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Sunday, July 29, 2012
Cancer (Part 3)
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Quotes for the Week
Quotes for the Week
Mark Twain said, if
you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything!
God allows trials in our
lives because we have a strong core of inner pride and self sufficiency that
works to our long-term detriment. Robert
Morgan
The more fascinated we
become with the toys of this world the more we forget that there’s another
world to come. AW Tozer
Friday, July 20, 2012
Cancer (Part 2) by Dr. George Crabb
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Wednesday, July 18, 2012
The Fool (Part 15)
The Fool
There are 36 references to the word fool in Proverbs alone
and over 80 references when you consider its derivatives. Most of Proverbs deals with comparisons
between two people, the wise and the foolish.
Here is the 15th mention of the word fool in the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs
11:29 (KJV) 29 He
that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of
heart.
Let us dissect and define this verse.
The he of the
first part of the verse is the fool of the latter part of the verse. Troubleth: to stir up, disturb, trouble. The meaning of muddying clear water.
His own house: Family, house, home, place.
Inherit the wind: to take by succession, to take by descent from an ancestor.
Fool: one who lives life as if there is no God.
Servant: servitude, to serve, to labor for
Wise of Heart: intelligent, skillful,
The Bible is teaching the fool who stirs up trouble in his
own house will inherit nothing and the fool will serve someone who is
intelligent and skillful in their actions.
When someone is a trouble maker in the home by living life
in opposition to God and His principles it causes them to fall out of favor
with the other family members. This fool
expects a great inheritance, but in reality will receive nothing. He desires wealth and servants, but instead will
be poor and a servant himself.
The home was established by God. He performed the first wedding and gives
instruction on the structure and behavior of a proper home. It is when the relationships and actions of
those within the home stray from God and His Word that a home becomes
troubled. The answer for this trouble is
for all in the home to have a loving growing relationship with God through His
son, Jesus Christ. Although we cannot
control the actions of others, we can control our own. It is imperative that we allow the Spirit of
God to have His will and way in our own behavior. Are we right with God? Is our relationship with Jesus thriving and growing? Are we walking in the Spirit? Are our thoughts, actions, and words in
accordance with the Word of God?
Let's summarize this verse:
A fool causes trouble at home. The fool labors for someone who is wise.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Quotes for the Week
Quotes for the Week
Too many church services
start at eleven o'clock sharp and end at twelve o'clock dull. Vance Havner
I AM WHAT I AM BY
THE GRACE OF GOD.
In his old age,
when he could no longer see to read, John Newton heard someone recite this
text, "By the grace of God—I am what I am."
He remained silent a
short time and then, as if speaking to himself, he said: "I am not what I
ought to be—ah, how imperfect and deficient! I am not what I wish to be—I would
abhor that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good. I am not what I
hope to be—soon, soon I shall put off mortality, and with mortality all sin and
imperfection! Though I am not what I ought to be, what I wish to be, and what I
hope to be—yet I can truly say, I am not what I once was—a slave to sin and
Satan! I can heartily join with the apostle and acknowledge, "By the grace
of God—I am what I am!"
I
know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant
anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side. Abraham Lincoln
"Leave
nothing for tomorrow which can be done today." Abraham Lincoln
There
are two ways of exerting our strength: one is pushing down, the other is
pulling up. Booker T. Washington
The
glory of God always comes at the sacrifice of self. AW Tozer
John Newton b.1725. d.1807.Originally a slaver, he had a dramatic mid-ocean change of heart that led him to turn his slave ship around and take the people back to their homeland. He became a Presbyterian minister and preached against the slave-trade, inspiring William Wilberforce who brought about the abolition of slavery in Britain and its colonies. He is most famous for having authored the words to the hymn "Amazing Grace".
As he neared the end of his life, he exclaimed, "I am still in the land of the dying; I shall be in the land of the living soon."
"There is no university for a Christian, like that of sorrow and
trial" CH Spurgeon
"Come to me O blessed trial, I need you. For you always
draw me to the arms of the Saviour." George Whitfield Friday, July 13, 2012
Cancer
Cancer
By Dr. George T. Crabb
It's easy to fear the devastating effects of cancer. But we must look it in the face, with God's grace and power, if we wish to maintain a victorious Christian walk. We can begin to fight cancer by first seeking to know the enemy a little better. So let's start finding out just how much cancer exists, why it happens and what first steps we can take, through the power of God, to maintain a victorious Christian walk.
