The FDA notified Swanson Health Products that we cannot sell our current red yeast rice formulations, and therefore we have pulled the products from sale. Lovastatin is a naturally occurring component of red yeast rice; however, the FDA has taken issue with the level of lovastatin that is in our products based on their testing. The products will be reformulated and returned to our shelves as soon as possible.

For years Swanson Health Products has far exceeded the quality assurance standards set by the federal government for dietary supplements. Since 2001, we’ve participated in the GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) program of the Natural Products Association, and we have consistently received their “A” rating for our compliance to it. Swanson Health Products is committed to complying with all laws and regulations pertaining to our products.

Swanson Health Products is located in Fargo, ND, and has been a leading vitamin and health products company since 1969. Our customers are number one and to prove that, we offer powerful guarantees. All products are backed by a 100% Satisfaction, Money-Back Guarantee. If you are not satisfied with your purchase for any reason, simply return the unused portion for a full refund of the purchase price.

Mohammad Khairul Alam
Executive Director
Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation
24/3 M. C. Roy Lane
Dhaka-1211, Bangladesh
rainbowngo@gmail.com
Tell: 880-2-8628908
Mobile: 01711344997

Worldwide, rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among adolescents are soaring: one-third of the 340 million new STDs/STI each year occur in people under 25 years of age. Each yearly, more than one in every 20 adolescents contracts a curable STDs/STI. More than half of all new HIV infections occur in people between the ages of 15 to 24 years. The sexual health needs for adolescent girls are generally overlooked, Stigma and vulnerability affects particular groups of men as well as women. Although men generally have more access to information on sexual issues than women, and more decision-making power regarding sexual behavior, Access to information, and treatment for other infections which facilitate the transmission of HIV and onset of AIDS, including STDs/STI, are limited because of weak public health services, health workers’ negative attitudes, and the high cost of treatment.

Adolescent girls in poor families in Bangladesh, most of whom are out-of-school, comprise a sizeable proportion of the female population. They are especially vulnerable and neglected, coming under the purview of government programs only once they are pregnant- the majority are out of school and are neither serviced by educational or school health programs nor by child health, reproductive health and nutrition services. At the family level too, girls are highly vulnerable: male child preference is pervasive, resulting in gender inequality in health care, food intake, school attendance and labor contribution of children, from an early age.

In generally, Bangladeshi women or girls are basically getting sexual experience through marriage and for the most part, premarital sexual contact is mostly confined to their future husband or lovers. Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation found, sexual behaviour among Bangladeshi women is changing. Adolescent girls may not remain in the traditional sexual confinement of the previous generations and casual sex among them is on the rise. This may encourage AIDS to acquire alarming proportions in Bangladesh.

A new strategy apply some reprobate people a very recent that several college or university girls are being enrolled into providing privately sex works (Residential sex work) through blackmail methods often by taking their nude photograph or short movie by digital hidden mini camera, when they engage consensual sex work or close entertainment with their lovers or friend and threatening them that the photos or movies would be published in poster form if they do not agree to their terms and conditions.

There are also several groups of adolescent people with increased vulnerability for HIV transmission because of their social status. Among the growing number of street children or street girls, the risk of infection is exacerbated due to a high prevalence of risky sexual behaviors and injecting drug use. Although the growing public awareness of the existence of the HIV crisis, the actual knowledge of the problem is superficial, particularly among adolescents. Their understanding of the modes of transmission and prevention methods is incomplete and often misconstrued. Recent research in North region’s three districts in Bangladesh by jointly Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation & L.R.B Foundation has shown that while provide HIV information with discussions of safe-sex and gender issue may be discouraged for young girls and women because of the ordinary belief that to inform them about sexuality and safe-sex is to encourage sexual activity. Even though that for fear of encouraging sexual activity, mothers deny imperative information about sexual-live, safe sex, reproductive health information from their daughters.

HIV/AIDS is a deadly disease, but also everybody can safe from it. Everyone can protect from HIV infection by making smart decisions about sex and drugs. Some things are very risky to do, some less risky, and some are 100 percent safe. Obviously, the surest way to avoid the virus is to choose not to have sexual intercourse - vaginal, oral, or anal - and not to use illegal drugs. By the way, what is therefore urgently required for adolescents are programs/ activities which help deal with they’re own well-being, their health, their bodies and their sexual lives. This is particularly important in light of the HIV pandemic and in light of growing evidence of both ignorance in sexual matters on the one hand and considerable sexual activity among young unmarried people in the other.

Reference: UNAIDS, World Bank, STD network

Mohammad Khairul Alam
Executive Director
Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation
24/3 M. C. Roy Lane
Dhaka-1211, Bangladesh
rainbowngo@gmail.com
http://www.newsletter.com.bd
Tell: 880-2-8628908
Mobile: 01711344997

HIV/AIDS epidemic is described as the worst difficulty in the history of health. In fact, human beings have been having great problems since time immemorial but there had never been the worst complexity like AIDS. HIV/AIDS is similar to war but it is worse than war in that when armies fight, it is mostly the men who are killed but HIV/AIDS kills women and children. HIV/AIDS kills people in the prime of their life. HIV/AIDS has no existing cure but there are several ways it can effectively be controlled. After all, common adage has it that prevention is better than cure. If an individual has enough prevention mechanism, there is optimism that the virus can be triumphed upon by the mankind.

