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Alternative Medicine in the News
March 2009 edition 16
published weekly
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Is Nairobi Fly on the loose again?
A couple weeks ago, when my houseguest woke with an inflammation on her eye, everyone said it was only a mossie bite. But, later, when I saw a few more inflamed sites on her neck, the first thought in my mind was "Nairobi Fly". When I first moved to Riverside, I was told that the area was prone to the infestation, so it came to my mind it could be so.
My houseguest -Eva from Scotland, by the way- tried every homeopathic remedy for her inflamed eye- Apis among them and a few others. Nothing seemed to work. It seemed to spread. Eventually it subsided.
Then I woke a couple mornings ago with several itchy "bites" on my chest, above my shirt's neckline. I was (as usual) typing away at my emails, inattendently scratching away at them. Then I stopped and looked more closely at them in the mirror. They were the same as my houseguest's.
Well, Eva, thought she had captured one of the little offenders between the pages of a book.
Needless to say, we have potentized the little fella into a remedy -provisionally called "Nairobi Eye". In true homeopathic spirit, I tried it first on myself. A little of the liquid potency dabbed externally on the bites. Within minutes the inflamation reduced, itching stopped. The bites disappeared fast.
So Abha Light Pharmacy is happy to announce that we have a remedy we think is "Nairobi fly" available to homeopaths or readers who may need it.
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What is Nairobi Fly?
Most people who come into contact with the beetle develop blisters on the face, neck or hands. "The insect has the tendency, in 90 per cent of the cases I have treated, of affecting the neck and face," says Dr Maimba.
Although the beetle is known as the Nairobi fly, its distribution is beyond Kenya. It is believed that it was first sighted in the city, hence the name.
The two species are scientifically known as Paederus crebinpunctatis and Paederus sabaeus. Its body features include a black head and red thorax and upper abdomen. To some people, it is an ant.
Contrary to what many people may think, it does not bite or sting. But, on being disturbed or crushed against exposed skin, it releases toxic material known as pederin, which is one of the most potent produced by animals and insects to protect themselves.
Vesicants are known to be highly reactive chemicals that combine with proteins, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and other cellular components, resulting in cellular changes immediately after exposure.
According to ecologists and taxonomy experts at the National Museums of Kenya, the insect secretes or releases the toxic substance as a defence mechanism when it is disturbed or feels in danger of being attacked.
When the toxin comes into contact with the skin, it produces an allergic reaction. Itching, a burning sensation and swelling are the common symptoms.
The affected area then develops itchy pimples that merge to form a very uncomfortable reddish block swelling. If not managed on time, blisters filled with a yellowish fluid start developing. It is these blisters which get bacterial infections, creating complications if not well managed.
If one accidentally rubs or touches one's eye with a hand that has come into contact with the substance, it can lead to complications, including temporal blindness. The transfer of the substance to other areas such as genitals can be equally dangerous.
In recent years, the beetle has been associated with outbreaks of dermatitis (a skin complication) in Africa, South America and Asia. "To avoid the insect releasing or depositing the toxic substance on you, do not kill it while on the skin. But just blow it off," advises Dr Charles Mwandawiro, an entomologist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri).
Massaging the affected area with ointments such as antifungal medicines spreads the toxin through skin, worsening the condition. "For majority of the people, the first reaction is to massage the affected place. But if left undisturbed, the affected area can heal on its own within two weeks," Dr Maimba says.
But for people who smash the beetle while on the skin, cleaning the
place of contact with soap and water immediately after the action and
then applying an ointment drastically reduces the chances of swelling
and blistering.
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Missouri University (USA) Researcher Demonstrates Non-Traditional Therapy is Effective as Pain Management
http://munews.missouri.edu/news-releases/2009/0211-mccormack-noncontact.php
Now, according to a
study at the University of Missouri, researchers discovered that 73
percent of patients receiving NCTT experienced a significant reduction
in pain, had fewer requests for medication, and slept more comfortably
following surgery.
