What Doctors Don't tell you Sept 7th

[Guest guest]

Help us spread the word

This broadcast is copyright-free. Please e-mail this on to any

friends you think would appreciate receiving it. Better yet, get

them to join the WDDTY community by registering on our website -

www.wddty.co.uk - to receive their own E-bulletins twice a week.

Thank you.

 

 

 

News content

 

 

 

COX-2 DRUGS: And then there was one

 

CHILDHOOD CANCER: It increases every year, and pollution could be

to blame

 

CAESAREAN: It triples the death rate in newborns

INJURY: Emergency drugs could be killing the patient

 

 

 

 

 

COX-2 DRUGS: And then there was one

 

How much longer can the COX-2 painkillers survive? There's just one

version left on the market - Pfizer's Celebrex (celecoxib) - and

that has been found to dramatically increase the risk of heart

attack among cancer patients in a new study published last week.

 

Industry pundits reckon it will soon go the way of Bextra

(valdecoxib), which was withdrawn in 2005, and the notorious Vioxx

(rofecoxib), which was voluntarily withdrawn by the manufacturer

ahead of the costliest class action suit in American legal history.

 

Celebrex is still being regularly used to ease arthritis and period

pain - and it also slows the progress of bowel cancer. But when it

was taken by a group of patients, the drug increased the risk of

serious heart problems by more than three times, posing an

unacceptable risk, researchers said.

 

Another study of Celebrex among cancer patients came up with a

similar result a year ago.

 

Patients at highest risk were those taking the 400 mg daily dose,

but even patients on half that dose still more than doubled their

chances of developing heart problems.

 

This seems to be a familiar pattern. Vioxx was withdrawn in 2004

because it was suspected of causing heart attack and stroke, and

recent studies have found that the effect can happen even very

shortly after starting the drug.

 

Bextra, which is also manufactured by Pfizer, was withdrawn on the

instructions of drug regulators because of similar concerns. Merck,

Vioxx's manufacturer, has been paying millions of dollars to

families of patients who died from a heart attack while taking the

drug, and it's reckoned damages could reach into the billions.

 

The COX-2s were designed to be a kinder and gentler version of the

traditional NSAID (non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs)

painkillers. They were supposed to be just as effective, while

overcoming the problems of the NSAIDs, which can cause ulcers and

other stomach problems.

 

But one study that compared the two painkillers in a large group of

arthritis sufferers found that, after four years' usage, just as

many patients were getting ulcers while on a COX-2 as those taking a

traditional NSAID.

 

That's if they didn't die from a heart attack in the meantime,

presumably.

 

(Source: New England Journal of Medicine, 2006; 355: 873-84).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHILDHOOD CANCER: It increases every year, and pollution could be

to blame

 

 

 

Is our polluted environment giving our children cancer? Cancer

among children throughout Europe has been increasing by 1 per cent

every year for the last 20 years - and toxic agents in our

environment are the most likely cause.

 

Researchers who made the discovery say that the increase is too

high, and consistent, to be blamed on the usual excuse of better

diagnosis. Instead, changes in our lifestyle, diet and 'exposure to

a variety of agents' are the most likely causes.

 

The researchers tracked the cancer rates in children, aged below 14

years, in 15 European countries from 1978 to 1997. In 1978, just

120 children per million were developing cancer, but, in 1997, the

rate had increased to 141 cases per million.

 

The rate increased by an average of 1.1 per cent each year. The

trend was similar across every country and across every type of

cancer, with leukaemia being by far and away the most common.

 

Of course, it could also be down to the enormous successes seen in

medical advance, the researchers surmise. Because of the wonders of

medicine, women with poor genes were surviving and passing on their

weak genes to their offspring.

 

Yeah, right.

 

(Source: European Journal of Cancer, 2006; 42: 1961).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAESAREAN: It triples the death rate in newborns

 

 

 

Babies born by Caesarean section are three times more likely to die

soon afterwards than those born naturally, a new study has

discovered.

 

The neonatal death rate among babies born naturally is just 0.62 per

1,000 births, but that rate leaps to 1.77 deaths among babies born

by Caesarean. Neonatal rates are measured for the first 28 days

after birth.

 

The findings may put a sudden halt to the increases in elective

Caesarean deliveries, which are those where the women chooses to

have the procedure even when there is no good medical reason for it.

 

In 2003 in America, nearly 28 per cent of all births were by

Caesarean section while the rate is only slightly lower in the UK.

Of these around 16 per cent are first-time Caesareans, and the

remainder is made up of women who previously had a Caesarean, giving

weight to the idea of 'once a Caesarean, always a Caesarean'.

 

A Caesarean section is a major abdominal operation that should be

performed only when either the mother or the baby is at risk. The

World Health Organization reckons that no country should have a

Caesarean rate greater than 10 per cent of all births, which should

cover all necessary interventions.

 

Researchers of the new study surmise that a natural birth helps

squeeze fluids from the newborn's lungs, while the process also

releases hormones that help establish healthy lungs.

 

(Source: Birth, 2006; 33: 175).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INJURY: Emergency drugs could be killing the patient

 

 

 

Hospital accident and emergency units are routinely treating

injuries with untested therapies that may kill the patient, a

leading consultant has said.

 

Professor Ian Roberts at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical

Medicine says that virtually no treatment for emergency trauma care

has been tested for its safety.

 

Pharmaceutical companies spend just a fraction of their research

funding on injury care, instead preferring to concentrate on cancer

and heart disease.

 

The use of corticosteroids for head injury in hospitals was stopped

only after a study in 2004 discovered that they significantly

increased the risk of death. Prof Roberts described the effects of

the drug as 'industry slaughter'.

 

This 'black hole' in research means that doctors have no way of

knowing if other dugs are similarly dangerous, Prof Roberts told the

British Association for the Advancement of Science conference this

week.

 

(Source: The Times, 7 September 2006).

 

 

 

Listen to Lynne

 

 

On the radio: Hear Lynne McTaggart on Passion the innovative 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

 

 

Help us spread the word

 

 

If you can think of a friend or acquaintance who would like a FREE

copy of What 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.