www.bodylogicmd.com
I have been participating in BodyLogic on bioidentical hormone therapy (daily appplication of a cream made specifically for me to balance my hormones) and can't say enough about how great it has been for post-menopausal symptoms. If you are suffering and don't know that this new anti-aging approach to menopause and andropause (male menopause) is available - check them out. Only problem is you have to pay out of pocket since healthcare doesn't cover these services - but I am exploring having my creams covered by insurance.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Signs of Menopause? Perimenopause weight gain?
Millions of women in the United States are suffering from hormonal imbalance, whether it is early menopause, perimenopause symptoms, perimenopause weight gain, adrenal fatigue, menopause, or premenstrual symptoms (PMS). In many cases, bioidentical hormone therapy can be part of the solution.
The signs of menopause and related hormonal issues include:
Hot flashes
Night sweats
Weight gain
Mood swings
Depression
Trouble sleeping
Vaginal dryness
Loss of sex drive
Urinary incontinence
Irritability
Hot flashes, night sweats, trouble sleeping and weight gain are the most common symptoms of hormonal imbalance as a woman ages. Perimenopause weight gain is often times misdiagnosed and is one of the first signs of hormonal imbalance. These signs of menopause or early menopause and related conditions are also connected to your stress levels, poor nutrition, lack of exercise and the environmental toxins your body is exposed to on a daily basis.
BodyLogicMD doctors diagnose men with andropause every day and encourage men in general to watch for the Top 10 Signs of Andropause:
Irritability
Sleep problems
Diminished libido
Erectile problems
Muscle loss
Weight gain
Memory loss
Thinning hair
Decreased bone density
Depression
Unlike women, who are more likely to be aware of many of the symptoms of menopause, doctors say men frequently mistake andropause for aging.
"Men’s symptoms appear over the course of a decade or more and it becomes a very slow, insidious process that they attribute to getting old," explains BodyLogicMD’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Alicia Stanton. "As men lose testosterone, they begin experiencing male menopause – or andropause."
Testosterone is key for building muscle and retaining memory in men. When they get into their early 30s, men begin losing testosterone at a rate of one to two percent a year.
Experts today say as many as 25 million American males between ages 40 and 55 are experiencing some degree of male menopause.
BodyLogicMD's anti-aging physician supervised program uses only bioidentical hormones, which are identical to the body's natural chemistry, integrated with nutrition and fitness programs. BodyLogicMD anti-aging physicians provide a natural treatment that helps women suffering from the symptoms of perimenopause and signs of menopause by using bioidentical hormones or natural hormones to live the best life possible.
Testing along with Comprehensive Symptoms are critical factors for success.
To determine your hormonal needs, BodyLogicMD anti-aging physicians thoroughly evaluate your early menopause symptoms using state-of-the-art diagnostic tests, such as, saliva, urine and/or blood tests to determine your hormone levels and your unique bioidentical hormonal needs. After starting bioidentical hormone therapy, BodyLogicMD monitors and reevaluates your hormone levels to insure that they are maintained at their optimum balance.
Which Hormones Do We Test?
Ovarian Hormones - What makes you a woman
• Estrogens, Progesterone and Testosterone
Adrenal Hormones - Your immune system, your energy level, and your ability to handle stress
• Cortisol – the stress hormone measured four times in a day
• DHEA – the “mother of all hormones”
Thyroid Hormones - Your metabolism
• TSH – Thyroid Stimulating Hormone
Your Body's System
• Complete Blood Count, Complete Metabolic Profile, Hemoglobin A1C, Insulin and Lipid Panel
• Vitamin D and Iron
Other Hormone Tests - The physician may suggest other tests for you based on your symptoms.
Along with your lab tests, you'll spend time on our secure Web site completing a thorough personal, medical and family history questionnaire in the convenience of your home. At your initial consultation, the BodyLogicMD anti-aging physician will review your answers and lab results to determine with you the next steps together.
