Showing posts with label New England Journal of Medicine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New England Journal of Medicine. Show all posts

Friday, February 21, 2014

Many Men Risk Their Health by Taking Testosterone When They Don’t Need It

2cepills
2cepills (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Dr. Mercola
The male sex hormone testosterone plays many roles in men's health. Besides affecting your sex drive, it also helps maintain muscle mass, bone density, red blood cells, and a general sense of well-being. 
Beginning around age 30, a man's testosterone levels begin to decline, and continue to do so as time goes on—unless you proactively address your lifestyle. Symptoms of declining testosterone levels can include:
  • Decreased sex drive
  • Erectile dysfunction and/or problems urinating
  • Depression
  • Difficulties with concentration and memory
  • Weight gain and/or breast enlargement
Unfortunately, direct-to-consumer drug advertising, which is permissible in the US, is driving men to use testosterone when they're really not good candidates for it. There are studies showing that testosterone therapy can be quite helpful and beneficial, but that's in men who actually have very low testosterone.
Lacking energy and sex drive does not automatically mean you have severe testosterone deficiency warranting taking this hormone. Yet "low T" has become a well-recognized mantra—created by some pharmaceutical PR department—even though there's no hard and set "normal" testosterone level.  

Your Lack of Libido Could Be Due to Other Hormonal Imbalance

For example, a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)1 found that there were significant individual variations in the amount of testosterone required for any particular man to maintain lean body mass, strength, and sexual function.
Other hormones, such as estrogen, also play a critical role in men's health, so the heavy focus on testosterone may be inappropriate. The NEJM study2 determined that while testosterone deficiency accounted for decreases in lean mass, muscle size, and strength, estrogen deficiency was the primary culprit when it came to increases in body fat.
Both hormones were found to be important for sexual function, and a deficiency in either had a negative impact on the men's libido.
Please note that men are NOT advised to take estrogen replacement therapy, as this could cause feminization, such as enlarged breasts. As your testosterone levels rise, your body will automatically produce more estrogen,
So the key is to maintain your testosterone level—ideally by incorporating the strategies I will discuss below. Interestingly, simply having more sex has also been shown to boost testosterone levels in men.3 As reported by PeakTestosterone.com:
"One 1992 study4 examined four couples on days that they did and didn't have sexual activity... [T]hey found that testosterone levels increased on nights after sexual activity and did not on nights where there was no intercourse. The authors noted that their study showed that it was likely sex that increased testosterone and not the other way around."

Low Testosterone—An Invented Condition?

It's important to realize that all of this fake "low T" advertising is merely a PR strategy to sell an expensive treatment. In 2012, prescription testosterone gels generated over $2 billion in US sales. Abbott Laboratories alone spent $80 million on seductive direct-to-consumer advertising for its testosterone product AndroGel that same year.
According to a survey by CMI/Compass, 63 percent of physicians polled feel that drug ads misinform patients.5 And truly, it's worth keeping in mind that advertising is far from realistic or even truthful in most cases. It's about creating a perceived need where there might not be one, in order to sell a product. As reported by theNew York Times:6
"In the view of many physicians, [low testosterone] is in large part an invented condition...
Once a niche treatment for people suffering from hormonal deficiencies caused by medical problems like endocrine tumors or the disruptive effects of chemotherapy, the prescription gels are increasingly being sold as lifestyle products, to raise dipping levels of the male sex hormone as men age."
Many people feel so bad they're willing to take just about anything to feel better. Unfortunately, many fail to realize that that "something" probably isn't a drug treatment. Instead, flagging energy levels may be an indication that you're eating too much processed food. Perhaps you're not exercising enough, or failing to address chronic stress or lack of sleep.

How Stress Affects Your Testosterone Levels

Chronic stress may in fact be a major contributing factor to decreasing testosterone levels. Stress, when chronic and unaddressed, can result in hypercortisolemia, which in and of itself inhibits testosterone production.7 The cortisol produced in response to stress also interferes with your insulin. As described by chiropractor Kyl Smith, D.C.:8
"This is seen when healthy men exhibit fasting plasma glucose concentrations and degrees of insulin resistance that are directly correlated with fasting plasma cortisol concentrations(i.e., when cortisol goes up, insulin goes up, insulin resistance goes up, and insulin sensitivity correspondingly goes down)...
The subject of insulin and insulin sensitivity ties directly into testosterone, as 'testosterone and insulin status are also directly correlated.' Among adult men, the insulin secretion rate and fasting plasma insulin concentration are inversely proportional to serum testosterone concentrations (i.e., high insulin levels are associated with low testosterone and low insulin levels are associated with high testosterone), while whole-body insulin sensitivity is shown to be positively correlated with serum testosterone concentrations.
In other words, in men who have challenges with high postprandial blood sugar levels, simple carbohydrates that evoke an insulin spike/increase will sabotage the production of healthy testosterone." [Emphasis mine]

