Video: Cures for mental illness (not!)

Need, not Greed: Canadian Federation of Nurses Calls for Pharmacare

From the Canadian Federation of Nurses' Statement:

Drugs now rank second after hospitals in terms of share of total health care spending,
having overtaken spending on physicians in 1997. The share of total spending going to
drugs rose from 9.5 percent in 1985 to 16.2 percent in 2002. Spending on drugs is expected
to hit 16.7 percent of total health care spending in 2004, while spending on physicians will
be just 12.9 percent.3

The rapid rise in drug costs is primarily due to the ongoing substitution of newer, more
expensive drugs in place of existing, less expensive products. The newer drugs, in the
majority of cases, have no added benefit. Of the 117 drugs with new ingredients introduced
in Canada between 1998 and 2002, only 15 provided a substantial improvement over
existing drugs.4 The rest are “me-too” drugs that offer little or no therapeutic advances over
existing therapies but are responsible for 80 percent of the increased expenditure on drugs.5

Aggressive advertising by drug companies drives consumption of these me-too drugs.6
Apart from advertising directly to consumers, drug companies spend approximately
$30,000 per year for every doctor in Canada on drug samples, sales rep contact,
conferences, trips and giveaways.7 The influence of pharmaceutical companies on research,
education and clinical practice has also been widely documented.8 Both patients and
doctors are influenced by the onslaught,9 with the result that drug costs are skyrocketing
but health outcomes are not necessarily improving.

Pdf here

Bayer Pesticides Cause Mass Death of Bees

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_14369.cfm

Bayer Pesticides Cause Mass Death of Bees
link

Pesticides cause mass death of bees
Germany: Charge against Bayer´s Board of Management

The German Coalition against Bayer Dangers today brought a charge against Werner Wenning, chairman of the Bayer Board of Management, with the Public Prosecutor in Freiburg (south-western Germany). The group accuses Bayer of marketing dangerous pesticides and thereby accepting the mass death of bees all over the world. The Coalition introduced the charge in cooperation with German beekeepers who lost thousands of hives after poisoning by the pesticide clothianidin in May this year.

Since 1991 Bayer has been producing the insecticide Imidacloprid, which is one of the best selling insecticides in the world, often used as seed-dressing for maize, sunflower, and rape. Bayer exports Imidacloprid to more than 120 countries and the substance is Bayer´s best-selling pesticide. Since patent protection for Imidacloprid expired in most countries, Bayer in 2003 brought a similarly functionning successor product, Clothianidin, onto the market. Both substances are systemic chemicals that work their way from the seed through the plant. The substances also get into the pollen and the nectar and can damage beneficial insects such as bees.

The beginning of the marketing of Imidacloprid and Clothianidin coincided with the occurrence of large scale bee deaths in many European and American countries. Up to 70 per cent of all hives have been affected. In France alone approximately 90 billion bees died within ten years, reducing honey production by up to 60%.

Harro Schultze, attorney of the Coalition against Bayer Dangers said: "The Public Prosecutor needs to clarify which efforts BAYER undertook to prevent a ban of Imidacloprid and Clothianidin after sales of both substances were stopped in France. We´re suspecting that Bayer submitted flawed studies to play down the risks of pesticide residues in treated plants". In France Imidacloprid has been banned as a seed dressing for sunflowers since 1999 and in 2003 was also banned as a sweetcorn treatment. The Comité Scientifique et Technique, convened by the French government, declared that the treatment of seeds with Imidacloprid leads to significant risks for bees. Bayer´s application for Clothianidin was also rejected by French authorities.

"Bayer´s Board of Management has to be called to account since the risks of neonicotinoids such as Imidacloprid and Clothianidin have now been known for more than ten years. With an annual turnover of nearly 800 million Euro neonicotinoids are among Bayer´s most important products. This is the reason why Bayer, despite serious environmental damage, is fighting against any application prohibitions", says Philipp Mimkes, speaker of the Coalition against Bayer-dangers. The Coalition demands that Bayer withdraw all neonicotinoids from the market worldwide.

The accusation of flawed studies is confirmed by the Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) which judged on Bayer´s Clothianidin application: "All of the field/semi-field studies, however, were found to be deficient in design and conduct of the studies and were, therefore, considered as supplemental information only. Clothianidin may pose a risk to honey bees and other pollinators, if exposure occurs via pollen and nectar of crop plants grown from treated seeds". PRMA adds: "It should also be noted that Clothianidin is very persistent in soil, with high carry-over of residues to the next growing season. Clothianidin is also mobile in soil."

In May 2008 German authorities blamed clothianidin for the deaths of millions of honeybees. The German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) suspended the registration for eight pesticide seed treatment products, including Clothianidin and Imidacloprid, on maize and rape.

