January 2009 Health in the News Archive

[ Monthly Index of New Briefs ]

Aluminum in Vaccines

January 28, 2008

After consumer protests, several mercury-laced vaccines were replaced with low mercury, or "thimerosal-free" vaccines. But the amount of aluminum went way up in the vaccination schedule, according to Neil Miller, director of the Thinktwice Global Vaccine Institute.

Miller says vaccines containing high concentrations of neurotoxic aluminum were added to the child immunization schedule when several vaccines containing mercury were removed. "Thus babies who follow the CDC immunization schedule are injected with nearly 5000 mcg of aluminum by 18 months of age." For example, the hepatitis B vaccine given at birth, he says, "contains 250 mcg of aluminum – 20 times higher than safety levels … The DTaP shot is given at 2, 4, and 12 months; each dose contains 625 mcg of aluminum…"

Aluminum is neurotoxic, even in minute quantities, and has a long history of well documented hazards.

Dr. Grout's Comment:

We are overdue for more complete discussion of problems other than mercury that exist in vaccines. Kudos to Mr. Miller for elevating the discussion of aluminum. MSG is another neurotoxin in many vaccines.

As long ago as 1996, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics stated that, "Aluminum is now being implicated as interfering with a variety of cellular and metabolic processes in the nervous system and in other tissues." Last year, a team of scientists in Great Britain found a mechanism whereby vaccination involving aluminum-containing adjuvants in vaccines could trigger the cascade of immunological events that are associated with autoimmune conditions, including chronic fatigue syndrome and macrophagic myofasciitis. The scientists said it is possible "that for a significant number of individuals, [aluminum adjuvants] may represent a significant health risk." Mercury and aluminum are adjuvants, meant to intensify the reaction of the body's immune system. In the vernacular, adjuvants make the vaccine "stronger."

In the January/February 2008 edition of Mothering Magazine, one article asked, "Is Aluminum the New Thimerosal? Author Dr. Robert Sears explained that he began calculating the amount of aluminum being injected via vaccines. "As a medical doctor, my first instinct was to worry that these aluminum levels far exceed what may be safe for babies. My second instinct was to assume that the issue had been properly researched, and that studies had been done on healthy infants to determine their ability to rapidly excrete aluminum. My third instinct was to search for these studies. So far, I have found none … I can find no references in FDA documents that show that using aluminum in vaccines has been tested and found to be safe."

To read Neil Miller's just-released E-book, see Aluminum in Vaccines -- a Neurological Gamble (PDF)

To read more about vaccines, see http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/vaccinations.html

Mercury in the High Fructose Corn Syrup

January 26, 2009

Mercury was found in nearly 50 percent of tested samples of commercial high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), according to a new article published today in the scientific journal, Environmental Health. A separate study by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) detected mercury in nearly one-third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first or second highest labeled ingredient--including products by Quaker, Hershey's, Kraft and Smucker's.

Mercury was most prevalent in HFCS-containing dairy products, followed by dressings and condiments. On average, Americans consume about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS. Consumption by teenagers and other high consumers can be up to 80 percent above average levels.

"Mercury is toxic in all its forms," said IATP's David Wallinga, M.D., and a co-author in both studies. "Given how much high fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the FDA to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply."

For decades, HFCS has been made using mercury-grade caustic soda produced in industrial chlorine (chlor-alkali) plants. While the FDA had evidence that commercial HFCS was contaminated with mercury four years ago, the agency did not inform consumers, help change industry practice, or conduct additional testing. HFCS isn't labeled "Made with mercury," just like contaminated pet foods, chocolates and other products have not been labeled "Made with melamine."

"The good news is that mercury-free HFCS ingredients exist," Dr. Wallinga said. "Food companies just need a good push to only use those ingredients." While most chlorine plants around the world have switched to newer, cleaner technologies, many still rely on the use of mercury cells.

In 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama introduced legislation to force the remaining chlor-alkali plants to phase out mercury cell technology by 2012.

