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Alternative Medicine in the News
February 2009 edition 11
published weekly
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Homeopathy patients often say health improved
SOURCE: BMC Public Health, http://www.reuters.com
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Many people who opt for homeopathic therapy for their chronic ills report lasting improvements in their health, a new study finds.
Among patients at more than 100 German and Swiss homeopathic practices, researchers found that many reported long-term improvements in chronic conditions such as headaches, allergies and sleep problems.
However, the findings do not necessarily mean the controversial alternative therapy is responsible for the benefits, according to the researchers.
Homeopathy, which originated in Germany in the 1700s, is based on the principle of "like cures like" -- substances that, according to homeopathy, would create certain symptoms in a person can, in a highly diluted form, treat those same symptoms.
Homeopathy is controversial because a number of its central concepts do not accord with modern science, and many studies have found that the remedies are no more effective than inactive placebo substances.
The current study, published in the journal BMC Public Health, looked only at how homeopathy patients tend to fare in their everyday life. Therefore, it does not settle the question of whether the remedies are actually effective, lead researcher Dr. Claudia Witt told Reuters Health.
"This observational study design does not allow (us) to determine any causality between the improvement and the given homeopathic remedy, nor does it exclude the placebo effect," said Witt, of Charite University Medical Center in Berlin.
The findings are based on an eight-year follow-up of 3,709 adults and children treated at 103 homeopathic practices. At the end of that time, Witt's team found, one-third were still undergoing homeopathic treatment, while a bit less than a third had stopped because their health had improved, and a similar proportion had stopped because they felt their treatment was not working.
On average, the study found, patients did report significant improvements in their symptoms over time. Nearly half said their symptom severity had declined by at least 50 percent.
However, Witt and her colleagues say, it's not possible to tell whether the homeopathic treatments bestowed the benefits, because many patients also used other types of alternative care, as well as conventional medicine.
The placebo effect may also have been at work, according to the researchers, with some patients feeling better simply because they believed the homeopathic remedies would help.
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The so-called "iodine skin test" exposed & explained
Many therapists think that a spot of iodine on the skin
will reveal thyroid deficiencies. Read on.
from http://thyroid.about.com/library/derry/bl2a.htm?rd=1
A Reader [from thyroid.about.com] Writes:
A friend of mine was just diagnosed with a possible thyroid disorder (her test was in the form of a drop of iodine on her arm and watching how fast it disappeared). Her chiropractor suggested she start off by taking something called Thyroid Helper which can be found at ..... Have you ever heard of this and do you know how effective it might be?
David Derry Responds:
The "test" of putting iodine on the skin to watch how fast it disappears is not an indicator of anything. The iodine disappearance rate is unrelated to thyroid disease or even iodine content of the body.(1-2) Meticulous research by Nyiri and Jannitti in 1932 showed clearly when iodine is applied to the skin in almost any form, 50% evaporates into the air within 2 hours and between 75 and 80 percent evaporates into the air within 24 hours. (1) A total of 88 percent evaporates within 3 days and it is at this point that the evaporation stops. The remaining 12 percent that is absorbed into the skin has several fates. Only 1-4% of the total iodine applied to the skin is absorbed into the blood stream within the first few hours. The rest of the iodine within the skin (8-11%) is slowly released from the skin into the blood stream.
However Nyiri and Jannitti's findings that "The percentage of iodine penetration through the skin is the same, irrespective of whether the cells have a high or low vitality, or are dead, and irrespective of the direction of penetration" have important implications for iodine functions in the body, skin, pregnancy and fetus and also for the therapeutic use of topical and oral iodine. Iodine would be the only compound of significance during early pregnancy which can pass rapidly through all tissues of the fetus without the aid of any blood vessel or lymphatic transport. It could be that not only does iodine control natural cell death (apoptosis) (5) in the fetus but may also influences stem cell development.
