94% of medical doctors accept gifts from drug companies

A study released yesterday shows that 94% of U.S. medical doctors "have a relationship" with drug manufacturers, meeting with a drug company representative on average four times a month.

Meals for the office staff, drug samples, tickets to sporting and cultural events, cash for attending seminars or "consulting"....

You think all those perks don't contribute to your doctor's choice of what drug to prescribe?

A May 15, 2002 New York Times article reported that some physicians, in exchange for money, have allowed pharmaceutical sales representatives into their examining rooms to meet with patients, review medical charts and recommend what medicines to prescribe.

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FDA reveals plan to regulate as drugs vitamins, supplements, herbs, vegetable juices and massage oils

From Foodconsumer.org:

A new FDA document reveals new plan to classify almost all vitamins, supplements, herbs, and vegetable juices as regulatable drugs. In addition, massage oils and rocks will be categorized as medical devices. Docket No. 2006D-0480, Draft Guidance For Industry on Complementary an Alternative Medicine Products an Their Regulation by the FDA, is accepting comments until April 30.

Under this new set of guidelines, the FDA will determine whether herbs, supplements, vitamins, or massage stones will be regulated as drugs/medical devices.

The purpose of this change would be to regulate things like juices that are market as "cures" for various ailments. In the docket, it elaborates saying, "if a person decides to produce and sell raw vegetable juice for use in juice therapy to promote optimal health... [and] if the juice therapy is intended for use as part of a disease treatment regimen instead of for the general wellness, the vegetable juice would also be subject to regulation as a drug under the Act."

While the new Act may serve to regulate supplements in a beneficial way, critics are saying that the FDA is simply trying to regulate natural supplements off of the market.

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Nuts! Man sues VA hospital for removal of wrong testicle

A man has brought suit against doctors and a Veterans Administration hospital for removing the wrong testicle, the AP reported.

He seeks $200,000 for future health care and unspecified damages for the June 14, 2006 error which took his right testicle instead of his potentially cancerous, atrophied and painful left one.

The chief of staff for the Greater Los Angeles VA system, Dr. Dean Norman, has said he's sorry about the mix-up.

“We are making every attempt that we can to care for Mr. Houghton, but it’s in litigation, and that’s all we can tell you,” he said.

The hospital has changed its practices since then, he said.

Like, maybe, they now supply patients with black markers so they can write "My left, dummy! Not yours!"

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Brazil's obese too embarrassed to use horse x-ray machines

There's an epidemic out there... of obesity. Over one billion people are overweight; 300 million are classified as obese. The developed world's kids and adults are just plain too fat and too unfit. Too many people eat too much, and eat too much of the wrong foods.

Some people can't stop. Is that an illness in itself? Perhaps, and yes, fat people should have access to health care that will help them stop eating too much.

But to demand and expect hospitals to buy expensive equipment just for them... that's going too far. I just can't feel any sympathy here.

A organization called the Group for Salvaging Self-Esteem and Citizenship of the Obese (GRACO) is staging protests outside the legislature in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, trying to twist arms to get the government to require that hospitals puchase larger, stronger equipment.

Currently, obese people are being sent by hospitals to the Jockey Club when they need a tomography, or multiple X-raying of body sections, which is normally carried out inside a chamber. A tomography is required before stomach reduction surgery can be performed.

Why the Jockey Club? Because the club has medical equipment designed to be used on horses.

Rosimere Lima da Silva, head of GRACO, said many patients feel embarrassed to go there.

"The obese patients already suffer from a lot of prejudice and having to be treated where animals are is not helping their self-esteem. Many simply refuse to go," she said.

Boo hoo! To refuse to accept medical attention that you want and need, and that has become necessary because of your own actions (of eating too much), because you're embarrassed to go....

Look in the mirror. Revel in your embarrassment.

Then use that feeling to propel yourself towards a positive change in your lifestyle.

Get up and do something about your situation. Stop sitting in front of the TV expecting your government or private hospitals to buy you things to quell your embarrassment.

Change things now, before they have to use a boat hoist to bury you.

