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Is it Safe to Eat Bacon?

Posted by: admin  /  Category: Food, Health

The Bacon Cure

Could it be our ancestors were right after all? That today’s new, improved and supposedly healthy versions of bacon are not? The traditional way to make bacon is dry cured through hand rubbing with a mixture of herbs, sugars, salt, and the sodium nitrite curing salts. Vitamin C in the mix helps form the nitrosylheme pigment that gives cured meats their wonderful red color, and, as will be explained shortly, helps ensure nitrites convert to healthy nitric oxide and not carcinogenic nitrosamines.

Traditional producers leave the bacon to cure for anywhere from a day to a month before slow-smoking it over applewood, hickory or other wood fires, generally from one to three days. The extended curing time intensifies the pork flavor and shrinks the meat so that the bacon doesn’t shrivel and splatter as it cooks.

Flavor can vary quite a bit from producer to producer, and is determined by the ingredients of the cure, the method of smoking, and the timing. The age, gender, and breed of the pig, as well as its time outdoors, forage and feed all influence the final flavor of the bacon as well as its potential for health benefits or risks.

Dirty Little Secrets

Supermarket bacon may also use sodium nitrite, but not in a traditional way. Instead, manufacturers opt for fast and cheap methods by which inferior quality factory-farmed meat is pumped and plumped with a liquid cure solution that includes sodium erythorbate and sodium nitrite, along with “liquid smoke,” spices and flavorings heavy in MSG. After “curing” for a few hours, the pork is sprayed with more “liquid smoke” and heated until a smoke-like flavor permeates the meat. The pork is then quickly chilled, machine-pressed into a uniform shape, sliced, and packaged for sale. Pumped and plumped bacon may look big in the package, but shrinks, shrivels and splatters when cooked.

“Liquid smoke,” a product heavily favored by big food manufacturers, is produced by burning wood chips or sawdust, then condensing the smoke into solids or liquids and dissolving it in water. It is being investigated by the European Food Safety Authority for safety as a food flavoring because of evidence of genotoxicity and cytotoxicity. Indeed, one study suggests liquid smoke is more carcinogenic than cigarette smoke concentrate.38-41

Concerns about Nitrite

Concerns about the safety of nitrite first surfaced in the 1960s when studies showed the presence of carcinogenic nitrosamines in bacon and other cured meat products. In the early 1970s, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology implicated nitrite itself as a carcinogen. The MIT study involved direct feeding of nitrite to laboratory rats, and later studies did not support the headline-making conclusion that nitrite induces cancer. The USDA’s concern then shifted to the formation of nitrosamines from nitrite combining with the amines available in meat, with regulators weighing the possible risk of cancer against nitrite’s traditional and well-proven role protecting us from botulism and other forms of food poisoning. 42

Since then commercial bacon has been heavily studied and subject to regulatory monitoring of nitrosamine levels. Although nitrosamines have been found in many cured meats, they are most consistently found in fried bacon.43-50 A look at the research, however, shows it to be inconsistent, contradictory and confusing.

Over the years, most scientists have blamed the nitrosamines on frying although some data suggest nitrosamines can be produced as an artifact during the analytical procedure whenever residual nitrite is present.51. Wood smoke has also been blamed though the culprit might actually be “liquid smoke.”52

In 1973 the Canadian Department of Agriculture found preformed nitrosamines in the readymade spice mixes favored by Big Ag bacon processors as well as many of the smaller producers. After the USDA confirmed the Canadian findings, regulators made these spice mixes illegal.53 The USDA also soon required the use of sodium erythorbates and/ or ascorbates in bacon processing after consistent research findings indicated these substances pushed nitrosamine levels way down.54

Obviously some of the nitrosamine problem stems from industrial processing. The USDA may have outlawed certain spice mixes back in the 1970s, but preformed nitrosamines might well exist in the latest generation of artificial and “natural” flavorings and “liquid smokes.” Also worrisome are references to “meat batters” and to high pressure, high temperature processing methods known to produce nitrosamines and routinely used to produce commercial bacon.

Choosing dry cured or “country style” bacon made by small producers would seem to be a safer option, but in some instances might generate even higher levels of N-nitrosopyrrolidine (NPYR) after frying compared to pump-cured bacon.55 The problem is processing methods vary widely, with different choices and concentrations of spices, sodium nitrite and sometimes sodium nitrate. The USDA now recommends that processors not add sodium nitrate because it is not necessary and the conversion of nitrate to nitrite is variable and somewhat unpredictable.

Fat in the Feeds

From the WAPF point of view, the most interesting and helpful findings concern the effect of fatty acid composition on nitrosamine formation. After all, factory-farmed pigs routinely eat feeds that include soy, corn and other inferior oils while pastured pigs should not.

In 1984, researchers discovered that bacon from pigs fed corn oil-supplemented diets contains significantly higher levels of the nitrosamines n-nitrosopyrrolidine and n-nitrosodimethylamine compared to controls. They also reported that bacon from pigs fed a coconut fat-supplemented diet contains significantly lower levels of n-nitrosopyrrolidine but no significant difference in n-nitrosodimethylamine levels compared to controls.

Given that the controls were fed a standard commercial corn and soy-based diet supplemented with vitamins and minerals, we can only wonder what might be found with bacon sourced from optimally nourished, pastured pigs. Be that as it may, one of the researchers’ conclusions is telling: “Fatty acid analyses of the adipose tissue of the bacon samples indicated that n-nitrosopyrrolidine levels in bacon correlated well with the degree of unsaturation of the adipose tissue.”56 Other research supports the connection between nitrosamine formation and the fatty acid profiles of animal feed and meat. Nitrosamines, show up more frequently in the fat than in the lean.57-59

The takeaway is clear: choose bacon from pastured pigs.

That said, finding genuine, traditionally cured artisanal bacon is just about impossible. The anti-nitrite message has penetrated so deeply that most artesanal farmers produce their bacon using the dry salt way but without added nitrites, relying on salt, good sanitary practices and refrigeration to prevent contamination. In the days prior to refrigeration, of course, the sodium nitrite step was not an option. This type of “no added nitrate or nitrates” products are honest compared to the newfangled celery salt “uncured” bacons, and are obviously far healthier than supermarket pumped and plumped bacon-like products, or the fakin’ bacons from turkey or soy.

That said, there is probably nothing wrong with a good old-fashioned bacon cured with a precise amount of sodium nitrite curing salts. If the idea of nitrite still seems scary, consider this: Ascorbic acid is routinely added to cured meats along with the nitrite in order to promote beneficial nitric oxide formation from nitrite, and to inhibit nitrosation reactions in the stomach that can lead to carcinogenic nitrosamines. Bringing alpha tocopherol (Vitamin E) into the mix as well seems to further prevent occurrence of nitrosamine formation.60-63 Old-fashioned processing, involving leisurely time for curing and smoking, further enhances the conversion of nitrite to the beneficial nitric oxide molecule.

Just Say “NO”

In 1998 Robert F. Furchgott, Louis J. Ignarro and Ferid Murad won the Nobel prize in physiology and medicine for their discovery of nitric oxide (NO) as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system. As the first molecule discovered that can literally communicate with other molecules, nitric oxide revolutionized conventional scientific thinking.64

In terms of preventing heart disease, nitric oxide produced by the cells in our blood vessels signals the surrounding arterial tissues to tell them to relax. That lowers blood pressure, expands narrow blood vessels, eliminates dangerous clots, and reduces the formation of plaque. Interestingly enough, NO lowers triglyceride levels, but not cholesterol, and researchers even report that NO even seems to protect those with high cholesterol. WAPF thinking, of course, holds that NO’s failure to lower cholesterol is a point in its favor, as cholesterol has many benies and no protection against high cholesterol is needed.

By optimizing circulation, NO affects every part of the body. More blood flow means better oxygen transfer and more energy. More blood flow means better brain function and better attention. And more blood flow means a better sex life.

Accordingly, NO is a key ingredient in many well-known erectile dysfunction products. Nitric oxide also benefits the immune system, where it helps us fight off infections, and the nervous system where it helps our brain cells communicate properly. NO’s myriad health benefits are summed up in the popular book The Nitric Oxide (NO) Solution by Nathan S.Bryan, PhD and Janet Zand, OMD.65 Although the book does not contain citations, a quick PubMed search reveals Dr. Bryan’s contribution to at least 88 journal articles, many establishing the NO benefits described above.

NO for Life

The message is NO is vital for a long, healthy and vital life. Unfortunately, few people today produce enough NO for optimal health, and NO deficiencies have been identified in many chronic diseases. Although NO supplements have been developed and marketed, and might well be helpful for people on plant-based, low-fat, low-cholesterol diets, such products might not be needed with a return to traditional foods. Traditionally cured bacon, sausage and other meats cured with sodium nitrite might be just the ticket to increasing NO production in the body.

Another big NO producing food is beets, suggesting yet another reason why so many WAPFers thrive on beet kvaas. Although foods rich in the amino acids citrulline and arginine are often recommended to increase NO production, most people are not young enough or healthy enough to turn that trick. Perhaps the more direct route from nitrite to NO is the way to go.

Nitrites and the Nitrogen Cycle

But aren’t nitrates and nitrites dangerous? Yes, and no. Nitrates are natural products of the nitrogen cycle and found in water, plants and animals. Approximately 80 percent of dietary nitrates are derived from vegetable consumption, and nitrites are naturally present in saliva, in the gut and indeed in all mammalian tissue.66 Clearly, we cannot be pro plant based diet and anti nitrates!

Levels of nitrite naturally increase in the body to help boost oxygen when people live at high altitudes, and such people are often considered among the healthiest in the world.67 In short, nitrites are not a problem, provided our diets are rich enough in antioxidants to facilitate the conversion of nitrites to NO and to prevent nitrosation reactions that convert nitrites into carcinogenic nitrosamines.

It’s obviously important to avoid eating readymade sources of nitrosamines, such as those that occur in soy protein isolates, non-fat dry milk and other products that have undergone acid washes, flame drying or high temperature spray-drying processes.68-70 People are also exposed to nitrosamines from some types of beer, cigarettes, nipples of baby bottles and the rubber used with braces in orthodontics.71-72

In other words, nitrosamines don’t just come from cured meats. Furthermore, the nitrosamine content in cured meats has gone way down over the past few decades.72 As for environmental damage from nitrates, this problem comes from the land use abuses of factory farming.

Bring Home the Bacon

Then why do so many health experts condemn bacon and other cured meats because of their nitrite content? Well, why do fats and cholesterol still get a bum rap?

The reason is bad studies and worse publicity, with the latest shoddy work out of Harvard a prime example. According to Dr. Bryan, the body of studies show only a “weak association” with evidence that is “inconclusive.” As he and his colleagues wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “This paradigm needs revisiting in the face of undisputed health benefits of nitrite- and nitrate-enriched diets.”73 So what’s the last word on America’s favorite meat? Indulge bacon lust freely, know that the science is catching up, the media lags behind, and, our ancestors most likely got it right.

