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Dating back to the beginning of last century mineral depletion in our soils, and thus in the food we eat, has been horrendous – and it has gotten much worse in recent decades, as we strip the top eight feet of soil throughout the world of the vital major minerals and up to 80 trace minerals that man has adapted to for thousands of years and which are needed for optimum health.

The way nature works in a more or less "natural" state is that tree roots go deep in the soil and bring up vital minerals that are replaced as the trees die and decompose.  In addition, animals that eat and contain the minerals themselves die and decompose and are returned to the soil.  Similarly, animal and human waste matter is returned to the soil.

In modern times, we have disrupted the natural cycle of mineral replenishment by clear-cutting the forests and trees to make crop land, removing most of the waste and dead animals, and we have over-farmed virtually all of our soil without allowing time for micro-organisms to convert the remaining minerals into usable forms for plants.  Thanks to the advent of petro-chemical fertilizers in 1908, we have mostly returned to the soil only petroleum derived nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus – which produce lush growth but nutrient-poor plants.

To make matters worse, we have applied pesticides and herbicides that have killed off vital micro-organisms which help convert remaining soil minerals to usable forms.

Thanks to the extended use of fertilizers and "maximum yield" mass farming methods the soil in the North American continent has had an average of 85% mineral depletion over the past 100 years – the worst of any other country in the world.

The end result is that a bowl of spinach most of us eat today contains perhaps 1/8th the nutrition of the bowl our grandparents and great grandparents ate.

The role of minerals and human health is immense, yet seldom recognized.  Two times Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling went so far as to state unequivocally "You can trace every sickness, every disease, and every ailment to a mineral deficiency."

Dr. Gary Price Todd echoed this sentiment when he stated, "The lack of minerals is the root of all disease."

Considering that minerals are the most basic of building blocks for proper nutrition and health, such statements can hardly be considered exaggerations.  Quite simply, without minerals, nothing else works.  Amino acids and enzymes don't work and so vitamins and other nutrients don't get broken down and absorbed properly and we end up with major deficiencies in both vitamins and minerals. The end result is a chain reaction of poor health where nothing works as it should.

"In the absence of minerals, vitamins have no function. Lacking vitamins, the system can make use of the minerals, but lacking minerals vitamins are useless."

– Dr. Charles Northern, researcher and MD

Another major area where mineral deficiency manifests itself, in addition to poor health and immune system support, is obesity.  Similar to the cats and dogs one sees eating grass when they instinctively know they are either deficient in vitamins and minerals or need extra ones to combat an illness or infection, I believe that the human body also sends such instinctive signals at times that it is missing vital nutrients, but we no longer recognize what it is our bodies are telling us and where to find what we need to silence the signals.

Such confused signals often lead to cravings, and so we eat and eat to try to satisfy them, but what we really crave is missing nutrition.  Instead of turning to a nutritious diet or other healthy way to furnish minerals (such as the plant derived minerals from the prehistoric clays in Utah available from Utopia Silver), we turn to the SADS diet, fast foods, nuked meals, sweets, junk food, etc. often to no avail. Perhaps many of us can relate to that familiar quandary of eating and eating to the point of being gorged, and yet still feeling hungry for "something".  That something very often is likely minerals!

Coming Installments:

"Measuring the Loss of Minerals in our Soils and Foods"
"Gone Without a Trace – Our Essential Disappearing Trace Minerals"
"Heading off a Health Disaster – Replacing our Lost Minerals"

Live long, live healthy, live happy!

About the Author:
Tony Isaacs, is a natural health advocate and researcher and the author of books and articles about natural health including "Cancer's Natural Enemy" and "Collected Remedies". Mr. Isaacs hosts The Best Years in Life website for baby boomers and others wishing to avoid prescription drugs and mainstream managed illness and live longer, healthier and happier lives naturally (http://www.tbyil.com). He also hosts the CureZone "Ask Tony Isaacs" forum as well as the Yahoo Health Group "OleanderSoup”.  Mr. Isaacs is currently residing in the scenic Texas hill country near Utopia, Texas where he serves as a consultant to the Utopia Silver colloidal silver and supplement company and where he is working on a major book project.

Studies have shown that women with a high intake of flax oil and flax lignans are at much lower risk of developing breast cancer. Research is now documenting the benefits of flax oil, lignans, and flax meal in preventing and treating cancer in the gastrointestinal tract and colon, and breast cancer metastasis.

