Daily Dose with William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.
When I was a trauma surgeon in a Florida emergency room, I saw my share of brain hemorrhages.
In most cases, they were caused by car accidents. The moment the patient was wheeled in, you didn’t need to be a doctor to know something was wrong in the head (buckle up, friend — when you’ve seen what I’ve seen, you don’t need a Nanny State rule to force you into wearing your seatbelt).
There was also the occasional aneurysm patient, who had classic stroke symptoms. And every now and then, we’d have someone with a known bleeding disorder.
But right now, at this very moment, millions of Americans are facing the risk of brain hemorrhage, and the reason is none of the above.
It’s not caused by trauma, aneurysms or anemia… but by common medications you might even be taking yourself!
If misery loves company, there’s no better pair than depression and pain. The two are practically joined at the hip, which is why so many Americans who take antidepressants are also dependent on painkillers.
It’s a dangerous mix, because both SSRIs and NSAID painkillers (such as aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen) are known to cause painful bleeding in the gut — but when the two join forces, they can cause bleeding somewhere else too: right in your brain.
That’s why new research finds that taking these meds together will increase your risk of a brain hemorrhages by a shocking 60 percent.
Unlike someone who’s in a car wreck or suffered an aneurysm, these bleeds aren’t a sudden explosion that’ll bring you to your knees and send you to the ER. They’re more like a slow leak — and that’s even more dangerous, because you won’t feel it and you won’t even know it’s there.
Not at first.
But that slow trickle in your skull can do real damage. And when you do finally start to feel the effects — by the time you seek help — it could be too late.
The damage is done, and it might be permanent.
There are far better and much safer ways to ease pain and beat depression — but you won’t hear about them from a pill-pushing mainstream hack.
For that, you’ll need a common-sense naturopathic medical doctor. I recommend an experienced member of the American College for Advancement in Medicine. Find a doc near you by using their handy Physician+Link tool right here.
I’ve got more on brain health coming up later today — including a simple step you can take that’ll cause your dementia risk to sink faster than Obama’s poll numbers.
* Note: Taken from Health Sciences Institute e-Alert - Jenny Thompson - 8/11/15 Dear Reader,
The reports are pouring in from all across the country. People are suffering from sudden bouts of paranoia, helplessness, aggression, and suicidal thoughts.
Many are even experiencing electric-like shocks that start in their brains and shoot throughout their entire bodies.
You’d think these people were coming off some illegal street drug like cocaine or heroin. But they’re simply trying to quit Cymbalta, one of the most popular antidepressants on the market today.
It turns out that millions of Cymbalta users may never have been told about the true risks of taking — or trying to quit — the drug. Painful and even life-threatening risks that can stay with you for years.
And the problem may be 40 times worse than we were ever warned.
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A hard pill to swallow
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Eli Lilly has a lot of explaining to do.
For years the company has claimed that around 1 percent of users might deal with minor annoyances like nausea, irritability and insomnia when trying to quit Cymbalta.
But now a federal court claims the real number may be closer to half. And the side effects that many users describe as “sheer hell” can last for weeks, months, maybe even years.
One Cymbalta victim, Claudia Herrera, suffered dizziness, nausea and “electrical-shock sensations” for a full year after she stopped taking the drug.
Other users have shared horror stories about intense crying spells, vomiting, feeling like they could no longer control their brains or bodies, and even fits of rage.
The problem is so serious that the FDA has even come up with a term for it — Cymbalta Discontinuation Syndrome.
Herrera is one of thousands who are now taking Eli Lilly to court over Cymbalta. Last year, the drugmaker attempted to get all the Cymbalta cases tossed out based on the defense that it had warned doctors about the side effects of coming off the drug.
But U.S. District Judge Steven Wilson didn’t buy it. In fact, court filings claim that the company’s very own studies proved that upwards of 44 percent of people had withdrawal problems.
It’s starting to look like Eli Lilly may have pulled its 1 percent risk figure out of thin air. And it may have misled millions of patients about Cymbalta’s true risks.
And, unfortunately, there are far more people taking this dangerous drug now than there should be. Because for years the FDA has been granting additional uses for Cymbalta practically whenever Eli Lilly asked.
Since first approving Cymbalta for depression and diabetic nerve pain, the agency has given it the green light for anxiety, major depressive disorder, fibromyalgia and musculoskeletal pain.
The drug is now even being used off label for “stress urinary incontinence,” a fancy way to say you might have a little accident when you laugh or sneeze.
And the fact that a cheap, generic version of Cymbalta (duloxetine) has been on the market for years is only making matters worse.
The lowest dose Cymbalta comes in is 20 mg, which still appears too high to quit cold turkey.
And while you should always work with a doctor to wean yourself off of any antidepressant, some Cymbalta users are so desperate they’ve started breaking open the capsules and removing a few more beads each day.
But of course the easiest way to avoid the withdrawal symptoms is to never start up on Cymbalta or duloxetine in the first place.
If it’s too late and you or someone you know is already taking Cymbalta or duloxetine, don’t take matters into your own hands. Talk to your doctor immediately to figure out the safest way to get yourself off of it. You should also ask your doctor about natural, proven depression treatments like SAMe, l-tryptophan, DLPA, St. Johns Wort, or other options. Otherwise you may find that getting off this powerful drug leads to far worse symptoms than the reason you were taking it in the first place.
To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson
Sources:
“Eli Lilly faces first U.S. trials over Cymbalta withdrawal” Jessica Dye, August 3, 2015, Reuters, reuters.com
“Lilly accused at trial of hiding Cymbalta ‘brain zap’ risk” Bloomberg News, August 4, 2015, ibj.com
Lester Baldwin, Jr. had only been taking the blood thinner Eliquis for two days when it nearly killed him.
It started with numbness — and then he couldn’t use his right hand. If emergency doctors hadn’t quickly diagnosed his brain hemorrhage, he probably would have died.
Baldwin and his doctor had no idea just how dangerous Eliquis could be. And it looks like they’re not alone.
