Fwd: WDDTY e-News Service - 27th November 2003

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WDDTY e-News Service - 27th November 2003

Thu, 27 Nov 2003 19:39:07 0000

 

 

WHAT DOCTORS DON’T TELL YOU - E-NEWS BROADCAST No. 60 - 27 November 03

 

Please feel free to email this broadcast to any friends you feel would

appreciate receiving it.

 

 

 

 

THE THIN END OF THE WEDGE, I: Are the wort's days numbered?

 

We're not gamblers, but. . . we bet St John's wort (hypericum) will soon be

banned in virtually every country in the West before too long.

 

It will be a sad fate for a herb that has helped many hundreds of thousands of

people with mild depression. It has been used for years in countries such as

Germany, and more than a handful of medical trials had confirmed that it was a

very effective therapy for mild depression, and without any nasty side effects.

 

Germans spend four times as much on St John's wort as on the antidepressant drug

Prozac, and nearly 4 per cent of Americans have taken it for at least a month

for their depression.

 

Then one study discovered that it was not a very effective treatment for major

depression, although nobody had ever suggested it was.

 

This was quickly followed by various reports that suggested the herb interfered

with prescription drugs, such as cyclosporine for transplant patients, and the

Pill. The Irish health authorities were quick to act, and banned the herb.

 

But things have gone from bad to worse for this traditional remedy, and this

time the blow may well be fatal. A recent study has discovered that it can

reduce the effectiveness of up to half of all prescription drugs. This

extraordinary conclusion is based on a study of 12 healthy volunteers who were

given the herb for 14 days.

 

Most will immediately say that the study is too small to be significant, but we

reckon the pharmaceutical industry will seize on this to force its ban.

 

As they say, to understand medicine you just have to follow the money . .

 

(Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2003; 290: 1500-4).

 

 

THE THIN END OF THE WEDGE, II: The screw tightens a little more. . .

 

In a similar vein (are we detecting a trend here?) many in conventional medicine

are getting worried about the claims being made for nutritional and herbal

products that are being advertised on the Web.

 

Any such claims fly in the face of the American legislation known as DSHEA (the

Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act 1994) which allowed the free supply

of alternative remedies in the United States, provided neither manufacturer nor

retailer made any claims for their efficacy. It was a last-minute deal that

stopped legislation that sought to ban all remedies that had not been clinically

tested for their effectiveness and safety.

 

Since then, the Web has exploded and unscrupulous suppliers are making amazing

claims for their products; most, however, are making more modest claims, and

ones that have been proved anecdotally, and sometimes in trials.

 

Researchers from Harvard Medical School checked the claims being made on 443 Web

sites, 81 per cent of which were making health claims for products, and over

half of these said their products could treat, prevent, diagnose or cure

specific diseases.

 

The practice is of course wrong, and possibly even dangerous. 'Buyer beware'

has to be the watchword for anyone who is shopping for health products on the

Web.

 

DSHEA requires the co-operation and self-regulation of the alternative medicines

market, and Web suppliers clearly fly in the face of this.

 

So . . . it doesn't take an enormous leap from there to suggest that legislators

may have to tighten up DSHEA, and quickly. After all, it would only be

following on from tighter controls being imposed by the EU. . .

 

(Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2003; 290: 1505-9).

 

 

ARTHRITIS: The definitive last word

 

The weather has turned colder for us living in the northern hemisphere. And as

the barometer falls, so our joints start to ache. But you don't have to suffer

in silence-there are many positive steps you can take. In fact the WDDTY

Arthritis Manual lists 41 scientifically-proven treatments that can, at the very

least, ease and improve aching joints, and osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis. The

manual lists every major treatment and therapy, and rates them according to the

number and quality of scientific studies. It's a ring-bound volume that you can

add to as more news comes out of newer treatments. It's an absolute

'must-read', and is the only book you'll need if you're looking to take positive

steps against your arthritis. To order your copy, :

http://www.wddty.co.uk/shop/details.asp?product=366

 

 

AS THEY TAKETH AWAY, I: It's official-ginkgo may help tinnitus

 

Perhaps it's not all bad news for alternative medicine. A new study has

discovered that ginkgo biloba could be an effective treatment for tinnitus.

 

Researchers carried out a meta-analysis of five studies, involving over 400

patients, and found that the herb, at daily doses of between 120 and 160 mg,

helped patients with chronic tinnitus.

