meditation, GM labelling, pharma, green tv, seniors

[angela bischoff]

Meditation can change brain function, psychology study says

Dec 14/07
by Jenny Lass

Feeling stressed or depressed? You may one day be prescribed meditation
rather than medication, thanks to a study conducted by researchers from
the Department of Psychology and the Centre for Addiction andMental Health
(CAMH) at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/071214-3559.asp

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80% of British Columbians want mandatory labelling of GM foods. NDP MLA,
Gregor Robertson, has just introduced "Right to Know" legislation, which
would make BC the first province in Canada to require GM food to be
labelled. Phone or email Premier Gordon Campbell telling him you want the
"Right to Know" legislation passed (phone: 250 387-1715;
email:premier at gov.bc.ca).

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Antidepressants and School Shootings, Suicide, Addiction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XHNJyti1gE
 FOX NATIONAL NEWS CLIP

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Norwegian Study Reveals 17 Different Pharmaceuticals In Wastewater
<http://www.newstarget.com/022381.html>http://www.newstarget.com/022381.html

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Seeking green-living Canadians to be profiled in new TV program

We are working on a new TV series project which will profile
interesting people who are doing interesting things to lessen
their impact on the environment. (ie. running cars on
deep fryer grease; homemade windmills; sustainable building)

This is your chance show others how easy it is to 'live' green and
how environmentally-conscious people are shaping our world.

Please reply as soon as possible to Olivia Fernandez,
<mailto:olivia.fernandez%40gmail.com>olivia.fernandez at gmail.com ,
including a few paragraphs
at most, describing how you are living a 'green' lifestyle. Include your
ph. number.

Live Action, <http://www.franticfilms.com>http://www.franticfilms.com

[as posted to GoodWork
<http://www.GoodWorkCanada.ca>http://www.GoodWorkCanada.ca ]

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Our Stolen Future is a scientific detective story that explores the
emerging science of endocrine disruption: how some synthetic chemicals
interfere with the ways that hormones work in humans and wildlife.

We provide regular updates about the cutting edge of science related to
endocrine disruption. We will also post information about ongoing policy
debates, as well as new suggestions about what you can do as a consumer
and citizen to minimize risks related to hormonally-disruptive
contaminants.

http://www.ourstolenfuture.org

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Dangerous drugs continue to be prescribed to seniors: CBC report

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

<http://www.cbc.ca/news/credit.html>CBC News

Doctors are continuing to prescribe drugs dangerous to seniors in spite of
government warnings, a CBC News investigation reveals.

More than two years ago, CBC News first reported that more than a million
seniors were prescribed atypical antipsychotics. Atypical antipsychotics
are specific kinds of antipsychotic drugs. They are considered by many
experts to be ineffective or even dangerous for elderly patients.

Health Canada followed up with warnings pointing to the drugs' side
effects — including a 60 per cent greater risk of death in seniors who
were taking the drugs than in patients taking placebos — gleaned from 13
scientific studies. It also warned that elderly patients taking atypical
antipsychotics were almost twice as likely to die from side effects such
as heart failure.

In its advisory, Health Canada requested that the drugs' manufacturers
include a warning describing the risk in the safety information sheet
provided along with the drugs, and that health care providers refrain from
relying too much on the drugs to treat dementia.

Atypical antipsychotics are drugs such as Risperidone (Risperdal),
Quetiapine (Seroquel), Olanzapine (Zyprexa) and Clozapine (Clozaril). Many
of these types of drugs have never been tested on seniors. They are
intended to treat severe mood disorders, symptoms of schizophrenia and
bipolar disorder in adults under 65.

But a new CBC investigation has revealed that the number of prescriptions
of these drugs for seniors actually increased after the Health Canada
warnings. They shot up in six provinces, including in Ontario and Quebec.
In some cases, they increased by 40 per cent, according to sales data
provided by IMS Health, a business intelligence and strategic
pharmaceutical and health-care consulting firm.

CBC's analysis shows that Risperdal prescriptions increased by just over
eight per cent in the past two years. Prescriptions of Seroquel increased
by 40 per cent.

The CBC News investigation has discovered that doctors are prescribing
more of the drugs to their patients suffering from dementia as a way to
calm them.

"Antipsychotics are drug therapies that are used in the setting of
dementia to manage difficult behaviours," says Paula Rochon, a
Toronto-based geriatrician and senior scientist at the Kunin-Lunenfeld
Applied Research Unit at Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care.

"So they're often used if people are very agitated, have aggressive
behaviours, psychotic-type symptoms — things like that."

Norma Galloway, an 85-year-old Vancouver native, was prescribed Risperdal
when her son Rod requested a medication that would ease her anxiety about
a persistent urinary tract infection.

Neither Galloway nor her son were ever told that the drug is intended for
psychotic patients with severe dementia or schizophrenia. Following the
doctor's directions, she took one pill in the morning and one at night.

Rod Galloway noticed a change in his mother immediately. "It was like
someone that was really groggy or sedated and not really that with it," he
said. "And on the next morning we were debating should we give her another
one, and we reluctantly gave her a second Risperdal.

Norma Galloway's personality changed dramatically from cheery to sullen,
her son said. One day she suffered a seizure in her room, something that
had never occurred before, and collapsed. She was rushed to hospital.

"The risks associated with these therapies outweigh the benefit," says
Rochon. "So you're dealing with a group of drugs where it's not really
clear that they're useful. Yet they're still being widely used."

"The risks associated with these therapies outweigh the benefit. So you're
dealing with a group of drugs where it's not really clear that they're
useful. Yet they're still being widely used."

—Paula Rochon, Toronto-based geriatrician

Rod Galloway began searching the Internet, discovering that Risperdal's
side effects include convulsions, stroke, heart attack and death.

Only use in extreme cases: doctor

Rochon says antipsychotics should only be used in extreme cases. "Those
would be [the] sort of situations where the person may be in danger of
causing harm to himself or to other people around them and it's a very
acute situation where you need to do something. But usually the situation
isn't that. Usually you have behavioural problems that are developing over
time. And antipsychotics should be one of the last things you should
consider in one of those settings."

She says one of the reasons the drugs are often prescribed is because
there aren't that many drug options around to treat behavioural problems
in seniors.

To avoid taking the powerful medications, she advocates discussions that
involve the caregivers, family members, nursing staff, physicians and
pharmacists to determine the behavioural issues of the individual.

"Often there are simple sorts of interventions that can be put into place
that make the behaviours manageable," she says.

Rod Galloway lost his mother after ten days in hospital. She died at 85,
after having a heart attack. He says had he known about the Health Canada
warning, he would likely have refused to use such a powerful drug to deal
with his mother's mild anxiety. He believes she would still be alive.

http://tinyurl.com/29g4lp

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