Mayo Clinic DEAD Wrong on Diabetic Recommendations
Researchers from North Carolina State University and the Mayo Clinic have developed a computer model that is intended to determine the best time to begin using statin therapy in diabetes patients to help prevent heart disease and stroke.
According to the lead author, "The research is significant because patients with diabetes are at high risk for cardiovascular disease and statins are the single most commonly used treatment for patients at risk of heart disease and/or stroke."
The new model incorporates patient-specific data. An established risk model calculates each patient's probability of heart attack and stroke based on risk factors, such as their cholesterol, blood pressure, etc. This overall risk "score" is used to weigh the medical advantages of beginning statin therapy against the financial cost of the statins.
Should We Tax Sodas and Junk Food to Pay for Health Care? by Mike Adams the Health Ranger
Should We Tax Sodas and Junk Food to Pay for Health Care?
Monday, August 03, 2009 by: Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
(NaturalNews)
Mr. Johnson weighed nearly a ton.
And drank pop 'til his health came undone.
His kidneys turned blue
But he said, "I've got two."
"So I'll drink 'til I only lose one."
The debate over health care reform has run smack into a brick wall of economic reality. There's just not enough money to pay for all the disease in America, it seems, and now lawmakers are desperately searching for new sources that might bridge the financial gaps. Their latest scheme involves taxing sodas with a three-cent tax to raise an extra $24 billion over the next four years.
At first, taxing soda might seem like a good idea. Sodas, after all, promote diabetes, obesity, bone loss and many other costly health conditions. It only stands to reason that people who drink soda should pay a little more towards a national health care plan.
But there are problems with this idea of a soda tax. For starters, it's a highly regressive tax that ultimately gets paid mostly by low-income, low-education people (the kind of people who drink a lot of soda). It's a tax, in other words, on those who can least afford it.
Another problem with such a tax is that if the U.S. government is going to use taxes to modify consumer behavior, it would seem prudent to first end the government subsidies on sugar that have existed since World War II. Why are we still using taxpayer dollars to lower the price of sugar when refined white sugar contributes so much to our nation's health problems?
Then there's the question of where the money will go. Even if you slap a five-cent tax on every can of soda, does that money actually end up going towards improved health care, or is it just lost in the morass of bureaucratic incompetude that wanders the halls of Washington these days?
Case in point: The government settlement with Big Tobacco. All that tobacco money that was supposed to go to "improving health care" across America has actually ended up in the general budgets of most states, where it gets wasted on a thousand different things that have nothing to do with health care. A soda tax would likely end up being lost in the system in much the same way.
A better solution for influencing consumer behavior
Slapping new "sin taxes" on consumer products as a way to shape consumer behavior while raising money is a seductively attractive idea if you're a bureaucrat with an itchy trigger finger. It seems (at first, at least) economically and morally sound: Make the people who cause the problem pay more for fixing it. It all seems so simple: Let cigarette taxes pay for health care. Let soda taxes help fight obesity. Let alcohol taxes pay for alcohol addiction recovery centers. But in the real world, it never quite works that way: Money gets stolen away for other uses, rarely going to the intended beneficiary. Meanwhile, the taxes end up hurting those consumers who can least afford it.
A far better option is educating consumers about the harm these products cause. Put large, unambiguous warnings on cigarettes like, "SMOKING CAUSES CANCER" along with a horrifying picture of a diseased lung. On soda cans, you could require warnings like, "DRINKING SODA CAUSES KIDNEY STONES" along with a picture of a short, sweaty man holding his junk and screaming in pain.
You get the idea. Why waste all that time and effort collecting and distributing a five-cent soda tax when you can just use pictures and warning labels to influence consumer behavior?
Of course, using honest labels on harmful products doesn't raise money for bureaucrats to ferret away in their favorite pork projects, but it does accomplish something much more important: It reduces long-term health care costs by dissuading people from consuming harmful products.
Sure, it doesn't stop every ignorant teen from slamming colas while he becomes obese and diabetic, but it does have a positive influence on many. The sad truth is that most people who drink soda have no idea the phosphoric acid causes bone mineral loss and kidney stones. They have no clue that high-fructose corn syrup promotes diabetes and obesity. They just don't know about the harmful effects of drinking highly acidic liquid sugar beverages, and that's part of the reason why they keep drinking them.
In my opinion, large health warnings should be required on all sodas and junk food products. And they should be blunt: Soda causes diabetes. Donuts cause obesity and heart disease. Hot dogs cause cancer. The list goes on...
