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Walk Raises $58,000 to Fight Lupus

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:49:48 -0600

By Chaneé Patterson

RICHMOND, Va. – Pouring rain didn’t discourage hundreds of walkers who came out recently to Richmond International Raceway to raise money and awareness for lupus patients.

Lupus is an immune-system disease that attacks the skin, joints and major organs. An estimated 1.5 million Americans, including 40,000 Virginians, have a form of lupus.

The Richmond Walk for Lupus Now ’09 did more than educate people about the disease. It also raised more than $58,375 in donations – surpassing the goal of $50,000. The event, one of 50 walks sponsored by the Lupus Foundation of America, was held Oct. 31.

The top fundraiser at the Richmond walk was Tamara Williams, who collected almost $3,150.

At about 10:30 a.m., lupus patients began the four-lap walk around the racetrack as hundreds of others tagged along. People were given nutrition bars and bottles of water to help stay energized.

“I want to thank you guys so much for coming out today to support this great cause,” said Edwin Thomas, who served as emcee for the walk.

“We have a lot of people to thank for putting this event together. Is everyone enjoying the music and prepared to begin the walk?”

Hundreds of people walked four laps as others rested under the tents protecting them from the rain.

“I felt really good after the walk,” said Akiah Brown, one of the participants.

“I did this for a good cause to help raise awareness for those affected with lupus. Seeing so many people here for the same cause is touching because I never knew that people actually cared. Seeing young children to elderly adults to handicaps walking and raising money to help awareness lupus made my day.”

The rain didn’t dampen the spirits of the walker or the volunteers. Several organizations from Virginia Commonwealth University helped with the event, including the Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta sororities.

New-Found Treatment

The day after the lupus awareness walk at Richmond International Raceway, participants received an e-mail with groundbreaking news – about a new drug for treating lupus.

The drug is called BENLYSTA. If endorsed by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration, it would be the first drug ever developed and approved specifically for the treatment of lupus.

Human Genome Sciences and GlaxoSmithKline are conducting clinical trials with BENLYSTA and have found that it reduces disease activity.

“Individuals with lupus and their families have waited more than 50 years to hear that it is possible to develop therapies that control the disease,” said Sandra Raymond, president of the Lupus Foundation of America.

“We believe that this is a significant first step in developing the full arsenal of therapies and personalized treatment lupus requires.”

Frequently Asked Questions about Lupus

Q: What is lupus?

A: Lupus is a rare form of tuberculosis of the skin, characterized by brownish tubercles that often heal slowly and leave scars. If you have lupus, something goes wrong with your immune system and it attacks healthy cells and tissues. This can damage joints, skin, kidneys, heart, lungs, blood vessels and brain.

Q: Who gets lupus?

A: Anyone can get lupus. It is more common in African-Americans than in whites.

Q: What are some symptoms of lupus?

A: Symptoms include muscle pains, swollen glands, sensitivity to the sun and hair loss.

Source: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases

Do latest studies show niacin may work better than prescription drugs at lowering cholesterol?

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:07:41 -0600

Latest studies have reviewed the data and the effects, and found that the simplest solution, natural niacin is still the best way to lower your LDL (bad) cholesterol that signifies calcification, and raise your HDL (good) cholesterol that removes the (bad) cholesterol before it calcifies your arteries and organs.

One example would be Niacin-Time, among other brands of niacin, with cholesterol lowering abilities. You can buy niacin over the counter in either the non-flush form or the regular. But some doctors warn their patients not to take the time-release form of niacin, as past studies showed it might damage the liver or cause fatalities. How do consumers make informed decisions about what to do when the LDL cholesterol is judged too high by healthcare professionals and the HDL cholesterol is too low?

The newest study was intended to examine the potential benefits of adding a second drug — either Zetia or niacin — to the treatment regime of people already taking a statin. See the Nov. 16, 2009 article, "New Study Compares the Effectiveness of Cholesterol Controlling Drugs."

That small study published in The New England Journal of Medicine compared the effectiveness of two drugs used in combination with a statin (Simvastatin or Atorvastatin) to control cholesterol levels. Also see the NY Times article, Nov. 16, 2009, "Study Raises Question About Cholesterol Drug's Benefit." The results of the study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, were presented Sunday night, November 15, 2009 at an annual meeting of the American Heart Association.

In the latest study, participants were randomly assigned into two groups, one group took Abbott Laboratories extended-release niacin, the other was given Merck and Schering-Plough’s ezetimibe (Zetia). Niacin can increase HDL cholesterol, known as good cholesterol because it is believed to scavenge bad cholesterol and remove it from the body. Researchers measured the differences in changes to arterial wall thickness in the two groups.

Would you rather take an over-the-counter vitamin (niacin--vitamin B3) or a prescription drug? If you still want a prescription, should you ask your doctor to prescribe Niaspan because then your doctor would be managing and testing how the Niaspan is working, how it's treating your liver, for example? Niaspan, the prescription form of Niacin is listed in the Physician's Desk Reference book of drugs.

Numerous studies compared Niaspan to a brand of lovastatin with extended release niacin. Also studies compared the special matrix of Niacin Time. For example a study showed Niacin-Time got into the bloodstream in a more convenient way.

On the other hand, you'll hear niacin has been linked to abnormal liver enzymes such as elevated alkaline phosphatase. That's why you'll want your doctor to check your levels of liver enzymes. Here's a question for your doctor: Did the possible liver abnormality that caused the high cholesterol in the first place also cause the liver enzyme elevations? Or was it the niacin? People on placebos also may have elevated liver enzymes. So that's a problem your doctor will have to figure out through testing.

In the meantime, vitamin B3 (niacin) works well along with most of the other nutrients you need. You can't use one vitamin as a drug alone by itself. It works when combined with the complex of all the other vitamins, minerals, and nutrients you take in daily.

Ask your doctor this second question: When taking the prescription form of niacin called Niaspan, is there a raised chance or isn't there a raised chance of liver toxicity because the dosage is so high? On the other hand, if you ask your doctor if your body is healthy enough to take over-the-counter niacin such as Niacin-Time, what is the best way to combine Niacin Time with other nutrients and/or supplements or foods that make it possible to get good cholesterol results from a lower dose of niacin?

Also ask your health care professional whether niacin is better because studies have confirmed its superior ability to get into the bloodstream better, to be better absorbed? That way a lower dose works just as well. And ask your doctor does that mean that a lower dose of niacin is a safer dose? For example, does a lower dose mean less chance of liver trouble caused by too high a dose or too fast a dose of niacin?

So the main question you want to ask your health care professional is what's the benefits of Niacin-time compared to niacin over the counter, compared to Niaspan? You want to weigh benefits against risks and find out what your liver enzymes are doing with a simple blood test.

Other tests you'll want to have done is to find out whether you have high fibrinogen. That protein shows you have an inflammation that might cause blood clots. And you want to find out whether you have a low HDL. You want to raise your HDL if it's too low. A low HDL is worse than a high LDL as long as your HDL is high. For the HDL, the higher the better, regardless of how high your LDL is.

You also want to find out whether you have elevated lipoprotein A, called Lp(a). So get tested. It's a simple blood test to find out all these answers. How niacin comes into this picture is that niacin decreases "cholesterol synthesis" in a safer way than most prescription drugs. You see, niacin, according to studies, works better than the statins in lowering fibrinogen, raising HDL, and lowering Lp(a).