Testosterone Is Widely Overprescribed

According to the Endocrine Society, which is responsible for setting the clinical guidelines for testosterone replacement therapy, testosterone should only be given to men with persistent symptoms and "unequivocally low testosterone levels," a condition known as hypogonadism. According to a 2012 study9 looking at the sensitivity and specificity of total testosterone (total T) as an indicator of biochemical hypogonadism found that a total T level below 150 ng/dl is indicative of hypogonadism, while levels above 350 ng/dl excludes the condition in most cases.
Despite that, testosterone prescriptions have tripled since 2001, and men in their 40s represent the fastest-growing group of users. Only about half of men taking testosterone have an actual diagnosis of hypogonadism. Even more curious, recent findings10, 11, 12 also indicate that 25 percent of men given a prescription for testosterone did not even have their levels tested prior to receiving a prescription, and of the remaining 75 percent, it was unclear as to how many actually had a testosterone deficiency.
In short, there appears to be an awful lot of men out there taking testosterone who probably shouldn't. Using hormones as a "cure-all" is a risky proposition, especially if your problems are related to lifestyle opposed to an actual medical condition that severely impairs your hormone production. What most men need is really a lifestyle change, in order to optimize their body's natural secretion of testosterone and other hormones.

Recent Research Highlights the Dangers of Testosterone Misuse

According  The result was similar in younger men diagnosed with heart disease. The study was prompted by a 2010 clinical trial that was shut down before completion due to the increase in heart-related problems occurring in the testosterone treatment group.13 
Other research14 published earlier this year found that testosterone replacement therapy did not appear to have any positive effects on the cardiovascular health of men who took it, noting that the "cardiovascular risk-benefit profile of testosterone therapy remains largely evasive."
Interestingly, the analysis does suggest that low testosterone and heart disease might both be caused by "poor overall health," as stated by lead researcher, Dr. Johannes Ruige.15 This, again, is why I recommend focusing your efforts on healthy lifestyle strategies such as exercise rather than taking synthetic hormone replacement, the risk/benefit ratio of which is still largely unknown.
The latest results have caused enough concern that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched a safety review16to ascertain the safety of testosterone therapy. In the meantime, the FDA has instructed doctors to "consider whether the benefits of FDA-approved testosterone treatment are likely to exceed the potential risks of treatment."

Some Experts Disagree

Dr. Jen Lauda writing in the Feb 7 2014 newsletter summarizes the objections some physicians have with this study. "There are many problems with the data in this study and others like it that have lead to attention-grabbing headlines about how treatment of low testosterone levels may put men at undue risk. Similar to a November 2013 JAMA study of testosterone risks, However some have said that the featured study has multiple flaws that make its conclusions essentially meaningless as the study assess did not test testosterone levels of patients before and during therapy.

There are other important blood tests that should be done that were not being done during the treatment of the VA men or in the current study, including blood counts and estrogen levels. Higher red blood cell counts and higher estrogen levels are known issues that may occur in men given testosterone therapy. Without assessment of testosterone levels, red blood cell counts and estrogen levels prior to and during therapy, it is impossible to tell if a patient is a proper candidate for therapy and if they are tolerating the therapy well. Physicians should be educated on the possible issues they may encounter with patients on testosterone therapy, including higher levels of red blood cells and elevated levels of estrogen.

Physicians should monitor their patients' blood cell counts and estrogen levels on testosterone therapy to assess for these risk factors for cardiovascular disease. If a patient has a high red blood cell count, the dose of the testosterone can be decreased or the patient can be sent for blood donation to reduce the high red blood cell count and thus any increased risks of clots or heart attacks. Additionally, high estrogen levels may increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. There are medications that can be prescribed to control high estrogen levels and keep estrogen in the proper, low risk range. These precautions need to be used when prescribing testosterone therapy and studies need to be done reflecting results of testosterone use when these precautions are followed.

Additional concerns are that the researchers compared the groups of men started on testosterone therapy to men who were started on PDE5 inhibitors and found a lower risk of heart disease in the PDE5 inhibitor group. PDE5 inhibitors are drugs used to treat men with erectile dysfunction -- Viagra and others are in this class. The authors state they used this group so there would theoretically be an increase in sexual activity in both groups. They ignored one very important point, though. PDE5 inhibitors work in many tissues throughout the body, including having significant positive effects on the cardiovascular system. Two of the PDE5 inhibitors have recently been approved for treatment of idiopathic pulmonary hypertension because of the ability of PDE5 inhibitors to relax blood vessels. A new study out this month in the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics states that PDE5 inhibitors have potential as cardiovascular drugs in patients with coronary artery disease and even possible improvement in heart failure patients.

With the data that PDE5 inhibitors can decrease the risk of heart disease and help to relax blood vessels in men with heart disease, how can the authors of the testosterone therapy study possibly think that men on PDE5 inhibitors would be a good control group against the men placed on testosterone therapy? The results of the Plos One study run counter to a large body of literature of the last 20 years that supports testosterone treatment as an important therapy that can improve cholesterol levels, decrease blood sugar levels, reduce body fat and increase lean muscle mass, all factors that would reduce the risk of heart disease. A new review article was published in December 2013 in the esteemed Journal of the American Heart Association with the goal of providing a comprehensive review of the clinical literature that has examined the associations between testosterone and cardiovascular disease.

