Homeopathy, based on discoveries by Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician, pre-dates what we call modern medicine by more than a century. It works on the principle that the information contained in many substances can be potentiated or strengthened by a process of dilution and mixing. The working principle is that a substance that causes symptoms similar to that of a disease will - if used in homeopathic dilution - supply the information that allows the body to end the disease process.

Hahnemann observed from his experiments with cinchona bark, used as a treatment for malaria, that the effects he experienced from ingesting the bark were similar to the symptoms of malaria. He therefore reasoned that cure proceeds through similarity, and that treatments must be able to produce symptoms in healthy individuals similar to those of the disease being treated. Through further experiments with other substances, Hahnemann conceived of the "law of similars", otherwise known as "like cures like" (Latin: similia similibus curentur) as a fundamental healing principle.

Ever since Rockefeller's pharmaceutical approach to medicine gained ascendancy first in the United States and then in the entire Western world, homeopaths have been maligned, ridiculed, and hindered at every turn. No wonder, there were in the way of a very profitable business based on chemistry and poison.

In Europe, homeopaths retained some of their influence, but an EU law intended to guarantee the availability of homeopathic remedies as medicines in all member states is being widely used to allow certain remedies and disallow others. In Italy, for instance there are limitations on injectable homeopathic remedies and a ban on certain starting materials for the production of remedies that are considered "off limits".

The campaign against homeopathy has gone on for decades and it intensifies every time it looks like the method might achieve a breakthrough in public acceptance. Significantly, support from the British Royal family for alternative medicine and homeopathy in particular has resulted in a flurry of media attacks on homeopathy in the United Kingdom.

Louise Mclean, the Editor of Zeus Information Service (www.zeusinfoservice.com) takes
on a number of the lies we read in the media when Hahnemann's medicine is being discussed from the viewpoint of the allopathic competition. She says by way of introduction:

In this article, I would like to dispel a plethora of myths surrounding homeopathy which have been used to discredit this highly efficacious healing art and science. Homeopaths are given few opportunities in the media to defend their profession, so a lot of misconceptions abound. The medical profession in general presents a fierce and blinkered opposition, yet as Big Pharma is learning of all sorts of amazing cured cases, they are determined to stamp out competition via EU regulation.

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THE TRUTH ABOUT HOMEOPATHY
- Dispelling the MYTHS that Surround it!
26th May, 2008.
by Louise Mclean, Editor, Zeus Information Service.
www.zeusinfoservice.com

Myth No. 1 –Homeopathic medicines cure nothing

Homeopathy works by stimulating the body’s OWN healing mechanisms, through like for like. A substance that would cause symptoms in a healthy person can be used to cure the same symptoms in a sick person by giving a minute, highly potentised dose of that substance acting as a catalyst to jump start their own healing mechanisms. Everyone of us has our own natural innate healing powers. All that is needed is the correct stimulus to kick start it. In healthy people this may just be rest and good food but many people become 'stuck' in their physical, emotional or mental illness and cannot recover. Of course there are different levels of health and the choice of potency given should reflect that. Low potencies are given for very physically ill people and higher for those whose problems are emotional or of the mind. Homeopathy is very successful in treating emotional problems such as stress, anxiety and fears.


Myth No 2 –Homeopathic medicines are just water

Homeopathic medicines are NOT made using only dilution. Dilution alone would do nothing whatsoever. Many homeopaths are getting tired of reading this highly inaccurate reporting in the media. All homeopathic medicines are made by a process of dilution and SUCCUSSION (potentisation through vigorous shaking - 100 shakes between each potency - i.e. between a 1c and a 2c, between a 2c and a 3c potency, between a 3c and a 4c, etc. etc.) Most homeopathic medicines can be bought in either 6c or 30c from Boots or from health shops. Higher potencies of 200c and 1m (1000c) can be obtained only from homeopathic pharmacies. Succussion is nowadays done by machines, originally by hand. Succussion brings out the formative intelligence of the substance and imprints it upon the 60% distilled water + 40% alcohol medium used to make homeopathic medicines - alcohol acting as a preservative.


Myth No. 3 –Homeopathic medicines are unscientific

Homeopathic medicines undergo a scientific 'Proving' where a control group of 50+ healthy volunteers ('Provers') are instructed to keep taking a remedy under trial until they develop symptoms which they must record in detail. Substances that have been rigorously tested include nearly everything on the Periodic Table - metals, minerals and gases as well as plants and even things like snake venom.

The Provers are given a bottle of a new remedy being tested in the 30c potency and must keep taking it until they develop symptoms, which must be carefully recorded and then submitted to a database. The Provers must be healthy and symptom-free to start with so that the symptoms they experience are new ones CAUSED by the remedy.
They must keep a careful daily note of what happens and not discuss it with any of the other Provers. Whatever symptoms the Provers all experienced in common become the black type symptoms of the remedy which are then added to the Materia Medica of homeopathic medicines and Homeopathic Repertory (encyclopedia of symptoms). Thus the curative indications of a remedy are obtained for clinical use.

Symptoms have also been obtained through historical records of accidental poisonings, such as Arsenic and Belladonna. For example, poisoning by Arsenic causes vomitting, diarrhoea, restlessness, anxiety and extreme chill. Therefore you might get a patient in this state (possibly after food poisoning) and Arsenicum in a homepathic tablet will quickly alleviate them.

There are more than 4,000+ homeopathic medicines including nearly everything on the periodic table. But of course all of the remedies tested have been diluted and succussed (potentised), so they are not toxic like modern drugs.

The Homeopathic Materia Medica and Repertory are extremely large books or divided into volumes. The Repertory is divided into sections in this order: Mind, Vertigo, Head, Eye, Vision, Ear, Hearing, Nose, Face, Mouth, Teeth, Throat, External Throat, Stomach, Abdomen, Rectum, Stool, Bladder, Kidney, Prostate Gland, Urethra, Urine, Male, Female, Larynx, Respiration, Cough, Expectoration, Chest, Back, Extremities, Sleep, Dreams, Chill, Fever, Perspiration, Skin, Generals. Obviously some sections are bigger than others!

In the various Repertories, remedies are listed alongside the full range of symptoms (rubrics) in abbreviated form - all information being systematically taken from Provings and clinical practice. Every human state of mind, emotions and body is listed. Symptoms that would mean nothing to a medical doctor can be looked up and the curative remedy found in these huge book. Homeopathy is a study of human nature, endlessly fascinating and how negative states of mind and emotions affect the physical body culminating in illness. Nowadays many homeopaths use computer software programmes which contain all this information.


Myth No. 4 –Homeopathic practitioners receive inadequate training

In fact all qualified homeopathic practitioners undergo a four year training course at accredited Colleges, which includes Anatomy and Physiology, as well as Pathology and Disease, Materia Medica, Homeopathic Philosophy and study of the Homeopathic Repertory. Yet medical doctors and nurses treat after much shorter homeopathy courses. To be really good, you need to study intensively for about 10 years. Homeopathy is a lifetime's work and you never stop learning.


Myth No. 5 -There are no studies that prove homeopathy works

In the past 24 years there have been more than 180 controlled, and 118 randomized, trials into homeopathy, which were analysed by four separate meta-analyses. In each case, the researchers concluded that the benefits of homeopathy went far beyond that which could be explained purely by the placebo effect. Another meta-analysis found that 65 of the 89 trials analysed had produced an effect way beyond placebo (source WDDTY www.wddty.co.uk )

A study of 6500 patients at the Bristol Homeopathic hospital was conducted showing that over 70% of patients reported complete cure or significant improvement of their symptoms. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/4454856.stm

A study on the properties of water was performed by Dr. Rustrum Roy. This paper provides an interdisciplinary base of information on the structure of liquid water.
The Structure Of Liquid Water; Novel Insights From Materials Research; Potential Relevance To Homeopathy
Rustum Roy, W.A. Tiller, Iris Bell, M. R. Hoover
Received: 2 August 2004 Revised: 6 September 2004 Accepted: 14
http://www.rustumroy.com/Roy_Structure%20of%20Water.pdf
http://www.infiniteconferencing.com/Events/nch/051607nch/recording-playback.html
Homeopathy can never be tested properly through conventional trials because each prescription is individualised as every person is unique. Therefore 10 people with arthritis, for example, may all need a different homeopathic medicine. So it is far from ideal to follow the allopathic trial paradigm to test homeopathy. In orthodox medicine trials, all are given the same medicine to be tested. In homeopathy all may be given different medicines!

Anybody who has an understanding of the principles of homeopathy can be left in no doubt that we are dealing with a scientific therapeutic method in the best possible sense: it is based on observation, facts and phenomena and follows the rules of inductive logic that can be tested in daily practice. It is a comprehensive and comprehensible mode of therapy, which in some countries is first line treatment for the whole range of acute and chronic conditions. It has been proven abundantly that it is superior in the treatment of epidemic diseases to allopathy.

It is amazing how people, who like to see themselves on the side of unprejudiced evaluation, can be so blinkered. People pass judgment on homeopathy who have never bothered to study it. Like any science it takes time to learn (especially to learn it correctly) and years of practice to master but the rewards for patients, practitioners and the NHS purse are great. Before those who preach pure science come down on therapies like homeopathy too heavily, they should ask themselves how many of the accepted treatments within the NHS have a scientific evidence base?

With every homeopathic medicine we know exactly the substance it was made from, unlike most modern drugs where we have no clue of the ingredients. This is ironic too as ALL natural health products, whether vitamin, mineral or food supplement must clearly state on the label every single ingredient. When we go to the supermarket or health food shop, we hold up the packet or bottle and read what is in the product, yet people happily swallow prescription drugs with no idea whatsoever what they have taken! They could contain cyanide or any poison and the patient would be none the wiser. With the new class of genetically modified drugs, such as the one used in the Northwick Park drug trial in London, the dangers of a massive allergic reaction, such as the drug testers experienced, are even greater.

Those, who claim to be scientists, should have the ability to at least try to understand different paradigms. If not, they look more like people who have settled on a comfortable view of the world which might soon look very outmoded indeed. As the great musician and conductor Sir Yehudi Menhuin once said: 'Homeopathy is one of the few specialised areas in medicine, which carries no disadvantages but only advantages.'.

Regarding the Horizon programme on homeopathy, Prof. Madeleine Ennis was not involved in the Horizon test. The test was carried out by Wayne Turnbull at Guys hospital, London. It has been conceded that the Horizon test was not an exact replica of Ennis' successful trials. Many of his protocols were different. You can read at this link where he added in an ammonium chloride lysis step which would have ended up killing the very basophils that were such an integral part of the test. http://www.homeopathic.com/articles/view,55
Ennis' original test was replicated in 4 different labs in 4 different countries.

