Breast Augmentation with Stem Cells Available in Europe

[Guest guest]

There's something in this newsletter for everyone . . please take the time to read it all the way through. You will be horrified by what you learn. We MUST take charge of our own health. The Powers-that-be are not going to. - Rogene"Among the changes proposed by the bill are radical alterations to

key terminology, including replacing the word “drug” with “therapeutic

product” throughout the Act, thereby giving the Canadian government

broad-reaching powers to regulate the sale of all herbs, vitamins,

supplements and other items. With this single language change, anything

that is “therapeutic” automatically falls under the Food and Drug Act.

This would include bottled water, blueberries, dandelion greens and

essentially all plant-derived substances.

The Act also changes the definition of the word “sell” to include

anyone who gives such therapeutic products to someone else. So a mother

giving an herb to her child, under the proposed new language, could be

arrested for engaging in the sale of unregulated, unapproved

“therapeutic substances.” Learn about more of these freedom-squashing

changes to the law at the Stop51.com website:

"From: "humanadjuvantdisease@..." <humanadjuvantdisease@...>

Hadcorp News: May 7, 2008

PLASTIC SURGERY NEWS

Breast Augmentation with Stem Cells Available in Europe

Pamela

May 5, 2008

Dr. Heinrich in Vienna, Austria is the first doctor in Europe to offer breast augmentation using stem cell concentrated own-fat. First, the body fat is extracted by microcanulas. After concentrating the fat with stem cells from the patient, the fat is injected into the breasts. The injection site heals without scarring. None of Dr. Heinrich's patients have experienced any adverse events following this procedure.

Q & A WITH DR. HEINRICH What is the difference between stem cell-concentration and stem cell-enrichment?

The first is done only with centrifugation and just concentrates stem cells in fat. The second is done in a complex encymatical/centrifugal procedure that enables the harvesting of stem cells from one portion of fat and adding them to another portion of the fat. How much breast volume can a patient gain realistically?

The average increase is one to two cup sizes. The implanted volume is almost completely retained. The maximum is 300cc on each side for 1 procedure; the average is 150cc.

What is the cost of the treatment?

This depends on the procedure (stem cell-concentration or stem cell-enrichment) and ranges from 7000 - 15000e.

How do the cells know when to stop growing in the breast?

Every stem cell ripens into just one fat cell or tissue cell.

How long does the procedure take?

4 – 6 hours.

What type of anesthetic is utilized for the procedure?

Local or sedoanalgesic.

What is the recovery time and are there any special instructions given after the procedure?

One to 2 days. Patients are advised to be very careful with their breasts for a few days. Is the effect of the treatment permanent or are touch-ups necessary?

The effect is permanent. Touch- ups can add more volume if requested.

What are other uses for stem cell concentrated fat?

Body contouring and skin rejuvenation.

Copyright 2008, Pamela and Hadcorp. All rights reserved.

Judge Throws Wrinkle Into Plastic Surgery Trademark Claim

Wired News

USA

By Kravets

May 05, 2008 | 3:49:54

A Michigan judge is dismissing a lawsuit brought by a plastic surgery firm against a web site that posted its readers' critical reviews of the firm's cosmetic services.

The suit by Lifestyle Lift Holding Inc. claimed infomercialscams.com of violating its trademarks because Lifestyle's trademarked name appeared on the URLs of infomercialscams.com.

Ruling from the bench, Judge Arthur Tarnow on Friday agreed with the defendant that infomercialscams.com was exercising free speech.

Tarnow said the URLs did not confuse web users to mistakenly believe that the infomercialscams.com site was related to Lifestyle Lift Holding.

Many of the online complaints were from women who said they had a face-lift after seeing Lifestyle's infomercials. One woman claimed she lost hearing in one ear. Another said "every week my face proceeds to return to the way it was before the lift." Another said, "I feel ripped off."

The lawsuit was a bid to stifle free speech, according to Public Citizen, which defended the case.

"Their theory was that somebody might run on to this review site on Google, and that was confusion," said Levy, a Public Citizen attorney. "That's why we have the First Amendment here."

Had the court ruled otherwise, Levy said, the decision would have given a green light to unhappy companies to invoke federal trademark law to limit speech it did not approve of.

Lifestyle, based in Michigan, licenses its name to cosmetic facial surgeons, who promote the trademarked name "lifestyle lift" for cosmetic surgery procedures performed in dozens of offices nationwide.

The company sued Leonard, an Arizona man who runs the infomercialscams.com site. Lifestyle claimed Leonard's use of Lifestyles URLs violated its trademarks. The complaint, filed in the Eastern District of Michigan, said its surgeons have received "positive television coverage" on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN and WGN.

MEDICAL DEVICE NEWS

Treatment of recurrent ventriculoperitoneal shunt failure associated with persistent cerebrospinal fluid eosinophilia and latex allergy by use of an “extracted” shunt

J Neurosurg Pediatrics 1: 237-239, 2008

Case report

J. Ellis, M.D.1, Colin J. Kazina, B.Sc., M.D.1, Marc R. Del Bigio, M.D., Ph.D., F.R.C.P.C.2, and J. Mc, M.D., M.H.Sc., F.R.C.S.C.1

1 Section of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery; and 2 Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Abbreviations used in this paper: CSF = cerebrospinal fluid; VP = ventriculoperitoneal.

Address correspondence to: J. Mc, M.D., M.H.Sc., F.R.C.S.C., Section of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg Children's Hospital, GB126–820 Sherbrook Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3A 1R9. email: pmcdonald@....

