Archive for the ‘Drugs’ Category

Doctors routinely prescribe the synthetic hormone estrogen to alleviate menopausal symptoms as a woman’s reproductive system shuts down without knowing the effect on the body. The drug disturbs the estrogen receptors of the heart, the blood vessels, and the nervous system. This is one example of drugs becoming a leading cause of death, death by medical treatment.

According to Ph.D. G. Null, C. Dean, M.D. N.D., et al, (2003) Death by Medicine. New York, Nutrition Institute of America, there are more than 300,000 deaths each year from prescription drugs.

The key word in this is synthetic.

Read the whole story in Dr. Bruce Lipton’s The Biology of Belief, Chapter 4, pp.76-77.

Eli Lilly agreed to pay the state of West Virginia $22.5 million dollars to end litigation on its illegal off-label promotion of its top selling antipsychotic drug Zyprexa. In May 2008 it was shown that even a single dose of Zyprexa for an older person with dementia raised the likelihood of a serious health event or death in the next 30 days by over 300 percent. Since Xyprexa is 25% of Eli Lilly’s sales and raking in $4.5 billion a year, they would rather pay a fine, even if it’s in the millions, than to take the drug off the market.

Eli Lilly’s second best drug is Cymbalta, an anti-depressant that carries serious risks. It killed 19 year old Traci Johnson who was perfectly healthy before taking Cymbalta.

When will Americans wake up?

For the rest of the story: www.WellnessResources.com August 25, 2009

It’s hard to know where to begin when speaking of nutritional supplements. In 1982, supplement sales amounted to only two billion dollars. By 1999, sales were more than $15 billion, and growing more each day.

Only a couple of decades ago, just a few vitamins and minerals were the only supplements nutritionists needed to know about. Now with all the scientific advances that we have seen and are seeing every day, we’re beginning to understand how these supplements work in the human body.

Traditionally doctors have told us we don’t need supplements. They kept saying that over the years even as they began taking supplements for themselves. The FDA and other branches of our government are slow to come into the 21^st century. Because the pharmaceutical companies basically write the laws on food and drugs, and the need for health care, neutraceuticals are being outlawed in many cases. The Food Guide Pyramid is calculated to contain all the nutrients a body needs. They maintain therefore you don’t need supplements if you follow the Food Guide Pyramid. Today we know the Food Guide Pyramid is neither accurate nor complete.

Those who propose taking supplements are often negatively placed into the alternate health care position. But we know there is a profound difference between the absence of scurvy and optimum health when taking vitamin C. And unfortunately until recently the FDA has taken the stance that one size fits all.

Do we buy fire insurance because we know we’re going to have a fire? So nutritional “insurance” will help provide us with a healthy body. Also, many drugs prescribed by doctors drain away vital nutrients. For example, if you are taking Lipitor, your doctor should prescribe Coenzyme Q 10. Mine didn’t. The essential fatty acids in fish oils does a better job than Lipitor in lowering cholesterol. But following that line would make a hugh dent in the $20 billion a year in sales for Lipitor alone. Take away the 95% that is not needed and see where that leaves the pharmaceuticals.

The reason the pharmaceutical companies need to advertise so heavily in print and TV is that thinking people would stop buying all these drugs if not for the scare tactics of the pharmaceutical companies. When people stop buying all these processed foods and go back to whole food without the nutrition taken out the pharmaceutical companies would loose billions and billions of dollars each year and they want to feed the fat cats.

In the 1960s India was struggling to feed its people. America came to the “rescue” by developing high yielding wheat varieties for Punjab. By 1970 the new seed nearly tripled farmers’ production. As long as there was plenty of water and synthetic fertilizer and little competition from weeds and insects the yield was fantastic. The Indian government subsidized canals, fertilizer and the drilling of tube wells for irrigation.

Today the yield in Punjab has flattened since the mid 1990s. Over irrigation has led to steep drops in the water table. Thousands of acres of land have been lost to salinization and waterlogged soil.

Today the water is contaminated and poisonous yet people drink it and die of cancer. Researchers have found pesticides in the Punjabi farmers’ blood, their water table, their vegetables and even their wife’s breast milk.

The “rescue” of Punjab kept millions from starving to death only to die of cancer. Sometimes a quick fix is not the answer.

Read the rest of the story in “The End of Plenty”, National Geographic, June 2009

As scientists continue to explore the different molecules and genes, they are finding ways which not only lengthen life but also keep up the quality of life. Who wants to live to be 100 if the last 10 years are filled with disease and dementia?

