Pharmaceutical industry panics; experts admit prescription drugs don’t work for dementia and they probably never will

With 47 million people around the world suffering from dementia and 115 million people expected to have the illness by 2050, finding ways to prevent and treat it is a matter of urgency. When the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference was held this year, many of the experts on hand were a lot more focused on non-medical therapies, which is something that the profit-minded pharmaceutical industry is probably not very happy about. However, medications simply are not doing anything to help this problem, and in many cases, they are actually making it worse.

At the conference, the first Lancet Commission on Dementia Prevention and Care was presented, bringing together dozens of international experts to discuss this growing problem. They shared some interesting discoveries that could make a huge dent in the number of future dementia patients, and their findings were also published in The Lancet.

According to the commission, there are nine risk factors that boost a person’s chances of developing dementia, and they say that more than a third of dementia cases stem from these factors.

Increasing education during early life by staying in school until at least age 15 and dealing with hypertension, obesity and hearing loss in midlife can reduce the incidence of dementia by 20 percent combined, the researchers say. Later in life, quitting smoking, exercising more, managing diabetes, boosting social contact and treating depression can slash dementia incidence by a further 15 percent.

In fact, USC Keck School of Medicine Psychiatry Professor Dr. Lon Schneider said: “The potential magnitude of the effect on dementia of reducing these risk factors is larger than we could ever imagine the effect that current, experimental medications could have.”

On the other hand, it is estimated that finding a way of targeting the genetic risk factor gene ApoE could only prevent around one out of every ten cases.

Non-pharmacologic approaches better for Alzheimer’s patients

The commission reached the conclusion that non-pharmacologic interventions play a vital role in dementia treatment, especially when it comes to issues such as agitation and aggression. For example, Dr. Schneider said that the antipsychotic drugs typically given to help with these problems are very concerning because of the heightened risk of death, cardiovascular problems and excessive sedation.

One study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease found that patients who took antipsychotic drugs had a 60 percent higher chance of early death than those who did not take such drugs.

According to the panel’s evidence, social, environmental and psychological interventions like social activities and social contact were far better approaches than antipsychotic medications. They also touted the benefits of group cognitive stimulation therapy and physical activity.

A recent study carried out by sports physicians and gerontologists discovered that physical activity has a direct impact on the brain’s metabolism by keeping cerebral choline concentrations stable. Study participants who did not exercise noted higher levels of choline, which is linked to the type of nerve cell loss seen in Alzheimer’s patients.

Bad news for Big Pharma

All this, of course, is a tremendous missed opportunity for the pharmaceutical industry, who sees statistics like “115 million people expected to have dementia by 2050” and sees nothing but dollar signs. If you are wondering why a bigger deal isn’t being made about these simple, non-pharmaceutical ways to prevent the illness, consider the fact that health care costs related to dementia were estimated at $818 billion in 2015 and will likely increase as the number of cases rises. There is currently no drug treatment that can prevent or cure dementia.

Sources include:

Pressroom.USC.edu

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

CBSNews.com

Chemotherapy found to activate cancer tumor growth mechanism in the body, MULTIPLYING cancers everywhere, usually killing the patient

It is considered the most effective treatment to fight cancer, but chemotherapy can do more harm than good, according to a shocking new study published in Science Translational Medicine.

The extremely aggressive therapy, which kills both cancerous and healthy cells, has been found to increase the chance of cancer cells migrating to other parts of the body. When this happens, the disease is called metastatic cancer, which is the most lethal form.

Chemotherapy gives people the false impression of “curing” the disease. Unfortunately, this is only half of the story. While shrinking primary tumors for some patients in the short term, chemotherapy drugs trigger a mechanism in the body which allows cancer cells to grow back faster and stronger. Most patients receiving chemotherapy are basically trading one cancer for another deadlier form of the disease. Yet, chemotherapy remains the go-to treatment.

For their study, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York analyzed the effect of common chemotherapy drugs on breast cancer patients. Dr. George Karagiannis and colleagues discovered that two common chemo drugs increased the number of “doorways” on blood vessels. Via these little entry points, cancer cells can easily migrate to the bloodstream and other organs in the body.