Dr. Peter Fisher's article in PubMed discusses the 'End of Homeopathy' editorial and meta-analysis published in the Lancet of 26th August 2005 and how nearly 100 successful studies that showed homeopathy worked were thrown out and only a few that were inconclusive were used. Dr. Fisher is the Queen's homeopathic physician and heads the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. (The vitriolic editorial was caused by the World Health Organisation bringing out a draft report in 2005 which was favourable towards homeopathy!)

"The final analysis which concluded that ‘the clinical effects of homoeopathy are placebo effects’ was based on just eight clinical trials of homeopathy. The Lancet's press release did not mention this, instead giving the impression that the conclusions were based on all 110 trials." "One of the most serious criticisms is the complete lack of transparency: we have no idea which eight trials were included in the final, damning, analysis." "The literature references are not given, nor any information on the diagnoses, numbers of patients, etc., nor can these be deduced from the article. Prof. Egger has refused several requests to disclose the identity of the eight trials. This is not even a matter of scientific method, but of natural justice: the accused has the right to know the evidence against him."

“The Lancet meta-analysis in 2005 of homeopathic trials was said to be based upon 110 placebo-controlled clinical trials of homeopathy and 110 clinical trials of allopathy, which were said to be matched but were in fact reduced to 21 trials of homeopathy and 9 of conventional medicine and further reduced to 8 and 6 trials.”
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1375230
Other Responses from the Homeopathic Community on the Lancet Article
http://www.ontariohomeopath.com/Response2.htm
from WDDTY
http://www.zeusinfoservice.com/Articles/ShockingTruth.html

George Vithoulkas' 'Science of Homeopathy' is still considered an excellent exposition of the science.

More scientific studies:
http://www.vhan.nl/documents/ScientificReportECHNov04.pdf
http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/4/1/7
http://www.positivehealth.com/research-list.php?subjectid=134

Myth No. 6 -Homeopathic hospitals are a waste of money

There are 5 homeopathic hospitals in the UK - in London, Liverpool, Tunbridge Wells, Bristol and Glasgow. They cost the NHS about £6 million a year. Compare that to the £100 billion for the total 2008 annual NHS budget!! These homeopathic hospitals SAVE money for the NHS as the Smallwood report commissioned by Prince Charles has demonstrated.

At one of the earliest debates on the NHS Act 1948 the Government pledged that homoeopathy would continue to be available on the health service as long as there were "patients wishing to receive it and doctors willing to provide it". Many people who depend upon it are alarmed at the possibility that Homeopathy may no longer be available on the NHS. Since the passing of the NHS Act in 1948, a provision has always been made for people to be treated at homeopathic hospitals in the UK and until PCTs began to stop referring patients, there had indeed been long waiting lists, some 6 months or more.

See this letter sent out to all Primary Care Trusts in 2006 signed by a group of professors hostile to homeopathy and putting pressure on PCTs not to refer patients to the 5 homeopathic hospitals in the UK. They wrote the letter on NHS headed paper!
http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/pdf/Baum%20letter.pdf


Myth No. 7 –Cure with homeopathy is simply the Placebo Effect

When Prince Charles treats his farm animals at Highgrove with homeopathic medicines do they know that a remedy has been put in the water they drink? Farmers successfully use homeopathic medicines for their cows suffering from mastitis. Does a tiny baby know when their fever drops dramatically using Belladonna or Aconite, that they have been given a homeopathic medicine?! As anyone who has treated animals and babies with homoepathic medicines will tell you, homeopathy works even better on animals and babies than it does on adults! If proof were needed, this is it. Not placebo.

Perhaps the most striking research on homeopathy that goes some way to debunking the placebo argument is when homeopathic remedies are tested on live tissue in a petri dish or studies involving animals (mice in this case) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3208528.stm


Myth No. 8 -Homeopathic medicines contain no molecules

Any remedy under a 12c or a 24x potency still contains the original molecules of the substance and this is known as Avogadro's number. These low potencies are most suitable for physical illness of long duration as well as to heal specific organs that are not functioning properly.


Myth No. 9 –‘Anecdotal Evidence’ does not constitute scientific evidence!

Most medical, surgical procedures and drug usage are not backed by studies - only by anecdotal evidence. According to the US Government's Office of Technology Assessment (Congress of the United States, Office of Technology Assessment: Assessing the efficacy and safety of medical technologies. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1978), only 10-20% of all medical procedures and off-label drug usage are backed by clinical studies.
Strong anecdotal evidence among informed professionals is actually quite reliable - at least as reliable as clinical testing.

Many clinical tests come to diametrically opposed conclusions. You could say that the problem was discovered through anecdotal evidence - and merely confirmed through a peer reviewed study.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/peerReviewUnderTheSpotlight.php

The problem isn't with the use of anecdotal evidence. It's with the double standard applied by the establishment (medical and regulatory) that holds complementary medicine to an absurdly higher standard, allowing medical doctors to do pretty much whatever they want. If informed anecdotal evidence is allowable for 85% of all medical procedure and drug usage, why is alternative health held to an impossible 0% standard?

Millions of people worldwide testify that homeopathy cures their illnesses yet apparently that cannot be construed as 'evidence'.

If a person were to walk out of their house to the town centre and witness someone having their bag snatched or witness a car accident, then when they relay this information to the Police or to their friends and family, it is anecdotal evidence.

If someone go on holiday, stays at a nice hotel, eats delicious food, comes back home and relates the holiday to their friends, that is anecdotal evidence.

Does that mean that the above never happened? According to the detractors of complementary or alternative medicine, yes it does!

Millions of people have been cured of their diseases or afflictions using homeopathy, herbs, healing, vitamin supplements, special diets and on and on. Yet according to orthodox medicine all of these cures are anecdotal evidence and as such do not merit any further investigation, study, or validity. As far as orthodox medicine is concerned, these cures never happened.

Yet what if someone witnessed a car accident and the Police wanted them to make a statement? Would the statement in court be dismissed as anecdotal evidence? Would the police, even if they arrived at the scene of the accident to find the person still there comforting the passengers or trying to help, say they had not been there and their evidence is non existent? I don’t think so.

So how for so long have we put up with the top dogs in the medical establishment dismissing our cures as total nonsense, figments of our imagination, placebo cures, or outright lies?

How when millions are cured around the world using homeopathic medicines, can these cures be dismissed as unworthy of attention, simply ‘anecdotal evidence’.

Orthodox medicine implies through this that all cures with alternative medicine are untrue or simply imagined. Even when all the evidence is put before them, they become angry and even aggressive, simply refusing to see or to listen.

All the case notes in the surgery show that Mr. A had arthritis for 5 years, had been on anti-flammatory medicines, yet after homeopathic treatment for 6 months, the arthritis is cured. The reaction of the doctor is either disbelief or an attitude where they will not talk about it and do not want to know.

Of course there are some orthodox doctors who practise acupuncture, homeopathy or herbs themselves and who do believe that these therapies cured the patient but they are in the small minority.

It is always the top cancer specialists and professors whose lives and vested interests are the most challenged by the idea that anything other than pharmaceutical drugs or surgical interventions can cure the patient.

Yet pharmaceutical drugs cure nothing. They merely SUPPRESS the symptoms driving them deeper into the body of the patient.

Hence the eczema patient whose skin symptoms have been suppressed, goes on to develop asthma. The arthritic patient whose joint pains are suppressed, eventually will go on to develop heart disease.

The doctor makes no connection whatsoever that their drugs have created these deeper illnesses but just goes on to give the patient more and more powerful drugs, making the patient sicker still. Then when they die, they say, ‘We did everything we could’. Yes and you killed the patient!

After homeopathic treatment, careful analysis is taken of the Direction of Cure of the patient’s symptoms. Constance Hering was a converted skeptic of homeopathy. As a young man in Germany in the early nineteenth century, Hering had been assigned the task of reviewing Homeopathy because his medical mentor (a fervent anti-homeopath) had been asked by a publisher to write a book exposing homeopathy as unworthy. Having been given this task, Hering conducted a detailed study but concluded the opposite from the requested results! He was the first to talk about the Law of Cure which says that symptoms are cured from above down, from the inside out and in the reverse order of their appearance. This has stood the test of time in clinical experience. A simple example would be after a curative remedy is given for eczema all over the body, we would see the eczema start to move down and when it is only on the ankles, we know it is nearly cured.

The body is always intelligent. That is why the human race has survived. When a baby is conceived, Nature chooses the best genes from both parents in order to create a stronger, healthier human. If the parents are both taking drugs of any kind, whether legal or illegal, the health of the baby will be compromised.

If only doctors and scientists would study Nature, they would find all the answers and instead of going against it, learn from it. There is only one true science and that is the science of Nature.

The human race has survived because we all have an innate healing power in our bodies. In homeopathy for example, this is called the Vital Force. Homeopathy stimulates the vital force to heal the body, through like for like (using a potentised substance that would cause the symptoms but in a tiny dose acts as a catalyst for healing).

So in conclusion, there is no question that dismissing cures as Anecdotal Evidence through the use of natural medicine, is nothing more than a whitewash and a desperate means of suppressing the knowledge of those cures to the public as a whole.


Samuel Hahnemann

Hahnemann was a doctor but gave up his practice because he was appalled at the poisonous side effects of most available medicine. He started experimenting and did something rather novel - he took some quinine, while perfectly healthy. He observed that the effect on him was identical to a malarial attack: alternating fever with heat and chills. This is where homeopathy started: a substance, given to a healthy individual, causes symptoms. If given to someone who suffers those symptoms, it will thus neutralise the sickness.

After his observations on quinine, Hahnemann went on to test hundreds of substances on himself and willing, healthy volunteers, used the tested substances for matching symptoms in his patients and all the while kept accounts of detailed observations.
Of course, Hahnemann had an antecedent, still well-known today because all doctors still swear an oath to him to promise best medical practice: Hippocrates. Hippocrates stated that there were two laws of healing – the law of opposites (allopathy) and the law of similars (homeopathy). A Greek physician called Galen had laid these rules down in about 150 AD. Homeopathic theories are based on fixed principles of the Laws of Nature which do not change - unlike medical theories which are constantly changing! Homeopathy is both a science and an art.

Far from being ideas-based, this is completely evidence-based, empirical medicine an almost unique concept at the time. After some years of practicing like this, Hahnemann was still not satisfied. The substances he was using, while more effective than normal medical practice, were still having side effects. Or, if he reduced dosage too far, there was no effect. This is when he developed the concept of potentisation, the serial dilution that opponents of homeopathy deride.