DOI: 10.3171/PED/2008/1/3/237

Shunt failure is commonly associated with infection or mechanical obstruction of the shunt system. The presence of eosinophilia in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has been associated with CSF shunt failure and may be related to both latex and shunt allergies. The authors describe the case of a child with a latex allergy who presented with 10 episodes of shunt failure over a period of 93 months. Cerebrospinal fluid sampling demonstrated persistent eosinophilia (3–36%) and negative cultures. Pathological examination of the ventricular catheter on 3 occasions demonstrated mechanical obstruction by inflammatory debris consisting largely of eosinophils and multinucleated giant cells. On the suspicion that the child might have some uncharacterized allergy to the shunt hardware, shunt replacement was performed using an “extracted” shunt system. The child has remained free of shunt malfunction for > 2 years since the last surgery. Immune responses to

unpolymerized silicone are discussed.

Virginia Judge Rules Medical Device Pioneer Committed Malpractice

By Malone & Associates, P.C.

The principal U.S. investigator for the Maverick artificial disc device has been found liable for malpractice in his use of the device by a state court judge in Richmond, Va. Garver v. Mathews, CL No. 07-206, Circuit Court, City of Richmond, Va.

Judge T.J. Markow awarded damages of $650,000 against Hallett H. Mathews, M.D., and Midatlantic Spine Specialists, P.C. Dr. Mathews is a prominent spine surgeon who now works as a vice president for Medtronic, the manufacturer of the Maverick Artificial Disc.

The damages were awarded to M. Garver, M.D., who is himself a spine surgeon in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Dr. Garver traveled to Richmond in April 2005 to undergo surgery by Dr. Mathews, who installed a Maverick at the L5-S1 level of Dr. Garver's spine.

The device consists of two metal plates that fit into the patient's disc space with a ball and socket between them, which is intended to maintain the natural mobility of the disc as an alternative to traditional spinal fusion. See the manufacturer's web site for more details:

http://www.maverickdisc.com/about-maverick-disc.html.

Judge Markow, who heard three days of evidence in a lawsuit brought by Dr. Garver, issued a written decision in which he found that Dr. Mathews had violated "the standard of care in preparing the disc space for insertion of the Maverick artificial disc." The standard for the surgery, written by the defendant himself and other spine surgeons, required that the disc space be "meticulously cleared of materials that might be driven into nerves behind the disc space by insertion of the artificial disc," the judge wrote. In the Garver surgery, Dr. Mathews, while inserting the artificial disc, drove material from the disc space into the patient's S-1 nerve root on his right side. This caused permanent injury to the nerve with pain and difficulty using the right leg.

A fragment of bone and disc the size of an olive was retrieved from Dr. Garver's spine two weeks after the Mathews surgery by a neurosurgeon in Bridgeport, Conn. That surgeon, Dr. Mastroianni, testified at the trial that he found the fragment pressing against the nerve root. Removal caused some relief of Dr. Garver's symptoms, but he ended up with a chronic pain syndrome that is poorly controlled even taking multiple drugs every day. His previous condition, with back pain and pain going into his left leg, was cured by the Mathews surgery.

At the time of the surgery, Dr. Mathews was a surgeon in private practice who ran one of 32 sites in the United States at which the Maverick device was inserted into selected patients, and who also was the principal U.S. investigator for the manufacturer's application to the Food and Drug Administration. The device is still considered experimental while the Medtronic application to the FDA is pending.

According to testimony at trial, Dr. Mathews received consulting fees from Medtronic of around $700,000 in 2004 and 2005, although he was not paid anything for the clinical trial itself. Dr. Mathews testified that he gave up his surgical practice at the end of 2006 to work full-time for Medtronic. His current position is Vice President Medical Affairs for Medtronic Spine and Biologics' division in Memphis, TN. Mathews is a former member of the board of directors of the North American Spine Society, a group of surgeons who specialize in spine surgery.

Dr. Garver was represented at trial by Malone of Malone & Associates, P.C., of Washington, D.C., http://www.patrickmalonelaw.com and Albro and Lee Livingston of Tremblay and , L.L.P., of Charlottesville, Va.

BIG PHARMA

Former Shill for Big Pharma Tells the Truth About Drug Testing

Natural News.com

Phoenix, AZ, USA

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 by: Heidi son

NaturalNews) k , a psychiatry professor at the Oregon State Health and Sciences University, woke up one day and realized that he was acting as a shill for pharmaceutical corporations. Worse, he was promoting drugs that not only provide very little benefit, but also do great harm. In spite of the benefits paid to him, including accommodations and thousands of dollars, and the ego satisfaction of being recognized as a "Very Important Person" by his fellow physicians, his conscience wouldn't let him continue.

So, Dr. turned on his pharmaceutical masters. He spoke out against the products he'd been promoting. In the January 2008 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, he published an article telling the truth about one class of drugs, SSRI antidepressants, such as Prozac and Paxil. In interviews, he has spoken even more broadly, stating that the lack of efficacy of SSRIs is the "dirty little secret" of the psychiatric world.

Dr. 's odyssey began in 2004, when he started selling his reputation by giving "doctor talks", as they're called in the industry.

These lunches or dinners are lavish affairs, provided by pharmaceutical corporations. A doctor who is appealing, for either his or her background or appearance and style -- preferably both -- speaks about the wonders of a particular drug. k 's particular appeal was having been a researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health for seven years, and then a clinical trials reviewer at the FDA.

He was trained by Eli Lilly to give talks, which required that he use only the visuals provided by the pharmaceutical firm and stay with their talking points. Then, was sent to do doctor talks. The money he made wasn't significant to him, $500-750 per talk, a small amount in terms of his total income. However, as he put it, "In the beginning, I think I got narcissistic gratification. They fly you somewhere else in the country and pick you up in a limo, and you stay in a nice hotel you could never afford otherwise."

Within 18 months, though, began to feel pangs of conscience. As he put it, "I guess you could say I bit the hand that fed." He published a paper in PloS Medicine that argued for online publication of all clinical trials produced for the FDA. Although he went from drug company advocate to critic overnight with his argument against pharmaceutical hiding of data, the article was... well, it was ignored.