How prevalent is the diagnosis of cancer today? Studies have shown that one out of every three Americans will develop cancer and one out of six people diagnosed will die as a result. Cancer is truly a widespread killer.
At first glance these statistics may appear frightening. However, the truth is that the battle against cancer is, to a certain degree, already being won. The number of cancer deaths in the nation has decreased steadily over the past decade because of increasing knowledge about this disease, such as early detection, and great advances in medicine.
In addition to the powerful breakthroughs experienced in the medical arena, miracles by the healing touch of God happen in some individual's lives. Healing miracles can be performed in a moment by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. I have seen several people whose triumph over cancer, even in its most advanced stages, can only be described as an act of God. And I know other physicians who would agree that they too have also witnessed such wonderful occurrences.
I have witnessed other healings that take place over a longer period of time. These patients pray, trust God's Word and use natural therapies that include good nutrition, supplements, herbs, vitamins and in some traditional medical therapy. This approach provides an arsenal of weapons to battle the many factors that cause cancer.
The more rapidly growing cancers are usually made up of very immature cells. Each normal, healthy cell has a specialized function that it is designed and "destined" to perform. Consider a small child. He or she may grow up and become a businessman, a doctor, an engineer or an attorney. Yet another young child with the same apparent destiny - in terms of having good parents and a good environment - may grow up and, instead of performing a meaningful job, may become a gang member, a murderer, a bank robber or a serial killer. Something happened in this individual's life to change his destiny. Instead of becoming a productive citizen, he became a criminal. Likewise, cancer cells are simply immature cells that, instead of growing up to perform their proper function, remain immature. In this undeveloped form, the cells feed on the body, stealing nutrition from the body in order to grow larger and larger. They grow up into killer cells.
What causes the cancer cells to grow out of control? And why do some people develop cancer when others do not? Some of the answers involve the strength of an individual's natural defenses against the unnatural growth of cells, how an individual keeps their body strong for the battle and how many and what kinds of cancer-producing agents a person's body is forced to fight.
It's a proven fact that approximately 70 - 80% of cancers are caused by the food we eat, the air we breathe and the water we drink, as well as lifestyle and environmental factors. All of these things have a cumulative effect over a person's life span. Let's look at these factors a little more closely, grouped under three key threats to our healthy cells:
#1 Diet
About one-third of all cancer deaths occurring in our nation each year are due to dietary factors, with another third due to the use of tobacco. In a sense, this is encouraging, because here is where we can make a huge difference in the spread of cancer - simply by making changes in our lifestyles. Making wholesale changes in our lifestyle can be accomplished through the grace and power of God.
Remember that something is constantly being done about the attacks on your healthy cells. Every minute of every day it's happening. While you are working, walking, eating and relaxing, your body is already winning a silent war that is raging around and within you. It's because of your amazing immune system. This system, along with your blood cells and vital organs, is wonderfully designed by God to overcome even the most powerful attacks by cancer-causing agents in foods and the environment. Be thankful that this wonderful system is always at work to protect you.
So how can we strengthen our immune system and keep them strong? Our diets directly impact our immune systems, either positively or negatively. Since our immune systems are our bodies' first and strongest line of defense against cancer, we must be diligent to care for them and to strengthen them by eating the right foods and avoiding harmful foods. What you eat makes all the difference!
A general recommendation that I make regarding eating habits that can lower your risk of cancer is to avoid altogether or at least limit the amount of animal fat in your diet.
Problems in the average American's diet occur when the diet consists of:
#1 Excessive animal fat, including heavy oils.
#2 Excessive sugars, which can weaken the immune system.
#3 Devitalized foods, including salt, white flour and processed foods.
#4 Toxins in our food, such as nitrites and food additives.
#5 Heavy metals, such as the mercury sometimes found in fish.
These are just a few guidelines regarding our diet.
#2 Environment
God has created healthy substances that not only give us natural energy but also can help prevent disease. But people have created environmental toxins that wear down the body's ability to resist cancer, things such as solvents, pesticides and heavy-metal residues.