Treating the Whole Person or Holistic Healing

We are not just a collection of parts to be fixed as doctors treat us but ALWAYS operating as a whole person ALL of the time. In other words medicines are chosen that treat the whole person and not just the part. This may seem strange to grasp and yet doesn't it in fact make total sense? Do we leave our sore throat on the desk of the physician as we leave the doctor's surgery? Or our arthritic knee behind. No, every single tiny function of our body operates as a WHOLE, all of the time. You cannot treat one thing and not affect the rest. That is why pharma drugs are so dangerous as for example, in treating a cancerous tumour, the medicine will affect and disturb the other systems of the body.

We are all energy beings. http://www.workingwithenergy.co.uk/energy_centres.htm
The electricity in our bodies transmits messages to all parts/systems of the body. Illness is caused when these messages are not getting through. All systems of the body are communicating with each other at all times. Water is a great conductor of electricity and it transmits the electrical current. This is how homeopathic mediums work – by communicating a current/pattern/frequency of energy via the whole human body to jump start the body’s own inherent healing mechanisms.

Homeopathy treats different sorts of people with distinct characters and personalities as well as different physical looks and natures. It individualises each person and looks at their symptoms AS A WHOLE.

Is it not true that no two people are alike? That every person is unique? This is why you could line up 20 people with asthma and they might all need a different homeopathic medicine. There are in fact about 250 homeopathic medicines for asthma but the correct one for each person must be selected taking into consideration such things as what makes the condition better or worse, what time of day it comes on, whether the person is hot or cold, worse for damp, need fresh air or prefer the windows closed and so on. You would be amazed how each person's symptoms are so different and yet they have all been diagnosed with asthma.

If people want to improve their looks, homeopathy does just that. When you are healthy and well, you obviously look better! Homeopathic practitioners believe in PREVENTION, having treatment can prevent illness rather than leaving it to the surgeon’s knife. There are thousands of homeopathic medicines which treat every ailment known to man, truly the most wonderful science on this planet.

Many people buy self help books or think they can treat themselves with over the counter remedies. This is a short term solution. The reason is as stated above. You cannot treat individual symptoms without taking into consideration the rest of you! Only a qualified and experienced homeopath who will spend 1-2 hours taking your full medical history and all of your symptoms can prescribe the remedy that fits best. In other words if you have hayfever, the homeopath will take into consideration all other physical symptoms a as well as your personality, to come to the correct prescription. Itchy, watery, red eyes, worse morning and evening would be Sulphur but only if all the other things about you fit the Sulphur picture. You cannot prescribe for yourself as you cannot take all of it into consideration at once. So if for example you buy Natrum Mur. for your hayfever (which is also an excellent remedy for this), it may work for a bit if you are healthy but the hayfever will come back, will not be cured for good, because it was not the remedy that fitted best.

The only exception to this rule is in the treatment of first aid and even then it often has to be individualised. An example of when it does not is having a molar removed at the dentist. Firstly you would take Arnica for bruising of the gums, secondly Hypericum for the pain as the anaesthetic wears off (will remove pain completely), thirdly Ledum for injection and fourthly Calendula (the remedy not the cream!) for fast healing of the gums (or any other injury). Symphytum is the great healer of broken bones.

Homeopaths believe that illnesses manifest for three reasons: firstly they are genetically inherited from our parents, grandparents, forefathers. Secondly, they can be caused by an traumatic event such as death of a loved one, divorce, job loss - any event that has a serious impact upon the person. Thirdly they can be caused from drugs taken by our parents (passed onto the foetus) or by ourselves. There is also of course accidents and injury.

Inherited disease can be traced back to one or more of what homeopaths call MIASMS - these are syphilis, gonorrhoea, psora (scabies), tuberculosis and cancer. We are all a mix of all of these as especially TB, dates back thousands of years. However one or more of the miasms is uppermost in a person and is an important aspect of the case-taking to determine the appropriate medicines.

So many people are in total ignorance of the VAST amount of study needed to become an expert in this field. Also there are hundreds of homeopathic books only available at specialist bookshops, many printed in India where homeopathy is more popular than orthodox medicine.


Attacks on Homeopathy

After the ever increasing attacks on alternative medicine in the media and in particular homeopathy, once again Professor Edzard Ernst, the 'first professor of complementary medicine' (whose qualifications for the job are still in question) discredits homeopathy. Yet in an interview with Geoff Watts in 2003
http://www.studentbmj.com/issues/04/01/careers/25.php
entitled 'A Scientist in the Alternative Camp', Professor Ernst stated:
"Our family doctor in the little village outside Munich where I grew up was a homoeopath. My mother swore by it. As a kid I was treated homoeopathically. So this kind of medicine just came naturally. Even during my studies I pursued other things like massage therapy and acupuncture."

"As a young doctor I had an appointment in a homoeopathic hospital, and I was very impressed with its success rate. My boss told me that much of this success came from discontinuing mainstream medication. This made a big impression on me."

The truth is that homeopathy is getting ever more popular and the drugs companies are putting out their spin in overdrive through their science and media PR operation outlets to counteract this in any way they can.

The reason there is this incessant assault in the press against homeopathy is because Pharma wields enormous power over the media and because the popularity of homeopathy has been increasing due to side effects of modern medicine. Also, unlike other natural therapies, it is pills and in direct competition.

At leat six million people use complementary treatments each year in the UK, which offers clinically-effective and cost-effective solutions to common health problems faced by NHS patients.


Historical Facts

In view of the highly inaccurate reporting and vitriolic attacks in the recent press coverage on homeopathy, I would like to point out some little known historical facts concerning homeopathy.

The practice of homeopathic medicine flourished in both Europe and the US during the 1800s and early 1900s and was spectacularly popular with European royalty and the British aristocracy, American entrepreneurs, literary giants, and religious leaders.

John D. Rockefeller referred to it as 'a progressive and aggressive step in medicine' and was under homeopathic care throughout the latter part of his life living to 99 years of age. A strong advocate of homeopathy, major grants of between $300-$400 million he intended for homeopathic institutions were instead used for orthodox medical institutions in the early 1900s, under pressure from his son and his financial advisor, Frederick Gates. (Source Dana Ullman)

In the United States in the early 1900s there were 22 homeopathic medical schools and over 100 homeopathic hospitals, 60 orphanages and old people's homes and 1,000+ homeopathic pharmacies. Members of the American Medical Association had great animosity towards homeopathy after its formation in 1847 and it was decided to purge all local medical societies of physicians who were homeopaths. This purge was successful in every state except Massachusetts because homoepathy was so strong among the elite of Boston.

The AMA wanted to keep homoepaths out of their societies and discourage any type of association with homeopaths. In 1855 the AMA established a code of ethics which stated that orthodox physicians would lose their membership if they even consulted with a homeopath. If a physician lost his membership, it meant that in some States he no longer had a licence to practice medicine.

Drug companies were antagonistic towards homeopathy, collectively trying to suppress it. The medical journals they published were used as mouthpieces against homeopathy and in support of orthodox medicine.

At an AMA meeting, a respected orthodox physician said: 'We must admit that we never fought the homeopath on matters of principles; we fought him because he came into the community and got the business.' Economic issues played a major role in what was allowed to be practised.

Homeopathy attracted support from many of the most respected members of society in the US, such as William James, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Louisa M. Alcott, Mark Twain, former American Presidents James Garfield and William McKinley. In Britain among its supporters were George Bernard Shaw, Charles Dickens, W.B. Yeats, William Thackarey, Benjamin Disraeli, Yehudi Menuhin. Other famous supporters were Dostoevsky, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Mahatma Ghandi.

Nowadays, celebrities using and supporting homeopathy are many and include among others : Catherine Zeta-Jones, Tina Turner, Whoopi Goldberg, Pamela Anderson, Jane Fonda, Cher, Rosie O'Donnell, Martin Sheen, the Chilli Peppers, Jane Seymour, Lesley Anne Warren, Mariel Hemingway, Lindsay Wagner, Paul McCartney, Axl Rose, Linda Gray, Susan Blakely, Michael Franks, Cybil Sheppard, Dizzy Gillespie, Vidal Sassoon, Angelica Houston, Boris Becker, Martina Navratilova, David Beckham, Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley, Cliff Robertson, Jerry Hall, Diane von Furstenberg, Ashley Judd, Naomi Judd, Olivia Newton-John, Julianna Margulies, JD Salinger, Blythe Danner, Pat Riley (coach of the Miami Heat). The list of famous people who supported homeopathy is endless.....

See 'The Homeopathic Revolution' by Dana Ullman MPH
www.homeopathicrevolution.com

The aristocratic patronage of homeopathy in the UK extending well into the 1940s and beyond can be easily demonstrated. In the Homeopathic Medical Directories there are lists of patrons of the dispensaries and hospitals. They read like an extract from Burke’s or Debrett’s.
(See A History of Homeopathy in Britain by Peter Morrell, Honorary Research Associate in the History of Medicine, Staffordshire University, UK.)
www.homeopathyhome.com/reference/articles/ukhomhistory.shtml

Homeopathy is practised nowadays in countries all over the world and is especially popular in France, South America and India where there are around 250,000 homeopathic doctors! In a recent Global TGI survey where people were asked whether they trust homeopathy the following percentages of people living in urban areas said Yes: 62% in India, 58% Brazil, 53% Saudi Arabia, Chile 49%, United Arab Emirates 49%, France 40%, South Africa 35%, Russia 28%, Germany 27%, Argentina 25%, Hungary 25%, USA 18%, UK 15%.

Louise Mclean

Zeus Information Service
Alternative Views on Health
www.zeusinfoservice.com
Copyright © Louise Mclean 2008

See also:

Introduction to HOMEOPATHIC MEDICINE
by Louise Mclean

Ten Common Homeopathic Medicines
by Dana Ullma

Ten Most Frequently Asked Questions on Homeopathic Medicine
by Dana Ullman

Why Homeopathy Makes Sense and Works
by Dana Ullman

Raw versus the law - Canadian Authorities Raid Organic Farmer
Since the 2006 raid on his farm, Schmidt has seen a groundswell of support from raw milk proponents, a land owner association, celebrity chefs, some Ontario MPPs – including former finance minister Greg Sorbara whose family has consumed his milk – and even renowned pianist Anton Kuerti.

Today, the chat between customers is all about the upcoming trial. "It's ridiculous, this whole thing," says Abrahams. "It seems absurd to go to so much trouble to prevent us from drinking milk. I just don't understand it. People have not gotten sick."

Why is it the health authorities believe they have to protect us from our own (allegedly irrational) desires, such as drinking raw milk? Is government not there to serve the people?