 Well over 100 studies were reviewed, and the authors concluded that low levels of testosterone are associated with higher rates of mortality and cardiovascular- related mortality, higher rates of obesity and diabetes. Additionally, the severity of disease correlated with the degree of testosterone deficiency. Testosterone therapy has been shown to relax coronary arteries and improve ability of patients with congestive heart failure to exercise. Testosterone therapy has been shown to lower blood sugar in diabetics and to lower body mass index in obese patients. Finally, studies have associated lower testosterone levels with thicker walls of some of the major blood vessels. This thickening increases the risk of atherosclerosis thus leading researchers to conclude that low levels of testosterone increase the risk for atherosclerosis.

All of these factors point to the conclusion that optimal testosterone levels decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease. Testosterone therapy can be an excellent way to help men to enhance their quality of life and decrease their risk of multiple diseases, as shown in many studies. Importantly though, the therapy should not be undertaken lightly and should be properly monitored by a hormone specialist that is well versed in the risks of therapy and the treatment of possible side effects for patients to have optimal benefits from the therapy."

Lifestyle Factors Influence Your Hormone Levels

Despite the above objections it would seem a more conservative approach would be warranted. While a man's testosterone level does decline with age, starting around the age of 30, there are many other factors that play a role. Think of generations past, when men were active and healthy well into old age. Clearly, it's possible to grow old without losing your "oomph." It really boils down to lifestyle. Diet and exercise are critical factors. But chemical exposures, including prescription drugs like statins, can also play a role by having an adverse effect on your testosterone production. And, as reported in another more recent New York Times17 article:
"Testosterone appears to decline naturally with aging, but internal belly fat depresses the hormone further, especially in obese men. Drugs like steroids and opiates also lower testosterone, and it's suspected that chemicals likebisphenol A (or BPA, commonly found in plastic food containers) and diseases like Type 2 diabetes play a role as well." [Emphasis mine]
Testosterone production follows a similar decline with age as human growth hormone (HGH), illustrated below. Fortunately, your body has a natural ability to optimize hormones, even as you age. It does require you to address important factors such as your diet and exercise, however.
 

To Raise Your Hormone Levels, Exercise Intensely, But Briefly

Both testosterone and HGH are boosted in response to short, high intensity exercises. I personally do not take any hormone or prohormone supplements. Instead, I've been doing Peak exercises for just nearly four years now, and at the age of 59, my testosterone and HGH levels are still in the normal ranges for a young adult male without the aid of ANY prescriptions, hormones, and hormone precursor supplements.
Keep in mind that high intensity interval training is the only type of exercise that will help boost your testosterone and HGH levels. A slow one-hour jog will not have this effect, so it's critical to make sure you're exercising correctly if you want to affect your hormone levels. Below is a summary and video demonstration of what a typical high-intensity Peak Fitness routine might look like:
  • Warm up for three minutes
  • Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should feel like you couldn't possibly go on another few seconds
  • Recover at a slow to moderate pace for 90 seconds
  • Repeat the high intensity exercise and recovery seven more times
Weight training will also have a beneficial impact on your testosterone levels. When you use strength training for this purpose, you'll want to increase the weight and lower your number of reps. Focus on doing exercises that work a wider number of muscles, such as squats or dead lifts. You can take your workout to the next level by learning the principles of Super-Slow Weight Training. Whole body vibration training using a Power Plate is yet another effective ancillary method.
Besides raising testosterone and HGH, aerobic exercise in general is known to benefit your heart, in part by promoting the production of beneficial nitric oxide, which helps relax your heart and improves blood flow.18 Recent research also suggests that skin-derived nitric oxide metabolites may also play a key role in heart health by normalizing blood pressure when your skin is exposed to UV rays from the sun19 --yet another reason for making sure you're getting enough sun exposure.

Your Diet Affects Your Testosterone and HGH

While high intensity exercise is perhaps the most effective strategy to raise your testosterone levels, your diet also plays a critical role. First of all, if you're overweight, research shows that simply shedding the excess pounds may increase your testosterone levels.20
Testosterone levels also decrease after you eat sugar. This is likely because sugar and fructose raises your insulin level, which is another factor leading to low testosterone. Ideally, keep your total fructose consumption below 25 grams per day. If you have insulin resistance and are overweight, have high blood pressure, diabetes, or high cholesterol, you'd be well advised to keep it under 15 grams per day.
The most efficient way to shed excess weight and normalize your insulin levels at the same time is to strictly limit the amount of sugar/fructose and grains in your diet, and replace them with vegetables and healthy fats, such as organic pastured egg yolks,avocadococonut oil, butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk, and raw nuts. Saturated fats are in fact essential for building testosterone. Research shows that a diet with less than 40 percent of energy as fat (and that mainly from animal sources, i.e. saturated) lead to a decrease in testosterone levels.21 My personal diet is about 70-80 percent healthy fat, and other experts agree that the ideal diet includes somewhere between 50-70 percent fat. I've detailed a step-by-step guide to this type of healthy eating program in my optimized nutrition plan.
Another effective strategy for enhancing both testosterone and HGH release is intermittent fasting. It helps boost testosterone by improving the expression of satiety hormones, like insulin, leptin, adiponectin, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), cholecystokinin (CKK), and melanocortins, which are linked to healthy testosterone function, increased libido, and the prevention of age-induced testosterone decline.