His article was met with a big yawn in the medical world.

quit giving the doctor talks and started to search for hidden drug trial data. At first, he found some in hidden-away parts of the FDA's website. He then looked to researchers for data, and got it from a Seattle researcher and one at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. "I literally went down to a Kinko's," stated, "and photocopied them."

The studies he'd found consisted of 74 clinical trials, with 51% showing results that were better than placebo and 49% with negative or mixed results. In other words, about half the trials, though they'd been produced for drug corporations and most likely were attempting to produce the desired results of showing benefits, did nothing of the sort.

Armed with the smoking gun proof of negative trials being hidden, produced a paper, "Selective Publication of Antidepressant Trials and Its Influence on Apparent Efficacy" for the New England Journal of Medicine. This time, he wasn't ignored.

Carlat, assistant professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine, himself once on the dole with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, argues, "The fact that the negative trials can just be hidden away means that practicing doctors can get a very false notion of efficacy data for a drug. That's the real crisis here."

The question that must be answered is how pervasive the pharmaceutical firms' hiding of negative studies is. It's obvious from k 's exposé that SSRIs are generally useless. What about other drugs? History shows us that the same must be true.

Take, for example, Vioxx, an NSAID used for arthritis and other chronic pain. It causes heart attacks and has killed over 60,000 people in seven years. Could its manufacturer, Merck, have withheld information from doctors and the public?

Did Wyeth withhold information about Fenphen, two drugs combined to act as a single weight loss drug? It killed people by causing pulmonary hypertension.

What information was withheld by Hoechst n Roussel on Seldane? It was a wildly popular prescription antihistamine, which was withdrawn because it caused heart arrhythmia.

The number of drugs withdrawn because of their risks, which were likely known by the manufacturers, is stunning.

The cat is now out of the bag regarding SSRIs. If they work, it's only rarely. The known risks are extensive and appalling. Most, if not all, school shootings involved the use of SSRIs, or their next-generation offshoot, SNRIs. Suicide rates increase after starting them. Weight gain is often a problem, indicating a potential link to diabetes. Sleep disturbances and sexual dysfunction are fairly common. Many people have a great deal of difficulty withdrawing from these drugs. None of these problems were revealed during pre-approval clinical tests, but the fact that they're common begs the question. How many trials showing these dangers were suppressed?

Ultimately, the real question is how many people have died or suffered irreversible harm from ingesting the products of drug manufacturers?

How much information is being hidden by the pharmaceutical manufacturers, all in the interest of obscenely high profits?

How innocent are doctors in all this? It's quite clear that they have been deeply involved in the cover-up. Whether they benefit from gifts or boosts to their egos from doing bogus doctor talks, or simply fall for the cute sales reps -- recruited primarily from the ranks of cheerleaders -- so that they close their eyes to pathetically weak statistics, how believable is it that they don't know? When thousands of people outside the medical profession can find out the truth about pharmaceutical poisons, why do the doctors seem to be largely unaware?

You might think that Dr. k , the man who exposed the withholding of negative information by drug manufacturers, would have stopped prescribing the SSRI drugs that he focused on. But that's not the case. Although he says that he doesn't give patients false hope about their efficacy, he still prescribes them.

It's no wonder that doctors are so disconnected from reality. From the time they're in medical school, they're bombarded with pseudo-information from pharmaceutical manufacturers. They receive gifts to such a degree that a Lancet study found "approximately 50% of the items that residents carry have pharmaceutical company origins".

When doctors enter private practice, it's hardly surprising that they often become billboards and prescription machines for pharmaceuticals. As Dr. Jay S. Cohen wrote, "No wonder patients complain that many doctors look like walking advertisements for the drug industry."

Pharmaceutical corporations are so pervasive that, as described by the Washington Post in 2002, "In the days leading up to the American Psychiatric Association's meeting in Philadelphia [2002], pharmaceutical companies mailed attendees hundreds of free phone cards, as well as invitations to museums, jazz concerts and fancy dinners... And in several dozen symposiums during the week long meeting, companies paid the APA about $50,000 per session to control which scientists and papers were presented and to help shape the presentations."

Is it any wonder that doctors have become so utterly disconnected from their responsibility to protect their patients from harmful drugs?

It's no wonder that they seem to be so unable and unwilling to look at drug company reports critically. It's no wonder that they have become little more than drug pushers, forever pressing the latest pills on their patients, without considering the risks and the obvious suppression of information about the products they prescribe. It's no wonder that when, finally, after a few years of prescribing a particular poison, they're informed that it's been recalled, they immediately jump on the bandwagon of yet another highly-promoted, research-suppressed so-called "wonder" drug. And then, they repeat the pattern yet again.

The pharmaceutical industry has so controlled the medical industry -- and with the doctors' full cooperation -- that even the doctor who blew the whistle seems to have no idea how to proceed without prescribing the very medications that he knows are ineffective in most cases.

Canada’s C-51 Law To Outlaw 60% of Natural Health Products

Don’t Let Big Pharma Do This To Canada

Center for Research on Globalization

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Global Research

April 30, 2008

canadafreepress.com

A new law being pushed in Canada by Big Pharma seeks to outlaw up to 60 percent of natural health products currently sold in Canada, even while criminalizing parents who give herbs or supplements to their children. The law, known as C-51, was introduced by the Canadian Minister of Health on April 8th, 2008, and it proposes sweeping changes to Canada’s Food and Drugs Act that could have devastating consequences on the health products industry.

Among the changes proposed by the bill are radical alterations to key terminology, including replacing the word “drug” with “therapeutic product” throughout the Act, thereby giving the Canadian government broad-reaching powers to regulate the sale of all herbs, vitamins, supplements and other items. With this single language change, anything that is “therapeutic” automatically falls under the Food and Drug Act. This would include bottled water, blueberries, dandelion greens and essentially all plant-derived substances.

