is running parallel with recent European legislation, in this case the Nutrition & Health Claims Regulation, which came into effect across the EU on July 1, 2007. In order to justify any health claims, there is a real risk that evidence from randomized controlled clinical trials will be required, which are prohibitively expensive for all but the largest food corporations. Furthermore, the NHF and other INGOs argued that observational evidence where this was of a high quality should suffice in place of randomised controlled trials, as the latter were unable to yield accurate results given that control groups could not be deprived of nutrients. The NHF continues to be deeply concerned that the scientific requirements are being set deliberately high to exclude smaller companies, which have, in fact, been the pioneers in the area of health and functional foods. Dr. Verkerk echoed his concerns about the European legislation, indicating that the system under consideration in Codex, just like the current EU model, is a "passport for big business"; with Scott Tips adding, "This plays into the hands of those proponents of big government who dream of having the power to control every aspect of our lives."
For an earlier report see:
Codex Nutrition Committee meets in Germany
More on Codex:
National Health Federation
Alliance for Natural Health
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11.19.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:10 am by Pit
Health Supreme's NewsGrabs are a selection of alternative health and other underprivileged news. Find what you may have missed in your everyday reading - watch out for NewsGrabs on weekends.
Here is another week's worth of interesting stories collected for you:
Beta carotene may help prevent cognitive decline -
GM-Free Europe? -
Pharmacracy -
Video:Ask Your Undertaker If Avandia Is Right For You -
Acne drug linked to depression and suicide -
Video:Antidepressant Backlash: Choose Your Weapon -
Scientific Terrorism -
Skepticism about HIV and AIDS -
ADHD drugs could stunt growth -
Stop drugging our children -
The Politics Behind the ADHD/Ritalin Movement -
High on life: the biggest health care fraud in history? -
Lilly Makes Billions Off Zyprexa -
Video:Maryland: Parents Must Immunize Their Children Or Go To Jail -
Video:What's in a flu shot -
Oil Price Rise Causes Global Shift in Wealth
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Long-term beta carotene supplementation may help prevent cognitive decline
The long-term group included 4,052 men who in 1982 had been randomly assigned to take placebo or 50 milligrams of beta carotene every other day. The long-term participants were treated for an average of 18 years and the short-term participants for an average of one year. Men in the short-term group displayed no differences in cognition regardless of whether they took beta carotene or placebo, but men in the long-term group who took beta carotene had significantly higher scores on several of the cognitive tests compared with men who took placebo.
GM-Free Europe Beginning?
For the first time since GM crops hit Europe, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas proposed on 25 October 2007 to ban two genetically modified (GM) maize because of the risks they pose to the environment. He could have mentioned the risks to animal and human health as well.
The two GM maize are Syngenta’s Bt11 and Pioneer/Dow 1507. Bt11 was found to be genetically unstable, and expresses the biopesticide protein Cry1Ab from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, known to toxic to many non-target species including humans. The maize 1507 contains another Bt toxin, Cry1F, which is totally untested, and is also engineered to be tolerant to glufosinate, a herbicide linked to birth defects and neurotoxicity.
It is time for a reversal of the widespread policy of allowing GM cultivation without control, at least until industry can prove, by actual feeding studies, that the changes induced in vegetables do not cause harm to humans and animals, and that genetic changes are no danger to the environment. After all, we survived just fine on the naturally developed plants throughout human history. The only real advantage of GM crops is patentability which increases industry profits.
The Rise and Fall of Pharmacracy
The true revolution, however, is not in seeking different techniques for treating disease. It is the emergence of a different perspective on the human condition. This is the distinction between “alternative treatment” and “wellness.” People have realized that valuable as medical treatment may be in its proper context, it does not address vital, core issues concerning the human condition.
Legendary economist Paul Zane Pilzer has written, “What we call the ‘health care’ business is really the sickness business. The $1.4 trillion we spend on medical care is concerned with treating the symptoms of sickness. It has very little to do with being stronger or healthier.” Pilzer predicts that wellness is destined to become a trillion dollar industry.
Video:Ask Your Undertaker If Avandia Is Right For You
The sarcastic Bill Maher was in rare form when he spent a few minutes poking fun at big pharma.
Acne drug 'linked to depression and suicide'
The new study suggests the drug may disrupt serotonin production in the brain, leading to feelings of despair. Roaccutane (Acutane in the US) has been linked with at least 15 deaths in the UK and more than 200 in the United States, and bereaved parents have previously called for the drug to be taken out of use.
Video:Antidepressant Backlash: Choose Your Weapon
Scientific Terrorism
These terrorists, though, are not just content with subjecting us to their brand of medieval medicine. They also seemingly want to make sure that we are vulnerable to diseases and medical problems, which in turn will require increased use of their medicines and hospitals. Why do I say this? Because every time that any of us use effective preventative measures to protect ourselves, they try to suppress them – through the media, through doctors, and, above all, through their coercive enforcement tool – the government.
