Flesh and Stone - Health and Science News

Researchers uncover how breast cancer tumor cells break free and form metastases

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:30:00 -0500

Attempted cell escape. This scanning electron microscope image shows breast tumor cell (pink) on a thick layer of Matrigel (green), which mimics the basement membrane separating the body’s tissues. This highly invasive cell penetrates the Matrigel layer and “escapes” in a process similar to that of the invasion by tumor cells.

Above: A cell in which the proteases that degrade the proteins of the basement membrane have been inhibited. The cell is therefore no longer able to degrade the basement membrane and cannot escape. Images provided by Renaud Poincloux & Philippe Chavrier/CNRS/Institut Curie

Two new discoveries by researchers at the Institut Curie in Paris may help shed light on why some breast cancers are more aggressive than others. The discoveries could lead to earlier identification of highly invasive tumors and the ability to block metastases formation, according to the researchers.

When tumor cells acquire the capacity to move around and invade other tissues, there is a risk of metastases and cancer treatment becomes more difficult. A team led by research director Phillippe Chavrier has discovered how breast cancer cells break the bonds that tether them to the tumor. The basement membrane around the mammary gland is a barrier to the spread of cancer cells. Three proteins in the tumor cells transport enzymes needed to perforate this barrier, and another protein puts these enzymes in the right place.

Tissues are generally formed by cells arranged side by side. Epithelial cells cover an outer surface, such as the skin or an organ such as the mammary gland, and remain tightly bound together. This cohesion is vital to the body’s functioning, and the epithelial cells remain in position in their original tissue until they die. Sometimes, though, they detach and move away, and while such migration is essential during embryonic development as cells give rise to new tissues, when tumor cells break loose this often heralds the formation of metastases.

How breast cancer cells break loose

Tumor cells can only escape from the mammary gland by accomplishing a series of modifications.

The cell first forms protrusions called invadopodia and anchors them in the basement membrane. These “feet” provide everything needed to breach the membrane. The tumor cells produce a whole range of proteases that degrade the proteins of the extracellular matrix that hems them in, part of which is the basement membrane. These proteases cut a hole in the basement membrane through which the cells can escape.

In one study, published in the June 16 issue of The Journal of Cell Biology, the researchers used a model of metastatic breast cancer cells to demonstrate how the proteins sec3, sec8 and IQGAP1 transport vesicles containing proteases to the invadopodia. Without sec3, sec8 and IQGAP1 the vesicles cannot be fastened to the ends of the invadopodia and so the cells fail to escape into the neighboring tissue. Before the proteases can degrade the membrane, they must first be released from the vesicles.

In another study published in the July 8 issue of Current Biology Chavrier and colleagues show that the protein Vamp7 fuses protease-containing vesicles with the membrane of tumor cells. Only then can the proteases at the ends of the invadopodia progressively erode the basement membrane of the mammary gland. Inactivation of Vamp7 greatly reduces the ability of the breast cancer cells to degrade the extracellular matrix.

Biopiracy: The practice of pirating molecules from nature

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:36:00 -0500

Comments by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, Natural News.com

Did you know that drug companies are taking a significant interest in Chinese herbs? Not any interest in promoting their natural healing properties, of course. Instead, drug companies are researching Chinese herbs in order to discover and pirate molecules from nature that they can modify, patent and manufacture as prescription drugs.

The practice is called "biopiracy," and nobody does it better than Big Pharma. Drug companies have sent pharma soldiers all over the world, targeting medicines from China, the Amazon, the oceans and even the Australian outback to find more molecules they can steal from nature and call their own.

Drug companies do this very quietly, of course. They don't want anyone to know that nature gave them the original ideas for their drugs, and they certainly don't want people figuring out that they can just go straight to nature to find far superior medicine that's safer, more effective and less expensive than patented pharmacological medicines.

What's really interesting about this practice of biopiracy is that Western nations condemn China for copying DVDs, music albums and other intellectual property, yet those same nations routinely steal molecules from Chinese medicines. The message is very clear: We can steal your stuff, but you can't steal ours! (Or, when we steal it's legal, but when you steal, it's a crime.)

The U.S. pharmaceutical industry is engaged in massive global biopiracy, and it pays no royalties to nature or the nations where pharmaceutical candidate molecules are discovered. Instead, pharma-funded scientists just steal ideas from medicine women, shamans, herbalists and anyone gullible enough to share their secrets with drug company scientists. This is all openly tolerated by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which refuses to protect the natural intellectual property on anything created by nature. If man stole it from nature and filed the patent application, then man is considered the "inventor" and is given ownership and control over the molecule, lifeform or seed in question. Monsanto has actually patented pigs!

Essentially, Big Pharma is an industry that relies on stealing from nature, exploiting jilted intellectual property laws, then profiteering by selling synthetic chemical versions of such substances to consumers at monopoly prices. It's an incredible scam, and yet no one seems interested in prosecuting Big Pharma for such crimes.

People in China who copy Hollywood movies and music albums are considered criminals, but people in America who routinely steal from nature for their own personal gain are called "drug researchers." I think it's time we ended the double standard and got honest about drug company theft from nature. Specifically, I am wholly against the patenting of anything found in nature: seeds, genes, lifeforms and phytochemicals. All such items belong to nature and therefore should be shared by us all. No patents should be allowed on such items... ever!

