Archive for the ‘Activism’ Category

NASEM Report on Cannabis

http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=24625

Jan. 12, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Nearly 100 Conclusions on the Health Effects of Marijuana and Cannabis-Derived Products Presented in New Report; One of the Most Comprehensive Studies of Recent Research on Health Effects of Recreational and Therapeutic Use of Cannabis and Cannabis-Derived Products

WASHINGTON – A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine offers a rigorous review of scientific research published since 1999 about what is known about the health impacts of cannabis and cannabis-derived products – such as marijuana and active chemical compounds known as cannabinoids – ranging from their therapeutic effects to their risks for causing certain cancers, diseases, mental health disorders, and injuries. The committee that carried out the study and wrote the report considered more than 10,000 scientific abstracts to reach its nearly 100 conclusions. The committee also proposed ways to expand and improve the quality of cannabis research efforts, enhance data collection efforts to support the advancement of research, and address the current barriers to cannabis research.

“For years the landscape of marijuana use has been rapidly shifting as more and more states are legalizing cannabis for the treatment of medical conditions and recreational use,” said Marie McCormick, chair of the committee; the Sumner and Esther Feldberg Professor of Maternal and Child Health, department of social and behavioral sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and professor of pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Mass. “This growing acceptance, accessibility, and use of cannabis and its derivatives have raised important public health concerns. Moreover, the lack of any aggregated knowledge of cannabis-related health effects has led to uncertainty about what, if any, are the harms or benefits from its use. We conducted an in-depth and broad review of the most recent research to establish firmly what the science says and to highlight areas that still need further examination. As laws and policies continue to change, research must also.”

Currently, cannabis is the most popular illicit drug in the United States, in terms of past-month users. Based on a recent nationwide survey, 22.2 million Americans ages 12 and older reported using cannabis in the past 30 days. This survey also reports that 90 percent of adult cannabis users in the United States said their primary use was recreational, with about 10 percent reporting use solely for medical purposes. Around 36 percent reported mixed medical and recreational use. In addition, between 2002 and 2015, the percentage of past-month cannabis users in the U.S. population ages 12 and older has increased steadily from 6.2 percent to 8.3 percent.

Therapeutic Effects

One of the therapeutic uses of cannabis and cannabinoids is to treat chronic pain in adults. The committee found evidence to support that patients who were treated with cannabis or cannabinoids were more likely to experience a significant reduction in pain symptoms. For adults with multiple sclerosis-related muscle spasms, there was substantial evidence that short-term use of certain “oral cannabinoids” – man-made, cannabinoid-based medications that are orally ingested – improved their reported symptoms. Furthermore, in adults with chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, there was conclusive evidence that certain oral cannabinoids were effective in preventing and treating those ailments.

Injury and Death

Evidence suggests that cannabis use prior to driving increases the risk of being involved in a motor vehicle accident. Furthermore, evidence suggests that in states where cannabis use is legal, there is increased risk of unintentional cannabis overdose injuries among children. In one study, ingestion was the most common route of unintentional pediatric exposure, accounting for 78 percent of all incidents. Another study reported that from 2000 to 2013, the annual rate of poison center calls related to cannabis exposures among children younger than 6 years of age was 2.82 times higher in states that had legalized medical cannabis prior to 2000 than in states where medical cannabis remained illegal as of 2013. The committee called for more research to determine whether and how cannabis use is associated with death or with occupational injury.

Cancer

Regarding the link between marijuana and cancer, the committee found evidence that suggests smoking cannabis does not increase the risk for cancers often associated with tobacco use – such as lung and head and neck cancers. The committee also found limited evidence that cannabis use is associated with one sub-type of testicular cancer and insufficient evidence that cannabis use by a mother or father during pregnancy leads to a greater risk of cancers in the child.

