'Vegemite' toast spread banned from U.S.?

According to New Zealand website Scoop, Vegemite, the popular New Zealand-based toast spread, is being confiscated and denied entry into the U.S, supposedly because the vitamin-packed food contains the B-vitamin folate.

Folate, or folic acid, helps prevent spina bifida, a birth defect.

The article is actually a press release from the New Zealand Trust, a consumer group campaigning against the proposal to regulate natural health products in Australia. It reads:

Government proposal linked to US ‘Vegemite Police’

Reports of ‘Vegemite police’ confiscating the popular toast spread at United States borders proves the Government’s proposed new rules for natural health products would cause ridiculous problems for completely safe products.

The New Zealand Health Trust, a consumer group campaigning against the proposal to regulate natural health products under an Australian regime, says that the rules already in place in the US and Europe show how crazy the regulators have become under the new system.

“We have had arrests in France for selling Vitamin C tablets, and now American authorities are searching travelers for Vegemite because it contains a vitamin B supplement Folate – currently being considered for addition into New Zealand breads as a preventative for spina bifida in children,” said Amy Adams, spokesperson for the Trust.

“If New Zealand were to adopt Annette King’s proposal we would be in the same boat and could see totally harmless products banned or regulated off the shelves,” Ms Adams said. “The regulators are behaving like Vegemite is a risk to people’s health.”

“This is actually a very serious problems for people in the US and Europe. And if we’re not careful we could end up facing the Police Anti-Garlic Squads or risking Illegal Ginger raids.”

The Government is still trying to introduce legislation enabling the new regime, despite all political parties except Labour having indicated they will not support it.

Medicine | Health | Alternative Health News | Vegemite | Folate | Nutritional Supplements | HerbBlurbs.com | AltHealthNews.com

Four dead after receiving flu shots; Alzheimer's caused by the common cold?

Though four people died just after receiving flut shots, Israeli officials are quick to say there is "no direct link." Of course. Yeah, right. How many times will people fall for this one? "Vaccinations will start (again) this evening," Health Minister Yaacov Ben-Yizri said, before himself receiving an inoculation live on television to demonstrate its safety." The program was re-started less than five days after the fourth man dropped dead two hours after receiving his shot.

A new theory is making the rounds that viruses related to the common cold are the real culprit for the memory loss of Alzheimer's disease.

Drink up! A drink or two a day keeps the heart surgeon away. The statistics in this study are staggering (if you'll pardon both the alliteration and the pun) — From 1986 to 2002, 106 of the 9,000 men followed had heart attacks. Of these men, eight were among the 1,282 who drank about two drinks a day, nine were among the 714 who had over two drinks a day, and 28 were among the 1,889 men who did not drink at all.

Medicine | Health | Alternative Health News | Vaccines | Heart Attack | Flu Shots | HerbBlurbs.com | AltHealthNews.com

Lawmakers distrust CDC on vaccine studies

Finally, it seems, lawmakers are listening to parents concerned over the safety, or lack of safety, in vaccines routinely given to children.

For years, parents and concerned members of the medical establishment have been concerned that vaccines, many of which contain or contained mercury, a toxin even in tiny amounts, may have contributed to the rapid rise in autism in the U.S. and U.K. in the past 15 years.

Fox News reports that Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., a medical doctor, has said he will reintroduce his bill — the Vaccine Safety and Public Confidence Assurance Act of 2006 — when the 110th Congress convenes next year.

"It's an important issue. As a physician, I've been surprised and frankly embarrassed about the overall lack of good research into vaccine safety," Weldon told FOXNews.com.

The legislation would create a separate agency outside of the CDC to oversee vaccine safety issues, including research. Other legislation introduced by other House and Senate sponsors addresses linkages between vaccines and autism-related disorders.

While the CDC says recent studies indicate no link between autism and childhood vaccinations, even one that contained mercury, the opposite position is supported by many in the medical establishment, including the American Academy of Pediatrics.

With such conflict, the debate is raging over how limited current research really is and whether the government is doing enough to fund better studies.

In 2005, Dr. Frank DeStefano, acting chief of immunization safety for the CDC told FOXNews.com, "Autism is a serious developmental disability and has a great effect on the individual and their families, and there is great impetus of need among families and society and the government to find out what is causing autism and what can be done to prevent it."

However, he said, the current body of evidence on the safety of vaccinations is strong.

“Our judgment is that vaccines are safe and the evidence today indicates that vaccines are not linked to autism," said DeStefano.

Still, Weldon questions whether the CDC's conclusions are based on enough sound, objective research, particularly in the area of mercury. Up until 2000, mercury-based thimerosal was used in all childhood vaccines as a preservative. Many blamed it for an increase in emerging autism cases.

Pharmaceutical companies stopped using thimerosal six years ago upon the recommendation of the federal government, even though the government never gave official acknowledgement that mercury levels in vaccines could cause developmental problems in children.

Government officials said that infants had not been exposed to high enough levels of mercury through the thimerosal, but its removal was done as "a precaution."

I applaud Rep. Weldon and others in calling for legislation protecting children from unsafe and untested vaccines.

Medicine | Health | Alternative Health News | Vaccines | Children's Health | Dave Weldon | HerbBlurbs.com | AltHealthNews.com