Recent studies and results

In a study published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology researchers noted that flax seed oil and flax seed meal are good sources of omega-3 fatty acids. Their objective was to investigate the feeding of flax seed oil and flax meal to groups of rats with induced precursors of colon cancer. These precursors form in the lining of the colon and rectum prior to the appearance of colorectal polyps.

The groups of rats were fed either a controlled diet alone, controlled diet plus soybean oil, controlled diet plus flax oil, or controlled diet plus flax meal. The rats were examined after 17 weeks. Those fed the flax seed oil and the flax seed meal showed reduced incidence of colon cancer precursor by 84% and 87.5% respectively. Glutathione-S-transferase (GST) activity rates were significantly higher in the rats fed flax seed oil and flax seed meal compared to those fed soybean oil. The enzymes in GST play a significant role in the detoxification of such substances as carcinogens, therapeutic drugs, and products of oxidative stress.

In the Journal of Nutrition and Cancer researchers note that fatty acid composition of dietary fat plays a vital role in colon tumor development in animal models. Fats containing omega-3 fatty acids, such as flax oil, and those containing omega-6 fats, such as corn oil, reduced chemically induced colon tumor development in rats. Lignans have also been shown to prevent colon tumor development in animal studies. These researchers investigated the effects of dietary flaxseed meal, a source of both omega-3 fatty acids and lignans, on colon tumor development and compared them with the effects of dietary corn meal.

One group of cancer induced rats ate a controlled diet supplemented with corn meal, while another ate the controlled diet supplemented with flaxseed meal. After 35 weeks, the gastrointestinal tract was isolated, and the site, size, and number of tumors were recorded and the tumors were evaluated. Tumor incidence in the corn meal group was 82.6% vs. 29.4% in the flax meal group. Tumor multiplicity was 1.3 for the corn meal group vs. 0.3 for the flax meal group. And tumor size was 44.4 mm for the corn meal group vs. 5.3 mm for the flax meal group. Researchers attributed these amazing statistics to the increased omega-3 fatty acids levels ingested by the flax meal group.

A third study, from the International Journal of Cancer reports that previous studies have shown dietary flax seed was able to reduce the growth and metastasis of human estrogen receptor negative breast cancer in mice. Researchers for this study sought to determine whether the tumor inhibitory effect of flaxseed was due to its oil, lignan secoisolariciresinol diglycoside (SDG), or both, and whether the effect on tumor growth was related to increased oxidative degradation of lipids.

Rats were injected with estrogen receptor negative breast cancer cells and after 8 weeks were fed either the basal diet, or basal diet supplemented with flax seeds, SDG, flax oil, or a combination.

Compared to the basal diet group, the tumors in all supplemented groups showed decreased cell proliferation and increased apoptosis. These results did not significantly relate to lipid peroxidation. Lung metastasis incidence was reduced by 16 to 70 percent by all treatments, and most significantly in the flax seed, SDG, and flax oil groups. Distant lymph node metastasis was significantly decreased (52%) only in the flax oil group. Total metastasis incidence was lowered significantly (42%) only in the SDG plus flax oil group.

What these studies may mean for you

The studies show both flax oil and flax meal to be highly effective against cancers of the gastrointestinal tract and colon. Flax oil was clearly the most effective at preventing lymph node metastasis, while the impact on total body metastasis was greatest when SDG, the active compound from lignans, was included with flax oil.

It is the omega-3 fatty acids in flax that are the active agents producing these results. Omega-3 fatty acids are electron rich, and are able to enter the cells to provide them with the electrical energy needed for the healthy completion of cellular processes.

Our bodies produce over 500 million new cells daily. When these cells divide, the old cell and the new cell must contain enough electron rich fatty acids to divide off completely from each other. When this process is not completed due to a lack of electron rich highly unsaturated fat, the course of growth and division is altered and the maturing and shedding process is never fully completed. This may lead to the formation of tumors.

Unless you frequently eat omega-3 rich foods such as salmon or walnuts, supplementing your diet with lignan rich flax oil may be one of the best choices for your health that you ever make.

Using flax oil

Flax oil is highly unstable and begins to oxidize quickly after processing. If you are going to use flax oil, you will want only the freshest, best quality organic oil. Fresh flax oil has a nutty taste that is good. Although results from study number three indicate that even when the oil has oxidized it will still do its job in the body, most health experts say that any oil that does not taste good is oil you should not use. Any trace of bitterness means the oil is oxidizing.

