Rather Be Healthy

By Dr. Mercola

The chiropractic profession contains some of the most profoundly innovative physicians that I am aware of, and Dr. Craig Buhler is one of them. His work focuses on the interrelationships between muscle function, range of motion, and restriction that contributes to pain. In 2002, he established the Advanced Muscle Integration Technique (AMIT) in a clinic in Utah, where I’ve seen him as a patient.

One of the reasons that motivated me to see him is his phenomenal success in treating world-class professional and Olympic athletes, and helping them improve their performance.

I first became aware of Dr. Buhler’s work through Jeff Hays, the producer of the film Doctored, which was recently released. Dr. Buhler and I are both featured in the film but he was actually one of the major inspirations for the film.

Dr. Buhler was the chiropractic physician for the professional basketball team Utah Jazz for 26 years. And as a result of his techniques, the team had the lowest player missed games due to injury (PMGI) rate in the NBA — 61 player-missed games due to injury within a 20-year long span, compared to the league average of 171 in the same timeframe.

“‘Then, between 2001 and 2006 when I stopped having access to the players, we had the most rapid increase in PMGI rates in the league in the 25-year period,’ he says. ‘It validates what happens when you use the technique that I’ve developed and integrate it with good quality medical and training care.'”

As someone who is passionate about exercise, I’m particularly excited about Dr. Buhler’s methods, because, invariably, when you participate in an aggressive exercise program you’re bound to become injured at some point. Injuries and resulting chronic pain is also what typically ends a professional athlete’s career, and it can certainly put a damper on anyone’s quality of life.

History of the AMI Technique

How the AMIT therapy was developed is an interesting story in and of itself. It began with Dr. George Goodheart, a chiropractic physician from Detroit, Michigan, who developed a technique called applied kinesiology, and Dr. Allan Beardall, also a chiropractor.

“Dr. Goodheart discovered the relationships between organs and glands, muscles, and the vertebral levels in the spine,” Dr. Buhler explains. “Dr. Allan Beardall studied with Goodheart. Allan was nationally ranked distance runner, so he treated a lot of elite distance runners. Dr. Beardall found that elite athletes would come in with various types of injuries, and he would apply the chiropractic techniques he learned and the applied kinesiology techniques that he learned.A lot of the conditions got better, but others didn’t. Or they’d get better until the athlete stressed themselves working out, and then they’d breakdown again. He said, ‘You know, there’s got to be a reason why they breakdown.'”

Dr. Beardall launched into an in-depth clinical research project, in which he studied the available chiropractic techniques to determine where, when and why they worked, or did not work. Then, he added acupuncture into the mix, which brought it to a whole new level.

“He defined eight reflex systems for 310 muscles in the body. At that time, Goodheart had discovered four reflexes for about 85 muscles,” Dr. Buhler says. “Allan took Dr. Goodheart’s work and expanded it dramatically. He redefined anatomy.

We defined divisions to muscle. Like the quadriceps: they are considered four muscles, but in reality there are 12 divisions to those complex muscle systems. He had developed ways of isolating and testing those muscles, so we could go through [a person] and isolate every single muscle in their body to determine whether they’re neurologically and proprioceptively intact or not. We can find areas of instability, which show us where a person’s vulnerabilities to injuries are, and that allows us to predict where injuries will occur.”

Getting to the Root of the Problem is the Hallmark of any Successful Therapy

One of the reasons why Dr. Buhler’s AMIT therapy is so profound is because it integrates so many effective techniques. Essentially, it incorporates the most effective techniques from chiropractic or acupuncture and other modalities for any given problem or area of your body.

One of the key discoveries was that if your muscle is overloaded beyond its ability to handle the stress placed upon it, either due to lack of conditioning or trauma, a couple of different things occur: Either you may tear the tissue, and/or your nervous system will deactivate the muscle through a series of reflexes called proprioceptors.

Your muscle system and nervous system relate to each other from within tiny muscle fibers called spindle cells, which monitor stretch. If your muscle is overloaded too rapidly, the spindle cells will temporarily inhibit the muscle. The next time you contract the muscle, it will fire again. Similarly, cells within your tendons called Golgi tendon organs also measure and monitor stretch. If your tendon is stretched too rapidly or exceeds its integrity, the Golgi tendon organs will temporarily inhibit the muscle. But the next time the muscle fires, it will again fire appropriately.

“But there’s a fail-safe system,” Dr. Buhler explains. “It’s where the tendon attaches into the periosteum of the bone and the little fibers there are called Sharpey’s fibers. Those fibers are loaded with little receptors that monitor tension. And if the integrity of those fibers are exceeded, they inhibit the muscle, just like a circuit breaker would inhibit an electrical circuit.

Once that happens, the muscle will still fire under passive range of motion. But if you load the muscle, it gives way. If you continue to load the muscle, your body creates pain at the attachment points to protect you. What the central nervous system does at that point is compute an adaptive strategy by throwing stress into the muscle next to it. Other tissues begin to take on more of the load for the muscle that’s been injured.”

When other tissues and muscles take over to protect the injured site, this adaptation “locks” into your neurology, which leads to altered or adapted movement patterns. Essentially, it alters how you move and use your body. While this takes stress off the injured muscle, allowing it to heal, the adapted muscle is at a mechanical disadvantage, making it more prone to injury. So that muscle then becomes the next site of injury. This can set into motion a vicious cycle of progressive injuries, cascading out from the original source.
Dr. Buhler echoes my own sentiments when he says that getting to the core problem is essential, as treating the adaptation, the symptom, will never allow for recovery. When you focus on the root of the problem, you can achieve dramatic change and healing Now, when a muscle has become neurologically and/or proprioceptively inhibited due to injury, it loses its ability to inhibit its antagonist, so the antagonist muscle remains tight through all planes of motion and never completely releases. A typical example of this is chronic hamstring problems, which is the result of the quadriceps becoming inhibited.

“When people come in with hamstring problems, invariably, I find a group of the quadriceps shut down,” Dr. Buhler says. “Once I reactivate [the quadriceps muscle], they get off the table, the hamstrings are clear, and they no longer have problems with tight hamstrings.”

Description of a Typical AMIT Session

A typical AMIT session begins with taking an in-depth case history — when and how the injury occurred, along with your health and medical history. This provides insight into the potential “layering” or cascade effect caused by your original injury, and the potential sources of your problem. At this point the patient’s central nervous system is assessed by evaluating the atlas/axis/occiput complex, which is the upper part of your spine that affects the brain stem of your central nervous system directly. Next, a full assessment of basic muscle function is done, which also helps establish the functionality of your central nervous system. As explained by Dr. Buhler, starting from your head, each muscle is isolated to determine its neurological integrity. This is done using a form of muscle testing.