The Act also changes the definition of the word “sell” to include anyone who gives such therapeutic products to someone else. So a mother giving an herb to her child, under the proposed new language, could be arrested for engaging in the sale of unregulated, unapproved “therapeutic substances.” Learn about more of these freedom-squashing changes to the law at the Stop51.com website:

http://www.stopc51.com

New enforcement powers allow Canadian government to seize your home or business

At the same time that C-51 is outlawing herbs, supplements and vitamins, it would grant alarming new “enforcement” powers to the thugs enforcement agents who claim to be “protecting” the public from dangerous unapproved “therapeutic agents” like, say, dandelion greens. As explained on the http://www.Educate-Yourself.orgwebsite ((http://educate-yourself.org/cn/canadian...), the C-51 law would allow the Canadian government’s thugsenforcement agents to:

• Raid your home or business without a warrant • Seize your bank accounts • Levy fines up to $5 million and a jail terms up to 2 years for merely selling an herb • Confiscate your property, then charge you storage fees for the expense involved in storing all the products they stole from you C-51 would even criminalize the simple drying of herbs in your kitchen to be used in an herbal product, by the way. That would now be categorized as a “controlled activity,” and anyone caught engaging in such “controlled activities” would be arrested, fined and potentially jailed. Other “controlled activities” include labeling bottles, harvesting plants on a farm, collecting herbs from your back yard, or even testing herbal products on yourself! (Yes, virtually every activity involving herbs or supplements would be criminalized...)

There’s more, too. C-51 is the Canadian government’s “final solution” for the health products industry. It’s a desperate effort to destroy this industry that’s threatening the profits and viability of conventional medicine.

Natural medicine works so well—and is becoming so widely used—that both the Canadian and American governments have decided to “nuke” the industries by passing new laws that effectively criminalize anyone selling such products. They simply cannot tolerate allowing consumers to have continued access to natural products. To do so will ultimately spell the destruction of Big Pharma and the outdated, corrupt and criminally-operated pharmaceutical industry that these criminally-operated governments are trying to protect.

Join the rally to protest C-51

On May 9th, 2008, Canadian citizens will be gathering at the Calgary Federal Court to protest C-51 and help protect their access to natural health products. Call 1-888-878-3467 to learn more, or visit the action page of Health Canada Exposed at: www.stopc51.com

Patent Law Battle a Boon to Lobbyists

By ROBERT PEAR

Published: April 30, 2008

WASHINGTON — A fight has erupted in Congress over the question of whether drug makers and other companies should be allowed to keep patents they obtained by misrepresentation or cheating.

Jon W. Dudas of the Commerce Department said patent applications were inadequate.

The issue has emerged as a contentious point in legislation to overhaul patent laws. In several cases, the courts have voided patents after finding that companies intentionally misled the Patent and Trademark Office.

The legislation, affecting a wide swath of the American economy, has been a boon to lobbyists. In 15 months, two dueling business coalitions have spent $4.3 million lobbying on the legislation, which calls for the biggest changes in United States patent law in more than 50 years. Companies from almost every major industry have joined the battle.

Patents can protect an invention for up to 20 years. But federal judges can void patents after finding that companies engaged in “inequitable conduct,” meaning that they misrepresented or concealed information with an intent to deceive the patent office. In such cases, judges can declare the patents unenforceable.

A. Armitage, a senior vice president and general counsel of Eli Lilly & Company, said, “This is like imposing the death penalty for relatively minor acts of misconduct.”

Brand-name drug companies are urging Congress to eliminate the penalty — or to curtail it as proposed under a bill passed by the House.

Debra S. Barrett, a vice president of the American unit of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the world’s largest maker of generic drugs, said the changes sought by brand-name drug companies “would make it easier for them to cheat and get away with it, easier for them to defend their patents and more difficult for us to get generic products onto the market in a timely way.”

Consumer groups like AARP share that concern. They want to speed access to generic medicines, which can cost 30 percent to 80 percent less than the equivalent brand-name drugs.

The House has approved a comprehensive patent bill that would make it harder to prove inequitable conduct. Senators are haggling over a companion bill, approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and hope to take it to the floor this summer.

In the last 15 years, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which handles patent cases, has affirmed findings of inequitable conduct in at least 40 cases, including 14 that involved pharmaceutical or health care products. Similar findings have been issued by federal district judges in an unknown number of cases that were not appealed.

Courts have found that drug makers knowingly submitted false statements to the patent office, inaccurately described experiments and concealed information that contradicted their claims.

In one case, the appeals court said that Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals improperly failed to disclose that it had not performed an experiment described in its application for a patent related to synthetic human growth hormone. In another case, the court said Pharmacia had used an “inaccurate and misleading” affidavit in obtaining a patent for a glaucoma medication.

Brand-name drug companies say that generic drug makers routinely attack their patents by accusing them of inequitable conduct when they are blameless or guilty of no more than honest mistakes.

The aggressive use of such accusations has become “a plague on the patent system,” the Biotechnology Industry Organization, a trade group, told Congress.

Harry F. Manbeck Jr., who was commissioner of patents and trademarks under the first President Bush, said the existing penalty was a powerful deterrent to misconduct.

“Patents can be very valuable,” Mr. Manbeck said. “There are strong incentives to want to get them. Cheating occurs from time to time. The inequitable conduct doctrine says that if you cheated to get a patent, you should not be able to enforce it.”

Under federal regulations, people applying for a patent have a duty to deal with the patent office in “candor, good faith and honesty.” They are supposed to disclose if their invention was previously known or used by others, offered for sale or described in a publication. In that case, it may not be innovative enough to warrant a patent.

In reviewing an application, patent examiners can search the relevant literature, but may not find all the pertinent information, so they depend on applicants to be forthright.

“If Congress eliminated or reduced the penalty for inequitable conduct, applicants would no longer have a reason to disclose all the information they are aware of,” said D. Budens, president of the Patent Office Professional Association, which represents 5,500 examiners.

