Today In Alt Med

"Don't Eat Raw Clover Sprouts," Say Departments of Health

Departments of health from around the Midwest are urging people not to eat raw sprouts grown from clover. As of the CDC's latest update on the raw sprout outbreak, which was issued on Friday, a total of 14 people from 6 different states have contracted E. coli O26. Health experts say that there are almost certainly additional cases that will go unreported.

Iowa has seen the worst of it so far, with 5 confirmed cases. Missouri has seen 3 cases while Kansas and Michigan have each had 2.  Arkansas and Wisconsin have also had 1 case each.

The cases identified to date have been tentatively traced back to raw clover sprouts served at Jimmy John's restaurants.

As E. coli infections go, things could be a lot worse.  This strain is producing what doctors call Shiga toxin type 1.  This bacterium is not producing the more dangerous Shiga type 2 toxin.  Nonetheless officials urge anyone who has recently eaten raw sprouts and is now experiencing symptoms to seek medical care.  Even this strain can lead to death, especially in the very young, very old or in patients with compromised immune systems.

Michigan has been the most aggressive state so far in warning its residents.  It released an update on Friday and urged residents to avoid all raw clover sprouts for the forseeable future.  Health officials there say that they suspect an additional 5 cases but are awaiting test results.  There have so far been 2 hospitalizations linked to the infections.

Raw Milk Causing "Major Outbreak" In Northeast

Health officials throughout the northeastern US say they are still investigating what they are calling a "major outbreak" of campylobacteriosis that's being blamed on raw milk from the Family Cow Dairy in Pennsylvania. In New Jersey, where the sale of raw dairy products to the public is against the law, 2 people are believed to have become ill.  One is an adult but the other is a 3-year-old toddler.  (The victims' conditions were not disclosed.)

As of Friday the number of Campylobacter infections blamed on the tainted milk stands at 78 and runs across at least 4 states.  Most of the poisonings have been identified in the dairy's home state of Pennsylvania but cases have also popped up in Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia.

In this case the dairy in question is fully licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture so, naturally, health officials--many of whom would like to see raw dairy made illegal under federal law--have wasted no time in pointing out that even under ideal conditions raw milk can be dangerous.

The dairy at the heart of this latest outbreak has finally acknowledged that their milk was, in fact, the cause of the outbreak.  It resumed production of raw dairy foods earlier this month after a week-long shutdown. (In a January blog post I criticized the farm's owner, Edwin Shank, for not immediately posting a recall notice on his farm's website.) 

Organic Farmers In MN Can Get 90% Their Tuition Paid

A lot of farmers would like to go organic but are afraid to because of the cost.  Now, the state of Minnesota is taking at least some of the sting out of "going green" by covering up to 90% of a farmer's tuition for a program designed to help farmers make just such a switch with their farms.

The program is called Tools for Transition and is in its 2nd year, says the Communications Director for the state's Department of Agriculture. Currently 32 farmers are enrolled and each one gets a personalized program that helps him or her understand the costs, risk assessments, production challenges and similar issues that can stand in the way of an organic farm's success.

To qualify farmers must be moving toward organic certification of their land or be farming land that's been certified in the past 3 years. The program is open to both row farmers and dairy farmers. Participants must share all relevant information about their farm's business but that information is kept strictly confidential, says the Director.

In addition to the educational opportunity that is obviously the main focus here, farmers also get discounts on conferences, access to other workshops and the chance to network with other farmers who are also going through the "green" transition.

If you're a Minnesota farmer and would like more information about this opportunity you can call the program's administrator,Meg Moynihan, at 651-201-6616.

The "Prevagen Moments" Campain--What Do You Think?

When I first read the press release for Prevagen's new "Prevagen Moments" ad campaign my first reaction was "Wow, that's really insensitive."  If you've ever loved anyone with dementia you know there's nothing funny about it. Even the "funny" blunders are just more reminders that the person you once loved is slipping further and further away. But then I took a look at the actual campaign that's running on Prevagen's Facebook page and I realized it's not at all what I thought it would be.  Basically they've scoured YouTube for funny videos of celebrities having forgetful moments and then shared them with their own Facebook followers.

Prevagen is a "natural" supplement made that preserves ion levels in your brain to prevent degeneration of brain cells. Its primary ingredient is a compound known as apoaequorin. This compound comes from the crystal jelly jellyfish. (This is the jellyfish you often see "lighting up" on nature shows.)

