Single Payer - What You Were Not Permitted to Hear Discussed:

Bolding and italicizing done by editor.

by Judy Moriarity

http://www.hr676.org/

The simplistic bill not written by lobbyists or awash with cross references. A mere 27 pages.

http://www.pnhp.org/nhibill/nhi_bill_final.pdf

This was a major reason why many voted for him. The promise of affordable health care. Finally, the insurance companies would be out of the picture. Insurance companies who are responsible for many a families financial ruination. Why, as far back as the President's days as state senator, he was championing 'Single Payer', as the only way to go. Things 'change' when you enter Foggy Bottom. The real world of corporate occupied territory - hits you upside the head. The President, while still feebly wishing for Single Payer now sees it as an impossibility.

Instead the White House health team has had innumerable meetings, with insurance/drug/hospital lobbyists and their CEOs. Why, as the President stated,' you'd have to start from scratch' with Single Payer. In reality - Single Payer, would merely consist of expanding Medicare. Everybody in - Nobody out. While these bills (Senate - House) are thousands of pages long (written by industry lobbyists) with numerous cross-references, the Single Payer Bill, with many co-sponsors is a mere 27 pages of easily understood language for the work a day citizen.

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Single Payer - would end the monopoly of insurance along with the greed of Big Pharma. Recall, that the President promised, during the campaign, that we would have transparency in Washington. Everyone (health bill) would have a seat at the table. Why the entire discussion would be shown on C-Span. It didn't quite turn out that way. To date everything has been down in secret - in the shadows.

The fact is, hundreds of doctors and nurses, showed up at the supposed 'open' meetings in March -'09, to discuss all options for true health reform. All options, except 'Single Payer' that is. The only people at the Baucus Finance Committee hearing were industry hacks. Nobody representing 'Single Payer' was permitted at the table. Doctors and nurses were scattered throughout the audience. As one by one the doctors & nurses stood and attempted to champion Single Payer - the 'reform', most desired by the medical profession (not small % of AMA who don't represent mainline physicians/surgeons) Senator Baucus called police to arrest them.

Thus, they were jailed! Our nation's doctors and nurses. This is the 'freedom' that our military is fighting for? Now common sense might dictate, that who would know better about medical care, than those who have spent years becoming educated - and working in the field? Dedicated people, who have tens of thousands in loans to repay, and thanks to the insurance industry - some are paying upwards of $80,000 for malpractice insurance. With cuts in Medicare and Medicaid payments to physicians; why they'll have to refuse these patients, or close up shop? Out here in the real world, taxes are rising by the day, along with electric ( thank you Congress) food, rents, and of course, prescriptions. Not for the Washington gang - they've seen to feathering their health care nests/ for life. Hmm - maybe we should import some witch doctors eh?

Our illustrious leaders aren't subjected to the same rigors/ training for their field. Their corporate masters see to this expense (campaign donations/ cocktail fund raisers etc). They should carry malpractice insurance, which would go a long way in covering the damage they've done to citizens (nation) due to their ineptness - incompetence - negligence in reading bills. The town hall meetings showed citizens just what their elected officials really thought of them - nothing! Somewhere along the line - they lost sight of just whom it is they are employed by?

Somewhere along the line ,they determined, that upon being elected, the job, was to feather their own nests, and see to lobbying/ board appointments for family members?

Single Payer: Automatic enrollment for everyone. Complete service covering all necessary medical care and drugs. Free choice of doctor and hospitals who remain independent and negotiate their fees. Public non-profit processes and pays the bills. The entire system is financed through progressive taxes (not high cost premiums - high cost drugs. Once upon a time our family doctor spent all the time in the world with us. He didn't have to spend HOURS, dealing with some GED dropout in a distant cubicle, leafing through a volume of TESTS not eligible for payment, drugs too expensive. In the real world this is called 'rationing'.

Medical care for all was a non- starter. from the git go. Big Pharma & Private Insurers wouldn't hear of it. Republicans scream - Canada, we can't become a Canadian system. A buy into Medicare, for those age 55 to 65? It might result in the possibility of this large group negotiating lower drug prices and better service at a lower cost? Oops! Private Insurers - Big Pharma wouldn't hear of it. Republicans again warned of Canada! How about a Public Option - only to Americans who wouldn't be covered by employers or by Medicaid? Coverage would be pegged to Medicare rates. But - darn it, private insurers and Big Pharma said 'No'. Compromised Public Option - open to approximately 6 million Americans, not otherwise covered?

The Congressional Budget Office - says this shrunken public option, has no bargaining power, and would attract those needing lots of medical care. But even the House's shrunken public option, is too much for private insurers and Big Pharma. - even as small as 4 million! It still contains the word 'public'! Not acceptable to industry. In rides Lieberman. The paltry public option was not allowed a vote to debate. Good ole Joe - from Insurance Capital -Connecticut, he didn't disappoint his corporate puppet masters. It's hard to remember just what party Joe belongs to - not that it matters. Hey, look at our circumstances. Everyone always thought that the Democratic Party was the Party of the working man - the disenfranchised, the voiceless and powerless. Well this theater of the bizarre has sure disproved that MYTH.

All this supposed wrangling for citizens is bad burlesque. Our private for profit health system, designed to fatten profits of private health/Big Pharma, is turned over to our private for profit health care system -except now, these private health insurance companies and Big Pharma will be getting 30 million added customers - PAID for by the rest of us. Other Secret Dealings: The White House aided by Senator Harper (D-Del) worked hard to crush an amendment pushed by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) to allow for the reimportation of pharmaceutical drugs from Canada.

The White House persuaded Democrats to oppose this! Huffington Post reported memo/ that the White House and Pharmaceutical lobby 'secretly' agreed (July) to a deal they'd been denying. It said that the White House agreed to oppose any Congressional efforts to use the government's leverage to bargain for 'lower' drug prices or importing drugs from Canada. They also agreed not to shift some drugs from Medicare Part B to Medicare D- which would have cost Big Pharma billions in reduced reimbursements. And they say this isn't about money! All 300+ American will be forced to sign on to one option or the other. The insurance companies will be handling the large spillover (some 30 million) of new customers.

It's a government/corporate partnership from top to bottom. Always was. Insurance companies decided to call in their markers (thus the avoidance of citizen's numerous faxes - phone calls - protests) to get the necessary votes. Industry (insurance - Big Phama) will still be exempt from both tort reform and antitrust laws. This permits price fixing, collusion, market allocation. This is illegal in every other industry under antitrust laws.

Truth be told - private insurance companies, don't give a rat's azz about the poor, the jobless, the hungry, the hurting;and will charge them the highest premiums they can. Loan sharks in $4000 suits and $200 silk ties. The President keeps saying that the average family will 'save $2,500 a year - and will not have to change health insurance plans. Meantime the Congressional Budget Office reports that user fee taxes passed through to customers will result in appreciably higher premium costs. They also report that millions will lose their current plans.