Helpful Supplements

There are also nutritional supplements that can address some of the symptoms commonly associated with low testosterone. Some may even help boost your testosterone levels as well. These include:
  • Saw palmetto. Besides addressing symptoms of low testosterone, this herb may also help to actually increase testosterone levels by inhibiting up-conversion to dihydrotestosterone.22 When choosing a saw palmetto supplement, you should be wary of the brand, as there are those that use an inactive form of the plant. According to industry expert Dr. Rudi Moerck, what you want is an organic supercritical CO2 extract of saw palmetto oil, which is dark green in color. Since saw palmetto is a fat-soluble supplement, taking it with eggs will enhance the absorption of its nutrients.
  • Astaxanthin in combination with saw palmetto. There is also solid research indicating that if you take astaxanthin in combination with saw palmetto, you may experience significant synergistic benefits. A 2009 study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition23 found that an optimal dose of saw palmetto and astaxanthin decreased both DHT and estrogen while simultaneously increasing testosterone.
  • Ashwagandha. This ancient Indian herb is known as an adaptogen, which can help boost stamina, endurance, and sexual energy. Research published in 201024 found that men taking the herb Ashwagandha experienced a significant increase in testosterone levels.
  • Ashwagandha also helps promote overall immune function, and can help increase your resistance to occasional stress.25 It also supports healthful levels of total lipids, cholesterol, and triglycerides already in the normal range. While some adaptogens are stimulants in disguise, this is not the case with Ashwagandha. It can give your morning exercise routine a boost, and when taken prior to bed, it can help you get a good night's sleep as well. I recommend using only 100% organic Ashwagandha root, free of fillers, additives, and excipients to ensure quality.

Do You Really Need Testosterone Therapy?  

The take-home message is that taking testosterone if you're otherwise healthy could jeopardize your health for virtually no gain. And, if you're using a topical gel or cream, you're also jeopardizing the health of anyone in your family that you end up having skin to skin contact with. I personally do not use any hormone or prohormone treatments as I've been successful in getting my hormone levels in the healthy young adult range using the protocols described above. However, if you do chose to use hormones, it is really crucial to use bioidentical versions.
I advise using bioidentical hormones like DHEA if you opt for this route. DHEA is a hormone secreted by your adrenal glands, and is one of the most abundant precursor hormones in your body. It's crucial for the creation of testosterone and other sex hormones. However, it's important to monitor your levels and work with an experienced professional before you start using DHEA (or any other hormone, bioidentical or not.) If you use trans-mucosal applications you will likely only need a few milligrams a day, not 50mg, 100mg, or more that is typically used. There are still questions about long-term safety, and there's still the potential for side effects.26
I also recommend trans-mucosal (rectal) application, as this allows for the most effective absorption, and inhibits the production of unwanted metabolites of DHEA. All of that said, I do NOT recommend prolonged supplementation of hormones, even bioidentical ones. Doing so can trick your body into halting its own DHEA production and may cause your adrenals to become impaired.
Your best bet really is to address your diet, and incorporate high intensity exercise into your lifestyle. For even more information on how exercise can be used as a natural testosterone booster, read my article "Testosterone Surge After Exercise May Help Remodel the Mind."

 http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2014/02/21/testosterone-prescription.aspx
Enhanced by Zemanta

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Bill Gates’ Project Tycho and Vaccine Voodo

Infectious Disease Research Gets a Boost from ...
Infectious Disease Research Gets a Boost from Websites, Blogs, and Social Media (Photo credit: pennstatenews)
Richard Gale and Gary Null

Progressive Radio Network, December 16, 2013



Population cohort and ecologic studies have become today’s norm for determining vaccine efficacy and support the belief that vaccination has safely reduced the spread of infectious diseases and saved millions of lives. Never a gold standard for scientific inquiry, population studies now make up the bulk of vaccine advocates’ clinical arsenal to discredit more factual biological research favoring the arguments of vaccine opponents. A recent paper published in the November 2013 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, “Contagious Diseases in the United States from 1988 to the Present,” is the first of what will inevitably turn into a flurry of future studies to persuade legislators and the public that vaccination should be mandatory for assuring the health of the nation.[1] The study was spawned from a new project launched at the University of Pittsburgh, Project Tycho, named after the renowned 16th century astronomer and mathematician Tycho Brahe and mentor of Johannes Kepler. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, the Project is an enormous multi-tiered undertaking to store mortality data for 56 infectious diseases between 1888 and the present for future data-mining and analysis, and to strategize future policies to increase vaccination rates.