Nyiri and Jannetti also mentioned iodine applied on the skin can be used to shrink swelling of the thyroid gland (goiters). So even small amounts of iodine absorbed through the skin can have good effects on body organs. From my own clinical experience, repeated application of iodine (Lugol's) to the skin appears to cause regeneration of the skin from the bottom up (Quiescent, stable or stem cell) (3) eventually sloughing the old version of the skin off like a snake molting. If there was a pre-cancerous lesion on the old skin, it is replaced with new skin minus the lesion. There does not seem to be any skin lesions which are not helped or cured by this procedure. In some cases I found clinically obvious low thyroid conditions also needed to be treated to be more effective. Minor lacerations and healing of surgical wounds respond well. If skin regeneration is from the bottom, then there is little or no scar formation.
My parents' generation tended to put tincture of iodine onto a fresh wound to prevent infection. This turns out to be helpful but not the best way to use it. Besides it stung badly when applied. It is much more effective (and doesn't hurt) to apply iodine repeatedly after a scab has been formed. The iodine put onto the scab helps to organize total repair of the tissue. It is implied a similar approach could be taken to burns of all depths but at the same time the physiology of burns suggest there is an acute lack of thyroid hormone. (3)
All pre-malignant lesions and many other oddities of the skin appear to respond to this regeneration process triggered by topical iodine. I have mentioned previously a patient with a biopsy-proven breast cancer lesion (she refused surgery because of previous cancer treatment) that was strongly fixed to the skin responding well to topical iodine and ended up being a dimple on the breast three year later. (6)
It is my belief a water solution of iodine (like Lugol's) is an important therapeutic agent for skin. Because of its effectiveness and the results, perhaps many skin diseases are related to local tissue areas of relative iodine deficiency. Perhaps the most graphic lesions are the "keloid" (worm) incision scars formed after surgical procedures. If the iodine intake and tissue levels are adequate, such as in Japan, keloid formation doesn't happen (7). In addition, iodine's ability to trigger natural cell death (apoptosis) (5) makes it effective against all pre-cancerous skin lesions and likely many cancerous lesions. The local site is replaced with normal skin. However, even lesser doses of topical iodine seem to reverse the ominous appearance of skin lesions. Because my older brother died of metastatic melanoma, my chances of getting a malignant melanoma are increased by 400 times. (8-9) Having grown up in Venezuela near the equator my sun exposure at a young age was far above normal. So all suspicious lesions I notice are returned to normal with topical Lugol's.
One of the most famous of documentations of iodine skin therapy to a famous person occurred in the American Civil War.
"On September 29, 1862, Colonel John B. Gordon held the center of General Lee's army at the battle of Antietam, or Sharpsburg. The first volley from the northern lines sent a ball through the calf of Gordon's right leg; soon after, another went through the muscles of his thigh; a third pierced his left arm, tearing asunder the tendons and mangling the flesh; a forth ripped through his shoulder leaving a wad of clothing embedded in its track. Still, no bones were broken; but, while Gordon lingered in the firing line, "with", as he says himself, "but little of my usual strength", a fifth ball struck him squarely in the face.
Dr. Weatherly of the 6th Alabama Regiment, in charge of medical arrangements, had the Colonel removed to a base hospital, and prescribed tincture of iodine to be painted on the wounds three or four times a day. The case was unpromising. Gordon's eyelids were greatly swollen; one eye was completely closed, the other almost so; his jaw was immovably clenched, and, to make matters worse, erysipelas (staphylococcus infection of skin) had set in on the left arm.