The Real Wheeling & Dealing: As Dr (Senator) Colburn said, "There is no bill - all of this is a decoy. The real 'bill' is being worked on in secret behind closed doors. We have no idea of the details. I suspect that the bill, was hammered out in the White House. The AP asked for records of health interests who had met with Health Advisers (staff) at the White House. They found that there were hundreds of meeting with Big Pharma - Drug companies - Hospital CEOs and Medical Device honcho. Only the Big guys attended these high powered meetings with Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarett (top adviser) - Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel (Rahm's brother) Axelrod and 18 others. Congress/ Pelosi / Reid and Baucus with his new 'squeeze' were all merely for our entertainment. That's my opinion on this mess. The White House sure as heck wasn't going to trust the buffoons in the House and Senate to handle this DEAL - are you kidding! We're talking real money here, billions in profits and oh, future campaign donations..

IMPORTANT NEWS FOR DOCTORS

BLOOMBERG NEWS - FEB 9-2009 -- Few paid attention to this gem/ in reference to the STIMULUS BILL - "Right mix of tax breaks and cash infusion to jump start the economy. NO ONE from either party is objecting to health provisions slipped in without discussion. These reflect the work of Tom Daschle." What health provisions?

It appears that this $800 billion dollar stimulus bill that was 'hurried' through Congress in record time, contains some striking 'Big Brother' health care language. This jobs bill requires electronic tracking of the medical records of ALL Americans. All your private data will be stored on a government data base - including a history of your diseases, pharmaceuticals, treatments, surgeries, mental health and ER visits.

Under the NEW provisions found in this (jobs) bill, all US doctors will now be stripped of autonomy and forced to follow the medical guidelines. It means that doctors can NO longer make their own decisions about patient needs or treatment protocols. From now on ALL health care decision will be controlled by a "HEALTH CARE AUTHORITY" of the Federal Government.

The Bill goes further. A new bureaucracy - the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology will monitor treatment to make sure your doctor is doing what the Federal Government deems appropriate and COST effective.

The goal is to reduce costs and 'guide' your doctor (pg 442-46). These provisions in the Stimulus Bill are virtually identical to what Daschel presented in his book "Critical: What We Can Do About Health Care Crisis". According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and 'learn to operated less like a solo practioner'. Hospitals and doctors who are not "meaningful users' of the new system wil face penalties. 'Meaningful User' isn' described in the bill?

This will be left to the Health and Human Services Secretary (pg 518-540-541). Seniors (over 65) should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age. The Stimulus Bill will apply a cost-effective standard set by the Council (464). This board approves or rejects treatment using a FORMULA that divides the cost of treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit (except if you're an aging Senator - President - or Supreme Court Justice -jm) Stimulus Billl will affect every part relating to health care from medical and nursing education to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid.

Hiding Health Care Legislation in a Stimulus Bill is intentional. Daschle (who has advised White House team - jm) attributed the failure of the Clinton Health Care Overhall to DEBATE and DELAY. Daschle wrote (2008) that the next president should ACT QUICKLY - before CRITICS have time to mount an opposition.

"If it means attaching a HEALTH CARE PLAN to the Federal Budget - so be it", he said. "The issue is too important to be STALLED by SENATE PROTOCOL"

We can now understand the RUSH to get the Stimulus Bill passed in record time. God help us, if someone ( Legislators) took the time to read it! It's evident that no great deluge of JOBS has been realized. And as Daschle advised - Sneak it in anywhere - before there can be any debate or discussion. So much eh for Representative Democracy. This explains the Christmas rush - and lack of debate on the most important legislation since the NEW DEAL. Keep the people in the dark like mushroom and feed them manure! "We're late we're late no time to wait........."

Profits take precedence. RATIONING - With an unelected board deciding from some FORMULA (this is what we've been brought to ) the message appears to be/ Since you are no longer usual as worker bees / accept the decisions of the BOARD that expensive surgeries, treatments, and medications are a waste of time (MONEY). I'm surprised they haven't labeled this supposed health reform (really insurance lottery win) ICE FLOE INC.

As Ricky said to Lucy 'you've got some 'splaining to do".

LASTLY - We are being told that this health reform is a 'work in progress'. That there are GOOD parts which should excuse any qualms we might have. This would be the announcement that this BILL covers pre-existing conditions. The President has stated that "Everyone would be covered - all those with pre-existing conditions or medical problems. We will end the practice of denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions.. The days of cherry picking who to care for and who to deny are over". June 15-2009

To understand this you have to check out the cross references given in the Obama bill. This means you have to find out (as referenced) the meaning of 'pre-existent condition exclusion" as defined in Section 2701(b)(1)(A) of the Pubic Health Services Act. The section numbers referenced in Obama's bill for Public Service Act are the old numbers. The Public Service Act has been amended with new numbers. The full text is 1,476 pages long.

Not to bore you with the maze of bureaucratic cross references of terms in the bill - suffice to say: Paragraph 2 in Part A does several things/ Section 2702. First paragraph two in Part A says that the prohibition against pre-existing condition exclusions DOES NOT APPLY to benefits offered in the policy in the "COVERAGES" Section, which means when the policy is written PRE-EXISTENT CONDITION EXCLUSIONS will be allowed to be written into the sections defining coverage. In short, insurers will STILL BE ALLOWED TO EXCLUDE PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS FROM COVERAGE.

The Devil's in the details!Paragraph two also says in Part A that policy writers for the government will be allowed to make the insurance you buy cover CERTAIN ailments, and not cover others/ one of which just may be a condition you happen to have - which is PRE-EXISTING.

What paragraph two says in Part B is that policy writers for the government will be allowed to LIMIT the amount - level - extent - or nature of the treatment you get for certain ailments.

So, who will be writing your insurance policy? According to the President's Plan, a NEW bureaucracy ( recall health plan language buried in the Stimulus Bill) known as the "Health Benefits Advisory Committee. These folks will be 'appointed' (27).

How many have to be a treating doctor: ONE. So we'll have this gaggle of people with NO medical backgrounds - or intimate knowledge of the various treatments - or medicines, which besides prolonging life (we're not talking of 90 yr old patients in a coma), will greatly relieve needless suffering/pain. It is simply inhumane, to determine the quality of a person's life, by some abstract formula most likely drawn up by those who will profit.

In this the 21st century no person should suffer intolerable pain due to cost or the insanity of being thought a drug addict, due to a Drug War, that is safest targeting the sick - dying rather than Drug Warlords.I note that they wheeled Senator Byrd into the late night Senate mayhem to vote. What is he - 100? Nobody is denying him the best of care. A number of the Senators are well beyond 65 - ah but then they are excluded from the nonsensical care they are voting for the nation. So much for "I was SICK, I was HUNGRY, I was a STRANGER.........begone from Me I know you not".

JM jdthmoriarty@yahoo.com

The "New" healthcare Plan for Insurance Companies

"Dr. my arm hurts when I bend it this way". "Well don't bend it that way".

How the new health care bill will work as so written.

