For any of you that still think the drug companies have our best interest at heart, I invite you to watch this 60 Minutes CBS report on Galaxo Smith Cline at http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/01/18/sixty-minutes-exposes-why-you-cant-trust-drug-companies.aspx .
The best protection for all of us is to get healthy, eat right and avoid the need (or pressure) to take any drugs for extended periods of time.
Bayer Is Not Just Aspirin Any More
By Jenny Thompson at Health Science Institute
Again and again we see FDA officials bowing and scraping to their Big Pharma overlords. Safety? That's a trivial concern compared to protecting drug company profits.
And now it looks like the Environmental Protection Agency has figured out its own special spin on the FDA's specialty--and for one of the FDA's biggest cronies.
Bye bye, "protection!" Hello, profits!
Over the past few years, EPA officials appear to have gone out of their way to protect the profits of Bayer--one of the largest and most powerful drug companies in the world.
But you see, Bayer doesn't just make drugs. They also make chemicals for agriculture.
In the mid-90s, a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids was first introduced. This poison doesn't affect humans or animals (that's what we're told, anyway), but it disrupts the nervous systems of insects, causing disorientation and death.
It's one thing when we're talking about gypsy moths. But what about honeybees?
After neonicotinoid use began in France in 1995, the number of bees per hive was cut in half in just six years.
In a logical world, that red flag (along with other evidence of the pesticide's toxicity to bees) would have brought neonicotinoid use to a screeching halt. But an international corporate giant like Bayer isn't hemmed in by minor nuisances like logic or environmental safety.
In early 2003, Bayer applied for EPA registration of a neonicotinoid called clothianidin. At first the agency balked.
Two months later, EPA officials were suddenly not so deeply concerned with honeybee safety. Hmmm...what could have possibly changed their minds? Maybe something green that has absolutely nothing to do with environment???
I'm just sayin'...
So the EPA gave clothianidin a "conditional registration." This meant the pesticide could be sold and used without restriction in the U.S. But the "conditional" part required Bayer to conduct a study to examine the effect of clothianidin on the life cycle of honeybees.
And this is EXACTLY what happens with FDA drug approvals. A new drug gets the green light with the promise that safety reviews will follow--as if safety is a just a bothersome formality and not a critical concern.
And how did Bayer respond? Exactly the way drug companies do (after all, they've had lots of practice). They took forever, dragged their feet, and finally produced a lame, completely inconclusive study...more than FOUR YEARS later!
And what a mess!
You would have thought they were writing the book on the wrong way to do a study.
First: The study was conducted on canola plants, not corn. Bees LOVE protein-rich corn pollen, but canola pollen doesn't draw them in as much.
Second: Researchers placed hives in a clothianidin-treated field, and other hives in an untreated control field. But the fields were so close together that bees had easy access to both fields.
So, did the research find any differences in mortality between the two sets of bees? Of course not! Maybe that's because the two sets became one big set very quickly.
And yet very quietly, with no public notice, the EPA granted clothianidin unconditional registration...THREE YEARS later! And during that entire time the pesticide was used more and more while bee populations continued to drop alarmingly.
And in what looks like an effort to be just as incompetent or underhanded (depending on how you look at it) as their FDA brethren, last month, a leaked document revealed that EPA scientists had strong misgivings about the study's deficiencies and inconclusive results--the very study agency officials reviewed before giving clothianidin the green light for unconditional registration.
So as clothianidin use widens, what's potentially at stake?
Well, about 75 percent of all flowering plants (which includes most food crops) require pollination. And while birds and other insects help out with pollination, commercial bee colonies play a huge role in pollinating crops. Remove the honeybee from that picture, and you've got the makings of an environmental disaster.
And it is no surprise that in 2009, Bayer reported more than $260 million in clothianidin sales.
Yes, it's the new greener EPA.
The Hidden and Pervasive Cause of High Blood Pressure
People who eat a diet high in fructose are at increased risk of developing high blood pressure, or hypertension. The results of a study suggest that cutting back on foods and beverages containing a lot of fructose might decrease your risk of developing hypertension.
Hypertension is a major risk factor for heart and kidney diseases. An increase in the general consumption of fructose, which is used to sweeten a wide variety of processed foods, has occurred at the same time as a rise in the prevalence of hypertension.
According to Newswise:
"The study involved 4,528 US adults 18 years of age or older with no prior history of hypertension. Study participants answered questions related to their consumption of foods and beverages such as fruit juices, soft drinks, bakery products, and candy."
Today nearly one in three adults suffer from high blood pressure (hypertension), a serious health concern that can cause heart disease and increase your risk of having a stroke. But this was not always the case -- not even close.