Because an exposé just published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has revealed some shocking details about how Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer got Eliquis approved in the first place.
Now some of the country’s top doctors are claiming that the science behind the drug may have been little more than a dangerous fraud.
One that could put your life in danger.
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The missing 300
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For patients like Lester Baldwin who have Afib and are on blood thinners, Eliquis was supposed to be a breakthrough.
They were promised that the pill doesn’t require routine bloodwork and you don’t even have to watch what you eat.
But when it comes to Eliquis, what you’re having for dinner should be the least of your worries.
Because what Baldwin and his doctor didn’t know was that this drug should never have been allowed on pharmacy shelves — and one top FDA scientist even tried to stop it.
Dr. Thomas Marciniak, who works at the FDA as a medical team leader, told the Journal Sentinel that when Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer submitted clinical trial data on Eliquis, some critical safety information had completely vanished.
In fact, data on around 300 patients who participated in the trial had gone missing. And the more we learn about these 300 patients, the clearer it becomes that this may have been no accident.
You see, Dr. Marciniak claims that if there had been just one more death among Eliquis patients — or one less death in the warfarin group they were being tested against — the drug would not have been able to demonstrate any statistical benefit.
There would have been no reason for the FDA to approve Eliquis. Case closed.
And it sure seems possible that the missing data on these 300 patients could have been bad news for Eliquis — and maybe even included additional deaths. That’s because, unlike with warfarin, Eliquis has no antidote if you start bleeding uncontrollably.
That’s something that patients like Lester Baldwin, Jr. learned firsthand.
But it turns out that wasn’t the only problem with the Eliquis studies. Dr. Arnold Relman, former editor of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, told a shocked audience at Harvard that the big Eliquis trial called ARISTOTLE was heavily skewed in the drug’s favor.
Around 35 percent of the warfarin patients weren’t given the right amount of that drug in the study, causing them to have more clots than the Eliquis ones. These patients may have had their lives put at risk, just to make Eliquis look better.
But, of course, the FDA ignored the problems with the Eliquis research — and the warnings of one of its top scientists — and unleashed this monster on all of us.
And now, instead of working to keep Eliquis away from patients, the mainstream is trying to give it to a million more people with AFib instead.
Last year, Dr. Gregory Lip — a British cardiologist — developed a scale that tells doctors which patients should be put on blood thinners like Eliquis, based on their stroke risk.
And it didn’t matter that Dr. Lip has been taking money from Big Pharma for years — or that this was a blatant attempt to increase the use of these dangerous blood thinners by one-third. The scale has still been adopted by doctors all across the country, who now have permission to dole out Eliquis prescriptions like never before.
And most of these patients will never know the true dangers of Eliquis or the story of how this drug should never have seen the light of day. It’s a story that probably still has some ugly and heartbreaking chapters to come — and you don’t want to be part of it.
To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson
Sources:
“Eliquis claim about reduced deaths questioned by FDA reviewer” John Fauber and Coulter Jones, August 1, 2015, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, jsonline.com
“Doctor with financial ties to drug-makers at center of sales boom of new anticoagulants” John Fauber and Coulter Jones, August 1, 2015, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, jsonline.com
Note: Taken from Health Sciences Institute e-Alert - Jenny Thompson - 8/7/15
Dear Reader,
Think of all the times you’ve gone online to get your health questions answered — whether it was about a nagging cough, a painful joint, or a suspicious mole or lump.
Well, the next time you conduct a health search in the privacy of your own home, you may have our government and one of the world’s largest corporations looking over your shoulder.
Reporters at Bloomberg News have discovered that the FDA and Google are in talks to monitor and share what health information you’re researching online.
They’re claiming it’s to learn about dangerous reactions you might be having with prescription drugs. But it’s starting to look more like a power grab to help make Google and Big Pharma make a fortune.
All by tracking, turning over — and maybe even selling — your most private health information.
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Down into the data mine
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When it comes to tracking potentially life-threatening drug reactions, our government has a serious problem. And leave it to one of the largest corporate spies in history to come up with a solution.
More than 700,000 Americans are rushed to the ER each year after having an adverse reaction to a prescription drug — that’s enough to fill 10 NFL stadiums.
But as I’ve told you before, only a small fraction of those events are ever reported to the FDA.
That’s where Evgeniy Gabrilovich comes in.
He’s a senior staff research scientist at Google who specializes in data mining. He’s also the guy who’s been talking to the FDA.
Gabrilovich and Google believe that by monitoring our search results, they can learn about adverse drug events that don’t get reported to the FDA. So if you did a search on antidepressants and suicidal thoughts, for example, Google could watch and turn the info over to the government.
In fact, when he was working for Yahoo a couple of years ago, Gabrilovich tracked 176 million searches on drug reactions. He even published a paper claiming the tactic — which feels like it’s right out of an NSA or CIA handbook — could help track problem meds.
Of course, one man’s “data mining” is another man’s spying. We know that nobody spies on us like Google — and that’s why this is starting to look a lot more like a moneymaking ploy than a public health campaign.
Google tracks everything from our Internet searches to our email contacts and it’s all to sell advertising. Including to drug companies looking to sell meds to people with your condition.
Even tech giant Microsoft has warned Internet users that Google is sharing your personal info without ever telling you.
You can bet Google plans to make a killing selling ads around your searches on drug reactions. Maybe even to companies marketing other prescription meds to help you deal with the side effects or adverse events.
And I don’t know about you, but I don’t think our government needs to know every time you conduct what should be a private search about an itchy rash or even a psychological problem.
Because I don’t trust the FDA to keep that health information private — and out of drug company hands — any more than I trust Google.
In fact, just a few years ago, a director in the FDA’s Office of Drug Safety said the agency sees Big Pharma “as its client, whose interests it must represent and advance.”
Funny, I always thought we taxpayers were our government’s clients.
Fortunately, if you want to keep your health searches to yourself, there are ways to jump off the Google grid and avoid this madness.