Weston Price Organization

Without a doubt the premiere organization in the United States connecting individuals to the farmers that are producing the healthiest food is Weston Price. They have hundreds of chapters throughout the country that are likely not to far from where you live. You can contact a chapter leader near you, and they can help you identify local resources to provide you and your family with health food that is grown locally.

About the Author

Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, is the Naughty Nutritionist™ because of her ability to outrageously and humorously debunk nutritional myths. A popular guest on radio and television, she has been on The Dr Oz Show, NPR’s People’s Pharmacy and PBS Healing Quest. Dr Daniel is the author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food, a popular speaker at Wise Traditions, Biosignature, National Association of Nutritional Professionals and other conferences, Vice President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and recipient of its 2005 Integrity in Science Award. Her websites are www.naughtynutritionist.com and www.wholesoystory.com.

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.




Why Vaccinations Can Be so Dangerous.

Posted by: admin  /  Category: Health

As you know, health authorities around the globe fiercely maintain that vaccines are safe, regardless of what’s happening in the real world. Time and again, serious side effects from vaccines are overlooked and swept under the rug as being “coincidental.”

But just how many coincidences does it take before a pattern emerges, and how long do you stare at the pattern before you acknowledge that it’s there?

It’s all very convenient to ascribe all vaccine reactions to sheer chance; brushing them aside with comments like, “they would have gotten ill anyway due to predisposition.”

However, once you take the time to truly investigate the information we already have at our disposal, in the form of medical studies and disease statistics, it’s quite clear that a pattern is staring us right in the face. In a nutshell, this pattern could be summarized by saying that vaccines generally reduce health and worsen health outcomes.

Patterns of Vaccine-Induced Disease

There are all sorts of research showing that vaccines can, and do, cause or contribute to disease—either the disease the vaccine is supposed to protect against, or other diseases. Here’s are but a few examples that I’ve covered in previous articles:
•Vaccinating children against chickenpox can increase the risk of adult shingles. Shingles, also known as herpes zoster, is a painful blistering rash that is potentially dangerous in the elderly. According to researchers at Britain’s Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS), while vaccination might save thousands of lives over time, thousands of elderly people may also suffer the painful effects of shingles and even die prematurely from the complications of shingles.

Interestingly enough, instead of reconsidering the strategy of vaccinating against this typically harmless childhood disease, the pharmaceutical industry simply responded by creating a shingles vaccine for seniors. The vaccine, according to some studies, has been shown to prevent shingles about half the time.

•Of the children who contracted chickenpox in an outbreak in Maryland in 2001, 75 percent of the affected had been vaccinated against the disease.
•Similarly, last year the US experienced the largest outbreak of mumps since 2006. More than 1,000 people in New Jersey and New York fell ill, yet 77 percent of those sickened were vaccinated against mumps.
•In 2007, it became clear that the use of the vaccine Prevnar, used against pneumonia, meningitis, and deadly bloodstream infections in young children, has unleashed a superbug that is resistant to all currently available drugs.

In the U.S. Prevnar is given to infants as four shots between the age of 2 months and 15 months. It covers seven of the 90-odd strains of the strep bacteria, and although diseases from the seven covered strains have declined, one strain called 19A has developed super resistance and is now spreading.

•Certain vaccines have also been linked to a rise in type 1 diabetes in a number of studies. One such study, published in 2003 to further investigate this connection concluded that clusters of cases of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) may be linked to six different vaccines: the haemophilus influenza B (HIB), pertussis, MMR, and BCG vaccine. The authors stated:

“The identification of clusters of cases of T1DM occurring in consistent temporal time periods allowed a link between the hemophilus vaccine and T1DM to be established. The current findings indicate the there are also clusters of cases of T1DM occurring 2-4 years post-immunization with the pertussis, MMR, and BCG vaccine. The data are consistent with the occurrence of clusters following mumps infection and the progression to T1DM in patients with antipancreatic autoantibodies.”

•In the late 1960’s, an experimental vaccine in development, the RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) vaccine killed two infants, and a staggering 80 percent of all children who received it were hospitalized with severe respiratory disease.

A report issued eight years later concluded that the reason for this abysmal failure was because the children’s antibodies did not bind to the inactivated virus to produce a protective immune response, meaning their immune system could not recognize the infectious invader. Instead, the dead virus circulated throughout their bodies, triggering a massive immune system attack.

This last example is part and parcel of what many pro-vaccine-safety educators have been saying about other vaccines as well – that they can create serious health problems for those who are injected with lab altered micoorganisms that can wreak havoc on immune function. And, when several vaccines are administered together, or in close succession, their interaction may completely overwhelm your child’s developing immune system.

Narcolepsy—A Now Confirmed Side Effect of the Latest Flu Vaccine

Last year, Sweden and Finland sounded the alarm as a disproportionate number of youths suddenly developed narcolepsy after being vaccinated with the H1N1 swine flu vaccine. Other European countries, such as France, Germany and Norway, also reported cases of the rare sleeping disorder, causing the EU to launch an investigation.

In Sweden, the Medical Products Agency (Läkemedelsverket) began their inquiry in August 2010, the results of which are now published.

The verdict?

The Pandemrix vaccine against H1N1 influenza increases the risk of narcolepsy in children and adolescents under the age of 20 by 400 percent.

For every 100,000 children/adolescents vaccinated, 4.06 of them ended up being diagnosed with narcolepsy, compared to the normal incidence, which is 0.97 cases per 100,000. That means that for every 100,000 children vaccinated, three are guaranteed to develop narcolepsy as a result of the vaccine.

Finland also conducted an investigation into the Pandemrix vaccine. There, the vaccine was found to increase the risk of narcolepsy by 900 percent in children and adolescents below the age of 19!

As a result of these findings the Swedish Medical products Agency (MPA) concluded that the vaccine should be withdrawn from use in children and adolescents.

The Pandemrix vaccine was not licensed for use in the US, and so far none of the flu vaccines licensed here have been linked to narcolepsy. However, it just goes to show how little anyone really knows about the interaction between vaccines and health, and how easily something can go awry.

Other Harmful Effects of 2010 Flu Vaccines Around the World

As you may recall, Australia also temporarily suspended its seasonal flu program for children under the age of five last year, after detecting an abnormal number of side effects within 12 hours of vaccination, compared to previous years. Side effects included high fevers and seizures.

A one-year-old child also went into a coma after receiving the flu vaccine. However, three months later, the Australian Department of Health resumed seasonal flu vaccinations for young children, stating that “the higher than usual occurrence of fever and febrile convulsions appears to be confined to the vaccine Fluvax,” and advised parents to simply vaccinate their children with some other brand of flu vaccine.

In August of last year, the Korea Herald also reported that nearly 2,600 side effects had been reported to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in association with the swine flu vaccine. There, side effects included fevers, headaches and allergic responses, and 10 deaths.

In the US, the H1N1 flu vaccine has now been statistically linked with abnormally high rates of miscarriage and stillbirths.

Why Vaccinations Can Be so Dangerous

The presumed intent of a vaccination is to help you build immunity to potentially harmful organisms that cause illness and disease. However, your body’s immune system is already designed to do this in response to organisms that invade your body naturally.

Most disease-causing organisms enter your body through the mucous membranes of your nose, mouth, pulmonary system or your digestive tract – NOT through an injection.

These mucous membranes have their own immune system, called the IgA immune system. It is a different system from the one activated when a vaccine is injected into your body. Your IgA immune system is your body’s first line of defense. Its job is to fight off invading organisms at their entry points, reducing or even eliminating the need for activation of your body’s immune system.

However, when a virus is injected into your body in a vaccine, and especially when combined with an immune adjuvant, your IgA immune system is bypassed and your body’s immune system kicks into high gear in response to the vaccination. Adjuvants can trigger unwanted immune responses, as they can cause your immune system to overreact to the introduction of the organism you’re being vaccinated against.

Make no mistake about it, injecting organisms into your body to provoke immunity is contrary to nature, and vaccination carries enormous potential to do serious damage to your health.

The Problem with Artificial Immunity (Vaccination)

Since vaccines bypass your natural first-line defense (your lgA immune system), they are never 100 percent protective because they provide only temporary, typically inferior immunity compared to that your body would receive from naturally contracting and recovering from a disease.

In the case of many childhood diseases, such as mumps for instance, immunity is typically permanent when you contract and recover from it in childhood. According to Barbara Loe Fisher, president and co-founder of the National Vaccine Information Center:

“Vaccines are supposed to fool your body’s immune system into producing antibodies to resist viral and bacterial infection in the same way that actually having the disease usually produces immunity to future infection.

But vaccines atypically introduce into the human body lab altered live viruses and killed bacteria along with chemicals, metals, drugs and other additives such as formaldehyde, aluminum, mercury, monosodium glutamate, sodium phosphate, phenoxyethanol, gelatin, sulfites, yeast protein, antibiotics as well as unknown amounts of RNA and DNA from animal and human cell tissue cultures.

Whereas natural recovery from many infectious diseases usually stimulates lifetime immunity, vaccines only provide temporary protection and most vaccines require “booster” doses to extend vaccine-induced artificial immunity.

The fact that manmade vaccines cannot replicate the body’s natural experience with the disease is one of the key points of contention between those who insist that mankind cannot live without mass use of multiple vaccines and those who believe that mankind’s biological integrity will be severely compromised by their continued use.”

So, is it really better to protect children against all infectious diseases early in life through inferior temporary immunity from vaccines? Wouldn’t it be better for the majority of healthy children to experience certain contagious infections in childhood, especially if they are usually mild like chicken pox, and allow them to get more robust, longer lasting immunity?

Another important question, from a vaccine policy standpoint, is whether or not vaccine complications ultimately cause more chronic illness and death than the infectious diseases do. Unfortunately, such investigations have not been done, but again, there is growing evidence that too much vaccination is leading to a deterioration in health in growing numbers of children and adults, who were otherwise healthy prior to receiving one or many different vaccines.

Would You Knowingly Inject Yourself with Toxins?

The main “active” ingredient in a vaccine is either killed bacteria or live viruses that have been attenuated (weakened). However, that’s by no means the sole ingredient in vaccines. All vaccines also contain a variety of chemicals; some of which are more toxic than others.

Most seasonal flu vaccines, for example, contain 25 mcg of mercury dangerous levels of mercury in the form of thimerosal, a vaccine preservative. Mercury is a known neurotoxin and thimerosal containing vaccines have been associated with long-term immune, sensory, neurological, motor, and behavioral dysfunctions. (Aluminum is another neurotoxin that is used in some vaccines as an adjuvant and has been associated with neurological problems such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia).

