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A report from Reuters Tue Sep 18, 2007 stated that the FDA has warned Hain Celestial Group Inc. by calling the natural herbal sweetener that they add to some of their teas “an unsafe food additive.”

Stevia, derived from a South American herb is 300 times sweeter than sugar but with no calories, is approved as a dietary supplement, but not as a food additive in the U.S.

This should not be surprise as the FDA and Health Canada both regard stevia as an herb but not as a food additive. As Wikipedia points out:

“In 1991, at the request of an anonymous complaint, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) labeled stevia as an “unsafe food additive” and restricted its import. The FDA’s stated reason was “toxicological information on stevia is inadequate to demonstrate its safety.”[31] This ruling was controversial, as stevia proponents pointed out that this designation violated the FDA’s own guidelines under which any natural substance used prior to 1958 with no reported adverse effects should be generally recognized as safe (GRAS).”

Gee, I wonder who this anonymous complaint came from. An interesting comment on a blog at Dr. Mercola’s web site is insiteful:
“I’m far too stupid to wonder why it’s fine (stevia) when called one thing, yet potentially a destructive, nation-flattening weapon when used as a cheap, abundant sweetener that would coincidentally compete with the safe-as-mother’s-milk health chemicals like Splenda and Aspartame. ”

Agriculture Canada Wants to Grow Stevia

If stevia is so unsafe then why did the Canadian Brodacasting Corporation (CBC) state on it’s Market Place television program in February of 2000 that:

“Agriculture Canada is growing stevia. “We want to turn it into a crop, a viable crop for farmers in southwestern Ontario,” says Jim Brandle, a plant breeding specialist with Agriculture Canada.

…It has been embraced in Japan, where it’s used in soy sauce, sweet pickles and soft drinks. In Japan, Diet Coke has been sweetened with stevia. ”

The article points out that Linda Bonvie a New Jersey-based investigative journalist who’s written a book on stevia that on its cover asks ‘Is the FDA suppressing an ideal herbal sweetener?’

“I think there’s a lot at stake here … and when there’s big money at stake, strange things happen.” She stated, and “There’s been no consumer complaints or reports of ill effects due to stevia,” she says. “Not in health journals, not in government statistics, and not by consumers.

Stevia- Health Benefits

Wikipedia Balanced Report also states:

“…while newer studies find no safety issues…Other studies have shown stevia improves insulin sensitivity in ratsand may even promote additional insulin production, helping to reverse diabetes and metabolic syndrome. ”

To sum up this herbal product that’s been used for decades with no reported toxicity is not allowed to compete on a level playing field with the big boys that make chemical sweeteners with known toxicity. Can you imagine what would happen if the general public was aware of safety and benefits of stevia compared to Nutrasweet/Equal (Aspartame) and Splenda.

There is faint hope but not complete because Coca Cola and Cargill are working on scientifically establishing the safety of the herb. You can bet though that it will not be the pure total herb from the plant but will be a patentable derivative. At least with heavyweight corporations like these they will be able to pay off the FDA because Coke is desperate for an alternative to expensive Nurtasweet.

Just think in the near future your local health food store will no longer be raided for their dangerous stevia because their will be a ‘patent FDA approved for your protection brand’ with higher prices. Then the sour view of the FDA on stevia will miraculously turn sweet.
http://www.steviainfo.com/

For more information on Stevia go to these sites-

Stevia: Nature’s Perfect Sweetener
The Sweet Secret of Stevia

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Dennis Cutforth is a researcher and writer with over 35 years experience in health-care sales, marketing and research in pharmaceuticals and natural health. Dennis will cut through all the propaganda and give you the real facts about what really works to make you healthier and happier. Visit his Blog at Better Life Blog.

The tag line in a news article 19 Jul 2007 at Medical News Today is “Scientists Discover Genes Behind Restless Legs”, based on one study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and the other study published in the journal Nature Genetic.

