July 2010 Health in the News Archive

[ Monthly Index of New Briefs ]

Arizona leads the nation in West Nile Virus (WNV) cases

July 27, 2010

Arizona is reporting the most intense West Nile virus (WNV) activity in the nation, according to the CDC. As of July 20, 26 cases of WNV human disease have been reported in the United States; 13 of those cases are in Arizona.

Colorado and Georgia report 3 cases, California reports 2 cases, and Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, and South Dakota each report 1 case. One death has been reported so far; that was in Arizona.

The most intense WNV activity in Arizona continues to be in the East Valley cities of Maricopa and Pinal counties.


The Arizona Medical Association reports that with the arrival of monsoon rains, WNV activity is likely to increase and show-up in new locations around the state.

WNV is a reportable condition in Arizona by both physicians and laboratories.

Dr. Grout's Comment:

About 80 percent of the people who come into contact with West Nile virus never know it – they show no symptoms because their immune system handles it.

About 20% of those infected develop West Nile fever and it can range from mild to severe. West Nile fever can be characterized by sudden onset of fever often accompanied by one or more of the following: malaise, headache, anorexia (loss of appetite), nausea, vomiting, eye pain, myalgia (muscle aches), maculopapular (little red spotty) rash or lymphadenopathy (enlarged lymph nodes). Some symptoms may persist from days to months.

Approximately 1 percent of infections result in neurological disease such as meningitis and/or encephalitis.

At the Arizona Center for Advanced Medicine, we use intravenous vitamin C, IV nutrients, UVBI (Ultraviolet blood irradiation) and ozone. This illness first and foremost is a virus, and intravenous doses of vitamin C will often dislodge a virus – if used early on – before the virus can cause much damage. Even after the virus has taken hold, Vitamin C still can help the cells of the immune system destroy the virus.

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Swine flu vaccine destroyed because it was not used

July 23, 2010

Expired flu vaccine – 40 million doses worth $260 million dollars – has been destroyed, burned because it is too stale to use. Another 30 million doses will expire soon. If 70 million doses end up being destroyed, that would account for nearly half of the American stockpile of H1N1 vaccine.

"It's a lot, by historical standards," said Jerry Weir, who oversees vaccine research and review for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"Although there were many doses of vaccine that went unused, it was much more appropriate to have been prepared for the worst case scenario than to have had too few doses," said Bill Hall, spokesman for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Despite grave warnings by public health officials last year, the swine flu epidemic never materialized, and many people were leery of the safety and efficacy of the H1N1 flu shot. In Europe, voices of criticism are more commonplace than in the United States. In an interview with London's The Independent newspaper, a World Health Organization advisor, Prof. Ulrich Keil, complained that by calling the early H1N1 outbreak a "pandemic," countries around the world wasted precious public health money: "We know the great killers are hypertension, smoking, high cholesterol, high body mass index, physical inactivity and low fruit and vegetable intake....instead [governments] wasted huge amounts of money by investing in pandemic scenarios whose evidence base is weak."

Dr. Grout's Comment:

Public health officials feel caught between a rock and hard spot because if the swine flu/H1N1 virus had caused what was predicted, and officials had been unprepared, there would be no end to the criticism and lawsuits.

But gone are the days of truly independent decisions in matters of drug use approvals. Too much money was commanded to be spent on pharmaceuticals with nothing to show for it. So, understandably, the public emerged from last year's "pandemic" more skeptical than before. That's a good thing, because the stats show that more children than ever before are getting routine vaccinations. There is much evidence that children are getting too many vaccines, too soon, and that the vaccines are too full of problematic ingredients like aluminum, MSG, formaldehyde, and animal cells. If more parents questioned the breath and timing of the CDC's vaccination schedule, that would be a good thing.

Meanwhile, there are reports that the shot prepared for this coming flu season is a combo – meaning it will contain both the seasonal flu vaccine and the H1N1 vaccine. The evidence is irrefutable that the seasonal flu vaccine doesn't work very well.

