Extreme rehab: Inside the world’s most radical drug clinic
Dr Andre Waismann is rewriting the rulebook for rehab, with incredible success. So why is the medical establishment ignoring his work? Nick Harding investigates
Thursday, 2 October 2008,
Dr Andre Waismann looks out of the window towards the Gaza Strip. Speaking in a medical centre in the Israeli town of Ashkelon, a few miles north of the heavily fortified border and constantly under threat from Kassam rocket attack, he explains his vision. “My goal,” he says, “is that any drug addict in the world will one day be able to turn up at their local general hospital and say, ‘good evening, I am hooked on opiates’. They will then lie down on a treatment table and be cured quickly before going home healthy. It will be as simple as taking a trip to the dentist.”
Waismann’s clinic, based in Barzilai Medical Centre in the south of Israel, offers a controversial solution for drug addicts dependent on opiates such as heroin and morphine, as well as people hooked on painkillers containing the opiate codeine, such as Vicodin. Waismann and his team “clean” them of their addiction. The vomiting, nausea, stomach cramps and fever associated with opiate withdrawal are bypassed and the patient, who is sedated during the process, awakes with no cravings, having gone through detoxification. For the next 10 months to a year they take regular pills to counteract the effects of any heroin or opiate they may take and, according to Waismann, become fully functioning members of society again. He says he has successfully treated 11,000 patients over 14 years, and refers to his technique as ANR, or accelerated neuro-regulation. He says it reverses both the physical and the psychological dependency on the drug. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Health Sciences, Mental Health, Recent Posts on October 3, 2008 - ד' תשרי תשס"ט at 5:15 pm
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Understanding Obama: The Cult of Personality
By Ali Sina, Faithfreedom.org, September 22, 2008
A cult of personality is excessive adulation, admiration and exaltation of a charismatic leader, often with unproven merits or achievements. It is similar to hero worship except that it is created specifically for political leaders.
I must confess I was not impressed by Sen. Barack Obama from the first time I saw him. At first I was excited to see a black candidate. He looked youthful, spoke well, appeared to be confident – a wholesome presidential package. It is so instinctive for most people to want to see blacks succeed. It is as if all humanity is carrying a collective guilt for what the ancestors of blacks endured. However, despite my initial interest in him, I was put off soon, not just because of his shallowness but also because there was an air of haughtiness in his demeanor that was unsettling. His posture and his body language were louder than his empty words.
It is surreal to see the level of hysteria in his admirers. This phenomenon is unprecedented in American politics. Women scream and swoon during his speeches. They yell and shout to Obama, “I love you.” Never did George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt. Martin Luther King Jr. or Ronald Reagan arouse so much raw emotion. Despite their achievements, none of them was raised to the rank of Messiah. The Illinois senator has no history of service to the country. He has done nothing outstanding except giving promises of change and hyping his audience with hope. It’s only his words, not his achievements that is causing this much uproar.
When cheering for someone turns into adulation, something is wrong. Excessive adulation is indicative of a personality cult. The cult of personality is often created when the general population is discontent. A charismatic leader can seize the opportunity and project himself as an agent of change and a revolutionary leader. Often, people, tired of the status quo, do not have the patience to examine the nature of the proposed change. All they want is change. During 1979, when the Iranians were tired of the dictatorial regime of the late Shah, they embraced Khomeini, not because they wanted Islam, but because he promised them change. The word in the street was, “anything is better than the Shah.” They found their error when it was too late. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Education Report, Mental Health, Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on September 28, 2008 - כ"ח אלול תשס"ח at 5:58 am
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Israelis discover cure for bee colony collapse-associated virus
By Rachel Neiman, Israel 21C, September 22, 2008
It is a real-life nightmare scenario that makes any horror movie pale by comparison. The honeybees are in trouble and, by extension, so is the human race. Last winter, over 36 percent of the US bee colonies collapsed, affecting honey production, but more significantly, affecting the one-third of all food production that requires pollination - from fruits and nuts, to the dairy and beef cows that feed on alfalfa.
Now, an Israeli-US company Beeologics is taking rapid measures to bring to market a proprietary anti-viral agent that promises to alleviate the effects of the virus strongly associated with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), with full-scale FDA trials commencing next month.
