Category: Natural Health

“Anti” means “against”, while “bio” means “life,” therefore, “antibiotics” are “against life,” that is, they are designed to kill “bad things” in our system, but sometimes they do more… such is the case for “Tequin” an antibiotic that can cause serious blood sugar complications, and it is being pulled from the market by manufacturer Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Tequin Being Recalled

“In February of this year, the U.S. FDA required increased warnings on the label of the drug. It is most dangerous to diabetics, the elderly, and those with kidney disease.”

Many other antibiotics have been pulled from the market in the last few years:

* Vioxx. The king of withdrawn drugs and well documented in previous chapters for causing 60,000 fatal heart attacks and strokes and as many as 160,000 heart attacks and strokes all by itself.
* Bextra Similar drug to Vioxx, withdrawn for similar reasons.
* Rezulin: Given fast-track approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Rezulin was linked to 63 confirmed deaths and probably hundreds more. “We have real trouble,” a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) physician wrote in 1997, just a few months after Rezulin’s approval. The drug wasn’t taken off the market until 2000.
* Baycol (made by Bayer AG) – a cholesterol-lowering drug taken by 700,000 Americans – was pulled off the market on Wednesday, August 8th. It had been linked to 31 U.S. deaths. At least nine more fatalities abroad are known.
* Lotronex: Against concerns of one of its own officers, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Lotronex in February 2000. By the time it was withdrawn 9 months later, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had received reports of 93 hospitalizations, multiple emergency bowel surgeries, and 5 deaths.
* Propulsid: A top-selling drug for many years, this drug was linked to hundreds of cases of heart arrhythmias and over 100 deaths.
* Redux: Taken by millions of people for weight loss after its approval in April 1996, Redux was soon linked to heart valve damage and a disabling, often lethal pulmonary disorder. Taken off the market in September 1997.
* Pondimin: A component of Fen-Phen, the diet fad drug. Approved in 1973, Pondimin’s link to heart valve damage and a lethal pulmonary disorder wasn’t recognized until shortly before its withdrawal in 1997.
* Duract: This painkiller was taken off the market when it was linked to severe, sometimes fatal liver failure.
* Seldane: America’s and the world’s top-selling antihistamine for a decade, it took the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 5 years to recognize that Seldane was causing cardiac arrhythmias, blackouts, hospitalizations, and deaths, and another 8 years to take it off the market.
* Hismanal: Approved in 1988 and soon known to cause cardiac arrhythmias, the drug was finally taken off the market in 1999.
* Posicor: Used to treat hypertension, the drug was linked to life-threatening drug interactions and more than 100 deaths.
* Raxar: Linked to cardiac toxicities and deaths.
* Cylert FDA received 13 reports of pemoline-associated hepatic failure leading to liver transplantation or death, representing an incidence rate 10 to 25 times greater than that of the general population.
* Palladone Withdrawn due to a high risk of accidental overdose when administered with alcohol
* Tysabri Was expected to become the world’s leading treatment for MS, but was pulled from the market after a patient died from a rare central nervous system infection.

Genesis 6:3 (Modern King James Version) “And Jehovah said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, in his erring; he is flesh. Yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.” (Emphasis mine.)

Oldest Living Woman Turns 128

128 years! It gives us something to shoot for… and it IS possible! Happy Birthday, Cruz!

I have been saying that this has been going on a LONG time! Now, others apparently are seeing it as well!

Drug Companies Are Inventing “New Diseases!”

“The practice of ‘diseasemongering’ by the drug industry is promoting non-existent illnesses or exaggerating minor ones for the sake of profits, according to a set of essays published by the open-access journal Public Library of Science Medicine. The special issue, edited by David Henry, of Newcastle University in Australia, and Ray Moynihan, an Australian journalist, reports that conditions such as female sexual dysfunction, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and ‘restless legs syndrome’ have been promoted by companies hoping to sell more of their drugs.”

This is unconscionable. As the old saying goes, “Caveat Emptor,” (Let the buyer beware.) You need to realize that healthcare is just another area of commerce to these people, and scams are still scams! Dr. Mercola in his Health Blog puts it well: “Always remember that the drug companies are trying to sell you something. They’re not really concerned whether you’re sick, well, get healthy, or stay ill; they just want to get you to buy their products so they can increase profits to their shareholders. That is the mandate of nearly every corporation, and I haven’t seen a drug company that has gone off this path. And they will do whatever it takes to do that, including selling you cures for diseases that don’t exist.”

