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WDDTY e-News Service - 22 January 2004

Fri, 23 Jan 2004 02:03:59 0000

 

 

WHAT DOCTORS DON’T TELL YOU - E-NEWS BROADCAST No. 66 - 22 Jan 2004

 

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

appreciate receiving it.

 

 

 

 

MMR: It's safe, but then again. . .

 

Now let's get this straight, courtesy of the UK's Department of Health. The

triple MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine is perfectly safe. It does not

lead to autism. There is no need, therefore, for parents to seek out the single

vaccine.

 

So it's surprising to hear that virologist Prof Greg Atkins from Trinity

College, Dublin has been awarded a government grant to develop a new MMR vaccine

that does not use the three live viruses.

 

Prof Atkins is an ideal choice. Apart from being an eminent scientist, he also

seems to handle medico-political hot potatoes pretty well. While he is adamant

that the current triple vaccine is safe, and that there is no connection with

autism, Prof Atkins does not rule out the possibility that it could be risky for

a small group of children.

 

This stance may cause some embarrassment in the corridors of Trinity after

Atkins's colleague Prof John O'Leary published a paper in a medical journal that

reported the finding of measles at the sites of inflammation in the guts of

children with autism.

 

Meantime, UK parents who have so far resisted the triple jab for their children

may soon come under increasing pressure. The take-up of the MMR vaccine will

now form part of the star-rating scheme at doctors' surgeries that determine the

amount of cash the government awards the family doctor. Parents who refuse the

vaccine may affect the three-star rating of their local surgery, thus

jeopardizing their doctor's pay-out.

 

*Readers interested in the MMR debate must read our Vaccine Bible and our

Special MMR Update Report. It's become essential reading for many concerned

parents. So, if you would like to order a copy for yourself,

to begin the process: http://www.wddty.co.uk/shop/details.asp?product=335

 

 

 

CHRONIC FATIGUE? We think not . . .

 

People who've told their doctor that they have chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)

have often been met with chronic scornful scepticism (CSS). Lead-swingers, we

think the expression goes.

 

Sadly, a new study seems to vindicate the doctor's view. After studying the

cases of 178 people in the UK who reported having CFS, researchers have

concluded that only a third of them actually had the condition or, more

precisely, met the criteria for the condition as set by the Centers for Disease

Control.

 

Most patients were unemployed and depressed, the researchers said, and their CFS

was purely psychological, a view that many doctors still hold.

 

All of this seems to miss the essential point that CFS is, by definition, a

cluster of symptoms. The fact that they fail to meet a manufacturd criteria

does not alter the fact that many of these people are suffering physical, and

not psychological, ailments. This new study does nothing to remove the

prejudice against a serious condition that deserves more research.

 

(Source: British Journal of General Practitioners, 2003; 53: 441-5).

 

 

 

EYE PROBLEMS: So you didn't need the patch after all

 

Many of us have seen schoolchildren having to wear a patch over one eye to

correct a visual problem such as amblyopia. It's uncomfortable, and

embarrassing, for the child, especially as it singles him or her out as being

different.

 

So if you've ever had to wear one of those wretched patches, or perhaps have a

child who had to endure one, you'll be delighted to hear that it was all

probably unnecessary.

 

A new study has discovered that the eye patch is effective in only the very

worst cases of visual impairment. But for the majority with mild visual

problems, the treatment doesn't seem to offer any benefit. And eye specialists

who've wanted children aged 5 or younger to wear a patch are also in the wrong.

The 'catch 'em young' approach makes no difference, the study has found.

 

The research team, from the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, tested 177

children, aged from 3 to 5 years, with mild to moderate vision problems. Half

had the 'full' treatment-patch and glasses-and the rest were given just glasses,

or nothing at all.

 

In all but the most severe cases, the patch did nothing more than glasses to

correct the problem. Interestingly, those children who had neither glasses nor

a patch fared just as well, but that, hopefully, will be another story one day.

 

(Source: British Medical Journal, 2003; 327: 1251-4).

 

* If you can't wait for that tantalizing story, check out the WDDTY Good Sight

Guide. Follow this link to order your copy:

http://www.wddty.co.uk/shop/details.asp?product=13

 

 

 

FLU: Time to get those kids vaccinated

 

Winter is upon us, so it's time for the drugs companies to make their usual

seasonal push for us to have a 'flu jab. This time, though, they're targeting

the kids, and those aged less than 2 years.

 

The UK's Department of Health recommends that only children at risk of chronic

disease should have the jab, but Wyeth, the drug company, is lobbying to have

the policy changed and to include all children aged under 2, irrespective of

their health profile.

 

Wyeth points to a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine that shows

the enormous success of a similar programme in the States.

 

We assume they won't be using as evidence a letter from Roche Pharmaceuticals to

health professionals about its own flu jab Tamiflu.

 

Tamiflu is given to children as young as 12 months, but there may a brake on the

zeal that doctors have been displaying in injecting every toddler foolish enough

to stagger into the surgery.

 

Roche has revealed that, in laboratory tests, rats given the vaccine have been

falling over dead.

 

The implication? Don't give the vaccine to kids under 12 months of age. Well,

there's an admission of sorts, we suppose.

 

(Source: FDA database and British Medical Journal, 2003; 327: 1249).

 

 

 

READERS' CORNER

 

Babies and pain: Our report last time about pediatricians' inability to

recognize that babies feel pain just as we do inspired a few of you to write in.

One woman reports an incident involving her son, then aged just 10 days, who was

used as a pincushion by a cluster of hospital staff. He was stabbed six times

in the heel before the doctors were satisfied with the amount of blood they had

been able to extract. Throughout the traumatic procedure, the doctors were

laughing, clearly oblivious to the distress they were causing the baby. Those

who want to understand more about the minds and pain thresholds of babies might

want to read a book called The Mind of Your Newborn Baby, which one reader is

recommending. It's written by David Chamberlain, and published in 1998 by North

Atlantic Books. Chamberlain argues that babies can hear, feel and act while in

the womb, and that some small children are able to remember their sensations

when they were in the womb.

 

Required reading for pediatricians, our reader thinks.

 

 

* 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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