Category: Featured Articles

The antioxidant is called urate.  It is a salt that comes from uric acid and is usually found in blood.  Too much urate can lead to gout and kidney stones.

In this study published in the Archives of Neurology, urate is shown to have protective qualities against the ravages of Parkinson’s tremors and rigidity.  

800 men recently diagnosed with Parksin’s disease were studied over a two-year period. MassGeneral and Harvard researchers found those men with the highest natural levels of urate had the slowest increase in the progression of the disease. They also had the most dopamine-producing neurons and needed to start Parkinson’s treatment later. 

Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that helps regulate muscle movement. In Parkinson’s disease brain cells that produce dopamine are destroyed. Symptoms worsen as more dopamine-producing brain cells die.

Urate seems to quiet free radicals that injure the dopamine-producing brain cells.

"These findings, combined with prior knowledge of urate's protective properties in laboratory studies, raise the possibility that urate-elevating strategies could be used to slow the neurodegeneration of Parkinson's disease," study author Michael Schwarzschild, an associate professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, said in a prepared statement.

About one million suffer from the disabling symptoms of Parkinson’s in the U.S. among them actor Michael J. Fox, who has set up a foundation for Parkinson’s Research in November 2006.

Scientists at Harvard School of Public Health had previously correlated a high level of urate with a low risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.

They are stopping short of recommending sufferers go out and purchase the supplement inosine that is converted to urate in the body.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) and its uncontrollable tremors have long been suspected to have both a genetic and environmental cause. 

In March, Duke University Medical Center and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine  researchers found those exposed to pesticides and insecticides had a 1.6 times higher risk of developing Parkinson’s.

Taken from a recent Ask Tony Isaacs CureZone forum question

Q:
 Hi Tony ,

I see a lot of valuable information in your posts and I thank you for that, but it amazes me how you keep recommending different supplements, vitamins (synthetic) and other stuff that is supposed to be healthy and yet you miss the fact that all supplements are made by the same companies that make drugs, they don't work, they have side effects just like drugs,they are not natural – synthetic Vitamin C is not real Vitamin C, it is a mirror image of the real one and is toxic. For decades now humans try to imitate nature and never succeed. You cannot take a real Vitamin and put it in a pill, you cannot take herbs and make drugs from them and expect miracles. I think it is misleading for a lot of people to push synthetic stuff. I think if nature made it and it's not processed by humans in any way or form then it's good for you. Why bother taking 10grams Vitamin C (synthetic) when you can just have some rosehips and get all the other minerals and vitamins on top of Vitamin C. Colloidal Silver? Are you sure? What for? There are so many natural antibiotics in nature (natural, not man made) that I don't see why would anyone bother with Colloidal Silver and take any chances.

No offense intended, just my opinion. Let me know what you think.

Thanks

A:
No offense taken and you ask a good question. My answer is that first of all, there is a big difference between a chemically and bio-identical form of a vitamin as opposed to a patented altered version not found in nature.  Take Vitamin C. No one is more respected than two-time Nobel laureate Linus Pauling when it comes to vitamin C.  According to the Linus Pauling Institute:

• Natural vs. synthetic ascorbic acid: Natural and synthetic ascorbic acid are chemically identical. As assessed by at least two studies, there appears to be no clinically significant difference in the bioavailability and bioactivity of natural ascorbic acid and synthetic ascorbic acid.
Jane Higdon, R.N., Ph.D.
LPI Research Associate

In an ideal and idyllic world, we would be able to get from nature all the vitamins and minerals and other nutrition we needed to supply our basic needs and to build and maintain a strong immune system so we could beat and ward off disease.

In order to do that, we would have to have sources for a constant supply of a wide variety of fresh vegetables and fruits which came from uncontaminated nutrient rich soils, as well as meat and fish that was free of contaminants and not subject to feedlot or artificial growth practices.

We would also need a supply of clean air, fresh uncontaminated mineral rich water and a superior herb garden with all the best medicinal plants nature had to offer.

