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604,304 | thedailycaller--2019-06-26--Report Shows Just How Big A Business A Nonprofit Hospital Can Be | 2019-06-26T00:00:00 | thedailycaller | Report Shows Just How Big A Business A Nonprofit Hospital Can Be | A report published Monday detailed how the country’s 82 biggest nonprofit hospitals resemble big business despite getting breaks on income and property taxes and collecting tax-deductible donations. “Last year, patients spent roughly one out of every seven U.S. healthcare dollars within these healthcare networks. Many are household names: Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Kaiser Foundation, Dignity Health, and Partners HealthCare,” government transparency group Open The Books wrote in its report. The report compared 2017 or latest available numbers for nonprofit health care systems and for-profit health care systems with surprising results. The report shows why media outlets like Axios have characterized nonprofit hospitals as “raking in cash” from Wall Street. (RELATED: Trump Calls Latest Health Care Executive Order ‘The Opposite Of Obamacare’) For example, the five biggest for-profit hospitals had a combined $40.7 billion in net assets — compared with the five biggest nonprofits’ $28.3 billion. But the non-profit hospitals’ ability to grow their assets was significantly higher, and the top five reported 8.4 percent year-over-year growth compared with the for-profit entities’ 1.5 percent. Meanwhile, the nonprofits have executives who make millions every year. “Top executives at Memorial Hermann Health System, Kaiser Health, Ascension, Advocate Health Care, and Northwestern Memorial made between $10 million and $18 million,” the report stated. The report also touched on the fact that nonprofit hospitals took in billions from Medicare and Medicaid, and only 14 of the 82 hospitals the report examined disclosed how much of their revenue came from those two streams. “Mayo Clinic is a dedicated and mission driven nonprofit that confers strong community benefit through providing hundreds of millions of dollars in charity and other uncompensated patient care. Any excess revenue supports cutting-edge programs in research and education that benefit patients everywhere,” spokeswoman Susan Barber-Lindquist told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an email. “Cleveland Clinic was founded as a nonprofit group practice with a mission to care for the sick and improve patient care through research and education. Any and all extra funds from operations are invested back into the health system to fund new research and education initiatives and to continue our long-standing charitable efforts. In 2017, our Community Benefit contribution totaled $906.5 million,” spokeswoman Angela Smith told the DCNF in an email. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected]. | Evie Fordham | https://dailycaller.com/2019/06/25/nonprofit-hospitals-us-wall-street/ | 2019-06-26 00:35:52+00:00 | 1,561,523,752 | 1,567,538,094 | health | health facility |
605,325 | thedailycaller--2019-07-30--Trump Administration Could Fine Hospitals For Failing To Disclose Insurance-Negotiated Prices | 2019-07-30T00:00:00 | thedailycaller | Trump Administration Could Fine Hospitals For Failing To Disclose Insurance-Negotiated Prices | The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a rule Monday that would require hospitals to disclose prices negotiated with insurers and fine them for not complying. The rule builds on President Donald Trump’s executive order signed in June that directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), of which CMS is part, to create rules increasing transparency in health care pricing. “President Trump has laid out a clear vision for healthcare: a patient-centered system that puts you in control and provides the affordability you need, the options and control you want, and the quality you deserve,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement. “Under this proposal, hospitals will finally have to make their real, negotiated prices known to patients, enabling patients to shop among providers.” (RELATED: Trump Calls Latest Health Care Executive Order ‘The Opposite Of Obamacare’) The proposed rule would fine hospitals $300 per day for noncompliance, CMS said. The administration already forces hospitals to publish the sticker prices of procedures and other services, but now patients will also have access to the prices their insurance plans pay, according to CNBC. The rule could go into effect in January if finalized after a public comment period ending in Setpember. The hospital and insurance industries have already pushed back against the proposal. “Publicly disclosing competitively negotiated, proprietary rates will push prices and premiums higher — not lower — for consumers, patients, and taxpayers,” Matt Eyles, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, said in a statement, according to CNBC. Cynthia A. Fisher of Patient Rights Advocate said her organization applauded “the Administration’s bold step to deliver real price transparency in healthcare to the American public.” “Patients need to see real prices to make their healthcare decisions. Empowered with price and quality information, patients and their employers will be able to shop and ultimately drive down the costs of care and coverage. With this measure, healthcare will function like other competitive markets such as groceries, travel, and retail,” Fisher said in a statement. The rule would apply to roughly 6,000 hospitals taking Medicare, according to CNBC. Trump has issued several health-care-related executive orders, but not all of them have inspired solutions that panned out. For example, White House spokesman Judd Deere confirmed earlier in July that the president was abandoning the so-called “rebate rule” proposal, a big part of his drug pricing plan, reported Axios. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected]. | Evie Fordham | https://dailycaller.com/2019/07/30/cms-hospital-price-transparency/ | 2019-07-30 18:19:57+00:00 | 1,564,525,197 | 1,567,535,386 | health | health facility |
621,761 | thedailymirror--2019-01-09--Flooded wards and leaking ceilings of slum NHS hospital hit by Carillion collapse | 2019-01-09T00:00:00 | thedailymirror | Flooded wards and leaking ceilings of "slum" NHS hospital hit by Carillion collapse | Desperate NHS staff have revealed they work in shocking “slum” conditions at hospitals hit by the failure of NHS outsourcing to private firms. Nurses tell of flooded and tattered wards, leaking ceilings, broken lights, cancelled operations and fears for patient safety after the collapse of construction giant Carillion. Fatcat bosses bankrolled by the Government pocketed millions of pounds from contracts to build and run hospitals, along with the accountancy companies who failed to flag up last January’s impending disaster. But Carillion’s collapse left struggling NHS trusts hundreds of millions out of pocket. Royal Liverpool Hospital is one of 14 affected. It flooded 10 times last year after the firm went bust, leaving a planned new building unfinished Staff had been due to move in a £430million relocation before work stopped last year. Describing the conditions to bosses in a BBC documentary to be aired tonight, theatre nurse Abirose Cardwell said: “We go down to sit for a break and it’s like sitting in a slum. "The ceilings are leaking, there’s buckets on the floor catching the water, the lights don’t work.” Anaesthetic nurse Matt McGinn added: “We’re concerned about patient care with so many systems failing on a regular basis.” Footage comes from the fourth series of BBC2’s hit documentary series Hospital, filmed across Liverpool between October and December. Staff are shown having to make heartbreaking decisions to prioritise some patients over others. In the first episode patients come in after waiting four months for surgery. Medics have to prioritise each day which emergency operations they can carry out given the lack of staff and available beds. Head vascular surgeon Professor John Brennan tells the programme: “It’s an impossible balance, there are too many patients trying to get in too small a resource. “The hospital is full of people needing beds and, inevitably, something has to give – either people ending up staying for longer in A&E or we have to cancel cases.” A&E staff work 12-hour days as they struggle to cope with the workload. The department was even shut down due to burst pipes. Hospital bosses have to find £1million a year to keep the ageing building operational until completion of the new one in 2022. Trust chief executive Aidan Kehoe says: “I am angry at the way Carillion has behaved. "I look at it and think these people were taking huge bonuses that they are not paying back and will leave the people of Liverpool waiting years more for a hospital.” Managers are having to employ 18 staff at the incomplete new hospital just to turn the 4,000 taps on and off regularly to prevent the build-up of deadly bacteria. A second hospital in Birmingham under construction and abandoned by Carillion will take three years longer to build and at and double the cost. The Midland Metropolitan will be Europe’s biggest emergencies-only hospital and was intended to treat 170,000 A&E patients a year from this summer. It was meant to replace parts of Sandwell Hospital and City Hospital, Birmingham. Priced at £350million, it will now cost least £605million. Carillion was paid £205million towards the project. Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust said it has had to find more than £400million to complete the hospital and keep current emergency services running. When Carillion, subcontracted to provide services such as building maintenance, catering, cleaning and portering, went into liquidation regulator NHS Improvement admitted 14 trusts were affected. Carillion also dumped an unknown number of GP and community services across the country. It is a far cry from the glitzy 10-year vision of the NHS unveiled by Theresa May in Liverpool on Monday. Introducing a blueprint for the health service, she claimed to have “prioritised the NHS” saying the Tories had “delivered real improvements for patients”. That came despite creeping privatisation and a decade of historic under-funding The Department of Health and Social Care said: “We continue to support and fund the Royal Liverpool Trust to get the new hospital built as quickly as possible, while making every penny of taxpayers’ money count. “We want patients to continue to receive world-class care in world-class facilities delivered by our excellent NHS staff.” | Martin Bagot | https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/flooded-wards-leaking-ceilings-slum-13836192 | 2019-01-09 23:39:27+00:00 | 1,547,095,167 | 1,567,553,303 | health | health facility |
69 | 21stcenturywire--2019-01-23--Hollywoods Mission The Systematic Degradation of Western Society | 2019-01-23T00:00:00 | 21stcenturywire | Hollywood’s Mission: The Systematic Degradation of Western Society | For music, TV and film, the current race to the bottom is palpable. For even the most casual observer of mass media and entertainment, it’s become increasingly obvious that Hollywood’s stock-in-trade is now marked by gratuitous, profanity, violence, sex, and one of the most disturbing trends: the increased degradation of women, and the systematic sexualized depiction of children. AVAILABLE NOW: Esoteric Hollywood 2: More Sex, Cults & Symbols in Film Programming and social conditioning through mass public ceremonies is nothing new and continues to this day, weaponized by the corporate entertainment industry to further degrade society. What first began through the planned counter-culture revolution of the 1960s, has now descended into a relentless onslaught of overt messaging through mass media. All of this is preparation for a new AEON being ushered in through even greater levels of psychological and cultural degradation, with the end game being the fragmentation of society through the institution of social engineering. Author Jay Dyer explains how these carefully crafted mass public ritual ceremonies are one of the chief ways we are initiated into this anti-spiritual state: from the Beatles to Ariana Grande – know that society is being indoctrinated. Watch: | 21wire | https://21stcenturywire.com/2019/01/23/hollywoods-mission-the-systematic-degradation-of-western-society/ | 2019-01-23 12:08:01+00:00 | 1,548,263,281 | 1,567,551,131 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
3,661 | activistpost--2019-01-03--Reporter Quits NBC Citing Networks Support for Endless War | 2019-01-03T00:00:00 | activistpost | Reporter Quits NBC Citing Network’s Support for Endless War | (CJ Opinion) — A journalist with NBC has resigned from the network with a statement which highlights the immense resistance that ostensibly liberal mass media outlets have to antiwar narratives, skepticism of US military agendas, and any movement in the opposite direction of endless military expansionism. “January 4 is my last day at NBC News and I’d like to say goodbye to my friends, hopefully not for good,” begins an email titled ‘My goodbye letter to NBC’ sent to various contacts by William M Arkin, an award-winning journalist who has been associated with the network for 30 years. “This isn’t the first time I’ve left NBC, but this time the parting is more bittersweet, the world and the state of journalism in tandem crisis,” the email continues. “My expertise, though seeming to be all the more central to the challenges and dangers we face, also seems to be less valued at the moment. And I find myself completely out of synch with the network, being neither a day-to-day reporter nor interested in the Trump circus.” “A scholar at heart, I also found myself an often lone voice that was anti-nuclear and even anti-military, anti-military for me meaning opinionated but also highly knowledgeable, somewhat akin to a movie critic, loving my subject but also not shy about making judgements regarding the flops and the losers,” he writes. Arkin makes clear that NBC is in no way the sole mass media offender in its refusal to question or criticize the normalization of endless warfare, but that he feels increasingly “out of sync” and “out of step” with the network’s unhesitating advancement of military interventionist narratives. He writes about how Robert Windrem, NBC News’ chief investigative producer, convinced him to join a new investigative unit in the early days of the 2016 presidential race. Arkin writes the following about his experience with the unit: I thought that the mission was to break through the machine of perpetual war acceptance and conventional wisdom to challenge Hillary Clinton’s hawkishness. It was also an interesting moment at NBC because everyone was looking over their shoulder at Vice and other upstarts creeping up on the mainstream. But then Trump got elected and Investigations got sucked into the tweeting vortex, increasingly lost in a directionless adrenaline rush, the national security and political version of leading the broadcast with every snow storm. And I would assert that in many ways NBC just began emulating the national security state itself — busy and profitable. No wars won but the ball is kept in play. I’d argue that under Trump, the national security establishment not only hasn’t missed a beat but indeed has gained dangerous strength. Now it is ever more autonomous and practically impervious to criticism. I’d also argue, ever so gingerly, that NBC has become somewhat lost in its own verve, proxies of boring moderation and conventional wisdom, defender of the government against Trump, cheerleader for open and subtle threat mongering, in love with procedure and protocol over all else (including results). I accept that there’s a lot to report here, but I’m more worried about how much we are missing. Hence my desire to take a step back and think why so little changes with regard to America’s wars. Arkin is no fan of Trump, calling him “an ignorant and incompetent impostor,” but describes his shock at NBC’s reflexive opposition to the president’s “bumbling intuitions” to get along with Russia, to denuclearize North Korea, to get out of the Middle East, and his questioning of the US military’s involvement in Africa. I’m alarmed at how quick NBC is to mechanically argue the contrary, to be in favor of policies that just spell more conflict and more war. Really? We shouldn’t get out Syria? We shouldn’t go for the bold move of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula? Even on Russia, though we should be concerned about the brittleness of our democracy that it is so vulnerable to manipulation, do we really yearn for the Cold War? And don’t even get me started with the FBI: What? We now lionize this historically destructive institution? “There’s a saying about consultants, that organizations hire them to hear exactly what they want to hear,” Arkin writes in the conclusion of his statement. “ I’m proud to say that NBC didn’t do that when it came to me. Similarly I can say that I’m proud that I’m not guilty of giving my employers what they wanted. Still, the things this and most organizations fear most — variability, disturbance, difference — those things that are also the primary drivers of creativity — are not really the things that I see valued in the reporting ranks. The lengthy email covers details about Arkin’s relationship with NBC and its staff, his opinions about the mainstream media’s refusal to adequately scrutinize and criticize the US war machine’s spectacular failures in the Middle East, how he “argued endlessly with MSNBC about all things national security for years”, the fact that his position as a civilian military analyst was unusual and “peculiar” in a media environment where that role is normally dominated by “THE GENERALS and former government officials,” and how he was “one of the few to report that there weren’t any WMD in Iraq” and remembers “fondly presenting that conclusion to an incredulous NBC editorial board.” That’s about as charitably as it could possibly be said by a skeptical tongue. Another way to say it would be that plutocrat-controlled and government-enmeshed media networks hire reporters to protect the warmongering oligarchic status quo upon which media-controlling plutocrats have built their respective kingdoms, and foster an environment which elevates those who promote establishment-friendly narratives while marginalizing and pressuring anyone who doesn’t. It’s absolutely bizarre that it should be unusual for there to be a civilian analyst of the US war machine’s behaviors in the mainstream media who is skeptical of its failed policies and nonstop bloodshed, and it’s a crime that such voices are barely holding on to the fringes of the media stage. Such analysts should be extremely normal and commonplace, not rare and made to feel as though they don’t belong. | Activist Post | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/01/reporter-quits-nbc-citing-networks-support-for-endless-war.html | 2019-01-03 16:23:17+00:00 | 1,546,550,597 | 1,567,554,033 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
19,926 | anonymousconservative--2019-08-08--News Briefs 08082019 | 2019-08-08T00:00:00 | anonymousconservative | News Briefs – 08/08/2019 | I always see lots of r/K related stories I think might interest the readers here, but I only have time to blog about a few, so here are some additional news stories that might be of interest. You can skim the titles and summaries, and click the links if they are of interest. Keep in mind, many of these reports are products of the Fake News, so although they will be what people are hearing and talking about, there is no guarantee any one of them is necessarily correct, and we have had cases of outright lies make it onto these pages, especially about President Trump. Still no Q. You can see Q’s posts aggregated live, and new ones which may have gone live after our print deadline at http://www.qanon.pub Great video for the archives and commercials of Joe Biden, asked by Anderson Cooper, “To gunowners out there who say, well, a Biden Administration, they are going to come for my guns…” Joe immediately and enthusiastically responds, “Bingo! You’re right. If you have an assault weapon. The fact of the matter is, they should be illegal. Period!” Again, Trump jumping on Red Flag laws and background checks first was key, and forced Biden and the rest of the Democrats to prove that they are not Trump by trying to outdo each other like this. If Trump now dodges Red Flag Laws and Background checks through Congress (with our help calling in), this will be the most brilliant counter-move in political history. And we get that video which will kill Biden in 2020. Interestingly, if you go deeper, you will see Joe’s mind is going, and not just a tiny bit. In the beginning he says he is coming for them and will take them, then later he says he can’t take them if they were purchased legally, so ones that are out there will be allowed to be kept, but then he says he will make them illegal to get them off the streets. I hope he is the one. 4Chan anons are recapping what they have found so far, including that some believe Epstein may have been given a win of a Powerball jackpot as a payoff, probably for keepinghis mouth shut in his 2008 criminal case: More on the $85 million Oklahoma Powerball lottery that went to the Zorro Trust, which some think is Epstein’s: It is still not 100% clear it is his, but Epstein does have a Zorro Trust which he used to dole out campaign cash. And there is a deposition document (I have not sourced myself yet, but should be easy if real) floating around twitter, which talks about the win. There is a good thread here which seems to say there was a glitch that night which prevented the live telecast of the lottery, though they did it later in private, under the eyes of an independent auditor. If you were Cabal, and auditors would literally be death, would you compromise the field? “Victoria’s Secret billionaire Leslie Wexner accuses Epstein of misappropriating ‘vast sums of money’ from him.” Zero of 1.2K migrants eligible for U.S. asylum since ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy. Mayor calls on churches to protect illegal aliens after massive ICE raids net 680 illegals. Liberals say after the El Paso shooting, nobody should be able to use the term “illegal immigrant.” In a way, them pushing it this far is good because it makes it clear just how much these shooters help the left, hurt the cause, and set us back. Now the next one will obviously be a plant even to the most blinded mass-media-hypnotized zombie. 4 dead 2 injured after Garden Grove stabbing spree. Perp and all victims were Latino, it appears a simple crime spree accelerated amygdala, producing progressively worse crimes until the guy got to stabbings and went nuts. Former Tallahassee mayor and his aide plead guilty to all sorts of pay-to-play corruption including Uber ordinances and developer payments. Roger Stone’s judge knocks out one of two charges against Obama White House Counsel Greg Craig. Trailers for Universal’s upcoming gore movie “The Hunt,” shows liberal elites hunting MAGA types for sport – has been pulled in the wake of mass shootings. Supposedly features liberal men hunting a conservative woman in the woods. I’m still not sure a bunch of armed soyboys who flutter their hands instead of clapping would be able to take a single conservative female. The Census Bureau is pursuing a legal loophole that its officials believe would allow them to temporarily hire non-U.S. citizens as part of its efforts to reach populations that are difficult to count, including in non-English speaking and immigrant communities. Seems a lot of opportunity for fraud. Two Boston City Hall officials have been convicted of conspiring to extort the founders of the Boston Calling music festival. Washington Examiner says, “The lower-tier Democratic candidates never had a chance, except as spoilers.” I wondered if the real purpose was to have twenty five people to all assail President Trump, who is alone. Imagine if it was just Biden, Bernie, and Warren. The subconscious perception you get from twenty candidates is that there is an “outnumbered” aspect which liberals need, to be able to fight on. Especially with Trump rallies happening. If Trump had twenty trustworthy friends running against him on the right, and defending him after shit like the El Paso shooting, and there was only Biden, Bernie, and Warren, it would make leftists feel outnumbered and marginalized, which is an important aspect to demoralizing them. AG Barr is pushing for encryption backdoors. No idea if he is doing this because he is expected to, if it is needed for the Storm, or if it is just a demand they never intend to pursue. Environmentalists try to get a judge to stop Trump’s border wall construction. Ryan Saavedra highlighted a tweet-video which threatened Mitch McConnel, and was suspended because twitter wanted the tweet-video of a Warren supporter threatening Mitch deleted. Then twitter suspended Mitch’s reelection campaign as well. Lunatic on MSNBC says Trump putting flags at half staff until 8/8 was a secret sign to White Supremacists because H is the 8th letter of the alphabet, and 8/8 is code for Hail Hitler. Now says it probably wasn’t intentional, but Trump and his team should have known better. MSNBC’s Malcolm Nance says Trump is sending a White Nationalist Army subliminal messages to launch mass shootings to defend the white race. It is not entirely bad once liberals enter the phase where they all try to out virtue signal each other by saying more and more ridiculous things. While leftists are fluttering their hands in the air at this, the rest of society is going to begin to tune these channels out. Case in point – actress Rossana Arquette tweets, “I’m sorry I was born white and privileged. It disgusts me. And I feel so much shame.” Who would really listen to her after that? And yet, picture all the fluttering hands in her crowd. MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace apologizes for saying President Trump is calling for “exterminating Latinos.” Just a slip of the tongue. Sanders pledges to let Americans in on aliens, UFOs if elected president. Baltimore Sun attacks Trump supporter who organized massive cleanup in the city. Says by removing 12 tons of trash, he perpetuated a perception the residents couldn’t solve their own problems. Beto O’Rourke calls Trump ‘white supremacist,’ says US ‘has been racist since it’s been a country.’ Beto is now on par with Andrew “America was never that great” Cuomo. Wonderful party they have over there. Student with a gun arrested near Indiana high school after making threats. Sounds like almost another shooting. The effects of a false flag (and note this ignored Baltimore politicians embezzling billions in government funds): Trump says he’s ‘very strongly’ considering commuting Rod Blagojevich’s sentence. Rod may know things about the Cabal and even Obama’s rise, given he was right there in Chicago. Blacks and legal Hispanics are going to vote for anti-illegal immigrant candidates come 2020. So all the Cabal is doing is trying to keep the migrant train coming, so they can maximize the fraud come 2020. This has nothing to do with swaying the population. It makes me wonder if everyone you see protesting is actually Secret Society, and in on the secret that everything you see on the news is a show, produced to keep you asleep. Search Warrant served at Fort Pierce Florida Humane Society. Remember all those stories about PETA taking in money, and then euthanizing all the animals it came across? PETA had political power and was a place to attract politically motivated people, so it would probably be a Cabal target to infiltrate. And people gave it money to protect animals. If you were Cabal, and you had money given to you to protect animals, but you could just euthanize those animals and push the money up to management, how do you think that would work? What would it look like from the outside? No idea what this story is, but it made me think of PETA. Democrats claimed President Trump was protested, but Trump and the White House revealed photos of a rock star reception at the hospital where victims were treated in Ohio. Videos and photos will be below in the tweets. An article that notes Americans are fleeing from Trump and going overseas. I suppose you never know with today’s media, but this could fit with r/K’s model where r’s flee to more r-areas at the first hint of K. Then again, in these times, you wonder if it is a Cabal coded message – the enemy has overtaken key positions, the Cabal’s collapse is imminent, it is time to gather your secret passports and flee overseas. Jussie Smollett cut from Empire for the final season. Sister of killed El Paso victims says Democrats are ‘pure evil’ for blaming Trump. The New York Times Company tanks 20% after saying ad revenue will decline next quarter. Another media company is not getting the cash flow it got under Cabal. Taliban say differences on US troop withdrawal have been resolved. No other President would have gotten us out of Afghanistan. ACLU sues to stop Trump from deporting illegals so quickly. Cortez’s favorability rises to 41/41 in New York State, now comparable to Sen. Gillibrand’s. Good to keep her around. Trump wants background checks, but doubts the will of Congress. So basically the “Red Flags” thing was a brief rhetorical play by Trump, and not a necessary move for the Storm. It was risky, but he worked it well. Again, Trump seems to have walked the line perfectly. Probably even good to acclimate people to the idea he will say stuff initially, and it is just a negotiating position, and not his intent. Also, note Don Jr and Eric are there by his side, so it was predictable. NY Times is trying to generate momentum for the Redflag law in Congress. Red Flag laws in gun owner’s heads call up images of New Orleans after the hurricane, when the local New Orleans PD went house to house and demanded guns be turned over right as things turned lawless. Nothing is more frustrating than pussy leftists hiding and sending in cops, who we don’t want to engage, to take our weapons, pitting what should be our allies against us. And gunowners hate the idea of a leftist government able to declare them unfit to own guns arbitrarily. That is why the left is pushing this so hard. If it passes, expect a Democrat governor to purposely abuse it, probably on somebody they identify who they feel could produce a shooting of cops or the gunowner like this one. I can’t say it would definitely affect turnout given the economy, the pro-Americanism, and the awesomeness elsewhere, but I suspect it could affect motivation among some, especially if a well-planning adversary was willing to exploit it via any means in a coordinated campaign. I doubt it would affect Trump much, if at all, but I could see a Republican in the House or Senate getting hit at the ballot box for supporting it, especially if the left organized something to highlight it being abused near the election. It really needs to die in Congress. Fox says Republicans who support Background checks and Red Flag laws would be covered if the President supported it. I think they would be at more risk because of Trump being involved. When I was way less engaged, I relished seeing George H W Bush humiliated with his loss over banning 19 types of semi autos from being imported. Even though I had some idea Clinton was a scumbag and didn’t want him to win, Bush was a traitor who screwed us gratuitously to please the left, and traitors are worse, so his loss was comforting. These things create a frustration, where someone who thinks they are beyond reach is poking you in the eye to make your enemy happy and help themselves. When the chance comes to lash out in the ballot booth, rational thought can leave. I think especially given there is a natural tendency to love Trump and feel you have to vote for him, and perhaps especially because he feels like an overdose of winning and Congress feels useless by comparison, gunowners might, especially with appropriate media gloating and goading, take it out on down ticket candidates who supported this. If so, this might be a sign Fox is now trying to lure Republicans into a trap. A poll says 65% of gun owners say they will not support President Trump over Red Flag laws. I don’t doubt they would say that now, and feel it. The fact 35% of gunowners say they would support Trump even if he gave the government the ability to take our guns is a measure of the love and loyalty he has built up. My guess is when the election came around, it would be more like a 1-2% affect on Trump, if even, and that would just be turnout diminishment and degraded morale the left was able to culture on with concern trolls and maybe a false flag. But down ticket, candidates would get the animus they had coming for supporting it – and then additional animus which would have gone to the President will get redirected on them. Red Flags would have a big effect, and the more conservative the area, the bigger the effect. Especially because Trump is so much bigger than life it feels like we could vent our rage, give up Congress and the Senate to the ultra-left entirely, and still win regularly just with him. Nadler is bringing everyone back to try and get to work on a gun violence bill. This isn’t even about getting gun control measures, or incrementalism now. This is the only way they see to try and maybe fracture what is a terrifyingly (to them) united Republican Party which is 100% behind President Trump because all he does is win. We’ve been winning, winning, winning, and that has united us completely, and enthused us to show up and vote again. They need to get that tempered by making something bad happen, and ideally to make the Republicans do it. We need to get control of the narrative again. Asked who he blames, President Trump says, “I don’t blame Elizabeth Warren, and I don’t blame Bernie Sanders in the case of Ohio,” Trump explained. “And I don’t blame anybody. These are sick people….it’s a mental problem.” Just weeks before the 2020 presidential election FX will run a dramatization of the Clinton/Lewinsky affair. FEMA and FCC ran a test of the Emergency Broadcast system on the 7th. Trump’s Latino supporters are sticking with him, don’t see El Paso as related to him. DHS department currently redeploying Customs agents & Customs supervisors from U.S. International Airports to the U.S.-Mexico border for ‘months-long assignments’ to assist Border Patrol agents who are being “overrun” by illegal border crossers. The Trump administration is reportedly considering executive action to address President Trump’s and other Republicans’ allegations of anti-conservative bias by social media companies. Spread r/K Theory, because 8Chan is still down, so you don’t have Q to talk about. | Anonymous Conservative | https://www.anonymousconservative.com/blog/news-briefs-08082019/ | 2019-08-08 10:40:58+00:00 | 1,565,275,258 | 1,567,534,621 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
20,004 | anonymousconservative--2019-10-11--News Briefs – 10/11/2019 | 2019-10-11T00:00:00 | anonymousconservative | News Briefs – 10/11/2019 | I always see lots of r/K related stories I think might interest the readers here, but I only have time to blog about a few, so here are some additional news stories that might be of interest. For unknown reasons, in some browsers the tweets in these posts display best if you click on the post instead of viewing it on the main page. You can skim the titles and summaries, and click the links if they are of interest. Keep in mind, many of these reports are products of the Fake News, so although they will be what people are hearing and talking about, there is no guarantee any one of them is necessarily correct, and we have had cases of outright lies make it onto these pages, especially about President Trump. No Q. You can see Q’s posts aggregated live, and new ones which may have gone live after our print deadline at http://www.qanon.pub President Trump is now on Twitch. First video up is the Minneapolis rally. Biden’s brother was awarded a $1.5B contract to build homes in Iraq. John Solomon announced that the Trump-hating former Ukrainian Ambassador Yovanovich, who handed the Ukraine Prosecutor a “Do Not Prosecute” list, and denied Visas to Ukraine officials who were trying to deliver evidence of Obama misdeeds to Trump, was monitoring the communications of reporters digging into Ukrainian lawlessness, including John Solomon. Here is the thing. How was she monitoring him? Did she deploy State Intel agents? Probably not. There is a central repository sucking up intel on everyone, including the observations of real people watching their neighbors and friends, and she was surfing it like it was Yahoo. And you are in it too. I’ve told you, I could not leak to a reporter without it being picked up immediately on my side, and the reporter’s. As an example of how out of control our domestic spying has become, the Whistleblower’s attorney didn’t like what somebody tweeted, so he tweeted back he was going to have his intelligence agency clients use the government surveillance databases to unmask him and reveal his identity to everyone. But nobody would have spied illegally on the Trump campaign. That would be wrong. James Comey was running an agent in Loretta Lynch’s office to spy on her and make sure she didn’t do anything he didn’t approve of. I talk about the intel game here to make you stronger. Because everyone is playing it and if you don’t know how pervasive it is, it will roll right over you and you will never figure out what happened. It doesn’t want me to tell you, because it wants to be able to roll over you easily. I support everyone being made strong, because as we saw under Obama, those who gravitate to the game do so because they want the easy win, and that will tend to be leftist SJWs who are perfectly happy to destroy freedom to enhance their own position at the expense of us, our nation, and even the world. Whistleblower worked with Joe Biden when he was VP. Lawyers for the whistleblower have asked Congress whether their client could submit testimony in writing instead of appearing in person, amid persistent concerns about protecting his anonymity and safety. It would not be surprising to find out the whistleblower is entirely made up at this point. Somebody in the comments criticized Trump pulling out of the Kurdish areas. I was going to post this as a reply there, but I think it belongs here. There have been times Trump has done things I thought I disagreed with. After all the other politicians, I think I simply assume at some point he will, because I have been told so often that we all disagree on something, there is no real right or wrong, it is all perspective, etc, etc. But with Trump I have to say as I look closer, I always seem to find there is additional information I missed which makes his position seem dead on. To the point I am beginning to wonder if all that, “You’ll never agree with anyone on everything” or “The leader has to serve many people so you will never agree with everything,” and even the old donkey, old man, and child story, where each passerby thinks somebody else should be getting the easy ride, is all propaganda, designed to program us so when the politician betrays you here and there you explain it to yourself with that. After seeing this much of Trump, I think it is possible there is a right and wrong, and if your leader is loyal to his own, intelligent, has good intel, and his heart is in the right place, there is no reason he shouldn’t hit that right decision every time, and if you disagree, you might change your mind if you knew everything. On the Kurds, I notice Tom Kratman’s piece has essentially been disappeared online. I found some of the relevant parts reprinted here, and I think it is worth a read. In it, a soldier recounts how Kurds would stage small arms fire against one of their enemies, like the Turks at the border, so when the Turks returned fire, they would be firing at our guys, and then we would kill some of their enemies with return fire. He even recounts a firefight they touched off this way between US soldiers and Iraqis who had just been waving at each other as friends. The only reason our guys didn’t get shredded was they were better gunfighters. We hear from the media, and Lindsey Graham (who is either a total idiot, compromised, or evil) how wonderful the Kurds are. The satanic controlled media tells us they are some sort of noble force. And Tom Kratman tells us they brutally genocide Christians, starve their own children, try to get our soldiers killed, take all the aid we send and then some, and demand we pay them. Don’t forget, Trump has intel that is equivalent to all the accounts from every Tom Kratman who has ever made contact with the Kurds. Personally, I am perfectly happy to take Kratman’s word, and stop spending decades defending people who refuse to defend their own lands, take all our wealth, and fuck us over in the process. Biden campaign now asking Twitter to reject a Trump campaign ad on his corruption, claiming he isn’t corrupt, therefore it must be false. This is a picture of the woman the Germany shooter supposedly sprayed with a 9mm submachine gun from behind. Notice the backpack, and the fact it was removed from her and she was rolled over on her back. No bullet holes in it. And someone said maybe she was hit in the head, but you have zero spatter, literally nothing on the bag, and that was full auto 9mm. It is possible that was real. But I am at the point I could see that whole video being an act, played out as some sort of mass-media manipulation of psychologies. This world could be much stranger than we think. FOX News oversampled Democrats by 14 points in their junk impeachment poll. Only 12% Republicans were in the poll. Notice how the Fake Right and Fake Left can unite – against Donald Trump. Temperatures in Denver dropped 64 degrees in less than 24 hours, setting a record. Adam Schiff refused to meet with a group of ten senior citizens opposed to the impeachment of President Donald Trump at his district office in Burbank on Thursday, citing a “new policy” on “security.” The abortionist who was keeping all those dead baby bodies from abortions on his property had still more stashed away in his car decomposing. Turkey President Erdogan threatens to send 3.6million refugees into Europe, says, “I’ll open the gates.” Ocasio Cortez blows $260 on one haircut, blames right wing for being bitter she looks good. Mitt quits before he got started, refuses to face Donald Trump, saying he will probably win. ICE Director says a single California judge is crippling enforcement in 43 states. ICE says 1000 false families have already been detected at the border with DNA tests. More than 1,000 African migrants are battling with Mexican National Guard and riot police in the streets of southern Mexico. Trudeau accuser who he was sleeping with illegally at 17 when he was a teacher, lands a seven-figure NDA to keep quiet about West Grey departure. Ronan Farrow says Hillary pressured him to kill his story on Weinstein. The federal government collected fewer than 1,000 bump stocks during the run-up to a new ban in March, despite estimates that hundreds of thousands of the devices that mimic machine gun fire are in circulation, according to the Justice Department. Three years after LA tax payers approve $1.2 billion for homeless housing, not a single unit built. The backstory on that French domestic intelligence agent who embraced Islam, radicalized, and then brought a knife to work and stabbed four coworkers to death. The interesting part of the article is he was a computer guy. They found he had downloaded the data on undercovers and operations at mosques across the country to a flash drive, and now they have no idea if he burned all of their agents and operations to his radical buddies. Amazon workers may be watching your cloud-cam footage. They admit they have been watching people have sex. I am beginning to wonder if this is a program, to try to desensitize the population to that kind of monitoring, so they won’t freak out if what has been going on comes out. Because a lot of people are under that at various times each year, whether they have these devices or not. An adviser to President Trump has claimed that China handed him intelligence on Hunter Biden in the same week Trump publicly told Beijing to investigate Joe Biden’s son. Sounds like it could be a Fake News Cabal set up. Power outages still riling California. It is pretty impressive the degree to which California has become a melting pot of the third world. They have the Shanty towns of Somalia in their homeless camps, the street shitting of India, and now they have the rolling blackouts of Venezuela. If they can just get some middle eastern goat-fucking going, and maybe weekly beheadings in the public square, it will be a leftist’s diverse utopia. To really get an idea of how fake our Mockingbird Media is, you need only go to the Russian news shows, which I have found to be quite honest. Here, RT.com’s American branch looks at how corporate interests fuel the rise of “celebrities” like Ellen DeGeneres, who ostensibly have jobs that pay them for entertaining people, but which also involve inuring people to the surveillance state and supporting the waging of wars overseas to critical demographics. (Starts at 4:05, and runs to 9:05, if you don’t have the time, it just says they have emails showing she is willingly being used to mold policy-opinions in the masses, and is funded by the same interests benefiting from the things she advances.): From the degenerate shitshow which is the escaped asylum inmates who make up the base of the Democrat Party: How letting the intelligence game play out facilitates evil: We really need a counter-intelligence agency devoted solely to limiting intelligence gathering operations within our own nation, on our own citizens. Once you have a system where the currency is trading on each other’s misdeeds, you will only have misdeed-doers in power, and they will fear and blacklist nobody, so much as the one honest leader like Trump who tries to get in. Because that man is the only one who they will have no power over, and no ability to defend against. On this next one, notice Musk just keeps going and going, as if Tesla is a going concern. He is a cover for something interesting: Denmark is to impose temporary border controls at the Swedish border next month, after Swedes were suspected of being behind a number of serious attacks this year in the Danish capital Copenhagen. K will bring borders back in style. Trump surges deportations of illegal aliens by 453 percent in recent months. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar agree they can “see a pathway to a possible deal” on Brexit after talks, Downing Street says. Slovenia — the home country of First Lady Melania Trump — has formed a civil defense force to put a stop to illegal Muslim migrants entering their country from Croatia. US manufacturing entering a ‘golden era’ under Trump, says auto parts billionaire and NFL owner. Trump to award Medal of Honor to Green Beret for heroics in 2008 Afghanistan fight. Hong Kong protestors are thwarting the surveillance state as they protest: Again, if it is anything there like it is here, they are probably not escaping it entirely, and somewhere it is going in a file on them. But there are two factors – one, the machine wants to hide itself, and cannot let everyone know how thick the networks are. So you can probably hide yourself good enough, where taking action against you would be too big a risk, as it would expose they could only have identified you through extraordinary means, and you might be able to figure out how and spread that around, exposing the system, and touching off real rebellion. The second possibility is the real surveillance player is very likely not the government per se. So there is no guarantee the surveillance has the same objectives as the government. In these situations, the Hong Kong mayor could have said something that offended Cabal leadership, it wants her gone, and it is actually fomenting and using these protests to do it. In which case surveillance might not say anything as you lash out at her and give Beijing the pretext to move in and take over. Or Cabal may even be setting in play a total civil war which would spread to the mainland and produce a new leadership in Beijing. If Cabal is moving to China more overtly, it may need something different in the way of leaders. Don’t remember if I put this up, but it was super cool, so a second airing doesn’t hurt: Spread r/K Theory, because a diversity of shitholes is still a shithole. | Anonymous Conservative | https://www.anonymousconservative.com/blog/news-briefs-10112019/ | Fri, 11 Oct 2019 10:45:48 +0000 | 1,570,805,148 | 1,570,798,679 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
76 | 21stcenturywire--2019-01-24--LISTEN Mark Anderson Interviews Cliven Bundy on STOP THE PRESSES Radio | 2019-01-24T00:00:00 | 21stcenturywire | LISTEN: Mark Anderson Interviews Cliven Bundy on STOP THE PRESSES! Radio | ROUND ROCK, Texas — Cliven Bundy, the patriarch-cattleman of the embattled Nevada family that locked horns with the federal government nearly five years ago—in a land-rights protest that some refer to as the now-legendary “Battle of Bunkerville”—was a guest on Mark Anderson’s STOP THE PRESSES! Radio Show on the LIVE stream at the Republic Broadcasting Network (RBN) on Friday, Jan. 25, 2019. Anderson’s show runs from 2 to 3 p.m. Central Time, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He is the director of this TRUTH HOUND website, which operates under the auspices of his STOP THE PRESSES News Association. Listeners can catch the show live and on the archive. It’s been just over one year since federal judge Gloria Navarro freed Bundy, some of his sons and others in her Jan. 8, 2018 court ruling in Las Vegas. They had been imprisoned under various charges stemming from their protest of federal land policies. Cliven shared with Anderson the latest information on the federal government’s indications that it will appeal Navarro’s decision, while giving the big picture of life as a rancher and the fight for property rights in an age when huge tracts of Western lands are federally “owned” and controlled. | Mark Anderson | https://21stcenturywire.com/2019/01/24/hear-cliven-bundy-jan-25-or-via-archive-on-stop-the-presses-with-mark-anderson/ | 2019-01-24 19:48:30+00:00 | 1,548,377,310 | 1,567,550,972 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