Mrs. Gordon, his wife, who nursed him - her name was Fanny, and she was then a beautiful girl of 25 - put a liberal interpretation on her instructions and painted the wounds, not three or four times a day, but, as Gordon himself says: "I think three to four hundred time a day." Fanny's diligence and devotion were rewarded. Her husband survived, outlived the war, became the Governor of Georgia, a General, and Commander-in-Chief of the United Confederate Veterans. He died in 1904." (10)
I think Fanny knew iodine applied often was a more effective way to deliver iodine to the body especially applied on multiple sites. Likely Gordon's iodine blood levels and tissue levels rose throughout his body. As iodine is by far the best antibiotic, antiviral and antiseptic of all time, the colonel's body defenses were able to gain control of the infections. At the same time local repeated application to the wound sites caused the skin to grow up from its bottom where all the cells (Stem cells) that make normal skin are residing. Likely this minimized or eliminated scar formation. Thus Nyiri's and Jannetti's studies confirm why Fanny's method of treatment worked so brilliantly. Some of our recent serious skin diseases such a "flesh-eating disease" should respond quickly to topical iodine treatment practiced by Fanny. Or, for another example, iodine put onto a mosquito bite would kill all bacteria and viruses at the site of the bite within 10-30 seconds making it impossible for any virus or bacteria to multiply and get started --such as in West Nile Fever. Naturally, this applies to tic bites (Lyme's disease) as well. For many decades in the 1800s people carried around little bottles of iodine around their necks to use on all occasions. People in mosquito and tic infested areas should think of doing this again. (8) In addition, it has been forgotten vaporized iodine rapidly kills air borne viruses such as polio and SARS viruses.. Used extensively in the forties and fifties it may be of use to explore this approach again.
There has been no significant clinical research on iodine therapy or use for 40 years. (11-15) I feel it is important for research to be directed at this potentially significant area of medical treatment. It is worth noting the greatest part of significant research with iodine was done before the Medline search facilities were available. Of course, since large doses of iodine are tolerated intravenously without side effects, it has yet to be explored what help this may have for many cancer patients or even other diseases.
I hope these concepts help.
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Public Announcement: ANAMED Kenya Workshop
15 - 21 March 2009
A cordial invitation to attend a Training Seminar in Natural Medicine
To be held at the Mary Ward Centre in Karen, Nairobi,
4.00 p.m. on Sunday 15 March - 2 p.m. on Saturday 21 March 2009
Please reply to Mrs Anne Sigei, Email reap@maf.or.ke
REAP, P.O. Box 21083, Ngong Road, Nairobi, 00505
For more information about anamed, see www.anamed.net
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Introduction:
ANAMED has already conducted several seminars in Kenya, in particular in Nairobi and South Nyanza.
As a result of these seminars, the distribution of artemisia starter kits and the work of our collaborating organisations, we are delighted to say that Natural Medicine is now being practised in many parts of Kenya.
In particular, malaria patients are being treated with Artemisia annua tea, diarrhoea is being treated with anti-amoeba tea and HIV/AIDS patients are benefiting enormously from artemisia tea and moringa leaf powder.
We invite either you, or someone from your organisation, to attend this training seminar in Natural Medicine, which is the first to be organised from within Kenya.
The aims of this training seminar are
1. to train 30 people (healers, pastors, missionaries, health workers, teachers and others active in the community) in
a) the recognition, knowledge and cultivation of several medicinal plants in a medicinal garden.
b) the hygienic production of effective Natural Medicines from those plants, e.g. teas, different medicinal oils and ointments and tinctures. We will also produce different soaps, black stones for snake-bites and learn how to use a solar oven.
c) the treatments of many medical complaints and diseases, including malaria, skin problems, diarrhoea, HIV/AIDS and wounds.
d) the influence of good nutrition and lifestyle on health.
2. to establish active networks in several provinces of people who practice Natural Medicine, and a national network that manages its own web-site.
Following the seminar, we expect the participants to:
a) create their own garden of medicinal plants,
b) prepare their own natural medicines,
c) treat themselves, their families and others within their area of competence, and
d) teach their families, colleagues and others in their communities.
Tutors: Rosalia Oyweka and Dr Roger Sharland (REAP, Nairobi), Rebecca Nzuki, Samuel Mdune and Tamima Omondi (anamed Kenya).
Registration: Please write to Anne Sigei (email and postal address above). You will be sent a confirmation of your booking immediately, and final details in February. The demand for places is already great, so please write quickly.
Fees for the seminar: The participation fee for African people or expatriates living in Africa is 250 Euro (Ksh 27000) for a one week seminar. For people travelling from Europe the price is 500 Euro. This is an all inclusive price, and includes food, accommodation, books, some seeds, a poster and all seminar materials. Transport costs and any insurance required remains the responsibility of the participant. If participants require more books and posters for their project, they will be available for sale at a reduced price during the seminar.