The Truth About Milk: Raw vs Pasteurized
Even when produced under the most sanitary conditions, he said, it is normal for milk to contain some bacteria, and human societies have been coexisting and benefiting from these bacteria in the milk for thousands of years. Fermented milks are and have been important foods in many cultures for their nutrient value, McAfee informed the crowd, for their superior digestibility, and for the preservation that fermentation, a bacterial process, provides.

Monsanto's Bullying Increases Sales for Louisiana Dairy
Following the publication of an article in Vanity Fair titled "Monsanto's Harvest of Fear," detailing how the agri-chemical giant attempted to prevent Baton Rouge dairy farm Kleinpeter Farms from advertising that their milk is free of rBGH (an artificial growth hormone injected into dairy cows to increase milk production), owner Jeff Kleinpeter says emails started flooding in from all over the world.

Since the article came out, milk sales increased, says Kleinpeter. Some of the emails he received were from people in other states, wanting to buy Kleinpeter products.

Latest Attempt to Discredit Vitamin Therapies: Is it Criminal?
As was similarly the case with the 2004 Cochrane review and Lancet study, the publication of this latest Cochrane meta-analysis comes at a critical time in the global battle to maintain free access to non-patentable vitamin therapies.

Frankly, we think that the evidence presented here is already too strong for any reasonable person to dismiss out of hand. So much so, in fact, that we are confident the organizers of the “vitamins lead to a premature death” campaign will eventually be called to account for their actions.

Canada: Is Bill C-51 a crackdown on natural health?
“There are good recommendations when you look at it under the lens of the drug industry, the pharmaceutical model,” MacWilliam said via cellphone from a speaking engagement in Montana. “It is when you look at it under the model of the natural health product that it doesn’t make as much sense. It is the equivalent of using a hammer to squash a fly.

Video:Ireland: Save our supplements
This brief (2 minutes) video clip asks a pertinent question: Why is it that, while there are so many legal ways to ruin our health, protecting it by using nutrient supplements should be made illegal?

A world wide push to regulate supplements by the European Union and Codex Alimentarius is clearly afoot to forward such an irrational agenda.

Canada: No label for GM foods
A private member’s bill giving consumers the right to know if the food sold in Canada contains genetically engineered (GE) ingredients was defeated in the House of Commons today by a vote of 101 to 156. The defeat of Bill C-517 effectively protects the economic interests of GE companies like Monsanto over the rights of Canadians to know what they eat.

Action:Bio-identical Hormones under FDA attack - write to Congress
We have heard that Wyeth is gearing up to fight this tooth and nail. We have also learned that Wyeth is coordinating women's groups, often funded by Wyeth, to write letters in opposition to the above resolution. It is worth noting that Wyeth uses estriol in at least one of its European pharmaceuticals.

Action:Stop the Dangerous and Invasive 'Mothers Act'
Amy Philo reports that more than 7,800 people from around the world and every state in the US have signed her petition. The "Mothers Act" is Big Pharma's latest marketing scheme to peddle powerful psychoactive drugs to new, nursing, and expectant mothers. This piece of legislation provides federal moneys to screen and "treat" these new moms.

UN Criticizes India Gov't for Forcing GMO Seeds on Small Farmers
"The Committee is deeply concerned that the extreme hardship being experienced by farmers has led to an increasing incidence of suicides by farmers over the past decade. The Committee is particularly concerned that the extreme poverty among small-hold farmers caused by the lack of land, access to credit and adequate rural infrastructures, has been exacerbated by the introduction of genetically modified seeds by multinational corporations and the ensuing escalation of prices of seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, particularly in the cotton industry."

Smoked: Chantix May Cause Many Serious Problems
The smoking-cessation drug Chantix is suspected of causing a “wide spectrum of injuries,” including serious accidents and falls, potentially lethal cardiac rhythm disturbances, severe skin reactions, acute myocardial infarction, seizures, diabetess, psychosis, aggression and suicide, the authors write.

FAA bans anti-smoking drug Chantix
The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday removed the smoking cessation drug Chantix from the list of medications considered safe for pilots and air-traffic controllers after a new study linked the medication to mental confusion and other problems that could put passengers at risk.

Critics say drug firms' payments to doctors are conflict of interest
Drug companies have given $88 million in gifts, grants and fees to Minnesota doctors and caregivers since 2002, according to state payment records, including $782,000 to the two University of Minnesota psychiatrists who oversaw Dan Markingson's participation in a clinical drug trial.

A lawsuit over Markingson's suicide, which happened during the drug trial, accused Dr. Stephen Olson and Dr. S. Charles Schulz, chairman of the U's psychiatry department, of coercing the schizophrenic Markingson into the study.

Antiflea Pet Shampoos with Pyrethrin May Play a Role in Autism
Compared with mothers of typically developing children, mothers of children with autismspectrum disorders were twice as likely to report that they had shampooed their pets with pyrethrin-containing antiflea/antitick shampoos around the time of their pregnancy, in a Californian case-control study that looked at household pesticide use.

Japan: Autism Linked to Vaccines
The paper shows not just a "rechallenge" in an entire population sample in Japan, but a dose-response relationship on a population level. "Rechallenge" is one of the strongest methods of proof known in pharmacology to prove a drug causes a harmful effect. Seeing a dose-response relationship on a population level is more unusual.

When Honda/Rutter is compared to Terada it can be seen that ASD numbers appear to have been directly proportional to the total number of measles and MMR vaccines given in any year. In other words, the number of Japanese children who developed autism was directly related to the number who received MMR and single measles vaccines.

Study Shows Link Between Thimerosal Vaccines And Autism
A new epidemiological study suggests that a link exists between vaccines containing Thimerosal and several neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

“These findings are important because they demonstrate that children in a birth cohort with higher average mercury exposure than other birth cohorts had rates of neurodevelopmental disorders that were on average 2 to 4 times higher than the rates in the birth cohorts with lower exposures,” Heather Young, an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services and study’s lead author, say in a statement.

Federal Vaccine Law Challenged By Georgia Family
Seven of eight courts to consider challenges to the 1986 act have ruled in favor of the manufacturers. Last year, the Georgia Court of Appeals became the first court in the nation to rule the act did not pre-empt state law allowing such lawsuits, according to the newspaper. The manufacturers are appealing that decision to the state Supreme Court.

“Did Congress really intend to create an opt-out provision that allows the child to be thrown out of court?” he asked the justices. “I think not.”

How Scientific are Orthodox Cancer Treatments?
In cancer research, success—expressed as a five-year survival rate—is established by comparing other forms and combinations of treatment with the results from surgery alone. However, the success rate of surgery has rarely been compared with the survival rates of untreated patients and never with patients who adopted natural therapies. Therefore, orthodox cancer treatment is basically unscientific. The overall supposed cure rate is not higher than can be accounted for by spontaneous remissions and the placebo effect.

23rd April 2005 = AIDS CRITICS DAY
A precedent to Rethinking Aids Day
On the 23rd April 1984, Dr. Robert Gallo declared on a press conference in Washington, that he had discovered a Virus (HTLV-III later on renamed as HIV) the probable cause for AIDS. During the 21 years gone by since then, billions of Dollars have been spent on scientific research to find a vaccine or a cure. So far with no adequate result. So wouldn't it be time perhaps to apply the same principles of "controlling" as in any other industry? Isn't the time ripe for some kind of rethinking with regards to the whole "HIV causes AIDS" theory?

India: Mobile phone towers cut down to size
The new rules bar cellphone service providers from installing towers on the roofs of schools and hospitals because children and patients are more susceptible to electromagnetic radiation than others. Towers also cannot be set up in narrow lanes.

“The base station antennas should be at least 3 metres away from the nearby building…. Access to (such) sites should be prohibited,” states the guideline, which also calls for warning signs to be put up near the towers.

Scientists say radiation from cellphone towers can cause cancer and genetic defects. Birds are affected, too.

DNA damage 'caused by pesticides'
This new study discovered that the DNA of farmers in Punjab has been altered, making them susceptible to cancer.

"We found significant change in the DNA, so the cancer risk is greatly increased when the extent of DNA damage is very high," he said.

30 Agrochemical Products Banned in Nigeria After Deaths
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has banned the sale and supply of 30 different agrochemical products in the country. NAFDAC Director-General, Professor Dora Akunyili, explained in Abuja that the ban became necessary when it was discovered that the pesticides were causing food poisoning that had resulted in the death of many after they consumed food crops preserved with the chemicals.

She said: "We got report that many people in Bekwarra LGA of Cross River State suffered from food poisoning due to ingestion of moi-moi and beans. A total of 112 people were hospitalised and the death of two children were recorded.

"The moi-moi and beans from the homes of the victims and from open markets in Taraba and Benue states were collected for laboratory analysis. The laboratory report revealed outrageously high levels of organophostate, carbamates, fenithrothion and chloropyrifos that are highly toxic pesticides.

Corn-Based Ethanol About Corporate Profits, Not Reducing Greenhouse Pollution
In 2005 the Bush administration under pressure from agribiz interests suddenly made their corn-ethanol subsidies a lot more generous, which meant a lot more American corn started going to ethanol - something like a third of the total crop. And that proved the catalyst for first the price of corn to start rocketing and then other price rises, some of them directly assisted by the rush to corn as farmers cultivated less acreages of other crops - for example, soya and wheat.

The Real Reason Hemp is Illegal
Commercial interests - the same petrochemical interests that brought us pollution, wars and 4 to 5 dollar-a-gallon gasoline - eliminated hemp from the list of "growable plants". They made and continue to make good profits from this. Perhaps it is time we found out about hemp's history (follow the link) and started to take our heritage back from the petrochemical crowd. With hemp's help we can voluntarily limit or even end our addiction to petrochemicals.

Twilight of the Psychopaths
Civilization, as we know it, is largely the creation of psychopaths. All civilizations, our own included, have been based on slavery and “warfare.” Incidentally, the latter term is a euphemism for mass murder.

- - -

More information out there...

There is much I cannot cover but other sources for this kind of information exist and are active.

You can subscribe to the Zeus Newsletterhere. Appears twice monthly. If you would like to see some samples of Louise's collection of informative links, here are the archives.

Dr Mercola's health blog and Mike Adams' Natural News have great health information.

The Alternative Medicine Yahoo Group is a place where you can discuss and exchange information on what is happening in the world of natural health.

For the influence of electromagnetic waves from radio, mobile phones and other radio emitting devices, check out the emfrefugee group on Yahoo.

If you are interested in a different take on the news that isn't health centered but is certainly fun, check out Robin Good TV News.

