The number of obese Americans has more than doubled since 1980, affecting
one out of three persons, or a total of 59 million adults.

“Obesity is a critical public health problem in our country that causes
millions of Americans to suffer unnecessary health problems and to die
prematurely.”

Obesity is a disease, according to the largest US government health care
plan, which will pay for some treatments for overweight Americans, now in
epidemic numbers

According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(news – web sites) published in March, obesity and overweight caused by poor
eating habits and lack of exercise could become the leading cause of death
in the United States by next year.

To allow coverage of the costs of treatment for obesity, Medicare removed a
phrase from its regulations that had said specifically it was not a disease.

He said that in coming months, surgical procedures used to fight obesity
will be evaluated.”

You know, it is possible that this epidemic of obesity is not
purely the result of overeating. Other civilizations have
had plenty oif food in the past, and they haven’t eaten
themselves into an early grave.

I’m wondering if all the chemicals in our environment – in
our food, in our air, in our water, stuff not found in
nature, stuff WE made and put there, intentionally or
otherwise – might be messing up our bodily chemistry and
causing all sorts of troubles, of which obesity is just
one symptom.

The problem might not be obesity, it might be chemical
poisoning.

It’s more good news, but why don’t they ever seem to do studies on
babies that are breast-fed for longer than a few months? By a
scientific standard, Dr. Bachrach’s last comment is speculation.

Dr. Bachrach said that 6% of all US infants younger than 1 year of age
are hospitalized annually for lower respiratory tract disease, which
elevates their risk for later illnesses, such as asthma, and creates a
costly healthcare burden.

Six percent of infants are hospitalized in their first year? I would have
thought that was high even for all causes (leaving out babies who stay in the
hospital longer at first due to prematurity, etc.), let alone for lower
respiratory tract disease. That’s a *lot* of babies.

Perhaps she is including those who stay in the
hospital because they are born early (if they have a lower respiratory
tract disease, of course)? that wouldn’ be fair though, since they
were “hospitalized” before they could have had a drop of breast milk.

Many Lyme disease activists and patients assert that Lyme disease is a difficult-to-treat, chronic infection that requires long-term consumption of broad-spectrum antibiotics. (See common beliefs about Lyme disease.) Although medical practice and clinical trials suggest otherwise [15], many Lyme patients undergo long-term intravenous antibiotic treatment.

For appropriate intravenous antibiotic treatment, the American College of Physicians recommends 21-28 days and various European guidelines call for 10-30 days for the commonly used drugs. Much longer usage has been reported among patients who have Lyme disease as well as patients who have been inappropriately diagnosed [16-18].

Outpatient intravenous therapy is a multi-billion-a-year business. It remains
largely unregulated and can cost patients thousands of dollars per week.
Price-gouging, drug markups, kickbacks, and self-referral of patients by
physicians with financial ties to infusion companies have occurred. In 1995,
for example, Caremark, Inc., pled guilty to mail fraud charges for entering
into illegal contracts with physicians by paying them to refer Medicaid
patients to use Caremark’s infusion products. The settlement provided for
approximately $44.5 million in civil penalties and restitution from Caremark
[19]. In Michigan, prosecutors charged a physician and Caremark employees with
scheming to overbill Blue Cross/Blue Shield for drugs and equipment for
patients with Lyme disease [20].

The intravenous antibiotic therapy administered to Lyme patients sometimes has
disastrous results. During the early 1990s, the CDC described 25 cases of
antibiotic-associated biliary complications among persons with suspected
disseminated Lyme disease [21]. All patients had received intravenous
ceftriaxone (Rocephin) for an average of 28 days for suspected Lyme disease.
(Ceftriaxone can form precipitates in the presence of bile salts. The resulting
“sludge” can block the bile duct.) Twelve patients subsequently developed
gallstones. Fourteen underwent cholecystectomy to correct bile blockage.
Twenty-two developed catheter-associated bloodstream infections. Yet most of
the patients lacked documented evidence of disseminated Lyme disease or even
antibodies to B. burgdorferi. In 2000, physicians reported the death of a
30-year-old woman who died from an infected intravenous set-up that had been
left in place for more than two years. She was being treated for “chronic Lyme
disease” that was unsubstantiated [22].

The risks and costs associated with such treatments were analyzed in a 1993
report whose authors concluded that most patients with a positive Lyme antibody
titer whose only symptoms are fatigue or nonspecific muscle pains, the risks
and costs of intravenous antibiotic therapy exceed the benefits [23].

