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November 26, 2008
Learn About the McDougall Program
November 24, 2008
Chlorine and Your Shower (is it safe to be clean?)
D i v i s i o n o f T h e S a m a n d J o C o m p a n y L L C ,
M a r i n a D e l R e y, C A 9 0 2 9 2
W E B – w w w . i l o v e m y h 2 o . c o m
E M A I L – i n f o @ i l o v e m y h 2 o . c o m
T E L – 1 8 0 0 6 1 8 0 2 5 3
While many people have become enlightened to the concerns with drinking water quality in the US and abroad, most people are still unaware of the potential exposure they have to contaminants and pollutants in the privacy of their shower and/or bath. In most developed countries, chlorine is used to disinfect the domestic drinking water. This is usually mandated by law. Chlorine is a powerful oxidizer and not only kills microorganisms it also oxidizes and attacks the DNA in all living matter. This can cause damage that will eventually result in permanent cellular alteration (e.g., premature aging and cancer). In addition, chlorine reacts with organic material in our water to produce a family of compounds known as chlorination byproducts and trihalomethanes. These compounds have been directly linked to the long- term development of cancer in very low concentrations. Provided below are a number of quotes taken from a variety of reports and articles, which bring particular focus to this issue and the need to filter the water we use for showering and bathing. At the end of the quotes is provided bibliography if the reader wishes to read the complete references.
“Taking long hot showers is a health risk, according to research presented last week in
Anaheim, California, at a meeting of the American Chemical Society. Showers – and to a lesser extent baths – lead to a greater exposure to toxic chemicals contained in water supplies than does drinking the water. The chemicals evaporate out of the water and are inhaled. They can also spread through the house and be inhaled by others. House holders can receive 6 to 100 times more of the chemical by breathing the air around showers and bath than they would by drinking the water.” NEW SCIENTIST 18 Sept 1986 Ian Anderson “Studies indicate the suspect chemicals can also be inhaled and absorbed through the skin during showering and bathing.” “Ironically, even the Chlorine widely used to disinfect water produces Carcinogenic traces.” “Though 7 out of 10 Americans drink chlorinated water, its safety over the long term is uncertain.” “Drinking chlorinated water may as much as double the risk of the Bladder Cancer, which strikes 40,000 people a year.” “A long, hot shower can be dangerous. The toxic chemicals are inhaled in high concentrations.” “On one hand, chlorination has freed civilization from the constant dangers of waterborne epidemics. On the other hand in the mid – 70s scientists discovered that chlorination could create carcinogens in water.” “80% of the population drinks chlorinated water.” “There was a higher incidence of cancer of the esophagus, rectum, breast, and larynx and of Hodgkin’s Disease among those drinking chlorinated surface waters.” “Volatile organics can evaporate from water in a shower or bath.” “Conservative calculations indicate that inhalation exposure can be as significant as exposure from drinking the water, that is, one an be exposed to just as much by inhalation during a shower as by drinking 2 liters of water a day.” “People who shower frequently could be exposed through ingestion, inhalation and/or dermal absorption.” “Skin absorption of contaminant has been underestimated and ingestion may not constitute the sole or even primary route of exposure.”
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH Dr. Halina Brown “Chlorine is the greatest crippler and killer of modern times. While it prevented epidemics of one disease, it was creating another. Two decades ago, after the start of chlorinating our drinking water in 1904. The present epidemic of heart trouble, cancer and senility began.”
SAGINAW HOSPITAL Dr. J.M. Price, MD. “Cancer risk among people drinking chlorinated water is 93% higher than among those whose water does not contain chlorine.” U.S. COUNCIL OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY “Drinking tap water that is chlorinated is hazardous, if not deadly to your health.” HEALTHY WATER FOR A LONGER LIFE Dr. Martin Fox “Known carcinogens are found in drinking water as a direct consequence of the practice of chlorination. A long established pubic health practice for the disinfection of drinking water.” MUNICIPAL ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LABORATORY Francis T. Mayo, Director. “Chlorine is used almost universally in the treatment of public drinking water because of its toxic effect on harmful bacteria and other waterborne, disease-causing organisms. But there is a growing body of scientific evidence that shows that chlorine in drinking water may actually pose greater long- term dangers than those for which it was used to eliminate. These effects of chlorine may result from either ingestion or absorption through the skin. Scientific studies have linked chlorine and chlorination by-products to cancer of the bladder, liver, stomach, rectum, and colon, as well as heart disease, arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), anemia, high blood pressure, and allergic reactions. There is also evidence that shows that chlorine can destroy protein in our body and cause adverse effects on skin and hair. The presence of chlorine in water may also contribute to the formation of chloramines in the water, which can cause taste and odor problems.” “Since chlorine is required by public health regulation to be present in all public drinking water supplies, it is up to the individual to remove it at the point-of-use in the home.” KEMYSTS LABORATORY Dr. Riddle, Ph.D. “Showering is suspected as the primary cause of elevated levels of chloroform in nearly every home because of the chlorine in the water.” ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY Dr. Lance Wallace “A professor of Water Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh claims that exposure to vaporized chemicals in the water supplies through showering, bathing, and inhalation is 100 times greater than through drinking the water.” “As chlorine is added to kill pathogenic microorganisms, the highly reactive chlorine combines with fatty acids and carbon fragments to form a variety of toxic compounds, which comprise about 30% of the chlorination by-products.” “During the mid- 1970s monitoring efforts began to identify widespread toxic contamination of the nation’s drinking water supplies, epidemiological studies began to suggest a link between ingestion of toxic chemicals in the water and elevated cancer mortality risks. Since those studies were completed a variety of additional studies have strengthened the statistical connection between consumption of toxins in water and elevated cancer risks. Moreover, this basic concern has been heightened by other research discoveries.” THE NADER REPORT – TROUBLED WATERS ON TAP
Center For Study of Responsive Law “The National Academy of Sciences estimate that 200 – 1000 people die in the United States each year from cancers caused by ingesting the contaminants in water. The major health threat posed by these pollutants is far more likely to be from their inhalation as air pollutants. The reason that emissions are high is that because water droplets dispersed by the shower head have a larger surface -to value ratio than water streaming into the bath.” SCIENCE NEWS, VOL. 130 Janet Raloff “The cause of arteriosclerosis and resulting heart attacks and strokes is none other than the ubiquitous chlorine in our drinking water.” CORONARIES / CHOLESTEROL / CHLORINE Dr. J.M. Price, MD.