The U.S. intellectual property system that exists today is designed to do one thing: Protect the profits of corporations. It promotes the continued exploitation of nature and the people by greedy corporations, and it forever traps the people of this world in an irreversible cycle of debt and poverty. Because in the end, the people will own nothing and the corporations will "own" everything: the medicine, the land, the patents, the businesses, the genes, the homes and all the seeds, crops and fertilizers. Right now, U.S. corporations have been granted "ownership" over 20% of the human genome, meaning that the DNA in your body is 1/5th corporate property. In time, that number will rise to approach 100%, and the people on this planet will wake up to find themselves in a world where they don't even own their own bodies.

Another U.S. Humane Society undercover investigation reveals ‘loophole’ in ban on downer cattle

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:30:00 -0500

Following release of an investigative video report by the Humane Society of the United States in February that depicted inhumane treatment of sick and 'downer' cattle at a processing facility in California, the USDA announced in May that it would implement a ban on the slaughter for human consumption of cattle unable to stand and walk unassisted.

On Wednesday, the Humane Society released another investigative report showing sick or severely injured cows being dragged and shocked in order to move them into the auction ring at the Portales Livestock Auction in Portales, New Mexico.

Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Human Society, said their investigator was working at the Portales auction house when he shot video on separate weekends in May. The investigator said he witnessed three sick and abused cows sold to buyers at the auction.

When asked, Pacelle said the Humane Society had not tracked where the dairy cows were sent for processing and could not say for certain that they would be processed for consumption or if they would end up in export markets. He said the mission of the Human Society is to prevent cruelty to animals, but that the issues of animal cruelty and food safety can not be isolated in these cases.

A USDA spokeswoman said she didn’t yet have an indication if the USDA would investigate the sale of the downer cattle videotaped at the auction.

Humane Society investigators have gone undercover at six locations in five states – the now-shuttered Hallmark/Westland slaughter plant in Chino, Calif., and five livestock auctions, including the one in Portales, New Mexico.

"No longer can anyone in government or industry reasonably claim that the abuses we documented at Hallmark were an aberration or an isolated case," said Pacelle. "This gross mistreatment of spent dairy cows should turn your stomach, and they have been uncovered in location after location."

The investigative video report released by the Humane Society in February of this year depicted inhumane treatment of sick and 'downer' animals at a processing facility that was the second largest supplier of ground beef to U.S. public schools.

Fearing that those sick animals had entered the food supply, the USDA recalled 143 million pounds of frozen beef. More than one-third of the recalled beef had gone to school lunch programs, the USDA said on Feb. 22. Some was eaten, some was successfully recalled and some were unaccounted for, officials said at the time.

According to USDA data, downed cattle are 58 times more likely to carry mad cow disease than other cattle. Downed cattle also are more likely to carry other food-borne illnesses like E. coli and Salmonella.

Before making its report public, the Human Society met with Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer to brief him on the latest abuses and renew its position that the USDA immediately implement a clearly defined rule prohibiting the processing of any downed cattle for food.

The Human Society also urged the USDA to extend the prohibition on downers to the 1,200-plus livestock markets and auctions that operate around the nation, and require that operators of those facilities and slaughter plants immediately humanely euthanize downer cattle upon identifying them in a non-ambulatory state. During the time covered by the investigation, New Mexico brand inspectors were present at the auctions and apparently witnessed the abuse, according to Pacelle. The Humane Society also provided information on the investigation to the New Mexico Livestock Board as well as to national industry leaders.

"The abuses of these suffering creatures must be stopped, to protect both animal welfare and food safety" Pacelle said. Several members of Congress have expressed concern over the situation in recent weeks and urged the USDA to move quickly on regulatory changes.

In a May 23 letter to Schafer, four Congress members called it:

“Unworkable and reckless to rely on inspectors being summoned back by slaughter facility workers to re-evaluate downers on a case-by-case basis. Even if workers comply (as they clearly did not at the Hallmark slaughter facility featured in the recent undercover investigation that shocked the nation), determining why an animal is non-ambulatory is challenging if not impossible for inspectors because injury and illness are often interrelated – a broken leg may simply be the observable result of the weakness, abnormal gait, or disorientation associated with an underlying disease. At least three of the documented cases of BSE in North America were identified as downers due to injury, not illness, showing how difficult it is for inspectors to reliably sort out which non-ambulatory animals are “safe.”’

-- Reps. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y.; Christopher Smith, R-N.J.; Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn.; and Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., asked the USDA to close the downer loophole immediately, May 23, 2008

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, chair of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, issued a separate statement following release of the Humane Society's third investigative report.

UN calls for global support for victims of torture on June 26

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:05:00 -0500

While the international community banned torture through the International Bill of Human Rights in 1948, the practice continues worldwide.

At least 81 countries had documented cases of torture and "other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" in 2007, according to Amnesty International.

The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) based in Copenhagen, Denmark estimates there are 400,000 torture survivors living in the European Union while the Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis, Minnesota estimates there are 500,000 torture survivors in the United States.

The IRCT has produced an animation "Let's erase torture" calling for the eradication of torture worldwide and in tandem with the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on June 26.

