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Alternative Medicine in the News
January 2009 edition 8
published weekly
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Greetings!
According to feedback from our readers, YOU really like this mini-ezine, you'd like more articles, more often. So we're going to try to publish weekly.
Also based on the feedback (yeah, I'd really like to hear from more of you!), we're trying a new format this time for easier readability. Let us know if you like it.
And while I'm at it, why don't you contribute something? An article, opinion, experience? Send it to us, we'll publish. Presently we have about 150 readers and the numbers continue to grow.
Till later then,
Didi
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Seven Good Reasons to Avoid Cow's Milk
Many people are lactose intolerant and find milk indigestible. What about you?
from http://www.womenrepublic.co.uk
Drink all of your milk is a phrase many people grew up hearing. Yet evidence increasingly suggests that milk is not as healthy as it has been believed to be. Health concious people are giving up milk and turning to alternatives. Here are 7 reasons why all of us can consider avoiding cow's milk:
1) Milk doesn't keep our bones healthy, preventing fractures and osteoporosis. In fact, according the Nurse's Health Study, dairy may actually increase the risk of fractures rather than protecting our bones. Countries such as those in Africa and Asia who don't consume large amounts of dairy actually have the lowest rates of osteoporosis.
2) Milk is not the great source of calcium that most people believe it is. First of all, pasteurizing milk kills all of the nutrients, including calcium. Second, spinach, tahini, kale and other green leafy vegetables are the best sources of calcium on the planet.
3) Milk is has been linked with acne by at least three large-scale studies reported in the American Journal of Dermatology. Research shows that there is up to 44% more chance of developing acne in those who drink milk.
4) Dairy may raise cancer risk. Research has revealed that a higher intake of dairy products may increase a man's risk of prostate cancer by 30 to 50 percent. In addition, the body's insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), which is a known cancer promoter is increased by drinking milk.
5) Approximately 75 percent of the world's population is lactose intolerant, which means that they are unable to fully digest dairy. Lactase is the enzyme needed to digest lactose, and most people stop producing it around the age of 5.
6) Dairy is full of saturated fat and is linked to heart disease. Like cancer, countries such as Japan have a very low level of heart disease, and research commissioned by the New Zealand company A2 shows that there could be a link between a protein in milk.
7) People with many different healthy complaints notice a significant improvement when they avoid dairy. Health complaints associated with dairy intolerance include irritable bowel syndrome, allergies, sinus problems, and ear infections.
So what is the first step in giving up milk?
- Get loads of sunshine to ensure plenty of vitamin D.
- Start eating masses of green leafy vegetables so you can ensure you are getting your calcium.
- Try substituting milk with nut milk.
- Many studies show that raw milk (unpasteurized) is far better because the nutrients have not been destroyed. Raw goat's milk and raw sheep's milk are both increasingly popular.
- Avocado is a wonderful butter substitute. It offers a creaminess that is people who have given up milk miss. Many vegans and raw foodists find that avocado is one of the most essential transition foods.
- Coconut butter is another buttery, creamy substitute for those that want to give up milk. Coconut butter is the healthiest oil in cooking. It can also replace butter as a spread and cream in healthy cakes and desserts.
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Early Caesareans Pose Risks to Newborns More than one third of mothers who chose to undergo a repeat Caesarean section had their babies earlier than medical guidelines recommend, and the earlier the babies were born, the more likely they were to experience a medical complication like respiratory distress, a large study has found.
Although babies born by Caesarean section after just 37 weeks of pregnancy are considered full-term, the study found they were twice as likely to suffer complications as those born by Caesarean after 39 weeks.
The study is being released amid concern over the rising numbers of preterm births in the United States and the trend of many women and their physicians to schedule Caesarean deliveries, or C-sections, well in advance of the expected due date.
Some 30% of deliveries were done by Caesarean section in 2006, up from 21% in 1996.
About 40% of the 1.3 million Caesareans performed in the United States each year are repeat procedures, though not all are elective.
Medical problems also occurred more frequently in the small group of babies delivered by Caesarean at 41 weeks and 42 weeks, the study found.
Overall, 15% of babies delivered at 37 weeks suffered a complication of some kind.
Doctors noted that even when babies born by Caesarean are delivered at the same week of pregnancy as babies delivered vaginally, they are at higher risk of respiratory difficulties because the process of labor and delivery primes the fetal lungs for breathing air.