Most flax oil on the market is rancid to some degree, particularly the capsules. Taste one and you will be appalled. The maker of the capsules is counting on you swallowing them whole and never tasting the rancid oil that is in them. Oil that is bought from a drugstore, supermarket, or discount center is usually quite oxidized and bitter. Even house brands from online supplement stores are usually oxidized. Just because it's organic doesn't mean it isn't rancid.

There are two brands which produce organic flax oil that is usually fresh and good-tasting. These are Spectrum and Barleans. Spectrum is the more consistent of the two brands. These oils are available at health food stores, and grocery stores that cater to the health conscious. They are sold in the refrigerator section, and should be refrigerated again immediately after purchase.

If you do not have access to these oils where you live, they can be ordered from the online supplement stores. When it's relatively cold outside, the oil can be shipped to you without a problem. In the warm months or if you live in a place where it is warm all year, you will need to have them shipped in a cold pack. Not all online stores offer cold packs, but several do.

Taste the oil when you bring it home or have it delivered. If it does not taste fresh and good, if you detect bitterness, return it or call the online store and ask for a refund. Retailers seem to be quite used to people returning rancid flax oil, and they will give you a refund or replacement.

The amount of oil you need per day to keep yourself healthy is one tablespoon for each 100 pounds of body weight. If you have had cancer and are trying to prevent a recurrence you may want to double that amount. If you are actively fighting cancer or other serious disease, you will need to take the oil throughout the day, building up to an amount of 8 ounces or more as you are able to tolerate it.

Never heat flax oil. Always shake the bottle before using.

Using flax lignans

Spectrum and Barleans as well as others produce flax oil with lignans added. They usually settle to the bottom requiring you to give the bottle a hard shaking every time you use it.

If you don't want to take flax oil with lignans but want to get the benefits of lignans, you can get one of the capsule forms on the market containing SDG. The best known of these is Brevail, made by the Barleans company. There are others that are equally as effective.

by Gary Tunsky

With my twenty years of extensive research in disease pathology, I have discovered there are five conditions that cause poor health. The first three only account for approximately 5% of all the health problems that plague America. They are:

 1.  Hereditary weakness of genes (genetic predispositions)
  2.  Congenital deformity
  3.  Permanent organ injury

 The other two, or remaining 95%, that are the direct cause of all of mankind’s disease and suffering arises from Cellular Toxicities and Nutritional Deficiencies over which the principles of a healthy diet and lifestyle play a tremendous part. These two conditions are the primary result of an impoverished diet, inverted way of living, continuous exposures to toxic air and environmental contaminants, food and beverage contaminants, an overabundance of toxic chemicals absorbed through the skin from things such as chlorine, fluoride, water contaminants, and from the unlimited and unseen toxins found in many soaps, shampoos, deodorants, cosmetics, and household cleaners. These two conditions never occur separately, they always occur together in combination.

 As cellular contamination and nutritional deficiencies progress, they place the cells, tissues, organs, systems, and eventually the entire body into a state of stress, disorder, or Dis -Ease.  As explained in my previous article What In The Cell Is Going On?, when the cells malfunction and cannot perform their tasks, organ malfunction eventually occurs with a resulting cascading system malfunction.

 This sub-par congestive health condition is what I refer to as the “Medical Twilight Zone” where the patient is neither healthy nor in a state of severe chronic illness. They are somewhere in between where they have fallen into the cracks of one of the estimated 10,001 categorized disease labels and are well on their way to a life-threatening illness.

 In a full array of lab assays conducted by a medical doctor entailing such things as MRI’s, CT Scanning, Immune profiles, blood pathology, and hormonal assessments, the patient will most likely show no signs of abnormality because none of these tests have established parameters for measuring early decline of health, nor can they detect cellular toxicities and nutritional deficiencies.  Consequently, the patient will either be blamed for getting older, given a clean bill of health, be labeled by their doctor as psychosomatic or hypochondriac, or worse – be given palliative symptom suppressive pharmaceutical relief agents which will only shove the disease deeper with the patient unaware of the fact that they’re getting sicker because the drugs only mask their symptom(s) but do nothing to treat the real cause of their problem.