The paper’s authors make the extraordinary claim that “103 million cases of childhood diseases (95% of those that would otherwise have occurred) have been prevented since 1924; in the past decade alone, 26 million cases (99% of those that would otherwise occurred) were prevented” from vaccination. Always the obedient slave to CDC and Big Pharm demands, the New York Times chimed in, stating that this is “one of the kind of analysis that can be done when enormous data sets are built and mined.”[2] If this analysis is factual, it can be heralded as one of the most significant achievements to support the miracles and benefits of vaccines. On the other hand, if the University of Pittsburgh researchers’ analysis is scientifically unreliable and perhaps even found deceptive under sound empirical review, then the paper is one of the most misleading propaganda scams published in a peer-reviewed medical literature in recent years. This wouldn’t be the first time the NEJM failed to perform diligent and satisfactory peer-review of papers submitted for publication. In the past, the prestigious journal has been rife with publishing duplicitous science articles that are best described as medical racketeering.



What is most important is to review the data that the Pittsburgh scientists depended upon in order to reach their conclusions. A review of the Project Tycho website and its database reveals an absence of the most critical information necessary for making any historical determination about a vaccine’s effectiveness let alone how many deaths were prevented.[3] The Projects sole accomplishment is to store vast amounts of data (200 million keystrokes) of mortality statistics, including time and location, for 56 infectious diseases over a 125 year period. Scientific data pertaining to vaccination statistics for eight vaccine-specific contagious diseases noted in the NEJM paper is nonexistent. There is no record for the number of people vaccinated for any of the targeted diseases in any given year or location. There are no records for the number of deaths among unvaccinated persons. Nor are there any records of deaths caused by an infectious disease that may have been caused by a vaccine’s infectious agent or in a data set of the population where the vaccine was ineffective and did not provide protection. In fact, the Project contains no data regarding vaccination data at all!!



In addition, the data makes the a priori assumption that the cause of reported deaths due to the infectious diseases that are tracked over the course of 125 years is accurate. Of course, for the majority of this period accurate biological diagnostic technologies to determine an infectious cause of death were either not in existence or were not routinely performed.



So how did the Pittsburgh scientists derive their conclusions? To understand their modus operandi, the reader is asked to lay aside the most basic principles of the scientific method and critical thought. Rather it would be better to cast our minds back 500 years and adopt an irrational bias that finds more in common with alchemical and magical beliefs than modern science.



Without the crucial data for making even rough estimates for the number of vaccinated and non-vaccinated individuals for any given year in order to make an appropriate calculation, the study’s method is really quite simple. “We estimated the numbers of cases of polio, measles, rubella, mumps, hepatitis A, diphtheria and pertussis that were prevented by vaccines,” the paper states, “by subtracting the reported number of weekly cases after the introduction of vaccines from a simulated counterfactual number of cases that would have occurred in the absence of vaccination” (italics our emphasis). A dictionary’s definition for “counterfactual numbers” would be a number that relates to something that has not happened or a case that doesn’t exist. In other words, it is a magically conjured number relying upon mathematical algorithms with no genuine correspondence to the reality of infection rates. Moreover, the paper states it relies on a “quantitative history,” which translates merely into simple plain numbers of death counts without qualifying what those numbers actually represent in any significant, qualitative way (eg., vaccinated vs. non-vaccinated, margin of errors for misdiagnosing causes of death, the rising number of cases of people contracting infections they have been vaccinated against, etc).



The fact that mortality rates for most of the eight “preventable” infectious diseases under investigation were already declining rapidly before the introduction of vaccines is also ignored categorically. What the Pittsburgh team overlooks is the rapid declining numbers of deaths before the release of specific vaccines.



An excellent example is the mortality rates due to measles. Before the advent of the measles vaccine in 1963, death rates had already dropped 98.6 percent for the period while mortality records were kept. This steady decline started to plateau to less than 1 per 100,000 in 1944 and gradually diminished during the remaining years, aside from an abnormal spike in 1990 after the measles vaccine became part of the standard vaccination schedule. In 1959, the rate was approximately 1 in half a million, approaching zero, before the vaccine’s 1963 release.[4] Since the study ignores any potential reason for the 98.6 percent drop in measles mortality before 1963, there is no rationale to conclude the measles vaccine prevented any deaths whatsoever. Given the many decades of decline prior to the vaccine, whatever the cause(s) for this downward movement, it very likely would have continued to where measles mortality rates are today without a vaccine ever being developed. For example, there was never a vaccine developed for Scarlet Fever, however, in the UK it declined from being one of the more deadly infectious diseases with a mortality rate of 160 per 100,000 around 1860 to almost zero by 1940. Likewise, pertussis was already rapidly declining before the vaccine became widely used in the late 1940s.[5]



In what has now become a standardized assault against parents who either delay or withhold vaccinating their children, the Pittsburgh authors want us to believe that non-vaccinated children were responsible for the recent increase in pertussis cases. However, putting aside the pertussis vaccine’s litany of serious and life-threatening risks, data regarding its efficacy is gradually revealing this vaccine as one medicine’s major debacles. What the authors fail to question is whether the vaccine itself might be responsible for this escalation. Dr. Ruiting Lan and his colleagues at the University of New South Wales have identified a new vaccine-resistant genotype of pertussis (ptxP3) that has increased dramatically. It was responsible for about 30 percent of whooping cough cases before the 2008 epidemic to 84 percent of whooping cough cases in Australia today.[6,7] This new and more deadly strain according to the CDC is now being reported in the US and there is a growing body of research pointing to recent whooping cough outbreaks being directly linked to the vaccine.[8,9] This alone may account for the increase of whooping cough cases being referred to in the NEJM paper and a reason why vaccinated children are coming down with the infection as well. The foremost question scientists should be concerning themselves, rather than investing millions of dollars to play computer games with Magical Numbers, is to determine whether the DPT vaccine is responsible for the emergence of a vaccine-resistant pertussis outbreaks.