Babies delivered by Caesarean section at 37 weeks were 4 times more likely than those delivered at 39 weeks to suffer from respiratory distress syndrome, and 3 times more likely to be treated for hypoglycemia, 3 times more likely to develop an infection or to be suspected of having an infection, and more than twice as likely to be hospitalized for five or more days or to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit.
"I would bet if you ask the first 10 obstetricians on the street if they thought it would make a difference to deliver a baby in the second half of the 38th week and the first half of the 39th week, they'd say, 'Nah, it's not a big difference,' " he said. "This study, because of its size and numbers, is able to say, Yeah, it does make a difference.' "
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8 Natural Remedies That May Help You Sleep
www.slideshows.health.com
Before you rush to the drugstore to buy an over-the-counter sleep medication, try one of the following natural sleep remedies. They are safer and have fewer side effects. Many of these can not only help you fall asleep and stay asleep, but they can also promote muscle relaxation.
Magnesium and calcium
Magnesium and calcium are both sleep boosters, and when taken together they become even more effective. Plus, by taking magnesium you cancel out any potential heart problems that might arise from taking calcium alone. Take 200 milligrams of magnesium (you can lower the dose if it causes diarrhea) and 600 milligrams of calcium each night.
Wild lettuce (lactuca virosa)
If you've suffered anxiety, headaches, or muscle or joint pain, you might already be familiar with wild lettuce. It's also effective at calming restlessness and reducing anxiety, and may even quell restless legs syndrome. When using a wild-lettuce supplement, take 30 to 120 milligrams before bed.
Hops (bryonia alba)
Beer fans are already familiar with the calming effect of hops, the female flowers used in beer making. For sleep purposes, this extract has been widely used as a mild sedative for anxiety and insomnia. Take 30 to 120 milligrams before climbing under the covers.
Aromatherapy
Lavender is the trick here, as studies have proven that it aids in sleep. It's also an inexpensive, nontoxic way to slip into a peaceful slumber. Find a spray with real lavender and spritz it on your pillow before bedtime, or buy a lavender-filled pillow.
Melatonin
Melatonin is the hormone that controls sleep, so it's no wonder that it naturally induces sleep. Studies show that lower doses are more effective -- plus, there's concern that too-high doses could cause toxicity as well as raise the risk of depression or infertility.
Yoga and Meditation
Choose gentle yoga or stretching, not vigorous power or ashtanga yoga, which could energize you instead. Try easy yoga stretches in bed followed by simple meditation. Close your eyes and, for 5 to 10 minutes, pay attention to nothing but your breathing.
L-theanine
This amino acid comes from green tea, and not only helps maintain a calm alertness during the day but also a deeper sleep at night. However, green tea doesn't contain enough L-theanine to significantly boost your REM cycles, and might make you wake up to go to the bathroom. Instead, buy pure, active L-theanine (some brands have inactive forms of theanine that block the effectiveness), and take 50 to 200 milligrams at bedtime.
Valerian
Valerian is one of the most common sleep remedies for insomnia. Numerous studies have found that valerian improves deep sleep, speed of falling asleep, and overall quality of sleep. However, it's most effective when used over a longer period of time. Keep in mind that about 10 percent of the people who use it actually feel energized, which may keep them awake. If that happens to you, take valerian during the day. Otherwise, take 200 to 800 milligrams before bed.
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'Designer' fear after cancer-free baby is born
abridged from news.scotsman.com 10 Jan 09
THE birth of the first child in Britain genetically selected to be free of a gene linked to breast cancer, last night prompted future fears of creating "designer babies".
A couple undergoing fertility treatment at University College London had embryos screened for the faulty BRCA1 gene. Women with the genetic variation have an 80 per cent risk of developing breast cancer.
Yesterday, the university announced that a baby girl had been born as a result of the procedure and both mother and child were doing well.
But the birth sparked controversy among critics of such methods, who fear that doctors will increasingly "screen out" perceived defects, even to the extent of parents being able to choose the gender and eye colour of their offspring.
Fertility experts, however, defended the procedure, saying it would help families "blighted" by genetically-linked cancers. The baby grew from an embryo screened using a process known as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to ensure it did not contain the faulty BRCA1 gene
Announcing the birth, Paul Serhal, medical director of the Assisted Conception Unit at the hospital, said he was "absolutely delighted" at the breakthrough. He said: "This little girl will not face the spectre of developing this genetic form of breast cancer or ovarian cancer in her adult life. The lasting legacy is the eradication of the transmission of this form of cancer that has blighted these families for generations."
In June, the mother, then 27, told how she decided to undergo the screening process after seeing relatives suffer the disease. Her husband's grandmother, mother, sister and a cousin have all been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Cancer charities said the birth raised "complex" issues.