“I’m not testing for strength, which would be seen in break testing and which a lot of physical therapists and chiropractors do. What I’m looking for is the tonal quality of that muscle,” Dr. Buhler explains.

Next comes the actual therapy process, which he refers to as an “innate guided systems approach.” What this means is that your body creates symptoms, such as pain, as a way of communicating that there’s a problem.

“We’ve learned through our conditioning that we just ignore the pain, or we take a medication to suppress the pain, which is no more than saying to the body, ‘Shut up. I don’t want to hear about it,’ which allows the problem to become more advanced,” he says. “When you take anti-inflammatories and pain pills for a condition that you’re dealing with athletically, all that you do is set the body up for more damage, because you override the protective mechanism of your body. This approach honors your body, listens to your body, and uses symptoms as a communication system.”

The therapy is designed to reactivate the muscle and re-establish pain free motion. Once function and range of motion has been reestablished, yoga or some other form of training program designed to strengthen the previously inhibited muscle can bring you to a whole new level of performance. Naturally, this is particularly valuable for professional athletes.

“We’ve dropped the time of a 5,000-meter speed skater by a minute and a half, simply by clearing the calf muscles and the quadriceps. That was accomplished in 24 hours,” Dr. Buhler says. “And we’ve increased vertical jump on a basketball player by seven inches in 24 hours, simply by reactivating the quads and the calf muscles. That’s staggering. That’s unheard of. But it’s an example of what happens when you reactivate and reinitialize those muscles back into the nervous system. It’s pretty dramatic.”

An Example of How AMIT Can Work “Like Magic”

A good example of how Dr. Buhler’s method can achieve results akin to “miracle,” is the technique he uses for sprained ankles, an injury caused by a sudden sideways or twisting movement of your foot. Typically, a severely sprained ankle can take you out of commission for several weeks. Dr. Buhler’s manipulation technique can often get you back on your feet in a matter of minutes. There are three grades of severe ankle sprain.
•Grade 1: Overstretched ligament
•Grade 2: Slight partial ligament tear
•Grade 3: Complete ligament tear

According to Dr. Buhler, grade 1and 2 sprained ankles are “an easy fix.” Unfortunately, the standard medical approach is to keep weight off the ankle for at least a week, using crutches. The second week, standard treatment typically includes some passive range of motion therapy. After that, you slowly start rehabilitating with more aggressive therapy. Recovery can take four to six weeks.

Dr. Buhler’s model looks at this type of injury in a wholly different light. An inversion sprain, which is the most common, occurs when the talus bone — the top bone in your ankle — rotates and the heel bone counter-rotates. This causes the long bone on the outside of your ankle called the fibula to drop inferior and shift backwards at the attachment in your knee. That changes the dynamic of your joint mechanoreceptors, causing severe pain when you put any weight on the joints.

“The lateral stabilizers to the ankle muscle become inhibited because of the trauma. They no longer fire to support the joint. Every time you take a step, you’re stepping and weight-bearing on a joint that’s distorted and unstable, and your body automatically creates pain to protect you,” Dr. Buhler explains. “You get the swelling, because the capillary hemorrhages. Your body again is having to deal with the inflammatory process and needs to begin the healing process.”

To address this, the technique calls for adjusting the ankle mortise back into alignment, so the joint tracks properly. He then resets the lateral stabilizer muscles with a specific reflex method. In the beginning, when the muscles are challenged, they will be weak and painful. But, once they’ve been activated, upon retesting they are once again solid and pain free, and can withstand weight bearing.

“Now, when the athlete or the patient gets off the table and begins to walk, the first step is painful, the second step is less painful, and each subsequent step they take is less and less painful, to where they can run back and forth in the clinic without any pain. That way, walking and running actually becomes therapeutic, because you’re stimulating the lymphatic drainage system,” he says.

Summary of the Advanced Muscle Integration Technique (AMIT)

As explained by Dr. Buhler, each muscle in your body has the following points or reflexes that relate to it. All of these points or reflexes must be stimulated. When a muscle is inhibited, the corresponding reflexes will become painful.
•One acupuncture point
•Vascular point
•Lymphatic point
•Two organ or gland reflex points
•Origin and insertion of the muscle
•Spindle cells

In addition there are three vertebra in the spine, two of which are reactive that need to be adjusted. Dr. Buhler explains the process of testing and treating the muscle using these reflex points:

“‘A person will wake up one morning with pain in their elbow, and it really hurts. They don’t remember hitting themselves, but it’s painful. They go to the doctor. They’re diagnosed with epicondylitis or tennis elbow, and prescribed an anti-inflammatory. Well, that point may be an acupuncture point related to a muscle in the opposite knee,’ Dr. Buhler says. “As we go through the therapy and we stimulate those reflex points, they are quite painful. People are kind of shocked at the fact that I can precisely isolate those painful spots. ‘How did you know I hurt there? I’ve been hurting there for six weeks, and you nailed it,’ they’ll say. You go through that process of reactivating all those reflexes, and then you go back and retest the muscle for function. It’s not a comfortable procedure, but it’s effective.”

Other Techniques Integrated into Dr. Buhler’s Therapy

Dr. Buhler also integrates other techniques and modalities into his work, such as:
•The Nasal Specific Technique: Developed by the late Dr. Stober, a dual-licensed naturopathic physician and chiropractic physician who practiced in Portland, Oregon. The technique is based on manipulation of your skull sutures. They claim the bones of your skull fuse, but this is incorrect. Your cranium actually expands and rotates with each breath, and this movement is tied into your cerebral spinal fluid.

Dr. Stober used the technique in the treatment of children with Down syndrome, muscular dystrophy, sinus problems, migraine headaches, concussions, and Meniere’s disease. The technique involves inserting a small balloon, the size of your little finger, into the nasal passage, where it is inflated and released a number of times on each side. This tends to expand your cranium from the inside out, unlocking those suture lines, and reestablishing the cranial mechanism.
•Network Spinal Analysis: Developed by Donny Epstein, this technique involves toggling and adjusting your atlas with very light-contact adjustment.

Epstein’s position is that when you experience emotional stress and trauma, your central nervous system goes into a state of contraction. Surrounding your brain and spinal cord is the meningeal system. This tissue is attached via tiny ligaments called dentate ligaments to the base of your spine and upper cervical spine. In response to emotional stress and trauma, the meningeal system contracts, pulling those dentate ligaments, which can distort the vertebra from inside your spinal canal.

Regular meningeal adjustments aren’t as effective to address this kind of distortion. But what Epstein discovered was that by lightly holding specific points on the sacrum and different parts of the spine, the central nervous system begins to release that meningeal tension.

