Ghost Authors Common in Medical Research Papers: Study

Drug companies initiating clinical trials often use ghost authors and medical writers whose contributions are not credited in the research papers, Danish scientists said on Tuesday.
This practice could be reduced by greater transparency and stricter rules that insist everyone who has worked on or contributed to a medical trial is named.
"Ghost authorship is common but it is often kept secret because it is in the interest of both the industry and the academic authors who lend their names to papers they have had very little or, in some cases, nothing to do with," Peter Gotzsche, of the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark, said in an interview.
The names of authors and researchers are omitted from the published research papers because this may serve the commercial interests of the company sponsoring the trial.
"We have seen again and again that the conclusions in trial reports and other types of articles are given a spin by industry so that the conclusions are too positive compared to the data presented," Gotzsche said.
"It is very important for the industry to get messages out that are useful for their marketing departments," he added.
Lending their name to a study can be beneficial for researchers because it raises their profile and the number of published studies they are linked to. Gotzsche and a team of international researchers believe that unless the role of all the authors is set out in the research paper, people reading the study will not be able accurately to judge or trust its conclusions.
The scientists analysed 44 trials approved by Danish ethics committees in 1994-1995 in the first systematic examination of ghost authorship. One of the studies had been initiated by a local company and 43 by one of 26 multinational drug companies.
The researchers identified 33 trials with ghost authors. In 31 of them the ghost writer was a statistician -- the person who analysed the trial data.
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Gary Moller comments:
These sorts of appalling practices help to explain why "research" that shows favourable results for commercial products always seem to be far more numerous than those reports that are less than favourable. Coupled with massive publicity machines behind them these reports of questionable repute then receive incredible publicity in the media - propaganda dressed up as news!

Menawhile, the free or cheap, self-help methods for keeping healthy, or regaining health are largely ignored. For example, if a drug was discovered that was shown to reduce cancer risk by as much as 50% it would be a news sensation. The discoverers would not only become incredibly wealthy, they would also be Nobel Prize winners. Or would they?

Well there is a drug that has been discovered that does just that - sunlight. Sadly, because sun is free it receives little in the way of recognition for its cancer preventing qualities. In fact, we are taught by the establishment to fear the sun. Some might think there is some kind of conspiracy going on here. Or is it just a case of willful neglect aided and abetted by powerful commercial interests?

Read more!

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American Diabetes Association "Bought off"?

After the American Diabetes Association received a large gift from a major manufacturer of sugar-sweetened beverages, its top medical official is claiming that sugar has nothing to do with diabetes.

In an interview published on 16 May in Corporate Crime Reporter, Richard Kahn, the chief scientific and medical officer with the American Diabetes Association, said: "What is the evidence that sugar itself has anything to do with diabetes? There is no evidence."
On 21 April, the ADA announced a "three-year, multimillion-dollar alliance" with Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages, which produces sweetened soft drinks that are implicated in the epidemic of obesity and diabetes in the United State. Its parent company Cadbury Schweppes, is the third-largest soft-drink manufacturer in the world, after Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.

"Saying that sugar has nothing to do with diabetes is like saying that tobacco has nothing to do with emphysema," said Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert.
"The American Diabetes Association has been so corrupted that they have sunk to the mentality of tobacco scientists who denied the link between tobacco and lung cancer."
(Source: Corporate Crime Reporter press release, 16 May 2005, http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/diabetes051605.htm)

The complete report above is a very interesting read. I will soon be writing an article about the situation here in New Zealand about how I believe some advocacy organisations appear to have compromnised themselves to the point of selling their supporters short.

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Are you searching for the solar panels pages?

If you are looking for the latest about the solar water heating issues, including the latest on the Consumer's Institute "Product Alert" and the TVOne Closeup programme about "Dud Panels", here is the link to the Latest Updates, including the videos.

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Spontaneous fractures and Fossy Jaw

Bisphosphonate drugs for Osteoporosis,

like Fosamax and Actonel, are taken up by osteoclasts with resulting loss of osteoclast activity and inhibition of bone resorption, and bone remodeling. Although DEXA scanning confirms increased bone density and studies such as the FIT suggest reduced fracture rate, Susan Ott, MD raises questions about the long term safety of bisphosphonates. Although the bisphosphonates appear to have short term benefits, she speculates that after 5 years of use, there is severe suppression of bone formation with negative effects such as microdamage and brittleness.

Spontaneous Fractures of the Mid-Femur

Jennifer P. Schneider, MD, PhD reports a 59-year old previously healthy woman on long-term alendronate. While on a subway train in New York City one morning, the train jolted, and the woman shifted all her weight to one leg, felt a bone snap, and fell to the floor, suffering a spontaneous mid -femur fracture. This is not an isolated report.Avacular Necrosis of the Jaw.

Fossy Jaw

Dimitrakopoulos reports on 11 patients presenting with necrosis of the jaw, claiming this to be a new complication of bisphosphonate therapy administration, i.e. osteonecrosis of jaws. He advised clinicians to reconsider the merits of the rampant use of bisphosphonates. Osteonecrosis of the jaw is a common finding in pycnodysostosis. The bisphosphonates recreate the same clinical profile of spontaneous mid femur fractures, failure of bone healing and jaw necrosis which tormented the famous French artist, Toulouse Lautrec.

For links to references and more information see my newsletter:Fosamax, Actonel, Osteoporosis and Toulouse Lautrec's Disease

Jeffrey Dach MD

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Gary Moller comments:

I am dismayed at the wholesale prescription of these drugs to people as early as in their 40's. With a half life estimated to be about 10 years, these drugs may continue to wreak damage for as long as 20 years after stopping taking them.

Why are doctors prescribing these drugs in ever-increasing quantities? One can only speculate: Is it sheer ignorance? Is it because they buy the drug industry propaganda? And, for the industry; is it because the profits today far outweigh the future costs of any law suits?

The consequences of dead bone are straight out of a horror movie: Dead bone and bone rot; fractures that do not heal and loss of jaw bone (Fossy Jaw).

Have a look at this video and follow the links through to other articles about this horrific topic.

It is good to know that some doctors like Dr Dach are speaking out.

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MLM USANA - is it really all that cheap or better quality?

I have written previously about the rip-offs of multi level markeing schemes (MLM). I am constantly being asked about one in particular, USANA.

Please read my previous postings about MLM
Here
and
Here
and have a listen to this, bearing in mind we are talking about cheap synthetic rubbish duking it out among themselves. Stick to the natural vitamins please!

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Diabetes drug increases the most serious complication of diabetes

Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline Plc's widely used drug for treating type 2 diabetes, raises the risk of heart death by 64 per cent and the risk of heart attack by 43 per cent, US researchers have said.

The news about Avandia, a US$3 billion ($4.1 billion) a year drug also known as rosiglitazone, triggered a free fall in GSK's shares, which closed off more than 5 per cent on the London Stock Exchange. The slide continued on the New York Stock Exchange, with shares closing down nearly 8 per cent.

Glaxo said it strongly disagreed with the conclusions of the report, based on an analysis of other studies.

"Unfortunately, rosiglitazone appears to increase, rather than decrease, the most serious complication of diabetes, heart disease," Dr. Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, said in a statement.

"The whole reason you want to treat diabetes is to prevent the complications of diabetes," Nissen added in a telephone interview.<
Go here for the full story

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Gary Moller comments:

Is this a joke? Sadly, it is not. Let me expalin why these dangerous drugs keep rolling out into the market place and keep being promoted and prescribed by doctors despite known health risks. The answer is simple: It is very, very good business. Take this diabetes drug for example.

This drug brings in over $4 billion a year with, say a profit of $1 billion. Let's say they get sued for a billion. That's a lot of money. But is it really? Not really.

First they know that they can sell the drug for 4-5 years before any real concerns are collated and red flaged. Then they delay, delay, delay and obfuscate like crazy, hiring the best lawyers on the planet. They know from past expereince that many of the suers will die, others will get too sick and tired to continue and even more simply run out of money to pursue the case. After 5 years, the first cases are being heard with judgements being made. If they do this really well and get lucky, as has been the case with the Agent Orange scandal of the Vietnam War, they will manage to drag this process out over decades.

Sure, it might be a billion dollars; but they have been able to pocket at least $10 billion in profits in the meantime, all the while developing their next wonder drug to foist on the ever swelling ranks of passive "sick" consumers and to replace the drug that has run its course in the market place.

This also explains why natural therapies for conditions like diabetes get little more than lip service. There's no money to be made from helping people stay healthy.

