February 2008 Health in the News Archive

[ Monthly Index of New Briefs ]

In 2003 a book was published by Doris Rapp, MD(H). In this book we read: "Phthalates… can cause the male offspring of rats to … have abnormal reproductive organs, while the female offspring have more miscarriages." This February 2008 article published in the journal Pediatrics outlines sources of exposure in infants, in response to recent studies on the impact of phthalates on human male reproduction. Phthalates are used in plastics, to keep the supple. They are very convenient, and were thought to be a useful product for many years. I'm not so sure that the eventual demise of the human race is worth the convenience.

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.

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.