Eric Legras … THEDOCTORFACTORY … Health & Wellness Strategic Marketing


El Estirón: Una campaña de Antena 3 y Onda Cero para concienciar sobre la importancia de una buena alimentación y unos hábitos de vida saludables. by The Doctor Factory

Antena 3 y Onda Cero se unen para luchar contra la obesidad infantil. Por esa razón, han reunido a un grupo de especialistas en nutrición, psicología, actividad física… con el objetivo de dar un nuevo paso adelante en la campaña «El estirón».

El objetivo de esta iniciativa es crear conciencia a todos de que desde los primeros años es importante cuidar la alimentación y mantener unos hábitos de vida saludables.

Os dejamos el vídeo de la campaña… Divertido, fresco y con un mensaje muy positivo! Tal y como TheDoctorFactory entiende la comunicación en salud: Informar de una manera lúdica y entretenida buscando la máxima implicación del ciudadadno/Paciente.

 



Doctor’s Orders: Eat Well to Be Well by The Doctor Factory

The New York Times – OAKLAND, Calif.

DR. PRESTON MARING was striding along a hospital corridor at double speed on a recent Friday morning, his tall frame, white hair and frequent gesticulations prompting waves of greetings from colleagues, who also took care to sidestep his forward momentum. His destination was the weekly farmers’ market he started in 2003, just outside the front door at the Kaiser Permanente medical center here.

“Since it’s mine, I made the rules — all organic,” he said as he skimmed by a line of stalls where fresh fruits and vegetables are sold to hospital workers, passers-by and even, he said, those bringing patients to the emergency room.

Dr. Maring, 64, a gynecologist and obstetrician with three decades as a surgeon, is well known as a former physician in chief at the hospital, the man who spearheaded the creation of its new pediatric neurosurgery unit.

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Ferran Adrià transforma la comida de hospital by The Doctor Factory

EFE

El cocinero catalán Ferran Adrià ha presentado en el hospital Sant Andreu de Manresa (Barcelona) un nuevo concepto de comida triturada que permite recuperar olores y sabores a aquellas personas que, por problemas de salud, no pueden masticar. El chef se ha declarado emocionado al constatar el éxito que ha tenido este proyecto entre el 50% de los usuarios de ese centro manresano, que deben alimentarse a partir de preparados y que ahora pueden degustar diariamente nuevas texturas y sentir el aroma de platos nutricionalmente muy completos, según un comunicado.

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Healthy wishes for you and your Patients by The Doctor Factory



Cocina creativa de Ferran Adrià y diabetes by Aléxia Herms

www.forumclinic.org

 La diabetes no está reñida con la cocina creativa. Se puede tener diabetes y ser todo un gourmet.

 El dia 23 de octubre se hizo oficial la relación establecida entre Fundació Clínic per la Recerca Biomèdica (FCRB) i la Fundació Alicia de Ferran Adrià con el objetivo de trabajar conjuntamente en la investigación de cocina y diabetes. Entre las muchas actividades que se realizaron, se presentaron dos recetarios, uno a base de cereales y otros granos y otro a base de frutas. Ambos especialmente diseñados para la alimentación de la persona con diabetes como para toda su familia. Las características de estos recetarios es qeu se han elaborado de forma saludable y están adaptados al sistema de raciones de 10 gr. De hidratos de carbono, sistema utilizado por la mayoría de personas con diabetes para poder hacer equivalencias de alimentos glucídicos.

El recetario a base de cereales y granos incluye una introducción sobre las características de la alimentación  para personas con diabetes y las instrucciones para el uso del recetario, seguido de platos elaborados con cereales recuperados como el mijo, la quinona o la cebada, etc. Y otros más habituales como el arroz o la pasta. Hay dos apartados de recetas: las ensaladas frías y los platos calientes. Además cada receta incluye los ingredientes para cuatro personas y la información nutricional por persona. Lo podéis consultar online a:

El recetario a base de frutas incluye creativos postres adaptados a 2 raciones de 10 gr. De hidratos de carbono, es decir, cada postre equivale a tomar una manzana o una naranja mediana (aproximadamente 200gr.). La creatividad de los cocineros ofreciendo este recetario ha dado como resultado diferentes tipos de postres como son las macedonias y las ensaladas de frutas, sopas de frutas, zumos, smoothies (zumos helados), etc. El recetario también incluye una introducción, las instrucciones de uso y el contenido en hidratos de carbono de las frutas utilizadas. Además cada receta incluye los ingredientes para cuatro personas y la información nutricional por persona. Lo podéis consultar online a:

Os animamos a comprobar por vosotros mismos de la estética de las preparaciones, de su sabor y de la creatividad de estas recetas para que disfruten de la cocina y a la vez tegan un mejor control de su diabetes.