“In the vast majority of cases where germ-free water is required for pubic supply, or in the swimming pool, the process of disinfection will involve the use of chlorine in one form or another.” CHEMISTRY AND CONTROL OF MODERN CHLORINATION Dr. A.T. Palin, Ph.D. (O.B.E.) “Chlorine gas was despicable used during WWI. When the war was over, the use of chlorine was diverted to poisoning germs in our drinking water. All water supplies throughout the country were chlorinated. The combination of chlorine (when in drinking water) and animal fats results in arteriosclerosis, heart attacks, and death” WATER CAN UNDERMINE YOUR HEALTH Dr. N. W. Walker D.S.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. “SHOWERS POSE A RISK TO HEALTH”, Ian Anderson, New Scientist, 09/18/86. 2. “NON-INGESTION EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS IN POTABLE WATER” Julian Andelman. Working Paper 84-03, University of Pittsburgh, 1984. 3. “THE ROLE OF SKIN ABSORPTION AS A ROUTE OF
EXPOSURE FOR VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS (VOCS) IN DRINKING WATER”, Halina Brown. American Journal of Public Health, Vol 74, 5/84. 4. “TOXIC SHOWERS AND BATHS”, Janet Raloff. Science News, Vol 130, Page 190. 5. “Water”, John F. Ashton and Ronald S. Laura. Nature
& Health, 1988. 6. “HUMAN EXPOSURE TO VOLOTILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS IN HOUSEHOLD TAP WATER: THE INHALATION PATHWAY”, T.E. McKone Environ. SCI, Technology, Vol. 21, No 12, 1987, PP. 1194-1201. 7. “THE NADER REPORT – TROUBLED WATERS ON TAP”, Duff Conacher
and Assc. Center for Study of Responsive Law, January 1988. 8. “DID YOU KNOW THAT…A LONG HOT SHOWER”, Bottom Line/Personal, Aug. 15, 1987. 9. “MADEMOISELLE”, Prior to August 15, 1987. 10. “CORANARIES/CHOLESTEROL/CHLORINE”, Joseph M. Price, Jove Book, Alta
Enterprises, 1969. 11. “WATER CAN UNDERMINE YOUR HEALTH”, N.W. Walker D.S., Norwalk Press, 1974. 12. “WATER-SAFE TO DRINK? Safe To Bathe In?”, Kurt W. Donsbach D.C., PH., 1974. 13. “PROTEINS IN NATURAL WATERS AND THER RELATION TO THE FORMATION OF
CHLORINATED ORGANICS DURING WATER DISINFECTION”, Scully. Environ, SCI. Technol., Vol. 22, No. 5, 1988.537-542. 14. “ORGANIC CHEMICAL CONTAMINANTS IN DRINKING WATER AND CANCER”, AM. J. Epidemiology, Vol. 110, 1979, P. 420. 15. “CANCER INCIDENCE AND
TRIHALOMETHANE CONCENTRATIONS IN A PUBLIC DRINKING WATER SYSTEM”, George L. Carlo. American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 74, No. 5, 1984, PP. 479-484. 16. “STUDIES OF DIFFUSION OF WATER THROUGH DEAD HUMAN SKIN: THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTAL
STATES AND OF CHEMICAL ALTERATION OF THE EPIDERMIS”, G.S. Berenson and G.E. Burch. AM. Of Tropical Medicine, 1951, No. 31 PP. 842-853. 17. “REGIONAL VARIATION IN PERCUTANEOUS PENETRATION IN MAN: PESTICIDES”, H.J. Maiback. Arch. Environ. Health, Vol. 23, Sep.
1971, p. 209. 18. “STUDIES OF EPIDERMAL WATER BARRIER, PART 2: INVESTIGATION OF THE CHEMICAL NATURE OF THE WATER BARRIER”, A. Mololtsy. J. of Invest. Derm, 1968, No. 50. PP. 19-20. 19. “TEMPORAL VARIATIONS IN TRIHALOMETHANE CONTENT OF DRINKING WATER”,
V.L. Smith. Environ. SCI. & Technol., Vol. 14 No 2, 1987, PP. 190-196. 20. “THMS IN DRINKING WATER”, J.A. Cotruvo. Environ. SCI & Technol., Vol. 15, No. 3, 1981, PP. 268-274. 21. “VOLATILE SYNTHETIC ORGANIC CHEMICALS (VOCS)”, K.V. Dyke. Water Technol. Vol. 13, No. 4, Apr.