First, you can use one of several search engines that don’t mine your data. Startpage.com actually takes your search, goes to Google for you, and returns with the results. You get the same response you would get from Google, but you don’t get tracked.
If you want to really strengthen your wall of privacy, you can use a service called anonymizer.com. They charge a yearly fee, but they promise to make all your Internet activity completely untraceable.
Even 10 years ago, it would have seemed crazy to go to these lengths to protect our privacy. But when Google execs and FDA officials start shaking hands, staying anonymous never seemed so sane.
To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson
Sources:
“Your Google searches could help the FDA find drug side effects” Bloomberg News, July 15, 2015, bloomberg.com
* Apparently our “sold to the highest bidder” government & mainstream media will not protect our children.
* Note: Taken from Health Sciences Institute e-Alert - Jenny Thompson - 8/6/15
Dear Reader,
The CDC has told us over and over again that vaccines don’t cause autism.
The agency even makes the claim in big, bold letters on its “vaccine safety” web page.
But now a former CDC scientist is trying to warn anyone who will listen — now including members of Congress — that it’s all a lie.
And at least some members of our government have known about it for years.
Because 11 years ago, CDC researchers appear to have uncovered a frightening link between autism and one of the most popular vaccines on the market.
But instead of releasing this important health information to the public, they threw it in the trash where it never saw the light of day.
Until now.
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The secret study
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The information has been slowly leaking out for a while, and it sounds like something out of a spy novel.
But what’s been going on is far from fiction. What we’re seeing is years of lies from the government and Big Pharma slowly unraveling.
And it’s all because they never counted on Dr. William Thompson’s conscience getting the better of him.
You see, Dr. Thompson was one of the CDC’s top scientists. And more than the decade ago, he was part of a big study conducted with several other CDC researchers to look for any links between the age when children get their first MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine and autism.
When the researchers published their study in the journal Pediatrics in 2004, they claimed that “no significant associations” were found.
But that wasn’t true. In fact, Dr. Thompson now admits that he and his co-authors “omitted statistically significant information” from the study.
In fact, they found that when African-American boys were given the MMR shot before their third birthdays, they were at much greater risk for autism.
But instead of exposing this link, Dr. Thompson and his colleagues decided to destroy it and toe the federal government line instead.
They “brought a big garbage can into the meeting room,” Dr. Thompson says, and threw away the data. Data that might have helped prevent a lot of misery for young children and their families.
And that’s not just a cover-up –- that’s criminal.
Even at the time, Dr. Thompson knew what he and his colleagues were doing was wrong and very likely illegal. So unbeknownst to his fellow researchers, he kept copies of everything.
And after major media outlets largely ignored the story –- and decided to keep the peace with their Big Pharma masters — Dr. Thompson sent more than 1,000 research documents to Florida Congressman Bill Posey.
And now Rep. Posey is making sure his fellow lawmakers — and the public — finally hear the truth.
Rep. Posey recently got up on the House floor and shared all the details about the CDC’s secret campaign to hide the link between vaccines and autism. He said that even though he supports vaccination, parents deserve “the best information available to them” and for “federal agencies to tell them the truth.”
Amen to that.
In fact, Rep. Posey is now even calling for a full Congressional investigation.
Of course, if things were as they should be, an investigation would have been started years ago. And considering the stranglehold Big Pharma has over much of Congress, I’m guessing we still have a long wait ahead of us.
To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson
Sources:
“CDC scientist: ‘We scheduled meeting to destroy vaccine-autism study documents'” Sharyl Attkisson, July 29, 2015, sharylattkisson.com
“U.S. Congressman’s statement questions science cited to support school vaccine bill” CBM Newswire, July 31, 2015, sacobserver.com
My comments: Unfortunately, I never could even stomach the smell of beer, much less drink it, so beer for bones is out for me. This is a great little article, but the one thing not fully discussed is the osteonecrosis of the jaw and the very common femur breaks. Understand that the femur is the largest bone in your body. I’ve read stories of women getting up in the morning, walking to their kitchens for coffee and falling on the floor from a break in the femur. These drugs should never have been put on the market. I wrote about them many years ago and would never put one of them in my mouth. There are plenty of excellent forms of calcium out there to help the body, without destroying your jaw or femur. If you’re taking these drugs, please stop now.
The truth about what bone drugs REALLY do to your bones
When a woman stops taking a “bone drug” because she read in the paper that it can actually break bones… who gets the blame?
When a gal quits those same meds because she saw on the news that they’re proven to cause the jawbone to rot and die right inside the skull… who gets the blame?
And when an older lady in danger of a bone break dumps her drugs because of an accurate (for a change) report in the media linking the med to a devastating form of cancer… who gets the blame?
If you answered the drug, then you’ve got far too much common sense to work in medicine — because a new study doesn’t blame the bone-cracking, jaw-rotting, cancer-causing drugs at all.
It blames the media for daring to mention those risks!
You just can’t make this up, folks.
In 2008, nearly 1 in 6 older women were taking bisphosphonate drugs such as Fosamax, Actonel and Boniva. But as millions of women started popping those pills, the reports of serious problems began to climb — including the risk of sudden and severe breaks, especially crippling breaks in the thigh.
For once, the media did its job. The new study finds that as the risks were detailed both in newspapers and on network TV, prescriptions plunged, ultimately falling by half between 2008 and 2012.
But the researchers are actually pointing their crooked little fingers at the media, as if it were somehow wrong to give women real, true and complete information about what was at the time one of the most popular drug classes in the nation.
I say we THANK the media for once.
Don’t worry, I’m not going soft. My gratitude goes only so far, because of course the dummies in the news industry didn’t finish the job. Instead of telling women what REALLY works — instead of explaining how to truly protect bone — they left them high and dry.
And most either had to live with the risk of breaks and fractures, or took another class of drug that comes with its own set of risks.
But there’s a simple, safe and highly effective way men and women alike can protect bone, and it’s one of life’s great pleasures: beer!