 



El I Salón Dieta Mediterránea y Salud cierra sus puertas con la presencia de más de 40.000 visitantes by Aléxia Herms

MADRID, 26 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS)

dieta mediterranea

El I Salón Dieta Mediterránea y Salud, celebrado desde el 22 de octubre en Feria de Madrid, cierra sus puertas con la presencia de más de 40.000 visitantes, el doble de lo previsto, de los cuales, más de 4.000 han sido niños, y con la clausura del consejero de Sanidad de la Comunidad de Madrid, Juan José Güemes, informó hoy la organización.

El consejero de Sanidad hizo ayer un llamamiento para que se recupere el tiempo dedicado a la comida, a comer bien, porque «no se puede despachar la alimentación como si se echara gasolina al coche», y felicitó a los organizaciones de este salón porque, a su juicio, es uno de los pasos más importantes que se ha dado en los últimos años en favor de una forma de alimentación de hace siglos. «somos lo que comemos», subrayó Güemes, quien añadió: «nuestra salud depende de lo que comemos». En este sentido, recordó que muchas enfermedades están relacionadas con el hecho de que la sociedad se ha olvidado comer bien». Así, destacó que «comer bien es más barato que comer mal».  Por este motivo, apostó por recuperar los hábitos de comer, cocinar, ir al mercado, enseñar a los pequeños a comer con una alimentación que incluya el aceite de oliva, verduras y legumbres, la carne o el pescado, y la leche, y, todo, sin olvidar la parte económica: «este sector es una extraordinaria fuente de riqueza y empleo, puesto que la industria alimentaria española es de las más modernas e innovadoras y un «motor de crecimiento» económico.

Por su parte, el director del Salón, Florentino Platero, explicó que a lo largo de los cuatro días que ha estado abierto este Salón han tenido lugar 228 actividades, conferencias, talleres, catas y degustación de alimentos. Los más de 4.000 niños que han participado en la mayoría de los talleres previstos para ellos han podido, por ejemplo, hacer la compra con una cesta en la que sólo formaban parte alimentos para una dieta sana o familiarizarles con la pirámide de los alimentos, con el objetivo de enseñarles a comer bien.

Por su parte, el presidente del Comité Científico del I Salón de Dieta Mediterránea, el catedrático Luis Serra Majem, se mostró convencido que este salón se va a consolidar, por lo que pidió el apoyo institucional para futuras ediciones, porque «la dieta mediterránea está en peligro y hay que preservarla».

También el presidente de la Academia madrileña de Gastronomía, Miguel Garrido, destacó de este salón la importancia de haber unido «gastronomía y salud«, porque «la alimentación y el ejercicio van a contribuir a nuestro bienestar». Dada la importancia que se ha dado al protagonismo de los niños, Garrido lamentó que en las aulas haya muy poca formación, pese a que su futuro también dependerá de lo que coman.

Finalmente, Javier Aranceta, el presidente del comité organizador del Salón, Javier Aranceta, puso el énfasis que en este ‘ven y sabrás lo que es bueno’, el lema del Salón, lo que más éxito ha tenido, además de las numerosas catas y degustaciones de productos, han sido los talleres. Aranceta dijo que este Salón debe convertirse en una herramienta para administraciones, mundo pedagógico y universitario porque «desde todos los ámbitos se debe trabajar en favor de la dieta más saludable«.

LOS PRIMEROS PREMIOS DEL SALÓN

 Durante el acto de clausura, tuvo lugar la entrega de los primeros premios del Salón Dieta Mediterránea. El premio al ‘compromiso empresarial con la innovación y la investigación’ recayó en la empresa Puleva Food-Puleva Biotech, cuyo director de productos, Eduardo Corral, auguró una larga vida a este salón.

