April 30, 2005 - In this Issue

Is Chocolate a Health Food?
by Cesar G Fraga – American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

In the March 2005 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Grassi (et al) report that the consumption of dark chocolate improves glucose metabolism and decreases blood pressure. They studied 15 healthy young adults with typical Italian diets that were supplemented daily with 100g dark chocolate or 90g white chocolate, each of which provided 480kcal. The subjects were divided into two groups, each of which ingested one of the types of chocolate for 15 days, ingested no chocolate for a subsequent 7 days, and then ingested the other chocolate for an additional 15 days. The authors found that the dark chocolate supplement was associated with improved insulin resistance and sensitivity and decreased systolic blood pressure, whereas white chocolate had no effect.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: One wonders about the effects of the relatively large amount of saturated fat and calories if such a diet were continued long term. This study does open the door to research into which particular ingredients in dark chocolate might be responsible for these health benefits. Conceiveably, these could be isolated and made available as nutritional supplements.

Read more... Cocoa, diabetes, and hypertension: should we eat more chocolate?

 

Stem Cells, Minus the Furor
by Carol Marie Cropper – BusinessWeek Online

Now researchers are testing adult stem cells and stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood to regenerate such things as spinal cord nerves, skin for burn victims, and insulin-producing islet cells in diabetic patients. But the area furthest along is the use of cells to repair human hearts, says Dr. Andrew Pecora, a hematologist oncologist at Hackensack University Medical Center, which has one of the largest stem cell transplant programs in the nation.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: It would be very useful to have a source of stem cells that are not tainted with the moral and ethical underpinings associated with embryonic stem cells (ESC). Stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood or adults have no such baggage. The current U.S. administration's restrictions on the use of ESC in federally funded research has provided the stimulus for the U.S. to perform valuable research in this direction.

Read more... Stem Cells, Minus the Furor

 

Mercury Pollution, Autism Link Found
by Jim Forsyth – Reuters

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Mercury released primarily from coal-fired power plants may be contributing to an increase in the number of cases of autism, a Texas researcher said on Wednesday, March 16th.

A study published in the journal "Health and Place" found that autism, a developmental disorder marked by communication and social interaction problems, increased in Texas counties as mercury emissions rose, said Claudia Miller, a family and community medicine professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.

"The main finding is that for every thousand pounds of environmentally released mercury, we saw a 17 percent increase in autism rates," she said in an interview.

About 48 tons of mercury are released into the air annually in the United States from hundreds of coal-burning plants.

The study looked at Texas county-by-county levels of mercury emissions recorded by the government and compared them to the rates of autism and special education services in 1,200 Texas school districts, Miller said.

"The study shows that there may be a very important connection between environmental exposure to mercury and the development of autism," she said in an interview.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: The incidence of autism has risen drastically in the past two decades. Scientists have been scrambling to find out why. It seems autistic children are genetically predisposed to suffering problems from some environmental factor. Human genes have not changed significantly in past few decades (or in the past few millenia). So, there must be some environmental factor at play. Evidence is pointing more and more at accumulation of mercury in the environment. This study suggests a direct association between environnmental mercury exposure from coal burning and risk of autism.

Read more... Mercury Pollution, Autism Link Found

 

Herbal Remedies and Children
by Angela Pirisi – HealthDay Reporter

As the primary users of herbal remedies, more women are giving botanical medicines to their children for various ailments.

But science has come up short on evidence that these popular herbal remedies actually work for kids.

Recognizing the need for more solid information, researchers at the University of Illinois decided to sift through 40 years of medical literature to determine what clinical proof exists for using alternative remedies such as chamomile, valerian, echinacea, garlic and evening primrose oil...

There were herbal remedies that showed promise for treatment in children.

"Evening primrose oil appears to be safe and relatively effective for the treatment of atopic dermatitis," Mahady said. "Valerian may be effective for sleep disorders, and I think that some of the data for ADD (attention-deficit disorder) in children was at least promising."

Some studies also suggest that ivy leaf might help asthma and bronchitis symptoms in children. And one study showed that Andrographis paniculata, a Chinese and Ayurvedic remedy, reduced cold frequency by 70 percent in children taking it for at least two months...

Mahady is most concerned that there's a growing trend of children being treated with herbal medicines, but parents aren't consulting their child's doctor.

Read more... Herbal Supplements Largely Untested in Kids

 

A Chocolate Shake That Tastes Good and Is Good For You (and your kids)
by Product Review – Frontier Medical Institute

Over 60% of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese. One popular way to control calories without sacrificing nutrition is using low calorie meal replacement beverages.