A few sites to keep up to date with the other side of world affairs, the stuff you won't necessarily find on your tv or in the papers:

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com
http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
http://rawstory.com/
http://www.truthout.org/

... and remember:

The individual is supreme and finds its way through intuition

Will European Health Authorities act on reports of serious side effects and deaths connected with the ADHD drug Strattera? Are 95 deaths, 965 reports of suicidal behavior and some 60,000 reported adverse events enough to take action, asks Swedish researcher Janne Larsson in a letter to the UK's Medicines Agency.

Eli Lilly's ADHD drug Strattera (atomoxetine HCl), is promoted as the first non-stimulant medication that's FDA-approved to treat ADHD in Children, adolescents, and adults. Side effects are downplayed. Tiredness and nausea are listed as common but rarely, the company says, are there suicidal thoughts in children (not adults), or liver damage.

Janne Larsen, a Swedish investigator, charges that these official pronouncements of Eli Lilly are in sharp contrast with real world deaths and frequently observed suicidal tendencies as well as episodes of psychosis, mania and aggression that keep being reported to Adverse Drug Reactions databases.

A clinical trial in Sweden in 2005 turned out disastrous for the drug. The researcher, psychiatrist Christopher Gillberg, squirmed and turned to put a good face on the results, but eventually, when challenged to submit his data for peer review, destroyed the records of the trial. His excuse? "Protecting the identities" of the participants.

While the FDA has reviewed the drug and required warning labels for sale in the US, a European review is drawing on without much movement. Apparently, the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is leading efforts to review Strattera's safety for the European Health Authorities, but - says Larsen - they are dragging their feet.

Instead of installing an independent panel for the review of the drug, the MHRA has asked Eli Lilly to do the review themselves. Predictably, the company that makes the drug has found that there aren't so many adverse effects, and that with so many confounding factors to consider, it isn't sure whether the drug was responsible for any of them.

Now Janne Larsson has sent a third letter to Kent Woods, the chief executive of the MHRA, pointing out inconsistencies in Lilly's review of Strattera side effects and he is asking whether the agency has plans to question Lilly's data or whether it is going to continue to rely on their faulty analysis. Larsson also wants to know:

"Will the agency, considering the harm caused to children, start an investigation of all the reported cases of death in connection with Strattera 'treatment'?"

- - -

In a letter to Kent Woods of the MHRA, Larsson charges that Eli Lilly gave false information about Strattera related deaths and asks for a full investigation:

- - -

To: Professor Kent Woods
Chief Executive
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency – MHRA

Copy: All European Medical Agencies (concerned member states for Strattera)
Copy: Media
May 15, 2008

Strattera: Eli Lilly gave false information about deaths from Strattera “treatment” – a request for full investigation

In April I gave data to the MHRA about reported instances of deaths in connection with Strattera treatment. The agency has still not answered and no investigation has been announced about the fatal cases reported.

The following updated report – a compilation of confirmed fatal cases in connection with Strattera treatment, is sent to assist the agency in its investigation.

This report also contains proof that Eli Lilly in January gave false and misleading information to the MHRA about deaths from Strattera treatment.

The children and teenagers getting Strattera “for ADHD” can be expected to be healthy normal children and in this group of “patients” there should be extremely low morbidity and mortality. This report tells another story.

------------

In November 2007 I made an FOIA-request to the MHRA about the number of persons who have died while under Strattera treatment. The agency didn’t know and asked the manufacturer, Eli Lilly.

Eli Lilly noted, that the company up to November 30, 2007 “has identified 41 fatal cases in our safety database”. But as the company only accepts deaths reported by a “health care professional (HCP) or regulatory authority”, 17 of these cases were right away deducted. In Lilly’s words: “Of the 41, only 24 were Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR) with fatal outcomes.” [1]

The MHRA did not get further data about these fatal cases from Lilly, only the numbers.

------------

A new investigation of cases, with death as outcome, reported to the FDA (2004-2007), and a review of Periodic Safety Update Reports (PSURs) for Strattera, have shown the following:

Children and teenagers:
31 children and teenagers have died while under Strattera treatment, with Strattera reported as the Primary Suspect Drug (PS). 19 of these young persons committed suicide.

In addition to the FDA reports, data in different PSURs in Europe show that an additional 6 children and teenagers have died while under Strattera treatment.

Adults:
33 adults have died while under Strattera treatment, with Strattera reported as the Primary Suspect Drug (PS). 17 of these adults committed suicide.

In addition to the FDA reports, data in different PSURs in Europe show that an additional 4 adults have died while under Strattera treatment (cardiac death).

In the reports to the FDA there are also 7 cases of stillbirth/abortion spontaneaus reported with Strattera noted to be the Primary Suspect Drug.

Summary of fatal cases from FDA 2004-2007 and PSURs:
37 children and adolescents + 37 adults + 7 stillbirth/abortion sponteneous = 81 deaths.

Of these 81 fatal cases at least 47 were reported by health care professionals (HCPs).

See specifics about all fatal cases reported to the FDA 2004-2007 in the table
Strattera Deaths with Strattera as Primary Suspect Drug [2], and for ALL reported fatal cases in the attached (and linked) document StratteraDeath [3]

------------

In addition, the following fatal cases in connection with Strattera treatment – with Strattera as Secondary Suspect Drug (SS) or with Concomitant drugs (C) – are reported to FDA 2004-2007: 4 children and teenagers and 10 adults [see also 3]

In total: From FDA 2004-2007 and PSURs including Strattera in all Role Codes (PS, SS, C):
22 (suicides) + 19 = 41 children and adolescents;
22 (suicides) + 25 = 47 adults
+ 7 stillbirth/abortion sponteneous
= 95 cases of death
------------

Lilly gave the figure 41 deaths - but right away excluded 17 case reports, and said the figure to be used was 24. [1]

I have now given specifics about confirmed cases of death in connection with Strattera treatment. And the number is much higher than in the Lilly report.

------------

I refer to the promise by the agency: to “take any necessary action to protect the public promptly if there is a problem” [4].

The above information does definitely tell there is a problem: As said, the children and teenagers getting Strattera “for ADHD” can be expected to be healthy normal children and in this group of “patients” there should be extremely low morbidity and mortality.

But the above data say that 41 children and teenagers have died in the last 5 years while under Strattera “treatment” – with 22 of them committing suicide.

Add to this the staggering number of adverse events reported internationally for Strattera (the majority for children) – Lilly has told the MHRA: “During this reporting period, a total of 23,132 spontaneous adverse event reports of atomoxetine [Strattera], representing 58,048 adverse events, were collected by the MAH [Market Authorization Holder; Eli Lilly].” [5] This covered the period from November 2002 to March 2006. The number of persons who have experienced suicidality in connection with Strattera treatment has now reached 965 (PSUR 9, p. 106). Up to November 2007 (PSUR 9, Annex 16) there were also 513 case reports about mania, psychosis or hallucinations in connection with Strattera treatment.

The MHRA has not taken any visible actions to protect children from all these harmful effects – not even answering on earlier reports about deaths from Strattera treatment.

I would like to get a swift answer to these two questions:

1. Is the agency going to call in question the data given by Eli Lilly (41 deaths, 24 confirmed by HCPs) in light of the now presented evidence (81 deaths in FDA 2004-2007 with Strattera as Primary Suspect Drug and in PSURs, with at least 47 of these 81 confirmed by HCPs; and in total 95 cases of death)?

2. Will the agency, considering the harm caused to children, start an investigation of all the reported cases of death in connection with Strattera “treatment”?

Yours sincerely,

Janne Larsson
Reporter – investigating psychiatry
Snöbollsgränd 22
129 45 Hägersten
Sweden
janne.olov.larsson@telia.com

References:
[1] Eli Lilly, Letter to the MHRA, January 2, 2008, (see last 3 pages)
[2] Psychdrugdangers - Strattera Deaths with Strattera as Primary Suspect Drug, (visited May 15, 2008)
[3] StratteraDeath, May 15, 2008
[4] MHRA, About us, (visited May 15, 2008)
[5] Eli Lilly, Main Report, for Periodic Safety Update Report (PSUR) 6, page 105, period November 27, 2005 through May 28, 2006

- - -

An earlier letter, sent on 9 March 2008 to Kent Woods of the MHRA which outlines adverse event reports showing Strattera-induced mania, psychosis and hallucinations, has not been answered to date. The letter is available here:

http://jannel.se/strattera.mhra.March.08.pdf

An even earlier letter, sent in January 2008, asking that action be taken by the MHRA is available here:

http://jannel.se/letter.mhra.strattera.jan08.pdf

An FDA review of several ADHD drugs discusses prevalence of psychosis, mania, violent behavior and suicidality. It shows that Strattera is by a large margin associated with the most reports of such adverse events:

FDA Memorandum on Adverse Events

For his chemical work, Pauling received a Nobel Prize. For his political activism, another Nobel Prize, for Peace. But when he began to stump for the desirability of large doses of vitamin C in particular, as well as the benefits of other supplements, he was labeled a crackpot who had lapsed into senility. Yet his argument for such “orthomolecular” practice was eminently reasonable: he pointed out that the “minimum daily requirements” established for vitamins and minerals were based only on clinical knowledge of the minimum amounts needed to avoid illness; it seems very likely that the optimum amounts for healthy functioning would be greater than those minimum amounts. As to vitamin C, he pointed out that our vegetarian primate cousins get far more of it from their diet than we do.

WHAT’S IN A NAME? VITAMIN THERAPY BAD, MICRONUTRIENT THERAPY GOOD
“Micronutrients”, then, offer benefits to Africans suffering from TB and also “HIV-positive”. Still, castigation and calumny are heaped upon Dr. Matthias Rath http://www.dr-rath-foundation.org.za/ for his research on the role of nutrition in various illnesses, including HIV/AIDS, and his advocacy of a variety of supplements. Rath had worked with Linus Pauling and had been Director of Cardiovascular Research at the Linus Pauling Institute in Palo Alto (CA). Rath is now vilified just as Pauling was; and just as with Pauling, some of Rath’s insights are likely to be accepted belatedly by consensus medicine.

Curing the Incurable: Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, & Toxins
Here we have an absolute abundance of peer reviewed literature that no drug can match - and the looney bin faction of the medical fraternity continue to ask for evidence on the efficacy let alone use it? All researchers, MDs, health professionals and/or anyone interested in health worth their salt must read this book. It will allay any doubts once and for all on the value of Vitamin C and for that matter on Orthomolecular solutions to disease!

Vitamin/mineral deficiency stunts nearly half of India's children
Nearly half of the children under five years of age in India have stunted growth mainly because of zinc, iron and vitamin A deficiency, according to a new study.

A major fallout of the under-nutrition till two years of age is that the children develop lifestyle diseases like diabetes and heart problems.