1990, P. 38. 22. “IS YOUR WATER SAFE?” Carpenter, Hedges, Crabbe, Reilly and Bounds. U.S. News & World Report, July 29, 1991, PP. 48-55. 23. “IS YOUR WATER SAFE TO DRINK?”, Raymond Gabler. Consumer Reports Book, 1987.
“Taking long hot showers is a health risk,
according to research presented last week in
Anaheim, California, at a meeting of the American
Chemical Society. Showers – and to a lesser
extent baths – lead to a greater exposure to
toxic chemicals contained in water supplies thaneath.” WATER CAN UNDERMINE YOUR
November 22, 2008
You Think Fluoride is Safe?
One of the major issues I have with the way medicine is practiced in our country is an involuntary loss of control over what we choose to include in what we as unique individuals deem reasonable and proper with regard to our own health and that of our children. I am of an age that permits me to reflect over a number of decades and see issue after issue succumb to the rule o ‘big brother’ who enacts laws and rules of things better left to us in the free exercise of personal choice and control. This would include the inability to buy previously deemed legitimate over-the-counter items such as certain minerals and so on.
Anything can be labeled quackery, unproven and so on with regard to innovations in technology and equipment which I have seen and been the beneficiary of in the last century – really phenomenal stuff. When found it was confiscated and practitioners were either incarcerated or forced to leave the country to continue practice. There are benevolent reasons ascribed to all this and it always has to do with the idea that we are unable to choose for ourselves, we can easily be duped or taken advantage of. And yet, who does that better than “big brother,” bought and paid for by the AMA and big Pharmaceuticals etal?
Somehow, I do not throw the doctors into the same category, after all, aspiring young men and women who genuinely want to help, have a calling to medicine go into these colleges and halls of learning with great intentions – I am willing to give them that. The big pharma however is the power and purse strings behind how these halls of learning are run. Their power is too great and restraints are non-existent. Profit has been not only the bottom line, but the only consideration for so long that the medical community is in danger of falling apart, just like our financial and economic community have already done. We are ranked pretty darned low in the scales of health, longevity, medical care of citizenry and equivalent cost factors. And not to be forgotten, satisfaction with all of the above. We may pay through the nose, but we are getting shafted, royally. It is a disgrace.
Sadly, it is up to each of us to be as alert as possible and to exercise our rights and responsibilities. We must speak up when things are wrong, when governments err, when laws bind us rather than free and protect us. We must become informed, for nothing else will take the place of that – nothing! And we must choose. As an example, I have chosen not to have flouride nor the 100 other contaminants in city water in water that I drink or cook with. I am on maybe my fourth distiller – make it at home. Its easy and 100% safe and reliable. My little unit is a Sears product around $100, but the scale goes considerably up from there. I wouldn’t consider using deoderants for the danger to the breast (no doubt all have heard of the preponderance of breast cancer?), but rather choose a simple “salt Crystal” which I buy online for less than $10 and darned if it doesn’t last me several years. It stops odor tho does not interfere with the body’s natural need to sweat when it needs to (which is the way it ought to be). I do not use fluoride toothpaste as I have been concerned for decades about the harm emanating from usage of this element – not for my body. But, that’s just me! To each his own. I hope the following articles give you something to think about and I apologize in advance to you if you find them upsetting. Better to be upset and informed, but again – that’s just me.
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Fluoride Added To Children’s Milk In Schools Throughout UK City
Kids now drinking poison waste product first used as mood stimulant by Nazis
Steve Watson & Paul Watson
Infowars.net
Monday, Oct 27, 2008
Fluoride is being added to children’s milk in 42 schools throughout the city of Sheffield in the UK, despite the chemical’s proven link to liver and kidney damage, cancer and the lowering of IQ.
“A new strategy with the focus of preventing dental problems among children is to be introduced in Sheffield,” reports the Yorkshire Post.
The move comes in response to figures showing that the state of children’s teeth in the city is slightly higher than the national average.
“At present, fluoride is added to children’s milk in 42 primary schools in the city. This will continue, and the local NHS is also planning to begin talks on the possibility of adding fluoride to water.” the report continues.
While Fluoride has been proven to have a minimal effect in the prevention of tooth decay, the negative effects of the chemical are legion according to several medical studies, far outweighing any positive aspects.
A recent Scientific American study “Concluded that fluoride can subtly alter endocrine function, especially in the thyroid — the gland that produces hormones regulating growth and metabolism.”
The report also notes that “a series of epidemiological studies in China have associated high fluoride exposures with lower IQ.”
50 per cent of the fluoride taken in on a daily basis remains in the body for life, accumulating in the skeleton. This can cause, skeletal fluorosis, a crippling and painful condition.
“Epidemiological studies and tests on lab animals suggest that high fluoride exposure increases the risk of bone fracture, especially in vulnerable populations such as the elderly and diabetics,” writes Dan Fagin.
Fagin interviewed Steven Levy, director of the Iowa Fluoride Study which tracked about 700 Iowa children for sixteen years. Nine-year-old “Iowa children who lived in communities where the water was fluoridated were 50 percent more likely to have mild fluorosis… than [nine-year-old] children living in nonfluoridated areas of the state,” writes Fagin.
The study adds to a growing literature of shocking scientific studies proving fluoride’s link with all manner of health defects, even as governments in the west, including recently the UK, make plans to mass medicate the population against their will with this deadly toxin.
