Conflicts of Interest on Stilts - or is it on Steroids?

Conflicts of Interest on Stilts - or is it Steroids? - Read George Monbiot's Guardian article. "Democracy itself is being undermined by publicly funded agencies crawling with conflicts of interest and devoid of scrutiny" I urge you to read the whole of this excellent article about how undue power is increasingly being accorded to Big Pharma and other industrial giants, while ordinary voters and other taxpayers go unrepresented on these quangos.

And here is some of what Dr Rath has to say about this: "At the time of writing, the Board of Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) contains retired senior executives from drug companies AstraZeneca and Merck Sharp & Dohme. Similarly, its Executive Board contains a former employee of Glaxo, DuPont and DuPont Pharmaceuticals who is currently an employee of Bristol-Myers Squibb; a former employee of Glaxo Wellcome and GlaxoSmithKline; and a former employee of SmithKline Beecham. Continuing this pattern, the council members on the country’s Medical Research Council (MRC) include representatives of Sanofi Pasteur and Pfizer, whilst its Global Health Group and Translational Research Group both have members from GlaxoSmithKline."

Thinking about the Newsnight item on Silicone Breast Implants

I watched the Newsnight item about Silicone Breast Implants yesterday. In the introductory part Science Editor Susan Watts explained how the MHRA regulatory agency had been given information about the substandard implants made of industrial quality silicone, but had adopted the policy of taking no action until they heard of something actually going wrong.

Then the focus changed to Jeremy Paxman and Health Minister Anne Milton talking with a group of women who were in the unhappy position of having had the dodgy implants inserted and wishing that they hadn't. Most of them were keen to speak and to complain about not getting sufficient help to put matters right. Some told why they had chosen to have the implants in the first place. I was shocked to hear one woman explain that she was ashamed of her small breasts when she was out shopping! - Out shopping! - Ashamed? - Who on earth needs breast implants in order to go shopping? - I truly was shocked.

There is no need to go through the trauma/pain/expense/risk/mutilation of this surgery. A woman can, after all, wear a padded bra if she feels the need when dressed. And if she thinks she will appear more desirable with surgically enlarged breasts when naked then, in my opinion, she would do well to consider whether the people who value her for her measurements rather than for 'herself' are worth bothering about. Certainly not worth taking risks with her health, a person's most precious possession.

For many years women struggled in various ways and against great opposition and powerful prejudice to escape from being thought of primarily as sex objects and adjuncts to men, entitled to less regard and lower pay than men. "A woman's place was in the home/kitchen/bedroom/wrong." They struggled to achieve equal pay, equal educational and employment opportunities, parity of esteem, etc. and to be treated as men's equals. I am so sad that so many women now appear to be wanting to return to their subordinate positions as sex objects rather than individual people with minds. I frankly cannot understand the desire for surgically enlarged breasts, preposterously over-priced handbags, dangerously. totteringly high-heeled expensive monstrosities purporting to be shoes and weirdly-shaped and decorated fingernails. Why waste great chunks of precious life on this nonsense?

Applications for jobs as Government Regulators

In view of recent events, vacancies may occur as regulators in various Government Departments. Applicants may be required to possess the following attributes:

for regulators working for the Care Quality Commission - complete lack of interest in the welfare of patients/residents in geriatric wards and in care homes for the elderly and for young adults with learning difficulties

for regulators working for the MHRA - phlegmatic/lethargic/catatonic response to matters demanding urgent attention with regard to protecting members of the public from adverse effects caused by pharmaceutical drugs or by substandard or faulty medical devices and equipment, e.g. silicone implants for breast enlargement (see Breast Implant Scandal)

for regulators of standards of the competence and probity of medical/dental/similar staff (i.e. General Medical Council, General Dental Council and similar bodies) - complete uselessness for the task itself and proven allegiance to errant health professionals over patients

Preference may be given to applicants with tunnel vision and/or appropriate 'conflicts of interest'.

A bit of good news about Calpol, the version of paracetamol that is, unfortunately, given to children.

A bit of good news about Calpol, the version of paracetamol that is, unfortunately, given to children. - See BBC News report. - The bit of good news is that the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency says there will be more specific dosing instructions for this product, with narrowed age brackets. This will probably reduce some of the dangerous and damaging over-prescribing of paracetamol to toddlers that has been going on.

"Dr June Raine, the MHRA's director of vigilance and risk management of medicines, insisted the change was not because of safety concerns.