Juice 'prevents clogged arteries'
Juices made from apples or purple grapes - and the fruit themselves - protect against developing clogged arteries, a study suggests. The researchers say their findings suggest the amount of phenols contained in a food have a direct effect on its antioxidant properties. Other antioxidant compounds in the fruits, such as vitamin C and carotenoids, could also contribute to their effects, they added.

That beats trying to get your cholesterol down to prevent the clogging of arteries, especially if we look at all the side effects of these "medications".

Nutrients as Environmental Health Hazard - California Agency has it wrong
The meeting, styled as a workshop, discussed a proposed regulatory concept being floated by OEHHA that would essentially exclude any listed "beneficial nutrients" from the definition of carcinogen and reproductive toxin if the person causing the exposure can show that it is indeed a beneficial nutrient and if the levels of such a nutrient in the food do not exceed the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for the nutrient (or if no such level had been set, then no more than 20% of the nutrient's Tolerable Upper Intake Level)./1 Anything above such levels for listed nutrients would have to be labeled as cancer causing and/or a reproductive toxin.

The logic seems impeccable. If you get more of a nutrient than you absolutely need to prevent a deficiency, you better stay away from it because it may "cause cancer". Congratulations - you just found the cause of cancers and a way to prevent them in the future. Great work! Way to go.

Cotton Seed: Deadly gift from Monsanto to India
The new generation cotton seeds, called ‘Research Hybrid seeds'; are all male sterile. In short, they are terminator seeds; and proven by the high-level government committee in 1993. I have the report of it. The breeder then published an article advising farmers that they should not use the F2 seeds of such hybrids, as the plants coming out of them are 100 percent sterile.

Terminator Seeds are "Grossly Immoral" say Theologians
Biotechnology companies claim that 'Terminator' seeds would be used to produce GM crops and trees which are engineered to stop GM traits spreading to other plants by inserting a 'suicide' gene. But Father Sean McDonagh, writing in the new publication, says: "There is simply no such thing as a safe and acceptable form of Terminator".

Manufacturing a Food Crisis
The Mexican food crisis cannot be fully understood without taking into account the fact that in the years preceding the tortilla crisis, the homeland of corn had been converted to a corn-importing economy by "free market" policies promoted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and Washington. The process began with the early 1980s debt crisis.

That the global food crisis stems mainly from free-market restructuring of agriculture is clearer in the case of rice. Unlike corn, less than 10 percent of world rice production is traded. Moreover, there has been no diversion of rice from food consumption to biofuels. Yet this year alone, prices nearly tripled...

Video:all jacked up - hungry for the truth?
Cori Brackett, producer of "Sweet Misery", a video about the dangers of asparatame, says about this new video:

"A devastatingly brilliant film investigating the food habits of today's teenagers, the effect of our corporate-focused and soulless food industry upon everything from school lunch programs to the training of the modern taste bud and the devastation left in its wake. This is absolutely mandatory viewing for any parent and teenager. Eat a meal at the family dining table (with the television off!), do the dishes and then gather the family together to watch this modern, fashionable tale of loss and hope of rebirth."

Action:FDA Reopens Public Comments on Amalgams
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reopened public comments on a rule first proposed in 2002 that would place precapsulated amalgam in Class II, with "special controls."

Bottom line: Amalgam should be placed in Class III, and the manufacturers forced to prove that it is safe, not in Class II, where old assumptions of its safety can live on. Here are some talking points that you can use in your letter...

Action:Support U.S. House Resolution that deems FDA’s Policy on Estriol "Not in the Public Interest"
The resolution also calls on the need of FDA to “respect the physician-patient relationship” and recognizes that doctors, not the FDA, are in the best position to “determine which medications are appropriate for their patients.” It also points out that the “FDA has acknowledged that it is unaware of any adverse events” associated with the use of estriol over the past three decades.

Action:Unique opportunity: comment to the FDA about MSG (glutamate)
There is currently a Citizens Petition about removing MSG from the list of safe food additives (the GRAS list). The petition is open for worldwide comments until mid
June 2008. The petition itself (submitted by John Erb) is an excellent summary of the dangers and toxicity of MSG.

Petition Demanding Transparency of Talcum Powder and Ovarian Cancer Link
This Petition ... requests the Commissioner of Food and Drugs to require that all cosmetic talc products bear labels with a warning such as, "Frequent application of talcum powder in the female genital area substantially increases the risk of ovarian cancer."

Johnson&Johnson Loses To Red Cross Over Symbol Dispute
A federal judge ruled today that the American Red Cross can continue using its iconic symbol, 10 months after J&J filed a lawsuit demanding the relief agency halt its use of the red cross emblem on products it sells to the public and licensed to others. Amid a flurry of negative publicity, J&J claimed the Red Cross violated its trademark and was barred from using the symbol for commercial purposes.

Action:Canada: Stop Bill C-51
The Canadian government, afraid of the public reaction once people find out what they are trying to pull, is currently fast-tracking a Bill which threatens to strip you of your rights to access a wide range of natural health products. If it passes, and you buy/sell/share/collect/dry/eat/feed to your family any of the restricted stuff, you become a criminal subject to fines 1000X bigger than those currently in effect.

EU Widens Antitrust Probe Into Patent Practices
European antitrust investigators are expanding the scope of a major inquiry into pharma in a bid to determine whether drugmakers are blocking generic rivals from getting less-expensive meds to market quickly, Reuters reports.

“These companies should be spending money on discovering drugs for diseases that still go uncured,” David Ortega, in charge of competition issues at the Spanish consumers’ organization OCU, tells Reuters.

International Campaign to Ban Electroshock

Beta blockers cost more lives than they save
At least 800,000 deaths may have been caused worldwide in the past decade by preventive drugs which are routinely given to patients undergoing surgery to reduce the risk of heart attacks, researchers said yesterday.

The drugs, called beta blockers, are recommended for patients undergoing surgery, to reduce the risk of heart attacks after operations. The drugs did lower the incidence of heart attacks by more than a quarter (from 5.7 per cent to 4.2 per cent), but the benefit was outweighed by the "side effects" of increased stroke and death, the researchers said.

Heart drug's higher death risk detailed in study
A massive Canadian study that caused a popular heart surgery drug to be pulled from the shelves last November has shown it increased the risk of death by 50 per cent over two rival medications.

Life-threatening Pneumonia Caused by Pneumonia Vaccine
Prevnar, an anti-pneumonia vaccination given in the United Kingdom, likely causes a significantly worse form of pneumonia to develop. This life-threatening lung disease, called Serotype 1, has become ten times more prevalent in ten years.

Sexual Side Effects of SSRI's
Post market research has clearly established that the SSRIs and SNRIs can affect most every aspect of sexual functioning at rates significantly higher than the 2-16% rates reported in pre-market trials and currently listed in the drug insert literature. Large prospective studies in which baseline assessment excludes participants with pre-existing sexual dysfunction have found rates of treatment-emergent sexual dysfunctions such as decreased libido, delayed orgasm, anorgasmia, erectile dysfunction, and difficulties with arousal, of between 36 and 70%.

Stop Smoking Drug Chantix Starts Bipolar Disorder In Woman
This is a remarkable account of a woman in Texas who'd smoked for 33 years and was pressed to take Chantix, Pfizer's stop smoking pill that sure keeps acting like the worst of the SSRIs, by her doctor. The woman hadn't had a psych diagnosis before taking the drug.

Washington State - Should kids get these drugs?
Concerned about how anti-psychotic drugs are being used in children, state officials are working on a plan due out by early fall to make sure the medications are properly prescribed for Washington kids on Medicaid.

“We are at risk of treating kids before we know if these drugs are safe in the long-term,” said Dr. Christopher Varley, a University of Washington professor of child and adolescent psychiatry.

Drug Czar Plays Politics With Mental Illness, Suicide And Marijuana
I suspect a few of you are aware that last Friday John Walters, America's Drug Czar, held a press conference and issued a report claiming that marijuana was leading to depression among teens. His office also once again floated its weak claim that pot causes schizophrenia. I suppose it's a sign of just how desperate Walters is to justify the federal laws on marijuana that he has to resort to the old Reefer Madness card.

Yes, pot makes people kill themselves. That's such a bizarre assertion that it's embarrassing--and, indeed, claiming pot causes anxiety and suicide while perfectly legal drugs such as Paxil, Zoloft, Effexor and so on have been linked to suicidality and suicides and to cases of very extreme agitation is the very height of hypocrisy.

Stealth Marketers - The ties that bind
The New York Times reports that an examination by CSPI Integrity in Science, found that the panels that crafted the new DSM-psychiatry's diagnostic "Bible"-is as riddled with financial conflicts of interest as the previous panels had been: "More than half the 28 new members of writers of the next edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) have ties to the drug industry."

Pfizer To Disclose Grants And Charitable Donations
Could this be a trend? The drugmaker has posted a list of grants and charitable contributions made in this year’s first quarter to medical, scientific and patient organizations in the US. The move comes one day after Lilly agreed to support a watered-down version of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act and two months after AstraZeneca agreed to post info on its US web site about contributions to state and federal political candidates.

The Third Obstacle to Health Care Reform: The Lobbyists
Imagine a society that lets its automakers oversee crash tests on new models, allowing the industry to report results, as it sees fit, to government and consumers. Sometimes, an automaker might not reveal the outcome of a test that turned out badly, deciding that the dummies in the vehicle were too short--no wonder their chests were crushed!

Health expert calls for end to UN HIV programme
"Worldwide the number of deaths from HIV each year is about the same as that among children aged under five years in India."

"Why a UN agency for HIV and not for pneumonia or diabetes, which both kill more people?"

He added: "UNAids should be closed down rapidly, not because it has performed badly given its mandate, which it has not, but because its mandate is wrong and harmful.

TELLING TRUE STORIES ABOUT HIV/AIDS
A large part of the problem is that the rethinkers’ case is not readily made in a convincing way via self-evident sound-bites.

Even the most concise as well as documented overview, say, Christine Maggiore’s excellent What If Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong?, or Rebecca Culshaw’s similarly concise yet also comprehensive Science Sold Out: Does HIV Really Cause AIDS?, are hardly bed-time reading. A promising alternative approach is through “fiction”.

There’s a long and respectable history of literary fiction that aims to acquaint readers with important facts...

UK: Pushing Vaccines - No jabs, no school
Children who have not received all their vaccinations should not be allowed to start school, a Labour MP has suggested.

Sir Sandy Macara, ex-chairman of the British Medical Association, said in many developing countries immunisation rates were higher than in the UK even though they had poorer access to healthcare.

He said linking vaccination to child benefit would ensure full vaccine coverage and make the argument that it was being done for the public good rather than for the benefit of individuals.

India: Two children died after measles shots
Puja’s father Allimuthu said his daughter was normal prior to administration of the vaccine. After a few minutes, she developed some problems and was rushed to the Primary Health Centre at Katchur.