Few of us can come even close to such a world.  And even if we could, contamination of the soil and air and water is world-wide now with chemicals nature did not intend our immune systems to have to overcome.  Believing that you can get everything you want from your diet and a few herbs is a nice thought.  In your grandmother's day it would likely have been true.  Back then, a bowl of fresh spinach had eight times the nutrition as it does today, and many hundreds of times less contamination. The same as was true for other foods, the soil, the air, and the water.

Cancer and other chronic illnesses are in large part man-made diseases, as we have failed miserably in our duties to be good shepherds of the bounty nature has supplied for us.  For the 99.999% of the people who cannot live in such an idyllic world, especially here in the United States and most other developed countries, you simply cannot get the nutrients you need from diet and available fresh herbs alone to maintain an optimum immune system, much less to boost it and help it face the onslaught of modern chemicals man has dumped into our water, foods, air, soil, plants and animals.

Silver and the oleander I write extensively about are both natural.  Both have been used for thousands of years to combat illness and promote health.  Many of the products that I recommend are derived from nature, such as the 75 plant derived colloidal trace minerals.  And the others, contrary to what you may believe are almost entirely NOT made by pharmaceutical companies and have not been changed to a different patentable chemical compound.  Sorry, but your statement, "all supplements are made by the same companies that make drugs" is incorrect.

You say that man has tried to imitate nature and failed. I say that man could do much worse than imitate or mirror nature (as opposed to alter it).  It is when man has tried to change nature that he has failed most.  To say that we should only consume something if nature made it and it's not been processed by humans in any shape or form would rule out all cooked foods and most natural beverages.  I have yet to find a whole wheat muffin and glass of hot tea sitting in the field or woods.  And as far as taking out a part of a plant, it is usually only when that is done in such a way that leaves out synergistic supporting compounds that causes problems.  As an analogy, when I catch fish I usually like to separate the fillets from the skin, bones and entrails.  In the same way, you normally take an orange from the tree and peel it and eat only the flesh.  You do not also eat a branch along with it.

For thousands of years, man has taken the natural medicinals of the earth and made natural remedies from them – either by processing them naturally or combining them.  And the best of them have indeed worked what some might consider miracles.  For a fraction of that time, man and his labs have tried to improve on what you can make from nature with altered and invented compounds and that is where the failures have largely come from – along with the failure to address proper nutrition, lifestyle, prevention and treating the whole body instead of just symptoms.

Whenever you can get vitamins, minerals, medicinal plants and/or herbs from nature, by all means do so.  But do realize that even dried herbs are not the same as those found in nature.  Much depends on the soil and conditions they were grown in and how they were harvested, dried, stored and transported.

So, while pure natural sources are always best, for the huge majority of us who cannot get everything we need from a safe and healthy diet and fresh from the fields to meet the requirements of maintaining a healthy body, much less get the therapeutic amounts we need to treat a serious condition, I think supplements are a good and proven alternative.

by Michelle Lang

Health region fears superbug will hit general population. The number of cases of a superbug sweeping through Calgary prisons and homeless shelters nearly doubled in 2007 and health officials fear the virulent bacteria could spread into the city's general population.

New Calgary Health Region statistics show the number of people who contracted methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus — a form of staph infection resistant to most antibiotics — grew to 1,020 last year. That represents a significant increase from 588 people who contracted the infection in 2006.

Medical officials say the superbug, which causes severe abscesses in the skin and can turn deadly, has struck marginalized populations in the city: homeless people, drug users and prisoners.

And the health region says it's possible cases could begin appearing in other parts of the community, leading its public health department to closely monitor the outbreak.

"It's hard to predict what might happen, but we are seeing increases from one year to the next," said Dr. Judy MacDonald, deputy medical officer of health at CHR.

"So far we haven't seen clusters in other (populations), which is good."

The MRSA superbug began appearing outside local hospitals in 2004, making Calgary the first place in Canada to experience an outbreak in the community. In many other Canadian cities, infections from the bacteria have occurred primarily in hospitals.

The superbug has gained an even stronger foothold in the United States, where the Journal of the American Medical Association estimated last fall that severe infections from the bacteria killed about 19,000 people in 2005, taking more lives than AIDS.

It can often only be treated with expensive, intravenous antibiotics.