So far 60,000 hives are committed and Beeologics aims to have 100,000 hives enlisted in the trial which will run in several locations in the US from October to February. The season is critical, Eyal Ben-Chanoch, CEO of Beeologics, tells ISRAEL21c, because the bee keeping industry cycle follows the seasons of the bees which strengthen in spring, and summer and naturally weaken during fall and winter.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Climate Change, Health Sciences, Middle East Report, Recent Posts, Science and Technology on September 22, 2008 - כ"ב אלול תשס"ח at 9:53 am
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Rethinking the Wrinkling: Key Genes Cause Aging
Key genes, rather than cell and DNA damage, as causes of aging
By Melinda Wenner, Scientific American Magazine , September 18, 2008
It afflicts every creature on this planet, and everyone dreams of an antidote. But even after decades of research, aging largely remains a mystery. Now new research findings suggest there is a good reason for this impasse: scientists may have been thinking about the causes of aging all wrong. Instead of being the result of an accumulation of genetic and cellular damage, new evidence suggests that aging may occur when genetic programs for development go awry.
The idea that stress and reactive forms of oxygen—“free radicals” that are the normal by-products of metabolism—cause aging has dominated the field for 50 years. Studies on the worm Caenorhabditis elegans have shown that reducing exposure to reactive oxygen species increases life span, and worms that have been bred to live longer are also more resistant to stress. But few studies have definitively linked oxidative damage to altered cellular function.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Health Sciences, Nutrition & Fitness, Recent Posts, Science on September 18, 2008 - י"ח אלול תשס"ח at 11:06 pm
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Emergency Preparedness Tips for Pregnant Women and Families with Infants
By Health News Digest, Aug 28, 2008
(HealthNewsDigest.com) - WHITE PLAINS, NY, Aug. 28, 2008 — As the 2008 hurricane season becomes active, the March of Dimes has emergency preparedness tips and suggestions for pregnant women and parents of newborns.
The needs of pregnant women and families with newborns during a disaster are unique. While they still need to follow any evacuation and preparation instructions given by their state, there are also special things to consider.
Before an emergency hits, pregnant women and families with newborns should let their health care provider’s office know where they will be.
Make a list of all prescription medications and prenatal vitamins that are needed.
Get copies of medical records from their health care provider.
Give their case manager a phone number to use to contact them.
If their baby is in the newborn intensive care unit (NICU), parents should check with the hospital to find out its disaster plan and where their baby will be sent in the event of a disaster.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Health Sciences on August 31, 2008 - ל' אב תשס"ח at 9:23 am
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Food and Nutrition: Goin’ Bananas
By Jo-Ann Heslin, Health News Digest, Aug 17, 2008
(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Bananas are an inexpensive, readily available, favorite fruit that requires no refrigeration and comes packaged in its own handy wrapper. But, before the early 1900’s, the average American had never eaten a banana, considered an exotic, expensive fruit. Introduced into the US at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, each banana sold for 10 cents, a hefty price for the time.
Today, Americans eat more than 25 pounds of bananas per person per year. They are a staple fruit found in most kitchens with 96% of households purchasing bananas at least once a month. Bananas are most commonly eaten fresh or as a topping on cereal, but in the early 1900s an advertisement showed a bowl of sliced bananas with a small amount of cereal sprinkled on top, minus the milk. Trends in eating bananas have changed along with the price. Currently bananas are one of our least expensive fresh fruits, available year round.
Bananas grew in popularity in the US at the same time that discoveries were being made about calories, vitamins, and bacteria. The American Medical Association recommended bananas as a healthy food for the general public in 1931 because they came in a “germ proof” wrapper. They were promoted for the treatment of diarrhea, ulcers, tuberculosis, diabetes, obesity, malnutrition, infertility, scurvy and gout. Though not a magic cure-all as once believed bananas are a nutrition powerhouse.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Health Sciences, Nutrition & Fitness, Recent Posts on August 18, 2008 - י"ז אב תשס"ח at 5:56 am
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Common Infertility Treatments Are Unlikely To Improve Fertility
ScienceDaily (Aug. 10, 2008) — Long established medical interventions to help couples with infertility problems do not seem to improve fertility, according to a study published on bmj.com today.
These findings challenge current practice in the UK and national guidelines should be reviewed in the light of this evidence, say the authors.
One in seven couples in the UK experience infertility. Unexplained infertility affects a quarter of these couples and common interventions to help them have been used for many years in line with fertility guidelines issued by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
A team of researchers led by the University of Aberdeen compared the effectiveness of two specific interventions with expectant management (no treatment).