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USA Today editorial urges curb on antibiotic use in factory farms

July 12, 2010

"High-volume use of antibiotics in animals is a dangerous avenue for the evolution of drug-resistant bacteria that can eventually spread to humans," the USA Today editorial board said. "But, in a classic case of the public interest taking a back seat to private commercial interests, the farm lobby has for decades successfully fought restrictions on animal use of antibiotics. Now federal regulators and some members of Congress are making a worthy new push to rein in hazardous practices."

The FDA issued a detailed "draft guidance" last month that calls on the agriculture industry to voluntarily end the "injudicious" use of drugs to help animals grow, which it said "poses a qualitatively higher risk to public health" than using the drugs selectively to cure or prevent disease.

The USA Today editorial board wrote, "The history of such calls for self-regulation shouldn't make anyone optimistic that food producers will act on their own. Giving animals antibiotics in their feed makes them grow bigger more quickly, which cuts producers' costs. As long as producers can claim that the evidence of harm to humans is murky, they're not likely to voluntarily raise their cost of doing business… This is an increasingly frightening problem. Estimates are that more than 90,000 hospital patients die every year from drug-resistant bacteria, and still more people die from ‘superbugs' they pick up outside hospitals."

Dr. Grout's Comment:

The mainstream press has the green light to talk about this problem. CBS did a story on it earlier this year. Economics are driving this change. Antibiotic resistance is an expensive problem in the health care arena. A person who cannot be treated with ordinary antibiotics is at risk of having a large number of bacterial infections, and needing to be hospitalized for weeks or even months. The extra costs to the American health care system are estimated to be as much as $26 billion a year.

In an opposing editorial, veterinarian Howard Hill of the National Pork Producers Council says, "Contrary to the opponents of modern food-animal production, antibiotics are not being given excessively to pigs and cattle, and their use in livestock production is not the likely cause for an increase in antibiotic resistance in humans. The U.S. pork industry believes that more research must be conducted on the causes of antibiotic resistance before any antibiotics are banned or restricted from use in food-animal production. Who knows? The risk of not using antibiotics could outweigh any risk of using them."

Sounds as if they are running out of convincing things to say.

In April, Donald Kennedy wrote in the New York Times, "More than 30 years ago, when I was commissioner of the FDA, we proposed eliminating the use of penicillin and two other antibiotics to promote growth in animals raised for food. When agribusiness interests persuaded Congress not to approve that regulation, we saw firsthand how strong politics can trump wise policy and good science. Even back then, this nontherapeutic use of antibiotics was being linked to the evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacteria that infect humans. To the leading microbiologists on the FDA's advisory committee, it was clearly a very bad idea to fatten animals with the same antibiotics used to treat people. But the American Meat Institute and its lobbyists in Washington blocked the F.D.A. proposal."

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, 70 percent of antibiotic use is in animals that are healthy but are vulnerable to transmissible diseases because they live in crowded and unsanitary conditions. It's time for human health to trump politics. And maybe someone can figure in some compassion for the animals as well.

Twenty-five years ago, Norwegians were also dying from killer bacteria. But Norway's public health system fought back with an aggressive program to reduce antibiotic use and reports now are that it is the most infection-free country in the world, and that their pork industry has grown by 43 percent since the ban.

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Arsenic in backyard chicken feed shows up in kids' urine

July 9, 2010

The Utah Department of Health tracked worrisome levels of arsenic in two children's urine to the family's backyard chicken coop, reports the Salt Lake Tribune. More specifically, to the arsenic-based additive called roxarsone that is commonly used in animal feed that wound up in the eggs from those chickens. The kids were eagerly eating a dozen eggs or so a week each from their hens.

The daughter's urine levels revealed double the arsenic that the FDA considers toxic, and the boy was 75 percent above that limit.

Used in combination with antibiotics, arsenic helps keep chickens, turkeys, and pigs from getting sick in crowded conditions, and also makes them grow bigger, faster. The poultry industry, along with the FDA, points out that there are two kinds of arsenic: inorganic, the cancer-causing "bad" kind, which occurs naturally in the environment in combination with other elements such as oxygen, chlorine, and sulfur; and organic, meaning compounds containing carbon, or hydrogen. Organic arsenic is considered less toxic, and that's what's used in animal feed, usually in the form of roxarsone.