The Calgary statistics coincide with news that federal health officials are developing a national strategy for all front line health workers to deal with the bacteria. The Public Health Agency of Canada will work with other organizations to develop training tools for medical workers, focusing on steps such as hand washing to decrease the incidence of MRSA in hospitals.

In Calgary, meanwhile, hospitals are introducing a new patient screening system. On several wards at the Foothills, Peter Lougheed and Rockyview hospitals, staff will soon begin testing all patients for MRSA.

"We have a list of targeted wards," said Dr. Tom Louie, director of infection control at the health region. "On the medical wards and long-term care wards, I think we can make a case for screening everyone."

Screening usually involves taking swabs of a patient's nose and identifies if the person is carrying MRSA, even when he or she shows no sign of infection.

This allows the hospital to take extra precautions, such as isolating the patient so the bacteria don't spread in the facility.

Alberta Health recently recommended that health centres screen high-risk patients — people who had been recently jailed or previously hospitalized — for the superbug when they're admitted to hospital.

But Louie said Calgary hospitals had tried the limited screening system and found it less effective than hoped.

But when they tried so-called "universal screening" in selected wards last year, they found nearly twice as many patients carrying MRSA. The practice now is being adopted.

"As our rates were rising over the past three or four years, we needed to do something else," Louie said.

Outside hospitals, staff at facilities such as the Calgary Remand Centre now check inmates for wounds and skin lesions that could indicate they're infected with the bacteria, said the health region's MacDonald.

In fact, the increased surveillance could explain part of the growth in MRSA cases in Calgary, she said.

The local health authority is talking with jails and homeless shelters about introducing special soaps.

But despite efforts to monitor and control the bacteria, it's clear the number of cases in Calgary is increasing.

"The strain, once it gets established, it tends to keep going," MacDonald said.

That's disturbing news for those who have battled the bug.

David Munson, a 31-year-old Airdrie man who says he contracted MRSA at Foothills Hospital after a 2006 hand surgery after an accident at work, hasn't been able to beat the infection.

In his case, the bacteria formed an abscess in his leg that physicians have repeatedly attempted to remove, without success.

"There's got to be something that can be done," said Munson, referring to news of the increased Calgary cases. "It's not a good sickness."

by Christopher Nickson

We’ve heard the pros and cons before, but a new Australian study claims cell phones could be worse for your health than smoking or asbestos.

It’s the issue that won’t go away. Are cell phones detrimental to your health? Will the electromagnetic radiation cause brain tumors? Studies have said yes, studies have said no.
 
Now a new paper from a staff specialist neurosurgeon at the Canberra Hospital and associate professor of neurosurgery with Australian National University Medical School, Vini G. Khurana, entitled Mobile Phones and Brain Tumors – A Public Health Concern, looks at the results of previous reportage in both the academic and popular press.
 
Khurana’s warning is quite dire:
 
“It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking, and directly concerns all of us, particularly the younger generation, including very young children.”
 
The latency time, he believes, “may be in the order of 10-20 years.” He feels that “the link between mobile phones and brain tumours should no longer be regarded as a myth. Individual and class action lawsuits have been filed in the USA, and at least one has already been successfully prosecuted, regarding the cell phone-brain tumour link.”
 
However, it’s worth noting that many studies have yet to establish a link between the use of cell phones and cancer.

by Ron Paul

These past few weeks have provided an unfortunate opportunity to discuss inflation.  The dollar index has reached new all-time lows. The total money supply, M3, as calculated by private sources, is growing at a disturbing 17% rate.  The Fed is pumping dollars into the economy at an alarming rate.

Just recently the Fed announced new loan auctions totaling $100 billion.  That is new money created from thin air.  If these money auctions, combined with the bailout of Bear Stearns, continue to be the trend, we are in for some economic stormy weather.  The explanation lies in understanding the basics of money, and why it is dangerous to give government and big banks control over it.

First, money is not wealth, in and of itself.  You cannot create more wealth simply by creating more money.  Wall Street bankers cry out for more liquidity, but what is really needed is more value behind the dollar.  But the value, unfortunately, isn't there.