Simply put, niacin is safer, but get tests anyone. You never know when you're the one who can or can't take niacin. If you look at niacin, it's Vitamin B3. Take a look at the studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association from recent studies as well as past studies. The research in one study showed that niacin raised the good cholesterol (HDL) 29 percent, and lowered trigylcerides 28 percent.

In that same study, the statin drug tested then, did not do the same job. In another study, niacin reversed cholesterol transport. In another study, niacin reversed artery disease. Some doctors talk about Niacin-Time benefits. Other doctors warn you to test your liver enzymes so you won't have a fatality from too quick and too high a dose of niacin. That's why it's important to talk to several health care professionals and get a liver enzyme test to find out how your liver responds to changes.

If you turn to red yeast rice, it's a form of a statin, but some brands might contain citrinin, a mold toxin that might damage your kidneys. That's why you want a product without citrinin. One safe brand is Wakunaga's Kyolic Formula 107 Red Yeast Rice. It doesn't have citrinin, according to the book The Cholesterol Hoax, page 49, in the section, "Not All Red Yeast Preparations are Safe or Even Effective," by Sherry A. Rogers, M.D.

Vitamin C also is good for cholesterol when you lool up studies dating back to the 1950s. Some studies in the past have noted that a vitamin C deficiency causes high cholesterol, according to the book, The Cholesterol Hoax, by Sherry A. Rogers, M.D., page 55.

If you're deficient in vitamin C, naturally your bile acids are going to be reduced because vitamin C is required to change cholesterol into bile. You need bile because it helps you absorb fat-soluble acids, vitamins, and other nutrients from food. All these nutrients are supposed to balance your cholesterol. What consumers need to know, as they talk to health care professionals, is to compare studies of the past with the present.

A generation ago researchers tested vitamins. Currently scientists compare prescription drugs. It's news when vitamins are actually compared to drugs and perform better at lowering LDL and raising HDL cholesterol, which is what the goal is for health. Here is a resource list below of articles on the latest studies comparing niacin, that is vitamin B3 against prescription drugs. It's news when vitamins perform better at lowering the bad and raising the good cholesterol.

What's the verdict on niacin going to be? On one hand the latest study was small, but on the other side, most consumers would rather use vitamins and nutrients as long as what is used is safer, works well, and does a better job of normalizing cholesterol.

The idea of using a vitamin you can buy over the counter at a health food store or supermarket sounds great in the face of rapidly rising drug prices. In the past year, the big pharmaceutical industry has raised the wholesale prices of brand-name prescription drugs by around 9 percent, according to industry analysts.

Health food stores selling vitamins look at the more than $300 billion nation's drug bill. By raising the wholesale prices of prescription drugs by 9 percent, another $10 billion is addded to the nation's drug bill.

Niacin, a vitamin, if it continues to prove that it works well to lower the "bad" cholesterol and raise the "good" cholesterol over the long run, might look good to consumers considering the effects of the highest annual rate of inflation for prescription drubs since 1992. For further information on rising drug prices, see the New York Times article published in the Sacramento Bee on November 16, 2009, "Drug prices rise at rapid pace: industry has vowed to make cuts in future," by Duff Wilson, New York Times. Also see, "Prescription Drugs: High Costs, Tough Choices."

What The Latest Studies Report on Niacin Compared to Prescription Statins and other Drugs

Niacin shrinks artery plaque; Merck's Zetia does not and may carry risks, new study finds

Niaspan has been gaining but lags far behind the prescription statins — 5.8 million prescriptions in 2008, up 11 percent from 2007.

Niacin beats Zetia in the ARBITER 6-HALTS trial

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, boosting HDL cholesterol with extended-release niacin (Niaspan) is a more effective way of slowing atherosclerosis in high-risk patients on long-term statin therapy than seeking additional LDL cholesterol reductions by adding ezetimibe.

In patients with elevated cholesterol levels, statin therapyreduces the incidence of cardiovascular events by 25 to 45%.Despite the administration of a statin, many patients requireadditional lipid-lowering therapy because their target lipid-levelgoals are not reached or they have a cardiovascular event. Treatmentcan be intensified through further reductions in low-densitylipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol or attempts to raise high-densitylipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels.

New Study Raises New Questions About Cholesterol Drug Zetia.

This new study reported November 15, 2009 raised more questions about ezetimibe (Zetia), a drug used by millions of Americans in tandem with statins to lower LDL, or "bad," cholesterol.

According to the article, ARBITER-6 HALTS clinical trial had been stopped early in June after it was discovered that LDL-cholesterol-lowering Zetia was less effective than extended-release niacin (Niaspan), which raises HDL, or "good," cholesterol levels, in reducing plaque build-up in the arteries.

Why are clinical trials terminated early? The answer is safety issues rather than a finding of success, which could be temporary or permanent. But the niacin combination also reduced the number of heart attacks and deaths. For more information on this study and to read the entire article on the ARBITER-6 HALTS clinical trial that was stopped early in June, check out the drugs.com website for the latest medical news.

A New Cholesterol Study Puts Focus on Merck Drugs New York Times - Nov 12, 2009. According to this New York Times article, niacin can increase HDL cholesterol, known as good cholesterol because it is believed to scavenge bad cholesterol and remove it from the body.

New Study Compares Effectiveness of Cholesterol Controlling Drugs

Study Raises Question About Cholesterol Drug's Benefit

Drug Side Effects

J&K Govt enhances stipend, remuneration of PG students, House Surgeons

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:13:12 -0600

Jammu, November 16 (Vijay Kumar) -–, Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday accorded sanction to enhancement in the monthly stipend of Post graduate students of Government Medical and Dental Colleges with effect from July 01, 2009. With this, the Government has fulfilled its commitment to redress the grievances of the junior doctors with regard to their remuneration.

The Chief Minister, Omer Abdullah had constituted a Ministerial Committee under the chairmanship of Finance Minister, Abdul Rahim Rather, Minister for Medical Education, R.S. Chib, Minister for Health, Sham Lal Sharma, Advisors to Chief Minister, Davinder Rana and Mubarak Gul and senior officers of the adminsitration to look into the grievances of the junior doctors with regard to pay incentives.

Subsequently, the Finance Minister had assured the agitating doctors that appropriate orders in this regard shall be issued on November 17, 2009, in case they withdraw their strike as it was not justified because it has caused inconvenience to the people and their strike cannot constraint the Government to take a decision under compulsion. He told them that Government is already conscious of their problems and they were already given commitment in August 2009 that their grievance will be redressed appropriately. They were advised by Rather to call off their strike and resume their duties to serve the people. Accordingly, the striking junior doctors called off their strike both at Jammu and in Srinagar.

The Ministerial Committee after analyzing the demands of the junior doctors and considering all relevant matters, recommended revision of stipend and other incentives, after which the Government today issued an order in this regard.

According to the Government order the monthly stipend of Post graduate students of first year has been revised from Rs. 11,850 to Rs. 20,000. The stipend of second year Post graduate students has been revised from existing Rs. 15,700 to Rs. 21,000 whereas the stipend of 3rd year Post graduate students has been revised from existing Rs. 15,700 to Rs. 22,000. The revised rates shall bear an annual increase of 3 percent.

Enhancement in the monthly remuneration of Non-PSC Registrars/Demonstrators/Tutors possessing Post graduate qualification with effect from July 01, 2009 from the existing rate of Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 23,000 in respect of incumbents who are in position. This dispensation would be restricted to in-position incumbents only.

