New Approach to Treating Yeast Infection - Yogurt and Garlic Top List of Most Popular Home Remedies

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/2/prweb350512.htm

A recent survey of alternative medicine publications lists yogurt and garlic as the most often recommended home remedies for treating vaginal yeast infection. Several other low-cost home treatments for this common condition which affects up to seventy percent of women are also detailed in the survey.
Spokane, WA (PRWEB) February 23, 2006 -- Women who suffer from vaginal yeast infection, or candida, may want to visit their kitchen before heading to the drug store. A new survey of recommended alternative medical treatments lists yogurt and garlic as the two most popular home remedies for this condition known to affect nearly three out of every four women at least once in their lifetime. Other treatments found in the survey include dietary and life-style changes plus various herbal remedies.The Natural Family Health Group, an independent research group specializing in family health issues, conducted this survey over several months and researched print and on-line articles, books, and health guides. According to Jean Sanders, a lead researcher with the Natural Family Health Group, "The purpose of the study was to identify which home treatments were most often recommended in current publications on alternative or complimentary medicine. Women these days want to understand all the medical treatment choices available to them."An important concept noted in nearly all of the publications reviewed for this survey was that women need to first understand the cause of yeast infection. According to Joseph Apuzzio, MD and researcher focusing on infectious diseases in Gynecology, "A yeast infection is an overgrowth of a naturally occurring yeast in the vagina, which is severe enough to cause the patient to have symptoms." In other words, it is normal for healthy women to have the yeast organism, known as Candida Albicans, in small quantities. They experience a so-called yeast infection whenever their normal yeast population grows to excessive levels and thus irritates skin and vaginal tissues.According to Sanders, "It's really a question of balance, that is, eliminating factors that tend to increase yeast overgrowth while at the same time supplying your body with other normal organisms that compete with the yeast and keep it at normal levels."Sanders explained, "We believe that the reason that yogurt was the most often recommended home treatment is because it reportedly helps to replace the normal balance of so-called friendly microorganisms. The articles we surveyed suggest that affected women should not only eat additional yogurt but that in some cases they may want to apply it directly to affected areas. Women have indicated that this helps relieve some of the discomfort while at the same time encouraging those friendly bacteria be restored back to normal levels."The survey found fresh garlic to be the second most popular home treatment. Alternative medicine proponents claim that garlic contains a natural anti-fungal substance that can help reduce a yeast overgrowth condition. Additional suggestions noted in the survey include discontinuing the use of commercial douche products that can adversely affect the normal balance of healthy microorganisms and also avoiding tight-fitting clothing especially those made of synthetic materials. In addition, the survey lists herbal remedies and other natural products such as acidophilus and other so-called "probiotics".The Natural Family Health Group has published details of its findings on-line at the website www.home-remedies-yeast-infection.com along with additional articles covering causes, symptoms, and other treatment choices."Women who are considering home treatment for their yeast problem should make sure their condition is in fact a yeast infection," warns Sanders. "There are several serious conditions including sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs, that can be confused with yeast infection symptoms. Therefore, women should be strongly encouraged to get their doctor to help in diagnosing their condition before starting self-treatment."About the Natural Family Health Group:The Natural Family Health Group in an independent research group dedicated to providing consumers with information on family health topics and natural treatments to common conditions.Contact:Shelley Graham, director of marketingNatural Family Health Group509-338-5200http://www.home-remedies-yeast-infection.com

Study: Nutritional Supplements No Help For Minor Arthritis
Research Scrutinizes Unregulated Health Remedies

http://www.wftv.com/health/7337094/detail.html?rss=orlc&psp=health

Incredible The researchers over this study have received 'consulting fees' from pharmaceutical companies in the past and we as the public are supposed to believe this study to be completely scientifically unbiased? Anyway, the headline is misleading. It fails to mention G & C were more effective in the treatment of moderate to severe arthritis than Celebrex; its mentioned at the very end of this article. tsk tsk

POSTED: 4:30 pm EST February 22, 2006
UPDATED: 5:21 pm EST February 22, 2006
Two hot-selling supplements used by millions of Americans, including President George W. Bush, are of little help to most people with mild arthritis, concludes a large government study that is part of an effort to scrutinize unregulated health remedies.
For most arthritis patients with aching knees, the health food store supplements, glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate, turned out to be no better than dummy pills. People who had more acute knee pain seemed to show some benefit.
Because of that hint of possible relief and other factors, the study may not settle the debate about these unproven treatments even though it's considered the largest and most scientific test to date.
"We still have a bit of a conundrum," said Dr. Tim McAlindon, a Tufts University rheumatologist who had no role in the research.
Rheumatologist Dr. Daniel Clegg of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, who led the study, suggested people with severe arthritis talk to their doctors about trying the supplements short-term to see if they work.
More than 20 million Americans suffer from osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis. That number is expected to double in the next two decades as baby boomers age. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that affects the knees, hips, back and the small joints in the fingers.
The search for pain relief helped boost worldwide sales of glucosamine and chondroitin to $1.7 billion last year, according to the Nutrition Business Journal, which tracks supplements. The supplements -- made from animal cartilage and shellfish -- have had even wider appeal amid safety concerns over certain painkillers, including the arthritis medicine Vioxx, which was yanked from the market in 2004.
At least 5 million Americans use the two supplements either alone or together, government figures show. Thanks to knee stiffness, one of those customers is President Bush. A spokeswoman for the president did not immediately return a call seeking comment on whether he would keep taking the pills.
The supplements showed no known side effects during the government's six-month study, but the scientists didn't address the safety of longer-term use.
The arthritis research, published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, is the third major study in a year to find no overall benefit from some of the most popular nutritional supplements. Recently, research showed the herb saw palmetto didn't reduce symptoms of an enlarged prostate, and last year a study indicated echinacea didn't prevent or treat colds.
Unlike drugs, such supplements are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and their makers don't have to prove the products are safe or effective.
The Arthritis Foundation said Wednesday it was recommending people with severe knee pain speak to their doctors about whether combined glucosamine-chondroitin therapy might be a good addition to their overall treatment. Generally, arthritis sufferers are urged to exercise, keep their weight down and try hot and cold therapy, along with painkillers if needed.
One consumer who plans to keep using the supplements is 72-year-old Irene Schwartzburt. She said the unregulated remedies relieved the "sticking pain" in her right knee when painkillers failed.
"I want to stay active," said the retired teacher from Plainview, N.Y. "The supplements work for me so why not continue with them?"
In the government study, 1,583 patients with arthritis knee pain received one of five treatments: either glucosamine or chondroitin, a combination of both, the painkiller Celebrex or dummy pills.
Neither the doctors nor patients knew which treatment was given.
After six months, patients filled out a questionnaire to determine how many felt a 20 percent reduction in pain. Researchers found the supplements when taken alone or together were no more effective than dummy pills at pain relief.
Sixty percent who took the dummy medication had reduced pain compared with 64 percent who took glucosamine, 65 percent who took chondroitin and 67 percent who took the combo pills. These differences were so small that they could have occurred by chance alone.
The drug Celebrex did reduce pain -- 70 percent reported improvement -- affirming the study's validity. However, the drug is being studied to see if it's safe for people at risk of heart problems.
Of the 354 people with moderate to severe pain, 79 percent who took both supplements reported relief compared with 54 percent who took the dummy pills and 69 percent who took Celebrex.
In a journal editorial, Dr. Marc Hochberg of the University of Maryland noted the study's limitations: a high dropout rate (20 percent) and a whopping 60 percent who said the dummy pills made them feel better -- double the usual placebo effect. Hochberg has received consulting fees from Pfizer Inc., which makes Celebrex, and Merck & Co., which made Vioxx.
Clegg and 10 other researchers in the study reported receiving fees or grant support from Pfizer or McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals, which makes Tylenol.
The Council for Responsible Nutrition, which represents dietary supplement makers, said it was pleased about the positive findings in the severe arthritis group.

