The post Institutional Corruption of Pharmaceuticals and the Myth of Safe and Effective Drugs—Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, as Summarized on Green Medicine Radio first appeared on Alliance for Natural Health USA - Protecting Natural Health.

• A large study published in JAMA Neurology found PPIs to be linked with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The study found that regular use of PPIs increased the risk for dementia by as much as 52% compared with nonusers.
• Two new studies have linked acid blockers with chronic kidney disease. The increase in risk is cited as 20–50%.
• Another study found that PPIs may raise the risk of heart attack by 15–20%. Other studies have shown that PPIs damage the lining of blood vessels and thus promote cardiovascular events.

The link with pneumonia and other infectious diseases was established years ago. This may be because acid is a barrier to infectious organisms getting inside your body.
Because stomach acid helps digest food, too little stomach acid can lead to nutrient deficiencies (since it is harder for the body to extract minerals and vitamins from food) and food poisoning. Reduced calcium absorption, for instance, leaves people who regularly take PPIs susceptible to bone fractures.
It can also be hard to stop taking PPIs once started. When patients stop taking them, fermentation can cause pain. It may also be hard to re-establish the ability to produce acid.
Given these dangers, why do doctors continue to suggest these drugs to their patients? As always, it is instructive to follow the money. Blockbuster drugs in this class such as Prevacid, Prilosec, and Nexium bring in billions of dollars each year and are some of the most widely prescribed drugs in the US. Nexium alone brings in about $6 billion a year. With so much money at stake, drug companies presumably do not want us to learn the truth, and drug companies are often the only source of information on the subject for doctors.
The good news is that stomach pain can be managed without using these dangerous drugs. Restoring stomach acid with hydrochloric acid supplements both helps the stomach signal the pyloric valve to close and also helps control the helicobacter bacteria. Lifestyle changes can also help reduce stomach pain and acid reflux, such as losing weight and eating a healthy diet.

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General Mills will drop all artificial colors and flavors from its cereals. Perdue, Tyson and Foster Farm have begun to limit the use of antibiotics in their chicken. Kraft declared it was dropping artificial dyes from its macaroni and cheese. Hershey’s will begin to move away from ingredients such as the emulsifier polyglycerol polyricinoleate to “simple and easy-to-understand ingredients” like “fresh milk from local farms, roasted California almonds, cocoa beans and sugar”….Brands such as Amy’s Kitchen, with its organic products, and Kind bars are taking some of the space on shelves once consumed by Nestlé’s Lean Cuisine and Mars.