Source: Reuters, in the Sydney Morning Herald

Related: $500 million pledged to fight childhood obesity

Related: 700-pound woman rescued from bathroom

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Salad bar restaurant probable source of E. coli that sickened seven

Sometimes even when you're trying to eat healthy, you can't.

Seven people who ate at a Souplantation restaurant in Lake Forest, California, recently contracted E. coli, a potentially dangerous bacterium, MSNBC reported.

Six of the seven were children; the other was in his 70s.

"Usually very young children or older adults with ongoing medical conditions already are more susceptible to developing a more severe form of this infection if it's not treated early," a spokesperson for the Orange County Health Care Agency said.

Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. operates restaurants under the names Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes. Ken Keane, the company's president, said in a statement that the company was working with health officials to investigate the contamination source and "remain committed to the highest level of quality, cleanliness and service.... The health and welfare of our guests and employees is always our top priority."

Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes are serve-yourself salad-buffet restaurants.

My family and I have enjoyed dining at Sweet Tomatoes in the Atlanta area for years. I hope that the company and the health department can locate the source of this contamination and see that it doesn't recur.

Update, Friday, April 6: Three more people, two children and a man in his 50s, have been reported to be infected with the rare strain of E. coli bacteria traced to the Souplanation restaurant, People's Daily Online reported. None had to be hospitalized.

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3 percent of hospital stays result in 'patient safety incidents'

Yet another study has shown how dangerous it is to go to the hospital.

The study, released Tuesday by the independent health care ratings company HealthGrades, found in a three-year study that nearly three percent of all hospital admissions lead to a "patient safety incident."

ABC News reports that because of these incidences, 247,662 patients died from potentially preventable problems.

Just one (or 1.16 million) more reason to take care of yourself using natural products and by getting more sunshine, eating right, getting more exercise and making other positive lifestyle changes. Consider consulting alternative health care providers, such as chiropractors, naturopaths, massage therapists, yoga teachers, acupuncturists, etc. I haven't heard of too many people dying from taking care of themselves.

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Britain's pollution more dangerous to health than Chernobyl's radiation, study suggests

A study published today by Britain's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology suggests that pollution in England's cities is more dangerous than an atomic bomb.

The study concludes that high levels of urban air pollution cut life expectancy by more than the radiation exposure of emergency workers sent into the 19-mile exclusion zone around the Chernobyl disaster, according to an article by UK writer Thair Shaikh.

Comparing health risks among modern-day Londoners, Japanese survivors of the atomic bombs, and people who have lived near the Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant which spewed nuclear radiation across the countryside in 1988, researchers found "that moving from Inverness to London could have a worse effect on your health than moving to Chernobyl."

Last month The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution released a report saying air pollution was responsible for 24,000 premature deaths in Britain every year.

Other findings showed that women living in areas of higher pollution were at greater risk of heart disease and death, while children living within 500 metres of motorways suffered more permanent lung damage and lower life expectancy, probably because of their greater exposure to pollutants in vehicle fumes.

Writing in the journal BMC Public Health, Dr [Jim] Smith [of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology] said: "It is well known that radiation can potentially cause fatal cancers in people, even at relatively low doses. But our understandable fear of radiation needs to be placed in the context of other risks.

"The immediate effects of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs led to approximately 210,000 deaths. However, radiation exposures experienced by the most exposed group of survivors led to an average loss of life expectancy significantly lower than that caused by severe obesity or active smoking."

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FDA proposes to allow irradiated foods labeled as 'pasteurized'

The U.S. government's Food and Drug Administration today announced it may relax its rules on labeling of irradiated foods and suggested it may allow some irradiated products to be called "pasteurized."

In our post-1984 world, words mean little anymore.

Pasteurization is a method of treating foods with high heat to kill microbes, then cooling it rapidly. It has long been used on milk.

The proposed FDA rule would also allow food processing companies to tell consumers via labels that foods have been irradiated at all only when radiation treatment causes a material change to the product, such as changes to the taste, texture, smell or shelf life of a food.

The consumer group Food & Water Watch immediately urged the FDA to drop the idea.

"This move by FDA would deny consumers clear information about whether they are buying food that has been exposed to high doses of ionizing radiation," Wenonah Hauter, executive director of the group, said in a statement.

Source: CNN Health

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