Yet there is even more damning research against the pertussis vaccine and its failures. In 2009, the CDC determined that 99.94 percent of American children were vaccinated against pertussis; therefore, the herd immunity threshold was surpassed and according to this unproven theory there should be no transmission. A recent FDA biological study performed on young baboons discovered that the pertussis vaccine, while possibly protecting against wild infection, in fact doesn’t eliminate infection; rather, the study found, that vaccinated baboons are colonizing the virus and transmitting it to others.[10] If this research holds up, it debunks any credibility that may be given to the belief in herd immunity.



The article also makes reference to the large 2010 pertussis outbreak but fails to mention that according to a study published in the December 2012 issue of the Journal of Pediatrics, among the 9000-plus cases in California (the largest among the states), 91 percent were fully “vaccinated according to national recommendations.”[11] During the 1986 pertussis outbreak in Kansas, 90 percent of the confirmed cases were vaccinated. This high percentage of outbreaks among vaccinated children is common during recent pertussis spikes in different locations. So who is truly endangering society? The pertussis vaccine is one instance where widespread vaccination is backfiring and increasing the incidences of infection, hospitalization and death. However, none of these hard historical and qualitative statistics are factored into the Project Tychos calculations.



The University of Pittsburgh’ NEJM article is a grand alchemical illusion of misinformation. The researchers either lack or ignore the most critical data and statistics necessary to arrive at medically valid conclusions about the causes behind deaths attributed to viral and bacterial infectious disease. Therefore, the report is best viewed as an archaic and pseudo-scientific attempt to discredit vaccine opponents and advance Bill Gates’ and his cohorts’ ambitions to legally mandate vaccination and decimate health freedom for individuals and parents to make their own decisions regarding medical interventions for themselves and their children. Wherever Bill Gates’ funding footprint is found in vaccine-related endeavors, we can be certain it is to advance his departing legacy as the foremost leader to vaccinate every infant and child on the planet irrespective of vaccines’ dangers and whether or not they are as effective as the CDC and vaccine makers allege.



Finally, there is a telling aftermath to the NEJM article and the New York Time’s introducing Project Tycho to the public. Why would a project, aimed at increasing vaccination rates, name their initiative after an astronomer credited with laying out the foundation for the Keplerian laws of planetary motion?



There is a perfectly good motive to name the Project after the famous 16th century Danish astronomer but it is not one that Gates nor the university want to acknowledge. Tycho’s significance for a vaccine initiative has nothing to do with the formidable scientist’s observation of the movements of celestial bodies. Rather it is Tycho the notorious alchemist we need to turn to in order to understand the Project’s patron saint. And here we find Tycho’s alchemy mirroring Bill Gate’s financial support for scientists to summon the ghosts of fallacious magical statistics conjured through algorithms to mislead the media and public.



One of the greatest fears parents express against vaccinating their children concerns vaccine’s many toxic chemicals and ingredients and vaccines’ serious and life-threatening adverse effects. For many decades, the scientific literature has documented a wide variety of neurological and physical disorders attributed to vaccines. Many of these long term reactions (development and neurological impairment, asthma and allergies, type-1 diabetes, GI disorders, etc.) are and being observed in epidemic proportions in children. As we have noted, the University of Pittsburgh researchers completely disregarded the questions concerning vaccine efficacy and safety in their study. Their methodology resides strictly in the abstract world of mathematical make-believe, removed from the hard sciences of immunology and molecular biology. Their conclusions to seduce a correspondence between infectious disease mortality rates and voodoo math in order resurrect millions of imaginary saved lives due to a “what if” vaccination has as much credibility as Tycho’s own belief that there was a direct correspondence between the individual planets, certain metals in the earth, and different bodily organs.



In 1901, and again in 2010, Tycho’s body was exhumed for medical analysis. The discoveries and causes of death uncovered the presence of severe toxic poisoning. The skull of his naval cavity was tainted green from excessive copper exposure, and high levels of mercury were detected, likely due to his extensive alchemical experiments to transform base metals into gold and silver and his life’s second endeavor to discover a universal medicine to cure all illnesses.[12]



Bill Gates and the University of Pittsburgh couldn’t have found a more fitting historical personage to honor their multi-million dollar disease surveillance and data mining project to convince legislators to make the vaccination of all Americans mandatory. Tycho’s hubris, in both of his alchemical endeavors, seems certain to have killed him. The alchemist’s drives correspond nicely with the dangers of vaccines, their dozens of toxic chemicals, and the rising epidemic of medical conditions and developmental disorders in children leading to lives of suffering and early death. Therefore dedicating this extraordinary data collection Project after Tycho is perhaps the only thing Gates and the university got correct.