Food manufacturers are acquiring healthier brands (for example, last year General Mills purchased Annie’s Homegrown—famous for its organic mac and cheese—for $820 million, over four times the company’s current revenues, a huge price). They are also introducing a tremendous number of gluten-free products, although these typically are overloaded with sugar.
All of this represents some serious damage control. Soda sales are down by 25%—because people are learning about how unhealthy sodas are, and are drinking more water. Orange juice sales have dropped 45%. It wasn’t long ago that people thought orange juice to be a health food. Now they realize that flooding the system with fructose (fruit sugar) is not a good idea, even if it’s natural fructose. Eating oranges is entirely different because of the pulp, which slows down the intake of the sugar.
In addition, consumers are replacing packaged cereals with yogurt and granola. McDonald’s overall sales figures have been in a huge downward spiral for three years. Sales of raw fruits and vegetables are up 10%, and freshly prepared foods in grocery stores are up by nearly 30%, despite the high cost. Consumers are voting every time they make a purchase at the grocery store—and every vote counts.
So if Big Food is gradually bending to new kinds of consumer demand, why is Big Medicine still resisting any change at all?
When we refer to Big Medicine, we mean the American Medical Association (AMA), the medical professionals affiliated with them, big hospitals, the insurance industry, and medical device manufacturers. But we especially mean Big Pharma, the pharmaceutical industry. This industry earns immense profits, mostly fueled by government granted monopolies (patents and FDA approvals). It uses these profits to control not only Big Medicine but the FDA and other government arms including Congress and the White House.
Big Pharma pays lip service to “preventive medicine,” but this just means persuading doctors to prescribe more drugs and vaccines, especially to children and older people, even though these two groups are rarely included in drug trials.
Why is big medicine so immune to consumer influence? One reason is that since the advent of Medicare in the 1960s, government and insurance companies have paid more and more of the medical bills. Consumers sill pay them, but because the money is channeled through other parties, they lose their influence.
But this is changing for unexpected reasons. The drafters of Obamacare wanted to eliminate Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and other vehicles. After many voices, including ANH-USA’s, opposed this, the idea shifted to eliminating insurance policy deductibles, which would indirectly eliminate HSAs.
As we all know, deductibles did not decline. Instead they’ve recently skyrocketed. This is very hard on the poor and middle class, but ironically, has shifted more power to consumers.
Given that the consumer vote does matter, we have the following request: for the next three months, we’re asking you to make major changes in both your food and medical purchases. As much as you are able, make a concerted effort to choose only “real” foods, meals you have to actually cook yourself, containing the freshest, organic, sustainable ingredients you can find. No sodas, not even diet sodas (see our article on artificial sweeteners in this issue of Pulse). No fast food. Nothing overly processed.
Most of our readers will already be here, but try to take it to the next level.
In addition, talk to your physician or healthcare professional about finding healthier alternatives to prescription drugs. If they respond with a blank stare or rabid opposition, look for an integrative physician with assistance from our website. Let’s see how big a change we can really make in the food and medical industry!
In addition, two congressional representatives, Donald M. Payne, Jr. (D-NJ) and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), co-chairs of the Congressional Men’s Health Caucus, understand the government’s intransigence and refusal to do more than pay lip service to health and wellness and decided to do something about it. They recently introduced a House resolution expressing support for health and wellness coaches.
This may seem like tokenism, but the AMA will not like it. They regard health coaches as competition for their doctors. Let’s be sure that Congress knows someone other than the AMA is watching.
National Health and Wellness Coach Recognition Week will also be celebrated January 11-17, 2016.
Action Alert! Write to your representative and senators and ask them to support H. RES. 552 in support of health and wellness coaches and National Health and Wellness Coach Recognition Week. Please send your message today.

 
Other articles in this week’s Pulse of Natural Health:
Small and Organic Farmers Survive Latest Round of FDA Food Rulemaking
Artificial Sweeteners Contribute to Diabetes

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The post Action Alert: Big Food vs. Big Medicine: One Fluid, the Other Frozen first appeared on Alliance for Natural Health USA - Protecting Natural Health.

• 30 warnings that antidepressants cause heart problems
• 21 warnings that they cause birth defects
• 6 warnings that they cause anxiety
• 5 warnings that they cause mania or psychosis
• 4 warnings that they cause death
• 4 warnings that they cause hallucinations or delusional thinking
• 4 warnings that they cause involuntary movements
• 2 warnings that they cause sexual dysfunction

There is a great deal we don’t know, partly because so much of drug companies’ research on these drugs is kept secret. But the correlation between violent crime and the use of these legal, mind-altering prescription drugs is too strong to be ignored, while scientific evidence of the connection continues to mount. So why hasn’t the FDA done anything?
The answer should be clear enough. Antidepressants are some of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the US. About 10% of Americans—30 million people—are on antidepressants, which includes 25% of women in their 40s and 50s. Antidepressant use has increased an astounding 400% in recent years. This translates into billions of dollars in profits worldwide for the pharmaceutical industry. And drug company money represent a substantial percentage of the FDA’s operating budget.
What is especially tragic about the wide use of antidepressants and their connection to violence and other terrible side effects is the fact that there are far safer, natural alternatives. We’ve reported before about some of these.
Sometimes depression is triggered by a life event or series of events. But what conventional medicine generally fails to notice is the connection between the brain and the body—how the body, and especially the gut, can have a profound effect on the brain, and vice versa. In some cases, it is a simple nutrient that is missing. It is often B vitamins, or it may be a mineral such as magnesium.
An integrative approach to medicine also addresses the imbalances in the body that may cause our mood to be out of whack. Consider that 95% of the body’s serotonin, the chemical that most depression drugs try to increase, is found in the gut. The standard American diet does not optimize either serotonin or gut health, leading to leaky gut syndrome and sustained inflammation.
Antibiotic use can also lead to gut dysbiosis and leaky gut because they destroy the good bacteria lining the intestines, allowing pathogenic bacteria to colonize. When the lining of the digestive system becomes permeable, toxic substances and bacteria leak into the bloodstream, triggering food sensitivities, inflammation, and autoimmune problems.
Additionally, hormone imbalances caused by hypothyroidism, which often goes undiagnosed, may cause mental health problems. Many people taking antidepressant medications, then, should really be addressing the underlying thyroid issue.
To find an integrative doctor in your area who won’t simply prescribe Prozac but will address the root cause, click here for some helpful links.
This is a life-or-death issue. How many more violent crimes will we have to endure before something is done about SSRIs and other mental health medications?
A recent news story told of new protocols and training at the University of Virginia Medical Center, preparing staff for the possibility of a gunman on a shooting rampage, which the Emergency Manager Coordinator views as an “unfortunate inevitability.” The irony of this is completely lost on the hospital staff. They see no connection whatsoever between the drugs they are prescribing and the “inevitable” shooter they are preparing for.
In 2011, ANH submitted a Citizen Petition to the FDA asking them to expand the current black box warning on antidepressants to include the danger of violent actions toward other people, in addition to the current suicide warning. This request has so far fallen on deaf ears. This time, we are reaching out to Congress to see if they can urge the FDA to act on this crucial issue.
Action Alert! Congress recently observed Mental Health Awareness Month. Write to your legislators and urge them to take meaningful steps towards addressing this serious issue—such as directing the FDA to update their black box warnings of antidepressants to include warnings of increased violent behavior. Please send your message immediately.

