Health in the News

This is a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at the maneuverings of the pharmaceutical industry to create an ever widening market for drugs in the United States. They are planting the idea that to quit smoking, you need prescription drugs and those should be paid for by health insurance because smoking is a chronic illness like diabetes.

The authors of this article declared conflicts of interest with the drug companies Pfizer, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, and Celtic Pharma.

Does "long-term cessation medications" mean that people will essentially transfer their addiction from the tobacco companies to the pharmaceutical industry? Studies have shown that existing medicinal nicotine substitutes are far from harmless. Buproprion, a common nicotine substitute, has been known to cause seizures. And the substitute varenceline has been linked to psychiatric disturbances including suicides.

When the FDA's advisory panels are filled with conflicts of interest, filled with people who have various ties with the industry, the agency cannot expect to operate in the public interest.

We've seen prior problems with tomatoes, we've had the e. coli scare in the spinach field, we've had to recall tons of beef…. The food is recalled, or we are told to cook it longer. But no where is there a call to change industry farming methods which encourage the growth of e. coli and salmonella.

This voices of dissatisfaction with the FDA's mission to protect the public has moved beyond advocacy groups now to the mainstream media. It will be interesting to see how the next presidential administration handles this hot potato.

After WWII ended, the American military was curious to find out why the Japanese field rations tasted so much better. Turned out the secret ingredient was MSG, and that began the large-scale use of it in the United States. MSG makes our brain declare that food tastes really, really good and that we want more of it, regardless of nutritive value.

MSG simulates umami, one of the five basic tastes which the human tongue can recognize and appreciate. Specifically, umami is the taste associated with savoriness, as found in foods such as meat, cheese, tomatoes, and mushrooms. These foods contain naturally formed glutamates, which is what gives them that savory taste. Unfortunately, MSG, like aspartame, is also toxic to the brain.

MSG can be used without disclosure - you won't find it find it listed on the label. Instead, it might be called one of perhaps 50 names including hydrolyzed protein, soy protein, maltodextrin, or natural flavor. It might be in the milk solids in low fat milk. MSG is found in most soups, salad dressings, processed meats, frozen entrees, ice cream, and frozen yogurt, in some crackers, bread, canned tuna, and very often in "low fat" and "no fat" foods to make up for flavor lost when fat is reduced or eliminated. It can be found in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, dietary supplements and infant formula. It is found in vaccines -- including vaccines used on children. It can be used in waxes applied to fresh fruits and vegetables and it sprayed on vegetable crops and nuts in the fields. California wine grapes are sprayed with MSG.

You can read the petition at http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocketDetail&d=FDA-2007-P-0178. You can also read Neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock's book entitled, "Excitotoxins, The Taste That Kills."

The future has arrived. At the Arizona Center for Advanced Medicine we evaluate brain function as well as body function, through our BrainAdvantage program, and prescribe a program which will help improve memory, judgment and metabolism – all in one location. You no longer have to go to a traditional doctor for blood work, a holistic doctor or naturopath to look at functional tests, and a neuropsychologist to work with your brain. Now you can do it all at the same time, in the same place. Please call us for more information.

It is always a good thing to test myths. So now we know, at least from this one study, that we see similar cognitive decline in people with coronary artery disease, both in those who had surgery (bypass grafts) and in those who did not. So, the questions then become: If "the disease itself is the basis for cognitive decline," are the medications at fault? There is much antidotal evidence that statin drugs for example cause cognitive problems and they are often prescribed to those with "high cholesterol" who are said to be at risk for heart disease. What are the side effects of the drugs given for diabetes and high blood pressure? Is memory loss just a normal part of aging? The study does not appear to address any sort of nutritional or lifestyle alternation, which could have a significant effect on the outcome, even after heart disease has become manifest. The most effective treatment of any chronic illness is modification of nutrition and lifestyle. The Arizona Center for Advanced Medicine offers FirstLine Therapy to help you make the nutritional and lifestyle changes, and we can treat the brain function itself with our BrainAdvantage program.