Dr. Grout's Comment:

This can't be a good week for the Corn Refiners Association which recently launched a TV advertising campaign suggesting there is nothing wrong with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). We never approved of HFCS because it provides empty calories, is highly inflammatory, and causes the body to work harder to make enough insulin to deal with it – thus contributing to the epidemic of type 2 diabetes. But mercury as a contaminant? And sometimes in pretty high levels? This new research shows just how blind to healthfulness some processed food makers have been. And, how negligent the Food and Drug Administration can be. Once notified of the problem, this "watchdog agency" did nothing to warn the public or industry.

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin which has been suspected as a cause of the neurologic deficits found in autism, as well a whole spectrum of less intense neurologic problems – attention deficit disorder, depression, Asperger's syndrome among others.

There is a pretty easy solution to the issue of mercury in HFCS, and that is simply to avoid all HCFS-containing foods and beverages. This would include almost anything which is manufactured by the food industry – including things you might not think of, like spaghetti sauce. Read labels. Stick with meats, fish, fruits and vegetables that you cook yourself, and you won't have to worry about HCFS.

Another option is to call or write to the companies who use the high fructose corn syrup, and ask them to send you what information they have on the source of their HCFS, and its mercury content – and whether it is produced in a factory which uses the old mercury-grade caustic soda technique. Tell them that you will not purchase their product until you know that they can demonstrate that there is no mercury in their HCFS.

Consumer beware. We do not have to play the victim role. We can take a hand in our own health and well-being. And eating healthy foods could be a good place to start.

Use of sleeping pills triples in young adults

January 15, 2009

According to an analysis of prescription-medication claims from a large group of employers, the use of sleeping pills appears to have "nearly tripled among young and college-aged adults between 1998 and 2006." Specifically, among people ages 18 to 24, sleeping-pill use rose "from 599 users per 100,000 in 1998 to 1,524 users per 100,000 in 2006," with the most popular sleeping pills being "the non-benzodiazepine hypnotics Ambien CR (zolpidem) and Lunesta (eszopiclone)."

Psychiatrist Eric M. Plakun, M.D., of the Austen Riggs Center, a Massachusetts mental-health treatment facility for young adults, attributed "the increasing reliance on sleeping pills" to changes in cultural attitudes toward medication use. "This is a generation that was raised on Ritalin and Adderall," Dr. Plakun said. "But it's a double-edged sword. You pay a price in which taking a pill becomes the way to go."

"What's surprising is how rapidly this use is growing among the young," said William Marder, senior vice president and general manager for the health care business of Thomson Reuters and one of the authors of the study. "It's pretty rapid growth for a group that is generally not one of [the] high-utilizers."

Dr. Grout's Comment:

So, are we taking sleeping pills because it the "thing to do"? Or are we taking sleeping pills because we are actually having trouble falling asleep? And it's not just the youth and young adults… most of the patients who come to see me are on some kind of sleep aid. And most of them would love to get off the drugs. When sleep is of poor quality, stress levels go up, performance and contentment go down, and eventually the chronic stress can affect every organ of the body. Chronic insomnia is often related to other problems, such as depression and anxiety. Fortunately, by cleaning up the diet, slowing the churning of the mind, adding a few supplements, and perhaps working with HEG-based brain training, it is relatively easy to improve sleep without having to use medication.

Eli Lilly nearing agreement on marketing fraud

January 15, 2009

The Wall Street Journal reports Eli Lilly & Co. could reach a settlement with federal prosecutors very soon "in an investigation into alleged improper marketing of the blockbuster antipsychotic drug Zyprexa (olanzapine)." The company faces civil and criminal charges for allegedly downplaying the drug's side effects and promoting it for unapproved uses. A settlement "would remove the specter of a criminal indictment of Lilly, which could threaten its business with Medicare and Medicaid."

The New York Times reports that "Lilly has been accused of a scheme stretching for years to persuade doctors to prescribe Zyprexa to two categories of patients -- children and the elderly -- for whom the drug is not federally approved." The company allegedly "urged geriatricians to use" the drug "to sedate unruly nursing home patients," and "pressed doctors to treat disruptive children with Zyprexa," according to court documents. In both categories of patients, however, the use of Zyprexa is "especially risky," causing "sudden death, heart failure," and severe weight gain, among other side effects.