* Note: Taken from Health Sciences Institute e-Alert - Jenny Thompson - 7/30/2015 Dear Reader,
Our government has tried every underhanded trick in the book to get us to roll up our sleeves for the flu vaccine.
They’ve lied about how well it works. And even about your chances of catching and dying from flu. But it looks like we only understood half of what the feds were up to.
Because right now, government scientists for the National Institutes of Health are quietly working on the next flu shot monster. In fact, they just admitted that they’ve tested it on mice.
It’s called the universal flu vaccine, and just one shot is supposed to protect you for life.
But the truth is that the universal flu vaccine is just the government’s latest dangerous plot to jab every man, woman and child with a flu vaccine.
And it may even create a dangerous flu outbreak like nothing we’ve seen in our lifetimes.
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A universal blunder
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They say when you’re a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail.
And any time our government starts pouring research dollars into the flu vaccine, it’s with one — and only one — thought in mind.
To deny Americans the right to choose whether to get the flu shot — and to nail as many of us as possible with it.
And that’s what the universal flu vaccine the NIH is developing is all about. Instead of convincing us year after year to get the seasonal flu vaccine — which sometimes fails nine out of 10 times for seniors — the government would only have to sell us the flu shot once.
You can bet it will become part of the CDC’s vaccination schedule. And as we’ve seen in states like California, legislators can force kids and adults alike to get the shot.
The universal flu vaccine has never been about building a better mousetrap — and if the government successfully develops one, it may be the most dangerous flu vaccine we’ve ever had.
You see, a typical flu virus is shaped like a frying pan. The head frequently mutates and creates different strains, but the stem stays pretty consistent.
Right now, the seasonal flu shot tries to guess all the potential strains and mutations of the head — and it’s wrong more often than it’s right. But a universal flu vaccine is designed to help us create antibodies against just the stems.
If we can kill the stems, scientists say, we ought to be able to kill just about any flu virus.
Great idea, in theory. But in practice it may create a supercharged version of the flu virus that could be worse than just about anything we’ve seen.
The problem is, when we’re exposed to pieces of flu viruses — or things that look like something we might catch — we’re actually more likely to get sick when we come into contact with similar flu strains.
That’s called “fusion enhancing” and a study on pigs a few years ago found that the ones who were vaccinated developed the most serious cases of flu. And the same phenomenon may have been behind a massive flu outbreak in Canada in 2009.
The universal flu vaccine could practically lead to flu on steroids. And the tests on the shots haven’t been going nearly as swimmingly as researchers — and our government — would have us believe.
A universal flu vaccine was tested at Oxford a few years back, and folks who were vaccinated still got the flu. In this most recent NIH research, some of the mice who got the vaccine even died when exposed to flu strains.
And the real problem with accepting a universal vaccine means that you’re in it for life. It’s a permanent alteration of your body chemistry that you can’t undo once we better understand the dangers.
No matter what our government or the drug companies want us to think, there are only a few surefire ways to prevent the flu. And they don’t change with the times. Things like washing your hands often — especially during flu season — and loading up on immune-building supplements like selenium and vitamin D.
And these simple strategies are backed by decades of research. Not just a crackpot theory that’s being driven more by politics than science.
To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson
Sources:
“Virus-like particle vaccine protects mice from many flu strains” American Society for Microbiology, July 21, 2015, sciencedaily.com
“One-shot flu vaccine will be ready ‘within 5 years'” Medical News Today, medicalnewstoday.com
When Donna Emley was rushed to a Nashville hospital, she was practically blind. And painful burns covered nearly half her body.
She probably looked like she’d escaped a house fire or a terrible car accident.
But all she’d done was pop a couple of Tylenol for a headache.
Donna is one of the latest victims of a gruesome drug side effect called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. It can leave people crippled, scarred, blind, and with lifelong heart and brain damage — and those are the ones lucky enough to survive.
SJS is being caused by some of the most common… and top-selling… drugs on the planet. Even meds you’ve taken dozens of times before.
And the only way to beat SJS is to know how to spot symptoms — and get help — quickly.
Burned alive
We don’t often hear much about SJS — and most of us never even consider it before popping a prescription or OTC pill.
But if you or someone you love has ever battled the condition, you know it’s a painful and life-threatening experience you’ll never forget.
SJS is a severe allergic reaction to medication that basically burns your flesh from the inside out. Victims are often described as looking like they’d just been pulled from a pot of boiling water.
“Even if water hit my mouth, it would feel like I was chewing on hot coals,” said Jonah Lake, a Pennsylvania man who was lucky to survive a sudden outbreak of SJS.
It’s hard to imagine that common drugs we take every day could cause such a gruesome reaction and basically make our bodies attack themselves.
But just about any med can trigger SJS, and the condition has been most frequently caused by antibiotics, seizure drugs, and painkillers like ibuprofen, naproxen and acetaminophen (like Tylenol).
In fact, just a few years ago Motrin was ordered to pay the family of a 13-year-old girl $10 million after 84 percent of her body was covered in burns after taking the medicine for a fever.
SJS can turn deadly quickly. It can start as a rash or painful blisters all over your body, and then quickly progress to a stage called toxic epidermal necrolysis, where skin starts falling off.
Last year, the FDA even issued a “Drug Safety Alert” for SJS covering both prescription and OTC meds that contain acetaminophen, such as Tylenol. It even warned how these drugs could cause SJS and “detachment of the upper surface of the skin.”
Unfortunately, the agency practically made sure customers would ignore the alert by mentioning — seven times — how rare the reaction is.
But experts say that’s just not true. And there are far more SJS cases than our government would like to admit.
Jean Farrell founded the Stevens-Johnson Syndrome Foundation after her daughter Julie almost died from the disease. She said her group gets reports of 15 new cases a week — and that’s only through the Internet. “SJS is not as rare as we are led to believe,” she said.
What makes SJS especially dangerous is that people may not realize that their drugs are causing their symptoms. So they keep taking the meds, which can be a deadly mistake.