 There are over 40 abnormal Dis-Eases that won’t register on blood tests, urinalysis, PET Scan, X-ray, computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).  This doesn’t include the unseen emotional toxins such as anger, bitterness, stress, anxiety, unforgiveness, etc. that eventually lead to physical illness and can never be detected through means of medical diagnostic equipment.  Unfortunately, laboratory tests are only calibrated and limited to detecting chronic, severe crisis situations where it’s often too late to take preventative measures.  Their advanced equipment can easily detect liver cirrhosis, hepatitis, strokes, kidney failure, heart attacks, rheumatoid arthritis, metastasized cancers, etc., but not the medical twilight zone of Dis–Ease caused by cellular toxicities and nutritional deficiencies.

If you have toxic residues accumulating in the intestines, liver, blood, tissue, and cells and nutritional building elements are not able to penetrate the cell membrane to regenerate the cells and remove metabolic waste, then metabolic efficiency, energy and hormone/neurotransmitter synthesis is greatly reduced which will manifest symptoms of extreme lethargy, muscle weakness, gastric distention, aches and pains, depression, and memory and concentration problems.  These symptoms are God’s intelligence to warn us of a deeper cellular malfunction.  Remember; only after massive numbers of cells malfunction or die do you begin to notice symptoms of disease.  In other words, you’re already sick before you get sick.

 Allopathic physicians are taught that if you can’t see it in an x-ray or detect it through lab assays, if you can’t hear it in a stethoscope, or if you can’t feel it in a palpitation, it’s not there, even though the patient’s whole body is in a state of stress or Dis-Ease.  Since medical students are not taught the subject of toxicology and the dangers of accumulated toxins that cause free radical damage to the cells or the necessities of nutrition to establish and maintain health, the entire sick-care industry can keep disease in the medical twilight zone, where no cures can be discovered and a medical monopoly of risky surgeries and lethal pharmaceuticals can go on, with these companies profiting hundreds of billions of dollars each year.

 It is estimated that over 75% of all office visits to medical doctors are in the medical twilight zone category of neurological disorders, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, gastric disorders, immune-suppression, mental and auto-immune disorders, skin disorders, and acute bacterial, fungal and viral infections that are all caused by two things – cellular toxicity and nutritional deficiency.  The medical profession addresses neither, yet continues to thrive.

 Typical of such twilight zone disorders are symptoms of headaches, dizziness, nervousness, severe fatigue, flatulence, constipation, diarrhea, insomnia, brain fog, joint aches, and a lost feeling of well-being, which are intelligent warning signals of a healing crisis.  These symptoms are the cells’ cry or scream to the brain to warn you of a cellular malfunction in a certain organ or system.

 These subjective symptoms cannot be revealed by laboratory analysis until they have reached chronic degenerative proportions or metabolic disease states, nor can palliative pharmaceutical agents treat them because these symptoms are indicative of nutritional deficiencies coupled with toxic cellular accumulation.  Pharmaceutical agents do nothing to remove toxic residues in and around the cells nor fix nutritional deficiencies.  In fact, they add more toxins and rob more nutrients from the body.  Only natural, non-toxic treatment protocols can reverse the illness.

 All medical twilight zone Dis-Eases are endogenous and are the body’s built in intrinsic wisdom instituted as a response to a healing crisis; a purging of toxins to prevent the chronic disease from settling in.  These built in body-instituted symptoms of runny nose, mucous discharge, sweating, diarrhea etc. are misinterpreted as disease, when in reality they are the body’s effort to eliminate toxins or decaying morbid waste through the elimination pathways via skin, colon, urine or respiration.

 To the medical establishment – fever, diarrhea, mucous secretions, coughing, nasal drippage and excessive perspiring are looked at as unnecessary nuisances to attack or suppress when in fact they are intelligent purging mechanisms to expel toxic debris from the blood and tissues that have overloaded the elimination and detoxification pathways.  In their ignorance, medical doctors are drugging the symptoms of toxicities and nutritional deficiencies at the cell level, or surgically removing organs based on these two conditions.  If they only knew that once the toxic waste residue is excreted, the cells would be allowed to absorb oxygen and intelligent nutrients again, and the body’s organs and systems would self-heal and return to homeostasis, or balance and order.

