Action Against Atrazine

Atrazine is a highly toxic chemical herbicide used in corn agriculture; corn is in almost everything!

Nation’s Largest Private Water Utility Joins Lawsuit Against Herbicide Maker

by Danielle Ivory

The nation's largest private water utility company has joined a federal lawsuit [1] that aims to force the manufacturer of atrazine, a widely-used herbicide, to pay for its removal from drinking water.

[The communities in the lawsuit are alleging that Swiss corporation Syngenta AG and its Delaware counterpart Syngenta Crop Protection, Inc. made billions of dollars selling atrazine while local taxpayers were left "the ever-growing bill for filtering the toxic product from the public's drinking water."

The communities in the lawsuit are alleging that Swiss corporation Syngenta AG and its Delaware counterpart Syngenta Crop Protection, Inc. made billions of dollars selling atrazine while local taxpayers were left "the ever-growing bill for filtering the toxic product from the public's drinking water."

As the Investigative Fund reported two weeks ago [2], the class action lawsuit was originally filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois by 16 cities in Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, and Iowa. The communities are alleging that Swiss corporation Syngenta AG and its Delaware counterpart Syngenta Crop Protection, Inc. made billions of dollars selling atrazine while local taxpayers were left "the ever-growing bill for filtering the toxic product from the public's drinking water."

American Water Company joined the lawsuit in five of those states yesterday, representing 28 additional Midwestern communities.

A spokesman for American Water, Terry Mackin, said in a written statement that the company's state subsidiaries are joining the case to recover past and future "costs of treating their raw water supplies for atrazine which they all have done in meeting or exceeding the federal and state drinking water standards."

Syngenta spokesman Paul Minehart told the Investigative fund that the company had not yet been served with a federal lawsuit. He re-emphasized [2] that "the EPA re-registered atrazine in 2006, stating it would cause no harm to the general population."

We reported in a series of articles [3] last fall that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency failed to notify the public that the weed-killer had been found at levels above the federal safety limit in drinking water in at least four states. The EPA recently announced that it would be undertaking a re-evaluation of the chemical's potential to cause harm to humans and animals.

Amended Class Action Complaint Against Syngenta

Interventions in Aging

Back in about 1955 I was lucky enough to be the daughter of a physician and surgeon who had an interest in natural health.  At the time he was one of the early subscribers to Organic Gardening and Prevention magazines from Robert Rodale's organization.  It happened too that Rodale was just upstate in my home state of Pennsylvania.

I've written several times about how I devoured each month's issue and how it was part and parcel of turning me into a doctor of a different color.  I've even been involved in more recent years in a number of Rodale's publications, including Woman's Book of Healing Herbs.

As far as anti-aging therapy goes there are many ways to look at this, and implement programs.  I went for herbs and orthomolecular and nutritional approaches to health.

I was taunted, especially by my mother who live to 99.  But undaunted, to this day, I stick with my beliefs and what I learn in almost daily continuing education.

My organiztion, CHI, can help you too.  Currently, with your donation you can receive a copy of our Rejuvenation Cleanse.

A panel of 10 luminaries in the field of gerontology, including Aubrey de Grey, Caleb Finch and Jan Vijg, convened to urge the translation of recent findings in the field of aging into therapeutic agents that can benefit the world's growing population of older individuals. Their report was published in the July 14, 2010 issue of the American Association for the Advancement of Science journal Science Translational Medicine.

In the introduction to their article, the authors note that age is the greatest risk factor for the majority of chronic diseases in the western world, and is of increasing significance in the developing world as well. Functionality decreases with age while disease incidence increases, and mortality rates double approximately every 7 to 8 years following puberty. These phenomena are attributable to the accumulation of damaging changes in the body that occur at the molecular, cellular and tissue levels due to the effects of normal metabolism as well as environmental causes and unhealthy lifestyles.

In order to prevent a global aging crisis caused by a greater proportion of older individuals and the resulting increases in medical costs and social challenges, the panel advocates the collaboration of a number of countries in an international initiative to translate laboratory findings on aging into pharmaceutical agents that will improve the lives of older men and women.

"We propose a global biological aging research agenda focused on the detailed understanding of the following overlapping core age changes and developing therapies for decelerating, arresting, and reversing them: (i) the loss of proliferative homeostasis, (ii) neurodegeneration, (iii) somatic mutations in both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA, (iv) nonadaptive alterations in gene expression, (v) immunosenescence, (vi) nonadaptive inflammation, and (vii) alterations of the extracellular milieu," the authors write. "To ameliorate age-related changes, we identify three broad modes of intervention that should be exploited in addition to ongoing conventional, disease-centered medical innovation: (i) reduction in exposure to environmental toxins and amelioration of other risk factors through improved public health; (ii) modulation of metabolic pathways contributing to age-related changes; and (iii) a more broadly conceived regenerative medicine, to embrace the repair, removal, or replacement of existing aging damage or its decoupling from its pathological sequelae."