Bolding and italicizing by editor.

by, Judy Moriarity

This is the information you need to TRULY understand the 'hidden' life-altering details, of this so-called Health Reform Bill - in reality it has little to do with providing quality -affordable care, and everything to do with sweetheart deals, worked out months ago with Big Pharma - Insurance Companies - Hospitals - HMOs - and dozens of lobbyists. Left out are the people - who bear the brunt of obscene costs. Doctors pay special heed to last paragraphs, describing laws already passed in an unrelated bill and how it will greatly affect your practice and decisions for your patients. Thus far (in the Senate Bill alone), there are 2,074 plus pages. The printed bill weighs 70.8 lbs = $1.2 bill per page. The lobbying (67 Lobbyists for every legislator!) has won all they've sought. Monies spent $3.3 billion. Our newest form of 'representative democracy' are these sweetheart deals worked out (buying votes) behind closed doors. Senator Baucus of Montana, who had doctors/nurses arrested (March) when the supposed 'everybody at the table' hearings went on, got special favors for his citizens. In Libby Montana, there are many asbestos related illnesses, due to the mining there. These sick citizens, will be granted 'special access to Medicare benefits, that are not available to other states, who are suffering the toxic pollutants of corporate hucksters (chemical plants, mega dumps, incinerators, coal plants etc). Phew, and to think, the mining company might have had to pay these health costs. Per usual, taxpayers will instead pay the bill.Nebraska - Massachusetts - Vermont- Louisiana have been given more Medicaid monies than other states. Millions more. Folks in Florida, will receive special attentions to their Medicare Advantage plans (covers extra costs). What about Arizona? Oh yeah, we have two bought for and paid in full Senators of the Insurance Companies Kyle and McCain. Editor Nebraska has the rest of us picking up their Medicaid costs - for life! There's not a single thing in this 'reform' that will actually deliver a single medical treatment or surgery. Except for Senator Sanders of Vermont. He thought of the people in his request for funding of clinics across the nation. Clinics were people aren't put in a beggarly position in seeking help. Maybe we should have a bidding process instead of elections? We'd sure make out better - we couldn't do worse. This 'reform' is just more money, in the form of higher premiums (millions of more customers) to insurance companies. The people - unable to afford Cadillac coverage, will get Medicaid on steroids. Having (gov coverage) doesn't mean you can get health care. If you've never been on cannery row - with a toothache or strep throat, looking for a dentist/doctor; who will take your 'po' man's card' - you soon will. Big deal. So 30 million more will get a Masters of the Universe Health Card. Take that to your dialysis treatment. That's what your junk coverage will look like. You dragging up one street after another looking for care. And you can't blame the doctors with ten plus years of education/training. We only pay gladiator sports figures - golfers - rappers - loud mouth TV/radio jocks -silicon inflated, air head starlets, military contractors, and politicians the big money. Washington shills, while seeing to their own salaries, with yearly cost of living increases - pensions - life long (Cadillac taxpayer subsidized health insurance - lots of choices, no worry over pre-existing conditions) lobbying jobs for family members etc --don't feel that physicians, many with huge loans to repay, are deserving of adequate pay for their work. Heck Rostenskowski (felon) is laying back on easy street with his $176,000 pension. While a few bucks more in SS will break the bank, (not trillions to the banksters) Rostenskowski is getting (they all do) a $9,000 dollar COST OF LIVING increase. They get these yearly. While the people on fixed incomes (social Security) will received no cost of living increase next year! Editor There will be just two National Private Plans - one a non-profit, overseen by the Office of Regulatory Management. Senate leadership reports, that states will have to police any problems.. Good luck. California was not able to perform when battling Anthem BlueCross when they denied coverage to 1,770 policy holders. It was a no-win(cost wise) for California, as Blue Cross had the right to contest 'each' case individually. This would have tied up the courts for years. Instead (yawn) they were fined a mere million - walking around money for these bloated charlatans. "We're right in the middle of a /&%#!+ reptile zoo and somebody's giving booze to the GD things!" Hunter Thompson Aren't you sick and tired of being compared to a car (buying insurance). Politicians tell us that this 'mandate' is the same thing! Not one state requires everybody to buy auto insurance. There are states that require people who 'wish' to operate a licensed vehicle on public roads to buy insurance. AARP got themselves a billion in extra Medicaid payments. Doctors/hospitals in Montana - North Dakota - South Dakota (gang who met in secret) Utah; will get paid extra monies under a special formula in the bill. This bill is not about 'health reform' - but a massive expansion of new customers for the insurance industry. Millions of 'mandated' customers will see a great expansion of insurance companies profits. Insurance companies will see tax credits directly payable to them/400 billion transferred to insurance companies. President Obama meantime announced that he is standing up to the special interests. Huh? There will be no public option - no Medicare buy-in. This was no deal anyway, with an individual paying $7,500, and a couple $15,500.00. There is no tort reform, and the insurance companies will continue to be exempt from anti-trust laws. Medications will continue to skyrocket as re-importation of drugs from Canada is out. Broken hip - take two aspirins and stay off that leg. Thus, drugs manufactured here and sent to Canada, will not be re-imported which would save citizens millions, if not billions per year. We will continue to pay 6-10 times for more drugs than the other industrialized nations. While this is being made to look like an act of Congress - in fact, this deal, was hammered out in July-Aug 2009, with the real wheelers & dealers in this 'health' bill - (White House health advisory staff). The only 'reform' in this bill (unread); is the mandated millions, who will be forced to buy 'junk (poor quality) insurance. Sort of like presenting your child's Spider Man Club Membership for services. Good luck. This mandated collection of monies will be the job of the IRS - with those citizens who refuse, suffering fines (increased in this bill). Citizens will be forced to pay 8% of their income (so far) to private insurance companies, whether they want to or or not. Of course unlike the well paid (full Cadillac coverage) political hacks in Washington (yearly raises); out here in the real world - wages have stagnated. Temporary work at $8-$10 bucks an hour isn't living - its trying to exist. Vacations in Hawaii - Martha's Vineyard - river rafting, Yellowstone, etc. Not out here. Few now get vacations. Sick time? While Senator Kennedy was paid in full for his two years of illness - work a day people go to work sick. To get a day off means a doctors excuse. Cost, $91.00 for that office visit. Perverse times we live in. War = Peace Prize, and the forced payment of an inferior product = freedom. Paid for by taxes (lots of them) on the middle class. The insurance plan you have now, through your employer, will most likely cause them to cut back (due to costs) on benefits, increase co-payments. While these taxes start as soon as the President signs this 'bill' - benefits ( such as they are) will not be realized until 2014. What's the bum's rush? For us - this is comparable to paying multiple taxes on a used Corvair ($578 billion in new taxes according to Chief Accuracy -Congressional Budget Office); and not being able to drive it. In the meantime, you'll be paying registration, inspection fees, insurance and gas. * Medicare will be cut by some $500 billion. This is called 'savings & addressing waste' by the pro-reform folks. I'm still wondering where the $2.3 TRILLION, that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said couldn't be accounted for (Defesne Dept), on Sept 10,2001? In the tragedy of Sept 11 - nobody thought to look into this?? TRILLIONS!! Monies for home health care will be cut along with money for hospice care. Others - with more common sense, see it for the rationing it is. Drug companies - besides benefiting from no re-importation of drugs - have also gotten an agreement to keep generic version of expensive bio-tech drugs from ever coming to fruition. High costs will prevail. The Congressional Budget Office reports that this drug deal (spawned in the White House - July) will save Big Pharma 100 + million over the next decade. Other economists, project these profits could be 4 to 5 times 100 million. Unlike other countries / ours, being a profit driven enterprise, is not about the health of citizens; but more and more profits (new mansions - bonuses -Ivy league colleges for the kids - corporate jets - exotic vacations etc). Who can forget President Bush remarking that 'everyone in America has medical care -they have the emergency room.' President Bush - like many from wealthy families, or professional politicians, don't have a clue as to life in the real world. He is certainly unaware - that there are documented cases - of people dying while waiting hours and hours for care. One pool soul (age 47) died of an obstructed bowel on the floor of a California ER. The janitor mopped up the blood around her as she lay dying on the floor. The person with cancer, in need of dialysis, an MRI or special treatments etc, isn't going to get it in the ER. They sure won't get the heart valve replacement that Barbara Bush (86), received last year (also stomach surgery) - or the specialized treatment of Senator Kennedy/ along with his receiving full pay, for his 2 yrs of sick time. They won't get a month's 'REST' in the hospital like Strom Thurmond or specialized care like Alan Specter - Dodd - Clinton/ in the best of hospitals. People in days gone by carried insurance to cover any crisis / i.e. illness, accident, house fire, liability etc. No more.. The insurance companies now have legions of drone workers, whose only job is to deny claims. This is usually done under the guise of some vague pre-existing condition. This can range from having acne in your teenage years to athletes foot. This is comparable to carrying fire insurance on your home - only to be told, when submitting a claim, that it has been brought to their attention (insurance carrier) that neighbors report, that a marsh mellow roast, was held by your son's boy scout troop, in the backyard 15 yrs ago - therefore adding to the risk on your property! Glad to have Washington looking out after us poor souls!

