Showing posts with label Big Pharma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Big Pharma. Show all posts

30 March 2012

Bureaucratic B.S Going Too Far...

The following is from the Health Sciences Institutes (HSI) daily e-Alert (UK Edition, 30 March 2012). 


It highlights how out of control our governments are. They are tools to be used and abused by Big Business, especially Big Pharma. The madness has now got to a point that you cannot make health claims about fresh fruit & veg because they have not been classified as 'drugs'. Yes, you read that right! But, as the e-Alert shows, you can make health claims about liquid margarine & crisps...


This utter insanity needs to be stopped! Big Business/Big Pharma need to be reeled in because the consequences are too dire to contemplate if they aren't brought to heel. 


Here is the HSI e-Alert:

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Fresh Fruit And Veg Could Be Unapproved Drugs In The Near Future

Dear Reader,

Things are starting to get a bit stir crazy... Here in the UK and European Union (EU), the European Parliament is about to pass a law that will see all supplements and alternative remedies with un-approved health claims disappear from health food store shelves within 6 months... especially if they are added to the EU's register of rejected claims.

Crazy isn't it?

Yet, concoctions like Flora Cuisine — the liquid margarine-buttery-looking cooking oil is allowed to make the health claim that it can provide better frying, roasting and cooking for heart health!

Anyone with a bit of common sense will tell you that the relentless global campaign against alternative medicine is simply ridiculous... not to mention the clampdown on ordinary food products!

Across the pond

Now this is not meant to be a trick question, but I'm going to ask it anyway:

Are cherries unapproved drugs?

See, cherries contain antioxidants and other anti-inflammatory components. The scientific evidence behind that statement is irrefutable. But when owners of cherry orchards made antioxidant and anti-inflammatory claims and backed them up with evidence, the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruled that the claims "cause your products to be drugs."

So the trick answer to the trick question (in FDA country) is: Yes — cherries are drugs that, so far, have no FDA approval.

So, clearly the craziness has crossed the pond into the US!

Just getting started

This madness doesn't end there. Recently, Dannon settled a dispute with the FDA by paying out $21 million to several states where the company had advertised Activia yoghurt, saying it can, "help regulate your digestive system...naturally."

That claim is based on what we know about the benefits of living cultures in probiotics.

But the FDA decided that Dannon was actually claiming that "Activia provided consumers with bowel movements at fixed, uniform or normal intervals." Clearly, that was not the case, but the agency's absurd decision ended up costing Dannon millions.

And FDA officials were just as picky and difficult when it came to walnuts.

They told a walnut distributer that multiple studies showing the heart health benefits of walnuts were not sufficient to allow such claims on the distributer's website. Again, the FDA ruled that the health claims classified walnuts as drugs.

Now... if all that seems completely bat-house crazy, brace yourself because here's what the FDA allows the king of US snack foods, Frito-Lay, to say about their products...

"You might be surprised at how much good stuff goes into your favourite snack. Good stuff like potatoes, which naturally contain vitamin C and essential minerals. Or corn, one of the world's most popular grains, packed with thiamin, vitamin B6, and phosphorous — all necessary for healthy bones, teeth, nerves and muscles."

Let me get this right: You CAN tell consumers that FRITOS CRISPS help keep bones and muscles healthy, but you CAN'T say cherries are packed with antioxidants that benefit health...

A 2011 Harvard study found that the following three food items top the list for contributing to yearly weight-gain spikes:

* Potato chips
* Potatoes (any type of serving)
* Sugar-sweetened beverages

These rules, regulations and crazy laws are absolute lunacy! 


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29 March 2012

Beat Depression With Vitamin D

For whatever reason, there is no denying that depression is on the increase. Even worse, the medical and pharmaceutical establishment will have sufferers of depression on a cocktail of drugs that have serious side effects ranging from addiction to delirium to suicidal tendencies. To me, that does not sound like a step in the right direction.


Unfortunately, we place our faith in the medical profession, who place their faith in the pharmaceutical industry. I shall refrain from saying what I really think of Big Pharma, but needless to say that they are an unscrupulous, unethical, lying bunch of toe-rags. Everything wrong with modern science can be found in Big Pharma.


