Dr. John's Health Matters
Welcome to Dr. John's Health Matters blog.
The articles posted here are from various sources who are duly acknowledged. I would appreciate being immediately notified, if any copywritten material needs to be removed. This blog is not intended to replace the qualified advice of a licensed health practitioner. Readers should exercise their own judgment. Enjoy, subscribe, participate and tell others :)
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Posts tagged "swine"
Wednesday, Sep 2nd, 2009 ↓New iPhone App 'Outbreaks Near Me' Locates H1N1 (Swine Flu), Infectious Diseases →
Sept 2, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—A new iPhone application, created by researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab, enables users to track and report outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as H1N1 (swine flu), on the ground in real time.
The application, “Outbreaks Near Me,” builds upon the mission and proven capability of HealthMap, an online resource that collects, filters, maps and disseminates information about emerging infectious diseases, and provides a new, contextualized view of a user’s specific location – pinpointing outbreaks that have been reported in the vicinity of the user and offering the opportunity to search for additional outbreak information by location or disease.
Additional functionality of Outbreaks Near Me is the ability to set alerts that will notify a user on their device or by e-mail when new outbreaks are reported in their proximity, or if a user enters a new area of activity.
“We hope individuals will find the new app to be a useful source of outbreak information – locally, nationally, and globally,” says HealthMap co-founder John Brownstein, PhD, assistant professor in the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program (CHIP). “As people are equipped with more knowledge and awareness of infectious disease, the hope is that they will become more involved and proactive about public health.”
For full article, see link above.
Tags: iPhone application swine flu H1N1 outbreak disease infectious location awareness
Swine flu drug increases stroke risk →
Aug 19, 2009 (Presstv.com)—While Tamiflu is one of the most effective drugs in treating swine flu infection, a new report warns that the drug may increase the risk of stroke.
Previously, researchers had urged parents to avoid using the drug in their offspring as its risks outweighed the benefits. Nausea and nightmares were among the most frequent side effects reported in children.
According to the report recently released by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), Tamiflu may interact with the blood-thinning medication warfarin, placing the individual at an increased risk of uncontrolled bleeding (INR rate).
A significant increase in the INR rate could consequently lead to the development of a hemorrhagic stroke.
Despite the fact that such a complication was never reported in performed clinical testing, the MHRA has received 418 reports of suspected adverse reactions including two deaths because of Tamiflu.
Some 12 of these reactions were related to warfarin interactions.
Warfarin is known to interact with a wide range of drugs and even some foods and drinks. Many of the consumers, therefore, are hospitalized due to increased INR rates while many others die.
“We have seen indications that INR rates could possibly rise due to interactions between warfarin and Tamiflu. However, flu-like illnesses have also been known to cause this, so at this stage it is difficult to know whether it is the interaction with Tamiflu or the underlying flu,” said a MHRA spokesman.
The government watchdog therefore warned physicians of the high risk of stroke in Tamiflu users, adding that they should ask the patients regarding the use of the blood-thinning drug before prescribing the anti-swine flu medicine.
Tags: flu treatment tamiflu swine h1n1 infection risk drug prescription stroke nausea nightmare blood thinning illness
Warning: Swine Flu Shot Linked to Killer Nerve Disease →
Aug 18, 2009 (Mercola.com)—A warning that swine flu vaccine has been linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the UK Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter.
The letter from the Health Protection Agency, the official body that oversees public health, was leaked to The Daily Mail, leading to demands to know why the information has not been given to the public before the vaccination of millions of people, including children, begins.
It tells the neurologists that they must be alert for an increase in a brain disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine. GBS attacks the lining of the nerves, causing paralysis and inability to breathe, and can be fatal.
The letter refers to the use of a similar swine flu vaccine in the United States in 1976 when:
- More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu
- The vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times
- The vaccine was withdrawn after just ten weeks when the link with GBS became clear
- The U.S. Government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected
Concerns have already been raised that the new vaccine has not been sufficiently tested and that the effects, especially on children, are unknown.