Likewise, the monthly remuneration of House Surgeons with effect from July 01, 2009 has been fixed at Rs. 19,500 till a final view is taken on the position of house surgeons itself.

Grant of special dispensation comprising following two components to the doctors in pay band 2nd appointed on substantive basis in the Directorates of Health Services and Government Medical/Dental Colleges has also been ordered.

a) Special pay of Rs. 900 to be merged with the basic pay and counting for all allowances including pensionery benefits.

b) A Special Duty Allowance of Rs. 800 as a stand-alone component to be retained as distinct element not counting for any allowance and pensionery benefits.

The Government has also sanctioned grant of two advance increments to the doctors in the pay band 2nd appointed on substantive basis in the Directorates of Health Services and possessing post graduate qualification. Likewise sanction has been accorded to the grant of three advance increments to the Lecturers in pay band 2nd appointed on substantive basis in the Government Medical/Dental Colleges and possessing post graduate qualification.

www.scoopnews.in

Sir Alex Ferguson has been banned for insulting the referee 4 games a fine of ￡ 20,000

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:32:35 -0600

As in last month's game using insulting language to criticize when the value of refereeuggs Yilunweili, Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson on the 12th FA was fined ￡ 20,000, suspended for four games of the punishment, ban may be suspended for two of them to the Executive before the end of next season. ???? On the same day a hearing held by the British Football Association, now 67-year-old Ugg Bailey ButtonFerger Sen admitted his improper remarks of the referee. In the October 3 Manchester United's 2-2 home draw against Sunderland match, Sir Alex Ferguson accused Willie poor health, unable to match the normal law enforcement. ???? "Pace of the game require the referee must Bailey Button UGG Boots have adequate physical strength, you can look at most of the foreign referee at full strength, running up like a butcher's dog house; but he (Willie) No, dig a yellow card to spend 30 seconds, it is indeed absurd that he should take a rest. "Ferguson in that interview with the media after the game so when the referee evaluations. ???? English Football Association disciplinary committee who that Ferguson's remarks and his contribution to football and football disproportionate prestige, probably a wrong signal to others that he should never have said such things . ???? Hot temper, Ferguson had also Classic Cardy Ugg Boots insulted the referee due to the English Football Association has been punished several times, and this total is also banned for four games in recent years, the most severe punishment ever held. In last Sunday lost to Chelsea 0-1 Manchester United game, "Sir Alex," also criticized the referee when the value of Atkins, saying that "sometimes the performance of referee has given the players no longer trust." But thaustralia ugge English FA later said that such comments would not be punished for this Scotsman.

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How does the flu in pregnant moms change the brains and genes of unborn babies?

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:17:31 -0600

Can having any mutation of the flu change or damage the brains of unborn babies? If the flu itself damages the hippocampus, the result could be linked to autism, Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia.

Let's take a logical look at one of the original studies, published in the medical journal, European Neuropsychopharmacology. Scientists published their report in the medical journal, European Neuropsychopharmacology, listing more than a dozen genes that the swine flu virus adversely affected.

The study was done on mice, not humans. But think about it. Geneticists want to know how some of those genes are tied to the development of the hippocampus, a component of the brain involved in long term memory and spatial navigation.

View the article, " Swine Flu Can Change Genes of Unborn " published July 27, 2009 at Blisstree.com suggesting that swine flu in pregnant women may change the genes of unborn children resulting in damage to the hippocampus. According to the article, neuroscientists found that the H1N1 changes the genes that control brain growth and development in the unborn child.

The team of researchers and lead scientist, Hossein Fatemi as part of the experiment, injected pregnant female mice with the H1N1 and studied the brains of the newborn mice. Mice exposed to the H1N1 virus in the womb had a fifteen percent reduction in the size of their hippocampus. Scientists also found twelve other genes that the flu virus negatively affected.

Does the study confirm the public health recommendation that pregnant women need to be vaccinated against the H1N1 virus? If so, the question consumers need to ask is whether getting flu shots of the killed virus do anything to the brains of the infants yet unborn when the pregnant women get the recommended shots? On one hand, you don't want to get the flu when pregnant. Your immune system is compromised when you're pregnant. You want protection. Should you get vaccinated when pregnant?

On the other hand, the question is how is your unborn baby's brain going to be affected by the dead virus, the mercury and formaldehyde in the shot, or any other factor? Should you ask for mercury-free vaccinations--no thimerosol?

You don't want the flu, and vaccination is a priority for pregnant women. But what will the hippocampus of your baby's brain look like? You're not going to be given the live virus up the nose because you'll be shedding it for days after vaccination to other family members, people standing next to you in the stores you shop at, and co-workers. You'll be getting the shot, if you choose to have it.

Read the article, " Scientist Says H1N1 Flu Virus Could Damage Brains of Unborn Children," published July 24, 2009 at Lifenews.com . The article reports, " A neuroscientist at the University of Minnesota medical school has published a paper saying the H1N1 swine flu virus could pose problems for unborn children."

Hossein Fatemi has published a new paper saying the virus, which is causing the deaths of people across the globe, could damage the developing brains of babies before birth." Notice that the article is about the flu, not the vaccine. But consumers are wondering what happens to your unborn baby's brain when you get the vaccine, even if the virus is dead.

And what happens when your other young children or those you come in contact with daily get the live virus flu mist vaccine up their nose? When children recently vaccinated start shedding the virus for up to 21 days, will you catch the flu while pregnant? Those are questions consumers ask. Could other recently vaccinated children infect the pregnant mother and her unborn baby with the flu?

Did you get a receipt verifying that the adverse reaction to a vaccine had been reported to a government agency? Or did your doctor tell someone at your HMO your symptoms, and you have no knowledge of how to track your response through the HMO system to the government agency and to the drug or vaccine manufacturer?

Who keeps tabs on your adverse reactions to vaccines or other prescribed medications or even over the counter remedies? Who is in charge of taking note of adverse reactions to supplements or individual allergies? Is there a database of information where you can report your symptoms?

If you're not getting the results you want, you are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs or vaccines to the FDA. First go to the FDA website called MedWatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088. If you're going to get vaccinated for any reason, talk to your health care professional about situations you may need to avoid. Some medications and vaccinations have interactions with other environmental or medicinal issues or even the foods you eat.

For example, eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit might interrupt the way certain medications work or eating certain vegetables such as avocados or aged cheeses. It all depends on what you're taking. Talk to your doctor about what effects a vaccination or certain foods will have on you if you are taking specific medications. Find out whether you're allergic to any ingredients in a specific medication or vaccination serum such as eggs or neomycin, or any other item related to the specific type of vaccination.

Don't forget, if you have a negative reaction to any prescribed drug or vaccine given to you for your health, you can report the side effects to the FDA. One example might be that you had chickenpox as a baby. But when you're over age 60, you may not realize that the virus is till in your body and could give you shingles as you age. There's a vaccine to prevent shingles.

You need to know whether you're allergic to any of its ingredients such as neomycin or gelatin. What if you have a weakened immune system? That's why it's important to ask questions before you take any type of vaccine. Know what's in the vaccine, and whether or not you have an allergy to any substance in it. For example, before you take a flu shot, you're usually asked whether you're allergic to eggs because the vaccine is grown in eggs. Same goes for prescribed medications.

Nutritionists can research foods, but when it comes to looking at vaccines in a logical way by finding out how they're produced, you need to go beyond foods that help your health to find out whose watching the watchers. How do vaccines work?

