WDDTY e-News Broadcast - 16 November 2006

[Guest guest]

E-news broadcast - 16 November 2006 No.310

 

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News content

 

AVIAN FLU: More bad news for our greatest hope

DEPRESSION: Is it just a vitamin B deficiency?

ARTHRITIS: This drug causes stomach and heart problems, that one causes heart

and stomach problems

BARKING: Drug companies resort to double-blind placebo boys in suits with

violin cases

TOYS HOME, PART TWO: Drug companies boycott conference following speech

DOCTORS: The most trustworthy people in Britain (unlike us)

 

 

 

AVIAN FLU: More bad news for our greatest hope

 

Anyone here remember avian flu? You know, nasty disease, kills everyone. Even

the UK's very own chief medical officer of health Sir Liam Donaldson told an

expectant public earlier this year that 750,000 Brits would die from it any time

now.

In fact, it's killed 153 people worldwide in three years.

So, yes, it has gone a bit quiet of late, but then the governments of the world

have already stockpiled every last available shipment of Tamiflu (oseltamivir),

the antiviral that's useless against avian flu, so there's no point in keeping

on about it, we suppose.

The UK government has bought 14.6 million doses of the useless drug, while the

US government has gone for 20 million doses of the stuff.

Even sensible Canada went avian flu crazy, and bought in truckloads of Tamiflu,

despite the sober observations of its health minister that it was pointless

buying an antidote to a disease that couldn't yet be passed among humans.

Tamiflu's manufacturer, Roche, admits in the small print its drug won't do a

thing against avian flu - one of several admissions it has made this week.

The US drug regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has also asked

Roche to reveal that Tamiflu can cause the patient to become so delirious that

he starts harming himself. Self-injury, confusion and delirium are not

uncommon, Roche has admitted, especially if it's taken by a child. It can also

cause anaphylactic shock, serious skin reactions, nausea, vomiting, bronchitis,

insomnia and vertigo.

These latest admissions throw into even starker contrast the strange statement

made by the World Health Organization earlier this year that Tamiflu is our best

defence against avian flu.

The truth is that we don't have a pharmaceutical defence against the H5N1 virus

because it doesn't yet exist as a disease that's transmitted between humans.

And as a virus mutates one million times more frequently than DNA the best we

can ever hope for is a vaccine that fights last year's virus.

(Source: FDA website).

 

 

 

DEPRESSION: Is it just a vitamin B deficiency?

 

Is depression nothing more than a serious vitamin B deficiency? One UK doctor

believes so, and he's been funding vitamin B12 injections for 700 patients out

of his own pocket.

Dr Joseph Chandy, from County Durham, says: " It is a forgotten illness. But if

you see my patients and how well they are, why would you not do it? "

Well, you wouldn't if you were his local health authority, which had banned him

from giving the injections. It has finally lifted the ban because, after many

months of deliberation, they've concluded that he's giving his patients only

vitamins, they're getting better, and he's paying for it anyway.

Still, it makes you wonder with all those great antidepressants out there.

(Source: Pulse, 9 November 2006).

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ARTHRITIS: This drug causes stomach and heart problems, that one causes heart

and stomach problems

 

Arthritis sufferers were traditionally prescribed an NSAID (non-steroidal

anti-inflammatory drug) to help relieve the pain. But eventually researchers

realised that NSAIDs such as Advil and Aleve caused gastrointestinal (GI)

bleeding, and also increased the risk of heart problems.

So the drug manufacturers went back to the shareholders, sorry, drawing board,

and came up with a new family of painkillers known as the COX-2s. But

researchers eventually realised that COX-2s such as Bextra and Celebrex

increased the risk of heart problems - just as much as an NSAID.

And now researchers have discovered that the COX-2s also cause gastrointestinal

bleeding - just as much as an NSAID.

This latest discovery comes after monitoring the progress of 34,701 arthritis

sufferers who were given either an NSAID or a COX-2 for 18 months.

The researchers hope their discoveries will help doctors develop better

treatment guidelines for arthritis. Such as not giving the patient an NSAID or

a COX-2?

(Source: The Lancet, published online 13 November 2006).

· DON'T DESPAIR if you have arthritis. There's so much more you can do

without resorting to an NSAID or a COX-2, and all is revealed in the Arthritis

Manual. This ring-bound volume is a comprehensive overview of arthritis, and

lists every therapy and treatment that has been proven to work. To order your

copy of this must-read volume,

 

 

 

BARKING: Drug companies resort to double-blind placebo boys in suits with

violin cases

 

Is UK Prime Minister Tony Blair still US President Bush's poodle? We'll soon

find out following intensive lobbying by the White House to grant the American

pharmaceutical giants unrestricted access to the UK market.

That means every new, approved drug would become immediately available on the

UK's National Health Service as part of a free market initiative.

And the American system of advertising drugs directly to the patient would also

be introduced, US deputy health secretary Alex Azar has mooted.

These radical suggestions are an attempt to circumvent Nice (National Institute

for Clinical Excellence), the gatekeeper of the NHS that determines which drug

should be prescribed on the NHS, based on an evaluation of efficacy and cost.

Nice has been upsetting quite a few drug companies of late, and has blocked many

an 'innovative' drug, either because it doesn't work or because it costs too

much.

Things reached a head recently when drug company representatives met with UK

government officials to complain about Nice.

Pfizer said it might withdraw its investment in the UK if Nice continued to

block its Alzheimer's drug, and Bristol-Myers Squibb said it wanted to invest in

countries that had a " favourable environment " .

Now, we know medicine tries to maintain the pretence that it is a science, but

we suppose it has finally abandoned that charade when it threatens to send the

boys round.

(Source: The Guardian, 14 November 2006, and 28 September 2006).

 

 

 

TOYS HOME, PART TWO: Drug companies boycott conference following speech

 

That's not the only 'we?ll take our toys home' tantrum from the drug companies

reported this week. A young medical researcher almost stopped the show after

her talk about drug company influence on medical education at a conference in

New Mexico.

One drug company representative said her company would immediately withdraw its

sponsorship, while every drug company exhibitor, save one, dismantled its stand

and left. The one who stayed hadn't heard the speech.

As the speaker, Prof Adriane Fugh-Berman from Georgetown University, told the

audience: " Drug representatives are paid to be nice to us, as long as we

cooperate, sustaining our market share of targeted drugs and limiting our

continuing medical education lectures to messages that increase drug sales. "

Brave words, and ones you won't hear around New Mexico again in the very near

future.

(Source: British Medical Journal, 2006; 333: 1027).

 

 

 

DOCTORS: The most trustworthy people in Britain (unlike us)

 

We're pleased to report that, for the 22nd year running, doctors have been voted

the most trustworthy professionals in the UK by an overwhelming 91 per cent of

the population.

We're also sorry to report that journalists were considered the least

trustworthy, polling just 16 per cent of votes.

But then, pollsters were considered untrustworthy by half those polled, so

should we believe the results? Especially as the British Medical Association,

the UK doctors' trade union, paid for the whole thing.

(Source: Mori website).

 

Listen to Lynne

 

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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

 

 

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