Mr. Armitage, the Lilly executive, said: “The doctrine of inequitable conduct is used so aggressively in litigation that it has unintended consequences. Applicants give the Patent and Trademark Office too much information, to avoid allegations that they concealed anything, and they refuse to explain the information, to avoid later allegations that they engaged in some form of misrepresentation.”

C. Greenwood, president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, said, “The poor patent examiner gets a dump truck full of information that he has to pore over without any assistance from the applicant.”

The number of patent applications — 467,243 in 2007 — has nearly doubled in the last 10 years and has more than tripled since 1987.

Jon W. Dudas, the under secretary of commerce for intellectual property, said: “We are getting more and more unpatentable ideas, worse and worse quality applications. Historically, in the last 40 years, the allowance rate — the percentage of applications ultimately approved — hovered around 62 percent to 72 percent. It went up to 72 percent in 2000, but dropped to 43 percent in the first quarter of this year.”

A major impetus for the patent legislation is the desire of technology companies to limit the damage awards and legal costs they sometimes face when they are accused of infringing patents. Companies like Cisco and Palm say the disputes drain resources that could be better spent on research and innovation.

Many of these companies have banded together in the Coalition for Patent Fairness, which in the last 15 months has spent $2.5 million for a small army of lobbyists including Mark W. Isakowitz, a Republican, and A. Elmendorf, a longtime Democratic strategist.

A rival group, the Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform, consists of about 50 companies that zealously guard their intellectual property and are more likely to file suit to protect their patents. It includes pharmaceutical and biotech companies like Genzyme, Lilly, Merck and Pfizer. This coalition has paid $1.8 million to lobbyists, much of it to the law firm of Akin Gump.

GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD

The global food system feeds gluttonous corporations first

Philadelphia Inquirer

Philadelphia, PA, USA

Posted on Sun, Apr. 27, 2008 Nichols is Washington correspondent for The Nation magazine

The only surprising thing about the global food crisis to Jim Goodman is the notion that anyone finds it surprising.

"So," says the Wisconsin dairy farmer, "they finally figured out, after all these years of pushing globalization and genetically modified seeds, that instead of feeding the world we've created a food system that leaves more people hungry. If they'd listened to farmers instead of corporations, they would've known this was going to happen."

The food shortages, suddenly front-page news, are not new. Hundreds of millions were starving and malnourished last year; the only change is that as the crisis has grown, it has become more difficult to "manage" the hunger that a failed food system accepts rather than feeds.

The current global food system, designed by U.S.-based agribusiness conglomerates like Cargill, Monsanto and ADM and forced into place by the U.S. government and its allies at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization, has planted the seeds of disaster by pressuring farmers here and abroad to produce cash crops for export and alternative fuels rather than grow healthy food for local consumption and regional stability.

The only smart short-term response is to throw money at the problem. W. Bush's release of $200 million in emergency aid to the United Nation's World Food Program last week was appropriate, but Washington must do more. Rising food prices may not be causing riots in the United States, but food banks here are struggling to meet demand as joblessness grows. Congress should answer the call of Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) to allocate $100 million more to domestic food programs and make sure, as Rep. Jim McGovern (D.Mass.) urges, that an overdue farm bill expands programs for getting fresh food from local farms to local consumers.

Beyond humanitarian responses, the cure for the global food system - and an unsteady U.S. farm economy - is not more of the same globalization and genetic gimmickry. That way has left 37 nations with food crises while global grain giant Cargill harvests an 86 percent rise in profits and Monsanto reaps record sales from its herbicides and seeds. For years, corporations have promised that problems would be solved by trade deals and technology - especially genetically modified seeds, which University of Kansas research suggests reduce food production and the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development says won't end global hunger. The "market," at least as defined by agribusiness, isn't working.

We "have a herd of market traders, speculators and financial bandits who have turned wild and constructed a world of inequality and horror," says Ziegler, the U.N. right-to-food advocate. But try telling that to the Bush Administration or to World Bank president (and former White House trade rep) Zoellick, who's busy exploiting tragedy to promote trade liberalization.

"If ever there is a time to cut distorting agricultural subsidies and open markets for food imports, it must be now," says Zoellick.

"Wait a second," replies Dani Rodrik, a Harvard political economist who tracks trade policy. "Wouldn't the removal of these distorting policies raise world prices in agriculture even further?" Yes. World Bank studies confirm that wheat and rice prices will rise if Zoellick gets his way. Instead of listening to the White House or the World Bank, Congress should recognize - as a handful of visionary members like Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Ohio) have - that current trends confirm the wisdom of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's call for "an urgent rethink of the respective roles of markets and governments." That's far more useful than blaming Midwestern farmers for embracing inflated promises about the potential of ethanol.

We should, however, re-examine whether aggressive U.S. support for biofuels is not only distorting corn prices but also harming livestock and dairy producers who can barely afford feed and fertilizer. Instead of telling farmers they're wrong to seek the best prices for their crops, Congress should make sure farmers can count on good prices for growing the food Americans need. It can do this by providing a strong safety net to survive weather and market disasters and a strategic grain reserve similar to the strategic petroleum reserve to guard against food-price inflation.

Congress should also embrace trade and development policies that help developing countries regulate markets with an eye to feeding the hungry rather than feeding corporate profits. This principle, known as "food sovereignty," sees struggling farmers and hungry people and says, as the Oakland Institute's Anuradha Mittal observes, that it is time to "stop worshiping the golden calf of the so-called free market and embrace, instead, the principle [that] every country and every people have a right to food that is affordable." As Mittal says, "When the market deprives them of this, it is the market that has to give."

AGENT ORANGE

Seeking justice for veterans, By TOM LAVENTURE, Staff Writer

International Falls Daily Journal

International Falls, MN, USA

April 25, 2008 - 11:11am

Veterans fight to have Parkinson’s declared service connected to Agent Orange

U.S. Military Veterans With Parkinson’s Disease, an organization of about 150 members, is saying the Department of Veterans Affairs should recognize that exposure to Agent Orange and other pesticides during their service has a plausible connection.