More Information

To learn more, see Dr. Buhler’s website, www.AMITMethod.com. It includes information on each of the techniques, along with testimonials from the likes of John Stockton, Picabo Street and others. There, you can also find a list of providers around the United States that have been trained in these techniques.

Unfortunately there are only a dozen clinicians across the country who are trained in his technique, but Dr. Buhler is planning on training more clinicians in the near future.

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

More evidence has emerged showing the complete failure of modern vaccines to provide any real protection against disease. A recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) reveals that an astounding 97 percent of children affected by a mumps outbreak that swept the Northeast back in 2009 had already been vaccinated for the condition in accordance with recommended government guidelines.

According to the study, 3,502 children of primarily Orthodox Jewish upbringing developed mumps between June 28, 2009, and June 27, 2010, as a result of an unusual “face-to-face” educational method used at certain all-boys Jewish schools throughout the New York and New Jersey areas. Among those affected by the outbreak, 97 percent were said to be Orthodox Jewish persons, and nearly one-third were between the ages of 13 and 17.

After confirming 1,648 cases of infection using clinical specimens, the research team that compiled the study determined that 89 percent of all those who contracted mumps as a result of the outbreak had already been vaccinated at least twice for mumps, presumably with the controversial measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) combination vaccine that has been implicated in causing gastrointestinal disorders and autism. Another eight percent of the group had reportedly received only one dose of the mumps vaccine.

When combined, these percentages translate into a 97 percent vaccination rate among all those affected by the mumps outbreak, leaving only three percent unconfirmed as having ever been vaccinated. What this means, of course, is that the MMR vaccine was essentially useless in conferring protection in this case, at least as far as mumps is concerned, and that parents would do well to think twice about administering this toxic vaccine to their children.

“The epidemiologic features of this outbreak suggest that intense exposures, particularly among boys in schools, facilitated transmission and overcame vaccine-induced protection in these patients,” wrote the authors in their conclusion, basically admitting that the mumps vaccine provides no real protection against the disease.

You can read the study’s abstract for free here:
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1202865

MMR vaccine actually damages natural immunity, increases risk of disease contraction
But what exactly constitutes “intense exposure” anyway, and how is this really any different than common exposure? In an apparent effort to rationalize away the findings, some reports have suggested that because the group most affected was “boys in schools,” this particular outbreak was somehow unusual and atypical, and not indicative of the effectiveness of vaccines on a larger scale. But in reality, the findings show quite the opposite — that vaccines actually increase the risk of disease transmission.

Only a very small percentage of those affected by the outbreak, eight percent, had received one vaccination dose for mumps, while the vast majority of the rest had received at least two doses. This suggests that those who received two doses of MMR were actually more likely than those who received just one to contract the disease. Next to that, only a very small fraction of the remaining cases were unaccounted for, which suggests unvaccinated individuals actually had the highest levels of immune protection during the outbreak.

The takeaway from all this is that the “herd immunity” concept we are constantly told is necessary to prevent disease outbreaks is absolute bunk. If anything, vaccinated children are the ones most responsible for spreading disease during an outbreak, as the viral components delivered to their bodies through vaccines are shed onto primarily immunocompromised individuals, who just so happen to be other vaccinated individuals. There is simply no other way to validly interpret these and other similar findings in recent years, which only further prove that vaccines are neither safe nor effective.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1202865

http://www.reuters.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/038554_mumps_outbreaks_vaccinations_children.html#ixzz2Gzz8tad8

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

More and more, science is finding that teeny tiny creatures living in your gut are there for a definite purpose. Known as your microbiome, about 100 trillion of these cells populate your body, particularly your intestines and other parts of your digestive system.

In fact, 90 percent of the genetic material in your body is not yours, but rather that of bacteria, fungi, viruses and other microorganisms that compose your microflora.

True, some of these bacteria can make you sick; for example, the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases recently found Crohn’s Disease may be caused by immune responses to certain gut microbiota.

But the majority are good, and they work together as helpmates to aid your digestive system and keep you well. Beneficial bacteria, better known as probiotics, along with a host of other microorganisms, are so crucial to your health that researchers have compared them to “a newly recognized organ.” For example, we now know that your microflora influence your:
•Genetic expression
•Immune system
•Brain development, mental health, and memory
•Weight, and
•Risk of numerous chronic and acute diseases, from diabetes to cancer

According to the featured article in Time Magazine:1

“Our surprisingly complex internal ecology has been a hot topic in medicine lately. Initiatives such as the Human Microbiome Project2, an extension of the Human Genome Project, have been working tirelessly to probe potential links between the human microbiota and human health, and to construct strategies for manipulating the bacteria so that they work with us rather than against us.

…They’ve been linked to a range of nasty conditions, including obesity, arthritis, and high cholesterol. Now, two newer areas of research are pushing the field even further, looking at the possible gut bug link to a pair of very different conditions: autism and irritable bowel disease.”

Microflora Being Investigated to Ascertain Links with Autism and IBS

This is precisely what Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s work centers around, and her Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) nutritional plan is designed to reestablish proper gut flora in order to heal and seal your gut – thereby reversing and eliminating ailments running the gamut from autism, ADD/ADHD, learning disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, just to name a few possibilities. It’s exciting to see science is starting to take this more seriously, as autism has reached epidemic proportions.

According to the featured Time article:3

“Up to 85 percent of children with autism also suffer from some kind of gastrointestinal distress such as chronic constipation or inflammatory bowel disease. Research published in 2005 in the Journal of Medical Microbiology and in 2004 in Applied Environmental Microbiology4 reported that the stools of autistic children contained higher levels of the bacterium Clostridium,while two 2010 studies in the Journal of Proteome Research5 and Nutritional Neuroscience6 reported unusual levels of metabolic compounds in autistic children’s urine consistent with the high bacterial levels found in the stools of autistic patients.

In 2011, a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that mice with essentially germ-free guts showed abnormal movement and anxiety symptoms, suggesting that at least some active intestinal biome is essential for normal development.

‘Until a little while ago it was outlandish to suggest that microbiomes in the gut could be behind this disease,’ University of Guelph assistant professor of biology Emma Allen-Vercoe said. ‘But I think it’s an intersection between the genetics of the patient and the microbiome and the environment.'”

Recent research published in the journal Science7 may shed much needed light on the persistent and hard-to-treat nature of irritable bowel disease (IBD). The researchers infected mice with Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite associated with lethal food-borne illness.

