Health & Wellness Issues

Junk Science & the Press Fall for It

(source: NaturalNews) The latest attack on vitamins A, C, E, selenium and beta-carotene comes from the Cochrane Library, a widely-read source of information on conventional health matters. In the paper published yesterday, these antioxidants were linked with a higher risk of mortality ("they'll kill you!"), and now serious-sounding scientists have warned consumers away from taking vitamins altogether. But with all the benefits of antioxidants already well known to the well-informed, how did the Cochrane Library arrive at such a conclusion? It's easy: The researchers considered 452 studies on these vitamins, and they threw out the 405 studies where nobody died! That left just 47 studies where subjects died from various causes (one study was conducted on terminal heart patients, for example). From this hand-picked selection of studies, these researchers concluded that antioxidants increase mortality.

Just in case the magnitude of the scientific fraud taking place here has not yet become apparent, let me repeat what happened: These scientists claimed to be studying the effects of vitamins on mortality, right? They were conducting a meta-analysis based on reviewing established studies. But instead of conducting an honest review of all the studies, they arbitrarily decided to eliminate all studies in which vitamins prevented mortality and kept people alive! They did this by "excluding all studies in which no participants died." What was left to review? Only the studies in which people died from various causes.

Brilliant, huh? This sort of bass-ackward science would earn any teenager an "F" in high school science class. But apparently it's good enough for the Cochrane Library, not to mention all the mainstream press outlets that are now repeating these silly conclusions as scientific fact.

Drug Reps Woo Doctors

Multi-national drug companies may have policies that only apple to the USA, but I don't think so. Read on.

Your doctor may have the best intentions in the world, but if they are being visited by drug reps, there is a strong likelihood they have been influenced by highly skilled, multinational, self-serving corporate interests and their opinions about prescription drugs are likely highly biased as a result. This can certainly happen even at a subconscious level, and the end result is a higher tendency to prescribe the drugs that have been marketed to them.

This is why I remind you often, taking ownership for your own health by leading a healthy lifestyle, and only resorting to drugs as a last option, is the key to surviving, and thriving, in the 21st century.

Hahram Ahari, who spent two years selling Prozac and Zypraxa for Eli Lily, told a Senate Aging Committee that his job involved "rewarding physicians with gifts and attention for their allegiance to your product and company despite what may be ethically appropriate."

Ahari claims that drug companies often hire former cheerleaders and ex-models, as well as former athletes and members of the military, even if they have no background in science.

During their five-week training class, Ahari says he was taught sales tactics such as:

How to exceed spending limits for important clients
How to be generous with free samples to leverage sales
How to use friendships and personal gifts to foster a "quid pro quo" relationship
How to exploit sexual tension

Ahari claims that he's even heard stories about sales reps helping to pay the cost of a doctor's swimming pool, or taking a doctor to a nightclub where a hostess was paid to keep him company.

For this work, sales reps often earned more than researchers. On top of a base salary of $50,000 for starting reps, Ahari says, "there were four quarterly bonuses, an annual bonus, stock options, a car, 401K, great health benefits, and a $60,000 expense account."

Sources: ABC News March 12, 2008

Fight Back Against the Food Ignorance

This exclusive clip from the documentary film All Jacked Up features Mike Adams (the Health Ranger) talking with Bobby Rice about how We the People can defend ourselves against the marketing lies, junk science and massive chemical onslaught dumped onto consumers by Big Pharma and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

This video clip features a cartoon segment and an urgent call for action to protect ourselves and our children from the deadly chemicals fed to us by food corporations and drug companies.

It's part of the outstanding All Jacked Up documentary available now on DVD from Faerie Films at: http://alljackedupmovie.com/nt/

All Jacked Up is a MUST-SEE film by all parents and teens. Read my full review of the film here: http://www.naturalnews.com/022510.html

Asda (Walmart) comes bottom in Animal Welfare League

Supermarket chain that boasted of its £2 chicken is ranked last in a survey of farming conditions
By Susie Mesure. Published: 02 December 2007 Independent on Sunday.

