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Consumer Health Digest #07-27
July 17, 2007
Current # of subscribers: 11,820
Legislator bribed by chiropractors sentenced to prison.
James Boyce Black, a/k/a Jim Black, has been sentenced to 63 months
in federal prison and fined $50,000 after pleading guilty to one
felony count of corruptly accepting things of value concerning
programs receiving federal funds. The offense involved taking about
$25,000 in cash from three chiropractors in exchange for backing
legislation favorable to their profession. The payments were made
between 2000 and 2005 when Black was Speaker of the North Carolina
House of Representatives. During the 2005 legislative session, Black
facilitated passage of a bill that prohibited insurance companies
from requiring patients to pay higher co-payments for visits to
chiropractors than for visits to physicians. The law was repealed two
months after Black pled guilty. For additional information and links
to the pertinent documents, see
http://www.chirobase.org/08Legal/black.html###
Breast cancer survival unaffected by diet.
A randomized trial has found that, among survivors of early stage
breast cancer, adoption of a diet that was very high in vegetables,
fruit, and fiber and low in fat did not reduce additional breast
cancer events or mortality during a 7.3-year follow-up period. The
intervention group (1537 women) was randomly assigned to receive a
telephone counseling program supplemented with cooking classes and
newsletters that promoted daily targets of 5 vegetable servings plus
16 oz of vegetable juice; 3 fruit servings; 30 g of fiber; and 15% to
20% of energy intake from fat. The comparison group (1551 women) was
provided with print materials describing the "5-A-Day" dietary
guidelines. [Pierce JP and others. Influence of a diet very high in
vegetables, fruit, and fiber and low in fat on prognosis following
treatment for breast cancer. JAMA 298:289-298, 2007] The full text is
available at
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/298/3/289###
Study finds "abstinence only" programs ineffective.
A study of four abstinence education programs has found that none had
any effect on either abstinence or the incidence of unprotected sex.
The study found that youth in these programs were no more likely than
other youth to have abstained from sex in the four to six years after
they began participating in the study. Those in both groups who
reported having had sex also had similar numbers of sexual partners
and had initiated sex at the same average age. The programs studied
were My Choice, My Future! in Powhatan County, Virginia; ReCapturing
the Vision in Miami, Florida; Teens in Control in Clarksdale,
Mississippi; and Families United to Prevent Teen Pregnancy in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. [Trenholm C and others. Impacts of Four Title
V, Section 510 Abstinence Education Programs. Princeton, NJ:
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., April 2007]
http://www.mathematica.org/publications/PDFs/impactabstinence.pdfNationwide, more than 700 programs receive up to $50 million annually
from the federal government in order to teach youth about abstinence
from sexual activity outside of marriage. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA)
has been a relentless critic of such programs. In 2004, for example,
he reported that more than two-thirds of them "distort information
about the effectiveness of contraception, misrepresent the risks of
abortion, blur religion and science, treat stereotypes about boys and
girls as scientific fact, and contain basic scientific errors."
[Federally funded abstinence-only programs teach false and misleading
information. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Dec 1, 2004]
http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=734###
Web site attacks AIDs denialism.
AIDStruth.org http://www.aidstruth.org/ presents the scientific
evidence that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the cause of AIDS
and that the benefits of treating infected persons with
antiretroviral drugs outweigh the risks. The site was created by
research scientists and community advocates engaged in the worldwide
struggle against HIV/AIDS. The evidence that AIDS is caused by HIV-1
or HIV-2 is clear-cut and meets the highest standards of science.
However, a few vocal people -- so called AIDS denialists -- refuse to
acknowledge the facts and continue to conduct a misleading propaganda
campaign aimed at convincing people, including HIV-infected
individuals and government health officials, that the virus is
harmless (or, in some extreme cases, non-existent), and that standard
medical practice should be abandoned. Such information is dangerous
because it may (encourage use of untested remedies and (b) counteract
efforts to promote safe sexual practices. AIDST/ruth.org provides news
and detailed rebuttals to to denialist claims.
###
Eureca Institute operator convicted of unlicensed practice.
Grace Hua Wu, 51, of Fullerton, California has pleaded guilty to one
count of unlicensed physical therapy at her Anaheim business, the
Eureca Institute. http://www.eurecainstitute.com Government action
was triggered by a complaint that she had broken the foot of a
4-year-old boy. An expert consultant who reviewed documents seized
during a search concluded that the treatment was far beneath
established standards and that information on patients' charts and
records was often incomplete or so general that it could apply to all
patients. [Owner of Anaheim's Eureca Institute convicted in illegal
therapy case. [California Department of Consumer Affairs press
release, March 9, 2007]
http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/press_releases/2007/0309_ptb.shtml
In 2003, Wu was cited administratively for unlicensed practice and
fined $2,500. The institute's program includes questionable exercise
methods (e.g., suit therapy and sunbeam therapy) that are claimed to
improve balance, coordination, and fluency of speech in children with
cerebral palsy, stroke, and other types of brain injury.
###
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