Study: Nutritional Supplements No Help For Minor Arthritis
Research Scrutinizes Unregulated Health Remedies

http://www.wftv.com/health/7337094/detail.html?rss=orlc&psp=health

POSTED: 4:30 pm EST February 22, 2006
UPDATED: 5:21 pm EST February 22, 2006
Two hot-selling supplements used by millions of Americans, including President George W. Bush, are of little help to most people with mild arthritis, concludes a large government study that is part of an effort to scrutinize unregulated health remedies.
For most arthritis patients with aching knees, the health food store supplements, glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate, turned out to be no better than dummy pills. People who had more acute knee pain seemed to show some benefit.
Because of that hint of possible relief and other factors, the study may not settle the debate about these unproven treatments even though it's considered the largest and most scientific test to date.
"We still have a bit of a conundrum," said Dr. Tim McAlindon, a Tufts University rheumatologist who had no role in the research.
Rheumatologist Dr. Daniel Clegg of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, who led the study, suggested people with severe arthritis talk to their doctors about trying the supplements short-term to see if they work.
More than 20 million Americans suffer from osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis. That number is expected to double in the next two decades as baby boomers age. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that affects the knees, hips, back and the small joints in the fingers.
The search for pain relief helped boost worldwide sales of glucosamine and chondroitin to $1.7 billion last year, according to the Nutrition Business Journal, which tracks supplements. The supplements -- made from animal cartilage and shellfish -- have had even wider appeal amid safety concerns over certain painkillers, including the arthritis medicine Vioxx, which was yanked from the market in 2004.
At least 5 million Americans use the two supplements either alone or together, government figures show. Thanks to knee stiffness, one of those customers is President Bush. A spokeswoman for the president did not immediately return a call seeking comment on whether he would keep taking the pills.
The supplements showed no known side effects during the government's six-month study, but the scientists didn't address the safety of longer-term use.
The arthritis research, published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, is the third major study in a year to find no overall benefit from some of the most popular nutritional supplements. Recently, research showed the herb saw palmetto didn't reduce symptoms of an enlarged prostate, and last year a study indicated echinacea didn't prevent or treat colds.
Unlike drugs, such supplements are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and their makers don't have to prove the products are safe or effective.
The Arthritis Foundation said Wednesday it was recommending people with severe knee pain speak to their doctors about whether combined glucosamine-chondroitin therapy might be a good addition to their overall treatment. Generally, arthritis sufferers are urged to exercise, keep their weight down and try hot and cold therapy, along with painkillers if needed.
One consumer who plans to keep using the supplements is 72-year-old Irene Schwartzburt. She said the unregulated remedies relieved the "sticking pain" in her right knee when painkillers failed.
"I want to stay active," said the retired teacher from Plainview, N.Y. "The supplements work for me so why not continue with them?"
In the government study, 1,583 patients with arthritis knee pain received one of five treatments: either glucosamine or chondroitin, a combination of both, the painkiller Celebrex or dummy pills.
Neither the doctors nor patients knew which treatment was given.
After six months, patients filled out a questionnaire to determine how many felt a 20 percent reduction in pain. Researchers found the supplements when taken alone or together were no more effective than dummy pills at pain relief.
Sixty percent who took the dummy medication had reduced pain compared with 64 percent who took glucosamine, 65 percent who took chondroitin and 67 percent who took the combo pills. These differences were so small that they could have occurred by chance alone.
The drug Celebrex did reduce pain -- 70 percent reported improvement -- affirming the study's validity. However, the drug is being studied to see if it's safe for people at risk of heart problems.
Of the 354 people with moderate to severe pain, 79 percent who took both supplements reported relief compared with 54 percent who took the dummy pills and 69 percent who took Celebrex.
In a journal editorial, Dr. Marc Hochberg of the University of Maryland noted the study's limitations: a high dropout rate (20 percent) and a whopping 60 percent who said the dummy pills made them feel better -- double the usual placebo effect. Hochberg has received consulting fees from Pfizer Inc., which makes Celebrex, and Merck & Co., which made Vioxx.
Clegg and 10 other researchers in the study reported receiving fees or grant support from Pfizer or McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals, which makes Tylenol.
The Council for Responsible Nutrition, which represents dietary supplement makers, said it was pleased about the positive findings in the severe arthritis group.

Global Obesity: Nestl Initiatives in Nutrition, Health, and Wellness

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/405871/global_obesity_nestl_initiatives_in_nutrition_health_and_wellness/index.html?source=r_health

By Green, Hilary
This paper addresses some of the ways that Nestl is making a long- term commitment to the health and well-being of consumers. In particular, Nestl, like other food companies, has a role to play in improving people's health and wellness by improving the nutritional profile of foods, by ensuring sound communication on nutrition and consumer education, and by collaborating with other stakeholders in order to improve consumer health.
Key words: health, nutrition, obesity
2006 International Life Sciences Institute
doi: 10.1301/nr.2006.feb.S62-S64

INTRODUCTION

Food companies are profit-making organizations, and it is their responsibility to make profit in a socially acceptable way. The global rise in the prevalence of obesity that has taken place in recent years has led to skepticism about the way in which food companies make profits. For example, marketing and advertising methods that encourage consumers to "pay less-eat more" (such as supersizing) have been cited as irresponsible because they may promote overconsumption. This paper addresses some of the ways that Nestl is making a long-term commitment to the health and well-being of consumers.
There are very few countries in the world that are untouched by the obesity epidemic. Even in countries where a relatively low proportion of the population is overweight, the prevalence is increasing. In Europe, just as in America, over half of the population is overweight or obese. Nestl, as the world's largest food company, can be part of the solution to this global epidemic. Not only does Nestl have global presence, with companies in over 100 countries and factories in 86 countries, but the company also has the world's largest private nutrition research capability.

NESTLE POSITION ON OBESITY, NUTRITION, AND HEALTH

Nestl's position on obesity, nutrition, and health underscores the company's commitment to doing business in a socially responsible way. There are eight points:
* Nestl considers that proper nutrition and adequate physical activity are integral to maintaining good health. Therefore, the company not only makes continual improvements to the nutritional profile of its products, but is also actively involved in sports promotion (such as cricket, swimming, and ski programs) and sponsorship (such as by PowerBar) in markets across the world.
* Nestl believes every food has a role to play in achieving a balanced diet. We also recognize that many consumers need help in understanding how this can be achieved. Therefore, the company's position also addresses communication on nutrition and education.
* Nestl continues to use its significant scientific knowledge not only to develop new products to help consumers manage their health, well-being, and body weight, but also to improve the nutritional profile of existing ones.
* Nestl has always kept abreast of new developments in the nutrition sciences through research collaboration and its Nutrition Advisory Committee. This committee of world experts in nutrition has been in existence for over 25 years.
* Nestl is committed to responsible communication about all of our products, especially those consumed by children. In 2003, for example, the company revised its corporate communication principles to better reflect this commitment. Nestl's corporate business principles can be consulted on the company's website at http:// www.nestle.com/All_About/Business_Principles/.
* Nestl is committed to clear and "user-friendly" nutrition labeling to help consumers make well-informed food choices. This is done both on and off packaging.
* Nestl will expand the encouragement of nutrition education programs for the public, and this is being done in markets around the world.
* Nestl will collaborate closely with public health bodies, both national and international, in efforts to reduce the incidence of global obesity. For example, the company has developed dialogue with the World Health Organization (WHO) on nutrition and health topics.

Global obesity presents a challenge for the food industry, because food is part of the solution. Nestl is tackling this in a number of ways, as outlined in the company's position above. Science- based product renovation and innovation are an important aspect of this overall strategy. Nestl has a broad product range, which includes main courses, milk, and water, chocolate and candies, and specialized nutrition products for infants, the elderly, and the infirm. This means that product improvements require a multidisciplinary portfolio of research and development.
Renovation may be secondary to company policies that specifically address consumer health across the product portfolio. For example, Nestl has a company policy with respect to fortification, trans- fatty acids and salt, and is currently developing a policy on sugars. Alternatively, product renovation may be specific to individual products.

CONSUMER BENEFITS

Product renovation, or innovation, starts with consumer insights, which tell us that, above all, our consumers want great-tasting foods-however, increasingly, consumers also want healthy foods. Taste and health are therefore key drivers for product purchase. Bringing taste and nutrition together in the same product is not easy. If products deliver nutrition but not taste they are unlikely to be bought very often, and a food not bought has no commercial benefit. And if it is not eaten, food will not confer any nutrition benefits either. Therefore, our challenge is to manufacture foods that taste great and provide good nutrition. At Nestl we are working on both taste and nutrition in order to make the tasty choice the healthy choice.
Food companies can renovate existing products relatively quickly, usually within 1 to 3 years. For health purposes, these renovations include low-fat, low-sugar, high-fiber foods. Nestl first had such renovated products on the market about 15 years ago.
Last year, we asked all of our markets to provide us with examples of products that they had renovated for health over the last 5 years. We were inundated with many hundreds of examples. These include enriched products (e.g., with vitamins or minerals), as well as products that are low in fat, low in sugar, and low in calories.
The consumer benefits of this kind of product renovation range from calorie control to being heart friendly to helping to control postprandial blood glucose to helping with blood pressure control. Of course, product improvements such as these, even though they are made by many food companies, will not provide the only solution to the global rise in obesity and noncommunicable diseases, but product renovations of this kind are part of a bigger lifestyle picture that includes healthy eating and exercise.
In contrast to renovation, product innovation requires a long- term commitment in research and development. It may take 5 or more years to innovate products. The innovation process includes evaluating the efficacy of new products in properly conducted scientific studies, which we can communicate appropriately to the consumer. This can be illustrated for heart health.
Soft, general claims such as "may keep your heart healthy" can be made for foods that are high in whole grain because of the scientific evidence linking a diet high in whole grains with heart health. Nestl makes such a claim for shredded wheat breakfast cereal in the United Kingdom. However, more specific claims such as "actively reduces cholesterol absorption" for foods containing plant sterols requires more specific scientific substantiation. In fact, the cholesterol-lowering effect of plant sterols has been shown in numerous appropriately designed clinical trials.