That’s why it’s important to spot these earliest signs of SJS, so you can stop your medications and call your doctor immediately:
Flu-like symptoms, which often signal the start of an SJS reaction.
A skin rash, blisters or red blotches that are often accompanied by a fever.
Blisters that appear in your mouth, eyes, ears, nose and around your genitals.
Pink eye or an abnormal swelling of your eyelids.
Also, Farrell warns that if a blood relative had a severe allergic reaction like SJS after taking a drug, you should consider yourself at risk for that medication and be careful to avoid it.
To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson
Sources:
“Rare side effect of Tylenol causes burns to woman’s body” July 22, 2015, FoxNews, foxnews.com
“Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS)” Stephen Byrnes, The Weston A. Price Foundation, westonaprice.org
Several studies over the past few years have concluded that mammograms do not save lives, and may actually harm more women than they help, courtesy of false positives, overtreatment, and radiation-induced cancers.
According to research1 published in 2010, the reduction in mortality as a result of mammographic screening was so small as to be nonexistent — a mere 2.4 deaths per 100,000 person-years were spared.
Another study2 published in The Lancet Oncology in 2011 demonstrated, for the first time, that women who received the most breast screenings had a higher cumulative incidence of invasive breast cancer over the following six years than the control group who received far less screenings.
Now, researchers from Harvard and Dartmouth have published a paper3 in which they present similar conclusions.
Mammograms Have No Impact on Breast Cancer Mortality
After analyzing cancer registry data from 16 million women in 547 counties across the United States, they found “no evident correlation between the extent of screening and 10-year breast cancer mortality.”
The researchers concluded that mammograms primarily find small, typically harmless, or non-lethal tumors, leading to widespread overdiagnosis.
As explained by Dr. Otis Webb Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society and author of the book, How We Do Harm, the term “overdiagnosis” in cancer medicine refers to:
“…a tumor that fulfills all laboratory criteria to be called cancer but, if left alone, would never cause harm. This is a tumor that will not continue to grow, spread, and kill. It is a tumor that can be cured with treatment but does not need to be treated and/or cured.”
Also, echoing results found in 2011, higher screening rates were associated with higher incidence of breast cancer. As reported by The LA Times:4
“For every 10-percentage-point increase in screening rates, the incidence of breast cancer rose by 16 percent… That worked out to an extra 35 to 49 breast cancer cases for every 100,000 women…
The researchers also examined breast cancers according to their stage at diagnosis, a marker of a tumor’s aggressiveness. More screening was associated with a higher incidence of early-stage breast cancers but no change for later-stage tumors, according to the study.
How can this be?
‘The simplest explanation is widespread overdiagnosis, which increases the incidence of small cancers without changing mortality,’ the study authors wrote. ‘Even where there are 1.8 times as many cancers being diagnosed, mortality is the same.’”
* Note: Taken from Health Sciences Institute e-Alert - Jenny Thompson - 7/27/15
Dear Reader,
When Donna Emley was rushed to a Nashville hospital, she was practically blind. And painful burns covered nearly half her body.
She probably looked like she’d escaped a house fire or a terrible car accident.
But all she’d done was pop a couple of Tylenol for a headache.
Donna is one of the latest victims of a gruesome drug side effect called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. It can leave people crippled, scarred, blind, and with lifelong heart and brain damage — and those are the ones lucky enough to survive.
SJS is being caused by some of the most common… and top-selling… drugs on the planet. Even meds you’ve taken dozens of times before.
And the only way to beat SJS is to know how to spot symptoms — and get help — quickly.
Burned alive
We don’t often hear much about SJS — and most of us never even consider it before popping a prescription or OTC pill.
But if you or someone you love has ever battled the condition, you know it’s a painful and life-threatening experience you’ll never forget.
SJS is a severe allergic reaction to medication that basically burns your flesh from the inside out. Victims are often described as looking like they’d just been pulled from a pot of boiling water.
“Even if water hit my mouth, it would feel like I was chewing on hot coals,” said Jonah Lake, a Pennsylvania man who was lucky to survive a sudden outbreak of SJS.
It’s hard to imagine that common drugs we take every day could cause such a gruesome reaction and basically make our bodies attack themselves.
But just about any med can trigger SJS, and the condition has been most frequently caused by antibiotics, seizure drugs, and painkillers like ibuprofen, naproxen and acetaminophen (like Tylenol).
In fact, just a few years ago Motrin was ordered to pay the family of a 13-year-old girl $10 million after 84 percent of her body was covered in burns after taking the medicine for a fever.
SJS can turn deadly quickly. It can start as a rash or painful blisters all over your body, and then quickly progress to a stage called toxic epidermal necrolysis, where skin starts falling off.
Last year, the FDA even issued a “Drug Safety Alert” for SJS covering both prescription and OTC meds that contain acetaminophen, such as Tylenol. It even warned how these drugs could cause SJS and “detachment of the upper surface of the skin.”
Unfortunately, the agency practically made sure customers would ignore the alert by mentioning — seven times — how rare the reaction is.
But experts say that’s just not true. And there are far more SJS cases than our government would like to admit.
Jean Farrell founded the Stevens-Johnson Syndrome Foundation after her daughter Julie almost died from the disease. She said her group gets reports of 15 new cases a week — and that’s only through the Internet. “SJS is not as rare as we are led to believe,” she said.
What makes SJS especially dangerous is that people may not realize that their drugs are causing their symptoms. So they keep taking the meds, which can be a deadly mistake.
That’s why it’s important to spot these earliest signs of SJS, so you can stop your medications and call your doctor immediately:
Flu-like symptoms, which often signal the start of an SJS reaction.
A skin rash, blisters or red blotches that are often accompanied by a fever.
Blisters that appear in your mouth, eyes, ears, nose and around your genitals.
Pink eye or an abnormal swelling of your eyelids.