So Hallelujah all you have to do if you suffer from this sleep disorder is to wait for a Drug Company to use this information, take out a patent with a drug that blocks the symptoms while causing intolerable side effects and 15-20 years from now you’ll be able to take advantage of this miracle treatment that is 5-10% effective at a premium price.

To be sure there are prescription drugs that are on the market for this syndrome that can keep you awake and make you feel like you have the creepy crawlies in your legs. However, if you are proactive and don’t just accept the ‘Big Pharma’ line and find a physician or health care provider that looks at diet and nutritional deficiencies you can get the help you need at an affordable price with better results now.

As Melvyn R. Werbach, MD wrote in The Townsend Letter in an article entitled- Nutritional Influences on Illness- Restless Legs Syndrome, hypoglycemia, caffeine, various vitamins, minerals and nutrients in Scientific Studies can play a role.

There can be any of one or more of these along with food intolerances/allergies that contribute to Restless Legs Syndrome so don’t be swayed by the vested interests of ‘Big Pharma’ or a biased physician who is uninformed about simple yet effective natural treatments.

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Dennis Cutforth is a researcher and writer with over 35 years experience in health-care sales, marketing and research in pharmaceuticals and natural health. Dennis will cut through all the propaganda and give you the real facts about what really works to make you healthier and happier. Visit his Blog at Better Life Blog.

The Major News Media missed reporting a breakthrough treatment for the prevention of cancer. Why? Is it because this breakthrough isn’t a drug but a simple inexpensive multivitamin with folic acid that can prevent cancers up to 50%? If it were a pharmaceutical that achieved such astounding results it would be in all the news reports on television and newspapers. Is it because there is a bias against vitamins and nutrition which are non-drug treatments or because there is no benefit for Big Pharma?

The headline in the New York Times, LA Times, etc and the sound-bite on the CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX evening news should have read:

New Major Cancer Protective Treatment – A New Breakthrough ‘Drug’ That Prevents Cancers in Children -
Unfortunately it didn’t. I Googled this study from the February 21, 2007, medical journal Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and nada! The major news outlets in Canada carried it but not in the Good Ole’ USA unless you include the Redding News.

“This is almost too simple an idea for people to take seriously, but they should take it seriously,” said Dr. Gideon Koren, director of the Motherisk program at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Globe and Mail.

Vitamin Prevention Worth A Pound Of Cancer Cure

Of course the real reason this ‘breakthrough’ information wasn’t reported on in the MNM (Major News Media) was because it wasn’t a Pharmaceutical (with major advertising dollars on the line for MNM) but a simple cheap once a day multivitamin with folic acid.

“Simply taking multivitamins and folic acid during pregnancy can help a mother reduce her baby’s risk of developing the most common childhood cancers by almost 50 per cent, a new study from Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children says.” Toronto Star

“The startling finding that a cheap supplement purchased at a drugstore can prevent cancer as well as a range of birth defects adds weight to the theory that micronutrients have lifelong health benefits for the developing fetus.” Globe and Mail.

Unfounded Bias Against Vitamin Supplements

Maybe the MNM didn’t pick up the story because of a bias against vitamins from so-called vitamin experts like Rory Collins, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Oxford University who was reported as saying. –

“It has been said that Americans have the richest urine in the world, because they consume a lot of expensive vitamins and then just pee them out…There is no good evidence that any vitamin supplements are effective. So if you are going to waste your money on these unproven vitamins, you may as well waste less money on the cheaper ones.” As reported in the newspaper – The Independent (London), Feb 9, 2004 by Catherine Nixey.

Or maybe - the New York Times article (April 29, 2003) conclusion that “multivitamins have not been shown to prevent any disease and that it is easy to reach high enough doses of certain vitamins and minerals to actually increase the risk of disease”

For if physicians and the news media can’t be trusted to get even the basic checkable facts right about vitamins, why should any of their opinions be taken seriously? A cursory look at the scientific medical literature reveals the false propaganda from these two sources.