440 | 21stcenturywire--2019-07-03--INTERVIEW Fukushima an Ongoing Global Radiological Catastrophe A Huge Coverup | 2019-07-03T00:00:00 | 21stcenturywire | INTERVIEW: ‘Fukushima an Ongoing Global Radiological Catastrophe – A Huge Coverup’ | The following is a transcript of the 8th anniversary Fukushima, with an interview between Global Research host Michael Welsh and Dr. Helen Caldicott, first published on March 21, 2019 The eight year anniversary of the triple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility passed mostly without comment in mainstream media circles. In spite of ongoing radiological contamination that will continue to spread and threaten human health for lifetimes to come, other stories dominate the international news cycle. The climate change conundrum, serious though it may be, seemingly crowds out all other clear and present environmental hazards. As part of efforts to normalize this historic event and cover it up in its magnitude, the Japanese government has invested considerable financial, public relations and other resources into what they are billing the ‘Recovery Olympics‘ set to take place in a year’s time in Tokyo. But Helen Caldicott warns that the dangers associated with Fukushima have not gone away and remain a cause for concern. Dr. Helen Caldicott has been an author, physician and one of the world’s leading anti-nuclear campaigners. She helped to reinvigorate the group of Physicians for Social Responsibility, acting as president from 1978 to 1983. Since its founding in 2001 she served as president of the US based Nuclear Policy Research Institute later called Beyond Nuclear which initiates symposia and educational projects aimed at informing the public about the dangers of nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and nuclear war. And she is the editor of the 2014 book, Crisis Without End: The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe. On the week marking the eighth anniversary of the Fukushima meltdowns, the Global Research News Hour radio program, hosted by Michael Welch, reached out to Dr. Caldicott to get her expert opinion on the health dangers posed by the most serious nuclear disaster since, at least, the 1986 Chernobyl event. Global Research: Now the Japanese government is preparing to welcome visitors to Japan for the 2020 Olympic Games, and coverage of the 8th anniversary of the Fukushima disaster is hardly, it seems to me, registered given the significant radiological and other dangers that you cited and your authors cited in your 2014 book, Crisis Without End. Now it’s been more than four years since that book came out. I was hoping you could update our listenership on what is currently being recognized as the main health threats in 2019, perhaps not registered in the book, that you’re currently looking at in relation to the Fukushima meltdown. Helen Caldicott: Well it’s difficult because the Japanese government has authorized really only examination of thyroid cancer. Now thyroid cancer is caused by radioactive iodine and there were many, many cases of that after Chernobyl. And already, they’ve looked at children under the age of 18 in the Fukushima prefecture at the time of the accident, and … how many children… 100…no 201 by June 18 last year… 201 had developed thyroid cancer. Some cancers had metastasized. The incidence of thyroid cancer in that population normally is 1 per million. So obviously it’s an epidemic of thyroid cancer and it’s just starting now. What people need to understand is the latent period of carcinogenesis, ie the time after exposure to radiation when cancers develop is any time from 3 years to 80 years. And so it’s a very, very long period. Thyroid cancers appear early. Leukemia appears about 5 to 10 years later. They’re not looking for leukemia. Solid cancers of every organ, or any organ as such appear about 15 years later and continue and in fact the Hibakusha from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki who are still alive are still developing cancers in higher than normal numbers. The Japanese government has told doctors that they are not to talk to their patients about radiation and illnesses derived thereof, and in fact if the doctors do do that, they might lose their funding from the government. The IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency interestingly set up a hospital – a cancer hospital – in Fukushima along with the Fukushima University for people with cancer, which tells you everything. So there’s a huge, huge cover up. I have been to Japan twice and particularly to Fukushima and spoken to people there and the parents are desperate to hear the truth even if it’s not good truth. And they thanked me for telling them the truth. So it’s an absolute medical catastrophe I would say, and a total cover up to protect the nuclear industry and all its ramifications. GR: Now, are we talking about some of the, the contamination that happened 8 years ago or are we talking about ongoing emissions from, for example– HC: Well there are ongoing emissions into the air consistently, number one. Number two, a huge amount of water is being stored –over a million gallons in tanks at the site. That water is being siphoned off from the reactor cores, the damaged melted cores. Water is pumped consistently every day, every hour, to keep the cores cool in case they have another melt. And that water, of course, is extremely contaminated. Now they say they’ve filtered out the contaminants except for the tritium which is part of the water molecule, but they haven’t. There’s strontium, cesium, and many other elements in that water – it’s highly radioactive – and because there isn’t enough room to build more tanks, they’re talking about emptying all that water into the Pacific Ocean and the fishermen are very, very upset. The fish already being caught off Fukushima, some are obviously contaminated. But this will be a disaster. Water comes down from the mountains behind the reactors, flows underneath the reactors into the sea and always has. And when the reactors were in good shape, the water was fine, didn’t get contaminated. But now the three molten cores in contact with that water flowing under the reactors and so the water flowing into the Pacific is very radioactive and that’s a separate thing from the million gallons or more in those tanks. They put up a refrigerated wall of frozen dirt around the reactors to prevent that water from the mountains flowing underneath the reactors, which has cut down the amount of water flowing per day from 500 tons to about a hundred and fifty. But of course, if they lose electricity, that refrigeration system is going to fail, and it’s a transient thing anyway so it’s ridiculous. In terms… So over time the Pacific is going to become more and more radioactive. They talk about decommissioning and removing those molten cores. When robots go in and try and have a look at them, their wiring just melts and disappears. They’re extraordinarily radioactive. No human can go near them because they would die within 48 hours from the radiation exposure. They will never, and I quote never, decommission those reactors. They will never be able to stop the water coming down from the mountains. And so, the truth be known, it’s an ongoing global radiological catastrophe which no one really is addressing in full. GR: Do we have a better reading on, for example the thyroids, but also leukemia incubation— HC: No they’re not looking–well, leukemia they’re not looking for leukemia… HC: They’re not charting it. So the only cancer they’re looking at is thyroid cancer and that’s really high, and you know it’s at 201 have already been diagnosed and some have metastasized. And a very tight lid is being kept on any other sort of radiation related illnesses and leukemia and the like. All the other cancers and the like, and leukemia is so… It’s not just a catastrophe it’s a… HC: Yeah. I can’t really explain how I feel medically about it. It’s just hideous. GR: Well I have a brother who’s a physician, who was pointing to well we should maybe, the World Health Organization is a fairly authoritative body of research for all of the indicators and epidemiological aspects of this, but you seem to suggest the World Health Organization may not be that reliable in light of the fact that they are partnered with the IAEA. Is that my understanding…? HC: Correct. They signed a document, I think in ‘59, with the IAEA that they would not report any medical effects of radiological disasters and they’ve stuck to that. So they are in effect in this area part of the International Atomic Energy Agency whose mission is to promote nuclear power. So don’t even think about the WHO. it’s really obscene. GR: So what would… the incentive would be simply that they got funding? HC: I don’t know. I really don’t know but they sold themselves to the devil. GR: That’s pretty incredible. So there’s also the issue of biomagnification in the oceans, where you have radioactive debris, hundreds of tons of this radioactive water getting into the oceans and biomagnifying up through the food chain, so these radioactive particles can get inside our bodies. Could you speak to what you anticipate to see, what you would anticipate, whether it’s recorded by World Health authorities or not, what we could expect to see in the years ahead in terms of the illnesses that manifest themselves? HC: Well number one, Fukushima is a very agricultural prefecture. Beautiful, beautiful peaches, beautiful food, and lots of rice. And the radiation spread far and wide through the Fukushima prefecture, and indeed they have been plowing up millions and millions of tons of radioactive dirt and storing it in plastic bags all over the prefecture. The mountains are highly radioactive and every time it rains, down comes radiation with the water. So the radiation – the elements. And there are over 200 radioactive elements made in a nuclear reactor. Some have lives of seconds and some have lives of millions of years or lasts for millions of years will I say. So there are many many isotopes, long-lasting isotopes – cesium, strontium, tritium is another one – but many, many on the soil in Fukushima. And what happens is – you talked about biomagnification – when the plants take up the water from the soil, they take up the cesium which is a potassium analog – it resembles potassium. Strontium 90 resembles calcium and the like. And these elements get magnified by orders of magnitude in the rice and in the plants. And so when you eat food that is grown in Fukushima, the chances are it’s going to be relatively radioactive. They’ve been diluting radioactive rice with non-radioactive rice to make it seem a bit better. Now, into the ocean go these isotopes as well, and the algae bio-magnify them by – you know -ten to a hundred times or more. And then the crustaceans eat the algae, bio-magnify it more. The little fish eat the crustaceans, the big fish eat the little fish and the like. And tuna found in – off the coast of California some years ago contained isotopes from Fukushima. Also fish, being caught on the west coast of California contained some of these isotopes. So, it’s an ongoing bio-magnification catastrophe. And the thing is that you can’t even taste, smell or see radioactive elements in your food. They’re invisible. And it takes a long time for cancers to occur. And you can’t identify a particular cancer caused by a particular substance or isotope. You can only identify that problem by doing epidemiological studies comparing irradiated people with non-irradiated people to see what the cancer levels are and that data comes from Hiroshima and Nagasaki and many, many, many other studies. GR: Chernobyl as well, no? HC: Oh, Chernobyl! Well, a wonderful book was produced by the, uh, Russians, and published by the New York Academy of Sciences, called Chernobyl with over 5000 on the ground studies of children and diseases in Belarus and the Ukraine, and all over Europe. And by now over a million people have already died from the Chernobyl disaster. And many diseases have been caused by that, including premature aging in children, microcephaly in babies, very small heads, diabetes, leukemia, I mean, I could go on and on. Um, and those diseases which have been very well described in that wonderful book, um, which everyone should read, are not being addressed or identified or looked for in the Fukushima or Japanese population. May I say that parts of Tokyo are extremely radioactive. People have been measuring the dirt from rooves of apartments, from the roadway, from vacuum cleaner dust. And some of these samples, they’re so radioactive that they would classify to be buried in radioactive waste facilities in America. So, that’s number one. Number two, to have the Olympics in Fukushima just defies imagination. And uh, some of the areas where the athletes are going to be running, the dust and dirt there has been measured, and it’s highly radioactive. So, this is Abe, the Prime Minister of Japan, who set this up to – as a sort of way to obscure what Fukushima really means. And those young athletes, you know, who are – and young people are much more sensitive to radiation, developing cancers later than older people – it’s just a catastrophe waiting to happen. GR: (Chuckle). Is there anything that people can do, you know, whether they live in Japan or, say, the west coast of North America to mitigate the effects that this disaster has had, and may still be having eight years later? HC: Yes. Do not eat any Japanese food because you don’t know where it’s sourced. Do not eat fish from Japan, miso, rice, you name it. Do not eat Japanese food. Period. Um, fish caught off the west coast of Canada and America, well, they’re not testing the fish so I don’t know what you’d do. Um, I mean, most of it’s probably not radioactive but you don’t know because you can’t taste it. Um they’ve closed down the air-borne radioactive measuring instruments off the west coast of America, uh, but that’s pretty bad, because there still could be another huge accident at those reactors. For instance, if there’s another large earthquake, number one, all those tanks would be destroyed and the water would pour into the Pacific. Number two, there could be another meltdown, a release – huge release of radiation, um, from the damaged reactors. So, things are very tenuous, but they’re not just tenuous now. They’re going to be tenuous forever. The original source of this article is Global Research | 21wire | https://21stcenturywire.com/2019/07/03/interview-fukushima-is-an-ongoing-global-radiological-catastrophe-a-huge-coverup/ | 2019-07-03 05:46:11+00:00 | 1,562,147,171 | 1,567,536,990 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
5,202 | activistpost--2019-08-06--Anonymous Bites Back Radio Show Strikes Against Censorship Now Broadcasted On 50 Platforms | 2019-08-06T00:00:00 | activistpost | Anonymous Bites Back Radio Show Strikes Against Censorship — Now Broadcasted On 50+ Platforms | Anonymous Bites Back, an all volunteer activist apolitical radio show, has been broadcasting for several years with constant problems fighting back against censorship for the topics discussed. Now, ABB seems to have found an unorthodox solution to their problem. Originally, episodes received good viewer counts, starting out using Facebook and YouTube as a home to stream the weekly shows. On Facebook alone the Anonymous Bites Back page quickly grew to 25,000+ viewers per episode. This was mainly due to the huge amount of promotion on different pages and groups by the team and by the viewers themselves. Everyone was working hard on building up the show. Then shit started to hit the fan. Suddenly ABB episodes were “shadow banned” and outright censored. When an episode went live, it started out with a certain amount of viewers. But then the team started to share, and with each share to a page the view count actually started to drop. At some point there were more people replying below the episode than the amount Facebook claimed were watching the live stream. After a while, Anonymous Bites Back realized why the social media site was doing this and how. The show had become too big and was causing ripple waves on the InQTel-funded platform. It’s no surprise that Facebook did this to ABB, as the group of activists are who originally came up with the #DeleteFacebook movement. Facebook works with a “live stream map.” This map shows dots representing all the different live streams in the world. When a stream gets more viewers, the dot becomes larger, making you more visible, giving you more and more exposure. So a popular stream will get a big boost by Facebook, unless you are “deboosted.” It’s now been revealed that Facebook will “deboost” posts including political targeting users. It’s something that all of us knew, and is more commonly referred to in the industry as “shadow banning.” However, the claim holds more water coming from a former employee than just mere speculation, especially with documents that Project Veritas reported. They began artificially reducing the live view count, they were actively attempting to reduce the reach of the show. So Anonymous Bites Back realized the establishment social media wanted a war. And the team started to invent solutions. They started out by changing the location of the live stream to a popular location. If something big was happening at that moment, the show would “move” to that location. This offered a temporary solution, and new viewers did arrive. Also a team was created to increase the sharing, consisting of active supporters and fans, and they were organizing “watch parties” to increase the amount of viewers. It worked, and Anonymous Bites Back was able to restore the numbers. But then Facebook hit them again. This time by limiting accounts of people who would share from the page. The moment you would share from the page more than 3 times, your account would be unable to share anything for 7 days. Sometimes it would lock you out of your account entirely. Keep in mind that all of this happened on Facebook while the show never received a single infraction. But the team didn’t give up, instead they started to branch out using different services. The team’s focus was then put on to YouTube. Viewers quickly moved over and after just a mere two episodes even the chat below the live shows became very active. However, that didn’t last long at all before once again the activists faced blow back. All of a sudden, YouTube stopped the streaming capabilities a month or two ago for a false copyright claim of a documentary the team had permission to stream, coincidentally right before the U.S. debates. YouTube also censored other accounts who were actually talking about the debates, as Elizabeth Lea Vos reported on Steemit. Albeit the fact that the radio show is apolitical and didn’t plan on covering the Democratic debates, the timing of the suspended live stream capability can’t be ignored. After the show was “shadow banned” on both Facebook and Youtube, the Anonymous activists had to find solutions. Quickly a team member developed a method to stream to over 30 different social media websites at once. This allowed them to be decentralized, no longer being dependent on any individual website. They would always be online “somewhere” and would just post the links to their incredibly large network. When last month they lost their live stream capabilities on the famous Anonymous Worldwide Youtube channel for 90 days, after a so called copyright infraction that later turned out to be false, they were able to switch to Periscope within seconds. This is the live stream website created by the Twitter company. They were even able to increase the viewer count of Anonymous Bites Back shows ten fold compared to Youtube, easily reaching 5-10.000 unique viewers per show. After this happened, YouTube in a clear moment of irony started to care and sent private messages on Twitter to one of the show hosts asking if they can offer a solution to the stream being limited. Since the message from YouTube, Anonymous Bites Back, (ABB) was shockingly allowed to stream again. Despite this, there is a huge list of different sites now streaming the show displayed on the Anonymous Bites Back Gravatar page. And it is increasing by the day, as ABB organizes the different profiles to make them look a little more “professional.” The ABB team is from all over the world and they don’t care what political flavor of ice cream you choose to eat, everyone is welcome to come on air. That may be why the establishment doesn’t like the show. So as a result they are always trying to disturb and disrupt in many different ways. But the ABB team is ready and loved in the Anonymous collective for being consistent with standing up for human rights and highlighting numerous activism causes without taking donations or monetizing the show. During the last month or so ABB have been working on a direct audio stream on the Anonymous Bites Back website that cannot be removed by social media, as a backup system to current streams. You can listen to ABB below via Periscope each week on Thursday at 9 P.M. CST and again on Saturday and Sunday for special episodes at 2 p.m. CST. Of course, episodes are always uploaded after the show in podcasts. For more information follow the ABB Twitter account – @abbliveshow. For the latest Twitter Periscope live stream on Catalonia see the link below: | Aaron | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/08/anonymous-bites-back-radio-show-strikes-against-censorship-now-broadcasted-on-50-platforms.html | 2019-08-06 00:55:50+00:00 | 1,565,067,350 | 1,567,534,710 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
6,950 | ageofautism--2019-02-27--Laura Hayes on Healthy Life Radio with Dr Andy McCabe | 2019-02-27T00:00:00 | ageofautism | Laura Hayes on Healthy Life Radio with Dr. Andy McCabe! | We invite you to listen to Laura Hayes' interview on VACCINATIONS and all the great interviews on Dr. Andy McCabe's program called Healthy Life! You'll see many familiar names on the interview list. Click here to look, listen and learn! Thanks to Laura for her tireless fight for all of our kids - and us - as adult vaccine mandates are looming even as we speak. Visit the site here. | Age of Autism | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ageofautism/~3/4r-jFo1ZVf8/laura-hayes-on-healthy-life-radio-with-dr-andy-mccabe.html | 2019-02-27 11:00:00+00:00 | 1,551,283,200 | 1,567,547,148 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
6,985 | ageofautism--2019-03-17--Laura Hayes on PRN Radio Monday 318 | 2019-03-17T00:00:00 | ageofautism | Laura Hayes on PRN Radio Monday 3/18 | Tomorrow, 3/18 , I will be interviewed on PRN.fm, by Renee of Vaccine Information Coalition, at: If you go to PRN.fm, there is a small "Listen Now" sign on the top left corner of the home page under the words "Deadly Deception". It also looks like you can click on the "Shows" tab at the top of the page, then click on the "Schedule" link in the drop-down menu, then click on the Monday 2:00pm show titled "What In the Cell Is Going On?". Hope one of those ways will make it easy for you to tune in tomorrow! | Age of Autism | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ageofautism/~3/gWfRdpmIY8c/laura-hayes-on-prn-radio-monday-318.html | 2019-03-17 23:45:01+00:00 | 1,552,880,701 | 1,567,545,916 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
7,225 | ageofautism--2019-07-30--Radio Interviews This Week With Laura Hayes | 2019-07-30T00:00:00 | ageofautism | Radio Interviews This Week With Laura Hayes | I am doing 2 radio interviews this week. I am hoping that you will be able to tune in, and that perhaps you will consider inviting a few people over to listen with you :) First one is this Tuesday, July 30th, 9:00-10:00am PST, on Food Chain Radio with host Michael Olson. Topic will be vaccines, and I will be interviewed along with Dena Churchill from Canada, who recently paid an extreme price for standing firm in her right to proclaim vaccine truths. To listen in live, click here, then click the "Listen Live" button: Or here, then scroll down for the "Listen Live" button: Second one is this Wednesday, July 31st, 12:00-1:00pm PST, on KVMR Radio with host Jeanie Keltner. As most of you know, Jeanie is savvy to the truth about vaccines, and we always have a robust and informative discussion about them, in addition to discussing the most-recent efforts to eliminate our parental rights and medical choice freedom. To listen in live, click here, then click the "Listen Live" button at the very top: Both interviews will be available as podcasts after the fact for those who are unable to tune in live. | Age of Autism | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ageofautism/~3/wu2E2TW9kNI/radio-interviews-this-week-with-laura-hayes.html | 2019-07-30 09:00:00+00:00 | 1,564,491,600 | 1,567,535,355 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
7,658 | aljazeera--2019-01-05--Radio La Colifata Argentinas loony radio | 2019-01-05T00:00:00 | aljazeera | Radio La Colifata: Argentina's 'loony radio' | More than 20 years ago, a psychology student doing his training at one of Argentina's oldest psychiatric wards kept being asked by his family and friends what it was like to work in there. So, he came up with an idea: to let the patients explain in their own words. The first radio station to broadcast from inside a mental hospital was born. Radio La Colifata - slang for "loon", or "crazy person", has been on air from Hospital Jose Borda in Buenos Aires every Saturday afternoon for 23 years - to confront the stigma around mental illness, breaking through the wall in AM, FM and now online. In-patients produce and present the shows that range from politics to sports - and over the years, millions of Argentinians have been tuning in. Today, the radio frequencies have reached further, with around 50 stations based on the Radio Colifata model in Latin America, Europe and Asia - and soon, it will be setting up outside the asylum, hosted by former patients. The radio was never intended as a serious journalistic enterprise per se. But the voices it includes, the things that are said, and the way the stories are told are enough to make anyone in the mainstream world of journalism stop, listen and think about how their own voices are repressed, censored and sedated - and how truth lies beyond what has been prescribed. This week, we hear what the Colifatos have to say in a special collaboration between The Listening Post and Radio La Colifata. | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2016/01/media-radio-la-colifata-argentina-loony-radio-160102073323596.html | 2019-01-05 08:06:41+00:00 | 1,546,693,601 | 1,567,553,840 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
12,309 | aljazeera--2019-04-21--Radio Maryja and the media empire of Polands polarising priest | 2019-04-21T00:00:00 | aljazeera | Radio Maryja and the media empire of Poland's polarising priest | The story of Father Tadeusz Rydzyk and his radio station that lie at the heart of the country's politics. I spent the first 19 years of my life in Poland and this media story has always been in the background, in public discourse, in politics, in the Catholic Church - a sort of cultural phenomenon. Few people in Poland are as well known as Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, a Redemptorist and, more importantly for this story, the cofounder of the Catholic radio station Radio Maryja. Even fewer Poles attract such polarised opinions. As the author of Rydzyk's unauthorised biography, Emperor, Piotr Głuchowski, told The Listening Post's Artur Osiński: "Myths about Rydzyk have entered Polish folklore." Many people distrust, dislike or even downright loathe him. However, he also has thousands, perhaps millions, of followers whose reverence for Rydzyk is unparalleled. As we found out when we talked with parishioners in Torun - the town where Radio Maryja is based - there are those who see Rydzyk almost as a cult figure. For many listeners, particularly the elderly, looking to find their way in the modern world, he offers a haven - and, in return, Rydzyk readily collects their donations. One of the main issues for Rydzyk's critics is that it's not just his supporters who give him money. It's every taxpayer in Poland, whether they like it or not. According to Magdalena Chrzczonowicz from the investigative website OKO.press, "since the current populist, right-wing government returned to power in 2015, it has given Rydzyk at least $21m in grants, contracts and donations". Chrzczonowicz also told us that the full data is not available, so the amount is likely to be even higher. The political power Rydzyk wields through his media empire is staggering, especially when you consider the audience numbers, according to the ratings company Nielsen, it is just a 2 percent share of the radio market and even less for his TV channel - and given how the current government treats news outlets it doesn't like. Gazeta Wyborcza reporter Marcin Kącki says, "It is degrading that the leaders such as the prime minister, government ministers, drive like crazy to the other side of Poland to make it for a Radio Maryja meeting because this is what Father Rydzyk wishes. It is unacceptable in the 21st century that one individual, a monk, can hold such power." So why is he so powerful? The answer is simple: religion. The Catholic Church remains a potent force in Poland. An overwhelming majority of the country is Catholic (even though the number has been falling) and Radio Maryja listeners are among the most devout. For many, the radio serves primarily as an extension of their faith. For others, the political messaging is made all the more effective when mixed with the Sacrum. It creates a strong, unified, loyal electorate. As Ireneusz Krzemiński, author of What Does Radio Maryja Teach Us? explains, "If I'm a Radio Maryja listener, I know straight away what my views are, whom I will vote for, who my enemy is." When I pitched this story, I had expected that neither Rydzyk nor any of his representatives would agree to an interview. That proved true. We were told by a Radio Maryja spokesman that Rydzyk "rarely speaks to media other than his own" and that, "due to years of bad experiences with the media", neither he nor anyone else associated with his organisation would speak to us. Nor would Al Jazeera be allowed to film inside their newsroom. That was not a surprise. What was surprising was that not a single right-wing journalist/news outlet outside the Rydzyk circle that I approached (and there were many) even got back to us. Not even to say no. Quite telling. Arguably, when one individual wields so much power over a government, scrutiny is appropriate, even inevitable. Not so for Tadeusz Rydzyk, it seems. He is exactly as I remembered him before I left Poland. Only more powerful. Ireneusz Krzeminski - author, What Does Radio Maryja Teach Us? and professor of sociology, Warsaw University | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2019/04/radio-maryja-media-empire-poland-polarising-priest-190420103814908.html | 2019-04-21 10:15:19+00:00 | 1,555,856,119 | 1,567,542,260 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
13,823 | aljazeera--2019-06-26--Al Jazeera Wins Gold Silver at New York Festivals Radio Awards | 2019-06-26T00:00:00 | aljazeera | Al Jazeera Wins Gold, Silver at New York Festivals Radio Awards | Flanked by industry peers on Monday in New York, Al Jazeera Digital received a Gold Radio award for its current affairs podcast The Take and a Silver Radio award for its sports and lifestyle podcast Game of Our Lives. The trophies were conferred during the New York Festivals Radio Awards gala in Manhattan in recognition of a wide spectrum of radio content submitted from 35 countries across a variety of genres, including breaking news, podcasts, audiobooks, live events, audio dramas and documentaries. The Gold Radio award marked a first industry recognition for The Take, which began its weekly production less than a year ago. Hosted by Malika Bilal, The Take interviews journalists from Al Jazeera's international bureaus to take a deeper look at the events that are shaping our world. Al Jazeera Digital's head of audio, Graelyn Brashear received the awards in front of a packed audience. Fellow winners and nominees included industry peers from The Guardian, BBC, Vox and CBC. "It's an honour to receive these awards on behalf of our talented, hard-working audio teams," Brashear said from the sidelines of the ceremony. "The Gold award for The Take is also a win for Al Jazeera's correspondents and producers in TV and Digital, whose firsthand knowledge of the regions they're covering help us to produce a show that truly covers the globe." "Podcasting is new for us at the Al Jazeera Media Network," said Carlos van Meek, Director of Digital Innovation and Programming, "so this win confirms there is a home for our content in audio and that our team is on the right track editorially." "We're very proud of what we've accomplished in a short time and with the resources at our disposal. I'd ask discerning listeners to watch this space. More award-winning content is on the way." Drawing upon the appeal of the world's most popular sport, Game of our Lives won the Silver Radio Award for its treatment of football as a metaphor for global living. Weaving together interviews with athletes, cultural icons and commentators, Game of our Lives spans the interconnected worlds of sportsmanship, politics and cinema. The podcast emerged ahead of competitors ESPN Films, BBC Radio 5 Live and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/al-jazeera-wins-gold-silver-york-festivals-radio-awards-190626142007061.html | 2019-06-26 18:04:31+00:00 | 1,561,586,671 | 1,567,538,049 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
24,682 | bbc--2019-03-23--Ball-by-ball radio commentary of IPL on BBC | 2019-03-23T00:00:00 | bbc | Ball-by-ball radio commentary of IPL on BBC | The BBC has signed a two-year deal to broadcast ball-by-ball commentary of the Indian Premier League. The 2019 edition of the world's biggest T20 competition begins on Saturday, 23 March and runs until 12 May. Matches will be broadcast on both the BBC Sport website and BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra (UK only). Coverage of the Indian Premier League (IPL) kicks off a big summer of cricket on BBC radio, including the World Cup and the men's and women's Ashes. "This summer of cricket is set to be one of the most exciting in recent memory and I'm thrilled we're kicking it off with comprehensive coverage of the IPL, which is one of the sport's most vibrant competitions," said Ben Gallop, head of radio and digital for BBC Sport. As well as match commentary, The Doosra podcast will round up the IPL action each week with England's Women's World Cup-winning bowler Isa Guha, stand-up comedian Aatif Nawaz and BBC Asian Network host Ankur Desai. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/47668026 | 2019-03-23 09:08:56+00:00 | 1,553,346,536 | 1,567,545,101 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
25,180 | bbc--2019-04-03--BBC secures Premier League radio rights until 2022 | 2019-04-03T00:00:00 | bbc | BBC secures Premier League radio rights until 2022 | The BBC has secured radio rights for Premier League games for another three years until the end of the 2021-22 season. BBC Radio 5 live will have commentary of around 140 games a season - more than any other broadcaster. The station will also be the only place to listen to Premier League games on a Sunday at 2pm and 4.30pm. The BBC will also have the first pick of Saturday 3pm game, plus matches on Friday, Saturday and Monday evenings. "Live radio coverage of the Premier League is a key element of the BBC's audience offer for football fans," said director of BBC Sport Barbara Slater, after the BBC secured four of the seven packages on offer. "The quality of our production, commentary, analysis and presentation is unrivalled and it's something we are immensely proud of." Match of the Day already has a contract to show Premier League highlights until at least the 2021-22 season. The BBC Sport website has live text commentary of all matches. You can listen to BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC 5 Live Sports Extra on BBC Sounds, digital radio, online at bbc.co.uk/5live, Digital Freeview, Sky, Freesat, Virgin Media and 909 & 693 AM. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47806520 | 2019-04-03 15:27:56+00:00 | 1,554,319,676 | 1,567,544,176 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
27,240 | bbc--2019-05-28--Radio 5 Live to broadcast Joshua title fight with Ruiz Jr | 2019-05-28T00:00:00 | bbc | Radio 5 Live to broadcast Joshua title fight with Ruiz Jr | Unified world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua's first fight in America will be broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live. Joshua's US bow on 1 June sees him face America-born Andy Ruiz Jr at New York's Madison Square Garden, a "bucket list" venue according to BBC Sport boxing correspondent Mike Costello. The contest, for the IBF, WBA and WBO world titles, will take place at around 03:00 BST on Sunday, 2 June. Costello said the 29-year-old's career is moving on to "another iconic venue". Costello, who will call the action from ringside, added: "There are hallowed arenas across all sports that bring an extra dimension to a commentator's excitement and Madison Square Garden, especially for a world heavyweight title fight, belongs high on the bucket list." Joshua's bout will be one of three commentaries on BBC Radio 5 Live, following Callum Smith's defence of his WBA world super-middleweight title against Hassan N'Dam and Katie Taylor's lightweight showdown with Delphine Persoon, where all four women's world titles are on the line. Throughout the week, 5 Live's boxing podcast with Costello and Steve Bunce will deliver fresh editions on Monday, after the midweek main event news conference, following Friday's weigh-in and on Sunday morning in the hours after the bout. The BBC Sport website will provide updates throughout the week, as well as a live text commentary in the early hours of Sunday morning. Joshua has not been in action since his impressive win last September over Alexander Povetkin, where he took his record to 22 wins from 22 fights, including 21 knockouts. Ruiz stepped up for the bout when it was announced Joshua's original opponent Jarrell Miller failed drugs tests in April. Ruiz, who has one loss in 33 fights, has said Joshua "fights like a big robot" in the build-up, while Joshua has labelled his opponent "a great challenger". Ben Gallop, head of BBC Radio and Digital Sport, said: "Anthony Joshua is one of the most iconic British sportsmen of his generation and his first fight in the USA is an event not to be missed. I'm delighted we're able to bring our listeners exclusive commentary of the bout on BBC Radio 5 Live and the BBC Sport website following the conclusion of the all-English Champions League final, making for an unmissable night of sport on 5 Live this Saturday." | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/48401502 | 2019-05-28 18:00:14+00:00 | 1,559,080,814 | 1,567,539,988 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
33,067 | bbc--2019-11-23--Greta Thunberg to guest edit Radio 4's Today programme | 2019-11-23T00:00:00 | bbc | Greta Thunberg to guest edit Radio 4's Today programme | Environmental activist, Greta Thunberg is to appear as one of the Christmas guest editors of Radio 4's Today programme. The 16-year-old campaigner will be one of five high-profile people who will take over the programme during the festive period, as is tradition. The others include Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry and Supreme Court president Baroness Hale of Richmond. George the Poet and journalist Charles Moore will also take the reins. They will each guest edit an edition of the Radio 4 programme between Boxing Day and New Year's Eve. Thunberg was nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, after spearheading a global movement demanding world leaders take action over climate change. It led to co-ordinated school strikes across the globe. The Swedish activist's name is synonymous with the fight to save the planet. Thunberg's voice appears on the opening track of the forthcoming album by the popular UK rock band, The 1975. "We are right now at the beginning of a climate and ecological crisis. And we need to call it what it is: an emergency," Thunberg is heard saying on the track. Thunberg will speak to the world's leading climate change figures and hear from frontline activists, the BBC said. She has also commissioned reports from the Antarctic and Zambia, as well as a Mishal Husain interview with the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney. Elsewhere, Baroness Hale will give Today a tour of the Supreme Court and explore the concept of coercive control. while Perry will help to examine stereotypes and conventional thinking. Moore will focus on freedom of expression, and spoken word artist-turned-podcaster George will report from Uganda and explore issues around identity. Previous guest editors of the show have included the Duke of Sussex, Angelina Jolie, former House of Commons speaker John Bercow and David Dimbleby, as well as Sir Lenny Henry, Nicola Adams, Tracey Emin, Professor Stephen Hawking and Sir Richard Branson. Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-50515081 | Sat, 23 Nov 2019 01:13:26 GMT | 1,574,489,606 | 1,574,510,841 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
34,165 | bbc--2019-12-19--US radio host fired over 'nice school shooting' comments | 2019-12-19T00:00:00 | bbc | US radio host fired over 'nice school shooting' comments | A radio host has lost his job after saying he would like "a nice school shooting" to interrupt the "never-ending" coverage of US President Donald Trump's impeachment. Chuck Bonniwell apologised on Twitter for his "inappropriate comment" before deleting the post. The station, based in Denver, Colorado, has confirmed it has now axed the news programme, the Chuck and Julie Show. A student was killed in a Denver school shooting earlier this year. The right-leaning station, 710 KNUS, said it was cancelling the show "given the history of school violence that has plagued our community". "You know, you wish for a nice school shooting to interrupt the monopoly," Mr Bonniwell said on air of the impeachment news coverage. His wife and co-host of the show, Julie Hayden, hit back: "No, don't even say that! He didn't say that." "No one would be hurt," he clarified. John Castillo, whose son Kendrick was killed in a shooting at the STEM School Highlands Ranch near Denver in May, said the comments were "unbelievable". "I made an inappropriate comment meant as a joke. I'm sorry it was not received that way," Mr Bonniwell said on Twitter, before the post was deleted. Denver's Columbine High School marked the 20th anniversary of a shooting that killed 13 people in April. 710 KNUS has replaced the Chuck and Julie Show with America First, presented by Sebastian Gorka - a former aide to President Trump. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-50851679 | Thu, 19 Dec 2019 11:27:12 GMT | 1,576,772,832 | 1,576,814,768 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
35,156 | bbcuk--2019-01-11--Zoe Ball Im such a different person to my Radio 1 days | 2019-01-11T00:00:00 | bbcuk | Zoe Ball: I'm such a different person to my Radio 1 days | It's fair to say Zoe Ball's new breakfast show is going to strike quite a different tone to the one she hosted on Radio 1 in the late 1990s. "I remember our quiz Shop 'Em or Drop 'Em, where Hollywood stars would have to either give us a piece of gossip or drop their pants, and Samuel L Jackson dropped his jeans," the presenter recalls to BBC News. "It was quite wild... I saw my old team recently and we were like, 'God, do you remember when we went to France for the Euros and I broke Simon Mayo's ankle playing five-a-side football? "Those little things have come back to me. But the main thing that's come back to me is how much fun breakfast radio is." It's just as well she feels that way, as Ball is gearing up for a new life of alarm clocks and afternoon naps as she replaces Chris Evans on Radio 2's breakfast show from Monday, following his nine-year tenure. It's one of several schedule changes at the station - Rylan Clark-Neal is joining to take over Ball's weekend slot and there are new weekday programmes for Jo Whiley, Trevor Nelson and Sara Cox, who moves to Drivetime. But it's Ball who has landed the big gig. As the most listened to programme in the UK by some distance, hosting the Radio 2 breakfast show is, quite simply, the top job in radio. Evans's departure came at the end of a turbulent year for the station, in which Whiley joined Mayo on Drivetime - a format change which lasted just a few months and was a total disaster with listeners. Ball's appointment was also not without controversy, with the radio industry and indeed many listeners expecting one of her colleagues to get the breakfast job. "A small spurt of positive publicity, from the announcement of Zoe Ball as Evans's successor, was offset by disappointment from some listeners, who would have preferred Sara Cox," wrote Mark Lawson in the Radio Times in a wide-ranging piece that outlined Radio 2's troubles. Acknowledging Cox's status as frontrunner, Ball says: "I think it's because Sara had been Chris's stand-in, and I love Sara, and so it's actually all turned out so brilliantly - she starts her new [Drivetime] show on Monday. "And it's also nice not being the only new girl. I mean, I'm not a new girl, I've been at Radio 2 for years, but in that new role. Speaking to This Morning on Wednesday, Cox joked: "The ancient Chinese proverb says the stand-in never gets the gig. It just doesn't happen in radio. So I never thought I was going to get breakfast." She added: "The beauty about this moment is there are more women coming through in broadcasting. Zoe and I have been texting non-stop about our various anxiety dreams we've been having. "But I think Zoe's got the job because she's a great broadcaster, not because she's got fallopian tubes." Some have argued, however, that the number of women on radio isn't quite as progressive as it looks. "Sara Cox, Zoe Ball, Jo Whiley all came out of the 1990s, and at that time they were all called 'ladettes', i.e. women you can have a pint with," Observer radio critic Miranda Sawyer told Media Masters last month. "What I find quite interesting is that those women, while still seen as women and eminently qualified to do that job, are all seen as slightly blokey, so they're allowed into the blokes' world." With that in mind, has the radio industry really changed since those nineties days? "I do think [it has], but also we've changed," replies Ball. "I think the ladette culture was a label thing, and it was the nineties and it was Britpop and it was quite wild. "To be honest with you, I think you try to live up to that, I don't think actually it was as rock'n'roll as we professed it to be, but 20 years on, you're mums, you've been working, you've learned a lot, you're at a different point in your life. "I'm nearly 50, you've got to grow up at some point, I'm such a different person to the one I was at Radio 1... and I like to think that women are treated slightly differently to back then." Ball plans to juggle breakfast with her Strictly: It Takes Two presenting gig in the latter part of the year. Which means she may find herself regularly interviewing her new rival Evans, who has already said he'll be taking part in the next series. Under his stewardship, the Radio 2 breakfast show has generally attracted between nine and 10 million listeners, according to industry body Rajar, which monitors ratings. Ball will, however, likely be feeling relieved that his listening figures dropped to a six-year low on the last quarter to be published before he left. Will she be concerned with audience levels? "You can't help but pay attention to the Rajars," she admits. "It's going to be interesting times, I'm going to be up against Chris, I'm up against Jamie Theakston [on Heart], my old telly husband. But I feel generally it's a really exciting time for radio, and I hope we can make a success of it." The 48-year-old says her features on the new show will include Why Wednesdays, where researchers from QI will answer listeners' questions, and The Ken O'Clock News, building up to Ken Bruce at 09:30. "The thing we really wanna do is bring lots of music, lots of energy, not too much chat - but enough, and we want people to have learned something by the end of the show," says Ball. "And I think the show you start with might not necessarily be the show you finish with, I'm sure the listeners will tell us very quickly if they're loving features or not, but we want people to feel that they're part of the show, and that we're listening to them about things that they want." The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show will be broadcast Monday-Friday, 06:30-09.30 GMT, on BBC Radio 2, from Monday 14 January. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46822009 | 2019-01-11 01:14:17+00:00 | 1,547,187,257 | 1,567,552,977 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
35,157 | bbcuk--2019-01-11--Zoe Ball on choosing her first song for Radio 2 Breakfast Show | 2019-01-11T00:00:00 | bbcuk | Zoe Ball on choosing her first song for Radio 2 Breakfast Show | New Radio 2 Breakfast Show presenter Zoe Ball has revealed how she chose what will be her very first song as she begins her new role next week. Ball replaced Chris Evans after he announced he would be leaving to host the breakfast programme on Virgin Radio. Speaking on BBC One's The One Show, she told viewers her famous guest line-up included stars such as Saoirse Ronan and Hugh Jackman. Ball's first Radio 2 Breakfast Show will be on 14 January. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46843896 | 2019-01-11 21:12:05+00:00 | 1,547,259,125 | 1,567,552,976 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