Sources: 
The Daily Mail August 15, 2009
Ten Things You're Not Supposed to Know about the Swine Flu Vaccine →
July 28, 2009 (Naturalnews.com)—Let’s not beat around the bush on this issue: The swine flu vaccines now being prepared for mass injection into infants, children, teens and adults have never been tested and won’t be tested before the injections begin. In Europe, where flu vaccines are typically tested on hundreds (or thousands) of people before being unleashed on the masses, the European Medicines Agency is allowing companies to skip the testing process entirely.
And yet, amazingly, people are lining up to take the vaccine, absent any safety testing whatsoever. When the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. announced a swine flu vaccine trial beginning in early August, it was inundated with phone calls and emails from people desperate to play the role of human guinea pigs. The power of fear to herd sheeple into vaccine injections is simply amazing…
Back in Europe, of course, everybody gets to be a guinea pig since no testing will be done on the vaccine at all. Even worse, the European vaccines will be using adjuvants — chemicals used to multiply the potency of the active ingredients in vaccines.
Notably, there is absolutely no safety data on the use of adjuvants in infants and expectant mothers — the two groups being most aggressively targeted by the swine flu vaccine pushers. The leads us to the disturbing conclusion that the swine flu vaccine could be a modern medical disaster. It’s untested and un-tried. Its ingredients are potentially quite dangerous, and the adjuvants being used in the European vaccines are suspected of causing neurological disorders.
For full article see link above.
Tags: h1n1 swine flu vaccine risk danger ingredient adjuvant chemical safe dangerous paralyze toxic nervous system inflammatory
Algae Protein Could Stop Deadly SARS Infection →
May 29 09 (Natural News) — One reason the emergence of H1N1, also called swine flu, has caused so much concern — and near hysteria in some cases — is the memory of the painful and often fatal outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) back in 2003. Over several months, this devastating viral respiratory illness, caused by a coronavirus, spread to more than two dozen countries in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. Before the disease was contained, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), a total of 8,098 people had become sick from SARS and 774 died. Although public health measures finally controlled that global outbreak, there has been no effective way to prevent or treat the breath-robbing malady should a SARS pandemic erupt — until now. A new study shows a protein from red algae may have the ability to successfully treat SARS infections. The research, just presented at the American Thoracic Society’s 105th International Conference in San Diego, demonstrated that mice treated with the protein, dubbed Griffithsin (GRFT), had a 100 percent survival rate after exposure to the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV). However, only 30 percent of mice exposed to the disease but not treated with the algae substance survived.
For full article, see link above.
Swine Flu Susceptibility Linked To Common Levels Of Arsenic Exposure →
ScienceDaily (May 21, 2009) — The ability to mount an immune response to influenza A (H1N1) infection is significantly compromised by a low level of arsenic exposure that commonly occurs through drinking contaminated well water, scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and Dartmouth Medical School have found.
Joshua Hamilton, the MBL’s Chief Academic and Scientific Officer and a senior scientist in the MBL’s Bay Paul Center; graduate student Courtney Kozul of Dartmouth Medical School, where the work was conducted; and their colleagues report their findings in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
For full article, see link above.
New Study: Probiotic Strain Boosts Immune Response to Flu Virus →
May 14 09 (NaturalNews) A new study just published in the journal Postgraduate Medicine has good news about a way to help fight a potential flu pandemic, naturally. Researchers found that a specific strain of probiotics, which are beneficial microorganisms similar to the “friendly” bacteria found naturally in the body’s digestive system, increases the body’s immune response to the flu virus — specifically, to influenza A. And the currently much hyped and much feared so-called swine flu, also known as H1N1, is a variant of influenza A.
For full article, see link above.
Newsmax.com - Fight Swine Flu With Mushrooms →
May 8 2009 (Newsmax.com) — The ordinary white button mushroom can help you beat the swine flu, researchers at Tufts University say. They have discovered that this lowly fungus, which for many years was thought to have no medicinal or nutritional value, in actuality gives our immune systems a big boost.
The Tufts study, published in The Journal of Nutrition, showed that grocery-store button mushrooms have as much anti-oxidant oomph as more exotic Asian mushrooms, long-prized for their ability to heal and to prevent disease. Common button mushrooms also contain polysaccharides and ergothioneine along with other substances that jump-start the immune system. Besides boosting immunity, the study showed they raise levels of cytokines, which are hormone-like proteins that help defend against viruses and tumors.
For full article, see link above.