Heart Attack, Stroke, and Diabetes

The committee said that more research is needed to determine whether and how cannabis use is associated with heart attack, stroke, and diabetes. However, some evidence suggests that cannabis smoking may trigger a heart attack.

Respiratory Disease

The evidence reviewed by the committee suggests that smoking cannabis on a regular basis is associated with more frequent chronic bronchitis episodes and worse respiratory symptoms, such as chronic cough and phlegm production, but quitting cannabis smoking is likely to reduce these conditions. The committee stated that it is unclear whether cannabis use is associated with certain respiratory diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, or worsened lung function.

Immunity

There is a lack of data on the effects of cannabis or cannabinoid-based therapeutics on the human immune system, as well as insufficient data to draw overarching conclusions concerning the effects of cannabis smoke or cannabinoids on immune competence, the committee stated. There is also insufficient evidence to support or refute a statistical association between cannabis or cannabinoid use and adverse effects on immune status in individuals with HIV. Nevertheless, limited evidence suggests that regular exposure to cannabis smoke may have anti-inflammatory activity.

Mental Health

The evidence reviewed by the committee suggests that cannabis use is likely to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia, other psychoses, and social anxiety disorders, and to a lesser extent depression. Alternatively, in individuals with schizophrenia and other psychoses, a history of cannabis use may be linked to better performance on learning and memory tasks. Heavy cannabis users are more likely to report thoughts of suicide than non-users, and in individuals with bipolar disorder, near-daily cannabis users show increased symptoms of the disorder than non-users.

Problem Cannabis Use

The evidence reviewed by the committee suggests that with greater frequency of cannabis use, there is an increased likelihood of developing problem cannabis use. There is also evidence to suggest that initiating cannabis use at a younger age increases the likelihood of developing problem cannabis use.

Cannabis Use and the Abuse of Other Substances

The committee found limited evidence that cannabis use increases the rate of initiating other drug use, primarily the use of tobacco. However, the committee found moderate evidence to suggest that there is a link between cannabis use and the development of substance dependence and/or a substance abuse disorder for substances including alcohol, tobacco, and other illicit drugs.

Psychosocial

The committee found that learning, memory, and attention are impaired after immediate cannabis use. Limited evidence suggests that there are impairments in cognitive domains of learning, memory, and attention in individuals who have stopped smoking cannabis. In addition, there is limited evidence to suggest that cannabis use is related to impairments in subsequent academic achievement and education as well as social relationships and social roles. Adolescence and young adulthood are when most youth begin to experiment with substances of abuse, including cannabis, and it is during these periods that the neural layers that underlie the development of cognition are most active. The committee also found limited evidence of an association between cannabis use and increased rates of unemployment and low income.

Prenatal, Perinatal, and Neonatal Exposure

Smoking cannabis during pregnancy is linked to lower birth weight in the offspring, some evidence suggests. However, the relationship with other pregnancy and childhood outcomes is unclear.

Challenges and Barriers in Conducting Cannabis Research

In addition to recommending more research on the beneficial and harmful effects of cannabis and cannabinoid use, the committee emphasized several challenges and barriers in conducting such research. For instance, specific regulatory barriers, including the classification of cannabis as a Schedule I substance, impede the advancement of research. Researchers also often find it difficult to gain access to the quantity, quality, and type of cannabis product necessary to address specific research questions. The committee said a diverse network of funders is needed to support cannabis and cannabinoid research.

The study was sponsored by Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, Arizona Department of Health Services, California Department of Public Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), CDC Foundation, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Mat-Su Health Foundation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health National Institute on Drug Abuse, Oregon Health Authority, Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, The Colorado Health Foundation, Truth Initiative, and Washington State Department of Health. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. The National Academies operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. For more information, visit http://national-academies.org.