Dr. Joseph Maroon, a noted neuroscientist and surgeon, takes a definitive look at recent scientific breakthroughs indentifying a group of natural substances that can actually activate a specific set of genes in humans that promote a longer, healthier life. The combination of substances which make red wine, dark chocolate, and green tea good for us seem to put off an array of age-related illnesses.

Resveratrol, which is making news everywhere today, has been isolated by scientists at Harvard Medical School and others, to become affordable and a safe supplement. With these natural ingredients what will become of the pharmaceutical companies? I personally have lowered my cholesterol with omega-3 and no longer take statin drugs (my doctor is watching closely because she wants me back on statin drugs. And that’s what she has been educated to do).

Dr Maroon goes back to Mendal’s experiment with peas in 1856 and brings us through the years how science has isolated genes, chromosomes, cells, DNA, RNA, and on and on. Now they have found out how the skin of red grapes, the green tea and the omega-3 can lengthen our life and increase our vitality. His book THE LONGEVITY FACTOR will give you the answers.

If we would but take the time to learn how we can be healthier, we would find that it would be easier to give up our bad habits of eating empty calories and enjoy a more disease free life.

To your health!

As we age we see a loss of organ reserve, not only do our muscles get weaker, many other factors play in as well as our bodies seem to grow old. But the biggest factor contributing to the deterioration of our body is nutrition. Most people still do not eat a good diet with the food that is responsible for building us up. We consume too many omega-6 oils (safflower, sunflower, corn, soybean, cottonseed as well as others). We need to increase our consumption of omega-3 oils (fish oil supplements, flax seed, and others). Omega-3 is an anti-inflammatory essential fatty oil which improves the elasticity of every cell in our body. Cells that are hydrated and oxygenated work at an optimal level and reverse the aging process. With a smooth functioning, healthy body we see our energy levels rise. More and more studies tell us that as we take the proper nutrients, and not drugs, there is less likelihood of disease. Disease is not natural or normal. We bring it upon ourselves by improper eating and taking too many drugs. Drugs are sometimes needed in some cases but the widespread use of drugs in America is making us a sicker nation than any other industrialized nation in the world.

If you want to live a long healthy life examine what you are doing—eat properly, meditate, exercise, and breathe deeply.

There is a long trail in the making of cholesterol. And in these steps we find the Achilles heel of the statin drugs.

“The mevalonic acid-HMG-CoA reductase step is but the first step on the long climb to cholesterol synthesis. Many intermediate steps are required before the ultimate goal of cholesterol synthesis is achieved. In at least two of these steps, five carbon units of the enormous steroid class of drugs, destined to be used for other biosynthetic pathways in the human body, are involved. Statin drugs, while curtailing cholesterol biosynthesis, must inevitably inhibit the production of these vital intermediary products. One might say these two simple steps are probably the Achilles heel of the statin drugs, in that the side effects resulting from impaired production of these substances may be intolerable or even harmful to many. . . .The inevitability of significant, serious and even lethal side effects has been knowingly accepted. Production of the ubiquinone coenzyme [CoQ10] is one of these collaterally damaged areas of great concern since the ramifications are both broad and profound. Biosynthesized in the mitochondria—the tiny powerhouse of the cell that is responsible for cellular respiration and energy—ubiquinone functions as a vital and necessary electron carrier to our ultimate respiratory enzyme, cytochrome oxidase. Because of the extremely high energy demands of the heart, this organ is usually the first to feel the statin-associated CoQ10 depletion as cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure.” (1)

1.      Graveline, Duane, M.D., LIPITOR, THIEF OF MEMORY, Published by Duane Graveline MD. 2006, p.56

The central issue is a power struggle between the federal government and states. The Supreme Court in an unexpected 6-3 ruling said that the federal government has no authority to pre-empt states rights to sue if you are injured by a drug. This went against the past administration and is a major victory for every American citizen.

The FDA, acting on behalf of the Bush administration and on the side of Big Pharma, has helped to tie up thousands of drug injury lawsuits across the country. While the FDA is supposed to help protect the consumer it apparently said the consumer had no right to sue over drug injuries.

If you read my last blog “Death By Drugs” you know this a big step forward for the individual.

The Bush administration had intentionally appointed anti-safety people in high positions within the FDA. During the final years of the Bush administration cancer industry insider Andrew von Eschenbach, MD, was appointed to run the FDA, and Wall Street insider, Scott Gottlieb, MD, was second in command. They wanted to make sure that new drugs could be put on the market sooner with less testing and the consumer had no right to sue for damages.

Look at what we’re now learning about statin drugs.  The FDA already knows that the full extent of a new drug isn’t known for years. And history shows us that Big Pharma intentionally hides risk data from the FDA and pays for “science” that distorts reality. One small step for  mankind.