NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A new study strengthens evidence that the once widely advertised weight-loss supplement Hydroxycut caused serious liver damage in some users.

Last May, 14 Hydroxycut products were recalled by the manufacturer, Canada-based Iovate Health Sciences, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning to all consumers to stop using the supplements.

The warning was based on 23 reports to the agency describing liver damage in Hydroxycut users — ranging from inflammation to tissue death severe enough to require a liver transplant. The supplement was also linked to one death.

Iovate said in May that it was recalling Hydroxycut because they “became aware that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s assessment of 23 reports about consumers having experienced liver-related problems, as well as a small number of published case reports, was different from Iovate’s analysis.”

They noted that “the number of adverse event reports described by the FDA is small relative to the many millions of people who have used Hydroxycut products over the 7 years.”

In the new study, reported in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, researchers analyzed 17 cases of liver damage among Hydroxycut users that had not yet appeared in the medical literature. Nine of the cases had been reported to the FDA, while eight were seen by the authors of the study.

Looking at factors like patients’ risk factors for liver disease and the timing of their Hydroxycut use, the researchers found that for eight of the liver-damage cases, there was a greater than 95 percent likelihood that the weight-loss aid was to blame.

In five cases, the researchers concluded that Hydroxycut was “highly likely” the cause (a 75 to 95 percent chance), while it was probably to blame in two cases (a 50 to 74 percent chance). The last two cases were considered to be possibly linked to Hydroxycut use.

(CNN) — Health care reform is proceeding toward the president’s desk, likely to become law in the new year.   Supporters promise the bill will cut costs and extend coverage.

But here’s the real test:  What will the trillion-dollar expense of this bill actually buy? Will it improve America’s health?  My guess:   No… Read More Here

Claims by the CDC and the Institute of Medicine, following a whitewash study that ignored previously verified evidence, that thimerosal, a mercury based preservative, has no causal relationship to skyrocketing cases of autism have been soundly rejected by top doctors and scientists ever since.

Epidemiologist Tom Verstraeten and Dr. Richard Johnston, an immunologist and pediatrician from the University of Colorado, both concluded that thimerosal was responsible for the dramatic rise in cases of autism but their findings were dismissed by the CDC.

Cases of autism in the U.S. have increased by 1,500 since 1991, which is when vaccines for children doubled, and the number of immunizations is only increasing. Just one in 2,500 children were diagnosed with autism before 1991, whereas one in 166 children now have the disease.

A peer reviewed study by Dr. Mark Geier which appeared in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons showed that the IOM research was flawed because it was largely based on a Danish study by Anders Peter Hviid, which did not account for the fact that American children have a much higher mercury burden than children in Denmark.

“At the high levels (of thimerosal exposure), it is undeniable there is a causal relationship, and we have gone to high levels. Their studies, therefore are not relevant, I am not saying they are wrong, although there are many criticisms of it. It is just not relative to the US situation,” said Geier.

Geier’s study concludes that there is an increase of neurodevelopment disorders following the use of thimerosal containing vaccines.

Dr. Rashid Buttar, who has pioneered a new treatment for autistic children that removes mercury from their bodies, said the Institute of Medicine’s conclusion that mercury does not cause autism demonstrates the “complete absence of any desire to discover scientific truth at the supposed highest levels of medical academia.”

“When 31 children recover from a devastating disease by a simple transdermal treatment that detoxifies metals, then common sense dictates that perhaps metals are involved,” states Dr. Bob Nash the chairman of the American Board of Clinical Metal Toxicology (ABCMT) in regard to Dr. Buttar’s treatment.

“In 1977, a Russian study found that adults exposed to ethylmercury, the form of mercury in thimerosal, suffered brain damage years later. Studies on thimerosal poisoning also describe tubular necrosis and nervous system injury, including obtundation, coma and death. As a result of these findings, Russia banned thimerosal from children’s vaccines in 1980. Denmark, Austria, Japan, Great Britain and all the Scandinavian countries have also banned the preservative,” writes Dawn Prate.

Mercury is classified by The Department of Defense as a hazardous material that could cause death if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin, and the EPA is now limiting mercury emissions from factories because the toxin “can damage the brain and nervous system and is especially dangerous to fetuses and small children,” but according to the CDC it’s perfectly safe to inject into your child’s bloodstream.

Despite concerns about thimerosal and mercury, which have led to the preservative being reduced or removed from a large portion of vaccines over the last five years, thimerosal will be an ingredient of the swine flu vaccine which is set to arrive in the U.S. this September.

“Some of the vaccine will be stored in multi-dose vials containing thimerosal, an antibacterial additive that contains mercury,” reports the Washington Post today in an article about which groups will receive the swine flu vaccine first.

“There will also be single-dose syringes without thimerosal, a substance that some assert is harmful to children,” adds the article, without mentioning whether or not people who take the vaccine will get a choice or even be informed if it contains mercury.

Around 12,000 U.S. children will be used as guinea pigs for the experimental swine flu vaccine also known to contain the dangerous ingredient squalene, which has been directly linked with cases of Gulf War Syndrome and a host of other debilitating diseases.

Squalene “contributed to the cascade of reactions called “Gulf War syndrome. (GIs developed) arthritis, fibromyalgia, lymphadenopathy, rashes, photosensitive rashes, malar rashes, chronic fatigue, chronic headaches, abnormal body hair loss, non-healing skin lesions, aphthous ulcers, dizziness, weakness, memory loss, seizures, mood changes, neuropsychiatric problems, anti-thyroid effects, anaemia, elevated ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate), systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, ALS, Raynaud’s phenomenon, Sjorgren’s syndrome, chronic diarrhea, night sweats and low-grade fever,” according to Micropaleontologist Dr. Viera Scheibner.

Pharmaceutical companies can be assured that they won’t face reprisals for the many thousands of injuries and deaths that will inevitably occur as a result of exposing millions to mercury and squalene during a mass vaccination program, because the government has already acted to provide them with blanket immunity from lawsuits.

“Vaccine makers and federal officials will be immune from lawsuits that result from any new swine flu vaccine, under a document signed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius,” reported the Associated Press earlier this month.

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Yet another good reason to minimize your cholesterol naturally, and opt for statins as a last resort.  These are potent medications with many dangerous, if not fatal, side effects.  Just about every patient I see with musculoskeletal pain, can trace the onset of their discomfort when they started their new cholesterol medication(s).  If this is the case with you, please consult me for options to lowering your cholesterol naturally and safely. -  Dr. Rob

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A smoking ban caused heart attacks to drop by more than 40 percent in one U.S. city and the decrease lasted three years, federal health experts reported Wednesday.

Pueblo, Colorado, passed a municipal law making workplaces and public places smoke-free in 2003 and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials tracked hospitalizations for heart attacks afterward.

They found there were 399 hospital admissions for heart attacks in Pueblo in the 18 months before the ban and 237 heart attack hospitalizations in the next year and a half — a decline of 41 percent.

The effect lasted three years, the team reported in the CDC’s weekly report on death and disease.

“We know that exposure to second-hand smoke has immediate harmful effects on people’s cardiovascular systems, and that prolonged exposure to it can cause heart disease in nonsmoking adults,” said Janet Collins, director of CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

“This study adds to existing evidence that smoke-free policies can dramatically reduce illness and death from heart disease.”

Long-term exposure to secondhand smoke can raise heart disease rates in adult nonsmokers by 25 percent to 30 percent, the CDC says.

Secondhand smoke kills an estimated 46,000 Americans every year from heart disease alone. Smoking also causes a variety of cancers, as well as stroke and emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.