"The change is to ensure children get the most optimal dose of paracetamol suitable for their age.

"This updated dosing advice will clarify the doses, making it easier for parents and carers to know exactly how much paracetamol they should give their children.""

I'm sorry, Dr Raine, that you " insisted the change was not because of safety concerns". - It damn well ought to have been for safety concerns! I regard giving painkillers to little children as harmful, risk-laden folly.

Apart from the very real and present physical harm that can result, the practice of medicating every little pain and symptom in a child's life can produce an adult who will carry on the habit, looking for health and well-being in pills and potions, instead of in good food, good nutrition, good friends, fresh air, exercise and all the other good, drug-free benisons you, Dear Reader, would yourself list.

Here's an excellent article that gives information about the harmful ingredients that are added to Calpol as well as the paracetamol itself. And here's another such article.

If you take Avandia for type 2 diabetes, Panorama tonight has a programme about it (A Risk Worth Taking?) on BBC1

As BBC News reports, even though the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has said Avandia's use should be suspended, it is still available on the NHS. Avandia is linked to increased risk of heart attacks and heart failure.

"Prof [Edwin] Gale, who chairs the European Medicines Agency scientific advisory group on diabetes, said Avandia should be withdrawn entirely.

"How long do you wait? How important is it to be absolutely certain and at what point do you start saying - this game isn't worth it, people's lives may be at risk, something should be done about it?" he said.

Clinical pharmacologist Dr Yoon Loke, of the University of East Anglia, said his analysis of the class of drug showed that it doubled the risk of heart failure, regardless of whether or not the patients were considered at high risk before they took the drug."

Antidepressants taken during pregnancy could harm the unborn baby

The Daily Mail reports that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is warning pregnant mothers that antidepressants taken during pregnancy could harm the unborn baby. In particular they warn that there is an increased risk that babies will be born with a rare lung condition if the mother is taking SSRI antidepressant drugs like Prozac and Seroxat.

Doctors are supposed as far as possible to avoid prescribing drugs to pregnant mothers because pharmaceutical drugs are far, far more harmful/dangerous to unborn babies than they are to the mother herself. It is shameful that medics give so little heed to this precaution. In fact, prescription drugs are also more risky to pregnant women than to women who are not pregnant. - So it's a no no all round...

Coupled with all that, antidepressants don't work anyway! See Anti-depressants are no better than dummy pills

See also amitriptyline

advice for pregnant mothers

And see Sodium in foods.

Non-drug therapies for depression include:

a walk in the country (recommended by MIND, the mental health charity) and

improving nutrition by avoiding dieting (a well-known cause of depression) and avoiding eating salt and salty food.

Did I have a visitor from the MHRA (the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) to my website today?

Did I have a visitor from the MHRA to my website today? - who initially landed on the amitriptyline page and stayed on the website for about 2 hours looking at several pages? The ISP was Mhra Powerserve Customer Allocation.

If it was someone from the MHRA (the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) then maybe what they have learned from my website will get them to pull their little socks up!

http://www.mhra.gov.uk/index.htm: This is the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency - surely a euphemistic title if ever there was one! It is an executive agency of the Department of Health and the MHRA website makes the grandiose claim that: "We enhance and safeguard the health of the public by ensuring that medicines and medical devices work, and are acceptably safe." - Well they are making a lamentable job of this!

There are no warnings for patients that they should eat no salt or food containing salt when taking certain drugs, most importantly many quite commonly prescribed steroids, HRT, other drugs containing oestrogen, amitriptyline and many other anti-depressants and anti-psychotics, and some other drugs, because these drugs can and often do cause sodium and water retention and therefore, potentially, morbid obesity and a host of other serious health problems.

If the MHRA were doing its job properly they would have long ago curbed the recklessly excessive over-prescribing of these drugs, many of which have been being prescribed for over 50 years, and implemented a mandatory monitoring of patients taking these drugs, in order to prevent morbid obesity, etc developing. - As it is, because of their failure to do their job properly, there are many thousands of obese and morbidly obese people in this country as a direct result of taking drugs prescribed by NHS doctors.

Thousands of adverse reactions to GlaxoSmithKline's cervical-cancer-vaccine, Cervarix.