Well, Naturopaths and other Natural Health professionals have been saying for years that our fruits and vegetables are losing nutritional value over the “days of yesteryear.” Now, it seems that the more mainstream health world is coming to understand this as well.

Fruits and Veggies Losing Nutritional Value

“Donald Davis, a biochemist at the University of Texas, said that of 13 major nutrients in fruits and vegetables tracked by the Agriculture Department from 1950 to 1999, six showed noticeable declines — protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin and vitamin C. The declines ranged from 6 percent for protein, 15 percent for iron, 20 percent for vitamin C, and 38 percent for riboflavin. ‘It’s an amazing thing,’ said Davis, adding that the decline in nutrient content has not been widely noticed.'”

“Not been widely noticed…” except for the natural health field. Come on, folks!

So… yet another drug is approved for “over the counter” sales… this time a fat blocker that has been linked in one study to abnormal cell growth… which could lead to cancer.

FDA Approves Dangerous Fat Blocker

“In one study, Xenical was found to cause abnormal cell growth in the lining of the colon, an early cancer indicator. And, since Xenical has been approved as a prescription drug in America, 28 incidents of breast cancer have been reported, or 14 times the number who used the appetite depressant Meridia.”

Omega-3 fatty acids could prevent or inhibit the growth of liver cancer cells, say researchers from the University of Pittsburgh at today’s annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research:

Omega-3s Could Stop Liver Cancer Cells Growth

“’It has been known for some time that omega-3 fatty acids can inhibit certain cancer cells. So, we were interested in determining whether these substances could inhibit liver cancer cells. If so, we also wanted to know by what mechanism this inhibition occurs,’ explained lead researcher Tong Wu, from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.”

According to Dr. Mercola’s recent blog entry, diabetics need more Vitamin D. With Spring coming soon… get some fresh air and sunshine! Sunlight is the best natural source of Vitamin D.

Diabetics Need Vitamin D

“Italian researchers compared blood samples from more than 450 patients with type 2 diabetes against a similar number of healthy folks. Nearly a third more diabetics were found to be lacking in the right amount of vitamin D versus the controls. Type 2 diabetes was more prevalent among women who were taking insulin and useless statin drugs and controlled their condition poorly.”

Capsaicin, the compound that gives red pepper its heat, could stop the spread of prostate cancer, claims a new study.

Red Pepper and Prostate Cancer

“Red chilli pepper has previously been linked to inhibiting the growth of pancreatic cancer cells, and has been suggested to cut fat and energy intake when added to the diet. ‘We show that capsaicin has a profound inhibiting effect on the growth of prostate cancer cells in vitro and in vivo , inducing apoptosis [programmed cell death] of prostate cancer cell lines,’ wrote lead author Akio Mori from the University of California, Los Angeles. The new study, published in the journal of Cancer Research (Vol. 66, pp. 3222-3229), showed that the protein NF-kappaB, shown to be active in hormone-independent prostate cancer cells in vitro, was significantly inhibited by the capsaicin.”

I love it when natural, herbal treatments are shown to be so effective in fighting such conditions!

Studies in mice suggest the popular herbal remedy Gingko biloba might help fight human brain and breast tumors. Mice treated with an extract of Gingko biloba leaves both before and after being implanted with human breast or brain tumors had decreased expression of a cell receptor — peripheral-type benzodiazepine receptor (PBR) — associated with invasive cancer, say researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center, in Washington, D.C.

Gingko Biloba May Help Fight Cancer

“It is very encouraging that Gingko biloba appeared to reduce the aggressiveness of these cancers, because it suggests that the leaves could be useful in some early-stage diseases to prevent them from becoming invasive, or spreading,” study senior author Vassilios Papadopoulos, director of the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization and associate vice president of Georgetown University Medical Center, said in a prepared statement.

Natural Health advocates having been saying for years that depletion of nutrients in the soil is leading to fruits and vegetables that have less nutritional value. Now, this is coming out in the general press:

Fruits & Veggies Losing Their Nutritional Value

Organic and natural farming techniques can restore the nutritional value to our foods, but it is more expensive. However, our health is worth it!