The pharmaceutical manufacturing giant Pfizer disclosed that it paid more than $20 million to 4,500 doctors and other medical professionals for consulting and speaking on its behalf in the last six months of 2009. In other words, those 4,500 doctors gave talks that forwarded the interests of drugs sold by Pfizer, and they performed consultations with an eye to selling Pfizer products in the deal. The sales angle did not necessarily need to be announced, meaning that attendees at the talks given by these doctors and those accepting consultations thought they were getting unbiased help. During that same period, Pfizer also paid $15.3 million to 250 academic medical centers and other research groups to sponsor clinical trials of their products.

Source

Posted by Vitamin Z at 06:10 AM | Permalink

Over 460,000 people per year are now dying of a disorder called of sudden cardiac death according to CDC statistics. This is a condition striking otherwise healthy people, who have experienced no obvious symptoms of heart disease prior to their deaths. An alarming number of these deaths are occurring in young athletes, both in high schools, colleges, as well as among professional athletes.

While cardiologists have found coronary disease and suspect previous scars from silent heart attacks in a number of these individuals, one mechanism is getting no attention at all, and that is excitotoxic damage caused by food additives and the artificial sweetener aspartame. This is despite growing evidence that the excitotoxic mechanism plays a major role in cardiac disease.

Previously, it was thought that excitotoxin food additives, such as monosodium glutamate and aspartic acid in aspartame, cause their damage in the cardiovascular centers in the brain stem and/or by over stimulating sympathetic centers in the hypothalamus of the brain. Both of these mechanisms have been shown to result in sudden cardiac death in experimental animals.

Continue reading "Sudden Cardiac Death and Food Excitotoxin Additives" »

Posted by Vitamin Z at 06:19 AM | Permalink

Dr. Strand: Well, what happened was that my wife had suffered from a disease called fibromyalgia chronic fatigue, and we had lived with this for twenty-plus years. In the 80s and 90s, she just started to go downhill. Every year, she got worse and suffered more pain and more fatigue. In 1995, she came down with serious pneumonia, and we were able to get through that, but she was left with serious chronic fatigue; she really couldn’t get out of bed for more than one to two hours a day. This went on month after month after month, and in spite of seeing four different specialists and being placed on nine different medications, she really did not improve. I didn’t get much hope from the doctors.

Well, at that time, someone gave my wife some nutritional supplements -- which I strongly did not believe in at that time. I was a typical doctor, and I thought that it would just create expensive urine or be a waste of money. But I told my wife, "Honey, you could try anything," because we were just not helping. When that happens to your family, it really hits home, being a physician. I have to admit that, within weeks, she got better. Within months, she was off of all of her medications, and within about five or six months, she was better than she had been in nine or ten years. That got my interest and caught my attention, and that’s when I started researching. So I have been researching nearly ten years…

Continue reading "Interview with Dr. Ray Strand" »

Posted by Vitamin Z at 09:44 AM | Permalink

Posted by Vitamin Z at 12:01 PM | Permalink

Here are the details:

VITAMIN E: When fed on grass, cattle take in around 15 times more vitamin E per day than they do on a typical concentrate diet, and levels on the meat can be between two and three times higher as a result.

BETA CAROTENE: is an anti-oxidant and vitamin A precursor, and given grass fed beef a rich yellow colored fat rather than Crisco-white colored fat. Grass fed beef contains up to 5.5 times more beta carotene compared to grain finished beef and cattle fed fresh growing grass contained up to 11 times more than cattle fed dried forages. In fact, the levels of beta carotene can decline up to 97% during grain feeding.

CONJUGATED LINOLEIC ACID (CLA) Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a nutrient found in the fat of ruminant animals that feed on green grass. Researchers are excited about CLA because it is anti-carcinogenic at much lower dosages than many other naturally occurring anti-carcinogens. Grass finished beef has three to five times the amount of CLA as grain fed beef.

Research suggests CLA may:

1. Prevent breast cancer especially when present during mammary tissue development
2. Suppress other cancers
3. Inhibit and reduce atherosclerosis (plaque buildup in the arteries)
4. Lower LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blood
5. Induce a relative decrease in body fat and increase in lean muscle mass
6. Increase bone health and formation
7. Normalize or reduce blood glucose levels and control and possibly prevent diabetes
8. Enhance immune system function
9. Combat allergies and asthma

Continue reading "Grain Fed vs. Grass Fed Beef" »

Posted by Vitamin Z at 04:45 PM | Permalink

Acupuncture works better than drugs like aspirin to reduce the severity and frequency of chronic headaches, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

A review of studies involving nearly 4,000 patients with migraine, tension headache and other forms of chronic headache showed that that 62 percent of the acupuncture patients reported headache relief compared to 45 percent of people taking medications, the team at Duke University found.

