Public Perceptions

In the late 1960s I had just left the West Coast, Haight-Ashbury, and Morningstar Ranch. I ended up in the Chicago area as we lived near my ex’s mother. At the time I was working for the Chicago Tribune and doing proofreading and editing. In those days there were still linotype operators that made and used lead type to make up the plates that the presses used to print your newspaper. No soy ink then.

I suppose this had some real influence on my so that when I began writing my “Health Matters” column in 1991 it wasn’t too long before a Washington Post owned paper in my area began printing my column.

A few years later several Puget Sound print venues published my column and articles. About mid-way to 2000 The Open Line began publishing my articles, and things have continued to grow from there. Today my organization publishes blogs, web sites, and other publications as well as having our work syndicated in more than  100 different locations around the world.

Along the way people have slammed my work but when the facts emerged my articles were accurate. Even an esteemed Everett are professional journalist wrote a recommendation for me stating clearly that my research top notch and my style was very readable and unique.

The internet certainly changed the way we read news. But sometimes it appears to me that too many have their brains glossed over by the quick & dirty approach that so many rely on and claim as fact.

I recall too that in about 2004 a couple of newbies on the net (I started in 1991) found their ways very often in the stats I reviewed of my sites. In 2005 a pattern began to emerge that these newbies were scouring my work to get their ideas and make a fast play to drown me out. So far they have not been successful in drowning me out in spite of some dirty tricks (so much for ethics in their concept of journalism).

These two sites seem to have the Fox New approach. I guess I’d prefer that those who have become their lemmings did take a little more time to be aware of what is being thrown at them.

The same seems to be true for the author of one excellent health journalism site.

I like him because he does what I try to do for my readers, make them think.

This week he has a great article about this topic. I like it so much I felt it is important to share.

I hope you think about it and share it too.

 

Science journalist: unrealistic expectations about science matter


http://www.healthnewsreview.org/blog/2011/08/science-journalist-unrealistic-expectations-about-science-matter.html

from Natural Health News

Natural Health News: Mainstream Health Coverage Unsatisfactory

May 30, 2008

MINNEAPOLIS, May 27 -- Most health coverage in the mainstream media fails to address the costs, harms, and benefits of medical products and procedures, according to the publisher of HealthNewsReview.org, a Web site that ...

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/05/mainstream-health-coverage.html

Misleading Data on Breast Implant-Related Cancer Removed from Site

Toxic Breast Implants

French Warned of Toxic Implants, no one listened

More than 30,000 women have had breast implants filled with industrial silicone instead of medical-grade fillers.  Complete article.

Thousands Of Women Given Leaky, Toxic Breast Implants Complete article.

Breast Implants and Rupture Science is still debating as to whether ruptured silicone breast implants are responsible for illness and disease. What is known is that when the silicone leaches throughout the body, it wants to stay in the body. Any foreign matter, including silicone, is not easily transported out of the body. The body needs help in ridding itself of any potentially harmful agent.
DNR, Inc. has created Body Soak-Gold for those women who have experienced ruptured silicone implants. Its design is to help activate the body's own resources necessary for it to release and remove impurities resulting from leaching or ruptured implants. This can occur with each soak and for hours thereafter.
Light Energized SolutionsBody Soak GOLD Item #: 105-G
Your Price: $52.00
Stress - Cleansing - Breast Implants - Relaxing - Emotions

Posted Feb 2011

Another attempt by mainstream medicine to keep women uninformed about health risks has been stymied.

In February 2011, Public Citizen alerted the FDA that the presidents of two leading plastic surgery organizations – the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) and the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) – urged members to inaccurately downplay the significance of recent evidence about the risks of breast implant-related cancer when speaking to female patients during a recent members-only webinar posted on the ASPS and ASAPS websites. Such communications represented a deplorable attempt to trivialize the significance of the findings of increased numbers of cases of a rare form of cancer, called anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL), in women with breast implants. Public Citizen called on the FDA to stop this deliberately misleading messaging campaign, the goal of which apparently was to keep women in the dark about the dangers of breast implants so they will continue to ask for them. Complete article

New Leadership:  Karuna R. Jaggar appointed Executive Director of Breast Cancer Action.

San Francisco, CA— After an exhaustive search the Breast Cancer Action board of directors announced Karuna R. Jaggar as the organization’s new executive director.  “We feel extremely proud and excited about our new Executive Director,” said BCA board president Claudia Cappio. “Karuna has worked in non-profit leadership and capacity building for 15 years advocating for women’s rights and socio-economic empowerment.  She uncompromisingly challenges inequities at every level and this will continue to be her focus as she leads Breast Cancer Action.”

Jaggar has a personal passion to end the breast cancer epidemic fueled by her commitment to social justice and her own experiences as a patient advocate.  “My closest family members have grappled with three breast cancer diagnoses during the last ten years,” Jaggar stated.  “It is not enough to educate ourselves and try to make “good” lifestyle choices. We need systemic change to end this breast cancer epidemic.”

