Dr Mercola warns that the FDA is compromising the safety of drugs

Dr Mercola warns that the FDA is seriously compromising the safety of drugs. See http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/08/13/drug-safety-whistleblower.aspx

Do you really think that GSK, the drug company, is interested in helping people to be healthy?

Do you really think that drug companies are interested in helping you to be healthy? - Surely not? - Are you not aware that they repeatedly appear in both the civil and the criminal courts as defendants in cases of fraud, bribery, corruption and the like? - That their only real interest is in profits and their only motivation is greed? - Check it out:

 

See last Monday's article on the BBC News Website, in which we read that "GlaxoSmithKline is to pay $3bn (£1.9bn) in the largest healthcare fraud settlement in US history. The drug giant is to plead guilty to promoting two drugs for unapproved uses and failing to report safety data about a diabetes drug to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The settlement will cover criminal fines as well as civil settlements with the federal and state governments.
The case concerns 10 drugs, including Paxil, Wellbutrin, Avandia and Advair."

Did you know that the many well-honed skills of GSK include bribing doctors to prescribe antidepressant drugs off-label for children, knowing that these drugs can and do result in grave harm to children, including death? And did you know that Andrew Witty, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours List? - Beggars belief, doesn't it? - It's not as if the fraudulent practices of this firm have only come to light recently. They have been reported and in the public domain for years. Why was the head of this huge criminal business recommended for a knighthood?

I've mentioned Andrew Witty previously in one of my blogposts. - See HERE. Would you feel safe taking drugs made and marketed by this company? -  Well I wouldn't.

Your dietary supplements are at risk

Your dietary supplements are at risk. Drug companies have great influence over FDA decisions and drug companies do not want us to have natural dietary remedies to safeguard and improve our health; they want us to take their expensive, hazardous, pharmaceutical products. The drug companies go to extraordinary lengths to limit our freedom to protect our health. - Read the National Health Federation's SAVE OUR SUPPLEMENTS.

Silicone breast implants: surely they must be high on the list of operations to avoid

Silicone breast implants: surely they must be high on the list of operations to avoid? - BBC News reports today: "Silicone breast implants are relatively safe despite frequent complications and a small increased risk of the disease lymphoma, US drug regulators have said. In a new report, the Food and Drug Administration said the risks were well enough understood that prospective patients could make informed decisions. But it found as many as one in five breast augmentation patients had the implants removed within 10 years."

This information doesn't make internal sense, does it? 'Relatively safe' and 'frequent complications and a small increased risk of the disease lymphoma' cannot logically belong in the same description, can they? - Then to top it off we are told that 20% of the patients have the implants removed within ten years! - There has to be a helluva lot of dissatisfaction or serious problems/worries to cause someone to go through the trauma/pain/expense/risk of having further surgery on the breasts.

A woman can, after all, wear a padded bra if she feels the need when dressed. And if she thinks she will appear more desirable with surgically enlarged breasts when naked then, in my opinion, she would do well to consider whether the people who value her for her measurements rather than for 'herself' are worth bothering about. Certainly not worth taking risks with your health, your most precious possession.

Sanofi Failed To Report Side Effects

In a harsh warning letter, the FDA has reprimanded Sanofi-Aventis for failing to meet regulatory deadlines for reporting serious side effects with many of its drugs, including the Lovenox blood thinner, the Multaq heart drug and the Allegra D allergy pill, and also did not report post-marketing studies or completed, unpublished clinical trials in NDA annual reports.
Read article at pharmalot.com

Johnson and Johnson in trouble over less than satisfactory FDA inspection findings

"Johnson & Johnson, already under fire from the government over deplorable conditions at a Pennsylvania plant that makes children's pain and cold drugs, is now being cited for problems at another one of its drugmaking plants in the state." - See article on CNNMoney.com.

IOM presses FDA to set new federal standards for the amount of salt that food manufacturers and restaurants be allowed to add to their products

This WebMD article reports that the Institute of Medicine is calling for the FDA to set mandatory standards for safe levels of sodium, using their existing authority to regulate salt as a food additive.

Not before time! Most people have surely encountered the message that lowering sodium intake can reduce high blood pressure, as well as reducing the risk of stroke, heart failure, heart attack, kidney failure, type 2 diabetes and many other degenerative diseases. Unfortunately most people do not know that lowering sodium intake, i.e. cutting down on salt and salty food, is also the fastest, safest and simplest way to lose excess weight.