An intentionally directed process of energy modulation to promote
healing, NCTT allows practitioners to channel life energy through their
hands to patients in a four-phase process. The four phases - centering,
assessment, "unruffling" the field and intervention - allow a
restoration of balance that enables ailing individuals to heal
themselves. However, acceptance of the ideas that the human body is an
energy-producing organism and that energy can be directed to benefit
health is critical said Guy McCormack, lead researcher for the study
and chair of the Department of Occupational Therapy and Occupational
Science in the MU School of Health Professions.
In order to discover the effectiveness of NCTT, McCormack studied 90
patients receiving occupational therapy post-surgery and divided them
into an experimental group where non-contact therapeutic touch therapy
was given, a placebo group where a metronome acted as the treatment,
and a control group where the participants did not receive any form of
rehabilitation. When describing non-contact therapeutic touch,
McCormack said the process involves physics and human energy fields.
"There seems to be some subliminal aspects we are not aware of that
may have to do with the connectivity between people," McCormack said.
"People don't question how you can text someone, transmit messages
through computers, or visual images through televisions; thus the
belief system is very powerful. If people believe that NCTT is going to
be beneficial and are knowledgeable of it, it will be beneficial."
While the participants receiving non-contact therapeutic touch had
considerable reductions in pain, patients in the placebo and control
groups experienced an increase in pain perception due to the mechanical
intervention of the metronome and chance.
"Although it is difficult to introduce this form of therapy into
medical settings, more and more hospitals are using complementary
therapies like NCTT because consumers are interested in abandoning
pharmacological solutions for pain, and instead are interested in
harnessing their own capacity to heal through an inexpensive and
cost-effective process," McCormack said.
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Drugs: Elderly given drugs even when they're healthy
www.wddty.com
The elderly are the biggest 'market' for pharmaceuticals, and are almost exclusively responsible for drug company profits - and yet in many cases they are given the drugs when they are fit and well, an expert has said this week.
Doctors are routinely handing out prescription drugs - for high cholesterol, high blood pressure and the like - just because the patient is old, says Michael Oliver, an emeritus professor of cardiology at Edinburgh University.
This 'tick box' medicine, as he calls it, means that the elderly are being unnecessarily exposed to side effects that can be debilitating. "Nowadays few elderly people are allowed to enjoy being healthy," says Prof Oliver in a comment piece on the British Medical Journal website.
In response, several doctors have said that it is not their fault, but that of bureaucrats and politicians whose best practice guidelines insist on a certain level of intervention, whether or not it is required.
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Top Scientists Ask Medical Journal Science To Retract Original AIDS Papers
www.rethinkingaids.com
Thirty-seven legal, medical and research professionals have sent a letter to the journal Science, asking it to officially retract the original four papers making the case for HIV as the cause of AIDS. According to the letter's authors, widespread evidence has now emerged that the studies were not only poorly carried out, but that their results were falsified.
In 1984, Robert Gallo published four articles in Science, claiming that he had isolated the HIV virus and concluding that it was the "probable cause of AIDS." Investigative journalist Janine Roberts has discovered, however, that Gallo made last-minute alterations to the paper and its results.
"I was shocked when I read the original draft of the key scientific paper now widely cited as proving HIV causes AIDS," said Roberts, author of Fear of the Invisible.
"Gallo's handwritten last-minute changes had reversed what the scientists in his lab had originally concluded. This demonstrates a stunning disregard for the scientific process and a very disturbing breach of public trust."
Along with a copy of the handwritten changes, the letter from the 37 experts includes a letter from Gallo himself, admitting to another researcher that HIV could not be isolated from human samples alone; and a letter from an electron microscopy expert saying that there was no HIV virus contained in Gallo's 1984 samples.
Gallo's research has come under fire before, with U.S. government investigations in the 1990s concluding that the lead paper was "fraught with false and erroneous statements" and that "the careless and unacceptable keeping of research records ... reflects irresponsible laboratory management that has permanently impaired the ability to retrace the important steps taken."