In an Internet newsgroup post, a woman described being on intravenous Rocephin
for 4 weeks, developing gallstones, and switching to another antibiotic regimen
for three weeks. She also mentioned a sudden high fever, anemia, low white cell
count, systemic pain, heart rhythm disturbance, and neurologic symptoms. Such
descriptions are common among devout Lyme patients and provide an unsettling
view into the desperate and dangerous measures some people will take to treat
suspected Lyme disease. The woman ended her account by writing she had switched
her medication to ciprofloxacin. This drug is potent but should not be used
unnecessarily. Its adverse reactions include acute psychosis and other
neuropsychiatric reactions [24].

Another patient said he was treated at a Mexican clinic where the doctor
admitted that he and his staff knew little about Lyme disease. The patient
wrote, “I started on IV Rocephin (two grams a day), and later added oral
azithromycin. My symptoms did improved, but I soon hit a treatment plateau. We
then tried IV doxycycline, but this made me sick to my stomach.” He goes on to
describe a long list of other drugs (IV Claforan, Cefobid/Unisyn, Premaxin, a
second round of Cefobid/Uisyn, and IV Zithromax), followed by bouts of “severe
diarrhea” and phlebitis. Three months and some $25,000 later, DMSO was added to
another infusion of Zithromax.

A number of these so-called “Lyme-Literate Medical Doctors (LLMD) have been
investigated for their extensive use of powerful intravenous antibiotics and
other unconventional practices. In New York State, the Office of Professional
Medical Conduct (OPMC) is investigated two or LLMD about their treatments of a
large number of patients diagnosed as having chronic Lyme disease.

Such practices are likely to draw even greater scrutiny with the recent
publication of the results of two clinical trials on chronic Lyme disease. The
investigators noted “in these two trials, treatment with intravenous and oral
antibiotics for 90 days did not improve symptoms more than placebo.” [15]

My husband’s grandmother has Machado-Joseph disease. She is a descendant
of William Machado, from the island of Sao Miguel in Portugal.

I am trying to find out what, if anything, can be done to improve the
ataxia that is associated with the disease. She started having signs of
the disease when she reached the age of 45. She is now 69 and is on the
verge of being in a wheelchair.

I was just told that this disease is passed to children from their parents.
It is very scary for me, with a daughter that is 2 years old. My
mother-in-law has not started showing signs of the disease, but she is only
50 years old, and is in excellent physical health. She runs marathons,
etc…. My question, I guess, is: where could she be tested to find out if
she is carrying the gene for the disease. If she has it, then my husband
could have it, which would mean, my daughter could possibly have it.

The gene for Machado-Joseph disease is called SCA3 (spinocerebellar ataxia
type 3). If your mother-in-law chooses to she can have a predictive test
to determine if she has the gene.

I’ll send you a list of labs which perform genetic tests for ataxia. Genetic
counselling would be necessary for a predictive test so travel to a center
which does counselling might be needed.

Unfortunately, we don’t yet know of a treatment for ataxia but researchers are
making lots of progress in understanding the underlying cause so treatments
hopefully aren’t that many years away.

The entire approach and foundation of Orthodox Medicine is based on Luis
Pasteur’s Germ Theory, a flawed concept. A
disease condition is viewed by the orthodoxy as an isolated event,
confined to the area in which it manifests itself (E.g. an ear
infection, eye infection, gum infection, lung cancer, skin cancer, etc. ).
Under this theory, for unknown reasons, microbes or
tumors indiscriminately grow in the patient and must be cut (surgery),
burned (radiation), or poisoned (drugs) out of the body.
In the orthodox model, the solution is sought through mechanical and
chemical solutions. Seeking to understand WHY the
infection or disease condition appeared in the first place, is not
usually seriously explored. The quick fix with a prescription of
drugs to smother the symptoms is the typical ‘answer’.

A contemporary of Pasteur, Antoine Beauchamp, had a different opinion as
to why disease conditions ‘took hold’.
Beauchamp felt that the ENVIRONMENT , or the ECOLOGY of the blood played
the critical role in deciding whether
disease conditions would manifest or not.

Alternative medicine explores the stressors (environmental, biological,
chemical, psychological, and emotional) in a patient’s
life that cause a weakening of a particular energy field; which in turn
allows the manifestation of a disease condition in a
weakened area. In order to maintain a state of health, all energy systems
within the body need to exist in a state of balance or
equilibrium. Imbalance leads to conditions of discomfort (dis-ease) which
eventually spirals into ill health if not corrected. The
Chinese and Indians (Ayurvedic medicine) had worked all of this out
thousands of years ago.