In December 2009, the Center for Food Safety joined with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) to file a petition with the FDA, requesting that it stop approving all arsenic-containing compounds used in animal feed, not just roxarsone. A dozen or so additional groups joined the petition. "Science has indicated that arsenic is not necessary for a large-scale chicken production," says Paige Tomaselli, a staff attorney with the Center for Food Safety who helped draft the petition. "They don't use it in Europe, and it creates an unnecessary risk: organic can convert to inorganic in the soil and the manure. We think it's an unnecessary practice."

While the Utah Health Department has no position on the petition, it does stand by its findings — the first of their kind — that arsenic from feed is winding up in eggs and the people who eat them.

"Because we've turned a blind eye to what we put in our animal feed, we're putting our children at risk," said David Wallinga, director of the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, an organization that is petitioning the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban the arsenic additives.

Dr. Grout's Comment:

It's not just these kids in Utah getting arsenic in their eggs. Independent test results released in 2006 by the IATP, brand name chicken sold in American supermarkets and fast food restaurants are widely contaminated with arsenic. IATP tested chicken products from Foster Farms, Trader Joe's, Gold'n Plump, Perdue, Smart Chicken, and Tyson Foods and found 55 percent carried detectable arsenic. Fast food chicken products included in the test were McDonald's, Wendy's, Arby's, Subway, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Church's and Popeyes; 90 percent contained detectable levels of arsenic.

Organic chicken cannot be fed arsenic.

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Europe okays chewable statin drugs for children

July 8, 2010

The European Union has approved a new chewable form of the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor for children 10 and up who have high levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides.

Until recently, cholesterol drugs have been primarily taken by adults with heart disease, but their use has expanded to younger patients as more obese, sedentary teenagers and adolescents develop heart disease and diabetes.

Lipitor's 2009 global revenues totaled about $13 billion, according to Reuters. The American patent for the drug expires in November 2011, though an extension already has been granted. Both the EU and the U.S. let drug companies get six months of patent protection if they test the medications in children.

Pfizer is the largest pharmaceuticals maker in the world. The company has been in a race to bolster sales in anticipation of Lipitor's predicted loss of revenue at the hands of generic drug competitors, Reuters said.

Jim Edwards, writing in bNET said there is a potentially much more important reason Pfizer wants to turn its No. 1 selling product into a kids' chewable. "Pfizer wants to see if it can turn its prescription brands into the equivalent of trusted over-the-counter brands such as Advil and Tylenol. Sure, no-name generic companies will flood the market with equally effective copies of Lipitor, but some consumers may be willing to pay a few cents or a few dollars more for the 'real' Lipitor they've come to trust. If Lipitor chewables are successful, there's no reason Pfizer couldn't extend them into a generic version for adults when the brand loses its protection in 2011. And Pfizer need not stop there. We know the company has experimented with an over-the-counter version of Viagra and is even reportedly considering a different formulation of the drug for non-prescription sales. The same principal applies: Anyone will be able to sell generic Viagra but only Pfizer will provide 'Viagra Lite,' or 'Viagra One-A-Day,' or 'Very Cherry Viagra Blast With Calcium Supplement!' or whatever they dream up."

Dr. Grout's Comment:

The constant stream of studies describing the nasty and dangerous side effects of statins didn't prompt the EU to keep them away from children, unfortunately. The cholesterol theory of heart disease has been debunked. There are safer ways to lower triglyceride levels and chronic inflammation in the body.

The brain is largely composed of cholesterol – the substance is absolutely essential for brain development. In adults, too, a connection has been demonstrated between higher cholesterol, especially HDL, and better brain function. Children's brains are rapidly growing and forming new nerve connections. Limiting cholesterol, either via a low-fat diet or through a cholesterol blocking drug, does not bode well for brain development.