35,295 | bbcuk--2019-01-14--Zoe Ball earns respect with new BBC Radio 2 breakfast show | 2019-01-14T00:00:00 | bbcuk | Zoe Ball earns respect with new BBC Radio 2 breakfast show | Zoe Ball has begun her tenure as BBC Radio 2's first female weekday breakfast host by playing Aretha Franklin's Respect as her first song. "It had to be a dame on this occasion," she told listeners. Ball has taken over from Chris Evans in the most listened-to slot on the UK airwaves. She began Monday's show with the words: "Hello, my name is Zoe. How's your belly off for spots? Good morning Radio 2 superstar listeners, here we go." The saying "How's your belly off for spots?" is an alternative way of asking: "How are you?" Ball inherits about nine million listeners from Evans and told listeners he sent her a "lovely message" on Sunday night. Evans will start his new rival show on Virgin Radio next week. Referring to messages of support sent by fans before the show, Ball said: "It's been really wonderful for all of us. It's been really positive." And she received some good early feedback from listeners on Twitter. Others didn't take to her style straight away, though. Ball has previously hosted the Radio 1 breakfast show and weekend breakfast shows on Radio 2. Her guests on Monday's show will be John Cleese and Nadiya Hussain. Her breakfast show will run from 06:30-09:30 Monday to Friday, with Tina Daheley reading the news, Mike Williams on sport and Richie Anderson doing travel. Speaking about her plans, Ball told BBC News: "The thing we really wanna do is bring lots of music, lots of energy, not too much chat - but enough, and we want people to have learned something by the end of the show." The 48-year-old said features on the new show would include Why Wednesdays, where researchers from QI will answer listeners' questions, and The Ken O'Clock News, building up to Ken Bruce at 09:30. Her new show is part of a new Radio 2 line-up that is launching on Monday. Sara Cox will launch her drivetime show, Jo Whiley will begin a new evening solo slot, and Trevor Nelson will bring his Rhythm Nation to late nights. Rylan Clark-Neal will take over Ball's old weekend afternoon slot from this Saturday. Ball earned between £250,000 and £299,000 for her various BBC presenting jobs at the BBC last year, including Strictly: It Takes Two, which she will continue to host. Evans was paid £1.6m last year to host the breakfast show. When she got the job, Ball said she was "not expecting the same" as her predecessor but was "very, very happy with what the BBC are paying me". Evans hosted his final Radio 2 breakfast show on Christmas Eve after 13 years with the station. He will have had a four-week break by the time he joins Virgin on 21 January. His new programme is being billed as the first commercial radio breakfast show without conventional advert breaks. Instead, it will be sponsored by Sky, and Evans will promote the company's programmes during his slot. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46837339 | 2019-01-14 07:46:07+00:00 | 1,547,469,967 | 1,567,552,595 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
35,296 | bbcuk--2019-01-14--Zoe Ball kicks off new BBC Radio 2 breakfast show | 2019-01-14T00:00:00 | bbcuk | Zoe Ball kicks off new BBC Radio 2 breakfast show | Zoe Ball has launched her first BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, taking over from Chris Evans in the most listened-to slot on the UK airwaves. Ball will inherit about nine million listeners from Evans, who starts his rival Virgin Radio show next week. Ball has previously hosted the Radio 1 breakfast show and weekend breakfasts on Radio 2 - and is now the station's first female weekday breakfast host. The guests on Monday's show will be John Cleese and Nadiya Hussain. Her breakfast show will run from 06:30-09:30 Monday to Friday, with Tina Daheley reading the news, Mike Williams on sport and Richie Anderson doing travel. Speaking about her plans, Ball told BBC News: "The thing we really wanna do is bring lots of music, lots of energy, not too much chat - but enough, and we want people to have learned something by the end of the show." The 48-year-old said features on the new show would include Why Wednesdays, where researchers from QI will answer listeners' questions, and The Ken O'Clock News, building up to Ken Bruce at 09:30. Her new show is part of a new Radio 2 line-up that is launching on Monday. Sara Cox will launch her drivetime show, Jo Whiley will begin a new evening solo slot, and Trevor Nelson will bring his Rhythm Nation to late nights. Rylan Clark-Neal will take over Ball's old weekend afternoon slot from this Saturday. Ball earned between £250,000 and £299,000 for her various BBC presenting jobs at the BBC last year, including Strictly: It Takes Two, which she will continue to host. Evans was paid £1.6m last year to host the breakfast show. When she got the job, Ball said she was "not expecting the same" as her predecessor but was "very, very happy with what the BBC are paying me". Evans hosted his final Radio 2 breakfast show on Christmas Eve after 13 years with the station. He will have had a four-week break by the time he joins Virgin on 21 January. His new programme is being billed as the first commercial radio breakfast show without conventional advert breaks. Instead, it will be sponsored by Sky, and Evans will promote the company's programmes during his slot. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46837339 | 2019-01-14 06:31:52+00:00 | 1,547,465,512 | 1,567,552,595 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
35,297 | bbcuk--2019-01-14--Zoe Ball starts her role as BBC Radio 2s Breakfast presenter | 2019-01-14T00:00:00 | bbcuk | Zoe Ball starts her role as BBC Radio 2's Breakfast presenter. | She is BBC Radio 2's first female weekday breakfast host. She began Monday's show with the words: "Hello, my name is Zoe. How's your belly off for spots? Good morning Radio 2 superstar listeners, here we go." | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46862984 | 2019-01-14 09:49:21+00:00 | 1,547,477,361 | 1,567,552,595 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
35,646 | bbcuk--2019-01-21--Simon Mayo to launch classical station Scala Radio after leaving Radio 2 | 2019-01-21T00:00:00 | bbcuk | Simon Mayo to launch classical station Scala Radio after leaving Radio 2 | Former BBC Radio 2 DJ Simon Mayo is to lead the line-up on a new classical music radio station. Mayo, who left his Radio 2 drivetime show just before Christmas, will host a mid-morning show on Scala Radio when it launches on 4 March. The station will hope to win listeners from BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. Mayo said the digital station would be different to its rivals because "we're going all out to entertain, laugh with the listeners and have a good time". The station's owners Bauer Media said Mayo's new show would include celebrity interviews, listener interaction and a classical version of the long-running Confessions feature from his Radio 1 and Radio 2 days. "There are hundreds of radio stations playing rock and pop, and only two classical music stations up until now," Mayo said. "We're different because we're going all out to entertain, laugh with the listeners, and have a good time. Some of it will be familiar, some new and exciting but all timeless, beautiful and all absolutely relevant to today". Mayo presented Radio 2's drivetime slot for eight years, co-presenting with Jo Whiley for the final seven months. But their show was scrapped after a backlash from listeners, with Whiley moving back to evenings and Sara Cox taking over drivetime. Mayo will continue to co-host his BBC Radio 5 Live's Friday film show with Mark Kermode - and Kermode has also been given his own slot playing film scores on Scala Radio. Angellica Bell and Chris Rogers will host weekend shows, while DJs Goldie and William Orbit will front their own series. The Scala line-up will also feature Charles Nove, Mark Forrest, Sam Hughes and Jamie Crick. The launch comes amid resurgent interest in classical music - it was the fastest-growing musical genre in 2018, with sales and streams up 10% on the previous year. Scala will replace Heat Radio in Bauer's portfolio of national DAB stations after the company said Heat would become an online-only station with no presenters. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46947959 | 2019-01-21 18:57:53+00:00 | 1,548,115,073 | 1,567,551,559 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
36,498 | bbcuk--2019-02-07--Rajar figures Greg James boosts Radio 1 breakfast audience by 230000 | 2019-02-07T00:00:00 | bbcuk | Rajar figures: Greg James boosts Radio 1 breakfast audience by 230,000 | More than 230,000 extra listeners have been tuning in to the Radio 1 breakfast show since Greg James took over from Nick Grimshaw in August. According to industry body Rajar, his reach in the last three months of 2018 was 5.1 million - up on the 4.8 million recorded between July and September. "It's brilliant that our new and fresh Radio 1 breakfast show is doing so well," Bob Shennan, director of BBC Radio and Music, said. However, Radio 1 as a whole went down. The station dropped from 9.6 million in the third quarter of 2018 to 9.37 million in the fourth. Latest figures also show Chris Evans grew his breakfast audience at Radio 2 by 241,000 listeners before leaving in December. Yet his overall audience was still down on the equivalent period in 2017. Rajar puts his audience between October and December 2018 as 9.06 million - an increase on the 8.8 million between July and September. But he had been up as high as 9.43 million at the end of of 2017. Rajar's figures do not show how the Radio 1 breakfast show fares between Friday and Sunday, when Matt Edmondson and Mollie King take over the booth. The station split its breakfast shows into Monday-Thursday and Friday-Sunday last year. Over at Magic, Ronan Keating and Harriet Scott are celebrating the biggest audience the station's breakfast show has ever attracted - 1.53 million. There will also be jubilation at the British-only radio station Union Jack, whose exclusively domestic content has recorded the fastest-growing audience in the UK. The digital station, established in 2016 in the wake of the Brexit referendum, increased its reach by 73% year-on-year to 153,000 weekly listeners. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47150188 | 2019-02-07 03:25:02+00:00 | 1,549,527,902 | 1,567,549,358 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
36,708 | bbcuk--2019-02-12--Desert Island Discs greatest radio show of all time | 2019-02-12T00:00:00 | bbcuk | Desert Island Discs 'greatest radio show of all time' | Desert Island Discs has been named the greatest radio programme of all time by a panel of industry experts. The BBC Radio 4 show, which since 1942 has been inviting famous guests to share their favourite musical choices, beat drama The Archers to the top spot. Other choices in the Radio Times poll included Wake Up To Wogan, John Peel and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Many of the 30 programmes on the list are no longer broadcast, with almost a third being comedies or panel shows. Desert Island Discs is currently presented by Lauren Laverne, who is filling in while Kirsty Young is being treated for fibromyalgia. The programme invites high-profile guests to choose eight discs, a book and a luxury item to take with them as they are castaway on a mythical desert island. Prime ministers and industry leaders have all been castaways, with notable recent guests having included Sir David Attenborough, JK Rowling, Yoko Ono and David Beckham. Desert Island Discs producer Cathy Drysdale said the accolade was "wonderful", attributing it to an "absolute genius format". Radio Times editor Mark Frith said the "poll illustrates how memorable and timeless great radio can be". The list was compiled by 46 industry experts, of which 42 had a professional connection to the BBC. Terry Wogan's BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, which ran for more than 25 years until 2009, was in 12th position, just ahead of John Peel's late-night BBC Radio 1 programme, on air between 1967 and 2004. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47204636 | 2019-02-12 03:47:07+00:00 | 1,549,961,227 | 1,567,548,824 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
37,321 | bbcuk--2019-02-26--Capital Heart and Smooth cull local radio shows | 2019-02-26T00:00:00 | bbcuk | Capital, Heart and Smooth cull local radio shows | Global media has announced it will launch UK-wide national breakfast shows on Capital, Heart and Smooth radio. Global say they will be creating the three largest commercial radio breakfast shows in the UK, with 4.8m, 3.7m and 2.7m listeners respectively each week. But it means a reduction in locally produced programmes, with more than 100 jobs at risk due to the changes. Ofcom has approved the move following a change in guidelines for local radio. Capital will launch their network breakfast show first in April, with Heart and Smooth following later in the year. Global says local news and travel information "will continue to air on a local licence level as per legislation requirements". But it said its news teams would see "refreshed structures" along with engineering and marketing. Analysis by Radio Today said that 95 local radio presenters could lose their jobs as a result of the changes. The changes will also mean the closure of broadcast facilities. The sites earmarked for closure are Brighton, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Exeter, Gloucester, Kendal, Kent, Lancaster, Norwich and Swindon. Global's revamp is likely to be replicated at its biggest commercial rival, Bauer, which owns stations like Kiss, Absolute and Magic. The companies have been given the go-ahead by broadcasting regulator Ofcom, which relaxed its rules on how and where stations make their programmes last October. Stations still need to apply to change their formats, and Ofcom has published a number of approved format changes for Global Radio stations across the UK. Ashley Tabor, Global's founder, told staff the news at a meeting on Tuesday and said it "would mean change". Yet he also said "the ability to lead the commercial radio sector's next huge step, and to properly compete with BBC Radio 1 and 2 at breakfast time" was "a huge opportunity". Meanwhile, Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson - who is also the shadow culture secretary - said the announcement was a "terrible blow". He added: "The loss of more than 100 local radio jobs across the country is a travesty and particularly damaging at a time when local news is already under extreme pressure. "Replacing local voices with London-based presenters will be a terrible loss to communities across the country." Many big-name stars have yet to comment on the news, but some station staff have given their reaction. BBC Berkshire presenter Paul Coia tweeted his support for his fellow radio professionals. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47371616 | 2019-02-26 19:46:56+00:00 | 1,551,228,416 | 1,567,547,301 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
37,402 | bbcuk--2019-02-27--Stars announced for Radio 1s Big Weekend | 2019-02-27T00:00:00 | bbcuk | Stars announced for Radio 1's Big Weekend | Little Mix, The 1975 and Miley Cyrus will play Radio 1's Big Weekend, with the location announced as Middlesbrough. The music festival will take place at Stewart Park and will also feature performances from Zara Larsson, Mabel and Khalid. Making the announcement on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, Greg James said: "I can't wait to take some of the best acts on the planet to Middlesbrough." Big Weekend will be on 25 and 26 May. Little Mix say they are "so excited" to perform at the event, now in its 16th year. It'll be the fourth time The 1975, who won two Brit Awards last week, have played Big Weekend but they said it's "great to be coming back, this time as headliners". More names will be added to the line-up at a later date. 2018: Swansea - Sam Smith, Florence and the Machine, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift 2014: Glasgow - Calvin Harris, One Direction, Paolo Nutini and Kings of Leon The Mayor of Middlesbrough, Dave Budd, described the announcement as "a major coup for Middlesbrough" and he's looking forward to "welcoming the world" to his town. More information on how to get tickets will be released in the coming weeks. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 every weekday on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra - if you miss us you can listen back here. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-47382749 | 2019-02-27 08:33:49+00:00 | 1,551,274,429 | 1,567,547,170 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
37,587 | bbcuk--2019-03-12--First nationwide country music radio station to launch in UK | 2019-03-12T00:00:00 | bbcuk | First nationwide country music radio station to launch in UK | The UK is to get its first ever national country music radio station next month. Country Hits Radio will launch on 5 April and be aimed at listeners aged 25-44. Baylen Leonard and Ty Bentli will be among the weekday presenters, while Saturdays singer Una Healy has been signed up to host a weekend show. It's the latest development in the growing popularity of country music in the UK. The announcement of Bauer's Country Hits Radio comes just 10 days after the launch of Smooth Country, an online-only station from the company's major competitor in the commercial sector, Global Radio. It also follows the Country 2 Country music festival which took place over the weekend - which is routinely covered by BBC Radio 2 and is the biggest festival of its kind outside of the US. "When you look at the success of artists such as The Shires and Ward Thomas as well as huge events like Country 2 Country, it's clear there's a real audience for country music in the UK," said Healy. "It's a genre I've fallen in love with and it's thrilling that it now has a home in Country Hits Radio. I can't wait to get started!" Healy is the second Saturday to enter the world of radio presenting. Mollie King currently co-hosts Radio 1's weekend breakfast show with Matt Edmondson. Country Hits Radio's playlist will feature the likes of Keith Urban, Kacey Musgraves, Thomas Rhett, Maren Morris and Carrie Underwood, station bosses said. Bauer added country was the "biggest genre of music to have previously been without its own radio station". The station's launch is a continuation of the company's rapid expansion in the radio industry. Bauer has already launched two new stations this year - Scala Radio and Greatest Hits Radio - and last week acquired the UKRD group, which owns 10 local radio stations in the UK. Other stations owned by Bauer include Magic, Kiss, Planet Rock, Kerrang and Absolute. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47531363 | 2019-03-12 09:58:10+00:00 | 1,552,399,090 | 1,567,546,630 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
42,307 | bbcuk--2019-08-01--Zoe Ball loses 780000 listeners from BBC Radio 2 breakfast show | 2019-08-01T00:00:00 | bbcuk | Zoe Ball loses 780,000 listeners from BBC Radio 2 breakfast show | Zoe Ball has lost 780,000 weekly listeners from her Radio 2 breakfast show, the latest industry figures show. The presenter took over from Chris Evans in January, after he left the station to join Virgin Radio. In the second quarter of 2019, Ball's figures fell from 9.05m to 8.27m - but her breakfast show is still the most popular, industry body Rajar said. Elsewhere, new classical music station Scala Radio, whose presenters include Simon Mayo, reached 250,000 listeners. But that doesn't seem to have dented the popularity of its main commercial rival Classic FM, which increased from 5.3m in the first quarter of this year to 5.6m in the second. The other major new station to launch this year - Country Hits Radio - recorded 208,000 listeners in its first three months on air. Ball's decrease in listeners means Ken Bruce's mid-morning show on Radio 2 becomes the most popular radio programme in the UK, with 8.49m listeners. Bruce said: "After 34 years as a part of the BBC Radio 2 family, I'm astounded that the allure of my daily grumpy musings, coupled with PopMaster, continue to entertain. Many thanks to the long-suffering listeners." BBC Radio 1's Greg James attracted 5.19m listeners this quarter - his highest listening figures since taking over the breakfast show last August. Nick Ferrari's LBC breakfast show also reached a new record audience of 1.4m, while the station as a whole attracted 2.4m weekly listeners - its best ever figures. Eddie Mair, who left the BBC last year, has added 120,000 listeners to LBC's late afternoon show since he began presenting it in September 2018. Another station to reach a new record audience was Kisstory - which attracted 2.32m listeners. As BBC 6 Music dropped to 2.28m this quarter, Kisstory is now the most popular digital-only station in the UK. Roman Kemp increased Capital's breakfast show audience to 3.8m. This was the first quarter where his show has been broadcast across the whole of the UK. Previously, each regional Capital station had its own breakfast show, which collectively attracted 3.73m in the previous quarter. Chris Evans also went up slightly, boosting his audience on Virgin Radio from 1.04m to 1.11m. Other national breakfast shows which improved their audience included Tom Green and Daisy Maskell (Kiss), Ronan Keating and Harriet Scott (Magic) and Nicky Campbell and Rachel Burden (BBC Radio 5 Live). The latest figures don't fully reflect Heart's new national breakfast show - as Britain's Got Talent judge Amanda Holden didn't join Jamie Theakston as a co-presenter until June. Similarly, the recently-launched breakfast show on Hits Radio hosted by Fleur East, Greg and James will post its first listening figures next quarter. Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-49179840 | 2019-08-01 02:18:51+00:00 | 1,564,640,331 | 1,567,535,146 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
19,312 | anonnews--2019-03-15--Breakthrough Stem Cell Treatment Cures Blindness In 2 People A World First | 2019-03-15T00:00:00 | anonnews | Breakthrough Stem Cell Treatment Cures Blindness In 2 People A “World First” | A new breakthrough in stem cell treatments could make it possible for blind people to be able to see again. According to new research from Scotland, stem cells can be taken from the eyes of non-living donors and used to cure blindness in patients. Researchers still need to perfect their techniques and get the procedure down to an exact science. In the most recent study, the tissue transplant was attempted on eight blind patients, and two were able to regain their vision and the ability to read again. However, all of the patients who received the treatment noticed a drastic improvement in their vision, some have just recovered faster than others. So far, the treatment is just able to help with blindness caused by damage to the cornea, which is the protective surface of the eye. Baljean Dhillon, professor of clinical ophthalmology at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences is one of the lead researchers in the study. “The findings from this small study are very promising and show the potential for safe stem cell eye surgery as well as improvements in eye repair,” Dhillon said, calling the breakthrough a “world’s first.” The study was published in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine. The research focused on limbal stem cells, which are instrumental in our vision. These cells are usually at a low level in patients suffering from corneal blindness. In the study, the scientists divided 16 patients into two groups, one of which was randomly selected to receive the transplanted tissue. They were also given standard eye drops and immune system suppressing drugs in order to reduce the risk of rejection. All of the patients who were given stem cells noticed a significant improvement to their eyesight over a year and a half, and those same results were not seen in the control group. “Limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) is an irreversible disease resulting from the loss or dysfunction of these epithelial stem cells. The corneal epithelium becomes deficient and is replaced by the surrounding conjunctival epithelium, resulting in a thickened, irregular, unstable epithelium, often with inflammation. LSCD causes severe ocular surface disease characterized by reduced vision or blindness, chronic ocular irritation, and glare,” said Dhillion. Dhillon believes that this same type of treatment can be applied in different ways to cure other forms of blindness. “Our next steps are to better understand how stem cells could promote tissue repair for diseases that are extremely hard to treat and if, and how, they could help to restore vision,” Dhillon says. Interestingly, both the stem cell and control groups showed improvements in vision which the researchers said warrants further investigation in a larger trial. Marc Turner, medical director of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service and Professor of Cellular Therapy at Edinburgh University, said that clinical trails are essential in advancing this type of medical technology. “Clinical studies such as these help us to understand how complex new cellular therapies may be able to complement existing medical approaches in restoring function to damaged tissues and organ,” Turner says. The text of the study concluded that, “This RCT demonstrates that sustained benefit is achieved by the IMP in OSD compared with controls and this intervention warrants further study in larger sample sizes in a phase III study. New studies would also benefit from concentrating on a single disease group in order to eliminate some of the variables in this study. Our findings in the subgroup with aniridia suggests that elevated systemic cytokine levels may have clinical relevance and dissecting both ocular and systemic inflammatory mechanisms in aniridia might shed new light on OSD pathogenesis associated with this condition.” These types of stem cell treatments are offering new hope to people in similar positions, as more facilities are comfortable with attempting the procedure after seeing Bosen’s success. Last year, the Mayo Clinic opened up stem cell therapy trials for ten people suffering from traumatic spinal cord injuries. According to a study conducted this year at the University of Minnesota Medical School, spinal cord stimulation using stem cells does, in fact, help to heal paralysis in many circumstances. In the study, researchers show that spinal cord stimulation can immediately restore some voluntary movement and autonomic functions such as cardiovascular, bowel, and bladder years after a paralyzing injury without any significant rehabilitation. | Adam Goldberg | https://www.anonews.co/breakthrough-stem-cell-treatment-cures-blindness-in-2-people-a-world-first/ | 2019-03-15 15:38:33+00:00 | 1,552,678,713 | 1,567,546,083 | health | health treatment |
168,733 | eveningstandard--2019-03-20--Worldaposs first ever postnatal depression treatment drug is approved | 2019-03-20T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | World's first ever postnatal depression treatment drug is approved | The world's first ever drug for postnatal depression has been approved. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has rubberstamped the Zulresso injection for adult women. Patients will be required to enroll on a special programme before the drug is administered through an intravenous drip over a 60-hour period. Tiffany Farchione, a leader at the FDA, said: “Postpartum [postnatal] depression is a serious condition that, when severe, can be life-threatening. “Women may experience thoughts about harming themselves or harming their child. Postpartum depression can also interfere with the maternal-infant bond. “This approval marks the first time a drug has been specifically approved to treat postpartum depression, providing an important new treatment option.” Because of risks associated with the drug, including excessive sedation or sudden loss of consciousness, patients will be subject to strict monitoring from healthcare professionals. Studies found patients’ depression improved after 30 days following trials of the drug. Postnatal depression can happen after childbirth, though the symptoms can start during pregnancy. It is characterised by sadness and loss of interest in activities the parent used to enjoy. | James Morris | https://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/worlds-first-ever-postnatal-depression-treatment-drug-is-approved-a4096686.html | 2019-03-20 18:50:16+00:00 | 1,553,122,216 | 1,567,545,479 | health | health treatment |
206,056 | fortune--2019-09-16--A Pioneering Peanut Allergy Treatment on the Horizon Brainstorm Health | 2019-09-16T00:00:00 | fortune | A Pioneering Peanut Allergy Treatment on the Horizon: Brainstorm Health | Hello and happy Monday, readers! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. The school year has just begun—and, with it, concerns about food allergies, which afflict some 5.6 million American children under the age of 18. The figures vary. Some studies have shown that at least 1.2 million U.S. kids and teens suffer, specifically, from peanut allergies. These can be dangerous, and even life-threatening, conditions. But a pioneering peanut allergy treatment from Aimmune Therapeutics appears slated for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval by the beginning of 2020. An independent panel of advisers overwhelmingly recommended approval of Aimmune's therapy, Palforzia, for children aged four to 17. While the FDA isn't obligated to follow such panels' advice, it almost always does—especially when it comes to conditions with a dearth of available treatment options. Aimmune's clinical studies have suggested that capsules filled with peanut powder, taken over an extended period at a young age, may significantly reduce the chances of a serious allergic reaction by helping patients build up a tolerance. The FDA could approve the drug by January or sooner. Read on for the day's news. Smartwatches are supposed to help you stay healthy. But how do people actually use them? My colleague Aaron Pressman reports on an insightful new survey into smartwatch use from Parks Associates. It delves into how, exactly, consumers leverage their smartwatches for staying fit. Some key findings? “More than three out of four heads of U.S. households who own and use a smartwatch said they track their steps with their device,” Aaron writes. “Another 60% monitor their heart rates and 53% use the wrist-worn devices to count calories. Among all smartwatch owners, 41% say their most commonly used app is to count calories or reach weight loss goals.” (Fortune) OxyContin maker Purdue filed for bankruptcy over the weekend. Purdue Pharma on Sunday filed for a $10 billion settlement plan, accompanied by a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as the OxyContin maker grapples with thousands of lawsuits over its alleged role in fueling the opioid addiction crisis through illegal marketing practices. The privately held firm and its owners, the Sackler family, had telegraphed its bankruptcy intentions, although the $10 billion figure would be about $2 billion less than a previously reported settlement (if ultimately approved). (Fortune) Study: More than 3 million women say their first sexual encounter is rape. A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine finds that millions of American women were victims of rape as their first sexual encounter. The survey centered on women aged 18 to 44, and found many victims were assaulted when they were adolescents around the age of 15. Amongst the most troubling findings, as NPR reports: “About 6.5% of women — an estimated 3.3 million nationwide — said that their first sexual experience was rape.” (NPR) FDA: Impurity That Could Cause Cancer Found in Zantac, by Chris Morris | Sy Mukherjee | https://fortune.com/2019/09/16/aimmune-peanut-allergy-treatment/ | 2019-09-16 23:09:53+00:00 | 1,568,689,793 | 1,569,330,209 | health | health treatment |
220,037 | freedombunker--2019-02-28--FDA Panel Backs Ketamine-Based Treatment for Depression | 2019-02-28T00:00:00 | freedombunker | FDA Panel Backs Ketamine-Based Treatment for Depression | New hope for depression patients may be on the horizon. A recent WebMD article reports that a special panel of experts assembled by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration strongly endorsed a new drug to help patients with treatment-resistant depression (a form of depression resilient to many anti-depressants). This new drug, named esketamine, also provides an unprecedented ability to take effect within days whereas others require months. With nearly 30 percent of Americans experiencing depression at some point in their lives, and with the sporadic success of currently available treatment options, esketamine has tremendous potential to help millions manage their depression. As UCLA assistant professor of psychiatry Walter Dunn, who served on the panel, expressed, “I think esketamine has the potential to be a game-changer in the treatment of depression.” Despite its exciting potential, esketamine is receiving significantly more attention for being similar to the street drug ketamine (if you couldn’t tell by its name). Ketamine, sometimes referred to as “Special K” or “K,” is a street drug taken for its hallucinogenic effects. The Drug Enforcement Agency currently lists ketamine as a Schedule III substance, containing both potential to cause psychological harm but also provide medical benefits. Regardless, it remains a controlled substance and largely reaches the public only through illicit means. But ketamine’s reputation as a dangerous street drug runs counter to its reputation in medical literature. Indeed, knowledge of ketamine’s therapeutic abilities to combat depression dates back much further than recent developments. A 2014 paper published in Current Neuropharmacology reviews twenty-four previous academic publications (some dating back twenty years) and finds “ketamine may be considered a valid and intriguing antidepressant option for the treatment of TRD (treatment-resistant depression).” Unfortunately, government restrictions that hinder the adoption of pioneering medical science are commonplace. As I’ve noted in a previous Beacon post, ecstasy is currently classified as a Schedule I substance by the DEA, deemed to have no medicinal benefits. However, ecstasy is also expected to be approved by the FDA to treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) by 2021. Marijuana is also a Schedule I substance, but 33 states have passed legislation granting patient access for medicinal purposes. Further, the FDA has approved marijuana-based medication to treat epilepsy. The FDA will likely decide in early March whether it will allow esketamine to advance in its drug approval process. Despite widespread support of the panel (which voted 14-2 in favor), the agency may not heed its advice. Considering the seriousness and pervasiveness of depression, as well as the history of medical professionals to find appropriate uses of drugs (even potentially dangerous ones), I hope the FDA allows esketamine to advance. Despite ketamine’s reputation, trusting scientists rather than government regulation is the safer bet. | Raymond J. March | http://freedombunker.com/2019/02/27/fda-panel-backs-ketamine-based-treatment-for-depression/ | 2019-02-28 00:11:55+00:00 | 1,551,330,715 | 1,567,546,950 | health | health treatment |
334,353 | naturalnews--2019-01-28--Studying the potential of acupuncture as an alternative treatment for osteoporosis | 2019-01-28T00:00:00 | naturalnews | Studying the potential of acupuncture as an alternative treatment for osteoporosis | (Natural News) The idea of inserting needles through your skin may not be appealing, but acupuncture is actually an effective therapy for many conditions, including osteoporosis. Many studies have investigated the use of this traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a condition that makes the bones weak and fragile, increasing the risk of fractures. The bones of people suffering from osteoporosis have lost density or mass and contain abnormal tissue structures. While bones in the hip, spine, or wrist are most likely to break due to osteoporosis, other bones can break too. Osteoporosis also causes permanent pain, reduced height, and a stooped or hunched posture. It may also limit mobility, which typically results in feelings of isolation or depression. In the U.S., about 54 million people have osteoporosis and low bone mass. However, conventional drugs are widely prescribed to treat this condition, such as bisphosphonates, teriparatide, denosumab, and raloxifene, cause serious side effects. (Related: Osteoporosis Drugs Found to Cause Severe Pain in Muscles, Joints and Bones.) In a systematic review and meta-analysis published in The American Journal of Chinese Medicine, researchers confirmed that acupuncture can be used as an alternative treatment for osteoporosis. They have found that this traditional Chinese medicine is even more effective than conventional medicine. For the review, researchers from Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in China assessed the efficacy of acupuncture as a clinical treatment for osteoporosis. They reviewed 35 studies involving a total of 3,014 patients. These studies were randomized controlled trials that compared warm acupuncture, needling, or electroacupuncture with sole Western medicine for the treatment of osteoporosis. The power of the elements: Discover Colloidal Silver Mouthwash with quality, natural ingredients like Sangre de Drago sap, black walnut hulls, menthol crystals and more. Zero artificial sweeteners, colors or alcohol. Learn more at the Health Ranger Store and help support this news site. The results showed that warm acupuncture could increase the bone mineral density of the spine and thigh bone compared to sole conventional medicine. It could also increase the levels of calcium and estradiol and decrease pain and alkaline phosphatase levels. Compared to sole Western medicine, electroacupuncture could also relieve pain, reduce alkaline phosphatase, and increase calcium levels, while needling could relieve pain. These results indicate that among the three types of acupuncture, warm acupuncture was the most effective for osteoporosis, followed by electroacupuncture and needling. With these findings, the researchers concluded that acupuncture could be an effective alternative therapy for treating osteoporosis. Even people without osteoporosis can experience the benefits of acupuncture. Here are some of them: Read more news stories and studies on the health benefits of acupuncture by going to HealingArts.news. | Michelle Simmons | http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-01-28-acupuncture-alternative-treatment-for-osteoporosis.html | 2019-01-28 18:55:18+00:00 | 1,548,719,718 | 1,567,550,537 | health | health treatment |
335,617 | naturalnews--2019-04-18--Could electrotherapy and acupuncture be used for post-operative treatment of knee arthroplasty | 2019-04-18T00:00:00 | naturalnews | Could electrotherapy and acupuncture be used for post-operative treatment of knee arthroplasty? | (Natural News) In this study, which appeared in JAMA Surgery, researchers from Stanford University statistically analyzed the results of several clinical studies that used non-pharmacological treatments such as electrotherapy and acupuncture to reduce pain after knee replacement surgery. They used the delay or decrease in the use of opioids and analgesics by patients as measures in determining the effectiveness of these postoperative interventions. Based on statistical evidence, the researchers believe that electrotherapy and acupuncture are the best non-pharmacological interventions for postoperative pain because they can reduce or delay opioid consumption in patients after total knee arthroplasty. To learn more health benefits of acupuncture, visit Naturopathy.news. Tedesco D, Gori D, Desai KR, Asch S, Carroll IR, Curtin C, Mcdonald KM, Fantini MP, Hernandez-Boussard T. DRUG-FREE INTERVENTIONS TO REDUCE PAIN OR OPIOID CONSUMPTION AFTER TOTAL KNEE ARTHROPLASTY. JAMA Surgery. 18 October 2017;152(10):e172872. DOI: 10.1001/jamasurg.2017.2872 | Evangelyn Rodriguez | http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-04-18-electrotherapy-acupuncture-for-post-operative-treatment-knee-arthroplasty.html | 2019-04-18 02:00:39+00:00 | 1,555,567,239 | 1,567,542,556 | health | health treatment |
336,004 | naturalnews--2019-05-28--Got gout ACV may be the treatment youve been looking for | 2019-05-28T00:00:00 | naturalnews | Got gout? ACV may be the treatment you've been looking for | (Natural News) If you have gout, you know how painful it can be. The condition is characterized by painful inflammation in the joints, resulting in swelling and redness. Gout it caused by a build-up of uric acid, which leads to the depositing of hard crystals in the joints and ultimately, pain. Fortunately, there are many natural approaches to treating and managing gout. Cherries are one of the most popular natural gout remedies, but there are plenty of other options to consider. Apple cider vinegar (ACV) has an array of medicinal uses — including treating and preventing gout. Among natural health enthusiasts, apple cider vinegar is easily the most popular vinegar. Many of ACV’s purported health benefits are backed by science, including its ability to promote weight loss, reduce inflammation and lower blood sugar levels. Apple cider vinegar is a great choice for fighting gout for two reasons: It can help treat gout symptoms after they’ve started, and help prevent a gout flare-up from starting in the first place. As Foods For Better Health reports, the acetic acid found in ACV helps to alkalize the body and “cleanse” the blood. Acetic acid also works with malic acid and pectin to eliminate acidic toxins from the body. Essentially, these compounds found in ACV work to fight the accumulation of uric acid in the blood, and help remove it from the body entirely. While there is not much scientific research on the benefits of ACV in the treatment of gout, it has remained a staple in traditional medicine for years. More, research exploring other areas of ACV benefits can be very telling. The power of the elements: Discover Colloidal Silver Mouthwash with quality, natural ingredients like Sangre de Drago sap, black walnut hulls, menthol crystals and more. Zero artificial sweeteners, colors or alcohol. Learn more at the Health Ranger Store and help support this news site. As Healthline reports, scientific studies have shown that ACV helps reduce inflammation and promote weight loss — two things that can help reduce your risk of a gout flare-up. More importantly, however, it appears that ACV can help your body eliminate uric acid effectively. Japanese researchers also recently found that acidity in the body can interfere with the elimination of uric acid. The team found that urine that is less acidic (more alkaline) carries more uric acid out of the body. For people with gout, this is big news because ACV is proven to help alkalize bodily fluids. To conduct their research, the team asked participants to follow an acidic or alkaline diet. The alkaline diet group had more alkaline urine, which carried out more uric acid than the acidic group. Vinegar was a key component of the alkaline diet, though not the only food prescribed. Foods For Better Health suggests that ACV can be used topically and internally for gout. To use topically, just soak a cotton ball in ACV, apply to the affected joint and gently massage. Sources suggest that one to two tablespoons of ACV can be mixed with one cup of water and consumed up to three times a day for gout relief. Honey or another sweetener of choice can be used to help make the concoction more palatable. It is recommended that ACV supplements be taken either at night before bed or before meals. You can also combine ACV and your favorite oil to make your own healing salad dressing. While ACV has many health benefits, it is very acidic and should be diluted before consuming. It is also important to only take ACV in moderation. Too much or too strong a concoction can damage tooth enamel or even burn the esophagus. Learn more about ACV and other natural remedies at NaturalMedicine.news. | Vicki Batts | http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-05-28-got-gout-acv-may-be-the-treatment-youve-been-looking-for.html | 2019-05-28 17:00:21+00:00 | 1,559,077,221 | 1,567,539,990 | health | health treatment |
336,247 | naturalnews--2019-06-26--Ear acupuncture effective at improving maintaining effectiveness of substance abuse treatment outco | 2019-06-26T00:00:00 | naturalnews | Ear acupuncture effective at improving, maintaining effectiveness of substance abuse treatment outcomes | (Natural News) A recent study published in the journal Behavioural Science suggests using ear acupuncture as an adjunct therapy for those undergoing substance abuse treatment. In the study, the researchers used the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association protocol (NADA) to determine whether it can improve and sustain treatment outcomes when used in concert with traditional therapy. In sum, NADA protocol, combined with traditional therapy, can potentially improve treatment outcomes for substance abuse. Read the full text at this link. Learn more about substance abuse and how to naturally address them at Addiction.news. Carter K, Olshan-Perlmutter M, Marx J, Martini J, Cairns S. NADA EAR ACUPUNCTURE: AN ADJUNCTIVE THERAPY TO IMPROVE AND MAINTAIN POSITIVE OUTCOMES IN SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT. Behavioral Sciences. 2017;7(4):37. DOI: 10.3390/bs7020037 | Ralph Flores | http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-06-26-ear-acupuncture-improves-substance-abuse-treatment-outcomes.html | 2019-06-26 18:04:35+00:00 | 1,561,586,675 | 1,567,538,022 | health | health treatment |
337,850 | naturalnews--2019-12-06--Israeli scientists find a promising potential treatment for pancreatic cancer | 2019-12-06T00:00:00 | naturalnews | Israeli scientists find a promising potential treatment for pancreatic cancer | (Natural News) Pancreatic cancer is one of the most daunting varieties of the disease, with very few people surviving beyond five years after their diagnosis. With few symptoms, most patients aren’t diagnosed until they’ve already reached the metastatic stage. It’s the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths and the 12th most common type of cancer worldwide, and an effective treatment is desperately needed. Now, a new discovery could bring hope to future patients. Scientists at Tel Aviv University have developed a new treatment that could destroy pancreatic cancer cells. Their treatment involves a small molecule known as PJ34, which was originally developed to help stroke victims. They discovered that when it is injected, it causes human cancer cells to destroy themselves during cell division, or mitosis. They conducted their study using transplanted human pancreatic cancer in immunocompromised mice. They found that after two weeks of daily injection with the molecule, there was an incredible 90 percent reduction in cancer cells 30 days after ending the treatment, with one mouse even seeing its tumor disappear completely. The researchers say this molecule spurs an anomaly while the cancer cells are dividing that provokes rapid cell death. In other words, it’s the cell multiplication itself that is causing these bad cells to die. Best of all, unlike traditional treatments like chemotherapy, PJ34 does not affect healthy cells, so they did not see any negative effects in the mice from treatment. In fact, the animals grew and gained weight as usual. Sponsored: NEW Biostructured Silver First Aid Gel created by the Health Ranger combines three types of silver (ionic silver, colloidal silver, biostructured silver) with seven potent botanicals (rosemary, oregano, cinnamon and more) to create a breakthrough first aid silver gel. Over 50 ppm silver, verified via ICP-MS lab analysis. Made from 100% Texas rain water and 70% solar power. Zero chemical preservatives, fragrances or emulsifiers. See full details here. The study’s leader, Professor Malka Cohen-Armon, also explored this mechanism in a 2017 study, when she used it to treat triple-negative breast cancer, which, like pancreatic cancer, is notoriously difficult to treat. The research team has also found in parallel studies that the molecule is efficient on other deadly types of cancer, including aggressive varieties of lung, brain, ovarian and breast cancers that resist current therapies. A statement released by the university said the research holds “great potential for the development of a new effective therapy to treat this aggressive cancer in humans.” Next, the researchers would like to test the molecule on bigger animals like pigs before eventually carrying out trials in humans, which they believe could take around two years, depending on the funding available. The findings were published in the October edition of the peer-reviewed biomedical journal Oncotarget. Last year, scientists discovered another potential therapy for pancreatic cancer in the form of dual thermal ablation, a process that entails heating and freezing. They used different technologies to heat and freeze cancer cells and measure the levels of cell death and regrowth. When heating or freezing are used individually, some cells may die but others will survive and regrow. With dual-thermal ablation, however, more cells die and don’t return. Although these treatments are very promising, it’s still a good idea to do everything you can to reduce your risk, especially if someone in your family has had this type of cancer. Following a healthy diet and maintaining a healthy wright are two easy ways to lower your risk, and you should also refrain from smoking. The Israeli study, and others like it, could lead to incredibly valuable treatments for this deadly disease, and it’s encouraging to see researchers thinking outside of the box and looking to develop treatments that don’t put your overall health at risk the way chemotherapy does. | Isabelle Z. | http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-12-06-israeli-scientists-find-treatment-for-pancreatic-cancer.html | Fri, 06 Dec 2019 03:50:22 +0000 | 1,575,622,222 | 1,575,677,669 | health | health treatment |