Little research on using apoaequorin for memory and cognitive function in humans has been published in peer-reviewed medical journals and Prevagen does still carry the "herbal exemption" statement that all herbal supplements must, under current FDA regulations, display on their labels. And at $40 for 30 capsules (the price I found on Amazon.com this morning) it certainly isn't cheap.

Readers, ever use this supplement? Would you recommend it?  And what do you think of the Prevagen Moments ad campaign?

Regeneca Issues Second Recall In A Month--RegenErect This Time

Image of recalled RegenErect provided by FDA.gov.

Remember earlier this month when we learned of a recall of Regeneca's "female" arousal product RegenArouse?  Well, now the company has issued another recall--this time for its "male" product RegenErect.  In an undated press release the company admits that, once again, it's been found to be selling supplements "spiked" with a pharmaceutical drug.  And, just as was the case with the other supplement, the drug found was taladafil.  (Taladafil is sold in this country under the brand name Cialis.)

Regeneca promises that it's "committed to improving its products and avoiding future recall issues" but this is by no means the company's first "recall issue".  Back in 2011 the company was officially warned by the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, after RegenErect was found to contain sulfoaildenafil, which is a drug analogue of Viagra.  Just a few weeks earlier the company had recalled multiple lots of RegenErect for spiking.

Naturally, the presence of these drugs are never disclosed on any of Regeneca's labels.  As you can see from the scan the FDA provided of RegenErect, company falls back on the standard blatherskite we see with these kinds of supplements: "drug-free", "natural" and "herbal".

And as far as I can tell, there's no notice of either of the recent recalls on the company's website, either, despite all of its yammering about how we're all "interdependent" and "symbiotic" with one another.

Raw Milk 150 Times More Likely To Make You Sick

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control, or CDC, says that unpasteurized, or "raw", milk is 150 times more likely to be the cause of a foodborne illness than the pasteurized stuff.

Published this week in the CDC's journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, the study looked at data running from 1993 to 2006--and covering food poisoning cases in all 50 US states. What the researchers discovered was that in that time there were 121 disease outbreaks that were ultimately blamed on tainted dairy products.  Those outbreaks sickened more than 4400 people and hospitalized nearly 240. And at least 3 people died as a result of drinking contaminated milk or eating foods made from it.

In most of those outbreaks the dairy product in question was milk--and a full 60% of them were raw milk. The numbers get even more grim.  Of the 239 cases that required hospital treatment most of those were linked to raw milk, as well.

Given those numbers it probably won't surprise you to learn that most outbreaks of dairy-borne illnesses occurred in states where sales of raw milk directly to the public were legal. (At the start of the study 21 states made it legal to sell unpasteurized dairy products directly to the public but over the course of 13-year study 7 states changed their laws.)

Another thing this study found is that when milk does cause food poisoning those infections tend to be more severe if they're caused by raw milk.  They are also far more likely to require a hospital stay.  (13 to 1 was the statistic quoted.)

Most disturbing, though, is the news that most cases of raw milk infections happen to kids.  A full 60% of all raw-milk poisonings occurred in kids younger than 20 years of age. And, as you might expect, kids are less likely to successfully fight the infection than adults.

FTC Smacks Down Scammer Jesse Willms

 

Jesse Willms has been permanently barred from scamming people through "negative option" marketing.

Ever see one of those "free trial" offers for acai berry products, colon cleansers or weight loss supplements and thought to yourself, "That has to be too good to be true,"? Well, your instincts were right on target and today the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, announced that it had taken one of the worst health scammers out of commission by permanently banning Jesse Willms and his companies from using what are known as "negative option" practices.

The way this scam worked was that Willms and his business partners offered people free trials of products like acai berry products, colon cleansers and teeth whiteners.  (He also ran programs offering work-at-home jobs, free credit reports, penny auctions and more.)

But people who took Willms up on his "free" offers often found that they weren't free after all. Willms employed a marketing technique known as "negative option marketing".  Basically, if you fell for one of his scams and didn't actively fight to cancel your account before your trial period ran out you would be charged a monthly fee for "bonus" offers.  Those fees ran $80 a month (or more) and most consumers didn't realize they would be charged those fees when they signed up for the "free" trial, said the FTC when they first filed the suit.

Back in September the courts issued a preliminary injunction against Willms and now that order has been made permanent.  It doesn't put Willms or his companies out of business completely but it does bar him from offering any more "free" trials unless they're truly free. Willms can no longer debit his customers' bank accounts with their specific permission, make "misleading" claims about how his products work or use phony "testimonials" to hawk his garbage. 