Despite the amount of sun that we see in Arizona, about 98% of my patients have vitamin D levels which are far below the levels recommended by the Vitamin D council. About 5% have levels below the reference range in lab tests – which are the levels required to prevent rickets. About 20 minutes of exposure to the sun each day, in a skimpy bathing suit, without sunscreen, will help the body manufacture close to 20,000 IU of Vitamin D. Or you can take a pill… or a drop. Does too much sunshine cause skin cancer? Read up on it in our library article, "Skin Cancer, Sunshine, and Vitamin D." As more information like this breaks into the mainstream media, the day will come when we retire the mantra "stay out of the sun – it will give you cancer" just as we tossed out the advice from "experts" a decade ago that a high carbohydrate diet was the way to go. Vitamin D is good for us; we need more of it.

Even if Lexapro is given to make what serotonin the brain can still produce hang around longer, this does nothing to help the brain recover from its stroke. Whenever there is a stroke, there are always brain cells in the surrounding area which are partially damaged but not yet dead – the area is called the "penumbra" or "shadow zone". These cells still have a chance to recover, if they can be given sufficient energy. However, because of the stroke, their blood supply has been cut off or diminished to the point where they have used up all their stores of readily available energy (ATP) and have used up all the precursors. So they are left with no gas in the tank. Giving ribose helps to put at least a precursor of gas in the tank, so that the cells have a better chance at surviving.

Since half of the granulated sugar in the U.S. comes from sugar beets, a move towards biotech beets marks a dramatic alteration of the U.S. food supply. Sugar beets have been modified to insert a gene that makes the plant resistant to glyphosate, a toxic herbicide, sold under the trade name Roundup. At the request of Roundup's manufacturer, Monsanto, the EPA increased the allowable amount of glyphosate residues on sugar beet roots by 5,000 percent. The inevitable result is more pesticide in our sugar, and a GM element "hiding" in many items we might by at the grocery store.

According to a recent CBS News/New York Times poll, 53 percent of Americans say they won't buy food that has been genetically modified. But much of it is not labeled. One way to avoid GM is to buy organic.

Check out www.DontPlantGMOBeets.org. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a coalition of nearly 300 faith-based institutional investors, launched this Web-based campaign in March, 2008, "because of weak governmental review and oversight, and the lack of long-term, independent and peer-reviewed safety studies."

Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception, and Bob Gregory launched the "GM Free Churches" campaign in Virginia to educate churches about the health and spiritual dangers of GMO-ed foods.

This one should trigger all kinds of alarm bells. We eat food "products" with chemicals that are bad for us, then start taking drugs to counteract the effect of a non-nutritious diet. How backwards is that? Many of our patients find that even if they start a healthy detoxification and nutritional program like FirstLine Therapy late, they can come off their drugs because they no longer need them. This is the perfect example of "less is more." And the choice is ours – modify our lifestyle and eating habits, or take drugs to counteract the effects. The drugs come with side effects and do not resolve problems at their core. It seems like a pretty obvious decision to me…

So, we have done something good for the planet by reducing CFCs, but we didn't do something good for the human body. The new inhalers still make use of fluorine, so you get some every time you puff. Fluorine displaces iodine, causes the thyroid to function poorly, and is toxic to the lungs.

At issue is the EPA's screening of chemicals used in everything from household products to rocket fuel to determine whether they pose serious risk of cancer or other illnesses. Headlines like this are why Diane Rehm of National Public Radio says the public has little faith anymore in the EPA's ability to protect public health.

Do the White House politicians have such in-depth knowledge of chemistry and medicine that they should feel themselves competent to judge which chemicals should be tested and which are sufficiently safe that they do not need to be tested at all??

What the CNN story did not reveal was Dr. Paul Offit's conflicts of interest. He is one of the patent holders of the rotavirus vaccine, the recipient of a $350,000 grant from Merck for its development, a consultant to Merck Pharmaceuticals, and a vocal spokesman for the pro-vaccine forces.