El galardón a la trayectoria profesional en el ámbito de la comunicación fue concedido a Telemadrid y Ediciones ICM por el apoyo prestado a la salud alimentaria a través de los programas de televisión y de publicaciones. El premio a la trayectoria profesional en el cambo de la restauración fue para el restaurador Koldo Royo, en cuyo restaurante bilbaíno se pueden degustar todos los platos mediterráneos.  Por su parte, el premio a la ‘iniciativa educativa’ se concedió al ‘Programa para una alimentación y actividad física saludables’, promovido por el Departamento de Sanidad de la Generalitat de Cataluña. Por último, el premio ‘Profesor F. Fidanza a la trayectoria profesional en el campo de la salud’ fue entregado al profesor Gregorio Varela, discípulo de Grande Cobián.

 



Qué elegir para que la cesta de la compra sea cardiosaludable? by The Doctor Factory

http://www.larazon.es

cesta cardioLos expertos en nutrición del Instituto Flora recomiendan mantener las buenas costumbres en alimentación y estilo de vida sobre todo en tiempos de crisis en los que podemos eliminar alguna buena costumbre para reducir gastos y así encontrarnos con que hemos dejado de controlar los factores de riesgo cardiovascular como son el colesterol, la hipertensión, el tabaquismo, el sedentarismo o el exceso de peso.

Por su parte, el Dr. Pedro Mata, Presidente de la Fundación de Hipercolesterolemia Familiar, recuerda que «Quienes tienen hipertensión, colesterol, diabetes o sobrepeso deben mantener las medidas de control sin perder sus buenos hábitos alimentarios y de estilo de vida. No es el momento de dejar de lado la alimentación variada y equilibrada».

Como indica Raquel Bernácer, nutricionista y miembro del Instituto Flora, «los últimos datos de consumo apuntan a que, cada vez más, los españoles comemos y preparamos nuestras comidas en casa, por lo que somos nosotros quienes controlamos nuestra alimentación diaria y quienes tenemos que recordar la importancia de mantener, al menos, cuatro comidas al día (desayuno, comida, merienda y cena) que nos aportarán sensación de saciedad durante todo el día. Además hay que aumentar el consumo de frutas y verduras ya que son buenas aliadas en el cuidado de los factores de riesgo cardiovascular y siempre son más económicas».

El Instituto Flora propone 5 simples consejos para mantener una buena alimentación con un coste más reducido:

1-Comer o preparar la comida en casa utilizando recetas sanas y ligeras que sean fáciles de cocinar y que no nos ocupen mucho tiempo. Recordar que hay que hacer comidas poco copiosas lo que nos ayudará a mantener un peso adecuado (y no podemos olvidar el desayuno, fundamental para acumular energías después de toda la noche sin comer). Un ejemplo de 1-menú podría ser calabacines rellenos de jamón y pollo asado con puré de patata y manzana. Coste aproximado: 2,55 €
2-Mantener la actividad física diaria, ya sea en el gimnasio o a través de pequeños cambios en el estilo de vida que nos ayuden a estar más activos: bajar una parada antes del autobús, no utilizar el ascensor, etc. Esto, además de ayudarnos a mantenernos más activos, hará que mejore nuestro corazón. Coste aproximado: 0 €

3-Elegir productos frescos de temporada como frutas y verduras y aumentar el consumo de esteroles vegetales que ayudan a reducir el nivel de colesterol consumiendo alimentos funcionales que no tengan un coste elevado. Un ejemplo podría ser: dos tostadas untadas con margarina enriquecida con esteroles vegetales. Coste aproximado: 0,22 €

4-Olvidarse de fumar para siempre. Además de una medida muy económica, es una de las claves para cuidar nuestra salud cardiovascular. Ahorro aproximado: 2,5 €

5-De vez en cuando controlar nuestros niveles de colesterol y tensión arterial. Esto nos ayudará a saber si nuestras cifras son correctas. También visitar a nuestro médico o nutricionista para que nos ofrezca pautas de alimentación y estilo de vida cardiosaludables. Coste aproximado: 9 € 

El total de las cinco recomendaciones del Instituto Flora supone unos 12 €, una cifra irrisoria si lo que queremos es mantener una buena salud cardiovascular. Así, la nutricionista Raquel Bernácer insiste en que «es más barato cuidarse que no hacerlo».

