AstraZeneca Denied Drug's Link to Diabetes for Years After Admitting Link to Japanese Physicians

(NaturalNews) Drug giant AstraZeneca attempted to obscure the connection between one of its blockbuster drugs and diabetes risk for years after it knew of the problem, according to documents recently unsealed as part of lawsuits against the company.

More than 15,000 patients have sought damages from the company, alleging that they were harmed by side effects from its atypical antipsychotic Seroquel. According to the plaintiffs, AstraZeneca deliberately hid information linking the drug to an increased risk of weight gain and diabetes. The lawsuits have been consolidated into a single case for the purpose of pre-trial proceedings.

The recently unsealed documents include notes from a meeting between salesperson Nancy White and a doctor in July 2006, during which the doctor said that his patients were expressing concern about Seroquel's links to diabetes. White reported telling the doctor that "there has been no causative effect" proven between the drug and the disease.

Yet in November 2002, AstraZeneca had issued a warning to doctors in Japan that due to dozens of reports linking Seroquel to diabetes, "causality with the drug could not be ruled out." The company cautioned doctors not to prescribe the drugs to diabetics and to encourage all Seroquel patients to monitor their blood sugar. Just over a year later, the company issued a similar warning to doctors in the United States.

"It's pretty clear that if a drug poses a diabetes risk in one country, it poses that risk in others," said psychiatrist Dan Carlat of Tufts University. "I don't think it's ethical to warn doctors in Japan about this drug and then downplay or ignore the risk in the U.S."

Other documents reveal that the company trained its salespeople to dodge questions about the connection between Seroquel and weight gain.

Seroquel remains AstraZeneca's second-best selling drug, pulling in $4.45 billion in 2008.

Sources for this story include: www.bloomberg.com.

California county sues Glaxo for false advertising of Avandia drug

(NaturalNews) Recent reports revealing the dangers of GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) diabetes drug, Avandia, have not gone unnoticed. Santa Clara County in Northern California recently filed a lawsuit against the drug giant for suppressing evidence that the drug increases heart attack risk.

The lawsuit is demanding that every person in California who has taken Avandia receive restitution from GSK. California state law prohibits companies from falsely advertising their products, and according to Santa Clara County, GSK did just this with its Avandia drug.

"GSK's unlawful conduct has cost patients, their insurers and government payers millions of dollars, and it has caused needless suffering to thousands of Californians," explained Miguel Marquez, Santa Clara County's acting county counsel. "This is precisely the sort of corporate malfeasance that California law prohibits."

GSK has denied all allegations and continues to claim the FDA-approved drug is safe, despite recent reports that show the drug is responsible for causing thousands of heart attacks. The Senate Committee Report revealed back in February proved that GSK knew about the risks associated with Avandia for years but did nothing about it.

Internal GSK documents have also revealed that the company's own scientific studies illustrate the dangers of Avandia. Nevertheless, GSK continues to plead innocence and is alleging that the California lawsuit has no footing.

Because Santa Clara County spent roughly $2 million on Avandia for patients at its public hospital between 1999 and 2007, it believes it should receive restitution for money wasted on the harmful drug. Additionally, because GSK's advertisements were targeted towards diabetics, who are classified as disabled under California law, the county is seeking triple damages from GSK.

Time will tell if other California counties file lawsuits of their own against GSK for its gross negligence. Countless millions of dollars, both taxpayer and insurance, have been wasted on Avandia, and now is the time to seek restitution for them.

The Santa Clara County case is a good model for other counties to imitate on behalf of public funds that were wasted on dangerous drugs. Though difficult, individuals injured by pharmaceutical companies can also seek restitution, however current federal laws favor drug companies rather than the people.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court reaffirmed last year that individuals have the right to sue drug companies for harm caused by inadequate risk labeling on drugs. This is a small step in the right direction towards holding drug companies accountable for their behavior, but more needs to be done to stop criminal behavior that has long gone unchecked in the drug industry.