NOTES



[1] Van Panhuis WG, Greenfenstette J, Jung SY, Chok NS, Cross A, Eng H, Lee BY, Zdorozhny V, Brown S, Cummings D, Burke DS. “Contagious Diseases in the United States from 1888 to the Present.” New England Journal of Medicine November 28, 2013, 369; 22.

[2] Lohr S. “The Vaccination Effect: 100 Million Cases of Contagious Disease Prevented,” New York Times. November 27, 2013 http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/27/the-vaccination-effect-100-million-cases-of-contagious-disease-prevented/?_r=0

[3] Project Tycho, University of Pittsburgh. http://www.tycho.pitt.edu

[4] Humphries, S, Bystrianyk R. Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines and the Forgotten History. Self-published. www.dissolvingillusions.com

[5] Humphries, S. Ibid.

[6] Lam, C., Octavia, S., Bahrame, Z., Sintchenko, V., Gilbert, G.L., & Lan, R. (2012) 
Selection and emergence of pertussis toxin promoter ptxP3 allele in the evolution of Bordetella Pertussis.
Infection Genetics and Evolution. 12(2): 492-495; Octavia, S., Sintchenko, V., Gilbert, G.L., Lawrence, A.L., Keil, A.D., Hogg, G., & Lan, R. (2012) 
”Newly emerging clones of bordetella Pertussis carrying prn2 and ptxP3 alleles implicated in australian pertussis epidemic in 2008-2010”.
Journal of Infectious Diseases. 205(8): 1220-1224

[7] Norrie J. “Vaccine Resistant Whooping Cough Takes Epidemic to New Level,” The Conversation, March 21, 2012

[8] “New Wooping Cough Strain in US Raises Questions” Fox News http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/02/07/new-whooping-cough-strain-in-us-raises-questions/

[9] Mooi FR, van Loo I, van Gent M, He Q, Bart MJ, Heuvelman KJ, de Greeff S, Diavatopoulos D, Teunis P, Nagelkerke N, and Mertsola J, “Bordetella pertussis Strains with Increased Toxin Production Associated with Pertussis Resurgence” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/15/8/08-1511_article.htm



[10] Mercola J. “FDA Pertussis Vaccine Study Shatters Illusions of Vaccine-Induced Immunity.” Mercola.com December 10, 2013.



[11] California Pertussis Epidemic 2010, Journal of Pediatrics 2012 Dec; 161 (6): 1091http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22819634

[12] Tycho Brahe Biography. Alchemy and Alchemists. http://alchemy-and-alchemists.blogspot.com/2010/07/tycho-brahe-biography.html; Wikipediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_Brahe

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Mental Health Disorders Leading Cause of Non-Fatal Illness Worldwide

English: Logo of the Centers for Disease Contr...
English: Logo of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services. White on blue background with white rays but no white "burst". No detailed wording. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By Dr. Mercola
Depression is a pervasive health issue today. According to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in 10 American adults report some form of depression.1 Eleven percent of the US population over the age of 12 is on antidepressant medication.2
Just two years ago, Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, discussed how a shocking 46 percent of Americans fit a diagnosis for one form of mental illness or another.3 This problem is not limited to the United States, however.
In fact, according to a recent study published in The Lancet,4 mental disorders and substance abuse combined were the leading cause of non-fatal illness worldwide in 2010, contributing nearly 23 percent of the total global disease burden!
Data for the study was obtained from the 2010 Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study,5 which includes data from 187 countries. Depressive disorders were the most common, followed by anxiety disorders, drug use disorders, and schizophrenia.

Mental Health Problems on the Rise Across the Globe

The analysis6 also found that mental disorders and substance use disorders were the fifth leading cause of death and disease worldwide. Only China, North Korea, Japan and Nigeria had a statistically lower burden of death and disease from mental disorders and substance abuse. As reported in the featured article:7
The authors say that this difference in non-fatal illness compared with the cause of death and disease is supported by the fact that mental and substance use disorders caused a low death rate in 2010 at 232,000, relative to the overall illness they caused.”
In all, mental and substance use disorders were responsible for higher global death and illness rates than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, diabetes, and car accidents. Females over the age of 14 had a higher risk of death and disease from mental disorders compared to males.
Males, on the other hand, had a higher risk of death and disease from drug and alcohol dependence across all age groups. According to the authors:8
“Despite the apparently small contribution of years of life lost to premature mortality—with deaths in people with mental disorders coded to the physical cause of death and suicide coded to the category of injuries under self-harm—our findings show the striking and growing challenge that these disorders pose for health systems in developed and developing regions.
In view of the magnitude of their contribution, improvement in population health is only possible if countries make the prevention and treatment of mental and substance use disorders a public health priority.”
This overall trend of rising mental disorders and drug abuse can also be seen in a 2010 US government survey9 in which 1 in 10 American children was found to have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)—a 22 percent increase from 2003.
A whopping 48.4 million prescriptions for ADHD stimulants were written in 2011 in the US,10 a 39 percent jump from 2007. Meanwhile, emergency room visits due to adverse reactions to such drugs rose by more than 400 percent between 2005 and 2011.