Bangladesh is a Muslim countries, Sex is every where not permitted except 15 brothels in Bangladesh, Female Commercial Sex Workers (CSWs) in Bangladesh are generally adolescent and they are more vulnerable to infection as their low status makes them less able to negotiate the use of HIV/AIDS or Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs/STI) prevention methods e.g. condoms, also the young age makes them more biologically vulnerable. The destiny of CSWs, in relation to their vulnerability to HIV infection, depends mostly upon safe sex behaviors, with the use of condoms.

The problem of Female Commercial Sex Workers (CSWs) in Bangladesh exists for more than two decade. There are larger numbers of CSWs is operating all over the country, Bangladesh, significantly increases the risk of bridging the high risk groups and moving infection into the general population. Men who frequently visit commercial sex areas and have sex with CSWs and also with their monogamous wives, function as a bridging population and significantly aid the confluence of HIV/STDs into the innocent healthy population.

In generally Bangladesh is a high prevalence country of sexually transmitted diseases, particularly among commercial sex workers. It is estimated about 40% CSWs infected in several STDs/STI. Illicit sex is often considered as the highest risk segment of the population whereby one could get HIV or STD due to the high-risk sex activity itself and the often-additional injurious high-risk behaviors practiced by sex workers e.g. injection drug use (IDU). CSWs are the principal transmitters of HIV in many countries.

Certainly, adolescent girls prostitution is booming in Bangladesh. Adolescent girls engage or are forced into prostitution for trafficking or socio-economic reasons. Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation carried out a recent field investigation, the research confirmed that adolescent girls’ prostitution is widespread in Bangladesh, although hidden at first sight from foreigners, especially in Dhaka city. Adolescent girls involved in prostitution are to be found in residence homes converted into brothels or in hotels. The majority are aged 15-18.

Injecting drug use (IDU) has been the main route of HIV transmission in Bangladesh. While the transmission through sexual contact is still widely considered a major factor worldwide, but transmission through injection drug use (IDU) is also increasing at an alarming rate. Here the needles through IDU become one of the main factors of transmission. The drug user use drugs illegally. As a result, they do not have access to enough and clean needles. They share the same needles. This passes the virus in several ways: The first way is that the virus gets transmitted through the same needles they share. The second one is that they are influenced by drugs to become unconscious of using safe sex. The third one is the fact that this category of people is said to be having sex frequently and more carelessly with any individual than any other group.

HIV/AIDS would turn into an epidemic in Bangladesh if drug users do not stop sharing needles. A 2002-2003 CARE study found that nearly 40% of Bangladesh drug users use dirty needles; 4% of those were HIV-positive, a figure more than double the 1.7% infection rate reported among drug users in a 2001 study.

In some regions of Sub-Sahara, the impact of HIV/AIDS epidemic, including its social and economic impact, has been far-reaching. People have become impoverished, agricultural and industrial productivity diminished, employment system rampant, education system eroded and health care system and other care providers overburdened.

Reference: CARE, World Bank, Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation

I would like for you to have a look at http://www.USAHealthcareCosts.com

Consumers can register at NO CHARGE.

It should be straight-forward to you, if it is not I would be very happy to give you a very short demo. There are many useful features for Consumers but here is the bottom-line; a Consumer can determine a contract allowable (what an insurance would have or will pay) for any and all medical services and for any Zip Code within the U.S. Register free as a Consumer, scroll over the Consumer tab and click “Report Center”, there is a help button if needed.

Call me any time you like 512.787.1852

Thank you and have a nice day.

Dana

Trisha Gura
http://www.trishagura.com
trisha@trishagura.com

Accumulation of excess free radicals causing oxidative damage to cells is one of the contributing factors in ageing and has been implicated in many diseases, including cancer. The human immune system and antioxidant activity becomes weaker and less efficient with age; this reduced effectiveness helps to explain the rising incidence of cancer and life threatening infections in older people. It is thought antioxidant supplements could help to maintain bodily processes and prevent a significant number of degenerative diseases, especially those of the immune, cardiovascular and liver functions. Indeed, antioxidant supplementation has shown a remarkable ability to forestall age related changes to the immune system and even reverse many aspects of immune function in subjects with damaged immune functions.

“Nutrition and Cancer: State of the Art will save countless lives and reduce needless suffering by bringing the latest health advances to the attention of both health professionals and the public. Here, many readers will find the precise information that will be life-saving to them. This vital information may also serve humanity in a manner not directly intended by Dr. Goodman.”

Richard A. Passwater, Ph. D.
Berlin, Maryland USA.

http://www.drsgoodman.com/nutrition_cancer.php

Sometimes, I wonder if reporters arn’t put onto stories like this by insurance companies? Maybe this could be one of those situations where what makes the doctor money could also be helping some patients considerably? Maybe not!