Also, Farrell warns that if a blood relative had a severe allergic reaction like SJS after taking a drug, you should consider yourself at risk for that medication and be careful to avoid it.
To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson
Sources:
“Rare side effect of Tylenol causes burns to woman’s body” July 22, 2015, FoxNews, foxnews.com
“Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS)” Stephen Byrnes, The Weston A. Price Foundation, westonaprice.org
This dangerous, biotech-industry-friendly GMO labeling legislation is on its way to the Senate, but the fight is far from over. Action Alert!
As we reported last week, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) introduced a bill that has been championed by the Monsantos of the world, not to mention the Big Food industry. The deceptively titled “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015” would preempt state efforts to pass mandatory GMO labeling laws with a completely voluntary standard. It would also block communities and states from banning the cultivation of GMO crops.
A voluntary standard? What company that uses GMO ingredients would voluntarily disclose that fact? You may remember the devastating quote from an employee of a Monsanto subsidiary back in ’94: “If you put a label on genetically engineered food, you might as well put a skull and crossbones on it.” In other words, if it’s voluntary, consumers will never see a label containing the information they have overwhelmingly said they want. That’s why pro-labeling advocates have called the bill the “DARK” (“Deny Americans the Right to Know”) Act.
Late last week, by a vote of 275 to 150, the DARK Act passed the House, and is now on it’s way to the Senate. While it still is unclear if the Senate will consider the DARK Act or take up a similar bill that is reportedly being written by Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), any step forward for this bill is dangerous for the 93% of Americans who want to know what’s in their food.
We will continue to track the DARK Act through the Senate, but if the bill continues to move, it will likely go to the House floor again. We need to dissuade those who supported this measure from doing so again.
Action Alert! “Thank—or spank” your representative, depending on how he or she voted! Say thanks if your representative voted against the DARK Act—or “spank” your representative, voicing your disappointment, if your congressperson voted in favor of it, and urge him or her to reconsider that support when the bill comes back to the House floor. Simply click the “Take Action” button, then fill in your zip code to find out which way your representative voted. Please send your message immediately.
Only weeks after leaving office on January 20, 2017, former President Barack Obama discovers a leak under his sink, so he calls Troy the Plumber to come out and fix it.
Troy drives to President Obama’s new house, which is located in a very exclusive, gated community near Chicago, where all the residents have a net income of way more than $250,000 per year.
Troy arrives and takes his tools into the house. He is led to the guest bathroom that contains the leaky pipe under the sink. Troy assesses the problem and tells Obama that it’s an easy repair, that will take less than 10 minutes. Obama asks Troy how much it will cost. Troy checks his rate chart and says, “$9,500.”
“What?! $9,500?!” Obama asks, stunned, “But you said it’s an easy repair. Michelle will whip me if I pay a plumber that much!”
Troy says, “Yes, but what I do is charge those who make more than $250,000 per year a much higher amount so I can fix the plumbing of poorer people for free. This has always been my philosophy. As a matter of fact, I lobbied the Democrat Congress, who passed this philosophy into law. Now all plumbers must do business this way. It’s known as the ‘Affordable Plumbing Act of 2014’. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of it.”
In spite of that, Obama tells Troy there’s no way he’s paying that much for a small plumbing repair, so Troy leaves. Obama spends the next hour flipping through the phone book calling for another plumber, but he finds that all other plumbing businesses in the area have gone out of business. Not wanting to pay Troy’s price, Obama does nothing and the leak goes un-repaired for several more days. A week later the leak is so bad President Obama has had to put a bucket under the sink.
Michelle is not happy as she has Oprah and guests arriving the next morning. The bucket fills up quickly and has to be emptied every hour, and there’s a risk the room will flood, so Obama calls Troy and pleads with him to return.
Troy goes back to Obama’s house, looks at the leaky pipe, checks his new rate chart and says, “Let’s see, this will now cost you $21,000.”
Obama quickly fires back, “What? A few days ago you told me it would cost $9,500!”
Troy explains, “Well, because of the ‘Affordable Plumbing Act,’ a lot of wealthier people are learning how to maintain and take care of their own plumbing, so there are fewer payers in the plumbing exchanges. As a result, the price I have to charge wealthy people like you keeps rising. Not only that, but for some reason the demand for plumbing work by those who get it for free has skyrocketed! There’s a long waiting list of those who need repairs, but the amount we get doesn’t cover our costs, especially paperwork and record-keeping. This unfortunately has put a lot of my fellow plumbers out of business, they’re not being replaced, and nobody is going into the plumbing business because they know they can’t make any money at it. I’m hurting too, all thanks to greedy rich people like you who won’t pay their ‘fair share’. On the other hand, why didn’t you buy plumbing insurance last December? If you had bought plumbing insurance available under the ‘Affordable Plumbing Act,’ all this would have been covered by your policy.”
“You mean I wouldn’t have to pay anything to have you fix my plumbing problem?” asks Obama.
“Well, not exactly,” replies Troy. “You would have had to buy the insurance before the deadline, which has passed now. And, because you’re rich, you would have had to pay $34,000 in premiums, which would have given you a ‘silver’ plan, and then, since this would have been your first repair, you would have to pay up to the $21,000 deductible, and anything over that would have a $7,500 co-pay, and then there’s the mandatory maintenance program, which is covered up to 17.5%, so there are some costs involved. Nothing is for free.”
“WHAT?!” exclaims Obama. “Why so much for a puny sink leak?!”
With a bland look, Troy replies, “Well, paperwork, mostly, like I said. And the internal cost of the program itself. You don’t think a program of this complexity and scope can run itself, do you? Besides, there are millions of folks with lower incomes than you, even many in the ‘middle class’, who qualify for subsidies that people like you must support. That’s why they call it the ‘Affordable Plumbing Act’! Only people who don’t make much money can afford it. If you want affordable plumbing, you’ll have to give away most of what you have accumulated and cut your and Michelle’s income by about 90%. Then you can qualify to GET your ‘Fair Share’ instead of GIVING it.”