Payment of the fee: In advance (except by special arrangement) to REAP in Kenya.
If you sponsor a participant, please pay the fee in advance into the account that you will be given. Please inform your sponsored participant(s) that anamed will not pay any transport costs or "sitting allowances", sometimes called "per Diem".
The following are important aspects of our seminars: - Our emphasis on working at the grass-roots, encouraging and supporting local people in developing and extending the skills they already have.
- We encourage traditional healers and formal health workers such as doctors and nurses to work together. We help them to recognise the positive contribution that each makes, and encourage them to work out practical ways in which they can cooperate.
- By introducing Artemisia annua, we enable participants to become much more independent and successful in their treatment of malaria, in their families, communities and health centres. Each participant will be given seeds and be taught how to grow this delicate but extremely valuable plant.
- It is important that all participants have a commitment both to practising what they learn and to teaching others, for example by conducting a similar seminar in Natural Medicine themselves, at least for a weekend.
- All participants will work together in practical work and possibly in establishing a garden. They must bring suitable clothes with them for such activities.
- Participants must attend for the entire programme to qualify for a certificate; to come only on some days is not acceptable.
- Those participants who are Christians should bring with them a Bible. (Every day starts with an ecumenical devotion, participation in that is voluntary.)
- All participants should bring plant material of at least one medicinal plant from their region.
We look forward to hearing from you!
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Dr Roger Sharland, on behalf of ANAMED Kenya coordinating group
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Regulation plans for homeopathy in UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk
A range of complementary therapies such as homeopathy and aromatherapy are to be regulated by a new body.
The Natural HealthCare Council is due to begin work in April. Currently, anyone can offer a complementary medicine service.
The watchdog will set standards and have the power to
strike off those deemed incompetent, although membership of the body
will be voluntary.
The Patients Association said the move to regulate was "welcome and overdue".
A spokeswoman for the charity, which provides patients
with a forum to share experiences of healthcare, said the fact that
anyone can provide complementary medicines and treatment had been a "a
source of concern".
"Patients will feel more secure as a result of this new
body and they will know who to contact if they are unhappy with their
treatment," she said.
Cancer treatment
A lack of regulation has prompted calls for a body to monitor conduct and standards among complementary health practitioners.
Britons spend around £130m a year on treatments like aromatherapy and reflexology.
Those who practice the therapies will be able to
register with the new governing body which is being set up by the
Prince of Wales's Foundation for Integrated Health.
The Natural HealthCare Council will only register
practitioners who have a recognised professional qualification, are
insured and have signed up to the code of conduct. A spokesman for Penny Brohn Cancer Care, formerly the
Bristol Cancer Help Centre, said: "With 280,000 diagnoses of cancer
each year, more people than ever before are seeking therapies which
complement their cancer treatment.
"We hope the new Council will highlight best practice,
encourage research and build the evidence base. We also welcome any
move to raise professional standards."
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Homeopathy gets a boost in Gujarat
http://www.thaindian.com
Ahmedabad, Feb 1 (IANS) As many 675 homeopathy doctors have been recently appointed in Gujarat and 182 part-time homeopathy dispensaries will be upgraded shortly, a top official said Sunday."As many as 182 part-time homeopathy dispensaries in Gujarat will be upgraded to full-time shortly," said Megha Jani, Gandhinagar-based director of the department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH).
"As many 675 homeopathy doctors have been recently appointed under the National Rural Health Mission of the central government," Jani said while addressing the concluding session of the two-day national seminar on homeopathy in Mehsana, 85 km from here.
The seminar was organised by the Homeopathy Medical Association of India (HMAOI) and Smt. A.J. Salva Homeopathic Medical College.
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Fascinating Facts You Never Knew About the Human Brain
Source: Nursing Assistant Central December 31, 2008
The human brain has amazed and baffled people throughout the ages. Some scientists and researchers have devoted their entire lives to learning how the brain works. Here are some facts about your brain.