El Instituto Flora nació en el año 2002 con el objetivo de asumir la labor de divulgar e informar sobre la necesidad de cuidar los hábitos de vida haciendo especial hincapié en una correcta alimentación como base de prevención de enfermedades cardiovasculares. En este sentido, se presentó el documento «Por una alimentación cardiosaludable», dirigido a aclarar conceptos a la población española dado que los estudios elaborados por el Instituto Flora mostraban que la población española sigue necesitando pautas sobre los hábitos de vida y de alimentación correctos



In One Study, a Heart Benefit for Chocolate by The Doctor Factory

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

Imagen chocolat

In a study that will provide comfort to chocoholics everywhere, researchers in Sweden have found evidence that people who eat chocolate have increased survival rates after a heart attack — and it may be that the more they eat, the better.

The scientists followed 1,169 nondiabetic men and women who had been hospitalized for a first heart attack. Each filled out a standardized health questionnaire that included a question about chocolate consumption over the past 12 months. Chocolate contains flavonoid antioxidants that are widely believed to have beneficial cardiovascular effects.

The patients had a health examination three months after their discharge from the hospital, and researchers followed them for the next eight years using Swedish national registries of hospitalizations and deaths. After controlling for age, sex, obesity, physical inactivity, smoking, education and other factors, they found that the more chocolate people consumed, the more likely they were to survive. The results are reported in the September issue of The Journal of Internal Medicine.

But before concluding that a box of Godiva truffles is health food, chocolate lovers may want to consider some of the study’s weaknesses. It is an observational study, not a randomized trial, so cause and effect cannot be definitively established.

Even though the researchers controlled for many variables, chocolate consumption could be associated with factors they did not account for — mental health, for example — that might reduce the risk for death.

The scientists did not ask what kind of chocolate the patients ate, and milk chocolate has less available flavonoid than dark chocolate. Finally, chocolate consumption did not reduce the risk for any nonfatal cardiac event.

Still, Dr. David L. Katz, an associate professor of public health at Yale who was not involved in the work, said the study added “an interesting element, following a group of adults who’ve had a heart attack and noting an impressive reduction in cardiac deaths.” While the study is observational, he said, “the broader context is reassuring.”

While the chocolate eaters in the study had a statistically insignificant reduction in the risk of death from any cause over the eight-year span, the reduced risk for dying of heart disease was highly significant. And it was dose-dependent — that is, the more chocolate consumed, the lower the risk for death.

Compared with people who ate none, those who had chocolate less than once a month had a 27 percent reduction in their risk for cardiac death, those who ate it up to once a week had a 44 percent reduction and those who indulged twice or more a week had a 66 percent reduced risk of dying from a subsequent heart event. The beneficial effect remained after controlling for intake of other kinds of sweets.

A co-author of the paper, Dr. Kenneth J. Mukamal, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, said that there was considerable data from other studies suggesting that chocolate lowered blood pressure and that this might be a cause of the lower cardiac mortality found in the study.

Dr. Katz, of Yale, agreed that “there are many reasonable biological mechanisms” for a protective effect from chocolate.

“I like the study,” he said. “It adds to the general fund of knowledge we already have.”

Dr. Mukamal sounded a note of caution about the findings.

“Although this is interesting and provocative, chocolate does not come without costs,” he said. “For people looking for a small snack to finish a meal, this is a great choice. But it should be supplementing healthy eating and replacing less healthy snacks.”



The High-Tech Hospital of the Future by The Doctor Factory

Technology of all kinds is transforming the way medical systems work By Michelle Andrews

Imagen1

Katherine Thomas doesn’t remember much about the 19 days she spent in the intensive care unit at Methodist Hospital in Houston. Recovering from emergency surgery to remove part of her colon, Thomas, 63, drifted in and out of consciousness. But one vision stands out: the 5-foot robot that stopped in for a visit. «I thought it was something from outer space,» she recalls. Piloted remotely by her doctor from a command center on another floor, her alien—which looked like an oversize carpet cleaner with a computer monitor stuck on top—allowed her medical team to do their rounds, «seeing» how she was doing and «reading» her vital signs, without unsettling her or the other extremely ill patients in intensive care.