 

Interestingly, the study, published originally in 1999, has just been unearthed

by the British Medical Journal, which had published a study in 2001 that

suggested that ginkgo is an ineffective treatment for tinnitus at 50 mg doses.

 

(Source: British Medical Journal, 2003; 327: " This Week in the BMJ')

 

 

AS THEY TAKETH AWAY, II: Anyone for green tea?

 

Regular drinking of green tea can reduce 'bad' cholesterol levels. It's been

tested on 240 patients with high cholesterol who were already on a low-fat diet,

and LDL cholesterol levels fell by as much as 16 per cent.

 

The participants, who were selected from among patients at six urban hospitals

in China, were given either a 375 mg capsule containing the aflavin-enriched

green tea extract or a placebo. LDL cholesterol levels did not fall in the

placebo group.

 

(Source: Archives of Internal Medicine, 2003; 163: 1448-53).

 

 

THAT'S NICE: Well it is for the pharmaceutical companies, at any rate

 

NICE isn't supposed to be, not to pharmaceutical companies, at least. NICE,

which stands for the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, is the trusty

guard dog at the gates of the UK's cash-strapped National Health Service.

 

Its role is to determine which drugs should be allowed onto the NHS's approved

list of drugs, based on their efficacy and cost. Getting onto the list is the

Holy Grail for every pharmaceutical because it's a passport to serious profits.

 

So you'd expect NICE officials to be critical and dispassionate about the drug

companies and their products, perhaps. Unfortunately, an independent review by

the World Health Organization (WHO) has found that some of the members have

close ties to the pharmaceutical industry, like being employed by them, for

instance.

 

The WHO was also concerned that NICE wasn't transparent; in other words, nobody

knows what they're doing, and how they come to their decisions.

 

Michael Rawlins, NICE's chairman, said the WHO report would " feed into a review

of methods and appraisals currently being conducted " .

 

So that's all right, then.

 

(Source: British Medical Journal, 2003; 327: 637).

 

 

WHAT VETS DON'T TELL YOU: How the petcare industry can ruin your pet (and how to

find a kennel that takes unvaccinated pets)

 

We're taking the lid off dog and cat food! And while we're about it, we've also

researched the effects of the numerous vaccines your pet is supposed to have. To

understand the petcare industry, and to discover safer and better ways to care

for your four-legged friend, you need to read What Vets Don't Tell You. To

order your copy at the pre-publication price of £12.95, inclusive of post and

packing to a UK address, :

http://www.wddty.co.uk/shop/details.asp?product=389

 

* One reader says that dog owners who have refused to have their pet vaccinated

then find it difficult to find kennels that will take unvaccinated animals. So

anyone who runs or knows of kennels that take pets that haven't been vaccinated,

please forward details (the name, address and contact details of the kennel) to:

kennels which we will put onto a website page.

 

 

READERS' CORNER

 

Fibromyalgia: A few of you have rushed to the aid of the woman who wanted to

know how to treat her fibromyalgia. We made our suggestions, and now here are

yours. A kinesiologist writes in, telling us that fibromyalgia is linked to

adrenal stress, which can be discovered by using kinesiology. Having

established that, she then balances the adrenal glands, and the aching joints

clear up, she says. We've also had several missives from people who extol the

virtues of the Virtual Scanner. It sounds like a cure-all, being able to treat

prostate cancer and fibromyalgia, to name but two. Its proponents describe it

as a brain/neural scanner that can reprogramme the brain. We need to

investigate before we say more. Finally, one therapist recommends the use of 'a

new energy tool, a magnetic field supplementation device' that he operates.

Again, more research is needed before we say another word.

 

 

* To search the WDDTY database - where every word from the last 14 years of

research can be found – click on http://www.wddty.co.uk/search/infodatabase.asp

 

 

Listen to Lynne

 

On the radio: Hear Lynne McTaggart on Passion the new DAB Digital Radio Station

focusing on your health and your environment -

http://www.wddty.co.uk/passion_main.asp

 

On demand: Select and listen to any of Lynne's archived broadcasts on Passion,

there's a new one each week - http://www.wddty.co.uk/passion_archive.asp

 

 

View missed/lost e-News broadcasts:

 

View our e-News broadcast archives, follow this link -

http://www.wddty.co.uk/archive.asp

 

 

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