Also, additional testing in mice showed more circulating cancer cells in the body and lungs after the drugs were administered. Lead author Dr. George Karagiannis told The Telegraph that given these results, every cancer patient receiving chemotherapy should be closely monitored to check if the disease is spreading.

“One approach would be to obtain a small amount of tumor tissue after a few doses of preoperative chemotherapy,” he said. “If we observe that the markers scores are increased we would recommend discontinuing chemo and having surgery first, followed by post-operative chemo. We are currently planning more extensive trials to address the issue,” Dr. George Karagiannis added.

Though the team’s research only examined the effect of chemotherapy-induced cancer cell growth and spread in breast cancer, they are currently experimenting on other cancers to see if similar effects occur.

Chemotherapy is BIG business

While being no stranger to multi-billion-dollar fines for malpractice, the cancer industry generates higher profit margins than any other industry out there. The industry consists of criminal corporations, organizations, agencies, doctors, and oncologists we are supposed to be able to trust. Unfortunately, these people have no interest in finding a cure or promoting prevention strategies. Some doctors even go as far as to falsely diagnose people with cancer to keep the money flowing.

What’s worse, chemotherapy fails in an estimated 98 percent of all cancer cases, making people sicker than they already are. Since the cancer industry controls the medical world, alternative treatments that can cure thousands of people worldwide without any harmful side-effects are kept hidden from the public.

Since Nixon declared the “war on cancer” in the 1970s, billions of dollars have been granted to chemical cancer research, yet very little has improved. Where did all the money go? And why haven’t we found a cure after all these years? Or is there a cure the medical world is hiding from us?

The truth is, we all have been lied to, allowing the cancer industry to abuse our bodies. Stop falling for the empty promises of a criminal industry and start looking for real, natural solutions. They do exist. Find more information at CancerSolutions.news.

Sources include:

STM.ScienceMag.org

Telegraph.co.uk

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

Millions of patients are being OVERDOSED with blood pressure medication, study reveals

Often touted as a “silent killer,” hypertension or high blood pressure affects some 1.13 billion people worldwide — that’s around one in three adults in the United States. If you are on blood pressure medication, then chances are you are being overdosed. A new first-of-its-kind study showed that smaller doses are just as effective as a standard dose, but with fewer side effects.

Hypertension is not to be taken lightly. If left untreated it can lead to serious problems such as heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, and vascular dementia, reported the Daily Mail Online. Hypertension is characterized by blood pressure levels that are consistently at or above 140 mmHg for systolic pressure and/or 90 mmHg for diastolic pressure.

Treating high blood pressure, however, is not always as easy or straightforward as one may think. Professor Anthony Rodgers, the study author from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, explained that 88 percent of those aware of their health issue are treated with medication. Yet only one in three is able to gain control of the condition.

According to the study authors, millions of people may be suffering unnecessary adverse effects from hypertension medication. Since taking one kind of hypertension medication is usually not enough to keep high blood pressure under control, doctors often prescribe a second drug that comes with additional side effects.

Minimizing the side effects plays a crucial role in a patient’s treatment plan. Common side-effects include weakness, dizziness, insomnia, headache, and muscle cramps. Since high blood pressure is notoriously difficult to control, Professor Anthony Rodgers noted that finding new, better ways to treat hypertension is a positive move.

“Because high blood pressure is so common and serious, even small improvements in management can have a large impact on public health,” he said.

Quarter-dose therapies found to be as effective

For the study, published in the journal Hypertension earlier this month, researchers analyzed data from 42 trials involving more than 20,000 patients with hypertension. Each of them was randomly assigned to taking either a placebo or blood-pressure-lowering medication in varying combinations and dosages.

The five main classes of drugs to treat hypertension —  angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, beta blockers, calcium channel blocker, and thiazides — were included in the review.

When the researchers compared the effectiveness of quarter-dose therapy to both a standard dose or placebo, they found that taking a quarter-dose of one medication did not lower blood pressure as much as a full dose did. However, the team discovered that the combination of two medications in a quarter dose was just as effective as a standard dose. This treatment plan also produced fewer side-effects than a standard dose of one single blood pressure lowering drug.

Furthermore, a cocktail of four hypertension drugs, each at a quarter dose, was found to be nearly twice as effective as taking a single blood pressure lowering medication at the standard dose. Since this finding was based on one trial there was too little information about the possible side effects, the team noted.