384,078 | npr--2019-02-21--A New Treatment Can Relieve Food Allergies But Few Doctors Offer It | 2019-02-21T00:00:00 | npr | A New Treatment Can Relieve Food Allergies, But Few Doctors Offer It | A New Treatment Can Relieve Food Allergies, But Few Doctors Offer It Scouring ingredient lists. Carrying an EpiPen. Sitting at the special lunch table at school. These anxiety-ridden measures have become routine for families with severe food allergies, who know it takes only one wrong bite to end up in the emergency room. Nearly 6 million U.S. children and teens — about 8 percent, or two per classroom — have food allergies. In children, allergy to peanuts, which can be life-threatening, has gone up more than 21 percent since 2010. Some of these kids — as well as adults with severe food allergies — are trying a new treatment. And they're not waiting around for the Food and Drug Administration to approve it. The treatment, known as oral immunotherapy, involves consuming tiny amounts of the trigger food, with gradual increases in dose. Over time, the immune system learns to react less vigorously to the allergen. Because there's not yet an FDA-approved version of this treatment, most medical providers don't yet offer it. So most patients can get it only by enrolling in research studies, of which there have been dozens in recent years. When Whitney Block, a clinical research nurse who helped run oral immunotherapy trials at Stanford University, saw that more than 2,000 people were on the waitlist to get into these studies, she decided to start offering oral immunotherapy on her own. In 2017, Block opened her own clinic, National Allergy Center, in Redwood City, Calif., and just launched a second site in Southern California. "What I've done and continue to do in research trials I've brought out to private practice to make it available to more people," Block says. Patients have flown to the clinic from the East Coast and even from Bulgaria and the United Arab Emirates. Block is among a small but growing number of allergists around the U.S. who have begun offering the therapy without enrolling patients in trials. Just four board-certified allergists offered oral immunotherapy for food allergies in 2010, but the number surpassed 100 by 2017, according to the website OIT 101, which is run by parents who've had success with oral immunotherapy and maintains a directory of providers. The therapy is not a cure. People who get the treatment still have to read labels and cannot eat whatever they want. And the vast majority have to continue the treatments indefinitely to keep their tolerance. For peanut allergy, for instance, they would need to continue to consume roughly one peanut per day. Yet for many, to be able to tolerate even one or two whole peanuts without symptoms is life-changing. "It provides that additional margin of safety," says Dr. Brian Vickery, an allergist-immunologist at Emory University. "By undergoing this type of treatment, they can move around in the world with more peace of mind." Vickery was the lead author of a paper published in November 2018 in the New England Journal of Medicine that described encouraging results from a placebo-controlled study of peanut protein capsules developed by Aimmune Therapeutics. While it's possible for clinicians to offer the treatment simply with commercially available peanut flour, Aimmune's product, AR101, offers a standardized dose suitable for rigorous study and FDA approval. The South San Francisco biopharmaceutical company tested AR101 in 551 peanut allergy sufferers at 66 sites. At the end of the 12-month trial, more than two-thirds of the group taking the active drug were able to tolerate a dose of peanut protein equivalent to about two peanut kernels. Based on Aimmune's recent results, the company submitted a licensing application to the FDA for its peanut capsules in December. It could be approved in 2019, and approval could lead to broader use of the treatment and to insurance covering it. DBV Technologies of Montrouge, France, is developing another form of immunotherapy that delivers peanut protein to the immune system through a small skin patch. The company plans to resubmit a licensing application for this product, Viaskin Peanut, in response to the FDA's request for more data on manufacturing procedures and quality controls. While these products work their way toward approval, the vast majority of providers are not yet offering oral immunotherapy to their patients, except as part of a research trial. "Physicians are concerned that without FDA approval, if something goes wrong, they're going to be held liable," says Dr. Christina Ciaccio, a pediatric allergist at the University of Chicago Medicine. At a national immunology meeting in San Francisco this Sunday, experts will debate whether the treatment is ready to go mainstream. The "yes" side will be presented by Dr. Richard Wasserman, who started offering the treatment to patients at Dallas Food Allergy Center in July 2008. Since then, the clinic has treated more than 800 people for allergies to 20 foods. "The response of patients and families to oral immunotherapy has been the most rewarding thing I have done in 40 years of medical practice," Wasserman says. On the "no" side is Dr. Robert Wood, a pediatric allergist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, who has published a study that noted that the degree and duration of protection offered by immunotherapy is unknown and that allergic reactions are common during the treatment. Many families find the therapy stressful. At some points during the regimen, often on days the doses increase, most patients experience skin rashes, itching in the mouth, abdominal pain and other unwelcome side effects. And it doesn't work for everyone. In the recent trial of Aimmune's peanut capsules, 10 percent of the participants 17 and under who received the active drug needed rescue epinephrine during the exit food challenge at the end of the study. "If you have lived your life thinking this stuff is poisonous and can kill you ... and now the treatment is in fact ... to take a little bit of it in food every day, that's a difficult thing for people to wrap their heads around, particularly when they start to experience symptoms," Vickery says. In addition, immunotherapy requires certain precautions that can hinder daily activity. For instance, patients must avoid exercise, hot showers and anything else that elevates the body temperature for several hours after dosing. Because of the difficulty of the treatment and the risks, clinicians caution against patients trying this on their own. "There is potential for serious side effects," warns Block. "You definitely need medical oversight." Oral immunotherapy treatment "is not going to be suitable and appropriate for everyone," says Ciaccio. But she says emerging treatments for food allergies "will continue to be a hot topic." "We need more than one — just like we need more than one treatment for diabetes," she says. Esther Landhuis is a freelance science journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Find her on Twitter: @elandhuis. | Esther Landhuis | https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/02/21/696658000/a-new-treatment-promises-relief-for-food-allergies-but-few-doctors-offer-it?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news | 2019-02-21 19:54:14+00:00 | 1,550,796,854 | 1,567,547,811 | health | health treatment |
417,556 | politico--2019-04-05--California tests if addiction treatment can be incorporated into primary care | 2019-04-05T00:00:00 | politico | California tests if addiction treatment can be incorporated into primary care | PLACERVILLE, Calif. — California had just weeks to get a program that used medication to treat opioid use disorder up and running after receiving $90 million in federal grants in 2017. So officials found a model that was already working in Vermont, and supersized it to fit the sprawling state. The scaling up of the "Hub and Spoke" system, particularly in rural areas, has presented challenges but also delivered results in locales like this Gold Rush-era city east of Sacramento — and dovetailed with existing efforts to expand medication-assisted treatment to give the state a two-pronged approach to confronting the opioid epidemic. Hub and Spoke, first launched in Vermont in 2012, features a system of regional addiction treatment centers or "hubs" that are connected with "spokes" like primary care practices and local clinics. Patients have individual treatment plans. The system allows many patients to get help close to home, at clinics that offer buprenorphine, a drug seen as the gold standard for treating opioid abuse symptoms, and that employ behavioral health providers and nurse case managers. Those with more complex cases, who for example need to be treated daily with methadone, can be referred to a centralized hub. After starting with 18 hubs and 57 spokes, the California effort has expanded in a year and a-half to include more than 200 spokes statewide. The state has also layered on other programs, including one that treats people suffering from opioid withdrawal in an emergency room with buprenorphine, and then refers them to a nearby spoke, often the next day. California doesn't rank with opioid abuse hot spots like West Virginia, Ohio or New Hampshire. But rural pockets, particularly in the north of the state, have experienced alarming overdose death rates. Beth Tanzman, the Vermont state health official who manages Hub and Spoke there, told POLITICO that while states like Louisiana and New Hampshire have adapted the program, “it’s so important and impressive to see states like California figure out how to scale treatment” for opioid use disorder. As of last month, more than 13,000 patients in the state have used the model, and the number of physicians prescribing buprenorphine has increased by 82 percent since July 2017, according to the state Department of Health Care Services. The overarching goal in California is to create a framework for treating a range of addiction disorders, including alcohol, methamphetamines and other substances. “We know people with addiction are showing up in emergency rooms and clinics and they have mental health issues and they’re getting arrested and they go to jail,” said Kelly Pfeifer, a physician and addiction specialist at the California Health Care Foundation. “Why shouldn’t they get treated wherever they land?” As it builds out the hub-and-spoke system, California has taken advantage of several waves of federal grants totaling some $266 million to expand the use of medication-assisted treatment. The state may yet have to tap into other sources and find efficiencies once the grants run out. Despite the short-term nature of the grants, California wanted to take an aggressive approach, said Marlies Perez, chief of substance use disorder compliance at the state's health care services department. “These federal dollars have been huge in making this happen.” The money has helped fund an innovative emergency department program, originally called the E.D. Bridge program, which offers patients experiencing opioid withdrawal symptoms immediate access to buprenorphine, also known by the brand name Suboxone. A form that dissolves under the tongue and can resolve symptoms within a matter of minutes is provided right in the emergency room. The program started a year ago in 12 hospitals and now includes 31 hospitals and one clinic, nearly half of which are located in rural areas of the state. “We want the entire state,” said Aimee Moulin, an emergency physician at the University of California, Davis who is a regional coordinator for the Bridge program. “Our overall goal is to make this the standard of care.” Placerville is one of the few places in California where the Hub and Spoke and Bridge programs are being deployed together, offering immediate overdose treatment in the small, rural hospital’s emergency department. “We’re a small county and a small organization, but we’re going to start seeing this take off across the state because of these two programs,” said Loni Jay, a physician who in November opened a new spoke, Marshall CARES, an outpatient clinic steps from the hospital, Marshall Medical Center in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The county — El Dorado — was quick to establish spokes, due primarily to providers at El Dorado Community Health Centers who were already prescribing buprenorphine well in advance of the hub-and-spoke federal grant. Marshall Medical Center was also one of the first hospitals in the state to sign on to the E.D. Bridge pilot. The hospital recently brought on board a substance use navigator to help guide patients. “What we’re doing is providing a full integration of care — behavioral health, a MAT [medication-assisted treatment] program, R.N. case managers, licensed alcohol and drug counselors, medical assistants,” said Terri Lee Stratton, CEO of the four-clinic El Dorado Community Health Centers. The nearest hub still is nearly an hour away, in Roseville. But most providers say they rarely have to refer patients, because they can typically be managed at the clinic level. Patients suffering from withdrawal who show up at the emergency room get treated on the spot with Suboxone. Then they’re set up with a next-day appointment at a nearby spoke. Though Marshall providers treat just one or two patients a week in this fashion, they say the program is already starting to have an effect. “We treat them quickly and effectively, and that doubles the likelihood of them being in treatment in 30 days,” said Arianna Sampson, a physician assistant who helped set up the Bridge program. For the 49 weeks starting in August 2017, 92 percent of the patients treated at the hospital with Suboxone followed up by seeking care at a spoke, according to Sampson, with the nearest one 15 miles away. After a year, 26 of those patients were still in treatment, accounting for a 74 percent success rate. Meanwhile, buprenorphine use in El Dorado County increased 89 percent from 2015 to 2017, according to state public health statistics. Statewide buprenorphine prescribing increased just 14 percent over that period. California still faces barriers to getting these programs up to speed around the state, including stigma from health professionals and resistance from traditional substance-abuse providers. To prescribe buprenorphine, doctors have to get special training and a federal license known as an “X-waiver.” Though that's created bureaucratic hurdles, the opioid legislationl Congress passed last October expanded who could prescribe it. The experience has professionals optimistic the region will have the infrastructure to treat other forms of substance abuse, including methamphetamines. “I truly believe we’re reversing this opioid epidemic,” Sampson said. “But what we know about the history of humankind, there will be something else.” | [email protected] (Victoria Colliver) | https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/05/california-addiction-treatment-primary-care-1319791 | 2019-04-05 15:24:48+00:00 | 1,554,492,288 | 1,567,543,855 | health | health treatment |
426,628 | prepareforchange--2019-03-05--Why Fasting Is Such a Powerful Treatment Strategy for Diabetes | 2019-03-05T00:00:00 | prepareforchange | Why Fasting Is Such a Powerful Treatment Strategy for Diabetes | The answer for Type 2 diabetes is to stop feeding your body sugar and burn off the sugar already in your cells, and the most effective way to do this is fasting Type 2 diabetes should not be treated with insulin, as insulin forces glucose into cells that are already saturated with excess glucose and cannot take in more. Instead, the glucose gets turned into fat, which is why insulin injections result in dramatic weight gain Type 2 diabetes is curable, and the cure is less than inexpensive — it’s free. You actually save money, as the remedy is to fast and not eat anything for a number of days on a regular basis Any fasting blood sugar regularly over 90 mg/dl really suggests insulin resistance, and work by the late Dr. Joseph Kraft suggests 80 percent — 8 out of 10 — Americans are in fact insulin resistant An estimated 30.3 million Americans, nearly 1 in 10, have Type 2 diabetes. Another 84 million American adults — about 1 in 3 — are prediabetic, defined as an elevation in blood glucose over 100 mg/dl We have an epidemic of diabetes in the United States. An estimated 30.3 million Americans, nearly 1 in 10, have Type 2 diabetes.1 Another 84 million American adults — about 1 in 3 — are prediabetic, and most are unaware of this fact. Prediabetes2 is defined as an elevation in blood glucose over 100 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl) but lower than 125 mg/dl, at which point it formally becomes Type 2 diabetes. However, any fasting blood sugar regularly over 90 mg/dl really suggests insulin resistance, and seminal work by the late Dr. Joseph Kraft, author of “Diabetes Epidemic and You: Should Everyone Be Tested?” suggests that 80 percent — 8 out of 10 — Americans are in fact insulin resistant,3 which means they’re already on their way toward developing diabetes. That’s the bad news. The good news is Type 2 diabetes is curable, and the cure is less than free. It actually saves you loads of time and money. In his book, “The Diabetes Code: Prevent and Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Naturally,” Dr. Jason Fung details how to address this exceptionally common problem. Fung is a nephrologist (kidney specialist) with a practice in Toronto. Two years ago, I interviewed him about fasting, which is one of the most powerful interventions for Type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. Fung was also one of the experts who peer reviewed my book, “Fat for Fuel,” which integrates some of his work. There are two types of diabetes, Type 1, or insulin dependent diabetes, and Type 2 diabetes, which is lifestyle related. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 to 95 percent of all diabetes cases and is the topic of this particular discussion. Prevalence of Type 2 diabetes started to rise in the 1980s, at a time when obesity had yet to become a significant trend. However, as obesity became more prevalent, so did Type 2 diabetes. Ultimately, diabetes is just one symptom. Insulin resistance, which results in mitochondrial dysfunction, is also at the heart of cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and other degenerative diseases, and it all starts because your body is unable to burn fat as a primary fuel. When your body relies primarily on sugar instead, more reactive oxygen species (ROS) are generated, which damage the mitochondria in your cells. Fasting has been used for thousands of years to keep us well. Once you understand what insulin resistance actually is and what Type 2 diabetes is, then you’ll understand why something so simple as abstaining from food for a period of time can be such a powerful intervention. Contrary to infectious diseases, you cannot treat metabolic disease with a pill, because metabolic diseases such as diabetes are predicated on lifestyle, primarily diet. As explained by Fung: To avoid adding sugar into your body it is important to adopt a cyclical low-carb, high-fat diet, which I detail in “Fat for Fuel.” Then, to burn off the sugar already in your system, intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating is a powerful tool. Exercise is not the solution for diabetes, and cannot replace fasting. Remember, you can’t out-exercise your mouth. The reason for this is because you not only have insulin resistance in your muscles, but in all your tissues and organs, and to eliminate the excess glucose in your organs you need to temporarily “starve” the cells. Clearly, you should exercise, but that will only burn the glycogen in your muscles. It’s not going to address your fatty liver. As noted by Fung, fasting “gets rid of all the sort of excess nutrients. That’s why, historically, people called it a cleanse or a detox, because that’s really what it is.” In his practice, Fung has used fasting for many years and can attest to the dramatic turnarounds possible. “We have people coming in with the most severe diabetes; they’re taking hundreds of units of insulin a day, and within three to four weeks we have them off everything.” Oftentimes, a severe diabetic can revert back to being nondiabetic within as little as two months. This is not to say it’s easy. Fasting can be difficult when you’re used to eating multiple times a day. But it’s a natural way that will allow your body to heal itself. Meanwhile, taking insulin for Type 2 diabetes is about the worst thing you can do. As explained by Fung: Fasting is the most profoundly effective metabolic intervention I’m aware of. It’s like getting a free stem cell transplant, and it massively upregulates autophagy and mitophagy. It also stimulates mitochondrial biosynthesis during the refeeding phase, which allows your body to naturally regenerate. For these reasons, fasting is not only beneficial for Type 2 diabetes and obesity but also for health in general, and likely even longevity. There’s even evidence to suggest fasting can help prevent or even reverse dementia, as it helps your body clean out toxic debris. As noted by Fung, “It’s fundamentally one of the keys of wellness.” By lowering insulin, you also increase other important hormones, including growth hormone (aka the fitness hormone), which is important for muscle development and general vitality. Other ailments that can benefit from fasting include polycystic ovaries, polycystic kidneys and fast growing cancer cells. The reason for this is because when autophagy increases, your body starts breaking down old protein, including fast growing cells. Then, during the refeeding phase, growth hormone increases, boosting the rebuilding of new proteins and cells. In other words, it reactivates and speeds up your body’s natural renewal cycle. Most people fear being hungry and avoid it like the plague. Here, intermittent fasting can make the process a lot easier. Before I tried my first five-day water fast, I increased my intermittent daily fasting to the point that I was fasting for 20 hours a day for a few months, but one month is likely sufficient. At that point, going several days without food was easy, since my body had had gained metabolic flexibility and was able to burn fat as my primary fuel, Most people get really hungry by Day Three on a water fast, yet I had no hunger at all. Fung agrees, saying: Gradually easing into longer fasts will naturally minimize most side effects associated with fasting, as will transitioning over to a high-fat, low-carb diet, to help your body to adjust to using fat as a primary fuel. The so-called “keto flu” is often related to sodium deficiency, so it’s recommended to take a high-quality unprocessed salt each day. I typically pour salt in my hand and lick it throughout the day when fasting, as I obviously can’t put it on food. This will also help reduce the likelihood of intractable muscle cramps at night. Headaches are also common when you first start water fasting. These too can often be minimized by taking salt. An alternative to eating salt straight, or putting it in water, is to add it to a bit of bone broth. Another important mineral is magnesium. It’s particularly important if you are diabetic, as magnesium deficiency is very common among Type 2 diabetics. This is another possible culprit if you’re getting muscle cramps. There are several types of magnesium, some of which are more poorly absorbed than others. During water fasting, your best bet is to use Epsom salt baths, as this allows your body to absorb the magnesium through your skin rather than your digestive tract. Magnesium has a laxative effect in high doses, and when you’re not eating anything, oral magnesium can easily result in “disaster pants.” Multivitamins can also be useful during extended fasts, especially if you’re doing them regularly. It is also important to understand that if you are on a multiday water fast you will liberate many toxins from your fat stores, so using an infrared sauna and taking effective binders, like chlorella, modified citrus pectin, cilantro or even activated charcoal can help eliminate these liberated toxins from your body and prevent their reabsorption. While fasting is a profoundly effective intervention for Type 2 diabetes, you do need to use caution if you’re diabetic. If you are taking medication, especially for your blood sugar, you have to make sure you talk to your doctor, because there’s a risk your blood sugar may end up dipping too low. If you’re taking insulin, and keep taking insulin while fasting, you could get into trouble. Last but not least, one of the greatest fears people have about fasting is the concept of starvation and the loss of lean muscle mass. In his book, Fung explains why such fears are overblown. Your metabolic rate is the energy your body uses to generate body heat and keep your organs working. Your body basically needs a certain number of calories a day. People have a tendency to think that skipping a meal means your metabolic rate will decrease. In reality, the exact opposite occurs. In studies looking at basal metabolic rate, people’s metabolic rate is actually 10 percent higher at the end of a four-day fast than at the beginning. So, your body is not shutting down, it’s actually ramping itself up. The reason for this has to do with counterregulatory hormones. As insulin drops, counterregulatory hormones go up. Some of these activate your sympathetic nervous system (the so-called fight or flight response). “So, as you fast, all these hormones are going up, your sympathetic nervous system is going up, your adrenaline is going up, your growth hormone’s going up,” Fung says. If you’re among the 80 percent of people who are insulin resistant, get yourself a copy of Fung’s brand-new book that comes out April 3, “The Diabetes Code: Prevent and Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Naturally.” Fung’s book, “The Complete Guide to Fasting,” is another excellent resource. As Fung says, we’ve known that fasting is beneficial for thousands of years. We just strayed away from it, and we need to re-embrace this foundational aspect of health. | Edward Morgan | https://prepareforchange.net/2019/03/04/why-fasting-is-such-a-powerful-treatment-strategy-for-diabetes/ | 2019-03-05 01:07:22+00:00 | 1,551,766,042 | 1,567,546,855 | health | health treatment |
426,815 | prepareforchange--2019-04-19--Why Sodium Bicarbonate is an Effective Treatment for Disease and Cardiac Arrest | 2019-04-19T00:00:00 | prepareforchange | Why Sodium Bicarbonate is an Effective Treatment for Disease and Cardiac Arrest | Sodium and potassium bicarbonates are nontoxic primary alkalizing agents for the prevention and treatment of cancer, liver disease, Type I & Type II diabetes, Lupus, heart disease, pharmacological toxicosis, vascular surgery operation, tonsillar herniation due to cerebral edema, lactic acid toxicosis, and hyponatremia or low salt or loss of salts due to excessive or over-exercise. Research by British scientists at the Royal London Hospital shows that sodium bicarbonate can dramatically slow the progress of chronic kidney disease. Yet the debate continues about sodium bicarbonate and why it should or should not be used in medicine. Jim Davis, MA, RN, EMT-P, writing for the Journal of Emmergency Services says, “For patients in cardiac arrest, after administering epinephrine and amiodarone, you consider sodium bicarbonate as directed by protocol. Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) is used primarily to combat acidosis, although it’s the treatment of choice in certain cases of overdose. It works by mixing with lactic acid that forms in low perfusion states and in periods of inadequate oxygenation, such as shock and cardiac arrest. It is then converted to a form of carbonic acid that turns into carbon dioxide, and in turn, is expelled through the lungs during ventilation. Patients who have overdosed from tricyclic antidepressants, diphenhydramine, aspirin, verapamil and cocaine have potentially toxic effects and have benefited from sodium bicarbonate use when symptomatic. Sodium bicarbonate is the universal mainstream treatment of acidosis. It is used every day by oncologists to neutralize the heavy acidic nature of their chemical and chemotherapeutic agents which are often quite toxic. Sodium and potassium bicarbonate increases the hydroxyl ions or electron levels through increased alkalinity to the cells buffering the metabolic acids that can cause cancer.[1] Davis indicates that the American Heart Association (AHA) has deemphasized the use of sodium bicarbonate so instead of seasoned paramedics giving multiple ampules of sodium bicarbonate during a cardiac arrest they are slow now to inject. They are still administering but now only as an afterthought. Has anything changed? “Primarily, NaHCO3 works as a buffer by mixing with acids within the body to reduce the acid–base imbalance. Acidosis can develop when excessive amounts of lactic acid are produced during low perfusion states and in periods of inadequate oxygenation. In the presence of NaHCO3, the excess acid is converted to a form of carbonic acid, and then into carbon dioxide (CO2) and water. The excess CO2 is expelled through the lungs during ventilation. Patients who become hypoxic from hypoventilation or poor perfusion are unable to metabolize the products of anaerobic glycolysis, which causes lactic and metabolic acidosis to develop thereby lowering their pH level.” There really are no other good opitions to treat acidosis so EMS providers need to recognize the importance of considering acidosis early on, as well as recognizing that NaHCO3 is the only safe and fast acting treatment option. It was dishartening for many doctors, hospitals and ambulence crews a year ago when shortages of sodium bicarbonate from the two pharmaceutical companies forced cancelations of surgeries and other medical precedures. A normal pH is 7.35 to 7.45; a pH less than 7.35 places the patient in a state of acidosis. During severe acidosis (pH less than 7.2), the heart is more susceptible to v fib and other arrhythmias. Myocardial contractility is suppressed, hypotension occurs, hepatic blood flow is reduced, and oxygen delivery to tissue is impaired.2 The body uses bicarbonate as a buffer to offset the increase in acid production, attempting to maintain homeostasis. Sodium bicarbonate administration in conjunction with epinephrine was reported to increase survival as early as 1968, with more recent studies demonstrating similar results. In 2005 Pittsburgh researchers found that EMS systems administering NaHCO3 with epinephrine within minutes of resuscitation demonstrated a higher ROSC, higher discharge rate and better neurological outcome. Researchers at John Hopkins University evaluated acidosis and brain pH of dogs during prolonged resuscitation. The group receiving NaHCO3, cerebral pH, cerebral blood flow and oxygen consumption all remained higher at close to pre-cardiac arrest values. The group with uncorrected acidosis had significant reduction in all areas. The main concern with using sodium bicarbonate: The sodium load from baking soda can cause fluid retention, particularly edema and nephrotic syndrome in people with compromised kidneys or chronic kidney disease (CKD). Clinically, this means an eGFR of less than 30 ml/min; an eGFR of100 ml/min is considered “healthy.” Sodium bicarbonate can raise cardiovascular risk, owing to its high sodium load. Many people, especially those battling hypertension and cardiac issues, need to minimize their salt intake, not raise it. If high amounts of bicarbonate is used it can precipitate leaching of minerals, especially magnesium and calcium, potassium, zinc and copper. That is why I recommend a product called pH Adjust because it blends sodium bicarbonate with potassium bicarbonate and magnesium to reduce sodium intake as well as balance bicarbonate with other minerals. According to the Mayo Clinic, baking soda can be used to relieve stomach acid-related health issues, such as acid reflux, sour stomach and heartburn. Some think that bicarbonate is only fine for occasional use and others point to the possibility for some side effects as a reason that bicarbonate always be administered under a doctor’s supervision. This is a mistake in that doctors are not informed about, or even interested in the tendency of most patients to be acidic. So do not stick with your health professional’s recommended dosage instructions. The bodies own production of bicarbonate goes down as we age creating deficiencies that are important to address. The more acidic a person gets the more they need bicarbonate because oxygen delivery to the cells decreases. Disclaimer: We at Prepare for Change (PFC) bring you information that is not offered by the mainstream news, and therefore may seem controversial. The opinions, views, statements, and/or information we present are not necessarily promoted, endorsed, espoused, or agreed to by Prepare for Change, its leadership Council, members, those who work with PFC, or those who read its content. However, they are hopefully provocative. Please use discernment! Use logical thinking, your own intuition and your own connection with Source, Spirit and Natural Laws to help you determine what is true and what is not. By sharing information and seeding dialogue, it is our goal to raise consciousness and awareness of higher truths to free us from enslavement of the matrix in this material realm. | Edward Morgan | https://prepareforchange.net/2019/04/19/why-sodium-bicarbonate-is-an-effective-treatment-for-disease-and-cardiac-arrest/ | 2019-04-19 23:14:02+00:00 | 1,555,730,042 | 1,567,542,400 | health | health treatment |
533,008 | sputnik--2019-05-02--Groundbreaking Cancer Treatment On Hold Due to Chaotic Brexit Negotiations | 2019-05-02T00:00:00 | sputnik | Groundbreaking Cancer Treatment On Hold Due to 'Chaotic Brexit Negotiations' | A patient undergoing cancer treatment has been told a radiotherapy treatment, his best chance of a cure, has been delayed indefinitely "because of Brexit". Richard Kelly, 53, is being treated for liver cancer and was due to start a cutting-edge treatment, selective internal radiation therapy (Sirt), alongside chemotherapy in April — but despite Sirt being recommended months ago, at his last appointment on 23rd April his oncologist at Bristol Royal Infirmary informed him "NHS England were unable to set a budget for this kind of treatment because of the chaotic nature of the Brexit negotiations and the actual leaving of the European Union…therefore this essential treatment was delayed, with no suggestion of a date when it would be available," Kelly told The Independent. The delay in Britain's scheduled departure date for leaving the EU was expected to limit the damaging consequences of a no deal Brexit — but Kelly was told "in black and white terms" that Brexit was putting his life at risk. Consultants had offered the "groundbreaking" form of radiotherapy after they determined his cancer had progressed and was "incurable", but could be contained with chemotherapy. But while Kelly's doctors didn't discuss whether other patients had been affected by Brexit, he said he knew of other people who certainly had been. "I can't be the only one, how serious is this going to get? We haven't even left. That big red bus said £350 million a week going into the NHS, but we can't even afford cancer treatment. This is the reality of it, thanks a bunch Nigel Farage," Kelly despaired. While the UK will continue to use EU standards on medicines and clinical trials in the short term once it leaves the EU, the charity noted there would still be some degree of disruption — and urged drugs companies to stockpile medicines just in case. In February, the Royal College of Radiologists cautioned NHS trusts would have "no choice but to prioritise" which patients receive cancer treatment should a no-deal Brexit go ahead and delay the import of radioactive isotopes. The College said it had not seen the "detail of the customs paperwork" that would allow the materials, which cannot be stockpiled as they decay too quickly, to gain fast-track entry into the UK — medical isotopes are used in nuclear medicine either to treat cancer by killing diseased cells, or to diagnose diseases by injecting a radioactive tracer into the body that allows scanner images to be taken of tissue and organs. In the case of a no-deal Brexit, expected delays at UK ports would make delivery of these materials by land or sea unviable because of their short shelf-life. | null | https://sputniknews.com/europe/201905021074642995-cancer-treatment-delay-brexit/ | 2019-05-02 11:34:00+00:00 | 1,556,811,240 | 1,567,541,439 | health | health treatment |
633,989 | thedailymirror--2019-06-02--New hunt and destroy radiotherapy treatment poised to tackle prostate cancer | 2019-06-02T00:00:00 | thedailymirror | New 'hunt and destroy' radiotherapy treatment poised to tackle prostate cancer | A pioneering treatment which can “search and destroy” cancer cells offers hope to thousands of patients. The targeted radiotherapy can tackle incurable prostate cancer when tumours have spread through the body. Scientists have identified a protein, prostate-specific membrane antigen, which is produced by cells in the most advanced cases. PSMA was used initially to scan where tumours had spread, but now it is used to guide radioactive isotopes to tumours. Trials involving this technique found eight in 10 of the hardest to treat patients had their tumours shrink. The last-ditch treatment is now available in the UK, but only privately – with the first two patients receiving it last week. There are 10,000 men in Britain with advanced prostate cancer. If trials are successful, experts at the American Society for Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago said PSMA radiotherapy could be introduced on the NHS. Study leader Prof Johann de Bono, from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, said: “This treatment is a huge deal, causing substantially durable remission. “We believe we will have this drug approved within two years – and it works.” Aussie oncologist Arun Azad is testing the treatment on 200 men in one of 10 trials worldwide. He said: “If results are positive, it really will change the landscape of how we treat prostate cancer.” Scientists believe patients could survive for up to a decade longer with the procedure. There are 11,500 prostate cancer deaths in the UK a year. Hans Schaupp became the first man in Britain to be treated with PSMA radiotherapy on May 25. The 77-year-old, from Hampshire, below, said: “I was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer in 2012. “I had two years of hormone therapy and then the PSA started going up again. I was talked into having chemotherapy. “I had nine cycles, but chemo is barbaric. We had been talking for a long time about PSMA. “I was considering going to Germany but then it became available here. “I was the first patient to get it. The treatment is fantastic. I was in the clinic less than four hours. “Rather than poisoning your whole body with chemo, it goes straight to the tumours. If it works, then great. “It is five days since I had it and I feel absolutely perfect. No side-effects, nothing.” | [email protected] (Martin Bagot) | https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/new-hunt-destroy-radiotherapy-treatment-16244177 | 2019-06-02 21:00:00+00:00 | 1,559,523,600 | 1,567,539,366 | health | health treatment |
684,428 | theguardianuk--2019-01-10--Waiting times for NHS cancer treatment are at worst ever level | 2019-01-10T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Waiting times for NHS cancer treatment are at worst ever level | Record numbers of patients are not getting vital cancer care on time because NHS England performance against waiting time targets has fallen to its lowest ever level, according to official figures. Hospitals are increasingly having to force patients to wait for care because they cannot keep up with the growing numbers being referred by GPs who fear they have the disease. Over 18,000 suspected cancer patients a month in England are now not getting to see a specialist or starting their treatment within prescribed timescales, NHS England’s latest performance data has revealed. In November, 14,634 people did not see a specialist cancer consultant within 14 days, the supposed maximum length of time the NHS constitution says that anyone referred by their GP should have to wait. Another 2,884 people could not start their treatment inside 62 days, and a further 894 did not begin their treatment within 31 days, despite family doctors classifying both groups as urgent cases. Experts warned that the growing delays lead to mental anguish for patients, could have “a serious impact” on people’s health and raised doubts about the NHS’s plans to improve Britain’s internationally poor record of diagnosing cancer early. “When they suffer delays like these, patients are bound to ask themselves whether the wait has had an impact if they’re diagnosed with cancer. It’s difficult for nurses to reassure patients in this situation, which compounds the anxiety and distress patients already feel,” said Patricia Marquis, a regional director at the Royal College of Nursing in England. “Tens of thousands of patients and their families are enduring agonising waits, all too aware that a small delay could have a serious impact,” she said. More people were unable to see a specialist within 14 days during April to November 2018 than in the whole of the previous financial year. While 113,935 patients had to wait longer than 14 days in 2017-18, even more – 124,133 – missed out that target between April to November 2018. That is the highest number since the target was introduced in October 2009. NHS performance against some of the cancer waiting times targets has nosedived over the past year at the same time as concerns have grown about shortages of cancer doctors and specialist cancer nurses. The number of those not seeing a specialist within 14 days has risen by 60% since last year. The NHS trust in Oxford ran so short of cancer nurses last year that it considered rationing the amount of chemotherapy patients it should receive, while one in London was forced to merge two chemotherapy units for the same reason. While hospitals should ensure that 93% of patients see a specialist within two weeks, just 91.7% were able to do so in the eight months between April and November 2018 – again, their worst performance on record. During that same period 6,256 people could not start their treatment within 31 days of doctors making a “decision to treat”. That is on course to be many more than the 7,204 who were not treated on time in all 12 months of the year before. Similarly, 22,565 people have missed out on urgent treatment within 62 days of referral already in 2018-19 which, again, is set to exceed the 26,217 who missed during last year. “These truly terrible statistics represent the most shameful indictment of nearly nine years of Tory austerity, cuts and staffing failures in the NHS,” said Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary. In November hospitals in England missed five of the eight cancer targets – including the 14-day and 62-day requirements – for the fourth month in a row. They have breached the 62-day treatment target every month since December 2015 and only met it three times in the 58 months since they first missed it in January 2014. The 14-day target has been missed for the past eight months. Macmillan Cancer Support’s executive director of policy and impact, Fran Woodard, said: “Behind these figures are people waiting anxiously for a diagnosis and treatment, during a period when lives are already being turned upside down, despite the best efforts of NHS staff facing greater demand for their services and increased pressures.” NHS leaders, whose long-term plan for the service’s future this week outlined ambitious improvements to cancer diagnosis and outcomes, must draw up a fully costed plan to give cancer services the workforce they need, added Woodard. The King’s Fund also highlighted that growing numbers of patients are having to wait more than six weeks – the supposed limit – to have a CT, MRI scan or X-ray to help doctors diagnose if they have cancer. Deborah Ward, a senior analyst at the thinktank, said: “Although the NHS is treating thousands more people, it can’t keep up with rapidly increasing demand. “The long-term plan set out ambitious targets to improve cancer care and these new figures highlight the scale of the challenge. But without a credible workforce plan it’s hard to see how these goals will be met. | Denis Campbell Health policy editor | https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jan/10/nhs-england-misses-multiple-targets-for-cancer-treatment | 2019-01-10 19:21:17+00:00 | 1,547,166,077 | 1,567,553,143 | health | health treatment |
701,660 | theguardianuk--2019-06-01--New breast cancer treatment offers hope of longer life to younger women | 2019-06-01T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | New breast cancer treatment offers hope of longer life to younger women | Younger women with breast cancer have been given the hope of living longer after what is described as “one of the greatest advances in breast cancer research in recent decades”. Adding ribociclib, a targeted drug that disrupts cancer cells, to standard hormone therapy was found to boost survival among premenopausal patients who have an advanced form of the disease. The risk of death was cut by almost a third compared with those treated with hormone therapy alone, according to the study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in Chicago. “This is indescribably good news for patients and their families,” said Lady Delyth Morgan, the chief executive at Breast Cancer Care and Breast Cancer Now. The research, led by Dr Sara Hurvitz of the University of California in Los Angeles, followed 672 pre-menopausal women under the age of 59 who had advanced hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. The patients were assigned either ribociclib, which targets and interferes with processes in the cells that cause cancer to grow, or a placebo. All the women also received hormone therapy. After 42 months, 70% of those treated with the combination therapy were still alive, compared with 46% of those who received just hormone therapy. “This is the first study to show improved survival for any targeted therapy when used with endocrine therapy as a first-line treatment for advanced breast cancer,” Hurvitz said. “The use of ribociclib as a frontline therapy significantly prolonged overall survival, which is good news for women with this terrible disease.” Women who received ribociclib lived an average of 23.8 months without the disease progressing, compared with 13 months for those treated with a placebo, the research found. “We have known for some time that giving ribociclib with an aromatase inhibitor [a hormone therapy] can slow the spread of incurable breast cancer, but to now know that it can also extend life for premenopausal patients is the new hope that so many families have been waiting for,” Delyth said. “The recent introduction of this class of drugs to NHS care has offered a long-awaited step forward in our ability to delay the progression of the most common type of incurable breast cancer. It is now absolutely fantastic to see the very first evidence that ribociclib can give thousands of younger women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer more time to live. We cannot put into words what it will mean for so many women to be able to spend precious extra time with their families and create memories that will last a lifetime. “This class of drugs, and the way it slows cancer growth, represents one of the greatest advances in breast cancer research in recent decades, and it’s vital we ensure that all patients who could benefit are able to access it.” The study may also stimulate further research into whether the combination of ribociclib and other types of drug that are currently not approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence could help another class of breast cancer patients – those who have received prior hormone therapy. | Jamie Doward | https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jun/01/new-breast-cancer-treatment-offers-longer-life-to-younger-women-ribociclib | 2019-06-01 15:59:34+00:00 | 1,559,419,174 | 1,567,539,465 | health | health treatment |
749,212 | theindependent--2019-02-25--Cancer treatment could be revolutionised by targeting a single cell scientists say | 2019-02-25T00:00:00 | theindependent | Cancer treatment could be revolutionised by targeting a single cell, scientists say | The toxic side effects of chemotherapy and radiation make the cure often seem as bad as the ailment, and there is also the threat of recurrence and tumour spread. Cancer treatment still follows a practically medieval method of cut, burn or poison. If the growth can’t be cut out through surgery, it may be burnt away with radiation or poisoned by chemotherapy. As a result, cancer therapy remains a daunting diagnosis for patients and treatment options seem limited for a disease which causes one in six deaths globally. The failure to innovate in cancer treatment may lie in the very poor success rate of clinical trials. Approximately 95-98 per cent of new anti-cancer drugs actually fail phase-III clinical trials, the phase in which new treatments are compared with existing therapy options. This is a staggering statistic. No other business could possibly survive with such an abysmal success rate. Most drugs are made to target “bulk” cancer cells, but not the root cause: the cancer stem cell. Cancer stem cells, also known as “tumour-initiating cells”, are the only cells in the tumour that can make a new tumour. New therapies that specifically target and eradicate these cancer stem cells are needed to prevent tumours growing and spreading, but for that there needs to be more clarity around the target. Our new research may have discovered such a target. We have identified and isolated cells within different cancerous growths which we call the “cell of origin”. Our experiments on cancer cells derived from a human breast tumour found that stem cells – representing 0.2 per cent of the cancer cell population – have special characteristics. They generate vast amounts of energy and proliferate rapidly. We believe that they resemble the cancer cell of origin that has escaped senescence – the natural process of cell ageing and “death” which concludes a healthy cell life cycle. These are thought to be the first cancer cells which start the process of uncontrolled cell multiplication and cause tumours to form. These cancer stem cells undergo anchorage-independent growth, also known as growth in suspension, without any tissue attachment. This is how metastasis occurs – spreading via the blood vessels and lymphatic vessels. These features put them front and centre as a new target for anti-cancer therapy. With astonishing luck, these energetic cancer stem cells are colour-coded which means they have a natural phosphorescent glow, making them easy to identify and target. Now that we have found them and we know how they behave, it should be relatively simple to find drugs to target cancer stem cells. In our new paper we have already shown that they are easily targeted with a mitochondrial inhibitor or a cell cycle inhibitor such as Ribociclib, an FDA-approved drug in the US which would prevent their proliferation. Ultimately, this means that if we focus on energetic cancer stem cells, we may be able to directly hit the target. We might be able to turn cancer into a manageable chronic disease, like diabetes. We believe that we have arrived at the start of a new, more fruitful, road in cancer therapy. As a consequence, “big pharma” drug screening should actually focus on cancer stem cells and their relevant targets. Michael P Lisanti is a professor of translational medicine at the University of Salford. This article originally appeared on The Conversation We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads. | Michael P. Lisanti | https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/cancer-treatment-chemotherapy-stem-cell-pharma-a8780816.html | 2019-02-25 11:36:49+00:00 | 1,551,112,609 | 1,567,547,379 | health | health treatment |
