WDDTY e-News Broadcast - 9 September 2004

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> WDDTY e-News Broadcast - 9 September 2004

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CONTENTS

 

 

News section:

Goat's milk formula faces an EU ban

Link between MMR and autism has definitely been

established

Learning difficulties may have a biochemical cause

Arthritis 'wonder drug' may kill, FDA warns

 

 

 

NANNY STATE: Now the EU is banning goat's milk

formula

 

We all know that breast is best for baby, and in fact

it's best for far longer than the health professionals

recommend. But for a range of good reasons many

parents supplement with cow's or soy formula. The

trouble is that many infants are allergic to one or

both of these - which is why the wisest of the wise

have been supplementing with goat's milk formula (and

we count ourselves among these after our adopted

daughter Anya had rejected the breast).

 

But this option is likely to be taken away throughout

Europe very shortly as the formula has not been proven

to be safe to the satisfaction of the Euro health

watchdogs (but then it's never been proven to be

dangerous, which you'd think would amount to pretty

much the same thing).

 

One of the most popular brands is a New Zealand

product called Nanny, which has been distributed in

Europe by Vitacare since 1992. Vitacare's two

directors Clair Magee and Terry Biggart have been

fighting the EU for a couple of years, but they

recognize that time is running out for them and their

many customers.

 

The story begins in 1995 with the introduction of the

Infant Formula and Follow-on Formula Regulations.

This covered all cow's and soy formula, but omitted

goat's formula, which Vitacare was selling as a

special food.

 

Not unreasonably perhaps, European officials felt that

goat's formula should also be covered by the

regulations, and asked the manufacturer to provide

evidence of its safety and benefits. The manufacturer

complied, and carried out a clinical study in Auckland

that involved 36 infants. But the European Food

Safety Authority in February rejected the results

because the study failed to meet its criteria for a

proper trial.

 

Now, in the very best traditions of the EU, it starts

getting a bit Kafka-esque. According to the

guidelines, the minimum number for a trial is 40

participants - except that these guidelines were

issued only after the trial was completed. More

troubling still, the guidelines have yet to be

adopted. So the formula is to be removed on the basis

of guidelines of which the manufacturer was unaware,

and which are still to be approved.

 

Vitacare has the support of a leading paediatrician

who maintains that the study is a valid trial, and

shouldn't be rejected because it's short of four

people.

 

So what can you do to help? If you're a practitioner

who has direct evidence of the benefits of goat's milk

formula, please e-mail Vitacare with any information

you have, including case study notes. If Vitacare can

prove its product is beneficial, it might win the

argument on human rights grounds. Vitacare can be

reached at: info

 

 

 

 

MMR AND AUTISM: The link really has been established

 

A new study has confirmed a definite causal link

between the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine and

autism - and it has used the same data employed by an

earlier study that governments have relied on to deny

the link.

 

The vaccine increases the risk of autism by 850 per

cent, or nearly 500 per cent if we allow for greater

diagnostic awareness, one of the major arguments put

forward for the sudden increase in autism.

 

This conclusion contradicts that of the Madsen study

carried out in 2002, which found no link, and which

governments have gratefully clung to ever since.

 

So why the enormous discrepancy between the two

trials? Autism is usually diagnosed only at age 5 or

older, or it is in Denmark from where the data for

both studies has been gleaned. The Madsen study

monitored the progress of vaccinated children in

Denmark only for four years, so it's hardly surprising

that few, if any, cases of autism were established.

Less severe cases, which might have become apparent

even later, were certainly not included in the

findings.

 

The new study, carried out by American paediatrician

Dr Fouad Yazbak and Dr G S Goldman, tracks levels of

autism in Denmark from 1980 - seven years before the

MMR vaccine was introduced in Denmark - until 2002.

Prevalence of autism among children aged from 5 to 9

stood at 8.38 cases per 100,000 in the pre-vaccine

years of 1980 to 1986, and then rose to 71.43 cases by

the year 2000.

 

Dr Samy Suissa of McGill University had similar

problems with the Madsen study. When he analysed the

statistics he discovered that the rate of autism

increases to a high of 27.3 cases per 100,000 two

years after vaccination compared with just 1.45 cases

in non-vaccinated children.

 

No doubt in the spirit of the public's right to know,

government officials will be broadcasting the latest

findings as loudly as they did the Madsen conclusions.

Strangely, they have been silent thus far.

 

(Sources: Journal of American Physicians and

Surgeons, 2004; 3: 70-5; New England Journal of

Medicine, 2002; 347: 1477-82).

 

 

 

LEARNING DIFFICULTIES: It could all be biochemical

 

Around 10 per cent of all children in the UK and the

USA are labelled with some learning difficulty, such

as ADHD or dyslexia. But it may not be 'something

they're born with' - it could be caused by a

transitory biochemical reaction to a food or chemical

intolerance.

 

This theory, explained in the latest issue of What

Doctors Don't Tell You newsletter, means that learning

difficulties need not be a life sentence, but could be

just a temporary problem once the allergy or

intolerance is identified and avoided.

 

If you'd like to to What Doctors Don't Tell

You from just £2.33 a month, and receive a copy of the

full report, :

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

 

 

 

WONDER DRUG IN TROUBLE, PART 794: Step forward

Remicade

 

Remicade was hailed as a wonder drug for rheumatoid

arthritis and Crohn's disease when it was licensed for

use six years ago. It was such a wonder drug, in

fact, that sufferers in Canada were lobbying doctors

to prescribe it, and psoriasis sufferers were praying

for the day when it could be approved for them to use

as well.

 

This was a surprisingly warm reception for a drug that

could bring on TB among susceptible patients. And

that welcome may go down to gas mark one with the news

that Remicade can also cause fatal blood and

neurological disorders.

 

These latest reactions have been included in a letter

sent out to health professionals in the USA at the

insistence of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA),

the US drugs watchdog. Any patient on the drug who

has a persistent fever should seek immediate medical

attention, the manufacturer urges.

 

Next wonder drug, please.

 

(Source: Food and Drug Administration website).