In conclusion, the team reported that though further research is needed, quarter-dose combinations could provide improvements in efficacy and tolerability of blood pressure-lowering therapies.

Though their results look very promising, Professor Anthony Rodgers played it safe by noting that people should not reduce the doses of their current medications without further research to confirm their results. Since they have not yet been replicated in larger long-term trials, more research is needed to warrant a change in how doctors currently prescribe blood pressure lowering therapies to their patients, the researchers noted.

Find more news about modern and alternative medicine to treat your illnesses at Medicine.news.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

Hyper.AHAJournals.org

FDA bans natural substance manufactured by the body itself

Any time the FDA goes after a natural substance, it’s safe to assume that the ingredient in question is about to turn up in a Big Pharma drug and they’re just trying to get rid of the competition. In fact, this practice is so common that a recent poll found that 37 percent of people completely agreed with the statement that U.S. regulators suppress access to natural cures.

The FDA recently went after picamilon, a natural combination of Vitamin B3 and a substance made in the body that crosses the blood-brain barrier known as GABA. This natural substance has been so useful as a neuroprotector in boosting brain functioning that Eli Lilly decided to use it as the basis for an Alzheimer’s drug called Solanezumab. At that point, longstanding natural supplements that contain picamilon became a threat to the $7.6 billion the drug company was expected to pull in from its Alzheimer’s drug by 2024. As the drug trials entered their final rounds, supplement firms started getting letters from the FDA about not promoting its natural alternative.

The FDA’s treatment of cannabidiol is a classic example of the agency’s modus operandi. CBDs are gaining in popularity and have been shown to be even more effective than drugs at treating issues like neurological disorders, seizures and epilepsy. In fact, they are so effective that some Big Pharma firms are looking to get them approved as medicines by the FDA.

Once it was given the status of being “investigated as a new drug,” FDA rules state CBDs could no longer be considered a dietary supplement. The FDA has embarked on a regulatory intimidation campaign in hopes of making the “problem” go away. They say that cannabidiol products cannot be sold as dietary supplements and have sent warning letters out to marketers of CBD products.

Who is the FDA really protecting?

Under this rather twisted rule, the FDA could eventually stop the sale of any herb or vitamin as a dietary supplement as long as a drug company is studying it. This is quite useful for Big Pharma, who can effectively cut out the competition before they even get their drug on the market and ensure a virtual monopoly – over something that occurs in nature, no less!

Moreover, the FDA states that even if the drug application is rescinded or does not ultimately lead to a new drug, its supplement form is still banned! This was the case with Solanezumab; while it ultimately did not deliver the expected results in the last stages of clinical trials, people will still be denied access to picamilon.

The losers in this situation, of course, are all of us. The FDA is essentially denying the American public access to effective treatments that usually cost significantly less than their pharmaceutical counterparts. It will come as little surprise to learn that when drug reviewers leave the FDA, some 57.7 percent of them go on to work or consult for the pharmaceutical industry.

According to the Alliance for Natural Health, guidance that was recently issued subjects new supplements to safety requirements that are not even placed on drugs. For example, extra safety studies are needed if a supplement’s target population changes, such as when a product that has been established as safe for adults will be marketed to children. Dangerous drugs like stimulants and antidepressants aren’t even required to do this, with the FDA admitting that most drugs prescribed for children or the elderly have not been tested on those populations.

Instead of protecting the people like it was meant to do, the FDA is protecting the drug industry that lines its pockets. People have successfully treated health ailments with unregulated herbal supplements since the times of the Ancient Chinese, but if the FDA lets Big Pharma continue to call the shots, the only way you’ll be able to get these natural healing substances is by buying them from a pharmaceutical company.

Sources include:

WakingTimes.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

ANH-USA.org

“Driving While Medicated” now a greater danger to society than driving drunk: Crashes from prescription meds up 100% in past decade

The recent arrest of golfing legend Tiger Woods for driving under the influence of prescription drugs has put the issue of drugged driving back in the spotlight. Although initial reports indicated that Woods had been driving under the influence of alcohol, it was later confirmed that his readings for two breathalyzer tests were 0.00, and that his erratic behavior was actually caused by a cocktail of drugs prescribed after knee and Achilles tendon injuries, as well as a recent back surgery.