 

Category:

Activism, Herbs, Lyme, research, Uncategorized

CDC Denies to Downplay Lyme Epidemic

3-cdcemploysdenialtodownplaylymeepidemic-8-22-2016-j-luche-thayer

Written by Jenna Luche-Thayer, founder of Global Network on Institutional Discrimination,

Here is a basic summary, but please read the entire article for yourself and print out the pdf for your physician. We need to share this far and wide as tick borne illness is an epidemic. It’s going to take all of us working together to change the propaganda put out by the cabal.

*The CDC changes its tune about Lyme after 1991. Before 1991 they admitted it was complex, multi-symptom, highly individual, that both oral and IV antibiotics may be useful, it’s persistent, some folks never get the rash, it’s hard to diagnose, and it can cause permanent damage to joints and nervous system. After 1991 Lyme was miraculously no longer persistent – despite 700 peer reviewed articles saying otherwise. With the stroke of the pen they minimized the range and severity of symptoms.  (Please refer to Thayer’s pdf for the lengthy bibliography)

*The 1990 Lyme Disease Case Definition for Public Health Surveillance Guide states emphatically that it is for surveillance purposes only and should not be used as sole criterial for diagnosis, determining standard of care for patients, setting guidelines for quality assurance, providing standards for reimbursement, or initiating public health actions.

*The 1990 case definition of LD randomly picks the initial skin lesion is the best clinical marker, but the 1991 Symptoms and signs of LD says that some folks never get the rash, that some have arthritis type symptoms while others have nervous system problems. Thayer states that a review of studies between 1981-1991 described LD as a systemic disease with a plethora of steadily increasing symptoms and that no consensus or clinical marker was reached.

*Unlike other diseases, the Lyme Case Definition lies dead in the water for nearly three decades, whereas other diseases’ case definitions are continually revised to include new science. Thayer points out that new strains of borrelia are continually being discovered but are not being picked up by the CDC’s two-tiered testing, not to mention that thousands of patients with clear symptoms of LD continue to test negative.

*Lack of new data in Case Definition regarding vectors. Thayer shows that 95% of data from an important 2001 study on vectors was excluded.

*References to support the LD Case Definitions are from a handful of authors who cite each other. For more on the cabal, please read:

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/01/13/lyme-science-owned-by-good-ol-boys/
https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/01/02/fake-science/

*Other tick borne illnesses’ case definitions have been updated with new science, but not Lyme (borrelia).

For both Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF) and Q Fever, doctors are told to consider infection even if a person cannot prove tick attachment, that lack of specific symptoms does not imply it’s benign, that early treatment with antibiotics based on suspicion will reduce the chance of severe illness and death, and to consider a similar illness in those closest to the patient, including family pets.

For Lyme……crickets.

The CDC even states that people who appear to have Lyme may not have it, so don’t even bother testing them. Thayer points out the CDC’s “wait and see” approach regarding LD that pathologist Sin Lee accuses Steer, Mead, and colleagues of taking even though delayed treatment for LD can lead to severe disease and fatality. https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/01/13/lyme-science-owned-by-good-ol-boys/
Regarding endocarditis, which both Lyme and Q-Fever can cause, they recommend early diagnosis and extended antibiotics for Q fever whereas, for Lyme endocarditis, they recommend a short course of antibiotics or no antibiotics at all should it occur after initial antibiotic treatment for Lyme. Both can be fatal.

*LD Surveillance Criteria is abominable. Hardly anyone meets the CDC’s myopic view of LD.

*CDC creates syndrome rather than change Lyme Guidelines. This is the mother load. According to the CDC, patients who have persisting symptoms despite treatment have “Post Lyme Treatment Syndrome” (PLTS) and really have a psychiatric condition that would be best served with steroids, antidepressants, and painkillers, despite the fact these things will not deal with a persistent active infection and could make matters infinitely worse.

Thayer then gives a valuable history lesson reminder on AIDS and how many feel the CDC scapegoated homosexuals, drug users, Haitians, and hemophiliacs, (aka, the 4-H club). This narrow definition kept many with AIDS from being diagnosed and treated. This finally changed due to public outcry and now the definition includes more than 60 infections.