750,139 | theindependent--2019-03-11--How a stem cell treatment left patients feeling worse than before | 2019-03-11T00:00:00 | theindependent | How a stem cell treatment left patients feeling worse than before | After years of back pain, Timothy Lunceford decided in July to try an injection of umbilical cord blood, an unproven treatment increasingly touted by chiropractors and pain doctors as a cure for achy joints. A day after he got the shots, Lunceford’s back began throbbing. After two days, he was feverish and could hardly move. “It felt like someone stuck a knife into the middle of my back and just left it there,” says Lunceford, a 52-year-old wildlife biologist from Athens, Texas. Lunceford says his wife rushed him to a hospital, where doctors found E coli and a second type of bacteria in his blood. Nurses gave him antibiotics to fight life-threatening sepsis, and a neurosurgeon scraped infected tissue from his spine. For 58 days, Lunceford remained hospitalised, wracked by intense pain. Over the past year, at least 17 people have been hospitalised after being injected with products made from umbilical cord blood, a little-known but fast-growing segment of the booming stem cell industry, according to state and federal health officials and patient reports. Sold as a miracle cure for a variety of intractable conditions, the injections have sickened people in five states, prompting new warnings from health officials about the risks of unproven stem cell treatments. All but two of the illnesses have been linked to a single company: Liveyon of Yorba Linda, California. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a report in December tying 12 cases in multiple states to treatments sold by the company. Three additional patients in Texas and Maine have filed lawsuits against Liveyon claiming the company’s product infected them with bacteria. Liveyon, founded in 2016, sells tiny vials of a solution it says is derived from umbilical cord blood, which it claims is an especially potent source of healing stem cells. In ads and on its website, Liveyon says its product is “as miraculous as the birth of a child itself” and “stimulates regenerative healing.” Such products are not approved by federal regulators or supported by clinical research, but businesses selling them say they provide relief to many patients. Many health professionals say the injections – like most stem cell therapies – violate Food and Drug Administration rules against using unapproved drugs and are potentially dangerous. The CDC report revealed a specific risk: bacterial infection. The CDC says it had documented a dozen patients who had developed a variety of maladies from the injections, including swollen spinal discs, infected bones and joints, and abscesses in their backs. Three of the 12 patients were hospitalised for a month or more, the report says. The CDC did not name the patients, but the date of Lunceford’s injection and the length of his hospital stay match those of a patient listed in the CDC report. On 28 September, after the FDA and other health officials enquired about the infected patients, the company issued a recall for all treatment vials marketed under the name “Liveyon ReGen”. Blaming the California company that manufactured the vials, Liveyon executives says they hired a new manufacturer in Florida and changed the name of their product to “Liveyon Premier MAXCB”. “We’re a victim as much as the patients who were infected,” Liveyon’s founder and chief executive, John Kosolcharoen, says in one of several interviews. “I feel like we tried to do everything right.” Internal company records show that Liveyon received reports of patients falling ill and testing positive for E coli as early as 5 June 2018 – nearly four months before the recall. Liveyon executives did not dispute that finding but says they did not act sooner because they believed the infections were caused by doctors who inadvertently contaminated their product while injecting patients. However, the CDC found that the bacterial contamination probably “occurred before distribution” to doctors. After obtaining 10 unopened vials of Liveyon treatments from clinics in Texas and Florida where patients had fallen ill, the CDC report says, investigators found bacteria in eight of them. In the weeks since then, CDC officials says, they have obtained many more ReGen vials directly from Liveyon and found bacteria in a large proportion of them. Kosolcharoen says he continues to believe that doctor error contributed to the rash of infections. He adds that Liveyon has spent a lot of time and money trying to establish and follow best practices in a field rife with bad actors. “We’re just the tip of the iceberg, and we’re the cleanest in the iceberg,” Kosolcharoen says. “If anyone else knew what’s going on in this industry, they would roll over in their grave.” Stem cells can divide and renew themselves over long periods, and some can grow into any kind of cell in the body. Eventually, researchers say, stem cells could be used to treat many diseases, including macular degeneration, diabetes and Parkinson’s. But those therapies are still being developed; the only FDA-approved stem cell treatment is for blood disorders like leukemia. Many leading researchers compare the products being sold now to snake oil, saying there is little oversight, little scientific rationale for the procedures and little proof they have any effect. Meanwhile, doctors have found evidence of harm: several people have gone blind after receiving stem cell treatments, according to reports in the New England Journal of Medicine and elsewhere. And two people died shortly after being injected with stem cell treatments in Florida, most recently in 2012. The for-profit stem cell business is nonetheless booming. After cropping up overseas in countries such as Thailand and China, the industry has flourished in the United States – without much resistance, until recently, from the FDA or other federal regulators. Academic experts have identified at least 716 US stem cell clinics and say the true number probably exceeds 1,000. Many clinics use patients’ own tissue – belly fat, blood or bone marrow – to fashion treatments. More recently, practitioners have begun offering treatments manufactured from birth-related products, including discarded placentas, amniotic tissue, umbilical cords and cord blood. Such materials have a long history in commercial marketing, says Jeanne Loring, a neurobiologist and stem cell researcher at California-based Scripps Research. “People have been putting things like that in creams and shampoo for ages,” she says. “But there’s nothing inherently magical about placental tissue or the amniotic sac.” Lisa Fortier, a Cornell University regenerative medicine researcher, says such products may not even contain stem cells. In a test of 11 products marketed as injectable treatments – none of them from Liveyon – Fortier found that none contained stem cells, or a single live cell of any kind. She says they also contained very few “growth factors” – substances that many companies often claim stimulate healing. If these products have any effect on patients, Fortier says, “it’s not through live cells or growth factors”. In interviews, Kosolcharoen, 47, defended his company and its treatments. Whatever testing on other products may show, tests paid for by Liveyon have indicated that its vials contain live cells and stem cells, according to a self-published company report. Kosolcharoen says he benefited from stem cell therapies in 2012, after falling off a balcony and shattering his knee. “Liveyon was my way to share the success I had,” he says. Kosolcharoen says he started Liveyon in 2016, after years of working as an entrepreneur in the insurance, real estate and telemedicine industries. To launch the company, he brought on Alan Gaveck, 59, a podiatrist who serves as Liveyon’s top medical expert. Gaveck has had no formal training in stem cells, but he says he has spent the past nine years immersed in the industry. Comparing himself to university professors and academic stem cell researchers, he says: “I’ll stand up to any of them as far as knowledge of stem cells is concerned.” Before Liveyon, both men experienced professional setbacks, according to court documents and other records. Two months after filing Liveyon’s incorporation documents, Kosolcharoen pleaded guilty to defrauding the military healthcare system. According to an FBI affidavit, Kosolcharoen ran a sales team that persuaded soldiers to request prescriptions for a topical cream sold for “pain, scarring, stretch marks, erectile dysfunction, or for ‘general wellness’”. In return, Kosolcharoen received more than $600,000 (£460,000) from a compounding pharmacy that supplied the cream, the affidavit said. In an interview, Kosolcharoen says he didn’t deliberately defraud anyone. He says federal officials charged him because he wasn’t directly employed by the pharmacy and therefore was receiving payment for his work under an improper tax status. He says he pleaded guilty because federal officials threatened to charge his relatives involved in the business. His sentencing in the case has been repeatedly delayed; Kosolcharoen says federal officials are waiting to use his testimony against the compounding pharmacy. Federal prosecutors declined to comment because the case remains open. Before that, Kosolcharoen ran into trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which barred him in 2014 from the securities industry after he made “material misstatements” and committed “fraud and deceit”, according to a settlement agreement between the SEC and Kosolcharoen. In an administrative hearing on the case, the SEC says Kosolcharoen worked for a Dallas-based medical insurance company, Global Corporate Alliance, which SEC officials described as “a $10m Ponzi scheme that victimised at least 80 investors”. In an interview, Kosolcharoen says that he was duped by the company and that he and his relatives lost money when authorities exposed the scheme. “I was the middle person, transferring paperwork,” he says. Kosolcharoen says authorities told him, “We won’t charge you with anything, but you have to agree to never get a security license.” The SEC declined to comment on the agreement. Gaveck, meanwhile, no longer holds a medical license. He was reprimanded by the Arizona podiatry board in 2007, when the board voted unanimously to censure him for his treatment of a patient who came to him for a dislocated toe and – two surgeries later – had to have the toe amputated. The patient sued Gaveck for malpractice, he says; he later decided not to renew his medical licence. “I had a very busy surgical practice and, yes, I had a malpractice suit,” Gaveck says in a telephone interview. Such lawsuits, he says, are a common occurrence for “anyone who has been in medicine long enough”. Gaveck says he does not need a medical licence because Liveyon does not treat patients directly in the United States. Instead, the company sells its treatments to chiropractors and other practitioners. Over the past two years, Kosolcharoen says the company has sold 25,000 vials at $1,500 for a single-injection dose or $1,800 for a multiple-injection dose. Those sales have brought in tens of millions of dollars in revenue, Kosolcharoen says, but he says the company’s profits so far have been modest because of startup and overhead costs. Until recently, Liveyon also did not engage directly in manufacturing. Kosolcharoen and Gaveck says it would have taken too long to set up their own manufacturing operation, so they turned to Exeligen Scientific in San Diego. Liveyon officials says executives at Exeligen set up a third company in San Diego, called Genetech, to produce Liveyon’s vials. In June – about the time Liveyon first started hearing from providers about infected patients – an FDA inspection of Genetech’s facility found numerous sterility and safety lapses, according to FDA records. At the time, inspectors reprimanded Genetech for not following safe manufacturing practices – such as consistently screening donor cells for communicable diseases, FDA records show. The agency issued a formal warning to the company in November and told Genetech it was selling an unapproved product. It copied Liveyon’s Kosolcharoen on the letter. Neither Genetech nor Exeligen could be reached for comment. The websites and phone numbers for the companies no longer work, and top executives did not respond to multiple emails or repeated calls and texts to their cellphones. Kosolcharoen says he knew nothing about the FDA’s findings at Genetech until several months after the June inspection. “I gotta be a little mad at FDA,” he says. “Had we been notified that they had done an inspection of Genetech and found these deviations, we would have stopped buying from them immediately.” Liveyon continued to distribute vials of “Liveyon ReGen” through the summer and into the fall. The first reports of infected patients reached the CDC in September. After investigating cases reported by health departments in Texas and Florida, CDC officials issued a call to other health departments nationwide. By mid-December, the CDC had found 12 patients, its report says: seven in Texas, four in Florida and one in Arizona. This week, CDC officials says they confirmed a 13th case of infection. Dorothy O’Connell, 90, of Brazoria, Texas, says she is among those patients, and details of her case match one investigated by the CDC. O’Connell received Liveyon injections for her arthritic back and neck on 12 September, according to her daughter, Elaine Dilley. Within days, “she started throwing up, and I had to call an ambulance”, Dilley says, adding that her mother’s pain was so intense, “you couldn’t touch her”. O’Connell was airlifted 50 miles north to a hospital in Houston. “Her kidneys were shutting down, and they were worried she was going to have a heart attack,” Dilley says. “The doctors didn’t think she was going to make it.” Despite her age, O’Connell had always been able to take care of herself, including mowing her own lawn, Dilley says. Now her mother has been left with damaged vision, hearing and balance, Dilley says, and has had to learn how to walk again. Seven months after his July injections, Lunceford, the patient from Athens, Texas, says he still experiences persistent stabbing pains and has been unable to return to work. He, O’Connell and three other Texas patients have filed lawsuits against Liveyon, alleging negligence. Liveyon has denied their claims and is fighting them in court. In addition to Lunceford and O’Connell, The Post reviewed the medical claims of five other people who says they were hospitalised after receiving Liveyon treatments. Among them is John Herzog, 63, an osteopathic physician in Falmouth, Maine, whose case was not among the 12 investigated by CDC. Herzog says he injected himself in May after some of his patients asked for cord-blood injections. Regional chiropractors were “making a killing” on the shots, he says. But before charging his patients “$1,800 a vial for something that wasn’t effective”, he says, he decided to try it himself on a painful knee. When Herzog expressed concerns about the product’s safety, a Liveyon sales person arranged a phone call with Gaveck, the company’s top medical expert. Gaveck assured Herzog the product was sterile, he says. Within minutes of the injection, however, Herzog says, his knee ballooned, and he couldn’t straighten his leg. The pain was excruciating. In the hospital, doctors found two types of bacteria, and Herzog says he was later diagnosed with a bone infection and a related blood clot. Once an enthusiastic biker and windsurfer, Herzog says he lost 30 pounds and now cannot walk up stairs without pain. Last week, Herzog filed a lawsuit alleging negligence against Liveyon, Genetech – and Gaveck. Asked to comment on the case, Gaveck says the phone call occurred before Liveyon had gotten the first reports of bacterial infections in patients. “I probably did have a conversation with him,” Gaveck says. “Sales reps refer folks to me all the time.” But, he says, “I don’t talk glowingly about anything. I talk about what I know and the science of it.” After years of minimal regulation of the stem cell industry, the FDA issued guidelines in 2017 making clear that many products are unapproved drugs being marketed illegally. The agency says it is giving many in the industry time to become compliant while targeting riskier treatments, such as injections into the eye and spinal cord, for enforcement. It has also gone to court to try to stop procedures at two clinics. So far, Liveyon has not received a warning letter from the FDA, even though federal regulations say distributors are responsible for their products’ safety. FDA officials declined to discuss the details of the Liveyon-Genetech case. In an interview, FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb says the agency “continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the product, how it became contaminated and how patients became injured and may take additional action”. Last month, Los Angeles health officials reported two patients had become seriously ill after being injected with a similar product sold by a different company. FDA officials says the agency lacks the resources to pursue a comprehensive crackdown on the sprawling stem cell industry. It is difficult to impose a “regulatory architecture after an industry has sort of grown up”, Gottlieb says. “There’s now a marketplace where arguably hundreds of millions of dollars are being made,” says Mark Schwartz, a former top official for the FDA’s Centre for Biologics Evaluation and Research. Manufacturers, clinics and distributors like Liveyon “have a vested interest in keeping this going and are not so easily scared off”. Kosolcharoen says the recent infections will not impede Liveyon’s success. He and Gaveck say the company recently set up its own laboratory, so it won’t have to rely on outside manufacturers. They are already aggressively marketing vials being produced by their new lab under the label “Liveyon Pure” and have increased their asking price by $200 a vial. Meanwhile, the company is planning a rapid expansion. Liveyon hired 10 new employees, Kosolcharoen says, and plans to hold 36 seminars in the coming year to teach chiropractors and pain doctors about its treatments. The company aims to be selling in 13 countries by year’s end. Liveyon also recently opened its own clinic in Cancun, Mexico, Kosolcharoen says, so that American patients can receive its treatments unfettered by FDA regulations. So far, he says, the clinic has injected hundreds of patients, including people with spinal cord injuries, people with Parkinson’s disease and many children with autism. “The future for Liveyon,” Kosolcharoen says, “is the brightest it’s ever been,” We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads. | William Wan, Laurie McGinley | https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/stem-cell-treatment-therapy-bacterial-infection-a8807351.html | 2019-03-11 11:37:53+00:00 | 1,552,318,673 | 1,567,546,704 | health | health treatment |
753,958 | theindependent--2019-04-02--Obesity treatment helps patients safely lose weight by reducing blood flow to the stomach trials sh | 2019-04-02T00:00:00 | theindependent | Obesity treatment helps patients safely lose weight by reducing blood flow to the stomach, trials show | A procedure which helps obese people to lose weight by reducing blood flow to the stomach could become a cheaper and less risky alternative to other surgeries, a clinical trial suggests. Researchers leading tests of the recently developed technique, known as bariatric embolisation, showed that over a year severely obese patients shed around 10 per cent of their body weight. They also reported having a reduced appetite, feeling full more quickly, and showed promising early signs that their cholesterol was going down. “This is a great step forward for this procedure establishing early feasibility, safety and early efficacy,” said Dr Clifford Weiss, lead author of the study from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The pioneering procedure works by using a tubular catheter to access the blood vessels and place microscopic beads which block off some of the arteries leading to the stomach. This reduces the blood flow enough to prevent the stomach releasing hunger-triggering hormones, but not enough to cause damage. Obesity is a growing public health crisis in developed countries like the US and UK. Britain is already the fattest nation in western Europe and this is driving rates of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancers. This places a significant burden on health systems, and while weight-loss surgeries are shown to be effective in reducing obesity, financial constraints mean the NHS has been reduced to rationing these as well. Embolisation is already used to shut off blood flow to a weak or damaged blood vessel – aneurysm repair – and a way to starve cancerous tumours of oxygen. While it is still in early stages in weight loss, bariatric embolisation instead of gastric bypass, where the small intestine is attached to a pouch at the top of the stomach, or gastric bands which pinch the stomach to make a person feel full quicker, with less risk of infection and complications. The 20 patients in the trial, which is published in the journal Radiology on Tuesday, lost 8.2 per cent of their excess weight in the first three months and had lost 11.5 per cent of their weight by the end of the trial. Crucially the participants all reported that their quality of life had improved as well. Larger trials with more patients will be needed to rule out the possibility that the weight loss is just a temporary placebo effect, but it looks at present like a future option to help combat obesity. “It is fulfilling to all of us to see something that started as an idea develop through about a decade of research and then go all the way to an initial clinical trial,” Dr Weiss said. “The reality is that obesity itself is an individualised disease that requires individualised treatments.” We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads. | Alex Matthews-King | https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/weight-loss-obesity-gastric-bypass-band-blood-flow-a8851126.html | 2019-04-02 15:40:00+00:00 | 1,554,234,000 | 1,567,544,310 | health | health treatment |
759,026 | theindependent--2019-05-03--Super-gonorrhoea cure could come from new treatment for drug-resistant STI | 2019-05-03T00:00:00 | theindependent | Super-gonorrhoea cure could come from new treatment for drug-resistant STI | A new combination of medication could treat a previously drug-resistant strain of gonorrhoea, according to scientists. There has been increasing concern that resistance to treatment could become widespread, but now researchers have found that an antibiotic known as gentamicin can be effective when taken alongside another drug. The latest treatment combines this antibiotic with azithromycin, which is usually prescribed in combination with a different drug called ceftriaxone. According to the results of a study which was published today in The Lancet medical journal, the new combination was found to be almost as effective in treating genital gonorrhoea, which is good news for doctors who are concerned that the existing treatment “is beginning to fail”. In January, Public Health England revealed that two women had been infected with super-gonorrhoea, which was resistant to the first-choice treatment. Other cases have also been reported. "Our current antibiotic treatment for gonorrhoea is beginning to fail and experience with previous drugs strongly suggests that this could become a widespread problem," said Professor Jonathan Ross, chief investigator from the University of Birmingham where the research was conducted. The trial took place at 14 sexual health clinics in England between October 2014 and November 2016, and 720 patients were given either the current antibiotic treatment of ceftriaxone or the new combination. A total of 98 per cent of those given the traditional combination were cured of gonorrhoea after two weeks, compared to 91 per cent of those treated with gentamicin. While the trial found that gentamicin combined with azithromycin works almost as well as for genital gonorrhoea, it did not clear throat or rectal gonorrhoea as effectively, and researchers said further work is needed to find alternative treatments, with antibiotic resistance a growing problem. Professor Hywel Williams, director of the NIHR's health technology assessment programme, said: "It's very worrying that cases of treatment-resistant gonorrhoea are now appearing across the globe. "This research provides important new evidence that suggests that gentamicin with azithromycin could become a second-line treatment for patients who are resistant to ceftriaxone with this infectious disease. Gonorrhoea is a sexually transmitted infection caused by bacteria called Neisseria gonorrhoeae, also called gonococcus, which is usually found in penis discharge and vaginal fluid. It does not usually lead to complications, but if left untreated can cause serious health issues including pelvic inflammatory disease among women. | Sirena Bergman | https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/super-gonorrhoea-sti-antibiotics-treatment-resistant-a8897806.html | 2019-05-03 10:21:00+00:00 | 1,556,893,260 | 1,567,541,270 | health | health treatment |
772,191 | theindependent--2019-09-28--Skin cancer Drug treatment increases patientsapos long-term survival chances by 50 per cent stud | 2019-09-28T00:00:00 | theindependent | Skin cancer: Drug treatment increases patients' long-term survival chances by 50 per cent, study claims | A combination of two powerful drugs for skin cancer can increase a patient’s long-term survival chances by 50 per cent, according to a study. Results from a new trial have shown that ipilimumab (Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo), taken together, can stop or reverse the progression of advanced melanoma for five years or more in one in two patients. Melanoma is a form of skin cancer, known for its mole-like appearance on the skin, that accounts for about 2,300 deaths in the UK every year. The most recent figures showed about 16,000 people were diagnosed with the disease in 2016. Both of the drugs, which were developed by pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb, help the immune system find and destroy cancer cells as they spread. Only one in 20 patients with advanced melanoma would survive for five years a decade ago, with many living for just six to nine months. Professor James Larkin, a consultant medical oncologist at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said: "In the past, metastatic melanoma was regarded as untreatable. This is the first time we can say that the chances of being a long-term survivor of advanced melanoma are now over 50 per cent, which is a huge milestone." Patients in the trial were divided into three groups and given either both nivolumab and ipilimumab or one of the drugs with a placebo. The five-year overall survival rate for the combination group was 52 per cent, with 74 per cent of those patients going treatment-free after five years. The overall survival for the nivolumab group was 44 per cent, while for the ipilimumab group, it was 26 per cent. Mr Larkin, who is also a professor at the Institute of Cancer Research, added: "By giving these drugs together you are effectively taking two brakes off the immune system rather than one so that the immune system is able to recognise tumours it wasn't previously recognising and react to that and destroy them." Researchers also found that patients who stopped treatment because of side-effects such as fatigue, skin rashes and diarrhoea saw outcomes that were just as good as those who were on the combination for longer. However, Mr Larkin warned that there is currently no method to predict which patients are most likely to benefit from combination immunotherapy. “The decision on which treatments to give is a matter for doctors to discuss with individual patients and their families,” he said. "The two drugs together definitely have a role in treating metastatic melanoma and will be the choice for some patients. For others, the decision may be to give the drugs in sequence.” The findings from the trial, which was led by the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, will be presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Barcelona, Spain, and published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The treatment is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and is available in this combined way on the NHS, following assessments by doctors. | Conrad Duncan | https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/skin-cancer-survival-chances-melanoma-drug-treatment-research-a9124206.html | 2019-09-28 10:54:59+00:00 | 1,569,682,499 | 1,570,222,011 | health | health treatment |
785,469 | theirishtimes--2019-03-21--Israeli cancer treatment could be something special | 2019-03-21T00:00:00 | theirishtimes | Israeli cancer treatment could be something special | As we all know, cancer is a great scourge. The Irish Cancer Society website tells us that one person dies from cancer every hour in Ireland and cancer accounts for almost one-third of all annual Irish deaths. Internationally, cancer is the second leading cause of death, second only to cardiovascular disease. Intensive research efforts have been under way worldwide since the 1970s to discover cures for the various forms of cancer. Progress has been very slow, but now Israeli researchers have announced a cure for all kinds of cancer and predict that this cure will enter clinical trials within a year (The Jerusalem Post, January 28th). This claim has been greeted with widespread scepticism internationally. The new research is the work of a company called Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies Ltd (AEB), based in Ness Ziona, Israel. The Jerasulem Post article reported information provided by AEB’s chairman Dan Aridor and chief executive Ilan Morad. They call the cancer treatment a multi-target toxin (MuTaTo), describing it as a cancer disruption technology of the highest order – on the scale of a cancer antibiotic. Aridor promised: “Our cancer cure will be effective from day one, will last a duration of a few weeks and will have no or minimal side-effects.” AEB has conducted successful experiments on mice, completed several in-vitro trials and say they are close to starting clinical trials to be completed within a few years when the treatment will be made widely available. AEB claims they have not published their results so far in a scientific journal because they are generating final patents on their intellectual property. International experts have mostly reacted negatively to the Israeli claim, pointing out that the limited tests carried out so far have been on mice, that it is quite difficult to translate success in mice into a successful human treatment, that no results have been published in peer-reviewed scientific literature and that, even if everything goes well, it will take many more years than the Israeli scientists predict before this new cure is through clinical trials and available to the general public. Morad explained the AEB approach. Firstly, AEB set out to identify why most anti-cancer drugs either don’t work, or eventually fail, and then devised a way to get around these deficiencies. Most anti-cancer drugs attack specific targets in or on the cancer cell, thereby affecting a physiological pathway that promotes the cancer. But mutations in the cancer cell often render the target irrelevant to the cancerous nature of the cell, rendering the attacking drug ineffective. AEB devised their new MuTaTo approach using peptides to attack the cancer cells. Proteins are polymers of units called amino acids joined together through peptide bonds in a long chain. Peptides are relatively short chains of amino acids (2 to 20) and they can be very effective at targeting cancer cells. MuTaTo uses a combination of several peptides that simultaneously target the cancer cell, combined with a strong peptide toxin that specifically kills cancer cells. AEB claims their MuTaTo approach, attacking each cancer cell with several cancer-targeting peptides combined with a strong peptide toxin to kill cancer cells, ensures the treatment will not be affected by mutations because it kills all the cancer cells before mutations can mount an escape from the drug treatment. When attacked by drugs, cancer cells also activate detoxification mechanisms that can either expel the drugs from the cancer cells or chemically inactivate them. But detoxification takes time and AEB claims that the new MuTaTo approach will kill the cancer cells before they can successfully deploy the detoxification defence. Most current cancer treatments have sickening side effects mainly because the conventional drugs interact with the wrong targets or with additional targets on the cancer cells and on non-cancer cells. The MuTaTo approach is highly and specifically targeted at the cancer cells only and this should dramatically decrease side effects. AEB also promises that, when the MuTaTo technique is fully developed, it will be possible to personalise individual treatments to match the exact cancer type expressed in the patient. Despite the widespread international scepticism that greeted AEB’s announcement, I have a feeling that AEB is on to something special. Let us hope they are. William Reville is an emeritus professor of biochemistry at UCC | null | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/israeli-cancer-treatment-could-be-something-special-1.3824134 | 2019-03-21 04:00:00+00:00 | 1,553,155,200 | 1,567,545,381 | health | health treatment |
790,131 | theirishtimes--2019-11-07--Record numbers seek treatment for cocaine use | 2019-11-07T00:00:00 | theirishtimes | Record numbers seek treatment for cocaine use | Record numbers of people in the State are seeking treatment for cocaine use, with an unprecedented 50 per cent surge in new cases last year. Demand for treatment from users of all other drugs combined, including cannabis and heroin, increased by only eight per cent during the same period. The sharp spike in the number of cocaine users presenting for treatment is being linked to rising consumption of the drug due to the economic recovery. Chief executive of the Health Research Board (HRB), Dr Darrin Morrissey, said the rapidly rising number of cocaine users now seeking treatment “dominates” Ireland’s latest drug trends. “It represents the majority of the increase in all treatment cases,” Dr Morrissey said of the cocaine treatment cases. “HRB figures show a consistent rise in treatment for cocaine since 2013, with the biggest increases in 2017 and 2018, and highlight a changing pattern of drug use during the recent economic recovery.” The worsening national cocaine problem has emerged in data for last year from the HRB’s national drug treatment-reporting system which was due for release on Thursday. The report found 10,274 drug treatment cases last year, up 15 per cent on 2017. Heroin accounted for 4,349 of the cases, cannabis 2,358, and cocaine 2,254. The report said between 2012 and last year the total number of all drug treatment cases had increased by 28 per cent with cocaine users accounting for the vast majority of that increase. Some 3,962 of last year’s drug treatment cases involved people new to the drug treatment system, the report found, made up of 1,505 for cannabis, 1,232 for cocaine and 719 for opiates. “Last year was the first time the number of first-time treatment cases for cocaine was higher than for heroin,” it said. The majority, 65 per cent, of cases were treated at out-patient facilities, prisoners accounted for 10 per cent, in-patient facilities 14 per cent, and GPs two per cent. Cocaine accounted for nine per cent of new drug treatment cases in 2012, rising to 31 per cent of new treatment cases last year. While the cocaine problem was worsening there were some signs that problem heroin and cannabis use was more stable or decreasing. Opioids, or heroin, were the main problem drug in treatment cases between 2012 and 2018. It accounted for 42 per cent of all treatment cases in 2018, down from 52 per cent in 2012. Similarly, cannabis accounted for almost 29 per cent of treatment cases in 2012, falling to 23 per cent last year. The new figures come just weeks after Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said he believed the improving economy was impacting crime rates. He said rising disposable incomes had resulted in increased consumption of drugs and alcohol. This, he said, was in turn leading to more public disorder and assaults. The latest crime data also reveals an increase in drug crime; up nine per cent last year followed by a 20 per cent increase in the first six months of this year. | null | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/record-numbers-seek-treatment-for-cocaine-use-1.4074763 | Thu, 7 Nov 2019 02:17:05 +0000 | 1,573,111,025 | 1,573,133,208 | health | health treatment |
936,905 | thesun--2019-02-11--Boy 9 receives life-saving cancer treatment after umbilical cord stem cell transplant | 2019-02-11T00:00:00 | thesun | Boy, 9, receives life-saving cancer treatment after umbilical cord stem cell transplant | A BOY of nine is cancer free after a revolutionary transplant using umbilical cord stem cells. Medics said the op was Jenson Wright’s only hope when leukaemia returned a second time. The cells, which had been stored frozen in Texas, began to kill the disease within five days. Two years on, and Jenson is now fully recovered. The brave youngster was first diagnosed with lymphoma and leukaemia in November 2013 when he was just four-years-old. Thrilled mum Carolyn, 46, of Penketh, Cheshire, said: "The early stages of the treatment were quite hard to comprehend, and quite difficult for us emotionally. "Without the transplant we would be in a completely different situation - that saved him. “We’ll never know who the donor was, but their donation has given life to someone else.” Jenson, Carolyn, dad Steve and 18-year-old older brother Lewis had a family meal to celebrate receiving the news that the youngsters is now free from cancer. | Laura Garcia del Valle | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8399604/boy-cancer-umbilical-cell-transplant/ | 2019-02-11 02:22:09+00:00 | 1,549,869,729 | 1,567,548,920 | health | health treatment |
964,704 | thesun--2019-06-02--Search and destroy radioactive treatment could extend lives of patients with incurable prostate ca | 2019-06-02T00:00:00 | thesun | ‘Search and destroy’ radioactive treatment could extend lives of patients with incurable prostate cancer | A “SEARCH and destroy” radioactive treatment could extend the lives of patients with incurable prostate cancer. Early results show men with no other options could get more than two years’ extra life. Medics described the tumour-targeting approach as “the next big thing” for the disease. Two men with advanced prostate cancer last week became the first to get it in Britain. It costs £12,000 a session privately, but experts say it could soon be available on the NHS. Given as a drip, it lets medics deliver a “radioactive payload” directly to tumours without damaging surrounding tissue. Hans Schaupp, 77, from Hants, received the treatment in a four-hour visit to a clinic last week. He said: “Rather than poisoning your whole body with chemotherapy it goes straight to the tumours. I feel perfect. No side effects.” Average life expectancy for men with the advanced disease is nine months. But one in five in a trial with 50 patients got an extra 24 months. Dr Arun Azad of Melbourne’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre is running a trial involving 200 participants. He said at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago: “If the results are positive it really will change the landscape.” Around 47,000 men a year are diagnosed in the UK, and experts say 5,000 may benefit. | Sun Internet 2 | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9206751/prostate-cancer-search-destroy-treatment/ | 2019-06-02 21:31:24+00:00 | 1,559,525,484 | 1,567,539,354 | health | health treatment |
981,244 | thesun--2019-09-29--New treatment could help thousands of women beat one of the deadliest forms of breast cancer | 2019-09-29T00:00:00 | thesun | New treatment could help thousands of women beat one of the deadliest forms of breast cancer | THOUSANDS more women could beat one of the deadliest forms of breast cancer thanks to a new treatment. Scientists found that a particular drug combined with chemo “turbocharges” patients’ immune systems. This means people with “triple negative” tumours are more likely to see them disappear before they have surgery — boosting their chances of the disease never coming back. And the treatment could be available on the NHS in the next two to three years. Researcher Peter Schmid, from Queen Mary University of London, said: “The potential of this is massive — this approach could save thousands of lives.” Presenting the data in Barcelona to the European Society for Medical Oncology, the professor said 1,200 women took part in the study. Two-thirds were given the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab with chemotherapy while the rest had chemo only. A NEW ultrasound technology could pick up far more cases of cancer and cut the need for biopsies. At present, ultrasounds can help identify potential problems with key organs but are not sensitive enough to detect cancer. Scientists in Edinburgh say they can produce images with five to ten times the resolution of traditional methods. The process works by injecting tiny bubbles into the bloodstream and scanning organs. For the first group, the chance of their cancer disappearing — known as a pathological complete response — before surgery was 65 per cent. For those given just chemo it was 51 per cent — a difference of 27 per cent. Breast cancer affects around 55,000 Brits a year. The triple negative form accounts for one in six cases and kills a quarter of patients within five years. It is more common in those under 40. Prof Charles Swanton, of Cancer Research, called the new treatment “a promising option”. | Jaimee Taylor | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10030790/new-treatment-beat-breast-cancer/ | 2019-09-29 21:05:11+00:00 | 1,569,805,511 | 1,570,221,960 | health | health treatment |
1,008,593 | thetelegraph--2019-06-19--NHS plans for faster treatment of stroke will save thousands of lives | 2019-06-19T00:00:00 | thetelegraph | NHS plans for faster treatment of stroke 'will save thousands of lives' | Small hospitals must stop treating stroke emergencies in order to save thousands of lives, England's top doctor will today say. The national medical director will say NHS trusts across the country must centralise services, so that victims get the right help sooner. Professor Stephen Powis will say hospitals should follow a controversial model pioneered in London and Manchester, which is now saving around 170 lives a year. In both cities, local stroke wards were closed, with ambulances instead taking victims not to nearest hospital, but to larger centres with access to brain scans, clot-busting drugs and specialist procedures. As a result, the numbers dying or suffering long-term disability have fallen significantly. Now health chiefs want to introduce the same changes across towns and cities in England, in the hope of saving more than 800 lives a year. Professor Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said rolling out expert stroke teams will ensure thousands more people “survive and thrive”. Speaking at the NHS Confederation conference in Manchester, he will say: “Introducing quicker access to better treatment for stroke in London and here in Manchester has saved hundreds of lives and we now want to see them rolled out across the whole of the country. “As clinicians and as leaders we have a responsibility to drive this forward and to make the case for change, because we know that the prize is so great: thousands more people surviving and thriving after stroke.” | Laura Donnelly | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/19/nhs-plans-faster-treatment-stroke-will-save-thousands-lives/ | 2019-06-19 23:01:00+00:00 | 1,560,999,660 | 1,567,538,719 | health | health treatment |
