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Dangerous Delivery Systems: Faulty Patches and Nano-Sized Coatings
Sausalito, CA
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
 Dangerous side effects, class action lawsuits, and intracellular breakdown result when new technologies are not properly tested for toxicity and safety.
GLOBAL HEALTH MEDIA
415 785-7987
mjordan@ciis.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 20, 2009
By Dr. Meg Jordan, PhD, RN, Global Medicine Hunter
SAN FRANCISCO--) --- At a memorial service for a friend this weekend--my second friend lost to cancer this month--I heard why she really died. It wasn't the cancer. Friends and families were stunned at how suddenly she left this world since her oncologists were encouraged that the chemotherapy was vanquishing the multiple myeloma. But she grew weaker, confused, dizzy and depressed, and was found dead in her bedroom.
Now it turns out that she was wearing a Fentanyl transdermal pain patch, and that she most likely suffered an overdose from it. The patches have undergone a massive recall for deaths and life-threatening side effects. The defective patches leak, delivering a huge amount of fentanyl that can "potentially kill a full-size man in a matter of hours by slowing down heart rate and lowering blood pressure," according to the toxicity recall reports on several websites now.( http://www.fentanyl-patch-recall.com/fentanyl_toxicity)
She wore the patch to subdue pain from a relentless case of shingles that was a tragic side effect of chemotherapy, which killed off immune cells, granting opportunistic infections of the herpes virus. The shingles caused her day and night grief; it's no wonder that she longed for pain relief from a convenient transdermal patch.
Do we even know what kills us anymore?
In this mad lattice of multiple drug side effects and dire, cross-over consequences for medical interventions, human bodies are testing grounds for risky ideas. As the delivery systems become more stealth, they have the potential for ushering unimaginable threats to circulatory systems and human tissues.
Can there ever be enough testing? Two forces conspire to short-change lengthy clinical trials. The public's incessant demand for new and more powerful drugs and cures, and Big Pharma's race to bring new drugs to market. On one hand, we blame the FDA for not moving fast enough when a new drug holds promise; on the other, the legal profession is ready and armed with litigation for tragic missteps like this.
The Fentanyl patch is one more needless tragedy in a long line of Vioxx, Cylert and more.
Another scary new medical misstep being marketed before sufficient testing is nanotechnology--specifically, nano-sized particles in consumer health and cosmetic products. According to E-magazine's Doug Moss, ""Some 600 consumer products on store shelves today -- including some lipsticks, as well as sunscreens and even food products -- contain nanoparticles, minuscule objects that can be as tiny as 1/10,000 the thickness of human hair. The industry is growing in leaps and bounds, though little is yet known about what health or environmental problems the technology may bring"
As nanotechnology delivery systems catch on, our cells are in danger of being flooded with unwanted substances. And it's not just the nano-sized particle that presents a problem; it's the debris that clings to the jet-propelled tiny delivery guy, stuff like bacteria on the skin or toxic heavy metals, which manage to slip past the body's usual bouncers--the skin and immune system.
Case in point: your vitamin pills. With almost 70% of the public taking some kind of daily dietary supplement, it's time to ask about the customary manufacturing process.
The titanium dioxide that coats most of the dietary supplements today may not be a public health threat in itself. It has undergone extensive testing ad appears to offer no statistically significant relationship with numerous diseases such as respiratory fibrosis or cancer.
However, when the mineral extract is reduced to ultrafine nano particles, there is reason to be concerned. The titanium dioxide now being used in most supplements is not yet nanosized, however, there is no guarantee from the manufacturers of the titanium dioxide (used as an undercoat for caplets, tablets, and inside gelcaps to give a smooth finish upon which natural or unnatural color coats are applied) that they will not eventually move into nano-sized particles.
There is only one nutritional supplement company I know of that has taken an extra two years to guarantee that their products will not contain nano-sized titanium dioxide — in fact, they completely revolutionized the industry by developing proprietary all-natural color coats which do not include a titanium dioxide undercoat at all.
What Wellcorps International has done is spend an enormous amount of time and resources to perfect all-natural, 100% chlorophyll coats (a gorgeous deep green color), and all-natural riboflavin and turmeric coat (beautiful, sunshine yellow), and a deep purple colorcoat made from sweet potato and carrot.
Not only are these coatings not dependent on what may become a dangerous undercoating system, these coats actually have additional health benefits for you! Check them out at www.wellcorps.com.