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Commissioner slams Wellington Hospital over man's death

"The Health and Disability Commissioner has slammed Wellington Hospital over the standard of care given to a 50-year-old man who died of pneumonia.

Ron Paterson was investigating a complaint from the man’s family after he was found dead, 40 hours after being admitted to hospital in September 2004.

The patient's chest X-ray and blood tests were not reviewed for almost 30 hours.

Mr Paterson says what happened was inexcusable, that staff provided a poor standard of care and the man was deprived of simple interventions that may have saved his life."
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Gary Moller comments:
This report hardly comes as a surprise and is yet another of a string of awful cases over the years at Wellington Hospital causing unnecessary death and disability.

Reading between the lines of this case, it would appear that this man's bipolar disorder, chronic addiction to smoking and serious chest condition made him a difficult and stroppy patient from the momeent he arrived and the hospital staff took a collective dislike to him. The result was grossly inadequate treatment, bordering on deliberate neglect, that saw him dead in next to no time. It reminds me of a case in Dunedin Hospital many years ago that was never reported:

She was elderly, overweight and demented. She was admitted to hospital to lose weight. Her diet consisted of a glass of water and a piece of white bread with a dollop of Marmite. When she objected to her treatment and peed in her bed, she was isolated in a private room with no sensory stimulation. She did not eat or drink. Within a few days of sensory deprivation, starvation and dehydration she was going ga-ga. The treatment and the isolation continued. By the fifth day, she was dead.

Now this was homicide by willful neglect. Nobody intervened. Everybody just did what they were told and that was to administer the treatment and to do nothing else. The fact the patient died was irrelevant and nobody within the medical team felt responsible - or guilty for that matter. They all knew what was going on and nobody cared a damn about her or the horrific way she died.

I have written about this sort of thing in the past and the advice that I always come back to is this: You must ensure that you always have a strong, informed advocate by your side when you enter hospital; especially if you are elderly, cantankerous by nature or have a mental health condition that affects your behaviour. If the hospital staff take a dislike for you, your life may be at risk.

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Swimmer Ian Thorpe Doping Test 'Abnormal'

Five-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer Ian Thorpe showed "abnormal levels" of two banned substances in a doping test last year, the French sports daily L'Equipe reported on its Web site Friday.

Anti-doping officials in Australia threw out the case for lack of scientific proof, but the sport's governing body FINA wants the investigation reopened, the paper said.

Thorpe retired in November at age 24. He did not compete in another major international meet after the 2004 Olympics.L'Equipe said Thorpe turned up irregular levels of testosterone and luteinizing hormone in a test on May 2006.
Synthetic versions of testosterone, the male hormone, can act like steroids to improve performance. Luteinizing hormone is released by the pituitary gland and produces testosterone in men.

FINA has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the highest tribunal in the sports world, to overturn a decision by Australia's anti-doping agency to close the case, L'Equipe said.
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Gary Moller comments:
Thorpe is innocent until proven guilty; but there are some worrying signs that not all is right, including his unexplained loss of form last year and sudden retirement, just weeks after returning a dodgy test result. And why on Earth would the case be reopened by the international body (FINA), overriding the Australian Drugs Agency, at this late stage? We will just have to wait and see what happens and to find out why.

Let's talk about some of the background to this, in general. First of all, these kinds of reports make me feel sad; but they do not surprise me at all.

If 90% of triathletes use caffeine to boost performance, it should be of no surprise that some athletes progress or resort to using more powerful forms of enhancement. And it can be a surprise and a disappointment who is exposed as a cheat. A good example is sprinting great, Carl Lewis who just happened to be one of the most outspoken critics of drugs abuse. Lewis never let his arch rival, Ben Johnson, forget that he was a drugs cheat. Talk about the jettle calling the pot black!

Leutenising hormone is essential for male and female reproduction. In the male, it stimulates the production of testosterone. For sport, testosterone augementation increases muscle development, aggression and energy to train. It is usually combined with a mix of other drugs and hormones, including growth hormone. The end result is freakish musclularity and even skeletal growth. Good examples of chemically enhanced bodies can be be seen just about nightly on the wrestling programmes that grace the little screen.

The body responds to externally boosted testosterone by reducing its own natural production with the consequence that the male user's nuts shrivel. When the external source is later withdrawn, the user may suffer rapid loss of muscle and physical form, depression, lack of sex drive and infertility. A bit like what happens to the neutered tom cat.

Athletes get around drugs tests in all sorts of way, beginning with enlisting the aid of a good chemist. The first way is to have access to the latest drugs for which there is presently no test. This is what many sports stars had via Balco and Victor Conte a few years back.

Another tactic is to cycle drugs use out of season so that the athlete is clean during competition. If an athlete is called up for a random drugs test out of season then they ensure that they have a person on the inside to tip them off that a registered letter is about to be delivered to their home and they quickly disappear on holiday. They finally reappear to take delivery of the letter and to do the test once the diuretics and masking drugs have done their work. NZ decathlete, Simon Poelman was once exposed using this ploy (Poelman was later convicted of drug trafficking).

Another ploy, which is used with testosterone, is to carefully dribble the hormone into the body 24 hours a day, using rub-on gels। Done carefully, there is an ergogenic effect while keeping blood levels just below the threshold that might trigger a positive drugs test.

I get really angry when an athlete is exposed for sure as being a drugs cheat. Athletes do not do this cheating all alone. Taking drugs is the easy part; evading the doping tests is the hard part. Professional athletes are disposable gladiators and it is the team behind them that I despise - the squad of sports scientists, trainers, doctors and coaches who are knowingly in on the deal - The professionals that not only supply the knowledge and the drugs; but also the means of getting it into their bodies. They are the ones that know the intricate tricks for evading drugs tests and how to get the best benefits. The moment the athlete is exposed, they scuttle off into the darkness, leaving the cheat alone to hang out to dry in the media spotlight.

These psychopaths have no conscience about their part in this sorry business and are already busy working on the next young, impressionable future champion who is willing to do anything to please. The stakes for all are huge and the temptation to cheat is always present.

Read more!

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Thermogenics - the latest fad leading athletes off track

"Put simply a thermogenic is any product that increases thermogenesis (heat production) in the human body. Heat is a by product of metabolism so when more heat is being produced this means that more calories are being used. This is in isolation from activity. Obviously this has had big implications for the fitness industry because if you are using more calories for no greater input of activity the result should be greater fat loss. Added to this is the fact that most thermogenic compounds are very stimulatory giving greater energy and decreased rates of perceived exertion and also have nutrient partitioning effects (greater utilization of fat over other fuels). The impact thermos have had on the industry is profound at it’s easy to see why.

Picture: Once on the slippery slope of substance abuse, where does it end?

There has always been a running battle between the supplement formulators and regulatory bodies and it seems that there are always compounds being banned only for others to take their place."

(The author goes on to list and explain the various substances that are banned and those that are still legal and how they work - Gary)

"For performance benefits I would suggest sticking with caffeine as a stimulant but be careful to not exceed allowable levels if you are subject to drug testing. Neurotransmitter formulas may prove VERY effective and would provide focus and decreased RPE without a stimulatory action and I theorise that in conjunction with certain adaptogenic compounds and caffeine with tyrosine would kick ass (watch this space ;) ! )

If you are needing to lose bodyfat……sort your diet out! Once you have sorted that out with the help of a good consultant you could look at one of the synephrine and caffeine, green tea formulas to speed things up. Also drink tea frequently, I really can’t see a down side to drinking tea, it’s thermogenic, increases insulin sensitivity and is a potent antioxidant! Only use dedicated thermogenic formulas for a set defined goal, don’t just take them in the hope that without changing anything else you’ll develop a lean physique…it just ain’t gonna happen!"
For the full article by Cliff Harvey, go here.
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Gary Moller comments:
Articles like these by supposed conditioning experts leave me with feelings of deep dismay for the future of sport - and weight loss!

Performance that is derived from a stimulatory substance - be it green tea extract or ephidrine, is a really dumb conditioning strategy. The same goes for using the same "thermogenic" substances for weight loss.

Encouraging the use of substances that artificially stimulate the senses and the metabolism to either increase physical performance or to burn fat go completely against the spirit of natural health and fair sport. Even if small amounts are considered safe to use, we all know that there are plenty of young and desperate people out there who will take many, many times more than that if they think it will give them an advantage. The abuse of "soft" drugs often leads on to harder substances. In sport, using stimulants may progress to the dangerous abuse of anabolic steriods. View my Power Point Presentation about Drug Cheats in Sport here.

