The World's Fastest Man & Homeopathy: Usain Bolt & Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt

The world's fastest man, Usain Bolt, has been a patient of controversial German sports doctor Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt for many years. He first visited the doctor, who also makes use of homeopathy, at his Munich clinic when he was a teenager.

“I've been coming here since I was 16,” the 100m world record holder recently said at a press conference in Munich. “It's been a long relationship. Every time I have a problem, he always gives good advice and treatments. He's the best at what he does. We are very close,” Bolt said, adding that he also receives “vitamin injections and stuff”.

Bolt was born with scoliosis, a curvature of the lower spine, which makes him more susceptible to back pain and injuries.

Dr Müller-Wohlfahrt is a world leader in the treatment of sports injuries and well-known for his holistic approach. Though conventionally trained in medicine and orthopaedics, his treatment includes manual diagnostics, as well as herbal and homeopathic remedies and acupuncture.

The core of his treatments is what he calls "infiltrations", in which homeopathic preparations and other substances are injected into the injury site to take away pain and speed up recovery.

Other famous patients include Paula Radcliffe, Kelly Holmes, Tyson Gay, Ronaldo, Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard and Boris Becker. He is also the team doctor for the German national football team and FC Bayern München.

To read more about 9 other famous people who currently use Homeopathy visit: http://www.health24.com/tools/Slideshows/1891-4704-4985,74582.asp

Cuba: Medical Authorities Launch New Lung Cancer Vaccine.

Cuba launches world's first vaccine against lung cancer. More updates as the story develops...

HAVANA, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Cuban medical authorities have launched the sales of the world's first therapeutic vaccine against lung cancer, local officials said on Tuesday.

The CimaVax-EGF vaccine, as a result of a 25-year research into diseases related to tobacco smoking, has been developed by researchers and scientists at the Center of Molecular Immunology (CIM) in Havana.

The active drug ingredient in the vaccine is based on "a protein we all have when cancer is uncontrolled." "The epidermal growth factor is related to all cell proliferation," said Gisela Gonzalez, head researcher of the project.

"The drug could turn the cancer into a manageable, chronic disease by generating antibodies against the proteins which triggered the uncontrolled cell proliferation," she said.

The immunogenic vaccine is appropriate to patients with advanced lung cancer in stages of three and four, showing no positive response to other kinds of treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the expert said.

"It is not possible to prevent the disease but this vaccine improves significantly the status of the critically ill patients," she added.

She said the CimaVax-EGF has gone through clinical studies and trials in over 1,000 patients across the island and is currently distributed free of charge in all hospitals of the Caribbean island nation.

Gonzalez also said researchers at the CIM planned to use the same principle of the CimaVax-EGF in treating other cancerous tumors such as prostate, uterus and breast cancers.

Lung cancer is regarded as one of the world's most serious, common and deadly cancers and is most frequently found among tobacco smokers.According to the World Health Organization, the disease generally kills 5 million people a year, and the figure is expected to rise to as much as 8 million by 2030 unless smoking habits are changed.

In Cuba, like many other developing countries across the world, smoking is seen as a status symbol. Lung cancer, killing about 20,000 people a year in the Caribbean country, is considered a serious threat to public health and the leading cause of death in 12 of the country's 15 provinces.

Scientists Find New Superbugs in Drinking Water.

New Superbugs found in Indian drinking water are antibiotic resistant. A gene that makes bugs highly resistant to almost all known antibiotics has been found in bacteria in water supplies in New Delhi used by local people for drinking, washing and cooking The NDM 1 gene, which creates what some experts describe as "super superbugs," has spread to germs that cause cholera and dysentery, and is circulating freely in other bacteria in the Indian city capital of 14 million people, the researchers said.

from Reuters: 

"The inhabitants of New Delhi are continually being exposed to multidrug-resistant and NDM 1-positive bacteria," said Mark Toleman of Britain's Cardiff University School of Medicine, who published the findings in a study on Thursday.

A "substantial number" of them are consuming such bacteria on a daily basis, he told a briefing in London. "We believe we have discovered a very significant underlying source of NDM 1 in the capital city of India," he said.

NDM 1, or New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1, makes bacteria resistant to almost all antibiotics, including the most powerful class, called carbapenems.

It first emerged in India three years ago and has now spread across the world. It has been found in a wide variety of bugs, including familiar pathogens like Escherichia coli, or E. coli.

No new drugs are on the horizon for at least 5-6 years to tackle it and experts are concerned that only a few major drug companies, such as GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, still have strong antibiotic development programs.

Toleman's study, carried out with Cardiff University's Timothy Walsh and published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, investigated how common NDM 1-producing bacteria are in community waste seepage -- such as water pools or rivulets in streets -- and tap water in urban New Delhi.

The researchers collected 171 swabs from seepage water and 50 public tap water samples from sites within a 12 kilometer radius of central New Delhi between September and October 2010.

The NDM 1 gene was found in two of the drinking-water samples and 51 of seepage samples, the researchers said, and bacteria positive for NDM 1 were grown from two drinking-water samples and 12 seepage samples.

"We would expect that perhaps as many as half a million people are carrying NDM 1-producing bacteria as normal (gut) flora in New Dehli alone," Toleman said.

Experts say the spread of superbugs threatens whole swathes of modern medicine, which cannot be practiced if doctors have no effective antibiotics to ward off infections during surgery, intensive care or cancer treatments like chemotherapy.

In a commentary about Walsh and Toleman's findings, Mohd Shahid from Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Uttar Pradesh, India, said global action was needed.

"The potential for wider international spread of ... NDM 1 is real and should not be ignored," he wrote.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated April 7 as World Health Day and under the slogan "No action today, no cure tomorrow" it is campaigning about the risks of life-saving antibiotics losing their healing power.

"We are at a critical point in time where antibiotic resistance is reaching unprecedented levels," said Zsuzsanna Jakab, the WHO's regional director for Europe.

"Given the growth of travel and trade in Europe and across the world, people should be aware that until all countries tackle this, no country alone can be safe."