Antibiotics: Killing Off Beneficial Bacteria … for Good?

It’s an accepted concept by now that taking antibiotics in order to quell an infection disrupts the personal microbiome, the population of microorganisms that we all carry around in our guts, and which vastly outnumbers the cells that make up our bodies. That recognition supports our understanding of Clostridium difficile disease — killing the beneficial bacteria allows C. diff room to surge and produce an overload of toxins — as well as the intense interest in establishing a research program that could demonstrate experimentally whether the vast industry producing probiotic products is doing what it purports to do.

But implicit in that concept is the expectation that, after a while — after a course of antibiotics ends — the gut flora repopulate and their natural balance returns.

What if that expectation were wrong?

In a provocative editorial published this week in Nature, Martin Blaser of New York University’s Langone Medical Center argues that antibiotics’ impact on gut bacteria is permanent — and so serious in its long-term consequences that medicine should consider whether to restrict antibiotic prescribing to pregnant women and young children.

Early evidence from my lab and others hints that, sometimes, our friendly flora never fully recover. These long-term changes to the beneficial bacteria within people’s bodies may even increase our susceptibility to infections and disease. Overuse of antibiotics could be fuelling the dramatic increase in conditions such as obesity, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, allergies and asthma, which have more than doubled in many populations.

Among the findings he cites in support: The population-level observation that the incidence of infection withH. pylori, the bacterial cause of gastric ulcers, has declined over decades just as the incidence of esophageal cancer has risen. In addition, he offers his own research group’s observation that children who don’t acquire H. pylori are at greater risk of developing allergy and asthma, and their findings that eradicating H. pylori affects the production of the two hormones, ghrelin and leptin, that play a role in weight gain.

Are antibiotics to blame for the decline in H.pylori? Blaser points out that the organism is vulnerable to the same antibiotics that are prescribed to children for ear infections and colds — and that children routinely receive up to 20 courses of antibiotics before they reach adulthood. In addition, he says, one-third to one-half of women in the industrialized world receive antibiotics during pregnancy. Couple that with the increasingly large percentage of children born by Caesarean section — who by skipping their trip through the birth canal miss their first exposure to friendly bacteria — and the result, he says, is that “each generation… could be beginning life with a smaller endowment of ancient microbes than the last.”

• By Maryn McKennaEmail Author
• August 26, 2011 

Full Report here

Cancer mum denied chance to say goodbye

The family of a 35-year-old mother who died under NHS respite care have accused doctors of making no attempt to save her life because they assumed she was dying anyway.

Andrea West was suffering from cancer but had been told she could live for a further two years.

But the mother of six died within days of being admitted to a palliative care centre last month with what her family thought was a routine infection.

The day before her death last month, she had been looking forward to going home, chatting with her children, eating crackers and drinking cola, her family claim.

But when her husband Chris visited her the following day he found her heavily sedated.

When he urged unit staff to send her to hospital for treatment, they refused – saying she would only die in the ambulance.

Mr West had already become concerned about his wife’s treatment after finding she had been labelled with a ‘do not resuscitate’ notice.

The notice, which meant she would not be revived if she suffered a medical crisis, went against the wishes of Mrs West and her family, who were desperate to prolong her life so she could spend precious months with her children, aged between one and 17.

Yet Mr West said he and his wife had to ask five times to have the notice removed.

After her death, Mr West claims he was told by a nurse and his GP that despite being expected to live for at least 18 months, his wife had been put on the Liverpool Care Pathway, the controversial system designed to ease the suffering of the dying in their final hours.

Last night the clinic denied that Mrs West had been placed on the LCP.

But the case will reignite debate over the treatment of those who are believed to be dying.

Thousands of patients are placed on the LCP every year, which some medics say leads to the premature deaths of more than 100,000. Mr West said: ‘Andrea had a lot of things she wanted to do for the children. She didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to them.’

The Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust, which runs the unit where Mrs West died, declined to give further information on the case before Mrs West’s inquest. The LCP was devised in the 1990s and involves the heavy sedation of a patient and the removal of tubes providing food and fluid.

However its use was criticised in the summer by a senior consultant, Professor Patrick Pullicino, who told a medical conference that nearly a third of NHS deaths now involve patients on the pathway.

He said a decision to put a patient on the LCP has become ‘a self-fulfilling prophecy’, adding that ‘factors like pressure on beds and difficulty with nursing confused or difficult-to-manage elderly patients cannot be excluded’.

