Charles, Prince of Wales, has been advocating “”integrated healthcare” for over 20 years now. His advocation of non-conventional medicine to the British Medical Association in 1982 was rebuked as “crank” theory at that time. Nonetheless, the Prince continues to promote techniques such as chiropractic, acupuncture and herbal medicines to treat serious illnesses. Read about his speech to the World Health Organization.

According to Dr. Steven Nissen, the interim chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, the risk of heart problems continue on for at least a year after Vioxx is last taken. In fact, the results of a large study suggest that more than increased clotting results from Vioxx use. The drug may increase the risk of cardiovascular problems by doing long-lasting damage to the arteries, perhaps by increasing the buildup of plaque in them.

Risks associated with prescription drugs that purport to alleviate arthritis pain are causing increasing concern, suggesting sufferers should consider safer effective nutraceuticals to fight arthritis .

A few years ago, “The Hunger Hormone” on CBS Sixty Minutes II (August 13, 2003) was a story about ghrelin, a hormone produced in the stomach that tells the brain when it’s time to eat. The story focused on the race among pharmaceutical companies to develop a drug to counteract this hormone. I was particularly disturbed by a comment by British obesity researcher Stephen Bloom who says the common advice to eat less and exercise more is generally ignored, “so the answer is, as we have with blood pressure, take a tablet. As we have with cholesterol, take a tablet. So, I fear, with overweight, we have to damp down appetite. We can’t actually control ourselves. We have to accept that as a fact.”

The message is that we are not capable of managing our appetites so we obviously need another expensive drug. What nonsense. It strikes me as completely hypocritical that physicians will tell their patients that they should not use dietary supplements to maintain their health, but rather rely on their diet and lifestyle changes.

Yet if there is a drug available to treat a health problem, they can’t write a prescription fast enough. This, in spite of the fact that prescription drugs are man-made chemicals with dubious safety records, whereas most supplements are very safe, naturally occurring nutrients missing in the typical Western diet.

With few exceptions, prescription drugs do not cure disease; they treat the symptoms. Our web site and the Best Choices Diet are intended to address the underlying causes of poor health and obesity, offering the prospect of a long healthy life free from the physical and financial slavery of life-long prescription drugs. To review my recommendations, read the Best Choices Diet.

From Xtend-Life’s April 28, 2006 XTEND-15sec-NEWS:

Believe it or not, by 2010 there may be upwards of 2 million patients in India on clinical trials. This would not be so terribly alarming were it not for the fact that these patients are mostly poor and have little understanding of the risks involved. Large pharmaceutical companies with a presence in India have found ready, willing, and inexpensive clinical trial volunteers in this country. In some cases, they had clearly not given informed-consent. For more detail about this and many other news stories related to health and nutrition, subscribe to Xtend-Life’s newsletter.

An article entitled “Fat and Happy” appeared in Citizens for Health Newsletter.

The US Health and Human Services and the food industry are fighting WHO (World Health Organization) efforts to curtail the worldwide obesity epidemic. The special interests of the food industry have taken precedence over consumers’ health worldwide.

“When the WHO issued a report last spring recommending strategies for chronic disease and obesity prevention, including limits on sugar, salt and fat consumption and restricting junk food advertising aimed at kids, health advocates expected the world leader in obesity to applaud. Instead, standing hand-in-hand with the Grocery Manufacturer’s of America (GMA) and Sugar Association, producers of high-fat, high-calorie junk food and soda, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, demanded that WHO postpone, weaken or completely withdraw the anti-obesity recommendations.”

“The negative comments have not come from scientists. They have come only from industry,” said Kaare R. Norum of the Institute for Nutrition Research at the University of Oslo, chairman of the scientific panel that advised the WHO. “It’s ridiculous to say that the report is not valid”.

Ridiculous indeed. Obesity is a serious worldwide health problem and our government is rallying behind the food industry. Pathetic.

Source: “Fat and Happy” in the Jan. 30, 2004 issue of Citizens for Health Newsletter.