Sources for this story include:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wire...

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/2...

Processed meat raises risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer

(NaturalNews) A new study published in the journal Circulation reveals that eating processed meat products significantly raises the risk of heart disease and diabetes. Previous research has linked processed meats to cancer as well.

The new paper involved a meta-analysis of 20 different studies covering more than one million people from 10 different countries. The study found that eating just 2 ounces of processed meat each day resulted in the following:

• A 42 percent increase in the risk of heart disease.

• A 19 percent increase in the risk of diabetes.

Interestingly, the analysis simultaneously found that eating non-processed meats was not linked to these increases in disease risk. The study authors concluded that it was the processed salt and chemical additives in the processed meat that caused increase risk of disease.

Why sodium nitrite is poison

What the study authors did not come right out and say is that sodium nitrite is a poison, yet it's added to virtually all processed meats as a "color fixer." It makes dead gray meat look fleshy red, in other words, and it's added to bacon, sausage, hot dogs, pepperoni and most other processed meats. It's listed right on the label under the "ingredients" section.

I've been warning readers about sodium nitrite for seven years, and in that time, evidence has shown the chemical to cause:

• A 67% increase in pancreatic cancer (http://www.naturalnews.com/007024_G...)

• A 74% higher risk of leukemia (http://www.naturalnews.com/News_000...)

• A 40% higher risk of diabetes (http://www.naturalnews.com/027636_p...)

The USDA actually tried to ban sodium nitrite from the food supply back in the 1970's, but it was overruled by the meat industry which knew that the chemical made meat look visually more appealing and therefore increased sales of processed meat products. Despite causing cancer, sodium nitrite has remained legal in the food supply to this day.

See the Counterthink Cartoon: "Hickory Harms" at http://www.naturalnews.com/022286.html

How many children are dying from processed meat?

Mainstream children eat a huge quantity of processed meat products, including hot dogs, sandwich meat, bacon, sausage and beef jerky. All those products are made with sodium nitrite.

How many children are dying of cancer each year from this toxic chemical in the food supply? The USDA doesn't want to know and the FDA doesn't seem to care. Sodium nitrite sells more meat, and food regulators apparently have no interest in the actual safety of the food supply. As long as food products are dead, the FDA considers them "safe" even if they're contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals like sodium nitrite.

I find it deplorable that the FDA is trying to outlaw raw milk but is fine to let American children continue dying from eating cancer-causing processed meats laced with sodium nitrite. It sort of tells you where the real priorities are in Washington, doesn't it?

Ignorant consumers eat processed meat

While people are dying of cancer, heart disease and diabetes from the chemical additives intentionally put into processed meat products, those consumers who are aware of the truth about sodium nitrite are avoiding all processed meats made with sodium nitrite (look for it on the label).

Only those consumers who are ignorant of the true health risks are still buying (and eating) bacon, sausage, beef jerky and other processed meat products. Basically, we're talking about the processed food crowd, which includes low-income families, teenagers, low-IQ individuals who are unable to grasp basic health concepts and mainstream physicians who have yet to accept any link between foods and health.

Sources for this story include:
BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8...

ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/WorldNews/...

Contaminant in Fish Linked to Diabetes

(NaturalNews) Great Lakes boat captains who eat more fish have higher levels of the DDT byproduct DDE in their blood and a significantly higher risk of diabetes than other captains, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

DDE is produced when bottom feeders ingest the potent pesticide DDT and break it down slightly in their bodies. When these fish are eaten by larger fish, the toxin moves up the food chain until consumed by humans. Like DDT, DDE accumulates in the fat cells of living organisms.

Although DDT was banned from the United States in the early 1970s for its destructive effects on the reproductive systems of wildlife, residue from pesticide used decades ago still persists in lakes across the country. To make matters worse, many other countries worldwide continue to use the toxin.

