Environmental Medicine Matters » treatment

Ministry of Health presents Consensus Document on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

CSN — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:07:06 +0000

THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH IN SPAIN PRESENTS THE CONSENSUS DOCUMENT ON MULTIPLE CHEMICAL SENSITIVITY (MCS) – NOVEMBER 30, 2011

On November 30, the Ministry of Health in Spain has finally submitted the consensus document on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (pdf).

Two years ago, José Luís Aparicio, a MCS sufferer, and I were interviewed at the Spanish radio program Carne Cruda. They were so shocked by MCS that decided to contact the Ministry of Health because they wanted to interview them in their show to explain to them the terrible situation of the MCS sufferers.

After a lot of calls to the Ministry of Health without receiving any response, they did a live phone call during the radio show and the Ministry had finally to accept. On January 2010, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health, was interviewed on “Carne Cruda”, in a special show devoted to Multiple Chemical Sensitivity with Miguel Jara, Dr. Pablo Arnold, José Luís Aparicio and David Palma on behalf of me. He made the public commitment to meet with associations that deal with MCS. On February 2010 was held the meeting with Ministry of Health to state the situation of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity sufferers in Spain and they committed to create a Scientific Committee to elaborate the consensus document on MCS that has now finally been released. The document, that has 128 pages, will be translated into English by Ministry of Health and it will be reviewed within two years to include the new scientific knowledge.

David and I want to thank everyone who has been part of this long process. From the doctors members of the Scientific Committee to the 13 MCS associations that set up the “Comité para el Reconocimiento de la Sensibilidad Química Múltiple” (committee for the recognition of MCS in Spain) to have an unanimous voice for this process, including Jaume Cortés, lawyer of the Colectivo Ronda, because his disinterested participation has been crucial for this achievement. And we want to specially thank to Javier Gallego, the director of Carne Cruda, and all his team because without their courageous attitude this day would have never come.

David has remained as observer during the process and we greatly appreciate it to the Committee, and from now he split with the Committee because we don’t belong to any MCS association and we believe that our work is complete.

Today is a great day for all the MCS sufferers in Spain. The consensus document on MCS, albeit imperfect, lays the foundation for future recognition of this disease and it finally does recognize that the MCS patients exist.

Author: Eva Caballé, No Fun Blog, The Ministry of Health in Spain presents the Consensus Document on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) – November 30, 2011

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An icon of environmental medicine visits Germany

Silvia — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:23:54 +0000

Evidence for the causes of environmental diseases have been around for a long time

The doctor and scientist Doris Rapp is one of those who not only practice environmental medicine, but has also made environmental medicine the most important thing in her life. The American spent two weeks in Germany. The reunion with Prof. Rapp was very productive and we were lucky enough to spend a beautiful day on the Moselle. Here is a small summary.

Researcher documented environmental disease

I met Prof. Rapp for the first time at a congress in Bad Emstal about 18 years ago. It was a crucial experience. In her presentation, she showed a video about a teacher who became ill from contaminated carpeting in the school. The teacher was filmed during a reaction to contaminated dust from the carpet. This video vividly conveys to the viewer what MCS is and what a reaction can look like. At that time I was at the very beginning of my own illness and had had similar reactions to certain pesticides. The teacher experienced convulsions and fell unconscious. I thought “my goodness, that’s me, that’s exactly like me, that’s what you have…“ After the lecture I spoke with Prof. Rapp and that was the beginning of an ongoing exchange of information and an interesting friendship. We met again at conferences in Germany, Holland and in the U.S., visited each other in Germany and the United States and exchanged e-mails. When I visited her in Scottsdale, she showed me one of her video archives. She had stored thousands of videos of children whom she had treated. They showed the patients during and after therapy and during testing of foods, mold, pollen, dust mites or chemicals. They displayed impressive evidence that can remove any last doubts as to the existence of environmental illnesses and allergies.

We can no longer ignore environmental illnesses

Dr. Binz and his wife invited the environmental doctor for this most recent visit to Germany. We had actually arranged to meet for a trip along the Moselle, which would start before lunch. We had a warm reunion and before we knew it we had already exchanged information and ideas and were in the midst of planning for future projects.

