Watch out! You are more likely to get hit by a cell-phone user than a drunk driver.

A University of Utah study showed that motorists who talked on either handheld or hands-free phones:

• drove slightly slower
• were 9% slower to hit brakes
• showed 24% more variation in following distance
• 19% slower to resume normal speed after braking
• more likely to crash

Watch your back. Three study participants rear-ended the pace car in the study!

Marginal drunks with a 0.08 blood-alcohol level:

• drove more slowly yet more aggressively than either normal drivers or cell-phone users
• followed more closely
• twice as likely to brake 4 seconds before a collision would have occurred
• hit their brakes with 23% more force
• accident rates did not differ from normal drivers

The FAA provided $25K for the study and the Utah Highway Patrol provided devices for blood-alcohol measurement.

About 8% of drivers are talking on cell-phones which is much higher than the drunk driver rate. That means you are more likely to be injured by a cell-phone user than a drunk.

“We found that people are as impaired when they drive and talk on a cell phone as they are when they drive intoxicated at the legal blood-alcohol limit of 0.08 percent, which is the minimum level that defines illegal drunken driving in most U.S. states,” says study co-author Frank Drews, an assistant professor of psychology. “If legislators really want to address driver distraction, then they should consider outlawing cell phone use while driving.”

A Comparison of the Cell Phone Driver and the Drunk Driver
David L. Strayer, Frank A. Drews, and Dennis J. Crouch
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Summer 2006

Influenza Vaccination During Pregnancy: A Critical Assessment of the Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)
David M. Ayoub, M.D. and F. Edward Yazbak, M.D
Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons 11:2, Summer 2006

Influenza vaccination during all trimesters of pregnancy is now universally recommended in the United States. We critically reviewed the influenza vaccination policy of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP) and the citations that were used to support their recommendations.
The ACIP’s citations and the current literature indicate that influenza infection is rarely a threat to a normal pregnancy. There is no convincing evidence of the effectiveness of influenza vaccination during this critical period. No studies have adequately assessed the risk of influenza vaccination during pregnancy, and animal safety testing is lacking. Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative present in most inactivated formulations of the vaccine, has been implicated in human neurodevelopment disorders, including autism, and a broad range of animal and experimental reproductive toxicities including teratogenicity, mutagenicity, and fetal death. Thimerosal is classified as a human teratogen.
The ACIP policy recommendation of routinely administering influenza vaccine during pregnancy is ill-advised and unsupported by current scientific literature, and it should be withdrawn. Use of thimerosal during pregnancy should be contraindicated.

Adverse Cardiovascular Effects of Rofecoxib
Steven E. Nissen, M.D., Cleveland Clinic Foundation
New England Journal of Medicine 355;2 – July 13, 2006

The recent public disclosure of data from a 12-month extension study of the Adenomatous Polyp Prevention on Vioxx (APPROVe) trial provides new insights into the effect of rofecoxib on cardiovascular events. These new data reveal the full results of both the original study and the extension phase, including data tables and Kaplan–Meier curves. In the original article, the APPROVe investigators reported event rates using an unusual censoring rule in which events were excluded if they occurred more than 14 days after the study drug was stopped. All data in the new report are assessed by a conventional intention-to-treat analysis. This new report also provides analysis that uses several different end points, including the widely used end point of the Antiplatelet Trialists’ Collaboration (APTC) study. The original article included a post hoc hypothesis that curves for confirmed thrombotic events would not begin to diverge until after 18 months of exposure to rofecoxib. However, all intention-to-treat analyses in the newly released report show that the event curves begin to diverge much earlier, generally within four to six months.

Dr. Wright sounds off on Red Yeast Rice

The drug giants knew they’d be in trouble if word got out about red yeast rice…

Not only did studies show that this ancient Asian edible slashed cholesterol an average of 40 points in just 3 months, it did so without any side effects whatsoever. What’s more, it was growing more and more widely available, for far less money than statin drugs – and without the need for a prescription…

So what did those fat-cat drug executives do? They went to court…

Their “grounds” for suing? Red yeast rice extract contains a natural form of lovastatin , the same active ingredient found in patented Mevacor, one of the major cholesterol drugs…

The first time the drug companies took red yeast rice makers to court, however, the judge quite rightly threw the case out . But the pharmaceutical industry’s deep pockets ensured that they’d be able to press the case until they got what they wanted. After appealing, they got their verdict…

And with one stroke of the gavel, makers of safe, natural, un-patent-able red yeast rice extract suddenly found themselves in violation of Federal law.

When the decision was handed down, the FDA was waiting in the wings. As though on command from the patent-drug cartel, they quickly banned red yeast rice extract from stores, mail-order sellers and all other sources – before its makers could regroup and file an appeal or suit of their own.

Is Evidence-Based Medicine Evidence Based?

Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine
by John Abramson
(New York: HarperCollins, 2004), 352 pp., $24.95

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the 2.4 million U.S. deaths in 2000, 400,000 were associated with unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity. These are deaths related to the particular way in which civilization has “progressed” upon this planet: high-fat, high-carbohydrate fast foods devoid of fruits and vegetables; a vast multitude of automobiles that make self-propulsion (walking) obsolete as a standard life routine; and couch-potato-creating television sets that not only replace the neighborhood kickball game and hide-and-seek activities that amused me when I was a kid, but also badger us to purchase those same automobiles and eat those same fast foods.

How has the trillion-dollar-plus enterprise we call the health care system responded to this pervasive undermining of our health? By offering more inventions, which—like those cars, fast-food chains, and TV sets—are capable of making money for a small stratum of society. Instead of approaching the health effects of modern civilization through community-wide and public health interventions—banning cars and creating greenbelts within cities, spending more dollars on health education than the food industry spends on advertising, and creating more neighborhood physical activity programs than the auto industry creates cars—we have chosen to address those 400,000 deaths with a few rushed minutes in a sterile exam room populated by a highly trained physician, a passive patient, and a prescription pad.

John Abramson is a physician who spent more than twenty years in those exam rooms, filling out thousands of those prescription pads. But something happened to him that, sadly, happens to few physicians. He began to study epidemiology and research methodology, expanding his viewpoint from a close-up focus on the individual patient to a panorama of the entire population. Carefully reviewing the research literature, he found that spin doctors had been doctoring the evidence. The conclusions he reached from his careful literature review differed from the conclusions published by the authors of the universally accepted clinical practice guidelines—the “evidence-based medicine”—that are the yardsticks against which physicians’ quality of care is measured…

Overdosed America presents a strong indictment of the evidence that dictates medical practice, a challenge that is credible only because Abramson backs up his statements with detailed analyses of the prevailing evidence. It is beyond the purview of this review to judge whether each of Abramson’s conclusions are scientifically and statistically valid. What can be said, however, is that the seriousness with which he explores clinical issues merits a major debate on those issues within the world’s leading medical journals—untainted by the almost ubiquitous monetary distortions…

Why this lengthy exposition of a clinical issue in a health policy book review? Because readers who might be inclined to view Overdosed America as simply another in the growing number of diatribes against drug companies should be aware that this book makes its arguments in a detailed, well-referenced manner. Moreover, responsibility for the overdosing of America goes far beyond the drug industry, resting equally with the nation’s physicians. I beg all of my physician colleagues to read this book and to think deeply about how we are practicing our chosen profession.

Thomas Bodenheimer

Editor’s Notes

Thomas Bodenheimer ([email protected]) was a private primary care physician for twenty-two years and is now on the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco.

High pollen today. The most prominent pollens are maple tree with frequency 476666 (scalar octave 1181.5) and oak at 442444 (scalar octave 1096.7) . Pollens are living organisms. If your immune system kills them quickly, you do not have allergy symptoms. If your immune system is weak, you need a frequency assist to kill them. Most people with allergies have chronic fungus and parasite infections that lower immune response and aggravate symptomology. For best results, these chronic infections must be eliminated as well. In any event, you can run the following program on an F165 and remain symptom free. If you have an ABPA, you can broadcast the frequencies so you do not have to hold on to the electrodes.

#F165 pollen program
label loop
program c
vbackfreq b 0.002478752 0 66.6
vbackfreq a 0.049787068 0 66.6
duty 66.6
dwell 13
converge .0066% 1
442444 #oak
converge .16% 1
476666 #maple
pause 47
goto loop

If you need more or less power you can increase or decrease the “dwell 13” command. This is the number of seconds the frequency is transmitted.

Advanced practitioners should pump up their Chi level. Start with Chi Lel. Lately I have been using high gauss magnetic plates under my feet and magnetic balls in my hands from Peter Ragnar. Using strategies outlined in the “Magus from Java” you can raise your Chi level 20-25 times higher than normal, enhancing your immune system.

When I was out running this morning, I noticed some shortness of breath. I had not checked pollens before I started. Using muscle testing, I identified the maple frequency 476666. I have found that pumping Chi into the affected area while mentally holding the intent of a specific frequency will disable the organism. In this case, it cleared by lungs and sinuses and enhanced my immune system so that I could continuously kill the maple pollen and I was no longer bothered by it.

Ultimately, it is possible to use the information gained by frequency analysis to transcend the need for machines. Once you can do this for yourself you can do it to help others.

The Life Extension Collector’s Edition 2006 is well worth reading. One of the interesting articles in the collection is Dave Tuttle’s, “Controlling Blood Sugar with Cinnamon and Coffee Berry.” Here are some of Tuttle’s comments about cinnamon.

… Because the incidence of cardiovascular disease is increased up to fourfold in type II diabetics, researchers have sought out nutrients that can simultaneously improve glucose metabolism and lipid levels. In a recent study published in Diabetes Care, cinnamon proved to be such a dual-action agent. Sixty adults (30 men, 30 women) with type II diabetes were divided into six groups. The first three groups consumed one, three, or six grams of cinnamon daily, while the other three groups consumed equivalent numbers of placebo capsules.