Athletes who seek an artificial edge (cheating) by using chemicals might win spectacularly for a while; but they quickly disappear off the scenes. While clean athletes last longer career-wide they suffer financially and they miss out on their rightful share of the Gold medals and the Records.

I do not know of any chemical stimulants that do not quickly addict the user chemically and psychologically. When these substances are pumped into the body, the body responds by reducing its own production of the equivalent chemicals. This is the basis of addiction and once a person is in its grasp, wrestling free is much easier said than done. The downside of addiction to stimulants is inconsistent performances, poor decision-making, bad temper, bouts of fatigue and depression and the need to take more and more for the same effect. Oh - and I almost forgot: Weight gain! Please read my article about caffeine addiction here.

Conditioning experts who encourage such dubious practices do not impress me at all. They give my profession a bad name.

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How much do drugs companies influence your doctor's treatment decisions?

"Approximately US$19 billion is spent annually by drug companies for marketing to doctors. Tens of thousands of sales representatives descend on doctors' offices every day. Patients in doctors' waiting rooms are often outnumbered by drug reps (typically young, female, attractive).

Drug companies write the package inserts of all drugs, carefully including the information they choose and omitting information they want to avoid.

Drug companies underwrite a large percentage of continuing education courses for doctors. In doing so, they make sure that the speakers represent the company view.

Drug companies design studies that are meant to produce favorable results and then publish the studies in medical journals. Studies with unfavorable results are not published.

Drug reps typically bring stacks of studies, all favorable, which impress doctors, who no longer have the time or motivation to search the medical literature themselves.

Drug reps do not include independent studies with less favorable conclusions. Many doctors never see these."
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Gary Moller comments:
What this article did not mention is the fact that drugs companies also invest millions in successfully influencing politicians and bureaucrats. For shocking evidence of the extent of this political lobbying in the USA, go here.

Back in the days when I hired physical education graduates straight from university to work in our rehabilitation programmes it was common for the attractive ones to be recruited within a year or so by our opposition: the drugs companies. Their new job over on the Dark Side was to promote drugs to doctors like blood pressure and cholesterol lowering pills. What is described that happens in the USA happens in NZ. Sadly, NZ allows the advertising of pharmaceutical drugs direct to the consumer using media like television.

Side effects of drugs medication is always underplayed, as is the reporting of any ill effects which consequently distorts official statistics to give the impression of a drug appearing to be much safer than it really is.

If a doctor is even aware of effective alternative treatments for conditions like weak bones, arthritis and high blood pressure these usually receive very low priority treatment that is little more than lip service, or else completely dismissed as a waste of a patient's time and money. I am still astonished at how often a doctor dismisses out of hand a therapy like glucosamine for arthritis despite the wealth of research evidence in its favour.

When a drug is prescribed for a condition like blood pressure this may be done on the basis of a handful of potentially flawed tests of blood pressure done in the artificial envirnoment of a medical clinic. The drug is then dished out with advice along the lines of; "Try this and we will see how it goes". Unless the medication is being closely monitored through the person's day, such as with a blood pressure machine, then the prescribing of this potentially harmful medication sure is a hazardous hit and miss exercise! Would you run a business without having accurate measures of key performance indicators? Of course not and why should your health be any different when ingesting potentially hazardous drugs?

Maybe it is not in the interests of the prescriber or the manufacturer to monitor these drugs properly because it might be discovered more often than not that they are not very good at doing what they are supposed to do and may even be doing more harm than good!

Read more!

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Should I allow my injured child to have an Xray or a CT Scan?

"Let's play a new game: Its called Fry Teddy"

Fact: Repeated doses of x-rays from x-ray imaging do increase your risk of developing cancer. The most potent is CT scans, one session of which carries a 1/1,000 risk of developing cancer. The risk is greatest by far with children who have rapidly dividing cells (DNA is most vulnerable to damage during the process of cell division - mitosis).

If your child is injured, such as from a fall, a CT Scan may be ordered as a matter of course to assist with making an accurate diagnosis. An accurate diagnosis is most important, especially if internal injury to the abdomen or brain is suspected. However; those regions of the body are the last places one would ever want to irradiate, especially of a child.

I have written about this before and am writing about it again because the use of the CT Scan continues to be routine in this country and my questioning of doctors and radiologists shows an appalling level of ignorance and lack of any concern about the known health risks of CT Scans. This continues despite the facts and the availability of excellent alternatives.

You can curb the risk from excessive radiation by insisting on using other imaging methods that do not involve radiation these include MRI and ultrasound.

If you are asked to consent to your child undergoing a CT SCan, my advice to you is to refuse to allow it. Insist on readily available alternatives and do not allow yourself to be fobbed off by excuses about availability or extra cost, or flippant comments about how miniscule the risks are - this is your child's long term health that you are dealing with here!

Please read my earlier articles about this most important health issue.
Here and
Here is the original.

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Ribena-maker fined $217,500 for misleading vitamin C ads

"GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of Ribena, has been fined $217,500 after admitting it mislead customers about the vitamin C content of the blackcurrant drink.

The company appeared in Auckland District Court to face charges alleging 15 breaches of the Fair Trading Act.

It admitted that its cartoned Ready To Drink Ribena, which it claimed had 7mg of Vitamin C per 100ml, in fact had no detectable Vitamin C content.

The company also admitted it may have misled customers in advertisements saying the blackcurrants in Ribena syrup had four times the Vitamin C of oranges."

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Gary Moller comments:

Read the whole story - it is a wonderful one about how a couple of school girls doing a school science experiment outed a dishonest pharmaceutical giant.

The Advertising Standards Authority and Brandpower deserve no accolades in this affair by showing no interest in the girls' findings. Action only happened after the story aried on a television consumer programme.

All is not lost for Ribena with regards to being able to make health claims: It can climb onto the "99% fat-free" bandwagon because it is all sugar and no fat - more sugar than Coca Cola in fact. How about that!

Read more!

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Can incidental exposure to sunlight produce optimum levels of vitamin D?

"During the summer months most people should be able to achieve adequate vitamin D (blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D) levels through incidental outdoor UV exposure outside peak UV times (2). As an example, someone who burns easily in the sun (skin type 1 or 2 - see Appendix 2) may only need 5 minutes of daily summer sun exposure before 11am and after 4pm (to the face, hands and forearms) to achieve adequate vitamin D levels whereas someone who tans more easily or has darker skin (skin type 5 or 6) will need more time e.g., up to 20 minutes."

Quoted from Cancer Society Position Statement: The Risks and Benefits of Sun Exposure in New ZealandSeptember 2005

Photo: Alama and Jamine Moller: sun exposure according to skin type

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Gary Moller Comments:
These guidelines are misleading and have no relationship with reality. They are instrumental in creating an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency-related ailments that are beginning to swamp our health system.

I have been running a campaign since 2001 to highlight the importance of Vitamin D for optimum health and a long and productive life span. I can tell readers that I have not yet had a single person who has consulted me about health or injury problems who has optimum vitamin D levels. Every single person has been either deficient or not far off it. Clinical deficiency begins at 50, optimum is 120-150nmol/l. The lowest level by a client has been 8. Needless to say, she was not feeling well.

Can you obtain optimum levels of vitamin D by "incidental exposure" as advised by the Cancer Society? My answer is a definite "NO!" Take compeititive cyclists for example: They spend long hours out in the sun, but only expose their arms and legs at the most (Usually when sipping lattes outside a cafe!). This exposure can be over several hours and often during peak UV periods of the day. So far, the highest summer time vitamin D levels I have seen produced by a cyclist is just 75.

Sunlight is our only practical source of vitamin D, unless we consume large amount of seal blubber and various animal organs. Normal dietary sources such as eggs and liver and varous supplements like cod liver oil are not sufficient to significantly increase vitamin D levels. They serve only to slow the attrition that normally occurs over winter months. Cod liver oil, for example, can safely deliver only 200-800 iu of vitamin D, per day whereas full body exposure to sunlight can deliver from 10-20,000 iu in a single day.

It is time that the cancer authorities reviewed the latest evidence and altered their sun exposure guidelines accordingly.

Read more!