Just imagine the potential brain damage you’re exposing yourself to if you get a seasonal flu vaccine every single year!

But thimerosal is not the only concern when it comes to flu vaccines. You also have the dangers of immune adjuvants like squalene or aluminum to contend with. (Aluminum adjuvants are used in approved U.S. influenza vaccines while other countries may allow squalene to be added as an adjuvant).

Other toxic substances found in various vaccines include:

Ethylene glycol (antifreeze)

Triton X100 (detergent)

Formaldehyde – a known cancer causing agent

Monosodium glutamate (MSG)

Neomycin and streptomycin (antibiotics)

Phenol (carbolic acid)

Aluminum — a neurotoxin linked to Alzheimer’s disease

Polysorbate 80 (Tween80™) – which can cause severe allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis

(To determine which vaccines contain which ingredients, see this CDC list.)

Personally, I don’t think too many people would knowingly and voluntarily inject even one of these ingredients into their bodies. No, injecting detergent and antifreeze would seem ridiculous to most people, knowing how dangerous it can be swallow even a small amount of these caustic substances. And yet, every parent is asked, or even required by law, to repeatedly inject these and other toxic chemicals into their infants!

Make Educated Decisions

Before making a decision on vaccinating your children against anything, I strongly urge you review the side effects and risks involved. Making this effort could make a tremendous difference in the health of your child.
•Remember: Vaccines can cause serious health problems including brain inflammation and autoimmune disorders, allergies, ear infections, and more
•There’s a very real association between vaccine complications and learning and behavioral disorders in children
•The components of vaccines have never been proven safe
•The ingredients and contaminants in vaccines can be detrimental to your health

There are far safer and more effective ways to protect your children and yourself against disease. For example, a Japanese study from last year showed that school children taking vitamin D3 supplements were 58 percent less likely to catch influenza A. That’s a higher effectiveness than any flu vaccine can claim, and doesn’t come with a barrage of potentially devastating side effects!

There are numerous studies like these, showing the superior effectiveness of natural strategies in the prevention of disease.

Overall, your best defense against any disease is a robust immune system, which vaccines can compromise. So supporting your immune system should always be at the top of your list. Vitamin D is one crucial component for optimal health, so I urge you to get your children’s vitamin D levels tested, and, if found deficient, to follow my recommendations for optimizing their levels.

Do this, and they’ll be less likely to catch a cold or flu this year.

Remember, all of the information you need to boost your immune system and health is available, for free, on my Web site in a clear, concise format that is broken down for beginners, intermediate, and advanced. I encourage you to browse through this information today for tips on how to stay healthy, naturally.

Protect Your Health Freedom

I always like to remind everyone that we cannot take our freedom to make informed, voluntary vaccine choices in America for granted. There is an attack on non-medical vaccine exemptions in state public health laws that is being led by the pharmaceutical lobby to severely restrict or even eliminate the religious and philosophical exemptions to vaccination.

If we don’t stand up NOW for our right to make vaccine choices for our children, the day could come when we wake up and find out that we have no choices left.

I encourage you to get involved with the work that the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is doing to protect YOUR right to choose which vaccines you want your children to get, including the legal right to use all, some or no vaccines at all. Register for the free NVIC Advocacy Portal that educates you about how to communcicate effectively with your state legislators. Stay informed about what is happening in your state and make your voice heard.

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Serious Diseases on the Rise..

Posted by: admin  /  Category: Health

Serious Diseases on the Rise Due to Possible Vaccine-Induced Bacterial and Viral Adaptations

The average person in the United States and, for that matter, most of the world has been convinced – or a better term might be “manipulated” – that there is an overwhelming benefit received from vaccines.

Most people accept the recommendation to vaccinate from the media, public health agencies and their physicians without question.

But one of the purposes of this site is to encourage you to exercise caution, do your due diligence, and explore all sides of prevailing health issues. This is especially important when it comes to vaccinations, as the media and most physicians will almost universally provide only one side of the equation.

In reality, these medical interventions do have side effects, which are often far more common than the preapproval clinical research revealed … and they are often not nearly as beneficial as they are purported to be by the conventional medical authorities.

Meanwhile, as my interview with Dr. Meryl Nass, a physician in Bar Harbor, Maine, revealed, there are many unforeseen consequences of mass vaccination … consequences that could end up seriously impacting public health in a very negative way.

Vaccines May Trigger Bacterial Adaptations, Strain Replacement and Antibiotic-Resistant Disease

Dr. Nass begins by discussing Prevnar, a vaccine used against pneumonia, meningitis, and deadly bloodstream infections in young children. When the vaccine was first licensed in 2000, it contained seven pneumococcal strains (PCV-7).

While some decreases were initially reported in diseases linked to these seven strains, by 2008 there was evidence that the mass use of the vaccine in U.S. children had “put pressure on some of the 80 other pneumococcal strains to cause invasive disease and was responsible for increasing the rates of otitis media [ear infection], meningitis and pneumonia caused by serotypes not included in the seven-valent vaccine.”1, 2

As a result, in 2010 a new Prevnar vaccine with 13 serotypes instead of seven (PCV-13) was released, in an attempt to stop the newly added pneumococcal strains from causing invasive disease.

Dr. Nass explained:

“Now, the reason for [the introduction of new PCV-13 vaccine] was that when Prevnar was originally introduced, it seemed to cause a reduction in cases of meningitis, and possibly pneumonia, due to the bacteria that were included in the vaccine. Subsequently, there was an increase in cases throughout the United States and also in the rest of the world of strains that were not included in the vaccine.

There have been a lot of studies on this. In some places, there are more infections than before. In most places, there seems to be net fewer, but not a lot net fewer. The infections that now occur – not everywhere, but it seems that in the majority of places – are more antibiotic-resistant than they were before.”

Now, in the United States ear infections and sinus infections, many of which are caused by pneumococcal bacteria, have become much harder to treat because of increasing resistance to antibiotics. This is due not only to the overuse of antibiotics in medicine and, more importantly, in agricultural animal feed, but also likely due to the widespread use of the Prevnar vaccine.

Serious Diseases on the Rise Due to Possible Vaccine-Induced Bacterial and Viral Adaptations

It’s not only ear and sinus infections that may be mutating into hard-to-treat strains thanks to the use of vaccinations. Other cases noted in the literature include:
•Whooping Cough: In Australia, dangerous new strains of whooping cough bacteria were reported in March 2012.3 The vaccine, researchers said, was responsible. The reason for this is because, while whooping cough is primarily attributed to Bordetella pertussis infection, it is also caused by another closely related pathogen called B. parapertussis, which the vaccine does NOT protect against.

Two years earlier, scientists at Penn State had already reported that receiving the pertussis vaccine significantly enhanced nasal colonization of B. parapertussis, thereby promoting vaccine-resistant whooping cough outbreaks.4
•Hepatitis B: In 2007, immunologists discovered mutated vaccine-resistant viruses were causing disease.5
•Polio: The oral polio vaccine, which is still used in many third-world countries, is made from three live polio viruses, and carries a risk of causing polio. The viruses in the vaccine can also mutate or recombine into a deadlier version, igniting new outbreaks.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) admits that 154 cases of polio in the US that occurred between 1980 and 1999 were vaccine-associated, or on average 8 cases per year in the U.S.6

According to Nature,7 poliovirus reverts to virulence in 2 to 4 babies per million vaccinated. And, according to an article in Clinical Infectious Diseases,8 the risk of vaccine-associated polio ranged from 0 to 9 per million persons vaccinated for each of the three Sabin strains. The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledges:9

“In very rare cases, the administration of OPV [oral polio vaccine] results in vaccine-associated paralysis associated with a reversion of the vaccine strains to the more neurovirulent profile of wild poliovirus. In a few instances, such vaccine strains have become both neurovirulent and transmissible and have resulted in infectious poliomyelitis.”

This problem is so significant that oral polio vaccines are no longer used in the developed world. (They were stopped in the U.S. in 2000 and replaced by injected vaccines that were not live.) However, because they are cheaper to produce than injected vaccines, they are still used in the “less developed” world.

In addition, Dr. Nass pointed out:

“…in the literature, it’s been noted that there’s been strain replacement for whooping cough (Bordetella pertussis), Neisseria meningitidis (which is the organism that causes a lot of meningitis), and Haemophilus influenzae. And there have been articles about the potential problems with new vaccines in development for tuberculosis, and whether they will cause strain replacement.

This is a new problem that was identified first in the last 10 years. It’s been studied reasonably well for Prevnar and for Strep pneumoniae… but it hasn’t been studied as well for all the other vaccines and other infections. We can look back and say what happened, but what we can’t do is predict what will happen with the new Prevnar 13 vaccine or other potential pneumococcal conjugate vaccines that are in development. We can bring new vaccines in, but we don’t know what effect they’ll have on the ecology of diseases in the future. And I think it’s something that needs to be looked at much more carefully before we license vaccines.”

Vaccine Effectiveness and Safety Also Called Into Question

There are countless examples of currently recommended vaccinations that have questionable or short-lived effectiveness — flu shots, the MMR vaccine, and the whooping cough vaccine, just to name a few. There are even more examples of vaccines for which the safety profile has never been established.

Prevnar is one such example, as its original approval was based on a clinical trial that compared the Prevnar 7 vaccine to an experimental vaccine. No inert control was used, which means it was impossible to gauge what kinds of side effects were occurring due to Prevnar, since it was being weighed against the side effects being caused by another (experimental meningitis) vaccine. And since the other vaccine was never licensed in the U.S., we don’t really know what side effects it causes. We were only told that Prevnar didn’t cause significantly worse side effects than the other experimental vaccine.

So when you compare the side effects between the experimental vaccine group and the control group, you don’t see a difference, because they’re both being given injections that are potentially toxic, rather than the control group receiving an inert placebo like a saline injection.

Then, when Prevnar 13 came to be licensed, the manufacturer compared it to Prevnar 7 and decided that since the side effects were similar, it meant the newer version was safe to bring to the market. Of course, the true risks of Prevnar 7 had never been fully established, so this comparison, too, was meaningless.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did acknowledge this, and told the vaccine’s maker to conduct an additional six studies on safety and efficacy (after approving the license and use of the vaccine) … but these are being conducted by the drug’s maker, which means they’re highly subject to conflict of interest and bias. Dr. Nass continued:

“This is an example of how little we know… when we bring products into the market. We basically know very little about their safety and their effectiveness when they are first licensed. We learn about them as people use the products. There was an interesting paradox in how the Prevnar vaccine was licensed. When it was originally licensed, it was said that it didn’t really reduce ear infections. It didn’t really reduce sinus infections. But what it did reduce were these invasive, very serious, and life-threatening pneumococcal infections, which were primarily pneumonias, bacteremias (which is bacteria in the bloodstream), and meningitis.