"DDT gets thrown up in the atmosphere and can be deposited by rain and snow attached to particles which settle at the bottom of the lakes," said Bruce Fowler of the CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. "The toxins are released by Asia and settle in North America. The jet stream carries a lot of things besides temperature and rain."

The researchers found that captains who ate more fish had higher DDE levels, and also that captains with higher DDE levels had a higher risk of diabetes. They could not determine the cause of the diabetes -- whether a chemical linked to DDE or DDE itself, or how DDE might cause the disease.

Although mercury is also found in high levels in fish and has also been linked to diabetes, the researchers noted that this could not explain the correlation between DDE levels and diabetes, as mercury and DDE travel separately.

Fish also tend to be high in another toxin known as PCBs, which can cause cancer and disrupt the endocrine system.

Sources for this story include: www.chicagotribune.com.

Fast food burgers, fried chicken strongly linked to development of type 2 diabetes

(NaturalNews) A report recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that black women who consume fried chicken or fast food burgers at least twice a week are between 40 and 70 percent more prone to develop type 2 diabetes over the course of a decade than those who do not. Not only black women but all people who consume high calorie, low nutrient fast foods on even a moderate basis are susceptible to developing the disease.

Dr. Julie Palmer and her colleagues from Boston University analyzed over 44,000 black women who were instructed to complete questionnaires that they were given beginning back in 1995. Once concluded, researchers compared the results with another group of women who claimed never to eat fast food. The result was that not only were the women who ate fast food more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than the non-fast food group, they also were generally heavier with many falling into the overweight range.

The standard measuring tool for determining healthy body weight is the Body Mass Index (BMI). A healthy BMI is somewhere between 18.5 and 24.9. Most of the participants in the fast food group were somewhere between 28 and 29 when they started the study, which according the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is overweight. Those in this group also continued to gain more weight during the course of the study.

Interestingly, the two foods that played the largest role in blood sugar disorder were fast food hamburgers and fried chicken. These foods were implicated in causing the most weight gain which resulted in more cases of diabetes. Nearly 3,000 women in the fast food eating group developed type 2 diabetes by the time the study concluded.

A previous fast food study conducted in 2004 by researchers from Boston Children's Hospital found similar results. After tracking more than 3,000 young adults for over 15 years, researchers found that people who ate at fast food restaurants more than twice a week gained an average of almost 10 pounds more than those who went only once a week. The twice a week group also had a 200 percent increase in insulin resistance compared to the once a week group.

Experts also concluded that those who ate the most fast food lived the most unhealthy lifestyles in general and were the most prone to developing other serious diseases throughout the course of their lives.

While some experts suggest consuming smaller portion sizes and less overall calories, a better option would be to make better food choices. Eating less fast food is good, but changing one's lifestyle to include whole, living foods is even better.

Sources for this story include: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4...

Radiation Treatment for Cancer Causes Diabetes in Children

(NaturalNews) People who are undergo radiation therapy for childhood cancers are significantly more likely to develop diabetes as adults, according to a new study conducted by researchers from Emory University and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

A number of studies have found that radiation, chemotherapy, and other such treatments significantly shorten the lives of childhood cancer survivors.

"As a result of their curative therapies, childhood cancer survivors face an increased risk of morbidity and mortality," the researchers wrote. Nearly 75 percent of such children develop a chronic health condition within 30 years of diagnosis, while 42.4 percent develop severe, disabling or life-threatening health conditions. Because cardiovascular disease is a major killer of childhood cancer survivors, the researchers examined the effect of radiation treatment on the risk of diabetes, a major correlate of cardiovascular mortality.

The researchers examined diabetes rates in 8,599 people who had been diagnosed with cancer before the age of 21, between 1970 and 1986. These rates were compared with 2,936 of their cancer-free siblings, who were randomly selected. All participants were screened for diabetes in 2003.