If the media isn't watching the watchers quickly enough, then it's up to the people, the consumers, even the citizen journalists to watch the credible, logical, and validated research. What did you always want to ask about vaccines?

When it comes to vaccines, you need to know how they work. According to the October 21, 2009 Planet News article, " Vaccines: How do they work?" there's an excellent report on how the flu vaccine is produced. For example, flu vaccines are made by introducing an inactivated strain of flu (hypodermic) or a weakened live virus (nasal spray), an immune system can be taught which particular type of invasive cells to be looking for and how to eradicate them, thereby building an immunity to that strain of flu. The technology has been in use for 60 years. Nasal sprays, sold under the name “FluMist,” were approved for use in 2003.

The article reports how the vaccine shot form is produced "by growing the virus in chicken eggs. New research is currently being explored that will use canine kidney cells, insect eggs, and retinas from aborted fetal tissues. In 2005, the Bush administration allocated more than $7 billion to pharmaceutical companies for the production of these ‘cell line’ factories. The virus is rendered inert by either the addition of formalin (an aqueous solution of formaldehyde) or by exposure to UV rays. The current swine flu vaccine used both methods to deactivate the virus."

According to " Vaccines: How do they work ?" the article reports that a "2009 study in Current Topics Microbiology Immunology reported that Center for Disease Control (CDC) officials conceded the ability of flu vaccines to generate sufficient antibodies and effectively reduce symptoms and prevent death is only about 30 to 50 percent. Other experts say most years the efficacy is 70 to 80 percent."

Also see the article, " The American Flu Charade by Bill Sardi ." According to this article, millions of doses of flu vaccine will go unused. The article reports, "With a Consumer Reports poll showing nearly 2/3rds of U.S. parents will hold off on having their children vaccinated with the H1N1 late-2009 season flu vaccine, health authorities are likely to resort to scare tactics as they have in past years to induce parents into having their children vaccinated. You can’t cry wolf every year. The Consumer Reports telephone survey shows 50% of U.S. parents are delaying their decision to have their children vaccinated and another 14% will forego vaccination altogether."

What happens to the vaccines not used in the USA? Are they shipped overseas to places that have a higher rate of illness for children? The big worry in this article notes that, "The first flu vaccines in use will be nasally-administered Flumist® which utilizes "live" viruses. Flumist®-vaccinated individuals will shed viruses for 5 days following inoculation and are likely to spread the virus to family members."

What fears are spreading is that the children shedding the live viruses will spread the flu to older adults who come in contact with their grandchildren and from there it could sweep through nursing homes for the frail elderly. The article notes, "senior adults living in a home with others who have received Flumist® are at greater risk to become infected, though no warning is issued over this."

The point made about any vaccine is to find out which facts actually can be validated and evaluated. View the interview with Barb Loe Fisher, Founder of the National Vaccine Information Center video at the HealthyAgain site. You also can compare this video with the 60 Minutes 1977 video also on that site about that swine flu issue.

The Doctor Yourself site offers an article, " Why Flu Shots Don't Work ." Another article takes a different view in, " How to be a swine flu vaccine zealot (satire) by Mike Adams ." Another article states, " 60 Percent of Doctors Don't Get a Flu Shot: Why Medical Experts, Parents and Others Avoid the Flu shot . The reason usually stated is, "I'm too busy." Most medical professionals are encouraged to promote vaccines. View the article by Victoria Anisman-Reiner written for Suite 101 August 5, 2009.

The big push against vaccines, according to the article, may come from some of the holistic practitioners telling people that vaccines damage the immune system "by acting as an immunosuppressant which hinders the natural immune system response and contributes to immune system disorders," according to the article, " 60 Percent of Doctors Don't Get a Flu Shot: Why Medical Experts, Parents and Others Avoid the Flu shot ."

The problem for the consumer is to debunk myths with facts. But where do you find reliable facts and resources? Read the article, " Flu Shots Work Best in Married Senior Citizens, Worst in Those Sad. This article notes, "Senior citizens who are happily married show stronger responses to flu shots that those who are unmarried, especially those who are widowed. And, flu shots do not work as well in older adults who have recently experienced the death of a family member or close friend, a new study shows." Also read the article, " Vaccinated Senior Citizens Less Likely to Die from Pneumonia ."

Another article states, " Don't Use Amantadine or Rimandatine to Treat Flu, Warns CDC ," because "evidence indicates Influenza A viruses in US are resistant to these drugs." So who do you believe? It's not so much about belief, but about results and validations. The decision is up to the individual as to what and where to research in order to balance risk against benefit when pregnant.

Photo credits: Flickr.com . For further references, see: lifenews.

Aldo Leopold: An early environmental activist

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:32:15 -0600

Aldo Leopold was a visionary ecologist of the first half of the twentieth century. I’m reading his classic A Sand County Almanac (Oxford University Press, 1949), a then-radical view of the imbalance between human activity and the needs of the environment, as considered by a scientist, hunter, and deeply thoughtful observer of his surroundings.

It’s a book of love and grief.

It was written in the 1940s, when Leopold could already see the wilderness he adored being hacked away at by civilization, and he knew it could not be stopped.

“Man always kills the thing he loves, and so we the pioneers have killed our wilderness. Some say we had to. Be that as it may, I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in.”

He describes lovingly, and in poetic terms almost devoid of cliche, the quirks of pines and chickadees, rabbits and marshes. He examines the benefits of tree diseases that open up trunks to all manner of inhabitants. He questions his sentimental attachments and self-serving aversions. He traces history through the rings of a stump. He is an overflowing fund of information.

He was acutely aware of the interdependence of every element of nature. He describes in great detail the cascade of effects when a species is eliminated from a habitat, as for instance, the explosion of vegetation-ravaging deer that followed upon the extirpation of wolves:

“I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer. And perhaps with better cause, for while a buck pulled down by wolves can be replaced in two or three years, a range pulled down by too many deer may fail of replacement in as many decades.”

Further, he has the audacity–not common in these days, when safety has become a moral issue, spawning laws on issues from seat belts to vaccines–to comment that “too much safety seems to yield only danger in the long run. Perhaps this is behind Thoreau’s dictum: In wildness is the salvation of the world.”

The one hopeful thought I’m having is that Leopold was one of the few who recognized, in those days, the devastation that was being wrought. Today there are millions, and the urgency of the situation is bringing us together. May we accomplish something great!

Psychiatrist Was Paid $500Kto Promote Antipsychotic Drug, Despite Doubts

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:37:23 -0600

Chanile Hayes came under Dr. Michael Reinstein's care after suffering a nervous breakdown. Hayes went from 140 pounds to nearly 300 in two years after taking Seroquel, a drug that Reinstein was paid to promote by its manufacturer, AstraZeneca. (Abel Uribe/Chicago Tribune)

This story was co-published with the Chicago Tribune [1].

Executives inside pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca faced a high-stakes dilemma.

On one hand, Chicago psychiatrist Dr. Michael Reinstein was bringing the company a small fortune in sales and was conducting research that made one of its most promising drugs look spectacular.

On the other, some worried that his research findings might be too good to be true.

As Reinstein grew irritated with what he perceived as the company's slights, a top executive outlined the scenario in an e-mail to colleagues.

In an e-mail, an AstraZeneca executive says Reinstein should get careful treatment because of his potential worth to the company.