Interestingly, when the immune system of the mouse reacted to the presence of the parasite, it also began overreacting to beneficial bacteria. In fact, while about 10 percent of the T cells in the GI tract attacked the parasite, approximately 45 percent of the T cells began attacking other gut microbes. Furthermore, once the parasite had been successfully cleared, the immune system continued to misidentify beneficial bacteria as a foreign agents, preventing the mice from ever fully recovering from the infection. As stated by Time:

“If something similar happens in humans – either with Toxoplasma gondii or another invader – it could go a long way to explaining both the existence and persistence of all of the IBD conditions.”

According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases:8

“The team’s findings are among the first to demonstrate that T cells in the gut mount an immune response to commensal bacteria [normal microflora] during an infection. They also are the first to show that commensal-specific T cells remain in circulation after the infection is cleared. Based on their observations, the investigators speculate that, when uncontrolled, commensal-specific T cells may contribute to development of Crohn’s disease, but more research is needed.”

Who Would Have Known? Breast Milk Boosts Beneficial Growth of Gut Flora

Adding more weight to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s insistence that breastfeeding is crucial to help normalize an infant’s microflora (hence protecting against disease and developmental problems), a first-of-its-kind study on human breast milk and its impact on infants’ gut flora gives new insight on why breast milk is better than formula at protecting newborns from infectious illness.9

The study’s author, William Parker, explained that breast milk appears to promote a healthy colonization of beneficial biofilms. Previous research has already established that breast milk reduces diarrhea, flu, and respiratory infections in babies, as well as lowers their risk of developing allergies, Type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and other diseases.

According to Duke University:10

“‘This study is the first we know of that examines the effects of infant nutrition on the way that bacteria grow, providing insight to the mechanisms underlying the benefits of breast feeding over formula feeding for newborns,’ said William Parker, PhD, associate professor of surgery at Duke and senior author of the study.

Only breast milk appears to promote a healthy colonization of beneficial biofilms, and these insights suggest there may be potential approaches for developing substitutes that more closely mimic those benefits in cases where breast milk cannot be provided.”

The researchers grew bacteria in samples of three popular brands each of milk- and soy-based infant formulas, cow’s milk, and breast milk. All samples were incubated with two strains of beneficial E.coli bacteria (while some E.coli cause violent disease, other ‘friendly cousins’ actually serve helpful roles). While the bacteria rapidly multiplied in all the specimens, there was one major difference. In the breast milk specimens, the bacteria formed biofilms, whereas the bacteria in the whole milk and the different infant formulas grew as individual organisms and failed to form into a biofilm.

This is indeed important. Biofilms are essentially thin, sticky bacterial “sheaths” that adhere to your intestinal wall, where they serve as a shield, effectively blocking out pathogens and infectious agents. This is an essential part of the “healing and sealing” of your gut that Dr. Campbell-McBride’s GAPS protocol accomplishes.

According to Duke University:

“…This study adds even more weight to an already large body of evidence that breast milk is the most nutritious way to feed a baby whenever possible,” said Gabriela M. Maradiaga Panayotti, M.D., co-director of the newborn nursery for Duke Children’s and Duke Primary Care. “We know that babies who receive breast milk have better outcomes in many ways, and mother who breast feed also have improved health outcomes, including decreased risks of cancer. Whenever possible, promoting breast feeding is the absolute best option for mom and baby.”

How to Optimize Your Gut Flora

A healthy diet is the ideal way to maintain a healthy gut, and regularly consuming traditionally fermented or cultured foods is the easiest way to ensure optimal gut flora. Healthy options include:

Fermented vegetables of all kinds (cabbage, carrots, kale, collards, celery spiced with herbs like ginger and garlic)

Lassi (an Indian yogurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner)

Tempeh

Fermented raw milk such as kefir or yogurt, but NOT commercial versions, which typically do not have live cultures and are loaded with sugars that feed pathogenic bacteria

Natto

Kim chee

Just make sure to steer clear of pasteurized versions, as pasteurization will destroy many of the naturally occurring probiotics. For example, most of the “probiotic” yogurts you find in every grocery store these days are NOT recommended. Since they’re pasteurized, they will be associated with all of the problems of pasteurized milk products instead. They also typically contain added sugars, high fructose corn syrup, dyes, and/or artificial sweeteners; all of which are detrimental to your health.

Consuming traditionally fermented foods will also provide you with the following added boons:
•Important nutrients: Some fermented foods are excellent sources of essential nutrients such as vitamin K2, which is important for preventing arterial plaque buildup and heart disease. Cheese curd, for example, is an excellent source of both probiotics and vitamin K2. You can also obtain all the K2 you’ll need (about 200 micrograms) by eating 15 grams, or half an ounce, of natto daily. They are also a potent producer of many B vitamins
•Optimizing your immune system: Probiotics have been shown to modulate immune responses via your gut’s mucosal immune system, and have anti-inflammatory potential. Eighty percent of your immune system is located in your digestive system, making a healthy gut a major focal point if you want to maintain optimal health, as a robust immune system is your number one defense system against ALL disease
•Detoxification: Fermented foods are some of the best chelators available. The beneficial bacteria in these foods are very potent detoxifiers, capable of drawing out a wide range of toxins and heavy metals
•Cost effective: Fermented foods can contain 100 times more probiotics than a supplement, so just adding a small amount of fermented foods to each meal will give you the biggest bang for your buck
•Natural variety of microflora: As long as you vary the fermented and cultured foods you eat, you’ll get a much wider variety of beneficial bacteria than you could ever get from a supplement

When you first start out, you’ll want to start small, adding as little as half a tablespoon of fermented vegetables to each meal, and gradually working your way up to about a quarter to half a cup (2 to 4 oz) of fermented vegetables or other cultured food with one to three meals per day. Since cultured foods are efficient detoxifiers, you may experience detox symptoms, or a “healing crisis,” if you introduce too many at once.

Learn to Make Your Own Fermented Vegetables

Fermented vegetables are easy to make on your own. It’s also the most cost-effective way to get high amounts of healthful probiotics in your diet. To learn how, review the following interview with Caroline Barringer, a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP) and an expert in the preparation of the foods prescribed in Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) Nutritional Program. In addition to the wealth of information shared in this interview, I highly recommend getting the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome, which provides all the necessary details for Dr. McBride’s GAPS protocol.

Although you can use the native bacteria on cabbage and other vegetables, it is typically easier to get consistent results by using a starter culture. Caroline prepares hundreds of quarts of fermented vegetables a week and has found that she gets great results by using three to four high quality probiotic capsules to jump start the fermentation process.

Download Interview Transcript

Caroline prepares the vegetables commercially and I used hers for a month before I started making my own. So, if you just want to put your toe in the water and see if you like them, you can order a jar or two and try them out. You can find her products on www.CulturedVegetables.net or www.CulturedNutrition.com.