“I’m over 80 years old now and have no children, I don’t really need to be doing all this and I could be enjoying my peace at this age, but I see what’s going on, and I simply cannot remain silent. We have so many chemicals in our environment, in the food we eat, in the water we drink and the air that we are constantly breathing. They affect each of our body systems and we can no longer ignore this. Almost every second person in my country has cancer and that is just not acceptable”, says Doris Rapp.

“The politicians and the public must realize the impact the flood of chemicals has on us and no one should keep insisting that we do not know where all the increasing diseases that occur are coming from. The evidence is there. We have animal testing to prove it. That’s why, as a doctor, I ask: How much more has to happen before we admit to the real causes? I won’t accept hearing when one says, “Yes, but there’s nothing we can do about it.” Yes, there is, because you can educate yourself and there’s a hell of a lot you can do,” says Prof Rapp, who is enraged about the current situation.

Solutions are often very simple

Prof. Rapp is no one who can be at odds with the world and ignore the solutions. She is in the process of writing another book. “It will be a small book, only 30 pages. Every reader can easily understand how he/she can shape his environment in order to stay healthy. The tips in this book will not cost anyone a fortune, they can easily be implemented without major expense. It will help anyone who wants to change something and wants to improve his health. The doctor cites two examples:

“Many people react to foods, but are not sure towards which foods. Expensive tests are not necessary. I advise people to think about what they eat most, foods that they downright crave. Experience has shown that these are the foods that are eaten every day and most likely those which cause reactions. The solution: omit the suspected food for a week. You can test one food after another. This costs nothing! ”

“Some people live in a house that is contaminated with pollutants or contaminated by mold. My experience is that five out of seven people can improve their health by 70% if they obtain a high quality air cleaner that is capable of filtering hundreds of chemicals from the air in your home. Such a device may cost a bit, but I have often seen patients who got better over night. So it’s worth it if you are unable to directly move out of the apartment or house.”

The new book will be published this year, and Professor Rapp has authorized me to translate it into German. She also gave me permission to translate videos and other books into our language, contributing knowledge to allergy sufferers and chemically sensitive people in the German-speaking countries, helping them to find a way back into life.

A trip along the Moselle

During the drive to the historic Moselle wine village, Bernkastel, to Traben-Trabach and the drive back to Trier, Prof. Rapp was bursting with innovative ideas that we will begin to put into action in the next few months and they will benefit the environmentally ill in many ways.

Author: Silvia K. Müller, CSN – Chemical Sensitivity Network, 12 September 2011

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Vitamin C may be beneficial for asthmatic children

CSN — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:51:18 +0000

In younger children with mild asthma symptoms, the benefit of vitamin C was greatest

Depending on the age of asthmatic children, on their exposure to molds or dampness in their bedroom, and on the severity of their asthma, vitamin C has greater or smaller beneficial effect against asthma, according to a study published in the Clinical and Translational Allergy.

Proposals that vitamin C might be beneficial in the treatment of asthma date back to the 1940s, but the findings from controlled trials have been conflicting.

Drs Mohammed Al-Biltagi from the Tanta University in Egypt and Harri Hemila from the University of Helsinki in Finland analyzed the effect of 0.2 grams per day of vitamin C on 60 asthmatic children aged 7 to 10 years. The effect of vitamin C on the forced expiratory volume per one second (FEV1) was modified by age and exposure to molds or dampness. In the younger children aged 7.0 to 8.2 years with no exposure to molds or dampness, vitamin C administration increased the FEV1 level by 37%. In the older children aged 8.3 to 10 years with exposure to molds or dampness in their bedroom more than one year before the study, vitamin C increased the FEV1 level by only 21%.

The effect of vitamin C on the asthma symptoms was modified by age and the severity of asthma symptoms. In the younger children aged 7.0 to 8.2 years with mild asthma symptoms, the benefit of vitamin C was greatest. In the older children aged 8.3 to 10 years who had severe asthma symptoms, the benefit of vitamin C was smallest.

