No jab, no education: New CA law requires middle schoolers to provide proof of Tdap vaccination in order to receive education

A new amendment to California’s Health and Safety Code as it relates to vaccinations will take effect this fall for the 2012-2013 school year, and will require all incoming seventh graders, as well as eighth and twelfth graders for the first year, to get a Tdap booster…

Culture of corruption has become common within FDA, Big Pharma

When pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices are approved for use in medicine by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), their safety and efficacy are typically not the primary factors considered during the decision-making process. As pointed out by the Office…

Stop the USDA from approving Agent Orange GMO corn by commenting in the Federal Register

Thanks to massive pressure from the Center for Food Safety (CFS), a non-profit public advocacy group that is leading the charge in opposing genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has extended the public comment period on Agent…

FDA petition to label GMOs nears one million signatures – sign it today!

(NaturalNews)Only a few more weeks remain before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stops accepting public comments about a petition filed by the Center for Food Safety (CFS) seeking the FDA’s compliance with requiring mandatory labeling of genetically-modified organisms…

Profits over People: Johnson & Johnson hid studies showing Risperdal drug caused diabetes, says victim

For the first time, an individual user of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) antipsychotic drug Risperdal is suing the pharmaceutical giant for allegedly committing fraud and lying about the safety of the drug. According to reports, Fletch Trammell, lawyer for the individual…

High fiber foods reduce disease

According to a health review put together at the Rain Forest Research Institute in India, and recently published in the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health, increased dietary fiber consumption can reduce the risk of developing a number of…

Powerful activism to demand labeling of GMOs – watch ‘Labels Matter’ and sign the petition now!

The Alliance for Natural Health USA (ANH-USA), Breastcancer.org, the Center for Food Safety (CFS), Stonyfield Farm, the Non-GMO Project, and more than 450 other consumer groups, health food companies, and farming organizations have signed on with a new GMO labeling campaign…

FDA revokes voting rights from key advisory panel member who publicly opposes Bayer birth control drugs

(NaturalNews)A prominent expert in health-related issues and pharmaceutical drugs, Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe, Director of the Public Citizen Health Research Group (HRG) and member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee, was recently…

Exposing the hidden epidemic of crippling, painful neurological adverse effects of antibiotics

(NaturalNews) The adverse reactions from a certain specific class of antibiotics resemble the crippling adverse reactions of the vaccine injured. But there is much less notoriety among these agonized and debilitated victims of the Medical Mafia, except for one PBS Nightly News special from June 16th, 2011. (PBS, source below) Most antibiotic victims are adults with no one to look after them. Unlike unfortunate autistic or paralyzed vaccine injured kids who have parents dedicated to taking care of them. Thanks to social networking and internet forums, these victims have some support. Unfortunately, most of them are locked into the Medical Mafia system of harmful drugs and brain washed medicine. Their complaints are often disregarded as delusional, or they’re misdiagnosed for rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, or MS. And that’s because their symptoms are similar, and worse. They often suffer from the constant pain of extreme neuropathy. Very few adverse event reports make it to the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS). It’s estimated by even the FDA that less than ten percent of actual adverse events make it into this system. It’s not advertised to patients as the complaint department of choice, and doctors tend be averse to reporting adverse events from drugs they’ve prescribed. So the forums and social network systems such as a facebook “wall of pain” containing personal stories and photos of current victims are their sole recourse and support. Most of them are motivated with the desire to warn others and curse the FDA. They don’t have ambulance chasing attorneys – yet. The most troublesome antibiotics Fluoroquinolone antibiotics appear to be the most pernicious class of antibiotics causing the worst adverse effects. They are prescribed and sold as Ciprofloxacin (Cipro), Levaquin, Avelox, and Tequin . Apparently enough adverse event reports have gotten through, causing the FDA to issue a black box warning for Levaquin specifically and fluoroquinolones in general. The black box is the FDA’s most severe warning, but it goes only to whoever is prescribing the drug. It’s up to physicians and pharmacists to sound the alarm for their patients and customers. But usually those alarms don’t get sounded, even, according to many victims, when queried about their safety. Fluoroquinolone antibiotics seem to be popular. They are dispensed for minor infections when they should be used only for extremely serious infections, though there could be problems there too. At least the ratio of benefit to risk would be closer then. A professor of pharmacology at Indiana University was quoted as saying “you don’t use big guns to kill mosquitoes.” Fluoroquinolone adverse effect symptoms An unusual side effect, exclusive to this type of antibiotic, is tearing tendons. They may literally fall apart within days of using a fluoroquinolone antibiotic. The others are crippling losses of motor abilities, difficulty thinking, tinnitus, chronic insomnia, depression and anxiety among others. The constant pain is the most difficult to bear. Neuropathy can be restricted to tingling, twitching, and numbness. But the level of neuropathy for many of the fluoroquinolone victims causes constant extreme pain throughout the joints and body. Oddly enough, these symptoms are similar to Lyme disease victims who clamor for life-long antibiotic use. Adverse effects may show up after only one pill or not begin until a year or more after taking a series of fluoroquinolone antibiotics. If not treated, the adverse effects last long enough to ruin lives completely. Perhaps alpha lipoic acid, especially combined with extra potent B vitamins, could do wonders for their comfort and recovery. Skilled homeopathic doctors could help them also. Unfortunately, most of these victims are stuck in a system that makes huge profits from selling solutions to problems they’ve created. Sources for this article include PBS report and individuals’ videos here: http://healthmaven.blogspot.com/2011/12/must-viewthese-antibiotics-cause-severe.html “Wall of pain” – click photos for their stories http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=pu.209182505773463&type=1

Exposed: Food manufacturers, not the FDA, have self-approved thousands of food chemicals in widespread use today

(NaturalNews) There are currently more than 10,000 chemical food additives permitted for use in foods today. But at least 3,000 of these have never undergone proper US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) safety reviews, and have instead essentially been “approved” for use by the chemical companies and food manufacturers that make and use them. Before the mid-1990s, the FDA members of the public, as well as academic scientists and public interest groups, provided input on chemicals as part of the FDA review process — and the FDA actually took this input into consideration when conducting safety analyses and establishing regulatory guidelines. But a lot changed when the FDA converted to an “expedited” approval process for food chemicals that effectively bypassed having to deal with any outsiders. Instead, the FDA now deals directly with food chemical companies and food manufacturers, who typically just provide their own “safety data” — and the FDA just takes their word on it and grants approval, in most cases. “Congress established our food additive regulatory program more than 50 years ago, and it does not stand up well to scrutiny based on today’s standards of science and public transparency,” said Tom Nelter, Director of the Pew Health Group’s Food Additives Project, which uncovered the findings and published them in the journal Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety . “While the shift to a new regulatory process — one in which companies make safety decisions and ask FDA to confirm them — has sped up agency review, it has also bypassed the public … there is virtually no meaningful opportunity for participation in decisions about large classes of substances added to the food supply.” The Sacramento Bee reports that the FDA’s regulatory prowess has been stunted since as far back as the 1950s. The Food Additives Amendment of 1958 essentially made it legal for food chemical manufacturers to self-determine the safety of their own products and to begin using them without having to even notify the FDA. Since food chemical manufacturers are also not required to let the FDA know when new published science exposes one of their already-in-use chemicals as unsafe, the agency must do this itself. But the agency routinely fails to do this, of course, and has a reputation for ignoring or discounting new science that contradicts its drug and chemical lobbyists anyway. Sources for this article include: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/26/4008438/food-chemical-regulations-rely.html

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