NESTLE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Nestl's global research and development network comprises the Nestl Research Centre, which focuses on basic research, as well as nine product technology centers and seven research and development centers. Nestl has nutrition expertise in every research and development facility and in every market.
The Nestl Research Centre was inaugurated in 1987, and is Nestl's center for basic knowledge in the food and life sciences. This knowledge is applied to the whole Nestl group, while also being part of the international scientific community. Last year, we had 483 outside contracts, published 208 papers, and registered 17 patents.
The Nestl Research Centre focuses on nutrition, health, and well- being. There are departments that specialize in food science, food- consumer interactions (including sensory science and consumer behavior), nutrition, and health, and basic research in pet nutrition. These fundamental departments are supported by work in the departments of bioanalytical science, quality, and safety and the nutrition network (which encompasses nutrition expertise in Nestl's global research and development network). The combined work of all of these departments can be summarized as being either food- oriented before consumption (food structure, taste, flavor, aroma, and appetite) or consumer-oriented after consumption (nutrient bioavailability, biomarkers of health, and intra-individual differences).
An example of Nestl's long-term research is the use of beta- glucans (soluble fiber) for slowing down the absorption ofnutrients such as glucose. Delayed glucose absorption is associated with a reduction in peak blood glucose and a more sustained elevation of blood glucose. The consumer understands this as "long-lasting energy."
One way that Nestl translates scientific knowledge for consumers is using "branded active benefits." The benefits of beta glucans are highlighted on the package using a trademarked logo and the term "BG- 3." Nestl has also trademarked logos to identify its products specially formulated to provide other benefits such as vitality/ protection, cholesterol lowering, bone mineral density, energy release, immunity, intestinal health, and growth and development.

INNOVATION IN THE FUTURE

At Nestl, we are thinking beyond 5 years into the future of nutrition science. We are interested in tailored, or personalized, nutrition through a better understanding of metabolism. Metabolism is highly complex because it concerns the whole body and interactions between different organs. Further, metabolism is tightly regulated by hormonal and nervous factors, while being influenced by environmental factors and nutritional status. Nevertheless, conventionally, we try to evaluate this with a single biomarker or end point such as cholesterol. For example, if a consumer's blood cholesterol is high, then we expect that he/she will benefit from foods containing plant sterols, but in reality human health is more complicated than this. Individuals may be be susceptible to more than one noncommunicable disease, each one influenced by different nutritional factors.
Therefore, we are taking an integrative biological approach to understanding health in order to try and identify health benefits (such as weight control) in response to different foods or diets. In relation to weight control, one of our research goals is to understand body fat. We want to better understand the differences between subcutaneous fat and the fat that is specifically stored around the abdomen and viscera. We know that people with excess abdominal and/or visceral fat are at increased risk of type 2 diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, and atherosclerosis, so this understanding is critical.
We have collected fat biopsies from women who attended the local teaching hospital for surgical treatment of their obesity. Using comparative gene arrays, we found that over 6000 genes are differently expressed in the two types of fat. Although we are primarily interested in the pattern of gene expression, rather than in individual genes, we have observed that many of the genes that are expressed preferentially in visceral fat seem to be associated with inflammation, and this may help to explain why fat from around the abdomen is associated with chronic metabolic diseases. We are now using metabolomics to study the metabolic profile in the urine, blood, and saliva of the same patients. In the longer term, it would be interesting to explore how nutrients, foods, or diets influence gene expression in adipose tissue at different sites.

CONCLUSION

Einstein once said, "Today's problems cannot be solved by thinking the way that we thought when we created them." We might apply this to today's problems with noncommunicable diseases, which cannot be reduced by continuing to live as we have been living for the past 40 years or so. We need to better address how lifestyle affects long-term health. Food companies have a role to play in improving people's health and wellness by improving the nutritional profile of foods, ensuring sound communication on nutrition and consumer education, and collaborating with other stakeholders in order to be part of the solution.
Dr. Green is with the Department of Nutrition and Health, Nestl Research Centre, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Please address all correspondence to: Dr. Hilary Green, Department of Nutrition and Health, Nestl Research Centre, Nestec, Ltd., Vers Chez-les-Blanc, P.O. Box 44, 1000 Lausanne 26, Switzerland; Phone: 41-21-785-8847; Fax: 41-21-785-8544; E-mail: hilary. green@rdls.nestle.com.

Not All Whole-Grain Products Are Equal--UPDATED

http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/healthy-food-304-not-all-wholegrain-products-are-equalupdated.html

In Eat to Live Dr. Fuhrman explains that simply labeling a food “whole grain” doesn’t make it a wholesome food choice. (And he recommends getting only a small percentage of calories from grains at all--in Dr. Furhman's Food Pyramid only 5-20% of total calories are from grains and nuts).
Dr. Fuhrman adds that many whole-grain cold cereals are so processed that they lack an adequate fiber per serving ratio and have lost most of their nutritional value.
Today, there's news the Food and Drug Administration is proposing a new standard a definition of the term "whole grain" to eliminate confusion among consumers. It's not yet law, but may be in a few months, and food companies would then have to change their labeling accordigly. AP writer Libby Quaid describes the proposed definition this way :
The definition says a whole grain must retain its basic structure. It applies to corn, rice, oats and wheat and lesser-known cereal grains, such as bulgur, millet and sorghum. It does not include soybeans, chickpeas, sunflower seeds and other legumes or oilseeds.
The tricky part is what's done to the grain during processing. If it's intact, ground, cracked or flaked, it still is a whole grain. Rolled or "quick" oats are still whole grains. Popcorn is a whole grain. Pearled barley is not a whole grain; too much of its bran layer has been removed.
In addition, pizza or bagels labeled as "whole grain" or "whole wheat" ought to have dough made entirely from whole wheat or whole grain flour, the FDA said.Why are whole grains better for your health, anyway? In Eat to Live Dr. Fuhrman explains:
Whole wheat that is finely ground is absorbed into the bloodstream fairly rapidly and should not be considered as wholesome as more coarsely ground and grittier whole grains. The rapid rise of glucose triggers fat storage hormones. Because the more coarsely ground grains are absorbed more slowly, they curtail our appetite better.
Unlike eating whole-grain foods, ingesting processed foods can subtract nutrients and actually create nutritional deficiencies, as the body utilizes nutrients to digest and assimilate food. If the mineral demands of digestion and assimilation are greater than the nutrients supplied by the food, we may end up with a deficit—a drain on our nutrient reserve funds.
What about bagels? Is the "whole-wheat" bagel you just bought at the bagel store really made from whole grain? No; in most cases, it is primarily white flour. It is hard to tell sometimes. Ninety-nine percent of pastas, breads, cookies, pretzels and other grain products are made from white flour. Sometimes a little whole wheat or caramel color is added and the product is called whole wheat to make you think it is the real thing. It isn't. Most brown bread is merely white bread with a fake tan.

