A Natural Environmental Health Facts Ezine

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"A NATURAL ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH FACTS Ezine" Here to Inform and Help You Become Healthier and Happier while Achieving Quality Longevity!

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Friday December 17, 2004
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==> Editors' Ranting & or Warnings
==> Something To Think About
==> Health Thought for the day!
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==> Today's Health Tip
==> Food of The Week
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Ahhhh! Weekend almost upon me and a day of rest before the final run up to the holiday and all the work that it entails. Clean beds for family, specific food for the picky ones, shopping for those special traditional dishes that can only happen at home, but all done with love and joy at being healthy and able to do the things to make each guest happy! My wish for you is, that you can say the same thing... Health is imperative to enjoying life...

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Take charge of you and your family's health before it takes charge of you!
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Something To Think About
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"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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PAIN RELIEF MIRACLE!

Having had four back surgeries and being told that I would never be any better and that I would have to learn to live with the pain and limitations on my life, a friend gave me bottles of Skeletal Support, Structural Lubrication and Life Transfusion Liquid Minerals to try. I took 9 Structural, 4 Skeletal and 30 drops of Ionic Blast Life Transfusion Liquid Minerals immediately then I continued to take three each of the capsules and 40 drops daily of the minerals twice a day. At the end of one week I was totally pain free and had great range of motion in my back. I went out into my back yard, dug a hole and planted a tree, worked in the yard all day and then took a two-mile walk with my wife when she came home from work. I call this nothing short of a miracle. You probably heard me yelling praises for the miracle! Fifteen years of pain and surgeries and now pain free with these formulas. God Bless the doctor that came up with these.

Paul O., Sacramento, Calif.

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Companies Cutting Health Benefits
Dec 15, 2004
By MARK SHERMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) - Many companies are dropping their promise of health benefits for future retirees, who now might have to stay on the job longer and rely on government health care in their old age.

Eight percent of employers with at least 1,000 workers said they had eliminated subsidized retiree health benefits for some workers this year, and 11 percent more said they probably would do so next year, according to a study released Tuesday by the benefits consulting firm Hewitt Associates and the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.

Most of those affected were newly hired, but some companies said the change applied to workers who had been on the payroll longer.

The number of companies that offer health coverage to retirees has been on the decline for 15 years.

But among those that continue to subsidize retiree coverage, the move to treat current and former workers differently reflects a desire to leave health benefits in place for those who have already retired despite several consecutive years of double-digit increases in health care costs.

Since 2000, more than 100 large employers have chosen this path.

Some have cut out subsidies but have told employees they can continue coverage under company health plans after they retire, a much cheaper option than seeking health insurance elsewhere.

"Retiree health care coverage is kind of a slowly vanishing species," Kaiser president Drew Altman said.

The prospect of losing health coverage in retirement is troubling particularly to people who are considering changing jobs or who want to retire between the ages of 55 and 64. Younger retirees can find it difficult to afford health insurance when they can't get it from their employers.

Medicare, the government health program for older and disabled Americans, kicks in at age 65. Its benefits typically have been less generous than those offered by employers, mainly because the workplace plans cover prescription drugs. Medicare's drug insurance program begins in 2006.

The employer plans, however, are asking retirees to pay more of their health costs through higher insurance premiums and larger co-pays for doctor visits and prescription medicines.

People who retire in 2004 face premiums about 25 percent higher than those who retired last year, according to the survey of 333 companies, which was conducted between May and September.

Most large employers said they will maintain prescription drug benefits for retirees after the Medicare drug program begins in 2006, the study said.

The fate of retirees with employer-sponsored drug benefits was a major consideration of the authors of last year's Medicare prescription drug law.

To keep more employers from dropping coverage, the law includes up to $88 billion over 10 years in tax-free subsidies to companies that offer prescription benefits that are at least the equal of Medicare's.

In 1991, 80 percent of firms employing 1,000 or more workers offered health coverage to retirees. By 2003, the number had fallen to 57 percent, Hewitt said. When looking at companies with at least 200 employees, the number is 38 percent, Kaiser said.

Roughly 15 million retirees receive health care coverage from former employers. About 3 million are 55 to 64. The rest are eligible for Medicare, Altman said.

The new survey, conducted before issuance of final Medicare regulations about the drug benefit, found that just 8 percent of employers said they would drop retirees' drug benefits in the program's first year.

Frank McArdle, manager of Hewitt's research office in Washington, said the early response from employers is good news. But he cautioned that decisions about 2007 and beyond would depend on the regulations, the design of Medicare drug plans devised by private insurers and by costs.

