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Clinical Medicine, Medical Research, and Public Health.....(Stopdown.net)

Scroll down to bottom of page or click here  for discussion of topics in general of special importance. These include the following. ....Although many doctors tell patients with angina that diet and exercise can reverse their heart condition, there is an ongoing failure to do studies showing that this is so (the only such American study was Ornish, 1990) (The $415 million government study from about four years ago claiming low fat diet did not prevent heart disease in women is a joke. It did not distinguish between olive oil and lard.) Heart disease, diabetes and back pain present similar issues in that surgery (amputations in the case of diabetes) makes money and is favored by the medical establishment, but common sense approaches including diet and exercise don't.  Click here for a page that looks at heart disease, diabetes, and orthopedic back ailments. ....In 1983 blood bankers and gay leaders refused to repeat to their own people -- gay men and the blood banking community -- the claim brought to them by the Centers for Disease Control that AIDS was caused by a new virus that was infecting gay men through sex at a much higher rate than heterosexuals, and that hundreds of thousands of gay men would be infected before symptoms appeared on a wide scale, and that there was a donor blood hazard. The CDC needed blood bankers and gay leaders to do studies on AIDS transmission and prove what they thought to be true. So when gay leaders and blood bankers (who controlled the pertinent FDA committee) joined forces warned the CDC to be quiet about their alarming picture until they had proof, the CDC backed down. The AIDS antibody test in 1985 showed the CDC had been right. ("And The Band Played On" the movie was a coverup for gay leaders. The book told the truth.)  Click here for our article on AIDS in 1983.   .......... AIDS(HIV) in the U.S. and Europe very rarely is transmitted from a woman to a man outside of heavy drug-use circles, which is  unlike other STD's (like herpes) in the U.S. and Europe, and unlike AIDS in the third world, where woman-to-man transmission  happens very readily, although not as readily as man-to-woman. Articles in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal have pointed out that the standard public health message, "anyone can get AIDS", while technically true, does not tell the real story. But factors including the fear of men not wearing condoms keep the politically correct message current. Which is better, in this case, the truth or  the well-intentioned lie? Click here for our article on current AIDS issues. These issues include the failure of our public health system to do AIDS testing the way the gay community does it -- information about those who test positive (sex practices e.g.) is obtained, which is possible when there is a guarantee that their names will not go to a government file. If names are reported, people lie. Local STD clinics could do what gay groups do by testing for HIV at the clinic and just not reporting the names to a state list, with state permission not to do so. The personal history information is important, for public health purposes, the names aren't. The only reason for using names in the context of AIDS testing is to contact sexual partners, and this could be done without reporting names to a general government list. We currently are nearly blind as to how AIDS is spreading in the U.S., and now reporting names to government files is getting more and more support.

We are looking for information on the coverup in the 1960's of the dangers of the anti-miscarriage drug diethylstylbesteral (DES). There is a documentary on this issue the name of which we would be grateful to receive. The documentary makes it clear there was a coverup but does not go into detail. This drug was prescribed to pregnant women long after farmers had stopped using it for chickens because it caused deformed offspring. The daughters of women who took the drug developed genital cancers. Many had to have their vaginas removed. For some reason the National Organization of Women has been of no help in getting information about the DES tragedy and the coverup.

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ARTICLES

Parkinson's disease Chemical found in solvents has been linked through studies of twins to Parkinson's disease. Job history of exposure to trichloroethelyne revealed a six to one disparity. Click here.

In the (old) news: 25% of pregnant women have genital herpes, according to a New York Times article on a call by a group of experts for better reporting on herpes transmission to newborns from mothers. Estimates of such transmissions range from 460 to 2,800 per year, in the U.S.  Untreated neonatal (infant) herpes in usually fatal, and most survivors have permanent disabilities. Even with treatment death and disability are common, and treatment must be prompt to be successful. (New York Times, 8/24/05)  Note: for years the standard advice on genital herpes was that transmission did not occur without visible lesions (open sores). But New England Journal of Medicine article from a year or so ago cited evidence that transmission can occur without lesions, and it is becoming clear that the longstanding public health dogma on this question has been wrong. Asymptomatic transmission is widespread, not rare. We are seeking citations for editorials in the journals or media noting that doctors have been giving the public a false sense of security, based on non-existent data,  for decades.  It does not seem right that the medical establishment feeds the public dangerous misinformation for years, and then when the truth is becomes clear, just quietly walks away from the matter. 

 Many breast tumors which would go away on their own are treated, according to results of a new study, raising issues similar to lung cancer issues (see next article). Click here for breast cancer article.