AVOID This to Optimize Your Gut Flora!

Along with eating naturally fermented foods and/or taking a high-quality supplement, it’s essential that you avoid sugar, including fructose. Sugar nourishes pathogenic bacteria, yeast, and fungi in your gut, which may actually harm you more than its impact on insulin resistance. One of the major results of eating a healthy diet like the one described in my nutrition plan is that you cause your beneficial gut bacteria to flourish, and they secondarily perform the real “magic” of restoring your health.

Remember, an estimated 80 percent of your immune system is located in your gut, which is just one more reason why “tending to” your gut microflora is an essential element of good health. A robust immune system, supported by your flourishing inner ecosystem, is your number one defense against ALL disease, from the common cold to cancer. I feel very strongly that if we can catalyze a movement to get more people to implement this ancient dietary wisdom to their normal eating patterns, then we’ll start seeing a radical change in health.

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

Prevent Wrinkles and Repair Your Skin with Beet Juice

Danica Collins |

The benefits of beet juice have been backed by countless studies, but it seems most people are unaware of its nutritional power.

These bright red root vegetables pack a variety of vitamins and minerals rarely found in such high concentrations within one food.

Beets became popular around the world in the 19th century when it was discovered they could be used to make sugar; the very first beet sugar plant was built in Poland.

Beets belong to the Chenopod family – along with spinach and chard – and continue to amaze researchers with their incredibly unique antioxidant values.

Beet Juice Benefits for Anti-Aging

High in folate, beets stimulate the production and repair of cells, which helps protect against premature aging.

Top 3 Anti-Aging Benefits of Beet Juice
• Fight wrinkles and skin conditions naturally with folate!
• Prevent age-related macular degeneration with vitamin A and carotenoids!
• Preserve brain function with nitrates that improve blood flow!
Beet juice might not be incredibly delicious on its own but adding apple juice or carrot juice – both topically or orally – sweetens it and boosts the overall antioxidants.

Anti-Aging Beet Skin Care Facial Mask 1…2…3

1. Mix 1 tablespoon of carrot juice and 1 tablespoon of beet juice. Apply to face with a cotton ball. Leave on for 10 minutes. Rinse with cool water.
2. Smooth a small bit of coconut oil into your skin for deep-tissue moisturization and to repair damaged skin.
3. Exfoliate with 1 tablespoon of pineapple juice mixed with 1 teaspoon of coconut oil and rub into skin.
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The bromelain in pineapple removes dead skin without damaging the new skin underneath. Rub for several minutes – until dead skin begins to flake off – then rinse and apply a light layer of coconut oil to rehydrate the skin.

Treating your face to natural skin care treatments works just as well as a spa day, costs less and delivers better results.

Researchers estimate you could reduce the depth and appearance of wrinkles by as much as 60% – without cosmetic surgery or painful / dangerous procedures.

Looking good isn’t the only benefit of beet juice. The scientific community is studying beets in every application from acne treatment to improving your chances of survival after surgery.

Top 5 Total Body Benefits of Beet Juice
1. Naturally fat-free, low in calories, inexpensive and available year-round – beets are a good fuel source of carbohydrates that don’t leave you lagging like processed foods.

Folate, fiber, iron, manganese, potassium and vitamin C – to name a few – make these unassuming veggies a must-have in your nutrition plan. They satisfy hunger, aid in weight loss and boost your energy levels.

2. Prevents heart disease and lowers blood pressure significantly. Professor Amrita Ahluwalia, of Barts and the London School of Medicine, and her team observed an immediate effect of nitrate-rich beet juice in lowering blood pressure within one hour and continued benefits were observed as much as 24 hours later.

3. Fights cancer – especially colon cancer – and shrinks tumors. This is due to the high concentration of betacyanin – which gives beets their red pigment – and the ability of beets to increase the body’s natural production of glutathione.

According to Sherry Rogers, M.D., this compound is effective against hundreds of pollutants – including those known to cause cancer – by attaching to them and flushing them from your system.

Conventional medicine has included ‘beet therapy’ as complimentary medicine for fighting cancer since Dr. Alexander Ferenczi, a doctor in Hungary, treated patients with final-stage cancer who had not responded to other treatments. Each of his patients showed outstanding progress – no matter their form of cancer.

4. Detoxifies the entire digestive system, according to Mikhail Tombak, Ph.D., a Russian anti-aging researcher, and breaks down stones in the bladder, kidneys and liver. It also cleanses the blood and colon specifically.

5. The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry published a study that stated beets lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides while raising HDL (good) cholesterol – all thanks to the antioxidant betanin. Folate, also found in abundance in beets, is effective in breaking down homocystein – a bio marker for heart disease.

Beets can be sautéed on low heat, grated raw, boiled or steamed. Added to soups, salads or entrees – you will not regret adding this often overlooked Super Food to your daily eating plan.

The benefits of beets are just now being fully examined…imagine what else researchers are going to discover!

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Indigestion has many aspects, from simply feeling bloated and too full to full blown IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) or IBD (inflammatory bowel disease). The latter includes both ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

Basic eating habits can prevent simple indigestion and keep gastrointestinal disorders away or minimize them if they already exist. Start with a good eating environment that’s without stress, bad feelings, or talking about stressful activities. Actually, too much of any gabbing interferes with good digestion.

That’s because digestion begins with enzymes and beneficial bacteria from the saliva in the mouth. Cramming in to much food with each bite and swallowing after only two or three chews overwhelms the beginning of digestive function.

It’s also a good idea to avoid cold beverages while eating. Liquids should not be cooler than room temperature. Ayurveda and Chinese medicine point respect to what they call the fire of digestion that begins in the stomach. Also, drink sparingly while eating, lest you drown the fire of digestion.

The foundation for proper food mixing is based on not mixing foods that require different time spans for complete digestion. Animal foods, especially meats, take the longest. Next comes complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains. Then simple carbohydrates, refined grains, etc.

Fruits are digested the quickest. That’s why they should be eaten away from main meals. The same goes for processed carbohydrate or sugary desserts. When slower digesting foods mix into the faster digesting foods, fermentation can occur leading to indigestion.

It’s also a good idea to include soluble fiber foods with insoluble fiber foods, with an attempt toward eating soluble fiber foods first. For example, your main dish with rice or potatoes (soluble fiber) should precede salad (insoluble fiber). Source [1] below contains lists of soluble and insoluble fiber foods.

Herb and spice remedies for indigestion
(1) Aloe vera juice is great for digestive problems and healthy in so many other ways. It can be regarded as a miracle plant juice. Look for unadulterated, unsweetened, unpasteurized, and non-irradiated aloe vera juice, whether pressed from whole leaves or the fileted gel within the leaf.