I believe the best protection against cervical cancer in teenage girls is to explain to them, and make sure they understand, that young girls are more susceptible to cervical cancer if they indulge in sexual activity before the cervix is sufficiently mature to deal with introduced infection from a partner. This is one of the many good reasons they should wait until they are older before they have sex.

The Telegraph reports that there have been suspected adverse effects on more than two thousand schoolgirls after receiving the Cervarix jab. These include convulsions, fever and paralysis, nausea, muscle weakness, dizziness and blurred vision, rashes, pain in the arm, allergies and other ill-effects. These reactions were recorded by the drug safety watchdog Medicines and Health care products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Jackie Fletcher, founder of Jabs, a support group for families whose children have fallen ill after immunisation does not think there is sufficient evidence that Cervarix is safe.

Cancer charities continue to urge parents to have their daughters vaccinated, claiming that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks. But where these charities receive substantial donations from drug companies, especially from Glaxo, the manufacturer of Cervarix, there may be divided loyalties that influence what they say. The Telegraph article gives details of Stacey Jones, whose health was devastatingly damaged by a brain injury, caused by inflammation of the brain, when she had 18 epileptic seizures, the first one of which occurred 4 days after her third Cervarix injection.

I found this blog entry by Paul Flynn dark but insightful. It contains this gem of a sentence: Pharmageddon is when medicines produce more ill-health than health, and when medical progress does more harm than good. - I believe we reached this stage long ago and are heading for global as well as national catastrophe unless something effective is done soon to curb the power and malign influence of the drug companies and their medical acolytes and the politicians they have corrupted. - Do we have no honest, courageous, intelligent politicians to wage out-and-out war on the evil that is Big Pharma?

You can read on my website about some of the terrible harm done by pharmaceutical drugs that are recklessly over-prescribed by our drug-obsessed medical profession. (Prescription drugs are, of course, a major cause of obesity, morbid obesity and obesity-related illnesses, e.g. type 2 diabetes and heart disease.)

See amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Warning: OTC painkillers can be addictive

The Telegraph reports that OTC painkillers can cause addiction within as little as three days. Many thousands of people have become addicted to them. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is requiring that from next year labels on packets will read: “Can cause addiction. For three days use only”.

The painkillers involved contain codeine, and include Nurofen Plus and Solpadeine Plus. They will no longer be able to claim that they are a remedy for coughs and colds, only that they relieve pain. Some addicts, incredibly, have been taking up to 70 pills a day, putting themselves at risk of seriously damaging their health with complications such as stomach bleeding, liver problems, gallstones and depression.

It is important with pharmaceutical drugs not to exceed the stated dose, and even then painkillers are not without risk of doing you harm, quite apart from the risk of addiction.

If you would prefer not to use drugs to help with your pain, or if, like me, you find painkillers do not help with pain anyway, a drug-free way of reducing many types of chronic pain is to cut down on salt and salty food. - Why not give this a try? - Unlike drugs, it is completely safe to cut down on salt, or even to avoid added salt altogether.

Concerns that OTC anti-obesity drug, orlistat, brand name Alli, may cause liver damage.

Reported here: BBC News item.

Extracts from the report:

"The FDA said the most commonly reported adverse reactions included the yellowing of skin or whites of the eyes, weakness and stomach pain.

Between 1999 and 2008, the agency received 32 reports of liver damage, 30 of which occurred outside the US. Of these 27 resulted in hospitalisation.

The agency said it was now conducting a review of the safety of the drug, but stressed no definite association with liver damage had been established at this stage."

"In the UK, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it had received a total of 1,295 suspected adverse drug reaction reports associated with orlistat, including 137 involving suspected liver damage, since it was licensed in 1998."

There is no need to take drugs, risking adverse side-effects, to lose weight. You can lose weight fast, easily and safely by cutting down on salt and salty food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk

The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Vulnerable groups

Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

I can be contacted from my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

SSRI antidepressants taken in early pregnancy linked to birth defects in the babies

The Guardian reports that there is a link between women taking certain anti-depressants in the early weeks of pregnancy and birth defects in a small proportion of the babies born to the women.

These SSRI antidepressants include Prozac and Seroxat aka Paxil. Doctors have been warned against prescribing these drugs to pregnant women by the FDA, by the MHRA (UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority) and by NICE, nonetheless British GPs have prescibed these pills to pregnant women and other women of childbearing age without warning of the potential dangers. (Seroxat is made by GlaxoSmithKline, the British drug company.)