Now, think about that for a minute. How can there be a treatment or a preventive medication such as a vaccine that reduces serious infections caused by certain bacteria but doesn’t reduce the minor infections caused by the identical bacteria? How can that be? …It doesn’t make biological sense.”

Get Informed Before Making Your Vaccination Decisions

There are basic differences between naturally acquired immunity and temporary vaccine-induced antibody production. But few are willing to look at this issue — least of all conventional medicine, which is so dominated by pharmaceutical companies seeking bigger markets and more profits from the investment they make in developing new vaccines.

Unfortunately, if we continue down the road they’re paving for us, and they turn out to be wrong about the effectiveness, safety, and overall long-term side effects of vaccines, then we’re on an extremely dangerous slippery slope.

As Dr. Nass said:

“…many vaccines, hundreds of vaccines, are in development now. It’s possible that huge numbers of vaccines will be brought into clinical practice in the next few years. If that happens, not only do we have no idea how any one individual vaccine may affect the pattern of disease and the pattern of drug resistance, but we have absolutely no idea how the combination of vaccines will affect us. It’s something we really need to be observing and collecting information on, as they come into use.”

This is also why I believe we really need an open and fearless conversation about vaccines; one that addresses the glaring questions about vaccine effectiveness (or lack thereof) and vaccine side effects, and leaves room for real, honest answers, and alternatives to our society’s use of vaccination as the primary disease prevention tool.

Until that happens, however, it is imperative to continue to educate yourself and your family on the issues surrounding vaccinations of all kinds.

To help you locate all the latest vaccine information on my site, I’ve created a dedicated Vaccine News page. Bookmark it and return often. I also recommend you familiarize yourself with the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) web site. As a leader for vaccine safety, the NVIC offers information on everything from vaccine laws to late-breaking vaccine news and how you can get involved to protect vaccine choices in your state.

What You Can Do to Make a Difference

While it seems “old-fashioned,” the only truly effective actions you can take to protect the right to informed consent to vaccination and expand vaccine exemptions, is to get personally involved with your state legislators and the leaders in your community.

THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.

Mass vaccination policies are made at the federal level but vaccine laws are made at the state level, and it is at the state level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights can have the greatest impact.

Signing up for NVIC’s free Advocacy Portal at www.NVICAdvocacy.org not only gives you access to practical, useful information to help you become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community, but when national vaccine issues come up, you will have the up-to-date information and call to action items you need at your fingertips to make sure your voice is heard.

So please, as your first step, sign up for the NVIC Advocacy Portal.

Contact Your Elected Officials

Write or email your elected state representatives and share your concerns. Call them, or better yet, make an appointment to visit them in person in their office. Don’t let them forget you!

It is so important for you to reach out and make sure your concerns get on the radar screen of the leaders and opinion makers in your community, especially the politicians you elect and are directly involved in making vaccine laws in your state. These are your elected representatives, so you have a right and a responsibility to let them know what’s really happening in your life and the lives of people you know when it comes to vaccine mandates. Be sure to share the “real life” experiences that you or people you know have had with vaccination.

Share Your Story with the Media and People You Know

If you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine reaction, injury or death, please talk about it. If we don’t share information and experiences with each other, everybody feels alone and afraid to speak up. Write a letter to the editor if you have a different perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local newspaper. Make a call in to a radio talk show that is only presenting one side of the vaccine story.

I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might be strongly criticized for daring to talk about the “other side” of the vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not back down. Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be true about vaccination will the public conversation about vaccination open up so people are not afraid to talk about it.

We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations funded by drug companies to dominate the conversation about vaccination. The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet and treated like nothing more than “statistically acceptable collateral damage” of national one-size-fits-all mass vaccination policies that put way too many people at risk for injury and death. We shouldn’t be treating people like guinea pigs instead of human beings.

Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More

I encourage you to visit the following web pages on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) website at www.NVIC.org:
•NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.
•If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.
•Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment by doctors or government officials for making independent vaccine choices.

Connect with Your Doctor or Find a New One that Will Listen and Care

If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don’t want, I strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to stop the change in attitude of many parents about vaccinations after they become truly educated about health and vaccination.

However, there is hope.

At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit that they’re starting to adopt a more individualized approach to vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of parents. It is good news that there is a growing number of smart young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents in making personalized vaccine decisions for children, including delaying vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the same day or continuing to provide medical care for those families, who decline use of one or more vaccines.

So take the time to locate a doctor, who treats you with compassion and respect and is willing to work with you to do what is right for your child.

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Grounding or Earthing Has Many Uses..

Posted by: admin  /  Category: Health

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the deterioration of your macula (the region in your eye that controls acute vision), which typically occurs later in life.

AMD is the leading cause of blindness in the United States, as it can destroy your central vision, which is necessary for reading, driving and other daily functions. It’s also the leading cause of permanent impairment of close-up vision in those aged 65 and older.

Aspirin Use Linked to the Most Severe Form of AMD

Certain lifestyle factors, such as smoking, are known to increase your risk of AMD, whereas exercising, maintaining normal blood pressure and eating a healthy diet may help prevent it.

With respect to supplements, emerging research strongly suggests that astaxanthin may be the single best supplement for the prevention and treatment of AMD. If you know anyone with this disease it would be helpful if you could share this important new information with them.

When engaging in preventive steps it is also wise to avoid common exposures that can increase your risk of disease. Researchers have now uncovered another potential factor that might actually increase your risk of not only AMD but the most severe form of it, known as neovascular macular degeneration: aspirin use.

As one of the most commonly used pain relievers, and also sometimes routinely prescribed for heart protection, aspirin is often thought of as completely “safe,” despite a laundry list of serious side effects.1

In the latest study, researchers found that regular aspirin use, defined as twice a week for more than three months, for 10 years increased participants’ risk of neovascular AMD. While the increase was relatively small, increasing risk from about 1 in 200 among all older Americans to 1 in 100 among aspirin users, it’s concerning given how widespread aspirin use has become.

Further, a separate study published last year also revealed a connection between frequent aspirin use and the development of AMD, with increasing frequency linked to increased risk.2

Are You Taking Aspirin for Heart Protection or Pain Relief? Try This Instead

If you’re like most people, you probably wear shoes with rubber or plastic soles for the better part of each day. As a society we have been doing this for over 50 years. You probably don’t associate this with your level of pain or your cardiovascular health, but there very well could be a connection.

The problem is that wearing typical insulated shoes blocks your body’s natural connection to the Earth’s store of electrons, which is necessary for optimal health. The concept of earthing, also known as grounding, was initially developed by Clint Ober. Stated in the simplest terms possible, earthing is simply walking barefoot, grounding your body to the Earth.

Grounding or Earthing Has Many Uses

When you’re grounded and directly connected to the earth there’s a transfer of free electrons from the Earth into your body. And these free electrons are probably a very potent antioxidant source, likely far superior to aspirin or Plavix, the other commonly prescribed blood thinner that has also recently been shown to increase the risk of strokes. The electrons from the earth that serve asantioxidants are responsible for the clinical observations from grounding experiments, such as:
•Thinning of your blood, so much so that if you are on Coumadin and regularly ground you need to lower your dose of Coumadin.
•Beneficial changes in heart rate
•Decreased skin resistance
•Decreased levels of inflammation

It’s thought that the influx of free electrons from the Earth’s surface will help to neutralize free radicals and reduce both acute and chronic inflammation, which is at the root of many health conditions and accelerated aging. Grounding has even been found to provide relief from chronic muscle and joint pain, and other types of pain.3 As written in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine:4

“It is well established, though not widely known, that the surface of the earth possesses a limitless and continuously renewed supply of free or mobile electrons as a consequence of a global atmospheric electron circuit. Wearing shoes with insulating soles and/or sleeping in beds that are isolated from the electrical ground plane of the earth have disconnected most people from the earth’s electrical rhythms and free electrons.

… A previous study demonstrated that connecting the human body to the earth during sleep (earthing) normalizes the daily cortisol rhythm and improves sleep. A variety of other benefits were reported, including reductions in pain and inflammation. Subsequent studies have confirmed these earlier findings and documented virtually immediate physiologic and clinical effects of grounding or earthing the body.”

Grounding may even be beneficial after an injury. If you place your feet on the ground after an injury (or on a grounded sheet, or place grounding patches on the balls of your feet), electrons will migrate into your body and spread through your tissues. Any free radicals that leak into the healthy tissue will immediately be electrically neutralized. This occurs because the electrons are negatively charged, while the free radicals are charged positively, so they cancel each other out.

“So really what is happening with grounding or earthing is that you’re protecting your body from — I call it, collateral damage,” Dr. James Oschman, an expert in the field of energy medicine, says. “Damage that was not intended to take place but does take place because we have disconnected ourselves from the Earth by putting rubber and plastic on the bottoms of our shoes.”

Download Interview Transcript

How Grounding Might Benefit Your Heart

It has been more than a decade since I stopped recommending aspirin for the prevention of heart disease. The evidence in support of aspirin’s health benefits outweighing its health risks has always been quite weak, and over the last decade it has become even weaker.

In fact, it looks as though even low-dose aspirin, can do more harm than good because of serious side effects like intestinal injury and bleeding. Interestingly, the reason why aspirin has been recommended for heart attack prevention is because it reduces the clumping action of your blood clotting platelets, possibly preventing a heart attack. Grounding has a similar effect and has recently been discovered to help thin your blood, making it less viscous.

This discovery can have a profound impact on cardiovascular disease, which is now the number one killer in the world. Virtually every aspect of cardiovascular disease has been correlated with elevated blood viscosity.

It turns out that when you ground to the earth, the zeta potential of your red blood cells (a powerful measure of your blood viscosity or “thickness of your blood”) quickly rises, which means your red blood cells have more charge on their surface, which forces them apart from each other. This action causes your blood to thin and flow easier. It also disburdens you heart, causing your blood pressure to drop.

Another obvious implication of this is that by repelling each other, your red blood cells are less inclined to stick together and form a clot. Blood clots don’t have to be very big to form a pulmonary embolus that would kill you instantly, so this is a significant benefit. Additionally, if your zeta potential is high, which grounding can facilitate, you not only decrease your heart disease risk but also your risk of multi-infarct dementias, where you start losing brain tissue due to micro-clotting in your brain.

Getting Yourself Grounded is Easy

The simplest way to ground is to walk barefoot outside. The ideal location for doing so is on the beach, close to or in the water, as seawater is a great conductor. Your body also contains mostly water, so it creates a good connection.

A close second would be a grassy area, especially if it’s covered with dew, which is what you’d find if you walk early in the morning. According to Dr. Oschman, concrete is a good conductor as long as it hasn’t been sealed. Painted concrete does not allow electrons to pass through very well. Materials like asphalt, wood, and typical insulators like plastic or the soles of your shoes, will not allow electrons to pass through and are not suitable for barefoot grounding.