Physical Attributes
- The weight of your brain is about 3 pounds.
- Your brain is made up of about 75 percent water.
- Your brain consists of about 100 billion neurons.
- There are anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 synapses for each neuron.
- There are no pain receptors in your brain, so your brain can feel no pain.
- There are 100,000 miles of blood vessels in your brain.
- Your brain is the fattest organ in your body and may consists of at least 60 percent fat.
The Developing Brain
- At birth, your brain was almost the same size as an adult brain and contained most of the brain cells for your whole life.
- A newborn baby's brain grows about three times its size in the first year.
- Humans continue to make new neurons throughout life in response to mental activity.
- The first sense to develop while in utero is the sense of touch. The lips and cheeks can experience touch at about 8 weeks and the rest of the body around 12 weeks.
Brain Function
- Your brain uses 20 percent of the total oxygen in your body.
- If your brain loses blood for 8 to 10 seconds, you will lose consciousness.
- While awake, your brain generates between 10 and 23 watts of power -- or enough energy to power a light bulb.
- The old adage of humans only using 10% of their brain is not true. Every part of the brain has a known function.
- The brain can live for 4 to 6 minutes without oxygen, and then it begins to die. No oxygen for 5 to 10 minutes will result in permanent brain damage.
- A study of 1 million students in New York showed that students who ate lunches that did not include artificial flavors, preservatives, and dyes did 14 percent better on IQ tests than students who ate lunches with these additives.
Psychology of Your Brain
- You can't tickle yourself because your brain distinguishes between unexpected external touch and your own touch.
- There is a class of people known as supertasters who not only have more taste buds on their tongue, but whose brain is more sensitive to the tastes of foods and drinks. In fact, they can detect some flavors that others cannot.
- The connection between body and mind is a strong one. One estimate is that between 50-70 percent of visits to the doctor for physical ailments are attributed to psychological factors.
Memory
- Every time you recall a memory or have a new thought, you are creating a new connection in your brain.
- Memories triggered by scent have a stronger emotional connection, and therefore appear more intense than other memory triggers.
- While you sleep at night may be the best time for your brain to consolidate all your memories from the day. Lack of sleep may actually hurt your ability to create new memories.
Dreams and Sleep
- Most people dream about 1-2 hours a night and have an average of 4-7 dreams each night.
- Studies show that brain waves are more active while dreaming than when you are awake.
- Some people (about 12 percent) dream only in black and white while others dream in color.
- While you sleep, your body produces a hormone that may prevent you from acting out your dreams, leaving you virtually paralyzed.
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Hypothyroidism: When you've got it, and what you can do about it
http://www.wddty.com 16 January 2009(Source: Townsend Letter, 2008; 305: 112-3)
Most of us know about hyperthyroidism -
where the thyroid gland becomes over-active - but how many know about
the opposite condition, hypothyroidism? It's even more common, and yet
most sufferers don't even know they have the problem.
Typical
symptoms include tiredness, aches, constipation, putting on weight (or
being unable to take it off), feeling cold, and being generally
sluggish.
The reason for the recent large increase in
hypothyroidism is down to the gradual reduction of iodine in our diets,
says nutritionist Ingrid Kohlstadt. People have also been avoiding
iodine-rich foods, such as salt and eggs, for health reasons, while
many processed foods also contain less iodine.
She also blames the rise of soy-containing foods, which affects healthy thyroid function.
The
remedy is fairly simple, she says. Once an iodine deficiency has been
detected, and provided it's not too severe, the patient can reverse the
problem with a self-help programme that involves stop eating soy
products, consuming more iodine-rich foods, and supplementing with
iodine and selenium.
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Oral cancer: Mouthwashes increase risk nine times
http://www.wddty.com
Alcohol-based mouthwashes may be a cause
of oral cancer, researchers say. The risk increases nine-fold among
smokers and drinkers.
The research team, which include
dentists, says that dentists should stop recommending mouthwashes such
as Listerine, and that the products should be removed from the
shelves. After reviewing the data, researchers at the University of
Queensland say there is "sufficient evidence" of a link between the
products and oral cancer.
