September 2007 Dear Friends: Greetings and welcome to the September 2007 edition of Dr. Jon Kaiser’s E-Newsletter. The following topics are included in this month’s
My Fall lecture tour begins this week in San Francisco on Thursday evening, September 20th. It will take place at the SF LGBT Center located at 1800 Market Street at 6:30 pm. A dinner buffet will be served (Flyer). Remember, every lecture is updated and packed with new important info! Topics to be covered include:
Other dates include: 2. Potent New Antiviral Medications Poised For Approval A new medication has just been approved and several others are now in Expanded Access Programs. This means they are currently available to many people who have exhausted their other medication options. Formal FDA approval usually follows these programs within 6-12 months. Maraviroc (CCR5 Antagonist / Viral Entry Inhibitor) – Just Approved!! Maraviroc was designed by Pfizer to prevent HIV from entering the cells by blocking CCR5; one of two CD4 cell co-receptors. CXCR4 is the other co-receptor that HIV can use to gain entry into CD4 cells. Since most people have never taken a drug from the CCR5 antagonist class, it is considered a new class that most HIV-infected individuals have not previously developed resistance to. However, for Maraviroc (Selzentry) to be useful, the dominant strain of virus in your body must be the CCR5 type. This can only be determined by a new blood test known as a “tropism assay”. Before your doctor can prescribe Maraviroc, this test must be performed. It is believed that only 30%-50% of patients who need this new drug will test positive for the CCR5 receptor and therefore be able to use it. Many medications interact with Maraviroc thereby requiring an adjustment to the dosage it is prescribed at. Tell your doctor and pharmacists about all medicines you are taking including all over-the-counter and natural remedies. The most common side effects observed during clinical trials for Maraviroc included cough, fever, colds, rash, muscle and joint pain, stomach pain, and dizziness MK-0518 (Integrase Inhibitor) The Merck integrase inhibitor (MK-0518) is now available to individuals who have documented resistance to at least one drug in each of the three major drug classes (RTI/NNRTI/PI). Integrase Inhibitors are a new class of antiviral drug that most people’s viral strain has not been exposed to. MK-0518 is to be combined with the best available other medications which should include at least two medications to which the patient’s virus is still sensitive. For additional information and enrollment criteria visit the website at: http://www.benchmrk.com (then click EARMRK) or phone 1-877-EARMK1-4478. TMC-125 (2nd Generation NNRTI) First generation NNRTI meds include Sustiva, Viramune, and Rescriptor. While highly effective medications, the first generation NNRTI’s are known to have a low barrier to developing resistance. For this reason, many HIV-infected individuals have developed resistance to this entire class of medications. The Tibotec company has created an EAP for its investigational agent known as TMC-125. This antiviral medication is a 2nd generation NNRTI. TMC-125, and other 2nd generation NNRTI’s currently in development, appear to be effective even when high level resistance to the first generation NNRTI’s has occurred. They also appear to have relatively few side effects. People eligible for this expanded access program should be failing their current regimen or currently be on a treatment interruption, and have resistance to the first generation of NNRTI’s. Additional information about the program can be obtained by calling 1-866-889-2074 or by emailing TMC125EAP@i3research.com If you are interested in unfettered access to supplements and other natural therapies, there are serious storms brewing on the horizon. A movement has begun to take hold in Europe to severely restrict access to and sale of nutritional supplements at anything significantly above the Recommended Daily Amounts (RDA’s). The technical name is Codex Alimentarius. The Codex Alimentarius Commission was empowered by the World Health Organization to work with other UN-linked organizations in order to develop and promulgate uniform worldwide standards for food, nutrition and agriculture. The WTO is empowered to enforce global compliance with all CODEX standards via trade sanctions across the entire economic spectrum. Member nations (including the United States) agreed, upon signing the WTO treaty, to always allow the standards and regulations of the WTO to supersede and take complete precedence over national standards, laws, and regulations (a process known as harmonization). Many of the world’s largest Food Science and Pharmaceutical companies (including Monsanto, DuPont) are slowly working to take unrestricted access to safe and beneficial nutritional supplements away from the consumer. Before this becomes a major crisis in this country I urge you to explore what is going on (www.alliance-natural-health.org) and, if possible, consult your representatives in Washington, DC to alert them to your concerns. A second situation that is important for you to know about has to do with the FDA’s plan to restrict the ability of compounding pharmacies to formulate and distribute what are commonly known as “bio-identical hormones”. These are hormones that, as opposed to synthetic pharmaceuticals, are the exact same molecule that is produced by your own body. After several years of negative publicity regarding synthetic pharmaceutical hormone preparation’s increasing the risk of cancer, heart disease, and strokes in women who take hormone replacement therapy, many women and integrative physicians have switched to using bio-identical hormone preparations because they believe them to be safe. Because these hormones are completely natural, they cannot be patented. To protect their market share of synthetic and often toxic hormone products, pharmaceutical companies like Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (makers of Premarin and PremPro) have begun to lobby Congress and the FDA to ban the availability of natural bio-identical hormones. If you would like to learn more about this extremely ominous and disturbing restriction to utilizing natural treatments, visit http://www.savemymedicine.org to take action. Even if you don't currently rely on compounded medicines yourself, you may need them someday - and you probably know someone who uses them now (such as DHEA and Testosterone Gel). Please join me in contacting Congress to stop this legislation and protect patient access to compounded drugs! 4. JonKaiser.com Message Board Many people are interested in learning more about intelligent and common sense approaches to the treatment of HIV and other serious medical conditions (i.e. Cancer, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Intestinal Parasites, etc.). The best treatment outcomes are usually achieved when aggressive natural therapies are combined with the best that standard medical therapy has to offer. Visitors to my website can now benefit from direct and confidential communication with each other on a new web message board at www.JonKaiser.com. Just click the link at the top of the home page and you will be taken to the message board where you can view postings from other people who are interested in sharing important information they have learned on their healing journey. (This discussion board is confidential. Although it requests your e-mail address when you post a message, it is not required that you provide one. You may leave the field empty if you do not want people to contact you directly.) Please be thoughtful and courteous when posting messages. Also, any messages containing commercial content will be promptly removed. I hope that you have had a warm, interesting, and healthy summer. As we enter Autumn, try to stay in touch with nature by adjusting your diet, clothing and activities so that you stay warm and well-nourished in the cooler weather. There are a lot of interesting and powerful things happening and I hope to be back in contact with you soon. Keep Hope Alive! Jon D. Kaiser, M.D. Disclaimer: None of the information listed in this E-newsletter is meant to provide diagnosis or treatment of a medical condition. If you are experiencing any symptoms of ill health please contact a licensed medical doctor to diagnose, treat, and professionally address your medical needs. |