Dr Sarah Cant, policy manager at Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: "The decision to screen embryos to see whether they have a faulty breast cancer gene is a complex and very personal issue. Women with a family history of breast cancer tell us that what might be right for one person may not be right for another.
PGD has previously been used in the UK to free babies of inherited disorders such as cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease.
But breast cancer is considered to be different from other diseases where PGD has been used because it does not inevitably affect a child from birth and there is a chance the disease may never develop, even in those who carry the defective gene. There is also a chance the disease can be cured.
Josephine Quintavalle, of the campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, expressed concerns. "The goal posts have already be moved so much in this area it is worrying what might happen next," she said. "People have to realise that we will not cure diseases by eradicating the carriers of particular genes."
Complex and controversial process that helps protect against disease
PRE-IMPLANTATION Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) was developed in the late 1980s and involves testing a live embryo to see if it contains genetic abnormalities that cause disease. After testing a single cell of an embryo, doctors can select which to use or discard.
Today in the UK there are more than 60 conditions for which fertility experts can test using PGD, although only a handful of fertility clinics are licensed to carry out the procedure. The conditions that can be tested for include many "fully penetrant" problems: those that will inevitably develop in people who inherit a particular genetic defect, such as cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, haemophilia and Huntington's disease.
Since 2006, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which licenses PGD, has also allowed the selection of embryos free of faulty genes linked to breast, ovarian and bowel cancers. The decision is controversial because these conditions may or may not develop in affected individuals - they are not "fully penetrant". Also, they can in some cases be cured. This is not the first time that a child has been selected for protection against cancer in the UK. A baby was born after embryos were screened for a genetic form of bowel cancer, while another child was conceived after screening for a genetic form of cancer of the retina, known as retinoblastoma.
PGD screening for the BRCA genes linked to breast cancer already takes place at some health clinics in the United States.
A woman who carries the BRCA1 genetic variation has an 80 per cent chance of developing breast cancer and a 60 per cent chance of developing ovarian cancer during her lifetime. BRCA1 carriers - both male and female - have a 50 per cent chance of passing on the defect to their children.
Didi's comment
It's a troublesome day for the future of
the human race: A gang of self-congratulatory "God complex" doctors has
announced they've created the world's first "breast cancer gene-free baby" by
throwing away viable embryos until they found one without the BRCA1 gene. But this playing 'brave new world" with viable
fetuses does accomplish one thing: The unleashing of a new era of eugenics where humans are now going to be considered sub-class citizens
based entirely on their genetic profile. (eugenics definition: "the science of using controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics in a populationupon
the human race")
WHAT DO YOU THINK? Write to us your opinion, we'll publish the best comments.
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Major Flu Strain Found Resistant to Leading Drug, Puzzling Scientists
abridged from www.nytimes.com 2009/01/09
Virtually all the dominant strain of flu in the United States this season is resistant to the leading antiviral drug Tamiflu, and scientists and health officials are trying to figure out why.
The problem is not yet a public health crisis because this has been a below-average flu season so far, and because the Tamiflu-resistant strain, one of three circulating, is still susceptible to other drugs. But infectious disease specialists are worried nonetheless.
Last winter, about 11% of the throat swabs from patients with the most common type of flu that were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for genetic typing showed a Tamiflu-resistant strain. This season, 99% do.
"It's quite shocking," said Dr. Kent A. Sepkowitz, director of infection control at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. "We've never lost an antimicrobial this fast. It blew me away."
The single mutation that creates Tamiflu resistance appears to be spontaneous, and not a reaction to overuse of the drug.
The only Tamiflu-resistant strain is an H1N1. Its resistance mutation could fade out, an agency scientist said, or a different flu strain could overtake H1N1 in importance, but right now it causes almost all flu cases in the country, except in a few mountain states, where H3N2 is prevalent.
Complicating the problem, antiviral drugs work only if taken within the first 48 hours of infection. A patient with severe flu could be given the wrong drug and die of pneumonia before test results come in. So the new guidelines suggest that doctors check with their state health departments to see which strains are most common locally and treat for them.
"We're a fancy hospital, and we can't even do the A versus B test in a timely fashion," Dr. Sepkowitz said. "I have no idea what a doctor in an unfancy office without that lab backup can do."
Exactly how the Tamiflu-resistant strain emerged is a mystery, several experts said.