Police officers initially approached Woods when they saw his Mercedes-Benz pulled over on the side of the road; he was apparently sleeping behind the wheel. Dashcam video footage shows a dazed and disoriented Woods struggling to complete a field sobriety test and becoming confused when officers asked him to recite the alphabet.

“What happened was an unexpected reaction to prescribed medications,” Woods said in a statement. “I didn’t realize the mix of medications had affected me so strongly.”

Many other people have made the same mistake of miscalculating just how much they have been affected by pharmaceutical medications before getting behind the wheel. Market Watch reports that the number of vehicle accidents where drugged drivers were involved nearly doubled between 2005 and 2015. Over 20 percent of the 32,166 fatal accidents in the U.S. in 2015 involved at least one drugged driver. In some states, driving under the influence of prescription pills is even more common than driving drunk. And it is becoming increasingly common for people to combine alcohol with drugs, not realizing how much the effects are amplified. [RELATED: For more stories like this see Twisted.news]

Unfortunately, like Tiger Woods, many people have no idea how much prescription drugs have actually altered their behavior, and feel that they are totally capable of driving. The reality is that they are putting themselves, their passengers and everyone else on the road at risk.

The National Institute of Drug Abuse website explains that just as illegal street drugs like cocaine or methamphetamine affect the brain, and therefore behavior, prescription drugs also have a variety of different effects on those who use them. Benzodiazepines like Diazepam, Xanax and Valium, can cause dizziness and drowsiness. While marijuana has a plethora of absolutely amazing health benefits, it too has been linked to poor reaction time, lane weaving and impaired ability to pay attention to the road. Of course, this should not deter people from reaping the benefits of its natural healing power, but caution needs to be used when driving after using marijuana. [RELATED: Study finds that marijuana can replace dangerous opioid drugs for pain relief.]

Some states have a zero-tolerance policy for all drugged driving, since it is very difficult to determine how any drug or drugs in combination with alcohol might affect a given person. In such states, one can be arrested for driving under the influence if tests find any traces of drugs in the blood or urine.

With so many states recently legalizing marijuana for medical and recreational use, a lot of focus has been placed on its effects on driving ability. Interestingly, there has been no such focus on the many prescription drugs which have been scientifically proven to impair judgment. Perhaps if more attention was paid to the issue, people like Tiger Woods would not end up in possibly life-threatening situations because of sheer ignorance.

Sources :

MarketWatch.com

DrugAbuse.gov

KESQ.com

CNBC.com

HOCK: Drug overdose deaths now kill more Americans every year than the entire Vietnam War… after Democrats refused to protect the border from drug cartels

For the last eight years, Democrats allowed drug smugglers and drug cartels to run rampant across the U.S. border, hoping to invite in a sufficient number of illegal aliens to make sure a Democrat could win the presidential election (through illegal voting, of course). The America-hating Democrats lost the election, but the social cost of their “open borders” lunacy will be felt for years to come. (See also The Left’s Descent to Fascism for more background on the deeper cost to society of the Left’s embrace of fascism and treason.)

One of the most devastating costs of the Democrats’ open borders policy is the widespread trafficking of illicit drugs across the U.S. border, effectively flooding the heartland with dangerous chemical substances that destroy lives. Those chemicals are now killing more Americans every year than the entire Vietnam War.

According to an analysis report published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, overdose deaths from illicit drugs have reached war-like levels of annual deaths:

• 47,055 drug overdose deaths in 2014 (61% involving opioids)
• 52,404 drug overdose deaths in 2015 (63% involving opioids)

(Data were not yet available for 2016.)

The drugs cited for causing the overdose deaths are many of the same drugs brought into the United States by Mexican drug cartels, using smuggling routes that were left largely undefended by the Obama administration, which sought to leave America’s borders wide open for political purposes:

• natural/semisynthetic opioids
• methadone
• heroin
• synthetic opioids

“A multifaceted, collaborative public health and law enforcement approach is urgently needed” to stem the growing epidemic, urges the CDC report, yet Democrats have systematically opposed any substantial support of police, Border Patrol or any law enforcement body that would substantially reduce the inflow of these addictive, dangerous substances into the United States. (Related: Find more news about drug addiction at Addiction.news.)