Asda has been singled out as the supermarket to avoid if shoppers care about the welfare of the animals they are about to eat.

Britain's second biggest grocer was named and shamed in a report published today by Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), which campaigns for higher standards of animal welfare. Supermarkets were scored out of five based on the standards they set their suppliers on a range of categories, from transport and slaughter of animals, to fish farming. Tesco, which is the UK's most powerful retailer, was also rapped for not using its huge influence to do more to improve conditions for farmed animals.

Many supermarkets are still selling meat from veal calves reared without bedding, pigs that have been confined in stalls so small that pregnant sows cannot even turn round and mutant chickens bred for their ability to grow quickly but which suffer skeletal problems, lameness and heart failure during their short lives.

The biggest exception is Marks & Spencer, which won the compassionate supermarket award for 2007 at a ceremony last night. It stole the crown from Waitrose, which came second. Sainsbury's, which has been turned around under its current chief executive, Justin King, also did well. It was highlighted as both the best of the Big Four chains and the supermarket that had done the most to improve its animal welfare standards over the past 24 months.

Sainsbury's was the first of the Big Four grocers to pledge to sell only cage-free eggs by 2010. It will also stop using battery eggs in all its own-label products by 2012. But it has stopped short of making a similar promise to use only free-range chicken in its ready meals.

Blog owner's question. Why?

Read the rest of the story. CLICK HERE

Are antidepressant drugs an accomplice in the Virginia Tech shootings? (opinion)

Link: Are antidepressant drugs an accomplice in the Virginia Tech shootings? (opinion).

The Chicago Tribune reports that Cho Seung Hui, the Virginia Tech shooter who killed 32 fellow students in a shooting rampage, was taking antidepressant drugs.

This is not the first time a school shooting rampage has been linked to antidepressants. The infamous Colombine High shootings took place almost exactly eight years ago, and the shooters in that rampage were also -- you guessed it -- taking antidepressant drugs. What is it about antidepressant drugs that provokes young men to pick up pistols, rifles and shotguns, then violently assault their classmates?

Clearly, there's something wrong with the mind of anyone who engages in such violent acts. Could the drugs be "imbalancing" their minds, priming them for violence? The answer is a very sobering, "Yes, they could be."

As we reported in a previous NewsTarget article on Paxil:Researchers from Cardiff University in Britain and the Cochrane Centre examined data on Paxil -- or its generic form, paroxetine -- from GlaxoSmithKline, legal cases and emails from nearly 1,400 patients who responded to a British TV program on antidepressants. The researchers found that 60 out of 9,219 people taking Paxil -- 0.65 percent -- experienced a "hostility event," compared to 20 out of 6,455 patients taking placebo, or 0.31 percent.In that same article, published in September, 2006,

I stated, "This finding helps explain why school shootings are almost always conducted by children who are taking antidepressants. We also know that SSRIs cause children to disconnect from reality. When you combine that with a propensity for violence, you create a dangerous recipe for school shootings and other adolescent violence."

UK organic standards threatened by proposed labeling laws

Link: UK organic standards threatened by proposed labeling laws.

NewsTarget) Organic businesses in the United Kingdom have expressed alarm at government proposals to allow higher quantities of genetically modified (GM) ingredients into organic foods without labeling.

The government has proposed allowing foods labeled "organic" to contain up to 0.9 percent GM ingredients. Currently, the European Union's rules set this as the cutoff point that requires products to be labeled as containing GM ingredients. However, UK rules prohibit applying the "organic" label to foods containing any GM ingredients.

"There is overwhelming evidence that one of the main reasons that consumers by organic is to avoid eating food containing any GM," said Alex Smith, chair of the Organic Group of the Food and Drink Federation. "If the proposals set out by the government were implemented ... organic businesses [would] face enhanced risks of GM contamination, product recall and loss of their most valuable asset, the consumer trust that underlies their brand value."