Such a proposal would horrify the corporate giants in the food and beverage industries, of course. Their sales depend on consumers staying ignorant about the ravaging health effects of their products. Requiring their labels to tell the truth would devastate their sales and profits. The processed food industry would suffer huge economic losses. So would the sick care industry as fewer people suffer degenerative disease. Lots of jobs would be lost as people avoided disease-promoting foods.
And that should be the ultimate goal: A huge downsizing of the junk food and sick care industries. The smaller they are, the better off the people are. Ultimately, we should strive to destroy the sick care industry altogether. The day Big Pharma's top corporations declare bankruptcy due to a lack of sales is the day we've achieved something meaningful for the health of our nation. And we're not going to get there by taxing sodas without telling people the truth about how sodas destroy their health.
Taurine, often referred to as an amino acid, is not part of the human body's structural proteins. Instead, taurine remains free in the tissues and bloodstream. In fact, taurine is one of the most abundant free amino-acid-like compounds found in the heart, the skeletal muscles and the nervous system. At times of extreme physical exertion, the body no longer produces the required amounts of taurine, which results in a relative deficiency. Taurine acts as a metabolic transmitter and is also known to have a detoxifying effect. Taurine also plays an important role in the brain. Some researchers believe that taurine can be a beneficial dietary supplement for people who suffer from bipolar disorder (manic depression).
Taurine and heart disease In Japan, taurine is used to treat ischemic heart disease as well as certain heart arrhythmias. People who suffer from congestive heart failure are reported to have benefited from taurine therapy - in the amount of 3 to 5 grams per day - and taurine may also be helpful in the treatment of both hypertension and high cholesterol.
Taurine and type 1 diabetes Studies (1) have demonstrated that taurine acts as a potent antioxidant and improves drug-induced type 1 diabetes mellitus in laboratory rats, by combating the destructive effect oxygen free radicals have on the pancreas. Moreover, the second mechanism by which taurine improves insulin resistance is through an increase in the excretion of cholesterol via conversion to bile acid. Because type 1 diabetes is so devastating if not treated properly, taurine in the amount of 500 mg 1 to 3 times a day is generally a good idea in these cases. Studies (2) have shown that even in infants, taurine insufficiency results in reduced bile acid secretion, reduced fat absorption and reduce liver function, all of which can be reversed by supplementing the diet with taurine. These studies also support the theory that taurine is essential for proper development and growth. Consequently, taurine has been added to most commercially-available infant formulas.
Taurine and hepatitis In a double-blind, randomized study (3), acute hepatitis patients were given taurine in the amount of 4 grams 3 times a day after meals. The participants in the taurine study experienced significant decreases in bilirubin, and total bile acids.
Taurine and alcoholism Taurine has been shown to be useful in treating people with alcohol dependency. In people undergoing alcohol withdrawal, taurine given at 1 gram 3 times per day for 7 days resulted in significantly fewer psychotic episodes when compared to people who were taking a placebo (4). Yet another study (5) involving over 3,000 alcohol dependent people with who were given taurine at similar doses showed that taurine is more effective than placebo at preventing alcohol relapse. The effectiveness of this taurine supplement appeared to be dependent on the dose given.
How safe is taurine? Human and animal studies (6) have demonstrated overwhelmingly that taurine is a safe - and beneficial - supplement. In my opinion, we carry one of the highest quality taurine in our office from Biotics Research.
References (1) American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 71, No. 1, 54-58, January 2000 (2) Hayes KC, Stephan ZF, Sturman JA. Growth depression in taurine-depleted infant monkeys. J Nutr1980;110:2058-2064. (3) Matsuyama Y, Morita T, Higuchi M, Tsujii T. The effect of taurine administration on patients with acute hepatitis. (4) Ikeda H. Effects of taurine on alcohol withdrawal. Lancet 1977;2:509. (5) Wilde MI, Wagstaff AJ. Acamprosate. A review of its pharmacology and clinical potential in the management of alcohol dependence after detoxification. Drugs 1997;53:1038-1053. (6) Van Gelder NM, Sherwin AL, Sacks C, Andermann F. Biochemical observations following administration of taurine to patients with epilepsy. Brain Res 1975;94:297-306.
A patient walked in Saturday and commented on how he was manging his diabetes with our magnesium supplement "Natural Calm". He said his blood pressure normalized, he has taken less insulin (140, down from 200 units), he could sleep better.
Another patient remarked on how she had irregular bowel movements which improved to be the best she's ever had in her 20 some years (you really shouldn't have these issues, being so young. But she has many more issues that we are resolving that traditional medicine has not helped her with.)
Lastly, my pregnant wife couldn't fall asleep so at 2 am I made her some Mama Calm with honey and she did sleep better afterwards.
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