They want Parkinson’s added to the VA’s “presumptive list” of Agent Orange connected illnesses.

Jim Graham, 59, a former logger from Littlefork, and one-time Big Falls mayor, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2000. His spouse, Terri, said that around 1999, Jim began to experience tremors and stiffness.

These days he can no longer talk on the phone because of the tremors and a developed throat condition called Barrett’s esophagus. Friends are shocked to see the once physically fit logger having difficulty eating and going through normal daily rituals. He continues his walks despite the increasing difficulty with balance and movement.

“We have been through so much in the past year with the changes in Jim and how it has progressed,” said Terri Graham.

Approximately 1.5 million Americans suffer from Parkinson's disease, a presently incurable neurological disorder that researchers believe is caused by the progressive loss of dopamine producing cells, possibly from a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

Jim Graham served in Vietnam as a U.S. Navy jet mechanic from 1968 to 1972. Until a few years ago, the only problems that he related to his service was the occasional jungle rot and the VA gave him a 10-percent service connected disability for tendonitis.

He divided his carrier duty with work at a Danang air base, an area that was heavily sprayed with Agent Orange, a highly toxic, undiluted Dioxin chemical that was produced as a byproduct in the manufacturing of herbicides. The most toxic of the 75 Dioxins, 2,3,7,8 – TCDD, was used to destroy crops and to clear foliage around base perimeters during the Vietnam War.

These chemicals were transported via air and sea in metal barrels and without knowledge of their toxicity, USMVP members said the containers were cut apart and reused in fortifications, for storage, to make grills, latrines and shower bins.

The Grahams believe that Jim's illness is service related. They also believe their two grown children and a daughter from Jim’s previous marriage all have inherited health problems related to his exposure.

“People should know what these vets are going through,” she added.

Terri quit working to be a full-time caregiver for Jim. With their mortgage paid off on their southeast Minnesota home in Dakota, she helps him through the day and they enjoy their grandchildren together.

Without much income, they keep the heat at 60 degrees and Terri qualifies for MinnesotaCare. The VA considers Jim totally disabled and eligible for care at the VA clinic in Tomah, Wis. His symptoms can be treated at various stages through physical therapy, medication and surgery.

The Graham’s application for service connection for Parkinson’s was denied, as was his appeal. A third application will be reviewed in May. They will submit 1,500 pages of research.

“I believe that we will win with the wealth of information,” Terri said. “It is amazing how far we have come in a year.”

Jerry Andre, Koochiching County Veterans Service officer, said that veterans with Parkinson’s do come to him and he encourages them to file service related claims while they wait for legislation to put Parkinson’s on the presumptive diseases list. He said it is also worth checking to see if it was triggered by something else that is service related.

“If medical evidence is supportive of the fact that Parkinson’s was incurred or aggravated during active duty then it will be treated as any other service connected disability,” Andre said.

The VA created an Agent Orange Registry for veterans possibly exposed to dioxin or other toxic substances in herbicides. These veterans include those who served in the Republic of Vietnam between 1962 and 1975; Korea in 1968 and 1969, or anyone exposed during testing, transporting, or spraying herbicides for military purposes.

Several states have introduced bills calling on Congress to add Parkinson’s to the presumptive list. Minnesota Sens. Higgins, Steve , Don Betzold, Steve Dille and Tomassoni coauthored a bill in March that is currently in committee. A House companion bill was introduced by Reps. Ellen Otremba and Al Juhnke.

Last year, the Grahams met with Steve Fiscas, a Minneapolis veteran with Parkinson’s who started the USMVP. The group met with House Committee on Veterans Affairs Chairman Bob Filner, D-Calif., at a community meeting sponsored by U.S. Rep. Tim Walz.

Both Walz and the Grahams expressed concern with the issue, but according to Walz’ office, before legislation can be introduced, they need to work within the current budget rules and with input from constituents and national veterans organizations. At that point, they said that a bill would need to navigate the committee process and receive expert testimony before it could get a vote.

The more expedient process is through the bi-annual Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences report to the VA, required by Congress as part of the Agent Orange Act of 1991. The VA is directed to regard the findings among other evidence in using a five-tier structure to consider additions to the presumptive connections list. They range from definite link, to possible, inconclusive, improbable, and no link at all.

The most recent 2006 Institute of Medicine report considered current evidence “inadequate or insufficient” to determine an association with Parkinson’s and herbicide exposure.

The IOM committee called for specific research on disease progression and suggested epidemiologic studies using VA data on unusual health outcomes and for potential metabolic syndrome – multiple health issues – among exposed veterans. It requested investigations into exposure related birth defects and developmental cognitive disease in offspring and grandchildren.

The report also recommended collaborative studies on the Vietnamese people, which continue to exhibit long-term health consequences of exposure to the same chemicals.

Given the response to past reports and studies, USMVP members are doubtful the IOM study will impact change as legislation would. The 1990 Admiral Zumwalt Jr. report to the VA noted ample evidence to link illnesses to exposure, and accused a VA special committee with failing to act impartially toward the evidence. Parkinson’s is not mentioned in the report, as it had not yet appeared in veterans in the 1980s.

“We believe it is a matter of time,” said Alan Oates, another USMVP member who served a full military career and retired to run a business in Edinburg, Virginia. He began a petition to get the VA to add Parkinson's to the presumptive list.

Oates is concerned that along with the IOM reports, the VA needs to consider the evidence presented from at least three other credible sources on agricultural pesticide exposure and comparison studies. He feels Parkinson’s would easily fall within the presumptive spectrum if they did. Even if it were a close call, he said the VA is charged to side with the veteran in such cases.