1,092,642 | vox--2019-12-30--1,000 people sent me their addiction treatment stories. Here’s what I learned. | 2019-12-30T00:00:00 | vox | 1,000 people sent me their addiction treatment stories. Here’s what I learned. | Since September, I’ve asked Vox’s readers to tell me their stories about drug addiction treatment for our Rehab Racket project. In less than four months, we’ve gotten a lot of responses — now more than 1,000. The responses range from tragic stories about overdoses and early deaths to more optimistic ones about recovery. They’ve come from all over the US, including every state and Washington, DC, and Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, South Africa, and Australia. Most of the stories come from addiction patients, although parents, spouses, siblings, and other relatives and friends of patients have sent in their stories as well. From all of these experiences, one theme emerges: Addiction treatment in the US is expensive, hard to navigate, and far too often fails people. In the middle of an opioid epidemic that’s helped lead to more than 700,000 drug overdose deaths since 1999, America’s main defense against addiction is deeply flawed. The stories we’ve published so far speak to these problems. Kim and Tim Blake spent more than $110,000 on treatment for their oldest son, yet much of the treatment was unhelpful and he died anyway. Michel Cote’s daughters went through $200,000 worth of treatment over a decade before they finally found something that worked for them. Nan Warren faces financial ruin after she lost her oldest son to addiction and has spent years trying to avoid the same fate for her surviving daughter. Health insurance alone is not enough to protect patients from high costs and low quality. Maureen O’Reilly lost her son to addiction after their health insurance plan wouldn’t cover addiction care near home and he was sent to shoddy treatment facilities — some of which were later shut down — in Florida. Most recently, Ian McLoone told me about how methadone helped him overcome opioid addiction — an example of how treatment can work if it’s evidence-based and supported, but also about the barriers McLoone faced due to the stigma and strict regulations around medications like methadone. This is just the beginning. The Rehab Racket will last at least a year, possibly longer, and we’re less than four months in. With the end of the year approaching, though, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what I’ve learned to this point. Here are four lessons from the project so far — and where I plan on going next. Just about everyone I spoke to reported at least some problems with getting addiction care covered — because they didn’t have insurance or because their insurer refused to cover the care they needed. This is a big problem nationwide: Based on the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, federal researchers estimated that roughly 314,000 people in the US in 2018 needed drug addiction treatment but couldn’t get it because they didn’t have health coverage and couldn’t afford the costs. About 100,000 couldn’t get it because, while they had health coverage, it didn’t cover treatment at all or it didn’t cover the full cost. (There’s some overlap between the groups because participants were able to select multiple responses.) A recent report by Milliman, a consulting company, found commercial insurance coverage of addiction treatment may be getting worse, at least relative to more conventional health care. It found that inpatient drug addiction treatment facilities were 10.1 times more likely to be out-of-network compared to medical or surgical inpatient facilities in 2018, up from 4.7 times more likely in 2013. There were similar and rising disparities for outpatient facilities too — making drug addiction treatment overall more expensive and harder to access. Maureen O’Reilly experienced some of these problems firsthand. Her son, Ed Fahy, tried to get into addiction treatment facilities near home in New Jersey. But Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the family’s insurance plan administrator, refused to cover the programs. Fahy ultimately found addiction treatments that the health plan would cover in Florida, but there he got caught in the “Florida shuffle,” a quagmire of low-quality, weakly regulated addiction treatment centers and sober homes. He overdosed and died at a sober home that was later shut down by law enforcement. The story reflects the problems with insurance coverage: Insurers often don’t want to pay for addiction treatment that can be fairly expensive, and they also don’t know what’s good care that’s worth covering. O’Reilly is now suing Horizon and its behavioral benefits manager, Beacon Health Options. Horizon said in a statement that “the claims being made in [O’Reilly’s] lawsuit are untrue, unfounded, and unfair.” Beacon declined to comment. O’Reilly is not alone. While reporting her story, I spoke to other family members of addiction patients who sued insurers. Some of these families have landed big public victories: In Wit v. United Behavioral Health, a federal court found United had illegally denied mental health and addiction treatment coverage to tens of thousands of patients. The ruling will likely be appealed, but if it succeeds, it could set a precedent for the industry. Insurers, at least, seem to be aware of a problem. Many of them, including Horizon, Beacon, and United, have teamed up with the advocacy organization Shatterproof to develop better standards for addiction care. All of this helps explain why US drug addiction treatment can be so expensive: Insurance is the system that’s meant to shield Americans from huge health care expenses, but it’s often not doing that for addiction care. 2) We know disturbingly little about addiction treatment in America While reporting on addiction treatment in the US and asking experts about the evidence for addiction care, there has been one answer I’ve gotten used to hearing a lot: “I don’t know.” It was a common response when I asked if certain addiction treatments worked. Many facilities, for example, now use equine therapy, in which patients connect with horses. But we have next to no research on whether this works. The same is true for wilderness therapy that emphasizes outdoors activities, which also has little reliable scientific evidence behind it. It’s not that these methods are proven to not work. We just don’t know if they work. This is a very strange thing to occur in what’s supposed to be health care: Normally, treatments follow evidence. Patients usually don’t want doctors trying a bunch of stuff on them and hoping something works out. But the lack of evidence for effectiveness is largely standard in addiction treatment. The vast majority of treatment facilities don’t even track real outcomes for what they do. Some of these facilities claim to do so, but they usually only use follow-up surveys that are riddled with bias and errors; for example, a patient can claim he hasn’t used drugs, and the survey taker will make no effort to actually verify that. This is not just a failure of the industry, but of the law and regulators as well. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “has over 4,000 quality measures,” Tami Mark, a health economist at the research foundation RTI International, previously told me. “There are none for addiction programs — zero.” At the same time, we have little indication about what kind of financial impact addiction treatment is having on American families. There’s just not much research on it. Mark, along with the advocacy group Shatterproof, is now undertaking an effort to fix that by creating a sort of “Yelp for rehab” that will try to guide patients to evidence-based care with the use of provider surveys, insurance claims, and user evaluations, starting next year in at least some states. For now, though, patients are largely left in the dark about whether a treatment facility really is following the evidence. 3) We don’t make good use of what we do know about addiction treatment There are, however, some things we know about addiction treatment. The problem is we don’t make good use of this information. For example, the research shows that medications for opioid addiction — methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone — are very effective: Studies show they cut the mortality rate among opioid addiction patients by half or more and keep people in treatment better than non-medication approaches. Yet in the US, the majority of addiction treatment facilities don’t offer any medications. According to federal data, only 42 percent of the nearly 15,000 facilities tracked by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) provide any type of medication for opioid addiction. Less than 3 percent offer all three federally approved medications. In fact, treatment centers may even discourage the use of medications due to the mistaken belief that the medications are simply replacing one drug with another. Ian McLoone said one of the rehabs that he went to, RS Eden in Minnesota, pushed him to get off methadone. It was only thanks to an intervention from his mom that McLoone agreed to stay on it. That “was by far the best decision I could have made,” McLoone said. “Then, I was able to finish rehab, get a job shoveling asphalt that summer, working my ass off. I got into grad school. I got through grad school. And I was able to really have the life and the family and the career that I had dreamed of. Methadone absolutely facilitated that and helped to make that possible.” The hurdles to evidence-based treatment reflect not just the industry’s decisions but public policy choices too. Needle exchanges have decades of evidence behind them and support from the American Medical Association, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and World Health Organization, but they remain illegal in much of the US. Prescription heroin, in which people with treatment-resistant addiction are provided heroin, is supported by major studies — including an extensive review of the research by the RAND Corporation — but it’s received next to zero attention from US policymakers. The point here is straightforward: If we don’t even use what we know works, then we’re not going to get very far in addressing the opioid crisis or addiction in general. When writing about anything addiction-related, there’s an explanation I can expect for just about any problem: stigma. Indeed, it’s the thing that ties the lessons on this list together. This has stuck with me ever since I went to Vermont in 2017 to see how the state built up its addiction treatment system. When I asked officials about the hurdles to building up the new system of care, I expected to hear a lot about money (a common problem in policymaking). But officials told me, in fact, that money wasn’t that big of a deal. Instead, the main barrier was stigma around addiction, fueled by the notions that addiction is a moral issue — not a health issue — and people with addiction don’t deserve public resources. Once that stigma was overcome, the money came easily. As I’ve written before, this is the core problem with how the US approaches drug addiction in general. It’s the lasting impact of the country long treating addiction as a moral failure — one that was relegated largely to the criminal justice system to handle — instead of a medical condition that warrants public health resources. I’ve heard the same, time and time again, with the Rehab Racket project. Why don’t we know much about addiction treatment facilities and their outcomes? How can addiction treatment remain so expensive and so ineffective for many? Why don’t we use the evidence we do have for treatment? Why don’t insurers adequately cover addiction treatment? There is one common answer: Stigma leads to a skewed perception of addiction, or apathy about it, so the public, policymakers, and other actors don’t do enough to change the status quo. “We’ve had these problems for a very long time,” Keith Humphreys, a drug policy expert at Stanford, told me. “I’ve heard politicians making speeches about, you know, outrage that people with heart disease are waiting in the [UK’s National Health Service] or the quality of cancer care or the dirty conditions at Walter Reed. I have never heard a politician say, ‘I am outraged at the quality of alcoholism care in our community. This is not acceptable.’ Never. I mean, it’s almost unthinkable.” That’s how these problems keep going: Until enough people overcome their stigma toward addiction, they’re not going to give the problem the attention it requires to solve. One bit of good news is that a lot of people are ready to combat this stigma. The fact Vox has received more than 1,000 responses to its survey, with most including their full names and personal information, demonstrates as much. The Rehab Racket project will last well into 2020, and the responses my editors and I have gotten to our survey have given us several leads and ideas we want to continue exploring. One story I’ll tackle soon is the dominance of the 12 steps. This treatment approach, built around the teachings of Alcoholics Anonymous, is helpful to some, and it has solid empirical approach when it comes to alcohol addiction. But there’s not solid evidence for it when it comes to other kinds of drugs, and some people don’t like the approach at all — yet it’s often what’s foisted on patients in American addiction treatment. Emilie and Danika Cote, for instance, previously told me that they didn’t like the 12 steps’ emphasis on submitting to a “higher power.” As Emilie, who’s “not religious at all,” said, “I had a really hard time with the whole God thing.” Danika agreed. But it took roughly a decade for them to finally find a treatment clinic that didn’t drive them to the 12-step approach and that they otherwise liked. I’ve heard similar things from dozens, if not hundreds, of other patients. Why is that? And what can be done about it? Another is the financial problems surrounding methadone treatment. Methadone is one of the most well-studied treatments for opioid addiction, with strong evidence behind it. But I’ve now heard from multiple patients that insurance doesn’t cover it, or methadone clinics will refuse insurance — leading to costs that can be as high as $600 a month. Given that some patients can take methadone indefinitely, the cost can add up very quickly. I want to figure out why that is, especially given that, as journalist Alison Knopf has written, methadone itself can be less than $1 a dose. Finally, I’d like to zoom in on some of the more specific issues in addiction treatment. That will involve shining a light on bad actors in addiction treatment and holding them accountable, but also digging into the examples of addiction treatments that do work and what they involve. One of the outrageous things about the failures I’ve uncovered so far is that we know that drug addiction treatment can work when it’s evidence-based, accessible, affordable, and flexible. This makes all of the problems in the field even more inexcusable. Hopefully, by putting a spotlight on the places that are getting things right, we can help set an example that the rest of the industry and policymakers can follow. We want to hear from you We’re shining a light on the problems with the addiction treatment system in America and how they’re affecting people, financially and otherwise, every day. Please help our reporting on the high cost of addiction rehab by sharing your story with us. You can also sign up for our email newsletter to get updates on the project. If you or someone you know needs addiction treatment, you can seek help online at FindTreatment.gov or by phone at 1-800-662-4357. If you need more information, Vox put together a guide for how to find good addiction treatment. | German Lopez | https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/30/21004923/drug-rehab-racket-addiction-treatment-survey-2019-review | 2019-12-30T07:00:00-05:00 | 1,577,707,200 | 1,577,708,238 | health | health treatment |
1,113,375 | yna--2019-11-01--Researchers develop method that can find treatment for multidrug-resistant TB | 2019-11-01T00:00:00 | yna | Researchers develop method that can find treatment for multidrug-resistant TB | It said in the past two years over 3,700 compounds that could be used against TB were tested on artificially infected macrophages, with six candidate materials being shortlisted. Of these, one substance, called 10-DEBC, showed considerable effectiveness in combating TB while not being toxic to the white cell itself or the body as a whole. | null | http://yna.kr/AEN20191031009500320§ion=news&input=rss | 20191101000006 | 1,572,580,806 | 1,572,565,204 | health | health treatment |
62,063 | birminghammail--2019-05-15--How alpaca therapy is being used to help a string of conditions - with amazing results | 2019-05-15T00:00:00 | birminghammail | How alpaca therapy is being used to help a string of conditions - with amazing results | Victoria Barrett is used to the odd raised eyebrow when she introduces her co-therapists at the counselling service she runs. She uses alpacas - south American animals often confused with llamas - to help people of all ages come to terms with trauma, mental health issues, and to boost confidence and self-esteem. And while it is far from conventional, the unusual treatment can be remarkably effective. Victoria says: “Working alongside the animals offers a different way of exploring difficult and sensitive issues as clients may find it easier to express their feelings and recount painful experiences. “It is well documented that holding and stroking animals can reduce blood pressure, lower pulse rates and alleviate feelings of tension and anxiety. “The animals offer attention and unconditional acceptance. They are responsive and don’t mind who you are or what you look like. So they are ideal for working with people who find themselves confused or threatened by human relations, many clients feel safer and less threatened around animals. A child I work with who is in foster care struggles with empathy and social cues. But being with the alpacas has changed everything.” Victoria, 55, came up with the idea for alpaca therapy after working as a paramedic for more than 30 years. Alongside her frontline role with the West Midlands Ambulance Service, she was also a trained counsellor, helping people battling depression and mental health problems for almost twenty years. She relaxed by caring for alpacas and llamas at her farm in Worcester. So when she decided to leave the ambulance service, she realised she could combine her experience and skills with her hobby to help other people. After some research it became clear she was in the perfect position to offer therapy using her alpacas and llamas. The alpaca is a species of South American camelid similar to, and often confused with, the llama. However, alpacas are often noticeably smaller than llamas. Victoria retrained and now offers a Camelid Assisted Therapy programme. It uses the animals as “co-therapists” alongside a human therapist in a structured treatment plan. Clients come from all walks of life including children in the care system. They come to nurture and care for the animals, which in turn builds self-esteem, confidence and morale while reducing anxiety and depression. Meeting the animals it is clear just what makes them so special. With their large baleful eyes, and soft fluffy fur, the alpacas are incredibly endearing. They are also intelligent. The llamas are much bigger but also captivating. It is obvious why it might be easier to open up in their company. For youngsters with behavioural issues, just being around the animals and learning to feed or groom them induces calm. “I have a group of autistic children who come and the alpacas won’t respond if the child scares them so they quickly learnt to adjust their behavior.” Victoria adds: “The alpacas can encourage our nurturing and empathic traits and, for survivors of abuse, offer an opportunity for ‘safe touch’.” Just one person whose life has been transformed is Daisy, 33, who suffers from multiple personality disorder following years of neglect and abuse as a child. Daisy remembers her first encounter with one of the animals. “I remember looking up and seeing this huge llama. I thought I would feel scared but I actually felt calm. He nuzzled me and it made me smile. I had not smiled in a very long time. Meeting Eddie gave me my smile back. We have such a special bond and I love him. “Four years ago I was having a very traumatic time. I also had become a double amputee due to complications from diabetes and the neglect. Victoria is an amazing woman and being around the llamas and alpacas is the only thing that has really helped my mental health. I can’t express how uplifting they are.” For more Stories of Local Pride, click here | TSB Community Newsdesk | https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/special-features/how-alpaca-llama-helping-people-16152093 | 2019-05-15 09:00:00+00:00 | 1,557,925,200 | 1,567,540,548 | health | health treatment |
163,231 | eveningstandard--2019-02-06--CBT What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and how can it help anxiety depression and pain | 2019-02-06T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | CBT: What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and how can it help anxiety, depression and pain? | With society's increasing awareness surrounding mental health, more and more of us are turning to therapy for problems such as depression and anxiety. Over 900,000 people now receive psychological therapy each year through the The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT), a government scheme rolled out in 2008 intended to improve accessibility to mental health services. In 2013-14, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) became the most popular form of therapy in the IAPT programme, accounting for 38 per cent of total appointments. But why is CBT in such high demand? According to Doctor Elena Touroni, Psychologist and Clinic Director of Chelsea Psychology Clinic, it’s down to two reasons: So, is it worth exploring? We interviewed Dr Touroni to find out. CBT therapies are based on the theory that thoughts, feelings, what we do and how our body feels are all connected. If we change one of these things, we can alter the others. Dr Touroni elaborates: “At the heart of psychological distress lie negative beliefs that we have about ourselves, the world and other people. These are often distorted and cause us suffering. “CBT tries to help us understand how these beliefs have developed and challenge our moment by moment negative thoughts in order to live a fuller and more meaningful life.” According to Dr Touroni, CBT is effective in the treatment of many conditions including: "However, it’s an excellent therapy for people who like practical coping strategies and a problem solving approach. It’s very effective at reducing symptoms. “CBT is a great place to start with if this is your first time receiving psychological therapy.” Dr Touroni recommends CBT to “people with mild to moderate difficulties.” “The more complex and severe someone’s difficulties and the more attempts someone has previously had at having therapy without finding it particularly effective, the less likely it is that CBT will help.” "Mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT) can be used to treat physical and chronic pain," says Dr Touroni. “CBT can offer a range of tips on sleep hygiene routines that can assist getting a good night’s sleep and breaking unhelpful habits,” she adds. Although some therapists might offer CBT to couples, Dr Touroni believes that “CBT isn’t the most effective model when working with relationship difficulties.” “CBT can offer couples some practical strategies to manage their relationship more effectively, however schema therapy is a more sophisticated approach that is far more effective in shifting entrenched relational dynamics.” According to Dr Touroni, you should be looking for a psychologist first and foremost. “Psychologists have a minimum of seven years of training across multiple therapy models with CBT being a key one. “CBT therapists can often become accredited within two years and only deliver CBT, therefore they cannot adapt the approach to fit the needs of an individual as flexibly.” “A qualified psychologist will be registered with the Health Professions Council,” explains Dr Touroni. “In an ideal world, you could look for a qualified psychologist who is also an accredited CBT therapist. “So, look out for the letters BABCP as well. This is the accrediting body for cognitive behavioural therapists.” “The NHS offers CBT in some GP practices in primary care and also through a big initiative called Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) which has made CBT widely available for people with a range of emotional difficulties.” “It is very hard to say as a general rule how many you might need as this varies depending on the nature and severity of patient’s mental health. Dr Touroni suggests: “Practice monitoring your thoughts when faced with a situation that provokes strong feelings in you.” Here are her top CBT tools: Keeping a simple record of situations that trigger difficult emotions and breaking down what the thoughts and feelings are can be a very powerful technique that can help us develop self-observation. Noticing all the ways that our mind might engage in cognitive errors and distortions can help put a triggering situation into a more helpful, realistic perspective. Finding alternative ways of thinking about the situation that open up a range of possibilities can be very effective in reducing negative feelings. Relaxing one muscle group at a time until your body is in a state of relaxation. Sometimes it is helpful to do this with the aid of a relaxation tape that can guide you through such an exercise. Dr Elena Touroni is the Clinic Director of Chelsea Psychology Clinic, a private psychiatry and psychology clinic in London. She is also a co-founder of My Online Therapy in the UK, which aims to make high quality therapy available in the form of a virtual clinic. | Georgia Chambers, Alice Budd | https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/health/cbt-cognitive-behaviour-therapy-mental-health-a3954771.html | 2019-02-06 12:39:00+00:00 | 1,549,474,740 | 1,567,549,423 | health | health treatment |
189,333 | eveningstandard--2019-11-14--The most expensive therapy retreats in the world | 2019-11-14T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | The most expensive therapy retreats in the world | You’re met at the door to your private jet by a tall, impeccably dressed Swiss man who whisks you through security and into a blacked-out Bentley. After a short drive, you arrive at a residence beside Lake Zurich, where your room comes complete with suede beds flanked by abstract expressionist paintings. There’s an Apple TV, Bose speakers and a well-stocked kitchen ready to be used by your personal chef. A maid, butler and secretary will also be on call throughout your stay. There will be no other guests while you’re here and, if you want, no one ever has to know you’ve been. Luxury getaway for the super-rich? Not quite. Welcome to Paracelsus Recovery, the £62,500-a-week Swiss therapy centre designed to cure the world’s wealthiest of everything from eating disorders to addictions and OCD in an ultra-exclusive and discreet setting. Once guests have settled in, they are driven to a top-of-the-range Swiss clinic for a comprehensive three-hour physical exam, that involves being hooked up to a Bicom machine for biochemical testing, a vitamin C drip and a full psychiatric assessment. Forget group therapy; here, a team of psychologists, nurses and addiction specialists tend to just a single patient at a time for 10 hours a day (one of them is available 24 hours a day, and sleeps next door to the client). Total privacy is the clinic’s USP, though actors, supermodels and members of the world’s royal families are said to have been treated here. On average, they stay for four weeks, at a cost of £230,000. ‘There’s not a typical client, but what they all have in common is that they are looking for the very, very best treatment available and require 100 per cent confidentiality,’ says managing director and co-founder Jan Gerber. ‘It’s a 360-degree approach with seven-star service, which is what our clients are used to. The luxury we have is not about spoiling someone. It’s just their reality.’ Paracelsus, which also offers acupuncturists, yoga, a personal trainer and a nutritionist, is far from the only therapy centre boasting radical treatment programmes for the radically rich. Indeed, more and more centres are being opened to cater for the upper echelons in search of a private place to detox or reset (there’s a reason Succession’s Kendall Roy heads to a discreet clinic in Iceland to ‘decompress’). Starting at £72,000 a week, real-life Roys can check in to The Kusnacht Practice, also on Lake Zurich, which calls itself the ‘best luxury mental health treatment centre in the world’. It’s also one of the most exclusive — only 30 people gain entry each year. George Michael was said to be one of them, spending £2 million over six months in 2015 to treat addiction and depression. Other high-flyers said to have passed through its luxury villas (complete with views over the Alps) include royals and heads of state, who come for the team of 18 world-class psychiatrists who treat everything from burnout to depression and co-dependency issues. Their methods include transcranial magnetic stimulation, in which electromagnetic pulses are delivered to the brain to treat low moods. Full-spectrum blood tests, electrocardiograms, renal, coronary and circulatory examinations and GI tests, as well as detoxes, are also available. There’s also the similarly exclusive Clinic Les Alpes, a £25,000-per-week centre housed in an old Swiss Alpine chateau, where treatment includes art and music therapy, adventure therapy, clinical psychology and sleep hygiene (a spa, high-end restaurant and ‘serenity space’ are also part of the package). Beyond Switzerland, the Sonoran Desert is also fast becoming a byword among billionaires who want to get help. The Meadows in Wickenburg, Arizona, is set on a 35-acre former dude ranch, and has become famous for its ‘Gentle Path’ sex addiction treatment programme (Tiger Woods, Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein have all reportedly checked in), as well as treating anxiety and depression. Clients are given colour-coded name badges depending on the issue they’re here to address (sex addiction is red), but the therapeutic timetable is similar for all, including carrying around rocks to symbolise the burden you’ve been holding on to for decades, hugging horses during ‘equine therapy’ and taking a walk through a ‘serenity circle’. The 45-day treatment programme costs £42,000, but the aesthetic at The Meadows is deliberately spartan, with shared bedrooms and bathrooms. Alcohol and narcotics are banned, as are caffeine and sugar. Tight or revealing clothing is also not permitted. ‘The first night I was there, I was stuck in this tiny little room with two complete strangers,’ Sean Brock, a highly successful American chef, has said. ‘I was listening to my room-mates detoxing, and thinking, woah, this is not the luxury resort I was expecting.’ A more pleasant experience may lie in alternative therapies, a route increasingly being favoured by one percenters. ‘Many of my clients have anxiety, insomnia or depression, or they just feel that something is missing and they want a fast track to healing,’ says Lucyne Pearson, who trained as a psychotherapist and worked at The Priory, before learning shamanism and energy medicine and setting up her own retreats in Europe and Central America. ‘They live busy lives and they want to get to the root cause of why they’re struggling.’ She leads shamanic ceremonies of around 50 people at the Rythmia Life Advancement Center in Costa Rica, which is the only medically licensed ayahuasca facility in the world. ‘You’re opening yourself up to another level of consciousness, but you’re around doctors and nurses in a luxurious spa setting with mud treatments,’ adds Pearson. It costs around £5,000 a week, plus treatments. ‘I’ve seen people try pharmaceuticals and years of therapy and have little progress, and then they use plant medicine and miracles happen overnight.’ Pearson has just returned from a sold-out, four-day psychedelic-assisted therapy workshop in Amsterdam, where psilocybin truffles are given out ‘with the support of sober healthcare professionals’ as a tool for subconscious reprogramming. Things, however, might not have to be so far-out — or away. On a quiet street in Mayfair you’ll find Addcounsel where, for £45,000-£150,000 a week, clients are treated by a personalised one-to-one treatment squad. Addcounsel deals with no more than three clients at a time, who will never see one another during treatment. They are each given large houses and apartments in Belgravia, Knightsbridge and Green Park and the fee covers 24-hour care from a crack team of specialists including a psychiatrist, a yoga teacher, a ‘neuro-feedback practitioner’ and a chef. These experts are at the top of their game, such as David Behrens, a mindfulness coach who spent 27 years living as a monk in India, and visits twice a week to teach the patients how to meditate. To begin, you’ll have a top-to-toe health check — CT scan, blood tests, ultrasounds, liver check, along with functional medical tests which assess nutrition, deficiencies and gut health. All treatment is overseen by your private GP who liaises with the best psychiatrists, psychologists and counsellors in the world. Two nurses on a five-day rotating shift will be with you every waking moment, supervising your treatment. A recovery manager — companion, confidante, opera buddy, tennis partner, midnight Scrabble opponent, whatever you fancy — is also there to keep you on the straight and narrow. ‘We’re a new concept in the UK,’ says Paul Flynn, co-founder and chief executive of Addcounsel. ‘Many of our clients come from the Middle East, but a lot live in London. For them the financial commitment isn’t the issue, it’s the personal commitment.’ Flynn says that 90 per cent of the people they work with have some kind of addiction — whether it’s Xanax, their jobs or the video game, Fortnite. Most enquiries come via word of mouth. Its youngest client is 16, but most are men over 35. ‘The people we treat tend to be incredibly demanding and specific,’ says Flynn. ‘So you have to be strong when you tell them there are no quick fixes.’ Indeed, the question will always remain: can money really buy you happiness? Hilda Burke, a Hammersmith-based psychotherapist is not so sure. ‘This kind of intense work wouldn’t be suitable for everyone,’ she says. ‘People who go on these retreats tend to be Type A — they want results and they want them fast. But then they go back into their high-powered existence where they have no time to reflect — where does it go? Has your life really changed? ‘Most of us need time to unfurl.’ | Kate Wills | https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/expensive-therapy-retreats-a4285346.html | Thu, 14 Nov 2019 11:43:00 GMT | 1,573,749,780 | 1,573,734,694 | health | health treatment |
221,477 | freedombunker--2019-06-03--Why This New Gene Therapy Drug Costs 21 Million | 2019-06-03T00:00:00 | freedombunker | Why This New Gene Therapy Drug Costs $2.1 Million | Last year, drug producer Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics received significant criticism for attempting to offer patients access to an experimental treatment procedure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (often called ALS or Lou Gherig’s disease) for $300,000. A drug recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration dwarfs this price. A new gene therapy drug named Zoglensma became the most expensive drug in the world, costing patients over $2.1 million for one-time use. Zoglensma joins a small (and outlandishly expensive) group of treatments called gene therapy drugs. Gene therapy uses actual genes to treat or prevent diseases. Before Zoglensma’s approval, its predecessor treatment, named Spinraza,Nearly one in eight-thousand people carry the SMA gene. SMA is considered the most common genetic cause of death in infants. cost patients $750,000 for the first year’s treatment and an additional $375,000 for each additional year. Other FDA approved gene therapy treatments cost between $375,000 and $875,000. Zoglensma treats spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a rare genetic disease that restricts the nervous system’s ability to coordinate voluntary muscle movement. Nearly one in eight-thousand people carry the SMA gene. Tragically, the disease typically affects infants. In severe cases, infants with SMA are unable to sit upright, suffer from severe joint pain, and ultimately die from respiratory failure. SMA is considered the most common genetic cause of death in infants. Despite providing rare and promising results, many gene therapy drug prices place them beyond financial reach for many families in tragic situations. But why are these treatments so expensive? Unlike other drugs regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, gene therapies are subject not only to the regulatory structure of the FDA, but also to the Office of Biotechnology Activities, and the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee. Excessive regulatory oversight creates an elongated and expensive route to approval.Gene therapies provide those with rare, serious, and possibly terminal conditions with the ability to significantly improve their quality of life. By one estimate, an approved gene therapy drug costs nearly $5 billion (five times as high as the average cost of FDA approval). Covering these costs is difficult because many of the diseases gene therapy drugs treat are extremely rare. Gene therapies are also often tailored to specific individuals, making completing clinical trials for FDA approval very challenging and costly. One estimate holds it costs drug providers nearly $1 million per clinical trial participant. For reference, the first phase of the FDA approval process typically requires twenty to eighty participants. The third and largest phase usually requires at least 3,000 participants. Gene therapies provide those with rare, serious, and possibly terminal conditions with the ability to significantly improve their quality of life. When pioneering medical breakthroughs provide such an opportunity, it is imperative to provide treatment where possible. Existing regulations serve to hinder access to treatment by making it prohibitively expensive. Drugs costing over $2 million are the latest symptom of the overregulation disease. This article is republished with permission from the Independent Institute. | Sean McBride | http://freedombunker.com/2019/06/03/why-this-new-gene-therapy-drug-costs-2-1-million/ | 2019-06-03 19:00:19+00:00 | 1,559,602,819 | 1,567,539,185 | health | health treatment |
337,053 | naturalnews--2019-09-17--Music therapy improves psychological well-being quality of life of terminally ill patients | 2019-09-17T00:00:00 | naturalnews | Music therapy improves psychological well-being, quality of life of terminally ill patients | (Natural News) Researchers from Ewha Woman’s University in South Korea investigated the positive effects of music therapy, especially in relieving pain and improving the quality of life of terminally ill patients. The results of their study were published in the journal Alternative and Complementary Therapies. Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that a structured singing program designed to meet the individual needs of patients with serious conditions can help improve their psychological well-being while they receive hospice care. Oh JE, Chong HJ, Kim AJ. CASE STUDIES OF A STRUCTURED SINGING EXPERIENCE FOR THE PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING OF HOSPICE PATIENTS. Alternative and Complementary Therapies. 01 April 2019;25(2):85–94. DOI: 10.1089/act.2019.29211.jeo | Evangelyn Rodriguez | http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-09-17-music-therapy-improves-quality-of-life-of-terminally-ill-patients.html | 2019-09-17 03:50:43+00:00 | 1,568,706,643 | 1,569,330,080 | health | health treatment |
385,070 | npr--2019-04-17--Gene Therapy Advances To Better Treat Bubble Boy Disease | 2019-04-17T00:00:00 | npr | Gene Therapy Advances To Better Treat 'Bubble Boy' Disease | David Vetter, pictured in September 1982 inside part of the bubble environment that was his protective home until he died in 1984. Today most kids born with severe combined immunodeficiency are successfully treated with bone marrow transplants, but researchers think gene therapy is the future. **AP** ****hide caption**** ****toggle caption**** AP David Vetter, pictured in September 1982 inside part of the bubble environment that was his protective home until he died in 1984. Today most kids born with severe combined immunodeficiency are successfully treated with bone marrow transplants, but researchers think gene therapy is the future. AP Sometimes rare diseases can let scientists pioneer bold new ideas. That has been the case with a condition that strikes fewer than 100 babies a year in the United States. These infants are born without a functioning immune system. The disease is called [severe combined immunodeficiency](https://www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/severe- combined-immunodeficiency-scid), or SCID. "It was made famous in the mid '70s when the 'Bubble Boy' was described in a documentary, and I think it captured the imagination of a lot of people," says [Matthew Porteus](https://profiles.stanford.edu/matthew-porteus), a pediatrician at Stanford University. David Vetter was the boy who spent most of his short life [inside a plastic bubble to protect him](https://primaryimmune.org/living-pi-explaining-pi- others/story-david) from infection. He died at age 12 in 1984. All babies born in the United States are now screened for this condition, and the best treatment today — a bone marrow transplant — succeeds more than 90 percent of the time. The disease remains a source of great interest to researchers. "This is one of those diseases in which there's probably more doctors and scientists studying the disease than patients who have the disease," Porteus says. In the 1990s, European scientists actually cured SCID in some patients, using a technique called gene therapy. This process involves removing defective blood cells from a patient, inserting a new gene with the help of a virus and then putting the cells back into the body. Those cells then build up the patient's immune system. At first, this treatment in the 1990s and early 2000s looked really promising. "Of the 20 patients, they all had immune recovery," says [Donald Kohn](https://stemcell.ucla.edu/member/kohn), an immunologist at UCLA's Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. "But, over time, five of them went on to develop a leukemia." He says 18 of those original patients are still alive today, but the leukemias put an understandable pall on the whole field of gene therapy. Scientists went to work to figure out how to inject new genes into cells without triggering leukemia, a cancer of blood cells. And they think they've succeeded. Over time, there has been gradual improvement in gene therapy. The latest advance, [reported in the __ New England Journal of Medicine](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1815408) on Wednesday, details a study of eight infants who have a type of SCID called SCID-X1. The gene to correct the problem was inserted into a modified version of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. That engineered virus can't cause AIDS, and it has been further tweaked to reduce the risk that it could trigger leukemia. Gene therapy has been used successfully over the past decade. Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., modified the procedure for SCID by giving the infants a short course of chemotherapy before introducing the new gene. This helped the new cells take up permanent residence. The babies developed apparently healthy immune systems, according to the new study. "I am thrilled to see these outstanding results," says Ewelina Mamcarz, a transplant physician and first author on the new paper. "To be able to see these babies in my clinic now as toddlers is very rewarding," she says. "They live normal lives. They aren't any different from my daughters." Two more infants have been treated since the paper was prepared for publication, the team says. Standard treatment for SCID is a bone marrow transplant. But that procedure often restores only part of a child's immune system. As a result, patients require monthly infusions of antibodies called immunoglobulins. [Jennifer Puck](https://profiles.ucsf.edu/jennifer.puck), a pediatrician at UC San Francisco and a collaborator in the latest study, says infants who got the gene therapy don't need that medication. These children are "growing normally, they're getting colds like everyone else and they're getting over infections — so I would say that is a cure," Puck says. Of course, she adds, they'll be watched carefully for signs of leukemia and to see if the effect of the therapy is wearing off. In her view, the key to treatment is finding these children early — through newborn screening — before they start to get life-threatening infections. Screening for SCID is now done throughout the U.S., though its introduction was gradual and state by state. Before screening was instituted, these children used to show up in the hospital with life-threatening infections, "and now we're seeing happy, bouncy little newborns who just look perfectly normal and they're never sick," Puck says. "Sometimes their families don't understand just how profoundly affected their immune system is." St. Jude hopes to commercialize its treatment. It has an exclusive licensing agreement with Mustang Bio to develop a product. A similar treatment, called [Strimvelis](https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/EPAR/strimvelis), has already been approved by Europe's equivalent of the Food and Drug Administration. It targets a different mutation that causes SCID, but the technique is very much the same, including the brief dose of chemotherapy. This latest advance is not only encouraging news for these rare patients. SCID is a test case for all those scientists working to develop better gene therapy techniques. For example, instead of inserting a healthy gene into blood cells, [Porteus](http://med.stanford.edu/porteuslab.html), the Stanford pediatrician, has used a precision gene-editing technique called CRISPR [to correct the genetic error](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09614-y) in blood cells drawn from SCID patients. It works in the laboratory, "and this really sets the stage then for a clinical trial, hopefully in the next 12 to 18 months," he says. All this makes the leukemia setback from the 1990s feel like a fading memory. Kohn at UCLA says that for more than a decade, it seemed that the field of gene therapy was a dead end. Clearly it has made a comeback and has been used to treat other rare diseases, including [adrenoleukodystrophy](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1700554), a neurological condition better known as Lorenzo's Oil disease, after a [1992 movie](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104756/) that highlighted a boy with the condition and his parents' hunt for a cure. Now, with continual advances in treating SCID, "it's just nice to see another success for gene therapy," Kohn says. _You can contact NPR science correspondent Richard Harris at_[ [email protected]_](mailto:[email protected]) _._ | Richard Harris | https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/04/17/714121698/gene-therapy-advances-to-better-treat-bubble-boy-disease?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news | 2019-04-17 21:12:00+00:00 | 1,555,549,920 | 1,567,542,734 | health | health treatment |
417,859 | politico--2019-05-24--FDA approves 2M gene therapy for rare birth disorder | 2019-05-24T00:00:00 | politico | FDA approves $2M gene therapy for rare birth disorder | Novartis announced today that it will sell a newly approved gene therapy for $2.125 million for a single infusion, making it the most expensive single-dose drug ever. The Swiss drugmaker said it will implement a five-year payment plan for an annual cost of $425,000. Novartis’ Zolgensma, which FDA approved earlier in the day, is designed to replace the defective or missing gene causing spinal muscular atrophy or SMA, a rare but often fatal disease. Many children born with it die by their second birthday, and it is the leading genetic cause of infant mortality in the country. The announcement came shortly after President Donald Trump appeared on television boasting about lowering drug prices. The nonprofit Institute for Clinical and Economic Review today estimated a cost-effective price for the new medicine would be $1.1 million to $1.9 million per treatment in one of its analytic models. Executives said in a call with media that the $2 million price falls within the upper bounds of ICER's benefit ranges. "Were committed to ensuring children have access to this product," Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said. Critics noted that the bulk of Zolgensma's development was done by AveXis, which Novartis bought last year. “The question in drug pricing isn’t how much is a life worth; it’s what makes a fair return on an investment in R&D and an accessible price,” said David Mitchell, president of Patients for Affordable Drugs, an advocacy group. SMA is believed to affect about one in 10,000 people, though not all forms of it are fatal to children. Novartis said in a statement that the $2.125 million price tag is half the current 10-year cost of Spinraza, the only other approved SMA treatment, estimated at $4.1 million, and half the cost of medicines for other rare pediatric diseases. Biogen’s Spinraza was cleared by the FDA in 2016 and sold at a $750,000 list price in the first year, then $375,000 annually for regular infusions. Other countries have balked at the price, in some cases refusing to cover it. England's National Health Service this month struck a deal with Biogen to cover the drug for a limited time at an undisclosed price to collect data. Novartis executives said Friday that besides the five-year payment model, the company is exploring an outcomes-based contract with certain payers, doling out rebates to return some of the cost of the treatment if a patient dies or goes on a ventilator permanently. But executives said certain laws that cover government health plans are constraining how creatively they can construct those deals. In particular, a law mandating that a drugmaker give Medicaid the lowest or “best” price it negotiates with payers limits the size of rebates in the outcomes-based plans. “We’re continuing to work and advocate with the federal government to put in place relevant reforms or relevant interpretations of current guidances to enable us to use these novel models we’re talking bout here, either pay-over-time or outcomes-based payments,” Narasimhan said. | [email protected] (Sarah Owermohle) | https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/24/fda-gene-therapy-birth-disorder-1472486 | 2019-05-24 19:48:13+00:00 | 1,558,741,693 | 1,567,540,192 | health | health treatment |
690,610 | theguardianuk--2019-02-18--Gene therapy could treat rare brain disorder in unborn babies | 2019-02-18T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Gene therapy could treat rare brain disorder in unborn babies | Scientists are developing a radical form of gene therapy that could cure a devastating medical disorder by mending mutations in the brains of foetuses in the womb. The treatment, which has never been attempted before, would involve doctors injecting the feotus’s brain with a harmless virus that infects the neurons and delivers a suite of molecules that correct the genetic faults. Tests suggest that the therapy will be most effective around the second trimester, when their brains are in the early stages of development. “We believe that this could provide a treatment, if not a cure, depending on when it’s injected,” said Mark Zylka, a a neurobiologist at the University of North Carolina. The therapy is aimed at a rare brain disorder known as Angelman syndrome, which affects one in 15,000 births. Children with the condition have small brains and often experience seizures and problems with walking and sleeping. They can live their whole lives without speaking a word. Zylka said children with Angelman syndrome can have such severe sleeping difficulties that parents can feel they must lock them in their rooms at night to prevent them from getting up and having accidents around the house. Healthy people tend to have two copies of every gene in the genetic code, one inherited from their mother and the other from their father. But both copies are not always switched on. For normal brain development, the mother’s copy of a gene called UBE3A is switched on, while the father’s copy is silenced. In Angelman syndrome, the mother’s copy of UBE3A is either missing or mutated, meaning there is no UBE3A active at all. Zylka’s therapy uses a version of a powerful gene editing tool known as Crispr-Cas9 to switch the father’s copy back on. Studies in mice show that when the gene therapy is given in the womb, it activates UBE3A in key parts of the brain. Speaking at an American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Washington DC, Zylka said the therapy switched the gene on in the cortex, which is important for cognition, the hippocampus, which is crucial for learning and memory, and the cerebellum, which controls movement. Follow-up work showed that it worked in human brain cells grown in a dish, too. “It really does raise the possibility that this gene therapy might be usable in humans,” Zylka said. No one has ever developed a gene therapy that is injected directly into the brains of foetuses. But Zylka believes that if future work goes well, his therapy could be an important first that paves the way for treating other, more common disorders, such as certain forms of autism. “For many of these neurodevelopmental disorders, where the brain has been developing inappropriately because of a gene mutation, the best time to intervene is probably going to be early, very early,” he said. Angelman syndrome can be detected as early as 10 weeks after conception with a test that picks up DNA from the foetus in the mother’s blood. But there are no treatments available for women who are told their baby has the disorder. “People are getting this diagnosis, and there’s nothing to be done, they have to make pretty difficult decisions at that point,” Zylka said. “This may give them another option.” | Ian Sample Science editor | https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/feb/18/gene-therapy-could-treat-rare-brain-disorder-in-unborn-babies | 2019-02-18 22:00:52+00:00 | 1,550,545,252 | 1,567,548,165 | health | health treatment |
742,875 | theindependent--2019-01-23--Teenage boy with rare brain tumour to receive pioneering proton beam therapy at UK treatment centre | 2019-01-23T00:00:00 | theindependent | Teenage boy with rare brain tumour to receive pioneering proton beam therapy at UK treatment centre | A 15-year-old with a rare brain tumour is to undergo pioneering proton beam therapy at the UK's first dedicated treatment centre. Mason Kettley, from Angmering in West Sussex, will receive the highly targeted therapy which helps shrink tumours and cuts the risk of side-effects. It will be carried out by the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester – home to the world's newest proton beam therapy centre. Mason is one of the first patients to undergo proton beam therapy in the UK and the first to go public. Until now, British patients needing the treatment had to travel to countries including the US. He was diagnosed with an inoperable tumour in October after suffering headaches and failing to put on weight. Doctors found that the tumour was growing in a critical part of his brain but could not operate due to the risk of causing blindness and damage to vital brain tissue. Mason, who wants to work as a doctor specialising in tumours when he is older, said he did not initially have many symptoms. He said: "I had some headaches and stomach pains and usual things, and got check-ups at the doctors. "My mum said, 'he's not gaining weight or growing', and eventually, when we moved last year, we saw doctors who told us to go to Worthing Hospital for an MRI scan. "We had the scan and the result showed it was a tumour." Following a biopsy and an operation to insert a shunt, doctors referred Mason's case to a national panel of experts. They decided that his tumour – known as a benign pilomyxoid astrocytoma – made him a suitable candidate for proton beam therapy. Mason, who lives with mother Cally, stepfather Ryan and four siblings – Taylor, 20, Logan, 10, Scarlett, seven, and Elijah, four – said he feels apprehensive about the treatment. He said: "I'm a bit nervous because the machine is intimidating because of its size. "It's a bit nerve-wracking but this is a better choice than chemo because it's more effective. Because of my age, (doctors) thought radiation would be a better choice. "Their goal is to stabilise the tumour. It may shrink, but they are aiming to stabilise it." Mason will have treatment Monday to Friday for almost six weeks - 28 sessions in total. A specially made radiotherapy mask has been created to keep his head still during the therapy. He said: "The short-term effects are that you may vomit and get a headache now and then, but in the long term the side effects are rare." Mason's family has been hugely supportive, though his younger siblings are unaware of his treatment. "My little sister and little brother don't know because they are young," he said. "My 10-year-old brother understands a bit and he's a bit upset about it." Mason, who will sit GCSEs next year, will have six weeks off school. Proton beam therapy is a highly targeted treatment which hits tumours much more precisely than conventional radiotherapy. This makes it beneficial for patients with difficult-to-treat tumours in critical areas, such as in the brain or spinal cord, and for young people whose tissues are still developing. Two new proton beam therapy centres have been built at The Christie and University College London Hospital (UCLH) with £250m of government money. Gillian Whitfield, consultant clinical oncologist who is leading Mason's care at The Christie, said: "With proton beam therapy, compared to conventional radiotherapy, there is less dose to surrounding normal tissues and less risk of permanent long-term effects of treatment. "This is particularly important for children and teenagers with curable tumours, who will survive decades after treatment and are at much greater risk of serious long-term effects of treatment than adults. "Mason's tumour is a low grade (slow growing) tumour with a high chance of cure. "For Mason, in comparison to conventional radiotherapy, proton beam therapy should carry a lower risk of some important long-term side effects of treatment, particularly effects on short-term memory and learning ability and the risk over the next eight decades of the radiation causing other tumours." Professor Stephen Powis, medical director for the NHS in England, said: "This is a hugely exciting development for the NHS and we are delighted that we are able to provide this life-changing treatment for patients like Mason." Proton beam therapy hit the headlines in 2014 when the parents of Ashya King, who was due to undergo chemotherapy and radiotherapy at Southampton General Hospital, fled with him to Spain. They were arrested in Spain but were eventually able to take him for proton treatment in Prague. His father Brett has said Ashya is now cancer-free. | Jane Kirby | http://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/proton-beam-therapy-brain-tumour-christie-cancer-nhs-foundation-mason-kettley-a8741776.html | 2019-01-23 09:56:00+00:00 | 1,548,255,360 | 1,567,551,174 | health | health treatment |