Drs Al-Biltagi and Hemila conclude that there is strong evidence that the effect of vitamin C on asthmatic children is heterogeneous. They consider that it is important to carry out further research to confirm their findings and to more accurately identify the groups of children who would receive the greatest benefit from vitamin C supplementation.

Autor:

University of Helsinki, Vitamin C may be beneficial for asthmatic children, Aug. 30, 2011

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The Impact of Funding on Study Outcomes

CSN — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:11:46 +0000

The Markingson Files: Why health writers should track the money behind medical studies

One of the biggest oversights a health writer can make is to cover a scientific study and not talk about its funders.

Funding with strings attached can affect a study’s outcomes. In 2003, a study in the British Medical Journal found that “Studies sponsored by pharmaceutical companies were more likely to have outcomes favouring the sponsor than were studies with other sponsors.”

This can be as a result of researchers working hard to please their funders and keep the money spigot open. It also can be because of pressure from the drug companies – even subtle pressure – to generate positive results.

In October 2009, AstraZeneca agreed to pay $520 million to settle federal investigations and whistle-blower lawsuits over the company’s marketing practices for the antipsychotic drug Seroquel, including allegations that the company had manipulated research data for marketing purposes. As the New York Times wrote at the time, “Seroquel was the top-selling antipsychotic drug in America. It had $17 billion in sales in the United States since 2004, according to IMS Health, a research firm.”

An after-market clinical trial for Seroquel, called the CAFE study, was conducted at the University of Minnesota to prove that Seroquel was better than its competitors, and one of the trial participants, Dan Markingson, killed himself during the trial.

Carl Elliott, a bioethicist at the University of Minnesota, documented some of this alleged manipulation by using records he found in lawsuits against the company.

The pressure to make Seroquel look superior began as early as 20 years ago, when the drug was still in its early stages.

In the late 1990s, a multi-center clinical trial, known as Study 15, failed to show that Seroquel was better than Haldol, or haloperidol, an older antipsychotic that has been on the market since the 1960s. By some measures, Seroquel performed worse than Haldol. Making matters worse, the study showed that Seroquel boosted the risk of weight gain and diabetes. Internal correspondence repeatedly referred to Study 15 as a “failed study,” and company officials discussed ways to spin it or bury it.

In the Seroquel Strategic Plan 1997-2001, the company wrote on Page 17, “With the failure of Study 15, the Strategy Team reevaluated the Phase IIIB program and determined that the level of risk had to be reduced, as failure of another large scale trial, eg treatment resistance, would result in significant damage to the brand’s market perception if there weren’t other trials successfully completed in parallel.”

Referring to Study 15, Richard Lawrence, a senior Astra Zeneca official, wrote in February 1997 memo, “I am not 100% comfortable with this data being made publicly available at this time…however I understand that we have little choice….Lisa has done a great ‘smoke-and-mirrors’ job!”

Lisa Arvanitis, another AstraZeneca official, was CC’d on the memo, as was AstraZeneca’s Don Stribling. Lawrence also wrote, “Adopting the approach Don has outlined should minimize (and dare I venture to suggest) could put a positive spin (in terms of safety) on this cursed study.”

In November 1997, an AstraZeneca physician wrote an email to a researcher explaining why the company could not fund his study. “R and D is no longer responsible for Seroquel research,” he wrote. “That’s the responsibility of sales and marketing.” He also noted that funding would be more likely if the study could show a “competitive advantage for Seroquel.”

In a May 1999 email, John Tumas, an AstraZeneca publications manager, wrote that he was worried that the company was “cherry-picking data.”

“We’ve buried trials 15, 31 and 56, and now we’re considering CoStar,” he wrote. “How are we going to face the outside world when they criticize us for suppressing data?”

Apparently looking for new ways to highlight the benefits of Seroquel, the company’s Commercial Support Team performed a meta-analysis of a number of other studies. This meta-analysis did not raise Seroquel’s status over Haldol. Instead, the team’s technical document from March 2000 concluded, “In terms of generating positive claims for Seroquel these analyses seem to be somewhat disappointing.”

