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Entries Tagged as 'Health'

Smart Phones Help Breast Cancer Patients

Via WMTW (10/16/09):

A new program helps breast cancer patients use their cell phones to get better treatment, according to a news release from the Ohio State University.

A pilot program gave patients devices loaded with step-by-step guides to managing their care. It can also help track their treatments and symptoms.

The more I think about it, the more I come to realize that the government may not need us to accept implantable microchips. All the hysteria could very well be hype and misdirection to get us looking the wrong way.

All they need us to do to track our behaviors is for us to use EasyPass, OnStar, iPhones, credit cards, frequent shopper cards at the grocery store, etc.

Tags: Health, Technology by Editor
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Giving Babies Tylenol May Blunt Vaccines’ Effects

Via WMTW (10/15/09):

Giving babies Tylenol to prevent fever when they get childhood vaccinations may backfire and make the shots a little less effective, surprising new research suggests.

It is the first major study to tie reduced immunity to the use of fever-lowering medicines. Although the effect was small and the vast majority of kids still got enough protection from vaccines, the results make “a compelling case” against routinely giving Tylenol right after vaccination, say doctors from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

…

The research was sponsored by Belgium-based GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, which makes all the vaccines used in the study. Some authors have financial ties to the company, including owning stock in it, and Glaxo had a role in reporting the results.

I’m a little bit suspicious of this story. GSK-Bio makes money selling vaccines. GSK makes money selling people all sorts of pharmaceutical products. So, if your game is to cause sickness with vaccines, and offer “cures” via scores of other products, and the “success” of your vaccination program is reduced when the “patient” ingests Tylenol when receiving their shot(s), you have a problem.

On the other hand, you could actually believe that GSK wants you to be healthy.

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Epidemic of birth defects in Iraq since US invasion?

I do not understand how “pro-life” “Christians”, or anyone else for that matter, can believe such atrocities are acceptable or necessary for US “security”. I can only hope that these innocent victims are now in some place better than the hellhole created for them in their homeland by the US war machine and legions of ignorant Americans who support these war crimes.

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Another life destroyed by Gardisil?

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Study prompts provinces to rethink flu plan

Globe and Mail:

A “perplexing” Canadian study linking H1N1 to seasonal flu shots is throwing national influenza plans into disarray and testing public faith in the government agencies responsible for protecting the nation’s health.

Distributed for peer review last week, the study confounded infectious-disease experts in suggesting that people vaccinated against seasonal flu are twice as likely to catch swine flu.

Tags: Health, Vaccines by Editor
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Cancer chief sees cell phone risks

Post-Gazette:

The director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and UPMC Cancer Centers plans to issue an advisory to about 3,000 faculty and staff today about the possible health risks associated with cellular phone use.

“Recently I have become aware of the growing body of literature linking long-term cell phone use to possible adverse health effects including cancer,” Dr. Ronald Herberman said in the memorandum. “Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell phone use.”

Tags: Cell phones, Health by Editor
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Survey Finds FDA Lacks Independence from Outside Pressures

Via Ms. Magazine (August 2, 2006):

Scientists found that scientists at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) feel that their work is subject to outside pressures, both political and commercial, and that these pressures influence agency conclusions for the public. The anonymous survey was sent to close to 6,000 FDA scientists and 997 responded, 62 percent of whom are senior scientists.

The survey found that 18 percent of the scientists had been asked “for non-scientific reasons, to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information” for FDA documents. Sixty-one percent had knowledge of instances where political appointees had “inappropriately injected themselves into FDA determinations or actions.” Seventeen percent, or 169 scientists, responded that they had been asked to “provide incomplete, inaccurate or misleading information to the public, regulated industry, media or elected/senior government officials.”

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FDA Scientists Issued Early Warnings on Drug Approvals

Union of Concerned Scientists (December 16, 2004):

A previously unpublished internal survey of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists points to potentially dangerous gaps in the approval and marketing of prescription drugs, according to documents jointly released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The FDA survey results, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, closely track the safety concerns raised by the agency’s own associate science director of the Office of Drug Safety, Dr. David Graham, in testimony before the U.S. Senate last month.

The Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted the survey in late 2002 as part of a management review of how the agency was meeting stringent deadlines for approving new drugs. OIG polled 846 FDA scientists, with nearly half (47%) completing the survey. Survey findings included:

  • Two-thirds (66%) of respondents lacked confidence that the agency “adequately monitors the safety of prescription drugs once they are on the market”
  • Only 12% of scientists were completely confident that FDA “labeling decisions adequately address key safety concerns,” while 30% were not at all or only somewhat confident
  • More than one-third (36%) of scientists were not at all or only somewhat confident that “final decisions adequately assess the safety of a drug”
  • Nearly one in five scientists (18%) said that they “have been pressured to approve or recommend approval” for a drug “despite reservations about the safety, efficacy or quality of the drug”
  • Despite the disquieting survey results, when the OIG published its report in March 2003, a lead conclusion was that FDA scientific reviewers “have high confidence in decisions FDA makes.”

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FDA: Guardian Or Rubber Stamp?

Via CBS News (July 12, 2001):

Dr. Robert Misbin is a sort of scientific detective at the FDA, hunting for early warning signs in the newest drugs seeking FDA approval.

As reported in a CBS News investigation last year, Misbin wanted the diabetes drug Rezulin taken off the market for safety reasons. But he locked horns with his FDA superiors and even publicly accused his own agency of putting the drug maker’s interests ahead of the public.

These types of news “stories” serve a valuable purpose on many fronts. The casual observer probably comes away from a story like this with heightened confidence in the FDA and corporate news outlets, since it appears as if corporate media is really investigating the government, and it appears as if the government is really working to protect the public from reckless pharmaceutical corporations.

On the other hand, I trust none of the above.

Tags: Health by Editor
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