WHAT DOCTORS DON'T TELL YOU READERS' BROADCAST - E-news broadcast. 236 - 02 March 2006

[Guest guest]

WHAT DOCTORS DON'T TELL YOU READERS' BROADCAST - E-news broadcast. 236 -

02 March 2006

News contents

HRT: Yet more bad news

MELATONIN: The urban myth that doesn't help you sleep

DIETS AND pH: What you really need to know

HYPERTENSION: Why the simple, inexpensive course is never taken

ADHD: Tough warning on drugs

DRUG RESEARCH: See you at the lap-dancing club

PLACEBO: Which sham is the best?

HRT: Yet more bad news

Writing more bad news about hormone replacement therapy (HRT) feels a bit

like kicking someone when they're down, but someone has to do it. The

latest findings on the already discredited drug reveal that it can also make

women incontinent.

For the drug's beleaguered manufacturers - who have had to contend with

revelations that it causes breast cancer, ovarian cancer, stroke and

life-threatening thromboembolism - this latest report is as close to good

news as they're going to get.

The new study involved 2,763 postmenopausal women who tested the drug

against placebo. It found that the HRT group was almost twice as likely as

the placebo group to suffer incontinence, a problem that began soon after

starting on the drug, and continued on average for four years afterwards.

Researchers aren't sure why the drug has this strange effect, but doctors

should warn women about it before they start the drug, they say. That and

breast cancer, ovarian cancer, stroke and life-threatening thromboembolism,

too, we guess.

(Source: Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2005; 106: 940-5).

MELATONIN: The urban myth that doesn't help you sleep

Melatonin has reached the status of urban myth. Unavailable in the UK, it's

still stocked in health stores in the USA and elsewhere where airline

passengers buy it to ward off the worst effects of jetlag.

Trouble is, it doesn't do much to help establish healthy sleep cycles, a new

study has found. The good news is that it might help a bit, and it's

harmless.

The new study isn't based on original research. Instead it has revisited a

range of small studies in an exercise known as a meta-analysis.

The trouble with the meta-analysis is that it looks at unconnected studies,

each looking at a very small group of participants with a range of reasons

for their insomnia, from air travel, substance abuse, pharmaceuticals, and

depression.

Melatonin is naturally produced by our pineal gland, and helps us sleep when

it gets dark. Melatonin supplements are supposed to help our bodies adjust

when they are out of sync with their environment, usually because of air

travel that has crossed more than five time zones.

So next time you're offered some melatonin, tell them you'll sleep on it.

(Source: British Medical Journal, 2006; 332: 385-8).

DIETS AND pH: What you really need to know

There's a vast industry that dupes and misleads you about stomach acid and

alkaline. As a result you waste money on treatments and therapies that may,

at best, be ineffective, but they could also be doing you harm, making the

underlying problem worse.

For years people have been buying over-the-counter treatments to 'neutralize

excess stomach acid'. This multi-billion dollar industry is based on a myth

and distortion, and suggests that stomach acid is the problem. In fact,

stomach acid is vital for digestion and its lack may cause indigestion.

More recently, we've seen a whole new 'alternative' movement to help

establish our body's acid-alkali balance. Acid-testing kits, alkaline water

and anti-acid food supplements are appearing in every health store, while

books on the subject fill the shelves of the bookstores.

The basic claim is that the key to good health is to control acidity in the

body - but, again, this is only one part of the story. Many things impact

on the acid-alkali balance, and it's not just the food we eat. For example,

the person who's always down the gym getting fit is much more likely to have

high acid levels in his blood than someone who takes life a little easier.

And there's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all level. It varies

enormously from person to person, and the 'type' you are.

This vital area of health is examined in great detail in the latest issue of

What Doctors Don't Tell You. It will be sent to you as part of your

subscription to a journal that's been described as the best in the world.

With your subscription you'll also receive 12 free reports:

1. Safeguarding yourself against hospital infections and blunders; 2. How

to protect yourself from electromagnetic radiation; 3. Eyedrops that can

damage your health; 4. Stomach ulcer drugs that are linked to pneumonia;

5. The secrets of effective dieting; 6. The dangers of drug combinations;

7. Holistic dentistry; 8. Repairing sports injuries naturally; 9. Dealing

with learning difficulties; 10. Dangers of mobile phone masts; 11. Why

conventional cancer treatments don't work; 12. The real danger of processed

foods.

An annual subscription is just £59, and you get the next 12 issues,

including the special report on pH balance. You'll also receive the 12

special reports with your welcome pack. To subscribe, and to get your pH

report, click here:

http://www.wddty.co.uk/shop/detail.asp?id=4622 & did= & Curr=GBP

HYPERTENSION: Why the simple, inexpensive course is never taken

Hypertension (high blood pressure) is one of the most common of ailments,

and yet only a quarter of patients are being treated properly, the US

National Institutes of Health has revealed.

Hypertension can be successfully controlled with a simple and inexpensive

diuretic, which also has very few side effects. Although this option is

readily available option, most doctors immediately turn to an expensive

antihypertensive, and sometimes prescribe three at one time, while ignoring

a diuretic.

So why do doctors do this? Apparently, drug salesmen leave a plentiful

supply of free samples of their antihypertensives, while almost never

handing out the far less expensive diuretics. We would never have guessed.

ADHD: Tough warning on drugs

While most informed people have known for the past decade of the dangers of

amphetamine-based drugs such as Ritalin to treat children with ADHD, our

ever-vigilant drug watchdogs have been slower to catch on.

In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has only made its move in

the last couple of weeks - but it has done so with the ferocity of a caged

tiger.

ADHD drugs such as Ritalin and Concerta have been associated with sudden

rises in blood pressure and heart rate, which have resulted in heart attack,

stroke and death.

Without any further debate, the FDA has slapped a 'black box warning' on the

drugs' labels.

Regular readers will know that the 'black box warning' is something that

drug manufacturers fear most of all - it is a typographical device that

includes a ruled box. It's a harsh penalty for a drug that may have killed

or ruined lives, but we live in tough times.

DRUG RESEARCH: See you at the lap-dancing club

Drug companies know how vitally important it is that hospital consultants

are kept up to speed with the latest drugs. That's why they hold meetings

with doctors at Wimbledon tennis's Centre Court, greyhound stadiums and even

a lap-dancing club in order to discuss the latest developments in drug

research.

These are some of the venues selected by salesmen at Abbott Laboratories for

'meetings' with hospital consultants. Unfortunately, they couldn't provide

any notes from the meetings, and, as a result, the drug company has been

suspended from the drug industry's own trade organisation. The ban, which

will last for six months, is the severest ever handed out by the Association

of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.

Of course, this strange behaviour is a one-off for the drugs industry, and

it's never, ever happened before, and it will never, ever happen again.

PLACEBO: Which sham is the best?

The placebo effect is one of the more interesting areas of medical research.

It touches on the power of the mind to heal the body by tricking it into

believing a sugar pill is an effective drug.

But what happens when two placebos are tested against each other in the same

trial? This fascinating question has been tested by researchers from

Harvard Medical School, who gave participants either a sham acupuncture

treatment or a sham drug to treat their arm pain.

Both groups reported a marked improvement in pain, although movement

improved more in those given the sham pill, whereas those given sham

acupuncture enjoyed better effects long term.

So both placebos had a positive effect - proving, yet again, the power of

our minds to influence illness.

(Source: British Medical Journal, 2006; 332: 391-4).