Medicine Acknowledges Vitamin Supplements- the ‘Checkable Facts’

The Journal of the American Medical Association in 2002 reversed its historical anti-vitamin policy by acknowledging that “it appears prudent for all adults to take vitamin supplements”

In 1998 an Editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine was titled: “Eat Right and Take a Multivitamin.”

Harvard Public Health – “Today, though, there’s good evidence that taking a daily multivitamin makes sense for most adults…(and) may prevent heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and other chromic diseases.”

A Summary of a few of the Positive Vitamin Studies

The Nurses’ Health Study of over 87,000 women showed that the - “Long-term use of multivitamins may substantially reduce risk for colon cancer.” Annals of Internal Medicine 1998.

A 19,000 patient study found Vitamin C lowered the “mortality (death-rate) from all-causes…” Lancet (2001)

A pooling of the data from several studies “concluded…that 1,000 IU of oral vitamin D per day is associated with a 50% reduction in colorectal cancer incidence.” Recent Results in Cancer Research (2007)

If one was to read these studies one would conclude that supplements have a role to play in prevention of disease. Of course if one was to ignore these studies and or look for negative improperly done studies one could possibly show negative results by selective research to scaremonger, which is a common tactic of Big Pharma, MNM and the Medical Establishment.

Vitamins Cost Savings to the System

Taking a multivitamin for at least 11 years would save the system $58.1 billion as reported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) State-of-the-Science Conference on Multivitamin/Mineral Supplements and Chronic Disease Prevention. May 15–17, 2006. So there’s the crux of the matter, savings of billions of dollars to the system which would normally be shared by the Medical Establishment, Big Pharma and the Major News Media. With a close to 50% prevention for some cancers, an inexpensive multivitamin doesn’t have enough profit to go around. Now you know why the ‘Sounds of Silence Were Deafening for the Cancer Cure.’

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Dennis Cutforth is a researcher and writer with over 35 years experience in health-care sales, marketing and research in pharmaceuticals and natural health. Dennis will cut through all the propaganda and give you the real facts about what really works to make you healthier and happier. Visit his website Get A Better Life Today.

Most physicians are reluctant to recommend herbs and or vitamin supplements. However what is their personal consumption of these products.

An interesting study was published by the The Journal of Herbal Pharmacotherapy in 2006 (PubMed), on the use of herbs by health care professionals. Now this doesn’t necessarily apply to all such workers. The survey was for those with an interest in herbal therapies. These individuals who took the initiative to enroll in courses on herbs would be higher than the norm. However the number of these participants using herbs was extremely high and the breakdown was most interesting.

Results of the survey of 1249 health care professionals -
51% reported using an herb in the last week.

The breakdown –

• physician assistants or
• nurse practitioners (63%)
• clinical nurses (59%)
• HCP students (52%)
• physicians (48%)
• dietitians (40%)
• pharmacists (37%)

Common herbs taken were -

• green tea (24%)
• flax seed (18%)
• chamomile (11%)
• aloe vera (8%).

Factors associated with herb use among others included having increased knowledge of herbs and dietary supplements.

The impressive part is that knowledgeable health care workers including physicians take herbs even with the continual negative propaganda that spews forth from the Medical Establishment through the Major News Media backed by Federal Agencies and Big Pharma, that tries to paint such products as dangerous.

Cardiologists Take Vitamin E to Heart

Despite the scare that has been in the literature by the Medical Establishment that caused many people to stop taking Vitamin E, Cardiologists (heart doctors) continued to take Vitamin E for prevention. According to a 2001 American Journal of Cardiology survey almost 50% of these specialists take this supplement, more than double the general population. As reported in PRNewswire/ via NewsEdge Corporation-

“More cardiologists take antioxidant supplements than take aspirin as a preventive measure against heart attacks,” the Cornell publication noted, citing a study published in the American Journal of Cardiology.