 The Seven Stages of Disease Progression

 In order to better understand the disease process, it’s important to understand how it progresses in various stages beginning with mild symptoms and ending in a full-blown crisis. There are actually seven stages of disease progression, which are really just symptoms of intelligent body-instituted healing. They are:

  1.  Enervation
  2.  Intoxication
  3.  Irritation
  4.  Inflammation
  5.  Induration
  6.  Ulceration
  7.  Fungation

 1. ENERVATION (ENERVATE): To deprive of nerve, energy, vital force or strength; physical, mental, or moral weakness. Devitalize, and/or weaken.

 The first stage of disease progression is Enervation and it can be caused by overeating, drinking too much alcohol, worry, overindulgence of congestive, devitalized, refined, processed foods and lifeless, contaminated, carbonated beverages, excessive sugar intake, salt, coffee, tap water, drugs, polluted air, lack of sleep, stress, and stimulants. The result: overall weakness, depression, and reduced vital energy or strength.

 2. INTOXICATION: The state of being poisoned by a drug or other substance.

The second stage of degeneration is intoxication resulting from the abusive acts of stage 1 that slows the body’s ability through time to eliminate poisons by clogging the detoxification organs and filtration systems specific to intestines, liver, kidneys, skin, blood circulation and lymphatic flow.

 Our vital energy is always divided between digestion, assimilation, stimulation and elimination. As more energy is diverted to digest the poisons listed in stage 1, and as artificial stimulants from coffee, alcohol, sugar, tobacco, inorganic substances, and toxic by-products are taken in to try and compensate for the loss of energy, cellular energy capacity drastically declines. This leaves the body intoxicated, sluggish and weakened.  Continued enervation and intoxication leads to a susceptible crisis named Dis-Ease.

 3. IRRITATION: The bringing of a bodily part or organ to an abnormally excited or sensitive condition.

The third stage of disease progression is due to an excess of acid forming foods and beverages (i.e. sugar, fried foods, coffee, carbonated beverages, alcohol, red meat, antibiotics, etc.), which results in the body fluid condition developing into acid pH.  This condition depletes alkaline reserves and over time irritates tissue lining due to the acid wastes.  Irritation symptoms can manifest as sinusitis, colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, nephritis, hepatitis, meningitis, appendicitis, nephritis, etc. which all cause swelling and inflammation.

 Normal healthy alkaline/acid ratio of the blood is approximately 80% alkaline and 20% acidic. Most people are 80% acid and 20% alkaline.  To neutralize acidic residues formed in the bloodstream the body pulls alkalizing buffering elements such as calcium and magnesium from the teeth, bones, liver and so on, to neutralize deadly acids and preserve life. Over time, osteoporosis and periodontal disease can result. When the body is too alkaline, it will result in gall bladder stress.  Normal blood homeostasis is 7.35 to 7.45 pH and urine pH should be anywhere from 6.5 to 6.8.  The body’s adaptation response to fight for homeostasis to maintain 7.35 to 7.45 pH is alkaline predominance in the blood.

 4. INFLAMMATION: The response of the tissues in the body to irritation or injury.  Inflammation may be acute or chronic.  Its chief signs are redness, heat, swelling, and pain, accompanied by loss of function.

The fourth stage of disease progression triggers the onset of inflammation, indicative of accumulated pustulence (dried blood) and thick mucous in and around the organs, joints, and cells of the body triggering an immune response condition.  The immune system responds to the toxemic condition by spilling histamines, cytokines and other inflammatory substances in the fight to clean up the congestive toxicosis.  Inflammation is also brought on by stone-like formations in joints, kidneys, and gall bladder, which consist of trapped inorganic substances from impure food, beverages, drugs, etc.  At this point the body’s filtration organs are unable to expel the accumulated, hardened waste material by the weakened enervated body. Allergies and immuno-suppression is the result.  A so-called allergy is nothing more than the irritation of an already chronically inflamed nasal passage or lung tissue from a pronounced toxemic condition. Toxemia is the basic cause of all inflammation including the intestinal lining and the epithelial lining in the lungs. This stage of inflammation is characterized by heat, redness, swelling, and pain.

 5. INDURATION: Hardening of a tissue, particularly the skin, because of excess fluid retention, inflammation, or growth of a tumor.