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Goji Berry ban - an example of what we are in fo

"Goji berries, the latest healthy eating fad, may have to be removed from sale.
...the Food Standards Agency has warned health shops and supermarkets that unless the berry can be shown to have been commonly eaten in the European Union for more than 10 years, sale will have to cease on 23 March.
Importers and manufacturers will then face a two-year reapproval process.
The watchdog accepts there is no immediate threat to health but it must follow the EU rules.
The goji berries, said to help to combat heart disease, cancer and skin damage from the sun, have been eaten for centuries in China and other parts of Asia."
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Gary Moller comments:
If New Zealand allows the establishment of the NZ Food Standards Authority, we will face the same ridiculous situation. Of course, the consumer will pay for the additional costs.

Big Pharma, with the assistance of their health bureaucrat buddies and friendly politicians is fighting a campaign to neutralise the most potent threat to their dominance of healthcare dollars - natural therapies, including nutritional and traditional therapies by indigenous peoples. They want you all to be like the patient in the photo to the left!

If you let them win, then your harmless herbal remedies, cheap vitamin C and cheap joint food powder may one day only be available through a doctor's prescription. They will cost a bucket load more than they do now.

Annette King is the Minister in charge. She is a former dental nurse. Has she been sniffing the mercury amalgum? This might explain why she is persisting with this scheme that nobody other than big pharaceuticals want. I understand that premises are already in place and the staff have already been recruited despite the fact that the legislation has yet to be passed. This is a pre-emption of the democratic processes of Parliament.

Please write to the Minister, Annette King, New Zealand Government, Parliament Buildings, New Zealand (No stamp required) and express your concerns about the proposed Therapeutic Goods Agency and why not pay your local MP a visit? They will listen to you.

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How to interpret your vitamin D results

Over the last year, I have had many people obtain blood tests through their doctor or specialist for vitamin D levels. This test is often not easy to obtain with some doctors refusing outright to order the test, or charging the patient extra to get it done which is outrageous.

What I can tell you is every test result - without exception - has come back as either clinically deficient, or not far off. Nobody, including me, has produced a result anywhere near optimum. If a person is suffering ill health such as depression, low energy, viral infection, heart disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, muscle and joint pain and so on and so on, then nothing less than optimum is acceptable as far as vitamin D is concerned.

Whenever you are addressing a health issue: "Normal" is not necessarily "Healthy". Always find out what is "Optimal" and go for that and settle for nothing less

When interpreting Lab test results for Vitamin D:

Optimal 25-hydroxy vitamin D values are:

45-50 ng/ml or 115-128 nmol/l

Normal 25-hydroxy vitamin D lab values are:

20-56 ng/ml 50-140 nmol/l

Your vitamin D levels should NEVER be below 32 ng/ml, or the equivalent in nmol/l. Any levels below 20 ng/ml are considered serious defiency states and will increase your risk of breast and prostate cancer, osteoporosis and autoimmune diseases like MS and rheumatoid arthritis - to name a few.

(Reference: Holick MF. Calcium and Vitamin D. Diagnostics and Therapeutics. Clin Lab Med. 2000 Sep;20(3):569-90)

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Disease Alert - Multi Level Marketing Scams

Women tennis players to get approved supplements
Last Updated: 2006-08-23 14:13:10 -0400 (Reuters Health)
By Pritha Sarkar
LONDON (Reuters) - "Players on the women's tour have been given the green light to take certain vitamins and health supplements without the fear of failing a drugs test, the WTA Tour said on Wednesday.
Tennis professionals have been wary of taking nutritional supplements ever since the men's tour was rocked over two years ago by a series of failed dope tests that were eventually blamed on contaminated supplies.
In order to ensure players on the women's circuit do not suffer a similar fate, the governing body WTA signed an agreement that will provide competitors with products that are guaranteed to be free of any substances prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Products from USANA Health Sciences Inc., a leading globalvitamin and health supplement manufacturer, will help ensure that players who wish to take vitamins and supplements are able to maintain fitness required to compete at the professional level, without fear of violating the rigorous WADA standards."
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Gary Moller comments:
I wrote this article several months ago; but have held off publishing because it might cause a hostile backlash and get me offside with some influential sporting types. Well, here goes....

The tennis article above also appeared in a NZ Academy of Sport Newsletter which is unfortunate. It is unfortunate that a Multi Level Marketing (MLM) company had burrowed its way into professional tennis. Those in charge should know better. Worse, still is that this is being publicised by a NZ Government agency - the NZ Academy of Sport.

Because of my work, health website etc, hardly a week goes by that I am not subject to some kind of MLM proposition. It usually starts with a carefully pitched email with a slick video presentation, an invitation to attend a meeting at a friend's house or an invitation for an initimate coffee. Despite all the promises of wealth, lifestyle and independence, I seldom take up the invitation to attend and have steadfastly refused all approaches to join. Let me explain why:

Who gets the flash car?
It is reported in Australia that there are an astonishing 500,000 MLM participants selling $1.2 billion worth of goods and services each year. Interesting: This works out to $2,400 gross sales per year per participant. If the comission rate is a generaous 10% (It is actually works out to more like 2%, but let's be very generous) then the average real income is about $240 - hardly a living wage. My impression is that 99% of those who sign up for these schemes lose more money than they ever get out. I also suspect that much of those claimed millions of dollars of product sold through these schemes is gathering dust in the back of garages and basements or consigned to landfill.

MLM schemes are a disease:
They infect participants with MLM Blindness and they eventually suffer a fatal loss of family, community and friendships. MLM blindness means they can not see how they look from the outside. They are oblivious as friendships unravel, social and communuty groups are poisoned. They are unable to see that MLM is the reason why friends, family and work mates avoid them. Neighbourhoods are turned into market places that are open season for exploitation.

The Televangelism connection:
A common "Ra, Ra! Happer Clapper" theme runs common to most, if not all MLM schemes: It starts with the Founder, a self-awarded brilliant scientist who discovers the Elixir of Youth who then develops his own unique range of products. Articulate, jet black hair, brilliant white ivories, complete with brow-lift and Italian tailored suit make up the package. Unlike most scientists I know, he has the gift of the gab to make up the perfect promotional package. The pitch, the promises and the blind fervour all remind me of the exact same model that is modern religious fundamental evangelism marketing.

By writing about MLM in this way I know that I am going to be subjected to criticism on a par with what one would expect from religious extremists. Actually, there is little difference, nor is the brain-washing methods involved in building the MLM armies of disciples, most of whom end up working for nothing other than to increase the profits of those at the top of the scheme.

Overcoming the guilt factor of exploitation by doing good works:
The slick marketers who devise these schemes have every base covered. Selling over-priced products that probably don't work to your family, workmates and neighbours site better on one's conscience if the seller knows some of the profits go to homeless orphans in a 3rd world country that has had its indigenous agricultural base and rain forests destroyed to make way for the foreign owned plantations that produce these so-called health products. Some even go a step further and urge participants to donate to their charity! Here is an example of this kind of conscience balm.

MLM friends are of the shallow kind:
They are your friend for as long as you are a tempting prospect. The friendship is fleeting. Glad-handing and vacuous smiles do not endure.

MLM schemes are callous business models:
MLM schemes are based upon the ultimate failures of others. This is a callous business model that has no controls on expansion or any care if it exceeds market saturation. The only ones to profit are those at the top of the pyramid (Did I mention the unmentionable "P" word?) These schemes are doomed by design; to profit you must be in early. Those in late, will lose their money to those above. Its all about profiting off the failures of others.

Where does the money come from?
Sure, money can be made from these schemes, but where is the money coming from? Is it coming from the product sales or from the recruitment of others below? We all know that the real attraction of MLM is the pyramid. The product, be it vitamins, cleaning agents or telephone calling cards, is merely an over-priced technicality, there to only avoid being labeled an illegal scheme.

Here's the maths:
MLMs work by geometric expansion, the same way that one female mouse can produce a thousand offspring within a year. You sponsor ten who sponsor ten and so on and so it goes. However, there is a problem and that is rapid and inevitable market saturation. At just three levels deep this would be 1,000 people. At six levels deep, that would be 1,000,000 people believing they can make money selling a product that is over priced and not really needed. A small country like New Zealand is quickly saturated and there are inevitably many losers. These schemes are doomed by design. Go onto some internet sports nutrition forums and you will discover that many correspondents are selling a scheme. At the time of writing, USANA was King of the MLM nutrition schemes here in NZ. It will soon be replaced by the next scheme such as this one: http://www.mymonavie.com/StephenBell/opportunity_payplan.asp This is an outrageously over-priced fruit juice with some very slick marketing. Be wary of it.