You see, the Fed creates new money and uses it to purchase securities from banks.  Flush with funds, these banks seek to put this money to use.  During the Fed's expansionary period, much of this money went to home loans.  Through a combination of federal government inducements to lend to risky borrowers, and the Fed's supply of easy money, the housing bubble took shape.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were encouraged to purchase and securitize mortgages, while investors, buoyed by implicit government backing, rushed to provide funding. Money that could have been invested in more productive, less risky sectors of the economy was thereby malinvested in subprime mortgage loans.

The implicit guarantee from the Fed is quickly becoming explicit, as those institutions deemed "too big to fail" are bailed out at taxpayer expense.  Wall Street made a killing during the housing bubble, reaping record profits.  Now that the bubble has burst, these same firms are trying to dump their losses on the taxpayers.  This approach requires more money creation, and therefore debasement of all dollars in circulation.

The Federal Reserve, a quasi-government entity, should not be creating money or determining interest rates, as this causes malinvestment and excessive debt to accumulate.  Centrally planned, government manipulated economies always fail eventually.  The collapse of communism and the failure of socialism should have made this apparent.  Even the most educated, well-intentioned central planners cannot plan the market better than the market itself.  Those that understand economics best, understand this reality.

In free markets, both success and failure are options.  If government interventions prevent businesses, like Bear Stearns, from failing, then it is not truly a free market.  As painful as it might be for Wall Street, banks, even big ones, must be allowed to fail.

The end game for this policy of monetary inflation is that the money in your bank account loses purchasing power.  So, by keeping failing banks afloat, the Fed punishes those who have lived frugally and saved.  The power to create money is a power that should never be granted to government.  As we can plainly see today, the Fed has abused this power, and taxpayers are paying the price.

by Gardiner Harris

WASHINGTON — After a contaminated medicine from China was linked to as many as 17 deaths in the United States, members of Congress clamored for changes while regulators defended their actions.

The drug was a common antibiotic, and the year was 1999. But in recent weeks, the Food and Drug Administration has faced an almost identical crisis.

Nineteen deaths have been linked to contaminated heparin, a crucial blood thinner manufactured in China. Again the drug agency became aware of the problem only after hundreds were sickened. Again Congress is investigating.

The F.D.A. admitted that it violated its own policies by failing to inspect the China plant, and on Friday it said it had alerted border agents to detain suspect heparin shipments.

“This heparin problem has happened before with other drugs,” said William Hubbard, a former F.D.A. deputy commissioner, “and it’s going to keep happening until Congress fixes this problem.”

The Institute of Medicine, the Government Accountability Office and the F.D.A.’s own Science Board have all issued reports saying poor management and scientific inadequacies make the agency incapable of protecting the country against unsafe drugs, medical devices and food.

Indeed, in the years since the last China drug scandal, the share of drugs coming from that country has soared while the F.D.A.’s inspections of overseas drug plants have dropped. There are 566 plants in China that export drugs to the United States, but the agency inspected just 13 of them last year.

The agency does not have the money to inspect many more, and the Bush administration has no plans to fix this most basic of problems. The administration’s budget calls for a 3 percent increase in allocated funds next year, not enough even to keep up with rising costs.

Congress, though, may finally heed the calls of Mr. Hubbard and others and allocate far more money. The Senate passed a budget resolution on Friday to give the F.D.A. an additional $375 million, a 20 percent increase over this year.

“Congress has a responsibility to close the glaring gaps in food and drug safety that have begun to overwhelm the F.D.A.,” said Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, who pushed for the new financing.

Several top legislators in the Senate and House said they supported the increase.

“F.D.A. needs a serious infusion of resources and strong leadership dedicated to reforming the agency,” said Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, who is chairman of the House oversight committee.

Representatives John D. Dingell and Bart Stupak, powerful Democrats from Michigan, said they would fight to support the increase in the agency’s budget.

But the new money is far from assured. President Bush has threatened to veto appropriations that go beyond his requests, and there are powerful interests in Congress that are skeptical of increased agency financing.

Among the skeptics is Representative Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, who leads the House appropriations subcommittee with authority over the agency. Ms. DeLauro said that although the F.D.A. was in crisis, “I don’t want to throw money at an agency that doesn’t have the infrastructure to carry out its mission.”