The fifth stage of degeneration is when a gradual thickening (hardening) of the mucous and sub-mucosal tissues manifests, due to the causes of continued inflammation un-removed or un-resolved by detoxification methods.  The increased levels of hardening due to solidifying compounds of hydrogenated fats, saturated fats, LDL cholesterol, chlorine, calcium, iron, and other inorganic minerals, chokes arterial circulation, cutting off oxygen (hypoxia) and inhibiting nutrient flow to the cells, giving rise to cell apoptosis (programmed cell death), open sores, or ulcers. Symptoms of indurations include hardening of the arteries, skin eruptions, pustulence, cataracts, cysts, polyps, liver spots, kidney stones, callused feet, calcium spurs and gall stones.

 6. ULCERATION:  A craterlike skin or mucous membrane lesion.  A sore open either to the surface of the body or to a natural cavity, and accompanied by the disintegration of tissue, the formation of pus, etc.

The sixth stage of disease progression is an active degeneration from cell apoplexy (paralysis of circulatory functions of blood and lymph due to tissue and arterial hardening). Ulceration can manifest as a stress ulcer, a stasis ulcer, a trophic ulcer, a peptic ulcer, ulcerative colitis, etc. Instead of normal toxin elimination – excretion of dried blood and toxic laden mucous (pus) erupts from open wounds, boils, fistulas, internal ulcers, or is discharged from the eyes, ears, nose, vagina or other body cavities such as canker associated with AIDS and herpes simplex. Another symptom of ulceration is adrenal exhaustion from a highly toxic condition and adrenal stress.

 7. FUNGATION: Excessive overgrowth of fungi in the blood and tissues.

The last and final stage of degeneration is fungation.  It is known better as an overgrowth of fungus in the body and can consist of molds, mildew, yeasts (candidiasis), and cancer.  There are more than a thousand toxins produced by yeast, fungus, and mold, and their wastes contribute directly or indirectly to a huge number of symptoms.   In this final stage there is a cellular disorder from repeated free radical hits on the genetic material, damaging DNA during replication, transcription, and translation of the new cell generation.  This inevitably leads to cell proliferation and cell mutation of tissue growth to a morbid state. It is the final stage in which cells no longer renew themselves and form cancerous mutations.  Doing a live blood analysis with a high-powered microscope will easily detect yeast, fungus, mold and cancer cells.

All seven progressive stages of disease are nothing more than the body’s effort to return to balance and order (homeostasis) by attempting to purge itself of the unwanted toxins that are poisoning it.  The symptoms of this triggered healing crisis are what medical science calls disease.

By Ellen Nakashima

Health and life insurance companies have access to a powerful new tool for evaluating whether to cover individual consumers: a health "credit report" drawn from databases containing prescription drug records on more than 200 million Americans.

Collecting and analyzing personal health information in commercial databases is a fledgling industry, but one poised to take off as the nation enters the age of electronic medical records. While lawmakers debate how best to oversee the shift to computerized records, some insurers have already begun testing systems that tap into not only prescription drug information, but also data about patients held by clinical and pathological laboratories.

Traditionally, insurance companies have judged an applicant's risk by gathering medical records from physicians' offices. But the new tools offer the advantage of being "electronic, fast and cheap," said Mark Franzen, managing director of Milliman IntelliScript, which provides consumers' personal drug profiles to insurers.

The trend holds promise for improved health care and cost savings, but privacy and consumer advocates fear it is taking place largely outside the scrutiny of federal health regulators and lawmakers.
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Ingenix, a Minnesota-based health information services company that had $1.3 billion in sales last year — and Wisconsin-based rival Milliman — say the drug profiles are an accurate, less expensive alternative to seeking physician records, which can take months and hundreds of dollars to obtain. They note that consumers authorize the data release and that the services can save insurance companies millions of dollars and benefit consumers anxious for a decision.

"Some insurers can make a decision in the same day, or right on the spot," Franzen said. "That's the real 'value-add.' "

But the practice also illustrates how electronic data gathered for one purpose can be used and marketed for another — often without consumers' knowledge, privacy advocates say. And they argue that although consumers sign consent forms, they effectively have to authorize the data release if they want insurance.

"As health care moves into the digital age, there are more and more companies holding vast amounts of patients' health information," said Joy Pritts, research professor at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute. "Most people don't even know these organizations exist. Unfortunately the federal health privacy rule does not cover many of them. . . . The lack of transparency with how all of this works is disturbing."