Sodium fluoride can also cause dental fluorosis (fluoride-discolored teeth) which can be an indicator of kidney function harm according to an August 2006 study in Environmental Research. The study found that “water fluoride levels over 2.0 mg/L can cause damage to liver and kidney functions in children.”
2.0 mg is routinely exceeded daily by means of intake through milk, tea, toothpaste, fish, crops irrigated with fluoridated water and some medicines and food processed using fluoridated water. through food.
60 per cent of the U.S. population also drinks sodium-fluoride contaminated water, with the government aiming to increase that number to 75% by 2010.
In 2005, a study conducted at the Harvard School of Dental Health found that fluoride in tap water directly contributes to causing bone cancer in young boys.
“New American research suggests that boys exposed to fluoride between the ages of five and 10 will suffer an increased rate of osteosarcoma – bone cancer – between the ages of 10 and 19,” according to a London Observer article about the study.
Based on the findings of the study, the respected Environmental Working Group lobbied to have fluoride in tap water be added to the US government’s classified list of substances known or anticipated to cause cancer in humans.
Cancer rates in the U.S. have skyrocketed with one in three people now contracting the disease at some stage in their life.
The link to bone cancer has also been discovered by other scientists, but a controversy ensued after it emerged that Harvard Professor Chester Douglass, who downplayed the connection in his final report, was in fact editor-in-chief of The Colgate Oral Health Report, a quarterly newsletter funded by Colgate-Palmolive Co., which makes fluoridated toothpaste.
An August 2006 Chinese study found that fluoride in drinking water damages children’s liver and kidney functions.
FACTS ABOUT FLUORIDE
- Fluoride is a waste by-product of the fertilizer and aluminum industry and it’s also a Part II Poison under the UK Poisons Act 1972.
- Fluoride is one of the basic ingredients in both PROZAC (FLUoxetene Hydrochloride) and Sarin nerve gas (Isopropyl-Methyl-Phosphoryl FLUoride).
- USAF Major George R. Jordan testified before Un-American Activity committees of Congress in the 1950’s that in his post as U.S.-Soviet liaison officer, the Soviets openly admitted to “Using the fluoride in the water supplies in their concentration camps, to make the prisoners stupid, docile, and subservient.”
- The first occurrence of fluoridated drinking water on Earth was found in Germany’s Nazi prison camps. The Gestapo had little concern about fluoride’s supposed effect on children’s teeth; their alleged reason for mass-medicating water with sodium fluoride was to sterilize humans and force the people in their concentration camps into calm submission. (Ref. book: “The Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farben” by Joseph Borkin.)
- 97% of western Europe has rejected fluoridated water due to the known health risks, however 10% of Britons drink it and the UK government is trying to fast track the fluoridation of the entire country’s water supply.
- In Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg fluoridation of water was rejected because it was classified as compulsive medication against the subject’s will and therefore violated fundamental human rights.
- In November of 2006, the American Dental Association (ADA) advised that parents should avoid giving babies fluoridated water.
- Sources of fluoride include: fluoride dental products, fluoride pesticides, fluoridated pharmaceuticals, processed foods made with fluoridated water, and tea.
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And this is a separate, second reference to the same subject dated January 2, 2008 from a different source.
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‘Second Thoughts about Fluoride,’ Reports Scientific American
NEW YORK, Jan. 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — “Some recent studies suggest that
over-consumption of fluoride can raise the risks of disorders affecting teeth,
bones, the brain and the thyroid gland,” reports Scientific American editors
(January 2008). “Scientific attitudes toward fluoridation may be starting to
shift,” writes author Dan Fagin.
“Fluoride, the most consumed drug in the USA, is deliberately added to 2/3 of
public water supplies theoretically to reduce tooth decay, but with no
scientifically-valid evidence proving safety or effectiveness,” says lawyer
Paul Beeber, President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation.
Fagin, award-wining environmental reporter and Director of New York
University’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program, writes,
“There is no universally accepted optimal level for daily intake of fluoride.”
Some researchers even wonder whether the 1 mg/L added into drinking water is
too much, reports Fagin.
After 3 years of scrutinizing hundreds of studies, a National Research Council
(NRC) committee “concluded that fluoride can subtly alter endocrine function,
especially in the thyroid — the gland that produces hormones regulating
growth and metabolism,” reports Fagin.
Fagin quotes John Doull, professor emeritus of pharmacology and toxicology at
the University of Kansas Medical Center, who chaired the NRC committee thusly,
“The thyroid changes do worry me.”
Fluoride in foods, beverages, medicines and dental products can result in
fluoride over-consumption, visible in young children as dental fluorosis –
white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted teeth. We can’t normally see
fluoride’s effects to the rest of the body.
Reports Fagin, “a series of epidemiological studies in China have associated
high fluoride exposures with lower IQ.”
“(E)pidemiological studies and tests on lab animals suggest that high fluoride
exposure increases the risk of bone fracture, especially in vulnerable
populations such as the elderly and diabetics,” writes Fagin.
Fagin interviewed Steven Levy, director of the Iowa Fluoride Study which
tracked about 700 Iowa children for sixteen years. Nine-year-old “Iowa
children who lived in communities where the water was fluoridated were 50
percent more likely to have mild fluorosis… than [nine-year-old] children
living in nonfluoridated areas of the state,” writes Fagin. Levy will study
fluoride’s effects on their bones.