Mrs West, who had two children from a previous marriage and four – aged seven, four, three and one – with her husband, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in January last year which later spread to her lymph nodes.

Her husband said she had been given between 18 months and two years to live. Mr West, a former care worker who now looks after his children full-time, said a nurse had advised him last month that his wife should be admitted to Priscilla Bacon Lodge in Norwich for palliative care.

‘I believed she had an infection,’ he said. ‘She had had the same symptoms in the past with infections. I didn’t think it was serious at all.’

Mr West and the children visited Mrs West on September 19. ‘She was active, cheerful and looking forward to going home,’ Mr West said. ‘She spoke to her children, she was eating cheese and crackers, and she was drinking Coke with lemon.’

However, he said, his wife was concerned because she had been told doctors had placed a ‘do not resuscitate’ notice in her notes. Mr West said his wife told him: ‘I have fought this far. Why would I want to die now?’

However, he said, it took five requests from himself and his wife before medics removed the DNR notice. The following day, at 6.30am, Mr West was phoned by nurses to be told his wife had been bleeding and vomiting. He was, he said, told she was likely to die that day.

‘I couldn’t understand it at all,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t understand why they assumed she was going to die so quickly.’ On arriving at the unit he said he found that his wife had been heavily sedated and no tubes for artificial hydration or nutrition had been connected.

He said he was later told she had been placed on the LCP. ‘I asked a nurse and she said, “We are treating her on the Liverpool Care Pathway. The papers have been prepared by the doctor and she is being treated as a dying lady on the LCP”.’

He said he ‘argued with’ doctors to provide his wife with intravenous fluid and this was done. As her condition worsened he threatened to call an ambulance to take her to hospital.

‘They said I shouldn’t do that,’ he said. ‘They said it would disturb her dignity and she would die in the ambulance.’ His wife died at 8.30pm that evening.

‘Her death was sudden and very unexpected,’ he said. ‘She would have been shocked at the idea that she was dying. We all thought she had a year, probably a year and a half. She wanted to make boxes for the children, with pictures and other things to remember her by.’

He added: ‘One day she was eating and drinking. The next she was dead. It makes no sense to me.’

A spokesman for the Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust said: ‘We can confirm this patient was not on the Liverpool Care Pathway. However, we have been advised by the coroner that it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time as it may be subject to a coroner’s inquest.’

-dailymail.co.uk

Cancer: the Forbidden Cures (MUST WATCH Videos)

Anna Hunt, Contributing Writer

Waking Times

Cancer is a growing worldwide epidemic, with staggering statistics: 20,000 people dying of cancer every day; 1 person out of 3 will be faced with cancer at one point in their life; and 1 million Americans are diagnosed with cancer every year. The standard treatment for cancer has been the same for many decades and is comprised of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, the latter two being toxic to healthy cells in the human body. These treatments, as well as the research surrounding cancer, generate millions of dollars each year for the medical industry, with a typical cancer patient spending on-average $50,000 to treat the disease.

Sadly, there is clearly a lack of desire in the mainstream medical establishment to research alternative, natural medicines and treatments for cancer. One of the primary reasons for this that it is difficult to patent a natural treatment, thus limiting the revenue potential of natural and homeopathic medicines. Therefore, there is little interest from the pharmaceutical companies to put natural remedies through the expensive and arduous FDA approval processes. Another reason is believed to be that the pharmaceutical industry, through its control over the education system, drug-testing process and the FDA, as well as through its influence over the American Medical Association and medical publications, is not interested in a cure unless there is significant revenue potential as well as an opportunity for lucrative patents.

Over the last century, several natural cancer treatments have been developed and used to treat patients (even cure them) in the US and in other developed countries. One example is a natural concoction of herbs called Essiac, created by nurse Rene Caisse in Canada in the 1920′s. Another is an herbal cure created by Harry Hoxsey, who funded clinics in 17 states before they were all closed down by the FDA in the late 1950’s. And yet another is the Gerson Therapy, created by German doctor Maximilian Gerson, who was one of the first to suggest a nutritional approach to treating chronic disease in the 1940’s.

Full Report and Full Vimeo Video Documentary HERE

One can of Red Bull, could raise the risk of heart attack or stroke, even in young people

LONDON, Oct 11 — For many university students, staying up all night to cram for a final exam is the de facto standard, but health experts say that frequent sleep deprivation over the course of your four-year studies can unleash some serious health problems.

Reported in The Guardian in the UK on Tuesday, Susan Redline, a professor of sleep medicine in Boston, has found a link between sleep deprivation and the onset of disorders such as anxiety and bipolar depression. But that’s not all: regularly forcing your body to stay awake can affect your blood pressure and inflammation levels, resulting in an increased risk of heart disease and cancer. Also sleep deprivation has been linked to enhanced risks for obesity and diabetes.

What about the short-term effects? The article also cites recent research at Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley that links all-nighters with a temporary euphoria driven by the chemical dopamine. Yet, the temporary boost in sex drive and positivity is soon met with an increased risk of addiction and impulsive behavior.

Plus with all those late nights, students are likely relying on heavy caffeine consumption to burn the midnight oil. A 2008 study found that just one can of Red Bull, for example, could raise the risk of heart attack or stroke, even in young people.

All-night studying won’t likely help your grades either, since researchers say the information won’t sink in, because memories form during deep sleep. According to the American Psychological Association, your best bet is to study throughout the semester, since studies have shown that students recall a greater percentage of information when they study at different points in time, rather than in one uninterrupted bout. — AFP/Relaxnews

Aspartame: Safety Approved in 90 Nations, but Damages the Brain

By Dr. Mercola

More than 90 countries have given the artificial sweetener aspartame the green light to be used in thousands of food and beverage products.¹

Two hundred times sweeter than sugar, aspartame allows food manufacturers to produce sweet foods they can market as “low calorie,” “diet,” or sugar-free,” appealing to hundreds of millions of consumers looking to cut sugar from their diets.

No doubt about it, the less sugar you include in your diet, the better. But replacing sugar with aspartame is not the solution, and in fact is likely to be even worse for your health.

Despite assurances from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other public health agencies that aspartame is safe, the research says otherwise…

So What the Heck is Aspartame Made Of?

Virtually all of the marketing material emphasizes the fact that aspartame is natural and made of two amino acids, the building blocks of protein. But, like many deceptions, this is only partially true. While there are two amino acids that comprise 90% of aspartame, aspartic acid and phenylalanine, they are held together in a methyl ester bond that comprises 10% of the molecule.

The methanol is released from the aspartame within hours of consumption after hydrolysis of the methyl group of the dipeptide by chymotrypsin in the small intestine. Once this methyl ester bond is broken it liberates free methyl alcohol or methanol, which is commonly called wood alcohol. The problem with methanol is that it passes into your blood-brain barrier and is converted into formaldehyde, which causes the damage. You may recognize formaldehyde as embalming fluid.

Interestingly, methanol is only toxic in humans. All other animals are able to detoxify it before it causes damage.

Methanol is a toxin that destroys the myelin tissue in your body, which is the insulating material around your nerves that allows nerve signals to travel properly. Once injured, one can have what are called demyelinating symptoms that are commonly seen in diseases like MS and also migraines that can include bizarre and inconsistent visual field disruptions.

My sister that helped me start my practice in 1985 is actually one of the people that develops these symptoms when exposed to aspartame. In the late ‘80s I helped to diagnose her with this sensitivity and she has avoided it for over 25 years.

Why is Methanol So Toxic?

Full Report (click)

Valium’s Contribution to Our New Normal

By ROBIN MARANTZ HENIG

Published: September 29, 2012

IT wasn’t funny, really, but everybody laughed at the scene in the 1979 film “Starting Over” when Burt Reynolds’s character had a panic attack in the furniture department of Bloomingdale’s (something to do with terror at the prospect of buying a couch). “Does anyone have a Valium?” his brother called out as Burt hyperventilated. The punch line: Every woman in the store reached into her purse and pulled out a little vial of pills.

Nor was it surprising that all those Bloomie’s shoppers could be so helpful, since by that time Valium, which had been introduced in 1963, was the best-selling prescription drug in America, with billions of blue or yellow or white pills, each stamped with a trademark V, sold every year.

Valium was, significantly, one of the first psychoactive drugs to be used on a large scale on people who were basically fine. It has since been surpassed by other drugs, like the popular tranquilizer Xanax. But with the pharmaceutical giant Roche announcing that it will soon close the Nutley, N.J., plant where Valium and its predecessor, Librium, were developed, it’s a good time to remember how revolutionary these “minor tranquilizers” were half a century ago. These were the drugs that gave us a new way to slay our inner demons, medicating our way to a happier life.

How did Roche convince physicians that it was O.K. to offer their patients a bottled form of serenity? How did the physicians persuade their patients? And how did the company’s success in this venture shape our collective attitudes toward normal versus abnormal, stoic versus foolhardy, and the various ways available to cope with the ups and downs of daily life?

Marketing, essentially — which was first put into action with Librium, one of those evocative drug names that pharmaceutical companies invent. Librium was introduced in 1960 and promptly outsold its predecessors, the barbiturates, because it had fewer side effects. (Barbiturates were serious downers, making people sleepy and zombielike, and they were habit-forming; Marilyn Monroe died from an overdose.)

“A Whole New World ... of Anxiety” read one of the early Roche ads for Librium, featuring a young woman with a pageboy hairdo holding an armload of books, wearing a short stadium coat and heading off to college. The copy made it sound as though every step in this “whole new world” called out for a tranquilizer. “The new college student may be afflicted by a sense of lost identity in a strange environment ... Her newly stimulated intellectual curiosity may make her more sensitive to and apprehensive about unstable national and world conditions.”

Full Story

Vaccinated Children Develop the Disease Vaccinated Against

Paul Fassa
Activist Post This is not alternative health conspiratorial conjecture.

This has been officially recorded but barely reported. So here is a sampling of recorded disease breakouts among children who were vaccinated for that disease.

Enforcing or increasing vaccine schedules does not really prevent disease; it only increases the chances of worse health or gravely critical adverse reactions, ranging from autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) to decreased immunity and increased poor health. 

Some Known Outbreaks of Vaccinated Kids The most recent outbreak occurred in California. The disease was whooping cough, or pertussis. The vaccination that has become a regularly scheduled pediatric ritual is a combination of three vaccines known as DTaP or DTP, which stands for Diptheria – Tetenus – acellular Pertussis.

This three-in-one vaccine cocktail is supposed to prevent diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis, or whooping cough. The pediatric vaccination schedule calls for administering this cocktail at two, four, six, and 15-18 months of age.

Four vaccinations of three vaccines each administered to children before one and one-half years of age. Dr. David Witt initiated a study after an unusually large number of whooping cough cases were admitted to Kaiser Permanente Hospital in San Rafael, California during 2010.

After examining the records of those stricken with pertussis over an eight month period, Dr. Witt and his team were surprised to learn that the vast majority, 81 percent, of the whooping cough kids had received their full four shot battery of DTaPs or pertussis vaccines alone. Eleven percent of the pertussis victims received some less than four pertusssis vaccinations, while the remaining eight percent were never vaccinated for whooping cough at all.

Please pause and reflect. There’s something obviously wrong with this. Other recent pertussis outbreaks were blindly blamed on unvaccinated kids contaminating vaccinated children, without any investigation.

That, even if true, which Dr. Witt’s survey indicates is not, is something to think about. Vaccinations are supposed to confer immunity, right? This study implies that vaccinated children are infecting the unvaccinated.

The New York Times also reported on this overall trend with their headline “Vaccination Is Steady but Pertussis Is Surging.”

It wasn’t long ago that the New York and New Jersey area had a mumps outbreak. Eighty percent of those kids had been fully vaccinated with the MMR series (measles, mumps, rubella). (Natural News, source below)

In Canada, four studies conducted in 2009 suggested a link with the seasonal flu vaccines’ increasing swine flu or H1H1 infection by up to 250 percent. (Science Daily, source below)

Hiding the Vaccine Dirt Under the Media Rug

Realize that vaccines are inexpensive to produce and do not undergo long term testing. They are being promoted and enforced by state legislators and school districts at the behest of pharmaceutical lobbies. Sometimes money changes hands from Big Pharma to politicians.

But much social enforcement occurs by guilt from the media and medical profession. The mantra of avoiding vaccinations furthers epidemics because “herd immunity” is only granted by vaccinating at least 90 percent of a population -- is nonsense.

Meanwhile, the vaccine manufacturers are protected from liability by the government’s federal National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) established after a rash of lawsuits from extreme neurological side effects caused by 1980s swine flu vaccines.

This “Vaccine Court” compensates the vaccine injured directly with federal funds and small taxes collected from vaccine manufacturers. It also hides actual cases by not releasing press releases to the lamestream media.

VAERS (vaccine adverse effect reporting system) is another bad joke. It’s estimated that less than five percent of vaccine adverse events get reported, and very few of those hit the MSM. This one did once, years ago - CBS 60 Minutes Documentary.