Dr. Grout's comment:

Sedation of the unruly, whether elderly or young, is tempting in a situation where they seem to be out of control. It feels less punitive than shackling them to a bed, or locking them in their room. And yet… is it possible that there is actually a reason for them to be unruly? Could they be reacting to foods, or food additives, or chemicals, or molds in the environment? It would be so much more productive to clean up the diet, remove chemicals from both food and the environment, use non-toxic building materials, and generally provide a healthful environment for our children and our elders – not to mention for ourselves. What makes us think that we ourselves would be immune to these toxic effects? Starting with the food we put into our bodies – removing sugars, processed foods and all chemical additives, eating only that which we can recognize as food – would be a great place to start.

Bad news about Splenda

January 14, 2009

Amid claims for the Obama administration to "clean up the FDA," is the matter of the sweetener sucralose, known as Splenda. James Turner, chairman of the national consumer education group Citizens for Health, points to the report last fall from scientists at Duke University. "Hundreds of consumers have complained to us about side effects from using Splenda and this study, published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health Part A, confirms that the chemicals in the little yellow package should carry a big red warning label," said Turner.

Among the results in the study is evidence that, in the animals studied, Splenda reduces the amount of good bacteria in the intestines by 50%, increases the pH level in the intestines, contributes to increases in body weight and affects the P-glycoprotein (P-gp) in the body in such a way that crucial health-related drugs could be rejected. Turner noted that the P-gp effect "could result in crucial medications used in chemotherapy for cancer patients, AIDS treatment and drugs for heart conditions being shunted back into the intestines" rather than being absorbed by the body as intended.

"It is like putting a pesticide in your body," Turner said. " A person eating two slices of cake and drinking two cups of coffee containing Splenda would ingest enough sucralose to affect the P-glycoprotein, while consuming just seven little Splenda packages reduces good bacteria." The side effects occur after accumulated use. Turner also noted unmistakable evidence that Splenda is absorbed by fat, "contrary to the claims of Johnson & Johnson. The new study makes it clear that Splenda can cause you to gain weight and lose the benefits of medications designed to improve and protect your health. The FDA should not continue to turn a blind eye to this health threat."

Dr. Grout's Comment:

On April 7, 2006, Citizens For Health filed a formal Petition with the FDA, demanding that the FDA revoke its approval of sucralose. The Federal Food and Drug Administration acknowledged receipt of the petition the day it was received, but has taken no action. The Petition remains pending to this day under FDA Docket no. 2006P-0158. FDA "must respond within 180 days by either approving or denying the Petition (in whole or in part), or providing a tentative response indicating why FDA has been unable to reach a decision." It has been more than two and a half years.

Whole Foods Market decided four years ago to remove all products containing sucralose from its stores. Margaret Wittenberg, vice president of marketing and public affairs at Whole Foods, said that she was skeptical of the safety of sucralose and that the product did not fit into the company's philosophy of promoting "real food."

Alzheimer's drugs double death risk in elderly

January 8, 2009

Anti-psychotic drugs commonly used to treat Alzheimer's disease may double a patient's chance of dying within a few years, suggests a new study that adds to concerns already known about such medications.

"For the vast majority of Alzheimer's patients, taking these drugs is probably not a worthwhile risk," said Clive Ballard, the paper's lead author, of the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases at King's College London.

"Would I want to take a drug that slightly reduced my aggression but doubled my risk of dying? I'm not sure I would," Ballard said.

The research was published Friday in the medical journal, Lancet Neurology.

Previous studies have shown anti-psychotic drugs, which can help control the aggression and hallucinations for a few months raise the risk of death in older patients with dementia. There are other side effects, including respiratory problems and stroke.

Ballard and colleagues followed 165 patients aged 67 to 100 years with moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease from 2001 to 2004 in Britain. Half continued taking their anti-psychotic drugs, which included Risperdal, Thorazine and Stelazine. The other half got placebos.

Of the 83 receiving drugs, 39 were dead after a year. Of the 82 taking fake pills, 27 were dead after a year. Most deaths in both groups were due to pneumonia. After three years, only 30 percent of patients on the drugs were alive, versus 59 percent of those not taking drugs.

In the United Kingdom and the United States, guidelines advise doctors to use anti-psychotic drugs cautiously and temporarily. But in many nursing homes in Europe and North America, up to 60 percent of patients with dementia are routinely given the drugs for one to two years.

Simon Lovestone of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College in London said psychiatrists should try environmental or behavioral therapies instead of anti-psychotics.