Dr. Niman said he was worried about two aspects of the new resistance to Tamiflu. Preliminary data out of Norway, he said, suggested that the new strain was more likely to cause pneumonia.
The flu typically kills about 36,000 Americans a year, the CDC estimates, most of them the elderly or the very young, or people with problems like asthma or heart disease; pneumonia is usually the fatal complication.
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Vote on ABC's Private Practice Vaccination Story
Jan 9, 2009
ABC TV of USA
wants to know if you believe in the right to refuse vaccines.
Click on the
link below and the poll is on the right-hand side. Be sure to vote
because
Big Pharma's employees will be doing the same. Show them how
powerful we are
as ONE voice.
http://abc.go.com/primetime/privatepractice/index?pn=index
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Scientific proof that
your childhood traumas are a major factor in your all your
illnesses
www.mercola.com
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is an ongoing research project which is perhaps the largest scientific research study of its kind. Its purpose it to analyze the relationship between multiple categories of childhood trauma and health and behavioral outcomes later in life.
ACE is examining the effects of:
- Recurrent physical abuse
- Recurrent emotional abuse
- Contact sexual abuse
- An alcohol and/or drug abuser in the household
- An incarcerated household member
- Someone who is chronically depressed, mentally ill, institutionalized, or suicidal
- Mother is treated violently
- One or no parents
- Emotional or physical neglect
To learn more about the study, and to calculate your own ACE score, take a look at the link below.
Sources:
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study
American Journal of Preventive Medicine May 1998; 14(4): 245-258
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Big Pharma Ties Want to Shut Down Vaccine 'Conspiracy Theories'
www.prisonplanet.com
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) says it is worried about the way the web has been "used to spread disinformation". They want to introduce a new system that would give websites a label for trustworthiness or unreliability.
One "damaging conspiracy theory" they want to shut down is the notion that MMR vaccines are harmful. Of course, this "conspiracy theory" stems not from paranoid forum postings and misquoted blog entries, but from scientific research into the mercury based preservative thimerosal.
Thimerosal was developed by Eli Lilly, and Merck is the world's largest supplier of the MMR triple jab -- and it is little wonder W3C considers such information to be "damaging" given that Eli Lilly and Merck are both paid up and approved members of the Consortium! If anyone should be labeled with an "unreliable" rating, it is the WC3.
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The Negative Effect of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
Obesity and diabetes in Kenyan children is on the rise. Are we following down the same path as the Americans?
In the USA, until the 1970s, most sugar was sucrose derived from sugar beets or sugar cane. But sugar from corn, especially high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), is now more popular because it is much less expensive to produce.
In 1966, sucrose made up 86 percent of sweeteners. Today, 55 percent
of sweeteners used are made from corn. And while people in USA ate no high-fructose
corn syrup in 1966, they ate close to 63 pounds each in 2001.
Read the labels- it's in everything! High-fructose corn syrup, which is now found in everything
from soda to crackers to salad dressing, has been noted by many experts
as a possible culprit in the obesity epidemic.
HFCS, which is made from cornstarch, is now used to sweeten:
- Soft drinks
- Fruit juices
- Baked goods
- Canned fruits
- Dairy products
- Cookies
- Gum
- Jams and jellies
It also contains nearly twice the fructose of the sugars that came
before it. Between 1980 and 1994, average fructose consumption rose
from 39 pounds per year to 83 pounds per year.
Fructose contains no enzymes, vitamins or minerals, and it leeches micronutrients from the body. Unbound fructose, found in large quantities in HFCS, can interfere with the heart's use of minerals such as magnesium, copper and chromium.
Fructose also reduces the affinity of insulin for its receptor, which is the principle characteristic of type 2 diabetes.
HFCS has been implicated in elevated blood cholesterol levels, and it has been found to inhibit the action of the immune system's white blood cells.
Obesity rates since 1980, for instance, have risen at a rate
similar to that of high-fructose corn syrup, and nutritionists often
advise avoiding it.
A diet high in HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) and fat may cause severe
liver problems in sedentary people with a sedentary lifestyle.
Researchers
fed mice a diet high in HFCS and fat for 16 weeks. The animals in the
study were allowed to eat as much as they wanted. They were also kept
sedentary and prevented from exercising.
The researchers were
shocked to find that took only four weeks for the first signs of
serious health problems to become apparent.
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Medical Disclaimer:
The information contained within does not take the place of medical diagnosis or
prescription. See your health care provider in case of sickness.
Editorial Disclaimer: Publication of these articles are to promote food for thought. The opinions expressed in these articles may not be the opinion of editors.
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