The U.S. faith community has become increasingly vocal in its call for an end to torture.

"It is crucial for people of faith to remind the President that the United Methodist Book of Discipline clearly states that "the mistreatment or torture of persons by governments for any purpose violates Christian teaching and must be condemned and/or opposed by Christians and churches wherever and whenever it occurs," according to a statement from the United Methodist Church (UMC).

"Torture has to stop throughout the world, but the United States is unable to effectively lead the fight against such brutality until the U.S. has repented of engaging in actions of torture," states UMC.

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture has organized a "public witness" against torture involving 300 congregations in all 50 states for the month of June.

Church leaders across the country have come out more aggressively this past year in urging their congregations to pressure the U.S. government to end torture on moral grounds.

"The church should be loyal to the deepest values of our country," said Dallas, Texas Rev. William McElvaney, professor emeritus at the Perkins School of Theology, speaking on the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. "No one relishes going up against the White House, but the church should be loyal to the deepest values of our country. And sometimes that means opposing the actions of a particular administration."

Louisiana legislature passes 'creation bill' -- Opponents: “The Bible was never intended to be a science textbook”

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:05:00 -0500

The Louisiana Coalition for Science is hoping Gov. Jindal will remember his biology degree from Brown University when he decides whether or not to veto SB 733, the “Louisiana Science Education Act.”

(That seems unlikely, according to the national watchdog group Americans United for Separation of Chruch and State which highlighted Jindal's association with the Louisiana Family Forum, a religious organization with strong conservative politics shortly after the governor took office.)

In its letter to Jindal, the Louisiana Coalition for Science called SB 733 “a thinly disguised attempt to advance the “Wedge Strategy” of the Discovery Institute, a creationist think tank that is collaborating with the LA Family Forum to get intelligent design (ID) creationism into LA public school science classes....Creationism, which includes both young-earth creationism and ID, is not science but a sectarian view based on the Bible. Young-earth creationism is based on Genesis, and ID is based on the Gospel of John, as was established in federal court in the case of Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District (2005). The Bible was never intended to be a science textbook.”

The coalition also points out that passage of the bill would be a clear violation of the Establishment Clause contained in the Constitution which prohibits sectarian doctrine. The proposed law attempts to sidestep that violation with a disclaimer that the law “shall not be construed to promote any religious doctrine, promote discrimination for or against a particular set of religious beliefs, or promote discrimination for or against religion or nonreligion.”

The bill, if signed into law, is certain to be challenged.

Prior to its passage in the Louisiana House, the world’s largest scientific society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), expressed its opposition to the bill in a letter to Louisiana Speaker of the House Jim Tucker.

Alan Lesher, AAAS CEO and executive publisher of Science journal, wrote that the bill disingenuously implies there is a controversy about evolution among scientists. “But there is virtually no controversy about evolution among the overwhelming majority of researchers,” Lesher wrote. “The science of evolution underpins all of modern biology and is supported by tens of thousands of scientific studies in fields that include cosmology, geology, paleontology, genetics and other biological specialties.”

Lesher, who leads an organization representing 10 million scientists worldwide, reminded Tucker that the U.S. Supreme Court already declared a Louisiana “creation science” law unconstitutional in 1987.

In its June 13 letter to Jindal, the American Institute of Biological Sciences and seven other societies and scientific organizations appealed to the governor to consider Louisiana’s economic future: “The future educational, employment, and economic growth of Louisiana and the United States depends upon a scientifically literate workforce and a population capable of making informed decisions. A strong foundation in science that includes an understanding of evolution is required to fuel the advances in research, development, and innovation that will help Louisiana increase economic growth from new jobs and opportunities arising from science and technology.”

The Louisiana Coalition for Science asks: “With our state still recovering from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, does Louisiana need the expense and embarrassment of defending – and losing – another lawsuit in federal court?”

South Koreans place food safety and sovereignty over economics

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:30:00 -0500

More concerned with food safety than economics, South Koreans yesterday expanded their protest of President Lee Myung-bak’s decision to lift the 2003 ban on the importation of U.S. beef over fears of exposure to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or “mad cow” disease.

Mainstream media reports that about 80,000 protestors turned out in Seoul, the capitol city, on Tuesday to demonstrate against resuming imports of U.S. beef. Tuesday’s protest was the culmination of a three-day protest that began June 9 with an estimated 40,000 protestors. Some clashed with police and about 40 were detained, according to local reports.

Protestors and nightly candle-light vigilers have been organizing in ever increasing numbers as concerns spread about the re-introduction of U.S. beef whose inspections are deemed inadequate in several countries, including within the United States.

Those in opposition claim the South Korean government has given in to U.S. demands in exchange for a free trade agreement between the two countries. Protestors are particularly opposed to the inclusion of beef from older cattle.

In a press conference in front of the U.S. Embassy on June 5, the Korean Federation of Trade Unions (FKTU) urged the U.S government to immediately resume full re-negotiations on U.S. beef imports.

"Eighty percent of Korean people want renegotiations on the import of U.S. beef,” said Kim Dong-man, FKTU vice president. “The Voluntary Export Restraint (VER) proposed by the government is only a stop-gap measure to appease the rising public opposition to the beef deal. The only way to resolve the impasse is re-negotiation with Washington.”