This analysis came at a very bad time for AstraZeneca. Dr. Charles Schulz at the University of Minnesota was working with the company on preparing a presentation on Seroquel data for the American Psychiatric Association (APA) annual conference in Chicago less than two months later.

In an email from March 2000, Tumas wrote:

The data don’t look good. I don’t know how we can get a paper out of this. My guess is that we all (including Schulz) saw the good stuff, ie the meta analyses of responder rates that showed we were superior to placebo and haloperidol, and then thought that further analyses would be supportive and a paper was in order. What seems to be the case is that we were highlighting only the good stuff and that our own analysis support the ‘view out there’ that we are less effective than haloperidol and our competitors. Once you get a chance to digest this, let’s get together (or teleconference) and discuss where to go from here. We need to do this quickly, because Schulz needs to get a draft ready for APA and he needs any additional analyses we can give him well before then.

Schulz must have received the data he needed, because he presented a summary of the AstraZeneca data as a poster at the May conference, claiming that Seroquel was “significantly superior” to Haldol.

Documents filed as part of the lawsuits against AstraZeneca suggest that AstraZeneca was hoping to market Seroquel, possibly, off-label, to “first-episode” subjects such as those that the CAFE study enrolled. This group would have included Dan Markingson.

The Seroquel Strategy Summary from 2000 said that the company should establish “Seroquel as atypical of choice in first-episode patients – this has a halo effect as these patients are particularly sensitive to EPS and weight gain.” It also listed as an objective broadening “Seroquel use on and off-label. Utilise whole selling team, educational programs to share off-label data.”

In 2007, the American Journal of Psychiatry published the results of the CAFE study, which were positive for Seroquel.

The authors claimed that the CAFE study showed Seroquel to be of “comparable effectiveness” for first-episode patients in comparison to Zyprexa and Risperdal.

Among the 18 “serious adverse events” recorded for the 400 subjects in the study were five suicide attempts, including two completed suicides, both by patients taking Seroquel. One of them was Markingson, although the paper did not name him.

According to the study authors, the suicides occurred “despite the close attention provided in clinical research aftercare programs.”

Author: William Heisel, May 27, 2011

Original article

Copyright: University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism

Read more articles from William in his Blog William Heisel’s Antidote: Investigating Untold Health Stories

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Hamburg hospital offers rooms for patients with MCS and environmental illness

Silvia — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 12:20:21 +0000

After much effort, the Agaplesion Diakonie Hospital in Hamburg, Germany has designed two rooms for people with MCS and multiple allergies. For many years, local support groups have worked tirelessly to try to integrate environmentally controlled hospital rooms in the hospital. For the first time ever, it is possible for people who suffer from environmental illnesses or severe allergies to be in a hospital for medical treatment which is tailored to their health issues.

Environmental rooms for MCS, the environmentally ill, and multiple allergic patients

Since February 2011, with the move into the newly built Agaplesion DIAKONIE Medical Center in Hamburg (formerly the hospitals, Old Oaks, and Bethany Elim), for the first time, a hospital has two special pollutant free rooms prepared for those with environmental allergies, and MCS patients. The special environmental rooms have been built with much care. They consist of a single and a double room. Both rooms are connected by a vestibule from the other station areas separated so that chemical-sensitive patients do not come in contact with the usual hospital chemicals and fragrances from other patients.

Medical treatment, surgery, obstetrics

The Agaplesion Clinic offers the two environmental rooms which have been specially prepared for the treatment of patients in the medical environment including the following hospital departments in the with an integrated spectrum:

Internal Medicine
Geriatrics (geriatric medicine)
Diabetes
Surgery, Hand Surgery, Plastic Surgery
Gynecology, Obstetrics
Orthopedics
Anasthesia, Intensive Care

Criteria for inclusion in Environmental Room

There is a briefing which takes place through a doctor or the emergency room. During the first contact a message states that the patient wants a shot in the environmental room. The Agaplesion Clinic requires patients have medical evidence showing MCS (multiple chemical sensitivity), environmental allergies / intolerance (allergy multi-) and / or a present a chronic intoxication in the patient. A MCS and / or allergy passport is also useful to explain the need for inclusion in a special room environment.