Kaiser Family Foundation
Hewitt Associates

LENA'S COMMENT: This is the very reason you cannot wait until you are older to start practicing a healthy lifestyle!!!! The body will require a lot of medical care in later years if you don't and who will pay for those thousands of dollars a month that it will require?

Strange shape, strange names but great taste!

As I rolled the huge pear/ball/grapefruit shaped thing in my hand debating whether I should try it or not? I decided it would be worth the risk as it had a thick skin making it less likely to be full of pesticide chemicals. The name was strange and one I didn't recognize. On investigation I found out that it carries several names; pomelo = pummelo = Chinese grapefruit = shaddock! Pronunciation: PUHM-uh-low - The French name for this fruit is chadec. The current Malayan names are limau abong, limau betawi, limau bali, limau besar, limau bol, limau jambua, Bali lemon, and pomelo.

I'll call it a Pummelo as that is what the name on the box said... Pummelo is the largest of the citrus fruits with a shape that can be fairly round or slightly pointed at one end -the fruit ranges from nearly round to oblate or pear-shaped. They range from cantaloupe-size to as large as a 25-pound watermelon and have very thick, soft rind. The one I bought was sort of pear shaped and about 10 inches across... It is known in the western world mainly as the principal ancestor of the grapefruit The pummelo is popular in the Asia and is new to California but rarely seen in the Eastern United States.

It's sweeter than a grapefruit. The skin is greenish yellow and slightly bumpy with the feel of citrus skin; flesh color ranges from pink to rose.

The pulp is milder and sweeter than its closest cousin, the grapefruit. Pummelos are available mid-January through mid-February from California. Can be used in the same manner as any other citrus fruit.

Said to be native to southeastern Asia and all of Malaysia; It is said to grow wild on river banks in the Fiji and Friendly Islands. It is said to have been introduced into China around 100 B.C. It is much cultivated in southern China - Kwang-tung, Kwangsi and Fukien Provinces - and especially in southern Thailand on the banks to the Tha Chine River; also in Taiwan and southernmost Japan, southern India, Malaya, Indonesia, New Guinea and Tahiti.

The pomelo is also called shaddock after an English sea captain, Captain Shaddock, who introduced the seed to the West Indies in the 17th Century from the Malay Archipelago. The seeds produced fruit somewhat smaller than the current grapefruit, more like an orange. The size of the fruit and the fact that it grew in bunches or clusters like grapes prompted a 19th century naturalist to liken the new fruit to grapes, with which it has no botanical relationship whatsoever.

Some say the grapefruit is a cross between an orange and the pummelo (or shaddock), while others believe that grapefruit is a natural mutant (sometimes referred to as a small shaddock) derived from the seeds Captain Shaddock brought to the West Indies.

Pummelo skin is also used medicinally in some cultures. For instance, in Southeast Asia raw pummelo skin pieces are given to patients to eat who are having problems with excessive coughing and who have a history of epileptic seizures.

As for the nutrients in a Pummel? Guess it's a mystery as I couldn't find anything written on the nutrients in one. I am assuming since it's citrus it has lot of phytonutrients but exactly which ones is a guess... Since it is used as a medicine in Asia I suspect they are all good!

I ate mine raw and was very good and tasty, just slightly sweeter than a grapefruit with a very similar taste. I shall be eating more, even if I don't know exactly what nutrients are in one.

The Experiment in food was well worth it!
Lena

AIDS Research Chief Altered Safety Report
Dec 15, 2004
By JOHN SOLOMON

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government's chief AIDS researcher removed some negative safety conclusions from a subordinate's report on a U.S.-funded drug experiment, then ordered the research to resume over objections from his staff, memos show.

As justification, Dr. Edmund Tramont, chief of the National Institutes of Health's AIDS Division, cited his four decades of medical experience and argued that Africans with an AIDS crisis deserved some leniency in meeting U.S. safety standards, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Tramont's staff, including his top deputy, had urged more scrutiny of the Uganda research site to ensure it overcame record-keeping problems, violations of federal patient safety safeguards and other issues. These problems had forced a 15-month halt to the research into using a single dose of nevirapine to prevent African babies from getting AIDS from their mothers.

AP reported Monday that NIH knew about the problems in early 2002 but did not tell the White House before President Bush launched a plan that summer to spread nevirapine throughout Africa.