Jaggar is driven by the reality that social injustices and environmental factors put each of us at risk of developing breast cancer, regardless of family medical history.  “Every woman affected by breast cancer should possess the power and knowledge to make informed decisions that enable them to take control of their healthcare,” Jaggar said.  “This includes a women’s right to access affordable treatment options, to create individualized treatment plans, and to make healthcare decisions centered on personal values and priorities.”

Under Jaggar’s leadership, BCA will remain uncompromising on issues of health, social and environmental justice:  “We will continue to fearlessly and relentlessly tell the truth about breast cancer,” Jaggar asserted.

Breast Cancer Action, the San Francisco based national watchdog of the breast cancer movement, is known for a commitment to understanding breast cancer through a social justice and health equity lens.  The organization demands greater corporate accountability and better treatment options for patients; pays keen attention to the social inequities that cause differences in breast cancer incidence and outcomes; secures changes at the policy level to reverse involuntary exposure to carcinogens; and works to shift  the balance of power at the FDA away from pharmaceutical companies towards patient interests. 

Prior to her role at BCA, Jaggar was the Executive Director, East Bay of the Women’s Initiative for Self Employment where she worked to reverse inequities among low-income women and women of color.  Jaggar replaces Barbara Brenner who retired at the end of 2010.

Big PhRMA Misleads You and Your Doctor

UPDATE: 19 October

In the same vein as problematic drug trials, let it be known that the same may be true with vitamins, as PhRMA makes it move to grab control of any supplements that may help you protect yourself from dementia and Alzheimer's. (Read more in the 60+ related articles on Natural Health News)

More on Natural Substances to Combat Alzheimer’s—and Big Pharma’s Dirty Little Secret

By ANH-USA 

  Coconut oil ^[1] is showing great promise in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. New studies show that other natural substances are also offering big breakthroughs, and the drug industry is trying to jump on the bandwagon with them too.
Fish oil reduces inflammation, including the inflammation associated with dementia. The DHA form of fish oil also converts into neuroprotectins, which, as the name suggests, protect our nerve tissue. A recent study ^[2] suggests that the risk of Alzheimer’s may be reduced by a third if we consume this regularly. Another broad study ^[3] suggested that the risk of all forms of dementia could be reduced by almost half with fish oil.
Nattokinase is an enzyme extracted from a fermented, cheese-like soy food called natto, which has been eaten in Japan for many years. Nattokinase has a well-documented ability to dissolve clots, so it plays a role in cardiovascular health. Now it is being studied for another set of abilities. Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by brain deposits of a certain type of amyloid—a group of abnormal proteins that cause disorders in various organs. Getting rid of amyloids is one of the targets of Alzheimer’s disease research. A recent study ^[4] shows that nattokinase removes amyloid plaque.
Other encouraging Alzheimer’s news comes from the University of California at Irvine, where a study recently showed that mice with cognitive impairment had dramatic improvement with niacinamide ^[5]. Niacinamide is one of the water-soluble B-complex vitamins known as B-3. Niacin, or nicotinic acid, is another form. When an amide molecule attaches itself to niacin, it becomes niacinamide (also called nicotinamide). The body can convert niacinamide back into niacin but is unable to make niacinamide out of niacin. One major difference is that in doses exceeding 50 mg, niacin typically produces flushing of the skin, but niacinamide does not. Niacin and niacinamide also have different applications. In the niacinamide form, it reduces inflammation. Since many studies indicate that inflammation may trigger Alzheimer’s, researchers wondered if niacinamide would help Alzheimer’s.
Researchers gave mice the equivalent of a human dose of 2000 to 3000 milligrams of niacinamide, and the results were shocking. “Cognitively, they were cured,” said Dr. Kim Green, the head of the study. “The vitamin completely prevented cognitive decline associated with the disease, bringing them back to the level they’d be at if they didn’t have the pathology.” Niacinamide also improved memory in mice without Alzheimer’s.
Pioneering integrative physician and researcher Jonathan V. Wright, MD, notes that niacinamide has been widely used for a variety of purposes for more than 60 years, and its safety is well known ^[6]. He reports that as far back as 1943, William Kaufman, PhD, MD, a psychiatrist and exceptionally thorough clinical researcher, showed that niacinamide deficiency causes impaired memory, easy distractibility, an inability to concentrate, mental fog, slowed thoughts, difficulty comprehending, unwarranted anxiety, a lack of initiative, being uncooperative or quarrelsome, etc. And he discovered that all of these symptoms—and many more—“disappeared or…improved considerably” with the use of niacinamide.
Niacinamide isn’t the only B vitamin that may help significantly with Alzheimer’s. A study from Oxford University ^[7] found that fairly high dosages of three B vitamins (folic acid, B6 and B12) could reduce the rate of brain atrophy in patients with mild cognitive impairment—because these vitamins reduce homocysteine. (Other studies have found that TMG, or trimethylglycine, also controls homocysteine and is useful if the B vitamins are not enough.) Around 50% of people with mild cognitive impairment go on to develop Alzheimer’s.
But this study, widely trumpeted in the world press, wasn’t quite what it seemed. It was a study of B vitamins, yes, but it was at the same time a study of a patented drug. How could that be? Why was a drug company happy to see the curative role of B vitamins established? Here’s why: TrioBe Plus—the formulation of the B vitamin used in the study, is a patented drug, even though it is really just a blend of three ordinary vitamins and shouldn’t have received a patent. It is made by a Swedish drug company, Meda AB, based on a patent held by the chief researcher. As our colleagues at ANH-Int’l point out ^[7], the lead author of the research had to declare a conflict of interest because the patent for the use of these vitamins in this particular form is in his name. He will therefore personally gain massively if your local doctor starts to prescribe this to everyone who’s complaining about losing their car keys on a regular basis.
So the pharmaceutical industry is once again patenting and promoting a drug that’s not a drug, but is merely three forms of vitamin B you can get from any health food store. Supplements are not drugs—but drug companies are so unsuccessful in producing new drugs that they are looking greedily at supplements.