Although mercury has been removed from most vaccines, vaccines can still contain traces of mercury, at a level so low the actual amount doesn't have to be stated. In other words, they are called "mercury-free." Also, there has been no attempt to remove the other ingredients in vaccines that can cause neurological damage such as aluminum, formaldehyde, phenol, and MSG (used as a stabilizer).

What disappoints me about this news article is its fatalistic overtones. Have we somehow missed hearing about the positive roles of Vitamin B12 and B3, and somehow ignored the negative effects of gluten, artificial sweeteners and colorings, chemicals and the like? I must have missed something in the last 15 years when all these things were being discussed and debated in more advanced medical circles. This article merely speaks to predicting and managing a disease.

The Chinese use chess to help stimulate the brain. Chess, of all the possible games, utilizes strategy and planning – both activities which originate in the frontal lobes of the brain. There is treatment for memory loss. Stay tuned, on this website, for news of a simple way to stimulate the frontal lobes of the brain to improve memory and concentration – no drugs, no bad side effects, just increased mental clarity and memory. This therapy will be available at The Arizona Center for Advanced Medicine starting in July of 2008 – the only place in the country for this particular kind of therapy in a medical setting.

Could it be that our toxic world - our growing body burden of environmental exposures - is coming back to bite us?

And we are STILL recommending drugs as first-line therapy for AD/HD? What is wrong with this picture? Diet and lifestyle and brain training are more effective, less dangerous, and much healthier.

So… one more reason to be wary of trying to appear to be something other than what we actually are. Health and beauty come through good nutrition for body, brain and mind. If we are content with the current state of our lives, there is no reason for frown lines, and they do not have to be flattened by artificial means. Botox is a drug – in fact it is a deadly toxic byproduct of the botulinus bacterium which used to be found in inadequately sterilized canned goods. Why would we want to inject deadly toxins deliberately into our bodies?

Canada has now banned the sale of products containing bisphenol A. WalMart Canada pulled off the shelves baby bottles containing this toxic chemical. Interestingly, this did not happen in the United States. WalMart declared its intention to remove those products by early 2009. In the meantime, the products are still on the shelf. This reminds me of the thimerosal story in 1999 – thimerosal was banned from vaccines as a preservative, but it was still permitted to sell the vaccines left over from the old manufacturing ways – and so thimerosal did not actually come out of the supply chain until about 2002, when the old stores were finally used up. It is possible that there is a conflict of interest between our physical health and the financial health of big industry?

Earlier studies showed low amounts of bisphenol A have the ability to mimic human estrogen, but now we see a U.S. government study addressing the problem.

The draft report said, in pretty plain language, that "bisphenol A can migrate into food from food and beverage containers with internal epoxy resin coatings and from consumer products made of polycarbonate plastic such as baby bottles, tableware, food containers, and water bottles. … Bisphenol A can also be found in breast milk. Biomonitoring studies show that human exposure to bisphenol A is widespread."

The report said that "laboratory rodents show that exposure to high dose levels of bisphenol A during pregnancy and/or lactation can reduce survival, birth weight, and growth of offspring early in life, and delay the onset of puberty in males and females. A variety of effects related to neural and behavior alterations, precancerous lesions in the prostate and mammary glands, altered prostate gland and urinary tract development, and early onset of puberty in females have been reported in laboratory rodents exposed during development to much lower doses of bisphenol A that are more similar to human exposures."

Do you carry a polycarbonate water bottle your car in the Arizona summer heat? If so, then you'll find this part of the report interesting: "The degree to which bisphenol A migrates from polycarbonate containers into liquid appears to depend more on the temperature of the liquid than the age of the container, i.e., more migration with higher temperatures."

Environmental Working Group found that bisphenol A leaches from the metal lining of cans and has been found at alarmingly high rates in one-third of the cans of baby formula tested. Bisphenol A is also found in soda cans, in refrigerator shelving, microwave ovenware, water pipes, electrical appliances, flooring, and part of the plastic used in covering children cavities.