The problem is that most of the products on the market are loaded with ingredients that are anything but healthy ... such as artificial sweeteners, colorings, flavorings and preservatives. Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman spent over a year developing Ray & Terry's Deep Chocolate Meal Replacement Shake, a product that is not only delicious ... it is blended with ingredients just the way nature gave them to us.

Ray & Terry’s Deep Chocolate Meal Replacement Shake is intended for use as a complete meal replacement, using healthy, natural, non-artificial ingredients to fill you up and inhibit your need for additional food for several hours. It also provides a high source of vitamins, minerals, fibers and proteins to create a nutritionally balanced diet as part of a weight control and maintenance program.

Each of the ingredients contained in Ray & Terry’s Deep Chocolate Meal Replacement Shake is natural -- and the formulation contains no artificial ingredients (e.g., colors, sweeteners, etc.)

One serving of the meal replacement composition provides:

  • 10 g of carbohydrates of which 7 g are fiber for a net carbohydrate yield of 3 g
  • 4 g of fat of which 0 g are trans fats and 1.5 g are saturated fat
  • 18 g of protein
  • 200 mg of sodium
  • Total calories are 117 of which 35 calories (30%) are from fat
When mixed with sugar-free soy milk, the shake is still only has 185 calories. And it’s made with Ghiardelli cocoa and tastes great. Your kids will love it too!

Read more... Ray & Terry's Deep Chocolate Meal Replacement Shake

 

Recent FDA Alerts
by Terry Grossman, MD – Frontier Medical Institute

  • April 7, 2005 - Valdecoxib (Bextra) - Withdrawn From Market
  • April 6, 2005 - Darbepoetin Alfa (Aranesp) - Linked to Increased Risk of Thrombotic Events, Mortality
  • April 6, 2005 - Bevacizumab (Avastin) - Linked to Increased Risk of Arterial Thromboembolic Events
  • April 6, 2005 - Interferon alfa-2b (Intron A)/Ribavirin Therapy - Linked to Risk of Hemolytic Anemia
  • April 1, 2005 - FDA Cautions Against Use of Galantamine Hydrobromide (Reminyl) for Mild Cognitive Impairment
  • March 30, 2005 - Doxorubicin Liposome Injection (Doxil) May Cause Myocardial Damage, Myelosuppression, Infusion Reactions, Hand-Foot Syndrome
  • March 30, 2005 - 15% Amino Acid Injection (Novamine) - May Cause Aluminum Toxicity in Patients With Impaired Kidney Function
  • March 25, 2005 - Zometa Dose Reductions Required in Patients With Renal Impairment
  • March 25, 2005 - Faster-Acting Film-Coated Ethionamide Tablets (Trecator) to Replace Sugar-Coated Formulation
  • March 23, 2005 - Estradiol/Norethindrone Transdermal System (CombiPatch) - Contraindicated for Prevention of CVD, Dementia and in Pregnancy
  • March 23, 2005 - Antidepressant Use in Children, Adolescents Linked to Increased Risk of Suicidality
  • March 18, 2005 - Drotrecogin Alfa for Injection (Xigris) May Increase Mortality in Lower-Risk Sepsis Patients
  • March 17, 2005 - Interferon beta-1a (Avonex) - Linked to Rare Reports of Severe Hepatic Injury, Failure
  • March 16, 2005 - Filgrastim (Neupogen) - Associated With Rare Reports of Splenic Rupture
  • Mar 16, 2005 - Pediatric Use of Ibuprofen (Children's and Junior Strength Advil) Cautioned
  • March 9, 2005 - Peginterferon alfa-2a/Ribavirin (Pegasys/Copegus) Therapy - Linked to Birth Defects, Fetal Death
  • March 9, 2005 - Rasburicase (Elitek) - May Cause Anaphylaxis at Any Time During Treatment
  • March 9, 2005 - Pegfilgrastim (Neulasta) Associated With Rare Reports of Splenic Rupture
  • March 3, 2005 - Eczema Drugs Elidel and Protopic - May Be Linked to Cancer Risk

Dr. Grossman's Comments: I subscribe to a free online newsletter that helps keep me up-to-date on conventional medical therapies. Since most of my time is spent keeping up with complementary non-drug based therapies, I have little time to read or attend conferences based on conventional prescription drug therapies. This week’s issue concerned recent FDA Alerts. I was shocked to see so many drugs have warnings listed. Most of these drugs are uncommon and their side effects rarely seen, but some were very serious and common: millions of prescriptions were written every month for the common pain reliever/ arthritis medicine Bextra before it was withdrawn from the market because of concerns about heart attack risk. Doctors were cautioned that antidepressant use in adolescents was associated with an increased risk of suicide. Caution was also advised about the use of ibuprofen in children. The FDA issued about 4 alerts a week.