The whole leaf versus gel only controversy is one you should explore to decide what makes sense to you. Aloe vera is anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, anti-oxidant, and anti-cancer. It requires only a little aloe vera consumption to handle digestive problems, but much more to cure cancer. It also facilitates detoxification.

Aloe vera has been clinically proven (though not publicized by MSM) to handle both extremes and a lot of health issues in between. (http://www.naturalnews.com/021858_aloe_vera_gel.html)

(2) A simple technique of thoroughly chewing a handful of dry fennel seeds after eating can facilitate good digestion. These are usually available in Indian restaurants the way mints are up for grabs in many western eateries. But you can have them on hand at home cheaply. Some swear by fennel tea for indigestion.

(3) Ginger and coriander aid digestion. Ginger powder or ground ginger root can be used as a spice. Ginger tea or capsules soothes many digestive disorders or upset stomachs from motion sickness or other causes.

Coriander seeds or powders are used in Indian and Chinese cuisine. Their additions are great for promoting good digestion. Using the coriander anti-inflammatory plant leaves, commonly known as cilantro, helps remove heavy metals from your system. (http://www.naturalnews.com/035741_heavy_metals_cilantro_detox.html)

(4) Fermented foods contain naturally produced probiotic beneficial bacteria. They should be eaten often. They include sauerkraut, miso, kimchi, pickles, aged cheese, “live” yogurts, and fresh sourdough bread baked without bromine and without preservatives.

Making your own milk or water kefir helps you maintain the proper beneficial to pathogenic balance of 85 to 15 in your gut. (http://www.naturalnews.com/036419_probiotics_immunity_bacteria.html)

Reversing or reducing this optimum ratio leads to Candida overgrowth and a plethora of weird symptoms too difficult to diagnose for most MDs.

Less sugar and fewer refined carbs in your diet will also help maintain that intestinal flora balance. Avoid antibiotics. Be prepared to take heavy doses of probiotic supplements if you’re forced into antibiotic use.

Sources for this article include:

[1] Souble fiber foods http://www.helpforibs.com/diet/fiber1.asp and Non-soluble fiber foods http://www.helpforibs.com/diet/fiber2.asp

http://www.healthandyoga.com/html/product/fennel.aspx

http://www.herballegacy.com/Baldwin_Medicinal.html

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By Dr. Mercola

Beneficial bacteria such as those found in fermented foods and probiotics thrive in your intestines to preform a magnificent symbiotic relationship with you, improving not only your overall health but even your skin.

Signals from these gut microorganisms are known to interact with organisms on your skin and research suggests these interactions, or another unknown probiotic-skin connection, can help with skin conditions, including eczema.

Beneficial Bacteria Halve Infants’ Eczema Risk

Eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, is very common in infants and young children. According to the American Academy of Dermatologists, it affects between 10 percent and 20 percent of all infants, resulting in red, itchy patches or rash on the skin (eczema is often known as “the itch that rashes,” meaning there’s really no rash until you start scratching the itchy area).

Eczema is more than just a skin problem, however, as it is an indication that there is a problem with your immune system. In fact, eczema is said to be one of the first signs of allergy during the first days of life, and about three out of four children with eczema later go on to develop asthma or hay fever.

What does this have to do with the beneficial bacteria in your gut?

Most people, including many physicians, do not realize that 80 percent of your immune system is located in your digestive tract, making a healthy gut a major focal point in your efforts to achieve optimal health. In fact, the root of many health problems is related to an imbalance of intestinal bacteria.

You may be surprised to learn that the bacteria in your gut outnumber the cells in your body by a factor of ten to one — you have approximately 100 trillion bacteria living in your GI tract, comprised of as many as 500 different species and 7,000 different strains. Collectively, each of us carries around several pounds of bacteria inside us!

The beneficial bacteria in your gut has actually been found to help prevent allergies by training your immune system to distinguish between pathogens and non-harmful antigens and respond appropriately – and this may be one reason why they also appear so beneficial for eczema.

According to the latest research, a review of 21 studies that included 11,000 participants, in children at risk for developing eczema, supplementing with a type of beneficial bacterial called Lactobacillus rhapsodic GG or Lactobacillus rhamnosus strain HN001 cut kids’ risk of developing eczema in half compared to those taking a placebo.1 Children that took other various mixtures of probiotics also had their risk of eczema at least halved.

Please note that this does not mean that this strain of beneficial bacteria is the only one that provides the benefit. It happens to be the one that was studied. These studies are not free and someone has to pay for them. But it is likely that most beneficial bacteria, especially lactobacillus strains, provide similar benefits.

A Simple Way to Lower Your Child’s Risk of Eczema

That probiotics are beneficial for preventing eczema in infants is not a new finding, but rather one that I’ve been reporting on since at least 2001, when researchers also found infants receiving probiotics supplements were half as likely to develop the skin condition.2

In 2008, another found that children with only a limited variety of bacteria in their intestines one week after birth were more likely to developed eczema by the age of 18 months.3 Still more research published in 2009 also found that daily supplements of probiotic foods may reduce the risk of eczema in children by 58 percent.4

It’s thought that one reason giving an infant probiotics helps to stave off eczema and other allergic diseases is by beneficially altering the early colonization of bacteria in their gut, which may help the child’s immune system to develop and mature. At birth the human gastrointestinal tract is sterile, but in the first days, months and years of life a rapid colonization of bacteria occurs until a stable indigenous gut microflora is established.

Babies that are given the best start nutritionally by being breastfed (the major source of your immune-building good bacteria following their initial implantation through the birth canal) also tend to have intestinal microflora in which beneficial bacteria predominate over potentially harmful bacteria. So, the best way you can encourage your newborn’s gut health to flourish is by breastfeeding.

The most benefit from probiotics, at least in terms of eczema, may happen very early in life. After three months of life, the 2009 study above found no difference in the incidence or severity of eczema between groups given probiotics or a placebo, noting that the preventive effect appeared to be established within the first 3 months of life, although it appeared to be sustained during the firs two years.

What this means is it is essential that your baby to receive plenty of beneficial bacteria in the first few months of life and continuing through childhood and adulthood.

Tips for Starting Your Baby’s Gut Flora Off Right

Total Video Length: 1:13:21

Download Interview Transcript

Your baby gets his or her first “inoculation” of gut flora from your birth canal during childbirth. If your flora is abnormal, your baby’s flora will also be abnormal; whatever organisms live in your vagina end up coating your baby’s body and lining his or her intestinal tract.

