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WDDTY e-News Service - 18th December 2003

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 01:16:01 0000

 

 

WHAT DOCTORS DON’T TELL YOU - E-NEWS BROADCAST No. 63 - 18 December 03

 

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

appreciate receiving it.

 

 

 

 

A HAPPY Christmas, and a very healthy New Year, to all our readers. This is our

last broadcast of 2003; we'll be back in your e-mail boxes on 9 January.

 

 

DIABETES: It's more common than we think, and it might all start when we're

babes in arms

 

Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the West, but doctors are only now

recognizing its prevalence. While researchers and statisticians have tracked

diseases such as breast cancer and heart disease, nobody had bothered to do the

same for diabetes - until now.

 

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA have

discovered that one in three men in the States will develop diabetes, and the

risk is only slightly lower for women.

 

Taking a random population born in the year 2000, researchers estimate that 32.8

per cent of men and 38.3 per cent of females will develop diabetes in their

lifetimes, and the risk rises among the Hispanic population to 45.4 per cent of

men and 52.5 per cent of women. As a result, an average non-Hispanic man

diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 40 will have 11 years cut from his life

expectancy, while his quality of life will be affected for 18 years.

 

It was not in the researchers' remit to look at causes, although it's pretty

well accepted that diabetes is a lifestyle illness, and with a close causal

connection to diet.

 

But it's not just down to the dietary decisions we make as adults, as

researchers from the University of Colorado have discovered. They have found

that babies introduced to cereals and other solids too earlier - and in some

cases as early as one to three months - are much more likely to develop

diabetes.

 

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas are

impaired; the marker for this process is known as islet autoimmunity (IA), which

can be present for many years before diabetes occurs.

 

When researchers tested the blood of 1,183 children, they found from their IA

levels that those exposed to solids and cereals between the ages of one to three

months were more than four times more likely to develop diabetes than a

breastfed baby; strangely, the risk increased again among babies who were

introduced to cereals when they were seven months of age or older.

 

A slightly lower risk was also associated with rice and other gluten products,

either given individually or together.

 

Researchers suggest that the 'safe' age to introduce cereals and other solids is

between four and six months. Perhaps they would have been wiser to suggest a

far older age.

 

(Sources: Prevalence of diabetes: Journal of the American Medical Association,

2003; 290: 1884-90; Diabetes and cereals: Journal of the American Medical

Association, 2003; 290: 1713-20).

 

 

 

PARENTS WHO KILL: Could the vaccines be the real culprit?

 

Parents in the UK and USA are being wrongly imprisoned for killing their babies

when there has been a genuine medical reason for their children's sudden and

tragic deaths. Several women in the UK have recently had their convictions

overturned because of dubious 'expert' testimony, and we've seen similar cases

in the USA.

 

Perhaps the most celebrated concerns the sudden death of Alan Joe Yurko, whose

father is serving a life sentence after being convicted of violently shaking his

child.

 

The father mentioned that Alan had just been given a combination of six

vaccines, but it was a comment never followed up - so medical researcher Dr

Harold Buttram has done just that.

 

He reviewed 25 cases of supposed shaken baby syndrome (SBS), and found in all

the cases that the babies had been vaccinated around 12 days earlier. The

babies had fatal brain injuries, but Buttram believes this was a result of

vaccine-induced encephalitis. He points to reports of intracranial pressure

being observed after the DPT vaccine, while the hepatitis B vaccine is being

linked to brain hemorrhage.

 

Is Dr Buttram's study conclusive? Far from it, but vaccinations should be part

of the enquiry when parents are next accused of murdering their child.

 

(Source: Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients, October 2003; 243: 72-8).

 

 

 

OUR CHRISTMAS QUIZ: Guess the poem, and you could win a free book

 

After all the gloom, here's a Christmas quiz (and it's a very easy one). Now,

dear reader, spare a thought for us at WDDTY as we wade our way through dense

medical studies, written in a strangulated form of English, to pull out gems for

your edification.

 

Medicine is not the only profession that has its own arcane argot; the law can

boast of something similar (but by no means as dense).

 

So, here is a well-known verse for Christmas, translated into lawyer-speak. Can

you unravel it, and tell us the title of the poem?

 

As we say, it's not difficult, and some of you will have seen it before. So

here goes - and the first five of you who write back with the correct title win

a signed copy of Secrets of the Drugs Industry.