MLM and professional ethics:
What about the ethics of health professionals like doctors being involved in MLM schemes? Being part of a MLM health supplements scheme compromises professional judgement to pick and choose which supplements to recommend a client, if any, and to supply them at the best price and quality.

There are no magic elixirs of youth, supplements that cure cancer or turbo charge sporting performance (Legal ones anyway!). Supplementation should be carefully considered as part of a number of measures to improve or maintain health, including a careful analysis of lifestyle, diet and training methods, if an athlete.

Furthermore, the Dr-patient relationship threatens to become most unhealthy the moment she or he enters a MLM scheme - parasitic in fact. The way the MLM supplements are priced, the patient can only afford them if he or she becomes an agent and brings friends, family and workmates into the scheme.

As much as possible, the health professional should remain above commercial influences, able to provide impartial advice that is based on evidence - and the best prices.

Who do you get your health and nutrition advice from?
Would you have your neck manipulated by a person who learned by attending a weekend course in a luxury resort, or would you go to somebody who trained for 6 years in a university under the watchful eye of a learned professor of chiropractic medicine? The choice is easy. On matters of health, including nutrition, consult a qualified health professional, rather than a self-appointed expert who had no assignments to hand in for marking and no exams to pass. Their only requirement to ply their products is to hand over $200 for the MLM marketing kit and buy a crate of product samples.

MLM schemes are all the same
Same breed of wolf - different disguises. The only difference between them is the name on the building, stationery and the dubious products they ply to gain a facade of technical legality.

They leave behind them a trail of disapointed people who are out of pocket, feeling lonely, angry and cheated.

Omega Trend, Amway, Nu Skin, USANA etc, etc and now we have Monavie

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How beta blockers and drugs for anxiety ruin lives and kill

"Like surgeries, drugs are extremely valuable when used correctly. Unfortunately this is NOT how drugs are used in today's "modern" medicine! In fact, most doctors confuse "practicing medicine" with "automatic prescription writing." This hurts everyone except the drug companies.
Even in cases when drugs are beneficial, alternative drug-free treatments should alwaysbe considered first. Because along with chemical drugs come many harmful side effects that can often take years to surface. In fact, since many drugs cause more harm than good...patients wind up with even more prescriptions than what they started out with. It's a perpetual life threatening cycle that needs to stop!" W C Douglas MD

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Gary Moller comments:

The most common reason for going to the doctor in Wellington City is anxiety and depression. The standard treatment is drugs like beta blockers and various other drugs that variously to lower the blood pressure and reduce anxiety. Most of these drugs work by depressing the chemicals that regulate signaling between nerve cells. This means varying degress of brain fog, dry mouth and slowing of the digestive processes including gut peristalsis.

I have written previously about these drugs and soaring dementia rates. Let's talk about peristalsis, the rhythmic contractions of the smooth muscle of the digestive tract that steadily propels through the the digestive process and into the bowel where it is eliminated once or twice daily. Many drugs slow this process and the consequences can be dire. But, first a little about dry mouth.

Many drugs slow the production of digestive juices and this may be show as dry mouth. Have you seen the movie "Me, Myself & Irene"? In the movie, Jim Carrey plays a man with a split personality named Hank. In one really hilarious scene he takes his medication and suffers an excessive dry mouth reaction. While it was totally over the top, it served well to illustrate what millions of people must put up with daily. Interfere with the digestive juices, including saliva and the person tends towards sweet junk foods and what food is eaten is poorly digested.

Poor digestion along with slowed peristalsis leads to chronic malnutrition and diseases associated with putrid partially digested food accumulating in the lower tracts of the digestive system. Diverticulitis, Chrohn's disease, constipation Chronic obstructive bowel disease, bowel cancer and other ailments develop.

These diseases of the digestive tract may take 20 or more years to develop and the association with the offending medication may never be made.

The consequence is many years of ongoing surgery, more and more powerful drugs, chronic infections, colostomy bags, days, weeks and months in hospital and a gradual slide into disability that ends with a slow and undignified death well before time. The cost to the health system is measured in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The cost to the family is immeasurable.

What often blows me away is that the offending medication - the anti-depressant or the blood pressure medication continues to prescribed although the need for it may be long gone!

Modern drugs do have their place; but not when dealing with issues that are mostly to do with our lifestyles and the natural processes of ageing.

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Therapeutic Goods Authority looms large - stop it now!

The Therapeutic Goods Authority (TGA) which the Government has committed to setting up without proper consultation with the public is well on the way to being established. Staff have already been hired making a farce of any consultation.

How will this regulatory organisation benefit the NZ public? We deserve to know.

The TGA will regulate natural therapies, natural medicines and nutritional supplements as if they were hazardous prescription pharmaceuticals. It is doing so on the basis of safety - premise that nobody has been able to substantiate (There is not a single recorded death in recent NZ history from taking a natural medicine or supplement).

If the TGA goes ahead, as would appear inevitable, your ability to decide what is best for your health will be severely diminished and the cost will rise.

Maori traditional healing will be seriously compromised and the development of herbs and medicines based on native NZ plants will probably not be possible without the financial muscle of Big Pharma.

Submissions are being called for; but you have only a few weeks to get one in. A Maori Hui is being organised to opposed the TGA. Details below and please get involved, if only by writing to your MP.

Here are the PDF files for these:

• Hui Invite
• Impact of TGA on Maori
• Hui Expression of Interest
• Maori Party Letter and Speech

Please act now and retain our freedom to manage our own health. Throw out the TGA!

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Gastric Bypass Horrors

Hi Gary,

Well after 16 weeks my XXXX still has problems from his gastric bypass! The stomach still hasn't healed and his body is rejecting the naso-esophageal feeding tube. He's vomiting most nights and looks like shit!

But he has lost 80kg (or more) from the virtual starvation regime he has been on, so guess that's what they're going to do? He's been told that in the long run it was a success (well.. he has lost the weight...) so now they're going to reverse the procedure. That means another complicated operation and so naturally he's very depressed and more than a little afraid.

He still has a now somewhat deflated spare tire hanging around his waist so will probably need further "body sculpture" surgery to fix that.

He would have achieved the same result if he had not had the surgery and simply drunk the milkshakes he's been squirting up his nose and left it at that.

We are actually concerned about his chances of suviving another operation in his current condition.

Isn't medical science great!

Cheers,

Anonymous
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Gary Moller comments:
Well, it seems that the pre-holiday hype by the weight-loss surgeons worked and they had at least one taker looking for a "new me" for the New Year.

In my last occupation I got to see a regular procession of failures of routine surgery. For these people that "one in ten thousand" failure rate was 100%. Here in NZ the victim ends up carrying the can. It is very difficult and very costly to sue and the assistance from Accident Compensation is measley to the point of being a miserable insult.

In this case, it would appear there is leakage occuring at one of the points where the stomach and intestine have been severed and joined. The tube is feeding a liquid meal (A poor version of my Super Smoothie) into the gut past the point of leakage. The operation has been a failure and the plan to surgically reverse the procedure is fraught with risk. This poor man is already in a malnourished and weakened state and his friends have every right to fear for his survival.

Read my earlier posting about this kind of mostly unnecessary surgery that is receives so much taxpayer funding. This botched operation has probably cost well over $30k and rising by the day. The reversal will be another $20k. If only there was public funding for a team approach for closely supervised lifestyle, diet and exercise weight loss programmes, similar to what we see on TV reality programmes.

We hear littel about these failures - about 3,000 dead per year in NZ.

In this case, the poor recipient will eventually be chalked up as a success, although with complications. After all - he lost weight didn't he? Let's hope the success is not because he makes a good looking corpse in a regular-size coffin!

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Warfarin linked with brain bleeds

"Warfarin is often prescribed to prevent blood clotting and help combat the most common type of stroke, known as ischemic stroke. However, warfarin itself has been linked to intracerebral brain hemorrhage, another type of stroke caused by ruptured blood vessels and subsequent bleeding in the brain." (Click on the title for the full article).
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Gary Moller comments:
As with most medicines, the full extent of adverse side effects goes largely unnoticed. This is because there is usually no direct link between taking a drug and the adversity.

For example (A real one), a dentist may be conducting a routine tooth extraction to be horrified to find that a chunk of dead jaw bone comes out with the tooth! Of course this means the patient is in real trouble. The condition is called osteonecrosis for which there is no effective treatment. Tests are completed, specialists are consulted and there is no reason for this happening in a 50'ish patient. The only suspiscion the dentist has is that the patient has been taking Warfarin (rat poison) for a decade for a heart condition; but the association is dismissed by the experts.

