WDDTY 21st Dec

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E-news broadcast - 21 December 2006 No.320

 

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Contents

 

 

 

PREDICTING A HEART ATTACK: Medicine gets it wrong too many times

DRUG COMPANY INFLUENCE: Top scientist never disclosed payments from

Pfizer

BREAST CANCER: Rates drop dramatically as women stop taking HRT

BANNED AND FINED: The price of selling apricot seeds (and extra

virgin olive oil)

 

 

 

 

 

 

PREDICTING A HEART ATTACK: Medicine gets it wrong too many times

 

 

We all want to know what might happen to us in the future, especially

when it comes to our heart. After all, when that stops, we stop.

 

So medicine has come up with a series of charts, tables and measures

that predict just how likely you are to get a heart attack. They're

great for doctors, too, who use them to bully patients into a change

of diet, an exercise programme and especially a powerful heart drug

such as a statin or an antihypertensive.

 

Unfortunately, the predictive charts are hopeless at getting it

right, as researchers have just discovered. People who are at

greater risk of heart disease often get marked down as low risk

patients, and vice versa.

 

As a result, the wrong people are being prescribed drugs, while those

who may benefit from some heart health regime are being ignored.

 

(Source: Heart, 2006; 92: 1752-9).

 

· DON'T TAKE chances with your heart. The best care is

prevention, and everything you need in order to have a healthy heart

can be found on our special Healthy Heart Pack. The pack includes

our best-selling book, My Healthy Heart, together with special

reports on heart drugs and other things you can do to take the best

care of your heart. Best of all, the pack represents a 30 per cent

saving on the usual price. To order your pack,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DRUG COMPANY INFLUENCE: Top scientist never disclosed payments from

Pfizer

 

 

Drug company influence goes deep into the heart of the medical

establishment. A government scientist in the USA has revealed he was

in the pay of drug giant Pfizer, receiving $300,000 (£150,000)

for `consultancy' work.

 

His consultancy involved the purloining of invaluable fluid samples

from a government laboratory and sending them to Pfizer's scientists,

and endorsing the company's Alzheimer's drug Aricept (donepezil).

 

Dr Pearson Sunderland III, a federal research scientist at the US

National Institute of Mental Health, has pleaded guilty to the

charges, and says he will return the money.

 

For his fee, he shipped 538 spinal fluid samples, gathered by the

Institute, to Pfizer. The money, which he never disclosed, even when

endorsing Pfizer products in professional journals, was supposedly

for lecture fees.

 

(Source: British Medical Journal, 2006; 333: 1237).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BREAST CANCER: Rates drop dramatically as women stop taking HRT

 

 

The rate of new breast cancer cases in the USA has suddenly dropped

dramatically, and scientists reckon it's because fewer women are

taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

 

Millions of women stopped taking HRT for menopausal symptoms

following a series of studies that linked it to a range of serious

diseases, including breast cancer.

 

Breast cancer rates fell by 12 per cent in 2003 among women aged

between 50 and 69, who were most likely to have HRT. UK researchers

have reported a smaller, but still significant, fall in breast cancer

rates among British women of a similar age.

 

Researchers from the University of Texas reported that 14,000 fewer

women had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003, which coincides

with a dramatic and sudden drop-off in those taking HRT after a study

the previous year discovered a link between the drug and breast

cancer.

 

Researcher Dr Peter Ravdin said: " It is the largest single drop in

breast cancer incidence within a single year I am aware of.

Something went right in 2003, and it seems that it was the decrease

in the use of hormone therapy. "

 

(Source: BBC, 15 December 2006).

 

· WE ALL know that HRT is bad news – but what else can you do

to get you through the menopause and to enjoy good health

afterwards? Everything is explained in the WDDTY Guide to the

Menopause, the HRT-free approach. To order your copy,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BANNED AND FINED: The price of selling apricot seeds (and extra

virgin olive oil)

 

 

Spare a thought for Jim Wright, who ran a natural products company

from his home in Wales. Following two dawn raids by enforcement

agencies, his business has been closed down, he's been fined £1,000

and has been ordered to perform 120 hours' community service.

 

His crime was supplying some apricot seeds to an enforcement agent

who claimed to be a desperate woman looking for a treatment for her

husband who was dying from prostate cancer.

 

Once he sent the plant to the woman, enforcement agents from the UK's

Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority made a second

dawn raid on his home, and took away documents and the rest of his

stock, including extra virgin olive oil.

 

The plant contained B17, or Laetrile, which was banned in Britain in

2002, despite overwhelming evidence of its role as a natural cancer

fighter that has been used since the time of the ancient Egyptians.

 

It was the second time that Wright had been set up. The first dawn

raid happened after he sold some natural products to a BBC reporter,

who was pretending to be someone with a serious illness. Bizarrely,

nothing that he sold on that occasion was illegal or banned.

 

If you do want to make sure you're getting plenty of B17, despite the

best efforts of our health guardians, you'll find it in lentils,

chickpeas, wild berries and brown rice.

 

(Source: Alliance for Natural Health, 15 December 2006).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GIVE YOUR FELLOW READERS A HELPING HAND: If you have tips or

suggestions that you think may be useful for any of the readers'

health queries, send to us by simply clicking on the " reply " option

of your browser (as you would when replying to a normal email).

 

 

 

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