Studies suggest that benefits such as pain relief and stress reduction may occur in just 30-80 minutes of barefoot time a day. This can obviously be a challenge during the winter, or if you live in an urban area without easy access to parks or other barefoot-friendly surfaces, so the other option is to use a grounding or Earthing pad, which allows you to get the benefits of the Earth’s electrons even if you’re indoors, especially when you’re sleeping. I’ve been using one for several months now, especially when I travel by plane, as air travel is a suspected cause of weakening bio-electric currents.

So, like access to regular sun exposure, walking barefoot outside is a grossly neglected foundational practice that you can easily correct, and which will help you reduce your reliance on potentially damaging “alternatives” like regular aspirin use.

Tips for Reducing Your Risk of Age-Related Macular Degeneration

AMD is typically a gradual disease, and the condition may progress so slowly in some cases that you don’t notice your vision worsening until it’s too late. However, your eyesight does not have to worsen with age. Some of the best ways to protect your vision and prevent AMD include:
•Astaxanthin: This is the ultimate carotenoid for eye health and the prevention of blindness. It’s even more powerful an antioxidant than both lutein and zeaxanthin, and easily crosses into the tissues of the eye and exerts its effects safely and with more potency than any of the other carotenoids. Specifically, astaxanthin may help ameliorate or prevent light-induced damage, photoreceptor cell damage, ganglion cell damage, and damage to the neurons of the inner retinal layers.
•Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats: Omega-3 fats may help protect and promote healthy retinal function. One type, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), is concentrated in your eye’s retina and has been found to be particularly useful in preventing AMD. Further, inflammation is likely involved in AMD progression, and omega-3 fats have anti-inflammatory effects. Research has shown those who had the highest intake of animal-based omega-3 fats had a 60 percent lower risk of advanced AMD compared to those who consumed the least.5
•Vitamin D: After receiving a vitamin D3 supplement for just 6 weeks, mice had improved vision and reductions in retinal inflammation and levels of amyloid beta accumulation, which is a hallmark of aging.6 The findings suggest vitamin D3 may help prevent AMD, and lend further support for optimizing your levels via safe sun exposure.
•Lutein and Zeaxanthin: Of all the carotenoids, only zeaxanthin and lutein are found in your retina, which has the highest concentration of fatty acids of any tissue in your body. This is because your retina is a highly light and oxygen rich environment, and it needs a large supply of free radical scavengers to prevent oxidative damage there. Lutein and zeaxanthin are found in green leafy vegetables like spinach and kale, and also in egg yolks.
•Care for your cardiovascular system: High blood pressure can cause damage to the miniscule blood vessels on your retina, obstructing free blood flow. One of the primary ways to maintain optimal blood pressure is to avoid fructose. Research by Dr. Richard Johnson, chief of the division of kidney disease and hypertension at the University of Colorado, shows that consuming 74 grams or more per day of fructose (equal to 2.5 sugary drinks) increases your risk of having blood pressure levels of 160/100 mmHg by 77 percent!
•Normalize your blood sugar: Excessive sugar in your blood can pull fluid from the lens of your eye, affecting your ability to focus. And, it can damage the blood vessels in your retina, also obstructing blood flow. To keep your blood sugar in a healthy range, follow my comprehensive nutrition guidelines, exercise and avoid excess sugar, especially fructose.
•Eat plenty of fresh dark green leafy vegetables, especially kale: Studies have shown that a diet rich in dark leafy greens helps support eye health, and those with the highest consumption of carotenoid-rich vegetables, especially ones rich in lutein and zeaxanthin, had increased vision health.
•Avoid trans fats: A diet high in trans fat appears to contribute to macular degeneration by interfering with omega-3 fats in your body. Trans fat is found in many processed foods and baked goods, including margarine, shortening, fried foods like French fries, fried chicken and doughnuts, cookies, pastries and crackers.

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How Fructose Affects Your “Fat Switch”

Posted by: admin  /  Category: Food, Health

People everywhere are finally waking up to the indisputable fact that all sugars are not created equal when it comes to the physical end results they create.

Scientists using newer functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) tests have now shown that fructose, a sugar found in most processed foods (typically in the form of high fructose corn syrup), can in fact trigger changes in your brain that may lead to overeating and weight gain.1

The researchers discovered that when you drink a beverage containing fructose, your brain does not register the feeling of being satiated, as it does when you consume simple glucose. As reported by Yahoo! Health:2

“All sugars are not equal — even though they contain the same amount of calories — because they are metabolized differently in the body.

Table sugar is sucrose, which is half fructose, half glucose. High-fructose corn syrup is 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose. Some nutrition experts say this sweetener may pose special risks, but others and the industry reject that claim. And doctors say we eat too much sugar in all forms.”

Beware: Fructose Can Make You Hungry, Study Finds

Twenty healthy adults were included in the featured study, published in the journal JAMA on January 2.3 fMRI was used to measure the hypothalamus response when the volunteers consumed a beverage containing identical amounts of either fructose or glucose (75 grams). The two drinks were given in random order to all participants during testing sessions spaced eight months apart.

Your hypothalamus helps regulate hunger-related signals involving a number of hormones, including insulin, leptin, and ghrelin. The scans revealed that when drinking glucose, within 15 minutes the activity in the area of the brain involved with reward and desire for food was suppressed, which leads to a feeling of fullness or satiety. According to co-author Dr. Robert Sherwin:4

“With fructose, we don’t see those changes. As a result, the desire to eat continues — it isn’t turned off.”

In fact, fructose not only did not suppress hypothalamic activity, it actually caused a small spike instead. Furthermore, glucose boosted the links between the hypothalamus, thalamus, and striatum, while fructose strengthened the connectivity between the hypothalamus and thalamus, but not the striatum. This is important, as the striatum also deactivates once your body senses it has eaten enough… According to the authors:

“These findings suggest that ingestion of glucose, but not fructose, initiates a coordinated response between the homeostatic-striatal network that regulates feeding behavior.”

What all this means in everyday terms is that when you consume fructose, you may actually be “programming” your body to consume more calories, as fructose fails to trigger that feeling of fullness, and may even trigger continued hunger pangs. Dr. Jonathan Purnell, an endocrinologist at Oregon Health & Science University, told Yahoo! Health:

“It implies that fructose, at least with regards to promoting food intake and weight gain, is a bad actor compared to glucose.”

How Your Body Metabolizes Fructose Versus Glucose

Part of what makes fructose so unhealthy is that it is metabolized by your liver to fat in far more rapidly than any other sugar. The entire burden of metabolizing fructose falls on your liver, and it promotes visceral fat.5 This is the type of fat that collects around your organs and in your abdominal region and is associated with a greater risk of heart disease.

Without getting into the complex biochemistry of carbohydrate metabolism, it is important to understand how your body processes fructose versus glucose. Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, has been a pioneer in decoding sugar metabolism. His work has highlighted some major differences in how different sugars are broken down and used. Here’s a summary of the main points:
•After eating fructose, 100 percent of the metabolic burden rests on your liver. With glucose, your liver has to break down only 20 percent. The metabolism of fructose by your liver creates a long list of waste products and toxins, including a large amount of uric acid, which drives up blood pressure and causes gout.
•Every cell in your body, including your brain, utilizes glucose. Therefore, much of it is “burned up” immediately after you consume it. By contrast, fructose is turned into free fatty acids (FFAs), VLDL (the damaging form of cholesterol), and triglycerides, which get stored as fat.
•The fatty acids created during fructose metabolism accumulate as fat droplets in your liver and skeletal muscle tissues, causing insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).6 Insulin resistance progresses to metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes.
•Fructose is the most lipophilic carbohydrate. In other words, fructose converts to glycerol 3 phosphate (g-3-p), which is directly used to turn FFAs into triglycerides. The more g-3-p you have, the more fat you store. Glucose does not do this.
•When you eat 120 calories of glucose, less than one calorie is stored as fat. 120 calories of fructose results in 40 calories being stored as fat.
•Glucose suppresses your hunger hormone ghrelin and stimulates leptin, which suppresses your appetite. Fructose has no effect on ghrelin and interferes with your brain’s communication with leptin, resulting in overeating.

Known Health Ramifications of a High-Fructose Diet

Consuming foods that contain high amounts of fructose—even if it’s a natural product—is, to put it bluntly, the fastest way to trash your health. GreenMedInfo.com,7 has collated a number of scientific studies that have linked fructose to about 30 different specific diseases and health problems.

Adding insult to injury, HFCS is most often made from genetically engineered corn, which is fraught with its own well documented side effects and health concerns, from an increased risk of developing food allergies to the risk of increased infertility in future generations, and possibly cancer, according to a recent lifetime feeding study. Select the hyperlinks provided to review how fructose may:

Raise your blood pressure, and cause nocturnal hypertension

Promote insulin resistance / Type 2 Diabetes

Cause non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)

Raise your uric acid levels, which can result in gout and/or metabolic syndrome

Accelerate the progression of chronic kidney disease

Intracranial atherosclerosis (narrowing and hardening of the arteries in your skull)

Exacerbate cardiac abnormalities if you’re deficient in copper

Have a genotoxic effect on the colon

Promote metastasis in breast cancer patients

Cause tubulointerstitial injury (injury to the tubules and interstitial tissue of your kidney)

Promote obesity and related health problems and diseases

Promote pancreatic cancer growth and feed cancer cells in general

Cause your brain neurons to stagnate

Deplete vitamins and minerals (unbound fructose, found in large quantities in high fructose corn syrup, can interfere with your heart’s use of minerals such as magnesium, copper and chromium)

Promote arthritis and gout

My Recommended Fructose Allowance

With regards to the featured study findings, Scientific American notes:8

“Could fructose consumption alone really be playing such an outsized role in expanding our pant sizes? ‘A common counter argument is that it is the excess calories that are important, not the food. Simply put: just eat less,’ Purnell and Fair noted. ‘The reality, however, is that hunger and fullness are major determinants of how much humans eat, just as thirst determines how much humans drink.

These sensations cannot simply be willed away or ignored.’ In order to eat less (and consume fewer calories overall), they argued, then, one should avoid foods or ingredients that fail to satisfy hunger. And that, according to the results from the new study, would mean those fructose-sweetened foods—and drinks.”

As a standard recommendation, I advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day. For most people it would also be wise to limit your fructose from fruit to 15 grams or less, as you’re virtually guaranteed to consume “hidden” sources of fructose if you drink beverages other than water and eat processed food.

Fifteen grams of fructose is not much — it represents two bananas, one-third cup of raisins, or two Medjool dates. Remember, the average 12-ounce can of soda contains 40 grams of sugar, at least half of which is fructose, so one can of soda alone would exceed your daily allotment.