Here is my take on what is happening: The Warfarin is causing micro-bleeding into the bone of the jaw. Why it shows mostly in the jaw is because the jaw is constantly stressed by the action of chewing on the teeth, thus causing the micro bleeds. Bone is very sensitive to bleeding - the delicate bone cells die off similar to what happens when taking biphosphenates that cause "Fossy Jaw".

My experience is that the majority of people I come across who have been placed on Warfarin need not be on it and non drugs strategies should first have been explored and exhausted.

If for example a patient has atrial fibrilations that may increase risk of a clot that might settle in the brain, how about a course of:

• Fish oil plus vitamin E to stabilise the heart electrical activity and condition the blood to reduce clotting risk
• A multi mineral with magnesium and calcium that relax the heart, nerves and stabilise blood pressure
• A course to learn to breathe properly using the diaphragm and thus stabilise body PH - over-breathing is known to cause heart irregularities that can be so severe as to be mistaken for a heart attack
• Sunbathing to increase vitmamin D levels to at least 120 nmol - low vit D is associated with heart disease (Have you had a blood test for your own vitamin D yet?)

Should these fail to brig about a resolution after about 21 days then the option of medication can be considered.

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Codex Guidelines and the Therapeutic Goods Authority are not good for your health

One day, possibly in 2009, you will wake up to find that high potency vitamins, minerals and nutrient-dense supplements like glucosamine and chondroitin will be illegal.

This is no joke; the legislation before the NZ Parliament to set up the Trans-Tasman Therapeutic Goods Authority is part of a global movement to restrict your access to these safe products.

Your only choice for prevention and treatment of many ailments will be poisonous pharmaceuticals that will bleed our economies dry.

For a good overview of the issues, have a listen to this video (about 14 minutes long):
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5266884912495233634&q=Nutricide

Why regulate and restrict products that are safe? Here in NZ there have been no deaths in the last decade or so from taking nutritional supplements, other than a child who tragically choked to death on a vitmain pill.

More information here

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Some Australian childcare centres now requiring wearing of sunglasses

"Australian eye experts say childcare centres and schools should be keeping children in the shade in the middle of the day and teaching them to wear sunglasses as well as hats and sunscreen. "

"My children go to childcare. They have to wear hats outside and sunscreen and I think sunglasses should be part of that," said the father of Georgia, almost three, and Thomas, one."There's no reason they shouldn't be wearing them. There's no harm that will come to them from wearing them. It's all good for their long-term sight."

For more, click the hyperlinked title and the following: http://www.babybanz.co.nz/news.php

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Gary Moller comments:

We are seeing an explosion of ailments that are associated with lack of sunshine. These include spontaneous childhood fractures (Gilchrist fractures), depresssion, a resurgence of tuberculosis, ulcerative digestive tract diseases, neurological diseases like multiple sclerosis and all manner of terrifying cancers, including breast, prostate and cervical cancer.

A single-minded attempt to terrorise entire populations, regardless of skin type, about the dangers of sunlight in order to prevent a single disease (melanoma) is contributing to this explosion of diseases - if not being the principal cause.

We know, for instance, that exposure of skin to sunlight during the adolescent years can reduce a girl's lifetime risk of developing breast cancer by up to 50%. Do you hear about that from the cancer prevention agencies? No!

Bright sunlight on the face during the morning hours suppresses the hormone melatonin which causes sleepiness and depression. Wearing dark glasses during the day upsets the body's natural day-night biorythms, including suppression of melatonin during waking hours. Should we be doing this to our children from their earliest years?

As an aside, large floppy hats and sunglasses on children prevent the proper development of peripheral vision which is essential for safety and sporting activities. If not developed during early childhood this ability is lost forever.

The Australian, New Zealand or US Cancer Society and the rest that are spear-heading this erroneous and scandalous campaign of terror and consequent illness have no credibility as neutral advisors on the matter. This is because of the fact that much of their revenue is reliant on the sale of commercial products including protective clothing, sunscreen, hats and sunglasses. They have no credibility, so my advice is to take their advice with a grain of salt.

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Natural medicines – the safest way to avoid death

"A report just released by the Acting Chair of the Coroner’s Council has shown natural medicines have the lowest fatality rate of all medical treatments in this country.

Despite extensive research, coroner Dr Wallace Bain found no deaths have occurred in this country due to natural medicines such as vitamins, minerals and herbal products.

Dr Bain, who is also a trained pharmacist and lawyer, undertook the study in light of growing opposition to new legislation that will see New Zealand’s natural health industry come under Australian laws.

The safety of natural products is often sited as a reason for the need for such a move.

The Labour government plans that the Australia New Zealand Therapeutic Products Authority (ANZTPA) will soon replace the current Medsafe agency as part of a `trans-Tasman harmonisation’ push. Opponents fear this move will decimate New Zealand’s natural health industry as has already occurred in Australia."
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Gary Moller comments:
Dr Bain correctly points out in his report that, in contrast, in 1998 (the last year of detailed official statistics available) adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs killed 1524 New Zealanders and deaths associated with medical injury (mistakes by doctors and medical staff) killed 4222 New Zealanders.

These horrific statistics that dwarf even the national road toll of about 4-500 per year and which generates much outrage and receives huge funding.

The question: 'Why is there is such an enthusiastic push by ther NZ and Australian Governments to regulate a group of products when there is absolutely no credible evidence whatsoever of the need for this kind of thing on the grounds of safety?" Is it a conspiracy by big business with political buddies to wipe out alternative and traditional therapies?

It is interesting to note that many of my mail order internet nutritional sales via Myotec are directly to Australians who find that purchasing directly from New Zealand is easier and cheaper than from their own country. This is a good indication of what will happen to the NZ market if we go the Australian Way as our politicians would have us.

Please visit your local MP and write to the Minister of Health, Anette King, and express your opinion on this matter (Therapeutic Goods Bill). No stamp is required when writing to your MP c/o Parliament, Wellington. Please also refer to my earlier article on this important topic.

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Eli Lilly Said to Play Down Risk of Top Pill

Sunday 17 December 2006
The drug maker Eli Lilly has engaged in a decade-long effort to play down the health risks of Zyprexa, its best-selling medication for schizophrenia, according to hundreds of internal Lilly documents and e-mail messages among top company managers.

The documents, given to The Times by a lawyer representing mentally ill patients, show that Lilly executives kept important information from doctors about Zyprexa's links to obesity and its tendency to raise blood sugar - both known risk factors for diabetes.

Lilly's own published data, which it told its sales representatives to play down in conversations with doctors, has shown that 30 percent of patients taking Zyprexa gain 22 pounds or more after a year on the drug, and some patients have reported gaining 100 pounds or more. But Lilly was concerned that Zyprexa's sales would be hurt if the company was more forthright about the fact that the drug might cause unmanageable weight gain or diabetes, according to the documents, which cover the period 1995 to 2004.

Zyprexa has become by far Lilly's best-selling product, with sales of $4.2 billion last year, when about two million people worldwide took the drug.

Critics, including the American Diabetes Association, have argued that Zyprexa, introduced in 1996, is more likely to cause diabetes than other widely used schizophrenia drugs. Lilly has consistently denied such a link, and did so again on Friday in a written response to questions about the documents. The company defended Zyprexa's safety, and said the documents had been taken out of context.... Last year, Lilly agreed to pay $750 million to settle suits by 8,000 people who claimed they developed diabetes or other medical problems after taking Zyprexa. Thousands more suits against the company are pending. (Read the whole article by clicking on the linked headline).
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Gary Moller comments:

Now, let's see, $4 billion+ per year over 10 years = $40 billion. The cost of suppressing this health information = only $750 million - so far. If I was the CEO of this company, I think the maths is very much in favour of that decision to suppress, rather than disclose. Similar to pill-popping this behaviour is becoming a bit of a bad habit.

Do you think the US politicians are ever going to get tough on these guys with stiffer penalties that make non-disclosure uneconomic? No way! They will not do anything to hurt their buddies any further than a token slap on the hands with a wet bus ticket.

Politicians have allowed themselves to be compromised on this and other issues. For evidence of the millions of $$$ that are pumped into the political coffers of the USA political parties and individual electorates by pharmaceutical interests go here.