I urge you to read the whole of the Guardian article. Clearly there have been grave faults by the doctors and by the drug companies. In my opinion, so many drugs are teratogenic (i.e. able to disturb the growth and development of an embryo or fetus) that drugs should be completely avoided during pregnancy unless there is a very good reason for them.

Actually there is no good reason to prescribe anti-depressants to anyone. - See Anti-depressants 'no better than dummy pills' about research by a Hull University team led by Prof Irving Kirsch. Not very often doctors seek to reduce pill-taking! - I fervently hope this will save a lot of people having their lives/health damaged by these harmful, useless drugs.

As far as depression goes, a major cause of 'depression' is inadequate nutrition or dieting. Many women attempt to diet, especially during pregnancy, as they fear gaining a lot of weight because of the pregnancy. Dieting by pregnant women should be actively discouraged. It is harmful for both the woman and for the unborn baby. Weight gain is not caused by eating too many calories or not taking enough exercise. It is caused by fluid retention/sodium retention/salt sensitivity and is preventable by minimising salt intake and avoiding salty food.
Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers
Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions
and FAT RETENTION

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations.

Parents will be told not to give most cough and cold remedies to their children amid safety fears and evidence that dozens of products do not work.

Parents told not to give cough and cold remedies to children
article in the Telegraph

Extracts:

"More than 60 popular over-the-counter medicines, some specifically labelled for children, will be marked with warnings that they must not be given to children under six and are not recommended for under-12s.

In an unprecedented move, Government safety regulators will advise that the dangers posed by the remedies outweigh any benefits.

Several children have died from overdoses of the medicines, while others have suffered hallucinations, allergic reactions and other side effects.

The alert centres on 15 ingredients found in most cough and cold medicines, many of which have been used by drug companies for years.

The deaths of at least five children under two have been linked to the remedies and more than 100 serious cases of suspected adverse reactions have been reported, with children requiring hospital treatment.

Five products aimed at children younger than two have already been withdrawn.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said last night that a review of 69 cough and cold remedies for children had "found no robust evidence that these medicines work" and gave warning that "they can cause side effects, such as allergic reactions, effects on sleep or hallucinations". There has been growing concern about cold remedies for children, particularly when parents miscalculate the dose, give additional doses or combine products containing similar ingredients."

"Reports submitted to regulators show that, when cases involving people of all ages are considered, dozens have died after taking medication containing the ingredients and more than 3,000 people have reported "adverse reactions". Diphenhydramine, which is used in Benylin Children's Coughs and Colds, was mentioned in reports of 27 deaths, while chlorphenamine, an ingredient in Tixylix Cough and Cold, was mentioned in reports of 11 deaths."

"Dr Hermione Lyall, a consultant paediatrician at St Mary's Hospital in London, said: "These drugs carry a number of risks; they can affect the heart, speeding it up or down, and they can even affect the central nervous system, leading to convulsions.

"Coughs and colds will run their course and if you are going to use any medication it is much better to rely on paracetamol or ibuprofen to reduce a child's temperature."

The ingredients involved are: the nasal decongestants pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, phenylephrine, oxymetazoline and xylometazoline; the antihistamines diphenhydramine, chlorphenamine, bromopheniramine, promethazine, triprolidine and doxylamine; the cough suppressants dextromethorphan and pholcodine, and the expectorants guaifenesin and ipecacuanha."

The MHRA has been lamentably slow to take action on this...)o: - 'Lamentably slow' seems to be their usual speed...)o:

Since these drugs don't work and can and do cause grave side-effects, including death, surely they should be withdrawn from sale immediately?

The heads of NHS quangos have seen their salaries increase by up to 77 per cent in three years - more than seven times the rise in nurses' pay.

NHS quango bosses enjoy pay boosts of up to 77 per cent
article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Six chief executives of health service organisations now earn more than Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, while pay for bosses at more than 300 hospital and primary care trusts has increased by an average of 10 per cent in one year.

The rises were attacked last night for being “an insult” to taxpayers.

An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph shows that 19 chiefs of NHS quangos are paid six-figure salaries, including 12 who received double-digit rises in the past three years. Between 2005 and last year, Andrew Dillon, the chief executive of the rationing body, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), was given a salary rise of 44 per cent, taking his pay to £202,000.

Prof Kent Woods, of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, received an increase of 36 per cent, bringing his pay to £218,000.