WEIRD, wild and decidedly offbeat research findings have emerged in 2009.

Ghosts, masturbation and weird findings

• From: AAP
• December 16, 2009 4:13PM

Among the most bizarre medical discoveries were:.

- Pulling a tick off the wrong way can lead to meat allergy. An Australian doctor found the link while studying rising cases of the allergy among people who live on Sydney's tick-prone northern beaches. "I now tell everybody I see who lives anywhere near ticks to use `Aerostart' (spray-on engine cleaner) or another high-alcohol substance," said Dr Sheryl van Nunen. "Stun the tick before you scrape it out and it can't inject what it injects."

- Serial coffee drinkers are more likely to feel "the presence of dead people", British researchers found. They asked students about their caffeine intake and those with the highest were also most likely to report seeing, or hearing, things that were not there.

- The hotter a common laser printer gets, the more likely it is to spew out potentially hazardous "ultrafine particles", Australian scientists warned. The particles can be as toxic as cigarette smoke, and 60 per cent of printers in one study were found to emit them.

- British scientists have created a custom-made bacteria that glows green when it comes into contact with chemicals leaked by buried explosives, meaning it can be used to safely detect the presence of landmines.

- A UK study found men who reported more frequent masturbation and sex during their 20s and 30s went on to have an increased risk of prostate cancer. However this was at odds with Australian research prompting claims "bashful" Brits may have skewed the result. "Men who haven't got the disease ... are less likely to admit to high levels of self-satisfaction," said Melbourne's Professor Graham Giles.

- They provide relief from the body's aches and pains but they can also burn, doctors from an Adelaide hospital's emergency department warned after treating a string of "wheat bag" injuries.

- The first US case of "cannabinoid hyperemesis" was recorded in the medical literature. The syndrome was first described in 2004 in 20 South Australian men. Sufferers experience nausea and vomiting as a result of chronic cannabis use, but these ill effects are relieved by taking a very hot shower. "Grown men, screaming in pain, sweating profusely, vomiting every 30 seconds and demanding to be allowed to use the shower. It's a very dramatic presentation," an Adelaide-based doctor said.

- US surgeons successfully restored a woman's sight by pulling out one of her teeth, placing a lens inside the tooth and then implanting the tooth in her eyeball. The technique can only be used when a person has a scarred cornea on an otherwise healthy eye.

- Australian medicos found a new use for saline solution. The hospital staple is very effective at removing a leech from an eyeball. A Sydney hospital treated a woman who had a leech "tucked up underneath her upper eyelid". "Our little fellow started off at about half a centimeter and by the time we removed it, it was about 2cm long - it had quite a good lunch," said doctor Toby Fogg.

- Caffeine does temporarily dull the body's ability to feel pain, according to a US study that looked at how long cyclists could maintain maximum exertion.

- A study of children taken to emergency departments in Australia and New Zealand has found boys were over-represented, even when accounting for their higher accident rate. "All of the nurses in my department think it is because males are the weaker sex," said Dr Jason Acworth.

- A 62-year-old cancer survivor was temporarily denied entry into the US because the drug he was taking had wiped out his fingerprints. The journal Annals of Oncology issued a travel warning for the drug capecitabine, which lists inflammation of the hands and peeling palms among its side effects. "Patients ... may have problems with regards to fingerprint identification when they enter US ports or other countries," it warned.

- Brain scans on 30 Brisbane-based mums showed that some experienced a "natural high" when looking at photos of their crying child, while for others the same scenario inspired feelings of "disgust".

- A paper in the Journal of Clinical Practice listed cases of people who drank up to nine liters of cola a day. One man was confined to an electric scooter as a result. Another saw his GP for muscle weakness, and admitted to drinking more than four liters a day during a trip to the Australian outback. Excess soft drink consumption can cause "mild weakness to profound paralysis", researchers warned.

- Many smokers feel more compelled to quit when asked to ponder the impact of their habit on their pet's health, a US study revealed.

- Having a hook worm in your stomach was found to be an effective treatment for coeliac disease. The parasite reduced the sensitivity of the immune system, which would otherwise malfunction and attack the stomach lining. Despite the "yuck factor", 20 study participants opted to keep their hookworm at the end of an Australian trial.

- Research into a 17 per cent jump in Australian men who sought tests for prostate cancer found the cause was Sam Newman. The controversial AFL identity went public with his diagnosis in early 2008, and it had a similar impact on prostate cancer testing as Kylie Minogue had on breast screening following her 2005 diagnosis.

- A testosterone patch designed to pep up a woman's sex drive received the thumbs down in a study published in the UK's Drugs and Therapeutics Bulletin. The side effects included acne, excess hair, breast pain, weight gain, insomnia, voice deepening and migraine. "Significant numbers" of women placed on a placebo patch reported an increase in sex drive.

Vitamin D and the H1N1 virus

Vitamin D might be just as important as vaccine to prevent effects of H1N1 swine flu, researchers say

Canada NewsWire

11-27-09

TORONTO, Nov. 26, 2009 (Canada NewsWire via COMTEX) -- The world's leading vitamin D experts say that raising your levels of "the sunshine vitamin" this winter might be the best way to help your body naturally raise its resistance to all forms of the flu virus - including the H1N1 swine flu virus.

That's the message vitamin D advocate Dr. William Grant wants you to take to the bank.

"I'm a little hesitant to say it will reduce your risk of being infected, but it certainly will reduce your risk of dying from the complications, such as pneumonia, if you are infected," says Grant, founder of the Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center - a vitamin D research and advocacy group.

Grant is concerned that epidemic vitamin D deficiency in Canada -- 97 percent of Canadians are vitamin D deficient in the winter due to Canada's northerly latitudes and relatively weak sunlight 4-6 months of the year -- means that Canadians could be more susceptible to flu virus in the winter.