The study, which involved 3,200
people, found a nine-fold increase in risk among smokers, and a
five-fold increased risk among drinkers. It's thought the ethanol in
mouthwash helps nicotine and other cancer-causing substances to
permeate the mouth. The ethanol can also cause acetaldehyde, another
known carcinogen.
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More fraud from Big Pharma
The latest round of scientific fraud from Big Pharma arrives in the form of yet more junk science conducted by Merck on its blockbuster cholesterol drug Vytorin.
http://www.NaturalNews.com
Results of a clinical trial involving the drug were finally released this week, nearly two years after they were known by Merck, and only after Merck attempted to manipulate the data by redefining the outcome of the trial after the fact!
To help explain the degree of scientific fraud happening with this Vytorin clinical trial, I've released a sixty-second parody video ad featuring Merck's Vytorin drug along with a narrative explanation of the fraud surrounding Vytorin. You can watch the video here: http://www.NaturalNews.com/022501.html
Deliberate Fraud: What Really Happened with Vytorin
Vytorin has been a top-selling cholesterol drug for several years, generating billions of dollars in revenue for Merck and Schering-Plough. Even though the drug was being prescribed to millions of people, nobody really knew if it worked to remove plaque from arteries (which sort of makes you wonder why it was approved in the first place, right?), so Merck launched a clinical trial called ENHANCE to study the effectiveness of the drug.
The ENHANCE study was completed in April, 2006, and the results were turned over to Merck. As it turns out, Merck didn't like the results of the trial, so instead of releasing them to the public (or the FDA), it sat on them, delaying the release of this data while Vytorin sales continued to ring up billions of dollars in sales.
After sitting on the data for over a year, Merck decided it would commit scientific fraud and "redefine" the goal of the study after the fact! This would involve selectively deciding which data points looked the best, and then reshaping the goal of the study to fit the data. (How's that for "evidence-based medicine?" The deeper you look into the so-called "science" behind Big Pharma's pill-pushing agenda, the more you realize it's based on nothing but fraud...)
When the scientific community got word of this after-the-fact redefinition of the study, they were outraged and demanded that Merck abide by established scientific guidelines. Merck then abandoned its plan to manipulate the goal of the study and decided to sit on the data for several more months.
Finally, after the threat of a Congressional investigation -- and spurred by numerous critics accusing Merck of hiding undesirable study results -- the company agreed to release the results of the clinical trial. And what did the results show? Steven Nissen, head of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic, said, "This drug doesn't work. Period. It just doesn't work. ... In fact, the data on both the rate of progression of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular events are trending in the wrong direction. This is a pretty clear failure. Physicians should now stop using ezetimibe or Vytorin except as a last resort."
In other words, the clinical trial results showed Vytorin to be a complete failure at reducing arterial plaque.
This brings up three hugely important questions for modern medicine:
Question 1: Why was Vytorin approved by the FDA if it didn't work?
I find it curious that this test to determine whether Vytorin actually works was being conducted after it was approved by the FDA, don't you? As it turns out, all the millions of people who were prescribed Vytorin were being used as human guinea pigs, shelling out their hard-earned cash for a drug that was medically worthless. So why did the FDA approve Vytorin in the first place? Doesn't the FDA require some kind of proof that the drug works before approving it?
Of course not. You have to remember: The FDA operates as the marketing branch of Big Pharma. It's sole purpose is to promote drugs, not to protect the health of the public. The FDA approved Vytorin simply because Vytorin was poised to be a huge profit generator. At the FDA, real science is not nearly as important as big profits, and the agency maintains a default position of trusting clinical trials funded by the drug companies themselves! There's no real science going on at the FDA anymore (except in the back rooms where real scientists like Dr. David Graham are intimidated, censored or fired from their jobs). Instead, the FDA has become Big Pharma's pimp daddy, exploiting anyone it can to generate more obscene profits for its favorite clients: The drug companies.