“But who would pass a crazy act like the ‘Affordable Plumbing Act’?!” exclaims the exasperated Obama.
After a sigh, Troy replies, “Congress … because they didn’t read it.”
Parents across the country are being harassed, bullied and threatened. They’re being coerced, cajoled and shunned. They’re being publicly abused, and accused of hurting both their own children and everyone else’s
And it’s all because they have the nerve to stand up to the powers-that-be and ask questions about vaccinations.
Well, my friend, if you’ve ever had the finger pointed at you it’s time to point back.
Because one of the very vaccines parents have been told is safe and effective — an expensive and painful shot practically forced on little girls from coast to coast — is now under investigation by European health authorities.
It’s the HPV vaccine, which the mainstream media morons call the “cervical cancer shot.” In reality, it offers LIMITED protection from SOME of the strains of the sexually transmitted virus that causes the disease. (God forbid parents simply teach kids to keep their pants on.)
It’s one of the most dangerous shots ever approved, and the European Medicines Agency now says it’s will investigate links between the vaccine and a debilitating pain disorder called complex regional pain syndrome, or CRPS.
They’re also going to look into links between HPV shots and a heart condition called postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome or POTS. That’s when your heart rate shoots up when you stand, causing you to get dizzy and even pass out.
Now, I fully expect this probe to go nowhere. You can bet Big Pharma is already pulling strings behind the scenes — and eventually, they’ll pull the plug, too.
We’ll get some unconvincing BS report that claims it’s perfectly safe after all… or, at most, a call for more research.
But don’t be reassured by any of that.
Along with the issues under investigation in Europe, the HPV shot has been linked to serious, lasting and in some cases even permanent nerve disorders. Even worse, dozens of kids have allegedly dropped dead after getting this bad-news shot!
Yet the FDA won’t even go through the motions of investigating it. Instead, the drug companies behind these shots are quietly lobbying school districts and government officials to get HPV added to the lists of required vaccines for little girls as young as the age of 9.
It’s pure insanity, and it’s time to stand up to the bullying, harassments, threats and coercion.
Word’s getting out, my friend, and if you stand up now you might be surprised to find out you’re far from alone.
* Note taken from Health Sciences Institute e-Alert - Jenny Thompson - 7/23/15 Dear Reader,
Josie King was just 18 months old when she died of thirst.
At one of the best hospitals in the world.
The medical team at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center failed to realize Josie was suffering from severe dehydration — even after repeated pleas from her mother.
Thousands of medical mistakes… some deadly… are happening every year because doctors and nurses aren’t listening to patients or their caregivers.
But that all may be starting to change. After deaths like Josie’s, hospitals across America are adopting a new concept called Rapid Response Teams.
And choosing a hospital with an RRT just might save your life — or the life of someone you love.
———————————————————————-
A medical SWAT team
———————————————————————-
The statistics are staggering.
Nearly 100,000 patients a year die because of medical mistakes. In fact, these errors may be killing more people than Alzheimer’s or diabetes.
Then there are the untold numbers who are harmed, but survive.
And after the death of Josie King, Johns Hopkins realized that medical mistakes often happen because doctors don’t listen to patients’ concerns — and patients feel like they have nowhere to turn when they’re not getting the best care.
The idea of RRTs was born, and it’s spreading like wildfire to other hospitals around America.
The concept behind RRTs is simple. Hospitals assemble an independent “medical SWAT team” of doctors, nurses and therapists that you can call when you’re concerned about the treatment you are receiving.
These RRTs can bypass medical red tape, review your records, listen to your concerns, and even demand changes to your care if necessary.
“When the rapid response team is called… two or three additional sets of eyes are focused on the patient,” said registered nurse Kathy Duncan, who trains RRTs. “The patient becomes the center of attention.”
When the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center… which runs 21 hospitals… rolled out its RRT program (called “Condition H” for “Help”), staff members weren’t exactly on board. They were worried they’d be flooded with frivolous complaints about bad hospital food or broken televisions.
But the program was such a hit that UPMC brought Condition H to the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh next.
And now, every patient admitted to the hospitals is told about the program, how it works and how to get help from any phone. Patients are also given a brochure explaining which situations should prompt a call for help.
For example:
If you feel like something is going wrong with your care, but your fears aren’t being acknowledged by your doctors or nurses.
If your medical team isn’t communicating well, or you’re confused about what care or medication you’re being given.
If your condition is going downhill, and you want to speak with someone about your concerns.
RRTs are becoming more common — and picking a hospital that has one can be a life-or-death decision. A study last year found that patients at hospitals with RRTs were 50 percent less likely to suffer cardiac arrest. And RRTs have also lowered hospital death rates by up to 33 percent.
So obviously this plan works and works well.
Of course, calling an RRT might make you a little uncomfortable. It can feel like you’re going over the heads of your doctors or nurses.
But hospitals are making clear that asking for help from RRTs isn’t about disrespecting anyone — it’s about keeping you healthy and getting your care right.
And by being able to nip mistakes in the bud, you might keep a simple medical error from turning into a tragedy.
To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson
Sources:
“When hospitalized, call a hospital Rapid Response Team to address unresolved safety or health concerns” Michael R. Cohen, RPh, June 3, 2015, philly.com
“How medical errors took a little girl’s life” Erika Niedowski, The Baltimore Sun, baltimoresun.com
Imagine your 17 year old daughter gets the diagnosis of cancer. You both do research on treatment options and see that chemotherapy is toxic with potentially long standing, irreversible consequences: damage to the reproductive organs, bladder, heart, lungs, nervous system, kidneys, and more. You and your daughter decide not to do it and choose to take a different route; one that is safer and is non-toxic.
Much to your shock, while you are out shopping, your daughter is home and the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) shows up at your door (with 12 police cars no less, to kidnap your daughter and force her to do chemotherapy against her will and your wishes.)
What would you do?