"There is this misunderstanding that aging is something that just happens to you, like the weather, and cannot be influenced," remarked Dr Vijg, who is chair of genetics and the Lola and Saul Kramer Chair in Molecular Genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University. "The big surprise of the last decade is that, in many different animals, we can increase healthy life span in various ways. A program of developing and testing similar interventions in humans would make both medical and economic sense."

"In the case of late-life intervention in human age-related degeneration, what we can be certain of today is that a policy of aging as usual will lead to enormous humanitarian, social and financial costs," the authors conclude. "To realize any chance of success, the drive to tackle biological aging head-on must begin now." Source:Life Extension

Methuselah Foundation

Fourteen Articles on Natural Health News Related to Pancreatic Cancer and...

Here is number 15, dating back to 2007, that may not have been brought to your attention. Methionine is a sulfur bearing molecule necessary to health and healing.

Methionine may ward off pancreatic cancer

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Higher methionine intake is apparently associated with a reduction in pancreatic cancer risk, according to a report in the January issue of Gastroenterology.

Impaired methyl group metabolism may contribute to pancreatic diseases and carcinogenesis, the authors explain, suggesting that methyl group donors like methionine could influence the risk of pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Susanna C. Larsson from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, and associates examined intakes of methionine and vitamin B6 in relation to the incidence of pancreatic cancer in the Swedish Mammography Cohort and Cohort of Swedish Men. The study comprised nearly 82,000 men and women aged 45 to 83 years.

During a mean follow-up of 7.2 years, 147 incident cases of pancreatic cancer were diagnosed.

The multivariate rate ratio for pancreatic cancer was 0.44 for individuals in the highest quartile of methionine intake compared with those in the lowest quartile, the researchers found.

The inverse association between methionine intake and pancreatic cancer was more pronounced in smokers than nonsmokers, the investigators note. There was no interaction between alcohol consumption and methionine intake and pancreatic cancer risk.

There was no significant association between vitamin B6 intake and pancreatic cancer risk, the report indicates.

"The results from this prospective study suggest that higher intake of methionine may reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer," Larsson and colleagues conclude. "Foods rich in methionine include fish, poultry, meat, legumes, and dairy products," they add.

"The results could be important because pancreatic cancer, now the 4th most common cause of cancer mortality in the United States, has an extremely high mortality rate," write Dr. Albert B. Lowenfels and Dr. Patrick Maisonneuve from New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York in a related editorial.

"Even though the authors adjusted for many pancreatic cancer risk factors," the editorial goes on, "there is still the possibility that the apparent protective function of methionine is related to confounding by another dietary or nondietary protective factor."

Lowenfels and Maisonneuve conclude: "Before suggesting that our patients increase their intake of methionine, we need substantial additional data concerning efficacy and safety issues."

Gastroenterology 2007;132:113-118,441-443.

Eating LESS Meat is the way to lose weight ? NOT!

When I saw this article circulating the airways and media venues, as well as the numerous tweets I received from the raw foodies and vegans I was laughing so hard my sides hurt.

Hard to say who paid for this room of alleged researchers to come up with the findings, but you really do have to question this.

When choosing your food plan there is quite a lot more that goes into selecting what is correct for you.  Relying on mass media isn't always the best place to start.

I use a specific test that helps you learn what type of metabolism you have, based on twelve types.  These types were developed 50 years ago based on solid nutrition research that preceded this method by another 30-40 years.  And at that time research had "meat". It was based on solid scientific guidelines and it wasn't usually tainted.

Another approach I use is an old and proven food program that will re-balance your biochemistry.

Then I look at your personal nutritional deficiencies, in an approach I developed over many years in this work and with many people of differing backgrounds.  I have a patent application pending.

Of course I defer to organic food, but I also provide information so you can select the healthiest food even when organic isn't available or you cannot afford it.

Some people can eat meat, some cannot.  The same follows for vegetarianism and veganism, raw or cooked fanciers.

I also into consideration the issues of feed lots and mass production of meat, hormones, and antibiotics, as well as the type of feeding used in this wing of the food industry. 

So you get a tailored plan, and you get educated.  You'll receive support and get some balanced exercise information too.

Because I charge for this service I know that not everyone will take advantage of it, or any of the parts of it. 

And ultimately because my work is based on education you might like to read the opinion of a trusted colleague on this latest babble.

TIP:  One serving of meat is about the size of a deck of cards, or as others may say, the size of the palm of your hand.

Sorry Dr Atkins

Drugs Slow Elders' Recovery

These reports are of high interest to me because they relate to a situation in my own family. It is highly important to understand that as you age your ability to metabolize drugs and other substances, as well as clear their metabolites through your liver and kidneys becomes impaired.
In my mother's situation she was - for the last six years of her life - grossly over medicated, and that list of drugs included several that the research showed definitively that they should not be administered to the elderly, and especially not to elderly women.
Regardless of the data presented, neither the care center or my brother, who had POA, made any effort to act for the best interest of my mother's health and quality of life.