You can join the growing ranks of consumers who are demanding glass – a good idea for health and for the environment because glass can be recycled. Plastic will be around for tens of thousands of years.

The loss of bats may be an even worse concern than the loss of bees. Bats are the world's greatest insect eaters. A small brown bat can eat as many as 600 mosquitoes in an hour. The implications for agriculture are enormous. The spread of severe communicable diseases could be devastating. Diseases borne by mosquitoes include Eastern Equine Encephalitis, Malaria, Dengue Fever, and West Nile Virus.

Right on, Dr. Kellerman! I could not have said it better myself. The assumption seems to be that insurance – rather than the service delivered by doctor to patient – is the more important element in the equation.

All the more reason to start our children out with very healthy anti-inflammatory foods – meats, fruits and vegetables – without additives or colorings or extra sugars. We could almost certainly prevent most of the healthcare spending in later life if we gave our children a good start in life, with food messages to their genes which promote health.

This is called "sarcopenic obesity" – meaning relative lack of muscle compared with total body weight. This is where measurement of the bio-impedance analysis (BIA) of the body is helpful, to gauge amount of body fat, muscle, intracellular water, and other parameters which help us to gauge how healthy or toxic a person may be. At the Arizona Center for Advanced Medicine we do this measurement on all our new patients, and then repeat the measurement periodically as they go through our nutritional program which is geared at restoring the body to health and eliminating the risk factors of hypertension, hyperglycemia, high cholesterol and metabolic syndrome.

Dental amalgam, or silver filling material, has been around for some 150 years. Yes, it's the same mercury you saw in thermometers as a kid and were warned never to touch. Mercury is a known toxin. From a dentist's perspective, it is a long-lasting material that is cheap and easy to use. It is estimated that half of all dentists still use mercury-based restorations in their practice.

Consumers for Dental Choice, a non-profit organization, is suing the FDA, asking it to remove mercury fillings from the market. Mercury isn't the only culprit by the way, lots of metals used in amalgam filings that can affect certain individuals with a particular sensitivity. The mouth is part of the overall body and it can infect the rest of the body. If you think you have a problem component in your fillings, we can test you for an allergic or hypersensitivity reaction, just as we can test for any other allergic reaction like pollens or molds.

Let us ask, "What would be the harm in getting the measles?" A vaccine only protects a child for about 8 years; an actual case of measles confers protection for life. Measles in adults is much more serious.

In the factual world of public health risk assessment, 1 in 1000 children who contracts measles dies or gets encephalitis, the other 999 are protected for life. That's 0.1% serious or fatal complications.

We now have an autism epidemic where we are seeing 1 in 150 children affected. That's a big incidence – possibly from complications of vaccination. Lewis may say, "studies show no link" but that is not accurate. In November last year, after years of insisting there is no evidence to link vaccines with the onset of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the US government quietly conceded a vaccine-autism case in the Court of Federal Claims.

In many autistic children the MMR vaccine with live measles virus has produced an ongoing intestinal infection. Live viruses can trigger a strong and long-lasting immunity, but they may cause serious infections and even death in people who are immune-compromised and sometimes may cause serious infections in people who are apparently healthy.

Parents need to weigh the risk.

A mobile-phone industry group dismissed Khurana's claims as exaggerated and pointed out that health groups say cell phones are safe. The American Cancer Society also says there is no link. But consider this: It took until the 1960's for people to accept the idea that cigarette smoke was harmful. It was another 20 to 30 years before secondhand smoke was accepted as dangerous and outlawed in the work place. Cigarette proponents for decades offered that health claims were exaggerated, that "It's not for sure," and "It needs more study."