Skepticism about HIV and AIDS
Everything about HIV/AIDS depends on one central point: Do HIV tests detect infection by a deadly retrovirus? There is no published proof of it.
Indeed, manufacturers’ pamphlets point out that their tests have never been approved for diagnosis of HIV infection. “HIV tests” detect either antibodies said (but not proven) to be specific to HIV antigens, or they look for pieces of RNA or DNA said (but not proven) to be specific for HIV. However, since whole particles of “live”, infectious HIV have never been isolated from AIDS patients or from HIV-positive people, these “HIV tests” have never been validated, never been proven to detect the human immunedeficiency virus, HIV.
ADHD drugs could stunt growth
But the report's co-author from the University of Buffalo, Professor William Pelham, said he now believed the findings were overstated.
"I think that we exaggerated the beneficial impact of medication in the first study," he said yesterday. "We had thought that children medicated longer would have better outcomes. That didn't happen to be the case. The children had a substantial decrease in their rate of growth so they weren't growing as much as other kids both in terms of their height and in terms of their weight. And the second was that there were no beneficial effects - none."
Comments Vince Boehm:Stunted growth?
Hmmmmm. I thought this was common knowledge. And this is obvious to anyone who deals with children on these drugs. Stimulants have been used for years for weight loss.
From study leader: "We had thought that children medicated longer would have better outcomes".
They don't deal with outcomes in these studies. They talk in terms of hypotheticals and efficacy.
Efficacy has little relation to outcomes, except in theory.
Why, then, the shocked innocence?
Stop drugging our children
The workings of the human mind are still almost as much of a mystery to psychiatrists as they are to the general public, so it is hardly surprising that the treatment of psychological problems is often controversial. But handing out drugs like Smarties to thousands of children with behavioural difficulties is reckless beyond words. An estimated 8,000 young people are being given anti-psychotics, according to a BBC Panorama report, even though they are linked to numerous side-effects.
The Politics Behind the ADHD/Ritalin Movement
Our society has institutionalized drug abuse among our children. Worse yet, we abuse our children with drugs rather than making the effort to find better ways to meet their needs. In the long run, we are giving our children a very bad lesson--that drugs are the answer to emotional problems. We are encouraging a generation of youngsters to grow up relying on psychiatric drugs rather than on themselves and other human resources.
High on life: the biggest health care fraud in history?
Speaking to MSN UK News, Dr Baughman said: “I have discovered and described real diseases and, having examined hundreds said to have this ‘disorder’ or ‘disease’, I have found nothing wrong, abnormal or diseased about them. I have also found no proof in the medical scientific literature of the world that ADHD is an objective, demonstrable abnormality, disease or disorder. It is the biggest health care fraud in history.
“The bigger-than-ADHD picture is that they – psychiatry in collusion with Big Pharma – have pledged to call all emotional and behavioural, psychological or mental symptoms ‘diseases’ due to chemical imbalances of the brain, needing not willpower, not love, support or adaptability, but ‘chemical balancers’ – in other words, pills.”
Lilly Makes Billions Off Zyprexa
Evi Pringle analyzes how a drug approved for a relatively very small population of patients suffering from what is considered the most "severe" mental problems has become a blockbuster, a drug that sells so well it rakes in billions of dollars a year. The secret: illegal promotion that induces doctors to prescribe the drug way beyond its intended use, proliferating its appalling side effects.
Video:Maryland: Parents Must Immunize Their Children Or Go To Jail
1,600 school children and their parents have been ordered to appear in circuit court this Saturday where health workers will immediately force them to receive required shots. Parents who don't bring their children to court for the shots are to be jailed.
Video:What's in a flu shot
Something to think about before blindly accepting your next government-recommended vaccine.
Oil Price Rise Causes Global Shift in Wealth
High oil prices are fueling one of the biggest transfers of wealth in history. Oil consumers are paying $4 billion to $5 billion more for crude oil every day than they did just five years ago, pumping more than $2 trillion into the coffers of oil companies and oil-producing nations this year alone.
In the United States, the rising bill for imported petroleum lowers already anemic consumer savings rates, adds to inflation, worsens the trade deficit, undermines the dollar and makes it more difficult for the Federal Reserve to balance its competing goals of fighting inflation and sustaining growth.
More information out there...
There is much I cannot cover but other sources for this kind of information exist and are active.
You can subscribe to the Zeus Newsletterhere. Appears twice monthly. If you would like to see some samples of Louise's collection of informative links, here are the archives.
The Alternative Medicine Yahoo Group is another great place to get information on what is happening in the world of nutrition and other natural health options.