Getting back to depression - like The Verve song goes " the drugs don't work, they just make you worse". It  is a vicious circle once on the 'depression medical treatment scheme'.


That may sound like bad news if you are one of the sufferers of depression. However, there is good news - and it is a natural way without any of the nasty side-effects. It is also something you have probably heard of before - the 'sunshine vitamin' or vitamin D. That's right, this common vitamin that our body produces (as vitamin D3) when exposed to sunlight has been shown to play a major role of whether or not you suffer from depression.


The University of Texas South-Western Medical Centre has undertaken the largest study of its kind on Vitamin D. They concluded that low levels of it could contribute to major depressive disorders. They recommend doctors and psychiatrists check vitamin D levels in screening for depression. Their study followed 12, 600 people over 4 years. The results showed that low levels of vitamin D were linked to symptoms of depression and an increase in vitamin D levels lowers the risk of depression, especially in those with prior history of depression.


Unfortunately, their study didn't determine how depression could be treated with vitamin D. But it does signal that doctors should be looking at the vitamin D level before even contemplating a course in antidepressants - after all, nobody is deficient in antidepressants...!





8 March 2012

Rat Poison For Humans!

Did you know that doctors prescribe rat poison? Except they call it warfarin. And Big Pharma wants more people taking it.

Rat poison works by thinning the blood, causing internal bleeding, which eventually kills the rats - a slow and painful death.

Now, warfarin has its uses in humans, but only in certain cases. However, that's not good enough for Big Pharma. They want people to take more of it, especially women! Big Pharma are now saying that this blood-thinning drug is "underutilised" in women. So they are now on a mission to make more women take it saying there is a "dangerous deficiency"... according to researchers in Kentucky, USA in conjunction with Kentucky's Women's Health Registry.

This study used women with self-reported irregular heartbeats. And of those women, only 30% of those prescribed warfarin were actually taking it.  The obvious jumps to mind, that this is some bogus study concocted by Big Pharma to have us all hooked on drugs. Warfarin is mainly used by people who have had surgery to implant a pacemaker. It makes sense for them to have thinner blood for the pacemaker to work more efficiently. But for irregular heartbeats? Who knows what effect that will have on the long-term health of an individual?

There are much safer options than warfarin. Fish oil is the best. It may not be the tastiest, but it is safe and it does the job without any harmful side-effects. If you have trouble taking it, mix it with rice or almond milk.
The recommended dosage is 2-3 tablespoons of cod-liver oil per day with 800-1000 IU of Vitamin E.

And well done to the 70% of women who weren't taking warfarin.


Source:
"Drug Warfarin may be underused in women," United Press International (www.upi.com) 

22 February 2012

Big Pharma Wants Us All On Drugs!!!

The  following is from the Health Sciences Institute's e-Alert (UK edition), 22 February 2012. It is something we should all be concerned about. Yet again, Big Pharma are behind the scenes pulling the strings that will have us all on prescription drugs. Their greed and arrogance are beyond compare. Read on, and once the shock is over take a stand against Big Pharma! There are always natural alternatives to pharmaceutical drugs...


Health Sciences Institute e-Alert: 22 Feb 2012

Drugs for shy or eccentric people?

Dear Reader,

Brace yourself because I'm going to tell you something about yourself, which you were probably completely unaware of: Chances are you have a mental illness.

Or you soon might have... especially if the guidance given on mental health in the revised edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), is approved after its review.

Unfortunately, I'm not joking and neither am I losing my mind. There are major concerns that the new revised DSM-5, which will be implemented in 2013, will considerably increase the number of people judged mentally ill. It will also lower the threshold for diagnosing existing problems like Attention Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

The more the merrier... at least for Big Pharma

The DSM is used by the American Psychological Association (APA) and the majority of mental health professionals in America — the world's largest health market. In fact, many health insurers in the US will only pay for mental health treatment or drugs if the disease was diagnosed according to DSM guidelines.

However, these updated guidelines won't only affect those in the US. Mental Health professionals around the world, including those in the UK, consult the World Health Organisation's (WHO) International Classification of Diseases to diagnose mental health problems, which is largely affected by the APA's dominance in the US.