Troy Thornton says he would have preferred to die at home but Victoria’s assisted dying laws − which come into effect only just this year − would not have allowed it.
Troy Thornton with his wife and two children on a family holiday.
Supplied
Retired Melbourne firefighter Troy Thornton is a long way from home.
And he won’t be returning from Europe after deciding to end his life in Switzerland on Friday.
Surgeons in the UK have performed a pioneering gene therapy operation to tackle age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of sight loss.
Surgeons in Btitain have claimed a world first after carrying out a gene therapy operation to tackle the most common cause of sight loss in the developed world.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) causes the deterioration of cells in the macular, the central part of the retina, and affects more than 600,000 people in the UK alone.
Medicos at the John Radcliffe Hospital said their pioneering operation could have a real impact on the quality of life and independence of those who suffer from AMD.
The operation involves detaching the retina and injecting a solution containing a virus underneath.
AN IMMEDIATE ban has been issued on a certain building practice after dozens of new cases of the disease silicosis are brought to our attention.
Recent cases of trades people contracting the life-threatening lung disease prompted the Queensland government to announce an immediate ban on dry-cutting artificial stone benchtops.
More than 20 new cases have come forward in the past three weeks alone – including six terminal cases.
Andrew White is a Gold Coast stonemason who went public with his diagnosis, urging other tradies to protect themselves.
The Australian Parliament’s Health, Aged Care and Sport Committee will be holding a roundtable discussion in Canberra on Thursday, 9 August 2018, as part of its Inquiry into Biotoxin-related Illnesses in Australia.
The Committee Chair, Mr Trent Zimmerman MP, said that ‘the Committee will hear a range of perspectives on the possible health effects of dampness and mould, and the prevalence, diagnosis and treatment available for the illness described as Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS)’.
The Committee will hear from medical professionals and individuals on this topic.
London: An Australian company has won unprecedented US approval for a new drug to treat the second most common preventable cause of blindness in the world.
In the process, Medicines Development for Global Health, based in Melbourne, became the first not-for-profit company in the world to register a medicine with the US Food and Drug Administration.
Mark Sullivan, managing director of Medicines Development for Global Health.
Photo: Supplied
The World Health Organisation has been calling for better treatments for river blindness for more than a decade, but because the medicine would be mostly used by those in poverty-stricken countries, there has been no financial incentive for drug companies to develop new treatments. The current treatment is 20 years old.
River blindness is caused by parasitic worms and spread by black flies. It affects the skin and eyes and is prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa.
In a double-win for Medicines Development for Global Health, it has also won a highly sought after voucher designed to financially reward companies that develop drugs for neglected diseases.
Managing director Mark Sullivan said while FDA approval for the company’s drug, moxidectin, was a “momentous achievement” for any pharma company, it was “a particularly rare and exciting event” for those trying to treat neglected diseases.
The FDA gave its approval for the treatment, which is swallowed as a tablet, in June after the application was submitted in October 2017.
Mr Sullivan established the Melbourne-based not-for-profit company in 2005 with the sole purpose of filling the gap left by the big pharmaceutical companies by developing medicines that were based on need for treatment rather than the patients’ ability to afford them.
Medicines Development for Global Health has been working for five years on the development of the drug and is now planning to develop moxidectin as a new treatment for scabies, a common problem in Indigenous communities.
Priority review voucher
The company has also won a priority review voucher under a scheme set up in 2007 to create a financial incentive to reward drug makers willing to spend the time and money developing treatments for the some of the world’s most neglected diseases. The scheme creates a market for making new drugs that the private market was not filling itself.
Under the scheme, a company that wins a voucher gets a fast track through the FDA for consideration of its next new drug, even if it’s a treatment that would have a commercial return. This gives it a head-start over its rivals.
Crucially, a company can also on-sell the voucher to a bigger company willing to pay anywhere between $US100 million and $300 million for the right to almost halve the approval time.
Because Medicines Development for Global Health is a not-for-profit, its proceeds from drug sales and the voucher will be reinvested in the company to develop new drugs & medications for other neglected diseases.
“Our plan is to sell the voucher and use the funds to support further development of moxidectin for other neglected diseases but also to expand our portfolio into other medicines and vaccines,” Mr Sullivan said.
Professor David Ridely from Duke University authored the scheme and said Medicines Development for Global Health was a textbook example of how he envisaged the program would work.