The case is filed by the Public Prosecutor in Freiburg (Tel: +49-(0)761 2050) under the file number 520 UJs 1649/08

more information:
· The Guardian: Germany bans chemicals linked to bee devastation www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/23/wildlife.endangeredspecies
· Sierra Club urges EPA to suspend nicotinyl insecticides: http://www.sierraclub.org/biotech/whatsnew/whatsnew_2008-07-30.asp ·
Press Release of the Research Centre for Cultivated Plants (German): http://www.jki.bund.de/cln_044/nn_813794/DE/pressestelle/Presseinfos/2008/1605__BienensterbenClothianidin.html__nnn=true
· Bee-keepers and environmental groups demand prohibition of pesticide "Gaucho" · French Institutes Finds Imidaproclid Turning Up in Wide Range of Crops · 2003 report from the "Comité Scientifique et Technique de l'Etude Multifactorielle des Troubles des Abeilles" http://agriculture.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/rapportfin.pdf

Coalition against BAYER Dangers
http://www.CBGnetwork.org
CBGnetwork@aol.com Tel: (+49) 211-333 911 Fax: (+49) 211-333 940

Poetry, No Prozac: Leonard Cohen on Tour

How Leonard Cohen threw out his antidepressants

Antidepressants are now the most commonly prescribed
medication in the United States.

"There ain't no cure for love."












Ain't No Cure For Love
from I'm Your Man

LYRICS

I loved you for a long, long time
I know this love is real
It don't matter how it all went wrong
That don't change the way I feel
And I can't believe that time's
Gonna heal this wound I'm speaking of
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure for love.


I'm aching for you baby
I can't pretend I'm not
I need to see you naked
In your body and your thought
I've got you like a habit
And I'll never get enough
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure for love


There ain't no cure for love
There ain't no cure for love
All the rocket ships are climbing through the sky
The holy books are open wide
The doctors working day and night
But they'll never ever find that cure for love
There ain't no drink no drug
(Ah tell them, angels)
There's nothing pure enough to be a cure for love


I see you in the subway and I see you on the bus
I see you lying down with me, I see you waking up
I see your hand, I see your hair
Your bracelets and your brush
And I call to you, I call to you
But I don't call soft enough
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure for love


I walked into this empty church I had no place else to go
When the sweetest voice I ever heard, whispered to my soul
I don't need to be forgiven for loving you so much
It's written in the scriptures
It's written there in blood
I even heard the angels declare it from above
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure for love


There ain't no cure for love
There ain't no cure for love
All the rocket ships are climbing through the sky
The holy books are open wide
The doctors working day and night
But they'll never ever find that cure,
That cure for love

Leonard Cohen, Stranger Music

Humor: Mental Floss Adverse Events Quiz

Take the Mental Floss quiz and see if you can match drugs with their adverse side effects!
For added fun, you may give your physician the test.

Lyme Disease: Antitrust probe spurs disease review

Lyme Disease can be wongly diagnosed as mental illness, causing further harm by delaying proper treatment. Read articles here and here

Environmental Protection Agency: Corruption worse than we thought

What's in your water?
Censorship exposed at US Environmental Agency
Erin Brockovich Redux: Newsweek reviews a new book on falsification of statistics in industry, "Doubt Is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health" here

Evidence of drugs used to break prisoners at Abu Ghraib

The article is here

Death By Medicine

"Death By Medicine"


This study was conducted between 2003/2004, so it's been around for a while. However, it is sometimes necessary to refresh our memories and also to introduce it to those who haven't seen it.
This study was done by Gary Null, PhD; Martin Feldman, MD; Debora Rasio, MD; and Dorothy Smith, PhD, and Carolyn Dean, MD, ND. It is mind-boggling to say the least, the startling findings from this meticulous study indicate that conventional medicine is “the leading cause of death” in the United States . Over 700,000 Americans die each year at the hands of government-sanctioned medicine, while the FDA and other government agencies pretend to protect the public by harassing those who offer safe alternatives. I suggest reading the entire study, including the foot notes before your next doctor's appointment or surgery.....

From the Abstract of the study;

A definitive review and close reading of medical peer-review journals, and government health statistics shows that American medicine frequently causes more harm than good.

• The number of people having in-hospital, adverse drug reactions (ADR) to prescribed medicine is 2.2 million.
  
  
• Dr. Richard Besser, of the CDC, in 1995, said the number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections was 20 million. Dr. Besser, in 2003, now refers to tens of millions of unnecessary antibiotics.
  
  
• The number of unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually is 7.5 million.
  
  
• The number of people exposed to unnecessary hospitalization annually is 8.9 million.
  
  
• The total number of iatrogenic deaths shown in the following table is 783,936.

It is evident that the American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the United States. The 2001 heart disease annual death rate is 699,697; the annual cancer death rate, 553,251.

ANNUAL PHYSICAL AND ECONOMIC COST OF MEDICAL INTERVENTION

Condition	Deaths	Cost
Adverse Drug Reactions	106,000	$12 billion
Medical error	98,000	$2 billion
Bedsores	115,000	$55 billion
Infection	88,000	$5 billion
Malnutrition	108,800	--------
Outpatients	199,000	$77 billion
Unnecessary Procedures	37,136	$122 billion
Surgery-Related	32,000	$9 billion
TOTAL:	783,936	$282 billion

It's simply astounding, follow the link to read more of this study. Be healthy!

The Simpsons Versus Jefferson Airplane

Eli Lilly, LSD and the Bush Family