Robots that glide through hospital halls may offer the most visually arresting example of the future of patient care. But they’re just one of many dramatic advances changing how hospitals function. Radio-frequency ID tags that track every doctor, nurse, and piece of equipment in the hospital in real time, for example, can enable a faster emergency response. «Smart» beds that automatically transmit patients’ breathing and heart rates to their charts can alert nurses to developing problems more quickly. One day in the not-too-distant future, any doctor in the country may have access to the complete medical history of an unconscious trauma patient—perhaps through an identifier implanted under the skin. According to industry analyst Datamonitor, spending on telemedicine, which now entails everything from remotely monitoring patients to analyzing medical images from afar and someday could even include long-distance surgery, will reach $2.4 billion this year and nearly triple to $6.1 billion by 2012.

The investment hospitals are making in change has basically two goals: to improve clinical care and slash error rates, and to reduce patient stress, encouraging healing. Ironically, one of the most anticipated developments is that technology will allow hospitals to do a better job of keeping people out of them. «By 2015, home will be the hub of care,» predicts Naomi Fried, vice president of the innovation and advanced technology group at Kaiser Permanente’s Sidney R. Garfield Health Care Innovation Center in San Leandro, Calif. Five years ago, when Kevin Reynolds of Corona, Calif., developed congestive heart failure (the No. 1 reason for hospitalization and readmission), he at first was in and out of the ER or urgent care center nearly every month, plagued by shortness of breath and dizziness. Now, doctors at Kaiser Permanente Riverside Medical Center can check his vital signs with the aid of a device the size of a clock radio connected to a scale and other monitoring equipment in his home. He weighs himself each morning and checks his heart rate, blood pressure, and blood oxygen levels; the data are sent in automatically.

If Reynolds’s weight is up, indicating he’s retaining fluids, he’ll get a call from a nurse suggesting a diuretic. Once, when his blood pressure dropped too low, the nurse called him to the hospital immediately, but overall, Reynolds’s time at the medical center is way down. «It’s helped me with discipline and with taking care of myself,» he says.

Remote diagnosis. In rural areas, where specialist coverage is sparse, telemedicine’s contribution grows ever more sophisticated. Take ultra-time-sensitive stroke management, for example. In Michigan, 31 hospitals in far-flung locations now use robots identical to the one in Houston to allow a remote specialist to rapidly diagnose stroke and determine, before a patient’s very narrow window of opportunity closes, whether he or she is a good candidate for tPA, a drug that dissolves clots. A neurosurgeon at St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Hospital in Pontiac can observe and talk to patients using the robot’s video camera, as well as review the CT scan and other lab results. «After one year, 18 hospitals had administered the drug tPA that had never done so before,» says Yulun Wang, the chairman and CEO of InTouch Health, which developed the robot.

Robots are increasingly making their mark in the operating room, too. Originally approved for general abdominal procedures like gallbladder removal, robotic surgery—the surgeon manipulates computer controls rather than a scalpel—is now used for heart and prostate cancer surgery, gynecologic procedures, and bariatric surgery, among others. With the help of a tiny camera inserted through an incision «port,» a surgeon can see the surgical field onscreen as he sits at a console in the operating room, from which he guides the robot’s instruments, also inserted through ports. Someday, the doctor guiding the robot could be sitting at a console literally across the world from the patient. If remote surgery eventually becomes commercially available, many lives might be saved in hard-to-reach locations, from remote islands to battlefields.

Proponents of robotic surgery note that the robot’s «hands» are steadier and have a wider range of motion than human hands and that the instruments are more flexible than traditional laparoscopic instruments. This can lead to less pain and blood loss, and potentially better clinical outcomes, they say. But results of studies on outcomes are mixed, says Richard Satava, a professor of surgery at the University of Washington. «If it costs more to do the same operation with the robot, that will slow down the adoption somewhat,» he says.

Records reform. Meanwhile, a slow but sure transformation in the way patient records are gathered and stored gained momentum last winter when the economic stimulus package set aside $19 billion for healthcare information technology. Currently, just 1.5 percent of private hospitals can claim a comprehensive electronic medical records system in all clinical units, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in April. An additional 7.6 percent have a basic system in at least one unit. But putting patient records into digital form and into the massive national database envisioned by President Obama has the potential, assuming it happens, to provide a wealth of information about which treatments work and which don’t—and to speed diagnosis and medical care and curtail unnecessary tests and procedures.