The trouble is that there are many vested interests seeking to keep consumers salt intake high. It suits food manufacturers to add more salt than is healthy for a number of reasons. Among these reasons: salt is a very cheap ingredient, and it is an ingredient that allows more water to be added (thus adding salt and water to ham enables salt and water to be sold at the same price as ham). Salt is also addictive for many people and so this keeps up the sales of salty products. And in the case of fast food restaurants, high salt levels produce increased thirst and therefore increased sale of drinks and enhanced profits.

Until mandatory salt restriction in foodstuffs comes about, we need to police our own intake of added salt and avoid it as far as we can.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, boost your lung function and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Sodium in foods

Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.

I can be contacted from my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

CNN Special Investigations Unit Highlights Pfizer Health Care Fraud re: Bextra Painkiller

See this damning report by CNN and this excellent article by Dr Mercola, about drug company corruption and manipulation of the FDA. I do urge you to read them and to remember that drug companies are not in business for your health, but for their wealth!

Good nutrition is the best physician and the safest medicine. For your health's sake, avoid taking prescription drugs unless they are really necessary.

Sodium Valproate (Epilim) Poses Risk of Major Birth Defects if Taken During Pregnancy

WARNING!
The FDA is updating the warning for the antimigraine and antiepileptic drug valproate sodium and related drugs, which include Depacon, Depakote, Depakene and Stavzor. Use during pregnancy can cause neural tube defects and other major birth defects. The agency released information for healthcare professionals on December 3, alerting them that women of childbearing age should be informed that the use of these drugs could cause a wide variety of birth defects.
Read article at aboutlawsuits.com (USA)

Surely feeding chicken faeces to cattle must risk spread of infection?

FDA urged to ban feeding of chicken feces to cattle
Food and consumer groups say the practice increases the risk of cattle becoming infected with mad cow disease.
A fight is brewing over the practice of feeding chicken feces and other poultry farm waste to cattle. A coalition of food and consumer groups that includes Consumers Union and the Center for Science in the Public Interest has asked the Food and Drug Administration to ban the practice.
Read article in the Los Angeles Times (USA)

Personally, I don't see how anyone could ever come up with the idea of considering a bacteria-laden waste product a suitable feed for animals.

FDA fails to take action on useless pharmaceutical drugs

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration has allowed drugs for cancer and other diseases to stay on the market even when follow-up studies showed they didn't extend patients' lives, say congressional investigators. A report from the Government Accountability Office also shows that the FDA has never pulled a drug off the market due to a lack of required follow-up about its actual benefits - even when such information is more than a decade overdue.
Read article in the Washington Post (USA)

Warning about improper administration of antiviral drug, Relenza, following death of influenza patient

MarketWatch reports that Glaxo and the FDA have "warned doctors about the proper use of the antiviral drug Relenza after receiving a report of an influenza patient who died after receiving the drug through a mechanical ventilator."

You can boost your immune system by eating less salt and salty food, and by avoiding dieting. Good nutrition is the safest medicine.

Concerns that OTC anti-obesity drug, orlistat, brand name Alli, may cause liver damage.

Reported here: BBC News item.

Extracts from the report:

"The FDA said the most commonly reported adverse reactions included the yellowing of skin or whites of the eyes, weakness and stomach pain.

Between 1999 and 2008, the agency received 32 reports of liver damage, 30 of which occurred outside the US. Of these 27 resulted in hospitalisation.

The agency said it was now conducting a review of the safety of the drug, but stressed no definite association with liver damage had been established at this stage."

"In the UK, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it had received a total of 1,295 suspected adverse drug reaction reports associated with orlistat, including 137 involving suspected liver damage, since it was licensed in 1998."

There is no need to take drugs, risking adverse side-effects, to lose weight. You can lose weight fast, easily and safely by cutting down on salt and salty food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk

The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Vulnerable groups

Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

I can be contacted from my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

SSRI antidepressants taken in early pregnancy linked to birth defects in the babies

The Guardian reports that there is a link between women taking certain anti-depressants in the early weeks of pregnancy and birth defects in a small proportion of the babies born to the women.

These SSRI antidepressants include Prozac and Seroxat aka Paxil. Doctors have been warned against prescribing these drugs to pregnant women by the FDA, by the MHRA (UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority) and by NICE, nonetheless British GPs have prescibed these pills to pregnant women and other women of childbearing age without warning of the potential dangers. (Seroxat is made by GlaxoSmithKline, the British drug company.)

I urge you to read the whole of the Guardian article. Clearly there have been grave faults by the doctors and by the drug companies. In my opinion, so many drugs are teratogenic (i.e. able to disturb the growth and development of an embryo or fetus) that drugs should be completely avoided during pregnancy unless there is a very good reason for them.

