Studies of concomitant radiotherapy,
chemotherapy, cancer-small cell lung shows promise

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BMR Question

For those of you counting calories please help me find the amount for me. My estimated BMR is: 2,189 calories/day Surely that is not how many I...

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Q. Am I more susceptible to H1N1 because I have
multiple sclerosis

When I saw that Julie had this on her blog, I needed, no more like HAD TO, show her post here too...

So many people ask me or make mentions to me about their weak immune system. Or that they use Vitamins to pump-up / enhance their immune system and I have to constantly tell them that this is NOT good for them. That our immune system is hyper-active and running in over-drive, which is why our immune system is attacking itself. It attacks itself when their is nothing else to attack. This is why when we do get sick, that we need to knock it out of our bodies quickly, before it re-activates the intense hyper activity..
Have questions about this, then write back to me.

Meanwhile, let me get into Julie's blog and about the question found in the subject of the post.

Wednesday November 4, 2009 - By Julie Stachowiak, Ph.D., About.com Guide to Multiple Sclerosis
I recently got the following e-mail: "I have MS and I guess that means that I have a weak immune system because I seem to catch every cold that is going around. Once I get a cold, it turns into something worse and I end up coughing for a long time. Does this mean that I should not get the H1N1 vaccine, because is it dangerous to me with my compromised immune system?"

A. There are a couple of things going on here and I will try to clarify some points:

1. People with MS do NOT have weak or compromised immune systems. Quite the opposite, actually - our immune systems are overactive and are attacking our myelin.

2. It probably seems like you are getting sick more often than most people because of the symptoms that you are experiencing from minor infections. People with MS tend to havedecreased lung function. Even people with very little noticeable disability can have lung function that is only 60 to 70% of normal. As a result, even little respiratory bugs can cause us to cough for much longer than someone without MS as these infections "settle in" to cause bronchitis or even pneumonia.

3. You absolutely SHOULD get the H1N1 vaccine. As mentioned, people with MS do not have compromised immune systems (for the record, immunocompromised people should also get the vaccine). The H1N1 virus is very dangerous to anyone who could easily develop pneumonia, which is our big risk factor due to the decreased lung function that I mentioned.

Here are a couple additional points about the H1N1 vaccine for people with MS:

• People with MS should NOT get the nasal mist version of the vaccine, as it contains live virus.
• If you are concerned about thimerosal, avoid the vaccine that comes from multi-dose vials. The single-dose syringes do NOT contain thimerosal.
• Adjuvants are not included in the flu vaccines that are used in the United States.

Read more: Should I Get the Flu Shot if I Have MS?

Source url: http://ms.about.com/b/2009/11/04/q-am-i-more-susceptible-to-h1n1-because-i-have-multiple-sclerosis.htm

==========================

If you or someone you know, is affected by Multiple Sclerosis and not yet receiving the weekly MS related e-Newsletter titled: "Stu's Views and MS News" , then please click here to register.

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Sherwin Hatfield Williams

Dad and I took a drive up to the mountains this past weekend to see the beautiful Autumn leaves. It is a long-standing tradition that Dad started when I was in the 5th Grade or so. It was always just the two of us, each Fall.We were taking a charming North Carolina back road, when we passed a beautiful horse farm with a mile-long white fence. It was like a scene from a Norman Rockwell picture.I commented to Dad, I sure am glad I don't have to paint that fence. Me too, but I wish I owned the paint store! He replied with a grin.

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Names for Gemsquash

Hi all, Hopefully someone can help me out with this. The image below is what we, in South Africa call a 'Gemsquash" but on the american site where...

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The LDN Trust November Newsletter is now
available

The LDN Trust newsletter is now ready for you to download online.

Magazine Style in PDF format:
http://www.ldnresearchtrustfiles.co.uk/docs/November_2009.pdf

The newsletter this month has some very exciting articles, we are now working with Insurance Choice who are brokers and aim to give you the best possible quotes even if you have a pre exciting medical condition.
============================================

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Should cardiologists be selling fructose

Conspiracy theorists love to believe that the moon landings were staged perhaps somewhere like the Universal back lot, that computer virus software is written by the anti-virus companies and that JFK was really assassinated by Kevin Rudd?s cat (or something like that). I don?t know why they bother with all the lateral thinking when real-life conspiracies abound.