Balancing Hormones with Bioidentical Hormone Therapy
In treating a woman with signs of menopause, symptoms of perimenopause and hormonal imbalance, BodyLogicMD anti-aging physicians replace exactly what is low or missing with the body's appropriate bioidentical hormones. Your doctor will prescribe the bioidentical hormones in a fashion that matches each woman's prior hormonal needs. BodyLogicMD's highly qualified, anti-aging physicians follow up with every patient closely, evaluating symptoms and using laboratory tests to determine each patient's customized dose. BodyLogicMD physicians use only the finest and most reputable compounding pharmacies to obtain the exact combination of hormones required to achieve hormonal balance.
Menopause and the Signs of Menopause
Menopause is the time in a woman's life when the ovarian production of estrogens, progesterone, and testosterone declines. The average age of menopause onset is 51, plus or minus several years. Menopause is medically defined as the time in which a woman ceases to menstruate for the duration of 12 months. Although the definition properly describes the event, the process can begin up to 10 years earlier (called perimenopause).
Long before a woman's menstruation stops, she will have already noticed a change. Her periods become shorter in length and she notices a loss of energy, a decrease in strength, and a loss of libido. Her mood is altered and she may be more agitated, depressed, apathetic, and forgetful. While these are all symptoms of menopause, it is important to know that there is a bigger picture during this time your hormones are changing - you are experiencing the loss of estrogen, progesterone and testosterone.
Perimenopause Symptoms
Perimenopause is the length of time before and one year after the final menstrual period, during which ovarian hormonal patterns change. The average age at which irregular cycles develop is approximately age 47 but in many cases can start as early as 35 years old. Like the signs of menopause, this is a normal part of a woman's life cycle. Women can experience many of the same signs of menopause and can find relief with bioidentical hormone therapy.
Alternative to Potentially Unnecessary Hysterectomies or Post Hysterectomy Treatments
The Center for Disease Control found that two thirds of the approximate 600,000 hysterectomies done in the United States every year are unnecessary. According to BodyLogicMD physicians and patient services, a large percent of BodyLogicMD female patients have had a hysterectomy and about half now think the procedure was not needed. Either way, a BodyLogicMD physician can help. Read more....
Treating the Signs of Menopause and Perimenopause Symptoms
There is no way to stop menopause, it's a natural cycle of life. Every woman will go through menopause at some point in her life. However, the difference is how you treat it. Natural bioidentical hormone therapy will help you overcome the symptoms of menopause and perimenopause that occur with this stage in life.
Itchy, Bitchy, Sweaty, Sleepy, Bloated, Forgetful, and All-Dried up. In her bestseller, "The Sexy Years," Suzanne Somers explains how, one by one, these symptomatic dwarfs took over her life and how bioidentical hormone therapy made them go away.
There are many short-term benefits to natural bioidentical hormone therapy. The seven dwarfs, one-by-one, begin to leave. The hot flashes, the night sweats, the irritability, and the loss of energy and strength begin to subside. Your libido is restored and you begin to feel more control over your emotions.
Treatment using bioidentical hormones for women are most common using creams and pills. However, in some cases gels, injections, patches or pellets may be reviewed by the physician with you.
Estimated fees for Bioidentical Hormone Therapy Services
Consultations range from $275 to $395 based on type and duration of visit. The general cost of quality grade compounded pharmacies averages generally $30 per month per hormone for creams and pills.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
New Understanding Of How We Remember Traumatic Events
Source: www.sciencedaily.com
Neuroscientists at The University of Queensland have discovered a new way to explain how emotional events can sometimes lead to disturbing long term memories. In evolutionary terms, the brain's ability to remember a fear or trauma response has been crucial to our long term survival.
However, in the modern world, when a similar type of fear response is triggered by a traumatic event such as being in combat; being exposed to abuse or being involved a major car accident, we do not want to repeatedly re-experience the episode, in vivid detail, for the rest of our lives.
During studies of the almond-shaped part of the brain called the amygdala – a region associated with processing emotions – Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) scientists have uncovered a cellular mechanism underlying the formation of emotional memories, which occurs in the presence of a well known stress hormone.
In a scientific paper published in the Journal of Neuroscience, QBI's Dr Louise Faber and her colleagues have demonstrated how noradrenaline, the brain's equivalent of adrenaline, affects the amygdala by controlling chemical and electrical pathways in the brain responsible for memory formation.