Orthodox or Allopathic Medicine utilizes poisonous substances (drugs) in
non-lethal dosages in order to suppress symptoms in
an affected area. This approach neither addresses the cause of the disease
condition , nor is it responsible for healing
the patient. Rather, the use of drugs often will temporarily mask the
outer manifestations of the malady, while at the same
time, drive the disease deeper into the body…only to reappear at a later
date, as a more serious, and chronic health
threat. One of the many flaws of the orthodox approach is that it focuses
on the disease condition itself, rather than the
patient. The term wholistic (or holistic) sprang up to distinguish those
physicians whose diagnostic gestalt considers all of the
physical, emotional, and spiritual energies interacting with the patient.

Do not assume that the only difference between allopathic and alternative
medicine, however, is an honest difference of opinion
in the philosophies and views on the origin of disease states. Hardly!.
There is, in truth, a concerted, organized agenda
-concocted, planned, and contrived by the big pharmaceutical companies
(especially the big German pharmaceutical houses
like I.G. Farben Bayer, and Merck)- to suppress any and every alternative,
non-pharmaceutical therapy that WORKS.
Why?
Because they want people to keep on coming back for more treatments and
more drugs.

A cured patient is a lost source of income. A sick patient who is
marginally “improved” is a manageable patient.

Managing patients means routine office visits and renewing of drug
prescriptions. Therefore, a manageable patient is a
continuing source of income; a cash cow if you will. Multiply that by a
few hundred million people and you get an idea why this
deceit is being put upon you. The profits from the so called “health-care”
industry are staggering!

The thrust of the orthodox pharmaceutical agenda is to provide temporary
relief, while never addressing the cause of the
disease condition. This agenda insures regular visits to the doctor’s
office and requires the patient to routinely return to the
pharmacy to refill his prescriptions. This is what the game is all about
folks, plain and simple. Deny it or Deal with it,…Stick with
it or Get Out of it! … your choice.

Natural Healing

The patient’s immune system and the immune system alone is responsible for
healing and recovery from ill health. The use of
drugs and vaccines represents an assault on the immune system. In some
cases, the use of a particular drug might be a
wise choice to speed healing and recovery for the patient, but the use of
natural, orthomolecular therapies and substances
(substances normally found in Nature) that can more effectively address
the cause of the disease should be considered first
because natural substances work in harmony with Nature. They aid and
stimulate the body to truly cure itself, without the
terrible millstone of drug side-effects.

The human body is predisposed to heal itself and to exist as a healthy,
thriving organism. We inhibit that process by ingesting
unhealthy foods, fouling our inner environment with toxins, and relying
upon poisonous substances to treat disease conditions.

You posters on here keep saying Celine has a disease, so what disease does
Celine have? I’m guessing maybe she has elephant man’s disease or bulimia?
Anyone know what diseases Celine Dion has?

Are u just shooting out any disease that may make you sound inteligent.
Elephant Man’s disease, first only happen man, and it causes for the abdomen to
be stretched. So far with all your saying as her being thin, she definiately
does not have a disease…either you are trying to sound inteligent for your
pathetic age and state, or you or just plain out stupid…you choose.

By maintaining your physical fitness can be very effective in
prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. Usually Mental exercises are uses
to prevent Alzheimer’s.

Read full Article & Tips
http://www.inblogs.net/hqa/2006/06/prevention-of-alzheimers-disease-by.html

I’m no expert in the relationship between AD and exercise and
I know that no one really is. But I personally find the relationship
quite credible.

We know that exercise is vital for health in many ways – including
the health of the cardio-vascular system, which is apparently
relevant to Alzheimer’s Disease.

To say that there is a relationship does not mean that people who
exercise won’t get the disease. Many people who exercise get
heart attacks too. All it says is that _on average_ people who
exercise will not get the disease as early as those who do not.

Don’t be fooled by individual cases. We all know people who
smoke, drink, sit on the sofa, and watch TV while munching
potato chips – and who live to be 90 years old. That doesn’t mean
that smoking, drinking (to excess), leading a sedentary life,
and eating salt and fat won’t hurt you.