“From there, we took our child to Tiruvallur Government Hospital. En route, blood began oozing from her hand. We came to know only at around 1 p.m., when the hospital staff moved her body to the mortuary, that our child had died”, they said.

Families will make case for vaccine link to autism
Overall, nearly 4,900 families have filed claims with the U.S. Court of Claims alleging that vaccines caused autism and other neurological problems in their children. Lawyers for the families will present three different theories of how vaccines caused autism.

The Office of Special Masters of the claims court has instructed the plaintiffs to designate three test cases for each of the three theories — nine cases in all — and has assigned three special masters to handle the cases.

Bee Emergency - Unexplained Mass Die-Off Hits German Hives
Germany's beekeepers were pointing fingers at one of Germany's largest companies, blaming a popular, recently-introduced pesticide called clothianidin for the recent die-off. Produced by Monheim-based Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of German chemical giant Bayer AG, clothianidin is sold in Europe under the trade name Poncho. It's designed to attack the nervous systems of insects "like nerve gas," says Hederer.

Wi-Fi and Wi-Max - What's Wrong With That?
We currently have no studies that are specific to Wi-Fi. However, when assessing the safety issue we can and should look at technologies that are similar and relevant to Wi-Fi to draw our conclusions. This would seem appropriate since Wi-Fi operates in the same manner as other more heavily studies similar technology and the basic mechanism of harm from all wireless technology is the same.

Two-time Nobel Prize nominee, Dr. Gerald Hyland, a physicist, had this to say about cell phone towers. "Existing safety guidelines for cell phone towers are completely inadequate. Quite justifiably, the public remains skeptical of attempts by government and industry to reassure them that all is well, particularly given the unethical way in which they often operate symbiotically so as to promote their own vested interests."

Using phones in pregnancy and child behavioural problems
Leading researchers from the United States and Denmark have just examined the association between prenatal and postnatal exposure to cell phones and behavioral problems in young children.

Results: The results are very surprising, with an 80% increase in behavioural problems for those mothers who had used phones whilst pregnant.

Cell Phone Study Says Hang Up & Use a Land Line
There is a “significant and increasing body of evidence” that demonstrates a link between “excessive and/or prolonged” cell phone usage and certain brain tumors.

Authorities in Europe have already begun to take positive action. Recently, the French government warned the public against overdoing it with cell phones, especially where children are concerned. Germany has also advised its citizens to restrict cell phone usage, and the European Environment Agency has also said that people should reduce their usage.

ATTACK OF THE CELL PHONE ZOMBIES
They are everywhere. And they are winning.

Walk down virtually any metropolitan street, if you still dare, and you will discern with a jolt of alarm that no one around you is aware of each other's presence or their surroundings as they shuffle past with the shambling gait of automatons.

US Government Ignores Human Rights, Injects Immigration Deportees With Antipsychotics
"The U.S. government has injected hundreds of foreigners it has deported with dangerous psychotropic drugs against their will to keep them sedated during the trip back to their home country, according to medical records, internal documents and interviews with people who have been drugged."

- - -

More information out there...

There is much I cannot cover but other sources for this kind of information exist and are active.

You can subscribe to the Zeus Newsletterhere. Appears twice monthly. If you would like to see some samples of Louise's collection of informative links, here are the archives.

Dr Mercola's health blog and Mike Adams' Natural News have great health information.

The Alternative Medicine Yahoo Group is a place where you can discuss and exchange information on what is happening in the world of natural health.

For the influence of electromagnetic waves from radio, mobile phones and other radio emitting devices, check out the emfrefugee group on Yahoo.

If you are interested in a different take on the news that isn't health centered but is certainly fun, check out Robin Good TV News.

A few sites to keep up to date with the other side of world affairs, the stuff you won't necessarily find on your tv or in the papers:

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com
http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
http://rawstory.com/
http://www.truthout.org/

... and remember:

The individual is supreme and finds its way through intuition

NewsGrabs are a selection of contrary and underprivileged news in health and a wide range of (mostly) related sectors.

Doctors Condemn "Threatening" Taser Court Ruling
Doctors have condemned as corporate "intimidation" a court decision ordering a chief medical examiner to remove any reference to the use of a taser as an antecedent in the deaths of three men. Ohio examiner Dr. Lisa Kohler had noted in her autopsy reports that electrical shocks from Tasers were partially to blame for the deaths of individuals in three separate confrontations with police.

Taser International, now notorious for it's stern legal defense having won 68 out of 68 lawsuits, filed and won a civil suit, forcing Kohler to delete all mentions of the weapons and to term the deaths "accidental".

WHAT'S IN YOUR MULTIPLE VITAMIN? (Part I)
Minerals are vital nutrients for health, required for numerous enzymes in your body to work properly. Minerals in food are at low levels due to excessive processing of food, poor farming that depletes our soils, as well as the use of pesticides that interfere with the natural sulfur cycle – leaving us not only with chemically adulterated food but food that has lower nutritional value. It is now common sense to supplement fine quality minerals, including important trace minerals.

WHAT'S IN YOUR MULTIPLE VITAMIN? (Part II)
The main reason to take a multiple vitamin is to help your body make energy – as energy (ATP) is needed for anything else in your body to work properly. A good multiple vitamin should also support your mood, assist stress reduction, support immunity, and help get rid of free radicals. It should provide an array of nutrients vital to your health – covering your most fundamental nutritional needs.

Life Extension Foundation's Rebuttal to Allegation That Certain Vitamins May Shorten Lifespan
In today’s Western world, a large percentage of the population fails to ingest optimal potencies of many essential nutrients. As you will read in part two of this report, a shocking majority (93-96%) of people of people who don’t supplement with vitamin E are deficient in vitamin E.

This negative report attacking supplements is fatally flawed because it:

1. Omitted 91% of the studies that measured the effects of these vitamins on human subjects including all studies for which there was no mortality!

2. Included studies that used doses far below or far above what health conscious people actually supplement with.

3. Chose to bias the reporting of the results by emphasizing one type of statistical model that showed a significant effect rather than another statistical model that did not show a significant effect.

4. Failed to account for the 14 mechanisms involved in aging and premature death. For example, it is absurd to think that taking 1,333 IU to 200,000 IU of vitamin A is going to have meaningful impact when there are more than one hundred individual components to a science-based death reduction program.

Low blood levels of vitamin D linked to depression
“Underlying causes of vitamin D deficiency such as less sun exposure as a result of decreased outdoor activity, different housing or clothing habits and decreased vitamin intake may be secondary to depression, but depression may also be the consequence of poor vitamin D status,” the authors write.

Blood vitamin D levels were 14 percent lower in individuals with major and minor depression compared with non-depressed participants. In addition, parathyroid hormone thyroid levels were an average of 5 percent higher in those with minor depression and 33 percent higher in those with major depressive disorder than in those who were not depressed.

The findings may be important to patients because both low blood vitamin D levels and high parathyroid hormone levels can be treated with higher dietary intake of vitamin D or calcium and increased sunlight exposure.

Vitamin D linked to reduced mortality rate in kidney disease
For patients with moderate to severe chronic kidney disease (CKD), treatment with activated vitamin D may reduce the risk of death by approximately one-fourth, suggests a study in the August Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

"Recently, there has been an increased focus on the effects of vitamin D beyond those on bone health," Dr. Kestenbaum comments. "Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and inflammation." Previous studies have suggested that treatment with intravenous vitamin D can improve survival in patients on hemodialysis.

The new results suggest that treatment with oral activated vitamin D may also improve survival in patients with CKD who do not yet require dialysis.

Naturally-occuring protein may be effective in limiting heart attack injury and restoring function
TPO (thrombopoietin) is a hormone which is naturally produced by the liver and kidney. Dr. Baker’s investigative team had previously shown that erythropoietin, a protein and pharmaceutical currently in clinical use to treat anemia in end-stage kidney disease, protects the rat heart against injury during a heart attack. They found that although erythropoietin and TPO have separate functional roles, there were similarities in the structures of the two proteins that suggested TPO may have protective properties similar to erythropoietin.

“We hypothesized that a single treatment with TPO during a heart attack would be sufficient to protect the heart from injury,” says Dr. Baker. “Our results suggest that TPO directly protects the heart and may represent a novel approach for the treatment of acute heart attack.”

Congress Criticizes FDA Over Bioidentical Hormone Ingredient
A bi-partisan group of Congressional reps have introduced a resolution criticizing the FDA for its recent move to warn compounders about their use of estriol in their bioidentical versions of hormone replacement treatments. Last January, the agency questioned the safety and effectiveness of BHRT products, citing unsupported medical evidence, and false and misleading claims.

The issue has pitted compounding pharmacies, among others, against Wyeth, which in 2005 filed a citizen’s petition with the FDA in an effort to stop compounders from making bioidentical versions of Prempro, its controversial hormone replacement therapy.

Canada: Bill C-51 - May 8th 2008 - Canadian Coalition for Health Freedom
"THEY will make a critical decision on Thursday May 8th 2008 on whether to schedule Bill C-51 on next week’s order paper. IT IS CRITICAL THAT YOU KEEP UP THE PROTESTS AND WE HAVE CREATED A SPECIAL WEBSITE TO ASSIST IN THIS – go to www.helpstopbillc51.ca and / or www.healthcanadaabuse.com and send the E-Action Protest letters immediately."

C-51 Committee on Health Outcome - Report From The Trenches
THEY are modifying the bill now to re-introduce it as soon as possible, likely today for next week's order paper. We need to raise legal funds now through our Freedom of Choice in Health Care organization as you did in 1997 and immediately prepare and file an application to strike down the Natural Health Product regulation. This will then create a major legal and political problem for Bills C-51 and C-52.

US Government asks court to block mad cow testing
The Bush administration on Friday urged a federal appeals court to stop meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease, but a skeptical judge questioned whether the government has that authority.

Less than 1% of slaughtered cows are tested for the disease under Agriculture Department guidelines. The agency argues that widespread testing does not guarantee food safety and could result in a false positive that scares consumers.

Can you say "cover-up"?

The Best Control 2 - How to control pests without poison
by Stephen Tvedten
The Best Control 2 is a reference manual based on exhaustive research in the field of nontoxic pest control or Integrated Pest Management (IPM). This guide will teach you how to implement nontoxic alternatives to pesticides safely and easily by yourself. This information is provided as a free resource to encourage the spread of safe alternatives to chemical poisons, and thus reduce contamination to ourselves and pollution to our environment.

It's freely available for downloading. Thank you, Steve.