# # #
Dr. Meg Jordan, PhD, RN is a medical anthropologist known as the Global Medicine Hunter. She is a Department Chair and Professor of Integrative Health Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. mjordan@ciis.edu
Reference:
Churg, Gilks, Dai, UBC Dept. of Pathology. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. Vol 277 Issue 5 L975-L982, 1999
GLOBAL HEALTH MEDIA
415 785-7987
mjordan@ciis.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 20, 2009
By Dr. Meg Jordan, PhD, RN, Global Medicine Hunter
SAN FRANCISCO--) --- At a memorial service for a friend this weekend--my second friend lost to cancer this month--I heard why she really died. It wasn't the cancer. Friends and families were stunned at how suddenly she left this world since her oncologists were encouraged that the chemotherapy was vanquishing the multiple myeloma. But she grew weaker, confused, dizzy and depressed, and was found dead in her bedroom.
Now it turns out that she was wearing a Fentanyl transdermal pain patch, and that she most likely suffered an overdose from it. The patches have undergone a massive recall for deaths and life-threatening side effects. The defective patches leak, delivering a huge amount of fentanyl that can "potentially kill a full-size man in a matter of hours by slowing down heart rate and lowering blood pressure," according to the toxicity recall reports on several websites now.( http://www.fentanyl-patch-recall.com/fentanyl_toxicity)
She wore the patch to subdue pain from a relentless case of shingles that was a tragic side effect of chemotherapy, which killed off immune cells, granting opportunistic infections of the herpes virus. The shingles caused her day and night grief; it's no wonder that she longed for pain relief from a convenient transdermal patch.
Do we even know what kills us anymore?
In this mad lattice of multiple drug side effects and dire, cross-over consequences for medical interventions, human bodies are testing grounds for risky ideas. As the delivery systems become more stealth, they have the potential for ushering unimaginable threats to circulatory systems and human tissues.
Can there ever be enough testing? Two forces conspire to short-change lengthy clinical trials. The public's incessant demand for new and more powerful drugs and cures, and Big Pharma's race to bring new drugs to market. On one hand, we blame the FDA for not moving fast enough when a new drug holds promise; on the other, the legal profession is ready and armed with litigation for tragic missteps like this.
The Fentanyl patch is one more needless tragedy in a long line of Vioxx, Cylert and more.
Another scary new medical misstep being marketed before sufficient testing is nanotechnology--specifically, nano-sized particles in consumer health and cosmetic products. According to E-magazine's Doug Moss, ""Some 600 consumer products on store shelves today -- including some lipsticks, as well as sunscreens and even food products -- contain nanoparticles, minuscule objects that can be as tiny as 1/10,000 the thickness of human hair. The industry is growing in leaps and bounds, though little is yet known about what health or environmental problems the technology may bring"
As nanotechnology delivery systems catch on, our cells are in danger of being flooded with unwanted substances. And it's not just the nano-sized particle that presents a problem; it's the debris that clings to the jet-propelled tiny delivery guy, stuff like bacteria on the skin or toxic heavy metals, which manage to slip past the body's usual bouncers--the skin and immune system.
Case in point: your vitamin pills. With almost 70% of the public taking some kind of daily dietary supplement, it's time to ask about the customary manufacturing process.
The titanium dioxide that coats most of the dietary supplements today may not be a public health threat in itself. It has undergone extensive testing ad appears to offer no statistically significant relationship with numerous diseases such as respiratory fibrosis or cancer.
However, when the mineral extract is reduced to ultrafine nano particles, there is reason to be concerned. The titanium dioxide now being used in most supplements is not yet nanosized, however, there is no guarantee from the manufacturers of the titanium dioxide (used as an undercoat for caplets, tablets, and inside gelcaps to give a smooth finish upon which natural or unnatural color coats are applied) that they will not eventually move into nano-sized particles.
There is only one nutritional supplement company I know of that has taken an extra two years to guarantee that their products will not contain nano-sized titanium dioxide — in fact, they completely revolutionized the industry by developing proprietary all-natural color coats which do not include a titanium dioxide undercoat at all.
What Wellcorps International has done is spend an enormous amount of time and resources to perfect all-natural, 100% chlorophyll coats (a gorgeous deep green color), and all-natural riboflavin and turmeric coat (beautiful, sunshine yellow), and a deep purple colorcoat made from sweet potato and carrot.
Not only are these coatings not dependent on what may become a dangerous undercoating system, these coats actually have additional health benefits for you! Check them out at www.wellcorps.com.
# # #
Dr. Meg Jordan, PhD, RN is a medical anthropologist known as the Global Medicine Hunter. She is a Department Chair and Professor of Integrative Health Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. mjordan@ciis.edu
Reference:
Churg, Gilks, Dai, UBC Dept. of Pathology. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. Vol 277 Issue 5 L975-L982, 1999
Meg Jordan, PhD., RN
Sausalito, CA
415-785-7987