After adjusting for other diabetes risk factors including age, body mass index, ethnicity, exercise, income, insurance and race, the researchers found that those who had undergone cancer treatment as children were 1.8 times more likely to have diabetes as adults than their siblings were. Those who had been treated with abdominal radiation were 2.7 times more likely to have diabetes, while those who had been treated with whole-body radiation were a shocking 7.2 times more likely to be diabetic.

Risk increased with radiation dose used, and decreased with age at diagnosis. People diagnosed with cancer before the age of five had 2.4 times the diabetes risk as those diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 20.

A previous study found that childhood cancer survivors were five to 10 times more likely to suffer from heart disease than their cancer-free siblings, and significantly more likely to suffer from kidney disease.

Sources for this story include: www.reuters.com; www.sciencedaily.com

Chlorella Superfood Fights Body Fat and Diabetes

(NaturalNews) A superfood known as chlorella has caught on like wildfire in the United Kingdom, and studies continue to emerge linking the algae to improvement in symptoms of people with everything from diabetes and high blood pressure to digestive or immune problems.

Chlorella is a single-celled algae that naturally occurs in freshwater rivers and ponds in East Asia, tinting those bodies of water green. It is gathered from these natural sources, dried, crushed into a powder, and then packed into tablet form for sale as a dietary supplement. It has twice the protein density of spinach, 38 times that of soy beans and 55 times that of rice, providing nine essential amino acids along with a number of vitamins and minerals.

The algae has shown effectiveness at improving the symptoms of metabolic syndrome -- a collection of symptoms linked with cardiovascular disease and diabetes, including high fasting blood sugar, high blood pressure and cholesterol, and central obesity. Studies have found chlorella supplements to reduce blood pressure in 50 percent of hypertension patients, as well as significantly reduce body fat, blood cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

"It seems that chlorella turns on the genes that control the way insulin is normally used by the cells in the body," said researcher Randall Merchant of Virginia Commonwealth University. "This research shows that chlorella could in theory help correct the problems of metabolic syndrome. It is not a magic bullet, but taking it is one other preventive thing you can do, like exercise or watching your diet."

Other studies have shown that chlorella encourages the growth of "good bacteria," absorbs toxins from the intestines, improves digestion, and eases the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis and fibromyalgia. Chlorella supporters claim that it also increases energy levels and fights depression.

After studies showed that chlorella boosts the immune system, preventing secondary infections in people with brain tumors, some British doctors have started using it to complement cancer treatments.

Because chlorella is high in vitamin K1, it can interfere with the effects of blood thinning medications.

Sources for this story include: www.telegraph.co.uk.

Dire warning: diabetes will double and costs triple by 2034, but only if we don't prevent it

(NaturalNews) "This is the Voice of Doom speaking! Special bulletin! Flash! The sky is falling! A piece of it just hit you on the head! Now be calm. Don't get panicky. Run for your life!" That's a quote from the tricky con artist Foxy Loxy in the 1943 animated version of "Chicken Little", the classic children's story. But it has striking similarities to some breaking medical news.

According to a study by University of Chicago researchers published in the December issue of the journal Diabetes Care, over the next 25 years, the number of people in the US with diabetes will almost double, soaring from the 23.7 million who have the disease today to 44.1 million in 2034. What's more, spending on diabetes will virtually triple, rising from $113 billion to $336 billion, even if there's no further increase in the already unhealthy prevalence of obesity in this country.

Sound scary? The report gets worse. There will be disastrous economic consequences because of the huge burden the diabetes epidemic will place on the healthcare industry, too, the researchers predicted. The number of those with diabetes covered by Medicare will jump from 8.2 million to 14.6 million and Medicare spending on diabetes will increase from $45 billion to $171 billion.

"The public policy implications are enormous," said co-author Michael O'Grady, PhD, senior fellow at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, in a statement to the media. "This a serious challenge to Medicare and every other health plan in the country."