“I’m delighted that the voucher program is playing a role in treating patients with river blindness, and one day eliminating the disease,” he said.
Mr Sullivan said the development of moxidectin could not have been possible without a $US13 million co-investment from the Global Health Investment Fund, which is the social impact investment fund initially put together by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
”We believe moxidectin may play a pivotal role in eventually eradicating river blindness, and look forward to working with MDGH and others in making this happen,” Curt LaBelle, managing partner at the investment fund, said.
Color-enhanced Scanning Electron Micrograph (SEM) of Onchocerca volvulus, image of a female worm with microfilaria. O. volvulus is a nematode that causes onchocerciasis, or “river blindness,” mostly in Africa. Long-term corneal inflammation, or keratitis, leads to thickening of the corneal stroma which ultimately leads to blindness.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved moxidectin for the treatment of onchocerciasis (river blindness) due to Onchocerca volvulus in patients ≥12 years of age.
Moxidectin, a macrocyclic lactone, is an anthelmintic drug that selectively binds to the parasite’s glutamate-gated chloride ion channels. It is active against O. volvulus microfilariae but it does not kill adult O. volvulus parasites. The tropical disease spreads from person to person via black flies that breed near rivers in South and Central America, sub-Saharan Africa and Yemen
1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women will develop cancer in their lifetimes. This saddening reality is made worse when it is acknowledged that modern methods of ‘treating’ the disease are often ineffective and only make the symptoms of the disease far worse. In fact, according to one Berkeley doctor, Dr. Hardin B. Jones, chemotherapy doesn’t work 97% of the time.
In the eye-opening video above, Dr. Hardin B. Jones, a former professor of medical physics and physiology at the University of California, Berkeley, discusses how ‘leading edge’ cancer treatment is a sham.
Studied life expectancy of patients for over 25 years
He has personally studied the life expectancy of patients for more than 25 years and has come to the conclusion that chemotherapy does more harm than good. The bone-chilling realization prompted Dr. Jones to speak out against the billion-dollar cancer industry.
“People who refused chemotherapy treatment live on average 12 and a half years longer than people who are undergoing chemotherapy,” said Dr. Jones of his study, which was published in the New York Academy of Science.
“People who accepted chemotherapy die within three years of diagnosis, a large number dies immediately after a few weeks.”
According to the physician, the only reason doctors prescribe chemotherapy is because they make money from it. Such an accusation doesn’t seem unreasonable, as cancer
Patients rejecting conventional therapy live 4x longer
“Patients with breast cancer who reject conventional therapy live four times longer than those who follow the system. So this is something that you will not hear in the mass media, which will continue the myth…”
Despite the fact that the United States spends more on healthcare than any other high-income nation in the world, diseases of affluence continue to increase in prevalence, resulting in a shorter life expectancy.
Perhaps this is because mainstream media and the allopathic healthcare system don’t teach about the importance of preventative medicine. Eating a healthy diet, engaging in exercise, thinking positive thoughts, reducing stress, and enjoying the company of others – or habits that bring joy – are all proven to improve longevity and happiness.
As it is, there is no money in a healthy population, which is why fast food joints and pharmaceutical industries thrive in America. Hopefully, Dr. Jones’ efforts will inspire people to seek out alternative options if they or someone they know develops the debilitating disease.
Caesalpinia Pulcherrima Synonym Poinciana pulcherrima, Poinciana bijuga.
Common name Pride of Barbados, dwarf poinciana, red bird of paradise, krere – krere, Barbados flower – fence, pearock flower, tabachin, tabaquin.
Family Caesalpinaceae and Fabaceae.
Overview
Pride of Barbados is a small evergreen perennial shrub or tree, from the West Indies, 10 – 15 feet high with alternate, bipinnate leaves. The stem and branches are armed with spines. The red, orange, yellow and pink flowers grow at the end of the prickly branches. This small, graceful tree flowers throughout the year and is a beautiful garden plant. Pride of Barbados has beautiful bowl – shaped flowers in the colors red, orange, orange – red and yellow. The yellow variety is often called yellow bird of paradise.
The fruits are legumes, 3 – 4″ long; when ripe they split open and release the brown bean. The variety of pride of Barbados with red flowers is also called red bird of paradise, while the yellow species is called phoenix bird of paradise. Closely related is the Yellow bird of paradise (Caesalpinnia gilliesii) which has yellow flowers with long red stamens.