Core Unit of the Environment Room

Rooms in conventional hospitals are not suitable for chemically sensitive patients. In general, the wards have PVC flooring and particleboard furniture. The environmental rooms in the Agaplesion Clinic have given much effort to create a plan that recognizes the needs of MCS sufferers with good air quality issues. The two environmental rooms were built with the low emission of air pollutants / safe building materials and furnishings, to ensure the safety for hypersensitive patients.

Some examples of the special features of the environmental room:

Walls and ceilings with running Fermacell Green Line plates
Massive exterior walls are lime
Walls and ceilings painted with lime paint
Rooms are equipped with a wall heater
Floor is made of ceramic tiles.
Window and door frames are insulated with hemp
Doors are made of glass
Exposure to electromagnetic fields has been reduced, including through the installation of power circuit breakers
Furniture is made of enamel, metal, or stainless steel

The clinic staff shall ensure low-emission patient care:

Attention is given to see if there are fragrance-containing and damaging products in patient vicinity.
Patients are asked about their possible food intolerances to allergies, to drugs, disinfectants, medicines and anesthetics.
A dietitian takes into account the patients’ food intolerances
At the medical station information is summarized, and this can be viewed at any time by medical staff.
The staff of the station is working together very closely with the support group „environmental illnesses MCS + CFS.”
The room environment is cleaned with fragrance free detergents, but a disinfecting cleaning is essential to neutralize odors, so the patient is offered the use of effective microorganisms (EM 1).
When necessary, patients may bring their own food which is kept in a refrigerator at the door. A kettle is also available there.
The bedding of the entire hospital is fragrance-free but these patients are permitted to bring their own bedding.

Special measures for the benefit of environmental patients

The use of fragrance-free and low-polluting products is offered to patients and their visitors
The use of cell phones and smoking are not permitted in this area
Living together requires all patients in the environmental room practice understanding, respect and helpfulness

Hospital life – side note

Important information for environmental patients and their physicians, that the Agaplesion Clinic is a hospital and not an environmental clinic. In a hospital procedures are regulated and special requests cannot be met. The Agaplesion Clinic breaks new ground by providing the two environmental rooms. The employees are trained on MCS and environmental illness, but they are dependent on cooperation between the patients, so that a smooth clinical work can be guaranteed. Perhaps at first patients won’t have the highest satisfaction, but patients should be understanding and possibly contribute constructive suggestions for improvement since this is the first attempt at providing environmentally safe rooms in a hospital. It is important for patients with chemical sensitivity (MCS) to realize that this is a new development at the clinic. For those with hyper-sensitivities, a stay at the hospital, despite careful selection of materials, initially may be fraught with problems because of outgassing and ecological matters.

The Chemically Sensitive are thankful for their commitment

The MCS support groups in Hamburg, which for years pursued the goal of a “MCS-friendly hospital room in a hospital” give hearty thanks and appreciation to the doctors, hospital planners, architects and government agencies that were involved in this project. All the best and much success for the safe environment in the new rooms at the Agaplesion Clinic!

Author: Silvia K. Müller, CSN – Chemical Sensitivity Network, 1 March 2011

Translation: Christi Howarth

Literature:

Agaplesion Diakonie Hospital Hamburg, newsletter: environmental rooms for MCS patients and the environment / multiple allergies, January 2011

Contact:

Agaplesion DIAKONIE Hospital Hamburg

Hohe Weide 17, 20259 Hamburg, Germany, Tel: (040) 7 90 20 – 0, Fax (040) 7 90 20 – 10 79, E-mail: info@dkh.de, Internet: www.dkh.de

Further CSN articles about MCS:

Milestone Victory: Texas State Medical Board’s Attack on Leading Integrative Doctor Beaten Back

CSN — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:36:17 +0000

As we have reported previously, when integrative practitioners treat the whole patient, their treatments often challenge traditional models of medicine. State medical boards are aligned with the American Medical Associa- tion’s brand of allopathic medicine. Because of this, they have historically been biased against complementary and alternative medicine—to the point that they not infre- quently target practitioners specifically for practicing a higher standard of care.