Alan Doran, appointed in 2007 to run IVF regulators the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority earned £160,000 last year, 51 per cent more than his predecessor did in 2005.

Lynda Hamlyn, the chief executive of NHS Blood and Transplant earns £168,630, 77 per cent more than the boss of the organisation it replaced. All the salaries were agreed by non-executives from their own boards within limits set by the Government.

During the same period, pay for nurses rose by an average of 8.2 per cent."

Obviously, this is unfair. - And personally, I reckon we'd be better off without the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency - the MHRA - altogether. See http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2007/04/is-mhra-medicines-and-healthcare.html

Strattera adverse effects: UK Medicines Agency refuses to act

Janne Larsson, an investigator and reporter in Sweden, has obtained information about adverse event reports on Eli Lilly's ADHD drug Strattera, using the Swedish freedom of information laws. The data, coming from both the FDA's adverse reaction database and from reports to the UK's Medicines agency, shows numerous adverse effects and scores of deaths by suicide. Yet the agency, even after repeated prodding by Larsson to initiate action, has refused to budge or even acknowledge that there is a problem. MHRA apparently accepts the drug's producer Eli Lilly's data rather than its own and the FDA's adverse event reports.
Read article on Sepp Hasslberger's Health Supreme website

Sanofi-Aventis Diet Pill Linked To Deaths

Acomplia, which was rejected last year by an FDA panel, was linked to five deaths by the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency since the pill went on sale two years ago. There were 720 reports of adverse drug reactions, some of which involved more than one side effect, bringing the total to more than 2,100. Five cases were fatal, including one suicide. The data, covering reports from the June 2006 introduction to May 9, was released on the MHRA web site.
Read article at pharmalot.com

Apart from being so harmful, as detailed above, diet pills are completely unnecessary. - Overweight and obesity are caused by fluid retention, and occur only in people who are sensitive to salt. - To lose excess weight it is necessary to cut down on salt and salty food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, angina, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Children and Obesity

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

advice for pregnant mothers

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

Cough syrups have killed some children

Child cough syrups removed in overdose scare

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"Six cough syrups for toddlers are being removed from general sale after five children died from overdoses.

The medicines regulator warned that children under the age of two should not be given powerful cough medicines. It ordered that the products be placed behind the counter and sold only under the supervision of a pharmacist until labels can be changed.

Five British children have died since 1981 after parents mistakenly gave them too much syrup or used several products with the same active ingredient, it said.

In addition to the six medicines being removed from general sale immediately, a range of more than 100 other products, not directly aimed at children under two, will have their labels altered.

The new labels will include warnings not to use the medicines for young children and to exercise extreme care when giving them to any child between two and six.

The change, ordered by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, follows similar moves in America where children have died.

Cough Medicines to be taken off the shelves:

The following products are currently licensed for use by children under two. They are to be taken off shelves and sold to parents (with children aged two or over) with appropriate dosage instructions.