How to change the future

The projections are alarming but the facts also show that this projected dire future can be changed. The rise in diabetes is expected to be primarily due to the type 2 variety. And there's good news -- type 2 diabetes is almost always preventable with natural, common sense health strategies that are not difficult and primarily involve eating healthy diets containing a lot of vegetables and fruits and giving up sedentary lifestyles.

The challenge is for people to understand they can -- and must -- take control of their own health and prevent type 2 diabetes. As Dr. O'Grady stated: "The cost of doing nothing is the significant increase in the pain and suffering of America's population and a financial burden that will threaten the financial viability of public and private insurers alike."

"If we don't change our diet and exercise habits or find new, more effective and less expensive ways to prevent and treat diabetes, we will find ourselves in a lot of trouble as a population," the study's lead author Elbert Huang, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, said in the press statement.

NaturalNews has consistently reported on a host of evidence that type 2 diabetes can be prevented and treated naturally by weight control, regular exercise and effective, inexpensive and natural nutrition therapies. Here are some examples:

Cinnamon helps regulate blood sugar and may prevent diabetes (http://www.naturalnews.com/027168_c...).

Specific Chinese herbal remedies have been found to normalize blood sugar (http://www.naturalnews.com/027400_d...).

The trace mineral chromium improves insulin sensitivity, reducing the risk of diabetes (http://www.naturalnews.com/027398_c...).

The spice tumeric has anti-diabetes properties (http://www.naturalnews.com/024644.html).

Eating legumes can slash diabetes risk by 40% (http://www.naturalnews.com/023831.html).

Adding nuts to the Mediterranean style of eating treats the pre-diabetic condition known as metabolic syndrome (http://www.naturalnews.com/025098_n...).

For more information:
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/co...

Vitamin D prevents diabetes, improves insulin sensitivity, say multiple studies

(NaturalNews) With all the worries, debate and near hysteria over rising healthcare costs in the U.S., it might be time to face the fact we bring most illness on ourselves by eating junk diets, failing to exercise and avoiding sunshine. A case in point: diabetes has reached epidemic proportions with type 2 caused almost exclusively by sedentary lifestyles and being overweight. And now research shows we can add another preventable cause of diabetes to the list -- a lack of vitamin D, the so-called "sunshine vitamin".

In a report recently published in the British Journal of Nutrition, scientists from New Zealand's Massey University studied 81 South Asian women between the ages of 23 and 68 who were all diagnosed with insulin resistance syndrome, also known as metabolic syndrome. This condition, which is linked to an increased risk of both diabetes and heart disease, describes a cluster of health conditions that includes high blood sugar levels, high triglycerides, low levels of HDL (the "good" cholesterol), and too much fat around the waist.

For this placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical study, the women were randomly assigned to take either 4,000 IU of vitamin D3 or an inactive placebo each day. Then, at the end of six months, the scientists examined the research subjects' health profiles. The results showed significant improvements in the vitamin D group. Specifically, their insulin resistance dramatically improved with a decrease in their fasting insulin levels. This slashed the risk they would go on to develop diabetes.

When the study began, the women's vitamin D levels were about 50 nanomoles per liter (nmol/L), close to the average level of vitamin D (60 nmol/l) in US men and women. The researchers found that health effects were optimal when the women's blood levels of vitamin D reached between 80 to 119 nmol/L -- far higher levels than those of the typical American. In fact, the documented low levels of vitamin D in the US population could explain why 70 to 80 million Americans now have pre-diabetic metabolic syndrome, according to National Institutes of Health statistics.

The Massey University study backs up other research published earlier this year in the Diabetic Medicine journal. A team of Indian scientists from Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science and Research in New Delhi found that even a short-term large dose of vitamin D3 supplementation had a positive impact on insulin sensitivity in 71 apparently healthy, middle-aged men with "spare tires" around their bellies -- the central obesity associated with the pre-diabetes metabolic syndrome. Taking vitamin D3 improved their postprandial (after a meal) insulin sensitivity, lowering their risk of developing diabetes down the road.

For more information:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...