For the influence of electromagnetic waves from radio, mobile phones and other radio emitting devices, check out the emfrefugee group on Yahoo.
If you are interested in a different take on the news that isn't health centered but is certainly fun, check out Robin Good TV News.
Some more sites to keep up to date with the other side of world affairs, the stuff you won't find on tv:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com
http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.stratfor.com/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
http://rawstory.com/
http://www.truthout.org/
And remember ...
"The individual is supreme and finds its way through intuition."
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11.17.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:08 am by Pit
On 15 November at eight in the morning, a dozen FBI and Secret Service Agents descended on the Liberty Dollar office in Evansville, Indiana. The agents sequestered all the gold, silver and platinum in the office, including some two tons of Ron Paul Dollars that had just arrived from the mint some days ago. They also took all records, files and computers and froze the bank accounts.
American Liberty Dollars - Image source: Wikipedia.
Liberty Dollars are a private or complementary currency, backed by the value of precious metals and expressed through coins, paper certificates and electronic digits for easy transfer.
Bernard von NotHaus, the man behind the currency, says in a note to currency holders and supporters:
We have no money. We have no products. We have no records to even know what was ordered or what you are owed. We have nothing but the will to push forward and overcome this massive assault on our liberty and our right to have real money as defined by the US Constitution. We should not to be defrauded by the fake government money.
But to make matters worse, all the gold and silver that backs up the paper certificates and digital currency held in the vault at Sunshine Mint has also been confiscated. Even the dies for mint the Gold and Silver Libertys have been taken.
This in spite of the fact that Edmond C. Moy, the Director of the Mint, acknowledged in a letter to a US Senator that the paper certificates did not violate Section 486 and were not illegal. But the FBI and Services took all the paper currency too.
The possibility of such action was the reason the Liberty Dollar was designed so that the vast majority of the money was in specie form and in the people's hands. Of the $20 million Liberty Dollars, only about a million is in paper or digital form.
I regret that if you are due an order. It may be some time until it will be filled... if ever... it now all depends on our actions.
Everyone who has an unfulfilled order or has digital or paper currency should band together for a class action suit and demand redemption. We cannot allow the government to steal our money! Please don't let this happen!!! Many of you read the articles quoting the government and Federal Reserve officials that the Liberty Dollar was legal. You did nothing wrong. You are legally entitled to your property. Let us use this terrible act to band together and further our goal – to return America to a value based currency.
There is a page on the Liberty Dollar site where holders of certificates can sign up to join a class action against the government's action: http://www.libertydollar.org/classaction/index.php
A legal defense fund should be established soon.
Anyone holding Liberty Dollar paper certificates or having claim to some bits of the electronic currency can sign up to join the legal action to recover their property. Even if you do not own any Liberty Dollars but want to join in the fun, there is no problem. According to von NotHaus:
There is still $20 million Liberty Dollars in circulation. Simply get some paper Liberty Dollars and sign up for the Class Action Lawsuit.
More information on the government raid is posted here.
- - -
The action does not come completely out of the blue. There was a recent government warning urging consumers and businesses to stay away from Liberty Dollars. Becky Bailey, spokeswoman of the U.S. Mint, said that "the United States Mint is the only entity that can produce coins".
Von NotHaus and other proponents of alternative currencies do not agree. Citizens, they argue, have the right to arrange their economic and contractual relations, which includes the establishment and distribution of symbols that signify value to facilitate economic exchange.
Why squash this currency?
For one, alternative currencies such as the Liberty Dollar are an attractive way for many to say no to what is perceived a disastrous economic policy. The dollar has been falling from grace internationally and is losing its status as the exclusive reserve currency and the mediator of international trade.
Inflation and a general decline of the US currency are often blamed on the fact that in 1971, then president Nixon abandoned the gold standard and opened the door to the creation of dollars as "fiat money", currency that is not backed by precious metals but issued by government decree. So gold backed money such as the Liberty Dollar is a way of repudiating what is perceived as a step in the wrong direction.
War economy
The capacity of the US government to borrow by simply having the Fed print more dollars and by allowing banks to create the electronic bits is an important pre-condition for its capability to maintain a large military presence in numerous countries around the world and to fight wars abroad. Some time ago I asked in an article: "Will Oil End The War Economy?". The move to the Euro as a trading currency for oil was only beginning then. Iraq was the first country to make the change, but now other countries are following suit.
The significance of a move away from the dollar to other currencies as a medium for international trade is first and foremost a loss of value of the dollar on the international market. As a consequence, military action will come more and more costly for the US economy.
And now there is a presidential candidate who has clearly stated that he would bring America's troops home and instead of aggression on foreign countries he would prefer diplomacy and trade. Ron Paul would also, he says, put the dollar back on some kind of a gold standard. And remember, two tons of Ron Paul Liberty Dollars were taken by government agents in the raid in Evansville.
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