A number of institutions offer a hint of what is possible. In the emergency department at Kaiser Permanente’s Oakland Medical Center, doctors and nurses carry flat computer tablets about the size of a piece of paper that can access every Kaiser patient’s entire medical record. If a patient has previously visited any Kaiser Permanente facility, ER staff can immediately call up his or her medications and any recent test results. They can also sit down next to a bed and show patients an X-ray, say. When Palomar Medical Center West near San Diego opens in 2012, patients will sleep on «LifeBeds» covered in «smart» fabric that records their heart rate, pulse, and respiration and sends the info directly to their medical record.

On a medical/surgical unit at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, a flat-screen monitor is mounted on the wall near the foot of every bed. Hospital staffers wear ultrasound ID tags, and as soon as they walk into the room, their name and job title pop up. The system then makes the appropriate chart information available onscreen—a phlebotomist would see what blood draws to do, for example, while a nursing assistant might see what medications are due. The patient has access to the information as well. «Everyone’s engaged, sharing the same information,» says Tami Minnier, chief quality officer for UPMC. That’s important, say experts. Whereas medical practice has traditionally tended to be paternalistic, practitioners now believe that the sense of empowerment that patients get from being engaged in their care can lead to better outcomes. It’s the «I think I can» approach.

Besides engaging people in decisions about their own care, hospital administrators are exploring ways that physical structure and environment can ease anxiety and promote wellbeing. «Evidence-based design» is inspired by studies suggesting that patients heal better if they have access to nature, natural light, and artwork, for example. In one oft-cited study, researchers found that surgical patients whose rooms looked out on trees used less heavy medication, suffered fewer minor complications, and went home nearly a day sooner than patients whose rooms looked out on a brick wall. The plans for Palomar Medical Center West call for a plant-filled central atrium and gardens at each end of every floor, and rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on the mountains, furnished so that family members can stay overnight.

Room change. Palomar’s rooms will also be «acuity adaptable,» meaning that as the patient’s condition changes, the room can, too—becoming an intensive care unit temporarily, say. Studies show that moving patients less frequently results in fewer falls and medication errors. The traditional centralized nursing station will be replaced by stations outside rooms, where a nurse checking in can see the patient.

Some design changes and concepts speak more to hospitality than healthcare: plush furnishings, parking spaces near the door, a self-serve kiosk check-in system that—like a global positioning system—instructs you where to go («take 10 steps forward and turn right down the corridor labeled ‘east wing’ «). Such a focus on comfort «creates a healing environment and helps people feel like they have some control,» says Bruce Schroffel, CEO of the University of Colorado Hospital. (Skeptics note it may also give facilities a competitive edge in attracting affluent patients with good insurance.) One day soon, patients may be able to order meals, adjust the room temperature and lighting, surf the Internet, and videoconference with family using a remote control in bed.

Or it may take a little bit longer than anticipated. According to an April survey by the American Hospital Association, nearly 8 in 10 hospitals report that they have stopped, postponed, or scaled back facility upgrades or information technology projects because of the economy’s recent woes. «The recession is clearly slowing construction projects down,» says James Bentley, a senior vice president at the AHA. «How much, we’ll see.» At whatever pace, though, change is coming.



Codex Alimentarius – Dare you ignore it? by The Doctor Factory

tomates

More and more people are becoming concerned about the shady, secretive organization that is Codex Alimentarius – the thinly-veiled propaganda arm of the international pharmaceutical industry that does everything it can to promote industry objectives whilst limiting individual options to maintain health (which would diminish mermbers profits).

Codex alimentarius is one of the major bodies behind the effort to limit access to nutritional products and information. Its motivation is not rocket science and neither is the source of its funding – money that somehow expected to return a profit to its members . . . Most of the information available regarding codex alimentarius refers to its role in the USA, but it is not a US-specific body. Far from it, Codex has wiggled its dirty little tentacles into just about every national or international body concerned with public health. Posing as a benefactor, it then uses its significant financial and political clout to do its masters bidding.

As you can read in the excellent article below, there is much to be concerned about when considering codex alimentarius – ignore it at your peril.

Codex Alimentarius – The Sinister Truth Behind Operation Cure-All
(From an
original article by Ruth James)

What’s really behind Operation Cure-All? Is it just the FDA and FTC taking their power too far? Or is there a deeper, more sinister purpose to this campaign? Who are Codex Alimentarius?