Statin drugs also deplete co-enzyme Q10, a critical substance our cells need to make energy for our bodies. With too little of it, we can have a basic problem with cellular function called mitochondrial dysfunction – the very condition that the CDC said pre-disposed Hannah Poling to regress into autism after a dose of vaccines. Dispensing cholesterol lowering drugs to children opens the door to even more kids with low energy and mitochondrial dysfunction.

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San Francisco passes cellphone radiation information law

July 3, 2010

Despite heavy lobbying from industry, the city of San Francisco recently voted to require all retailers to display the amount of radiation each cellphone emits. The law is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation.

According to Doug Loranger of the San Francisco Neighborhood Antenna Free Union, "The new law will be phased in over the next 2 years, with large formula retailers to be the first to comply, followed by small independent businesses that sell mobile phones."

ElectromagneticHealth.org called it "a watershed moment for health advocates in the U.S. and families who have or have had members with brain tumors."

The industry argues that the science on whether the radiofrequency energy absorbed by the body poses a health danger is inconclusive. Many disagree.

Olle Johannson, PhD of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden said: "At the Karolinska Institute, we have for many years observed very serious biological changes from exposure to microwave radiation and extremely low-frequency magnetic fields of the kind emitted by cell phones. The type of radiation emitted by cell phones has been linked to cancer, neurological diseases, impairments to immune function, and neurological function (cognition, behaviour, performance, mood status, disruption of sleep, increased risk for auto collisions, etc.). We also know that this kind of radiation impacts DNA, leading to possible mutations and cancer development, as well as affecting fertility and reproduction, causing a dramatic decline in sperm count."

Last month, at the Bioelectromagnetics Society annual meeting, Lloyd Morgan, B.Sc., Senior Fellow of Environmental Health Trust, showed that the risk of brain tumors from cell phone use is in fact much higher than the recently published Interphone study acknowledged. "What we have discovered indicates there is going to be one hell of a brain tumor pandemic unless people are warned and encouraged to change current cell phone use behaviors. People should hear the message clearly that cell phones should be kept away from one's head and body at all times."

The FCC recommends that cellphone users limit their exposure to these emissions by using hands-free devices. Cellphone emissions from various models can range from 0.2 watts to the limit of 1.6 watts per kilogram. Want to get the specs on a particular model from the FCC web site? Be prepared for a cumbersome, hard-to-decipher search.

Dr. Grout's Comment:

Great first step for consumers. Kudos to SF Mayor Gavin Newsome for calling attention to the dangers of cellphones.

Next, consumers will learn that the SAR value (specific absorption rate) is not a good indicator of harm. The SAR value indicates the power, or the phone's potential for heating tissue, and is only one of many possible factors impacting whether cellphone usage is safe. In fact, there are some biological effects that have been shown to be worse at lower SAR values compared to higher SAR values, such as blood brain barrier permeability. Despite the given number, the actual SAR value shifts depending upon how you use the phone. For example, if you are in a rural area or in an elevator or a car where the cell phone uses more power, your brain will get a greater exposure from the higher power required. Holding the phone in a slightly different way can actually render the worst SAR value phone better than the best SAR value phone. SAR values were based on simulations of exposure in a plexiglass head filled with fluid, not a human head, and many scientists consider them to be inaccurate and irrelevant at determining actual biological effects.

What really matters is how many minutes a day you use a cell phone, and whether you hold it against your head or use the speakerphone or headset. And most of all, do not give cell phones to children who are more susceptible to their damage.

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Lead found in 85% of children's drinks and fruit products

July 2, 2010

The Environmental Law Foundation (ELF), based in Oakland, California, recently found that many children's drinks and foods as well as baby foods contain lead. ELF filed Notices of Violation of California Proposition 65 Toxics Right to Know law.

The foundation looked at apple and grape juices as well as packaged pears, peaches and fruit cocktail. More than 120 of the 146 brands tested had lead levels of at least 0.5 micrograms per serving, which exceeds safety standards, with some surpassing FDA standards of 6 micrograms of lead per day for children up to age 6 in a single serving. For children 7 or older, the FDA standard is no more than 15 micrograms per day.