Experts aren't sure how the anti-psychotics increase patients' risk of dying. But they think the drugs could be damaging to the brain and their sedative effects make patients less able to exercise and more susceptible to deadly infections.

The study was paid for by the U.K. Alzheimer's Research Trust. Ballard reported receiving grants from various pharmaceutical companies which make drugs used to treat Alzheimer's patients.

Dr. Grout's Comment:

Unless it is truly too late to do anything except mitigate symptoms, why risk the drugs?

The better course of action is to do something when the symptoms first appear, and to start with neurotherapy to improve brain function. Better yet, come to learn that food is information. What messages you are putting in to your body and on the family table? Even if it is not preventive for you, you may very well be doing your grandchildren the best favor you could possible do for them – enabling them to start out with an excellent immune system and digestive function. We have the evidence now that the modification we make in our genes through diet and environment, are handed down to the next generations. So start in childhood with good diet, avoidance of chemicals, sugars and toxins, so that the brain function difficulties never start.

WebMD partners with FDA

January 2009

WebMD announced a partnership in December with the FDA to distribute FDA consumer health news and alerts via WebMD channels, both Internet and print.

While the FDA gets some 6 million visitors a month, most of those visits come from those the FDA regulates. On its Consumer Health site, the FDA sees just 130,000 viewers a month; WebMD sees almost 50 million each month.

"We are enthusiastic about this collaboration with WebMD because it will enable us to reach more consumers with accurate, science-based information that can help them improve their health," said Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D., commissioner of food and drugs.

In related news, WebMD reported the "12 major advances that made cancer treatment and prevention a lot better in 2008," a list compiled by the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO):

1. Erbitux for Lung Cancer
2. Gemzar for Pancreatic Cancer
3. Treanda for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)
4. Avastin for Metastatic Breast Cancer
5. Long-Term Hormone Therapy for Breast Cancer
6. Zometa for Breast Cancer
7. Pegylated Interferon for Melanoma
8. Targeted Erbitux for Colon Cancer
9. The Pill Cuts Ovarian-Cancer Risk
10. HPV Vaccine May Cut Oral Cancers
11. Oncologist Shortage Looms
12. Caring for Childhood Cancer Survivors

Dr. Grout's Comment:

So WebMD pairs with the FDA, one of the least trusted agencies in government. Lawmakers are urging Obama to appoint a commissioner who will shake up the FDA and restore the confidence of its working-level scientists and medical experts.

I note that the list's top ten "advances" are all drugs. The pharmaceutical industry wields great influence with the FDA, the news media, and of course the industry is a prolific funder of political campaigns. So naturally, the focus of the mainstream oncologists who made the list falls on drug company products.

But that phrase, "...made treatment and prevention a lot better..." What prevention are they talking about??? Cancer is expected to supplant heart disease as the number one cause of death worldwide in 2010. In the U.S. it is expected that 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, and 1 in 3 women. Clearly, we are not winning the war on cancer.

Headlines about the cancer-reducing abilities of vitamin D even made it to the front pages in 2008, but nature's free sunshine didn't make their list of preventative measures. Dr. William Grant, Ph.D., internationally recognized research scientist and vitamin D expert, has stated that if people around the world optimized their vitamin D levels, cancer deaths would decrease about 30 percent. How about that for prevention?

Otto Warburg won the Nobel Prize in 1934 by demonstrating that sugar feeds cancer, that cancer cells require more sugar to thrive. What if, in the name of prevention, the ASCO recommended that the food industry ditch the high fructose corn syrup and sugary breakfast cereals, and dare we mention, sugary soda pop? At our clinic, we use FirstLine Therapy to make it easy for people to reduce the sugar in their diet and learn how to take control of their insulin levels. We make recommendations for specific foods which are helpful to people of specific blood type and secretory status.

The list says nothing about prevention by lessening the body burden of environmental contaminants. We know that heavy metals for example contribute to the cancer epidemic, and that what we do today will affect the health of our grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Is there any prevention anywhere in this? According to WebMD, "For continued advances in cancer treatment and prevention, ASCO calls for increased federal spending on clinical cancer research and for removing barriers to participation in clinical trials of new cancer treatments." Read-"more drugs coming, no prevention".

