Recently two doctors created an artificial heart that uses a different type of pump than in the classically used artificial heart. With the new heart the patient will not have a pulse due to a unique pumping mechanism. Anyone with it will be alive but essentially “flat-lined.”

They tested it in one man,

he died a month later from “other causes,”

with great excitement they are calling it a success and plan on using the heart again on other people in the future.

Food for thought:

Have they even stopped to consider that not having a pulse might be so abnormal to a human being that it might have helped along those “other causes” of death? Or are they so busy looking at one part, the artificial heart, that they can no longer see the body as a whole?

To read the article visit:

http://www.inrumor.com/in/lifestyle/medicine-breakthrough-living-without-pulse-with-an-artificial-heart/

A recent study reported by Reuters reveals that there may be answers for some migraine sufferers in a homeopathic dose of herbs that includes feverfew and ginger. Studies on herbs are rarely done as they are not often profitable, however this proprietary mix costs over $20 a bottle which may explain how the study managed its funding.

With over 10% of the American adult population experiencing migraines at some point in their life that’s a large population looking for solutions that do not always turn out to be in the bottom of a bottle of chemicals.

To view the complete article visit:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/17/us-migraines-idUSTRE75F6S220110617

The FDA is asking that doctors no longer prescribe the approved high dose of a certain medication because of severe side effects including those that cause death.

Simvastatin is sold under the names Zocor, Vytorin, and Simcor.

To read the FDA advisory visit:

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/SafetyAlertsforHumanMedicalProducts/ucm258384.htm

Ten common prescription drugs have been shown to increase violence by 8 to 18 times more than other pharmaceuticals. A study done by multiple agencies has determined the ten worst that include antidepressants, anti anxiety medications and SSRIs in addition to a malaria medication and a stop smoking drug. While the stop smoking aid is almost understandable (who doesn’t go a bit nuts when quitting smoking?) it is sad to see that medications that are meant to calm and balance people are instead putting them at a dramatic risk for normally uncharacteristic violence behavior towards others. My question is how many of these patients are taken off the drugs that caused an increase in erratic and violent behavior versus how many are given a higher dose or an additional mix of medications in an attempt to deal with the original side effects?

Link to article about study: http://healthland.time.com/2011/01/07/top-ten-legal-drugs-linked-to-violence/

Link to study: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0015337#authcontrib

• Death
• Pulmonary embolism
• Gastrointestinal tract leaking
• Bowel obstruction
• Stricture
• Bleeding
• Ulcer
• Gallstones
• Infections that may lead to death
• Protein Deficiency
• Vitamin Deficiency
• Mineral Deficiency
• Inability to absorb nutrients properly
• Failure to reach optimal weight
• Weight gain
• Too much weight loss due to chronic nausea, vomiting,  and abdominal pain
• Body image  issues
• Emotional loss
• Depression
• Higher risk of suicide than those that choose not to use surgical methods
• Nerve problems
• Hypoglycemia
• Kidney failure
• Kidney stones
• Complications from anesthesia
• And other complications

The above are complications from weight loss surgery such as gastric bypass or the lap band. Why do these procedures still qualify as a method for weight loss? Simple numbers. Those that do nothing to change their weight die slightly more frequently than those that die from the surgery, so overall the odds are better with surgery. In addition, survivors of the surgery often do much better than those that chose to abstain.

One has to wonder how many doctors offer the option without fully teaching and guiding patients towards proper nutrition, exercise, and a healthier lifestyle. With the growing popularity of surgery being seen as an “easy and safe” option patients are often uninformed and unaware of the actual risks of surgery, and are just pushed through to the procedure. Wouldn’t it be better to be fully informed before picking a poison?

To learn more about weight loss surgery risks and benefits one study is available at: http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa066603

Mike Adams of Natural News writes a satirical (although almost believably true) blog about the FDA’s approval of a green dye pharmaceutical for “Brown’s Grass Disease.”

To lighten up your weekend the article can be viewed at:

http://www.naturalnews.com/001806_modern_medicine_pharma_industry.html

A recent study at Wake Forest University School of medicine in North Carolina found that taking pharmaceuticals including statins and blood pressure medications does not lower a patients risk for heart disease.

Patients in the study showed markers that predict cardiovascular trouble in the future. This was even with the patients taking consistent medications to manage high cholesterol, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Obviously maintaining an absence of symptoms is not taking care of the deeper issue, nor is it preventing a potentially serious and fatal condition that is one of the top killers of U.S. women.

To read more about the study visit http://news.healingwell.com/index.php?p=news1&id=615439

With the medical field and pharmacology so dependent on limited studies and interestingly handled statistics to prove or disprove if a treatment or medication is viable, then the illnesses being treated must have been just as scientifically scrutinized, right?

Wrong.

The DSM-IV, otherwise known as The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is filled with illnesses that were created not through scientific study, but by a process of voting. To read more about the soundly unscientific process that takes many human conditions and labels them for the purpose of billing and prescription giving visit http://www.cchr.org/cchr-reports/inventing-disorders/introduction.html for an informative article written by the president of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International.

As more women experience hospital births, more choose to have their second child at home. While home birth with a midwife is often cheaper than a hospital birth, it is also rarely covered by traditional health coverage, meaning that couples are finding the experience alone worth it to pay out of pocket rather than to have a child in the hospital environment.

Hospitals rarely promote natural movement and childbirth. Instead the norm is to hook a mother up to a restricting IV, fetal monitor, and pitocin drip; or roll her off to surgery for a c-section when the birth slows or goes abnormally (how could it not under those conditions?). The US is significantly behind in survival rates of infants, and one can see why when the natural process of birth itself is treated like an abnormal and alien event in need of significant intervention. While it may be safer for high risk pregnancies to go to the hospital, more and more low risk pregnancies are happily heading towards home when given a choice.

To read more about a home birth experience visit Susan Heavey’s article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-i-chose-a-home-birth/2011/05/30/AGsFyPIH_story.html

The next time someone thinks of alternative medicine alongside of bizarre and barbarian treatments consider the following sometimes beneficial practices still used in modern medicine:

Maggots- These guys eat away dead flesh and leave the healthy parts behind to heal.

Trepanning (drilling a hole in the patient’s scull) – Used to relieve pressure caused by some head traumas.

Leeches- Plastic surgeons have brought these back into use as a way of reducing bruising.

Ventouse (vacuum extraction)- Still used for some complicated births to guide the infant.

ECT (electroconvulsive therapy)- Shock therapy is still on the treatment list for depression, although obviously not as a first line of treatment.

Blood letting- Used for some rare diseases.

Ovarian drilling- Drilling holes in the ovaries to reduce symptoms from certain conditions when other methods have failed.

Chemotherapy- Pumping the body full of toxins in order to kill a cancer while hopefully not crippling the patient.

To read more about some of these methods visit Ask Doctor Keith at

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/health/health/drkeithhopcroft/3600990/Got-tummy-germs-Try-injecting-worms.html