Pundits have said it takes at least 100 deaths for the FDA to act regarding pulling a prescription drug from the marketplace. The playing field is far from level for risky medications versus the risks of supplements including herbs. It is of little comfort to consumers that the FDA has no written guidelines for deciding… Continue reading Risk to Benefit Ratio: when is a drug too risky to stay on the market?
Month: August 2010
Memo to Political Leaders: When You Think Job Creation, Think Natural Health (If You Don’t, Other Countries Will)
Natural health is a tremendous growth industry. Over the next few decades, it will generate millions of jobs. Europe will get few. Asia many. What about the US?
News Briefs
Sour milk politics; Congress tries to improve school lunches; court says no to Monsanto; and Harvard researchers develop Frankenstein machine.
What Your Waistline Means to Your Health
The New England Journal of Medicine in a November 2008 issue published research that had tracked nearly 360,000 men and women in 9 European countries for nearly 10 years. The results confirm research that has proliferated in the U.S. medical literature that is, a full to bursting waistline is a stronger predictor of premature death… Continue reading What Your Waistline Means to Your Health
Diabetes Rate Up 90% in Last 10 Years
Washington University, in a NIH-funded grant request in 2005 to study ginseng and its blood sugar modulating effects, called diabetes an epidemic. They predicted 10% of the US population would be type II diabetic within the year.
Drugs in Our Water
Thanks to the imagination of a school girl in WV, a growing appreciation exists of our exposure to pharmaceutical drugs in our water supply system. It was her school experiment after reading about drugs in Swiss lakes that sparked the US Geological Service to launch a survey of streams, rivers, lakes, and ponds. The results… Continue reading Drugs in Our Water
Raw and Organic Almonds Lawsuit Scores Its First Major Victory
A group of almond growers has been fighting for three years to keep their almonds from being adulterated against their will. Now their plea will finally be heard in federal court.
Biased and One-Sided Consumer Reports Article Attacks Supplements
Consumer Reports Health just published an exposé of twelve “dangerous supplements.” It’s an example of such skewed information and biased reporting from a once respected organization that we have issued a new Action Alert.
JAMA Reports that Vitamin B6 May Reduce Lung Cancer. Will the FDA Turn Natural B6 into a Drug?
In stark contrast to Consumer Reports Health’s profoundly negative view of supplements comes a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reporting that high levels of vitamin B6 may reduce lung cancer risk.
The Campaign to Cover Up Americans from Sun Exposure; what are the risks versus the benefits
The Campaign to Cover Up Americans from Sun Exposure; what are the risks versus the benefits The campaign to address Americans’ sun exposure has become the standard of care in American medicine. One of this country’s leading medical educators and researchers, Michael Holick, MD, even lost his tenure ship in dermatology at Boston University when… Continue reading The Campaign to Cover Up Americans from Sun Exposure; what are the risks versus the benefits