These toxins can build up in our bodies and damage our DNA, the molecular building blocks of life, causing originally healthy cells to grow out of control. City air is one of the biggest offenders. It's often contaminated by hydrocarbons, smog, cigarette smoke and other toxic substances. In rural areas, about two billion pounds of pesticides, many of which are carcinogenic, are sprayed on American crops each year. Our farm animals feed on millions of pounds of antibiotics and hormones as well.
Billions of pounds of poisonous garbage sit rotting in toxic waste sites, and over fifty thousand of these sites in America threaten to seep their toxins into the water supply. As a result of chemicals like DDT, abnormalities can be found in the eggshells of many birds and in the reproductive organs of many animals. Fortunately, DDT has been banned since 1973 because of its widespread effects on wildlife, yet other chemicals have taken its place.
In spite of growing concern about toxins in our environment, many of our city water supplies contain chlorine, aluminum, pesticides and many other toxins. If we were to focus on the effects of chlorine alone, we could become quite alarmed. For when chlorine reacts with other organic materials, it forms carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) associated with colon, rectal and bladder cancers.
#3 Free-radical reactions
Certain toxins are extremely damaging to human DNA, which is the genetic blueprint for the life of the body's cells. These toxins from the environment can trigger free-radical reactions in our cells. To understand these reactions, consider the oxidation process. Burn wood in a fireplace and smoke is a by-product. Likewise, when you metabolize food into energy, oxygen oxidizes (or burns) the food in order to produce energy. This process does not create smoke like burning wood in a fireplace, but it does produce dangerous by-products known as free radicals. These are molecules that have set electrons roaming free to cause damage in other cells.
Free radicals, considered a kind of molecular shrapnel, can damage cells and start chain reactions within the body. They can damage the DNA and in some cases can cause cells to mutate, forming cancerous growths. Amazingly, scientists have discovered that each cell in the human body undergoes between one and ten thousand free radical hits to the cell's DNA every day. But if our bodies lack a strong antioxidant defense system, then our systems become increasingly susceptible to damaged DNA and therefore to cancer.
Over the next few weeks I will give some generalized recommendations regarding some foods to avoid as well as the foods we can enjoy. I will also discuss a proper way to detox or cleanse our system. Lastly I will mention the need for antioxidants as supplements to our diet.
If there is a specific topic you would like addressed or if you have a question that you would like answered, please send your request to weneedu@reformu.com and I will do my best to respond
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Opana: The New Oxycontin
COVER STORY
Police were waiting, having been notified by employees of the first account. As the suspect dashed from the store, prescription painkillers clutched in his hand, a police officer caught him.
The June 2 incident was the 11th pharmacy robbery in Fort Wayne this year, an unusually high number for this city of 250,000 people, police spokeswoman Raquel Foster said. In almost every case, the robbers asked specifically for Opana, the trade name for oxymorphone, a powerful prescription painkiller.
“A few years ago, it was OxyContin. Now it’s Opana,” Foster said. “These people are desperate to get it.”
Prescription-drug abuse is the nation’s fastest-growing drug problem, the White House Office on National Drug Policy says. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has classified the misuse of these powerful painkillers as an epidemic, with 1.3 million emergency room visits in 2010, a 115% increase since 2004. Overdose deaths on opioid pain relievers surpassed deaths from heroin and cocaine for the first time in 2008.
This rise of Opana abuse illustrates the adaptability of drug addicts and the never-ending challenge facing law enforcement authorities, addiction specialists and pharmaceutical companies. Just when they think they have curbed abuse and stopped trafficking of one drug, another fills the void. Opa-na’s dangerous new popularity arose when OxyContin’s manufacturer changed its formula to deter users from crushing, breaking or dissolving the pill so it could be snorted or injected to achieve a high.
“It’s almost like a game of Whac-A-Mole. You get a handle on OxyContin; they switch to Opana,” said Jeffrey Reynolds, executive director of the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence in Mineola, N.Y. “My guess is it will be something new tomorrow.”
As a new, harder-to-abuse Opana formulation replaces the old formula, police and addiction experts expect heroin to fill that void.
“They will adapt the same way drug traffickers or criminals will adapt to a new law. They are going to find a way to satisfy their addiction,” said DEA Special Agent Gary Boggs of the Office of Diversion Control. “When they either can’t get those particular pharmaceuticals or can’t afford them, they now gravitate to heroin.”