Asante clinic will stretch boundaries

http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2006/0219/local/stories/15local.htm

By JOHN DARLINGfor the Mail Tribune
In a departure from conventional medicine, Asante in April will open an "integrative health" center offering increasingly popular health care alternatives, such as acupuncture, meditation, massage, yoga, herbal supplements, guided visualization, esthetician (skin treatments), nutrition and exercise.
The Triune Integrative Medicine Clinic, 916 Town Center Drive in Medford, will be owned and operated by Asante, Dr. Robin Miller and nurse practitioner Deirdre Goldberg — and will use only scientifically proven alternative therapies, combined with traditional medicine, said Scott Kelly, Asante’s vice president for marketing, business and development.
"Integrative medicine means therapies that integrate body, mind and spirit," said Kelly, noting that many patients already use alternatives but don’t tell physicians. "This gives patients the best of both worlds, developing a treatment plan that includes the patients’ primary care physician."
The clinic will focus on therapies that lower stress (meditation, visualization and yoga), decrease obesity (diet, exercise and vitamin and mineral supplements) and employ techniques from other cultures — such as acupuncture, said Miller, a Medford physician, television health commentator and graduate of health author Andrew Weil’s Integrative Medicine program at the University of Arizona.
The clinic plans to offer classes to the public — and will avoid fad and possibly dangerous alternative therapies, such as hydrogen peroxide injections or magnetotherapy, Miller added.
While this will be the first clinic in the Rogue Valley to integrate conventional and alternative techniques, said Miller, it’s already being done in major hospitals, including Oregon Health Science University in Portland, Stanford, Cedars- Sinai and UCLA.
"It’s not as big a departure you may think," said Kelly, "and Robin and Deidre will steer the clinic from an orientation of many years in conventional medicine. They will do an hour to an hour-and-a-half intake to develop a treatment plan. If the patient has cancer or heart disease, the plan will integrate with the oncologist or cardiologist, so the patient, for example, doesn’t use supplements that are contraindicated with pharmaceuticals."
The idea for the integrative clinic came from Asante and its board, said Miller. It is based on surveys that show up to 48 percent of Americans use a complementary therapy, but few inform their physicians, said Goldberg, an Ashland nurse and former teacher at OHSU.
"Conventional medicine is changing (to include complementary techniques) because the public has found a lot of them helpful and because research has backed that up," said Goldberg.
However, noted Kelly, "if a patient comes in with a bad urinary tract infection and they’ve been trying alternatives, we’re going to say you need antibiotics now. We’ll take the conservative approach."
The clinic is open to anyone, "especially people frustrated with the system as it is now, or people who are frustrated because they don’t know what’s wrong with them or people who are fine and just want to set up a wellness program," said Miller, adding that if services are not available on-site, patients will be referred out to physicians, including chiropractors and other healers.
Asante owns 65 percent of the clinic, Miller owns 25 percent and Goldberg owns 10 percent. Asante sponsored Miller as a fellow in the alternative training with Weil, who is also a medical doctor.
"He opened my eyes. He opened up so many new avenues," Miller said of the Arizona author’s program. "I felt trapped in traditional medicine — that it had nothing else to offer. I’d lost my love for medicine, but found it again. He’s been very controversial, but he’s never backed down and now he’s the national leader of the integrative medicine movement. He didn’t just teach me to think outside the box, but he tore the box down."
The 2,200-square-foot clinic is slated to open mid-April.

Alternative medicine is gaining acceptance, but dangers remain

http://www.thestate.com/mld/bradenton/business/13880992.htm?source=rss&channel=bradenton_business

SHARI ROANLos Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES - So-called complementary and alternative medicines have gained a foothold in today's medical world, garnering grudging respect from many mainstream physicians and researchers.
Medical centers such as the University of California, Los Angeles, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York have created integrative programs, and medical schools increasingly offer courses in the field of alternative medicine.
Several peer-reviewed journals are now devoted to the subject. In 1998, Congress established the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine to conduct research on promising and popular therapies.
"Complementary" means unorthodox therapies used in conjunction with conventional medicine, while "alternative" means therapies used in place of conventional treatment.
But with this measure of legitimacy has come a rise in unprofessional, even fraudulent, practitioners. Using the Internet and word of mouth to promote their services - and nuggets of science to defend their treatments - these peddlers of unproven cures offer hope to desperately sick people in imaginative new ways.
Some fatally ill patients forgo traditional care; others burn through their savings. Diagnosed with ovarian cancer, the late Coretta Scott King sought care at a Mexican clinic, Santa Monica Health Institute. She died there, and it was shut down by Mexican health authorities.
Many such patients merge conventional care with alternative practices without telling their doctors, thus risking dangerous side effects or drug interactions.
"People who know the field well think that many cancer patients are harming themselves by engaging in dubious practices," says Andrew Vickers, a research methodologist at Sloan-Kettering who has studied alternative medicine.
An estimated 80 percent of all cancer patients in the United States use some type of unorthodox therapy, according to a 2002 survey by the business research firm Datamonitor.
The worldwide market for complementary and alternative medicines for cancer patients could be as high as $18 billion, the research firm says.
Today, says Dr. Wallace Sampson, clinical professor emeritus of medicine at Stanford University, no treatments can be called bad, only "unproven."
Sampson edits the Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine, a journal exploring the scientific validity of complementary and alternative treatments.
Proponents of unorthodox medicine have been quite successful at changing the language and the playing field, he says.
"What we used to regard as illegal, immoral and unethical is now regarded as just a different way of thinking."
But Erica McLean maintains that she and her late husband Clive, who died of cancer, were duped.
"When you're dealing with something like this, you can believe anything and anybody," she says. "We were so pulled by the promise of a cure. It was a betrayal."
Experiences such as those McLean describes are thought to be common, although few cases of suspected fraud are reported and prosecuted.
With many alternative practitioners unlicensed and unregulated by medical boards or state agencies, there is little recourse for consumers except to file a complaint with local law enforcement agencies. But, experts say, those agencies' resources for identifying health fraud are thin.

Families turn to disputed autism drug

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-autism12.html

February 12, 2006
BY JIM RITTER Health Reporter
His parents and his school are amazed at the progress an autistic little boy named Charlie Blakey has been making.
The transformation began right after Charlie started a treatment most experts say is useless -- and possibly dangerous.
The treatment, called chelation, removes mercury and other toxic metals from the body. The theory is that the mercury kids received from vaccines caused their autism.
Since undergoing chelation, Charlie has had fewer temper tantrums and is spending less time walking around in circles. He is talking more and is easier to understand. And, there's been a big jump in his language test scores.
Charlie's mom pleased
"The brain fog lifted," said his mother, Christina Blakey, of Oak Park. "He just started picking things up. They couldn't teach him fast enough."
No one knows how many autistic kids are undergoing chelation, but by most estimates, the number is in the thousands or even tens of thousands.
Dr. Anju Usman, who prescribed Charlie's chelation, has 1,000 autistic kids in her practice, and a two-year waiting list of 500 patients. The Naperville family practice physician is among a handful of doctors in the country who prescribe chelation. Usman recommends chelation when other treatments don't work. "Parents see kids get better and they tell one another," Usman said. "It's the results that bring them here."
The chelation movement is a grass-roots revolt against mainstream medicine, which has been unable to find out what causes autism or how to cure it.
People are desperate for cures
Government agencies and leading medical groups, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, American Academy of Pediatrics and Institute of Medicine, say there's no evidence to support chelation, or the theory behind it.
"The word chelation strikes a chord of disgust in most physicians," said Arizona State University autism researcher James Adams.
So why do parents persist?
"Autism is a very difficult disease to live with. People are desperate for cures and desperate for solutions," said child autism specialist Dr. Bennett Leventhal of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Childhood vaccines used to contain thimerosal, a preservative that contains mercury. (Charlie was vaccinated right before manufacturers began phasing out thimerosal.)
Chelation proponents say autistic children for some reason are unable to excrete mercury from their bodies. They note that some autism symptoms are similar to mercury poisoning. An increase in reported autism cases coincided with the expanded use of childhood vaccines.
However, the Institute of Medicine reported in 2004 that there's no link between vaccines and autism. The institute said five large studies in the United States, United Kingdom and Denmark found no association between thimerosal and autism.
Chelation drugs come in pills and creams. They are approved for the treatment of lead poisoning, but are being used "off label" to remove mercury.
One risk of chelation is that it removes essential minerals such as zinc and calcium along with the bad stuff. Chelation also can stress the liver and kidneys.
Doctors skeptical
Last year, a 5-year-old Pennsylvania boy undergoing chelation went into cardiac arrest and died. A CDC doctor later blamed the death on a drug mix-up. Rather than receiving the intended chelation drug, the boy was given a look-alike and sound-alike drug that pulled too much calcium from his blood.
A survey by the Autism Research Institute, which promotes alternative therapies, found that 76 percent of parents who have tried chelation say their children improved. That's a higher reported success rate than for any other drug, supplement or special autism diet, the survey found.
But just because parents notice an improvement doesn't necessarily mean chelation is the reason, Leventhal said. It could be because of the expectation effect: Parents believe in the therapy, so they become convinced it works. And Leventhal said children naturally improve as they get older.
The skeptics note that before chelation, parents used another untested treatment, the intestinal hormone secretin. After anecdotal reports that secretin helped autistic children, many parents began giving it to their children. But more than a dozen subsequent studies showed it doesn't work, said Dr. Scott Myers, a member of the pediatrics academy's autism panel.
The same thing now may be happening with chelation, Myers said. "The therapy has gotten way ahead of the evidence."
The only way to prove whether chelation works is to conduct a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study: Take a group of autistic kids. Randomly assign half to receive chelation and half to get an inactive placebo. To prevent bias, neither the parents nor the researchers doing the evaluation should know who got what.
No such research has been done. But at least one study, involving 80 children, is under way at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Arizona.
'I'm the expert on my child'
As many as 1 in 166 children are on the "autism spectrum," which ranges from mild to severe. They have impaired social and communication skills and tend to repeat behaviors and routines. In the most severe cases, children do not talk at all or simply parrot back what is said to them. Many wind up institutionalized.
Charlie Blakey, 6, is mildly autistic. His mom first suspected something was wrong when he was an infant. He suffered a digestive disorder, threw up frequently and screamed nonstop. At 10 months, Charlie still wasn't sitting up, crawling or babbling.
He spoke his first word, "ball," at age 2. But he was hard to understand and had almost no communication skills. He was trapped in his own world, unable to explain when something was bothering him. "Our days were filled with him screaming at everything," his mother said.
At 3-1/2, Charlie began pacing back and forth in the living room, oblivious to everything around him. He once paced 2-1/2 hours nonstop.
At age 41/2, Charlie went on a wheat- and milk-free diet, restricted to such foods as rice milk and potato-flour muffins. "His symptoms were very much improved, but he was still autistic," his mom said.
Charlie began chelation in October 2004. He takes supplements to replace essential minerals that are removed by the treatment and has blood tests every two to three months to make sure there's no liver damage.
Before chelation, Charlie scored in the 1st percentile of language tests, meaning he was behind 99 percent of kids his age. He has since jumped to the 12th percentile in speaking ability and the 34th percentile in speech comprehension.
Arlene O'Meara, a teaching assistant assigned to Charlie at kindergarten, noticed a big change. Instead of throwing tantrums, Charlie could tell what was bothering him. "He became more verbal all of a sudden," O'Meara said.
Blakey's parents plan to continue chelation for another year or so. His mom thinks it's possible Charlie can move from the autism spectrum to the normal range.
Despite what the experts say.
"I'm the expert on my child," she said. "I have to go with what I see working with him."