Medicare and insurance companies had pretty strict guidelines about how low the hematocrit must be in order for them to be eligible for reimbursement. But some patients feel draggy/listless/weak when their hematocrits are above the cut-off levels for reimbursement (meaning they have to wait until their levels drop low enough). The real loser in this could be the patients who have to pay for the drugs, who would be happier were they just be moping around at home, as opposed to out living full lives.

But on the other hand, new studies have raised questions whether these drugs might actually be harming them. Those study results suggest the drugs may make the cancer worse.

Dr. Eric Winer, director of the breast oncology center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute feels that these drugs are presumed to be entirely safe, given for supportive care and to improve quality of life, but not actually used to treat cancer. But the drugs may have been used in ways not approved on the labels.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine last November found that patients treated aggressively with Procrit had a higher risk of heart problems or death than those treated less aggressively.

Amgen, the maker of Aranesp, announced late January that in one of its clinical trials, patients were more likely to die than those getting a placebo. The trial was testing the drug in patients whose anemia was caused by the cancer itself, not by chemotherapy. While a Danish study in patients with head and neck cancer had to be stopped early because the cancer seemed to recur more in patients being treated with Aranesp.

In February, the Journal of Clinical Oncology published a paper describing a small Canadian trial in lung cancer patients had also been stopped early because those getting Eprex were dying sooner. While Roche suspended patient enrollment in a lung cancer trial comparing its Cera against Amgen’s Aranesp because of greater than expected number of deaths in at least some of the arms of the trial.

It is not known why the drugs may cause these problems. It is known that raising hemoglobin levels too high increases the risk of blood clots. While most of these trials did aim to increase hemoglobin above the levels recommended in the drugs’ labels, that was not the case with Amgen’s own trial.

There is some evidence that clots were not the problem in the trials, but that Epo may spur tumor growth. Some studies suggest that certain tumor cells, such as those in head and neck cancer, have proteins on their surface that bind to Epo. When that happens, it sets off a cascade of reactions spurring growth.

Studies done by Dr. Jennifer R. Grandis, professor at the University of Pittsburgh, found enough biologic possibility that they can serve as a growth factor for the cancer cell. EPO is a natural substance made by the kidney. It stimulates the bone marrow to make red blood cells (it is literally a “growth factor”).

When normal people take it, their blood gets too “thick” and they die of heart attacks and strokes. However, it is wonderful for people with kidney disease, who formerly went around severely anemic and weak. But it now looks as if increasing the hemoglobin level above 13 is very risky with pharmaceutical EPO. Pharmaceutical EPO makes sludgy blood. And now there is emerging evidence that pharmaceutical EPO can feed the growth of tumors in cancer patients (it IS a “growth factor” afterall).

Concerns about the safety of the drugs for cancer were first raised in 2003 by two studies that showed patients getting Epo had worse outcomes. Until then, these drugs had shown signs that they could improve the quality of life for cancer patients, even though their safety labeling has already been revised three times since 1997.

Lee Newcomer, with United Health Group, had stated at the 12th annual conference of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, 44% of patients having blood work-ups indicated they were not anemic. Len Lictenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, reiterated that Newcomer was right on the spot with this. Few drugs work the way we think and few physicians/scientists take the time to think through what it is they are using them for.

A New York Times article stated that anemia drugs, given by injection, have been heavily advertised, and there is evidence that they have been overused, in part because oncologists can make money by using more of the drug. Lichtenfeld told United Press International, “Probably more than a billion dollars is spent on erythropoietin each year, which makes it one of the most expensive cancer drugs.”

According to Dr. John Glaspy, director of UCLA’s Outpatient Oncology Clinic, one complicating factor, experts say, is that oncologists make significant revenue buying cancer drugs from manufacturers and charging patients a higher price for receiving the drugs in their offices. That profit motive could influence some doctors’ decisions.

Federal laws bar drug companies from paying doctors to prescribe medicines that are given in pill form and purchased by patients from pharmacies. But companies can rebate part of the price that doctors pay for drugs, like the anemia medicines, which they dispense in their offices as part of treatment. Doctors receive the rebates after they buy the drugs from the companies. But they also receive reimbursement from Medicare or private insurers for the drugs, often at a markup over the doctors’ purchase price.

U.S. Oncology reported in their lastest SEC Form 10-K that they will bank $8-10 million a year less than expected because they are suddenly giving a lot less anemia drugs. Coincidence? They got caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

It’s still your mother’s chemotherapy drug concession. Although the new Medicare bill tried to curtail the drug concession, private insurers still go along with it. The core activity in medical oncology is the provision of infusional therapy. The entire structure of office-based practices revolves around this activity and is what distinguishes medical oncology from most other specialties.

What needs to be done is to remove the profit incentive from the choice of drug treatments. Patients should receive what is best for them and not what is best for their physicians. Let’s take physicians out of the retail pharmacy business and let them be physicians again!

Whiz bang therapies often get a pass on toxicities because they are just so darn cool. The problem is that few drugs work the way we think and few physicians/scientists take the time to think through what it is they are using them for.