"This is a new way of understanding how neurons form long term memories in the amygdala," Dr Faber said.
"Our strongest and most vivid human memories are usually associated with strong emotional events such as those associated with extreme fear, love and rage."
"For many of us, our deepest memories are mental snapshots taken during times of high emotional impact or involvement," she said.
"Some aspects of memory formation are incredibly robust – and the mechanism we've discovered opens another door in terms of understanding how these memories are formed."
Dr Faber said her team's discovery could help other scientists to elucidate new targets, leading to better treatments for conditions such as anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder.
University of Queensland (2008, October 29). New Understanding Of How We Remember Traumatic Events. ScienceDaily. Retrieved
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Vitamin C Interferes with Anti-Cancer Drugs
Study finds vitamin C interferes with anti-cancer drugs.
Laboratory studies have found that vitamin C may interfere with the effectiveness of five anti-cancer drugs. First, the researchers gave a vitamin C product to cancer cells that were treated with chemotherapy and found that the 30% to 70% fewer cancer cells were killed. Then they injected mice with cancer cells, administered chemotherapy, and found that cells grew into tumors much faster in the mice that received pre-treatment vitamin C. The researchers warned that although results in animals are not necessarily applicable to humans, vitamin C supplementation during cancer treatment may interfere with the effect of chemotherapy. [Heaney ML and others. Vitamin C antagonizes the cytotoxic effects of antineoplastic drugs. Cancer Research 68:8031-8038, 2008]
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Yogathon - November 2, 2008 - Real Life Yoga Studio - Holbrook
YOGATHON to benefit Old Colony Hospice Services
Hosted by Real Life Yoga Studio
239 N. Franklin St(Rt.37
Holbrook, MA 02343
(781)767-1827
Date: November 2, 2008
Time: 11:00am-4:00pm
A Yogathon is an all day event featuring various yoga instructors leading you through a series of 50 minute classes. These classes will offer you a unique blend of yoga experiences. The staff at Real Life Yoga have different teaching experiences bringing you a day of “yoga bliss ”.
Practice all day or join us for a class or two.
Suggested Donation $20.00. Free keepsake water bottle to the first 50 participants!
Raffle prizes!
To register call Nancy at (781)767-1827 or email nancy_reallifeyoga@comcast.net.
Check www.yogawithnancywest.blogspot.com for Yogathon schedule
FREE CLASS at 9:45-10:45 am Nov. 2nd, Yoga for Those Living with Cancer- Join Nancy and Marybeth as they assist you through gentle, nurturing yoga poses designed to relax and restore. No prior yoga experience needed. Please check with your doctor.
About Old Colony Hospice: Old Colony Hospice is the most experienced hospice in southeastern Massachusetts; serving patients and their families since 1979. The goal of hospice care is to help people with advanced disease live well by maximizing quality of life and reducing pain, anxiety, and other symptoms. Old Colony Hospice provides patients and their loved ones the care, support, understanding, and medications they need and to help everyone cope with the illness. www.oldcolonyhospice.org
Saturday, October 18, 2008
When Seeing is Believing - Research
ScienceDaily (Oct. 14, 2008)
New research published in the journal Science explains why individuals seek to find and impose order on an unruly world through superstition, rituals and conspiratorial explanations by linking a loss of control to individual perceptions. The research finds that a quest for structure or understanding leads people to trick themselves into seeing and believing connections that simply don't exist.
The research was done by Adam Galinsky, the Morris and Alice Kaplan Professor of Ethics and Decision in Management at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., in collaboration with lead author Jennifer Whitson, an assistant professor at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. Through a series of six experiments, the researchers showed that individuals who lacked control were more likely to see images that did not exist, perceive conspiracies, and develop superstitions.
"The less control people have over their lives, the more likely they are to try and regain control through mental gymnastics," said Galinsky. "Feelings of control are so important to people that a lack of control is inherently threatening. While some misperceptions can be bad or lead one astray, they're extremely common and most likely satisfy a deep and enduring psychological need."