[2] "If he is in fact worth half a billion dollars to (AstraZeneca)," the company's U.S. sales chief wrote in 2001 [2], "we need to put him in a different category." To avoid scaring Reinstein away, he said, the firm should answer "his every query and satisfy any of his quirky behaviors."

Putting aside its concerns, AstraZeneca would continue its relationship with Reinstein, paying him $490,000 over a decade to travel the nation promoting its best-selling antipsychotic drug, Seroquel. In return, Reinstein provided the company a vast customer base: thousands of indigent, mentally ill residents in Chicago-area nursing homes.

During this period, Reinstein also faced accusations that he overmedicated and neglected patients who took a variety of drugs. But his research and promotional work went on, including studies and presentations examining many of the antipsychotics he prescribed on his daily rounds.

The AstraZeneca payments, filed as exhibits in a federal

lawsuit [3]

, highlight the extent to which a leading drug company helped sustain one of the busiest psychiatrists working in local nursing facilities.

In an interview and in response to written questions, Reinstein said industry payments he has received for speeches and other engagements have had no bearing on his research results or patient care. He said he does not "accept any money from corporations to study their medications. This eliminates any possible conflicts of interest."

But he does receive money from the Uptown Research Institute, a for-profit business that conducts industry and federally funded studies on psychotropic drugs to help mentally ill patients.

Reinstein's office in Uptown is adjacent to the research institute, which is owned by John Sonnenberg, a clinical psychologist who describes Reinstein as "a mentor of mine" and "brilliant."

Sonnenberg said drugmakers and others pay his institute to do research, and the group, in turn, pays Reinstein a consulting fee "under $2,000 a month" and has for many years.

"But my research organization is separate from him, financially and organizationally," Sonnenberg said.

While payments from drugmakers to researchers are legal, critics have long argued that they should be publicly disclosed. Legislation to make Illinois one of a handful of states to require disclosure died in Springfield this year but is included in the U.S. House and Senate versions of health care reform proposals.

"We need to know that we can fully trust the relationship we have with our doctor and that another, more lucrative relationship with industry does not outweigh it," Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., who is pushing for such reform, told ProPublica and the Tribune.

Health professionals who have encountered Reinstein have had similar concerns. When he gave promotional presentations about various medications at Grasmere Place nursing home in Chicago, case manager Staci Burton recalled that she was pleased to get free lunches. But she said she wondered why Reinstein put his patients on twice as many drugs as other psychiatrists who treated residents.

"I was thinking, `Why are you using so many medications?' " Burton, who worked at the facility from 2004 to 2006, said in an interview. "(His patients) would have symptoms, they'd have all these side effects, and their doctor was not listening."

Psychotropics to lose weight?

Chanile Hayes, a South Side resident, is among thousands of patients nationwide suing AstraZeneca for allegedly concealing Seroquel's links to weight gain and diabetes. Hayes is a plaintiff in a 2007 case in New York County Supreme Court. Numerous e-mails and exhibits referenced in this story were filed in federal court in Orlando, Fla.

Reinstein is not a defendant in either ongoing case, but Orlando plaintiffs have cast him as a key figure: an influential promoter of Seroquel who was financially backed by AstraZeneca. They allege that Reinstein has claimed that the antipsychotic drug helps patients lose weight.

Hayes said she came under Reinstein's care at a psychiatric hospital after she suffered a nervous breakdown nearly 10 years ago. She said she found it odd when Reinstein told her that taking Seroquel would help her lose weight.

"I couldn't understand why he wasn't taking it because he was a plus-sized man himself," said Hayes, now 37. Hayes said she went from 140 pounds to nearly 300 within two years of taking the drug and later developed diabetes.

Reinstein has done studies, funded by AstraZeneca and two other drugmakers, that found that various medications, including Seroquel, carry an unexpected yet welcome side effect: They help some patients shed pounds.

That claim runs counter to established research that links so-called atypical antipsychotic drugs, such as Seroquel, to considerable weight gain. Drugs in this class, approved for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, can have other serious side effects that include spastic movement disorders and fainting and can cause premature death among the elderly.

A Seroquel flier dated 1999 [4] features a photograph of Reinstein on the cover. Inside, Reinstein describes one patient losing weight and no longer needing insulin shots because his diabetes had improved so much.

In a 2001 promotional telecast to 5,000 physicians nationwide, Reinstein said he had "jokingly kind of suggested to AstraZeneca [5]" that the drug could be used for "taking away excessive appetite."

"There's actually some nurses in some of our facilities who have actually requested (Seroquel) because they noticed it really did suppress the appetite, and they wanted to lose weight themselves," Reinstein said, according to a transcript of the speech, sponsored by AstraZeneca and broadcast from Somerset Place, a Chicago nursing home.

Reinstein is director of psychiatry at 13 Chicago-area nursing homes and two clinics.

[6] Two years after the speech, the Food and Drug Administration, armed with mounting research, asked AstraZeneca to warn patients of Seroquel's diabetes risk. The drug's label now cautions that the medication is linked to diabetes and weight gain – with nearly four times more patients gaining weight on Seroquel than on a placebo.

In his response to reporters, Reinstein characterized Seroquel as "generally weight neutral, although some patients gain weight and others lose weight."

"I would never recommend" that patients take antipsychotics "to lose weight," he wrote, and "using any of these drugs involves careful attention to weight" and other risk factors.

AstraZeneca spokesman Tony Jewell said plaintiffs in the lawsuit [3] have not proved that Seroquel was responsible for their injuries. He said the company, based in London, provided appropriate safety data about Seroquel to the FDA.

Chanile Hayes, who said she saw Reinstein during visits to his office, questioned why he prescribed her the drug: "How could you tell me that it would help me lose weight if it doesn't help (people) lose weight?"

At AstraZeneca, early doubts

In the corporate halls of AstraZeneca, the company's scientific staff also questioned Reinstein's work.

Copies of e-mails filed as part of the Seroquel litigation reveal executives' misgivings about a Reinstein study involving patients on high doses of the drug. The results that came back were too rosy for AstraZeneca's own executives to accept.

One called Reinstein's conclusion that patients experienced no adverse effects "suspect" and "hard to believe." Executives "decided that we would ... try to distance ourselves from this study," according to e-mails from John Tumas, an AstraZeneca publications manager.

Reinstein presented his findings in 2001 at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, the profession's most high-profile gathering. At least three researchers have subsequently cited his study in medical journals.

During a deposition for the Seroquel case, Reinstein said he was unaware of any criticism from AstraZeneca about his research.

But he had some criticisms of his own. Reinstein vented to one AstraZeneca employee in 2001, saying the firm was giving him the "run around," an internal company e-mail shows [7]. He also complained that the firm did not help present his research findings or include him in high-profile studies.

Within days, Reinstein wrote a letter to AstraZeneca's CEO in the U.S., identifying himself and four doctors in his practice as "the largest prescribers of Seroquel in the world." He complained that his travel expenses weren't paid upfront and called for "new leadership" in Seroquel's marketing.

Reinstein's complaints caused a stir

In a strongly worded 2001 e-mail, Georgia Tugend, the U.S. brand manager for Seroquel, reminded colleagues that research conducted by Reinstein and his partners "is often criticized by their peers in psychiatry."

Some scientists have "significant and numerous issues ... with the quality of research this group has produced in the past," Tugend wrote, yet Reinstein's group persists in "demanding research grants from us."