Hypertension was rare prior to the 20th century. In 1900, only 5 percent of the population had blood pressure of 140/90 or higher. By 1939, that had risen to 10 percent, and today 31 percent of adults are hypertensive.
What has happened in the last several decades to explain this staggering rise? Fructose became a mainstay of our diets.
Fructose Causes Blood Pressure to Skyrocket
Food and beverage manufacturers began switching their sweeteners from sucrose (table sugar) to corn syrup in the 1970s when they discovered that High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) was far cheaper to use in their products.
This switch drastically altered the average American diet. HFCS is now found in every type of processed, pre-packaged food you can think of. In fact, the use of HFCS in the U.S. diet increased 10,673 percent between 1970 and 2005, according to the USDA. It now makes up the number one source of calories in America.
Given the rising rates of both fructose consumption and high blood pressure, researchers jumped in to find out if there's a link, and low and behold they found one.
In the latest study, which was conducted in part by Dr. Richard Johnson, chief of the division of kidney disease and hypertension at the University of Colorado and one of the leading researchers in this field, it was found that those who consumed 74 grams or more per day of fructose (the amount in 2.5 sugary drinks) had a 77 percent greater risk of having blood pressure levels of 160/100 mmHg.
For comparison, a normal blood pressure reading is below 120/80 mmHg. Consuming 74 grams or more of fructose daily also increased the risk of a 135/85 blood pressure reading by 26 percent, and 140/90 by 30 percent.
This is significant because the average American now consumes 70 grams of fructose EVERY day. This is in contrast to 100 years ago when the average intake was about 15 grams and that was mostly in the form of healthy fruits. So we are consuming 500% more than we did a century back.
Fructose Drives up Uric Acid Levels AND Blood Pressure Readings
You might consider having your uric acid level checked to find out how sensitive you are to fructose. Let me explain why.
Thanks to Dr. Johnson's research, we now know that fructose generates uric acid within minutes of ingestion. High levels of uric acid are normally associated with gout, but it has been long known that people with high blood pressure and kidney disease, and people who are overweight, often have elevated uric acid levels.
It was thought this increased uric acid resulted from the disease, but it appears now that it may have been CAUSING it!
Glucose and fructose are different types of simple sugars. After they are separated apart and broken down in your body they are metabolized using completely separate pathways. Glucose is utilized by every cell in your body -- in fact; your body was designed to use it for energy.
But fructose breaks down into a variety of waste products that are bad for your body, one of which is uric acid.
Uric acid drives up your blood pressure by inhibiting the nitric oxide in your blood vessels. Nitric oxide helps your vessels maintain their elasticity, so nitric oxide suppression leads to increases in blood pressure.
In fact, 17 out of 17 studies demonstrate that elevated uric acid levels lead to hypertension.
According to the latest research in this area, the safest range of uric acid is between 3 and 5.5 milligrams per deciliter. Dr. Johnson suggests that the ideal uric acid level is probably around 4 mg/dl for men and 3.5 mg/dl for women.
When your uric acid level exceeds about 5.5 mg per dl, you have an increased risk for a host of diseases, including not only hypertension but also:
• Kidney disease
• Insulin resistance, obesity, and diabetes
• Fatty liver
• Elevated triglycerides, elevated LDL, and cardiovascular disease
• For pregnant women, preeclampsia
Dr. Johnson has developed a program to help people optimize their uric acid levels, and the key step in this program is complete elimination of fructose.
Cinnamon for Cholesterol
The U.S. government isn't what you'd call a big fan of alternative medicine.
But researchers over at the USDA don't seem to have a problem with natural therapies. New research from the USDA focuses on using cinnamon extract for the prevention of type 2 diabetes.
More than 20 subjects with metabolic syndrome (a key risk factor for developing diabetes) were given a cinnamon extract or placebo for 12 weeks. Those in the cinnamon group ended up with significantly lower levels of fasting blood sugar compared to placebo.
Here's an added bonus: Subjects in the cinnamon group also increased lean muscle mass, while losing body fat and lowering blood pressure.
Of course, the news about cinnamon and diabetes isn't news to us. But it turns out it isn't news to the USDA either. Another cinnamon study from 2003 was also conducted by...the USDA!
In that study, one gram of cinnamon extract, taken for 40 days, improved blood sugar, triglyceride, and cholesterol levels.
Maybe the FDA should get on the USDA's mailing list.
Until next time, stay healthy and happy.
JD Roma
The information on this blog is provided for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical care, and medical advice and services are not being offered. If you have, or suspect you have, a health problem you should consult your physician (preferably a Naturopath).
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