Cancer patients increasingly turning to Essiac tea to supplement treatment

http://www.oaoa.com/news/nw021306d.htm

By Ashley Kindergan
Sandra Hunter accepted that her husband, Edward Moya, was going to die. What she wouldn’t accept was the doctors’ prediction that end-stage pancreatic cancer would kill him three weeks to a month after his diagnosis in May 2002.Desperate, Hunter researched cancer remedies online. She added supplements to her husband’s chemotherapy treatments, including an herbal tea called Essiac. That tea, she thinks, was one of the most important reasons her husband lived 19 months longer than doctors expected, though she has no way to know for sure.“I knew it wouldn’t hurt him,” Hunter, of Pueblo, Colo., said. “There is a point where you say, what do you have to lose?”Studies suggest that a growing number of cancer patients supplement their treatment with alternative remedies, and Essiac is high on the list. In a study at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, 4.9 percent of participants said they used the tea in addition to their traditional treatment. In a similar study at the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, nearly 10 percent of cancer patients involved in a chemotherapy trial said they were using Essiac as well.Only one Canadian company can use the trademarked name Essiac, but a four-herb formula for the tea has been widely published in books and on the Internet. It typically can be found in natural food stores such as Wild Oats and Whole Foods. Vitamin stores often carry one or more brands of the tea.“We don’t know how many people take it. If you take 500 cancer patients, and only one of them is taking Essiac, that’s still a lot of people taking Essiac,” said Dr. Andrew Vickers, a researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.For cancer patients and families searching for answers in unlikely places, wading through claims amid a relative paucity of scientific data can be daunting. That’s why the Federal Trade Commission fined Michael D. Miller of Crestone, Colo., who was making an Essiac tea, $17,500 in 2000. The Federal Trade Commission, which regulates the advertising of herbal remedies, prohibits claims that such products can treat, fight or cure cancer. Miller claimed on his company Web site that Essiac could cure cancer and HIV/AIDS.Although Essiac has at least an 80-year history, there have been only a few controlled studies of its effects, and their results have not conclusively proved or disproved the claims of proponents and users that the herbal mixture works as a detoxifier and natural immune stimulant.“There’s no particular reason to believe it’s harmful,” Vickers, the Sloan-Kettering researcher, said. “There’s no reason to believe it’s going to be helpful.”Although recent research has found some evidence that the tea can inhibit cancer growth in certain kinds of cancer in cell cultures, one animal study suggested that certain kinds of estrogen-positive cancers, including some breast cancers, might get worse when treated with one brand of Essiac. Scientists are hindered by the fact that they do not understand how the human body metabolizes the substance. The concentrations that cause an effect in a test tube may be higher than what a person taking the recommended dose of the tea actually consumes.Vickers put it more bluntly: “The fact that you can take an herb that’s found in Essiac, and mix it with cancer cells, and mix it in a test tube and show that it kills some cancer cells is completely unsurprising.”That’s because test tube, or in-vitro, testing is the first stage of medical testing. The second step tests on animals, but those tests give scientists only clues about how a substance may act in humans. The real test, clinical trials on human subjects, is always the last stage to determining a product’s efficacy and safety.Because the Food and Drug Administration classifies Essiac as a dietary supplement, manufacturers do not have to show the tea effectively fights cancer — only that it’s safe.The history of the tea began in 1922. A Canadian nurse named Rene Caisse encountered an elderly female patient who said she had cured her breast cancer with an herbal tea recipe given to her by an Indian chief. Caisse experimented with the herbs, and soon established a clinic to treat cancer patients with a four-herb version of Essiac — Caisse spelled backward.Some books and Internet sites point to Caisse’s results as proof that the tea works, but many details from the time are difficult to verify. In an article she wrote before her death in 1978, Caisse claimed that her personal files contained “hundreds of documented cases concerning the proven efficacy of ESSIAC with cancer patients.” Internet accounts say those files were burned — some say by family members, who didn’t realize what the papers contained.Even the original composition of the formula remains uncertain. Caisse kept the formula secret for most of her life, and stories conflict regarding with whom she shared it. Caisse sold the recipe to the Canadian firm Resperin Corp., now Essiac Canada International, which sells a trademarked product called Essiac.Today, more than 25 products purport to derive from the original Essiac formula, including ready-made brewed tea, powdered tea, tinctures, salves, capsules and tea bags. The products are available online and from naturopaths and health food stores.Buying a year’s supply of the tea in powdered form can cost up to $1,000. A year’s supply of ready-brewed liquid Flor-Essence, a popular brand produced by Flora Inc., from Whole Foods costs more than $4,800. Others buy herbs and, following the published recipe, make their own tea.For those who believe in the tea, a few inconclusive studies do not tell the whole story.“If I was told, ‘You can only do one thing in the complementary arena,’ I would do the tea,” said Sandra Hunter, looking back on her decision to administer Essiac to her husband. If she were given the choice between the tea and chemotherapy, however, she said she would choose chemotherapy.The tea’s most passionate endorsements come from naturopaths and herbalists such as Michelle Kelavik, also known as “The Tea Lady,” for her four-herb brew of Essiaclike tea, Ojibwa Tea of Life. Kelavik, of Denver, credits Essiac with her own recovery from a urethral growth in 1994.Kelavik said she spent four years studying herbs with Ojibwa Indian tribal elders and in the library of Bastyr University, a college in Washington state specializing in natural medicine. The facility in which she processes herbs is an FDA-inspected clean room.For her, the tea must be part of a holistic, spiritual approach to health, and believing in it is as important as drinking it. She makes no promises and wants people to make their own decisions.“You never, ever, say the word ‘cure,’ ” Kelavik said. “It’s against the law to use the word ‘cure.’ Doctors are legally allowed to use the word cure, but doctors don’t cure anybody either. God, nature, spirit is what cures.”According to naturopaths and herbalists, the restrictions on the tea and the lack of research are part of a conspiracy meant to protect pharmaceutical companies. Because herbal remedies can be difficult to patent, some claim, pharmaceutical companies don’t want to waste time researching a remedy that can’t earn money.“When people are getting well by using nature — they can’t patent these things, so it’s taking away from the mega money coming from the drug companies,” said Sharon Schulman, a naturopath and herbalist who treated her breast cancer with Essiac tea.She tells clients her story and that the tea is thought to stimulate the immune system and aid in general detoxification, but does not explicitly recommend the tea.Generally, oncologists advise patients to talk to their physicians before trying any herbal remedy, and some recommend discontinuing herbs while receiving radiation or chemotherapy, or before surgery. Herbs with antioxidant properties can interfere with the oxidative reactions that kill cells during chemotherapy.Dr. James Young of Penrose Cancer Center said he doesn’t discourage patients from taking alternative or complementary medicines like Essiac unless he has good reason to think them unsafe.“What I’ve come to realize in my maturity is that some of these things can empower patients to feel like they’re doing something for themselves — that they’re not so out of control in the process,” he said.
DETAILS>> No large-scale human tests of any brand of Essiac tea have been performed. Thomas Geither, owner of Flora Inc., which manufactures Flor-Essence, said the company is planning a human trial of cancer patients in Mexico City and is negotiating a second trial at the University of Kentucky.>> In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and the National Cancer Institute tested two samples from Rene Caisse and two from Resperin Corp. on sarcoma, leukemia and other cancer cells. They found no evidence that Essiac caused tumors to regress or grow more slowly.
OTHER OPTIONS>> Complementary and alternative medicine, defined as any nontraditional approach to treating a disease, includes several popular remedies for cancer.>> The M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston lists some nonherbal approaches:Homeopathy: Medicines designed to help the body start healing, not to eliminate symptoms.Tai chi and qigong: Chinese exercises.Massage therapies: These include reiki massage and healing touch.Mind-body approaches: These include support groups, storytelling, expressive writing and meditation.