What’s Causing This Rise in Worldwide Mental Health Disturbances?

While I’m sure there are many contributing causes, from impoverished circumstances and poor health to poorly managed day-to-day stress and high-tension due to regional wars and strife just to name a few, I also think it’s important to consider massive recent shifts in food choices throughout the world.
Countries across the globe have shifted to far more industrialized processed and devitalized foods that rely heavily on the use of genetically engineered corn and soy. This denatured Western diet has spread its pernicious influence into the developing world as well.
I simply cannot overstate the importance of your food choices when it comes to your mental health. In a very real sense, you have TWO brains—one in your head, and one in your gut—both of which are created from the same tissue during fetal development.
These two systems are connected via the vagus nerve, the tenth cranial nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your abdomen. It is now well established that the vagus nerve is the primary route your gut bacteria use to transmit information to your brain.
Maintaining optimal gut health is therefore paramount when trying to address your mental state. In this regard, the modern “Western” diet has several things working against it:
  • Genetically modified foods can significantly alter your gut flora, thereby promoting pathogens while decimating the beneficial microbes necessary for optimal mental and physical health
  • Glyphosate—the most widely used herbicide on food crops in the world with nearly ONE BILLION pounds applied every year—has been shown to cause both nutritional deficiencies, especially minerals (which are critical for brain function), and systemic toxicity.
  • According to the researchers, glyphosate is possibly the most important factor in the development of multiple chronic diseases and conditions, and this includes mental health disorders such as depression. Dr. Don Huber believes it is far more toxic than DDT
  • High-fructose diets also feed pathogens in your gut, allowing them to overtake beneficial bacteria. Furthermore, sugar suppresses activity of a key growth hormone in your brain called BDNF. BDNF levels are critically low in both depression and schizophrenia.
  • Sugar consumption also triggers a cascade of chemical reactions in your body that promote chronic inflammation. In the long term, inflammation disrupts the normal functioning of your immune system, and wreaks havoc on your brain. Last but not least, sugar (particularly fructose) and grains contribute to insulin and leptin resistance and impaired signaling, which also play a significant role in your mental health
  • Artificial food ingredients, the artificial sweetener aspartame in particular, can wreak havoc with your brain function. Both depression and panic attacks are indeed known potential side effects of aspartame consumption

The Gut-Brain Connection Will Profoundly Influence Your Mental Health

The impact of your microflora on your brain function was recently reconfirmed by UCLA researchers who, in a proof-of-concept study,11 found that probiotics (beneficial bacteria) indeed altered the brain function in the participants. As reported by UCLA:12
“Researchers have known that the brain sends signals to your gut, which is why stress and other emotions can contribute to gastrointestinal symptoms. This study shows what has been suspected but until now had been proved only in animal studies: that signals travel the opposite way as well. 'Time and time again, we hear from patients that they never felt depressed or anxious until they started experiencing problems with their gut,' [Dr. Kirsten] Tillisch said. 'Our study shows that the gut–brain connection is a two-way street.'"
Similarly, as explained by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, a medical doctor with a postgraduate degree in neurology, toxicity in your gut can flow throughout your body and into your brain, where it can cause symptoms of autism, ADHD, depression, schizophrenia and a whole host of other mental and behavioral disorders. With this in mind, it should be crystal clear that nourishing your gut flora is extremely important from infancy into old age. To do so, I recommend the following strategies:
  • Avoid processed, refined foods in your diet.
  • Eat traditionally fermented, unpasteurized foodsFermented foods are the best route to optimal digestive health, as long as you eat the traditionally made, unpasteurized versions. Some of the beneficial bacteria found in fermented foods are also excellent chelators of heavy metals and pesticides, which will also have a beneficial health effect by reducing your toxic load. Healthy choices include:
    • Fermented vegetables
    • Lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner)
    • Fermented milk, such as kefir
    • Natto (fermented soy)
    Ideally, you want to eat a variety of fermented foods to maximize the variety of bacteria you’re consuming. Fermented vegetables, which are one of my new passions, are an excellent way to supply beneficial bacteria back into our gut. And, unlike some other fermented foods, they tend to be palatable, if not downright delicious, to most people.
    As an added bonus, they can also a great source of vitamin K2 if you ferment your own using the proper starter culture. We tested samples of high-quality fermented organic vegetables made a specific starter culture, and a typical serving (about two to three ounces) contained not only 10 trillion beneficial bacteria, it also had 500 mcg of vitamin K2, which we now know is a vital co-nutrient to both vitamin D and calcium. Most high-quality probiotic supplements will only supply you with a fraction of the beneficial bacteria found in such homemade fermented veggies, so it’s your most economical route to optimal gut health as well. 
  • Take a high-quality probiotic supplement. Although I'm not a major proponent of taking many supplements (as I believe the majority of your nutrients need to come from food), probiotics is an exception if you don’t eat fermented foods on a regular basis.

 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/09/12/mental-health-disorders.aspx  Please visit Mercola.com for more on this issue.
Enhanced by Zemanta