Some top agency officials are simply “incompetent,” she added, and real change can occur only with a new administration.

An F.D.A. spokeswoman, Julie Zawisza, said the agency was “looking at a number of options in addition to more foreign inspections to increase our presence abroad and our ability to detect problems.” For instance, the agency is opening an office in China to conduct audits and inspections.

The uncertain prospects of the increased financing have led many in Congress to consider a user-fee system to pay for foreign inspections. The agency already relies heavily on user fees to pay for new drug reviews. Mr. Stupak said such a system might be the only way to pay for the necessary inspections of an industry rapidly moving to places like China.

“Why should the taxpayer pay for these inspections so that you can close a plant here and open it over there to ship it back?” Mr. Stupak said. “It will be sustainable income so that we don’t have to get into these budget battles every year.”

Eighty percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients of drugs consumed in the United States are manufactured abroad; 40 percent are made in China and India. Meanwhile, the F.D.A. has cut back on its foreign drug inspections, which declined to 341 in 2006 from 391 in 2000.

Among the only foreign inspections that the F.D.A. still conducts are those done before a drug’s approval. Spot foreign inspections are rare. For logistical reasons, the agency warns foreign plants when its inspectors intend to visit, something not done domestically. All of this needs to change, said Mr. Stupak, who wants the oversight of foreign plants to be as strict as those governing domestic ones.

Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen’s health research group, said a fee-based inspection system was “a terrible idea” because it would lead the agency to become more lax with those who pay their salaries.

“The F.D.A. is too important to be left to the industry to fund it,” Dr. Wolfe said.

Manufacturers would support a user-fee system in hopes of making medicines safer and competition fairer, said Guy Villax, chief executive of Hovione, a drug maker based in Portugal with plants in Europe, the United States, China and Macao.

Plants in China and India are rarely inspected by Western governments, which can reduce costs dramatically, Mr. Villax said. Even the Chinese did not inspect the plant making contaminated heparin because, regulators there said, everything made at the plant was shipped overseas.

“The globalization of active pharmaceutical ingredients has happened very quickly,” Mr. Villax said, “and the government agencies are very slow at adapting to changing circumstances.”

by Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Bystanders who see someone suddenly collapse should quickly give the person chest compressions even if they are not trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the American Heart Association said on Monday.
The association urged people not to stand idly by because they do not think they know how to administer CPR while an adult stricken with sudden cardiac arrest is dying in front of them.

In recommendations published in its journal Circulation, the group emphasized "hands-only" CPR — a simple procedure that bystanders can perform without worrying about doing the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation part of CPR.

"The thing that's killing people is inaction," said Dr. Michael Sayre of Ohio State University, who headed the association's team that drafted the new recommendations.

Sayre said people not trained in CPR should do two things when they encounter an adult who has suddenly collapsed: first, call emergency services; and second, begin pushing "hard and fast" in the center of the person's chest.

This is necessary to maintain vital blood flow, according to experts. Chest compressions should continue until emergency medical services responders arrive, Sayre said.

"Today in the United States, less than a third of victims of sudden cardiac arrest get any form of CPR. Anything that would increase that is bound to save lives," Sayre said in a telephone interview.

"We want the general public to know that even if they've never been trained, they can help victims of sudden cardiac arrest."

In the minutes after an adult collapses, hands-only CPR — without mouth-to-mouth rescue efforts — is equivalent to conventional CPR in its life-saving value, Sayre said.

All too often, no one at the scene does anything to help the victim of sudden cardiac arrest — often because there is no one trained in CPR and other people are scared that they will do something to make the victim's condition worse.

But considering the person's condition, Sayre said, "You can't make them any worse."

The heart association said that about 310,000 adults in the United States die annually from sudden cardiac arrest that takes place away from a hospital setting. It said that CPR administered by a bystander can double or triple a person's chance of surviving.

About 94 percent of sudden cardiac arrest victims die before reaching a hospital, the group said. Up to 80 percent of sudden cardiac arrests occur at home, it added. Brain death begins four to six minutes after a person suffers sudden cardiac arrest if no CPR or defibrillation is given.