The Need for Control
According to Whitson, that psychological need is for control, and the ability to minimize uncertainty and predict beneficial courses of action. In situations where one has little control, the researchers proposed that an individual may believe that mysterious, unseen mechanisms are secretly at work. To test their theory, the researchers created a number of situations characterized by lack of control and then measured whether people saw a variety of illusory patterns.
For example, in one experiment individuals were asked to look at "snowy" pictures. Half of the pictures were grainy patterns of random dots, while the other half also contained images like a chair, a boat, or the planet Saturn, that were faintly visible against the grainy background. While all people correctly identified 95 percent of the hidden images, the group of people who had felt their control had been eroded in a previous part of the experiment also "saw" images in 43 percent of the pictures that were just random scatterings of dots.
"People see false patterns in all types of data, imagining trends in stock markets, seeing faces in static, and detecting conspiracies between acquaintances. This suggests that lacking control leads to a visceral need for order – even imaginary order," said Whitson.
Explaining Superstitions
To better understand superstitions, Whitson and Galinsky asked a group of individuals to write about situations they had experienced. Half of them recalled situations in which they had control, while the other half detailed paralyzing instances of a loss of control, like car accidents caused by others or illnesses to friends or family. Following the exercise, all participants read short stories in which significant outcomes, like getting an idea approved at a business meeting, were preceded by unrelated behaviors, such as stomping one's feet three times before entering a meeting. Participants who had initially written about a situation in which they had no control expressed greater belief in a superstitious connection to the story's outcome, and were more fearful of what would happen if the superstitious behavior wasn't properly repeated in the future.
While foot stomping or lucky socks are quirky and usually harmless, the participants in the experiment whose feelings of control had been diminished were more likely to perceive more sinister conspiracies lurking beneath the surface of innocuous situations. For example, when reading about an employee who was passed over for a promotion, the powerless participants tended to believe that private conversations between co-workers and the boss were to blame.
Restoring a Sense of Control
To test whether individuals with diminished power can restore control and realign their perceptions, the researchers asked participants to rate how strongly they believed in certain values (like aesthetic beauty or valuing scientific theory and research). They then asked participants to write about situations in which they were helpless or lacked control. To restore feelings of control afterwards, some participants were asked to elaborate on the values they had rated as important. As a comparison, other participants were asked to elaborate on the value they held in lowest esteem.
The results were clear: participants who didn't have an opportunity to regain feelings of control were more likely to perceive visual images that didn't exist and to perceive conspiracies in innocent situations, while participants who regained feelings of control by focusing on important personal values were no different from people who never lost their feelings of self-control in the first place.
"It's exciting - restoring people's sense of control normalized their perceptions and behavior," said Galinsky.
________________________________________
Adapted from materials provided by Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or report? Use one of the following formats:
APA
MLA
Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (2008, October 14). When Seeing IS Believing. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 15,
New research published in the journal Science explains why individuals seek to find and impose order on an unruly world through superstition, rituals and conspiratorial explanations by linking a loss of control to individual perceptions. The research finds that a quest for structure or understanding leads people to trick themselves into seeing and believing connections that simply don't exist.
The research was done by Adam Galinsky, the Morris and Alice Kaplan Professor of Ethics and Decision in Management at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., in collaboration with lead author Jennifer Whitson, an assistant professor at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. Through a series of six experiments, the researchers showed that individuals who lacked control were more likely to see images that did not exist, perceive conspiracies, and develop superstitions.
"The less control people have over their lives, the more likely they are to try and regain control through mental gymnastics," said Galinsky. "Feelings of control are so important to people that a lack of control is inherently threatening. While some misperceptions can be bad or lead one astray, they're extremely common and most likely satisfy a deep and enduring psychological need."
The Need for Control
According to Whitson, that psychological need is for control, and the ability to minimize uncertainty and predict beneficial courses of action. In situations where one has little control, the researchers proposed that an individual may believe that mysterious, unseen mechanisms are secretly at work. To test their theory, the researchers created a number of situations characterized by lack of control and then measured whether people saw a variety of illusory patterns.