She believes the CDC’s treatment of the Lyme epidemic is quite similar and that their policy is discriminating, stigmatizing, and scapegoating patients. This is seen best by a bevy of NIH studies misusing “Medically Unexplained Symptoms,” (MUS) to describe those with persisting symptoms. MUS is a psychiatric disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders category of Somatic Symptom Disorder. In other words, they think we are self-absorbed and preoccupied with symptoms. Anyone with MSIDS knows – you can’t make this stuff up!

Thayer points out that none of the NIH articles include original research or advance knowledge, yet Yale and the University of Pennsylvania have obtained nearly twelve million in NIH grants to discredit patients and those helping them, which ultimately undermines patients’ access to care and insurance coverage, sabotages their access with scientific, medical, and governmental communities, and discredits and marginalizes patients, advocates, and the physicians who dare to treat them.

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Testing

Highest Cases of Lyme – Pennsylvania

http://triblive.com/local/allegheny/11706467-74/disease-lyme-pennsylvania

Once again, according to preliminary data by the CDC, Pennsylvania leads the nation in Lyme Disease cases with a whopping number of 12,092 in 2016.  

Please remember; however, many cases are not counted in state tallies, so the actual numbers are infinitely higher.  For instance, the increasing numbers of the tick borne illness (alpha-gal allergy) which causes an allergic reaction to red meat, is not counted as it is considered an allergy not a TBI.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/01/12/tick-related-red-meat-allergy-found-in-minnesota-wisconsin/

Also, the current CDC two-tier testing misses at least half of all cases, so for every person diagnosed with LD, one is sent home with a negative test who very well may be infected.

For an excellent read on the current two-tier testing, see:  https://www.lymedisease.org/lyme-basics/lyme-disease/diagnosis/

If you think you have Lyme/MSIDS (multi systemic infectious disease syndrome – or Lyme with friends – as research shows we typically have more pathogens than just borrelia the causative agent of LD), contact your state’s Lyme Support Groups to find reputable Lyme literate doctors in your state.  These doctors will test you with a much more sensitive test, but will also diagnose you clinically and treat you appropriately.

The current standard of care for Lyme/MSIDS patients in mainstream medicine is appalling and needs to change.

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Uncategorized

Draining the Pharma Swamp

This is an important announcement for everyone, but particularly for chronically ill people like those with Lyme/MSIDS as many depend upon prescription medications.  Unfortunately, prices become so high patients can’t afford treatment. https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/12/17/20-states-accuse-generic-drug-companies-of-price-fixing/  And here, you can see how there have been allegations of cronyism in regards to price-fixing certain medications, particularly the Epi-pen (those using Bee Venom therapy need this) and Doxycycline, a first-line drug for Lyme/MSIDS.

http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-01-11-donald-trump-announces-plan-to-attack-big-pharma-monopoly-profits-by-requiring-competitive-bidding-government-drug-purchases.html  Wednesday, January 11, 2017 by: Mike Adams

(NaturalNews) In a welcome announcement during a press conference today, President-elect Donald Trump announced a plan to shatter the monopolistic pricing of Big Pharma that has been draining literally trillions of dollars from the government for the past two decades.

“Pharma has a lot of lobbyists and a lot of power,” said Trump. “There’s very little bidding on drugs. We’re the largest drug buyer in the world, and we’re going to start bidding. We’re going to start saving billions of dollars on drugs.” 

Trump is referencing the fact that all the former Presidents in recent memory — Clinton, Bush and Obama — have maintained what can only be called a “monopoly pricing drug cartel” in the United States, where the U.S. government pays outrageously high prices for prescription medications purchased via Medicare, federal health coverage plans and VA Hospital operations. The utter lack of competitive pricing has been kept in place by an army of pharma lobbyists “bribing” complicit lawmakers and bureaucrats to keep high prices in place and eliminate competitive bidding for prescription medication purchase contracts. 