Tamiflu no help for this flu season

January 8, 2009

Tamiflu

Tamiflu, the Roche Holding AG drug for influenza, can't fight most infections that have been diagnosed in the U.S. flu season so far, health experts say.

More than half of the flu viruses that have been analyzed in the U.S. this season are of the H1N1 strain, said Joseph Bresee, chief of influenza epidemiology and prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Virtually all the H1N1 viruses the agency has tested, 72 of 73, are Tamiflu-resistant, he said.

"Tamiflu is a good drug, and we'll continue to monitor the situation," said Terence Hurley, a Roche spokesman.

Most doctors don't use drugs to treat flu, Bresee said, because drug treatment has to be started early in the disease and most cases get better on their own. Bresee also said the flu season is still far from its peak and that cases of other flu strains that can be treated with Tamiflu may soon outnumber resistant infections.

Flu season in the U.S. typically lasts from November through March. According to the CDC, flu strikes 5 percent to 15 percent of the population.

Dr. Grout's Comment:

Government officials so vigorously promote annual flu shots it's hard to tell sometimes whether they are drug company salespeople or public advocates. A yearly flu vaccine has not been shown to prevent flu-related deaths in people over the age of 65, according to the 2005 and 2007 Cochrane Collaborative's reports in the Lancet medical journal. "Recent excess mortality studies were unable to confirm a decline in influenza-related mortality since 1980, even as vaccination coverage increased from 15% to 65%," the reports said.

A study reported in the British Medical Journal in 2006 reported vaccines just don't work well for people of all ages. "The optimistic and confident tone of some predictions of viral circulation and of the impact of inactivated vaccines, which are at odds with the evidence, is striking. The reasons are probably complex and may involve a messy blend of truth conflicts and conflicts of interest…"

Tamiflu has other problems. Federal health officials warned in November, 2007 of risks that warrant stronger warning labels. About 600 cases of psychiatric problems in Tamiflu patients had been reported; 5 children died in Japan after "falling from windows or balconies, or running into traffic," according to the FDA.

Then there is the mercury issue. The CDC recommends that "all children aged 6 months to 23 months and pregnant women in their second and third trimester" receive the inactive influenza vaccine, yet it contains a full 25 micrograms of mercury – 250 times the limit the EPA recommends for tuna-lovers. One hand the government says no tuna because mercury is bad, but a bunch of mercury in a flu shot is okay. It doesn't add up.

And let's not forget the "pandemic" issue. The risk that Tamiflu will promote a resistant virus comes from the drug's excreted metabolite, oseltamivir carboxylate (OC), which is in fact the active antiviral. Up to 80% of ingested Tamiflu is excreted as OC in urine and feces. OC withstands degradation through sewage treatment and for several weeks afterward. Birds drinking water from catchments contaminated with OC would ingest the antiviral, which would inhibit nonresistant viruses in the birds' digestive systems while enabling resistant viruses to proliferate. Birds excreting the resistant virus would spread the strain among other waterfowl at the same body of water. (EHP 115:102–106; Singer et al.)

Vitamins fall victim to cancer study

January 7, 2008

The international Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial found that vitamin E fails to reduce the chance of developing prostate cancer. Published in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study was shut down Oct. 23 on the advice of an independent safety-monitoring committee. The trial included 35,533 men from the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.

Dr. Eric Winquist, one of the researchers, said the data underscores a need for discretion when considering the use of natural products such as vitamins for the prevention or control of cancer. "These products should undergo the same rigorous investigation as conventional medical treatments," Winquist said.

Another research study suggests that supplement forms of the vitamins don't prevent cancer in women. Findings were published online Dec. 30 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. A group of 8,171 women were randomly assigned to take a supplement, a combination of supplements or a placebo. The supplements were vitamin C (500 mg a day), vitamin E (600 International Units every other day) and beta carotene (50 mg every other day). The women, all over the age of 40, took part in the study from 1995 and 1996 until 2005, for an average of nine years. They all had cardiovascular disease or were at risk for it.

Diet is one of medicine's most difficult study areas, researchers say.