For example, in one experiment individuals were asked to look at "snowy" pictures. Half of the pictures were grainy patterns of random dots, while the other half also contained images like a chair, a boat, or the planet Saturn, that were faintly visible against the grainy background. While all people correctly identified 95 percent of the hidden images, the group of people who had felt their control had been eroded in a previous part of the experiment also "saw" images in 43 percent of the pictures that were just random scatterings of dots.
"People see false patterns in all types of data, imagining trends in stock markets, seeing faces in static, and detecting conspiracies between acquaintances. This suggests that lacking control leads to a visceral need for order – even imaginary order," said Whitson.
Explaining Superstitions
To better understand superstitions, Whitson and Galinsky asked a group of individuals to write about situations they had experienced. Half of them recalled situations in which they had control, while the other half detailed paralyzing instances of a loss of control, like car accidents caused by others or illnesses to friends or family. Following the exercise, all participants read short stories in which significant outcomes, like getting an idea approved at a business meeting, were preceded by unrelated behaviors, such as stomping one's feet three times before entering a meeting. Participants who had initially written about a situation in which they had no control expressed greater belief in a superstitious connection to the story's outcome, and were more fearful of what would happen if the superstitious behavior wasn't properly repeated in the future.
While foot stomping or lucky socks are quirky and usually harmless, the participants in the experiment whose feelings of control had been diminished were more likely to perceive more sinister conspiracies lurking beneath the surface of innocuous situations. For example, when reading about an employee who was passed over for a promotion, the powerless participants tended to believe that private conversations between co-workers and the boss were to blame.
Restoring a Sense of Control
To test whether individuals with diminished power can restore control and realign their perceptions, the researchers asked participants to rate how strongly they believed in certain values (like aesthetic beauty or valuing scientific theory and research). They then asked participants to write about situations in which they were helpless or lacked control. To restore feelings of control afterwards, some participants were asked to elaborate on the values they had rated as important. As a comparison, other participants were asked to elaborate on the value they held in lowest esteem.
The results were clear: participants who didn't have an opportunity to regain feelings of control were more likely to perceive visual images that didn't exist and to perceive conspiracies in innocent situations, while participants who regained feelings of control by focusing on important personal values were no different from people who never lost their feelings of self-control in the first place.
"It's exciting - restoring people's sense of control normalized their perceptions and behavior," said Galinsky.
________________________________________
Adapted from materials provided by Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or report? Use one of the following formats:
APA
MLA
Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (2008, October 14). When Seeing IS Believing. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 15,
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Soothing Music Reduces Stress, Anxiety And Depression During Pregnancy
Soothing Music Reduces Stress, Anxiety And Depression During Pregnancy
ScienceDaily (2008-10-14) -- Music therapy can reduce psychological stress among pregnant women, according to research just published in a special complementary and alternative therapy medicine issue of the UK-based Journal of Clinical Nursing. ... > read full article
Pectin Power: Why Fruits And Vegetables May Protect Against Cancer's Spread
Pectin Power: Why Fruits And Vegetables May Protect Against Cancer's Spread
ScienceDaily (2008-10-14) -- Scientists from the UK's Institute of Food Research have found a new possible explanation for why people who eat more fruit and vegetables may gain protection against the spread of cancers. They have shown that a fragment released from pectin, found in all fruits and vegetables, binds to and is believed to inhibit galectin 3, a protein that plays a role in all stages of cancer progression. ... > read full article
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Cymatron Sound Table - The Secret Power of Music to Heal
Cymatron Sound Table Facilitator Training
November 8-9, 2008
Time: 10:30am-5pm
Fee: $225 (20% discount for members of SSYN)
with Maureen Spencer RN and Christine Naoum-Heffernan RN
Learn about Sacred Geometry, cymatics, sound and it's effect on the nervous system. You will give and receive a sound session. 10 case studies will be required for certification. More information is available at www.CymatronSoundHealing.com
Sanctuary of Plymouth and Kingston - Upcoming Workshops
Santuary Studio's October Events
Downtown Plymouth, 44 Court Street Location
Daniel Orlansky - Friday October 17th 7:00 - 9:30 pm.