Big Sugar makes many products that will cause heart disease. But unless you are wilfully ignorant, you?re unlikely to be suffering under the impression that a Coke and a Mars Bar is a healthy breakfast.

Recently, Nestle upped the ante when it started pushing Fruit Fix (a product that is 72% sugar), as a healthy alternative to fruit. It nudged it a bit further when it got the Heart Foundation to endorse it as health food. But we?re still not in conspiracy territory. That?s merely deceptive.

We cross the boundary into potential conspiracy candidate with Nestle?s Optifast shake diet. The primary ingredients of Optifast are skim milk powder and fructose.

Fructose is one half of table sugar. It is definitively associated with the causes of heart disease and this was starkly proven in some human trials conducted by the University of California earlier this year. The investigators divided 32 overweight men and women into two groups, and instructed each group to drink a sweetened beverage three times per day. One group?s drinks were sweetened with fructose and the other group were drinking glucose (the other half of sugar).

After just 10 weeks, the fructose group had experienced a major metabolic shift that did not occur with the glucose group. They had a significant worsening of blood glucose control and insulin sensitivity. Their LDL cholesterol and oxidised LDL readings increased dramatically. Liver synthesis of fat had increased by 75%. And visceral fat had increased by 14%. In short, they had been turned into heart attacks waiting to happen.

By definition, Optifast is sold to people who are overweight. So Nestle is selling them a ?cure? to their condition, which significantly increases health risks across the board, but particularly for heart disease. Brand diversification? Yep. Wildly irresponsible? Certainly. Surprising? Not really, it is Nestle we?re talking about.

No, to be a true conspiracy, we need a hidden benefit to the purveyor. Sure, Nestle makes money out of Optifast but aside from that, how does it benefit from giving fat people heart attacks? Now if a cardiologist was flogging Optifast to weight-challenged folks, then we?d be talking genuine gold-plated conspiracy theory.

Well as it happens, in little ol? Brisbane, cardiologists do dispense Optifast to overweight people. The Wesley Weight Management Clinic (WWMC) is owned by ?a group of Cardiologists who are based at The Wesley Hospital?.

WWMC proudly proclaim that it ?uses a nutritionally balanced meal replacement called Optifast 800?. The Optifast 800 range of shakes contains about 18g of fructose per serve. And WWMC advises people to consume five serves a day instead of their normal meals.

If a punter were to follow the program as laid out, they would be consuming about 90g of fructose per day. Or put another way, almost half of their energy intake would be coming from fructose. To get that much fructose from sugar, they would need to consume 43 teaspoons of sugar a day. Would you like some food with your sugar diet?

The University of California study fed its subjects 25% of their calories from fructose for just 10 weeks and produced truly frightening results. WWMC tells its paying customers to consume 45% of their calories from fructose for six months. They will lose weight. If you replaced everything you ate with a small chocolate milk five times a day, you?d lose weight, too. But what kind of damage are they doing at the metabolic level?

I?m not seriously suggesting that these cardiologists are setting out to create business for their day jobs. I never ascribe to conspiracy that could be adequately explained by ignorance. I suspect it started out as a nice little earner. And it?s just unfortunate that it turns out that what they?re serving up is something the research says is the worst possible thing you could give to a heart-attack candidate.

I have, of course, pointed this out to WWMC, but it seems disinclined to change its ways. I expected a note telling me that, of course, it was reviewing its program in the light of the latest research and fructose would soon be off the menu. I didn?t get that. Instead, it said: ?we believe that Optifast 800 is the most suitable product on the market and do not believe the fructose content would constitute a ?high fructose diet? implicated in the research.?

One wonders how high the fructose content would have to be before WWMC became worried about it. Ah well, I guess doctor always knows best.

Also published in Crikey

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Fighting for me, Isa's Blog

I officially started my diet on November 2nd. I've gotten so totally out of control and its time to get a grip on my weight and my life. I've...

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