Traditional healers with claims of HIV/AIDS cure may get validation help

http://www.pharmabiz.com/article/detnews.asp?articleid=31905

Monday, February 13, 2006 08:00 IST Joe C. Mathew, New DelhiThe alternative medicine practitioners of the country who are confident of offering cure for HIV/AIDS may get a major boost if an international model (Tanga Pilot Project) of scientific validation of traditional therapies gets replicated within the country. Since Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is an integral part of the Global Research Alliance (GRA), that is undertaking this validation process, alternative (indigenous) methods of AIDS treatment or management may get an official recognition if found scientifically effective.The Tanga model is being validated in Tanzania, where there is a traditional herbal mix available for effective management of opportunistic infections, the AIDS patients are prone to. It is known that the proposal submitted by the Tanga AIDS Working Group to GRA, talks about extending the quality life of AIDS patients only through effective management of opportunistic infections. Scientists associated with the validation programme has said that the four or five extra years the patient can gain through this treatment can be utilised well for the treatment of the disease and thereby effect better control over AIDS.According to scientists, GRA is attempting to extend the scope of Tanga Project soon.Interestingly, several traditional practitioners, including ayurveda practitioners, naturopaths, homoeopaths, siddha practitioners and others have made several claims on the effectiveness of their medicines in prolonging the quality life of AIDS patients in India. There were even instances of legal interventions when some practitioners (Fair Pharma for instance) decided to promote their products by defying the existing drug regulatory laws of the country. The GRA move, to develop an internationally acceptable validation process for the traditional medicines would prove real help to such practitioners.As Pharmabiz reported earlier, GRA is an alliance of Battelle Memorial Institute USA, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia, Danish Technological Institute, Netherlands, SIRIM-Berhad, Malaysia, Technical Research Centre of Finland, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa and CSIR, India.The programme involves collaboration of all member organisations in areas like development of validation processes, knowledge sharing platform and virtual coordination structure. While the knowledge sharing platform for the community of practice (scientists and traditional healers) will help them share and learn more, the virtual coordination structure would call for institutional arrangements for self organising the community of practice to coordinate the implementation of the road map for collaborative validation. The alliance thus seeks to develop unique and exciting locale-specific solutions to global problems through a technology fusion.

Herbal remedies may calm irritable bowel

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060209/hl_nm/herbal_remedies_dc_1

Thu Feb 9, 9:47 AM ET
Some traditional herbal medicines may relieve the abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, and constipation that are the hallmarks of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), according to a comprehensive review of published studies on the topic.
There is evidence that some Chinese, Tibetan and Indian herbal medicines "improve global symptoms of IBS," investigators write in the report, published by The Cochrane Library. However, "it is premature to recommend herbal medicines for routine use in IBS," Dr. Jianping Liu and colleagues conclude, because many of the published studies are small and most are of generally poor quality.
There is no cure for IBS, leading many sufferers to try herbal remedies to find relief. To gauge the effectiveness of herbal medicines for IBS, Liu and colleagues identified and systematically reviewed 75 published studies evaluating the effects of 71 different herbal preparations including single herbs or standard herb mixtures. These studies included more than 7,900 IBS patients.
Compared to treatment with an inactive placebo, several herbal medicines produced significant improvement in global IBS symptoms, the authors report. These include a standard Chinese herbal formula and individualized Chinese herbal medicines, STW 5 and STW 5-II; the Tibetan herbal medicine Padma Lax; the traditional Chinese formula Tongxie Yaofang; and the Indian Ayurvedic preparation of two herbs.
In six small trials, a combination herbal medicine and conventional medicine produced greater benefits than conventional therapies alone. Studies are needed to confirm this observation, Liu and colleagues caution.
While none of the trials reported serious side effects with the use of herbal medicines for IBS, more research is needed to determine the safety of herbal medicines in IBS patients, the authors warn.
""There is a great need for further rigorously conducted trials that look to see whether it is possible to replicate these positive effects," said Liu, who works both at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and at the National Research Center in Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the University of Tromso, Norway.
SOURCE: The Cochrane Library 2006.

Too posh to push?
C-sections are increasingly used by choice, not necessity

http://www.record-eagle.com/2006/feb/08health.htm

LOS ANGELES - Throughout her pregnancy, Susana Hellmuth, 35, felt as if she were walking on eggshells. The Culver City woman had had two previous miscarriages, one heartbreakingly late, just as she entered her third trimester. This time, as a precaution, she spent the final six months in bed. Finally, a few weeks before her due date, she asked her doctor to schedule a caesarean section. ``After six months of not doing anything, the last thing I wanted was complications at birth,'' she says. Dr. Chalil Tabsh, her physician and the medical director of the perinatal center at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, said Hellmuth probably would have had a successful vaginal delivery. But he adds: ``I think if somebody can decide to step into a plastic surgeon's office and have her breasts enhanced - unindicated surgery - she can have an elective C-section.'' Surgical childbirth - in existence since ancient times and made increasingly safe after the advent of anesthesia and antibiotics - has saved the lives of untold millions of women and their newborns. But more women than ever are now making it a personal choice, opting to never feel a labor pain, never practice Lamaze breathing, never be coached to push. The trend has been fueled by evolving medical opinions and new research. In 2003, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology said that physicians are ethically justified in acquiescing to a woman's request for the surgery, provided the patient understands all the risks. That stance opened the door to making elective surgery a legitimate alternative for healthy pregnant women to discuss with their doctors. Meanwhile, some research has suggested that vaginal delivery creates its own risks and that C-sections help women avoid incontinence and other health problems down the road. Even newer studies are beginning to compare the risks of vaginal delivery not with emergency C-sections, as most previous research has done, but with planned surgical deliveries. C-sections are safer, some researchers are finding, without the last-minute rush to surgery after an exhausting trial of labor. But critics of elective C-sections see a downside. Such research is early and conflicting, they say, and science doesn't yet understand the time-honored trip down the birth canal. Babies delivered by caesarean section have more respiratory infections later in life, and may have more gastrointestinal tract problems as well. And errors in predicting the due date could result in a baby born earlier than the full-term range of 38 to 41 weeks. Still, elective caesarean is beginning to have a small but noticeable effect on the growing number of C-sections overall. In one study, conducted from 2001 through 2003, the last year for which statistics are available, 127,762 American women in 17 states chose the knife over waiting for the first pains of labor. The numbers, issued in a September 2005 report by Health Grades Inc., a healthcare ratings service, represent 2.55 percent of births in the U.S., up from 1.87 percent in 2001. Dr. Samantha Collier, vice president of medical affairs for the service, has reported on elective caesareans for three years. ``The first two research findings were not a fluke,'' she said. ``We're seeing significant growth rates year after year.'' The increase in elective C-sections comes amid a rise in C-sections overall. In 2004, close to 30 percent of all births were caesarean, up from about 20 percent in 1996. Often, women needing C-sections are wheeled into a surgical suite after labor has begun, because the baby is too big, too small or not getting enough oxygen or the mother is bleeding heavily. The most prevalent reason women have C-sections is because they've already had one. Vaginal birth after a previous caesarean, termed VBAC, is medically possible, but the number of such procedures is falling. Those women have increased risks, including hemorrhaging from the previous incision, and physicians and hospitals have grown wary of lawsuits. Some 80 percent of obstetrical lawsuits claim that an indicated caesarean was not done or was done too late, says Dr. Jeffrey Phelan, a Pasadena, Calif., obstetrician who is also an attorney. Today, nearly 90 percent of women who have had a C-section deliver their next babies surgically, up from a low of 72 percent in 1996. Amid this growing overall trend, the number of elective C-sections is only likely to increase. Hellmuth, for one, is a firm believer in surgical intervention. On Dec. 18, in a surgical suite at the medical center, her son Nicholas arrived through an abdominal incision, full term, normal and healthy. ``It's certainly easy on the mom,'' Hellmuth says. ``I didn't have to do anything except lie there.'' For now, the stereotypical profile of the woman who opts for a caesarean section even when it is not medically necessary is a professional woman, accustomed to having control over her life and wanting control over the timing, the pain level and the recovery from childbirth. These women have even spawned a label: too posh to push. The label may not be far off the mark, says Dr. Peter Bernstein, an obstetrician at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. ``I think it's the suited executive woman who wants to know when her baby is coming out of her,'' he says.