But the tide is turning, according to attorney Jacques Simon. Simon represented Bill J. Rea, MD, in a stunning legal victory against the Texas Medical Board (TMB). The suit has helped shift bad board practices in Texas.

Jacques Simon has an outstanding success rate defending integrative medical doctors in these types of proceedings. He is one of four attorneys in the US who collaborate and specialize in this area. (The others are Alan Dumoff, Algis Augustine, and Richard Jaffe.)

Dr. Rea is a leading researcher and clinician in the field of environmental medicine and chemical sensitivity. For the past thirty years, he has treated illness caused by food and wide-ranging environmental factors such as air and water pollution. In 2005, the Texas Medical Board filed a number of charges against Dr. Rea, challenging his testing, diagnosis, and treatment — everything he does. They even claimed that Dr. Rea was injecting his patients with diesel fuel and harmful chemicals, a charge that was patently false.

After three long years in court, Simon was able to prove that the Board’s claims were unsubstantiated. Instead of revoking his license, the Board lamely told Dr. Rea to present a revised informed consent form to patients saying that his therapy is not “FDA approved”.

If you are a physician and under investigation, it is important to make no statement whatsoever to investigators or officials without the presence and approval of a lawyer. As Simon told us, “When an investigation starts, it is important for the physician not to make the mistake of thinking they are the authority in the field. Pick up the phone and call an attorney who specializes in these types of proceedings.” (Feel free to contact ANH-USA for a recommendation.)

Simon noted that the TMB has targeted integrative physicians in the past, but this has shifted in the last two or three years, and it appears they now investigate an equal number of traditional MDs. This is due in part to procedural actions taken by Dr. Rea through the course of his ordeal, which including filing charges against the board itself.

Texas has strong due process protections for doctors, but those rules are not always followed. ANH-USA is working to get a bill introduced in the Texas legislature that will provide physicians with redress if the board doesn’t follow its own rules. Jacques Simon notes that the more doctors fight back (and the more the boards are educated), the better the landscape will become in state medical board proceedings. Meanwhile, state laws and regulations are constantly changing, and it is important to remain vigilant.

ANH-USA has just released an 80-page report, “Know Your State’s Medical Board: An Integrative Medical Practitioner’s Guide to Understanding the Legal and Regulatory Environments in the 50 States.” Across the nation, state laws and regulations do not always adequately protect practitioners’ due process rights in medical board disciplinary proceedings, so we have created a guide and checklist to provide a general sense of the legal protections, or lack thereof, available in each state in the country. The report is available as a PDF document, and may be downloaded here (PDF).

Literature: ANH, Milestone Victory: Texas State Medical Board’s Attack on Leading Integrative Doctor Beaten Back, December 21, 2010

Copyright © 2010 Alliance for Natural Health USA (ANH-USA). Permission granted to forward, copy, or reprint with date and attribution to ANH-USA. Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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Spirulina: Blue-green algae tested for treating ALS

CSN — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 15:31:55 +0000

Ancient food source may offer neuroprotection

Nutritional supplementation with Spirulina, a nutrient-rich, blue-green algae, appeared to provide neuroprotective support for dying motor neurons in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, University of South Florida neuroscientists have found. Although more research is needed, they suggest that a spirulina-supplemented diet may provide clinical benefits for ALS patients.

A spirulina dietary supplement was shown to delay the onset of motor symptoms and disease progression, reducing inflammatory markers and motor neuron death in a G93A mouse model of ALS. Spirulina, an ancient food source used by the Aztecs, may have a dual antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect on motor neurons, the researchers said.

Their study is published (pdf) in the current issue of The Open Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Journal (3:36-41).

“ALS is a degenerative motor neuron disease,” said the study’s lead author, Svitlana Garbuzova-Davis, PhD, DSc, assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair at USF. “Most available treatments relieve symptoms without altering the underlying disease. However, evidence for oxidative stress has been associated with ALS and, in our past studies, we demonstrated potent decreases in markers of oxidative damage and inflammation in aged rats fed diets supplemented with spirulina or spinach. In this initial study, the diet supplement was fed only to pre-symptomatic mice. Further studies showing the diet supplement’s effect on the lifespan of symptomatic ALS mice are needed to prove the treatment’s effectiveness.”