FKTU also demanded an apology from Alexander Vershbow, the U.S. ambassador to Korea, who has been accused of condescension in remarking that Korean people should study the science on which the beef agreement was based. On June 10 FKTU president Jang Seok-chun sent a letter to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney requesting U.S. labor solidarity with the Korean people's protest against U.S. beef imports.

President Lee Myung-bak felt compelled to apologize on national television on May 22 for not taking into account the public’s concerns over mad cow disease when entering into the agreement with U.S. officials on April 18. He promised “to be more humble in approaching the needs of the people."

"I admit that the government has been lacking in efforts to sound out public opinion and try to seek people's understanding," he said in May. "I very much regret all this."

South Korean cabinet members offer to resign

The seven senior cabinet members’ offers to resign over the president's unpopular agreement were interpreted by some as an attempt to defuse the crises that has ensued over the decision to resume imports. President Lee Myung-bak's office has not responded to the resignations, according to CCTV.com.

Meanwhile, South Korean opposition lawmakers may boycott parliament over the beef issue beginning Thursday, June 12.

According to CCTV.com, the South Korea government announced last week that it had asked the United States to stop sending beef from older cattle but did not ask for a re-negotiation of the agreement.

A spokesman for U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said that the United States would not renegotiate the deal but is willing to work with its Asian ally, according to a Reuters AlterNet report.

In April, the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) issued a statement on its successful negotiation with President Lee Myung-bak. “Our industry has lost between $3.5 billion and $4 billion in beef exports to South Korea since the end of 2003…While this is momentous news for the U.S. beef industry, it also clears one of the major obstacles to the approval of a formal free trade agreement between our two nations,” said USMEF President & CEO Philip Seng. “The U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement, when fully implemented, will deliver significant benefits to the U.S. beef and pork industries as well as to South Korean consumers.”

A quasi-governmental trade association, the USMEF receives both USDA and industry funding and is responsible for developing international markets for the U.S. red meat industry. The USMEF is maintaining that it knows what’s best for South Korean consumers in a press release issued on May 29:

“We look forward to supplying high-quality, wholesome U.S. beef to South Korea,” said USMEF President & CEO Philip Seng, “but this is a volatile situation that changes day by day. We are monitoring events in Korea very closely. We were the preferred supplier of beef for Korean cuisine. Our exports are complementary to the South Korean domestic industry. We understand the products and specifications needed.”

“The U.S. industry wants to win back the trust of South Korean consumers,” said Seng. “U.S. beef exports are accepted by Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Mexico and the European Union. We trust that the facts and sound science will win over Korean public opinion. U.S. beef is safe.”

Questions about adequacy of U.S. beef testing abound

The USDA is testing only one-tenth of 1 percent of dead or slaughtered cattle, according to ConsumerReports.org. l

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An investigative video report released by the Humane Society in February of this year depicted inhumane treatment of sick and ‘downer’ animals at a processing facility that is the second largest supplier of ground beef to U.S. public schools.
Faced with a possible loss of confidence in the food supply following the video’s release, the USDA was forced to recall 143 million pounds of frozen beef. More than one-third of the recalled beef had gone to school lunch programs, the USDA said on Feb. 22. Some was eaten, some was successfully recalled and officials were unable to account for some of the meat.

According to USDA data, downed cattle are 58 times more likely to carry mad cow disease than other cattle. Downed cattle also are more likely to carry other food-borne illnesses like E. coli and Salmonella.

The USDA devotes just 2 percent of its $75 billion budget and 2 percent of its 100,000 staff to “enhance protection and safety of the nation’s agriculture and food supply” according to its web site. Thirty-five percent of its budget goes to “enhance economic opportunities for agricultural producers” and 14 percent to “support increased economic opportunities and improved quality of life in rural America.”

The USDA announced in July 2006 that it would reduce testing for mad cow disease by 90 percent, to about 110 tests per day. The department based that decision on the finding that fewer than 1 in a million adult cattle were infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). D

Medical experts would rather see more testing, not less. If the United States is testing to reassure consumers and overseas buyers that BSE is rare in the US, then the fewer we test, the fewer cases are found, according to Richard T. Johnson, MD, professor of neurology, microbiology, and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg School of Public Health. Johnson chaired the 12-member committee that wrote the 2004 Institute of Medicine report, Advancing Prion Science: Guidance for the National Prion Research Program.

Finally, just this week the USDA has decided to appeal a March 2007 ruling by a U.S. District Judge who decided that the USDA unlawfully prohibited Creekstone Farms Premium Beef from testing all of its slaughtered cattle. Creekstone Farms, a Kansas beef producer, had filed a suit against the USDA in 2006 for prohibiting the farm from using the same BSE tests used by the USDA. Creekstone Farms says testing all slaughtered cattle would open up new Japanese and other overseas markets for U.S. beef.
“In refusing to allow Creekstone Farms to respond to its customers’ preference for beef from animals that have been tested for BSE, the USDA is doggedly pursuing a course that scientists, consumer groups, trade associations and business, and members of Congress regard as a bad policy,” according to Dennis Buhlke, Creekstone’s president and CEO. “While Creekstone Farms has taken a lead role in this effort, it is not alone in believing that the government should not prevent private companies from voluntarily testing cattle for BSE.”