The VA has opened six Parkinson's Centers around the country since 2001. These research, education and clinical institutes also serve to train VA providers nationwide who in turn treat approximately 40,000 veterans with Parkinson's. Current VA studies on Parkinson’s include deep brain stimulation and adult stem cell research in addition to determining whether exposure to neurotoxins is a trigger.

Oates feels that the Parkinson’s centers are evidence to show the VA expects to see larger numbers of Vietnam veterans with Parkinson’s. He has had little luck getting access to VA data.

USMVP is conducting a member survey to find out dates of service in Vietnam, along with their Parkinson’s diagnosis dates and other service and health information. Oates hopes that the results will reveal early onset Parkinson’s, with a consistent diagnosis date of around 32 years after service in Vietnam. Veterans can request a survey via their website at www.usmvp.org.

“We also have a high rate of risk for other diseases already presumed associated with Agent Orange,” he added.

Reid, a physician and scientist in Neurobiology at University in Los Angeles, said despite the lack of data available to public health specialists to investigate a possible link, that there is a growing consensus that environmental exposures are important to the development of the disease in some of patients.

He noted a 2006 Mayo study and a 2007 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences report, which indicated that certain pesticides may increase the risk of developing Parkinson's more than others.

Reid said the difficulty with discerning cause-and-effect relationships with diseases is that it can take years or even decades to appear after exposure to a toxin. He said this should encourage health scientists to think creatively about how they collect and analyze data.

As a West Point graduate from a military family, Reid said that if science has been slow to investigate and remediate the full impact of Agent Orange on veterans and those abroad, then this society is responsible now, “to do something significant in the lives of those affected.”

“The scientific process is often instrumental and indispensable in seeking and doing justice,” said Reid. “A great example is DNA testing in criminal cases. I think it is often the failure to fully engage in the scientific process that produces injustice.”

Agent Orange exposure

Diseases being studied as triggered from exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides: Parkinson’s, tonsil and breast cancers, melanoma, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, lupus, ischemic heart disease and stroke.

Service connected diseases

The current VA presumptive list of service connected diseases from exposure to Agent Orange includes: chloracne or other acneform disease similar to chloracne; porphyria cutanea tarda; soft-tissue sarcoma, other than osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, Kaposi’s sarcoma or mesothe-lioma; Hodgkin’s disease; multiple myeloma; respiratory cancers such as lung, bronchus, larynx, trachea; non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; prostate cancer; acute and subacute peripheral neuropathy; Type 2 diabetes; mellitus; and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

AEROTOXIC SYNDROME

There’s something in the air

Last Updated : Friday 25 Apr, 2008

7DAYS

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Catching the flu on an airplane could be the least of your worries if an investigation by the BBC’s Panorama programme holds any weight. From pilots almost passing out at the controls to passengers who claim that they have been made ill by toxic fumes, polluted air on board planes is fast becoming a health topic of much concern.

The Panorama investigation, which aired on television recently, revealed how air passengers could be exposed to toxic fumes in the cabin while flying, as the air inhaled on airliners is drawn in past the engines and can become polluted by any leaks of engine oil. Panorama investigators took swabs and air samples during two UK flights and toxicologist Professor Christiaan Van Netten, working alongside the BBC, found traces of a neurotoxin - tri-cresylphosphate - in all the samples sent to his lab.

“This proves that oil from the engine gets into the air and this is what you have been breathing during this flight when you took your sample,” Van Netten said. The levels of the toxic chemicals found in Panorama’s investigation were very low - well within international safety standards.

But they are still of concern to Van Netten.

Within the aviation industry, fumes have long been recognised as a hazard. The worry is that long-term exposure to such chemicals in the air could be particularly dangerous to the health of passengers, pilots and crew. Numerous pilots and crew claim that they have become ill from long-term exposure to contaminated air on board aircrafts.

Hoyte, from the UK, claims that he suffered for years from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) because of contaminated air in the airplanes that he flew. As a practising pilot, Hoyte put his exhaustion down to the anti-social hours he was working. At first he assumed this was normal for a pilot, but gradually he began to notice other symptoms.

He says bright lights would “jump around” and he found it hard to focus, his speech was sometimes slurred, and he had difficulty with memory and thought processing. He began to suffer from mild depression as well.

Hoyte says he had heard about the oil fumes problem on the type of planes he was flying, but for some reason hadn’t connected it with his ill health until he was invited to take part in some tests at University College London. When his blood/fat tests showed some troubling results and a measured cognitive deficit, Hoyte says that he immediately knew what was causing his illness and that he would never return to flying pressurised airplanes.

Instead, he set up the support and information group, Aerotoxic Association (www.aerotoxic.org).

And Hoyte says he is very concerned because of the numbers of people affected. “I am being inundated by aircrew and passengers who have developed similar ‘mysterious’ CFS-type ill health symptoms during a ‘fume event’ flight (where fumes leak into the cabin) and who then suffer for many months or even years afterwards,” he says.

“Most doctors not surprisingly diagnose a random viral infection or depression and treat accordingly, but none of the passengers or more worryingly, doctors seem to know anything about ‘aerotoxic syndrome’, which was first recognised in 1999.

“It is most depressing to hear from so many people with identical issues when the dangers and effects of breathing oil fumes is so well understood and almost certainly explains much so called ‘mysterious’ ill health.” But all is not lost, as Hoyte says the ways to fix this problem are not out reach. “Air filters, alternative oils, fume detectors and new air technology are all available, but the passengers must demand it, for their own health,” he says.

So are airlines aware of the problem of toxic engine fumes in the cabin and what do they propose to do about it?

We approached the UAE’s two major carriers for comment. A spokesperson for Emirates told 7DAYS: “This is an issue currently being investigated by the scientific community. Emirates operates one of the youngest fleets in the skies. We have an excellent maintenance programme, and all our aircraft are fully certified to the highest industry standards.”