Specifically, when the USF researchers tested compounds found in blueberries and spirulina for effectiveness in animal models of stroke and aging in past experiments, they noted neuroprotective effects of the nutritional supplements.

The current study compared ALS mice receiving a spirulina-supplemented diet over a 10-week period with mice that did not receive the diet supplementation. The spirulina-fed ALS mice showed reduced inflammatory markers and motor neuron degeneration over that period.

“The focus of our future ALS experiments will include motor neuron counts and an examination of lifespan following dietary spirulina supplementation in symptomatic ALS mice,” said study co-author Paula C. Bickford, PhD, a professor in the USF Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair and a senior research biologist at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital in Tampa.

Reference:

University of South Florida (USF Health), Blue-green algae tested for treating ALS, 21-Dec-2010

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Growth-factor gel shows promise as hearing-loss treatment

CSN — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 12:26:03 +0000

A new treatment has been developed for sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL), a condition that causes deafness in 40,000 Americans each year, usually in early middle-age. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Medicine describe the positive results of a preliminary trial of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1), applied as a topical gel.

Takayuki Nakagawa, from Kyoto University, Japan, worked with a team of researchers to test the gel in 25 patients whose SSHL had not responded to the normal treatment of systemic gluticosteroids. He said, “The results indicated that the topical IGF1 application using gelatin hydrogels was safe, and had equivalent or superior efficiency to the hyperbaric oxygen therapy that was used as a historical control; this suggests that the efficacy of topical IGF1 application should be further evaluated using randomized clinical trials”.

At 12 weeks after the test treatment, 48% of patients showed hearing improvement, and the proportion increased to 56% at 24 weeks. No serious adverse events were observed. This is the first time that growth factors have been tested as a hearing remedy. According to Nakagawa, “Although systemic glucocorticoid application results in hearing recovery in some patients with SSHL, approximately 20% show no recovery. Topical IGF1 application using gelatin hydrogels is well tolerated and may be efficacious for these patients”.

Reference:

Takayuki Nakagawa, Tatsunori Sakamoto, Harukazu Hiraumi, Yayoi S Kikkawa, Norio Yamamoto, Kiyomi Hamaguchi, Kazuya Ono, Masaya Yamamoto, Yasuhiko Tabata, Satoshi Teramukai, Shiro Tanaka, Harue Tada, Rie Onodera, Atsushi Yonezawa, Ken-ichi Inui and Juichi Ito, A Topical insulin-like growth factor 1 treatment using gelatin hydrogels for glucocorticoid-resistant sudden sensorineural hearing loss: a prospective clinical trial, BMC Medicine (in press)

During embargo, article available here
After the embargo, article available at the journal website Biomed Central

Dr. William Rea recognized as expert for BP Oil Spill victims

CSN — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 09:19:26 +0000

Dr. William J. Rea, founder and director of the Environmental Health Center-Dallas (EHC-D) and world renowned specialist in treating chemical injury, has been featured in several articles of late about the health effects of the BP Oil Spill on cleanup crews and local residents.

The latest, “BP blamed for toxification” by Dahr Jamail of Al Jazeera, details how the 1.9 million gallons of toxic chemical dispersants used to break up the oil released by the explosion at one of BP’s deepwater oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico last summer has caused a wide array of disturbing symptoms in people exposed to the chemicals. The article states “Pathways of exposure to the dispersants are inhalation, ingestion, skin and eye contact. Health impacts include headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, abdom- inal pains, chest pains, respiratory system damage, skin sensitisation, hyperten- sion, central nervous system (CNS) depression, neurotoxic effects, cardiac arrhythmia and cardiovas- cular damage.

The chemicals are also teratogenic, mutagenic and carcinogenic.”

Also being reported in other articles* is the onset of Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance (TILT) – another name for Chemical Sensitivity, a disabling condition that makes life very difficult for sufferers who react to very low levels of chemicals, mold, and other substances. As chemical use in our culture is so ubiquitous and deeply woven into the fabric of daily life, managing the illness can be a life-long struggle.