Peter H. Gann, MD, ScD, Department of Pathology, University of Illinois, said, "If it requires whole foods, extracts, or dietary patterns, it may be necessary to give up the reductionist need to know which molecule is most responsible and perhaps give up the notion of placebo controls as well. If it requires starting exposure early in life and sustaining it for decades, it may mean having to give up the idea of phase 3 trials altogether."

Dr. Grout's Comment:

Why anyone would expect that modifying a single nutrient in the diet without changing anything else would have any effect at all – is difficult for me to understand. Allopathic medicine in the "scientific" model likes to just add one pharmaceutical medication or element, and keep everything else constant, as though we were all test tubes and totally predictable. Unfortunately the human organism is not predictable. We cannot modify just one thing. And I cannot think of any reason why we should EVER think that taking a little extra Vitamin E while continuing to eat a diet loaded with sugars and chemicals would have ANY good effect on any part of our organism, much less be a preventative treatment for cancer. It boggles the mind.

I completely agree with Dr. Gann's comment in his editorial in JAMA: "It may be time to give up the idea that the protective influence of diet on prostate cancer risk—which is clearly observed in migrant studies and in populations transitioning to a Western diet—can be emulated by isolated dietary molecules given alone or in combination to middle-aged and older men."

Sugary diet increases risk of breast cancer

January 1, 2009

There is a "strong positive association" between fasting insulin levels and the risk for breast cancer among postmenopausal women, according to a new analysis of 1651 women who were both hormone-replacement-therapy users and nonusers in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study.

Until now it has been thought that the extra oestrogen produced by fat is the cause of the increased risk but now scientists believe raised insulin levels may also play a part.

A study by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York examined data from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study, looking at 825 women who developed breast cancer and 816 women who did not.

When the researchers divided the women into four groups based on their fasting insulin levels, they found that women with the highest insulin levels had a nearly 1.5-fold higher risk of developing breast cancer than the women with the lowest insulin levels.

An analysis of women who were not using hormone replacement therapy for menopause found that those with the highest insulin levels were 2.4 times more likely to develop breast cancer than those with the lowest levels - even after accounting for other risk factors, including oestrogen levels.

The study, published in the January 7 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, concluded: "These data suggest that a high level of insulin is an independent risk factor for breast cancer and may have a substantial role in explaining the obesity-breast cancer relationship."

In a Swedish health study, researchers found that even women of normal weight and without diabetes but with high blood sugar are at increased risk of cancer.

During the 13 years of the study, 2,478 cases of cancer were identified in participants in the Vasterbotten Intervention Project. The study showed that even women of normal weight and without diabetes but with high blood sugar are at increased risk of cancer.

The scientists also observed a pattern of increasing blood sugar levels throughout the study. There was clear evidence of higher rates of hyperglycaemia - unusually high blood sugar levels - with increasing age.

Dr. Grout's Comment:

Finally, "conventional" medicine practitioners are beginning to realize – and more importantly to demonstrate in the literature – that cancer does not develop completely at random in the human organism. Rather, it appears to have causes rooted in human metabolism and epigenetics – what we put into our bodies after we are born which affects our genetic expression.

This is the true root of preventive medicine – to understand our genetic requirements, and to give the genes the correct information (vitamins, minerals, other nutrients) so that they can produce proteins geared at growth and development of the entire organism, not abnormal proteins geared and excessive growth of just one part of the organism. Cancer is clearly a manifestation of information gone wrong. And yes, sometimes it needs to be treated by "debulking" – removing a growth surgically or with chemotherapy. But unless we change the terrain in which the cancer grows, we are acting out the very definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting this time to get a different result. Unless we change, then we will continue to get the same unhealthy outcomes. We need to change our diets, eliminate the toxins, do our own cooking of foods that we can actually recognize, refuse to allow "food additives" and chemicals into our systems, so that our bodies can grow and develop normally and in a healthy fashion. Then, in a couple of generations, the health insurance "crisis" will be resolved.

And yes, I did mean a couple of generations. What a pregnant woman eats and puts into her body today affects her unborn children – if that fetus happens to be female, then the eggs produced by that fetus are also affected, since the eggs begin to develop while the fetus is still in the womb. So there is no really easy "fix", no "pill" to take to prevent cancer world-wide, no "vaccine" to prevent the development of cancer in 11-year old girls. But if we start with the basics – the fuel that we give our bodies, the air that we breathe, the water that we drink – then things will improve.