"Hands-only" CPR is not advised for babies and children or for adults whose cardiac arrest is due to respiratory causes such as a drowning scenario or drug overdose, the group said.

The new recommendations update the group's 2005 advice that had asked bystanders to do chest compressions only if they were unable or unwilling to provide mouth-to-mouth efforts.

Conventional CPR is still an crucial skill to know and medical personnel should still perform it, the group said.

by Ben Wasserman

TUESDAY April 1, 2008 — Organs from a 15-year old teen who died a year ago from what doctors said was bacterial meningitis spread a rare lymphoma to four recipients, injuryboard.com reported today.

WCBS-TV was cited as reporting that two organ recipients have already died from the undiagnosed lymphoma and two others are still fighting the deadly disease.

Jim and Lisa Koehne, the teen's parents who live in Sag Harbor, New York, requested an autopsy for their son and only found he actually died from a rare lymphoma. Doctors’ misdiagnosis caused lots of stress to the couple.

Doctors and hospitals are cleared of any responsibility for the spreading of cancer, but New York University and the University of Minnesota which transplanted one of the organs have now changed their policies to make sure the organ is safe.

Spreading of cancer through organ donation is not common as news media and the industry claim.  Theoretically, however, both organs and blood from a cancer patient can potentially spread cancer to the recipients.  

In laboratory, it is a common practice that cancer cells are injected in healthy animals to grow the cancer in them for a study purpose.

by Corey Binns

More than just a pretty smile, clean teeth and gums are a sign of total body health. And those painful sessions with the dental hygienist could save your life, new findings suggest.Most people know that the tedium of good oral hygiene — regular brushing, flossing and trips to the dentist's office — reduces  tartar, plaque, cavities, gingivitis and bone loss and helps the breath smell like roses.

But recent research shows that diabetes, low birth weight babies and heart disease are also linked to gum and bone disease in the mouth that can be prevented by teeth cleanings. Treating gum disease might even prevent heart attacks, a new study suggests.

"Systemically, visits to the dentist and hygienist may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and possibly heart attack, and can decrease the likelihood of tooth loss for diabetics," said Gwen Cohen-Brown, a dentist and lecturer for the New York State Department of Health.

The tooth-heart link
When people neglect to brush their teeth or floss, bacteria accumulate between the teeth. These bacteria can make their way into the blood stream.

"Certain bacteria present in the mouth may be related to clogging up the arteries by contributing to the plaque that builds on the walls of the arteries," said New York University oral microbiologist Walter Bretz.

And treating gum disease, or periodontal disease, can improve the long-term function of endothelial cells that line blood vessel walls, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut Health Center. With better performing endothelial cells, plaques that cause heart disease will decrease, diminishing the risk of triggering a heart attack.

The authors of the study, detailed in the March 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, estimate that severe periodontitis affects up to 1 percent of adults in the U.S., and as many as 80 percent of American adults have some form of periodontal disease.

Unclear pregnancy results
Periodontal disease is also quite common among pregnant women. Expectant mothers' gums react differently to the bacteria due to their increased levels of estrogen and progesterone. Women may experience swelling, bleeding or tenderness in the gum tissue.

Several studies have linked gum disease to an increased risk of giving birth to a premature and underweight baby.

Yet, an article published in a 2006 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reported that, although treatment of gum disease in pregnant women is safe and improves periodontal health, preterm birth and low birth-weight babies were unaffected by the treatment.

The jury is still out on whether a mother's unhealthy gums can affect her unborn baby, but scientists are learning more from a large clinical trial currently under way at the University of Minnesota, focusing on whether treating periodontal diseases in pregnant women may prevent preterm and low birth-weight babies.

Diabetes and dental health
Unlike the case for pregnancy, researchers have found direct links between gum disease and diabetes. Gum disease is known to increase the risk of diabetes, and vice versa.

Studies show that inflammatory periodontal diseases may increase insulin in the same way that obesity increases insulin.

Meanwhile, doctors recognize diabetes as an important risk factor for severe gum disease and infection that may result in the destruction of tissues and bone surrounding the tooth.