(I know, the title is weird. What can I tell you?. . . . . I want you to get all upset and worried? NO not that. What I’m hoping for is that all of us will become more vigilant and give adequate thought to any actions we take regarding our health. There is no one guarding that hen house, so we must be on guard and make our own decisions. The FDA is so obviously serving the corporate need. Jan)
HEALTH BRIEFS
— From wire reports 2-23-12
ATLANTA
Panel: All adults should get whooping-cough shots
A federal advisory panel wants all U.S. adults to get vaccinated against whooping cough.
The panel voted yesterday to expand its recommendation to include all those 65 or older who haven’t gotten a whooping-cough shot as an adult. (Don’t think we should rush out and do this)
Children have been vaccinated against whooping cough since the 1940s. A vaccine for adolescents and adults was licensed in 2005.
Whooping cough is a highly contagious bacterial disease that can be fatal. It leads to severe coughing that causes children to make a distinctive whooping sound as they gasp for breath.
There’s little data on how many elderly people have gotten the vaccine. Only about 8 percent of adults younger than 65 have been vaccinated, but about 70 percent of adolescents have.
SILVER SPRING, MD.
FDA gives weight-loss drug Qnexa a second chance
A once-rejected weight-loss pill won an overwhelming endorsement from public-health advisers yesterday, raising hopes the drug from Vivus Inc. could become the first anti-obesity medicine to reach the U.S. market in more than a decade.
The Food and Drug Administration has rejected three weight-loss pills in the past two years, including Vivus’ pill Qnexa, because of safety concerns. Experts agree that new weight-loss drugs are needed to treat an estimated 75 million obese adults in the United States. (How about teaching that the SAD is making them fat and give some sound nutritional info instead?)
At a public meeting yesterday, an FDA panel voted 20-2 in favor of Qnexa, setting the stage for a comeback for a drug that has been plagued by safety questions since it was first submitted to the agency in 2010.
A final decision on the drug is expected by mid-April.
CHICAGO
Microchip implant delivers drug to fight osteoporosis
An implantable microchip delivered osteoporosis medicine to a small group of Danish women, raising hope for a new kind of drug-delivery device that might allow patients to skip regular injections, U.S. researchers said last week.
The device, now being developed by Microchips Inc, releases the drug in response to an electrical signal.
The microchip is a thin wafer, about the size of a small coin, made with tiny wells that hold concentrated doses of medication. These doses are covered with a thin platinum/titanium film, which melts when exposed to an electrical signal that can be preprogrammed or controlled wirelessly. (Sound exciting?. . or easier than say a raw or Paleo diet?)
ATLANTA
Hepatitis C passes HIV in rates of death for 2007
Hepatitis C mortality rates surpassed HIV mortality rates in the United States in 2007, researchers said this week.
In a study in the journal
Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed causes of death on more than 21.8 million U.S. death certificates filed between 1999 and 2007.
Rates of death related to hepatitis C, a viral infection that causes chronic liver disease, rose at an average rate of 0.18 deaths per 100,000 persons per year. More than 15,000 people died from hepatitis C in 2007.
HIV-related death rates declined 0.21 deaths per 100,000 people per year — 12,734 people died from HIV in 2007. (This one is stunning and so sad. Totally related to what we are putting into our mouths. Doing all I can with this blog, but there is just no way we can talk to everybody. Wouldn’t it be great if our medical establishment still taught people how to properly feed their body as they did back when medicine was first on the scene? Hippocrates. . . .let food be thy medicine. Our doctors today haven’t a clue for the most part, unless they have made a separate study on their own. (like Dr Russell Blaylock, Dr Johnathan Wright and so many other good people.
From all kinds of people like Dr Clark and others, we learn of the importance of keeping our liver clean and not to burden our body with toxic and non-food stuff because it breaks them down. Dr Clark in her books teaches about the different cleanses – all simply laid out.
From the Gerson Therapy we learn about the simplicity of the coffee enema – anyone can do that! This not only cleanses the liver, it restores one’s health.
Or just Google Liver Health and search for Milk Thistle. Doesn’t get much better than that or easier. I take it myself – have for years [silymarin is the power-stuff inside milk thistle], and I generally take a pill which also has dandelion root as well.)
