April 2, 2009br /br /The New York Times reports that studies show that the early administration of beta-blockers to heart attack victims does not save lives, and occasionally causes dangerous heart failure. While two studies support the use of beta-blockers after heart attack, there are 26 studies that found no survival benefit to administering beta-blockers early on. Moreover, in 2005, the largest, best study of the drugs showed that beta-blockers in the vulnerable, early hours of heart attacks did not save lives, but did cause a definite increase in heart failure.br /br /Remarkably, the medical community has continued to strongly recommend immediate beta-blocker treatment. Why? Because according to the theory of the straining heart, the treatment makes sense. It should work, even though it doesn’t. Ideology trumps evidence.br /br /The practice of medicine contains countless examples of elegant medical theories that belie the best available evidence: br /br / bull; No cough remedies have ever been proven better than a placebo, either for adults or children. Yet their use is common. br /br / bull; Patients with ear infections are more likely to be harmed by antibiotics than helped. br /br / bull; Back surgeries to relieve pain are, in the majority of cases, no better than nonsurgical treatment. Yet doctors perform 600,000 of these surgeries each year, at a cost of over $20 billion.br /br / bull; Children treated by standard modalities – medications, psychotherapy, or a combination, for attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) do not show any difference from controls between 6 and 8 years later.br /br /Can we handle what the evidence reveals? Are we ready for the truth?br /br /strongDr. Grout’s Comment:/strongbr /br /Too often, truth is blinded by money.br /br /The February 25th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association said, “A majority of the guidelines for cardiac care issued by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology are not supported by the kind of gold-standard evidence that doctors respect most, a new study finds … And too many of the carefully controlled trials now being done are financed by pharmaceutical companies,” said Dr. Pierluigi Tricoci, a cardiologist at the Duke Heart Center and a member of the study team. br /br /Chelation for example has been found to be helpful for heart disease, yet competitive pressures are such that cardiologists in Arizona cannot make use of it. Homeopathic physicians can, and I do. Chelation is safer and cheaper than stents and years of prescription drugs. Yet the price differential is apparently why the conventional medical paradigm has little interest in advocating its use.br /br /The over selling of drugs and surgeries creates income for some, but not health.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4769404502414351890-2337332088020900552?l=arizonaadvancedmedicine.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

April 1, 2009br /br /a href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CpmH6pmUk9A/Sd0aflG0LkI/AAAAAAAAACQ/OqzZrTNZM3c/s1600-h/bedbugs.gif”img style=”float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 189px; height: 160px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CpmH6pmUk9A/Sd0aflG0LkI/AAAAAAAAACQ/OqzZrTNZM3c/s200/bedbugs.gif” border=”0″ alt=”"id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322439464460758594″ //aA new report published in the emJournal of the American Medical Association/em finds that infestations of bed bugs are on the rise all over the world, and these insects are becoming more resistant to pesticides.br /br /In San Francisco, reports of bed bug infestations doubled between 2004 and 2006, according to the study. In Toronto, during a six month period, reports of bed bugs jumped 100 percent in 2002, and in Austria, the number of bed bug samples submitted to the government went up 400 percent from during 2001 to 2004 compared to 1997 to 2000, reported the study.br /br /”They’re extremely difficult to get rid of, and they’re not going away anytime soon,” said study author Jerome Goddard, an associate professor of entomology at Mississippi State University in Jackson. “They can live for a year without food, and they’re becoming resistant to many of the pesticides used to kill them.” Travel, immigration, and resistance to insecticides have contributed to a resurgence in reports of infestations.br /br /Goddard and his colleague, Dr. Richard deShazo from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, reviewed 53 studies on bed bugs published over the past 50 years. They found that only about half of the people who are bitten show signs of a bite.br /br /Bed bug bites do not appear to transmit illness, according to the report. “Evidence for disease transmission by bed bugs is lacking.” Because bed bugs feed on blood, the concern has been they might transmit illness.br /br /Pest control and eradication is challenging due to insecticide resistance, lack of effective products, and health concerns about spraying mattresses with pesticides.br /br /strongDr. Grout’s Comment:/strongbr /br /a href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CpmH6pmUk9A/Sd0aTzlnngI/AAAAAAAAACI/eRqTCtrIOVg/s1600-h/mosquito.gif”img style=”float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 169px; height: 145px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CpmH6pmUk9A/Sd0aTzlnngI/AAAAAAAAACI/eRqTCtrIOVg/s200/mosquito.gif” border=”0″ alt=”"id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322439262189624834″ //aMy good friend, Dr. Doris Rapp, met with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors during the summer of 2004 to warn them of the dangers of saturating the landscape with pesticides in an attempt to control a href=”http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/west_nile_virus.html”West Nile Virus/a (WNV). Bugs are incredibly adaptable and intelligent. The more we use pesticides, the more the critters resist them. Overuse of pesticides breeds hardier bugs, just as overuse of antibiotics have bred MRSA, the superbugs in hospitals.br /br /In 2008, the CDC reported 833 cases of WNV in 38 states. Maricopa County continues to spray each summer and fall in areas where mosquito counts are high. Spraying has not yet begun this season.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4769404502414351890-8616313327416321577?l=arizonaadvancedmedicine.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