Paediatric Cough Relief

Boots Night Time Cough Syrup 1 year plus

Tixylix Catarrh Syrup

Tixycolds Syrup

Bronalin Junior Linctus

Junior Meltus Night Time

Histalix Syrup

Dozal Oral Solution

Fedril Paediatric Elixir

Medised for Children

Kafalin Syrup

Ransoms Paediatric Diphenhydramine Linctus

Line Range Cough Relief For Children Syrup

Calcold

Calpol Night

Benylin Childrens Night Cough

Tixylix Cough and Cold Linctus

Paediatric Nirolex

Childrens Chesty Cough Syrup

Tixylix Chesty Cough Linctus

Optrex Expectorant Liquid 50mg/5ml

Robitussin Chesty Cough Medicine 100mg

Jnr Meltus Chesty Cough With Catarrh

Altons Junior Cough Mixture

Galloway's Cough Expectorant

Liqufruta Garlic Cough Medicine

Cupal Expectorant

Benylin Childrens Chesty Cough

Benylin Childrens Coughs and Colds

Otrivine Child Nasal Drops

Nasal Drops For Children

Iliadin Mini Paediatric

Children's Dry Cough 1 Year Plus

Tixylix Night Cough

Tixylix Dry Cough

Galen Pholcodine Linctus 5mg

Galen Paed Linctus 5mg

Rusco Pholcodine Linctus

Cough Relief For Children

Benylin Childrens Dry Cough

Pinewood Pholcodine Linctus

Crescent Pholcodine Linctus

Pavacol-D

Boots Alternatives Children's Cough Relief

Glycerin Lemon and Honey With Glucose and Ipecacuanha

Glycerin, Lemon and Honey

Glycerin, Lemon and Honey and Ipecac Syrup

Lemeze Cough Syrup

Cherry Cough Mixture

Childrens Blackcurrents Cough Syrup

Buttercup Infant Cough Syrup

Buttercup Syrup Honey and Lemon

Bell's Chesty Cough Compound of Glycerin, Lemon and Ipecacuanha

Glycerin, Lemon and Honey with Glucose and Ipecacuanha

Beehive Balsam

Children's Cough Expectorant

Anglian Pharma Troublesome Coughs

Hill's Balsam Chesty Cough Liquid for Children

Glycerin, Lemon, Honey and Ipecacuanha Linctus

More about the guilt of GSK re. Seroxat, and the guilt of the agencies, including the MHRA, that should have protected people from this dangerous drug

See http://truthman30.wordpress.com/ and http://seroxatsecrets.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/glaxo-fails-in-its-responsibility-to-patients-and-it-hid-seroxat-data-its-official/

Law on drugs tests to be tightened. - The drug companies have lots of lawyers. I'll believe it when it happens, not before.

Law on drugs tests to be tightened
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Drugs companies must reveal the results of clinical trials as soon as they uncover potential problems with their medicines, the Government has announced.

In a statement, Kent Woods, Chief Executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), has said it will "take immediate steps to ensure the law is strengthened, so that there can be no doubt as to companies' obligations to report safety issues."

The move comes after a four-year investigation into how GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) withheld the full results of their trials into the anti-depressant Seroxat on children.

The Government watchdog criticised the company, which is Europe's biggest drugs manufacturer, for not handing over the trial data earlier.

But it added that criminal charges could not be brought as robust legislation was not in place at the time.

Mr Woods said: "I remain concerned that GSK could and should have reported this information earlier than they did. All companies have a responsibility to patients and should report any adverse data signals to us as soon as they discover them.

"This investigation has revealed important weaknesses in the drug safety legislation in force at the time."

The trial data revealed that there was a higher risk of suicidal behaviour among children younger than 18 on Seroxat than those given a placebo.

The results also found that Seroxat was ineffective in dealing with depression in those under 18.

It was handed to the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA) in May 2003, despite GSK having allegedly been aware of the results since 1998.

A month later, in June 2003, the MHRA announced that doctors must stop giving Seroxat to those under 18.

Miss Primarolo will say that GSK should have informed the MHRA earlier than it did, but that the drugs company will not face criminal charges.

The MHRA investigation found that the company could have told them earlier, but did not break the letter of the law by not doing so, as current legislation is not clear as to when a company should reveal the results of its clinical trials."

This is shocking! - I can't say that I've much respect for the MHRA. - It seems to have had mixed loyalties. There's been a lot of GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) cash associated with the bank balances of members of the MHRA.

If anybody is under the misapprehension that the MHRA - Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (An executive agency of the Department of Health) is doing a good job and is not overly influenced by or even in the pocket of the drug companies I invite you to read this page, the author of which has a particular interest in the drug, Seroxat - http://fiddaman.blogspot.com/2007_04_05_archive.html - Here is an extract from the page:

"I've looked through the pdf file for THE COMMITTEE ON SAFETY OF MEDICINES ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2004 and will show you all those members who have ties with Glaxosmithkline.

Remember, The Committee on the Safety of Medicines (CSM) was 'apparently' an independent advisory committee that for 40 years advised the UK Licensing Authority on the quality, efficacy and safety of medicines - In other words they offered advice to the MHRA. It was replaced on 30 October 2005 by the Commission on Human Medicines which combines the functions of both the former committee and the Medicines Commission

I've just gone through the declared Personal Interests to highlight the members whom had ties with Glaxosmithkline.