Now, officials have new concerns the lone dose of nevirapine may cause long-term resistance to AIDS drugs in the hundreds of thousands of African patients who received it, foreclosing future treatment options.

In July 2003, Dr. Jonathan Fishbein, an expert NIH hired to improve agency research practices wrote Tramont: "I am not convinced that the (Ugandan) site is indeed prepared to become active."

Fishbein contended he should be given time to review Uganda's capabilities and safety monitoring before letting the site reopen, or NIH would risk being "toothless" in its new efforts to clean up sloppy research practices. He added that professional safety monitors hired by NIH had reservations about the site.

Tramont dismissed the safety monitors' concerns, saying he didn't believe they fully understood AIDS.

"I am convinced that this site is ready to resume given the limitations of doing research in any resource-poor, underdeveloped country," Tramont wrote July 8, 2003, in response to Fishbein.

"I want this restriction lifted ASAP because this site is now the best in Africa run by black Africans and everyone has worked so hard to get it right as evidenced by the fact that their lab is now certified," he wrote.

NIH officials acknowledge Tramont rewrote the report and overruled his staff on the reopening, but said he did so because he was more experienced and had an "honest difference of opinion" with his safety experts. They noted Tramont had no financial interest in nevirapine and that the troubled study began well before he joined NIH in 2001.

Those who raised objections "were part of a large team of which Dr. Tramont was the head, and it is important that the people involved in that team should express their opinion and there should be discussion," said Dr. H. Clifford Lane, the NIH's No. 2 infectious disease specialist and one of Tramont's bosses. Lane was designated by NIH to speak to AP on Tramont's behalf.

"But at the end of the day, the final responsibility lies with the head of the team, and it is his job to put that together the way he sees it," Lane said.

Lane said an internal NIH review concluded Tramont had not engaged in scientific misconduct. Separately, the National Academy of Sciences continues to investigate whether the Uganda research was valid.

NIH believes it helped save hundreds of thousands of African babies by allowing nevirapine to be used in single doses to block the AIDS virus, Lane said. But he acknowledged the research was imperfect, and NIH now believes nevirapine should no longer be a first choice for newborn protection - if other options exist - because of the newly discovered problems with resistance.

One of the nation's premier AIDS charities said Tuesday it is concerned the controversy over the 2002 study problems will cause African countries to stop using the drug, and called on medical experts to find ways to get better new solutions into the Third World.

"Rather than focus on withdrawing nevirapine from those who urgently need it, the entire world should focus on how we can provide the funding for infrastructure improvements, training, and drug purchase costs so that more and more women will have access to the most effective drug regimens possible," the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundations said in response to AP's stories.

Tramont wrote in 2003 e-mails that he reopened the clinics because he didn't want NIH "perceived as bureaucratic but rather thoughtful and reasonable" and that it was important to encourage Africans' fight against AIDS "especially when the president is about to visit them."

Bush visited the continent a few days after Tramont ordered the clinics reopened.

Tramont's actions, however, drew criticism from his top deputy.

"I think we are cutting off our noses to spite our face here," AIDS Division Deputy Director Jonathan Kagan wrote. "... We should not be motivated by political gains and it's dangerous for you, of all people, to be diminishing the value of our monitors." Tramont prevailed.

Five months earlier, Tramont surprised one of his own medical officers, who had written a report summarizing safety concerns uncovered during a second review of the Uganda trial.

Dr. Betsy Smith's report, finished in January 2003, said the Uganda trial suffered from "incomplete or inadequate safety reporting" and records on patients were "of poor quality and below expected standards of clinical research."

She strongly urged NIH not to make sweeping conclusions about nevirapine based on the Uganda research. "Safety conclusions from this trial should be very conservative," she wrote.

Behind the scenes, Tramont asked to see Smith's report before it was submitted to medical authorities, including the Food and Drug Administration. "I need to see the primary data - too much riding on this report," Tramont wrote Jan. 23, 2003.

A few weeks later, the safety report was published and sent to FDA without Smith's concerns and with a new conclusion.

The study "has demonstrated the safety of single dose nevirapine for the prevention of maternal to child transmission," Tramont's version concluded. "Although discrepancies were found in the database and some unreported AEs (adverse reactions) were discovered ... these were not clinically important in determining the safety profile."

In disbelief, Tramont's staff began inquiring how Smith's report got changed. An answer came back from the top.

"I wrote it," Tramont responded.

Documents gathered by AP for this story are available at: http://wid.ap.org/documents/nevirapine2.html

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