Over 1200 professionals urge Congress to cease water fluoridation and conduct
Congressional hearings because scientific evidence indicates fluoridation is
ineffective and has serious health risks. Support them; write your
representative here:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2477/t/2782/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=21960
Contact
Paul Beeber, Esq.
http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof
http://www.FluorideAction.Net
http://tinyurl.com/6kqtu
516-433-8882
nyscof@aol.com
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And finally, this is Dr. Mercola, today’s source of these two articles.
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November 11, 2008
Dr. McDougall on Statins
Breaking News
Advertising Passed Off As Research
Confuses the Public Again
Study Published in New England Journal of Medicine
Expands the Indications for Statins—and the Public Suffers
Today’s (November 10, 2008) front page headlines worldwide announced a simple test called “highly sensitive C-reactive protein” (HS-CRP) and the most powerful cholesterol-lowering statin currently on the market, Crestor (rosuvastatin), used together, could cut the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and death from cardiovascular disease in half.1 For the casual reader, Crestor appears to be a miracle treatment with few risks and reasonable costs. Today’s publication adds to the belief of a growing number of experts that “statins are so wonderful that they should be added to our drinking water” (like fluoride).
For this study nearly 90,000 people were examined, and most of them were identified as being at increased risk for a heart attack, stroke, and/or premature death. Rather than choosing professionalism and treating the underlying causes of their health problems: their diet and lifestyle; these researchers chose commercialism; creating the most effective pharmaceutical advertising campaign ever devised. And they have succeeded.
The study was funded by the maker of the drug, AstraZeneca, and the lead author, Paul M Ridker MD, is listed as a co-inventor on patents held by Brigham and Women’s Hospital related to the use of HS-CRP for the evaluation of a patient’s risk of heart disease.
Profits Are Determining Medical Care
The cost of Crestor (rosuvastatin) is about $3.45 per day—much higher than that of generic statins. That amounts to $1259 a year just for this drug. Doing the math, this means to prevent one event in one “apparently healthy patient” would cost about $300,000 just for the Crestor. These figures do not include the cost of doctors’ visits, the lab tests and the treatment of side effects from the medications, including the serious adverse events caused by Crestor.(Calculations: Absolute benefit of 1 event for 120 treated patients for 1.9 years at $1259 = 120 x 1.9 x $1259 = $287,052.)
Heart attacks, strokes, and the need for surgery and drugs are caused primarily by eating the Western diet, and secondarily by “bad habits,” including cigarette smoking and lack of exercise. The underlying disease, atherosclerosis, is reversible. There are no side effects or added costs with diet-therapy—therein lies the problem (no profit).
How Did They Get Those Results?
1) They stacked the deck with sick people, but passed them off as “healthy” to the press and public. Previous studies of statins have found that people at high risk for a heart attack or stroke will benefit, but healthy people will not.2 The deception in this study began by choosing high-risk test subjects and identifying them as “apparently healthy men and women.”
The nearly 18,000 people selected for the study out of the original 89,890 screened had very high HS-CRP levels of over 4.2 mg/L. Simply based on the HS-CRP these were not “apparently healthy,” but rather, people at high risk for cardiovascular disease. The cutoff value for high “bad” LDL-cholesterol level was 130 mg/dL. This allowed the inclusion of many high-risk people—“good health” is associated with a LDL below 100 mg/dL. In addition, the average blood pressure (134/80 mmHg) and total cholesterol (186 mg/dL) numbers were too high for these people to be considered “apparently healthy.”
The baseline median body mass index (BMI) was 28.3 (normal 18.5-24.9), indicating most of these people were overweight or obese. At the beginning of the study 41% were reported to have “metabolic syndrome.” (Metabolic syndrome is a combination of medical disorders, such as abdominal obesity, elevated blood sugar, triglycerides, and blood pressure, which considered together indicate an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.)
2) They Emphasized Relative, Not Absolute Benefits
Reporting the “relative benefit” of a drug is the most common method used by drug companies to deceive patients and their doctors. In this case relative risk reduction was determined by dividing the number of designated events (heart attacks, stroke, and deaths from cardiovascular disease) for the treated (Crestor) group by the events for the placebo group: 83 vs. 157. This mean the treated group had half (53%) the chance of an event compared to placebo. This figure is impressive.
However, the “absolute benefit”—the real life benefit a person can expect from treatment—is a very different story. Consider the numbers: nearly 18,000 people were treated for almost 2 years. In absolute numbers this means 83/8901 or 0.9% of those people taking Crestor had a serious event, as opposed to 157/8901 or 1.8% of those in the placebo group. This is an absolute event reduction of less than 1%. In other words, 120 patients had to be treated with Crestor for 1.9 years to prevent one designated event: heart attacks, strokes, and death from cardiovascular disease.
3) Early Termination of the Study Is Impressive but Suggests Dishonesty. The study was supposed to go on for 4 years, but was stopped at 1.9 years for “ethical reasons.” It was considered unethical to continue the study because continuation would mean depriving the people in the placebo group of the advantage of the treatment—Crestor in this case. “Early termination” of research is a powerful technique used by pharmaceutical companies to enhance the perceived value of the treatment in the minds of the medical profession, the press, and the public. But it has been shown that studies that are stopped early are biased and prone to exaggeration.3 According to a recent review in the Journal of the American Medical Association, “RCTs (Randomized Controlled Trials) stopped early for benefit are bec oming more common, often fail to adequately report relevant information about the decision to stop early, and show implausibly large treatment effects, particularly when the number of events is small. These findings suggest clinicians should view the results
of such trials with skepticism.”4
No mention was made in this report about two other recent studies (CORONA and GISSI-HF) where Crestor did not result in any improvement in survival. 5,6
4) Researchers Underemphasized Serious Adverse Events from Crestor. One of the most important findings from this study (found in table 4) is the similar number of serious adverse events in both the Crestor-treated and placebo groups—1352 (15.2%) vs. 1377 (15.5%). How can that be? Wasn’t the number of events about half (83 vs. 157) for those taking Crestor? The study focused on events (heart attacks, strokes, and deaths from cardiovascular disease) that are expected to respond favorably to treatment. The study, and the media that followed, did not give appropriate attention to all adverse events that occurred. Clearly, there was an increase in non-cardiac serious adverse events in the Crestor group. Obviously, it is not in the best interest of the sponsor of the study to give attention to this findi ng.