For years, drug abusers favored an extended-release version of OxyContin, a narcotic painkiller, for a powerful high. Over the past decade, its abuse was so prevalent that the drug became a household name.
Drug abusers could crush or dissolve the pill’s time-release coating to get the full punch of the opioid oxycodone. But Purdue Pharma, OxyContin’s manufacturer, reformulated it in August 2010, making it nearly impossible to crush, dissolve and inject. By the beginning of 2011, more than 95% of prescriptions were being filled with reformulated OxyContin, Purdue spokesman James Heins said.
Though people could still abuse the drug by taking larger quantities, some addicts craved the injectable high.
As the supply of the old formulation dwindled, panicked drug abusers flooded Internet chat rooms in attempts to find ways to outsmart the new technology, from pounding it with hammers to soaking it in acid, said Sgt. John McGuire, head of the prescription drug diversion unit at the Louisville Metro Police Department.
“At first, people tried to defeat it,” McGuire said. “Then, Opana started to pop up like crazy.”
Opana ER, an extended-release painkiller containing oxymorphone, came on the market in 2006. Endo Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer, completed development of a crush-resistant pill in 2010 but did not get approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) until late last year, said Endo senior vice president Blaine Davis.
On June 14, the FDA moved the old Opana formulation to its list of discontinued drugs. Davis said he doesn’t know how much remains on the market.
Meanwhile, the Opana problem grew swiftly and sharply, particularly in several states where prescription drug abuse is deeply ingrained:
uNassau County, N.Y., issued a health alert in 2011 when the New York City suburb saw the first signs of an alarming spike in Opana use. Medicaid data for the county showed prescriptions for extended-release Opa-na had increased 45% in six months. Since then, Reynolds said, the problem has worsened. “Opana has emerged as the key drug of choice,” said Reynolds, who estimates that 80% of the 600 people who seek help each month from the Long Island Council use Opana.
uA DEA intelligence briefing noted increases in Opana uses in Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia, and Delaware. In New Castle, Del., the DEA said, drug users had switched from uncrushable OxyContin to the crushable oxymorphone “for ease of use,” pushing the price for a 40 mg tablet to $65. A tablet costs $4 to $8 when purchased legitimately at a pharmacy.
uIn Ohio, authorities in Akron, Cincinnati and Athens noted surges in Opana as a replacement for OxyContin, the state’s Substance Abuse Monitoring Network reported earlier this year. One unnamed drug abuser in Youngstown told network monitors “no one wants the new oxys now that (Purdue) change the makeup of them,” the Ohio Substance Abuse Monitoring Network noted in its January surveillance report. Opana 40 mg tablets sell for $60 to $70 each, outpacing the once-popular old formulation OxyContin, which now sells for at least $1 a milligram, the report said. The less popular new formulation of OxyContin 40 mg sells for $20 to $30, the report said.
The spike is particularly pronounced in Kentucky. In 2010, toxicology tests identified oxymorphone, the key ingredient in Opana, in 2% of the state’s overdose cases, said Van Ingram, executive director of the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy. By 2011, oxymorphone was present in the blood of 23% of overdose victims.
The numbers so alarmed In-gram that he asked the CDC to do an epidemiological study to pinpoint where the drug was coming from and why use had increased. Ingram is waiting to hear from the CDC, which did not respond to a request for comment.
Ingram fears the problem will get worse this year. “I don’t think we’ve hit the apex yet,” he said. “We’re just now seeing how big this is.”
Abuse, then the overdoses
A similar switch happened in Indiana, where the pill problem began a decade ago with hydrocodone — known by trade names Vicodin and Lortab — and then to oxycodone, said Sgt. Jerry Goodin of the Indiana State Police.
“When OxyContin changed, the drug abusers looked for a different thing. Opana emerged immediately,” Goodin said. “Seems like every time we get a handle on something, another evil pops its head up.”
Soon after Opana came on the scene, the overdoses began, Goodin said. “When you abuse it and manipulate it and do all the things you’re not supposed to do, it turns deadly.”