While we are at it; if you want evidence that the Iraq war is very good for business and benefiting politicians at the same time - and to see just how compromised both Republicans and Democrats are on these issues - then take a look at these charts. (Now that the balance of power has shifted in the US, it will be interesting to come back in several months from now and see if the "balance of payments" has shifted during that time).

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One of Pinochet's torture victims responds.

Please refer my earlier article "Good Riddance to General Pinochet" And go here for Jorge's Story

Someone send me a text early in the morning a few days ago and all he said to me was…”he is dead” … I knew exactly who he means.

I lay on my bed (it was early!) and start remembering almost straight away… everything was coming to me again…. I remember the day I was arrested, the first torture session, I was so scared that all I want was to get knock out quickly so they might stop beating me up. I remember being on my cell on my own “incomunicado” and hearing in the middle of the night the soldiers steps coming toward our area, hearing them unlocking steel gates, the sound of steel chains at that time of the night and waiting in panic, who was next?

Sometimes they stop before my cell, other they went pass, was someone else turn but many times they stop outside mine, I was so scare not knowing what was going to happen. My worst night was the day after my friend was killed, somehow I survive.

Pinochet was dead… after so may years waiting and hoping for this to happen, now he is dead but not the way he should have died… his death come on a very expensive bed, on a very expensive hospital, surrounded by the best doctors, not on a jail bed as we wish, he was never taken to court.

The way they kill my friends and many Chileans was very different, dirt everywhere as most of the torture was taken place on old sheds, ropes on their hands… blind folded… blood everywhere due to the torture. My friend’s die facing the people who kill them. We waited for many years for this to come and finally arrived.

I was just 17 the day I was taking into the local prison by the Intelligent service of the Chilean Navy. I was arrested with six other friends and during the seven days of torture I went through things I never imagine, nails ripped out, electric shocks and seen my friend killed change in the torture chambers change me for life. After the seven days of “questioning” one day they closed the whole street to take us “terrorists” out of there and to the Naval base 40 kmts away. I spend 12 days in a sport gym there along 400 other prisoners and then I was taken to the infamous Quiriquina Island in the south of Chile…from my house kitchen window, my family could see the Island across the sea about 20 kmts across the harbour every day.

When I arrived at the Camp, there where around 1200 other prisoners, the day I was free, only me and seven other prisoners remained there.

I don't know what sort of person is happy when someone dies because at the end of the day everyone, no matter how good or how bad you are, you've got your family who believe in you, and trust you and love you, and Mr Pinochet has his family.

But then putting everything into perspective, we've got the mothers whose sons were killed, the sons whose parents were killed, the husbands whose wives were raped and houses were destroyed…. What we tell them? How they cannot be happy? You have to go thought what me and 1000’s of other Chileans went thought to understand how I feel.

My only disappointment that he's dead - I'm not unhappy that he died - is that he was never brought to justice. We Chileans know exactly what he did, Pinochet was never man enough to front up.

Not a day goes by that I don’t remember the torture me and my friends endured under Pinochet's dictatorship.

This days I am a very privilege man, I live in a wonderful country, a great city, have two daughters, one son and the best grandson in the world, Oscar…my life is great, I even learn a bit of English!…now my life is a bit better.

My only concern is that because of the USA international politics, the story has been repeated many times. There are millions of Jorge Sandoval’s around the world right now, I am just one of them, a lucky one, million others are not so lucky and 1000’s are dying every day somewhere in this world because Mr Bush “freedom” fighting.

Congratulations Gary for a great article. As a Chilean and ex political prisoner, is a privilege for me to see that people who don’t live in our country, know what happens in Chile in 1973 and want other people to know, we are not alone.

Next time I might tell you the day I meet the person who torture me and killed five people in my hometown, I meet him in 1996 here in Wellington, New Zealand

Jorge Sandoval
Political Prisoner – Isla Quiriquina
October 1973 – December 1974

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Good riddance to General Pinochet

"Gen. Augusto Pinochet's death on Dec. 10 means the Bush Family can breathe a little bit easier, knowing that criminal proceedings against Chile's notorious dictator can no longer implicate his longtime friend and protector, former President George H.W. Bush." For more on this story, click on the hyperlinked title above.

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Gary Moller comments:

I took Raquel to see the movie "Schindler's List" when it first came out. It upset her terribly. That was when I learned for the first time, the terror she experienced the night Pinochet's troops stormed the university compound in Santiago where she was studying and living. Some of her male friends helped her escape over a wall. All through the night until dawn, she listened to the fire of automatic weapons, punctuated now and then by a few moments of deathly slience and then the sound of single shots as her class mates who were still alive were executed one by one.

She escaped to New Zealand. So did another Chilean, Jorge Sandoval, who became a cycling club mate of mine here in Wellington. Jorge spent 14 months in a concentration camp where he was subjected to various forms of torture, including fingernail extraction.

When he won by popular vote, Allende was seen as a threat to exploitive US business practices, its ruling elite and the quest for global US domination. With CIA backing, the Allende government was brutally repressed. The story of Allende and Pinochet has been repeated many times around the world by US administrations that have consistently shown scant regard for democracy, human rights or the alleviation of suffering. What happened to Chile and in other countries of Central and South America and other places like the Palau, the Phillipines and East Timor are a blot on the USA, including members of the current administration and its supporters.

To learn more about how this sorry business fits into US politics, read Naom Chomsky's books on the subject. If you want to support the struggle for Central South American justice and independence, then what better than to support the work of a galant Moller? Go here to learn about the work of photographer, Jonathon Moller and consider buying his book that details the struggle of the people of Guatemala (Proceeds from the sale go to the Guatemalan people)

"With his photographs, Jonathan Moller reminds the present generation of the extreme wave of brutality that engulfed the people of Guatemala twenty years ago. Because of my Latin-American heritage,my blood turns to ice when I see these images. They speak of the horrors faced by my fellow Latin Americans in countries dominated by the externally imposed National Security Doctrine. Moller's photographs should be shown and debated in all schools and universities to teach tolerance and compassion to those who will hold power in the future."
- Sebastião Salgado

More about Jorge here And here is my followup article.

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Pfizer ends development of "blockbuster" cholesterol drug after excessive patient deaths

"I'm convinced that it works," said Dr. Norman Lasser, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark.

Study: Drug Lifts Good Cholesterol Level
April 8, 2004

Oops! I think he spoke too soon:

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced that it has ended a clinical trial for the highly anticipated cholesterol drug torcetrapib -- which raises levels of "healthy" HDL cholesterol -- after a high number of patients participating in the trial died or experienced cardiovascular problems.
Pfizer, the world's largest drug firm, was informed over the weekend that an independent board monitoring a study of torcetrapib found that 82 patients out of 7,500 who were taking the drug had died. Fifty-one patients out of 7,500 in the same study who were taking Lipitor -- Pfizer's best-selling cholesterol drug -- also died, though the company said it was not concerned over Lipitor's safety.

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Gary Moller comments:

Chemically tinkering with the way the body does its job and expecting a favourable health outcome is a long shot. Its just another attempt to suck more money out of you via your body.

If you are on Lipitor, or similar cholesterol lowering drugs, talk to your Dr about natural alternatives. If you suffer any joint or muscle pain or feel weak, then go talk to your Dr right away.

Doing it naturally (before the Therapeutic Goods Authority gets in the way)

If you want to improve your good cholesterol naturally, try taking a quality natural vitamin B complex that contains niacin, boost your vitamin D by exposing your skin to sunlight, take cod liver oil during winter or if not going out in the sun often; take flax seed oil and fish oil daily, and use olive oil in your cooking. Reduce your intake of dairy, refined grains and sugars. Exercise briskly each day and go for a long walk along bush trails for up to 3 hours in the weekends, preferably without eating anything. Drink fresh water.

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The Myth of Osteoporosis - Book Review

It is the NZ Osteoporosis Foundation’s claim that 56% of all women over the age of 60 will have an osteoporotic fracture in their lifetime. If that is the case then where are all these people and fractures? They are very dodgy stats, grossly inflated, and based on things like small changes in vertebral shape, the inclusion of all fractures including accidents in the age groups. Amazingly, there has never been an assessment of fracture rates in NZ – these stats are based on an epidemiological study done in Dubbo NSW. People are being frightened into questionable bone mineral denisty tests and, ultimately, onto preventive medications that are of questionable effectiveness and safety.

New Zealand author and health researcher, Gillian Sanson, is now a recognised international expert on osteoporosis. Gillian began her journey of discovery when routine bone density tests revealed a disturbing rate of low bone mineral density in her family, yet no there was no unusual occurence of fractures in her family. How could this be?

