AIDS: Wishing it away

Two AIDS stories in the news today come crashing together.

CNN reports that a growing shortage of doctors, nurses and medical workers is hampering the fight against AIDS in the developing world. The 209-page annual World Health Report from the World Health Organization says that "the global shortage approaches 4.3 million health workers."

Meanwhile, the 87-page report from the U.S. Government Accounting Office looking into the $15 billion U.S.-funded "President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)" blasted the fact that most of the money is being spent on a required "ABC" strategy that encourages abstinence until marriage, being faithful thereafter and using condoms in high-risk sexual encounters, says the San Jose Mercury News. Critics say the abstinence program is eroding other preventative programs.

Most of the 20 countries receiving the PEPFAR money reports that the required ABC strategy is hampering their efforts and "presents challenges to their ability to respond to the local epidemiology and cultural and social norms."

The abstinence "policy is basically unworkable. This shows the problem very clearly and starkly," said Paul Zeitz, director of the Global AIDS Alliance.

Fifteen billion U.S. tax dollars to tell people in other countries they shouldn't have sex. It's a crazy world we live in!

Medicine | Health | Alternative Health | Nutrition | Sex | AIDS | Abstinence | Weight Loss | Government Accounting Office | World Health Organization

Living together makes women fatter, men healthier

Co-habiting seems to make men healthier, and women fatter, studies from the U.K. and Australia have shown.

After moving in together, men tend to eat healthier, leaner foods, while women tend to gravitate towards creamier, more fatty foods. Men begin to eat not only less meat, but less food generally. Women do the opposite. The BBC reported that the researchers said each partner is tries to please the other, moving more towards the partner's former eating preferences.

A U.S. study of 9,043 women showed that marriage itself is a leads to weight gain, and getting out of a marriage leads to weight loss.

Medicine | Health | Alternative Health | Nutrition | Eating | Diet | Weight Gain | Weight Loss | Relationships | Living Together

Fluoride causes cancer: Colgate's dental editor accused of fudging study results

I've been talking for years about the dangers of fluoridation, and also about the dangers inherent in allowing medical and research people who work for private companies to also publish in medical journals.

This week brings us a story that combines the worst of both issues.

A Harvard-related journal on Wednesday published a study that indicates that young boys who drink fluoridated tap water are at greater risk for a rare bone cancer.

The study is expected to intensify debate over fluoridation and mean more scrutiny for Harvard's Dr. Chester Douglass, who has been accused of doctoring the findings to downplay a cancer link.

"It’s the best piece of work ever linking fluoride in tap water and bone cancer. It’s pretty damning for him [Douglass]," said Richard Wiles of the Environmental Working Group, which filed a complaint with the National Institutes of Health against Douglass.

Douglass, who is an epidemiology professor at Harvard’s School of Dental Medicine, moonlights as as a paid editor of the Colgate Oral Care Report, a newsletter supported by the toothpaste maker. Talk about a conflict of interest!

The National Institutes of Health, which provided Douglass and his students a $1 million grant, and Harvard are investigating whether Douglass misrepresented research findings last year when he said there was no link between ingested fluoride and bone cancer, despite extensive research to the contrary by one of his doctoral students.

That student, Dr. Elise Bassin, wrote in yesterday’s Cancer Causes and Control that boys who drink water with levels of fluoride considered safe by federal guidlines are five times more likely to develop osteosarcoma than boys who drink unfluoridated water, the Boston Herald reported.

Douglass wrote a letter to the editor, which was published in the same issue, downplaying Bassin's study, calling it a "partial view of this ongoing study," and urging readers to be "especially cautious" when interpreting the findings. It's a blatant attempt at sleight of hand. Apparently, he's not a very good magician, though, because most everyone can see through this.

Medicine | Health | Alternative Health | fluoride | Medical Studies | Harvard School of Dental Medicine | Chester Douglass | Elise Bassin | National Insitutes of Health | Colgate Toothpaste | Conflict of Interest

Prevent breast and ovarian cancer with soy, fruits, and green tea, say new studies

Soybeans, fruits and green tea contain powerful antioxidants that help reduce a woman's risk for breast and ovarian cancer, according to studies presented at this week's annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Also it's now "official": Vitamin D lowers risks for these cancers.

As expected, because it's SO typical, cancer doctors tried to downplay the results of the studies: "None of the four studies warrant a public health change," Dr. Rowan Chlebowski, a medial oncologist at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, Calif.

Read more....

Medicine | Health | Alternative Health | Fruits | Soy | Green Tea | Nutrition | Vitamin D

Doublespeak: Doctor says "vaccine is working" though 80% of those with mumps were vaccinated

A mumps epidemic is sweeping across the Midwest, especially hitting hard in Iowa and Nebraska. Sixty-six percent of those who have been diagnosed with mumps have been fully vaccinated for mumps, and another 14 percent have received at least one dose of the vaccine. It's hitting across all ages and social levels.

Yet in a near-perfect rendition of Orwellian doublespeak, Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, Iowa's state epidemiologist, says, "The vaccine is working. The vaccine certainly was made to cover this particular strain, because it's a fairly common strain of mumps." She said the vaccine is 95% effective.

In spite of evidence to the contrary, that 80% of those sick have been vaccinated, she said, "The vaccine is working. It's 95% effective."

Read the article....

Medicine | Health | Mumps | Epidemic | Vaccines | Vaccinations | Immunization | Disease