Big Pharm and Misleading Ads April 5, 2009
Do you ever use Google or other search engines to look up information? Most of us do. It seems 14 major pharmaceutical companies have been using misleading ads.
The Food and Drug Administration has told these pharmaceutical companies to stop using what the FDA calls “misleading†ads on the Internet search engines. The FDA finds the ads misleading due to lack of complete information in the brief ads. The information most likely to be left out is the risk information.
The ads in question are the brief or “sponsored links†in the side bar that link to the companies Web site. Pharmaceutical companies and other interest groups pay search engine operators like Google to post these links after someone types in a related search term.
Many of the “sponsored link†ads are for drugs that carry black box warnings. None of the risks are mentioned in the brief ads. An example is the ad for Tysabri (Biogen Idec Inc.) which says “A Multiple Sclerosis Treatment That’s Different from the Others†or “Satisfied with your MS Medication or Looking for Something Different?†Tysabri carries a black box warning due to its link with a serious brain infection in several patients.
The companies receiving letters were Bayer, Biogen Idec, Boehringer Ingelheim, Cephalon, Eli Lilly, Forest Laboratories, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche and Sanofi-Aventis.
Read:
Do you know what a black box warning is? It is the warning located on the package insert, generally outlined in a black box. These warnings are associated ONLY with the most severe reactions or adverse events. Is it any wonder that the drug companies would engage in misleading and deceptive advertising?
YOU WILL NEVER FIND A BLACK BOX WARNING ON A HOMEOPATHIC REMEDY
Pancreatitis and Vaccines April 4, 2009
I have recently been introduced to several scientific studies linking vaccine damage to pancreatitis. I have to admit that this connection makes sense to me. We used to blame high fat foods for pancreatitis in our pets but we are seeing an alarming increase in pancreatitis in our patients even those eating a low fat prescription diet. These dogs don’t fit our “pancreatitis risk groupâ€. What is going on? It seems the one common denominator is recent or repeated vaccination. The studies show that histamin release triggered during vaccination causes damage to the pancreas.
I can honestly say that I have never seen pancreatitis in a minimally vaccinated or non-vaccinated dog. I do believe that these study results hold water and should be addressed by the veterinary community.
Not so Sad April 2, 2009
We discussed the case of Chanel a few posts back. The poor dog that suffered over vaccination and seizures. After giving her a single dose of a homeopathic remedy, her life has changed for the better. She is now what the foster parent calls a “normal happy dogâ€. We are currently working on weaning her off her seizure medication.
Happy Healthy Schnauzer
Irradiated food is it Safe?
Investigations were carried out on 8 specific pathogen-freecats (5 male and 3 female) from a colony experiencing “outbreaksâ€of progressive hind limb ataxia in 190 of 540 at-risk animalsranging from 3 months to 3 years old. These studiesidentified moderate to severe bilateral axonal degenerationwithin white matter regions of the cervical, thoracic, and lumbarspinal cord and in the white matter of the cerebral internalcapsule and peduncle, in the roof of the fourth ventricle andinferior cerebellar peduncle, and in the external arcuate andpyramidal fibres of the medulla. There were varying degreesof accompanying microgliosis, astrocytosis, and capillary hyperplasia.Such a clinicopathologic syndrome, termed feline leukoencephalomyelopathy,has previously been described in cat colonies in Britain andNew Zealand, although its etiology has not been determined.The degenerative nature of the lesions and their bilateral distributionsuggest possible nutritional, metabolic, or toxic causes. Althoughthese findings provide circumstantial evidence that the exclusivefeeding of a gamma-irradiated diet of reduced vitamin A contentis associated with the development of the neuronal lesions,further tissue micronutrient and antioxidant analysis will berequired to support this hypothesis.
This study should have us thinking that perhaps the trend toward irradiating food for human consumption might be a bad idea. I personally wouldn’t eat food that I know had been irradiated. Will you?
Some of the dangers according to www.mercola.com
In addition, irradiation destroys essential vitamins, including vitamin A, thiamin, B2, B3, B6, B12, folic acid, C, E, and K; amino acid and essential polyunsaturated fatty acid content may also be affected. A 20 to 80 percent loss of any of these is not uncommon.
 In 2007 the FDA proposed some interesting changes to the labeling of irradiated food. They recommended the use of words like Pasteurized (much more palatable than irradiated) and that foods only needed to labeled if the radiation produced a detectable change in the color, taste or texture of the food. It is pretty obvious that we can’t depend on the FDA to protect us from radiation damaged food. So, we must protect ourselves.
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