[ RadSafe ] Calabrese reviews major NCI drug test database, shows hormesis, as normal biology

[John Jacobus]

Jim,
Was radiation listed? Oh, that is not a drug.  Sorry.
But then again, physics is not like biology. 

--- Muckerheide <muckerheide at comcast.net> wrote:

> Friends,
> 
> Re the medical applications in the last paragraph,
> low-dose radiation immune
> function stimulation:  Was shown to prevent and
> treat cancer, and applied
> for infections and inflammatory conditions, from the
> 1910s to the late-40s
> and beyond. (It is still applied today for specific
> conditions.)
> 
> It was displaced by wonder drugs (serum drug profits
> in the 1930s, by FDA).
> This was reestablished after WWII by suppressing
> Manhattan Project data and
> research.  NCI was a major controller since the
> late-40s.
> 
> Regards, Jim Muckerheide
> ==================
> 
> Date: January 3, 2007
> 
> Measuring The Effects Of Very Low Doses: New Study
> Challenges How Regulators
> Determine Risk
> 
> Science Daily ‹ A new study of a large U.S. National
> Cancer Institute
> database provides the strongest evidence yet that a
> key portion of the
> traditional dose-response model used in drug testing
> and risk assessment for
> toxins is wrong when it comes to measuring the
> effects of very low doses,
> says Edward J. Calabrese, a scientist at the
> University of Massachusetts
> Amherst. The findings, based on a review of more
> than 56,000 tests in 13
> strains of yeast using 2,200 drugs, are published in
> the journal
> Toxicological Sciences and offer strong backing for
> the theory of hormesis,
> Calabrese and his colleagues contend.
> 
> Calabrese says the size of the new study and the
> preponderance of evidence
> supporting hormesis, a dose-response phenomenon in
> which low doses have the
> opposite effect of high doses, is a breakthrough
> that should help scientists
> assess and predict risks from new drugs, toxicants
> and possibly carcinogens.
> Calabrese says, "This is a fundamental biological
> principle that has been
> missed."
> 
> Calabrese says that the field of toxicology got the
> dose response wrong in
> the 1930s and this mistake has infiltrated all
> regulations for low-dose
> exposures for toxic chemicals and drugs. These
> low-dose effects can be
> beneficial or harmful, something that the
> regulations miss because they are
> currently based on high-dose testing schemes that
> differ greatly from the
> conditions of human exposures.
> 
> In this latest study, which uses data from a large
> and highly standardized
> National Cancer Institute tumor-drug screening
> database, Calabrese says the
> evidence of hormesis is overwhelming. In the study,
> high doses of anticancer
> drugs frequently inhibit yeast growth, but at low
> doses they enhance growth,
> exactly what the hormesis model predicts.
> 
> Whether one accepts the hormesis theory is not the
> critical public policy
> issue, according to Calabrese. He says that the
> major issue is that the risk
> assessments models used by the federal Environmental
> Protection Agency and
> the Food and Drug Administration fail to accurately
> predict responses in the
> low-dose zone, that is, where people live most of
> their daily lives.
> 
> Calabrese also says challenging the existing
> dose-response model has
> profound public policy and health implications. "I
> believe the hormesis
> model is the fundamental dose-response and
> government testing and risk
> assessment procedures should reflect that,"
> Calabrese says. For example, in
> environmental regulations, it has been assumed that
> most carcinogens possess
> real or theoretical risks at low levels, and
> therefore must be nearly
> completely removed from the environments to assure
> public safety. Some would
> contend that if hormesis is the correct model for
> very low levels, that
> cleanup standards may have to be significantly
> changed. Others, however, see
> the evidence as insufficient for such radical change
> and worry about other
> factors that can influence the effects of chemicals
> in low doses. The new
> study promises to add fuel to the debate, Calabrese
> says.
> 
> Calabrese also suggests that the findings may have
> important implications
> for the pharmaceutical industry and medical
> practices. He says that hormesis
> is likely to identify new life-saving drugs that
> were missed through
> traditional testing and to markedly improve the
> accuracy of patient dosing,
> which will not only improve health outcomes but also
> reduce adverse side
> effects.
> 
> Note: This story has been adapted from a news
> release issued by University
> Of Massachusetts Amherst.
> 

+++++++++++++++++++
On Nov. 26, 1942, President Roosevelt ordered nationwide gasoline 
rationing, beginning December 1.   

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com

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