756,859 | theindependent--2019-04-18--Gene therapy cures babies of rare aposbubble boyapos immune disorder in world first | 2019-04-18T00:00:00 | theindependent | Gene therapy cures babies of rare 'bubble boy' immune disorder in world first | Ten newborns with the rare genetic disorder known as “bubble boy” disease were cured with gene therapy, researchers said on Wednesday. The treatment appears to have completely rid the babies of their immune disorder with no side effects or complications – a result scientists have sought for decades through painstaking research and heartbreaking setbacks. An earlier attempt to use gene therapy to treat severe combined immunodeficiency disease, or SCID, was halted in 2003 after researchers realised the therapy was giving the children cancer. The treatment announced on Wednesday does not appear to carry such calamitous side effects, and experts hope it could help advance cures for other rare genetic disorders, such as sickle cell disease. “It’s a game changer,” said Jennifer Hemall, a paediatric immunologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who was not involved in the study. “For immunologists following this disease, gene therapy has always been out there as the hope of the future. It’s exciting to see this wave of treatments actually becoming a reality.” Infants with SCID are essentially born without a functioning immune system. Without treatment, they rarely survive past their first birthday and can be killed by infections as innocuous as the common cold. Such children were once kept isolated in sterile environments, giving rise to the term “bubble boy”. Their unusual predicament has caught national attention and has been featured in movies and TV shows. The survival rate in recent years has soared with the advent of widespread screening tests and refinement of lifesaving procedures such as bone marrow transplants. But such treatments have come with complications, often leaving children dependent on regular infusions of immunoglobulin or causing their new immune systems to attack their own bodies. The new gene therapy – developed by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco and published in the New England Journal of Medicine – corrects the genetic defect in the DNA of babies soon after they’re born, prompting their bodies to generate missing parts of their immune system. In interviews, the researchers said they first extracted blood stem cells from the infants’ bone marrow. They used a modified virus as a vehicle to deliver the correct copy of a defective gene into those patients’ stem cells. Those corrected cells were then re-infused back into the patient, where they proliferated and created healthy immune cells. To avoid accidentally turning on cancer-causing genes as previous gene therapies did, the researchers built “insulators” into the virus so neighbouring genes wouldn’t be affected when the virus made its insertion into the DNA. In another innovation, the researchers gave their infant patients a tiny amount of chemotherapy to clear existing cells from the bone marrow before they re-infused the treated cells, giving the corrected cells a better chance to take hold. The announcement was bittersweet for many at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Their team leader and senior author on the paper, Brian Sorrentino, spent the final months of his life racing against a fatal cancer to finish his work on the experimental treatment. Dr Sorrentino was diagnosed at a young age with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, said his widow, Suzanne Sorrentino. Because better treatments did not yet exist, his doctors used radiation that weakened his heart and produced the lung cancer that killed him last November. “The loss of hair, the pain and agony of the treatment, it’s what made him determined to find new treatments for other diseases in kids,” his widow said in an interview. Since the 1990s, Dr Sorrentino had been working alongside other immunologists on gene therapy for SCID, but his work took on new urgency in the final year and half of his life after his cancer diagnosis, Suzanne said. When he could no longer get to the hospital, St. Jude colleagues started arranging conference calls and setting up shop at Dr Sorrentino’s home dining table. By then, it was apparent that the experimental procedure was succeeding. Several of their infant patients had grown into toddlers with normal immune systems. “He told me he thought he was saved as a kid from Hodgkin’s because there was something he thought he should be doing with his life,” said Suzanne, her voice cracking as she recalled one of the last conversations with her husband. “With the trial working, and the children doing so well, he felt it was a sign that he achieved what he was supposed to. That it was time for him to go.” In recent years, as screening newborns for SCID has become mandatory across the country, experts have found the disease to be more common than previously thought – occurring in as many as 1 in 50,000 infants. There are several forms of SCID. Gene therapy for a variant called ADA-SCIDS is available in Europe. But a cure for the most common form – X-linked SCID, which is only found in boys – had remained elusive. The disease drew national attention in the 1970s with the case of David Vetter. News outlets chronicled his life as he grew up cocooned in plastic. His story spawned the 1976 John Travolta movie “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble.” And even after David Vetter’s death, something about the disease’s vulnerable isolating effects kept it in the national consciousness, making a famous cameo in a “Seinfeld” episode and becoming the premise of a panned 2001 Jake Gyllenhaal movie, Bubble Boy. Until now, the most effective therapy for SCID had been transplanting blood-forming stem cells from a tissue-matched sibling donor, but most patients lack such donors. Half-matched and unrelated donors have also proved lifesaving but often resulted in complications. The first successful gene therapy trial, in 2000 by French doctors, gave many researchers and patients hope that they could fix the molecular underpinnings of the disease instead of simply treating its symptoms. But when leukemia was found in some of those patients, it temporarily halted gene therapy trials in America and much of the world and sent dispirited researchers searching for answers. “The leukaemia stopped the field for a long time and rightfully so, because people had to figure out what went wrong,” said Jordan Orange, a paediatric immunologist at Columbia University, who was not involved in the St Jude study but helped develop a gene therapy for another immunodeficiency disease called Wiskott-Aldrich. “But that led us to the point now where we’re finally beginning to see actual cures to incurable conditions.” | William Wan | https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/gene-therapy-bubble-boy-disease-immune-hiv-tennessee-health-a8875611.html | 2019-04-18 06:47:30+00:00 | 1,555,584,450 | 1,567,542,540 | health | health treatment |
793,748 | themanchestereveningnews--2019-01-23--Teenager among first in UK to have beam therapy for a brain tumour | 2019-01-23T00:00:00 | themanchestereveningnews | Teenager among first in UK to have beam therapy for a brain tumour | A schoolboy with a rare brain tumour was today undergoing pioneering treatment as one of the first patients at the new Proton Beam Therapy Unit based at The Christie. The treatment is a type of radiotherapy that targets certain cancers precisely, shrinking tumours, increasing success rates and reducing side-effects. Mason Kettley's treatment in Manchester means the 15-year-old is one of the first patients to undergo proton beam therapy in the UK - and the first to go public. He said he's looking forward to enjoying a McDonald's after his treatment ends. The life-saving cancer therapy unit at The Christie is the first of its kind in the UK and has been under construction since the summer of 2014. The specialist form of radiotherapy was formerly only available to patients abroad. Mason, from West Sussex, was diagnosed with an inoperable tumour in October after suffering headaches and failing to put on weight. Doctors found a tumour growing in a critical part of his brain but could not operate due to a risk of blindness and brain tissue damage. Science-loving Mason, who wants to work as a doctor specialising in tumours when he is older, said he didn't initially have many symptoms. He said: "I had some headaches and stomach pains and usual things, and got check-ups at the doctors. My mum said 'he's not gaining weight or growing' and eventually, when we moved last year, we saw doctors who told us to go to Worthing Hospital for an MRI scan. "We had the scan and the result showed it was a tumour." Following a biopsy and an operation to insert a shunt, doctors referred Mason's case to a national panel of experts. They decided the tumour - known as a benign pilomyxoid astrocytoma - made him a suitable candidate for proton beam therapy. Mason will have treatment Monday to Friday in Manchester for almost six weeks, 28 treatment sessions in total. A specially-made radiotherapy mask has been created to keep his head perfectly still . "It's a bit nerve-wracking but this is a better choice than chemo because it's more effective," he said. "Their goal is to stabilise the tumour. It may shrink, but they are aiming to stabilise it." Medical experts have hailed a 'hugely exciting development' in the NHS. Consultant clinical oncologist Gillian Whitfield, who is leading Mason's care at The Christie, said: "With proton beam therapy, compared to conventional radiotherapy, there is less dose to surrounding normal tissues and less risk of permanent long-term effects of treatment. "This is particularly important for children and teenagers with curable tumours, who will survive decades after treatment and are at much greater risk of serious long-term effects of treatment than adults. "Mason's tumour is a low grade, slow-growing tumour, with a high chance of cure." Professor Stephen Powis, medical director for the NHS in England, added: "This is a hugely exciting development for the NHS and we are delighted that we are able to provide this life-changing treatment for patients like Mason." Up to 1,500 patients every year could benefit from proton beam therapy in the UK. The Christie has two treatment rooms able to accept patients, while a third will be up and running in the next few months. | men | https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/teenager-among-first-uk-beam-15721070 | 2019-01-23 14:20:24+00:00 | 1,548,271,224 | 1,567,551,219 | health | health treatment |
996,885 | thetelegraph--2019-01-23--Schoolboy with rare brain cancer among first to have NHS proton beam therapy in UK | 2019-01-23T00:00:00 | thetelegraph | Schoolboy with rare brain cancer among first to have NHS proton beam therapy in UK | A 15-year-old boy has spoken of his excitement at being among the first to have NHS proton beam therapy in the UK. Mason Kettley, who suffers from a rare brain tumour, began treatment on Tuesday - five years after the parents of Ashya King sparked an international manhunt when they took him abroad in search of treatment. Until last month, NHS patients were sent as far away as the US for treatment, if specialist doctors said it was required. Now the Christie Hospital in Manchester has begun offering the highly targeted treatment, with Mason the fourth case to undergo it, and the first to speak publicly about it. It is the first centre in the UK offering such treatment to NHS patients. | Laura Donnelly | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/23/schoolboy-rare-brain-cancer-among-first-have-nhs-proton-beam/ | 2019-01-23 00:01:00+00:00 | 1,548,219,660 | 1,567,551,192 | health | health treatment |
126,588 | dailybeast--2019-12-20--In 2020, Could Artificial Intelligence Help Cure Cancer? | 2019-12-20T00:00:00 | dailybeast | In 2020, Could Artificial Intelligence Help Cure Cancer? | Time is of the essence when it comes to treating cancer, the second leading cause of death in the U.S. according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between diagnosis and the first day of treatment, days and even weeks may tick by as doctors convene to discuss treatment plans and order testing to gather as much information as possible. But as a new decade dawns, artificial intelligence may buy more time for those who need it most. Both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden have promised to prioritize curing cancer should they win the 2020 election. But because of its complex biology, cancer has been historically difficult to cure with a pill or injection. As new treatments like immunotherapy undergo further research, health systems are starting to harness data-sharing and artificial intelligence to better predict a patient’s prognosis, and determine the most effective treatment plan for their cancer based on other patients with similar medical histories. The Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University, in partnership with Intel, created a “collaborative cancer cloud” with this vision. Once doctors have met a patient, within hours, they can diagnose them and begin treatment. Thanks to AI’s ability to analyze massive amounts of real patient data, doctors can better predict the best possible treatment for their patient, based on the responses of others with genetically similar cancers. OHSU says the project uses “machine learning techniques against a collective set of molecular and imaging data in order to support big data analytics in a federated, aligned environment,” and hopes to shorten the diagnosis-to-treatment time period to 24 hours in 2020. Similar programs include CancerLinq, ORIEN and the Cancer Moonshot Research Initiative. “In the past, vast quantities of information were lost to file cabinets and unconnected servers. The big data era is allowing CancerLinQ and other initiatives to access this large and growing amount of de-identified data to help physicians provide high-quality care,” said Dr. Robert Miller, medical director of CancerLinq, which gathers anonymized patient data from electronic health records nationwide. “Instead of learning only from the 3% of patients who join clinical trials, CancerLinQ aims to enable practices to learn from everyone with cancer.” “Using informatic techniques to mine data in this way is useful, and we’re in the very beginning stages of understanding it. The promise is there,” said Dr. John Vu, a board-certified medical oncologist and director of clinical informatics at Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center in Jacksonville, Florida. “With advanced analytics, we might be able to get more specific information, like prognosis in a particular situation, or have a better idea of their genetic makeup and the turnaround time for successful treatment.” Vu believes that same-day diagnosis and treatment would help patients beat cancer because every day counts with a notoriously fast-progressing disease. But for this to become a reality, the rest of medical technology would need to catch up. For example, pathology labs may not have same-day biopsy results. If other steps in the diagnosis process speed up, Vu said, he would feel equipped to make treatment decisions more quickly than is currently possible. “If someone needs treatment right away, and I had results that day, that patient could be treated with targeted therapies that day. We don’t have the technology to turn it around in one day, but when we get there, yes, that would help that patient,” he said. The NCI’s Cancer Moonshot initiative aims to improve cancer care and accelerate research, and one arm of that mission focuses on data sharing. Cancer Moonshot-funded projects require investigators to submit a plan of how their conclusions, and data throughout the trial, will be shared with the public. Their answer should end with the data being FAIR: findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. While data sharing has always happened between colleagues and between experts who know of each other’s work, data sharing on an international level has only gained traction in recent years. “One of our overarching goals is to enhance data sharing, making sure that data that’s coming from any of the projects funded through Moonshot funds are getting into the hands of people who can use that information well,” Dr. Jaime Guidry-Auvil, director of the Office of Data Sharing in the National Cancer Institute (NCI), told The Daily Beast. “It hasn’t always been appreciated how useful data sharing is. Once a hypothesis is published, it can be thought that there has been a sufficient scientific process. What’s coming about as more data is being generated, is we can take the data and use it in different ways: both to validate a hypothesis, and also to generate a hypothesis.” Vu agrees that, while AI is not a replacement for a medicinal cure that may one day end cancer, advances in data sharing and analysis in health care could lead to what does. By finding associations within the data, AI can point researchers in new directions they may not have considered otherwise. “You can see an association that, if you give this drug to this patient, in 1,000 patients, it seems to help, but it doesn’t show a cause-and-effect. It can drive hypothesis,” he explained. “Looking at these large data sets, you start thinking of clinical questions about the data that need to be answered, and generating clinical trials to answer them, and we may find answers that otherwise wouldn’t have been found. In that way, AI can shorten the life cycle of the clinical trial. It can generate hypotheses we may not think of otherwise.” For example, Vu said, most lung cancer patients today receive genome sequencing testing, which looks for specific mutations within their cancer that doctors know respond well to certain treatments. Hypothetically, AI analysis of patient data may reveal a trend that a specific mutation predicts longer survival regardless of treatment, or show a new link between a less-understood mutation and a developing treatment. AI can also help customize treatment plans for patients with complex cancers, which some cancer data-sharing platforms have begun offering. “There are more than 100 types of cancers with different genetic variations,” said Miller. “Data sharing and AI have the potential to help us further personalize care for each individual patient. For example, if a physician is treating a patient with a rare cancer, he or she can examine the outcomes of patients across the country with the same cancer and similar characteristics to help choose the right therapy for the right patient at the right time.” Vu cited the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance scale, which physicians use to determine how fit a patient is to undergo cancer treatment. The system is subjective, and adding objective data based on AI’s analysis of objective data to the process could result in more appropriate plans for treatment. “Analytics could help us parse that scale into further detail. Do they have a history of smoking? Diabetes? Obesity? Then when we have a patient in front of us, we could say, ‘Based on your history and this algorithm, you’ll tolerate treatment really well,’ or ‘No, we don’t recommend it for you.’ Currently ECOG is very vague. With analytics, we could get much more specific, but no one has done that yet.” In 2020, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will formalize their new data sharing policy, which will require data gathered from any NIH-funded project to be made available to the scientific community. This policy has not been updated since 2003, and the changes reflect a growing attitude that the more scientific data is available, the faster innovations in care can be discovered. “Much of it centers on the idea that data sharing should be considered throughout the life cycle of research and not just at the end of research. If we promote better data sharing, then we can accelerate our field further,” said Guidry-Auvil. Ultimately, AI is not the cure the world has been waiting for. But oncologists like Vu are beginning to use it as a way to improve treatment until the cure is discovered. And, if researchers take the opportunity, AI may be the tool that helps science discover a cure sooner. “All of this AI stuff is really new. It’s been out about five years and hasn’t taken hold in many places. It has a lot of promise: I think the way we treat cancer in 10 years will be a lot different than we do today, and some of that will be due to advanced informatics,” said Vu. “You can use AI to help accelerate discovery, to find new processes and situations to suppress cancer’s growth. I think AI can help us get there faster than traditional means, like standard clinical trials. Definitely it’s moving us in the right direction.” As Guidry-Auvil says, “having very quick access to a data set that is much larger, that you could not easily obtain on your own, will hopefully lead to an improvement in treatments. Maybe it’s not a direct cure, but without that information, it will be harder to get to one. Adding AI to that, if the AI can analyze the data well, would add to that progress.” | Katie McPherson | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thedailybeast/articles/~3/0fJluUOZFT4/in-2020-could-artificial-intelligence-help-cure-cancer | Fri, 20 Dec 2019 09:20:38 GMT | 1,576,851,638 | 1,576,843,422 | health | health treatment |
173,882 | eveningstandard--2019-05-03--Drug combination that could cure super-gonorrhoea identified by scientists | 2019-05-03T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | Drug combination that could cure super-gonorrhoea identified by scientists | A drug combination which could cure treatment-resistant super-gonorrhoea has been identified by scientists. Researchers believe antibiotic gentamicin could act as back-up option to treat the sexually-transmitted infection amid rising concern that resistance to treatment might become widespread. The drug, taken with azithromycin, worked almost as well as the current first-line treatment, ceftriaxone and azithromycin, according to a study published in The Lancet journal. However, gentamicin was less effective against throat or rectal gonorrhoea. Professor Jonathan Ross, chief investigator from the University of Birmingham, warned the existing treatment "is beginning to fail". Public Health England (PHE) said in January that two women had been infected with super-gonorrhoea, which was resistant to the first-choice treatment, while other cases have previously been reported. Gonorrhoea does not usually lead to complications, but if left untreated can cause serious health issues including pelvic inflammatory disease among women. In a trial at 14 sexual health clinics in England, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), 720 patients were given either the current antibiotic treatment of ceftriaxone or gentamicin. Both groups were also given an oral dose of azithromycin. A total of 98 per cent of those given ceftriaxone had their gonorrhoea cured after two weeks, compared to 91 per cent of those treated with gentamicin. The findings suggest gentamicin could offer an alternative for patients, if they do not respond to the first-choice treatment. "Our current antibiotic treatment for gonorrhoea is beginning to fail and experience with previous drugs strongly suggests that this could become a widespread problem," Prof Ross said. "Our trial has found that gentamicin combined with azithromycin works almost as well as ceftriaxone with azithromycin for genital gonorrhoea, but did not clear throat or rectal gonorrhoea as effectively. "We believe ceftriaxone should remain the first-line treatment for gonorrhoea, with gentamicin as an alternative, particularly for patients with genital infection and those who are allergic or intolerant to ceftriaxone." The researchers said further work is needed to find alternative treatments, with antibiotic resistance a growing problem. Professor Hywel Williams, director of the NIHR's health technology assessment programme, said: "It's very worrying that cases of treatment-resistant gonorrhoea are now appearing across the globe. "This research provides important new evidence that suggests that gentamicin with azithromycin could become a second-line treatment for patients who are resistant to ceftriaxone with this infectious disease.” | Hatty Collier | https://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/drug-combination-that-could-cure-supergonorrhoea-identified-by-scientists-in-major-breakthrough-a4133216.html | 2019-05-03 05:47:00+00:00 | 1,556,876,820 | 1,567,541,256 | health | health treatment |
178,483 | eveningstandard--2019-06-28--Scientists discover aposcritical breakthroughapos in cure for baldness | 2019-06-28T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | Scientists discover 'critical breakthrough' in cure for baldness | Scientists have discovered a "critical breakthrough" in the search for a cure for baldness. Researchers found they could create natural-looking hair using stem cells, meaning a cure for hair loss could be within sight. The American scientists said they had refined a method which allowed them to grow hair through the skin of mice using dermal papilla cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells. The experts presented the results at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in Los Angeles. The study involved the human stem cells being combined with mice cells before they were attached to a 3D biodegradable scaffold made from the same material as dissolvable stitches. The scaffold helped control the direction of hair growth and helped the stem cells integrate into the skin. "Our new protocol... overcomes key technological challenges that kept our discovery from real-world use," said Alexey Terskik, of Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in California. "Now we have a robust, highly controlled method for generating natural-looking hair that grows through the skin using an unlimited source of human iPSC-derived dermal papilla cells. "This is a critical breakthrough in the development of cell-based hair-loss therapies and the regenerative medicine field." The scientists are now looking at applying the same process in humans, and say there is an "unlimited" supply of stem cells which can be derived from a simple blood draw. Male pattern baldness affects about 50% of men over the age of 50, according to the British Association of Dermatologists, with many men suffering hair loss from puberty. Current treatments include the drugs minoxidil or finasteride, while hair transplants can cost anywhere between £1,000 and £30,000. | Bonnie Christian | https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/scientists-discover-critical-breakthrough-in-cure-for-baldness-a4177796.html | 2019-06-28 03:50:20+00:00 | 1,561,708,220 | 1,567,537,677 | health | health treatment |
334,089 | naturalnews--2019-01-14--The CURE for Alzheimers Disease can be found in our synapses | 2019-01-14T00:00:00 | naturalnews | The CURE for Alzheimer's Disease can be found in our synapses | (Natural News) Americans walk, run, and march “for the cure” for all kinds of different diseases, helping to raise awareness and funds for research, but what if you found out right now there’s a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease, would you “take care of business” starting now or keep wishing someone else might come along to possibly save you later? Sure, right about now you’re hoping the cure will come in some magical pill or prolific injection, and do the job “overnight,” so you won’t have to do any work or garner long-term diligence – well, there’s good news and bad news – and they’re both the same. Scientists have figured out what causes Alzheimer’s Disease and what cures it, but it’s not some chemical pill or experimental vaccine, so let’s get to work. The point of connection of neurons is called a synapse, and that’s where neurotransmitters are released and communication happens in the brain. This is where we experiences all of our senses and engage in thought processes, including critical thinking and memory. This is also exactly where dementia happens. The synapse is where neurons release hormones, glutamates, and small peptides called amyloid beta. The amyloid beta are the brain’s “trash” and a prime factor involved in Alzheimer’s disease, functioning as the main component of plaques that cling to each other and clog up the neural pathway. These are the plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. The power of the elements: Discover Colloidal Silver Mouthwash with quality, natural ingredients like Sangre de Drago sap, black walnut hulls, menthol crystals and more. Zero artificial sweeteners, colors or alcohol. Learn more at the Health Ranger Store and help support this news site. Normally, these amyloid plaques are swept out of the neural pathway (like trash) by the “custodians of the brain” called microglea. These amazing microglea are the brain’s own immune cells and are the answer to beating brain diseases. Scientists recently discovered through sophisticated experiments that these cells constantly search for brain damage, like a perpetually-running computer virus scan, running surveillance for different levels of damage. The microglea are literally capable of eating infected and damaged cells before infection spreads, while clearing out “debris” from dying cells. Diseases of dementia therefore begin when amyloid beta begins to accumulate, because too much is released, overwhelming the microglea, and leaving waste in the neural pathways, blocking communication. The synapse piles up with plaques (trash and waste) that become sticky and bind to themselves (think of animal fat clogging your sink drain). At a certain tipping point, when the body and brain have created too much “trash” for too long, creating massive inflammation and tangles, the microglea become overwhelmed and enter a hyper-mode, where they actually begin attacking healthy cells. Scientists believe the microglea may even, at the tipping point, begin clearing away the synapses themselves. Get it? The cure lives in keeping amyloid plaques from reaching the “tipping point.” Here’s how you do that. Amyloid plaque accumulation may never be “cured” with a chemical drug or vaccine, but that doesn’t matter, because you can cure the problem yourself. Are you ready to start taking your preventative medicine? It’s not very difficult you know. Let’s break it down to its simplest form, then you decide if you can “pull it off.” You wouldn’t pick up a poisonous snake just to see if it bites you, and then start searching the internet for the anecdote, would you? You wouldn’t pick some poison ivy and rub it on your skin on purpose, would you? If you were severely allergic to peanuts, you certainly wouldn’t eat a handful just to see what happens. That’s just common sense. So what if you knew what caused dementia, would you stop eating it? Guess what. Now is the time to stop marching for the cure and start living it, because knowledge is power. Now get this. White foods are known to cause excess plaque build-up in the brain, leading to dementia. These white foods include white bread, white flour, white rice (except basmati, which is naturally white), white pasta, and white sugar. Stop eating bleached food. Processed foods and meats cause excess plaque in the synapses, fueling dementia. Avoid processed cheeses (think American cheese especially here), and processed meats, like sausages, bacon, hot dogs, and cold cuts (especially smoked deli meats), and even beer. Nitrosamines in smoked meats cause the liver to produce fats that are toxic to the brain. Stop eating foods that contain diacetyl, a chemical commonly found in microwave popcorn. Diacetyl increases amyloid plaques in the brain. You’ll hear it time and time again, that a plant-based diet cures almost every preventable disease and disorder known to humans. It’s true. If you’re a heavy meat eater, your body is struggling to process all that animal fat, creating heart and brain “trash” that your body’s “janitors” just can’t sweep away fast enough. If you think organic or “expeller pressed” canola oil means that the oil doesn’t coagulate in your body, you’d be dead wrong. After about six weeks, any canola oil that your body hasn’t cleared out looks like a sticky glue you could use to bond cement. Think of all that “trash” blocking your synapses and causing dementia, because that’s exactly what happens. Did you know that in the U.S. alone, Alzheimer’s care already costs $2 billion a year (one out of every five Medicare dollars)? Dementia kills more people than cancer. Did you know that? Sure, Big Pharma will tell you Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are not preventable, but both are, and the cure lives in prevention. You may begin now. | S.D. Wells | http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-01-14-cure-for-alzheimers-disease-found-in-our-synapses.html | 2019-01-14 21:26:16+00:00 | 1,547,519,176 | 1,567,552,547 | health | health treatment |
369,782 | newyorkpost--2019-01-29--Well have a cure for cancer within a year scientists claim | 2019-01-29T00:00:00 | newyorkpost | We’ll have a cure for cancer within a year, scientists claim | A team of Israeli scientists claim they will likely develop a cure for cancer in the next year, The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday. The new treatment is being developed by Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies under the leadership of CEO Dr. Ilan Morad, according to the report. “We believe we will offer in a year’s time a complete cure for cancer,” said Dan Aridor, chairman of the company’s board. “Our cancer cure will be effective from day one, will last a duration of a few weeks and will have no or minimal side-effects at a much lower cost than most other treatments on the market.” The treatment, called MuTaTo, will use a combination of cancer-targeting peptides and a toxin that will specifically kill cancer cells. The treatment will eventually be personalized and a specific cocktail of the drugs will be given to patients based on their type of cancer, Morad told the newspaper. | Ben Feuerherd | https://nypost.com/2019/01/28/well-have-a-cure-for-cancer-within-a-year-scientists/ | 2019-01-29 03:04:16+00:00 | 1,548,749,056 | 1,567,550,425 | health | health treatment |
411,220 | pinknewsuk--2019-11-08--Researchers believe they’ve found the cure for HIV/AIDS | 2019-11-08T00:00:00 | pinknewsuk | Researchers believe they’ve found the cure for HIV/AIDS | A technician extracts blood from a patient for an HIV test. (Getty) Within a document that is 1,000 pages long, American researches have outlined what they say could be the cure to HIV/AIDS. Yesterday, the American Gene Technologies (AGT) submitted their study for Phase I retail of its autologous cell therapy for HIV, reported BioBuzz. The therapy involves an individual’s cells – cultured and expanded outside the body – being then reintroduced back into the donor. Researchers, based in Maryland, said their aim with the study is to break those living with HIV “out of jail and back to normal life”. Researchers suspect they ‘may be able to’ come up with HIV cure. By using immunotherapy, AGT staff aim to eliminate the possibility of the AIDS virus progressing and to build immunity from HIV encounters. The approach differs from other techniques in its focus on strengthening immunity to the virus and protecting the cells to stymie HIV. If successful, researchers said, the body’s natural immunity to HIV can be restored. As a result, people’s immune systems will counter the disease like any other. In a statement, AGT CEO Jeff Galvin said: “We want to get these people out of jail and back to normal life. “We see this as critically important. We need to move these people from anti-retroviral control to permanent immunity and we think our project may be able to do that.” What’s the next step with the research? Scientists submitted the proposed plan, called an international new drug application, to the Food and Drug Administration – the federal body that deals with public health – to commence the clinic trials. They can expect to hear back from the FDA by the end of the year or early January to confirm whether the project can move forward with clinical trials or not. According to its application, AGT aim to recruit patients in the early new year. Around 37.9 million people across the world are living with HIV, according to statistics, while nearly 20 million have access and are taking antiretroviral treatment. However, as much as acquisition rates of HIV continue to plunge in certain patches of the world, access to the necessary treatments continues to be snarled by governments and pharmaceutical companies. In the US, the makers of PrEP – a crucial preventative pill – Gilead Sciences empties the pockets of those needing it, activists warn, as a year’s supply can cost an American around $20,000 a year. While researchers are in tireless pursuit of a cure to the disease, activists have warned that more needs to be done to slash treatment prices and increase education around the disease. | Josh Milton | https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/11/08/hiv-cure-aids-american-gene-technologies-food-drug-administration/ | Fri, 08 Nov 2019 09:34:36 +0000 | 1,573,223,676 | 1,573,219,579 | health | health treatment |
428,468 | prisonplanet--2019-01-29--A cure for cancer Israeli scientists say they think they found one | 2019-01-29T00:00:00 | prisonplanet | A cure for cancer? Israeli scientists say they think they found one | A small team of Israeli scientists think they might have found the first complete cure for cancer. “We believe we will offer in a year’s time a complete cure for cancer,” said Dan Aridor, of a new treatment being developed by his company, Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies Ltd. (AEBi), which was founded in 2000 in the ITEK incubator in the Weizmann Science Park. AEBi developed the SoAP platform, which provides functional leads to very difficult targets. “Our cancer cure will be effective from day one, will last a duration of a few weeks and will have no or minimal side-effects at a much lower cost than most other treatments on the market,” Aridor said. “Our solution will be both generic and personal.” It sounds fantastical, especially considering that an estimated 18.1 million new cancer cases are diagnosed worldwide each year, according to reports by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Further, every sixth death in the world is due to cancer, making it the second leading cause of death (second only to cardiovascular disease). This article was posted: Tuesday, January 29, 2019 at 7:28 am | admin | https://www.prisonplanet.com/a-cure-for-cancer-israeli-scientists-say-they-think-they-found-one.html | 2019-01-29 12:28:39+00:00 | 1,548,782,919 | 1,567,550,460 | health | health treatment |
485,534 | skynewsus--2019-06-28--Critical breakthrough in cure for baldness | 2019-06-28T00:00:00 | skynewsus | 'Critical breakthrough' in cure for baldness | A cure for baldness could be within sight Scientists have discovered a "critical breakthrough" in the cure for baldness after creating natural-looking hair from stem cells. US researchers said they have refined a method which allowed them to grow hair through the skin of mice using dermal papilla cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells. The study involved the human stem cells being combined with mice cells before they were attached to a 3D biodegradable scaffold made from the same material as dissolvable stitches. It helped control the direction of hair growth and aided the stem cells to integrate into the skin. The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in Los Angeles. "Our new protocol... overcomes key technological challenges that kept our discovery from real-world use," said Alexey Terskik, of Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in California. "Now we have a robust, highly controlled method for generating natural-looking hair that grows through the skin using an unlimited source of human iPSC-derived dermal papilla cells. "This is a critical breakthrough in the development of cell-based hair-loss therapies and the regenerative medicine field." Scientists are now looking at applying the same process in humans as a treatment for hair loss, claiming there is an "unlimited" supply of stem cells which can be derived from a simple blood draw. Male pattern baldness affects around 50% of men over the age of 50, and is caused by a combination of genetic and hormonal factors, according to the British Association of Dermatologists. Current treatments include finasteride and minoxidil, which do not work for everyone and only work for as long as they are used. Other treatments include steroid injections and creams applied to bald patches and hair transplants, which can cost anywhere between £1,000 and £30,000. | null | http://news.sky.com/story/baldness-cure-breakthrough-discovered-by-scientists-11750594 | 2019-06-28 09:38:00+00:00 | 1,561,729,080 | 1,567,537,791 | health | health treatment |
531,709 | sputnik--2019-04-18--Doctors Cure Bubble Boy Disease Using Edited HIV Genes | 2019-04-18T00:00:00 | sputnik | Doctors Cure ‘Bubble Boy’ Disease Using Edited HIV Genes | The revolutionary new gene therapy was developed in tandem between St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Benioff Children's Hospital, and the results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday. Second Ever Patient May Have Been Cured of HIV - Reports Based on a study of eight children that began when they were infants, the doctors found that by editing a portion of the patients' blood stem cells and adding a genetically modified HIV virus, seven of them were able to develop normal immune systems that could fight infections and even receive vaccines, something they hadn't been able to do previously. The procedure took between six and 24 months to be fully effective. The children were all born with severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome (SCID), a genetic defect in which the bone marrow, which is the body's blood cell factory, fails to produce functional immune system cells able to combat infections. It affects 1 in 200,000 newborns, almost exclusively males. Most infants born with SCID will die within a year or two of their birth. "This therapy has cured the patients," Ewelina Mamcarz, of the St. Jude Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, said in a Wednesday press release. She noted that more observation is necessary, though. "These patients are toddlers now, who are responding to vaccinations and have immune systems to make all immune cells they need for protection from infections as they explore the world and live normal lives." Mamcarz noted. "This is a first for patients with SCID-X1." Changed Man With 'Space Genes': Alterations in US Astronaut's Body Startled NASA "While longer follow-up is needed to assess any late effects of treatment, these results suggest most patients treated with this gene therapy will develop a complete durable immune response without side effects," co-author Mort Cowan, a UCSF professor of pediatrics and principal investigator of the trial at the university, noted in the statement. The nickname "bubble boy" comes from one 1970s Texas family's solution to the disease: keep their son in a protective plastic bubble to protect him from coming into contact with things that might infect him. The boy died at the age of 12 during a bone marrow transplant — then a risky procedure, AP reported. Doctors had long believed that gene editing held the solution for the problem, but early attempts had a dangerous side-effect: because destroying part of the defective bone marrow is necessary, patients tended to develop leukemia, a cancer of the bone marrow. New Antibody Therapy an ‘Important, Early Step’ Toward Twice-Yearly HIV Treatment It's deeply ironic, then, that salvation from this illness should come in the form of HIV, the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a disease that kills by weakening the body's immune system so that once-minor infections become deadly. When news of the medical triumph hit Wall Street, stocks in the tiny biotechnology company that's licensed the treatment, Mustang Bio Inc., spiked by 360 percent. Having closed the previous day at $2.66 per share, by 9:40 a.m. shares were selling at $9.74 each. However, when this article went to publication, that enthusiasm had somewhat worn off, declining to about $5.64 per share. "The data are extraordinary for every single patient," Chief Executive Officer Manny Litchman told the Washington Post Thursday. "It's that compelling nature of the data, in particular for those who don't have a matched sibling donor, that we believe will convince the FDA to do this [approve the treatment]. There is precedent in other rare diseases. We don't think it's crazy at all… We need to be bold, we think it's important to be bold for these kids who need this therapy." | null | https://sputniknews.com/science/201904181074269171-Doctors-Cure-Bubble-Boy-Disease-Edited-HIV-Genes/ | 2019-04-18 20:18:00+00:00 | 1,555,633,080 | 1,567,542,607 | health | health treatment |
533,130 | sputnik--2019-05-03--Experimental Drug Cocktail Tipped to Cure Sexually Transmitted Super Gonorrhoea | 2019-05-03T00:00:00 | sputnik | Experimental Drug Cocktail Tipped to Cure Sexually Transmitted Super Gonorrhoea | A light in the end of the tunnel has emerged for patients suffering from the drug-resistant sexually transmitted infection that has been on the rise and become one of the major worries for scientists and medics. Strains of gonorrhoea that have developed a resistance against the antibiotic azithromycin — normally used to treat the infection — have been dubbed by scientists as "super-gonorrhoea." "Everyone can significantly reduce their risk by using condoms with all new and casual partners," explained the UK National Health Service. The concern in the medical community is largely caused by the fact that the superbug develops resistant to drugs used to treat it, leaving patients unprotected. "We know that the bacterium that causes gonorrhoea can rapidly develop resistance to other antibiotics that are used for treatment, so we cannot afford to be complacent. If strains of gonorrhoea emerge that are resistant to both azithromycin and ceftriaxone, treatment options would be limited as there is currently no new antibiotic available to treat the infection," said Dr Gwenda Hughes, consultant scientist and head of the STI section at Public Health England. The newly found combination of drugs by University Hospitals Birmingham could pave the way for a sought-after treatment. The first case of ‘super gonorrhoea' was recorded in 2018, when a British man contracted the disease after returning from South East Asia. | null | https://sputniknews.com/europe/201905031074678353-super-gonorrhoea-drugs-treatment/ | 2019-05-03 13:56:00+00:00 | 1,556,906,160 | 1,567,541,328 | health | health treatment |
921,509 | thesun--2019-01-03--Drug used to treat Lady Gagas fibromyalgia could cure agonising sex condition for millions | 2019-01-03T00:00:00 | thesun | Drug used to treat Lady Gaga’s fibromyalgia ‘could cure agonising sex condition for millions’ | A DRUG used to treat the chronic pain condition fibromyalgia could cure painful sex for millions of women. Experts tested the medicine, Gabapentin, on 230 women who had suffered pain during sex for more than five years. All of the women experience less pain and discomfort during sex, as well as an increase in their libido. The drug is often used to treat fibromyalgia, the chronic pain condition that forced Lady Gaga to postpone her European world tour in 2017, and has also been used to treat pain in patients who have previously had herpes and to help manage epilepsy. Experts from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School wanted to see if it would help women who suffer from dyspareunia. The umbrella term is used to describe a number of reasons why sex might be uncomfortable, even agony, for women. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists some 75 per cent of women experience painful sex at some point in their lives. For some women it causes a burning, stinging sensation, for others it's excruciating. The women in the study were diagnosed with provoked vulvodynia, a chronic pain syndrome characterised by symptoms such as stinging, burning, irritation or itching at the entry to the vagina. The pain usually occurs with contact, such as from tampon insertion or intercourse, which can lead to sexual dysfunction. Lead author Gloria Bachmann, director of the Women's Health Institute at the school, said: "Previous studies have suggested Gabapentin reduces the pain of fibromyalgia, a chronic condition that includes widespread pain in various parts of the body. "Our theory was that reducing pelvic floor muscle pain might reduce vulvodynia pain overall and thus improve sexual function. "We found that women with greater muscle pain responded better in terms of pain and improved arousal than those with less pain, which suggests that Gabapentin be considered for treatment in women who have significant muscle tightness and spasm in the pelvic region." The study, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, opens the door for potential new treatments for millions of women. We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours | adowney | https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/8109598/ady-gaga-fibromyalgia-drug-sex-condition/ | 2019-01-03 10:57:01+00:00 | 1,546,531,021 | 1,567,554,103 | health | health treatment |