Her book, "The Myth of Osteoporosis", is written for the lay person. She asks and offers answers to many pertinent questions such as: "Where are all those post-meonpausal women with osteoporotic fractures?" "Are we being conned?" I wonder. And,"Are bone mineral density tests accurate; or are they causing anxiety where there is little or no cause for concern?" "Do osteoporosis drugs do more harm than good?" "Why; despite our huge consumption of dairy foods, is osteoporosis such an issue?"

I believe that the drugging of millions of women worldwide with biphosphenate drugs may become one of the worst medical scandals in history and this book confirms that something may be amiss. Gillian Sanson is onto something. Why terrorise and drug millions of women when the jury is still out about the safety and effectiveness of these drugs? Besides: There are already more effective and safe interventions like exercise, sunlight and nutrition.

This book is compelling reading and I recommend it as compulsory reading for all women who are the primary target of what is a money making machine of immense proportions, persuasion and of doubtful benefit.

For more information about osteoporosis and related health issues and to order the book go here.

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Therapeutic Products and Medicines Bill being rammed through Parliament

"I am sad to have to inform you that on the 5th December 2006, at 9 a.m., Annette King tabled the ‘Therapeutic Products and Medicines Bill’ in Parliament. The 494-page bill will have its first reading on Tuesday 12th December, at about 3.30 p.m.

This bill will undermine our sovereignty and our democracy, and restrict our access to natural supplements by regulating them as pharmaceuticals through a heavy handed Australian-based Australia New Zealand Therapeutic Products Agency (ANZTPA).

Despite overwhelming opposition, the government is bulldozing ahead with its plans to set up a Trans Tasman regulator.

New Zealand First, having promised publicly that it would never support a Trans Tasman agency that included dietary supplements, has reneged on its promise, and will now support the legislation, along with the government and United Future, through to Select Committee.

The proposed agency is designed to suit large multinational corporations, but will wipe our small New Zealand dietary supplements manufacturers. It will regulate dietary supplements as if they were drugs; impose an inappropriate, pharmaceutical model for low risk healthcare products, and result in increasing pharmaceutical control of natural health products.

If it goes ahead, small natural health businesses will go to the wall as a result of excessive compliance costs.

There will be reduced consumer choice as many ingredients will not be available in the future Some traditional remedies that have been safely used for centuries, such as Chinese herbs and Ayuvedic medicine, will become illegal in a few years time." Sue Kedgely, Green Party MP

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Gary Moller comments:

This is a deliberate action by the pharmaceutical industry to knobble one of the leading threats to their domination of the health system and its billions of dollars which mostly go into the coffers of big business. They are getting away with it.

If you have not realised this yet: Governments serves big business first and the little people who elected them a far off second.

The current medical model only works well with emergency medicine. People are realising this and have been voting with their feet and their wallets by seeking out natural therapies via nutrition and lifestyle measures that empower, rather than disempower and create dependency.

Death by medicine now kills many more New Zealanders than road smashes. This is a huge scandal that still receives little media attention. Most of these deaths are preventable - by prescribing good nutrition, exercise and lifestyle interventions instead of grossly expensive poisons that eventually kill or maim the recipient.

New Zealanders will pay a lot more for their vitamin C and flax seed oil. Many products will no longer be available, or only via a costly prescription. Those who most need them; pensioners, the ill and the injured will no longer be able to afford the cost (Most already struggle with current costs!).

Fish oil or rat poison? At present you have a choice. Lets keep it that way. Write or visit your MP and express your outrage - NOW!

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Milking the "Worried Well"

There has been much publicity recently about the cozy relationship between medicine and the pharmaceutical industry. I have written several articles about this over recent years, expressing concern about how medical research is swayed towards this or that approach that relies on expensive interventions, encourages the consumption of over-priced commercial products, or downplays the adverse effects of a drug on one's health.

A strategy to increase the reliance of the population on pharmaceuticals is to turn healthy people into unhealthy ones. This is achieved by progressively lowering the threshholds for the prescription of powerful medicines. Blood pressure is a perfect example: Medication was once only considered a possibility if blood pressure exceeded 150/100. Not too many years ago, this threshold was lowered to 145/95 and then to 140/90. Now some bright spark has come up with the ailment called "prehypertension". If blood pressure exceeds a healthy 125/85, then blood pressure lowering medication is on the cards. That's just about every adult on the planet!

Question: Are the exploding rates of dementia in Westernised societies the consequence of excessive long term use of prescription medicines like anti-depressants, statins and beta blockers and not just lifestyle and diet?

We are seeing the same lowering of thresholds with blood cholesterol: Once levels exceeding 6.0 were the point where medication was considered; then it was lowered to 5.5 and more recently to 5.0. Today, even 4.8 may result in cholesterol lowering medication being prescribed.

This is creating a whole new goup of patients: the" Worried Well". Or should that be the "Worried Poor"?

Some experts want to go even further by proposing the development of the "Poly Pill". This will be a pill that contains several drugs to lower blood pressure and cholesterol that can be prophylactically prescribed to the entire adult population. The Poly Pill will supposedly preempt cardiovascular disease that afflicts over 50% of the older adult population. Where does this madness come from and where will it end?

Well, once a person heads down this sorry path, the only end is drugs-soaked misery - much to the delight of the drugs industry I'm sure. Why? Because one drug leads to another. For example; blood pressure medication is one of the leading causes of male impotence. So, shortly after the blood pressure prescription, the patient is placed on viagra in an attempt to resurrect his drooping sexuality. Within 15-20 years of the first prescription, the patient will be on at least 10 different prescription medicines. Quality of life declines with each prescription. Isn't medicine supposed to improve quality of life? Once on these pills, getting off them is not always as simple as just stopping. In some cases, it can be dangerous to stop suddenly once started.

Making perfectly healthy people dependent on drugs is abhorrent and something to be strongly resisted. Especially when healthy alternatives abound in most cases.

Sure, preventing the development of disease is important. This is best done by proper monitoring and using healthy lifestyle-based interventions to prevent progression into desease. This is a much more sensible and palatable approach. A good example of this can be found in my e-publication for monitoring blood pressure. Have a careful read and you will also learn the secret for living 100 quality years - without the aid of drugs.

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Hospital Dumps 1,800 Patients off Waiting Lists

The Hawke's Bay District Health Board has unanimously approved a move that would see 1,800 people cut from its waiting lists. They will have to go back to their GPs with no hope of surgery in the foreseeable future. Board CEO Chris Clarke says the hospital cannot keep up with the rising demand for its services. 12/04/2006NewstalkZB

Gary Moller comments:
This news is hardly a surprise and something we are all going to have to get used to as our populations age and the positionally challenged youthful generations begin to get old and suffer diseases of old age, such as diabetes, osteoporosis and CHD, in their 30's and 40's. The current medical model simply can not cope with the tsunami of ill health.

When I was doing my studies in rehabiliation through the Otago School of Medicine, our lecturers frequently referred to the "dreaded specialist appointment". This appointment was dreaded by rehabilitation health professionals because it signaled that nothing would, or could, happen with a patient while waiting to see a specialist. Of course, this appointment would be several months out and it usually would take more than a few further appointments before anything of substance would happen.

A typical interaction between a therapist and a patient goes a bit like this:

Therapist: "I would like to start you with a gentle exercise programme to begin strengthening your lower back"
Patient: "I am not allowed to do anything like that until I have seen my orthopaedic specialist about my suspected prolapsed disc".

Nothing happens and any opportunity for early and active intervention is lost because a lesser expert cannot pre-empt the specialist that is yet to be consulted. This is very frustrating.

What we know is people on waiting lists do not get better; the rule of thumb is that they deteriorate. Adding to the problem; if a person is unable to work, due to a health problem, the chances of getting them back into productive employment plummets with each week they are laid up. After about 3 months, the odds of getting this person back into employment are looking pretty grim.

I have written about this growing problem many times and published a substantial discussion paper that offers one piece to the jigsaw, as far as solutions are concerned. You can read it here.

Resorting to dumping people off waiting lists is not the solution; although it might help a little over the short term by enabling some kind of intervention to begin, instead of having the patient sit around doing nothing and getting worse. Sadly, general practitioners, who are now being asked to deal with these dumped patients, are poorly equipped to offer lasting solutions to ailments that are mostly the result of ageing, combined with the effects of poor lifestyle and nutrition choices.

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