 

" Whereas, on an occasion immediately preceding the Nativity festival, throughout

a certain dwelling unit, quiet descended, in which could be heard no

disturbance, not even the sound emitted by a diminutive rodent related to, and

in form resembling, a rat; and

 

Whereas, the offspring of the occupants had affixed their tubular, closely knit

coverings for the nether limbs to the flue of the fireplace in expectation that

a personage known as St.Nicholas would arrive; and

 

Whereas, said offspring had become somnolent, and were entertaining re:

saccharine-flavored fruit; and

 

Whereas, the adult male of the family, et ux, attired in proper headgear, had

also become quiescent in anticipation of nocturnal inertia; and

 

Whereas, a distraction on the snowy acreage outside aroused the owner to

investigate; and

 

Whereas, he perceived in a most unbelieving manner a vehicle propelled by eight

domesticated quadrapeds of a species found in artic regions; and

 

Whereas, a most odd rotund gentleman was entreating the aforesaid animals by

their appellations, as follows:

 

" Your immediate co-operation is requested. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, and Vixen;

and collective action by you will be much appreciated, Comet, Cupid, Donder, and

Blitzen " ; and

 

 

 

Whereas, subsequent to the above, there occurred a swift descent to the hearth

by the aforementioned gentleman, where he proceeded to deposit gratuities in the

aforementioned tubular coverings.

 

Now, therefore, be ye advised: that upon completion of these acts, and upon his

return to his original point of departure, he proclaimed a felicitation of the

type prevalent and suitable to these occasions, ie:

 

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night! "

 

If you think you know the poem, e-mail your answer, including your full name and

address, to: Quiz. But we need the exact title from you if you're

going to stand a chance of winning. Good luck!

 

 

 

SURGERY: When it can kill

 

OK, that's enough fun for a while - now back to the bad news. Cholecystectomy -

or gall bladder removal - is one of the most common surgical procedures, with

around 750,000 performed in the States alone every year.

 

Unfortunately the bile duct is often damaged during the procedure, and this

happens in 1 out of every 200 operations, which equates to 3,750 injuries

happening every year in the USA during a cholecystectomy.

 

While the injury can easily happen, it's very difficult to repair. As a result,

patients who are injured are three times as likely to die compared with those

not injured.

 

The answer? An expert team of surgeons is needed to be on hand to repair the

damage caused by their less experienced colleagues.

 

Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2003; 290: 2168-73).

 

Boy, that was gloomy too. Let's see if our readers have a lighter touch. . .

 

 

 

 

READERS' CORNER

 

But is it true? One reader is skeptical about our report last time, which

quoted Dr Roses from Glaxo as saying that most drugs don't work. If we don't

quote a full reference, then why should anyone believe us, asks our reader. The

report came from a well-publicised lead article in The Independent (a UK

national newspaper) of December 8, written by its science editor Steve Connor.

Connor says Roses made his comments at " a recent scientific meeting in London " .

 

 

Milk and water: One reader feels we are missing the point. While it's fine and

large to criticize the chemical solutions of the pharmaceuticals, the real

culprit is milk, and especially the processed kind. We're also seriously

dehydrated - so stop drinking milk, and drink more water. We don't know if it

will cure you of all that ails you, but it's not a bad start.

 

 

And a happy Christmas: A delightful e-mail from one reader who wants to wish us

a merry Christmas. Her husband is a chiropractor, she's a natural therapist,

and all five of their children were born at home and have never been to a

doctor. The children are aged from 15 to 24, totalling 97 years of life without

serious illness.

 

 

Finally, a golden oldie: Those readers too young to remember the early days of

E-news might appreciate a rerun of one of the funnier contributions from a

reader. (Well, it is Christmas and we're old enough not to care about repeating

ourselves). So here it is again, and we'll be visiting a mailbox near you on 9

January.

 

In Japan, the fat intake in the average Japanese diet is very low and the heart

disease ratio is lower than in North America and the UK.

 

However, in France, the average fat intake is very high, and yet, the heart

disease ratio is lower than in North America and the UK.

 

In India almost no one drinks red wine and the heart disease ratio is lower than

in North America and the UK.

 

In Spain, everybody drinks too much red wine and the heart disease ratio is

lower than in North America and the UK.

 

In Algeria, the average sexual activity ratio is very high and the heart disease

ratio is lower than in North America and the UK.

 

In Brazil, everybody has sex like crazy and the heart disease ratio is lower

than in North America and the UK.

 

In Austria, adults smoke 2 packs of cigarettes per day, on average, and the

heart disease ratio is lower than in North America and the UK.

 

Conclusion: Drink, eat, smoke and make love all you want. It's speaking English

that kills you.

 

 

 

* To search the WDDTY database - where every word from the last 14 years of

research can be found – click on http://www.wddty.co.uk/search/infodatabase.asp

 

 

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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