Cook your oatmeal overnight, wake up to good nutrition
By Jill Wendholt Silva
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/accent/114810.php

Think of oatmeal as your wake-up call to good nutrition: A cup of cooked steel-cut oats has 8 grams of total fiber. Two of those grams are soluble.
In the '90s oatmeal became the first whole food to receive FDA approval to make a health claim because it contains beta-glucans, a soluble fiber that absorbs cholesterol from the blood. Studies showed just 1 1/2 cups of cooked oatmeal a day can produce cholesterol-lowering effects.
Instant oatmeal is easy to prepare, but it has just half the fiber, and the thin, precooked flakes produce cereal with a bland flavor and gluey texture. By contrast, steel-cut oats have a chewier texture and naturally nutty flavor.
The tradeoff is they take much longer to cook, and that's an important consideration for busy cooks trying to get the family out the door every morning. Winter Peach Oatmeal lets breakfast cook while you sleep. Just fill the slow cooker with oats and water before bed and let it cook all night.
Shopping tip: Steel-cut oats are also known as Scotch oats and Irish oatmeal. Whatever name you prefer, the oat groats have been cut into two to three pieces with a steel blade; they haven't been steamed and rolled into thinner flakes like quick-cooking oats. With the recent emphasis on eating more whole-grain foods, more mainstream supermarkets are stocking tin canisters of steel-cut oats. One popular brand is McCann's.
Cooking tip: If speed is of the essence, cook 2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats in 3 1/2 cups water according to package directions. Top as directed with peaches, yogurt and walnuts.
Winter Peach Oatmeal
Makes 6 servings
u 1 cup steel-cut oats (or Irish oatmeal)
u 4 cups water
u 1 cup dried peaches, chopped
u 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
u 1 cup white grape juice
u 1 (6-ounce) carton peach- or vanilla-flavored low-fat yogurt
u 6 tablespoons English walnut pieces, toasted
Combine oats and 4 cups water in 3 1/2- to 4-quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on low setting 6 to 8 hours or until oats are tender and cereal is thick.
Combine peaches, nutmeg and white grape juice in a small saucepan. Cover and heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer 8 minutes or until peaches are tender. Uncover and cook 2 to 3 minutes or until liquid is slightly reduced.
To serve, spoon cooked oats into individual serving bowls. Top each with 2 to 3 tablespoons warm peaches and syrup, then a dollop of yogurt. Sprinkle with walnuts.
Per serving: 214 calories (24 percent from fat), 6 g total fat (1 g saturated), 1 mg cholesterol, 37 g

Herb Not Effective for Enlarged Prostate

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060208/ap_on_he_me/prostate_herbal_pills_1

By STEPHANIE NANO, Associated Press WriterWed Feb 8, 5:05 PM ET
A popular herbal pill used by millions of men doesn't reduce the frequent urge to go to the bathroom or other annoying symptoms of an enlarged prostate, a rigorous new study concludes.
The yearlong research found the plant extract, saw palmetto, was no more effective than dummy capsules in easing symptoms for the 225 men in the study. The results contrast with previous research that showed it helped.
"This certainly sheds some doubt on whether the product's effective and suggests that it might not work," said the lead researcher, Dr. Stephen Bent, of the San Francisco VA Medical Center.
More than 2 million American men take the herb to treat an enlarged prostate and it is widely used in Europe, the researchers said. Until their results are confirmed by more studies, men who take saw palmetto and feel it works should probably keep using it, Bent said.
The findings are published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
The prostate is a walnut-sized gland that surrounds the urethra, the tube that carries urine from the bladder. Benign enlargement is a common condition as men age, and it causes problems with urination. This condition has nothing to do with prostate cancer.
The saw palmetto is a small palm native to the southeastern United States. The extract comes from its olive-size berries and is sold over-the-counter in capsule form.
It is the third-highest-selling herbal dietary supplement in the U.S., after garlic and echinacea, according to the American Botanical Council. Unlike prescription drugs, dietary supplements do not need government approval.
Bent said he and his colleagues picked saw palmetto to study because of its widespread use and positive findings from previous studies, which were smaller and shorter than his federally funded research. Some of his colleagues have received fees or support from drug makers.
The new study recruited men over 49 with enlarged prostates who had moderate to severe symptoms. They took 160 milligrams of saw palmetto twice a day or similar-looking dummy capsules. At each visit, they filled out a symptoms survey and their urine flow was measured.
After a year, there was no significant difference between the groups in symptom changes or other measures, the researchers reported.
Bent said the dummy capsule was carefully designed to match the brown color, bitter taste and strong odor of the extract. At the end of the study, 40 percent in the saw palmetto group and 46 percent in the comparison group thought they were getting the extract, showing it was well disguised.
"It's a theory of ours, but we think that that might be one of the reasons that our study didn't work, whereas prior studies did work," Bent said, suggesting that men in other studies may have figured out they were getting a placebo.
Mark Blumenthal, head of the American Botanical Council, which follows research on herbs, said saw palmetto is recommended for milder symptoms than those included in the latest research.
"I don't have a fault for them raising the bar. I do think it's unfortunate they didn't raise the dosage," said Blumenthal, who has been taking the extract for about a decade.
Bent said they recruited the same kind of patients used to test prescription drugs for enlarged prostate, and the dosage was identical to that used in earlier tests of saw palmetto.
"Now that this study is negative, I think it's reasonable to try a higher dose," said Bent.
A larger study of herbal remedies, including saw palmetto, is in the final planning stages.
In a journal editorial, Drs. Robert S. DiPaola and Ronald A. Morton at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, note that only one formula of saw palmetto was tested and suggest that other preparations or doses might work.
"What I tell men is that they may not do themselves any harm by taking it. It's just that I'm not certain they're going to do themselves any good taking it," said Morton.
____
On the Net:
New England Journal: http://nejm.org
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine: http://nccam.nih.gov/
American Botanical Council: http://herbalgram.org

Naturopath's trial under way At issue is whether practitioner caused death of teenager
*note to reader: this guy is a fraud and NOT a formerly trained Naturopathic Physician*