Ingenix and Milliman create the profiles by plumbing rich databases of prescription drug histories kept by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which help insurers process drug claims. Ingenix, for instance, has servers in the PBM data centers, updating the drug files as frequently as once a day, said John Stenson, senior vice president of consulting for Ingenix, which is a division of UnitedHealth Group. The corporation also owns UnitedHealthcare, the nation's second-largest insurer.

When an insurer makes an online query about an applicant, Ingenix or Milliman's servers scour the data and within minutes or less return reports to a central server at the company. The server aggregates the information going back as far as five years, including the drugs and dosages prescribed, dates filled and refilled, the therapeutic class and the name and address of the prescribing doctor.

Then comes the analysis.

Ingenix's MedPoint tool provides insurers a "pharmacy risk score," or a number that represents an "expected risk" for a group of people, such as 30- to 35-year-old women who have taken prescription drugs, Stenson said. Higher scores imply higher medical costs.

Milliman's IntelliScript codes drugs red, yellow or green, according to the insurer's instructions, with red signaling the greatest risk, Franzen said. Red codes could include the so-called AIDS cocktail drugs and cancer medications, he said.

The companies receive data only on individuals who are in clients in PBMs' databases, generally excluding, say, people who pay for drugs in cash. The profiles cost insurers about $15 a search. IntelliScript gets about 1 million queries from insurers a year, largely individual health insurers.

The system can save money for insurers, said Richard Dick, an entrepreneur who built the database system that Ingenix acquired in 2002.

For instance, if MedPoint produces a report that an individual has been on the highest dose of the cholesterol-reducing drug Zocor for 18 monts, the insurer "would be able to know that you have a very high, near-intractable cholesterol problem," Dick said, and could avoid a costly blood test.

From a business standpoint, it makes no sense for an insurer to sell a plan with a $200 monthly premium if the company knows that the consumer is taking medications that cost $400 every six months, industry experts said. That is why having access to an "objective" source of third-party information is valuable, said Tia Goss Sawhney, a Chicago area health insurance actuary who has used both companies' tools. "Though most people tell the truth most of the time, there are people out there who don't, who leave out something that's incredibly relevant, who may even be able to defraud a company," she said. "That's important because ultimately the people who tell the truth have to pay for those who don't."
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Franzen, whose firm expects revenue of $575 million this year, said his clients tell him that about 10 percent of applicants do not disclose pertinent medical conditions in their applications that are later revealed by prescription drug history.

Some health experts worry that insurance companies can make faulty assumptions by looking at prescription drug records, because many drugs have multiple uses. "I had a patient on Amitriptyline for migraines and they were denied life insurance because it's also an antidepressant," said physician Kate Atkinson of Amherst, Mass. "I had to explain it wasn't being used for depression." Another patient was on Prozac — not for depression, but for menopausal hot flashes. "I wrote an appeal letter, and they still wouldn't give it to her," Atkinson said.

Services such as MedPoint are just "one of many tools" underwriters use to make coverage decisions, said Tyler Mason, a spokesman for UnitedHealthcare, which uses MedPoint. A high-risk score on a profile will often lead to requests for more information from the applicant, he said.

Ingenix and Milliman officials stress that they provide data only with the patient's consent, as required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a 1996 law that governs personal health records information. But HIPAA does not give the Department of Health and Human Services the ability to directly investigate or hold accountable entities, such as pharmacy benefit managers or companies such as Ingenix and Milliman, who are not covered by HIPAA.

A health privacy proposal pending in Congress would expand federal officials' ability to regulate such "downstream" organizations, audit their activities and impose civil fines. The bill also includes a prohibition on the sale of electronic medical records.

Tim Sparapani, senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, said that the products that Ingenix and Milliman are marketing represent the "commodification" of electronic medical records by third parties. "We've got to stop these practices before the marketplace is fully developed and patients lose all control over their medical information," he said.

The field is growing rapidly. Realtime Solutions Group, a company in Woodridge, Ill., is testing whether lab data can be aggregated with prescription and other data for underwriting purposes. The firm is working with two major commercial labs and three large insurers, using thousands of real applicants. Initial results are promising enough that the company plans to proceed to the data-analysis stage, company co-founder Tedd Determan said.

"A lot of insurance companies are starting to use this type of data," said Determan, who co-founded IntelRx, a company that mined prescription databases and was sold to Milliman in 2005. "They said, 'All right. Prescription data is working, let's go and look at other types of data, too.' It's because of the success of one, that we're going after others."