Sedating Drugs May Slow Elders' Recovery By Ed Susman, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today, January 15, 2010

Elderly patients sedated with morphine or haloperidol (Haldol) were less likely to to be discharged to their homes than patients given other sedatives, according to research presented here.
MIAMI BEACH -- Elderly patients sedated with morphine or haloperidol (Haldol) in surgical intensive care units were less likely to to be discharged to their homes and more likely to be discharged to a nursing facility than patients given other sedatives, often resulting in a poorer quality of life, researchers reported here.
Patients who received morphine were 2.57 times more likely to be discharged to a nursing home, rehabilitation center, or a skilled nursing facility (P=0.029), Carrie Miller, MS, CRNP of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, told attendees at the annual meeting of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.
Patients who were given haloperidol were 12.46 times more likely to be discharged to one of those facilities rather than to their home.
Similarly, the risk of having a significantly reduced function from baseline admission was five times greater if the patient had received haloperidol (P=0.044) and 2.76 times more likely if the patient had received morphine (P=0.011), Miller said.
"While older adults frequently require medications to treat pain, anxiety, and delirium, little is know about the effects these medication have on older adults' functional ability or quality of life," Miller said.
To shed some light on the question, she and her colleagues evaluated 114 patients in three surgical ICUs. Mean age was about 75, some 60% were men, and 85% were white. Overall, 37% were undergoing general surgical procedures, while 35% had undergone vascular procedures and 16% were trauma patients.
Patients' level of consciousness and delirium status were assessed daily and information about medication use was gleaned from the ICU flow sheet and the computerized administration record.
The most frequently used narcotic in the surgical ICU was fentanyl (Duragesic), administered to 77 patients; the most frequently used sedative was midazolam (Versed); and the most frequently used antipsychotic was haloperidol.
Miller and her colleagues noted that use of propofol (Diprivan) appeared to be associated with better outcomes as far as discharge to one's home was concerned.
They noted that there was "considerable discrepancy" between medication usage and dosage recorded on the patients' flow sheet and medication administration record. "Researchers and clinicians should consider that administered prn medications may not always be recorded on the nursing flow sheet," they concluded.
The study did not control for confounding variables such as the severity of illness or comorbidities that may have affected outcomes, Miller said.
"This is an interesting study," said Suzan Streichenwein, MD, a private practice geriatric psychiatrist in West Palm Beach, Fla. "It would be valuable for future studies to include the severity of illness or more specific details about the type of surgery relative to the dosages of morphine used and its influence on the discharge functional outcomes.
"Tests diagnosing mild cognitive impairment and/or dementia preop versus postop as well as the time period under anesthesia in relation to outcomes would also be helpful," said Streichenwein, who was not involved in the study.
Streichenwein told MedPage Today that other possible confounding factors require further studies in this area.

None of the clinicians had relevant financial disclosures.
Primary source: Society of Critical Care Medicine
Source reference:
Balas M, et al "Narcotic, sedative and antipsychotic medication use in older surgical intensive care unit patients" SCCM 2010; Abstract 1000.
© 2004-2010 MedPage Today, LLC. All Rights Reserved

Psychiatric Drug Search Engine

In a related article published 15 June 2010, these drugs are again reported to have severe physical difficulties as well as the violent attributes they promote
Psychiatric drugs carry serious physical health risks

And another of the 30+ plus posts from Natural Health News says - This is a critical resource if you or anyone you know is being prescribed any of the psychiatric drugs for any cause.  I emphasize "any cause" because these drugs are glad-handed for just about any reason in the current mainstream health arena.

New Psychiatric Drug Search Engine—310 International Drug Regulatory Warnings & Studies & 194,000 Adverse psychiatric drug reaction reports

Studies Reveal Violent Side Effects of Psychiatric Drugs
Sep 20, 2006

It is becoming more and more apparent that psychiatric drugs drive people to not only perform violent acts on others, but also to take their own lives as well. A recent article written by Steve Mitchell, United Press International's ...

A New Addition to our Natural Health Family and Upcoming Events

I've just launched a new BLOG in our Natural Notes series and you'll find some summer health related articles posted now.

We'll continue this new Natural Notes venue with a focus on desert living.

Thanks for following us with your subscription to herbalYODA Says!, on Natural Health News, our Natural Notes venue found on the Seattle PI web site, at Green Muze, HealthierTalk, and the myriad of places around the net where others post or link to our work.

You can also follow us at our original domain since 1991, www.leaflady.org, and also at www.simply4health.org, as well as in our print publications, classes, other print publications, and radio interviews.

Upcoming: At the invitation of a client I'm guesting on a fall program about homeopathy for healing (date TBA).