Grant points to research suggesting:

- Higher vitamin D levels assist the body's innate immune system. Some

studies suggest taking 2,000 IU of vitamin D/day will decrease your

risk of seasonal flu. (Recent research suggest up 10 10,000 I.U. of Vitamin is safe. editor)

- The groups most affected by the H1N1 swine flu virus have been those

most likely to be vitamin D deficient: pregnant women, obese people,

those with Type II diabetes and children with neurological disorders.

- Many of the deaths associated with the H1N1 virus have been pneumonia

related, which means anything that would assist your body's innate

immune system would make you less likely to be affected.

>>

The worldwide vitamin D research community now recommends getting your vitamin D levels checked with a calcidiol test and maintaining vitamin D levels of 40-60 ng/ml.

November is Vitamin D Awareness Month in Canada. For more information about the benefits of vitamin D visit:

<<

www.vitaminDsociety.org

www.GrassRootsHealth.org

SOURCE: Vitamin D Society

SOURCE: FLU VIRUS UPDATE

CONTACT: Michelle Di Rocco, (416) 360-6522 ext 251, michelle@punchcanada.com or Danna Barak at

danna@punchcanada.com

Copyright (C) 2009 CNW Group. All rights reserved.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

The first cousin of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Both are horrible conditions to have. They hold hands and take turns torturing you, laughing at you, scoffing at your failures, teasing you with fear, chasing you and making all your enemy.

With PTSD you get to relive the moment of your TBI again and again. Anything which you recognize surrounding the moment of your TBI will cause extreme anxiety and fear in you. PTSD will awaken you at night sweating, screaming, striking out at some incident which occurred when you brain was injured. Over and over you relive it. There are no specific medications to stop PTSD, you must treat it through psychotherapy, and getting back in the saddle.

My TBI was caused when I ran out of gasoline on a freeway in Phoenix one dark night and was attacked by four young males. My PTSD exhibited itself with me waking up at night fighting for my life swinging at people who were there, yelling at people who weren't there, sweating and shaking. I also became deathly afraid of riding in a car. I quit driving and my wife drove. That made it worse as I no longer had control of the steering wheel and I felt she stopped too slowly and drove too fast. I was afraid of the car in the next lane coming over into our lane a hitting us.

I used to go to Los Algodones, Mexico for my dentist. After my head injury I had my two front teeth knocked out, so the next weekend we drove over to Mexico to see my dentist and have teeth placed back in. It is just outside Yuma, Arizona. After we finished getting the teeth placed in, my wife and I decided to stop in Yuma for lunch. We exited the freeway and was on the exit ramp waiting for the light to change so we could go. Traffic was back up in the two lanes with the last car in the lane next to us even with our car. Suddenly a women came barreling down the exit and slammed her brakes on at the last second. With tires screaming she slammed into the rear of the car next to us. With my TBI and PTSD just starting a week earlier this set me back quite a bit. I honestly though I would either lose control of my emotions or have a heart attack. It enhanced my fear of driving. This is what PTSD will do for you.

In my previous post I wrote about the results of TBI, but PTSD is tougher to list. Some people will relieve their traumatic experience and try at all cost to avoid similar situations. Other see enemies everywhere and may try to take them out. Other will do as in TBI and self-medicate to get the experience out of their minds. Some escape into the jungles of urban city life, living on the street.

Some people with PTSD get in trouble with the police because of their fear of authority.The police do not understand this and will arrest these unfortunate people for so many charges, they patients may never see the light of day, except for the one hour in the exercise yard. They will be charged with resisting arrest, assault and battery on a police office, failure to follow an officer's command, under the influence of something, running from the police, spitting on the ground, not standing up straight to the officer, not having an I.d. and the charges keep piling up. It doesn't matter to the police, their job is to arrest people and pile the charges on. The damaged person then get to spend their time in jail or prison without any health care, all because they were injured and received no medical care.

It's a shame. We've lost too many of our citizens for this (TBI and PTSD). It's time for medical doctors, social workers, insurance company's to provide the help needed to help these injured people turn their lives around and become productive citizens in our society, again.

Traumatic Brain Injuries

Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) are injuries which are much more common than usually understood. Today we have our troops, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan being injured by Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's) which often cause brain injuries through concussions and penetrating head wounds caused by shrapnel. For years the US. Army and the U.S. Marines failed to acknowledge these injuries or treat them, or provide medical disability payment to them. Many of our veterans with head injuries became homeless through the years. As more information has become public and public demand has demanded diagnosis and treatment, more of our soldiers are now being treated.

Warfare is not the only cause of TBI's. Any blow to the head can cause damage to the brain and result in TBI's. Causes in everyday life include: car accidents, assaults, falls, items falling on unprotected head, strokes, in other words anything that hits the head can cause brain injury. It is estimated that there are 2,000,000 TBI's occurring in the U.S. every year.

Results of head injuries depend on blunt force, location of the injury, how quickly the patient is seen in a hospital and treatment. The results of TBI's are varied and usually life changing. One thing that happens in a concussion to the head is what is called "contra-coup". Our brains float in a liquid to help protect it. When a blow happens to the front of the head (frontal lobe) the brain will slam to the back of the head (occipital lobe) and can cause damage in both places. Thus the damage may be much more extensive than first thought.

Some of the results will include:

• Immediate/Short/long term memory loss. Usually immediate and short term memory loss.
• Agitation.
• Depression.
• Anxiety.
  
• Anger and aggression.
• Fatigue and exhaustion.
• Fall asleep at any time.
  
• Inability to understand simple words or conversation.
• Inability to learn new information.
• Inability to understand your surrounding, and may become lost easily.
• Insomnia.
• Misunderstand conversations.
• Inability to concentrate.
• Runaway mind. The mind will hop from one thought to another, ceaselessly.
  
• Change in personality.
• Withdrawal from every day life.
• You will most likely lose your friends as they can't understand your changes.
  
• Inability to work and support your family.
• Inability to take care of personal hygiene.
• Inability to do daily activities.
• Seizures
• Changes in vision and hearing.
• Hallucinations including vision, hearing, vision or smell.
  

And the list goes on and on, again depending on which part of the brain is injured.

One of the major problems with having a TBI is being diagnosed properly and treated properly. There is no one test to diagnose you. Often CT scans are "normal", EEG's are "normal"most of the medical tools used for helping doctors diagnose problems are not effective with head injuries. There are often no outward signs of an injury. The doctor, usually a Neurologist, will run the patient through many different physical exams to see what type of damage there is. Things like holding your hands out to watch for tremors, walking to see if you waver or hold onto the wall, memory tests, psychological tests to find out where the brain deficits may be and then perhaps the diagnoses of TBI can be made.

Then the problem occurs, which type of treatment? I suffered a TBI in 2003, through an assault. It took three years and several Neurologists, psychiatrists and psychologist to get my brain somewhat under control. After three years and many different medication trials one of my Psychiatrists found a combination of medications which slowed my brain down. Three years of insanity. What combination which works for me may very well not work for someone else. The Psychiatrist and Neurologist will have to find the correct combination for you. This takes a lot of time. So be patient.