Many infants are challenged because their mother previously took birth control pills, was on antibiotics or was a typical American and ate 150 pounds or more of sugar a year. Any mother with any or all of these risk factors is likely to start her infant’s life out on shaky ground, as she is unable to provide them with optimal gut flora that will nourish their health. So any mother in this group needs to be especially conscious of this information and recommendations.

Studies show that a growing number of women have unknown vaginal infections at childbirth, which can result in the passage of abnormal microflora to their babies. This introduction of unfriendly flora, combined with antibiotic use, can predispose a baby to Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS). GAPS can have very damaging long-term effects on a child’s health, including such conditions as autism, ADHD, learning disabilities and a number of other psychological, neurological, digestive and immunological problems.

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride is a neurologist and neurosurgeon who has devoted years of her career to studying this phenomenon, and how to treat and prevent it. Pathogenic microbes in your baby’s digestive tract damage the integrity of his or her gut wall, allowing all sorts of toxins, microbes and macromolecules from undigested food to flood his or her bloodstream, and then enter the brain and disrupt its development.

Breastfeeding protects your baby from this abnormal gut flora, which is why breastfeeding is so crucial to your child’s health. No infant formulas can do this.

Any time your baby is given a broad-spectrum antibiotic, his or her beneficial flora are wiped out, giving pathogenic flora (including antibiotic-resistant bacteria) a window of opportunity to overgrow and wreak havoc. It takes the “friendly flora” two weeks to two months to recover, but by then, some not-so-friendly ones have found a niche. The first symptoms you typically see are colic, loose stools, constipation, eczema or respiratory infections.

Adding a vaccine that further stresses your baby’s immature immune system is like adding fuel to a fire — conditions that raise your child’s risk for a major adverse vaccine reaction. In other words, a vaccine could be the proverbial “final straw” if your baby has GAPS. But all of this may be corrected, or even averted, by the addition of some natural probiotics.

Fermented Foods are Important for Babies, Infants and Children Too

Before you give your child fermented foods or probiotics it is especially important to recognize that they are not magic bullets and cure-all ills. They need to be integrated with a healthy diet. If your child is consuming loads of sugar, grains and fruit juices, those sugars will rapidly break down in the intestine and feed the pathogenic bacteria, which effectively competitively inhibit the beneficial bacteria you are supplementing with making them useless and virtually ineffective.

Once you have the diet optimized, providing abundant probiotics in the form of fermented foods is one of the most powerful ways to restore your baby’s beneficial gut flora. Oftentimes, a commercial probiotic supplement won’t even be needed.

Apart from breastfeeding, the first fermented food Dr. Campbell-McBride recommends for your infant is raw organic grass-fed yogurt (not commercial yogurt from the grocery store), because it’s well tolerated by most infants and children. It’s best to make your own yogurt at home from raw organic milk, and start with a very tiny amount. Once yogurt is well tolerated by your baby, then start introducing kefir. If you have any problems with cow’s milk dairy, you can try goat’s milk dairy as an alternative or substitute vegetables fermented with yogurt culture or kefir culture.

If your baby has a severe condition, such as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), then the addition of a high-quality probiotic supplement may be needed.

You can ferment virtually any food, and every traditional culture has fermented their foods to prevent spoilage. There are also many fermented beverages and yoghurts. Quite a large percent of all the foods that people consumed on a daily basis were fermented, and each mouthful provides trillions of beneficial bacteria — far more than you can get from a probiotics supplement.

Here’s a case in point: It’s unusual to find a probiotic supplement containing more than 10 billion colony-forming units. But when my team actually tested fermented vegetables produced by probiotic starter cultures, they had 10 trillion colony-forming units of bacteria. Literally, one serving of vegetables was equal to an entire bottle of a high potency probiotic! Fermented foods also give you a wider variety of beneficial bacteria, so all in all, it’s your most cost effective alternative.

Fermenting your own foods is a fairly straightforward and simple process, which is described in detail here. Remember, in addition to protecting your child from developing eczema, research shows giving pregnant women and newborns doses of good bacteria can:
•Help prevent childhood allergies by training infants’ immune systems to resist allergic reactions5
•Help optimize your baby’s weight later in life6
•Improve the symptoms of colic, decreasing average crying times by about 75 percent7
•Reduce your risk of premature labor

Consuming fermented foods is, again, the best way to optimize your, and your children’s, beneficial gut flora. To learn more, please listen to my interview with Caroline Barringer, a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP) who has been involved with nutrition for about 20 years. She’s now one of Dr. Campbell-McBride’s chief training partners, helping people understand the food preparation process.

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Amgen to Pay $762 Million in Criminal Penalties for Illegal Drug Marketing

In recent years, drug companies have paid out billions in fines to settle various federal, state and civil lawsuits.

Among the charges, promoting drugs illegally for off label use is common, even when it puts patients lives at risk.

It’s been said that imposing fines – even those that approach $1 billion or more – is simply not enough to deter this type of criminal behavior, as the drug company executives sitting at the helm are not held personally accountable (or subject to personal prosecution) and jail time.

This appears to be precisely the case, as time and time again drug companies are allowed to promote drugs for uses that could actually harm patients, or engage in other illegal, criminal activities, and they receive what amounts to a slap on the wrist as punishment.

Two drug giants, Amgen and Sanofi, are the latest to add hundreds of millions in settlement monies to the growing stash …

Amgen to Pay $762 Million in Criminal Penalties for Illegal Drug Marketing

According to one U.S. attorney, Amgen was “pursuing profits at the risk of patient safety”1 by selling and promoting the drug for unapproved uses. Prosecutors alleged that Amgen had promoted the anemia drug Aranesp to treat cancer patients not undergoing chemotherapy (the drug is only approved for those receiving chemotherapy). A later Amgen study actually showed that giving cancer patients who were not receiving chemo Aranesp increased their risk of death.

The company also was federally charged with promoting larger, but less frequent, injections of Aranesp as a way to edge out competing drugs – even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had turned down Amgen’s requests for this approval, citing inadequate safety studies. In fact, one study actually found giving the drug at higher doses may increase cardiovascular risks …

Drug Promoted Off-Label Despite Research Showing Increased Heart Risks

In 1998, the Normal Hematocrit Trial was published, which explored giving higher doses of drugs to dialysis patients in order to boost their red blood cell count above those generally achieved with transfusion.2 The study found that patients receiving the higher drug dose were dying or having heart attacks at a higher rate than those receiving the lower dose; the trial was actually halted because of this.

However, rather than sounding an alarm bell, when the study was published the authors downplayed the danger, calling the increased death and heart attack rate “not significant.” And while no difference was found in quality of life between patients receiving the higher or lower dose, this was not noted in the published study. (Four of the study’s eight authors were employed by Amgen, and two have served as consultants.)