At one point, according to an e-mail [7] from an AstraZeneca executive, Reinstein and his partners had "blatantly threatened" to switch patients to a Seroquel competitor. Reinstein later denied that accusation during a deposition, testifying that he "cannot imagine" making such a threat.

Malcolm May, AstraZeneca's U.S. sales director, had a much different reaction to Reinstein's discontent: The company should be careful not to alienate a psychiatrist worth up to a half-billion dollars to the firm.

"I am not suggesting we kowtow to his whims, nor to support any unethical behavior," May wrote in 2001 in an e-mail to fellow AstraZeneca executives. "I am suggesting ... we need to be more responsive to his opinion and needs."

May continued: "It seems we are annoying possibly our most important single customer, and that is not acceptable... My concern is that Dr. Reinstein could be looking for a trigger to leave our fold. That would be disastrous for our Seroquel business in the short and long term."

May's message did not cite a basis for the half-billion-dollar estimate. Reached by phone, May said he did not recall sending the e-mail.

Court documents show that AstraZeneca continued to pay Reinstein to promote Seroquel until 2007. A Reinstein ledger lists hundreds of payments beginning in 1997. The payments, in increments from $10 to $20,000, totaled $490,000.

During that period, Reinstein ordered Seroquel for as many as 1,000 Chicago-area Medicaid patients per year at a total cost of $7.6 million to taxpayers, records show.

AstraZeneca spokesman Jewell said the company wasn't paying Reinstein to prescribe its drug but rather to make promotional speeches. Reinstein and AstraZeneca mutually declined to renew their ties in 2008, but Jewell wouldn't say why.

[8] Today, Reinstein said, he gets money from the maker of a dissolvable form of clozapine, another antipsychotic that he often prescribes. He said he receives less than $25,000 per year to be in its speakers bureau, which drug companies commonly set up to promote their products.

Reinstein said payments from drugmakers do not influence his prescribing or research. He said the AstraZeneca e-mails [7] grew critical of him only after he complained to the firm's U.S. chief executive.

In a deposition last year, Reinstein himself expressed surprise about some of his research results, saying one study's findings were "hard for me to believe" – in line with concerns expressed at AstraZeneca. When asked about another study in which patients lost weight on Seroquel, he said the results could have been affected by a change in the nursing home's cook or possible problems with the scales.

In all, Reinstein has published at least eight research articles, mostly about antipsychotic drugs. He has been cited in at least 20 others. Uptown Research Institute is now working on four studies involving psychotropics, said Sonnenberg, the owner.

Sonnenberg said studies by his institute "are highly scrutinized for accuracy and credibility" by the drugmakers, third-party ethics review boards and, potentially, the FDA.

Dr. Jerome Kassirer, a professor at Tufts University School of Medicine and a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, read the AstraZeneca e-mails at the request of ProPublica and the Tribune. He concluded that editors of medical journals should investigate Reinstein's published studies.

"Once you know that he has done a study that has been discredited," Kassirer said, "you have to ask yourself about all other studies done."

Researchers Lisa Schwartz and Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.

Tags: Antipsychotics, AstraZeneca, Chicago, Medicaid, Mental Health Care, Michael Reinstein, Nursing Homes, Psychiatry, Seroquel

Healthier ice cream with fiber and antioxidants is being researched by food chemistry scientists

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:27:21 -0600

November 10 - Food scientists at the University of Missouri-Columbia are finally making a healthier ice cream to be used as a functional food (whole food). What the researchers are doing is adding dietary fiber, antioxidants, and probiotics (gut bacteria that support a healthy digestive system) to regular ice cream that's at least 16 percent butterfat and sweetened with sugar.

The antioxidants are put in to catch free radicals that do endothelial damage and age people faster. See the November 10, 2009 article "Researchers Plan Ice Cream That's Good For You," by Jeanna Bryner, Senior Writer, at the Live Science site.

The goal is to develop a prototype which will be available for tasting, but not in the stores until two years from now. The tasting stage might be ready in six months. It's called functional ice cream, but it's still full-fat ice cream.

Of course, you can make your own ice cream without the fat and sugar, but you have to call it frozen dessert. A quick recipe you can make at home is to put a handful of almonds in your blender with water and liquify it, then add your favorite sweetener--honey, fruit, carob powder, or stevia. Then you add a cup of cooked quinoa and/or amaranth or both mixed together to the liquified almonds and water and blend again until the cooked grains also are liquified. Then freeze and eat.

Food chemistry scientists at the University of Missouri - Columbia are choosing their specific ingredients based on what's familiar to consumers that also has been proven healthy in past scientific studies. The ice cream is going to be marketed according to finding out why people buy ice cream. That means you buy it because it's good for you or because you like the taste, or both.

Researchers are not going to add "foreign" ingredients not familiar to most consumers. The purpose of the research is to find a healthier ice cream.

What consumers don't want is bitter taste. The healthier ice cream must not only taste good, but have the texture and flavor to attract consumers. There's a psychological reason why people buy ice cream or make it.

For example, chocolate flavor is strong enough to overcome flavors from healthy nutrients that consumers may not be familiar with. If too much fiber is put into the ice cream, it becomes gritty. No one will buy gritty ice cream.

Scientists want to make sure that if you eat the ice cream, you'll get 10 to 15 percent of your fiber requirements for that day. So the ice cream has to taste good enough so that you eat enough of it to get your fiber. Currently, açai berry is being used to put the antioxidants into the ice cream. However, if you've eaten açai berries, you know the flavor isn't what you'd want to taste in the ice cream. Now the researchers are trying out ways to balance enough antioxidant to be healthy with the least açai flavor.

Watch the video on how the University of Missouri researchers are creating the healthier ice cream.

Making Your Own Frozen Desserts

Want to make your own ice cream, or rather frozen dessert (dairy-free) healthier recipes such as avocado pine nut frozen dessert with pine nuts or fragrant frozen desserts made with lavender honey? Here are some of my frozen dessert recipes published in other Examiner articles:

How to make exotic, fragrant ice creams and spiced frozen desserts

How to make avocado-pine-nut frozen dessert/ice cream/yogurt

5-minute spiced pumpkin and coconut milk frozen dessert, shake, or ...

How to make carrot ice cream and exotic spiced frozen desserts ...

How to make your own fragrant lavender nondairy frozen desserts ...

How to make celery hibiscus frozen dessert

More References

Good Foods Gone Bad

Top 10 Bad Things That Are Good For You

Why Does Ice Cream Cause Brain Freeze?

This is diabetes awareness month - Is type 1 in US and European children also increasing?

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:10:21 -0600

Nov. 8 - Will anyone be trained to manage your child's diabetes during school hours? See the Parade Magazine's November 8, 2009 article, "A Troubling Trend in Diabetes," by Dr. Ranit Mishori. The article reports that the incidence of new cases of type 1 diabetes (juvenile diabetes) in those under age 5, is expected to double by 2020, according to the authors of the new new study published in The Lancet, a British medical journal.

The recent British study reported that the trend is predicted to become within ten years a doubling of cases of type 1 diabetes in children. Various articles report the situation is similar in the USA.

What's the Economic Cost of Diabetes?

According to the CDC's, website on Diabetes Statistics and Research, the estimated "economic cost of diabetes in 2007 was $174 billion. Of this amount, $116 billion was due to direct medical costs and $58 billion due to indirect costs such as lost workdays, restricted activity, and disability due to diabetes."