It is good to see appearing in mainstream literature what has been common knowledge in functional medicine circles for years. Yes, anti-oxidants are very helpful to treat all forms of oxidative stress, including cancer. Resveratrol is one of the polyphenol antioxidants abundant in grapes, berries, tea, red cabbage, eggplant, beans, whole grains, and cocoa. It is most abundant in blue, red, and purple grapes. Resveratrol is also abundant in a Chinese medicinal root called hu zhang (Polygonum cuspidatum), which is often the source of resveratrol in dietary supplements.

Resveratrol is produced by the grape plant to protect it against environmental stress. How fitting that it will also help to protect us against environmental stress – because what is cancer, if not the ultimate result of environmental stress? And when we eat the grapes, we derive the same benefit as the plant – this is called xenohormesis – messages through our food from other species. How much better to eat these helpful messages, rather than the terrified hormonal messages from the modern meat slaughterhouses.

rBGH is sold as Posilac. Monsanto has been forced to admit to about 20 toxic effects, including mastitis, on its Posilac label. Mastitis causes increased amounts of pus in milk. The use of it increases the amount of milk cows give.

According to Dr. Samuel Epstein, rBGH milk is supercharged with high levels of a natural growth factor (IGF-1), which is readily absorbed through the gut. Excess levels of IGF-1 have been incriminated as a cause of breast, colon, and prostate cancers; IGF-1 blocks natural defense mechanisms against early submicroscopic cancers.

WalMart's move sends a powerful signal to food manufacturers about the growing mainstream demand for food that is free of hormones and other man-made contaminants. Educated consumers have the power to move mountains.

In 2000 the Institute of Medicine (medical arm of the National Academy of Science) published the results of a long term study on medical errors titled "To Err is Human".

Among its findings-
Every single year in the US direct medical errors result in:

• at least 100,000 deaths (half medication error, half surgical error)
• 116 million extra doctors visits
• 77 million extra prescriptions
• 17 million extra emergency room visits
• 8 million extra hospitalizations

Another 225,000 deaths occur from preventable adverse events such as hospital borne infections.

It is estimated that only 5 to 20 percent of adverse reactions and medical mistakes are ever reported.

The "To Err is Human" report concluded that if put in their own category, medical errors would be the 5th leading cause of death in the US killing more people than stroke, Alzheimer's, most forms of cancer, and car accidents.

According to Dr. Carolyn Dean, author of Death by Modern Medicine in 2005, the mainstream medical industry kills 784,000 people each year in America; "Saddam Hussein did not kill that many people each year," she wrote.

Lots of genetic variants can certainly explain in part why some people get a disease and others don't, with exactly the same predisposing factors. However, it is important to realize that there still has to be a "provoking incident" in order for the genetic variant to result in an actual expression of disease. This is called an "epigenetic" factor, something which happens to the person with the genetic variant. So… genetic variants exist. They do not result in disease unless the epigenetic factors are sufficient to overwhelm the system. Thus, post traumatic stress disorder does not occur in the absence of a significant traumatic stress. Heart disease and osteoporosis do not occur in the absence of a diet and lifestyle predisposing to inflammation. We can't change our genetic variants, but we certainly have a great deal of influence over their expression.

So maybe those people who respond poorly to a low glycemic diet would respond better if they were simultaneously taking something to increase their insulin sensitivity – like the hops rho alpha iso acids pioneered by the Metagenics company, or even like metformin, pioneered by the pharmaceutical industry. It is helpful to know the genotype, in order to be able to treat the individual in the most appropriate and economic way.

When reading labels on personal products and makeup, you can avoid ingredients with "myreth," "oleth," "laureth," "ceteareth," any other "eth," "PEG," "polyethylene," "polyethylene glycol," "polyoxyethylene," or "oxynol," in the names.

Consumer beware. Your best bet is to purchase products whose ingredients you can pronounce or are certified under the USDA National Organic Program.

Violence is a tough way to make a point, but their point is valid. There are no studies that show GM foods are safe, but there are studies that raise serious doubts.