The article did mention an increase in risk of diabetes in those treated with Crestor (270 reports of diabetes, vs. 216 in the placebo group). But there must be more. Amazingly, this study reported only one case of serious muscle damage (rhabdomyolysis). The expected rate is 3.16 fatal cases per million prescriptions written for Crestor.7 This is 16 to 80 times higher than that reported for other statins. Almost four years ago Dr. David Graham, FDA’s associate director for science and medicine, named Crestor as one of five drugs that pose serious safety concerns and the FDA told AstraZeneca to pull its ads for Crestor because they do not mention its risks of causing acute kidney failure or rhabdomyolysis.
There is no long-term information on the safety of using these high doses of Crestor to lower “bad” LDL-cholesterol to 55 mg/dL (as they did in this study). This study was stopped after less than 2 years, but patients prescribed statins can expect to take them for 20 years and longer.
One More Deregulated System That Must Be Fixed
Neither the patient nor our over-burdened health care system can thrive with this kind of deception from the pharmaceutical companies and the medical journals. Fortunately, health care professionals are beginning to recognize that what is happening in medical care is just like the tragedies we have recently witnessed in the stock market and the housing industries. Unregulated business practices lead to a few very rich people becoming even richer, and severe suffering for the rest of us. The time has come for change. Researchers and publishers must be held accountable like stockbrokers and bankers. Regulation enacted to protect the public is long overdue.
What is HS-CRP?
C-reactive protein (CRP) is a molecule produced in response to inflammation. It is non-specific, in other words, it does not identify the source of the inflammation, which could be due to an infection of a toe, arthritis, or a bad cold. The connection to cardiovascular disease (heart attacks and strokes) is that the sores (like pustules) on the artery walls cause the CRP to rise. This festering artery disease (atherosclerosis) is the underlying cause of heart attacks and strokes. The elevated CRP is simply one sign of the trouble—other signs are elevated blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides.
Highly sensitive (HS) refers to laboratory methodology used to increase accuracy. A level of less than 1mg/L indicates low risk, a level between 1 and 3mg/L indicates moderate risk, and a level greater than 3mg/L indicates high risk of active artery disease. The people in this study were on average in the high-risk group, in need of immediate and intensive dietary intervention.
Statins, like Crestor, are believed to be anti-inflammatory, reducing HS-CRP levels. Even without the postulated benefit of reduced inflammation, the cholesterol lowering effects of statins have been shown to reduce the risk of serious cardiovascular events in people at high risk. 2 A low-fat diet also cuts CRP in half in 4 weeks. 8 This reflects less inflammation, which means healing the arteries as a result of following a healthier diet.
References:
1) Ridker,P Danielson, E Fonseca F, Genest J, Gotto A, Kastelein J, Koenig W, Libby P, Lorenzatti A, MacFadyen J, Nordestgaard B, Shepherd J, Willerson J, Glynn R, the JUPITER Study Group. Rosuvastatin to Prevent Vascular Events in Men and Women with Elevated C-Reactive Protein. N Engl J Med. 2008; 359:2195-2207
2) Abramson J, Wright JM. Are lipid-lowering guidelines evidence-based? Lancet. 2007 Jan 20;369(9557):168-9.
3) Hopewell S, Clarke M, Moher D, Wager E, Middleton P, et al.
PLoS Medicine Vol. 5, No. 1, e20 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050020
4) Montori VM, Devereaux PJ, Adhikari NK, Burns KE, Eggert CH, Briel M, Lacchetti C, Leung TW, Darling E, Bryant DM, Bucher HC, Schünemann HJ, Meade MO, Cook DJ, Erwin PJ, Sood A, Sood R, Lo B, Thompson CA, Zhou Q, Mills E, Guyatt GH. Randomized trials stopped early for benefit: a systematic review. JAMA. 2005 Nov 2;294(17):2203-9.
5) Kjekshus J, Apetrei E, Barrios V, Böhm M, Cleland JG, Cornel JH, Dunselman P, Fonseca C, Goudev A, Grande P, Gullestad L, Hjalmarson A, Hradec J, Jánosi A, Kamensk? G, Komajda M, Korewicki J, Kuusi T, Mach F, Mareev V, McMurray JJ, Ranjith N, Schaufelberger M, Vanhaecke J, van Veldhuisen DJ, Waagstein F, Wedel H, Wikstrand J; CORONA Group. Rosuvastatin in older patients with systolic heart failure. N Engl J Med. 2007 Nov 29;357(22):2248-61.
6) Gissi-Hf Investigators. Effect of rosuvastatin in patients with chronic heart failure (the GISSI-HF trial): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Lancet. 2008 Aug 29.