The spice or placebo was consumed for 40 days, followed by a 20-day washout period. After the initial 40-day period, all three levels of cinnamon reduced mean fasting serum glucose levels by 18-29%. The one-gram dose also reduced triglyceride levels by 18%, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) by 7%, and total cholesterol by 12%. Higher doses of produced even greater reductions in triglycerides, LDL, and total cholesterol.

Tuttle references Diabetes Care which has free access to the full text of the study below:

Cinnamon Improves Glucose and Lipids of People With Type 2 Diabetes
Alam Khan, MS, PHD1,2,3, Mahpara Safdar, MS1,2, Mohammad Muzaffar Ali Khan, MS, PHD1,2, Khan Nawaz Khattak, MS1,2 and Richard A. Anderson, PHD3
Diabetes Care 26:3215-3218, 2003

OBJECTIVE—The objective of this study was to determine whether cinnamon improves blood glucose, triglyceride, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol levels in people with type 2 diabetes.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—A total of 60 people with type 2 diabetes, 30 men and 30 women aged 52.2 ± 6.32 years, were divided randomly into six groups. Groups 1, 2, and 3 consumed 1, 3, or 6 g of cinnamon daily, respectively, and groups 4, 5, and 6 were given placebo capsules corresponding to the number of capsules consumed for the three levels of cinnamon. The cinnamon was consumed for 40 days followed by a 20-day washout period.

RESULTS—After 40 days, all three levels of cinnamon reduced the mean fasting serum glucose (18–29%), triglyceride (23–30%), LDL cholesterol (7–27%), and total cholesterol (12–26%) levels; no significant changes were noted in the placebo groups. Changes in HDL cholesterol were not significant.

CONCLUSIONS—The results of this study demonstrate that intake of 1, 3, or 6 g of cinnamon per day reduces serum glucose, triglyceride, LDL cholesterol, and total cholesterol in people with type 2 diabetes and suggest that the inclusion of cinnamon in the diet of people with type 2 diabetes will reduce risk factors associated with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

Political Science
The Bush Administration’s war on the laboratory
Michael Specter, The New Yorker, 13 Mar 2006

On December 1st, Merck & Company applied to the Food and Drug Administration for a license to sell a vaccine that it has developed to protect woemn against the human papillomavirus. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States; more than half of all Americans become infected at some point in their lives. The virus is also the primary cause of cervical cancer, which kills nearly five thousand American women every year and hundreds of thousands more in the developing world. There are at least a hundred strains of HPV, but just two are responsible for cancer. Tw others cause genital warts, which afflict millions of people. Merck’s vaccine, designed to protect against those four strains, has been tested in thirteen countries, including the United States. More than twelve thousand women between the ages of sixteen and twenty-six were monitored for an average of two years. The results were conclusive: twenty-one of the women who received a placebo during the trial developed the cellular abnormalities that are associated with cancer and other illnesses. Not one of those in the vaccinated group did…

Even in the age of molecular medicine, such unqualified successes are rare, “This is a cancer vaccine, and an immensely effective one,” the Nobel laureate David Baltimore, who has served for the past eight years as president of the California Institute of Technology, told me. “We should be proud and excited. It has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives every year.”

…The Bush Administration, its allies on Capitol Hill, and the religious base of the Republican Party are opposed to mandatory HPV vaccinations. They prefer to rely on education programs that promote abstinence from sexual activity, and see the HPV vaccine as a threat to that policy… The Bush administration has been relentless in its opposition to any drug, vaccine, or inititative that could be interpreted as lessening the risks associated with premarital sex…

“I never thought that now, in the twenty-first century, we could have a debate about what to do with a vaccine that prevents cancer,” David Baltimore said… “this is religious zealotry masked as politics, and it runs against everthing that I as a scientist believe in, that I have devoted my life to. We are talking about basic public health now. What moral precepts allow us to think that the risk of death is a price worth paying to encourage abstinence as the only approach to sex?”

The new F165 and new FSCANs with USB connections often have difficulty communicating with your computer. I have seven F165s and they all have given me considerable trouble by dropping offline unpredictably.

Using a driver analysis program called Driver Detective, I discovered that the Microsoft USB drivers were out of data on all five of my computers. These drivers are included in the lastest mouse software from Microsoft which you can download at the Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Hardware site.

You don’t need Driver Detective which has a fee, but you do need the latest Microsoft drivers which are free. If you are running Windows XP using the English language, the name of the latest file is IP55_32Eng.exe.

These drivers appear to have resolved all USB problems on all of my computers.

Please note that these drivers are independent of the USB drivers that come with the F165 and FSCAN which must still be installed properly. The Microsoft drivers provide the infrastructure that interacts with the F165 and FSCAN drivers that come with these frequency generators.