*** Suriname’s traditional medicine The leaves are purgative and used against kidney stones, malarial fever and bronchitis.
**** Flavonoids isolated from this plant possess anti-inflammatory activities; the flavonoid of quercetin has antiviral activity. Pride of Barbados exhibit a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity, particularly against Escherichia coli (enteropathogen), Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus.
**** The root and stem seem to be cytotoxic.(damages or destroys cancerous cells).
This is a follow up on an earlier posting on Mangosteen in this site.
Great news for mangosteen lovers and those following the quest to find novel anti-cancer medicines derived from plants! We just received this report from our friends over at The Eden Prescription: In a new study published in Molecular Cancer (an open-access, peer-reviewed journal) alpha-mangostin, a substance derived from mangosteen pericarp, was shown to kill up to 99% of human breast cancer cells in vitro.*
What was particularly interesting about this study was that the researchers gained a deeper understanding of the mechanism of action of the mangosteen-derived substance. Alpha-mangostin was reported to block Fatty Acid Synthase – which disrupts the cancer cells’ ability to make fatty acids – without which they die. [1]
It appears that numerous cancer cell types require Fatty Acid Synthase for their survival, which may be the reason why mangostin has received much attention recently; it has also been found deadly also to prostate, liver, colon, and pancreatic cancers as well as leukemia.
Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) is an amazing, delicious tropical fruit – one of my favorites in fact – and was originally native to Thailand. Don’t be fooled by the name, it does not look or taste like a mango. Mangosteen has a thick, pithy casing (pericarp) which is easily broken or cut open to reveal the white, fleshy part inside that is eaten. Mangosteen is also considered potentially valuable with weight loss, inflammation, heart disease and diabetes! However it is the pericarp that may have the strongest medicinal qualities. For centuries, people in Southeast Asia have used dried mangosteen pericarp as antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, anti-parasitic, antipyretic, analgesic, and as a treatment for rashes. [2]
Tests like the study mentioned are the first step in the development and study of new medicines. It’s a long way before we can say for certain that mangosteen will have a direct anti-cancer action in humans – and in this study the beneficial substance was in the pericarp (the pithy case). However there have now been several promising studies on mangosteen extracts – including a 2013 study in which alpha-mangostin significantly suppressed tumor growth and reduced lymph node metastasis in mammary cancer in mice; leading researchers to conclude that “Mangosteen extracts appear to, in fact, have chemopreventive qualities and might prove useful as adjunctive and/or complementary alternative treatments in human breast cancer.” [2]
Mangosteen pericarp is available in supplement form.
* “In vitro” (literally “in glass”) is a scientific term used to denote that the test was done on isolated cell cultures in laboratory glassware, as opposed to in living creatures (“In vivo”).
This salve consisting of Blood Root, Zinc Chloride & other herbal inclusions is said to get rid of skin melanomas, sometimes in just a matter of days. I interviewed the woman who used it on her husband & her/his friends who had lost hope in traditional treatments. She supplied me with a number of images of persons close to her who have used the product & were amazed with the results.
WARNING >>THESE IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING TO SOME VIEWERS
Mrs M as we shall call her is able to make & sell the salve as treatment for removing growths on animals. We could say that we are animals perhaps & use the product. Not for me to say. I am just telling you her story. I have used the product myself also with great success. Your call to either use it or not. Don’t let the pics scare you. It is just part of the process in healing going through the stages, from application to growth removal.
1..
2…
3…
4…
5…
6…
7…
8…
9…
10…
11…
12…
13…
14…
15…
16…
17…
The above graphic images show you the basic overall process of killing the tumour or growth.
SOME RELATED ARTICLES POSTED INTO THIS SITE EARLIER
Applying the salve to the tumour or cancer & covering it with a sterile bandage.Leave for 3-4 days & reapply new bandage & more salve if required. Do not get it wet during this period.Small growths can usually be removed at this stage by pulling off the scab formed & in so doing the salve has done its work & killed the growth.In pulling off the scab it also takes out the deadly growth like popping a cork with instant pain relief.
It leaves a clean empty hole that heals up over a short period using the normal care treatments available. It does not appear to attack the healthy tissue just the infected growth or sick tissue.
NOTE->While the salve is doing its work there will be some level of infection type pain to the person
*I the owner of this site do sing praises of this black salve because having tried it on 2 small growths on my leg, both are gone with no trace of them ever having been there.