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4431433,00.html

By Sue Lindsay, Rocky Mountain NewsFebruary 1, 2006
Defense attorneys for a Wheat Ridge naturopathic practitioner are gearing up for a courtroom battle that they say goes well beyond one man's livelihood.
The attorneys plan to show that the unconventional therapies Brian O'Connell used are safe and effective.
They also will present expert testimony that a terminally ill teenager died of an overdose of painkillers, and that prosecutors used undue influence to get a coroner to change the cause of death to bolster their homicide case.
Some say the case threatens to put the profession of naturopathy on trial.
O'Connell, 37, is charged with manslaughter and practicing medicine without a license in the death of 19-year-old Sean Flanagan, who was losing his yearlong battle with Ewing's sarcoma.
Prosecutors also question the quality of the care O'Connell gave to a 17-year-old girl who was rushed to the hospital after she went into cardiac arrest at his office; and his treatment of a 55-year-old cancer patient.
His trial in Jefferson County District Court began Tuesday with jury selection, and opening statements are expected today.
Jefferson County District Judge Margie Enquist already has warned O'Connell's attorneys that she doesn't want a "sideshow" to overtake the criminal trial.
But the way attorneys Richard Jaffe and Malcolm Seawell see it, the safety of the unconventional therapies O'Connell used on his patients rests at the heart of the case.
Those therapies included a controversial procedure called "photo luminescence" - in which a small amount of blood is removed from a patient's body, exposed to ultraviolet light and then returned. A small amount of hydrogen peroxide also is injected into the bloodstream.
O'Connell also promoted the use of a corrosive herbal remedy called Black Salve for removing tumors. Some patients said he showed them jars containing malignant tumors that he said rose from internal organs and popped out of the skin after the salve was used.
"Brian O'Connell is accused of practicing medicine without a license, but we say he was doing naturopathy, which is different," Jaffe said.
"They say he's basically a con man, a fraud and a charlatan, but people are going to him because they have already been through the mill of conventional medicine. It's alternative medicine that they want."
The prosecution alleges that O'Connell violated the Medical Practice Act and misrepresented himself as a doctor, posting phony diplomas and certificates on his wall.
"I'm not at all interested in whether naturopathy is valid or doing good things - I don't care," prosecutor George Brauchler said during a recent motions hearing. "We are not attacking naturopathy. This is a case about fraud. The fraud here has nothing to do with the practice of naturopathy. . . . He was pretending to be something he is not."
The way O'Connell administered the treatments he used resulted in injury or, in Flanagan's case, hastened death, Brauchler said.
Prosecutors contend that Flanagan died when his oxygen level plummeted after receiving a series of "photo luminescence" treatments.
But defense experts contend that Flanagan died because he had pneumonia and was given high doses of painkillers after being released from the hospital to home hospice care. They said they believe the painkillers suppressed his already compromised respiratory system.
"You don't give Dilaudid when a person is having respiratory distress," Jaffe said.
Flanagan had been battling the aggressive cancer for a year, undergoing extensive chemotherapy, radiation, bone marrow transplants and the amputation of one leg.
He had his first treatment from O'Connell on Dec. 10, 2003, and was readmitted to the hospital Dec. 12 with pneumonia and an infection.
When he was released from the hospital Dec. 15, 2003, his doctors told the family that "Sean is at the end," according to court documents.
He died four days later.
In addition to the dispute over what caused Flanagan's death, the defense is challenging the coroner's decision to alter his records a year after the patient's death.
The change listed the probable cause of death as "intravenous hydrogen peroxide administration." Previously, the coroner had attributed Flanagan's death to Ewing's sarcoma.
"The medical examiner was specifically asked to amend the death certificate to make a homicide case against the defendant," Jaffe said. This was done without proper examination of the body, which was cremated without an autopsy, he said.
"If they hadn't cremated him, we could show whether the Dilaudid was what killed him," Jaffe said. "Without that, we can't say whether he had a fatal dose or not."
The amended death certificate doesn't mention Flanagan's cancer as having a role in his death.
Meanwhile, a platoon of prosecution witnesses will testify that O'Connell was using medical procedures he had no license to perform and presented patients with misleading or fraudulent credentials.
The patient's parents, Dave and Laura Flanagan, have said they believed O'Connell was a physician and that he told them he had been a pharmacist for 10 years.
O'Connell said he held a doctorate in naturopathy, but prosecutors say his training came from a correspondence course from the discredited Herbal Healer Academy in Arkansas.
Among the credentials on his wall was a certificate of naturopathic medicine issued by the nonexistent Colorado University of Naturopathic Medicine, police said.
But the defense contends that O'Connell has passed an examination entitling him to practice as a naturopath and is licensed to practice in Idaho.
O'Connell was vice president of the Colorado Naturopathic Medical Association and said he is board certified by the American Naturopathic Medical Association. Neither group is approved by the U.S. Department of Education.
"The problem is that in an unregulated alternative field, you don't have places like Harvard or Johns Hopkins providing training and certification," Jaffe said. "They're not approved by the government because the government doesn't accredit alternative health. If they did, it wouldn't be alternative health."
The Colorado group supports O'Connell and is helping to fund his defense.
A rival group of naturopaths, the Colorado Association of Naturopathic Physicians, has used O'Connell's legal troubles to push for state licensing of naturopaths tied to four-year degrees from special college programs.
The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies cited O'Connell's criminal case in its recommendation that lawmakers consider some form of licensing for naturopaths this year.
O'Connell has declined interviews.
However, in a letter soliciting defense funds from members of his group, O'Connell characterized the case as a challenge to the right to practice naturopathy.
"We are being used to set a precedent that naturopaths are dangerous and it is my feeling that the MDs are trying to use my case to shut down naturopathy in Colorado altogether," he wrote.

Mexican clinic where Coretta Scott King died known for alternative treatments

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/02/01/news/nation/16_50_531_31_06.txt

By: ELLIOT SPAGAT - Associated Press
ROSARITO, Mexico -- Partially paralyzed and battling advanced ovarian cancer, Coretta Scott King turned to a Mexican clinic specializing in alternative medicine. But doctors said Tuesday she died before she could even receive treatment.King, 78, checked into the Santa Monica Health Institute in the Mexican beach resort of Rosarito, 16 miles (25 kilometers) south of San Diego, on Thursday, under the name Ruth Green. Doctors at the clinic said they didn't even know who she was until her medical records arrived on Friday.
She died of respiratory failure early Tuesday. In a news conference at the clinic, doctors said her death was related both to a serious stroke she suffered about three months ago and the cancer diagnosed last year.Officials said she had too many complications to even begin treatment."She came here with half her body paralyzed," said Dr Rafael Cedeno, the doctor who was overseeing her case. "She was in really bad condition."On Tuesday, King's casket, draped in a blanket, was loaded into a station wagon that left the beachside clinic with a caravan of four other cars.The U.S. consul general in Tijuana, David Stewart, read a brief statement at the clinic's gates as the caravan pulled away, saying he was working with Mexican officials and the King family."We've been in touch with U.S. port officials," he said. "They are doing all they can to expedite the crossing."King's body was to be embalmed and her death certificate prepared at the Carmen Funeral Home in Tijuana, funeral director Hector Gonzalez said. He added that the remains would likely be turned over to family members at the U.S.-Mexico border later Tuesday.Bishop T.D. Jakes of The Potter's House church in Dallas said he helped King get to Mexico, but he didn't say how."Mrs. King was very health conscious, even before she got ill. I'm not surprised that she would explore every possible way of seeking treatment," Jakes said.King's daughters Bernice and Yolanda were at the clinic, according to King's sister, Edythe Scott Bagley of Cheyney, Pennsylvania. Bagley also said that Mexican authorities were being cooperative with the family.Dr. Alfredo Gruel, the former sanitary director for the Baja California health department, said that Mexican law, in line with international norms, requires that bodies be embalmed and government officials notified before remains leave the country."It is standard procedure and happens with all the thousands of bodies that are taken every year from Mexico to the United States and from the United States into Mexico," Gruel said.The clinic, with 30 beds, opened in 1987. It has eight doctors, 14 nurses and a mostly U.S. clientele. About 90 percent of the patients are being treated for cancer, using a combination of convention treatments with nutritional supplements and alternative therapies.The clinic's founder and director, Kurt W. Donsbach, has a criminal past and a reputation for offering dubious treatments to desperately ill patients, according to court records and a watchdog group."There's nobody worse," said Dr. Stephen Barrett of Allentown, Pennsylvania, who runs www.quackwatch.org, a Web site that tracks health frauds and has been monitoring Donsbach's activities since 1971.In 1997, Donsbach was sentenced in federal court in San Diego to a year in prison for smuggling more than US$250,000 (euro206,304) worth of unapproved drugs into the United States from Mexico, according to court records. Donsbach was sentenced on three felony counts, including introducing unapproved drugs into interstate commerce, smuggling merchandise contrary to law and income tax evasion.In 1988, the U.S. Postal Service ordered Donsbach and his nephew to stop claiming that a solution of hydrogen peroxide that they sell could prevent cancer and ease arthritis pain.When asked about the clinic's past, Dr. Humberto Seimandi, the clinic's medical director, said only that U.S. medical standards were very high. He did not elaborate, and Donsbach was not available for comment.According to Barrett, Donsbach's repeated criminal prosecutions drove him into bankruptcy in 1987 and forced him to shift operations to Mexico, where he could operate beyond the reach of the law.Associated Press reporter Ioan Grillo contributed to this story from Mexico City.