High lead levels were found in organic brands such as Earth's Best, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods' 365 Organic Everyday Value.

David Schardt, senior nutritionist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit watchdog organization, pointed out that some of the products had no lead in them at all, which shows that the product manufacturers can get the lead out.

Toxicologist Barbara G. Callahan, PhD, DABT, of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who has spent two decades performing public health and environmental risk assessments, called the lead concentrations in the ELF test results alarming. "Lead exposure among children is a particular concern because their developing bodies absorb lead at a higher rate and because children are particularly sensitive to lead's toxic effects, including decreased I.Q."

Lead has been and continues to be released into the environment from decades of lead-based pesticide application, use of leaded gasoline and lead paint, and burning of coal in power plants. The lead in the environment then can make its way into the food supply. But not every category or even foods within categories contains lead.

Dr. Grout's Comment:

ELF is a respected organization. It's up to a governmental agency now to confirm the results and do something about this. Many of these products are juice, which is not a good thing to feed children regularly anyway unless you want to spike their insulin levels throughout the day and create life-long yearnings for sugar.

For a list of the products with both high and low/no lead content, click on http://www.envirolaw.org/documents/ProductsTestedforLeadFINAL.pdf

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JUPITER study flawed, statin drug study is a conflict of interest

July 1, 2010

The watershed JUPITER Study (Justification for the Use of Statins in Primary Prevention) was flawed, according to new findings published June 28 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Researchers took a second look and found that statins' effectiveness has been limited, at best, to preventing nonfatal attacks, while failing to budge the rates of fatal ones. The researchers also raised questions about the financial and professional motives of the medical researchers who conducted the highly influential JUPITER trial. Nine clinical trials published in the last six years have found no benefit to the use of statins in the prevention of heart disease, but "the results [of the JUPITER trial] have undoubtedly propelled many healthy persons without elevated cholesterol levels onto long-term statin treatment," wrote the authors.

They concluded the results of the trial do not support the use of statin treatment for primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases and raise troubling questions concerning the role of commercial sponsors.

Dr. Grout's Comment:

The JUPITER study came out in late 2008, and it shook up the field of primary prevention because "healthy" people were now prescribed statins. It was because of this study that we began to hear suggestions that statins should be added to city water supplies because they would be so good for everybody.

The JUPITER study was a large, multinational, long-term, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial that included 17,802 healthy men and women with low LDL cholesterol but elevated C-reactive-protein (CRP) levels. They were given 20 mg of rosuvastatin (Crestor, AstraZeneca). The study was supposed to last 4 years but was stopped at 1.9 years because it was "so successful." The reported result was a whopping reduction of 44% in what is called the primary end point—a composite of nonfatal MI, nonfatal stroke, hospitalization for unstable angina, revascularization, and confirmed death from cardiovascular causes. In other words, everybody should be on statins.

How did this game-changing study now end up in the trash heap? Partly because of conflicts of interest – nine of 14 authors of the JUPITER trial had financial relationships with AstraZeneca, which sponsored the trial. And partly because statin drugs are going after the problem the wrong way.

Many patients with heart attacks have normal LDL and normal cholesterol values. Hopefully, the new findings will give more people the courage to pushback against the debunked cholesterol hypothesis. What drives heart disease is chronic inflammation; cholesterol is simply the bandaid nature uses to fix the wear and tear caused by thick blood, stiff blood vessels, and high blood pressure.

But the idea to force down cholesterol levels – make fewer bandaids – turned statin drugs into the second best selling class of drugs in the world; sales are $26 billion annually. One of the by-products of statins is that they have an anti-inflammatory effect. But statins also come with "robust" side effects that include muscle weakness, memory failures, erectile dysfunction, liver problems, liver failure, diabetes, and more.

Three-quarters of the people taking statins are healthy and have been prescribed these medicines in the hope of preventing problems in the future. This re-examination of the JUPITER trial tells us that statins may offer little benefit to them. The study was finished earlier than scheduled, and stopping a study early can exaggerate the benefits of treatment and underestimate the risk of side effects.