7) Bruce J, Rabkin E., Martin V. Rhabdomyolysis associated with current us of simvastatin and Nefazodone: Case report and current review of the literature. Advanced Studies in Medicine 2003; 3: 168-172.
8)Rankin JW, Turpyn AD. Low carbohydrate, high fat diet increases C-reactive protein during weight loss. J Am Coll Nutr. 2007 Apr;26(2):163-9.
© 2008 John McDougall All Rights Reserved
McDougall Wellness Center P.O. Box 14039, Santa Rosa,
November 8, 2008
Fear of the Dark
A friend and I recently spoke about her teenage daughter’s fear of the dark and the frustration that she feels in trying to cope with it. Funny how memories can be triggered. Immediately, I flashed back to lonesome nights in the dark and the countless terrors that menace childhood. Been there. It really is kind of a delicate thing to handle. One cannot pooh-pooh the fear as if it doesn’t exist – it does! This only causes a breech between the comforter and the sufferer. And its hard to just explain away since ‘reason’ rarely enters into it. However, in the cool light of day this can be explored and replaced with new ways to combat fear with personal power; to replace the old way of seeing which isn’t ’seeing’ at all, but rather falling prey to victimizing beliefs or “what ifs.” Often these beliefs are based on imagination or something one has heard from another source. We can find illumination and diffuse the murky confusion in the shadows.
FDR once told a desperate nation which had crumbled to its knees “There is nothing to fear but fear itself”. He gave hope to the hopeless and then backed it up with action appropriate to the circumstances. This great man who bore the burdens of our country (1933 to his death before WW2’s end in 1945) never knew the extent to which he changed his nation or how he endeared himself to the people. America’s economic climate looked insurmountable during the great depression – joblessness, poverty, starvation and worst of all – hopelessness. People need hope and a way to handle what burdens them. And so does a teenage person.
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It helps very much to understand what happens to us – our bodies, mind, emotions as we think different thoughts. Sadness is much like a rock, heavy, dull, pulls us down, drains our energy, saps our resources to the point that we often can’t help ourselves. This is radically different from the thoughts and feelings one has in thinking about the person or persons one loves greatly. In this, there is comfort, easy flow of energy from one to the other, safety, security and freedom. Same with a great friend; the sharing of personal intimacies and the happiness of understanding the same things. Good stuff, all easy to do. These positive and not so positive (or negative) feelings and thoughts are tied together (where the mind goes, energy will follow). So here we have touched on positive (up-beat, happy, wonderful and exciting) thoughts and feelings. And the not so good stuff (painful, heavy, sad, frightening, horrible, ugly) negative thoughts and emotions. I cannot alter your thoughts or think them for you. You cannot think my thoughts for me. Your thoughts are yours and mine are mine. No one can get in our heads and do anything – only I in mine and you in yours. In this sense, we are the creators of our own destinies (remember – “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”) – where the mind goes, energy will follow. It is up to us to be choosy about our thoughts; what we allow ourselves to dwell upon is very important. We can’t help it if heavy or frightening thoughts come into our minds, but we can choose to over-rule them by deliberately thinking better thoughts, happier thoughts. This is a learning process. So how can we tell which thoughts are which? Simple. How do we FEEL? Good thoughts make us feel good, normal, even happy (depending on your nature and orientation). While scary, ugly or heavy thoughts make us feel sad or angry, or anxious or hateful. We can feel down, heavy, helpless and there is hurt somewhere in the body. Just sense it. Feel it. Stomach,….head, something is off, not right.
All these thought processes and range of feelings is like our inner climate (some people refer to this as vibration). For some people, its raining pretty much all the time. Other people awake in the morning, glad to face a new day, bounce out of bed ready for almost anything and for them, the sun is usually shinning (no matter what the sky looks like). Those with the heavier thoughts (and I don’t mean perceptive and deep, I mean down, sad and knowing that nothing good is going to happen this day for them) must struggle to get through their days. It is sad because their lives could be happier too. Good things can happen to them and for them, but they must attract them, allow them into their lives – by changing how and what they think. The Universe is full of laws (‘m told), but one of the most important ones to know about is the “Law of Attraction”. And that simply means that “like attracts like” If we put out all these worrisome thoughts and heavy feelings, we in effect, are saturating the field around us with negativity, which in turn, attracts or pulls toward us, that which we are dwelling on which in this case, is not a good thing. Usually, one learns from pain. We put our hand into the fire and quickly withdraw it because it hurts so bad. We have learned not to do that again. But some how many people are not realizing that they are creating the lives they are living by the thoughts (focus) of what they are thinking about. The Universe is abundant, and we are heirs to this, but we must let it in by dreaming of the life we want (not settling for what seems to be), thinking of the things which give us joy AND putting our “focus” on these things. Its not only Okay to dream and want better – but our very life depends on it. Go for broke! Be happy. You are so worth it. I know I am.
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Back to “fear.” With the preface of general thinking in the above outline coming from my understanding, I wish now to refer to a source that I very often defer to, that of “Abraham” with the Esther and Jerry Hicks foundation who have devoted a blissful 25 years to the telling of their wonderful message. So I shall now quote from one of their ‘Journals’:
Vibration of Fear, a feeling of Powerlessness
Question: What causes my fear?