In other words, just to keep winning elections, the Democrats have allowed a deadly drug war to be waged on the American people by drug cartels that largely originate from South of the border. Just to get Hillary Clinton elected, the Democrats subjected America to Vietnam War levels of carnage, suffering and death. That’s how much the Democrats despise America (and are willing to do anything to attain political power).

Big Pharma’s chemical rampage of opioid deaths across America

“The ongoing epidemic of opioid deaths requires intense attention and action,” warns the CDC report, which also points out the role of Big Pharma and the overprescription of addictive opioids. Yet the Obama administration did absolutely nothing to reel in the domineering power of the “legal” drug cartels in America: the pharmaceutical industry. While Americans are dying by the tens of thousands, Big Pharma is reaping a windfall of profits from addictive opioids. Follow the saga of opioids at OPIOIDS.news.

For eight years under Obama, the Democrats sold out America to both the pharmaceutical giants and the Mexican drug cartels, and now we’re paying a devastating price across society. The loss of productive lives, the addiction treatment costs and the law enforcement burden are all adding enormous economic burdens to cities and states that are already drowning in debt.

At the same time, treasonous, lunatic Leftists declared their cities to be “sanctuary cities” to actually harbor violent criminals and drug dealers, further adding to the scourge of drug deaths now devastating Americans across the country. (Question: When will President Trump arrest the mayors who openly violate immigration law and harbor violent criminals under the treasonous scheme of “sanctuary?”)

President Trump, Jeff Sessions and DHS Secretary John Kelly are now left to clean up the enormous mess created by Obama and lawless Democrats

The upshot of all this is that this enormous problem with drug deaths has been dumped in President Trump’s lap. Fortunately for us, DHS Secretary John Kelly appears to be taking this problem seriously. In prepared remarks delivered at George Washington University, Kelly rips into the enormity of the drug smuggling / drug cartels fiasco left behind by Obama, promising to finally allow law enforcement to take aim at the flow of these illicit street drugs that are killing tens of thousands.

“[T]he damage TCOs [Transnational Criminal Organizations] do is not only violence and potential terror. It is also vast tonnages of marijuana and hard drugs—cocaine, heroin, counterfeit opiates, fentanyl, and meth amphetamines—they smuggle across our borders to feed both the recreational and addictive U.S. drug demand,” Kelly said. His remarks continue:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the U.S. Coast Guard all bear witness to the massive quantity of drugs TCOs are bringing to our homeland every day—with devastating consequences.

In 2015, which is the most recent data we have, there were 52,404 [1] deaths in the United States caused by a drug overdose.

It’s the highest number of drug-related deaths our country has ever seen. It’s more deaths than the peak of the AIDS epidemic in 1995 [2]. In a single year, we’ve lost nearly as many Americans to drug overdose as we lost in battle in World War I [3]. Almost as many as was lost in 12 years in Vietnam.

And that’s just overdose deaths. That number—as high as it is—says nothing about the long-term health damage to our citizens who survive, to say nothing about the human misery, the families ripped apart, and the extremes of crime and violence inherent in the illegal-drug enterprise.

We still need to educate the Trump administration about the remarkable benefits of non-psychoactive hemp extracts (CBD)

Frustratingly, Kelly goes on to denounce marijuana as a “gateway drug” without making a distinction between non-psychoactive CBD products vs. high-THC (psychoactive) marijuana, saying, “DHS personnel will continue to investigate marijuana’s illegal pathways along the network into the U.S., its distribution within the homeland, and will arrest those involved in the drug trade according to federal law.”

Nevertheless, it’s refreshing to finally see someone at DHS who is actively seeking to thwart drug cartels and drug smuggling into the United States. It may take far more than eight years under President Trump, however, to finally get a grip on this massive problem that’s been allowed to fester under Obama and the Democrats.

While much of the so-called “War on Drugs” is a total sham and a complete waste of money, filling our prisons with non-violent marijuana users, the problem of heroin smuggling and hard drugs from Mexican drug cartels is a very serious and costly problem that must be urgently dealt with. We must also, of course, deal with Big Pharma’s opioid epidemic and the mass over-prescribing of such dangerous drugs by corrupt doctors who are routinely bribed by drug companies across America.

Watch my mini-documentary on the drug war’s “fake science” problem in this shocking video: