Antidepressants Blog

A Federal Court in California has sent a clear message that it recognizes the authenticity of CMO and will not tolerate the infringement of counterfeiters upon the authentic product.

The United States District Court in Orange, California recently awarded a half million dollars in damages in a judgment against Advanced Labs of Redding, California as a result of a suit filed against them alleging trademark infringement, false advertising, and unfair competition, claiming that those practices resulted in consumer confusion and loss of sales of authentic CMO products.

The CMO mark has been used since November 1995 to clearly and specifically identify the proprietary cerasomal-cis-9-cetylmyristoleate product. CMO is a natural immunomodulator used by people suffering from such ailments as arthritis, Crohn’s disease, carpal tunnel syndrome, fibromyalgia, emphysema, migraine headaches, prostate inflammation, and several other ailments with autoimmune involvement.

Advanced Labs had adopted and was using the CMO trademark in its promotional literature and advertising for products of different composition. When Advanced Labs failed to respond to a cease and desist warning letter, the suit was filed against them.

The makers state, “The CMO trademark is distinctive and popular with the consuming public. We have worked long and hard to build up our name and reputation in the healthcare industry, and Advance’s actions are causing us to lose customers and sales, as well as seriously damaging our reputation.”

“It is grossly unfair for Advanced Labs to position itself in the marketplace through competitive confusion by using the CMO trademark,” said W. E. Levin the attorney who filed the suit. Our goal is to permanently enjoin Advance from further violating the trademark rights and to pay for the damage they have done. We hope this sends a clear message to other competitors.”

And we say that it’s time to clear the deck of products that are misrepresented as CMO, especially since virtually all of them are not only inferior, but ineffective. Many are just scams that take advantage of suffering people by fraudulently using the CMO name.

Although we at SDC have not devoted much energy to tracking down and exposing manufacturers who are fraudulently producing counterfeit CMO, the manufacturer and a number of distributors have been quite persistent in pressing legal action against them. We’d like to present here what some of those investigations found.

The marketplace seems to be sprouting new “CMO” counterfeit impersonators every day. Many consumers, distributors, nutritionists, scientists, physicians, and other health care professionals are confused and dizzy from the spin put on these phony products. We hope to clarify and differentiate between as many of these various fraudulent impostors as best we can. However, this cannot keep up with all the new ones as fast as they appear. Still, you should be able to apply many of the points you find here to other products as well.

First and foremost, let us emphasize that there is only one producer of CMO. It is strictly a proprietary product. There is no other. And it is a totally naturally derived product. As such it contains many beneficial closely related trace substances which aid in its effectiveness – just as the bioflavanoids accompanying vitamin C aid in its effectiveness.

For any product to act as an immunomodulator it must be made of some form of myristoleate. Myristates don’t work. And analyses revealed that virtually none of the imitators had even a trace of any form of myristoleate. Some had myristates, which are somewhat similar chemically, but don’t work for arthritis. Only one had any cetylmyristoleate at all, and that was in the unaltered form that is very hard to digest and absorb orally.

Our investigations finally led us to issue a brief but comprehensive memo summarizing the various classes of substances being marketed today. We apologize if you find some parts a bit too technical.

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Symptoms: severe abdominal pain or backache; menstruation before age nine; failure to menstruate by age 17; long-term absence of menstruation; excessive bleeding.

Home care:

Give aspirin or paracetamol for pain.

Encourage the girl to follow her normal schedule of activities during her period.

Consult her doctor.

-    After a girl starts to menstruate it may take months or even years for her periods to become regular. This does not necessarily indicate a problem.

-    Cramps and backaches may be related to tension or anxiety rather than to menstruation itself. However, these symptoms can also be caused by a hormone imbalance or an abnormal condition of the pelvis.

-    Make sure that your daughter fully understands the process of menstruation.

Girls begin to menstruate sometime between nine and 17 years of age. The average age is 12. Following the onset of menstruation (menarche), it may take from several months to five years for the hormones to balance and produce regular menstrual periods. Menstrual irregularity during this time is to be expected and is not necessarily abnormal.

Signs and symptoms

For about 5 percent of adolescent girls abdominal cramps and backaches – which last one or two days at the start of a menstrual period – may be severe enough to interfere with normal activities. In many instances cramps and backaches are related to emotional factors such as tension or anxiety. They also may be due to a hormonal imbalance or pelvic disease.

Because the range of normal is so broad, it is difficult to judge whether a menstrual abnormality exists or not. Symptoms that warrant investigation are: menstruation before age nine or failure to menstruate by age 17; absence of menstrual periods for six months (or for one month in a sexually active teenager where the failure to menstruate may indicate pregnancy); repeated excessive bleeding; or pain severe enough to interfere with normal activity.

Precautions

• Explain the facts about menstruation to your preteen daughter; this way you can counteract any “old wives’ tales” she may have heard from others, and prepare her for this important part of growing up.

• There are good books available (for both parents and teenagers) that can help explain the process of menstruation and provide accurate information.

Medical treatment

If a girl is having menstrual problems the doctor should conduct a complete physical examination, which includes a rectal and a limited pelvic examination. Chromosome and hormone studies may also be required. In some cases the doctor will order blood tests or tests of thyroid function. (The thyroid gland, located in front of the throat, regulates the body’s temperature, energy production, growth, and fertility.) If the girl is sexually active and has missed a period, a pregnancy test will be called for.

Your doctor may well find no abnormality and no treatment will be necessary. In some cases, the doctor will prescribe hormone medications to be taken over a period of several months. In other cases an iron supplement or a thyroid medication may be prescribed.

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One of the best ways to stem inflammation in your body, and take a burden off your immune system is to have healthy liver function. Avoiding trans fats, reducing your intake of sugar and carbohydrate, eating raw foods and consuming raw vegetable juices are all great ways to take care of your liver. Another great way to improve your liver health relatively quickly is to take a good liver tonic. A good liver tonic will increase the manufacture and flow of bile through your liver, thus taking toxins away with it, and increase the flow of bile out of your gallbladder; ensuring it stays healthy too. Look for the following ingredients in a liver tonic to make sure you are getting the best formula:

• St Mary’s Thistle (Milk Thistle)

Also known as Silybum marianum, this herb promotes the excretion of bile through the liver, thus has a cleansing effect. It is very high in antioxidants; therefore it reduces the oxidation of cholesterol and prevents free radical damage in the body. Milk thistle also has the ability to repair and regenerate damaged liver cells.

• Dandelion Root (Taraxacum officinale)

This herb also promotes the flow of bile, therefore has a cleansing effect on a congested liver and gallbladder. Bile is one of the main ways we excrete cholesterol from our body, so if you can increase its flow, you will be excreting more cholesterol. Dandelion root also has a mild laxative action, further helping cholesterol to be excreted.

• Globe artichoke (Cynara scolymus)

Globe artichoke stimulates the flow of bile; however it also has other direct cholesterol lowering actions. Clinical trials have shown it has the ability to reduce total and LDL “bad” cholesterol. Globe artichoke contains luteolin; a type of flavonoid which is a strong antioxidant. Luteolin has the ability to prevent the oxidation of LDL cholesterol, thus preventing it from doing harm to our arteries.

• Taurine

This is a type of protein called an amino acid needed for various functions in the body. Taurine is involved in bile formation, detoxification of toxins called xenobiotics by the liver, stabilizing cell membranes and nerve cells. By helping to form bile, taurine assists with the removal of cholesterol from the body. Taurine also helps our arteries to be healthy, and can actually reverse some of the damage that smoking causes to them. According to Dr David J. Bouchier-Hayes, professor of surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin; “When blood vessels are exposed to cigarette smoke it causes the vessels to behave like a rigid pipe rather than a flexible tube, thus the vessels can’t dilate in response to increased blood flow”. This is referred to as endothelial dysfunction; it is one of the earliest signs of atherosclerosis. A study published in the journal Circulation showed that when smokers were given a taurine supplement, their blood vessels appeared to behave the same as non-smokers; taurine reversed the damage that smoking did to the arteries of the participants.

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The Department of Health recommends that we should all double our intake of Omega 3 oils by eating oily fish two to three times a week. This advice is based on the fact that, as their name implies, these oils are absolutely essential to good health.

Essential fats have a profound effect on every system of the body, including the reproductive system, and they are crucial for healthy hormone functioning. From these essential fatty acids you produce beneficial prostaglandins which have hormone-like functions. Endometriosis, which is a common problem that stops some women conceiving, involves an excess of some negative prostaglandins which can be controlled by adding in Omega 3 fatty acids from fish or linseed oil capsules. It is thought that fibroids (another condition that can affect fertility), also responds well to supplementing with these Omega 3 fatty acids.

For men essential fatty acid supplementation is crucial because the semen is rich in prostaglandins which are produced from these fats. When scientists have compared sperm samples from men with a good semen analysis, to those with problems such as abnormal sperm, poor motility or a low count, the semen in the poor samples lacks adequate levels of these beneficial prostaglandins.

More and more research suggests that it is vital to supplement these fatty acids and not just rely on your dietary intake. Both you and your partner should start supplementing essential fatty acids three to four months before conception.

Because fish oil helps prevent blood from clotting inappropriately, supplementing with fish oil capsules can be beneficial to women who have recurrent miscarriages especially where the diagnosis has been linked to a clotting problem. So important are these essential fats that scientists have also looked at their role in pregnancy. They have found that they are crucial for brain, eyes and central nervous system development in the growing baby.

They are also believed to prevent low birth weight and decrease the likelihood of a premature birth with all its inherent risks, including cerebral palsy, blindness, deafness, etc.

As these essential fatty acids are so vital, it is advisable to supplement them in your diet in their most readily absorbable form. You can get GLA (Omega 6) from evening primrose, borage, blackcurrant or starflower. Whichever supplement you choose, read the GLA content on the back of the container and aim for a supplement that gives you at least 150mg of GLA per day. With EPA (Omega 3), aim for a supplement that will give you at least 300mg per day.

If you are vegetarian or prefer not to take fish oil, the other way to get Omega 3 fatty acids is by taking linseed oil capsules. Linseed oil contains both Omega 3 and Omega 6 essential fatty acids.

You should take l000 mg linseed oil or 150mg GLA and 300mg EPA a day.

Your partner should take 1 000 mg linseed oil or 150mg GLA and 300mg EPA a day.

Warning

Don’t supplement with cod liver oil capsules. In the sea, fish can accumulate toxins and mercury, which pass through the liver, the organ of detoxification. Oil taken from the liver is therefore likely to give higher quantities of these toxins than oil taken from the body of the fish. Buy fish oil capsules from companies, like BioCare, that regularly check their fish oil supplements for contamination.

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•     Keep the number of sex partners you have down to a minimum. You can never tell if someone has herpes-until it’s too late.

•     Avoid public lavatories if possible. Some recent work has shown that herpes virus can survive on lavatory seats for a number of hours and on cotton gauze for 72 hours.

•     If someone has sores of any kind, skin contact should be avoided. The sufferer from recurrent herpes should not have intercourse during an attack. Many people with recurrent attacks have a warning when one is about to occur. This varies from individual to individual but can be an itch, tingle or burning in the genital area. This type of sensation rules out sex until the sores have healed. These precautions also apply to kissing (not just on the genitals) someone with a cold sore on the lips.

•     Oral sex increases the risk of getting genital herpes because the mouth is such a reservoir for the virus. Some people overcome this by using a sheath on the man before fellating him. Unfortunately, although this confers some protection it is not totally safe because the pores in the latex of the sheath are larger than the herpes virus and some could pass through.

All of this may sound daunting but in fact the risks involved in sexual activity between individuals who have no sores are very small indeed. Unfortunately, lesions inside the woman’s vagina or on her cervix are not visible and it can be impossible to know if she is ‘safe’.

•     Vaccines are being researched but so far the outlook is not very encouraging and experts think that a safe, effective vaccine is a long way off, and possibly may never be found.

•     Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water after touching the sores.

•     Don’t share towels-it is just possible to pass the virus to someone else via a towel.

•     Never use saliva to wet your contact lenses.

•     Not everyone who has one attack of herpes goes on to have another-about half of all sufferers never get another attack. Keep a record of when you have your attacks (if you have them repeatedly). You may find that you get them under specific conditions. These can be avoided, at least to some extent, to prevent more attacks. Here are some conditions that some people find make their herpes worse or brings on an attack:

1. Tiredness or stress.

2. A particular time of the menstrual cycle.

3. Friction from intercourse or masturbation.

4. Sunlight and sun beds.

5. Tight clothing.

6. Nylon knickers.

The avoidance of any or all of these will help prevent herpes in at least some people.

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Preparation: Preparing patients for the group experience is absolutely crucial. Half an hour spent explaining what to expect and how the group operates can mean the difference between success and failure. I tell patients that group therapy will give them a chance to see others express all kinds of feelings-positive and negative-and will provide feedback and encouragement. Therapy helps fight the feeling of isolation, that the patient is battling alone.

Group therapy is a challenge. Patients may feel bewildered at times. Change takes time-longer, perhaps, than they may think. They may feel discouraged. The rewards, though, can be great. They will enjoy a rare opportunity to have their thoughts and feelings recognized and accepted by others. This in turn will lead to new feelings: trust, closeness, and the sense of emotional support.

Early sessions: Patients introduce themselves and describe their experiences. Soon they find things in common-friends, feelings, even symptoms. I encourage these links between people, but at the same time work to draw in other members who may feel different or left out. All patients should have a chance to speak during the session, and there should be time at the end to discuss their reactions to the group experience.

Usually a patient is surprised to hear that other people share her thoughts or feelings. She may be surprised to hear girls (who even she can see are emaciated) stating that they feel fat.

Hearing someone express self-hatred or disappointment can stir up similar feelings in another patient, making her painfully aware of emotions she didn’t know she had. That’s the downside of “getting in touch with your feelings”-you may not like what you find. Patients may want to run away from this experience – and thus the group- to avoid dealing with it. But recognizing and talking about these feelings reduces their impact. I encourage patients to keep attending even if they are not yet able to express their feelings to the group.

A therapist in an eating disorder group, unlike the leaders of other types of groups, will usually encourage contact between members outside of the session. At the first meeting, patients exchange phone numbers; we encourage them to call each other as an alternative way of coping with their urge to binge or starve.

Later meetings: At first, patients may tend to direct their thoughts and feelings to the group leader. Eventually, though, patients speak more freely to each other. When that happens, the impact can be enormous. As one patient told me, “I couldn’t believe it-I gave someone in the group some advice and she actually took it! I really felt worthwhile for a change!” For many patients, such an experience may be the first time that something she says is listened to and treated as being of value.

Though each group is different, common themes emerge. At first, talk of eating behavior may dominate the scene: “I’ve forgotten how to eat,” “I don’t know what to eat or how much,” “I’m afraid that if I start to eat again I won’t know when to stop.” As time passes, other themes appear: assertiveness, the fear of displeasing others, anger, isolation, emptiness, and hopelessness.

Eventually patients explore broader issues, such as family relationships or the role of women in society. The issues vary depending on the age and background of the patients. While younger patients generally deal with problems of sexual maturity and the frightening path to adulthood, older patients may be wrestling with unstable marriages, child-rearing problems, or career choices.

As group therapy progresses, so do other forms of treatment. For example, patients often use their individual sessions to discuss feelings that emerge during group.

Progress in group therapy means symptoms grow less severe. Patients report that they have gained weight, their physical strength has increased, and they feel less bothered by cold. Success reinforces their commitment to therapy and gives others hope and encouragement.

Termination: Bringing group therapy to an end can be tricky. Groups stop meeting for many reasons: They reach the cutoff point agreed to earlier; the therapist leaves; members drop out. Leaving the group can be a sad and difficult time for some patients.

For each patient, leaving the group is a mixed blessing. On the positive side, it means stepping into the future armed with self-awareness. On the downside, some patients leave before they’re really ready, or they leave to avoid digging any deeper into their disorder.

Terminating therapy is easier if the group has been open-that is, without a fixed time frame or membership roster. In an open group, patients leave only when they feel ready. Leaving is a decision they make for themselves, a step toward autonomy. An open structure might mean a member can return to the group if she finds she needs further support.

Problems: The biggest problem with group therapy is the high dropout rate. The same factors that cause patients to drop out of any therapy group also affect eating disorder patients. These factors, as identified by Dr. Irving Yalom, include denial, low motivation, feelings of inadequacy, social insecurity, and fear of other people.

There may be external factors as well. The patient may be afraid to ask permission to leave work to attend a session, or her school activities may conflict. Sometimes her reluctance relates to difficulties with assertiveness or excessive rigidity.

Competition is often a problem: Patients may vie with one another to see who can be thinnest in the group. Members need to confront such rivalry directly and work through the problem during group discussions. Also, in individual therapy the patient has the therapist all to herself. Not so in a group. Sometimes patients feel they must compete for the therapist’s time and attention. If they fail, they feel inadequate or worthless.

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Kym Hubert lost 85 pounds, but not until she finally threw out the scale that had become her obsession. Kym, of Chino Hills, California, had struggled with her weight for 20 years—a consequence of her preference for fatty foods (chocolate milkshakes were her favorite). In 1991, she joined a weight-loss program that required daily weigh-ins. After 4 months, she dropped out, discouraged. But she didn’t get rid of the scale.

Soon, Kym was weighing herself three times a day: in the morning after she got out of the shower (to see if she had lost weight overnight), before dinner (to see if she had lost weight during the day), and before bed (to see if she had gained weight during dinner). Unfortunately, her scale seldom showed good news. By June 1997, she weighed 245 pounds.

Desperate to help Kym overcome her obsession with her weight, her husband smashed her scale. At first, she felt exasperated and frustrated. “It was sort of like having your addiction taken away from you,” she says. “I became very depressed about my weight.” But eventually, she was able to refocus her energy on a new interest: walking.

“My husband, who’s a runner, belongs to a group that includes runners and walkers. He kept asking me to join the walkers in the group,” she recalls. “I finally decided that I could sit either around and stay depressed or try something that might bring my husband and me closer together.”

On her first outing with the walkers, Kym trekked 1 miles. She hurt afterward, but she agreed to meet the group the following Saturday. Pretty soon, she was also walking 3 nights a week, either with her husband or a girlfriend.

By April 1998, Kym felt fit enough to add running to her fitness program. In October of that year, she joined a gym and weighed herself for the first time in months. She had lost 80 pounds, thanks largely to walking and running. And, as a bonus, she says, “My relationship with my husband has improved 1,000 percent. We’re spending more time together, and I’m not feeling depressed anymore.”

Today, at age 41, Kym is more concerned about how she looks and feels than how much she weighs. She’ll never again use a scale to measure her success.

WINNING ACTION

Stay off your scale. When you’re trying to slim down, don’t rely on your scale to measure your success. Because muscle is heavier than fat, your weight may not change much as you become more fit. Instead, some experts recommend using your clothes as a guide. Do your shirts and ST pants feel looser? Do you have more room in the waist? If so, celebrate. That’s the sign that you’re making progress.

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- Will Medicare cover all my menopausal tests and treatments? Medicare covers all investigations except bone density scans, and this may change in the near future.

- Can premenopausal women increase their bone strength? The reason I ask is that my bone density is low, possibly due to a time many years ago when I was anorexic and didn’t have periods for over a year.

You are right in thinking that your low bone density probably relates to the time when you were anorexic, which is likely to have had an adverse effect on your peak bone mass. With the current state of knowledge about osteoporosis, the most helpful things to do at this stage are to make sure your diet is nutritious and well balanced, with plenty of calcium-containing foods (see chapter 6), to avoid smoking, to exer-

cise regularly, and to get regular sun exposure, which will help your body make vitamin D (essential for calcium absorption).

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Discussions on sex after menopause tend to focus on one aspect above all others — the physical changes to the vaginal lining, which becomes thinner, less acidic, and more easily damaged with age. A compelling argument against this focus, put forward by Germaine Greer in The Change, is that ‘it has been proved time and time again that women’s orgasms do not originate in the vagina and that other forms of love play are more effective in pleasuring women … if she is one of the many women who have been fucked when they wanted to be cuddled, given sex when what they really wanted was tenderness and affection, the prospect of more of the same until death do her part from it is hardly something to cheer about.’ Granted the truth of this, there may be times when vaginal sex or masturbation is sought by women, in which case it is not much fun feeling as dry as the Nullarbor and being about as responsive as a derailed train. Finding the oasis in the desert can be a struggle, though HRT can be very helpful.

Christine was incensed by some friendly advice to ‘use it or lose it’ when she related that sex with her husband was unsatisfactory. ‘How can I use it when it feels like scratching an

open wound?‘ she asked. Once she had faced the need for alternative sources of lubrication, and the vaginal lining became more elastic under the influence of oestrogen cream, a localised form of HRT prescribed by her doctor, Christine lost her fear that sex would hurt, and she started enjoying it again. ‘All I need for good health and a long life is vegetables, fish, laughter and sex, not necessarily in that order,’ she quipped.

Other physical aspects of menopause that can unsettle the desire for sexual intimacy involve changes in skin sensation. Barbara noticed a heightened sensitivity to touch soon after her menopause and literally could not bear the feeling of her nipples being stroked or her clitoris being stimulated, previously pleasurable sensations. ‘I explained this to my husband so he didn’t take it personally, and we agreed it would be a good idea if I discussed it with my doctor. She was very reassuring, explaining that the changing balance of hormones around menopause can have an effect on the sensitive nerve endings in the skin of some women, and that the altered sensation usually passes with time.’

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Recent UK research suggests that, although our health is generally better than that of women in centuries past, we seem to be more prone to osteoporosis than our female forebears. A team of researchers examining bones buried between 1729 and 1852 in the crypt of a London church found that the rate of bone deterioration was lower than in modern women of a similar age. They suggested that lack of exercise in modern lifestyles might be an important factor. The women buried in the crypt came from a section of the city dominated by the silk-weaving industry. Their work involved considerable movement in the upright position, activities now known to increase beneficial pressure on the skeleton and stimulation of bone formation.

To benefit bones, exercise has to be vigorous and prolonged, averaging three to five hours a week in total (adding together short bursts of activity) at 75 per cent of maximal aerobic capacity, that is, three-quarters of the peak workload that your heart and blood vessels can manage. And this workload has to be maintained. In one study, the benefit to bone density achieved during one year of an exercise program was lost entirely in the year after it finished.

Other inherited and lifestyle factors believed to contribute to osteoporosis include race (Asian and Caucasian women are at greater risk than Polynesian and Negroid women), a small body build, an excessive intake of alcohol or caffeine (from coffee, tea and soft drinks), insufficient dietary calcium, smoking, the intestinal malabsorption condition known as coeliac disease, a high salt intake, a diet rich in fat and protein, and the excessive use of antacids containing aluminium, or of cortisone-like drugs.

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