Partner Stretching & Shiatsu Massage
$35 per person/ $60 per couple
Duxbury/Kingston Studio
Ray Christ, Saturday , October 11
10:0 am – 1:00 pm Soul Retrieval -- Journey of Transformation
2pm – 5pm - The Art of Intimacy and Partner Yoga
Find Sanctuary in Plymouth at:
47 Court Street
Downtown Plymouth, MA 02360
774.454.7290
Find Sanctuary in Duxbury/Kingston line at:
30 Independence Road (RT 53)
Kingston/Duxbury Line
781.585.5933
www.findsanctuary.com
Aura Photography and Readings - October 18 - Quincy
"Aura Photography and Readings" by Phyllis Commaletti
Sunday October 19th (1pm-4pm)
Fun and Unique Opportunity to See Your Aura (Energy Fields) in Full Color!
Also included is an analysis of your aura and an intuitive reading!
Fee: $38 by appointment. Call 617 770-4800 to make an appointment
SEE THE COLORFUL ENERGY THAT SURROUNDS YOU!
Friday, October 10, 2008
3rd Annual SSYN Yoga Conference
To register online - visit www.aspiremag.net
Only $99.00 if registered before 10/15/08 - breakfast, lunch, workshops, exhibitors, yoga fashion show - included in registration fee.
October 26, 2008
South Shore Yoga Network 3rd Annual Yoga Conference
To see agenda and to register online - visit www.aspiremag.net
To receive the agenda and registration form by email - contact Maureen at
yogareikisound@yahoo.com
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Tanning Beds and Risk of Melanoma
Although tanning beds have been marketed as a possible safe alternative to outdoor sun, evidence shows that ultraviolet (UV) rays are harmful, regardless of where they come from.
Three recent papers published in the journal Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research suggest that the UV rays in tanning beds increase the risk of melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer. According to the authors, UV rays harm the skin by causing DNA damage, photo-aging and skin cancer.
A review article by Marianne Berwick, an epidemiologist at the University of New Mexico, suggests that tanning beds are not safer than sun exposure. In fact, Berwick concluded that tanning beds may be associated with an even higher risk of melanoma. She calls for future studies and states "because of this uncertainty, the data do not support a claim that sun beds are safe, and such claims should be should be considered misleading."
These papers come just months after the Indoor Tanning Association launched a nationwide campaign questioning the link between UV exposure and melanoma. They claimed that tanning actually improves health since UV exposure helps the body produce vitamin D.
David Fisher, president of the Society of Melanoma Research and lead author of one of the studies, claims that these purported health benefits are overstated, and the potential risks outweigh any possible benefit. Fisher argues that people can maintain healthy levels of vitamin D by eating a healthy diet and possibly taking supplements.
"Whereas genetic and other factors undoubtedly contribute importantly to skin cancer risk, the role of UV is incontrovertible, and efforts to confuse the public, particularly for the purposes of economic gain by the indoor tanning industry, should be vigorously combated for the public health," David Fisher and his colleagues wrote.
For more information about tanning, please visit Natural Standard's Health & Wellness database.
To comment on this story, please click here to enter Natural Standard's blog.
References
1) Bennett D. Ultraviolet wavebands and melanoma initiation. Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research. Oct. 2008. Volume 21 Issue 5, Pages 520 - 524. View Abstract
2) Berwick M. Are tanning beds "safe?" Human studies of melanoma. Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research. Oct 2008. Volume 21 Issue 5, Pages 517 - 519. View Abstract
3) Natural Standard Research Collaboration: The Authority on Integrative Medicine. www.naturalstandard.com. Copyright © 2008.
4) Tran T, Schulman J, Fisher E. UV and pigmentation: molecular mechanisms and social controversies. Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research. Oct. 2008. Volume 21 Issue 5, Pages 509 - 516. View Abstract
Glucosamine/Chondroitin for Arthritis Trial
Another thing I get asked about is the use of glucosamine chondrointin for support of joints and cartilage. As we age we wear down the cartilage. When bone is rubbing against bone and we experience pain in the joint, it is called osteoarthritis. As the disc material between joints wears down over time we can develop degenerative joint disease - and again the vertebrae can rub down against nerves causing pain. Some recent research has shown that taking glucomasine/chondroitin pills did not regenerate cartilage in the knee and improve osteoarthritis.