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Article printed from Alliance for Natural Health – USA: http://www.anh-usa.org
URL to article: http://www.anh-usa.org/more-on-natural-substances-to-combat-alzheimers/
URLs in this post:

[1] Image: http://www.anh-usa.org../../../../../coconut-oil-and-alzheimer%E2%80%99s-disease/

[2] A recent study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20467837

[3] Another broad study: http://archneur.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/63/11/1545

[4] A recent study: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf803072r

[5] mice with cognitive impairment had dramatic improvement with niacinamide: http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/abstract/28/45/11500

[6] niacinamide has been widely used for a variety of purposes for more than 60 years, and its safety is well known: http://ahha.org/Alzheimers.htm

[7] A study from Oxford University: http://anh-europe.org/blog/vitamins-for-alzheimers-study-reveals-pharma-gameplan

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This certainly is not a new subject, but certainly welcome in terms of the number of adverse problems with drugs that are marketed to be more than they really are.
Benefits are constantly over estimated and proves the urgent need for publication of trial data. Other problems is that adverse effects are not usually found until the drug has been marketed and profits are high.  Post marketing trials are not being done as required and this certainly can be tracked tot eh drug approval Fast Track process.
Fast Track was introduced many years ago to allow for pharmaceutical firms to pay a fee to get their drug approved quickly.  This has been a major criticism of FDA practices and certainly one that has yet to be changed.
Just yesterday I provided a client with some information to take to their doctor. Basic information  about her drugs had not been given to her, and it is likely that her doctor and pharmacist never gave her the information as is required by law.
I am sure that if you are taking prescription drugs you may experience similar situations.
And I'd suggest you ignore  the drug ads like the plague, just like the stupid political ads running on channels near you.

'Public misled' by drug trial claims

By Michelle Roberts Health reporter, BBC News

Drugs need to undergo extensive testing in trials before approval

Doctors and patients are being misled about the effectiveness of some drugs because negative trial results are not published, experts have warned.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, they say that pharmaceutical companies should be forced to publish all data, not just positive findings.
The German team give the example of the antidepressant reboxetine, saying publications have failed to show the drug in a true light.
Pfizer maintains its drug is effective.

Reboxetine (Edronax), made by Pfizer, is used in many European countries, including the UK.

But its rejection by US drug regulators raised doubts about its effectiveness, and led some to hunt for missing data.
This is not the first time a large drug company has come under fire about its published drug trial data.
Trial informationPharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was criticised for failing to raise the alarm on the risk of suicidal behaviour associated with its antidepressant Seroxat.
GSK rejected claims that it improperly withheld drug trial information.

"Our findings underline the urgent need for mandatory publication of trial data”

But GSK has also been forced to defend itself over allegations about hiding negative data regarding another of its drugs, Avandia, which is used to treat diabetes.

Now researchers from The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care say there is unpublished trial data for Pfizer's antidepressant reboxetine that should be made public because it could change views about the drug.
Dr Beate Wieseler and colleagues carried out their own assessment of reboxetine, looking at the results of 13 trials, including eight previously unpublished trials from the manufacturer Pfizer.
They found the drug was no better than a placebo in terms of remission and response rates. And its benefit was inferior when compared with other similar antidepressants.
Furthermore, a higher rate of patients had side effects with reboxetine than with placebo. And more stopped taking the drug because of side effects compared with those taking a placebo or a different antidepressant. Continue reading this story