Blood sugar levels can trigger memory decline

January 1, 2009

Spikes in blood sugar can take a toll on memory by affecting the dentate gyrus, an area of the brain within the hippocampus that helps form memories, a new study reports.

Researchers said the effects can be seen even when levels of blood sugar, or glucose, are only moderately elevated, a finding that may help explain normal age-related cognitive decline, since glucose regulation worsens with age.

"If we conclude this is underlying normal age-related cognitive decline, then it affects all of us," said lead investigator Dr. Scott Small, associate professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center. The ability to regulate glucose starts deteriorating by the third or fourth decade of life, he added.

The elevations in blood glucose seen in the new study are more subtle and would not be considered a disease state, according to Dr. Small. Since glucose regulation is improved with physical activity, Dr. Small said, "We have a behavioral recommendation — physical exercise."

The study, by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and funded in part by the National Institute on Aging, was published in the December issue of Annals of Neurology.

Dr. Grout's Comment:

Once again, sugar is not good for us. Many of us are well aware that we do not think as rapidly or as well after we eat a heavy sugar load. We have seen our children at Hallowe'en, and may have similar experiences. It's not just our brains that slow down – it's our bodies as well. Look at the current generation of obese children with elevated cholesterol levels and insulin resistance, for whom the American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending statin drugs starting at age 8. Need I say any more?

No more free pens from drug companies

January 1, 2009

Starting today, many doctors say bye-bye to drug company pens, pads of paper, and coffee mugs.

Starting January 1, the pharmaceutical industry has agreed to a voluntary moratorium on office trinkets that feature a drug's brand name – a subliminal form of marketing of drug company products.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, an industry group in Washington, drew up a new code which bars drug companies from giving doctors branded pens, staplers, flash drives, paperweights, calculators and the like. The code also reiterates the 2002 voluntary moratorium on more expensive goods and services like tickets to pro sports games and junkets to resorts. And it asks companies that finance medical courses, conferences or scholarships to leave the selection of study material and scholarship recipients to outside program coordinators.

Diane Bieri, the executive vice president of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said the updated guidelines were meant to emphasize the educational nature of the relationship between industry and doctors. "We have never said and would never say that a pharmaceutical pen or notebook has influenced any prescription," Ms. Bieri said.

Critics said the code did not go far enough. For example, drug makers are still permitted to underwrite free lunches for doctors and their staffs or to sponsor dinners for doctors at restaurants, as long as the meals are accompanied by educational presentations. The code also permits drug makers to pay doctors as consultants which means individual doctors can earn tens of thousands of dollars or more a year from drug companies.

"Pens or no pens, their influence is not going to be diminished," said Dr. Larry M. Greenbaum, a rheumatologist in Greenwood, Ind.

Last year, nearly $16 billion in free drug samples was given to doctors, and more than $6 billion was spent on the sales activities of drug representatives including office visits to doctors, meal-time presentations and branded pens and other handouts.

Dr. Grout's Comment:

Using a doctor's office as a billboard for prescription drugs has worked. Studies, including a recent one by the Journal of the American Medical Association, point to a blatant correlation between receiving such gifts and an increased prescription rate for brand drugs, with an accompanying decreased rate of prescriptions for cheaper and just as effective generic drugs. The industry wouldn't spend $6 billion if it didn't see that it was getting more than that in return.

So the pens disappear, but the free samples, lunches, dinners, and consulting fees remain.

This makes no difference in my office since most of my patients want non-drug solutions. The drug reps don't beat a path to my door. But if you're an overworked HMO doctor, it is a lot easier to look at the drug company handouts you got at lunch than to look up the objective, third-party clinical trials. The supplement companies are starting to send representatives around, and starting to give some free samples. However, when they do educational sessions, they tend to be with people like Jeffrey Bland, a world renowned expert in nutrigenomics – and we are charged for the privilege of listing to him. It's not filet mignon at the local steak house and a one-hour lecture on depression – it's a whole day on the cause of inflammation and its relationship to metabolism, genetics, and chronic illness, and the food offered at lunch is anti-inflammatory as well as tasty, following the guidelines of excellent nutrition.

I don't imagine this new code will amount to much more than a headline.