PERSONAL INTERESTS

MEMBER

Professor A Blenkinsopp - GSK Specific – Fees

Professor H Dargie - GlaxoSmithKline Consultancy

Dr M Donaghy - GSK Shares

Dr J C Forfar - GSK Shares

Dr R Leonard - GSK Fees/ Publicity work

Prof D J Nutt - GSK Consultancy Psychotropics and 300 shares

Professor J F Smyth - GSK Consultancy

Professor Christopher Bucke - SKB Shares

Prof Nicholas Mitchison - GSK Shares

Dr Brian J Clark - GSK PHD student funding

Professor Robert Booy - GSK Consultancy

Professor S M Cobbe - GSK Research grant

Professor J E Compston - GSK Consultancy

Dr A Glasier - GSK Shares (£10,000)

Dr Andrew A Grace - GSK Consultancy

Dr P Hindmarsh - GSK Consultancy on growth, probably lapsed by now

Professor P D Home - GSK Consultancy

Dr R F A Logan - GSK Shares

Professor R MacSween - SmithKline Beecham Shares

Professor J O’D McGee - SmithKline Beecham Shares

Professor David R Matthews - GSK Honorarium for advice

Dr A Smyth - GSK Conference expenses

Professor A D Struthers - GSK Shares

Professor J C E - GSK Shares

Dr A Gerard Wilson - GSK Consultancy

Dr Rosemary Leonard - GSK Fees/ Publicity work

Mr David P S Dickinson - GSK Fee paid work

Dr Charlotte C D Williamson - GSK Shares

Professor Anthony H Barnett - GSK Advisory work and lectures diabetes related products

Professor V Krishna K Chatterjee - GSK Consultancy on preclinical research with a Vanillord Receptor antagonist (Consultancy end of 2004)

Professor Albert - GSK Shares

An 'independent' advisory committee huh?"

Surely personnel working to protect the public from the harm that prescription drugs can and do cause, should be strictly forbidden from being paid consultants to drug companies and doing research and publicity for them and from being holders of drug company shares?

Prescribed drugs do far, far more harm than good. Their side-effects account for most of the serious avoidable illness in the parts of the world that have the misfortune to be users of Westernised medicine.

As well as giving information about salt, salt sensitivity and about obesity, my blog heavily criticises the drug companies and their drug-pushers - i.e. the medical profession.

My website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ is about the special harm that prescribed steroids. HRT, amitriptyline and some other drugs do. See in particular http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

My Mensa article is here: Obesity and the Salt Connection

My 'political' page is http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html (Do, please, try to read the whole of the page.)

Anyone interested in anti-depressants would find this material very interesting indeed - The Antidepressant Web

Guard your health! - As far as you possibly can, steer clear of doctors and their dangerous drugs!

Acne drug, Roaccutane, may raise suicide risk

Acne cure may raise suicide risk, says study

Extract from the Telegraph:

"An acne drug prescribed to thousands of people could cause severe depression and even lead to suicidal thoughts, according to new research.

Roaccutane, used to treat those suffering from severe acne, appears to interfere with the brain's use of serotonin — the feel-good hormone — a study published today found.

In the United Kingdom 26 patients taking the drug have committed suicide. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency [MHRA] also recorded 19 attempted suicides, and 31 patients considering suicide, among those taking Roaccutane."

A drug-free, cost-free way to reduce acne is to stop eating salt and salty food. This is also helpful for depression and insomnia.

Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Further warning about Acomplia, the dangerous weight-loss drug. - But all you need to do to lose weight is eat less sodium (salt).

Acomplia drug patients at psychiatric risk - Telegraph

Extract:

"A weight-loss drug used by thousands of UK patients should not be taken by people on anti-depressants, a European health watchdog warned yesterday.

The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) said it was recommending that anyone taking anti-depressants or suffering ongoing major depression should not take rimonabant, which is sold under the brand name Acomplia.

About 41,000 patients in the UK have been treated with rimonabant since it was launched here in June 2006.

The Department of Health's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it had received reports of psychiatric reactions to Acomplia in the UK.

"Three hundred and sixty-four (364) psychiatric reactions have been reported," it said. "Amongst these, there have been 48 reports of depression, 16 reports of suicidal thoughts and one report of self-injury.""

This is all so stupid and unnecessary...)o: - There is no need at all to take any so-called weight-loss drug. - YOU CAN LOSE FAR MORE WEIGHT, IN COMPLETE SAFETY, VERY EASILY INDEED, AT NO COST AND WITHOUT HUNGER, EXERCISE, DIETING OR DRUGS, BY SIMPLY AVOIDING EATING SALT AND SALTY FOODS AND MAKING SURE YOU EAT PLENTY OF GOOD MEALS WITH PLENTY OF FRUIT AND FRESH VEGETABLES. - TRY IT!

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and Associated health conditions

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free...