This study speaks for itself. We keep coming back to the same old statement, if we can't pronounce it, and it has to be made in a laboratory, we probably should not eat it (or breathe it).

At least this delay gives us time to inform our parents that the vaccination schedule, as it is currently established, is unsafe and needs to be significantly modified in order to be safe for those of our children who have difficulty with detoxification. And is it possible that the recorded drop in IQ scores over the past 10 years may reflect the difficulty of ALL our children with these injections of toxic and infectious compounds? We have an entire lost generation, those children who received vaccinations between 1990 and 2002, who are at risk for developmental and immune system dysfunction for the rest of their lives. If we learn from the events, then we can do something to help future generations of children. It is up to us, one child at a time.

Phoenix's water was not tested as part of this AP investigation. According to the Arizona Republic edition of 03-14-08, both Phoenix and Scottsdale plan to initial testing of their drinking water for pharmaceutical medications. Other cities in the area are choosing to wait and see if the Federal Government tells us that the levels of pharmaceuticals are dangerous. I must confess that I am VERY glad I live in one of the cities which is choosing to be proactive about this potentially extremely dangerous issue.

Recent laboratory research has found that small amounts of medication have affected human embryonic kidney cells, human blood cells and human breast cancer cells. The cancer cells proliferated too quickly; the kidney cells grew too slowly; and the blood cells showed biological activity associated with inflammation.

The federal government doesn't require any testing and hasn't set safety limits for drugs in water. Given the power and influence of the pharmaceutical industry, safety limits – if there are such things – could be a long time coming.

There is a key piece of information missing in the news reports: what kind of folic acid is in your supplement? Folate is the water-soluble B vitamin that occurs naturally in food. Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate and a cheap version of it is often found in supplements and added to fortified foods. A third type is methyltetrahydrofolate, (MTHF), the predominant form of folate in cerebrospinal fluid. Low CSF MTHF levels are associated with inborn errors of metabolism affecting folate metabolism and in dietary deficiency of folate.

This vitamin's primary job is to maintain the cells' genetic code, regulate cellular division, and transfer chromosomes form one cell to another. There is some evidence that a deficiency of folate can cause damage to DNA that may lead to cancer.

Folate maintains optimal function of the detoxification pathway and it needs the catalysts vitamins B12, B6 and vitamin C to carry out its functions effectively.

There is evidence that your body can reject synthetics. Even the allopathic community has noted that synthetic vitamin E is a poor substitute for the real thing and does little to boost your health. But the debate is unsettled about synthetic folic acid. According to Aileen Burford-Mason, president of the Holistic Health Research Foundation of Canada, "some people genetically are not equipped to cleave the folate out of food and convert it to folic acid. It's only well utilized by about 70 per cent of the population. But there is a synthetic form called methyltetrahydrofolate that 100 per cent of people can use."

Vitamins in isolation, without any knowledge of what else is going on in the system, may not be totally harmless. It is possible that DNA may be turned on (or off) by methyl groups (which folic acid supplies). If the rest of the system is unhealthy, or contains multiple foods/chemicals/drugs which are carcinogenic, then perhaps indeed there may be an association between turning off some DNA and getting cancer. It's actually the old "post hoc ergo propter hoc" argument – because B follows A, that does not necessarily mean than A causes B – B may in fact be caused by some as yet unmeasured C or D that we haven't considered. I think the Harvard study is making unwarranted conclusions.

Are we completely insane??? One year old? Nexium? Esomeprazole works by blocking acid production in the stomach. GERD is a condition in which backward flow of acid from the stomach causes heartburn and injury of the esophagus. I remember we were taught in medical school how dangerous these drugs are. Now the FDA is recommending that instead of teaching mothers how to feed their children properly, we just feed youngsters a purple pill to shut down the stomach's natural ability to produce acid to digest food.