I practice nutritional medicine in my clinic. I am glad to see nutritional medicine now being examined with the rigor associated with conventional therapies. The recent news about vitamin E, for example, has refined our knowledge about what type of vitamin E to use (and what type not to use). It is important to have this information as it will help us utilize diet and nutritional supplements in a more exacting manner.

 

Congress Raises Estimated Cost of Prescription Drug Plan
by Alan Fram – Associated Press Writer

Congress' nonpartisan budget analyst added new fuel to the Medicare debate recently with new, higher cost estimates for a prescription drug program that has already drawn fire for its soaring price tag.

In a letter to lawmakers, the Congressional Budget Office said its estimate for the drug benefits for the 10-year period ending in 2015 had grown by $54 billion since January. No cumulative 10-year total was provided, but a separate CBO letter used figures that indicated a total over that period of $849 billion.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: $849 billion corresponds to about $3000 for every man woman and child in the United States. Assuming about half of the population is working and will be contributing to this pool, that's about $6000 for each working adult in the US. That's a lot of money -- and most of it will end up in the pockets of pharmaceutical manufacturers. In addition, when items such as prescription drugs seem to cost less, demand and utilization increase, so even this nearly $1 trillion ($1,000,000,000,000) price tag may be an underestimate. As it has been noted, "If you think health care is expensive now, wait until it's free."

We urgently need to be looking at spending our healthcare dollars on healthcare, not sickness care. Prevention, nutrition, early detection of disease -- that's where we should spend our money now to save money in the years ahead.

Read more... Analyst Raises Medicare Cost Estimate

 

Human embryonic stem cells grown without any animal tissue
by Andy Coghlan – New Scientist

One of the hurdles to using human embryonic stem cells to treat disease has been overcome. Three teams have managed to derive and grow the cells without using any animal cells that might contaminate them.

The hope is that embryonic stem cells (ESCs), the primitive cells in embryos from which all our tissues originate, can be grown into transplantable tissues for treating a multitude of disorders, from diabetes to osteoporosis. But until now it has been impossible to grow them without mouse "feeder cells" and animal-derived serum.

That means all existing ESC lines, including those approved for federally funded research in the US by President Bush, could be tainted with animal diseases or substances that would trigger transplant rejection (New Scientist print edition, 29 January).

Now, Paul De Sousa and his team at the Roslin Institute in Scotland, where Dolly the sheep was cloned, have produced what they say are the first animal-free ESCs. "We have cells that have never directly been exposed to animal products," De Sousa told a recent stem cell conference in Edinburgh, UK.

Read more... Human embryonic stem cells grown animal-free

 

Mastectomy Decreases Breast Cancer Risk -- Duuuh!!
by Megan Rauscher – Reuters

A new study provides more evidence that women who are at increased risk of developing breast cancer can significantly reduce their risk by having both breasts removed, a procedure known as bilateral prophylactic mastectomy. The risk reduction in the current study was about 95 percent.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: "Prophylactic mastectomy appears to prevent breast cancer but also carries a risk of complications and may impact a woman's psychological health," says Dr. Ann M. Geiger.

Somehow, this didn't come as much of a surprise. There's not much news here. It would be newsworthy if this study found that mastectomy did NOT decrease the risk of breast cancer. That would be like finding out that stopping driving didn't reduce motor vehicle accidents.

Also, one wonders what's next: studies to find out if total colectomy reduces colon cancer, gastrectomy reduces stomach cancer, and bilateral orchiectomy (castration) reduces testicular cancer.

Read more... Preventive Mastectomy Removes Breast Cancer Risk

 

Wedding Bells Ring at Frontier Medical Institute

Terry Grossman, medical director of Frontier Medical Institute, and Karen Kurtak, acupuncturist and nutritritionist at the clinic (photos shown below) were married Saturday, April 9th, 2005 at the Brown Palace Hotel in downtown Denver.

The ceremony narrowly avoided Denver's largest April snowstorm by only a few hours, stranding many out-of-town guests who attended the joyous occasion in Denver for an extra day or two.

 

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