Actually there is no good reason to prescribe anti-depressants to anyone. - See Anti-depressants 'no better than dummy pills' about research by a Hull University team led by Prof Irving Kirsch. Not very often doctors seek to reduce pill-taking! - I fervently hope this will save a lot of people having their lives/health damaged by these harmful, useless drugs.

As far as depression goes, a major cause of 'depression' is inadequate nutrition or dieting. Many women attempt to diet, especially during pregnancy, as they fear gaining a lot of weight because of the pregnancy. Dieting by pregnant women should be actively discouraged. It is harmful for both the woman and for the unborn baby. Weight gain is not caused by eating too many calories or not taking enough exercise. It is caused by fluid retention/sodium retention/salt sensitivity and is preventable by minimising salt intake and avoiding salty food.
Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers
Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions
and FAT RETENTION

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations.

FDA warns of steroid dangers in some body-building products

CNN reports that the Food and Drugs Administration is warning about the use of body-building products marketed as containing steroids or steroid-like substances. The affected products are TREN-Xtreme, MASS Xtreme, ESTRO Xtreme, AH-89-Xtreme, HMG Xtreme, MMA-3 Xtreme, VNS-9 Xtreme, and TT-40-Xtreme, and "the FDA considers them to be unapproved new drugs and says they are neither effective nor safe.

Over the past two years, the agency said, it has received five adverse reports directly related to the named products, including serious liver injury. While there were no reports of acute liver failure or death, it said, there were hospitalizations.

Another 15 events were attributed to this type of product in general, it said."

F.D.A. has concerns about Toxic Substances in Electronic Cigarettes

The New York Times reports that toxic substances and carcinogens have been found in electronic cigarettes analysed by the Food and Drug Administration. "The agency and public health officials are especially worried that electronic cigarettes, which are offered in flavors including cherry and bubblegum, are enticing to children and may be easy for those under 18 to obtain online or in malls."

FDA Warns Again of High Risk of Liver Damage from Acetaminophen

See U.S.News & World Report

Acetaminophen is a pain-killer. It's not the only pain-killer that can cause damage to the body.

Pain is not caused by painkiller deficiency.

It's shame that people have been led to believe that the best thing to do if you have a pain is to rush and take pain-killers. It isn't - and sometimes the pain-killers don't work anyway. And all pharmaceuticals have side-effects.

I must state that my experience of great and lasting harm from pharmaceutical drugs leads me to view them with disfavour. If you are like me and would prefer to avoid taking drugs if you possibly can, then you may like to try cutting down on salt and salty food. This does help with a lot of pains, particularly chronic pain , such as that from osteo-arthritis.

It's also helpful to consider your nutrition. Many people are short of calcium, and according to a great deal of recent research probably most of us are deficient in vitamin D. Remedying these deficiencies can help reduce chronic pain and improve sleep. - But don't go from one extreme to another and overdose on these nutrients.

FDA Scientists Have Asked Obama to Restructure Drug Agency

A group of scientists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have sent a letter to President-elect Barack Obama's transition team pleading with him to restructure the agency, saying managers have ordered, intimidated and coerced scientists to manipulate data in violation of the law.
Read article in the Wall Street Journal (USA)

Contaminated honey from China is causing concern.

US officials crack down on Chinese 'honey laundering'
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The US Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on honey launderers amid fears that dangerously contaminated honey could slip into the US market and harm consumers. Efforts to tackle honey laundering have also been launched in Russian, India and Australia.

The Post-Intelligencer claims, however, that US inspections of honey imports remain rare and federal officials have yet to adopt a legal definition of honey which makes it hard to keep substandard honey from being sold.

The concern about Chinese honey stems from the use of a toxic antibiotic to fight a contagious bacterial epidemic that raged through hives across China in 1997. The outbreak reduced the country's honey production by two thirds.

The drug, chloramphenicol, has been banned from all food products by the FDA. The administration says tainted honey from China is at the top of its watch list and has issued three "import alerts" to port and border inspectors about tainted Chinese honey.

Officials have also found other antibiotics in Chinese honey and blends of honey syrup and recently warned that corn or cane sugar could also be tainted with bad honey."

FDA puts black box warning on bowel-clearing drugs

WASHINGTON -- Federal health officials have said they will add the sternest safety warnings available to drugs used before colonoscopies, following reports of kidney damage in several patients. The Food and Drug Administration said it has received more than 20 reports of a serious form of kidney failure among patients taking the bowel-cleansing drugs, known as oral phosphate products. The new boxed warning label will apply to Visicol and OsmoPrep _ both prescription tablets made by Salix Pharmaceuticals.
Read article in the Washington Post (USA)