"Acupuncture is becoming a favorable option for a variety of purposes, ranging from enhancing fertility to decreasing post-operative pain, because people experience significantly fewer side effects and it can be less expensive than other options," Dr. Tong Joo Gan, who led the study, said in a statement.

"This analysis reinforces that acupuncture also is a successful source of relief from chronic headaches."

Writing in Anesthesia and Analgesia, they said 53 percent of patients given true acupuncture were helped, compared to 45 percent receiving sham therapy involving needles inserted in non-medical positions.

"One of the barriers to treatment with acupuncture is getting people to understand that while needles are used, it is not a painful experience," Gan said. "It is a method for releasing your body's own natural painkillers."

Continue reading "Acupuncture Beats Aspirin for Chronic Headache" »

Posted by Vitamin Z at 09:18 AM | Permalink

Wine has enjoyed a volatile reputation over the years. Considered sacred in ancient Egypt, it became sinful during the prohibition, an elitist indulgence in the post-war years, a health hazard in the 1960's, and finally a healthy tonic that delivered antioxidants and heart health in recent decades. But now, some disturbing news may cause wine to undergo yet another redefinition.

According to a study out of Kingston University in London, many wines contain heavy metals up to 200 times the amount considered safe. The researchers measured "Target Hazard Quotients (THQ)" in wines from 15 countries throughout Europe, South America, and the Middle East. A THQ of one or more is considered unsafe, but according to the researchers, most wines came in at a whopping 50 to 200. To give you perspective, seafood considered dangerous usually falls between a THQ of one and five.

The Environmental Protection Agency established guidelines for safe levels of heavy metals based on frequent, long-term exposure, so ostensibly, drinking one glass of wine with a high THQ won't have much impact on your health; drinking a glass every night for years most certainly will. Underlining this contention, Dr. Weiss of the University of Rochester commented: "Any time you see numbers like they have in this study, you begin to scratch your head and wonder about the effects over a long period of ingestion: Not one glass of wine last Tuesday, but a glass a day over a lifetime."

Continue reading "Heavy Metals and Pesticides in Wine" »

Posted by Vitamin Z at 01:59 PM | Permalink

Wheatgrass juice. That little cup of dark green juice pressed from young wheat plants can be found at virtually any heath store and juice bar. In recent years, wheatgrass juice has become one of the more popular diet foods available.

However, many people cringe at the thought of consuming one ounce of this "miracle food" and will instead turn to their coffee and pastries. Whether it’s because of its pungent taste, or its seemingly undesirable color, chances are most of you have never consumed wheatgrass juice. I’m here to tell you that whether you’ve never thought of sampling it, you just flat out refuse to give it a try, wheatgrass juice is extremely beneficial not only as food, but as an overall tonic for various ailments.

Wheatgrass is grown through a process known as sprouting. Sprouts are "complete foods" because they contain all other essential dietary nutrients, along with the enzymes to help assimilate them. They are easily digested and enter the bloodstream quickly. The nutrients in wheatgrass juice are completely assimilated by the human body in 20 minutes. For this reason sprouts are "quick energy" foods. Wheat sprouts contain four times more folic acid, and six times more Vitamin C, than unsprouted wheat or ordinary grass.

Humans can’t eat straight wheatgrass because the strong cellulose makes it too woody and fibrous for the long and complex intestines in humans. Grass eating animals, however, ( cows, horses, goats, etc.) have short intestines.

Continue reading "The Benefit Of Wheatgrass" »

Posted by Vitamin Z at 12:44 PM | Permalink

Testing prompted by an Associated Press story that revealed trace amounts of pharmaceuticals in drinking water supplies has shown that more Americans are affected by the problem than previously thought — at least 46 million.

That's up from 41 million people reported by the AP in March as part of an investigation into the presence of pharmaceuticals in the nation's waterways.

The AP stories prompted federal and local legislative hearings, brought about calls for mandatory testing and disclosure, and led officials in at least 27 additional metropolitan areas to analyze their drinking water. Positive tests were reported in 17 cases, including Reno, Nev., Savannah, Ga., Colorado Springs, Colo., and Huntsville, Ala. Results are pending in three others.

The test results, added to data from communities and water utilities that bowed to pressure to disclose earlier test results, produce the new total of Americans known to be exposed to drug-contaminated drinking water supplies.

The overwhelming majority of U.S. cities have not tested drinking water while eight cities — including Boston, Phoenix and Seattle — were relieved that tests showed no detections.

"We didn't think we'd find anything because our water comes from a pristine source, but after the AP stories we wanted to make sure and reassure our customers," said Andy Ryan, spokesman for Seattle Public Utilities.

Continue reading "46 Million Affected By Trace Amounts Of Drugs In Drinking Water" »

Posted by Vitamin Z at 10:38 PM | Permalink