I am always glad to see that people can still figure things out though. Here's what one post on medheadlines.com had to say:

"Whenever my daughter has acid reflux, I give her 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. It works instantly. Our nation is drugged from cradle to grave by harmful pharmaceutical drugs. We've become a nation of drug addicts, and many have died as a result (e.g. Heath Ledger). How ignorant of all of us to believe that every ailment imaginable can be fixed with a pill…"

Shall parents decide between one more unnecessary shot, or seizures? Absurd choices. I for one do not recommend giving children the MMR vaccine at all.

So maybe if we give the dysfunctional vaccine more often it will work better?

This news has been so quiet that almost the only person reporting it to date is David Kirby, author of the book, Evidence of Harm, which speaks to thimerosal (mercury) in vaccines. Kirby's full report can be read at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/government-concedes-vacci_b_88323.html

Here's the video: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/saturday-night-live-takes-on-drug-ads/

The main risk factors for hep B are IV drug abusers and those who engage in sex with multiple partners. So unless that describes the mother, why on earth would the baby need a hep B vaccine? Yet the shot is recommended for every baby born in a US hospital; parents need to know enough to refuse.

The immune and central nervous systems of a newborn infant simply are not ready to handle something as challenging as a vaccine. In most other countries, the hep B vaccine is given later in life. Even then, this vaccine is associated with numerous side effects including increased risk of multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid disease – autoimmune diseases.

Maybe you shouldn't fool with Mother Nature by using drugs etc to lower blood sugar. Maybe we should look at the diet, which has been proven to lower blood sugar and restore normal response of muscles to insulin.

Humira for juvenile rheumatoid arthritis - FDA gives approval

February 2008

Abbott Laboratories announced that its top-selling drug, Humira (adalimumab), has won approval from federal regulators to treat juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (RA). According to Abbott, "This is the sixth use for Humira approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the second this year."

Humira "is approved in the U.S. to treat rheumatoid arthritis; psoriatic arthritis; ankylosing spondylitis, a spinal disorder; psoriasis; and Crohn's disease, a bowel disorder."

The FDA's approval was based on a study that found children with the disease were twice as likely to achieve 70 percent improvement of their symptoms as patients receiving a placebo, and were about a third less likely to experience a flare-up of the disease. 

RA "is a condition in which inflammation causes joints -- usually including the hands and feet -- to become inflamed." Furthermore, the "painful swelling often leads to destruction of joints."

Dr. Grout’s comment:

Humira is a Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) blocker. Elevated levels of TNF are found in the synovial fluid of rheumatoid arthritis. In order to block the inflammatory response, are you willing to subject your child to side affects which include tuberculosis, invasive fungal infections, certain types of cancer (especially lymphoma), and autoimmune disorders (such as a lupus-like syndrome)? Humira is in the class of  immunosupressants. Doesn't it make more sense to discover the sources of inflammation, and eliminate those? It would be less expensive for the families, and would promote a lifetime of heath, instead of a lifetime of disease management.

Leaky Gut Syndrome can definitely be a cause of Juvenile Rhuematoid Arthritis. With leaky gut, the common diet of processed food, antibiotics, and stress can set off a cascade of problems in the gut with inflammation of the gut lining causing swelling and separation of cells, allowing large molecules to leak into the blood stream. Some of these molecules look like our own proteins, and this can result in inflammation of the joints. Leaky gut must be addressed with diet or other problems will follow. Adults can experience the same phenomenon. It may also be called rheumatoid arthritis in adults. Seldom is the connection made between the gut and the joints, since these body systems are treated by different practitioners, in the conventional medical practice.

The Humane Society is to be applauded for bringing these conditions to light. If you have the stomach for it, you can watch their video at http://www.hsus.org/ This also is an argument for choosing organic beef because the animals are better treated. Organic ground beef also comes without hormones, steroids, and antibiotics.

How sad, that we spend all this money on drugs, when acupuncture is proven to be so effective at treating back pain (and other pains as well). Acupuncture is inexpensive and effective – why look any further, if you don't have to? It should definitely be a first choice, not a last resort.