UK researchers exploring 'chemoprevention' to stall cancer

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:35:00 -0500

Researchers at the University of Leicester who have been studying the possible chemopreventive properties of natural products including resveratrol (from grapes, red wine, nuts and berries), curcumin (from turmeric–curry) and tricin (contained in wild rice) will present their findings Thursday, June 26th, during the Festival of Postgraduate Research.

Chemoprevention involves the use of natural or synthetic products such as drugs and vitamins to prevent or delay the formation of cancer.

“The prevention of cancer is an alternative to the treatment of the disease using chemotherapy which has many unpleasant side effects," according to Charles Simon, a post graduate student at Leicester who has been involved with the research. The aim of this project is to learn lessons from those compounds to produce treatments with little or no side effects.”

After heart disease, cancer is the single largest cause of death in the UK and in most developed countries. Statistics from Cancer Research UK indicate that more than one-in-three people will be affected by cancer at some point in their life -- either by developing cancer themselves or friends or relatives who have the disease.

For more information go here.

Bipolar Disorder: Epidemic Without a Disease

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:05:00 -0500

In the Newsweek cover story of May 26, 2008, Growing Up Bipolar, Mary Carmichael describes yet another magical psychiatric epidemic. In any report of an epidemic there should be a description of the disease of which the epidemic is comprised and mention of the test by which the disease is diagnosed. But nowhere is there mention of a physical abnormality-gross (visible to the naked eye), microscopic or chemical, to make it a disease. Where is the proof that Max Blake, now ten, is other than physically, medically normal?

Related Breaking: Researchers Fail to Reveal Drug Pay

A world-renowned child psychiatrist whose work has helped fuel an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic medicines in children earned at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007 but for years did not report much of this income to university officials, according to information given Congressional investigators. (NYT, Jun 8, 2008)

Symptoms abound. Max can't sleep. Max is sad. Max wants to kill himself. All serious symptoms to be sure, but entirely subjective -- not objective "signs," abnormalities, diseases. Undaunted, Carmichael calls "bipolar" an "elusive disease" with a grave prognosis: a "horror story," in which "terrible things happen." But still no disease.

Next, we are told: "some doctors do not believe (bipolar) exists in children." But diagnosis is not a matter of belief. If no abnormality is demonstrated the diagnosis is "no evidence of disease" -- NED, or "no organic disease" -- NOD.

Absent abnormalities, Carmichael marshals more symptoms: "These babies are born screaming."

Seeking to overwhelm with epidemiology, Carmichael writes: "800,000 children in the United States have been diagnosed." "The disease is hard to pin down." Nor does repeating the word "disease" make it so.

Parents are asked to chose from among the "many drugs" available even though "it's unclear how they work." How could it be otherwise without a disease to treat. No infection, cancer, or diabetes -- all diagnosable, all treatable. In psychiatry, drugs change emotions and behaviors by damaging the normal brain, causing intoxication, poisoning, abnormality -- disease.

"The disease is hard to pin down." "Its unclear how they (the drugs) work." This is not medical science, it is the "medical-speak" of "biological," psychiatry that is deceptive, fraudulent, and intent on peddling drugs. When the patient is known to be normal but is called "diseased" and is "medicated," is that not poisoning? Is it not assault and battery? If the same patient dies, what is that called?

While false diagnostic labels alone may not make persons psychiatric patients-in-perpetuity, drugs which cause chemical dependency and conspicuous injury, such as Parkinson's syndrome or tardive dyskinesia in a seven year-old, surely do. Max's parents were told (1) "treat (your) child and risk a bad outcome," or (2) "don't treat and risk a worse one." In either case, this message is surely to the liking of the pharmaceutical industry which bankrolls it all.

Max and his parents have come to believe the "bipolar" fiction and to play out their roles in it. The main authors -- perpetrators of this and all of psychiatry's fictitious "diseases" are the DSM Committee of the American Psychiatric Association and "researchers" at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

For Max's mother: "There was one good thing about this strange diagnosis, she thought: at least it meant she wasn't a bad mother." Max and his parents all had roles to play. Max's role is to be "bipolar," a psychiatric patient-in-perpetuity. Everything else would take care of itself and psychiatry and Big Pharma would reap billions a year. And who knows, perhaps the 800,000 "bipolar" Max's Carmichael says we have this year will become 1.5 to 2 million next year, which many think it already is.

Harvard psychiatrists Joseph Biederman and Janet Wozniac were said to have "described" pediatric bipolar disorder in 1995. I have no doubt that they "described" it but, as is the case with all of psychiatry's "chemical imbalances" they have never proved that a single one is an actual disease, as throughout the rest of medicine.