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Health Sciences on August 11, 2008 - י' אב תשס"ח at 8:42 am
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Study first to show range and severity of birth defects associated with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes
Reprinted from News-Medical.net, July 29, 2008
Women who receive a diagnosis of diabetes before they become pregnant are three to four times more likely to have a child with one or even multiple birth defects than a mother who receives a diagnosis of diabetes while pregnant or a mother who is not diabetic, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), released in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The article from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS), “Diabetes Mellitus and Birth Defects,” shows that pregnant women with pre-gestational diabetes mellitus (pre-pregnancy diagnosis of diabetes, such as type 1 or type 2 diabetes) are more likely than a mother with no diabetes or a mother with gestational diabetes mellitus (pregnancy-induced diabetes) to have a child with various types of individual or multiple birth defects. This includes heart defects, defects of the brain and spine, oral clefts, defects of the kidneys and gastrointestinal tract and limb deficiencies. This study is the first to show the broad range and severity of birth defects associated with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
“The continued association of diabetes with a number of birth defects highlights the importance of increasing the number of women who receive the best possible preconception care, especially for those women diagnosed with diabetes,” says Adolfo Correa, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., lead author and epidemiologist at CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. “Early and effective management of diabetes for pregnant women is critical in helping to not only prevent birth defects, but also to reduce the risk for other health complications for them and their children.”
Researchers also found that some of the pregnant women with gestational diabetes were more likely to have a child with birth defects. Because birth defects associated with diabetes are more likely to occur during the first trimester of pregnancy and before a diagnosis of gestational diabetes is made, the observed associations suggest that some of the mothers with it probably had undiagnosed diabetes before they became pregnant. However symptoms went unnoticed until pregnancy.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Health Sciences, Special Education on July 30, 2008 - כ"ז תמוז תשס"ח at 10:54 am
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Elderly Don’t Need As Much Sleep, Study Finds
By Robin Lloyd, LiveScience Senior Editor, 24 July 2008
Old people are known to be lousy sleepers, but a new study suggests it might all be in their heads, at least for many of them.
Medications, poor health, bad bedtime habits (such as watching a movie or drinking coffee or booze), circadian rhythms, and too much or too little in their personal "sleep bank" have all taken the blame for seniors’ common complaints of insomnia.
Elizabeth Klerman of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard Medical School set out to clear it up once and for all with a controlled study of 18 subjects ages 60 to 76 and 35 younger subjects, ages 18 to 32, all healthy and not on medication that might affect sleep. Even people who had crossed more than one time zone in the past 3 months were disqualified, as well as those who had worked night or rotating shifts in the past three years.
After monitoring their sleep at home, the subjects were regularly instructed to lie quietly with their eyes closed and to try to sleep, for as much as 16 hours daily for several days in a row. They had all the time in the world.
The bottom line was that the seniors simply needed less sleep — about 1.5 hours less.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Health Sciences on July 27, 2008 - כ"ד תמוז תשס"ח at 9:56 am
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chicagotribune.com
Israeli expertise in ritual helps Africa combat AIDS
Docs trained in adult male circumcisions
By Joel Greenberg,Chicago Tribune,July 8, 2008
JERUSALEM — Inon Schenker, an AIDS prevention specialist, pulled out a medical logbook from a shelf and opened it to a page filled with handwritten entries.
The notations, from 1993, recorded ritual circumcisions performed on Jewish men from the former Soviet Union at the height of the wave of Immigration to Israel from Russia and neighboring republics.
The entries showed 32 circumcisions by a single doctor in a day’s work, an assembly-line rate that Schenker believes shows the potential in Israel for helping combat AIDS in Africa, where recent studies have shown male circumcision to be a significant protective measure against the disease.
In the heyday of Russian Immigration to Israel in the 1990s, about 1,000 adult male circumcisions a month were performed on newcomers in hospitals and clinics, in accordance with Jewish law.
“Israel is the only country with such experience in mass adult-male circumcision, and it can respond to a very important humanitarian challenge,” said Schenker, director of Operation Abraham, a project launched last year that dispatched Israeli surgeons to teach circumcision in Africa.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Health Sciences, Judaism, Men's Health, Middle East Report, Recent Posts on July 9, 2008 - ו' תמוז תשס"ח at 2:38 pm
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