In the meantime, people with uncontrolled TBI symptoms will self-medicate. This means the patient with the runaway mind will try anything to stop the madness and the fire in the brain. Patients will use alcohol, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, Oxycontin, vicodin, Valium, marijuana, almost anything to quieten the brain. Some will become drug addicts while waiting for their doctors to find the right combination to help their injury. I used wine to quieten my brain and over did it. Since my doctors found the right combination for me, I have not had any alcohol in three years. Caretakers of patients with TBI's need to be aware of this and not become facilitators of this abuse. The self-medication only compounds the problem and causes a longer time period for the medicines to be found to help the patient. But the carry away message is the TBI patient WILL self medicate!

For those who wonder, why, as a Naturopath physician I did not use Naturopathic medicine for treatment, the answer is I did. A doctor friend of mine had a hyperbaric oxygen chamber which I used several times a week for several weeks (no change), I went through physical therapy to try and get my balance back, I tried homeopathic medicine, I tried different brain supplements and vitamins, I tried nutrition. I tried IV Vitamin/mineral therapy, nothing worked for me. I then found wine which worked short term to shut my brain off but caused many other problems. This is why I ended up with the medical doctors as I am not convinced Naturopathic doctors are quite able to deal with this type of injury.

One must be honest and give the best information and advice you can and that was my experience.

Person's with TBI's need not be feared. They need understanding. Some of the troops coming back from the war zone will cause crime. They've been in a war where anything goes. They may have an undiagnosed brain injury and they may act out their anger, aggression on others. We need to make sure each soldier coming back is screened for TBI and treated as necessary. We need to have our new health care program (if we get one) to include good treatment for civilian TBI patients.

It is a complete life changing event for the patient for their families, for their friends and we need to have understanding and help for those of us who have suffered so much.

Watching

We had a Pacific storm blow through Arizona yesterday and when the sun came up this morning the sky was still cloudy. Slowly over the next hours the sky cleared and the heavy cloud levels broke up into a beautiful blue sky. I watched as the clouds separated and more and more blue appeared. At this moment, at 10:18am, there are no clouds. Just beautiful blue sky.

I sat in my office and looked about the early morning world. In the arroyo outside my office window, a rabbit hopped up the side then paused. All that I could see was a small white cotton tail sitting there as he decided what he wanted to do next. He blended in with his surroundings so well. On my side of the arroyo is a large Jojoba bush. It is probably twenty feet around and 10 feet high. There is a pair birds that over the past few weeks which have been scouting the bush out and seem to be ready now to build their nest for the winter, the Jojoba bush is full of seeds which are made into Jojoba oil for cosmetics. What a versatile bush.

There is a fence, about eight feet high outside one of my window looking out back of the room to the north. All types of birds come and land there and sing their songs. They can't see me as this particular window has two sets of screens on it it, thus I can look out, but they can't see me. I see doves, Cactus Wrens, Pigeons, Sparrows, Cardinals and some birds I cannot identify, but they all love sitting in the sun outside my window and sing me a song. Such a wonderful stage.

Yesterday, my wife and I drove into town to go to a hardware store to purchase some brackets. On the road leading out from our house stood a lonely coyote; standing proud and unafraid. He watched us as we approached, and when we got up to about twenty feet of him, he galloped off into the desert. At night we are serenaded by groups of coyotes. It sounds as if they are having a keg party and the longer it goes on the more robust the songs become.

This morning around sunlight, I opened the front door to let the dogs out, and there was a large beetle crawling over the threshold of the door and was slowly making his way outside, too. I suppose he had been in the house all night catching his food and was now heading back to his den to sleep his hunt off.

We have a large Ficus tree in the backyard and the best description of it is it is an apartment building for many types birds. Sparrows spend part of the year here in the ficus tree and raise their children. They are an argumentative type. They love to debate issues with each other and can get quite carried away. Then there are the doves in the tree, they are quiet and peaceful neighbors and bother no one.

We have several large Saguaro Cactus in our yard and they are home to cactus wrens. The wrens dig holes into the cactus and build their nests. The holes will remain cool in the summer heat as there is so much water stored in a saguaro. It is funny to watch them as they check each others homes out to see if it is empty, and if so, they will quickly take it over. The holes do not bother the cactus as in response the cactus wrens eat bugs which may harm the cactus. So it is a symbiotic relationship.

One morning while sitting on our front porch and having my cup of coffee, four young coyotes came prancing by, look at me on the porch , seemed to say "Howdy do" and continued on their way. Life gets along well here. Each do their own thing. Live and let live. It is a shame man cannot do the same. Let others live their lives, acknowledge it and let go. Humans have a long way to catch up with the wild animals. Makes you wonder which is really the wild one.

By observing, even the smallest of things you can learn much. It can help make your life more peaceful, less stressed, and more knowledgeable. Life lives all around us, we can enjoy it if we but take the time to observe. Even in what the frontier people of the old west called the "most useless land" they had observed, the Sonora Desert is full of life, funny and charming activities, if one will just observe.

Coffee truths and Lies

Coffee is a much misunderstand drink. There are many scientific studies indicating the dangers of drinking coffee. There just as many scientific studies refuting the dangers. The issue concerns caffeine in the coffee and whether caffeine is harmful to people. Coffee, like all other foods are full of phytonutrients. Some which may be bad for you individually, but when added with other phytonutrients can synergistically become helpful for you. This is one reason for the confusion about coffee.

The other reason is Medical Doctors like to brag that theirs is "Scientific Medicine", backed up by scientific studies. What this list can help show you, as each of these statements came from "Scientific Studies" that science is a very easily manipulated task. Much depends on WHO is paying for the study, or WHO is actually doing the study. There are M.D.'s who get paid for having nothing to do with a faulty study, just to sign his name on the study that he conducted it. Modern medicine is NOT "Scientific" medicine. That term is a lie which many M.D.'s like to hide behind to try and make their medicine seem to be the best. It is actually far from it. They are guessing just like every other healer in the jungles.

When I taught Epidemiology and research in Medical School, I always taught my students that when you start to read a study find out first who has an interest in the findings and who financed the study. That will go a long way in its findings.

I just want to list of some of these arguments and let you decide what is best for you. The following would be true for any scientific study you wish to research.


1. Coffee causes heart disease.

2. Coffee has no effect on heart disease.

3. Coffee causes ulcers.

4. Coffee does not cause ulcers.

5. Caffeine's effects are addictive.

6. Caffeine is not addictive.

7. Pregnant women should avoid caffeine.

8. Caffeine has not effect on pregnant women.

9. Caffeine is an early risk for osteoporosis.

10. Caffeine has no relation to osteoporosis.

11. Caffeine causes cancer.

12. Caffeine does not cause cancer.

13. Caffeine adversely affects the health of children.

14. Caffeine has the same effect on children as adults.

15. Caffeine has no health benefits.

16. Caffeine is well known for helping with asthma and may be helpful in allergies.

After reading the findings of these "Scientific Studies" do you have any better understanding of whether coffee is good or bad for you? This will apply to any of the "Scientific Studies" of Pharmaceuticals, medical procedures and the other weapons the M.D. like to wield about like a light saber. All have about the same "Scientific "basis as the coffee results I've shown above.