It all makes you wonder: Where is the "evidence" in evidence-based medicine? The evidence, it seems, is all fiction. When drug companies are allowed to sell drugs that don't work, and the scientific results are allowed to be kept from the public for nearly two years, it's fairly obvious that the whole system of FDA-approved medicine is nothing more than a grand medical fraud.
The only people still defending this industry are idiots, crooks, politicians or lawyers. (Some people are all four.) There is no rational-minded person who could look at the behavior of Big Pharma and the FDA today and conclude that modern pharmaceutical medicine is based on anything resembling high-integrity science. This Vytorin debacle barely scratches the surface. Remember: This is something they failed to cover up! Imagine all the scientific trials that get buried, distorted or retroactively modified without anyone ever knowing about it!
Watch my Vytorin parody video to see how hilarious this whole situation has truly become:
http://www.NaturalNews.com/022501.html
Question 2: Why did Merck delay the release of the Vytorin clinical trial results?
The answer to this one is so obvious that it boggles the mind: Merck delayed release of the results because it knew that the minute the medical community learned the truth about Vytorin, prescriptions for the drug would plummet! And that, of course, would mean a drop in revenues and profits for Merck.
The Vytorin results were delayed simply to keep everybody ignorant of the fact that the drug didn't work! By keeping doctors, the FDA and the public ignorant of this fact, Merck allowed literally millions of prescriptions to be written for a drug that it already knew was clinically worthless at reducing arterial plaque.
Does anybody honestly think that if the Vytorin trial had showed extremely positive results, Merck wouldn't have released it immediately? Of course they would have! If this trial showed Vytorin to dramatically reduce plaque in the arteries while reducing deaths from heart attacks and strokes, Merck would have touted the study results way back in 2006. The fact that they intentionally delayed the release of this data just goes to show you that at Merck, it's not patients that come first... it's profits!
Question 3: If Vytorin lowers cholesterol but doesn't reduce arterial plaque, then shouldn't medicine reconsider the idea that high cholesterol causes arterial plaque?
The whole thinking behind Vytorin is that lowering LDL cholesterol would reduce the buildup of arterial plaque. Modern medicine has operated for over two decades on the myth that says cholesterol is solely responsible for atherosclerosis (plaque in the arteries).
Well what if that idea was, in fact, complete nonsense?
As practitioners of natural medicine have known for decades, cholesterol is not the evil disease-causing culprit it's made out to be by Big Pharma. High cholesterol is not a disease! Cholesterol is, in fact, an essential substance manufactured by the body in response to chronic circulatory inflammation caused by other things: Like eating red meat, fried foods, hydrogenated oils or processed foods. Cholesterol doesn't actually cause plaque in the arteries, and in fact this new ENHANCE study demonstrates that quite well: Vytorin caused a significant drop in LDL cholesterol levels, but arterial plaque actually began to increase!
The drug companies, however, love to promote simplistic explanations for diseases -- especially ones that can be reduced to a single number, like your cholesterol score. That way, they can define a "disease" as being a number that's too high, and then they can claim to "treat" the disease by giving you a chemical that causes the number to drop.
That way, they can even produce test results that convince you their drug is working. "See? Your number is lower now. The drug works!"
Big Pharma loves the idea of reducing medical treatments to one-dimensional number-pushing games that completely overlook the complexities of human biology. High cholesterol wasn't even considered a disease, by the way, until the drug companies started marketing cholesterol drugs and engaging in aggressive disease mongering to convince the public that their cholesterol numbers were too high.
The way to naturally lower your cholesterol numbers, by the way, is to simply stop eating all animal products and processed foods. A plant-based diet will radically improve your cardiovascular health, removing plaque, normalizing cholesterol levels and dramatically reducing your risk of heart attack or stroke.
Read the book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn to learn the shocking truth about how easy it is to normalize your cardiovascular health through simple dietary changes (no drugs needed!).
Conclusion: Vytorin fraud demonstrates lack of scientific integrity in the pharmaceutical industry today
If there's one thing to take away from this whole fiasco, it's that when it comes to pharmaceuticals, you simply can't trust the science anymore.
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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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