$324.6 billion a year in overpriced prescription medications to appease Big Pharma lobbyists

As a result, the federal government is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on overpriced prescription drugs each year, dolling out a whopping $324.6 billion on prescription drugs in 2015 alone. “Spending on prescription drugs outpaced all other services in 2015,” says a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid report entitled National Health Expenditures: 2015 Highlights.

That same report reveals that U.S. health care spending has now reached $3.2 trillion annually, or nearly $10,000 per person. If this spending isn’t curtailed, it’s going to bankrupt America and will soon hit an astonishing 25% of GDP, meaning 1 out of every 4 dollars generated in the entire U.S. economy will be going to drug companies, cancer treatment centers, hospitals, doctors and medical device manufacturers.

High drug prices weaken U.S. worker competitiveness in global marketplace

Obviously, that rate of expenditure is unsustainable. It also makes U.S. workers far more expensive than workers in overseas regions, harming the economic competitiveness of U.S. companies. In order for U.S. workers to remain competitive, U.S. health care costs need to be drastically reduced… and that means finally forcing drug companies to compete on pricing rather than receiving “full retail” monopoly-priced reimbursements from the federal government.

Making America Great Again, in other words, means stopping the federal government from being ripped off by Big Pharma.

Notably, Hillary Clinton’s campaign accepted millions of dollars from Big Pharma sources, and there’s little question that Clinton, if she had won the election, would have maintained the status quo of monopoly prices. See “Hillary Clinton will not challenge FDA Monopoly” and “If you support Hillary Clinton, you support big pharma and mandatory vaccinations.” (RELATED: Find more news on Hillary Clinton at Clinton.news)

In contrast, Donald Trump is genuinely “draining the swamp” by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse across many sectors of the federal government. Big Pharma just got served: The era of easy profits and a compliant federal government writing unlimited fat checks is now coming to an end.

Every American fed up with unaffordable drug prices, outrageous health insurance premiums and the corruption and influence of lobbyists in Washington D.C. should applaud this announcement by Trump.

Category:

Activism

Sick-Shaming of Lyme/MSIDS Patients

An article in “The Mighty,” is a straight forward commentary on what many Lyme/MSIDS patients go through in their quest for medical treatment by medical professionals who verbally abuse them.

https://themighty.com/2017/01/chronic-lyme-disease-gaslighting/ by Lori Dennis

There is a term in clinical psychology known as “gaslighting.” Its origins are the 1938 play and 1944 film “Gas Light.” Gaslighting is “a form of mental abuse in which information is twisted or spun, selectively omitted to favor the abuser, or false information is presented with the intent of making victims doubt their own memory, perception, and sanity.”

Gaslighting, akin to “sick shaming” in the case of chronic Lyme disease, is a brilliantly orchestrated method perpetrated by those in power who either purposely or inadvertently damage your trust in yourself and in your own reality by making you feel both “crazy” and “wrong.” When you have an illness like chronic Lyme, it’s easy to be the victim of this tactic. Chronic Lyme disease is a perfect yet tragic example of this ploy in action, executed by a global cast of characters against the most vulnerable among us.

This sounds so outrageous. And it is. But as we all know, truth is often stranger than fiction.

Every single day in every corner of the world, Lyme patients are being gaslit in doctors offices, hospitals, clinics and the like. In fact, the very professionals in whom we place our trust, those we hope will care about our health and well-being, are doing far more harm than good by minimizing, trivializing, denying, discrediting, doubting, diverting, blaming, shaming, and patronizing Lyme patients and their symptoms.

The years of falsehoods, misinformation, greed, profit, ego, and arrogance driving this behavior carried out by the medical powers-that-be — the very people who have prevented chronic Lyme disease from getting the medical attention it so deserves — have turned Lyme disease into a universal experience of gaslighting, sick shaming, blaming and the discrediting of millions of patients worldwide.