How could a country that prides itself in its freedom of speech, freedom of choice, and freedom of information be facing such severe restrictions in health freedom and dietary supplements? Haven’t the people made their will known? Didn’t our government pass the Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act of 1994 to insure our right to health supplements?

Indeed, our government did. But the FDA and FTC have found ways to get around that. The laws put in place to protect us are being ignored. And what’s worse is that those laws are about to be superseded, if the powers that be have their way.

OPERATION CURE ALL IS JUST ONE MEANS TO AN END
You see, Operation Cure-All is just a tactic, a vehicle, in a much bigger overall plan. It is a result of «Codex Alimentarius» (meaning food code) — a set of regulations that aim to outlaw any health information in connection with vitamins and limit free access to natural therapies on a worldwide scale.

WHAT’S BEHIND CODEX ALMENTARIUS?
Behind the Codex Alimentarius Commission is the United Nations and the World Health Organization working in conjunction with the multinational pharmaceutical cartel and international banks. Its initial efforts in the US with the FDA were defeated, so it found another ally in the FTC. Now Codex, with the FTC and the pharmaceutical cartel behind it, it threatens to become a trade issue, using the campaign of Operation Cure-All to advance its goals.

Codex began simply enough when the U.N. authorized the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization to develop a universal food code. Their purpose was to ‘harmonize’ regulations for dietary supplements worldwide and set international safety standards for the purposes of increased trade. Pharmaceutical interests stepped in and began exerting their influence. Instead of focusing on food safety, Codex is using its power to promote worldwide restrictions on vitamins and food supplements, severely limiting their availability and dosages.

REAL GOALS OF CODEX
This is to bring about international ‘harmonization.’ While global harmony sounds benign, is that the real purpose of this plan? While the stated goal of Codex is to establish unilateral regulations for dietary supplements in every country, the actual goal is to outlaw health products and information on vitamins and dietary supplements, except those under their direct control. These regulations would supersede United States domestic laws without the American people’s voice or vote in the matter.

HOW CAN IT BE POSSIBLE?
Americans gasp at the thought. It goes against everything America stands for. Many believe this can’t be possible. The truth is, it’s not only possible, it’s required by the Codex Alimentarius agreement.

 

In fact, under the terms of the Uruguay Round of GATT, which created the World Trade Organization, the United States agreed to harmonize its domestic laws to the international standards. This includes standards for dietary supplements being developed by the United Nation’s Codex Alimentarius Commission’s Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Use.

The Uruguay Round Agreements carry explicit language clearly indicating that the U.S. must harmonize to international standards:

«Members are fully responsible under this Agreement for the observance of all provisions…. members shall formulate and implement positive measures and mechanisms in support of the observance of the provisions…. by other than central government bodies.» [WTO TBT Agreement at Article 3.5]»

In other words, the federal government must NOT ONLY CHANGE FEDERAL LAW, but must ALSO require state and local governments to change their laws as well to be in accordance with international law.

Not only that, but Codex Alimentarius is now enforceable through the World Trade Organization (WTO). If a country disagrees with or refuses to follow Codex standards, the WTO applies pressure by withdrawing trade privileges and imposing crippling trade sanctions. Congress has already bowed to this pressure several times and so have the governments of many countries.

While the exemption clause (USC 3512(a)(1) and (a)(2) was created to supposedly protect our laws from harmonization to international standards, it has proven to be totally ineffective. The United States has already lost seven trade disputes despite the exemption clause. Due to the enormous pressures put on them by lobbyists from multinational corporations (who contribute millions to congressional campaigns), Congress bowed to pressure and changed U.S. laws.

It appears our government (as well as al others) is being manipulated one way or another to serve the goals of the UN, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization. Food control equals people control — and population control. Is this beginning to sound like world government and one-world order? Could this be the real goal behind Codex Alimentarius?

The United States, Canada, the Europeans, Japan, most of Asia, and South America have already signed agreements pledging total harmonization of their laws including food and drug laws to these international standards in the future.