A Convenient Lack Of Disclosure?
The 30-member task force, which included a few dissident ceo’s from Pfizer, Lilly and Amgen (read those footnotes carefully), put their heads together over concerns that undue industry influence may raise questions about the “objectivity and integrity of academic teaching, learning and practice” and undermine the ability of academia and industry to jointly promote the public’s interest in sound health.

Drug Industry Re-writes 'Psychiatric Bible'
More than half the 28 new members of writers of the next edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) have ties to the drug industry, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s Integrity in Science Watch.

The conflicts of interests were posted online by the APA last week. They ranged from small to extensive. Leading the pack was William Carpenter Jr., director of Maryland Psychiatric Research Center at the University of Maryland, who over the past last five years worked as a consultant for 13 drugmakers, including Pfizer, Lilly, Wyeth, Merck, Astra Zeneca, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, according to CSPI.

Ajinomoto sues ASDA over Aspartame remarks
In the writ, the century-old Japanese firm complains: 'In their natural and ordinary meaning, the words on the packaging ... would have been understood to mean that aspartame is an especially harmful or unhealthy, or potentially harmful or unhealthy, sweetener and is one that consumers concerned for their own health would do well to avoid.'

See here a comment from anti-aspartame campaigner Stephen Fox.

Big Pharma Digs In
The nations of the world are currently debating how to design new medical research and development (R&D) mechanisms to serve the twin goals of promoting innovation to meet the particular needs of developing countries and ensuring that important medicines are accessible to people in the developing world, regardless of their income.

The global pharmaceutical industry confederation — the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) — has filled the corridors outside the talks with lobbyists. IFPMA has 59 persons officially registered to participate in the meeting.

More insidiously, the industry’s funded patient group and think tank allies have waged a propaganda campaign to discredit the WHO initiative — without revealing their financial entanglements with the industry. An entity called Patients and Patents has circulated a “Patient Declaration on Medical Innovation and Access.”

Doctors 'fail in prescribing'
THREE-QUARTERS of junior doctors say they are putting the safety of patients at risk because they have not been trained to prescribe drugs properly, says a new report. In a survey of 2,400 junior doctors by scientists at Edinburgh University, 74% said the teaching of drug prescription was inadequate.

They are not even talking yet about the failure of training doctors in the needs for and use of foods and nutrients for good health. The system is FAR below the standards for any proper health craft. Ever wonder why that is?

Are doctors shilling for drug companies on public radio?
Host Dr. Fred Goodwin, a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, interviewed three prominent guests, and any radio producer would be hard-pressed to find a more seemingly credible quartet. Credible, that is, except for a crucial detail that was never revealed to listeners: All four of the experts on the show, including Goodwin, have financial ties to the makers of antidepressants. Also unmentioned were the "unrestricted grants" that The Infinite Mind has received from drug makers, including Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of the antidepressant Prozac.

Consumer Group asks U.S. to pull birth-control patch
Wolfe argued that the patch offers no better contraception in return for the extra risk. And he said lawsuits by women who claim they were harmed by the patch have unearthed two previously unpublished studies from Johnson & Johnson researchers that found higher estrogen exposure from the patch even before it won FDA approval in 2001.

Couple plead case against allergy drug
FDA officials will collect personal stories of people experiencing unusual side effects while taking the allergy drug Singulair, a move that follows a meeting Friday with a Queensbury couple who blame the medication for prompting their son's suicide.

Since going public with their story, the Millers have received dozens of e-mails and phone calls from parents who say their children began acting strangely after taking the drug. A handful also committed suicide.

FDA Scraps Helsinki Declaration on Protecting Human Subjects
What I can't understand is why no one in the U.S. press, including in the medical literature, paid attention to this story in the past year as this change was underway. Has the U.S. become entirely callous about the impact its ill-conceived policies are having on the rest of the world?

Uganda: 'Population Pressure Affecting Aids Fight'
UGANDA'S rapid population growth is making it hard for the country to effectively fight the spread of HIV/AIDS, according to the AIDS commission.

oops - weren't we told that the epidemic is depopulating Africa? How is 'rapid population growth' compatible with that?

MindFreedom Ireland Protests Electroshock
Many members of the public expressed their own shock! that this barbaric practice was still performed both worldwide and in our Irish hospitals today 'in the name of help.' They were more outraged that it could even be legally forced on vulnerable people. Many of them signed a petition to abolish the practice.

Blaming the Patient - Prescribed Tranqulliser Addiction (PDF - 32 pages)
A paper on addiction to prescription drugs by Colin Downes-Grainger, an artist based in London.

What is most striking about investigating the nature and history of benzodiazepine tranquillisers is the almost total lack of science behind political and medical statements about limited side-effects. Those effects have been down-played by regulators and by politicians and doctors without any recognition that it is pharmaceutical companies who have underwritten those judgements. The Department of Health and its agencies have not felt the consequences of their assertions—these have been confined to the patients who have experienced them. Knowing as they do, that enormous numbers of people were prescribed benzodiazepines over the years—many for inordinate lengths of time—they have no motivation for discovering the reality regarding a multitude of side-effects or the true cost of the damage. Often it is difficult to know where the self-deception ends and deliberate mendacity begins.

“The MOTHERS Act": From Permissiveness to Force
Despite the fact that there is no benefit over placebo for any antidepressant, many continue to push for expansion of the market in the childbearing population. A nation of people getting legally high on drugs with similar action to cocaine, LSD, PCP and methamphetamines is the only kind of climate that could ever support all of the insane policies being promoted and enacted.

Incubator electromagnetic fields alter newborns' heart rates
The electromagnetic fields produced by incubators alter newborns’ heart rates, reveals a small study published ahead of print in the Fetal and Neonatal Edition of Archives of Disease in Childhood. The heart rate variability fell significantly during the periods when the incubator was switched on. Decreased heart rate variability is a strong predictor of a poor prognosis in adult patients with heart disease and the general population, the evidence shows.

This is another small piece adding to the puzzle of emerging health effects of electromagnetic technologies, both in household (and hospital) settings and in our communications infrastructure.

NO REST for our bees! (PDF)
(Original in French: Pas de répit pour nos avettes)
On the IndyMedia UK website, Colin Buchanan reported on 22 February 2008 about colony collapse disorder and the disappearance of bees in relation with electronic radiation. Several of the referenced articles can be found on this page. The relation between the disappearance of bees and electromagnetic radiation is emphasized.

Are bees being wiped out by mobile em frequency tempest?
Martin Weatherall of the Hese Project says that apart from pesticides and other possible causes, a basic weakening influence on the bees leading to colony collapse may well be the thousandfold increase in technical radiation, particularly from mobile phones, in recent years.

Good vibrations could save vanishing bees
Scientists at the Roslin-based firm Global Bioenergetics think disturbance to bees from mobile phones, radio signals, wi-fi and microwaves is disrupting them with devastating results.

Stress caused to the bees by the radiation could be damaging their immune systems, leaving them prone to increasing levels of herbicides, insecticides and fungicides sprayed on crops.

The scientists are trying out a new device, called a Bioemitter, that transmits electromagnetic waves to provide a stable environment and reduce stress for the bees in their hives, boosting their immune system.

Blows Against Mobile Masts and Cell Towers
Germany reports a 7 fold increase in breast cancer in an area with cellular antennas. A small study by GPS at the Kaplan Medical Centre, Israel, discovered a fourfold increase in cancer within 350m after long term exposure to a phone mast and a TENFOLD increase specifically in women.

Fungi have a hand in depleted uranium's environmental fate
In the new study, the researchers found that free-living and plant symbiotic (mycorrhizal) fungi can colonize depleted-uranium surfaces and transform the metal into uranyl phosphate minerals.

“We have shown for the first time that fungi can transform metallic uranium into minerals, which are capable of long-term uranium retention,” the researchers concluded. “This phenomenon could be relevant to the future development of various remediation and revegetation techniques for uranium-polluted soils.”

Malaysia's ex-PM Mahathir wants Iraq war leaders on war crimes charges
Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has called for an international tribunal to try Western leaders with war crimes over the war in Iraq, a spokesman for the organisers said. In a speech at Imperial College, London, Mahathir called for a tribunal to try US President George W. Bush plus former prime ministers Tony Blair of Britain and John Howard of Australia for their part in the conflict.

Bush Hammered Over Comments About India and Global Food Crisis
Bush noted that much of the developing world was prospering and that U.S. businesses could benefit. As an example, he cited India, where the "middle class is larger than our entire population." But "when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food," he said. "And so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up."

Bush's comments Saturday came one day after similar comments by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put Indians on edge. In a speech before Peace Corps country directors, she mentioned various factors behind the food crisis, among them the "improvement in the diets of people, for instance, in China and India."

Multinationals make billions in profit out of growing global food crisis
Giant agribusinesses are enjoying soaring earnings and profits out of the world food crisis which is driving millions of people towards starvation. And speculation is helping to drive the prices of basic foodstuffs out of the reach of the hungry. The prices of wheat, corn and rice have soared over the past year driving the world's poor – who already spend about 80 per cent of their income on food – into hunger and destitution. The World Bank says that 100 million more people are facing severe hunger. Yet some of the world's richest food companies are making record profits. Monsanto last month reported that its net income for the three months up to the end of February this year had more than doubled over the same period in 2007, from $543m (£275m) to $1.12bn. Its profits increased from $1.44bn to $2.22bn. Cargill's net earnings soared by 86 per cent from $553m to $1.030bn over the same three months. And Archer Daniels Midland, one of the world's largest agricultural processors of soy, corn and wheat, increased its net earnings by 42 per cent in the first three months of this year from $363m to $517m. The operating profit of its grains merchandising and handling operations jumped 16-fold from $21m to $341m. Similarly, the Mosaic Company, one of the world's largest fertiliser companies, saw its income for the three months ending 29 February rise more than 12-fold, from $42.2m to $520.8m, on the back of a shortage of fertiliser.

- - -

More information out there...

There is much I cannot cover but other sources for this kind of information exist and are active.

You can subscribe to the Zeus Newsletterhere. Appears twice monthly. If you would like to see some samples of Louise's collection of informative links, here are the archives.

Dr Mercola's health blog and Mike Adams' Natural News have great health information.

The Alternative Medicine Yahoo Group is a place where you can discuss and exchange information on what is happening in the world of natural health.

For the influence of electromagnetic waves from radio, mobile phones and other radio emitting devices, check out the emfrefugee group on Yahoo.

If you are interested in a different take on the news that isn't health centered but is certainly fun, check out Robin Good TV News.

A few sites to keep up to date with the other side of world affairs, the stuff you won't necessarily find on your tv or in the papers:

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com
http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
http://rawstory.com/
http://www.truthout.org/

... and remember:

The individual is supreme and finds its way through intuition