The post New Evidence that Antidepressants Are Causing an Epidemic of Violence first appeared on Alliance for Natural Health USA - Protecting Natural Health.

A recently published study in the American Journal of Physiology has shown that statins—anti-cholesterol drugs—are disrupting our stem cells.
Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that have the ability to create different kinds of cells (such as skin, muscle, or bone cells). They are central to the body’s ability to heal itself and also seem to be involved in the body’s aging process.
Dr. Reza Izadpanah, a stem cell biologist at Tulane and the lead author of the study, was quoted as saying,

Our study shows statins may speed up the aging process. People who use statins as a preventive medicine for heath should think again, as our research shows they may have general unwanted effects on the body which could include muscle pain, nerve problems, and joint problems [as well].

Even after a only a few weeks on statins, many patients begin feeling years older. Patients experience memory loss, muscle pain, diabetes, cataracts, liver dysfunction, diabetes, and fatigue.
Despite the long laundry list of negative side effects that have been linked to statin use, they are one of the most widely prescribed drugs in existence: one in four Americans are on this medication.
 

Doctors, Already Buried in Needless Paperwork, Face a New Avalanche of It

On October 1, new regulations go into effect that will expand the set of codes that doctors use to describe illnesses and injuries to insurance companies. The number of codes is increasing from 14,000 to a staggering 70,000.
As we noted previously, imagine being required to use an online drop down menu to search through 70,000 options to find just the right one. It’s a bureaucratic nightmare.
Many of the codes are absurdly detailed. For example, why should a doctor have to note that an injury was sustained in a prison swimming pool, or in a human stampede while resting or sleeping? Believe it or not, each of those circumstances, plus thousands more, has its own unique code. Dr. Julian Whitaker, in his October 2015 newsletter, found these ridiculous examples as well: “burn due to water skis on fire,” “struck by turtle,” “hurt at opera,” and “sucked into jet engine”!
It isn’t just bureaucrats who have a stake in this nonsense. So does the American Medical Association, which has a very lucrative government granted monopoly in coding services.
 

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The post How a Monopoly Is Turning the Date Rape Drug into a Blockbuster Moneymaker first appeared on Alliance for Natural Health USA - Protecting Natural Health.

