Sign up for periodic reports and bulletins
Health News from
Bill Sardi
Original Research Into Perplexing Personal
Health Problems
FREE access; FREE of commercials; FREE to use
Sign up for periodic reports and bulletins
FREE access; FREE of commercials; FREE to use
March 12, 2012: by Knowledge of Health
About 300 of Rite-Aid’s 4700 drug stores are starting to direct customers to what they want – wellness without dependence upon problematic and over-priced prescription drugs. But that practice has obviously upset Big Pharma. These white-coated ambassadors are allegedly pretending they are pharmacists and directing patients to diet supplements – heaven’s to Betsy!
At least that is what two US Senators allege in their letter to Rite-Aid, which has GNC nutrition centers inside many of its stores. A letter from the senators to Rite-Aid says they are concerned these ambassadors “could be making false and misleading claims by marketing dietary supplements as treatments for health conditions.”
Wait a minute — I thought the Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) gave the right to market dietary supplements as long as they strictly support health, not as cures, treatments or prevention for any disease. Drugs do not promote wellness, and few are an appropriate cure for anything.
Posted in Dietary Supplements, Health Care System ; No Comments »
February 25, 2012: by Bill Sardi
Comment: The H5N1 bird flu strain does/doesn’t kill over half of those people who are infected. That is the mixed message science is sending the public today (see report below). The H5N1 strain would wipe out more than half the human population of the world if it were as deadly as some proclaim, far more deadly than the 1918 Spanish flu that killed an estimated 50 million people. But a Mt. Sinai School of Medicine (NY) researcher says the death rate is more like 1%. So you don’t run out in a hurry and get vaccinated at any of the easy drug-store locations that are pandering flu-shots these days, as flu viruses are fast mutating and likely to have mutated into a less virile form by the time you get your shot.
Posted in Health Care System, Modern Medicine ; No Comments »
November 23, 2011: by Bill Sardi
The US Food & Drug Administration is playing a deadly game with the American people, a game that protects over-priced, oftentimes ineffective or inappropriate, and sometimes toxic or lethal drugs, while muzzling any evidence that there are cheaper, safer and more effective and appropriate non-prescription remedies.
The FDA does not consider its mission to inform the American public of less problematic alternatives, even safer drugs within the same class, nor does it inform the public of natural remedies which have the same biological action as Rx drugs. In fact, any natural remedy that does in fact prevent, treat or cure a disease is declared a drug.
Posted in Dietary Supplements, Health Care System ; No Comments »
October 8, 2011: by Bill Sardi
Males have heard time and again that the PSA test, which is a marker of inflammation in the prostate gland, is an inaccurate way to determine whether the prostate is cancer free and its use should be abandoned. A repeat of this same message has just been issued. But as an Associated Press report says men “may not listen” because the vast majority of men over age 50 already get tested. Doctors have continued to string along instead of dropping the test from their physical exam regimens – it’s good for business. Men are fearful, even that tough bearded former Marine. A survey some years ago showed if men are told they have prostate cancer and their options for treatment are given to them at that time, most men will opt for immediate surgical removal of the prostate gland. But if the decision is delayed for two weeks and men have opportunity to educate themselves about treatment options, far fewer will opt for treatment. So the PSA builds fear and fear results in impulsive decisions to undergo treatment, in many cases for men who don’t have prostate cancer at all. So how do you stop the train? Great Britain doesn’t even use the PSA test. This is immaterial. Doctors are playing upon patient fears to boost their business. What medical board will chastise them? None. It will be business as usual. — Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc.
Posted in Health Care System ; No Comments »
September 30, 2011: by Bill Sardi
All roads to adult wellness and longevity lead to resveratrol, but the public isn’t buying it. An estimated 345 producers of dietary supplements have all raced to enter their version of resveratrol pills into the marketplace, but not much more than 100,000 American take these red wine pills. It is inexplicable why resveratrol continues to astound in the research laboratory but physicians are loathe to recommend it and consumers reticent to take this pill that may be the pill that ends all other pills.
The broad biological scope of the red wine molecule resveratrol is becoming legendary. Dr. Dipak Das at the University of Connecticut has documented the large number of genes that resveratrol controls. Resveratrol is beneficial for brain, heart, liver, blood circulation, immunity, cholesterol, blood clotting, etc, etc. It is difficult to address the breadth of resveratrol’s biological action without writing an encyclopedia.