Welcome to "Scientific Medicine".

Abuse/Addictions

Addictions to various substances is an epidemic in the United States. People become addicted to street drugs, pharmaceutical medications, alcohol, food, sex and many other various addictive behaviors. It is a very difficult behavior to break once you have become addicted.

One of the ways that is growing the fastest are people who have had Traumatic Brain Injuries or TBI's. A TBI can occur from a automobile accident, a fall, an assault, sports injury or for the many soldiers we now have coming home from unjustified wars with TBI and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). When you have a TBI your brain functions differently. It is like a computer that has been corrupted by a virus. It will not operate the way it is designed to do. Think of memories as being stored in computer files. When a TBI happens it is like a virus has attacked your computer and corrupted the files of your computer. The files may still be there, but you cannot access them. Sometimes you can open the files but most of the time you cannot, thus you lose your memory. Usually it is your short term memory that is the problem. Long term memory may stay intact, but you cannot access the file where what you had for dinner last night is stored. Thus you cannot remember. It is extremely frustrating.

You may not recognize people, or places, or memories of your marriage. It is very troubling to the person and the family with a TBI or PTSD. You may not remember the route back to your home, thus you can easily get lost.

If a TBI victim is picked up by the police and asked where he/she was on the night of June 24, 2009, you can forget it. The person will not remember, and chances are they will then be arrested and begin their journey through the hell of the "Justice" system. I wonder how many people who are in jail or prison who are innocent and are locked behind bars because of memory loss due to a TBI.

It takes Neurologist a long time to determine which part of the brain is damaged, how much damage has occurred and how best to treat it. If you are a patient with a TBI be prepared for a long journey through many classes and types of pharmaceuticals as the doctors try and find the right combination of medications for you. It is a slow process. What works for one patient will not work for another. In the mean time the patient's brain is often running in overdrive, hopping from random thought to random thought. The short term memory is a major problem and strange activities may become part of daily life. You see things. You hear things. You feel things, that may not be there, but they are real to you. Paranoia runs deep. Your life and your families life has now been altered.

While waiting for the doctors to come up with some sort of help for you almost 100% of TBI/PTSD patients will self medicate. It will happen. Self medication means the patient will try anything to try and slow the brain down, to bring some peace to his mind, to just feel normal again, if only for a few minutes.

This is where addictions will take place. Some people try alcohol and become abusers of alcohol; some will try cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, barbiturates (valium, ativan), some may become addicted to Oxycontin. Anything that the patient thinks may help, they will try until the doctors can find the combination's of medications needed to slow the brain down and make the patient feel sort of like their old selves. By doing so, you will then become addicted.

Now you have at least two problems: a brain injury and addiction to something. You've just compounded your problem. In this phase a person can lose their job (If they haven't already done so, their marriage, their home, their dignity, their sense of self. Many people who are homeless and sleep on the street have a brain injury which is untreated. They are not lazy, they are sick and untreated. Their lives ruined often by an occurrence they could not control and no one reached out to help them.

This is where you can end up if you become addicted to some substance with a TBI.

I had an abuse problem, after my head injury in 2003. I treated my runaway brain, my lost memory files which I could not open, by drinking wine. It slowed my brain down. I would tell my wife, I just want a "little peace", just for a while and the wine did that for me, while the doctors looked for medications for me. After a while the wine became all consuming. The broken brain will compensate and soon you will need more and more of the substance which you are using to keep the brain quiet.

I went through a 9 week Intensive Alcohol rehab class (3 hours a day three days a week for 9 weeks) which helped somewhat. The participants were nurses, engineers, students, IT workers. In other words your neighbors.

The problem with these classes is they try and push you into Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.). Each of these programs think the twelve step program is the cure-all for the addiction. The problem is they only treat two parts of your problem: The mental and the spiritual. They ignore the physical and and the emotional parts which are usually where the addictions spring from. Either from TBI, mental abuse from parents, spouses, sometimes actual physical mental conditions (bi-polar, schizophrenia, depression, etc). Only 1/2 of the possible causes are treated and I feel they are the two least important.

I went to a few of the A.A. meetings and was appalled at them. It was a total waste of time and total crap. I am not afraid to say so. We do not know how to treat abuse/addictions in the US. To treat them effectively you must treat all four parts of the body: Mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. Healing and detoxing the body is just as important as sitting around a meeting, smoking cigarettes and bragging about your last episode of stupidity.

I, to this day, will not recommend A.A., C.A., N.A. or any of the other "A's" to anyone. They are a group of people who learned to be dependent (addicted) on each other and the group. You substitute one addiction for another. Why do they push "90 meetings in 90 days?" The meetings I attended, the people sat around and talked about how drunk they got two weeks ago before calling their sponsors to come help them out. The men and women of the groups were each trying to pick each other up for the night (another addiction). Before you could speak you had to stand up and say, "Hi, my name is William and I'm an alcoholic", or I'm Rochelle and I'm a drug addict".

And that my dears is what keeps people coming back to A.A. for support. That is their hook. Keep the people repeating, "I am an addict", "I am an alcoholic". I am not a human being with value, I am just a drunk who needs this group.

I found that to be so disgusting that I left and never went back. A person is much more than an "alcoholic' or and "drug addict" as they make you identify yourself. This is a way they control you and brain wash you into staying that person. They tell you once an addict, always an addict. There is no hope but for our meetings. As long as you get to wear that label you will be that person. It is a self perpetuating myth. The truth of the matter is A.A., N.A., C.A. and all the other "A's" need you much more than you need them. I told my intensive alcohol group therapy that I would not attend their A.A. meetings after trying a few out. They never pushed me to go again.

Once my doctor was able to find the right combination of medications to help my runaway brain, I no longer had a desire to drink wine. I have not had any in over three years and I'm quite content. Having a drink does not cross my mind.

My advice is don't rely on the superficial Alcoholic Anonymous groups who will keep you addicted to drugs and alcohol. The A.A.'s own reports indicate that only 2% of their members stay sober for any length of time. This is not a very promising therapy, if you ask me. Don't waste your time with these people who are actually dependent on you to keep coming back because they cannot handle their own problems.

Oh, by the way, it is reported when Bill Wilson (Bill W. the founder of this organization) was on his death bed, his last wish was for.....a beer.

Give your doctors a chance and then you can have a chance to some sort of life with a TBI and without the alcohol , drugs or parasitic support groups.

Clostridum Difficile

By TARA PARKER-POPE

Published: April 13, 2009

I suffered with C. diff several years ago and can attest to the virulence of the bug. It seemed to affect every bodily system, finally resulting in colitis. I was on a 50 day round of Flagyl in order to kill off the spores and that in result damaged my liver resulting in hospitalization for liver failure. It is not a nice bug to catch, but as this article states it is becoming more prevalent, it is becoming more virulent and doctors are not diagnosing it until too late. The fatality rate is rising and the treatment takes longer. Please be aware and get treatment (and ask your doctor if it could be clostridium difficile) as soon as symptoms arrive. Dr. Mike

Earlier this year, Harold and Freda Mitchell of Como, Miss., both came down with a serious stomach bug. At first, doctors did not know what was wrong, but the gastrointestinal symptoms became so severe that Mrs. Mitchell, 66, was hospitalized for two weeks. Her husband, a manufacturing supervisor, missed 20 days of work.