The CDC also reported that, "People with diagnosed diabetes incur average expenditures of $11,744 per year, of which $6,649 is attributed to diabetes. People with diagnosed diabetes, on average, have medical expenditures that are approximately 2.3 times higher than what expenditures would be in the absence of diabetes. Approximately $1 of $5 health care dollars in the United States is spent caring for someone with diagnosed diabetes, while approximately $1 of $10 health care dollars is attributed to diabetes."

Right now the current statistics on diabetes are the following, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, the CDC's statistics do not specify which type of diabetes has been polled, type 1 or type 2, or whether the statistics combined both forms, nor does the CDC predict the trends of diabetes in the next ten years. What the CDC reports on the frequently answered questions site, are the following statistics:

Among Americans aged 20 years or younger, less than one-quarter of 1% (about 186,300 people) have diabetes.

Among Americans aged 20 years or older, 10.7% (23.5 million people) have diabetes.

The prevalence of diabetes is greater among older people. Among Americans aged 60 years or older, 23.1% (12.2 million people) have diabetes.

For more statistics, see CDC's National Diabetes Fact Sheet 2007 National Estimates on Diabetes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Type 1 diabetes is an inflammatory, autoimmune disease, thought to be environmentally caused. See the video, True Life Story: Type 1 Diabetes. Why is the incidence of it increasing so rapidly? The person in the video explains how type 1 diabetes developed in young adulthood after her third pregnancy. She thought it was gestational diabetes, that usually disappears after pregnancy is over, but in this case, it didn't go away.

See: American Diabetes Month - American Diabetes Association. What you can do, according to the American Diabetes Association is to inspire others to join the movement by sharing your personal story. Visit stopdiabetes.com and join us on Facebook and Twitter to learn about all the exciting ways to be a part of the Stop Diabetes movement. Invite your family, friends, and co-workers to join this effort as well.

See the article based on the study, published in The Lancet, June 13, 2009. Vol. 373 No. 9680 pp 2027-2033, "Incidence trends for childhood type 1 diabetes in Europe during 1989-2003 and predicted new cases, 2005-2020: a multicentre prospective registration study."

The study concluded that, "if present trends continue, doubling of new cases of type 1 diabetes in European children younger than 5 years is predicted between 2005 and 2020, and prevalent cases younger than 15 years will rise by 70%."

The study also reported that, "adequate health-care resources to meet these children's needs should be made available." What in the environment is causing the type of diabetes that children will never grow out of, unless there's a cure waiting in the future?

The incidence of type 1 diabetes is going to double from levels of four years ago in a little more than a decade, if present trends continue, according to that recent study published in The Lancet. See: data from the EURODIAB study published online in the Lancet. But what is the validated evidence for the trend predictions?

What evidence is there that the same trend is occurring in the USA? See the study published Sept 3, 2009 in PLoS One, 4(9):e6873, "Increasing incidence of pediatric type 1 diabetes mellitus in Southeastern Wisconsin: relationship with body weight at diagnosis." The conclusion of the USA study reported, "annual incidence of T1DM increased two-fold at CHW over the 10-year study period.

The majority of the increase was observed in the youngest age groups, which also appeared to be the heaviest. This research adds to the growing literature supporting the hypothesis that excess weight gain during childhood may be a risk factor for early manifestation of type 1 diabetes (T1DM).

Also see "Explosive increase in type 1 diabetes predicted," published May 27, 2009 in Cardiobrief. The article, "Diabetes Increasing More Rapidly In UK Than In USA - Wellsphere," is of interest because it reports that the study published in the UK's "A Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health," suggests a 74% increase in Type 2 diabetes in the UK. But what about type 1 diabetes in children in the USA? See, "As America Earns Failing Grade, American Diabetes Association Launches Movement to Stop Diabetes," published in Medical News Today, Nov. 5, 2009,

Start by Ending the Myths

The article published on Nov. 5, 2009 in Medical News Today reports, "Americans earn a failing grade on diabetes awareness." The article is based on survey results released Nov. 5, 2009 by the American Diabetes Association.

Why American responses failed is a question that can be answered by remedial education about what really causes diabetes in children or adults. In general, according to that article, "Americans earned a 51% when asked a series of questions about a disease so common that it strikes every 20 seconds."

The solution to the problem is to address the myths about diabetes. It's the old folkloric tales and misinformation that keeps circulating. But maybe the cure is in folkloric medicine, if proved safe by science, for type 2 diabetes reversals.

Type 1 diabetes in children is there forever, unless science comes up with a treatment for a pancreas that stops making insulin. Time won't help while diabetes in children, the life-long type 1 variety is on the rise in the USA as well as in Europe.

November is American Diabetes Month®. What the American Diabetes Association is doing, is starting a promotional campaign, actually, a new movement that's called: Stop Diabetes(SM). Americans are encouraged to join the movement to Stop Diabetes and put an end to diabetes' physical, emotional and economic toll on the U.S. See the American Diabetes Month Fact Sheet (PDF)

How does the average parent put an end to diabetes? Is it in the environment or at the table? Or could it be a medical routine, exercise, or the chemicals in household items?

What can the average consumer do? For a beginning, start with education about what diabetes is, both types of diabetes, and how children get it, in the various ways from genetics to environment. You start by ending the myths. Look at the myths debunked in the article, "As America Earns Failing Grade, American Diabetes Association Launches Movement To Stop Diabetes." It's in Medical News Today, Nov. 5, 2009.

Diabetes isn't caused by eating sugar. Type 1 diabetes is caused by genetics and unknown factors that trigger the onset of the disease. Type 2 diabetes is caused by genetics and lifestyle factors. The goal for science is to find the unknown factors that are said to be environmental by scientists, but so far, no one is pointing a finger to exactly what in the environment causes the genetic predisposition for diabetes type 1 to develop in children or adults under age 40.

Could it be a virus? Could it be the stress of a particular pregancy? If you ask two different adults what caused their type 1 diabetes, one will say, having polio as a child and ten years later having a baby at age 19. Another will say, it developed after a third pregnancy. The scenario might be different in each case.

One parent of a 7-year old girl with type 1 diabetes reports that the diabetes started in her child after a bitter divorce and custody battle. The mother went back to nursing school, the father beat up the mother in front of the child, and the diabetes developed soon after that. (The mother remarried within 2 years). But what seemed to cause the diabetes---the stress, the environment, or a lowered immunity from depression?

These are some of the problems researchers have to consider when trying to find out what in the environment contributed to the genetic predisposition for type 1 diabetes --the stress of pregnancy or fighting the polio virus in childhood in the early 1950s in the case of the woman getting type 1 diabetes at age 19 or 20 with her second pregnancy? The cause still is unknown. The goal right now is to involve the public in education about diabetes.

Being overweight does increase your risk for developing type 2 diabetes. Eating too many calories or large portion sizes from sugar and fat, can contribute to weight gain. If you have a history of diabetes in your family, eating a healthy meal plan and regular exercise are recommended to manage your weight, according to

According to another recent article published in USA Today magazine, "More kids have diabetes, fewer schools have nurses," many schools are falling short of the full-time school nurse. As the number of full-time school nurses decline, the number of children being diagnosed with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are increasing.

Can schools successfully adapt to the needs of these kids, which the federal Americans with Disabilities Act requires they do? Most schools are adapting, but some schools are feeling pressured and not prepared, or are falling short. See the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

The incidence of among very young children will double from 2005 levels in a little over a decade if present trends continue, a new study shows. Just when you were worried about the causes of type 2 diabetes in children due to nutrition and environment, scientists find that type 1 diabetes also in increasing in children, but why? See the WebMD article, "Type 1 Diabetes May Double in Young Kids."