In his book, The Sugar Fix, Dr. Richard Johnson includes detailed tables showing the content of fructose in different foods — an information base that isn’t readily available when you’re trying to find out exactly how much fructose is in various foods. I encourage you to pick up a copy of this excellent resource. You can find an abbreviated listing of the fructose content of common fruits in this previous article.

How Fructose Affects Your “Fat Switch”

Dr. Johnson has also authored another book that is of major importance to anyone who has ever struggled with their weight and/or persistent health issues. According to Dr. Johnson, based on his decades of research:

“Those of us who are obese eat more because of a faulty ‘switch’ and exercise less because of a low energy state. If you can learn how to control the specific ‘switch’ located in the powerhouse of each of your cells – the mitochondria – you hold the key to fighting obesity.”

There are five basic truths that Dr. Johnson explains in detail in his most recently book, The Fat Switch, that overturn current concepts:
•Large portions of food and too little exercise are NOT solely responsible for why you are gaining weight
•Metabolic Syndrome is actually a healthy adaptive condition that animals undergo to store fat to help them survive periods of famine. The problems is most all of us are always feasting and never undergo fasting. Our bodies have not adapted to this yet and as a result, this beneficial switch actually causes damage to contemporary man
•Uric acid is increased by specific foods and causally contributes to obesity and insulin resistance
•Fructose-containing sugars cause obesity not by calories but by turning on the fat switch
•Effective treatment of obesity requires turning off your fat switch and improving the function of your cells’ mitochondria

I highly recommend picking up a copy of this book, which is a useful tool for those struggling with their weight. Dietary sugar, and fructose in particular, is a significant “tripper of your fat switch,” so understanding how sugars of all kinds affect your weight and health is imperative.

Study: Midnight Snacks Can Mess You up on a Molecular Level

I have long advocated that avoiding all food for at least three hours before you go to bed is an exceedingly helpful strategy for those seeking to maintain a healthy weight. This will lower your blood sugar during sleep and help minimize damage from too much sugar floating around. Additionally, It will jump start the glycogen depletion process so you can shift to fat burning mode.

A recent study9 is a powerful confirmation of this recommendation as it has found that the mere act of altering your typical eating habits — such as getting up in the middle of the night for a snack — causes a certain protein to desynchronize your internal food clock, which can throw you off kilter and set a vicious cycle in motion. As reported by The Atlantic:10

“Along with the usual slew of eating-related disorders, like obesity and diabetes, the researchers believe that this molecular understanding for why changing our eating times messes up our food clock might allow them to come up with novel treatments for conditions such as ‘midnight hunger,’ and to make better recommendations for people suffering the consequences of jet lag or working the night shift.”

Your internal body clock, also known as your circadian rhythm, helps regulate the energy levels in your cells, and the proteins involved with your metabolism are intrinsically linked to your circadian rhythms. There’s strong evidence that proper sleep and diet can help maintain or rebuild the balance between your circadian clock and your metabolism, and that lack of rest or disruption of normal sleep patterns can increase hunger, leading to obesity-related illnesses and accelerated aging.

In terms of its effect on your metabolism and weight, lack of sleep has been shown to affect levels of leptin and ghrelin—two of the hormones linked with appetite and eating behavior. When you are sleep deprived, your body decreases production of leptin, the hormone that tells your brain there is no need for more food, while increasing levels of ghrelin, a hormone that triggers hunger. (These are the same hormones detrimentally affected by a high-fructose diet, as discussed above.)

To keep your circadian clock functioning properly, make sure you’re getting the necessary amount of high quality sleep, during those hours when your body expects to be sleeping. The right amount for you is based on your individual sleep requirements and not on a one-size-fits-all prescribed number of hours. For helpful guidance on how to improve your sleep, please review my 33 Secrets to a Good Night’s Sleep.

The Case for Intermittent Fasting to Optimize Your Circadian Clock

In addition to that, this study offers an indication of how important it is to also maintain a regular eating schedule. Personally, I believe there is good reason to consider an intermittent fasting schedule. There is an emerging consensus that narrowing the window of time that you consume food may have enormous health benefits and also help you reduce your percentage of body fat.

Your suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), located in your hypothalamus, controls your circadian rhythms. It regulates how your autonomic nervous system operates along with your hormones, your wake and sleep pattern, your feeding behavior, and your capacity to digest food, assimilate nutrients, and eliminate toxins.

If you routinely disregard your innate clock – working during sleeping hours, or feeding at the wrong time – you will sooner or later suffer the consequences with symptoms that may include disrupted sleep, agitation, digestive disorders, constipation, chronic fatigue, chronic cravings for sweets and carbs, fat gain, and lower resistance to stress. Chronic disruptions in circadian rhythms have also been linked with increased risk for chronic inflammatory disease and cancer.

As explained by fitness expert Ori Hofmekler, the ideal time to eat is in the evening. Having a large meal during the day will inhibit your sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and instead turn on the parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS), which will make you sleepy and fatigued rather than alert and active. And, instead of spending energy and burning fat during the day, you’ll store energy and gain fat.

The one meal per day plan can accommodate your innate clock and maximize the beneficial effects you get from intermittent fasting on a daily basis. This form of intermittent fasting involves timing your once-daily meal to within a narrow window of time in the evening. However, you don’t have to be that strict if you can’t function without a mid-day meal. I’ve revised my own eating schedule to eliminate breakfast and restrict the time I eat food to a period of about six to seven hours each day, which is typically from noon to 6 or 7 pm. This still gives me a net fasting time of 17-18 hours a day. To learn more, please see my previous article, The Power of Intermittent Fasting.

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Roundup Creates Botulism..

Posted by: admin  /  Category: Health

Chickens bred in CAFOs are already routinely fed antibiotics, arsenic,
Genetically engineered crops and food products pose a threat to your health, resistance to disease, soil, and the global food supply. The biotech industry is riddled with corruption as companies clamor to sink their claws into the marketplace first, to get their seeds into farmers’ fields ahead of the rest.

This pervasive corporate rush to profit at any cost places all of humanity at risk, as the industry barrels ahead without even questioning the consequences of their technology. Industry leaders have failed to slow down long enough to even ponder the long-term consequences of irreversibly manipulating the DNA of your food. And what independent researchers are finding in this regard is truly disturbing and is probably just the tip of the iceberg in this genetics experiment of unprecedented scale.

When you see the term “biotech industry,” you might automatically think of Monsanto, the world’s Big Dog when it comes to GE seed. Monsanto has shown it will stop at nothing to bully its way across the globe, leaving a trail of planetary devastation in its wake.

Monsanto’s unsavory behavior even resulted in Forbes Magazine’s retraction of naming Monsanto “Company of the Year” in 2009, admitting they were “wrong on Monsanto… really wrong,” citing not only the problems with resistant superweeds but also investigations of antitrust issues and a potential flop in an expensive new variety of GE corn seed. But these high-tech seed wars have now gone global, extending well beyond our Western borders, and there is no better illustration than the latest scandal in India.

GE Scientists in India Found Guilty of Fraud and Cover Up

A group of scientists from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) have been found guilty of infecting and subsequently hiding the fact that indigenously created Bt cotton contained a Monsanto gene1. The variety, called BNBt, was supposed to be a cheaper alternative to the other Indian Bt cotton hybrids. Shortly after its release in 2009, its sales were suspended, and then hearings commenced.

It’s now been determined that the Indian scientists intentionally contaminated the GE cotton seed, because “accidental contamination cannot explain what happened.” ICAR condemned the scientists’ actions as “unethical, unscientific, and irresponsible.” It appears these shenanigans occurred in order to somehow speed up the seed’s release into India’s Bt cotton marketplace.2

The hearing’s outcome falls on the heels of a major decision in October 2012 by a committee, appointed by India’s Supreme Court, to end all GE field trials until certain conditions have been met. The Committee also recommended a 10-year moratorium on field trials of all Bt food crops and a moratorium on field trials of herbicide-tolerant crops until an independent assessment has performed.

Perhaps India has finally had enough. Over the past 16 years, more than a quarter of a million Indian farmers have committed suicide after being convinced to plant Monsanto’s genetically engineered seeds (especially Bt cotton), then having their crops fail, leaving them in financial ruin. Could this be a harbinger of times to come in the United States?

Latest Study Shows Roundup Creates Botulism Breeding Ground in Poultry

A new German study3 by the Institute of Bacteriology and Mycology examined the effects of glyphosate, the active agent in Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup, on the gut microbes of poultry. Some birds are heavily exposed to glyphosate when fed genetically engineered feed. The study’s findings are quite alarming. Researchers found that highly pathogenic bacteria resisted glyphosate, whereas beneficial bacteria likely succumbed to it.

What does this mean for you and me?

The essential implication is that poultry fed GE corn or soy would fall victim to dysbiosis, meaning unhealthy changes in their gut flora that threaten the health of the birds, as well as anyone consuming them. The good bacteria in the poultry gut, such as Enterococcus, Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus, are killed off, allowing the pathogenic or disease causing bacteria to flourish. Varieties such as Salmonella and Clostridium are very dangerous pathogens for humans. Clostridia bacteria are some of the deadliest, with strains including C. tetani (tetanus) and C. botulinum (botulism).

Chickens bred in CAFOs are already routinely fed antibiotics, arsenic, and even antidepressants, all of which have serious adverse health consequences. But this new study suggests CAFO chickens exposed to glyphosate may become breeding grounds for Botulism, Salmonella and other major pathogenic organisms.4

The implications of this become even clearer when you consider the recently released findings of a decade-long feeding study that showed GE feed can cause significant changes in the digestive systems, immune systems, and major organs (including liver, kidneys, pancreas, genitals and others) of rats, mice, pigs and salmon. If it’s doing all of that to animals and fish, what’s it doing to you? Clearly, the conventional agribusiness food system has emerged as a major threat to your health. But it may also be contributing to an even greater problem: the destruction of the world’s topsoil.

The World is Running Out of Topsoil

The world may be running out of usable topsoil, the layer that allows plants to grow. According to an article in Time World5, soil erosion and degradation rates suggest we have only about 60 remaining years of topsoil. Forty percent of the world’s agricultural soil is now classified as either degraded or seriously degraded; the latter means that 70 percent of the topsoil is gone. Our soil is being lost at 10 to 40 times the rate it can be replenished, and our food production systems are to blame, which epitomizes the term “unsustainable.” It takes decades or even centuries to regenerate significant levels of soil.

Agriculture accounts for 70 percent of our fresh water use. When the soil is unfit, water is wasted—it washes right through the soil and past the plant’s root system. We already have a global water shortage that’s projected to worsen over the next 20 to 30 years, so this is the last thing we need to compound it. Soil degradation is projected to cause 30 percent loss in food production over the next 20 to 50 years—while our global food demands are expected to increase by 50 percent over this span of time.