At 2 1/2 years of age, Rebecca Riley of Hull, Massachusetts was "diagnosed" ADHD and bipolar disorder, by child psychiatrist, Dr. Kayoko Kifuji, and was put on Clonidine, Depakote and Seroquel, the last of which is a potent, poisonous, antipsychotic. None had been approved by the FDA for children so young. Rebecca became like a "floppy doll" and died December 13, 2006, at 4 years of age, not from a psychiatric disease, because there is no such thing, but from the very real, very toxic psychiatric drugs prescribed for her. Incredibly, her parents sit in jail, charged with her murder. Who made it appear that Rebecca had two "diseases"? Who convinced the parents she did and that the medications prescribed were "treatments" for them? Countless hundreds if not thousands of children thus diagnosed and drugged are dying, not from psychiatric diseases, but from the one or several drugs prescribed for them as "treatment." Between 1990 and 2000, 186 deaths from methylphenidate-Ritalin were reported to the FDA-MedWatch program, a voluntary reporting program of the FDA itself, says it detects no more than 1-10 percent of the actual number.

Who is responsible for the murder of Rebecca Riley? Who is responsible for the thousands or tens of thousands of deaths from prescribed psychiatric drugs for psychiatric "diseases" that do not exist?

Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD, has discovered and described real diseases and accepts full responsibility for all opinions and representations herein. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and author of the book: THE ADHD FRAUD -- How Psychiatry Makes "Patients" of Normal Children

Latin American immigrant women more susceptible to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 23:50:00 -0500

Researchers in Spain analyzed the nutritional status and menstrual characteristics in a sample of native and immigrant Latin American girls and found that the immigrant girls had a higher percentage of body fat when they reached reproductive maturity. This weight gain during adolescence is deemed by the researchers as a risk factor for future cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

An increase in migration has changed Spain’s demographic profile in recent years, enabling researchers to study the micro-adaptive transition of immigrant people. As a result, adolescents have become the most vulnerable population during the maturing processes.

The start of menstrual cycles is one of the pillars of reproductive development and highly sensitive to the environmental context and health of the population. The study showed that immigrant girls experience a greater somatic and morphological change than native girls when passing from a pre-menstrual to a post-menstrual stage.

“Immigrant girls have a higher body mass index and higher body fat percentage than Spanish girls when they reach reproductive maturity, as well as higher truncal fat accumulation, which is related to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases,” according to lead author Raquel Fernández.

The research was carried out in four schools in the Madrid region and analysed 284 girls between 9 and 16 years old, who were assessed over a two-year period. The average age for beginning mental cycles was 12.46 years old for native girls and 12.57 years old for immigrants, all who came from Latin America.

Need for focused health campaigns

After analyzing the relationship between the variables, the researchers established two subgroups: Spanish girls with normal weight and regular menstrual cycles, and immigrant girls with excess weight and irregular cycles. According to a written statement by Raquel Fernández, “These results suggest the need to create health campaigns focused on the adolescent immigrant population in order to adopt healthy lifestyles.”

The scientists from the Autonomous University of Madrid (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) encourage children and young people to adopt healthy lifestyles and they provide their families with guidance for preventive steps to take to avoid future illness.

The authors prepared a personal report for each of the girls. In addition, fathers and mothers received a summary with their children's measurements, ideal values for their age and sex, and personal recommendations for improving their quality of life.

“Excess weight is still very prevalent at this age and both diet and physical exercise differ from the recommendations, with this characteristic being especially noteworthy in the immigrant population,” according to the researchers.

Reference:
Raquel Fernández del Olmo, Javier Anuncibay, Consuelo Prado. “Maturational profiles and migration in the female adolescent population of Madrid: Is there a need for a new perspective?” Collegium Antropologicum; 32(1):15-19 MAY 2008.

The Uses of Empathy: A Medical Student’s Perspective

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:14:00 -0500

Image by ehirschenberger

“Empathy is the feeling that ‘I might be you’ or ‘I am you,’ but it is more than just an intellectual identification… empathy brings emotion.”[1]

While experienced health care practitioners may agree on a general definition of “empathy” and perhaps even recognize its theoretical appeal, they continue to disagree on its usefulness in clinical practice. For this reason, if we hope to discover its uses, then we must study empathy both in theory and through clinical experience. As Immanuel Kant once asserted, “Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.”[2]

While I studied philosophy before medical school, I only began to understand the force of Kant’s dictum during my first clinical rotation as a medical student. In light of Kant’s advice, I will begin this essay by sharing a personal narrative.

***

I was half asleep in the library when my trauma pager flashed "Red Alert: female, motor vehicle collision, estimated time of arrival - ten minutes."

I raced to the Emergency Department. In the trauma bay I found a young woman covered with abrasions and contusions; she had been thrown from her vehicle. The resuscitation team, wearing blue non-latex gloves, surrounded her bed quickly. They intubated, administered intravenous fluids, inserted a Foley catheter, and ordered portable X-Rays. As suddenly as it had arrived, the ocean of blue gloves ebbed in all directions until I alone was left.

Our patient was not a candidate for immediate surgery. As a medical student on trauma surgery call, my job was to follow the surgical team. Nevertheless, because I already felt attached to this young woman I decided to stay by her side. What if she were to awaken? As her parents had not yet arrived, I wanted to stay close by.

Tom, her nurse, was adjusting the monitors and I remarked that her movements seemed purposeful, and that I did not think she was brain....

"Don't talk like that!" he yelled back at me.

At once I understood. She might be able to hear us. Tom turned to me and asked her name. Reaching for her hand I replied, “Her name is Sarah.”

Tom proceeded to call out to her loudly and with passion, “Sarah, can you hear us?” She did not respond. Yet, as I held her warm hand, I could not accept the possibility that her grip was mere reflex.