Finally, revealed in The Truth About Cancer’s exclusive interview is the true story about Cassandra Callender (aka “Cassandra C.”) and her real life medical kidnapping and how she was forced to do chemotherapy against her will.
This is the first video interview that Cassandra has given, and The Truth About Cancer is honored to be able to share this exclusive interview with you.
Finally The Truth Revealed: The Medical Kidnapping of Cassandra C – The Truth About Cancer Exclusive Interview
You may remember the news coverage that back in September 2014, after having a portion of her lymph node removed for a biopsy to diagnose stage 3-4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Cassandra and her mother (Jackie Fortin) wanted a second opinion. This seemed like a reasonable request, especially in light of the fact that the prescribed treatment was going to be toxic chemotherapy, which, according to the Mayo Clinic, has long-term side effects including heart damage, lung damage, and fertility issues. But for that simple request, Cassandra soon became a target of “gunpoint medicine.”
Medical personnel told Cassandra and her mother that chemotherapy was her “only option” and without it, there was a 100 percent chance that she would die. Apparently, the oncologists at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (CCMC) had never heard of a man named Billy Best, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1995 and ran away from his Massachusetts home after a couple of chemo treatments. His runaway from chemo made national TV news at the time. Eventually, Billy used Essiac Tea and 714X to treat his cancer, and is alive 20 years later, completely cancer free. He even published a book, The Billy Best Story: Beating Cancer with Alternative Medicine.
So, I guess maybe the 100 percent chance of death without chemo was an exaggeration (also known as a lie) intended to coerce Cassandra into submitting to chemo. But I digress. Back to our story…
Not wanting to undergo the horrific side effects of chemotherapy, in November of 2014, Cassandra ran away from home. However, after learning that her mother might be thrown in jail if she didn’t return, she came home. Then, in December of 2014, when she was alone in the house, Cassandra’s home was surrounded by a dozen of “Hartford’s finest” (police cars) and workers from the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF). They banged on the doors and windows and terrorized the 17-year-old while she hid in a closet and cried.
Later that day, Cassandra was kidnapped by DCF workers and the police and was taken back to the hospital to begin chemotherapy. Amazingly, it took a dozen police cars surrounding her home to capture this “hardened criminal” named Cassandra (yes, sarcasm intended). I assume that there were no robberies or rapes that day in Hartford, as they had so many police cars available to surround the house. Or maybe there was a donut shop down the street…
Within a few days, Cassandra was back in the hospital and scheduled to begin forced chemotherapy. But even then she wasn’t ready to submit to this gunpoint medicine. It took no less than 12 workers to strap her wrists and ankles to the bed and control her while the nurse stuck a needle in her neck to sedate her. She woke up in the recovery room with a port in her chest. Had this horrific abuse taken place on the streets of Hartford, the assailants would have been guilty of assault and battery. However, since these human rights violations occurred in the hospital, the assailants will never be charged with the crimes that they committed against Cassandra. In her own words, “At that point, I didn’t feel like a human anymore… I feel like I’ve been violated… My ankles and wrists were bruised when I woke up.”
Over the course of the next 5 months, Cassandra received round after round of toxic chemotherapy; always letting the violators know that “I don’t consent to this treatment” before they forced deadly poison into her body. She was told that if she fought them, that they would starve her. Eventually she quit fighting. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that she couldn’t leave her room (there was an armed guard at the door), she couldn’t make phone calls, and she couldn’t have guests in her room unless they were “approved.“ Cassandra wasn’t even allowed to go outside! In her own words, “even prisoners are allowed to go outside for an hour a day. I didn’t even get that.”
Whatever happened to the Hippocratic Oath: “First do no harm”? Ignorance and arrogance go hand-in-hand. Government officials on the payroll of Big Pharma. Oncologists prescribing toxic treatments that they themselves won’t take. Sadly, in the US, we aren’t just a police state and a fascist oligarchy, we are actually a medical tyranny, as is evidence by this horrific story of gunpoint medicine and “medical rape” being forced on an innocent 17-year-old whose only “crime” was asking for a second opinion.
It’s legal for a 12-year-old to get birth control and have an abortion without the consent or knowledge of her parents in most states. But a 17-year-old isn’t allowed to reject poison (chemotherapy) and is held as a prisoner, strapped to her hospital bed, injected with poison (medically raped), isolated from her family and friends, confined to her room, with an armed guard at the door. Did I miss anything? Oh yes, this treatment is “legal” and “approved”!!! If the US military did that to Guantanamo captives, what would folks think of that?
Bottom line… this won’t end with cancer treatments and we all know it.
We’re just getting started on this slippery slope to complete medical tyranny. Can you imagine what they’ll use these court decisions to justify making compulsory in the future? We are already seeing “forced vaccination” in California with the recent passage of SB 277, despite the fact that vaccines have been linked to autism and cancer.
America has already had the most aggressive vaccine schedule of any nation on the planet and has the highest rate of infant death. States are already in the process of making it harder for parents to opt out of vaccinations, as the number of “required” vaccines continues to grow. Where will this madness end?
Founding father Benjamin Rush warned over 200 years ago that medical freedom should have been added to the Constitution:
“Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship to restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privileges to others; the Constitution of the Republic should make a special privilege for medical freedoms as well as religious freedom.” – Benjamin Rush (1746-1813)
But they didn’t… and now here we are.
You’ll never see a news report stating that a conventional treatment (such as chemo) killed a cancer patient. It’s always “the cancer won after a valiant fight.” But somehow, after all the years and trillions of dollars spent on the war on cancer, cancer keeps winning out while the cancer industry keeps profiting with treatments that don’t really work.
That’s why The Truth About Cancer is vigilant in our fight to educate about real cancer treatments, to expose the lies, and to eradicate this disease once and for all. We all need to stand up and fight for our medical freedom just like Cassandra did. In her own words, “I made it through it. I wouldn’t let them break me. They locked me away but I’m still here.”
If you want to help Cassandra financially, she certainly would appreciate your support. Here is a link to her GoFundMe page.
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