Many don’t realize that soil is alive and has an incredible diversity of microorganisms. One handful of soil contains more microbes than the number of people who have ever lived on our planet.

These organisms create a powerful synergy with the plants and recycle organic material, making the soil more resilient and better at holding water and nutrients, and better at nurturing plants. Microbes need carbon for food, and we’re depleting our soil of this element by using chemical fertilizers, overgrazing, over-ploughing, and burning stubble in fields to accelerate crop turnover. Add to this genetically engineered crops, and our soil is dealt another deathblow.

GE Crops Help Destroy Soil Fertility—Possibly Irreversibly

The latest science seems to suggest genetically engineered plant cultivation may seriously disrupt soil ecology by reducing microbial diversity, which decreases soil fertility over time—possibly irreversibly.6

As GE plants increasingly take over the major food-producing areas of the world, including the U.S., China, India, Argentina and Brazil, reduced soil fertility could lead to famine on a scale never previously seen. The mechanisms for this are just beginning to be understood, and what was recently only theory has inched closer to reality as science shines more light on the consequences of introducing genetically engineered organisms into the soil.

The mechanism goes something like this…

Special genetic elements (vector DNA) are present in all GE plants. This vector DNA enables unrelated microorganism species to mate, but can also be transferred to soil microorganisms. Soil fertility depends on the presence of a diverse blend of microorganisms, all serving different roles in balancing and optimizing the soil. But when unrelated species mate, the soil ecosystem loses diversity, which is proven to damage fertility.

Until recently, the transfer of genes between GE plants and soil bacteria was only theoretical. However, this mechanism has now been demonstrated by science, and it’s our soil’s worst nightmare. It should be noted that this same process of gene transfer has been shown to occur in your gastrointestinal tract when you eat GE foods—turning your intestines into a virtual pesticide factory.

Horizontal Gene Transfer Is Now Proven By Science

The following complications underscore the seriousness of the dangers introduced by cultivation of GE crops:
•DNA from GE plants is not readily broken down in the soil and can be taken up by soil particles and microbes. The accumulation of foreign DNA may lead to a cumulative loss of soil diversity over repeated harvests.
•Unlike the claims of Monsanto when it first approved GM crops, Bt genes (Bacillus thuringiensis) are not broken down, for the reasons already stated, so can accumulate in soil and potentially produce Bt toxins. These toxins may build up in the soil, further damaging the organisms crucial for soil fertility. Research from the New York University7 confirms that Bt toxins are not broken down by soil microbes and do indeed accumulate in soil; the toxins maintain their ability to kill insects, potentially creating superbugs that further endanger the ecosystem.
•GE DNA is able to merge with the DNA of other organisms to create new varieties of soil microorganisms that disrupt the ecological balance. These new organisms, if virulent enough, could spread widely via wind erosion and ground water to compromise soil fertility on a broader scale.
•A Swiss study8 showed that adult earthworms feeding on transgenic Bt corn lost 18 percent of their initial weight, suggesting GE DNA may have long-term toxic effects on earthworms. Earthworms are major decomposers of dead and organic matter in the soil and are major contributors to the recycling of nutrients. An earlier study9 showed that both earthworms and collembolans (another small soil-dwelling invertebrate) can be adversely affected by Bt crops.
•Its also been shown that glyphosate can be toxic to rhizobia, a nitrogen-fixing bacterium10. Nitrogen fixing bacteria are important because nitrogen is the nutrient most commonly deficient in soil.

GE crops are adversely affecting our soil biology in numerous ways. There are differences observed in the bacteria occupying plant roots and changes in nutrient availability. Many studies show glyphosate can have toxic effects on microorganisms and can stimulate them to germinate spores and colonize root systems. Glyphosate has also been shown to immobilize manganese, an essential plant nutrient. Overall, glyphosate diminishes the health and nutritional value of the plants it’s sprayed on, as well as the soil.

The two main types of GE foods—herbicide-tolerant crops and pesticide-producing crops—are both imprecise technologies riddled with unintended consequences, including hundreds to thousands of genetic mutations that have unknown effects on human health. Glyphosate and GE crops may be leading the human race over a cliff, as Dr. Don Huber explains in the following interview.

Download Interview Transcript

Keep Fighting for Labeling of Genetically Engineered Foods

While California Prop. 37 failed to pass last November, by a very narrow margin, the fight for GMO labeling is far from over. The field-of-play has now moved to the state of Washington, where the people’s initiative 522, “The People’s Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act,” will require food sold in retail outlets to be labeled if it contains genetically engineered ingredients. As stated on LabelWA.org:

“Calorie and nutritional information were not always required on food labels. But since 1990 it has been required and most consumers use this information every day. Country-of-origin labeling wasn’t required until 2002. The trans fat content of foods didn’t have to be labeled until 2006. Now, all of these labeling requirements are accepted as important for consumers. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also says we must know with labeling if our orange juice is from fresh oranges or frozen concentrate.

Doesn’t it make sense that genetically engineered foods containing experimental viral, bacterial, insect, plant or animal genes should be labeled, too? Genetically engineered foods do not have to be tested for safety before entering the market. No long-term human feeding studies have been done. The research we have is raising serious questions about the impact to human health and the environment.

I-522 provides the transparency people deserve. I-522 will not raise costs to consumers or food producers. It simply would add more information to food labels, which manufacturers change routinely anyway, all the time. I-522 does not impose any significant cost on our state. It does not require the state to conduct label surveillance, or to initiate or pursue enforcement. The state may choose to do so, as a policy choice, but I-522 was written to avoid raising costs to the state or consumers.”

Vermont has also created a Right to Know Campaign.

Remember, as with CA Prop. 37, these are people’s initiatives, and they need support of people like YOU to succeed. Prop. 37 failed with a very narrow margin simply because we didn’t have the funds to counter the massive ad campaigns created by the No on 37 camp, led by Monsanto and other major food companies. Let’s not allow Monsanto and its allies to confuse and mislead the people of Washington and Vermont as they did in California. So please, I urge you to get involved and help in any way you can, regardless of what state you live in.
•No matter where you live in the United States, please donate money to these labeling efforts through the Organic Consumers Fund.
•If you live in Washington State, please sign the I-522 petition. You can also volunteer to help gather signatures across the state.
•If you live in Vermont, please sign the VT Right to Know GMO’s petition.
•For timely updates on issues relating to these and other labeling initiatives, please join the Organic Consumers Association on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter.
•Talk to organic producers and stores and ask them to actively support the Washington and Vermont initiatives.

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GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS ILLEGAL

Posted by: admin  /  Category: Food

Poland becomes eighth EU country to ban Monsanto maize

Thursday, 03 January 2013 10:00

GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS ILLEGAL – GOVERNMENT LAUNCHES BANS
Greenpeace Poland, January 2 2013

Warsaw – As a result of bans on cultivation of genetically modified crops, that were introduced by the government today, from January 28 2013, planting GMO crops will not be allowed. Many environmental organizations as well as farmers and scientists can see it as a success, pointing out that it is not yet the final step to eliminate GMOs from the environment and from our food.

The Council of Ministers has adopted today, prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture, regulations which prohibit cultivation on the Polish territories two genetically modified crops – MON 810 maize from Monsanto and BASF Amflora potato. [1]. Thus, the government has complied with the publicly made assurances that despite lifting the ban on the marketing of genetically modified seeds in the amended Seed Act, the cultivation of these plants will not be admitted to our field. In this way, Poland joined the EUs eight countries, including agricultural powers such as France and Germany, which have banned the cultivation of GMOs in their territory. [2].

“The introduction of these regulations is our great success and gives us enormous satisfaction. For eight years, along with scientists and farmers, we encouraged successive Polish governments to take this step, providing evidence of the dangers of this technology. We are pleased that the government has kept their word and joined the group of progressive countries where GM crops are banned. However, this is not the end of our campaign. Now we need to make sure that the European Commission does not manage to lift the Polish bans like it ineffectively attempted to do earlier, when other countries introduced similar bans. We have to also make sure crops will be effectively controlled, and the ban on cultivation observed”, says Joanna Miś, campaign coordinator STOP GMO, Greenpeace Poland.

Seed Act was changed in November of this year, nullifying, [in existence] since 2005, the ban on sales of the genetically modified seeds. That prohibition was incompatible with EU law and with its continuance Poland was facing heavy fines. In addition, it was a bogus law, because Polish farmers could buy MON 810 corn in the Czech Republic and, completely uncontrolled, propagate it in our country. In this way, in Poland, by various data, currently about 3000 hectares are sown with this type of seed.

To justify the enactment of these regulations, the Ministry of Agriculture pointed out to the impossibility of the coexistence of GM crops and the natural varieties, without the risk of contamination of the latter. The Ministry also draws attention to the threat of contamination of honey by pollen of maize MON 810 and the lack of research supporting the safety of GM crops on the environment and human health. From now on, a farmer who illegally sows MON 810 maize or Amflora potato may be levied with severe financial penalties and even with the destruction of his crop.

“Introduction of effective bans on cultivation of GMOs is a milestone on the road to agriculture that is safe for the environment and people. Great thanks go to all, who have supported us for all these years and believed, that Poland without GMO is possible. I promise that we will continue taking actions against attempts to make Polish soil and environment a laboratory of agrochemical corporations”, says Maciej Muskat, director of Greenpeace Poland.

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The Truth About the Flu Shot…..

Posted by: admin  /  Category: Health

The Truth About the Flu Shot

Sherri Tenpenny, DO  

What’s in the regular flu shot?

•Egg proteins: including avian contaminant viruses
•Gelatin: can cause allergic reactions and anaphylaxis are usually associated with sensitivity to egg or gelatin
•Polysorbate 80 (Tween80™): can cause severe allergic reactions, including

anaphylaxis. Also associated with inferility in female mice.
•Formaldehyde: known carcinogen
•Triton X100: a strong detergent
•Sucrose: table sugar
•Resin: known to cause allergic reactions
•Gentamycin: an antibiotic
•Thimerosal: mercury is still in multidose flu shot vials

Do flu shots work?

Not in babies: In a review of more than 51 studies involving more than 294,000 children it was found there was “no evidence that injecting children 6-24 months of age with a flu shotwas any more effective than placebo. In children over 2 yrs, it was only effective 33% of the time in preventing the flu.

Reference: “Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy children.” The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2 (2008).

Not in children with asthma: A study 800 children with asthma, where one half were vaccinated and the other half did not receive the influenza vaccine. The two groups were compared with respect to clinic visits, emergency department (ED) visits, and hospitalizations for asthma. CONCLUSION: This study failed to provide evidence that the influenza vaccine prevents pediatric asthma exacerbations.