Oxycodone abuse was well established in Scott County, Ind., when Sheriff Dan McClain took office in January 2011. He expected more of the same. Instead, the small-town sheriff in the sparsely populated county of 24,000 people in southeast Indiana confronted a rash of Opana overdoses.
“We were starting to see it emerge and surpass OxyContin early that year,” McClain said.
Last year, 19 people in the tiny county died of overdoses, the majority on Opa-na in combination with alcohol and other drugs, Scott County Coroner Kevin Collins said. This year, 13 people have died from drug overdoses, he said.
McClain said in some cases the people purchased the drugs from elderly people with legitimate prescriptions who sold the drugs to supplement their Social Security income. Others bought the drugs from drug dealers who traveled to out-of-state “pill mills” — clinics where doctors perform cursory examinations on people with dubious injuries and prescribe large quantities of the pills, he said.
The number of overdose deaths is unusually high for the county and has pushed the number of coroner’s cases from an average of 28 a year to 39 in the first six months of 2012. The coroner must investigate all unattended or suspicious deaths, he said.
Collins, who has been coroner or deputy coroner for 27 years, said he won’t seek office again this year. The overdoses — mostly of people ages 18 to 30 — weigh heavily on him.
“It’s depressing. It’s still somebody’s son or brother or dad,” he said. “They got hooked on this crap, and it takes their lives.”
Lori Croasdell, coordinator for the Coalition to Eliminate Abuse of Substances in Scott County and a member of the Governor’s Commission for a Drug-Free Indiana, said she sees signs of an Opana shortage that might be the result of the new formulation. Pharmacists report that desperate addicts call to ask whether the old formulation is in stock, she said.
“People are going to find something else,” Croasdell said.
When a production snafu caused a nationwide shortage of Opana earlier this year, the price in Louisville soared from $65 for a 40 mg pill to $185, McGuire said. “That is a crazy amount of money. For a heavy abuser who will give up anything in his life to make sure he gets that pill, there’s no way one will get them through the day.”
The price spike sparked a surge in heroin use, which might foreshadow what will happen when the supply of old Opana dries up, McGuire said.
Indiana’s Goodin agrees. “We’re battling that uptick like we’re battling everything else. We’ve got a war on our hands. We’re fighting it every day.”
The shortages drive crime as people steal the drugs or steal other things to get money to buy drugs, he said.
A desperate cycle
The man charged with the Fort Wayne drug store robbery — 36-year-old Aaron McAtee — has struggled since his teens with a drug addiction that began with cocaine and progressed to painkillers, according to his wife, April. Court records show McAtee has been in and out of prison for forgery, cocaine possession and other drug convictions. His court-appointed public defender, Michelle Kraus, declined to comment while the case is underway.
April McAtee said Opana and other prescription narcotics sell for high prices on the street. “You could snort a piece of Opa-na and you’re high like you’re on heroin. Because of that, the street usage went up big time,” she said.
McAtee, who has pleaded not guilty, was released from prison Feb. 8 after serving two years for forgery. His wife said he forged payroll checks to get money to buy drugs. After his release, he stayed drug-free for 16 weeks, but relapsed the night before the alleged robbery, she said.
“He doesn’t need to be locked in prison with a bunch of criminals,” she said. “He needs medical help.”
Fort Wayne (Ind.) Police Department
“These people are desperate”: A robbery suspect is caught on camera June 2 in the 11th pharmacy robbery in Fort Wayne, Ind., this year. In almost every case, the robbers asked specifically for Opana.
By John Sommers II for USA TODAY
Won’t seek re-election: Scott County Coroner Kevin Collins says the painkiller overdoses in the tiny Indiana county are weighing on him. “It’s depressing. It’s still somebody’s son or brother or dad.”
Allen Co. Sheriff’s Dept.
McAtee: Charged with stealing the painkiller Opana in drugstore robbery.
By Janet Loehrke, USA TODAY
OPANA: THE NEW OXYCONTIN
As painkiller epidemic shifts, so must the battle against abuse
A masked man walked into a Fort Wayne, Ind., drugstore early one Saturday morning, approached the pharmacy counter and, realizing it was closed, left. An hour later, wearing the same mask, he entered the store across the street, handed the pharmacist a list of drugs scrawled on a napkin and threatened to kill the pharmacist if he didn’t get them, police say.
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