April 1, 2009br /br /The first 5 of 47 personal injury lawsuits are coming to trial for exposure to PCBs from old Monsanto’s Anniston, Alabama, plant. The company manufactured PCBs there from the 1930s to 1971. Monsanto is now known as Pharmacia Corp. Litigants claim that Monsanto was negligent in its handling and disposal of the chemical at its factory, that it routinely discharged toxic waste into a west Anniston creek and dumped millions of pounds of PCBs into oozing open-pit landfills which flowed off the factory property in stormwater.br /br /Litigants claim that PCB exposure caused health conditions including diabetes and arthritis.br /br /Lawsuits against Monsanto and its affiliated companies began in 1996. In 2003, Monsanto, Solutia, Pfizer and Pharmacia agreed to a settlement that included $600 million in cash payments and community health services, resolving both state and federal lawsuits. Current lawsuits come from plaintiffs who did not benefit from the previous settlement. Five plaintiffs whose cases were randomly selected for the first trial in Jefferson County range in age from 67 to 89.br /br /Augusta Dowd, an attorney representing Pharmacia, said there is no credible scientific evidence that PCB caused any of the illnesses. She said diabetes and arthritis are common for people their age. The trial is expected to last at least two weeks.br /br /strongDr. Grout’s Comment:/strongbr /br /The now-banned industrial coolants known as PCBs were once known as miracle chemicals. They are unusually nonflammable, and conduct heat without conducting electricity. Many safety codes once mandated the use of PCBs as insulation in transformers and other electrical equipment. They also were used in paints, newsprint, carbon paper, deep-fat fryers, adhesives, and even bread wrappers. Although internal Monsanto memos warned of PCBs dangers, the warning bell did not ring publically until the late 1960s.br /br /It can be tough to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that illness has resulted from a specific exposure to toxins. The human body is fairly resilient, and it can take years for the disease to manifest. How many years after a person starts smoking do they develop lung cancer, for example?br /br /Lawyers may muddy the picture in court, but we know the human body will break down when confronted with more than it can handle. Environmental Working Group has documented that we are all polluted, and from Day One. Babies are born with a a href=”http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/body_burden.html”body burden/a, on average, of 200 industrial chemicals and pollutants. Play it safe, remove as chemicals as possible from your environment.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4769404502414351890-6748044266731593268?l=arizonaadvancedmedicine.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

a href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CpmH6pmUk9A/SdUM_GoGc1I/AAAAAAAAACA/eoCjW-8s9f0/s1600-h/childdrinkingwater.jpg”img style=”float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 117px; height: 156px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CpmH6pmUk9A/SdUM_GoGc1I/AAAAAAAAACA/eoCjW-8s9f0/s200/childdrinkingwater.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”"id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320172813058208594″ //abr /March 31, 2009br /br /Dr. Pat Cassali of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia reports kidney stones are “now a growing trend among children.” According to Dr. Cassali, “family history can be a risk factor, but something else has to account for the sudden rise. This problem isn’t confined to children who are overweight or have other health issues.”br /br /Dr. Cassali said that “the typical kid that comes in is a young girl between the age of eight and twelve who doesn’t like to drink a lot of water, is very active, and loves fast food.” Dr. Snyderman explained that “fast food and sports drinks have lots of salt that can strain the kidneys and cause calcium deposits to form stones.”br /br /strongDr. Grout’s Comment:/strongbr /br /Fast foods and a href=”http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/diet_soda.html”sodas/a again would seem to be a culprit, whether the child is a href=”http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/childhood_obesity.html”obese/a or not. Dark colas in particular contain oxalate, an acid that can lead to the formation of calcium oxalate kidney stones. Phosphoric acid is thought to affect calcium metabolism in ways that might increase kidney stone recurrence risk. Let’s get back to basics – healthy food, healthy water intake – to treat an almost totally preventable disease.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4769404502414351890-2786440189645533044?l=arizonaadvancedmedicine.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div