About this time I had to take on an unexpected role. Sarah’s parents had just arrived at the reception desk desperate for information. Yet, all of the residents who had cared for her that evening were busy treating patients elsewhere in the hospital. The staff at the reception desk wanted someone to take the parents to see their daughter immediately. As I had been with her throughout the night - to the CT scanner and through assessments by multiple consult services, and so on, it was clear that I knew the most about her injuries and current status. But who was I?

Surgery was my first medical clerkship, and I had only been on the service for a couple of weeks. What I knew of clinical medicine I had learned holding the camera in a handful of laparoscopic cholecystectomies. As I stumbled to the reception area, I knew that I could not rely on my two weeks of surgical training to get me through this encounter. I would have to rely on my twenty-six years of experience being human.

What would anyone do in this situation?

Well, I can tell you what I did. I identified with her parents emotionally. To tell the truth, I suffered with them.

When I had first arrived at Sarah’s bedside that evening, I had taken off my white coat and left it on a chair. As I went to find her parents, I grabbed it. Then I dropped it again; I could not hide behind the white coat any more than I could hide behind my two weeks of medical training.

From several paces away, I saw her parents. There was no mistaking them. Their eyes scanned the emergency department again and again, periodically and mechanically, like the strobe light on a light-house. I fixed my eyes on them, and they knew it was time to see their daughter.

“This way,“ I said. I took them close to Sarah’s bed, so they could look at their daughter as we talked. Then I tried to address their questions.

“I am not a doctor,” I said. “I am a medical student who has had the honor to stay at Sarah’s bedside since her arrival at our hospital. What I can tell you is that she was involved in an unrestrained car wreck. She was flown in by helicopter immediately. She has multiple fractures, but her CT scan does not show any bleeding in the brain, which is encouraging.”

“We drove as fast as we could,“ the mother cried. The father was also in tears but less vocal. “Is she going to be OK?” the father eventually asked.

“I don’t know, but her doctors are doing the best they can. I’m sorry,” I said. “I can only imagine what this must be like for you.”

Her parents began to speak to their daughter, "Sarah, Sarah, can you hear us? We love you. You are going to be alright. There are a couple of handsome doctors taking care of you and they are going to continue to take good care of you."

Around one o’clock in the morning, I left for the night. Sarah’s parents, however, were not interested in sleep. Even though rounds would not start for five or six hours, they waited anxiously for any report of her condition.

The next day I returned to her bedside, worried about over what I would find. I found Sarah's mother crying quietly. She had just been told that her daughter suffered from diffuse axonal injury (DAI), and might, or might not, wake up. The “handsome doctors” taking care of her could not do much more.

Nevertheless, Sarah’s mother managed to smile when I reassured her that Sarah looked much more comfortable in the ICU, without the bright lights and noise, than she had in the ER. She responded that she had also noticed that Sarah’s long brown hair had been combed free of debris from the accident. She thanked me for coming by.

I continued to visit Sarah during the two weeks thereafter- meeting her brother, her uncle, and her pastor on different occasions. As I became acquainted with each of them, I felt Sarah’s parents’ suffering more deeply. With each visit, I became slightly more nauseated from the anxiety I felt for the family. I would often delay my visit by stopping at the nurses’ desk to check lab values and progress notes – so that I could muster the bravery needed to stand in silence, yet again.

During the two weeks Sarah remained in the hospital, I found her in the neurosurgery ICU, then the burn ICU, and, finally, the trauma ICU. A busy hospital does not have enough free beds to keep a patient resting in any one place for long. Then suddenly, to my surprise, I returned to the ICU to discover that Sarah had been discharged to an outside facility. I had seen her for the last time.

I found myself wondering one afternoon, nearly four months later, whether Sarah’s condition ever improved. To find out, I looked to see whether she had been admitted to the hospital on any other dates since that discharge (the only information I was permitted.) I was relieved to discover that she had underwent several orthopedic operations as well as traumatic brain injury rehabilitation; Sarah survived her injuries and continues to recover. I continue to hope for the best.

***

Why did I experience so many feelings during my time caring for Sarah and her family? Where did these feelings come from? I was not yet a parent. I had not faced the prospect of losing a child. Nevertheless, I suffered from witnessing and then sharing Sarah’s parents’ suffering.

This sort of emotional identification is empathy as commonly defined. To revisit Howard Spiro’s definition, “Empathy is the feeling that ‘I might be you’ or ‘I am you,’ but it is more than just an intellectual identification… empathy brings emotion.”[1]

Richard Selzer adds, “The word empathy means the power of projecting one’s personality into the object of contemplation, and so fully understanding it.”[3]

Most everyone has feeling, but the ability to experience emotion does not automatically lead to the acquisition of emotional experience. One has to live life to appreciate the full range of human emotion. As Spiro also noted, to recognize sadness in a face, one at some time must have felt sad.[4]

While all of us have felt sad, a few of us have felt a deeper sadness. Several parents have told me that the loss of a child is one of the deepest forms of sadness; Sarah’s parents faced that possibility. Does the fact that I have not lost a child prevent me from relating to her parents’ sadness? I hope not; otherwise, the world would be a very lonely place. If we medical students listen carefully to a patient’s story and draw on the little experience we have, we can begin to imagine how the patient feels. In the process, we will suffer in proportion to our life experience. The discomfort brought on by such suffering will then compel us to ameliorate the patient’s suffering so that we might end our own.