“Among l8l doctors surveyed, 44 percent take Vitamin E, Vitamin C or beta- carotene (alone or in combination) while 42 percent take aspirin. About 28 percent take both
antioxidants and aspirin.

“Vitamin E was the most common antioxidant vitamin taken, most often at a daily dose of 400 IU (international units).”

Perhaps this is because they are aware of the properly done studies that showed the good results in prevention of heart attacks, like the study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Patients studied - “…39,910 U.S. male health professionals 40 to 75 years of age who were free of diagnosed coronary heart disease, diabetes,”

They achieved – “…lower risk of coronary disease among men with higher intakes of vitamin E…”

The results – “…provide evidence of an association between a high intake of vitamin E and a lower risk of coronary heart disease in men.”

What was surprising was that about 40% of Cardiologists recommend Vitamin E supplements, which is much higher than family physicians.

Many physicians may not say to take vitamins and or herbs but - Do As They Do, Not As They Say. Take supplements if you need them.

The scary news just keeps on coming. The latest is a report from ABC News that shows the enemy within – parasites. See the report and video.

As the article states over “55-million Americans harbor intestinal parasites at some time during their lives.” And that ” Some health experts believe you may silently be being robbed. ..of your health.”

Having parasites set up residence in your body can make you nutritionally deficient and may be the underlying reason for your health problems like fatigue, irritability, sleep problems, inability to lose weight etc.

The article features a patient with the latter problem that got results when she listened to a nutritionist and not a physician. Nothing worked for her until she tried this ‘Alternative Medicine’ approach and now she’s “an energetic 54 year old, but that wasn’t always the case…[and] has shed 85 pounds.

PhD Nutritionist Ann Louise “Gittleman said Ziegler’s story is not uncommon and said she has seen parasites cause a host of physical ailments…bloating, constipation, diarrhea, certain types of sugar abnormalities, problems with the skin the won’t clear up, teeth clenching at night where you are constantly grinding your teeth. I’d also say conditions with being overweight. The inability to lose weight can all be related to parasites,” said Gittleman.

The Proof is in the Pudding.

As usual to create balance Barbara Smith, the author talked to an expert from ‘Conventional Medicine’ who pooh poohed and downplayed the importance of parasites as a health problem.
“Local parasitologist Dr. James Jensen, agrees with Gittleman as to how many may get certain types of parasites, but he’s extremely skeptical of Gittleman’s recommendation of an herbal cleanse.” He also stated –

“While it is true that we have medications for most parasitic infections [very caustic drugs, I might add], I am not familiar with any literature or any evidence whatsoever that over the counter remedies will ever cure a parasitic infection. That includes herbal remedies of all kinds,” said Jensen.

Well sir if your “not familiar”, GET FAMILIAR with the ‘Scientific Alternative Medicine Literature on Herbal Remedies for Parasites’! It really isn’t that difficult if you get off your ‘holier than thou Medical Establishment pedestal’ that says only caustic drugs by ‘Big Pharma’ will do the job.

Try for instance the study in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, this small study showed that all patients who’s parasites were ‘resistant to drugs’ responded to a herbal preparation. Frankly I’d be more ’skeptical’ of a ‘parasitologist’ who prescribes caustic drugs rather than spends the time and effort to learn about and look up the nontoxic approach.

Unfortunately not enough labs can properly test for parasites. I was to every specialist you can think of with my severe Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and their testing found nothing. It turned out I was one of the so-called few with parasites who was successfully treated with the non-prescription “over the counter”.…’herbal remedies’ that this “parasitologist” is “not familiar” with. So these remedies CAN CURE “a parasitic infection”.

These remedies have been around for hundreds of years but can’t be patented by ‘Big Pharma’ so this physician wouldn’t be familiar with them – naturally!

So see an Integrative Medicine physician or natural healer if nothing seems to be getting you better and send the Parasitic Predators Packing!