Willms and his associates are thought to have bilked consumers in the US, Canada and New Zealand out of 467 million dollars.

 

FDA Gets Permanent Injunction Against Daniel Allgyer & His Raw Milk

Back in April of last year I wrote about the FDA's request for a permanent injunction against "raw" milk farmer Daniel Allgyer. Allgyer, the feds alleged, was selling unpasteurized milk across state lines--despite being officially warned by the FDA not to do so a year earlier.  (You can read the FDA's warning letter to Daniel Allgyer here.)  The agency has since accused the farmer of "multiple" and "repeated" crimes related to the sale of his milk. And his participation in private "milk buying clubs" is not enough to shield him from the law, the court found.

Now, just moments ago, the agency announced that it has been granted a permanent injunction against Allgyer.  The injunction forces Allgyer to put up notices informing the public that he will no longer sell any raw milk across state lines.  The notices must be, says the FDA's press release, on Allgyer's website, product labels and other business documents. He must also supply all employees and vendors with a copy of the injunction against him and must keep careful business records detailing each and every sale of raw milk to customers in his home state of Pennsylvania.

Health officials have long lobbied to get the sale of raw milk and other unpasteurized dairy products to the public outlawed.  But because agricultural and food laws vary from state to state the best they've been able to do is get interstate commerce involving raw milk outlawed.  Raw milk and foods made from them are still legal in several states despite pleas from food safety advocates who point to things like the CDC's recent finding that raw milk is 150 times more likely to cause "food poisoning" than pasteurized dairy foods.

It will be interesting to see how this news about Allgyer's injunction plays out in the new "social" media environment--especially since the man's alleged crimes are now public information. Last year, after the FDA enlisted the help of State Troopers and US Marshals to raid Allgyer's farm the "natural" community came down overwhelmingly on his side.  Headlines like "FDA Tyranny Exposed" and "The Fighting Amish" were typical of the kinds of responses I saw at the time.

Urinary Tract Infections Linked To Chicken Meat

Nearly all the urinary tract infections, or UTIs, in this country are caused by E. coli bacteria.  The bacteria can make their way from a woman's digestive tract into her urinary tract in a few different ways but the 2 most common are sex and improper hygiene.  (This is actually why your GYN told you to wipe from front-to-back instead of back-to-front.)  And these infections aren't just painful for women--they're also expensive to treat.  That's been even more true in recent years.  Doctors are seeing cases of antibiotic-resistant infections popping up more and more.

But could the problem be even a little more complicated than that?  A new report from the CDC suggests that it could.  This report looked at strains of E. coli in several samples of grocery store meat and compared them to the strains of E. coli most often implicated in humans.  What they found suggests that chickens, more than any other meat animal, are serving as "vessels" for the bacteria that cause UTIs in humans.

Now, the health experts behind this report didn't go so far as to make any recommendations about how to avoid exposure to the bacteria but they did stress the need for new "interventions" to be developed to prevent the spread of all kinds of pathogens from meat to humans.

The report appears as an ahead-of-print piece at the website for the CDC's journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Allay, ActiPatch Hawkers Warned By FDa

 

The folks behind the Allay menstrual relief patch may have gotten a few seconds of exposure recently on a national talk show but it didn't earn them any brownie points with the FDA.  Back at the end of January the agency shot off a warning letter to BioElectronics Corporation informing CEO Andrew Whelan that his company's Allay patch and its ActiPatch and RecoveryRx products are all violating current FDA regulations.  The problem is that the products have never been cleared by the agency for sale in the US and that, says the agency, makes them "adulterated" and "misbranded" medical devices.

The FDA's official warning letter to BioElectronics, which was dated January 31, 2012, was made public yesterday and from it we learn that the company was granted approval for another of its products--something called ActiBand--but that the FDA turned down the company's applications for the ActiPatch.  (The exact status of the RecoveryRx and Allay devices is not specified in the letter.)

But even the company's approved product has problems, says the agency.  Because of the way it's classified the ActiBand device is a prescription product that should only be prescribed by a doctor.  But agents with the Center for Devices and Radiological Health say they were able to order one over the internet with no prescription needed.

The FDA requests that BioElectronics "immediately" stop marketing the ActiPatch, RecoveryRx and Allay devices with medical claims attached to them.  Furthermore, it also warns the company to limit its marketing of the ActiBand product to the single purpose for which it was approved--the treatment of swelling following eyelid surgery.