Consider an analogy from the philosopher David Hume. In his work on human nature, Hume explains that with respect to our feelings we are each like strings on the same musical instrument, “As in strings equally wound up, the motion of one communicates itself to the rest; so all the affections readily pass from one person to another…”[5]

For example, who can bear the cry of a child? One feels compelled either to comfort the child or to leave the room. Perhaps “comforting the child” could be a metaphor for attending to patients - whether they require open-heart surgery or just a cup of ice chips. Perhaps “leaving the room” could be a metaphor for not listening to the patient long enough to determine if the patient understands the illness or treatment. Even the best protocols do not provide hope to the patient who does not understand the illness or the treatment.

Why do some physicians take the time to explain what is going on? I suggest that we look to empathy for the answer. The same empathy will enable the physician to recognize “the problems of living – existential, socioeconomic, and emotional”[4] that accompany major illness.

How does empathy function in this extraordinary way? Hume believed that we naturally identify with the emotions of others through an appreciation for cause and effect in the way that I have described. Hume described his own feelings as he witnessed the beginning of an 18th century operation:

“Even before it begun, the preparation of the instruments, the laying of the bandages in order, the heating of the irons, with all the signs of anxiety and concern in the patient and assistants, wou’d have a great effect upon my mind, and excite the strongest sentiments of pity and terror.”[5]

In this passage, Hume tells how the “signs of anxiety and concern in the patient,” rather than any knowledge of possible outcomes, aroused within him the feelings of pity and terror. In other words, the outward expression of emotion by the patient, once perceived by Hume, led to empathy.

Similarly, when I approached Sarah’s parents, I observed the distress in their eyes - a distress that I understood - even though I was no more a parent than Hume a victim of surgery. I listened as they told me that Sarah was a good girl and that they were proud of her. Their comments increased my empathy because they allowed me to feel how deeply her parents were suffering.

As a third year medical student, I have the luxury of time and limited responsibility. The technical aspects of patient care provided by the residents do not burden me. During my time caring for Sarah and her family, I now believe that my principle function was to care.

On the other hand, residents must master the technical aspects of patient care. That comes first in emergency room medicine. Does empathy add anything of value to their interaction with the patient?

Richard Landau, an experienced physician, says no and therefore argues for the ”desensitization and de-empathization” of medical students in training.[6] He believes that the expression of empathy often undermines a physician’s ability to function in the health care setting. While I disagree with Landau’s conclusions, my opinions are mere theory without experience, as I am not yet able to satisfy the demands of Kant’s dictum (i.e. understanding requires theory and experience.) But with each patient encounter I get a little closer.

The residents involved in Sarah’s care did not have the luxury of visiting for the length of time that I did. Does this imply that they could not have empathy? Not necessarily. Empathy, like forming a diagnosis, is a skill that improves with time. Just as many family physicians can diagnose influenza within seconds of laying eyes on a patient, many experienced physicians can identify suffering, and respond appropriately, in less time than perhaps they would have required as a medical student.

Young physicians must also learn to maneuver from patient to patient without becoming “emotionally spent.” Otherwise, listening and identifying emotionally with one patient may come at some expense to the next patient. Aristotle first recognized this danger and cautioned us as follows, “It becomes difficult… to sympathize closely with the joys and sorrows of many, because one is likely to be faced with sharing the joy of one and the sorrow of another simultaneously.”[7] I have worked with physicians who seem to have met Aristotle’s challenge and perhaps some who have failed. Those who have succeeded are ideal role models for doctors in training.

If the concept of empathy is championed early in medical school training, where every doctor’s journey begins, doctors will ask the question, “What are the uses of empathy?” for themselves. As they choose different specialties, lifestyles, and patient loads, they will surely answer this question differently, but at least they will have been encouraged to ask it in the first instance. As for myself, as I advance from student to resident, I can only hope that the memory of caring for Sarah will serve as a reminder of what I should strive for in each patient encounter.

References

1. Spiro, Howard. “Empathy: An Introduction.” Ed. Spiro H., Curnen M., Peschel E., St. James D., Empathy and the Practice of Medicine. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. 1-6.

2. Darwall, Stephen. Philosophical Ethics. New York: Westview Press, 1998. 23.

3. Selzer, Richard. “Foreword.” Ed. Spiro H., Curnen M., Peschel E., St. James D., Empathy and the Practice of Medicine. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. ix-x.

4. Spiro, Howard. “What is Empathy and Can it be Taught?” Ed. Spiro H., Curnen M., Peschel E., St. James D., Empathy and the Practice of Medicine. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. 7-14.

5. Hume, David. A Treatise of Human Nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. 368.

6. Landau, Richard. “…And the Least of These is Empathy.” Ed. Spiro H., Curnen M., Peschel E., St. James D., Empathy and the Practice of Medicine. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. 103-109.

7. Aristotle. Ethics. Trans: J. Thompson. London: Penguin Books, 1976. 308.

Author's bio

This essay also appeared in Yale's Journal for Humanities in Medicine.