WHAT CODEX WILL BRING
What can we expect under Codex? To give you an idea, here are some important points:

  • Dietary supplements could not be sold for preventive (prophylactic) or therapeutic use.
  • Potencies would be limited to extremely low dosages. Only the drug companies and the big phytopharmaceutical companies would have the right to produce and sell the higher potency products (at inflated prices).
  • Prescriptions would be required for anything above the extremely low doses allowed (such as 35 mg. on niacin).
  • Common foods such as garlic and peppermint would be classified as drugs or a third category (neither food nor drugs) that only big pharmaceutical companies could regulate and sell. Any food with any therapeutic effect can be considered a drug, even benign everyday substances like water.
  • Codex regulations for dietary supplements would become binding (escape clauses would be eliminated).
  • All new dietary supplements would be banned unless they go through Codex testing and approval.
  • Genetically altered food would be sold worldwide without labeling.

According to John Hammell, a legislative advocate and the founder of International Advocates for Health Freedom (IAHF), here is what we have to look forward to:

«If Codex Alimentarius has its way, then herbs, vitamins, minerals, homeopathic remedies, amino acids and other natural remedies you have taken for granted most of your life will be gone. The name of the game for Codex Alimentarius is to shift all remedies into the prescription category so they can be controlled exclusively by the medical monopoly and its bosses, the major pharmaceutical firms. Predictably, this scenario has been denied by both the Canadian Health Food Association and the Health Protection Branch of Canada (HPB).

The Codex Alimentarius proposals already exist as law in Norway and Germany where the entire health food industry has literally been taken over by the drug companies. In these countries, vitamin C above 200 mg is illegal as is vitamin E above 45 IU, vitamin B1 over 2.4 mg and so on. Shering-Plough, the Norway pharmaceutical giant, now controls an Echinacea tincture, which is being sold there as an over the counter drug at grossly inflated prices. The same is true of ginkgo and many other herbs, and only one government controlled pharmacy has the right to import supplements as medicines which they can sell to health food stores, convenience stores or pharmacies.»

It is now a criminal offence in parts of Europe to sell herbs as foods. An agreement called EEC6565 equates selling herbs as foods to selling other illegal drugs. Action is being taken to accelerate other European countries into ‘harmonization’ as well.

Paul Hellyer in his book, «The Evil Empire,» states: «Codex Alimentarius is supported by international banks and multinational corporations including some in Canada, and is in reality a bill of rights for these banks and the corporations they control. It will hand over our sovereign rights concerning who may or may not invest in our countries to an unelected world organization run by big business. The treaty would make it impossible for Canadian legislators either federal or provincial to alter or improve environmental standards for fear of being sued by multinational corporations whether operating in Canada or not.

This will create a world without borders ruled by a virtual dictatorship of the world’s most powerful central banks and multinational companies. This world is an absolute certainty if we all sit on our hands and do nothing.»

This is the future the FDA and FTC are striving to bring us via Codex harmonization. Is this a future we are going to willingly accept or prevent?

WHY TARGET THE INTERNET?
It is no accident that the FDA and FTC are targeting Internet health sites through Operation Cure-All. We are standing in the doorway of an unprecedented revolution — the information revolution brought about by the Internet.

Now all people everywhere have the ability to learn about anything that interests them with just a few clicks. History has shown that informed, educated people change civilizations — they change the flow of thought and they change the flow of money. They can even change the direction of a country. When similar transitions have happened in the past, the powers that existed did not give up willingly. The Catholic Church fiercely protected its practice of selling ‘indulgences’ as a forgiveness of sin. When the practice was abolished, the Catholic Church lost a great deal of power and money.

When the printing press was invented, books were banned and printers were imprisoned by the authorities, who feared an educated public could not be governed. In the same way, the medical monopoly (and the UN) now fears that a public educated in health and privy to the shortcomings of modern medicine could not be controlled. Loss of control means loss of revenue and loss of power. And they are doing everything they can to stop progress so they can contain their losses and strengthen their power.

The printing press changed the world. Can you imagine what life would be like today if the book banners had their way? But because the printing press won out, society progressed and freedom was embraced. The Internet is changing the world in an equally significant way. While the entire Internet can hardly be suppressed, the pharma-cartels and their backers are looking to protect their interests by restricting as much information as they can on the Internet.

Will we, the people, win out again — or will the UN and the World Health Organization agenda and the pharmaceutical cartel change the course of history and take us back to the «dark ages» of medicine?