A local doctor who had worked in a Veterans Affairs hospital recognized the signs of Clostridium difficile, a contagious and potentially deadly bacterium. Although the illness is difficult to track, health officials estimate that in the United States the bacteria cause 350,000 infections each year in hospitals alone, with tens of thousands more occurring in nursing homes. While the majority of cases are found in health care settings, 20 percent or more may occur in the community. The illness kills an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people annually.

“It’s been the worst thing I’ve ever tried to get through in my life,” said Mrs. Mitchell, who remains weakened by the ordeal. “I really did think I was going to die.”

What is so frightening about C. difficile is that it is often spurred by antibiotics. The drugs wipe out the targeted illness, like a urinary tract or upper respiratory infection, but they also kill off large portions of the healthy bacteria that normally live in the digestive tract. If a person comes into contact with C. difficile, or already has it, the disruption to the beneficial bacteria creates an opportunity for the harmful bacteria to flourish.

The public health community has been sounding the alarm for years about the overuse of antibiotics and the emergence of “superbugs” — bacteria that have developed immunity to a wide number of antibiotics. But the C. difficile problem shows that the threat is not generalized or hypothetical, but immediate and personal.

“One of the things that we counsel consumers about is to make sure that an antibiotic is really necessary,” said Dr. Dale N. Gerding, an infectious disease specialist at the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University in Chicago. “There are many good reasons for taking an antibiotic, but an illness like sinusitis or bronchitis winds up being treated with antibiotics even though it will go away by itself anyway.”

Even appropriate use of antibiotics can put a person at risk. Dr. Gerding said his own adult son came down with a C. difficile infection after taking antibiotics for tonsillitis.

The typical treatment for C. difficile is another course of antibiotics, typically the drug vancomycin. But the situation can quickly turn tragic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported on several cases of pregnant and postpartum women who developed life-threatening C. difficile infections after being treated for minor infections. In some instances, a C. difficile infection can be treated only by emergency surgery to remove the patient’s colon. Doctors say many patients report that they continue to suffer from regular bouts of diarrhea even after the infection is gone. About 20 percent of patients with the infection suffer a relapse, and C. difficile support groups have emerged on the Internet.

In the case of the Mitchell family, Mr. Mitchell had been taking antibiotics for another health problem, and the treatment apparently led to his C. difficile infection. Mrs. Mitchell probably contracted the illness from her husband. The spores from C. difficile are hardy, and contaminated surfaces must be scrubbed down with bleach to eradicate the germ. Doctors say Mrs. Mitchell’s illness is unusual because most people are protected by their own bacterial flora and wouldn’t be vulnerable to C. difficile if they had not been taking antibiotics, even after close exposure. The risk of contracting C. difficile outside the health care setting remains low, at about 7 cases per 100,000 people, studies show.

C. difficile is not a new illness, but it appears to be spreading at an alarming rate. The rate of C. difficile infection among hospital patients doubled from 2001 to 2005, according to an April 2008 report from the C.D.C. The rise in C. difficile cases around the world is linked with the growing use of all antibiotics, particularly a class of drugs called fluoroquinolones, which came into widespread use around 2001. The use of acid-suppressing drugs, including proton pump inhibitors like Prilosec, also may be a risk factor, although studies have been contradictory.

In addition to becoming more common, C. difficile is also becoming more deadly. Several years ago, the mortality rate from a C. difficile infection was around 1 to 2 percent. But today, various studies estimate that the death rate is 6 percent. The reason is that a hypervirulent strain has emerged that emits higher levels of toxins than earlier strains.

Many patients are far more familiar with another superbug, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, which can cause a severe and potentially deadly skin infection. MRSA started off primarily as a hospital-based infection but has become increasingly common in the community.

Hospitals may become more motivated to control C. difficile if the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services decides to withhold reimbursement for cases of hospital-acquired C. difficile infections. The system already withholds reimbursement for certain other preventable hospital infections.

In addition to careful use of antibiotics, patients and hospital visitors should always be vigilant about hand washing, and visitors should not sit on a patient’s hospital bed or use a patient’s restroom if it can be avoided. Patients should always report severe diarrhea symptoms to a doctor, particularly if they have taken antibiotics recently.

“Up until about 2002, this was a very mild disorder and very few people ever died from it,” said Dr. Perry Hookman, a gastroenterologist and associate professor of medicine at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami. “But in the past few years the bugs have become hypervirulent, more severe and now it’s a global threat.”

Grape-seed extract kills laboratory leukemia cells

PHILADELPHIA – An extract from grape seeds forces laboratory leukemia cells to commit cell suicide, according to researchers from the University of Kentucky. They found that within 24 hours, 76 percent of leukemia cells had died after being exposed to the extract.

The investigators, who report their findings in the January 1, 2009, issue of Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, also teased apart the cell signaling pathway associated with use of grape seed extract that led to cell death, or apoptosis. They found that the extract activates JNK, a protein that regulates the apoptotic pathway.

While grape seed extract has shown activity in a number of laboratory cancer cell lines, including skin, breast, colon, lung, stomach and prostate cancers, no one had tested the extract in hematological cancers nor had the precise mechanism for activity been revealed.

"These results could have implications for the incorporation of agents such as grape seed extract into prevention or treatment of hematological malignancies and possibly other cancers," said the study's lead author, Xianglin Shi, Ph.D., professor in the Graduate Center for Toxicology at the University of Kentucky.

"What everyone seeks is an agent that has an effect on cancer cells but leaves normal cells alone, and this shows that grape seed extract fits into this category," he said.

Shi adds, however, that the research is not far enough along to suggest that people should eat grapes, grape seeds, or grape skin in excess to stave off cancer. "This is very promising research, but it is too early to say this is chemo-protective."

Hematological cancers – leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma – accounted for an estimated 118,310 new cancer cases and almost 54,000 deaths in 2006, ranking these cancers as the fourth leading cause of cancer incidence and death in the U.S.

Given that epidemiological evidence shows that eating vegetables and fruits helps prevent cancer development, Shi and his colleagues have been studying chemicals known as proanthocyanidins in fruits that contribute to this effect. Shi has found that apple peel extract contains these flavonoids, which have antioxidant activity, and which cause apoptosis in several cancer cell lines but not in normal cells. Based on those studies, and findings from other researchers that grape seed extract reduces breast tumors in rats and skin tumors in mice, they looked at the effect of the compound in leukemia cells.

Using a commercially available grape seed extract, Shi exposed leukemia cells to the extract in different doses and found the marked effect in causing apoptosis in these cells at one of the higher doses.

Thet also found that grapeseed extract did not affect normal cell, though they do not know the reason.

The researchers then used pharmacologic and genetic approaches to determine how the extract induced apoptosis. They found that the extract strongly activated the JNK pathway, which then led to up-regulation of Cip/p21, which controls the cell cycle.

They checked this finding by using an agent that inhibited JNK, and found that the extract was ineffective. Using a genetic approach – silencing the JNK gene – also disarmed grape seed extract's lethal attack in leukemia cells.

"This is a natural compound that appears to have relatively important properties," Shi said.

Source: American Association for Cancer Research