Abraham: Fear is the feeling sensation that is present within you when you have both a desire and a belief that contradicts it. Fear is a response to the state of your vibration. You are a vibrational being, and every moment offering a signal. Your vibration could be called thought, it could be called memory, it could be called fantasy, it could be called imagination, it could be called Energy. In other words, your vibration could be called, “As I stand in my now, and I think about the present, or I think about the future, or I think about the past — all of that is thought. Whatever it is I’m perceiving is causing me to offer a vibration, and that vibration is being answered or matched by All-That-Is.
So when I feel fear, what it always means is, I am offering a thought that you might call desire and a thought that you might call belief that are contradictory. The presence of fear always means the presence of resistance. The presence of resistance always means not allowing the Energy of desire to flow through me–always, without exception. Same with confusion; same with vulnerability; same with anger; same with unworthiness; same with guilt. All negative emotions mean the same thing. You just call them different things because they play out differently in your experience — but they all mean the same thing.
The vibration of fear is usually a very strong vibration, which usually means there is the presence of a very strong desire within you. Often, when you feel fear, it is because you have a belief that contradicts basic elements that are natural to you. Your natural instinct, from your broadest Nonphysical perspective, is to know your power. Fear is a vibration when you feel powerless. Your natural instinctual Nonphysical vibration is to know your worthiness, know your rightness, know your value. And the feeling of fear is always when you are contradicting that thought.
We would want you to say, “Quite a bit of the time I feel fearful or vulnerable or limited, and what that feeling means is: I’m in that moment holding a desire that contradicts my past thought, or my beliefs…” Remember that a belief is just a thought you keep thinking, it’s just a habit of thought. It’s just sort of the way you’ve always thought it, and so it is the way you are now thinking it.
And so, as you are feeling fear, all it means is, “I’ve got a desire that my belief is not agreeing with. Now, what thought feels better about this? I’ve got hold of this stick, where my desire is here, my belief is here. What thought feels better?” And as you just softly talk to yourself about that subject, reaching for the thought that feels better, what happens is you shift the Energy.
It’s like the teeter-totter on the fulcrum, and it’s clearly down here, and you would like it to be up here. And so, you reach for the thought that feels better, and you reach for the thought that feels better, and you reach for the thought that feels better…and it doesn’t look like anything’s happening. And then, all of a sudden, one more time, you reach for the thought that feels better, and there it goes! The fear is gone without even knowing it, just by reaching for the thought that feels better. There is so much reward in just feeling better in your “now”. Because, so often, you’re wanting to reach for the thought that feels better because, “Whoop-de-doo, this is big time good fun!” In other words, “I want to get there! I would like every effort to take me there. I would like every thought that I think, and every time I go to a workshop, and every time I make a little bit of effort, I would like it to take me there!” And it’s irritating that it doesn’t take you there, to that manifestation.
We want you to not get so hung up on the manifestation, and start taking pleasure in the incremental relief. Pleasure in the fact that this feels a little better. Pleasure in the fact that you can actually, with your own will power and your own determination, choose a thought that feels better.
It is Unnatural to Not Feel Good
We offer an analogy, about the cork bobbing on the body of water. It’s up here floating, floating, floating. And in our analogy this cork is bobbing in the place of Pure Positive Energy. When you take hold of the cork and hold it under the water, that’s what negative emotion is. You’re not allowing the natural quality of the cork, you’re doing something that does not allow the cork to do what it usually would do. You’re holding it in an unnatural place with your attention to this thought of something that you do not want.
But when you withdraw your attention from it, and you let go of the cork, it bobs right back up there. It is natural for you to be in this pure positive place. It is unnatural for you not to feel good. But what happens in your physical environment where you’ve been trained by other humans who didn’t feel so good either, is that you’ve come to accept the way you feel as being the natural way that you feel.
And now, through meditation, or through consciously reaching for the better feeling, you set higher standards. Until then it becomes consciously uncomfortable for you to dip into the lower Energies. You will never be at a place where you won’t feel negative emotion. Nor would we ever want you to be at that place, because that would be like shooting Novocaine into your fingers so that you don’t feel anything hot or sharp. You say, “Well, it sure is a lot better now that I can bang my hands on things. You know, I can shut my hands in car doors and it doesn’t even bother me any more. I feel no pain.” But it’s not good for your fingers. Pretty soon you have flat, little flabby hands flapping around. You’ve destroyed your hands, even though it was painless.
And so, that’s what that fear is. It’s sort of an acquiescence. It’s submission to a vibration that’s not natural to who you really are. And you’re awakening now to those higher standards.
Take mood checks and ask yourself, what is my mood? Well, I’m feeling fearful. And then ask yourself, well overall, do I have reason to fear? And as you reach for the more general statement, you recognize, you don’t have anything to be fearful about.
We think what you’re doing is sort of very specifically, channeling the worries of a larger mass consciousness. You are susceptible to Energy. And so, for example, if you were living in a retirement community where there were many people who were feeling vulnerable about their money, or feeling worried about what their future would provide, and you are sensitive to Energy, you could very well be picking up on the consensus of the group around you, even though it has nothing to do with who you are.
But you must have a little spattering of that within you, or you could not be finding harmony with that greater consensus. Every thought that has ever been thought exists. And then, by Law of Attraction, those thoughts coalesce, so that there are pockets of Thought Forms. And so, very often, just driving from city to city, if you are sensitive to vibration, you can feel different Energies in different cities. Well, what we are wanting you to do, is get so good at setting your own Tone, that it doesn’t matter what the fluctuations of Energies are around you, you are always holding a steady course.
Excerpted from the workshop in El Paso TX on Saturday, February 12th, 2000