Dr. Rea is an expert on Chemical Sensitivity, having treated many thousands of patients with the condition (including those exposed to toxic chemicals in crude oil and dispersants) since his treatment center opened in 1974. Regarding the BP Oil Spill victims, Dr. Rea explains his treatment approach:

‘We first try to eliminate people’s symptoms, and that is organ specific,’ Rea explained at his clinic, which is one of the oldest and most advanced centres in the world for addressing health as it relates to the environment. ‘We try to lower their toxic load by giving them intravenous nutrients, oral nutrients, sauna, and have them live in quarters that are less polluted, eat organic food and have them get safe drinking water.’

Rea has treated many people from the Gulf that have been made sick by BP’s toxic chemicals.

“I have multiple concerns now about people in the Gulf being affected by these chemicals,’ he said. ‘First, they are all fatigued and not able to work. When your muscles are all fatigued and tired, it’s hard to function. People are getting cloudy brains, others are having heart problems because of the chemicals. Others have broncho-spasm and asthma from this. Others bloat and get sleepy after eating, diarrhea, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome and other gastrointestinal problems.”

Dr. Rea stresses that it is critical to remove patients from the area of contamination in order for treatment to be effective.

In Ricki Ott’s article “BP, Governments Downplay Public Health Risk From Oil and Dispersants” published by Huffington Post last July, she reminds us that Dr. Rea treated some of the sick Exxon Valdez cleanup workers as well.

Planet Thrive is proud to host Dr. Rea’s free question and answer column and welcomes questions from those affected by the BP Oil Explosion tragedy, as well as those suffering from other forms of chemical exposure.

Source:

Planet Thrive, Dr. William Rea recognized as expert for BP Oil Spill victims, November 10, 2010

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OHSU research suggests yoga can counteract fibromyalgia

CSN — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 10:38:32 +0000

PORTLAND, Ore — According to new research conducted at Oregon Health & Science University, yoga exercises may have the power to combat fibromyalgia — a medical disorder characterized by chronic widespread pain. The research is being published in the November 10 online edition of the journal Pain and will appear online Thursday, Oct. 14.

“Previous research suggests that the most successful treatment for fibromyalgia involves a combination of medications, physical exercise and development of coping skills,” said James Carson, Ph.D., a clinical health psychologist and an assistant professor of anesthesiology and perioperative medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine. “Here, we specifically focused on yoga to determine whether it should be considered as a prescribed treatment and the extent to which it can be successful.”

In this study, researchers enrolled 53 female study subjects previously diagnosed with fibromyalgia. The women were randomly assigned to two research groups. The first group participated in an eight-week yoga program, which included gentle poses, meditation, breathing exercises and group discussions. The second group of women — the control group — received standard medication treatments for fibromyalgia.

Following completion of the yoga program, researchers assessed each study subject using questionnaires and physical tests. The results were then compared with testing results obtained prior to the yoga classes. The members of the control group underwent the same evaluations. In addition, each participant in the yoga group was urged to keep a daily diary to personally assess their condition throughout the entire program.

Comparison of the data for the two groups revealed that yoga appears to assist in combating a number of serious fibromyalgia symptoms, including pain, fatigue, stiffness, poor sleep, depression, poor memory, anxiety and poor balance. All of these improvements were shown to be not only statistically but also clinically significant, meaning the changes were large enough to have a practical impact on daily functioning. For example, pain was reduced in the yoga group by an average of 24 percent, fatigue by 30 percent and depression by 42 percent.

“One likely reason for the apparent success of this study therapy was the strong commitment shown by the study subjects. Attendance at the classes was good as was most participants’ willingness to practice yoga while at home,” added Carson. “Based on the results of this research, we strongly believe that further study of this potential therapy is warranted.”

As an outcome of this study and Carson’s previous research showing yoga can be helpful with cancer-related pain, next June the OHSU Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine will be sponsoring a training course for U.S. and Canadian yoga teachers who want to build their skills for working with individuals who have chronic pain.

Literature:

Oregon Health & Science University, OHSU research suggests yoga can counteract fibromyalgia, 14-Oct.-2010

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