Another major glucosamine trial is negative.
The Glucosamine/chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial (GAIT), which followed about 570 patients with osteoarthritis of the knee for two years, has found that none of the treatment groups showed a significant benefit (slowing of the narrowing of the joint space).
Sawitzke AD and others. [The effect of glucosamine and/or chondroitin sulfate on the progression of knee osteoarthritis: A report from the Glucosamine/chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial. Arthritis & Rheumatism 58:3183-3191, 2008]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18821708
In 2006, the GAIT researchers reported that glucosamine and chondroitin failed reduce osteoarthritis knee pain more effectively than a placebo and that patients who received a standard arthritis drug did about 17% better than the placebo group. [Clegg DO and others. Glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, and the two in combination for painful knee osteoarthritis. New England Journal of Medicine 354:795-808, 2006] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16495392&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum
Immunizations and Autism...Is there a correlation??
As an Infection Control Nurse - I am often asked by yoga teachers or energy healers -or those seeking to live a naturalistic, holistic lifestyle - about immunizations. Because I know the evidence and science to support their use as a prevention measure for serious infections, I recommend them and have had all my children immunized. I also was intrigued with the possibility of the preservative used in older vaccines as a possible culprit in the increasing rates of autism (now at about 1 in every 60 kids in Mass.!!!) So I kept abreast of it and saw the papers that clearly did not find and support scientifically a correlation. A new book has been published on the topic and an article in the British Gazette about the topic that I thought I would publish here so you can make the decision to immunize or not immunize your child with both sides of the story.......
Book blasts anti-vaccination scaremongers.
Autism's False Prophets exposes the opportunism of lawyers, journalists, celebrities, practitioners, politicians, and miscellaneous cranks who are promoting the myth that vaccines cause autism. Written by Paul A. Offit, M.D., co-developer of the rotavirus vaccine, the book chronicles the irresponsible behavior of Andrew Wakefield, M.D., Mark Geier, M.D., Geier's son David, Congressman Dan Burton, author David Kirby, former Playboy bunny Jenny McCarthy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and other misguided zealots and reveals how lawyers and "experts" involved in anti-vaccine litigation have collected large amounts of government money. Offit also castigates Oprah Winfrey, Larry King, "Good Morning America,"
and other major news outlets for giving McCarthy widespread and undeserved exposure.
Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure - by Paul Offit
From the British Gazette 10/01/08
Medical research academic and doctor turned newspaper columnist Ben Goldacre has warned that “the incredibly poor quality of British journalism coverage of health and science issues is a serious public health issue”.
In an interview for this month’s print edition of Press Gazette Goldacre has condemned journalists for fuelling what he calls the “MMR hoax” by giving widespread coverage to Doctor Andrew Wakefield’s claims that MMR jabs caused autism. He points out that vaccination rates have dropped from 92 per cent to 73 per cent prompting serious disease outbreaks since Wakefield’s research was first reported in 1998.
Goldacre told Press Gazette: “There’s not a proposition in the world so stupid that I could not find a doctor or Phd student somewhere who could endorse it for me.”
Citing what he sees as a number of spurious pseudo science stories reported by the national press, such as the mathematical formula for the sexiest walk put out by the PR company for hair removal cream Veet, Goldacre said: “PR agencies know that science is an area where you can bullshit national newspaper newsdesks. They know this is a way to get entirely bogus stories into the pages of national newspapers.”
He urged journalists to instead focus on what he sees as real science stories: "There are some quite serious cover ups and scandals in the world of science,” he said pointing to the 'extraordinary' case of drug companies that had hid significant data about the dangers of SSRI anti depressants, such as Prozac, and also hiding evidence that they didn't work any better than a placebo.
“That story is incredibly important, and true, but shockingly it only had a half life of about five days, then it disappeared forever,” he says. “Meanwhile your MMR hoax has been alive and well for 10 years.
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