While, e, a spokesman for Etihad Airways, said: “The British TV investigation found that the chemical levels were very low, and well within the international safety standards, in two types of aircraft that are not in Etihad’s modern state-of-the-art fleet.” Dubai-based aviation enthusiast, Stokes, who boasts of numerous pilots in his family, has spent the past few years researching aero toxic fumes and how they might be contaminating cabin air.

According to Stokes, most jet aircrafts in operation today are vulnerable to leaks into the cabin. “Basically the BBC only did research on two types of aircraft, the 146 and the Boeing 757. Research has not been done on all jet aircrafts, just these two. Only when the aviation industry undertakes a full and comprehensive study will we understand this phenomenon further,” he says.

“What is important to note is that most of the jets flying today are the same generation of aircrafts that all use the same technology as the planes the BBC tested.

“The technology is the same and they all currently utilise the same fuel oil in their engines, so if the vulnerability is the seals on the engine, then if the oil gets out of the engine and gets into the bleed air intakes, you’ve got contamination, no matter what plane your are flying,” Stokes adds. “The Boeing 787, a new generation jet that does not use bleed air, is the only aircraft that isn’t affected by this problem, but they are not yet in the air.”

MERCURY

Your mouth speaks volumes about overall well-being

Dentists adopt unconventional treatment options

Chicago Tribune

United States

By Deardorff | Tribune reporter

May 4, 2008 The last time Barbara Stepp of Homewood visited her dentist, she told him about her ongoing kidney infection.

"He immediately plopped me down in the chair and started doing acupuncture," said Stepp, 70.

Stepp's dentist, Rothchild in Hoffman Estates, is a longtime member of the American Dental Association. He uses the latest high-tech equipment to take X-rays, remove teeth and whiten smiles.

But Rothchild's practice is based on a holistic philosophy that says the health of your mouth can affect your entire body.

In addition to acupuncture, his integrative treatment portfolio incorporates the use of mercury-free fillings, cranial therapy and homeopathic remedies.

The ADA maintains that "silver" amalgam fillings, which contain mercury that can leach into the environment, are not a human health threat.

And it considers muscle testing (or applied kinesiology) techniques, dental homeopathy and craniosacral therapy to be "unconventional" and not yet supported by science. Dental acupuncture, meanwhile, needs to be supported by a major research effort, the ADA says.

But mounting research supports what holistic dentists have long believed: Although the mouth may not be the window to your soul, it can reveal potential medical problems in other parts of the body, including the heart, lungs and brain.

And as the connection grows stronger, dentists who focus on treating the whole body as well as the teeth and gums—with prevention, education and nutrition playing a central role—may one day assume the role of a "primary care doctor."

"The ADA teaches brushing and flossing to control ever-present disease," Holistic Dental Association President Tim Gallagher recently wrote in the group's journal. "Instead, we teach brushing and flossing to check effectiveness of cellular immunity."

More than 75 percent of Americans over age 35 have gum or periodontal disease, an infection that can trigger an inflammatory response not just in the gums but throughout the body.

Researchers first noticed a relationship between gum disease and an increased risk of heart attack in 2000. Now periodontal disease is linked to nearly a dozen systemic illnesses, including an increased risk of stroke or a respiratory infection; an increased risk of delivering pre-term, low-birth-weight babies; and difficulty in controlling blood sugar levels in diabetics, according to the National Institutes of Health.

"Bleeding gums are a sign of chronic inflammation, which is the basis of all disease," said Westmont dentist Ron Schefdore, who uses a skin-prick blood test to screen his patients for blood glucose level, cholesterol and C-reactive protein, a marker for heart attack risk. If he finds something suspicious, he refers the patient to a physician.

In many cases, holistic practitioners are conventionally trained dentists who are interested in a larger picture of health. But they range from conservative to radical.

Some of the more controversial ideas stem from the work of Dr. Weston Price, a dentist and author of the 1939 book "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration." Price, a harsh critic of modern civilization, said that both root canals and amalgam fillings should be avoided and advocated a diet of nutrient-dense whole foods.

But many dentists who advocate holistic approaches are less extreme.

"A lot of what I've heard holistic dentists advocate is what most dentists should already be doing," said Chicago dentist Brandstatter. "At our office, we try to prevent dental diseases by explaining how overall behaviors to the whole body, such as drugs, medications, nutrition and smoking can affect the teeth."

Other "alternative" dentists might use biocompatible dental materials, natural products such as herbal toothpastes and mouth rinses as well as herbal or homeopathic remedies for pain, irritation and infections.

"Homeopathy doesn't work for everyone, but for those it does, it can relieve anxiety and pain, especially from trauma after dental procedures, injection or extraction," said Chicago dentist Taf son, a trained psychotherapist with a degree in nutrition and chemistry.

"We use as conservative a treatment approach as possible," said son, who emphasizes preventive techniques and offers creative visualization, aromatherapy and local anesthesia alternatives.

Other pain control and relaxation techniques include acupuncture, hypnosis and massage therapy.

Stepp, a corporate consultant and communications trainer, found Rothchild after experiencing severe pain from a locked jaw. She saw three Chicago-area dentists and they all told her she needed major surgery at a cost of around $25,000.

Rothchild took a different approach. After checking how her bite affected the rest of her body structure and jaw, he made an appliance to correct her bite and "balanced her system" by using both cranial osteopathic theory and acupuncture to help with pain.

He also did some Reiki energy work, all methods that critics of holistic or biological dentistry say are based on "quack concepts."

Stepp, however, who flies from her part-time home on San Island, Wash., to see Rothchild, couldn't care less.

"I believe in results," she said. "I've repeatedly watched this work and experienced it. I know my jaw doesn't lock, my bite is fine and I don't have the headaches. That's good enough for me."

Besides, she said, "putting aside the holistic side of his practice, he's a brilliant dentist to begin with. He simply added holistic methods to his extensive skill base."

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