Dr. Rath Health Foundation

Responsibility for a healthy world Receipient of the "Relay of Life" from the Auschwitz Survivors

Newsletter Archive

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October 20, 2011

Latest News Updates

Keep up-to-date on the latest health and politics news with our regular updates and analysis of the key stories from around the world.

Natural Health News

October 12, 2011

Scientists find vitamin D crucial in human immune response to tuberculosis
Not just important for building strong bones, an international team of scientists has found that vitamin D also plays an essential role in the body's fight against infections such as tuberculosis.
Read article at medicalxpress.com

October 6, 2011

Study Links Zinc Levels to Prostate Health
Zinc is essential for proper prostate gland function and the growth of the reproductive organs, with the concentration of zinc in the prostate being higher than that in any other tissue in the body. Because it is known that cancer cells lose the ability to store zinc, it has been suggested that zinc levels in the prostate may be related to overall prostate health. Now a new study has suggested that this may be so.
Read article on the website of the Natural Health Research Institute (USA)

For more natural health news, click here.

See also our 2001-2010 news archive, by clicking here.

Pharma "Business with Disease" News

October 14, 2011

Senators Want To Ease FDA Panel Conflict Rules
Three years after the FDA enacted tougher conflict of interest rules for its advisory committees, a legislative effort is under way to roll back the policy. A trio of US Senators has introduced a bill that would reverse agency regulations that bar experts with financial ties to drug or device makers from serving on the committees without a waiver. The move comes shortly after FDA commish Margaret Hamburg told Congress that the agency was finding it increasingly difficult to locate qualified experts who do not have financial ties to drug or device makers (read here and here). Current FDA regs include barring participation for any individual who has potentially conflicting financial interests totaling more than $50,000 (see this).
Read article at pharmalot.com
Comment: US FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg’s claim – that her agency is finding it increasingly difficult to locate qualified experts who do not have financial ties to drug companies – reflects the fact that a large number of so-called medical “experts” in the US are now, directly or indirectly, on the payroll of the Pharma Cartel. Promisingly, however, some patient and consumer groups in the US have correctly identified that the FDA is not looking hard enough to find independent advisors and that locating unconflicted members for FDA committees is not as difficult as agency officials would have the public believe. Given therefore that the FDA remains hell-bent upon eliminating the ability of American consumers to purchase non-patentable natural alternatives to the Cartel’s multi-billion dollar market in patented drugs, it needs to be understood by all that the agency has a vested interest in ensuring drug industry representatives gain access to its committees.

October 12, 2011

Medical Panels Are Rife With Financial Conflicts
In 1996, shortly after we began tracking the pharmaceutical industry, we spent time looking at obesity research and the latest diet pills. In doing so, we noticed that a panel that was assembled by the government to develop a guideline for the overweight known as the Body Mass Index. And it was populated by experts, nearly all of whom had a financial tie to a drugmaker selling or developing such pills. The finding, of course, was not all that new, but the practice continues, according to a new study in BMJ, which examined panels responsible for generating clinical practice guidelines on screening and/or treatment for high cholesterol or diabetes in the US and Canada between 2000 and 2010. A good many of the panelists - and panel chairs - had conflicts of interest. But not all were disclosed.
Read article at pharmalot.com

October 12, 2011

FDA warning for BMS’ leukaemia drug
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has updated the label of Bristol-Myers Squibb's (BMS) leukaemia drug Sprycel (dasatinib) with a warning that the drug can increase the risk of abnormally high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs. The condition, known as pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a potentially serious disorder that can weaken the heart and cause shortness of breath, fatigue, and swelling of the body.
Read article at pmlive.com

For more pharma "business with disease" news, click here.

See also our 2001-2010 news archive, by clicking here.

GMO News

October 17, 2011

Hundreds rally in Washington to demand GMO labelling
WASHINGTON -- Hundreds of people from around the United States rallied in front of the White House on Sunday, urging the government to require compulsory labeling of food made from genetically modified organisms (GMOs). "Most Americans agree they have a right to know what is in the food they put in their own and their children's bodies, but current federal policy favors the pesticide industry and hides the facts," said Katherine DiMatteo of the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements.
Read article on the Xinhua News Agency website (China)

October 6, 2011

IFOAM Requests UN Require Members to Label Genetically Modified Foods
Representatives of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) presented a special declaration October 1, 2011 to the United Nations (UN), requesting that the international organization commit all of its member nations to a world without genetically modified (GMO) foods and to identify existing GMO foods on product labels. The UN declaration was written in anticipation of the GMO Right2Know March which kicked off at the UN headquarters in New York on October 1 and will end at the White House on October 16.
Read article on the ENews Park Forest website (Illinois, USA)

September 30, 2011

Are Monsanto's Days Numbered?
50+ Organizations Urging GMO Ban
A document signed by more than 50 civil society organizations (CSOs) is asking the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development scheduled to take place in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in June 2012, to ban the use of genetically modified foods.
Read article on the Huffington Post website (USA)

For more GMO news, click here.

See also our 2001-2010 news archive, by clicking here.

Other Health-related News

October 14, 2011

Vitamin E Attacked Again Of Course. Because It Works.
The very first Orthomolecular Medicine News Service release was on the clinical benefits of vitamin E. That was seven years ago. In fact, the battle over vitamin E has been going full-tilt for over 60 years. Well, you can say one thing for vitamin critics: at least they are consistent. Consistently wrong, but consistent.
A recent accusation against vitamin E is that somehow it increases risk of prostate cancer. That is nonsense.
Read news release at orthomolecular.org

October 13, 2011

Occupy Wall Street and the Food Movement
If you are paying attention to Occupy Wall Street—and by now most people are—the anti-corporate message is coming through loud and clear. Most participants at the events now spreading across the country say they are no longer willing to let powerful corporate interests determine the course of their lives. These Americans realize that a participatory democracy is essential. As it stands today, 75 percent of the population are obese or overweight and many are chronically ill with diet-related diseases. They are also largely dependent on an increasingly unhealthful and contaminated food supply that is heavily controlled by corporate interests. It’s obvious that this is our moment to drive a very important point home: Upending corporate control of the food supply is a fundamental change that must occur if the “99 percent” are to be healthy participants in a true democracy.
Read article on the Civil Eats website (USA)

For more health-related news, click here.

See also our 2001-2010 news archive, by clicking here.

Political News

October 19, 2011

Ex-president should be arrested, activists say
Several human-rights groups are calling for the arrest of George W. Bush during his upcoming visit to Surrey tomorrow. Lawyers Against War, the Canadian Centre for International Justice, and the Centre for Constitutional Rights have sent a letter to the attorney general of Canada urging him to open a criminal investigation against the former U.S. president for his administration’s alleged use of torture on detainees.
Read article at metronews.ca (Canada)

October 12, 2011

Amnesty International Urges Canada to Prosecute George W Bush
For the US President's role in torture, Amnesty International wants former President Bush arrested
Amnesty International announced today its promotion of arrest, prosecution or extradition of former US President George W Bush by Canadian authorities. This announcement comes just ahead of the former President’s anticipated visit to Canada on October 20th. “Canada is required by its international obligations to arrest and prosecute former President Bush given his responsibility for crimes under international law including torture,” said Susan Lee, Americas Director at Amnesty International.
Read article on the Business Review Canada website

For more political news, visit the news pages on the website of the International Alliance for Health, Peace and Social Justice, and the news page on the European Referendum Initiative website. Citizens of the UK can find additional UK-orientated news stories on the Reject the EU website.

 

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