There are going to be folks who never lift a finger who live to
old age with all their wits intact, and exercise fanatics who
get AD while still relatively young. But I think it still makes
sense to include both physical and mental exercise in an
attempt to prevent, or at least forestall, the disease.

This does NOT mean that if you get AD it’s your fault. I
suspect (but couldn’t prove one way or another) that the
disease process is more related your genetic and biochemical
chararacteristics than anything else. But keeping in shape
can’t hurt and might well help.

Epidemiologists Vote to Keep Doing Junk Science

Epidemiology Monitor (October 1997)

An estimated 300 attendees a recent meeting of the American College of
Epidemiology voted approximately 2 to 1 to keep doing junk science!

Specifically, the attending epidemiologists voted against a motion
proposed in an Oxford-style debate that “risk factor” epidemiology is
placing the field of epidemiology at risk of losing its credibility.

Risk factor epidemiology focuses on specific cause-and-effect
relationships–like heavy coffee drinking increases heart attack risk. A
different approach to epidemiology might take a broader
perspective–placing heart attack risk in the context of more than just
one risk factor, including social factors.

Risk factor epidemiology is nothing more than a perpetual junk science machine.

But as NIEHS epidemiologist Marilyn Tseng said “It’s hard to be an
epidemiologist and vote that what most of us are doing is actually harmful
to epidemiology.”

But who really cares about what they’re doing to epidemiology. I thought
it was public health that mattered!

we have seen the “SELECTIVE” blindness disease that
Scientist have practiced over the past ten years. Seems the only color they
see is GREEN BACKS, it’s a very infectious disease that has spread through
the Scientific community with the same speed that any infectious disease
would spread. And has affected the T(thinking) Cells as well as sight.

Seems their eyes see only what their paid to see. To be honest, I feel
after the Agent Orange Ranch Hand Study, and the Slutz and Nutz Implant
Study, they have cast a dark shadow over their profession of being anything
other than traveling professional witnesses for corporate hire with a lack
of moral concern to their obligation of science and truth.

The true “Risk Factor” is a question of ; will they ever be able to earn
back the respect of their profession as an Oath to Science, instead of
corporate paid witnesses with selective vision?
Oh, if this seems way harsh, it’s nothing compared to the damage of peoples
lives that selective blindness has caused!

I have read on the net about the possibility of transmitting the bacteria
in people with periodonitis between spouses. My girlfriend has had the
disease for several years and has always had proper care. Now I was
wondering is there a possibility I could get this condition. My teeth are
fine except for some cavaties and a root canal. Any experience anyone has
would be greatly appreciated.

Periodontal disease is RARELY an infectious disease … just look to
the epidemiology.

You are born without the periodontal pathogens in your mouth. You acquire
those bugs via bacterial transfer from someone else. However, you don’t get
the disease unless you are susceptible.

Infectious Disease Admissions to Hospitals
Anyone know the numbers/percentages re. the rate of admission (not
incl. ER) of ‘infectious disease patients’ to U.S. hospitals compared
with numbers/percentages of ‘infectious disease patients’ who visit
private U.S. medical facilities (physicians’ offices and clinics)?

what do you mean by “infectious disease patients” ?
what do you mean by “rate of admission” ?

most patients who visit doctors in offices and clinics will eventually be
admitted to the hospital… and many patients discharged from the hospital
following treatment for an infectious disease will follow-up with an
infectious disease specialist at least once… the incidence of pneumonia,
AIDS, and many other infectious diseases is readily available from the
centers for disease control (cdc.gov) and other sources..

Please excuse the vagueness of the original question and allow me to
be a bit more explicit.

According to reports by the media that were originally printed in late
1999, the CDC ‘stated’ that 80% (or 80,000) of the annual 100,000
nosocomial deaths can be assigned “infectious disease(s)”.

This 80,000 represents 4% of the 2 million hospital patients who the
CDC reports contract an infectious disease while a pt in a hospital.
(Others estimate this number to be much higher.)

There are about 33.5 million hospital pts per year.

There are about 880 million visits to private physicians each year, of
which 110 million are gyn exams.

Even though private physicians and clinics are not regulated (as
hospitals.. to some degree), does anyone know of a study that
attempted to measure the percenage of pts who contract infectious
diseases during visits to the offices of private physicians/clinics?

Also, any thoughts as to why the percentage would/should be higher or
lower than the hospital numbers…

…keeping in mind there is no oversight (JACO, etc.) and little to no
internal “infection control units”, as with hospitals.