"With new findings that undermine the scientific integrity and veracity of Gallo's four papers, the entire basis of the theory that HIV causes AIDS may now be questioned," said David Crowe, president of the international organization Rethinking AIDS.
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Homeopathy works: So show us the money, professor!
www.pulsetoday.co.uk
Volunteering to do things on behalf of the
Government, especially in Northern Ireland, has proved a dangerous
thing over the years but there is at least one staff member here at
Pulse who would be willing this week. As our [Pulse's] news story on www.pulsetoday.co.uk shows, an NHS trial has backed homeopathy.....
In
fact homeopathy, acupuncture and reflexology are among a range of
complementary and alternative therapies which a new Government funded
study in NI concludes should be provided on the NHS.
The
treatments could even save the health service money, it found, after
81% of patients receiving the treatments on referral from their GP
reported improvements in their physical health, and 79% in their mental
health.
So
on behalf of the Government come in Professor Edzard Ernst, one of the
leading professors of complementary medicine-and a man with a
professor's name if ever there was one- who last year offered a £10,000
cash prize to anyone who can prove homeopathy actually works.
The Government no doubt would be banned from taking your money so we'll accept it for breaking the news.
Do you think this is the proof the professor needs to show us the money?
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Americans Exposed to Atomic Bomb Levels of Radiation
through Medical Imaging, CT Scans, Mammograms
www.naturalnews.com
A new report released by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement reveals that Americans' exposure to radiation has increased more than 600 percent over the last three decades. Most of that increase has come from patients' exposure to radiation through medical imaging scans such as CT scans and mammograms.
Most patients have no awareness of the dangers of ionizing radiation due to medical imaging scans. Virtually no patients -- and few doctors -- realize that one CT scan exposes the body to the equivalent of several hundred X-rays (http://www.naturalnews.com/023582.html), for example. Most women undergoing mammograms have no idea that the radiation emitted by mammography machines actually causes cancer by exposing heart and breast tissue to dangerous ionizing radiation that directly causes DNA damage.
Even low doses of radiation can add up to significant increases in lifelong cancer risk. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (2007) found that survivors of the 1945 atomic bombs unleashed on Japan during World War II still faced significant increases in lifetime cancer risk. And the levels of radiation to which these particular study subjects were exposed is equivalent to receiving only two or three CT scans, explains an ABC News story (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Cancer...).
Yes, it's true: A couple of CT scans can expose your body to as much radiation as standing a few miles from an atomic bomb explosion. This is a simple scientific fact.
Is modern medicine priming the population for a wave of future cancers?
Exposure to CT scans and mammograms today can lead to cancer much later in life. As ABC News reports, Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, says, "Radiation exposure from these scans is not inconsequential and can lead to later cancers."
Thanks to the widespread use of medical imaging scans, hospitals are also becoming a major source of nuclear waste material. See the NaturalNews report on that topic here: http://www.naturalnews.com/025711.html
This material can be seized by terrorists and used to make dirty bombs. Thus, hospitals are now a major source for potential tools for terrorists.
The bottom-line question in all this is simple: Are medical imaging devices causing more harm than good? And do mammograms actually create future cancer patients by causing cancer in the breast? In my view, the answers to both these questions are a resounding YES. Medical imaging does more than just detect cancer, it also causes cancer! And that's in the financial interests of the drug companies and cancer clinics that profit from treating cancer.
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Medical blunders to cost NHS £700m next year
www.dailymail.co.uk
Overstretched: More blunders are occurring on NHS maternity units because of shortages
NHS payouts for serious medical errors are set to soar next year to more than £700million, health bosses have warned.
More
than half of the anticipated legal settlements will be for mistakes on
overstretched maternity units, according to secret estimates made by
the NHS Litigation Authority.
The huge rise in costs, which
will have to be paid by hospitals, wipes out the extra money pumped
into NHS maternity services by ministers last year.
Critics
blame a shortage of at least 5,000 midwives, combined with a rising
birth rate, for making maternity units more dangerous.
Last
month the Daily Mail revealed that the number of deaths from 'patient
safety incidents' had jumped by 60 per cent in two years.
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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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