965,426 | thesun--2019-06-17--Scientists may be close to finding asthma cure after creating the first map of every cell in human l | 2019-06-17T00:00:00 | thesun | Scientists may be close to finding asthma cure after creating the first map of every cell in human lungs | SCIENTISTS hope they are closer to an asthma cure after creating the first human lung map. The “atlas” charting every cell in the organ has already transformed knowledge of the disease. It includes the building blocks of the respiratory systems in both patients and healthy people - offering hope for the development of new drug treatments for 350million sufferers. It was used to discover which cells cause mucus production in asthmatics, whose lungs were compared with healthy ones. Senior author Dr Sarah Teichmann, of the Wellcome Sanger Institute and co-chair of the Human Cell Atlas Organising Committee, said: "As part of the Human Cell Atlas initiative, we have created the first comprehensive cellular map of the lungs. "Our large-scale, open access data reveals the activity of different cells, their communication pathways and locations. "The lung cell atlas will provide a great resource for further lung research and we hope that it will enable the identification of potential new therapeutic targets for asthma relief." Now they plan to map every body cell in a vast project called the Human Cell Atlas Initiative. It's hoped the global initiative will eventually boost research into illnesses ranging from asthma to dementia, heart disease and cancer. | Stephanie Chase | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9316388/asthma-cure-human-lung-map/ | 2019-06-17 18:45:14+00:00 | 1,560,811,514 | 1,567,539,019 | health | health treatment |
971,257 | thesun--2019-07-03--HIV cure closer than ever as scientists wipe out virus for first time in living animals | 2019-07-03T00:00:00 | thesun | HIV cure ‘closer than ever’ as scientists wipe out virus for first time in living animals | SCIENTISTS are "closer than ever" to finding a cure for HIV after discovering a way to wipe out the virus in living animals for the first time. Researchers say it marks a critical step towards a possible cure for humans - and clinical trials could begin as early as next year. Current treatment focuses on the use of antiretroviral therapy, known as ART, which suppresses HIV replication, but does not eliminate the virus from the body. It's not seen as a cure and requires life-long use because if the treatment is stopped, the virus can renew replication and fuel the development of AIDS. But researchers at Temple University in Philadelphia and the University of Nebraska say they have come up with a revolutionary gene-editing tool. The team injected mice with human bone barrow to mimic the immune system and say they were able to eliminate HIV in nine of the 21 animals. Senior investigator Professor Kamel Khalili, an AIDS expert at Temple University, said: "Our study shows treatment to suppress HIV replication and gene editing therapy, when given sequentially, can eliminate HIV from cells and organs of infected animals." His team used a technique called CRISPR-Cas9 that can snip faulty DNA with a harmless virus and has been likened to a pair of "molecular scissors". It combines this with a recently developed therapeutic strategy known as LASER (long-acting slow-effective release) ART. The technique targets viral "sanctuaries" - maintaining HIV replication at low levels for extended periods of time. This also reduces the frequency of treatments. The long-lasting medications were made possible by pharmacological changes in the chemical structure of antiretroviral drugs. HIV rebound is directly attributed to the ability of the virus to integrate its DNA sequence into the genomes of cells of the immune system, where it lies dormant and beyond the reach of antiretroviral drugs. In the study, published in Nature Communications, the modified drug was packaged into nanocrystals, which readily distribute to tissues where HIV is likely to be lying dormant. From there, the nanocrystals, stored within cells for weeks, slowly release the drug. Dr Khalili explained: "We wanted to see whether LASER ART could suppress HIV replication long enough for CRISPR-Cas9 to completely rid cells of viral DNA." To test their idea, the researchers used mice engineered to produce human T cells susceptible to HIV infection. Once infection was established, mice were treated with LASER ART and subsequently with CRISPR-Cas9. At the end of the treatment period, mice were examined and analyses revealed complete elimination of HIV DNA in about one-third of HIV-infected mice. Dr Khalili said: "The big message of this work is that it takes both CRISPR-Cas9 and virus suppression through a method such as LASER ART, administered together, to produce a cure for HIV infection. "We now have a clear path to move ahead to trials in non-human primates and possibly clinical trials in human patients within the year." Just over a generation ago the world was in the grip of AIDS hysteria, but thanks to modern drugs the picture has transformed. Today it's more akin to a long-term condition than a certain death sentence and the number of new infections are declining in most parts of the world. Earlier this year health secretary Matt Hancock promised by 2030 there would be no new cases of HIV in England. Co senior investigator Dr Howard Gendelman, of Nebraska University, who developed LASER ART, said: "This achievement could not have been possible without an extraordinary team effort that included virologists, immunologists, molecular biologists, pharmacologists, and pharmaceutical experts. "Only by pooling our resources together were we able to make this groundbreaking discovery." In previous work, Dr Khalili's team used CRISPR-Cas9 technology to develop a novel gene editing and gene therapy delivery system aimed at removing HIV DNA from genomes harbouring the virus. In rats and mice, they showed that the gene editing system could effectively excise large fragments of HIV DNA from infected cells, significantly impacting viral gene expression. Similar to ART, however, gene editing cannot completely eliminate HIV on its own. The researchers now believed they have solved the problem. We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368 . You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours. | Gemma Mullin | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9427176/hiv-cure-eliminate-virus-mice-study/ | 2019-07-03 11:00:05+00:00 | 1,562,166,005 | 1,567,537,063 | health | health treatment |
991,959 | thesun--2019-12-19--Scientists CURE alcoholic by drilling into his head and zapping his brain with electricity while he’ | 2019-12-19T00:00:00 | thesun | Scientists CURE alcoholic by drilling into his head and zapping his brain with electricity while he’s still awake | SCIENTISTS have cured an alcoholic by zapping his brain with electricity via probes in his head. Dr Frank Plummer, 67, was on the verge of drinking himself to death before the experimental surgery. He drank almost a bottle of whisky a night but was in denial until his liver failed in 2012. Dr Plummer received a transplant in 2014 but continued boozing until that also began to give up. The infectious diseases expert turned to the trial in Toronto, Canada, as a last resort. Medics drilled holes into his head and implanted two electrodes in his brain while he was still awake. The electrodes are connected to a battery pack fitted under his collar bone. The £11,000 treatment sends electrical pulses into the area of the brain linked to addiction and reward. It is said to regulate or reset the faulty brain activity that makes addicts crave alcohol. One year after the surgery, his stimulator is on 24 hours a day and he no longer constantly craves alcohol. He is even able to have the odd tipple like a non-problem drinker. Dr Plummer said: “The treatment has changed my life. It has saved my life. “I don’t think about alcohol all the time like I used to. I drink occasionally but I don’t crave it.” His wife Jo Kennelly, 53, said: “He not only committed his life to science, he actually committed his brain to it, literally.” Alcohol killed more than 7,500 Brits last year. • GOT a story? Ring The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or email [email protected] | The Sun | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10589907/docs-cure-alcoholic-brain-electricity/ | Thu, 19 Dec 2019 22:35:48 +0000 | 1,576,812,948 | 1,576,815,907 | health | health treatment |
1,085,888 | vaxxter--2019-02-09--Mayo Clinic Research Shows Measles May Cure Cancer | 2019-02-09T00:00:00 | vaxxter | Mayo Clinic Research Shows Measles May Cure Cancer | Scientists working at the Mayo Clinic discovered that measles may act as an unlikely ally in the fight against cancer. This isn’t the first time that the measles cancer cure link has made headlines. Back in 2014, a study involving the use of the measles virus for cancer therapy showed similar promise. A CNN article highlighted a woman’s cancer going into remission after a measles therapy treatment. The subject of the CNN story, 49-year-old Stacy Erholtz, suffered from an incurable form of blood cancer. Erholtz was subjected to several rounds of chemotherapy and various other cancer treatments before being cured by the measles virus therapy. “The idea here is that a virus can be trained to specifically damage a cancer and to leave other tissues in the body unharmed,” said the lead study author, Dr. Stephen Russell. The concept of treating cancer with measles falls under virotherapy. The Mayo Clinic says that thousands of people have been treated using live viruses, such as measles. “I think we succeeded because we pushed the dose higher than others have pushed it,” Russell said. “And I think that is critical. The amount of virus that’s in the bloodstream really is the driver of how much gets into the tumors.” In 2016, researchers unveiled similar results with ovarian cancer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and breast cancer, in a paper titled, “Measles to the rescue.” Most mainstream media outlets ran the story, including Reuters, the Washington Post, Daily Telegraph, and Daily Mail. There is a great divide regarding what this could mean for both measles and cancer. Some believe this means measles isn’t the enemy. While the evidence of measles therapy helping fight cancer is compelling, government and public funded cancer research programs, such as Cancer Research UK, were quick to condemn the findings. “The researchers used a genetically modified virus, and there’s no evidence that the regular measles or MMR jab can cure, prevent or cause any type of cancer,” they state. But could this mean that the media’s assault on measles is unfair? One thing is certain, the “outrage” narratives over measles in the media are far from over even if the virus cures cancer entirely. | Vaxxter Staff | https://vaxxter.com/mayo-clinic-trials-show-measles-may-cure-cancer/ | 2019-02-09 19:32:27+00:00 | 1,549,758,747 | 1,567,549,096 | health | health treatment |
338,054 | naturalnews--2019-12-19--The top 10 best natural cures and healing remedies of 2019 | 2019-12-19T00:00:00 | naturalnews | The top 10 best natural cures and healing remedies of 2019 | (Natural News) This year saw a lot of promising headlines related to natural cures, although you wouldn’t know that by taking a look at the mainstream media. Here’s a look at the top stories we reported on in 2019 related to healing remedies. Is nutritional psychiatry the future of mental health treatments?? One reason so many people aren’t successful when it comes to managing mental health issues like depression and anxiety could be their diet. Nutrient deficiencies are increasingly being identified as culprits behind a host of mental problems like bipolar disorder and ADHD, and the field of nutritional psychiatry could well hold the key to dealing with these issues. It’s very exciting to think that eating the right foods could keep countless people away from taking risky antidepressants and antipsychotics. Did you know that turmeric is just as effective as 14 pharmaceutical drugs?? If you’ve been wondering why so many people make such a big deal about turmeric, the answers are in this article by Lance D Johnson. More than 5,000 studies have illustrated the health benefits of this ancient spice, and it can even replace more than a dozen different medications that countless people regularly take in many cases. Cholesterol meds, diabetes drugs, and antidepressants are just a few of the drugs on the list that could be avoided with the help of turmeric. Ditch the aspirin! Ginger works just as well … with NONE of the side effects? If you’re taking an aspirin a day to prevent heart disease, listen up: You may be able to get all the benefits without the risks of excessive bleeding and organ failure by switching to ginger instead. Not only is it anti-inflammatory, but it works in the same way as aspirin when it comes to blocking COX-2, an enzyme that promotes the inflammation that can lead to heart disease and chronic illness. Like aspirin, it can also thin your blood to prevent clots from forming. 100% organic essential oil sets now available for your home and personal care, including Rosemary, Oregano, Eucalyptus, Tea Tree, Clary Sage and more, all 100% organic and laboratory tested for safety. A multitude of uses, from stress reduction to topical first aid. See the complete listing here, and help support this news site. Herbal remedies that increase blood circulation in the feet Poor circulation and swelling in the feet are all too common, and many people don’t realize that certain natural remedies can take care of this problem quite nicely. Ginkgo biloba, garlic, and hawthorn berries can all improve blood circulation in your feet without the side effects of prescription medication. Coconut oil better than DEET at repelling insects, compelling new research shows? DEET is great at repelling insects, but its effects on your health are enough to turn most people off from using it. An exciting study revealed that the fatty acids in coconut oil are a strong repellent that can last for a long time against disease-transmitting insects like ticks, mosquitoes, biting flies and bed bugs. Scientists are now developing formulas that use the compounds in the oil that have this effect. These healthy foods are proven to lower blood pressure better than drugs? It seems like almost everyone above a certain age is on blood pressure drugs these days, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Plenty of foods can work just as well as many popular blood pressure drugs, if not better. For example, beets, garlic and dark chocolate have all been shown to help maintain healthy blood pressure levels. What are the benefits of drinking apple cider vinegar before bedtime?? Apple cider vinegar is one of those wonder foods that has a lot of health benefits, but it’s particularly helpful when taken before bed. Easing acid reflux, preventing indigestion, stabilizing blood sugar, and relieving a sore throat are just a few of the accomplishments on its resume. For anyone who believes that Western medicine is failing us greatly when it comes to cancer treatment, the seven-part documentary called Eastern Medicine – Journey Through Asia is a must-see series. It looks at natural cancer treatments in places like Japan, Thailand, India, Taiwan, and the Philippines, reminding everyone that chemotherapy isn’t the only option. Probiotics reduce the need for antibiotics, new review concludes? A recent review of 12 studies found that children and infants who took probiotics daily had a 29 percent lower likelihood of needing antibiotics, and when just the highest-quality studies were included, the percentage was an impressive 53 percent. This could be a valuable approach for reducing the problem of antibiotic resistance. Candida overgrowth is a surprisingly common problem, and following the right diet can go a long way toward stemming the issue. However, there are some natural remedies you can try to enhance healing, such as grapefruit seed extract, coconut oil, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, and clove oil. You can count on Natural News to keep you informed about all the latest developments in natural cures throughout 2020 and beyond. | Isabelle Z. | http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-12-19-top-10-natural-cures-healing-remedies-2019.html | Thu, 19 Dec 2019 19:07:54 +0000 | 1,576,800,474 | 1,576,815,155 | health | health treatment |
336,351 | naturalnews--2019-07-02--Herbal remedies from traditional Chinese medicine found to effectively treat Alzheimers disease | 2019-07-02T00:00:00 | naturalnews | Herbal remedies from traditional Chinese medicine found to effectively treat Alzheimer's disease |  * * * ([Natural News](https://www.naturalnews.com)) In a review published in _The American Journal of Chinese Medicine_ , researchers from China looked at the potential of Chinese herbal medicines on the treatment of Alzheimerâs disease and dementia. They found that certain components from Chinese herbal medicines may be used as a [natural, safe, cost-effective treatment for Alzheimerâs disease](https://science.news/2019-06-18-therapeutic-effects-of- chinese-herbal-medicine-alzheimers-disease-dementia.html). [Alzheimer’s disease](https://naturalpedia.com/alzheimers-disease-causes-side- effects-and-treatments-at-naturalpedia-com.html) is the most common form of dementia known to destroy memory and other cognitive functions. This condition not only severely reduces the quality of life for its victims but also brings a heavy economic burden to the family and society. Conventional treatments for the condition are often ineffective and have serious side effects. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new strategies to be developed for Alzheimer’s disease treatment. In the review, the researchers examined studies on the active components of Chinese herbal medicines and their therapeutic effects on Alzheimerâs disease. One of the active compounds reviewed was ginsenoside Rg1, which is extracted from [ginseng root](https://naturalpedia.com/panax-ginseng-sources-health- risks.html) ( _Radix Ginseng_ ). It helps treat Alzheimerâs disease by exerting a gamma-secretase inhibitor effect that reduces amyloid-beta aggregation, which plays a role in Alzheimerâs disease development. It can also inhibit the programmed cell death of nerve cells. A compound derived from the red sage root ( _Radix Salviae miltiorrhizae_ ) called tanshinone IIA, and baicalin, which is extracted from the root of the Chinese skullcap ( _Radix Scutellariae_ ), were found to inhibit the oxidative stress injury in nerve cells. _ **The power of the elements** : Discover Colloidal Silver Mouthwash with quality, natural ingredients like Sangre de Drago sap, black walnut hulls, menthol crystals and more. Zero artificial sweeteners, colors or alcohol. [Learn more at the Health Ranger Store](https://colloidalsilvermouthwash.healthrangerstore.com/colloidal- silver-mouthwash.html) and help support this news site._ Researchers also found that icariin, which is extracted from barrenwort ( _Epimedium brevicornum_ ), can reduce amyloid beta levels and the hyperphosphorylation of tau protein. It can also inhibit oxidative stress and programmed cell death. In addition, a compound derived from toothed clubmoss ( _Huperzia serrata_ ) called huperzine A was found to exhibit a cholinesterase- inhibitor effect. Active components evodiamine, extracted from evodia fruit ( _Fructus_ _Evodiae_ ), and curcumin, extracted from the dried rhizome of [turmeric](https://naturalpedia.com/turmeric-sources-health-benefits- nutrients-uses-and-constituents-at-naturalpedia-com.html) ( _Rhizoma Curcumae Longae_ ), exhibit anti-inflammatory actions. Overall, these findings suggested that active components from these Chinese herbal medicines may help in the treatment of Alzheimerâs disease, especially because they have multi-target effects and fewer side effects. ## More natural ways to treat Alzheimerâs disease Treatment for Alzheimerâs disease focuses on improving the quality of life of people with the condition. Here are [other alternative treatments for Alzheimerâs](https://www.healthline.com/health/alzheimers-disease /alternative-treatments)Â in addition to the Chinese herbal medicines mentioned above: * **Acupuncture:**[Acupuncture](https://naturalpedia.com/acupuncture-sources-health-benefits-at-naturalpedia-com.html)Â is a form of traditional Chinese medicine that uses fine, sterile needles to promote healing. This type of therapy is said to stimulate the body and improve the flow of energy called “qi.” A review of studies on acupuncture published in the _International Review of Neurobiology_ has reported that acupuncture may boost the mood and cognitive function of people with Alzheimerâs. Another study, which was published in the _Neurobiology of Aging_ , has shown that acupuncture may treat anxiety and depression, boost energy, and relieve pain in people with Alzheimer’s disease. * **Aromatherapy:**[Aromatherapy](https://naturalpedia.com/aromatherapy-sources-health-benefits-at-naturalpedia-com.html) is a form of therapy that uses essential oils to improve the well-being of a person. Essential oils, such as rosemary, lemon, lavender, and orange essential oils, are believed to help improve the thinking abilities of older adults with Alzheimerâs. * **Omega-3 fatty acids:** Regular consumption of omega-3 fatty acids may reduce cognitive impairment, according to a study published in the _Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease_. Fatty fish and nuts are some of the best sources of these healthy fats. Prevention is still better than cure. Experts suggest to [keep the body and brain working](https://www.naturalnews.com/2017-09-22-healthy-lifestyle- proven-to-help-prevent-dementia-four-tips-work-best.html) to preserve cognitive function and prevent Alzheimerâs disease and other forms of dementia. For more articles on other Chinese herbal medicines that help in the treatment of Alzheimerâs disease, visit [ChineseMedicine.news](ChineseMedicine.news). **Sources include:** [Science.news](https://science.news/2019-06-18-therapeutic-effects-of-chinese- herbal-medicine-alzheimers-disease-dementia.html) [Healthline.com](https://www.healthline.com/health/alzheimers-disease /alternative-treatments) | Michelle Simmons | http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-07-02-herbal-remedies-from-traditional-chinese-medicine-found-to-effectively-treat-alzheimers-disease.html | 2019-07-02 18:42:36+00:00 | 1,562,107,356 | 1,567,537,211 | health | health treatment |
336,613 | naturalnews--2019-07-31--The potential of mulberry for managing symptoms of diabetes mellitus | 2019-07-31T00:00:00 | naturalnews | The potential of mulberry for managing symptoms of diabetes mellitus | # The potential of mulberry for managing symptoms of diabetes mellitus Wednesday, July 31, 2019 by: [Evangelyn Rodriguez](author/dominguez "Posts by Evangelyn Rodriguez") _Tags:[alternative medicine](tag/alternative-medicine), [anti-diabetes](tag /anti-diabetes), [anti-inflammatory](tag/anti-inflammatory), [antioxidant](tag/antioxidant), [Chinese medicine](tag/chinese-medicine), [clean food](tag/clean-food), [diabetes mellitus](tag/diabetes-mellitus), [Diabetes treatment](tag/diabetes-treatment), [disease treatments](tag /disease-treatments), [food cures](tag/food-cures), [food is medicine](tag /food-is-medicine), [functional food](tag/functional-food), [glucose absorption](tag/glucose-absorption), [goodfood](tag/goodfood), [goodhealth](tag/goodhealth), [goodmedicine](tag/goodmedicine), [goodscience](tag/goodscience), [herbal medicine](tag/herbal-medicine-tags), [herbal medicines](tag/herbal-medicines), [Herbs](tag/herbs), [inflammation](tag/inflammation), [insulin production](tag/insulin- production), [medicinal plants](tag/medicinal-plants), [metabolic disorder](tag/metabolic-disorder), [metabolic health](tag/metabolic-health), [Mulberry](tag/mulberry), [natural cures](tag/natural-cures), [natural medicine](tag/natural-medicine), [phytonutrients](tag/phytonutrients), [prevention](tag/prevention), [remedies](tag/remedies), [research](tag/research), [superfoods](tag/superfoods), [TCM](tag/tcm)_  * * * ([Natural News](https://www.naturalnews.com)) In this review, researchers from different universities in China systematically summarized the chemical composition of mulberry from the genus _Morus_ and the pharmacological effects of each of its medicinal parts on diabetes mellitus. This article was published in _The American Journal of Chinese Medicine_. * Diabetes mellitus is a serious metabolic disorder that is now considered a global epidemic. * Despite new advancements in modern medicine, traditional medicine is still used to prevent and treat diabetes in many countries. For instance, traditional herbal medicines are still commonly used in Asian countries. * Mulberry has been used for thousands of years in China and is still widely used today for the treatment of diabetes. * According to numerous preclinical findings, mulberry is a promising [alternative medicine for diabetes mellitus](http://diabetessciencenews.com). Researchers have identified polyhydroxylated alkaloids, flavonoids, and polysaccharides as the possible active components of mulberry. * Different medicinal parts of mulberry exert therapeutic effects on diabetes mellitus. These effects include improved glucose absorption, enhanced insulin production/secretion, anti-oxidation, and anti-inflammation. The researchers believe that while there are still many challenges to be overcome, there are plenty of opportunities at present to do research that could one day spur the development of mulberry into a clinically approved drug for the widespread treatment of diabetes mellitus. **Journal Reference:** Wei H, Liu S, Liao Y, Ma C, Wang D, Tong J, Feng J, Yi T, Zhu L. A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF THE MEDICINAL POTENTIAL OF MULBERRY IN TREATING DIABETES MELLITUS. The American Journal of Chinese Medicine. 2018;46(08):1743â1770. DOI: [10.1142/s0192415x1850088x](https://doi.org/10.1142/S0192415X1850088X) Receive Our Free Email Newsletter Get independent news alerts on natural cures, food lab tests, cannabis medicine, science, robotics, drones, privacy and more. ### Take Action: Support Natural News by linking to this article from your website **Permalink to this article:** **Embed article link:** (copy HTML code below): **Reprinting this article:** Non-commercial use OK, cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link. **Follow Natural News** on [Steemit](https://steemit.com/@healthranger), [MeWe](https://mewe.com/i/health.ranger), and [GAB](https://gab.ai/naturalnews) | Evangelyn Rodriguez | http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-07-31-mulberry-helps-manage-symptoms-of-diabetes-mellitus.html | 2019-07-31 16:07:05+00:00 | 1,564,603,625 | 1,567,535,237 | health | health treatment |
336,589 | naturalnews--2019-07-30--Review looks at efficacy of herbal medicines against influenza virus | 2019-07-30T00:00:00 | naturalnews | Review looks at efficacy of herbal medicines against influenza virus | # Review looks at efficacy of herbal medicines against influenza virus Tuesday, July 30, 2019 by: [Evangelyn Rodriguez](author/dominguez "Posts by Evangelyn Rodriguez") _Tags:[alternative medicine](tag/alternative-medicine), [antiviral](tag/antiviral), [disease treatments](tag/disease-treatments), [drug-resistant virus](tag/drug-resistant-virus), [Flu](tag/flu), [goodhealth](tag/goodhealth), [goodmedicine](tag/goodmedicine), [herbal medicine](tag/herbal-medicine-tags), [Herbs](tag/herbs), [immune system](tag /immune-system), [influenza](tag/influenza), [influenza virus](tag/influenza- virus), [medicinal plants](tag/medicinal-plants), [natural cures](tag/natural- cures), [natural medicine](tag/natural-medicine), [oseltamivir](tag/oseltamivir), [plant compounds](tag/plant-compounds), [remedies](tag/remedies), [research](tag/research), [virus](tag/virus)_  * * * ([Natural News](https://www.naturalnews.com)) In this article, researchers from _The Ohio State University_ systematically reviewed various herbal extracts which, according to numerous studies, exhibit anti-viral activities against the influenza virus. This review was published in _The American Journal of Chinese Medicine_. * The researchers noted that the influenza virus has remained a consistent threat to the well-being of a variety of species on the planet. * Due to its high mutation rate, the influenza virus has rapidly and continuously evolved. It has now generated new strains that prove resistant to antiviral medications commercially available today. * This increased resistance has compelled the scientific community to explore other compounds that have antiviral effects against the influenza virus. * Numerous herbal extracts have shown antiviral activity against viruses, including influenza. * These herbal extracts target viral proteins like hemagglutinin, neuraminidase, and matrix 2 proteins. * Some studies have also reported that certain herbal extracts can inhibit the replication of oseltamivir-resistant strains. In particular, herbal extracts that contain pentacyclic triterpenes have exhibited higher anti-viral activity than oseltamivir, an antiviral drug. * The researchers discussed the possibility of targeting various host-cell signaling pathways used by the influenza virus during replication. * According to studies, infected host cell pathways are hijacked by intracellular signaling cascades, such as the NF- _k_ B signaling, the PI3K/Akt pathway, the MAPK pathway, and the PKC/PKR signaling cascade. * Herbal antivirals can target these pathways by suppressing the nuclear export of influenza vRNP. This inhibits the phosphorylation signaling cascade. Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that [herbal antivirals can effectively inhibit the influenza virus](http://plantmedicine.news) and have the potential to be developed into modern antiviral medicines. **Journal Reference:** Lee JY, Abundo MEC, Lee CW. HERBAL MEDICINES WITH ANTIVIRAL ACTIVITY AGAINST THE INFLUENZA VIRUS, A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW. The American Journal of Chinese Medicine. 2018;46(08):1663â1700. DOI: [10.1142/s0192415x18500854](https://doi.org/10.1142/S0192415X18500854) Receive Our Free Email Newsletter Get independent news alerts on natural cures, food lab tests, cannabis medicine, science, robotics, drones, privacy and more. ### Take Action: Support Natural News by linking to this article from your website **Permalink to this article:** **Embed article link:** (copy HTML code below): **Reprinting this article:** Non-commercial use OK, cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link. **Follow Natural News** on [Steemit](https://steemit.com/@healthranger), [MeWe](https://mewe.com/i/health.ranger), and [GAB](https://gab.ai/naturalnews) | Evangelyn Rodriguez | http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-07-30-efficacy-of-herbal-medicines-against-influenza-virus.html | 2019-07-30 03:02:24+00:00 | 1,564,470,144 | 1,567,535,346 | health | health treatment |
57,870 | birminghammail--2019-03-12--Paramedics performing life-saving surgery on knife victims on streets of Birmingham | 2019-03-12T00:00:00 | birminghammail | Paramedics 'performing life-saving surgery' on knife victims on streets of Birmingham | Paramedics are performing lifesaving surgery and stitching up stab victims on the roadside. The 999 medics - who are first on the scene - are having to open up chests and resuscitate patients as the region is gripped by a spiralling knife epidemic which has claimed the lives of three teenagers and maimed countless others. Paramedics from the West Midlands Ambulance Service told the BBC’S Victoria Derbyshire how horrific wounds -such as severed body parts- have become the norm compared to five years ago. Critical care paramedic Kerry Penn-Hasman, said: “It (the knife) might go into their heart, they might be stabbed in their tummy, they might be stabbed in the back, they might have defensive wounds. “I’ve seen people with partial amputations of their fingers, defending themselves from attackers trying to stab them.” Another paramedic said: “So increasingly we are going out to people who have stabbed to life threatening areas, up to and including opening their chest on the roadside to try to stem bleeding, get a grip of bleeding and resuscitate them. “For the first five years in this role, I hadn’t opened a chest but now unfortunately I have got some experience of at least one a year for the last three years.” West Midlands Police has introduced unprecedented stop and search powers across the region as they try to bring knife crime under control and restore a sense of law and order. Three teenagers have been murdered and as of the end of February, there have been 269 knife crimes recorded in the city since Jan 1. Chief Constable Dave Thompson said at the introduction of Section 60 powers:“Immediate and intensive action is needed to prevent this current crisis from continuing. “My officers have been given extensive powers to search people without the need to suspect they are carrying weapons. “I recognise this will upset some innocent young people, but I fear the carriage of weapons in the current environment is growing, often through fear, and we can take no chances. “For our young people, their families and communities we need to stop this emergency quickly. “Without specific areas or people to target that means blunt action to prevent violence.” | birminghammail.co.uk | https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/paramedics-performing-life-saving-surgery-15962584 | 2019-03-12 15:52:56+00:00 | 1,552,420,376 | 1,567,546,521 | health | health treatment |
66,313 | birminghammail--2019-09-07--This is Birminghams top GP surgery - and why patients rate it the best | 2019-09-07T00:00:00 | birminghammail | This is Birmingham's top GP surgery - and why patients rate it the best | Keynell Court surgery in Kings Norton has been confirmed as the city's best GP practice. The top doctors surgeries in Birmingham have been revealed in a brand-new survey with Keynell Court emerging as the best rated. The surgery has beaten scores of other practices in the city to claim the number one spot as the patients’ choice. The new league table is based on the latest findings from the GP Patient Survey - a huge ongoing poll involving more than a million people a year. Patients at Keynell Court ranked it best for a variety of factors - and we have identified them below. Nearly 95 per cent of patients at Keynell Court felt their doctor listened to them properly, while more than 97 per cent said they were treated with care and concern. One hundred per cent said reception staff were helpful, and 98 per cent said their overall experience of the surgery was good. In its latest Care Quality Commission report, which was conducted in 2015, the GP surgery was rated 'good' in every category. The CQC rated the practice 'good' for its safety, care, effectiveness and leadership. It rated its services 'good' in the following categories: people with long term conditions, families and children, older people, working age, people experiencing poor mental health and people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. The CQC added: "We found evidence that practice staff worked together and were enthusiastic to make on-going improvements for the benefit of patients. "The practice was visibly clean. The standards of hygiene were regularly monitored to protect patients from unnecessary infections. "There was a register of all vulnerable patients who were reviewed regularly. Patients we spoke with told us they were satisfied with the care they received and their medicines were regularly reviewed." It continued: "Practice staff had identified carers and entered them on a register. GPs offered them advice and support. There was a dedicated area in the waiting room that offered information about support systems and groups." And the report added: "The practice was able to demonstrate a good track record for safety. Effective systems were in place for reporting safety incidents. Untoward incidents were investigated and where possible improvements made to prevent similar occurrences. "We found that patients were treated with respect and their privacy was maintained. "Patients informed us they were very satisfied with the care they received and their ability to book an appointment when they felt they needed to." Keynell Court says: "We welcome new patients. To register, please ask at reception for a form, or telephone us so we can post one out to you. We’ll then ask you to present the completed forms at the surgery. If you have a Medical Card, please bring this with you. We will ask you attend a new patient health check so that we can complete your registration." "We are open to patients living within a 3 mile radius of our post code B30 3QT," it continued. To make an appointment you can ring 0121 458 2619, visit reception during our normal opening times or book online anytime via EMIS access (please ask reception for more information). Wherever possible you will be given an appointment with the doctor of your choice. You may book up to one month in advance. | [email protected] (James Rodger) | https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birminghams-top-gp-surgery-patients-16848658 | 2019-09-07 04:30:00+00:00 | 1,567,845,000 | 1,569,330,862 | health | health treatment |
101,503 | cnn--2019-01-15--Rand Paul to travel to Canada for hernia surgery | 2019-01-15T00:00:00 | cnn | Rand Paul to travel to Canada for hernia surgery | Sergio Gor, the senator's communications director, confirmed that Paul sought specialized surgery for a hernia issue at Shouldice Hernia Hospital in Ontario, Canada. "This is a private, world-renowned hospital separate from any system and people come from around the world to pay cash for their services," Gor said. The website for the hospital touts itself as "the global leader in non-mesh hernia repair" that has been operating for more than 70 years. The Shouldice Hernia Hospital is a private hospital administered by regional authorities. Canada has a publicly funded, universal health care system. Paul, a respected eye surgeon, has been a vocal critic of socialized medicine. At the height of the Trump administration's most recent effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act in July 2017, Paul said on Sean Hannity's radio show: "This is about freedom. This is about whether we as Americans should be free to buy what kind of insurance we want. What's best for us and our families. And it's about whether the individual knows best or government knows best. Are we too stupid that President Obama has to tell us what kind of insurance? Does he think Americans are too dumb to make their own decisions?" The senator was attacked as he mowed the yard at his home in Bowling Green, Kentucky in November 2017. Rene Boucher, the man who pleaded guilty to attacking Paul, his neighbor, was sentenced in June to 30 days along with a year of supervised release, according to a case manager with Kentucky Western District federal court. Paul told CNN in January last year that "I still have pain every day, all day. I don't have -- I had the pain of 1,000 knives for about six weeks. I could barely move and barely breathe. I couldn't sleep. And so I am better than I was, but I won't say I'm back to normal yet. But I am getting better." | Elizabeth Landers | http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_allpolitics/~3/h52kr5R0NrI/index.html | 2019-01-15 18:09:31+00:00 | 1,547,593,771 | 1,567,552,424 | health | health treatment |
145,155 | drudgereport--2019-03-18--Worlds first remote brain surgery performed | 2019-03-18T00:00:00 | drudgereport | World's first remote brain surgery performed... | A Chinese surgeon has performed the world’s first remote brain surgery using 5G technology, with the patient 3,000km away from the operating doctor. Dr. Ling Zhipei remotely implanted a neurostimulator into his patient’s brain on Saturday, Chinese state-run media reports. The surgeon manipulated the instruments in the Beijing-based PLAGH hospital from a clinic subsidiary on the southern Hainan island, located 3,000km away. The surgery is said to have lasted three hours and ended successfully. The patient, suffering from Parkinson’s disease, is said to be feeling well after the pioneering operation. The doctor used a computer connected to the next-generation 5G network developed by Chinese tech giant Huawei. The new device enabled a near real-time connection, according to Dr. Ling. “You barely feel that the patient is 3,000 kilometers away,” he said. Conventional 4G networks do not allow surgical operations to be performed due to video lag and remote control delays. The new technology seems to have resolved these issues, the surgeon says. Medical institutions worldwide have made an array of experiments with robotic “telesurgery,” the most striking example being American da Vinci Surgical System. But the technology has yet to make a significant commercial impact, as existing gadgets are criticized for having a number of performance issues. Remote surgery could allow people from far-away or poor regions, as well as war zones, to receive immediate help from top doctors around the globe. Due to its large bandwidth and low latency, 5G enables “extremely low operational delay” during surgery, the manufacturer says. 5G made its debut in remote surgery in January when a Chinese doctor successfully performed an operation on an animal’s liver at Fujian Medical University on the southeastern coast of China. In mid-March, Huawei’s solutions were used in the first-ever human 5G remote surgery – also on a liver – in a hospital in Shenzhen 2,000 km away from the doctor’s workplace in Beijing. Huawei’s efforts in 5G have become an eyesore for Washington after the US-China trade war unfolded last year. The Trump administration has been particularly persistent in trying to blacklist Huawei worldwide over spying allegations. Tensions escalated even further as the company’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, was detained in Canada on a US warrant in December 2018. Along with Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the UK, Washington has barred Huawei from helping to build 5G networks. It also prohibited US government agencies from using Huawei products for “security reasons.” Huawei filed a lawsuit challenging the decision. If you like this story, share it with a friend! | null | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DrudgeReportFeed/~3/WmEhOmtyJNM/ | 2019-03-18 18:10:42+00:00 | 1,552,947,042 | 1,567,545,847 | health | health treatment |
53,818 | birminghammail--2019-01-10--Hundreds of Brummies with mental illnesses arent taking prescribed medication | 2019-01-10T00:00:00 | birminghammail | Hundreds of Brummies with mental illnesses aren’t taking prescribed medication | Hundreds of people in Birmingham with mental health illnesses aren’t taking their prescribed medication. NHS figures reveal that 4,080 people who began treatment for their mental health illnesses in 2017/18 were prescribed medication to help treat their condition. This is the first time that figures on the number of people given medication has been published so it is not known if that figure has risen or fallen from previous years. Of the 4,080 people prescribed medication in Birmingham, 335 people admitted they were not taking it at the start of their treatment - the same as one in every 12 patients. A further 3,925 people in Birmingham were not prescribed any medication at all at the start of their treatment. There were also 2,150 people known to be having treatment for mental health conditions, but for whom it was not recorded whether they were prescribed medication. The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme is run by the NHS, and offers therapies for treating people with illnesses that include OCD, PTSD, panic disorders, and anxiety and depression. Across all CCGs in England, 286,090 people were prescribed medication at the start of their mental health treatment, but 25,045 patients admitted they were not taking it - a rate of one in every 11. Most people receiving care under the IAPT programme who are on medication will be receiving some other form of treatment, too, such as self-help guides and talking therapies. The NHS has rounded the figures to the nearest five. Stephen Buckley, head of information at the mental health charity Mind, said: “Ultimately it’s down to the individual whether they want to take medication or not, and there will be lots of factors to consider. “Medication such as antidepressants and antipsychotics can be effective for some people to manage the symptoms of their mental health problem, but aren’t the answer for everyone. “Medication often comes with side effects that can be very difficult to cope with. “It’s really important everyone given a prescription is aware of potential side effects, and is offered a chance to regularly review their medicines and be offered other treatments such as talking therapies, exercise and arts therapies. “There also needs to be much better support and awareness about coming off medication to ensure people who no longer want to take a medicine can do so safely. “People can and do recover from mental health problems with the right support, but there is no quick fix and mental health problems can resurface at any time. “As well as medication, we also need to look at people’s broader experiences, their lives and other challenges they face, which medication rarely can help with.” | James Rodger | https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/hundreds-brummies-mental-illnesses-arent-15652373 | 2019-01-10 05:30:00+00:00 | 1,547,116,200 | 1,567,553,034 | health | health treatment |
334,551 | naturalnews--2019-02-06--These highly effective alternatives to toxic medication help beat depression | 2019-02-06T00:00:00 | naturalnews | These highly effective alternatives to toxic medication help beat depression | (Natural News) Dealing with depression is tough under the best of circumstances, but if you’re someone who wants to avoid the risks of medication, it can be even more challenging. If you’re depressed, the last thing you need is a medication that will raise your risk of suicide and illness, so what can you do to find some relief? Thankfully, some natural alternatives have made a huge difference for many depression sufferers. If you thought that natural remedies could never work as well as prescription meds, the results people have been getting with these solutions may surprise you. You’ve probably been hearing quite a lot about how miraculous curcumin, a compound in turmeric, is when it comes to problems like inflammation and dementia, but it’s also showing value in treating depression. One study showed that taking 500 milligrams of a bioavailable curcumin extract two times a day was an effective treatment for major depressive disorder; consuming it alongside healthy fats like coconut oil, olive oil or avocado enhances its absorption. It is believed to work by inhibiting the depression enzyme known as monoamine oxidase while boosting depression-slashing neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin. Needless to say, curcumin does not put you at risk of the side effects seen with medication like Prozac, such as suicidal ideation, anxiety, and sleep problems. When you’re looking for a “fix” for a problem like depression, it’s easy to overlook bigger-picture solutions like diet, but by simply making healthy choices when it comes to food, you can see your depression diminish. 100% organic essential oil sets now available for your home and personal care, including Rosemary, Oregano, Eucalyptus, Tea Tree, Clary Sage and more, all 100% organic and laboratory tested for safety. A multitude of uses, from stress reduction to topical first aid. See the complete listing here, and help support this news site. If you want to start with an easy change that will have a big impact, try upping your intake of foods that are high in polyphenols as these compounds improve your brain’s synaptic plasticity while reducing oxidative stress. Studies show they improve depression as well as psychiatric disorders, so look for foods like blueberries, dark chocolate, blackberries, hazelnuts, and flax seeds. You should also increase your intake of omega 3s by opting for foods such as nuts, oily fish, and flaxseed oil. What you don’t eat can be just as important as what you do eat when it comes to fighting depression. Avoid foods that contain artificial ingredients, sugar, and other types of processed food to keep your mood even. If you’re not very active, this might not be what you want to hear, but exercise is a powerful depression fighter. As hard as it may be to find the motivation to work out when you’re depressed, you’ll likely notice an improvement pretty quickly once you get moving, and regular exercise can help keep depression at bay over the long term. A review that was published in the Depression and Anxiety journal showed that aerobic exercise in particular has significant antidepressant effects in those who suffer from clinical depression. In fact, just three sessions of 45 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise per week is enough to relieve clinical depression. The findings were based on the results of 11 studies with more than 400 participants. Saffron has been shown in studies to help fight depression and anxiety. In a study published in the Journal of Complementary and Integrative Medicine, researchers found that depression and anxiety sufferers who took 50 milligram supplements of saffron twice per day over the course of 12 weeks noted improvements in measures from the standard Beck Depression Inventory and Beck Anxiety Inventory. Other studies have shown that it can be just as effective as antidepressant medications like Prozac but without the side effects. When it comes to dealing with depression, you have a lot more options than your doctor may have led you to believe – although many of the best ones aren’t exactly profitable to the medical industry. Given all the toxic effects of prescription medications for depression, you owe it to yourself to give these alternatives a try and see if they can make a difference for you, too. | Isabelle Z. | http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-02-06-highly-effective-alternatives-to-toxic-medication-help-beat-depression.html | 2019-02-06 19:42:26+00:00 | 1,549,500,146 | 1,567,549,449 | health | health treatment |
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