• Medicaid often reimburses doctors much less for non-drug interventions like counseling and therapy than it does for drug prescriptions.
• Some characteristics of disadvantaged neighborhoods—which form much of the Medicaid population— may contribute to misbehavior in kids. According to Dr. Nancy Rapport, a child psychiatrist who specializes in underprivileged youth, home environments can lead to “symptoms” of ADHD: “In acting out and being hard to control, they’re signaling the chaos in their environment. Of course only some homes are like this—but if you have a family with domestic violence, drug or alcohol abuse, or a parent neglecting a two-year-old, the kid might look impulsive or aggressive. And the parent might just want a quick fix, and the easiest thing to do is medicate. It’s a travesty.”
• Fewer and fewer doctors will see Medicaid patients, particularly since the Affordable Care Act vastly expanded the Medicaid program. It’s reasonable to assume that the doctors who do accept Medicaid patients have less and less time to spend with their patients, and are thus much more likely to use a “take these drugs and call me in the morning” approach. This is especially true of psychiatrists: a full 56% are not open to seeing new Medicaid patients. Since there can be extremely long wait times for psychiatrists accepting Medicaid, it’s often pediatricians that prescribe the medications. Not only are Medicaid kids not spending enough time with doctors, they’re likely not even seeing the right ones: only one in five children are receiving treatment for emotional and behavior “disorders” from an “appropriately trained professional.”
• Particularly when Uncle Sam is footing the bill, “selling” cash cow psychiatric drugs to poor kids is a favorite pastime of drug companies. In 2008 alone, psychiatric drugs netted $40.3 billion to Big Pharma; meanwhile, prescriptions for psychiatric drugs for kids rose nearly 45% between 2002 and 2007. In 2009, Pfizer was forced to pay a $2.3 billion settlement for illegally paying 250 child psychiatrists to promote the off-label prescription of Geodon—a powerful antipsychotic—to teens. One doctor was given $4,000 a day to promote its off-label use at conferences to doctors who had no idea he was being paid to do so.

Whatever the reasoning, over-prescription of dangerous drugs to kids—regardless of their socioeconomic status—is killing our children.
Take, for example, the case of four-year-old Rebecca Riley. On December 13, 2006, paramedics arrived at her Massachusetts home to find her slumped over her parents’ bed, dead. Medical examiners identified the cause of death brought on by the medications she was prescribed for ADHD and bipolar disorder when she was just two years old: Depakote, Seoquel, and Clonidine. None of the drugs Rebecca was prescribed are approved by the FDA for use in children her age.
What kind of society treats its children this way? Is nothing more important than drug company profits?

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The post Kickbacks, Bribes, and Money Laundering: China’s Big Pharma Scandal first appeared on Alliance for Natural Health USA - Protecting Natural Health.

• Claude Burcky, who took a job at Abbott Laboratories after negotiating a US/Australia trade deal that “undercut access to affordable medicines for Americans and Australians.”
• Peter Pitts who, after serving as the FDA’s associate commissioner for external affairs, joined a major lobbying firm to “counsel pharmaceutical, biotech, and food companies…on driving thought leadership on food and health issues facing the industry.”
• Michael Taylor, the perfect example of a revolving door “sandwich.” He started as an attorney for Monsanto, then “stopped by” the FDA long enough to draft FDA’s policies decreeing that GMOs are “generally recognized as safe” and are exempt from labeling, and then went back to Monsanto, before returning to a key FDA job in the Obama administration.
• Elizabeth Fowler, who wins the dubious recognition of being the “embodiment of corporatist revolving-door greasing.” She started as a top aide for Sen. Max Baucus, then left to become a lobbyist for WellPoint, the nation’s largest health insurance provider. She then went back to Sen. Baucus’s office, where she became the acknowledged architect of the Obamacare legislation (which, of course, was a huge gift to the private insurance industry). Ms. Fowler then joined the White House in order to oversee the implementation of Obamacare, only to leave for a senior-level lobbying position at Johnson and Johnson.

Is it possible that their previous and future employers didn’t influence the decisions of these revolving door officials? Sure. Just like it’s statistically possible to win the lottery.
For an even more subtle example of bribery, take a look at user fees, the millions of dollars paid by Big Pharma to the FDA for the drug approval process: in 2013, the FDA requested a 2013 $4.5 billion budget, 40% of which would be paid directly by the pharmaceutical industry via user fees.
Of course, it’s not just government officials who are to blame: it’s still perfectly legal for doctors to take gifts from pharmaceutical reps. But thanks to the Sunshine Act, all pharmaceutical and medical device companies will be required to publically report all payments to doctors over $10, starting in fall 2014.
Want to know if your doctor takes cash from Big Pharma? ProPublica’s “Dollars for Docs” tool can show whether your doctor accepts drug company money, and in what amounts.

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