In February, the Federal Trade Commission issued an order saying that MedPoint and IntelliScript are consumer reports under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, so the companies must notify insurers that consumers denied insurance on the basis of these reports have the right to request a copy of the report and that errors be corrected. The FTC's order followed a settlement of allegations that the companies violated the credit-reporting law by failing to provide such notice to insurers.

Bob Gellman, an independent privacy consultant in Washington, said the FTC's decision not to fine the companies sends "the message that it is okay to ignore the law." That, he said, "is absolutely outrageous."

As more health records become electronic, he said, more parties will compete to sell more comprehensive patient data to insurers, driving down data prices. "It will all likely be lawful," Gellman said, "but consumers will likely continue to have no real meaningful choices if they want insurance."
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Dick, who conceived the idea of linking the pharmacy databases for underwriting purposes a decade ago, said the pharmacy benefit managers understood the system's privacy implications. He said their attitude seemed one of, " 'Ooh, this is a 60 Minutes' story in the making.' Generally, they wanted to make it a super-secret database, restricted to underwriting."

But now, he said, "there's a huge case for it being opened up for all legitimate access," whether for a patient in an emergency room or for federal government purposes. The key, he said, is full transparency.

He said he has created a privacy tool that requires users to consent before specific data, such as prescription histories, can be released. To work, he said, the tool must be independent of all who hold the data.

"Otherwise," he said, "you have the fox in charge of the henhouse."

New research focusing on a relatively obscure, misunderstood protein suggests mercury’s link to heart disease can be traced to activation of this enzyme, which triggers a process leading to plaque buildup in blood vessel walls.

The study examined three forms of mercury, matching its characteristics in the environment. Each form of mercury caused changes in the behavior of cells that line the blood vessel walls and that can lead to cardiovascular diseases.

The study also suggests that chelation therapy, a process that removes metals from the body, and antioxidants both show signs of suppressing this activity and might be key to reducing the damage caused by mercury, and possibly other heavy metals.

The research was published in a recent issue of the International Journal of Toxicology.

“Mercury has been implicated as a risk factor in cardiovascular disease because of environmental concerns both from contamination and the atmosphere. But no one has looked at heavy metal regulation of this enzyme,” said Narasimham Parinandi, director of the lipidomics and lipid signaling laboratory at Ohio State University Medical Center and senior author of the study. “If we understand this regulation and know how to block it, we can come up with proper ways to prevent the activity.”

Parinandi and colleagues focused on activation of an enzyme called phospholipase D, or PLD, in cells that line arteries in the lung. They exposed the cells to the inorganic, environmental and pharmaceutical forms of mercury, and observed that all three forms activated the enzyme.

The activation of the enzyme involves a complex sequence of events in the cell membranes that in turn releases phosphatidic acid, which can damage cells in the vessel lining – called endothelial cells – and is believed to contribute to vascular disorders.

To further test the enzyme’s role in blood vessel lining damage, the scientists then showed that metal chelators and antioxidants lessen the mercury-induced activation of the enzyme in endothelial cells. This portion of the study showed that different types of mercury affect the cells in different ways.

In the three forms of mercury – methylmercury chloride, (environmental form), thimerosal (pharmaceutical form) and mercuric chloride (inorganic form) – the enzyme activation was prevented by metal chelators, which are organic chemicals that bind with and remove free metal ions from substances.

The power of methylmercury chloride to activate the enzyme was also affected by antioxidants, including vitamin C, suggesting that this form of the metal generates free radicals. This is the form of mercury most closely associated with the food supply.

“Chelators overall did a better job than antioxidants at protecting against mercury activation of the enzyme,” said Thomas Hagele, first author of the study and an undergraduate researcher in Parinandi’s lab. “This shows that activation of the enzyme is not isolated to one location in the cell. Since we can protect against the enzyme activation with both chelators and antioxidants, that means a few different types of activation are likely to occur, depending on the toxin.”

This research is not just about mercury, noted Parinandi, also an assistant professor of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. Mercury in this case acts as a model for other toxins that have similar effects on blood vessel walls, pointing to what happens in the body when toxic substances are a factor in causing diseases.

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Other Ohio State coauthors of the study are students Jessica Mazerik, Anita Gregory and Bruce Kaufman; Drs. Ulysses Magalang and Clay Marsh of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine; and Periannan Kuppusamy and M. Lakshmi Kuppusamy of the Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute.