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WDDTY e-News Service - 09 October 2003

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WHAT DOCTORS DON’T TELL YOU - E-NEWS BROADCAST No.54 - 09 October 03

 

Please feel free to email this broadcast to any friends you feel would

appreciate receiving it.

 

 

 

 

HODGKIN DISEASE: Treating one cancer might just start another

 

The old medical joke that 'the treatment was a success, but the patient died'

warrants a hollow laugh at best; it's too often near the truth.

 

Take, as an example, the treatment of Hodgkin disease (HD), considered to be one

of the great medical successes of the 20th century. Fifty years ago the patient

survived only for a couple of years but today, the five-year survival rate has

risen to 85 per cent.

 

Aggressive chemotherapy and radiotherapy can successfully treat the cancer if

caught early enough-but too many women who are treated go on to develop breast

cancer.

 

One study discovered that, of the 3,817 women aged 30 or younger who had

survived their HD therapy for a year or more, 105 had developed breast cancer.

 

Not surprisingly, researchers from the American National Cancer Institute

discovered that the risk increased with the intensity of the radiation to treat

HD. A dose of 4 Gy increased breast cancer risk by over three times, and a 40

Gy level raised that eight-fold. Those who were treated solely with

chemotherapy had an increased risk of just 0.6 times, and this rose to 1.4 times

if there was a mixed treatment of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

 

(Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2003; 290: 465-75).

 

 

 

IT'S THE DIET, STUPID: It's just as good as drugs for reducing cholesterol

 

When it comes to diet and nutrition, medicine is a little like the aged relative

who's always the last to get the joke.

 

Medicine has always maintained that dietary changes can reduce cholesterol

levels only by a modest 4%; if you want to get tough with cholesterol, you have

to take a statin drug, which some trials have suggested can reduce levels by up

to 32%.

 

Then it occurred to the various health authorities in the USA that some food

groups might actually reduce cholesterol levels. Yes, we know nutritionists

have been saying this for the last 15 years or more, but it finally dawned on

the National Cholesterol Education program in 2001, and on the Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) in 2000. Foods such as plant sterols, found in oils, soy

protein, viscous fibres such as oats and barley, and almonds could all actively

reduce cholesterol, and the diet should be a low-fat one, they said in official

announcements.

 

So when researchers from a hospital in Toronto tested the food groups and diets

against the statin, lovastatin, guess what happened? Yes, the diet was as

effective as the drug, and reduced cholesterol levels by 28%.

 

As they say, he who laughs last just didn't get the joke.

 

(Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2003; 290: 501-10).

 

 

 

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GOTCHA: The drug regulators pounce yet again

 

Drug regulators are our caped crusaders. They stand on guard, ever vigilant,

for any problems with prescription drugs, and then they swoop, without fear and

favour, on our behalf. The miscreant is removed, and we can again sleep safely

in our beds.

 

We like to champion the deeds of these heroes in our humble e-mail missives, and

we've come across yet another example of our boys in action against the

pharmaceutical oligarchy.

 

Our story concerns a drug called Serevent (salmeterol xinafoate), a beta-agonist

inhaler to treat asthma. Sudden, unexpected, deaths were soon associated with

the drug, and so the manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, decided to mount a major

trial to found out the truth. The Salmeterol Milti-center Asthma Rsearch Trial

(SMART) recruited 13,174 asthmatics into the trial, which ran for seven months

until December 1996. Then silence-for six years. Finally, at the end of last

year, the results were published. The drug is indeed linked to life-threatening

asthma attacks and death, especially among African Americans, the findings

announced.

 

The American drug regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said it was

taking the matter very seriously, and immediately entered into discussions with

the manufacturer.

 

Now, after another seven months' deliberations, the FDA has decided to. .

..change the wording on the label. This type of draconian reaction will

doubtless send a shock wave through the pharmaceutical industry. If anyone in

future produces a drug that can kill people, then they might have to reword the

label.

 

Not that the FDA feels anyone should stop taking the drug. They should just

know it might kill them. A GlaxoSmithKline spokeswoman explained: " Abruptly

stopping medication may result in acutely deteriorating asthma control, which

may be life-threatening. " This is opposed to continuing with a drug that may

be, er, life-threatening.

 

 

 

HRT: Modesty forbids, but we told you so

 

We at What Doctors Don't Tell You are never great 'we told you so' merchants.

It's boastful, unnecessary and nobody likes a clever dick.

 

Still, we couldn't help noting the remarks of Prof Bruno Muller-Oerlinghausen

about hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Prof Muller-Oerlinghausen, chairman of

the German Commission on the Safety of Medicines, has described HRT as a

" national and international tragedy " , and he likened it to the thalidomide

scandal. Reports suggest that it has already killed thousands of women who just

wanted a better menopause.

 

It has been estimated that HRT has caused 20,000 cases of breast cancer in

Britain alone, and is known to double the risk of breast cancer, and increase

the risk of blood clots, strokes and heart attack.

 

Now, this is something we've been saying for 10 years. As a result, many of our

readers stopped their HRT therapy, or never started it, and sought out safer

options instead.

 

All of which proves the benefits of subscribing to What Doctors, dear reader.

So if you haven't yet d, isn't it time you did? To join, and claim £28

of books and reports, AND claim major discounts off quality supplements and

organic foods and goods, follow this link:

http://www.wddty.co.uk/shop/details.asp?product=330.

 

 

 

READERS CORNER

 

More on HRT: A very timely communication from one reader who resisted the

urgings of her family doctor to go onto HRT and scrap her approach of diet and

exercise. After she refused, his parting shot was: " Don't go around rubbishing

HRT " .

 

She went to see him again the other day.

 

He: " I wouldn't recommend HRT " .

 

She: " But you told me I was irresponsible for not taking it. "

 

He: " Ah well, things change. "

 

Marvellous stuff, but it raises the concern that many women may have been

bullied into taking what has proved to be a deadly therapy. Things may indeed

change, as the doctor suggested, but there's one constant-we have just one life.

 

 

Lice: Still your suggestions come in for treating lice. Use a good quality

aloe vera gel on the hair, leave on overnight, and wash out in the morning

before spraying the hair with lavender, says one correspondent.

 

 

Amalgam fillings: We were taken to task by one reader who believes that mercury

fillings should always be removed, irrespective of the mercury levels in the

body. She is a dowser, and she notices that people with mercury fillings always

dowse low, which suggests their energy levels are poor.

 

 

 

Listen to Lynne

 

On the radio: Hear Lynne McTaggart on Passion the new DAB Digital Radio Station

focusing on your health and your environment -

http://www.wddty.co.uk/passion_main.asp

 

On demand: Select and listen to any of Lynne's archived broadcasts on Passion,

there's a new one each week - http://www.wddty.co.uk/passion_archive.asp

 

 

View missed/lost e-News broadcasts:

 

View our e-News broadcast archives, follow this link -

http://www.wddty.co.uk/archive.asp

 

 

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Doctors Don't Tell You, please forward their name and address to:

info.

 

Please forward this e-news on to anyone you feel may be interested,they can

free by clicking on the following this link:

http://www.wddty.co.uk/e-news.asp. Thank you.

 

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