The FDA is not advising health care professionals to discontinue prescribing these products. This kind of reaction from a government over-sight agency fuels the debate whether industry has too much influence upon the regulatory process at the FDA. At the very least, these are two more events in an on-going tide of bad news about adverse drug reactions. And these drugs are optional, so why take the risk?

AAP is the organization whose responsibility includes writing practice parameters which are guidelines for pediatricians to use in treating children. For most of the past 30 years, the AAP has maintained that dietary treatment is of no use in AD/HD.

This is a long-overdue, but extremely welcome reversal of position. Of course food matters! Children also consume food dye in their toothpaste, their shampoo (through the scalp), their hand lotion (through their skin), their cereal, their juice drinks, their mac 'n cheese, etc. In 1977 study, the National Academy of Sciences determined that most people in the United States eat up to an average of 317 mg of food dyes per day. You can read more at Kid Food - What is It? and Soda Pop-Obesity and Hyperactivity in a Can.

Here we see yet another case where concerned parents and environmental groups are taking the lead, putting pressure on toy manufacturers to lessen the body burden of chemicals. And the marketplace is responding. Phasing out PVCs is do-able. Because of proprietary concerns, we are not hearing yet much about the safety of what will be used instead. But one thing is clear: Where our children are concerned, safety should be everyone's first priority.

Here is a case of the road to good intentions being paved with 3rd-rate planning. The EPA launched a campaign to get us to switch to fluorescent light bulbs in the name of energy savings. But they did not launch a safety education campaign at the same time. And most of all, they ignored the inherent and significant risk mercury presents to human health.

Most consumers couldn't tell you they are supposed to dispose of the compact fluorescents through "hazardous waste collection days" or certified waste recycling centers. And odds are, the bulbs will break before you get them there – light bulbs are fragile!

Meanwhile - Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark have stated they intend to eventually eliminate mercury use completely, and plan on researching alternatives to fluorescent lighting such as LED technology.

There are at least two acupuncturists in the Phoenix area who do acupuncture for fertility, both with great success. One is Pamela J. Wallach, LAc who practices out of our office. The other is Rebecca Wilks, MD, MD(H) whose office is in Glendale. Both report markedly increased rates of pregnancy after in-vitro fertilization, and excellent results even with patients who do not have IVF, but whom acupuncture helps conceive naturally. Acupuncture is certainly both less expensive and less dangerous than IVF. And when combined with excellent nutritional advice and appropriate vitamin and nutrient supplementation, what better start could a baby have?

These chemicals affect the body through several channels. They attach to receptors in the body that help hormones carry out their functions and either block actual hormones from attaching or mimic the expression of the real hormones, causing confusion in the male body. In addition, some interfere with the body's natural production of hormones.

There is also evidence that exposure today to some of these chemicals can affect the reproductive health of this generation as well as the future health of offspring of those exposed. Watch a fascinating BBC program, called The Ghost in Your Genes.

Experts like Theo Colborn, author of Our Stolen Future, and Dr. Doris Rapp, author of Our Toxic World, have shown how environmental chemicals are altering the reproductive nature of many species, including humans. (See news brief of 2-5-08.) The medical community only wants to acknowledge that obesity is part of the cause - fatty tissue is a source of estrogen, so chubbier girls are exposed to more estrogen. But fatty tissue also holds toxic chemicals, what is called the Body Burden. The medical community may decide to declare precocious puberty "normal," but explain that to the mother whose 8-year old girl is still playing with dolls and now needs to be told the fundamentals of sex.

It is the purpose of the Theraputic Initiative to pore over the data on particular drugs and figure out how well they work. It is extremely heartening to see that finally the word is getting out in the media that high cholesterol does not usually need to be treated with drugs of very questionable value. Meanwhile, many people have reported debilitating problems with statins, including muscle weakness, fatigue, dizziness, and lessened cognitive function. When high cholesterol is a sign of inflammation in the arteries, better to reduce the trans fats, sugars, and environmental toxins that feed the inflammation.