Reference: “Effectiveness of influenza vaccine for the prevention of asthma exacerbations.” Christly, C. et al. Arch Dis Child. 2004 Aug;89(8):734-5.

Not in children with asthma (2): “The inactivated flu vaccine, Flumist, does not prevent influenza-related hospitalizations in children, especially the ones with asthma…In fact, children who get the flu vaccine are more at risk for hospitalization than children who do not get the vaccine.”

Reference: The American Thoracic Society’s 105th International Conference, May 15-20, 2009, San Diego.

Not in adults: In a review of 48 reports including more than 66,000 adults, “Vaccination of healthy adults only reduced risk of influenza by 6% and reduced the number of missed work days by less than one day (0.16) days. It did not change the number of people needing to go to hospital or take time off work.”

Reference: “Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy adults.” The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 1 (2006).

Not in the Elderly: In a review of 64 studies in 98 flu seasons, For elderly living in nursing homes, flu shots were non-significant for preventing the flu. For elderly living in the community, vaccines were not (significantly) effective against influenza, ILI or pneumonia.

Reference: “Vaccines for preventing influenza in the elderly.” The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.3 (2006).

What about the new Swine Flu shot?

Some of the new H1N1 (swine flu) vaccines are going to be made by Novartis. These shots will probably be made in PER.C6 cells (human retina cells) and contain MF59, a potentially debilitating adjuvant. MF-59 is an oil-based adjuvant primarily composed of squalene.

All rats injected with squalene (oil) adjuvants developed a disease that left them crippled, dragging their paralyzed hindquarters across their cages. Injected squalene can cause severe arthritis (3 on scale of 4) and severe immune responses, such as autoimmune arthritis and lupus.


Ref: (1): Kenney, RT. Edleman, R. “Survey of human-use adjuvants.” Expert Review of Vaccines. 2 (2003) p171.


Ref: (2): Matsumoto, Gary. Vaccine A: The Covert Government Experiment That’s Killing Our Soldiers and Why GI’s Are Only the First Victims of this Vaccine. New York: Basic Books. p54.

Federal health officials are starting to recommend that most Americans get three flu shots this fall: one regular flu shot and two doses of the vaccine made against the new swine flu strain. School children who have never had a flu shot are targeted for four shots in the fall – twice for seasonal flu, twice for pandemic swine flu. (July 15, 2009 news)
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has been talking to school superintendents around the country, urging them to make plans to use buildings for mass vaccinations and for vaccinating kids first. (CBS News, June 12, 2009.)
Is Mandatory Vaccination Possible?

1946: US Public Health Service was established and Executive Order (EO) 9708 was signed, listing the communicable diseases where quarantines could be used. 1946 and 2003, cholera, diphtheria, TB, typhoid, smallpox, yellow fever, & viral hemorrhagic fevers were added.

April 4, 2003: EO 13295 added SARS to the list.

April 1, 2005: EO 13295 added “Influenza caused by novel or re-emergent influenza viruses that are causing, or have the potential to cause, a pandemic.” EO 13295 also: The president gave the Sec. of HHS the power to quarantine, his or her discretion. Sec of HHS has the power to arrange for the “apprehension and examination of persons reasonably thought to be infected.” A cough or a fever could put a person at risk for being quarantined for an extended period of time without recourse.

January 28, 2003: Project BioShield was introduced during Bush’s State of the Union Address. This created permanent and indefinite funding authority to develop “medical countermeasures.”

The NIH was given authority to speed approval of drugs and vaccines. Emergency approval of a “fast tracked” drug and vaccine can be given without the regular course of safety testing.

December 17, 2006: Division E: The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREPA) was added as an addendum to Defense Appropriations Bill HR 2863 at 11:20p on Saturday night, long after House Committee members

had signed off on the bill and gone home for the holidays.

Section (b)(1) states: The Sec of HHS can make a determination that a “disease, health condition or threat” constitutes a public health emergency. He or she may then recommend “the manufacture, testing, development, administration, or use of one or more covered counter measures…” A covered countermeasure defined as a “pandemic product, vaccine or drug.”

Division E also provides complete liability protection for all drugs, vaccines or biological products deemed a “covered countermeasure” and used for an outbreak of any kind. In July, 2009, complete liability protection was extened to drug companies that included any product used for any public health emergency declared by Sec of HHS.

Pharma is now protected from all accountability, unless “criminal intent to do harm” can be proven by the injured party. They are protected from liability even if they know the drug will be harmful.

“By 1853, Parliament began passing laws to make the untested vaccine compulsory throughout the British Empire. Other countries of Europe followed suit. Once the economic implications of compulsory vaccinations were realized, few dared to disagree. Then, as now, the media were controlled by the vaccine manufacturers and the government, who stood to make huge money from the sale of these spurious vaccines.”… Tim O’Shea, D.C.

What can you do?

These are just a few suggestions; please come up with more of your own! Add to this list and spread the word.


Give this information to everyone you know and love.

•Contact local first responders (EMTs, Paramedics, Fireman, etc). Tell them what is will be in the flu shots and that *they* will be the first ones to get it.
•Contact local police and discuss concerns about mandatory vaccination. You go to church and to the grocery store with these folks and their kids play with your kids. They are not “scary” people. Take them coffee and a treat to get in the door.
•Contact local city council members about your liberties. You need their support to maintain your right to refuse.
•Write a small article for LOCAL, community newspapers. Watch for samples on http://www.drtenpenny.com
•Have at least 3 weeks of food and water at your house and be prepared to voluntarily self-quarantine of given no other options.
•Stock up on Vitamin D3 (3000 IU per person), Vitamin A, Vitamin C, etc and homeopathics for the flu
•Check out http://www.oathkeepers.org and http://www.oath-keepers.blogspot.com. A pdf of their oath for easy printing is on www.DrTenpenny.com I am sharing this with local military recruitment office, reservists and retired military people we know.
•Connect with other activist organizations –those who support 2nd amendment issues, the environmental and animal rights. Help spread the word about their passion and get them involved with yours.You can’t do it all, but you can do something!
* As stated years ago by Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”

For more information go to http://www.drtenpenny.com

440-239-1878

Full Version in PDF (5 pages) here

Tri-Fold Brochure of this information here

Handout Version in PDF (2 pages) here

Version in Spanish here

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Before you pop a painkiller…

Posted by: admin  /  Category: Food, Health

Five foods that fight pain
.
By Charmaine Yabsley

Before you pop a painkiller, look in your cupboard for a safer, healthier option.

Most of us pop a painkiller without a second’s thought: for a hangover, a cold or aching joints. However, new research shows we may be doing more harm than good. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh found taking more than the daily recommended dosage of a painkiller, even just a small amount more, can sometimes have fatal consequences.

“Painkiller dosages, like all medicine doses, are designed to give the body the ability to rid itself of the medicine, but taking too much doesn’t give the body a chance to do this,” says Dr Ronald McCoy, spokesman for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. “While taking one or two extra tablets a day may not seem much, their adverse effects can build up quickly over time, especially with the common painkiller paracetamol. Only ever take the recommended dosages.”

There is an alternative. Some foods contain natural anti-inflammatory ingredients, which work as well as, or better than, over-the-counter medicines.

Extra-virgin olive oil

How it works: “Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and more recently in Australia, have shown that olive oil, particularly extra-virgin olive oil, is rich in a chemical called oleocanthal, a naturally occurring anti-inflammatory substance with very similar properties to the drug ibuprofen,” Associate Professor Catherine Itsiopoulos, head of Dietetics and Human Nutrition at La Trobe University, says.

Dosage: Add a tablespoon to your daily diet.

Good for: Treating and preventing a scratchy throat. “Oleocanthal gives virgin olive oil that bite in the back of the throat,” Itsiopoulos says. “The sharper the taste, the better it is for treating your cold or flu.”

May also help: There is a possibility it may lower your risk of heart disease and some cancers. “It also helps maintain the body’s natural defence mechanisms such as anti-microbial effects, anti-inflammatory effects and normal clotting,” Itsiopoulos says.

Cherries

How they work: If you have just completed a hard workout, reach for cherry juice or a bowl of cherries to aid muscle repair. Researchers at the Sports and Exercise Science Research Centre at London South Bank University in the UK found that 90 per cent of athletes who were given cherry juice before and after training reported a return of muscle strength within 24 hours.

Dosage: Add a handful to your daily juice or fruit salad.

Good for: Preventing muscle pain. “The bright red colour of the cherries, called anthocyanins, are anti-inflammatories, which may decrease oxidative damage to muscles after exercising,” Itsiopolous says.

May also help: According to research at the University of Michigan in the US, a regular intake of cherries may lower the risk of heart disease, stroke and type-2 diabetes.

Turmeric

How it works: Turmeric may be your best bet for treating joint pain. “Curcumin [a chemical in the spice], contains anti-inflammatory ingredients to help myriad aches, pains and upsets,” Itsiopoulos says.

Dosage: Add a teaspoon to a curry or a glass of warm water.

Good for: Stomach upsets, headaches and period pain.

May also help: “Turmeric prevents ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol from causing oxidative damage, which can affect arteries around the heart,” Itsiopoulos says.

Salmon

How it works: “Salmon is one of the richest sources of omega-3 or fish oils, which have been shown to have strong anti-inflammatory effects,” Itsiopoulos says.

Dosage: Three serves a week. You can also eat other foods containing omega-3, such as tuna, mackerel or walnuts.

Good for: Preventing premenstrual tension symptoms, heart disease and the onset of colds and flu. It is also beneficial for sore joints. Collated reports have found patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis or joint pain who supplemented their diet with EPA-rich omega-3 fats for three to four months reduced their joint pain intensity by 26 per cent.

May also help: “The pink colour of salmon is due to a newly discovered antioxidant called astaxanthin, which can protect cells from damage and boost immunity,” Itsiopoulos says. “Salmon is also a good source of a trace mineral called selenium, which has anti-cancer properties and is also important for strengthening the body’s immune system.”

Cinnamon

How it works: “In experimental studies, cinnamon has been shown to have strong antioxidant properties,” Itsiopoulos says. “It may also prevent glycoxidation – damage to cells caused by high levels of blood glucose.”

Dosage: Half to one teaspoon per day. Sprinkle it on yoghurt or add to warm water.

Good for: Treating period pain and stomach cramps.

May also help: “Cinnamon improves circulation, so it’s good for pain related to poor circulation,” Itsiopoulos says. “It may also prevent stomach ulcers, urinary tract and yeast infections, tooth decay and gum disease.”

Move it to lose it

“Exercise encourages lymphatic drainage and rids your body of harmful waste products, a surplus of which can lead to pain,” says Chris van Hoof, director of Chisel Fitness. “The more efficient your body is at this, the quicker the inflammation process will be resolved.”

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