Early CT scans for lung cancer may result in treatment for tumors that will not proceed to cancer.  The five-year survival rate of lung cancer patients whose tumors were detected early by a CT scan is 80%, compared with 15% for patients who did not receive the CT scan. One problem with this statistic is that the tumor is recognized earlier in patients who received the CT-scan, and that's when the 5-year clock starts running: much earlier in the life of the tumor. So the tumors of a CT-scan patient and a non-CT-scan patient may start at the same time, and the patients may lapse into clinical disaese and die at the same time, and yet the CT-scan patient will be said to survive more years from diagnosis. Earlier treatment may not make any difference because chemotherapy does not do much good with lung cancer except for the 10% or so who respond to Iressa. Furthermore, there is a big danger to early treatment:  about 4 out of 5 in the CT group will actually have inactive tumors that will not progress to cancer, and yet they are likely to undergo the dangers chemotherapy and/or surgery. The death rate for screened patients is actually higher than for non-screened. View article.  A recent study has looked at scanning results and its authors assert that their evidence supports the scan, but this seems to be more the way the authors feel about their study than what the facts demonstrate. View article

article in the June 1 NY Times science/health section describes the danger of toddlers swallowing lithium cell batteries, the small, round, flat metallic discs found in cameras, watches, toys, bathroom scales and other devices. Newer batteries are stronger and more dangerous. 20 millimeter batteries numbered 2032, 2025 and 2016 cause 90% of severe cases. In recent years cases with serious complications have risen from about 12 per year to about 100 per year, out of the approximately 3,500 cases of cell battery ingestion reported annually to poison control centers. The battery's current can trigger a chemical reaction that lesions tissues including the esophagus, trachea, vocal chords and aorta.  Early misdiagnosis is frequent and long-term injury and death can occur. Click here for article.

Giving insulin to lower the blood sugar of patients in intensive care, whose blood sugar generally runs high, resulted in a 29% reduction in deaths in a hospital study. Click here for article.

 An FDA big shot gets revenge on a cancer drug, Iressa, that has been shown to be valuable but challenged his dictates to reach the market. Click here for WSJ editorial.

Of  four centers for Type 2 diabetics started at NY hospitals to provide counseling on diet, exercise, and self-monitoring of blood sugar levels, three have been closed because insurance reimbursements were lower than cost to the hospital, whereas amputations, costing $30,000, and prosthetics bring the hospitals profit. The number of New Yorkers with Type 2 diabetes has doubled during the seven years the programs ran, and 100 dialysis centers, charging $300 a session,  have opened. Click here for article.

In November, 2003, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported dramatic improvement in the arterial plaque of patients given a few infusions of "good," HDL, cholesterol. For article click here.  This appears to be a great drug for clogged arteries.  Apparently, however, this drug is years away from approval for patients.

Article on stem cells used to treat heart disease experimentally: click here. .....From the journal Nature Medicine...... Question: How far away is this treatment from clinical use?

 Article on bioengineered bacteria which emit a toxin that enhances anti-cancer drugs: click here. From the journal Nature Medicine.

Article: Bacteria which are resistant to antibiotics are infecting people outside of hospitals. Hospitals is where resistance is usually found. The resistant bacteria from outside the hospital are different from hospital strains, and the way they arise is not understood. For article click here.

Article: Untreated Factor VIII sold to hemophiliacs after heat treatment made it possible to sell safer product in terms of AIDS risk -- 1984. Click here

Article: Telomeres are repeating gene segments on the ends of chromosomes which become shorter with a person's age. A study has found that stress can cause a loss of telomeres. For article click here.

Stopdown pages (cited above in opening paragragh)

Stopdown page on common sense approaches to heart disease, diabetes, and back pain, as compared to establishment approaches that are making a lot of money for doctors and hospitals at the expense of patients' health.  Page includes reversal of clogged arteries with diet and exercise: click here.  Although many AMA doctors tell patients with angina they can reverse the problem without surgery, the studies to show this is true have not been done, and usually patients are not told that reversal is possible. After surgery the patient is invited to improve his arteries, but by then the issue has been confused by new blood flow to the heart from surgery (or angioplasty). Heart surgery and angioplasty are apparently a racket, like back surgery, also discussed on this page.

Stopdown article on AIDS (HIV) testing and the current public health picture of AIDS: click here.  HIV is not spreading among heterosexuals in the U.S. and Europe at rates comparable to to Africa and Asia, apparently because woman-to-man transmission is lower in the U.S. and Europe. But the testing data is not being generated to show the truth. The gay AIDS/medical community is doing testing right: getting honest personal history when someone tests positive, by guaranteeing that names will not go to a government list. Municipal VD clinics should do the same, and send the data to the government agencies without names, presuming we don't want to remain blind as to how AIDS (HIV) is spreading in the U.S.  An advantage of doing it right is that it doesn't leave AIDS testing open to be done wrong -- reporting names without getting a good personal history because people lie when their name is being reported.

Stopdown article on AIDS as a public health issue in the years 1982-1985: click here. ..... In 1983 Gay leaders and blood bankers combined forces, threatening non-compliance with future research, to stop the CDC AIDS team from going public with the claim that AIDS was caused by a new virus, infecting gays much more than heterosexuals, and spreading years before it caused clinical disease. To gay leaders this unproven assertion was the same as saying all gays have AIDS, and gay publications, like the BAR, Advocate and Native, refused to report on theCDC's  alarming picture, and likewise the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle, for reasons we discuss.  (The Philadelphia Inquirer reported the CDC claim, and the dispute with gay leaders over merits of taking it public.) Testing, not possible until 1985, showed the CDC had been right. (The Movie, "And the Band Played On," was a coverup for gay leaders, unlike the book (1987) which gay men in the U.S. have chosen not to read or pretend they haven't read.  The book exposes the reaction of gay leaders and blood bankers against the CDC.  The late Randy Shiltz was gay. He was sick with AIDS when the movie was made and permitted the coverup of what his book says.)

To give us a citation, post an idea, take issue with our comments, etc.,  click here  for comment page.

Topics in general: an assortment of medical issues on which we offer and seek discussion.