Not a day goes by when Lyme patients, in response to their cries for help, are told by their doctors that they can’t possibly have chronic Lyme disease because…

“I don’t believe in Lyme…You were nowhere near a tick-infested region, were you?…I would have tested you for it if I thought it was Lyme…Something would have shown up in your blood test…Your blood tests were indeterminate, so you can’t have Lyme…Your blood tests were negative so you don’t have Lyme…It’s a false positive, you don’t have Lyme…You got better after a round of antibiotics so it’s cured…This disease is very rare…There is no Lyme in this country, city, town, region…If you didn’t see the tick, then you can’t have Lyme…Did you have a rash?…If you didn’t see the bull’s-eye rash, then you don’t have Lyme…It’s post-treatment Lyme disease, don’t worry, it will resolve itself…It’s post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome and there’s nothing more we can do…Go home and find some distractions…Everyone with Lyme has made it up…It’s a figment of your imagination…There is no such thing…The internet is wrong…Stop Googling…When did you get your medical degree?…With all due respect, Google is not medical school…Remember, I’m the one with the credentials…I can assure you that ticks don’t cross the border…You didn’t go hunting in the highlands of Scotland, did you?…You don’t have an elevated white blood cell count so you can’t have Lyme…You don’t have arthritis so you can’t have Lyme…Your joints are fine, aren’t they?…No one gets headaches with Lyme disease…Lyme doesn’t cause your symptoms…I don’t know anything about Lyme disease but I can tell you, you don’t have it…No one can have that many symptoms…No one can be that sick…You look too good…You’re a beautiful girl and you don’t need this illness to get attention…It’s just menopause…These are just normal signs of aging…Everyone feels tired…You’re just lazy…Get some fresh air and exercise…You just need to get out and get busy…You’re depressed…You’re stressed…You’re just feeling anxious…It’s likely an inherent weakness…You just need to think positively…It’s all in your head…Stop dwelling on your problems…Try praying…If you just stop thinking about it, you’ll feel better…Are you familiar with Freud?…Here, I’ll refer you to a psychiatrist…An antidepressant and some therapy should do the trick.”

These inane pronouncements are made by doctors daily causing Lyme patients to feel like they’re “crazy,” lazy, not smart enough, overdramatizing, misinterpreting, histrionic, hypochondriacal, malingering, and just plain wrong. And to make matters worse, they are rarely given any alternative diagnoses and treatment solutions that are of any use. The best many doctors can do, it seems, is to tell their patients it’s all in their heads and then offload them to a psychiatrist for meds and therapy.

I can assure you that chronic Lyme disease is very real, the pain Lyme patients are forced to endure is very real, and the number of people affected by the disease — both directly and indirectly — is growing exponentially while the medical establishment continues to do very little to address it.

You may ask, “Why is this happening? Why would doctors go to such lengths to dismiss and shame their patients?”

The best I can say is the answers are complex. Just know that it’s a 40-year-old, multi-faceted construction of falsehoods, obfuscations, opportunism, trickle down effects, herd mentality, and the like, orchestrated by those who have much to gain by gaslighting and a great deal to lose if they don’t.

Lori has written the book “Lyme Madness” which is now available on Amazon. Please visit www.lymemadness.ca and www.facebook.com/lymemadness/ for more posts and messages about chronic Lyme.

Lyme Madness™ chronicles the journey of Lori’s son’s chronic illness and their headlong plunge down a confusing, overwhelming, and mind-bending rabbit hole to help him recover his health.  It reflects their eighteen month experience of desperately trying to procure a proper clinical diagnosis; it chronicles the subsequent months they spent searching for treatments that would hopefully make a difference; and it details the daily researching and seeking of a myriad of alternative approaches for his ultimate healing – all to release him from the unsympathetic grip of this complex neurological condition.

 

 

Category:

Activism, Psychological Aspects