Posted in Anti-Aging, Dietary Supplements, Health Care System ; 1 Comment »
August 9, 2011: by Bill Sardi
In 2009 a deadly flu virus was supposedly sweeping the nation after starting in Mexico. But early on the story didn’t ring true. The President had just returned from a short trip to Mexico a month earlier when the French President was in Mexico City along with the President of Mexico to christen the opening of a French vaccine plant there. Suddenly a flu outbreak in a small village in Mexico was getting attention as it spread across the US-Mexico border. But there were no flu deaths in the village where it all began. The people in the village said they had been ill for some time from air pollution generated by nearby pig farms, not from the flu. And why was Homeland Security practicing drive-in delivery of flu vaccines in Texas months prior to the outbreak?
Posted in Dietary Supplements, Health Care System ; No Comments »
August 6, 2011: by Bill Sardi
No one knows now whether Pfizer, which is panned as “the world largest research-based pharmaceutical company,” will have a more storied past or a more storied future. That’s because sometimes the downfall of such a huge success story in American business may be more gripping than an account of how Pfizer developed and marketed so many blockbuster drugs. The $68 billion drug giant is headed for a momentous downfall, and this is sure to gain continued attention in business news columns worldwide in the coming months ahead.
Pfizer’s treasure chests of new drugs are now empty. No genie is about to uncork a surprise molecule from its R&D pipeline that will generate billions of dollars to counter anticipated losses as Pfizer’s prized drug patents expire.
Pfizer’s CEO, who was once known as the maven who re-invented McDonald’s hamburger franchises, was commissioned to re-invent Pfizer. When Jeffrey Kindler first became CEO at Pfizer nearly a decade ago he faced what is tantamount to a corporate spill over a waterfall as its prize drug, Lipitor, faced eventual patent expiration. But that was years away.
Posted in Dietary Supplements, Health Care System ; 1 Comment »
August 2, 2011: by Bill Sardi
Where have all the patentable synthetically-made blockbuster drugs gone?
Long-time passing.
Where have all the patentable synthetically-made blockbuster drugs gone?
Long-time ago.
Where have all the patentable synthetically-made blockbuster drugs gone?
Gone to patent graveyards everyone.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Big Pharma is about to be dismantled as pharmaceutical patents expire, representing $78 billion in sales. Thirteen drugs including Lipitor, the cholesterol-lowering drug, Plavix, the blockbuster blood thinner, and Nexium, the designer acid blocker/heartburn remedy, will become generic drugs by 2015, says an article in Managed Care magazine.
Posted in Health Care System, Modern Medicine ; No Comments »
July 27, 2011: by Bill Sardi
SAN DIMAS, CA (July 26, 2011) -Saying the newly proposed safety guidelines for dietary supplements would likely eliminate most children’s vitamins from store shelves, the first official comment regarding the FDA’s New Dietary Ingredient guidelines has been submitted, and it also calls for dietary supplements to be removed from oversight by the FDA altogether. The newly proposed guidelines were published on July 1 and are subject to a 90-day comment period.
Bill Sardi, long-time dietary supplement advocate, health writer and dietary supplement formulator, speaking from his office in San Dimas, California, says dietary supplements are safer than tap water, table salt, aspirin and even food and it is unlikely the newly proposed guidelines will make them any safer. His 16-page critique of the FDA’s newly proposed safety tests, available for viewing at www.knowledgeofhealth.com ,demands that an economic impact report be commissioned before any further action is taken by FDA.
Posted in Dietary Supplements, Health Care System, Vitamins ; No Comments »
: by Bill Sardi
The predicted power grab of herbal and dietary supplements, many which have the same biological action as prescription drugs, is now underway. Drug patents face expiration (see article below) and profits will crash at pharmaceutical companies. Stock prices will fold for Big Pharma. The pipeline for new drugs is bare.
The New Dietary Ingredient guideline proposed by FDA would cost billions of dollars, result in many supplements being withdrawn from store shelves not because they are unsafe but because they can’t afford the onerous testing requirements to prove they are safe, and will wipe out most small business entities in the supplement business. One consequence, under the FDA guideline, children’s vitamins would virtually disappear, as they must undergo costly 1-3 year tests to prove they don’t cause birth defects. New Dietary Ingredient testing will cost tens of billions of dollars. The retail price for supplements will have to rise to that of drugs, and being unaffordable, consumers won’t be able to buy them.
Posted in Dietary Supplements, Health Care System ; 1 Comment »
4
1
9
1
6
46
4
19
5
3
20
6
3
16