This Week in What Some May Call Health
Dr. Stephen Gangemi * Chapel Hill, NC
November 4, 2009

1) The Food and Drug Administration's panel of respiratory device experts recently voted that Asthmatx's Alair System be approved under certain conditions, including long-term safety monitoring of patients. The company's procedure, called bronchial thermoplasty, uses extreme heat to burn away lung tissue that makes it difficult to breath and causes coughing spasms and wheezing. Asthma medications were among the top-selling drugs in the U.S. last year. ** I think the company should change their slogan “It’s about breathing” to “It’s about breathing and burning your lung tissue”. More catchy. Most don’t realize that asthma is as much, or sometimes more, of an adrenal gland problem as it is a lung problem. I’ve written two articles about this subject, here and here.

2) Today a cat in Iowa was found to be infected with the swine flu. **The news here is not that it is first time the virus has been known to cross over to a dog or cat, but who the heck actually goes and gets their pet tested for H1N1?

3) No, I’m not against all vaccines - The malaria vaccine is looking promising. Although it is only thought to be 50% effective, it could save 500,000 kids a year, and hopefully more as it develops. GlaxoSmithKline has been working on the vaccine for 20 years and there are still a few more years of trials before it’s officially approved, hopefully by 2012. **Think about that. Over a million people, 80% children, in Africa die every year from malaria and they still can’t get the vaccine out right away. That’s a far cry from the fractions that will die from H1N1 and the vaccine is here immediately. Who needs studies anyway?  Every paper and news station says that those under 18 years old and pregnant women should  get the H1N1 vaccine, even though there is no proof they are safe. So why does the vaccine insert state that it's only for persons 18 years and older, there have been no controlled studies demonstrating a decrease in influenza disease after vaccination, and the vaccine may cause fetal harm and only given to pregnant women if clearly noted (Section 8.1)? Guess we're not supposed to read that. You can read it here.