Environmental influences are driving the trend. The recent British medical journal, The Lancet looked at new cases of type 1 diabetes in European children, which is increasing at about 4% annually, with higher rates of increase for chidren under age 4. The type 1 diabetes rates for girls are higher than for boys.

The problem is that by 2020, scientists predict that the rates of type 1 diabetes in children will double. And the trend is similar for the USA. Why is the rate of type 1 diabetes in children increasing faster now than just a few years ago?

All evidence points to environmental causes. Which changes or environmental triggers are causing the increase? And can researchers separate causes of type 2 diabetes from type 1 in children? Juvenile diabetes, called type 1 results when the body makes little or no insulin. Children have to take insulin life-long, manage their blood sugars, and test their blood glucose levels frequently throughout the day, at school or anywhere else. Type 2 diabetes in children is usually the result of a diet and weight problem combined with lack of exercise, and stress or genetic predisposition to type 2 diabetes exacerbated by a type of nutrition.

For more information, check out the site for SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study, which is following children with type 1 and type 2 diabetes in different areas in the U.S. in an effort to better understand diabetes trends in non-adults.

SEARCH is a multi-center study funded by the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) and NIDDK (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases). The study focuses on children and youth in the U.S. who have diabetes, according to its webiste.

It is expected that the six clinical centers located in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Ohio, South Carolina, and Washington will invite approximately 9000 children and youth who have been diagnosed with diabetes to participate in this study. Data from these children and youth will provide more information and help us better understand diabetes.

According to its website, the study goals are to (1) identify the number of children and youth under age 20 who have diabetes, (2) study how type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes differ, including how they differ by age and race/ethnicity, (3) learn more about the complications of diabetes in children and youth, (4) investigate the different types of care and medical treatment that these children and youth receive, and (5) learn more about how diabetes affects the everyday lives of children and youth who have diabetes.

The SEARCH study will provide valuable information to researchers and health care providers in an attempt to find ways to treat and increase knowledge about diabetes in children and youth. See the SEARCH article in PDF format, "Who Has Diabetes?" Can a school nurse handle any medical problem that arises during school hours? According to 2007 National Center for Education Statistics, 30% of schools have a part-time nurse, and 25% have no nurse.

What's type 2 diabetes in children about? Those with fatty liver and higher triglycerides are more likely to be resistant to the action of their own insulin. This means that their bodies don't regulate blood sugar properly, which can lead to type 2 diabetes. See: Arterial damage found in teens and young adults with obesity or type 2 diabetes.

Over time, high sugar levels damage large and small blood vessels, leading to heart disease, stroke, nerve damage, amputations, blindness and kidney disease. See the article, "Fat liver, not belly, may be the best indicator of health problems."

In contrast type 1 diabetes, called insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (type 1) diabetes starts in childhood or young adulthood, is sometimes called juvenile diabetes, and is an inflammatory autoimmune disease of the pancreas, resulting in a lack of insulin. See Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Autoimmune Disease Research Center. People under the age of 40 usually are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, although children and people under 40 can also have type 2 diabetes, but not both together.

Type 2 diabetes can be helped by a first line approach of nutrition change and exercise or weight loss if the person is obese. Type 1 diabetes can occur in those who are not necessarily obese because it has that autoimmune, inflammation-related origin. Also helpful is the book, How Nutrigenomics Fights Childhood Type 2 Diabetes & Weight Issues (2009).

With Type 1 diabetes, the disease often starts in childhood and affects more Caucasians than African-Americans. The male-to-female ratio is 1:1. The big question for scientists is why is type 1 diabetes predicted to double in children over the next decade? And what's the environmental causes of it--prenatally or in early childhood? At what stage in life between infancy and age 40 will type 1 diabetes most often begin?

Facts About Diabetes

• Nearly 24 million Americans have diabetes.

• Of those, the number diagnosed: about 18 million.

• Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes: 5% to 10%.

• People with pre-diabetes: about 56 million.

• The cost of diabetes: $174 billion a year.

• Diabetes is a group of serious diseases characterized by high blood glucose levels that result from defects in the body's ability to make or use insulin.

• A leading cause of death in the USA, diabetes can lead to debilitating or fatal complications, including heart disease, stroke, blindness and kidney disease.

• More than 65% of people with diabetes die from heart disease or stroke.

• Diabetes can cause heart attacks earlier in life.

Source: American Diabetes Association and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Template newsletter (doc)

American Diabetes Fact Sheet (Spanish, PDF)

Template newsletter (Spanish, doc)

These publications were sources for the CDC's frequently answered questions website.

National Diabetes Fact Sheet 2007

Preventing Diabetes and Its Complications

Diabetes Overview

For more info: browse my books, Neurotechnology with Culinary Memoirs from the Daily Nutrition & Health Reporter (2009). Or browse: How Nutrigenomics Fights Childhood Type 2 Diabetes & Weight Issues (2009) or Predictive Medicine for Rookies (2005). Or see my books, How to Safely Tailor Your Foods, Medicines, & Cosmetics to Your Genes (2003) or How to Interpret Family History & Ancestry DNA Test Results for Beginners (2004) or How to Open DNA-driven Genealogy Reporting & Interpreting Businesses. (2007). Check out my free audio lecture on Internet Archive, How nutrigenomics fights childhood type 2 diabetes. Photo credits: Flickr.com.

Trees give off internal electricity that's now being tapped

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:03:27 -0600

According to the articles, "Electrical Circuit Runs Entirely Off Power in Trees," published Sept. 9, 2009 in ScienceDaily, and "Preventing Forest Fires with Tree Power," published Sept. 23,2008, in M.I.T. news. Plants generate electricity internally. Scientists at the University of Washington have created nano circuits that use such a tiny bit of electrical power that they can run on the small voltages that trees create.

These small voltages coming from trees are called nano circuits. There's an immense future in using the internal electrical power that trees have inside them without harming the trees. The electricity is going out into the air.

The nano circuits students created run on the voltages that the trees create. How the scientists accomplish this tapping of free energy from trees is by using tailored "boost converters" which turns each tree's 200 millivolt voltage into very usable 1.1 volts of electricity. The 1.1 volts are close to that of a rechargeable AA battery.

The current capacity of the electricity is a lot lower in the tree. But circuitry is designed to allow the electricity to accumulate until enough electricity is built up in order to operate an electrical device for a short period of time.

The electrical current given off by trees can power small devices to protect the trees. At M.I.T. (according to the article, "Preventing Forest Fires with Tree Power,") the researchers are looking into the idea of putting data-gathering instruments on trees. That way scientists can find out what the risk of forest fires is at any particular moment. The batteries would recharge themselves from the electricity given off from trees.

Then the tree-derived electricity would run low-power transmitters at certain predictable times. Trees would relay information from one tree to another until the data piles up in a hub. Finally, at the hub of that database, a more powerful transmitter would send the data to specific forestry command headquarters.

The whole idea is to make data transmission greener. Instead of cutting down trees, the idea is to nourish them, and as they give off their internal electricity just by thriving, the voltage isn't wasted into the atmosphere.

Instead, the idea is to route the electrical current to a hub. In such a way, it could be said, the trees are pulling their own weight as they give off fresh oxygen into the atmosphere. Nothing goes to waste from nature, is the idea.

Photo credits: Flickr.com - coconut tree