As the years went by, health care providers and the drug companies continued to profit from the ever-rising doses of these drugs being prescribed – despite continued studies coming out questioning their safety. It wasn’t until years later, in 2011, that the FDA put out a safety announcement calling for more conservative dosing of the drugs “because of data showing increased risks of cardiovascular events.”3

The New York Times further reported on Amgen’s charges:4

“A document summarizing the charges says that while sales representatives were not supposed to initiate discussions of off-label uses, they were trained to elicit questions from doctors. Such questions would provide the “necessary cover” for the sales representatives to provide the doctor with studies supporting the off-label use. Amgen referred to this as “reactive” marketing, the document said.

Amgen also managed to list the unapproved uses in a reference called a compendium. Medicare is required to pay for off-label uses of cancer drugs listed in an approved compendium. The compendium system is intended to make drugs more easily available to cancer patients, but critics say the compendiums do not adequately review the evidence.”

To settle the charges, Amgen has agreed to pay $612 million for civil litigation, along with $136 million in criminal fines and forfeit $14 million. The company has also agreed to sign a Corporate Integrity Agreement that requires executives to certify compliance with regulations, which would theoretically make it easier to prosecute them personally for any future offense. This is, unfortunately, just the latest drug scandal to be brought to the public’s attention… and it surely won’t be the last.

Sanofi to Pay $109 Million to Settle U.S. Kickback Charges

You might remember drug maker Sanofi, as I recently ran articles on them describing the revolving door between federal agencies and the drug companies. The chief and major science officer from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) took jobs at Sanofi as their president and chief scientific officer. Now the company has agreed to pay $109 million to resolve allegations that it gave free drugs to physicians as a form of kickbacks, which violates the False Claims Act.

The company allegedly gave out thousands of free “samples” of the arthritis drug Hyalgan that were contingent on future purchases and essentially used to lower the drug’s effective price. Sanofi then submitted false average sales price reports, which are used to determine reimbursements rates from Medicare and other government health programs, thereby causing the government to pay inflated rates for the drug.5

In this case no criminal charges were filed and, other than the paltry $109 million settlement, Sanofi only has to enter into a Corporate Integrity Agreement with the government that is supposed to leave them under enhanced scrutiny.

The Top 10 Drug Company Settlements

Big Pharma lawsuits, especially those that settle in the hundreds of millions or billions, are intended to compel these criminal corporations to straighten out, abandon their fraud and deception, their kickbacks, price-setting, bribery and all other illegal sales activities in favor of looking out for public health, which to date has been clearly ineffective.

Most of these settlements amount to a mere slap on the wrist for the drug company, which typically will continue right along with their deceitful behaviors. This is evidenced by the stunning frequency with which these major settlements occur:6
10.2007: Bristol-Myers Squibb paid $515 million for illegally promoting its atypical antipsychotic drug Abilify to kids and seniors (despite a black box warning that warned of potentially fatal side effects in the elderly). Other accusations included giving payments, kickbacks and expensive vacations to medical professionals and pharmacist to dispense its drugs.
9.2010: AstraZeneca settled for $520 million for trying to persuade doctors to prescribe its psychotropic drug Seroquel for unapproved uses ranging from Alzheimer’s disease and ADHD to sleeplessness and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Using Seroquel for improper use has been linked to an increased risk of death.

Company executives also promoted the drug for weight loss, highlighting one favorable study while burying others that linked it to substantial weight gain.
8.2007: Purdue Pharma paid $634.5 million for fraudulently misbranding Oxycontin, and suggesting it was less addictive and less abused than other painkillers. The company was charged with using misleading sales tactics, minimizing risks and promoting it for uses for which it was not appropriately studied.
7.2012: Amgen, the makers of anemia drugs Aranesp and Epogen, has been accused of handing extra profits to doctors who prescribe the drugs (by overfilling vials, then allowing doctors to charge insurance companies for drugs they got for free). Other accusations include misconduct involving claims of safety and efficacy, marketing, pricing and dosing of the drugs. Amgen has agreed to pay $762 million to settle the suits.
6.2011: Merck settles for $950 million to resolve fraudulent marketing allegations and safety claims related to Vioxx. Vioxx was pulled from the market in 2004, after it was shown to double the risk of heart attack and stroke. In addition to the $950 million, Merck paid hundreds of millions more to harmed patients and their families (Vioxx contributed to causing heart attacks in up to 140,000 people, half of which were fatal).
5.2009: Eli Lilly pays $1.4 billion for promoting Zyprexa for off-label uses, often to children and the elderly, and not properly divulging side effect information. For instance, Zyprexa was marketed as a sleeping aid for the elderly because one of its side effects is sedation, even though the drug also increases the risk of death.
4.2012: Abbott Laboratories settles for $1.5 billion for aggressively promoting their seizure drug Depakote for off-label use in elderly dementia patients, despite lacking evidence of safety or effectiveness (and a known increase of serious side effects, like anorexia, in the elderly).
3.Currently pending: Johnson & Johnson will pay anywhere from $1.5 to $2 billion for illegal marketing of Risperdal and other drugs. The company not only heavily marketed drugs to children and the elderly despite inadequate evidence of safety or efficacy, they also hid data about drugs’ side effects.
2.2009: Pfizer pays $2.3 billion for marketing fraud related to Bextra, Lyrica and other drugs. Charges included marketing drugs to doctors for uses for which they had not been approved and giving kickbacks to doctors and other health care professionals for prescribing their drugs. This was Pfizer’s fourth settlement numbering in the multimillions in less than a decade.
1.2012: GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to pay $3 billion for illegal marketing of Paxil and Welbutrin and downplaying safety risks of Avandia, among other charges. The company hid data about drug risks, marketed drugs for unapproved uses, and paid doctors (or gave them lavish gifts like expensive vacations) for prescribing their drugs. One of the most high-profile accounts involved television celebrity Dr. Drew, who reportedly received $275,000 from GSK to promote Welbutrin to treat sexual dysfunction associated with depression even though it hasn’t been proven effective for this purpose.

Are You Putting Your Health in the Hands of Criminals?

If you rely on drugs to stay well, or believe that if you get sick one day you’ll simply take a medication to “get better,” it’s worth recognizing that the same companies that are manufacturing and promoting those drugs have probably been convicted of criminal and fraudulent charges. You might want to reconsider your decision in light of these circumstances.

Putting your health, your very life, in the hands of these drug companies is a frightening prospect because the leading pharmaceutical companies are also among the largest corporate criminals in the world, often behaving as if they are little more than white-collar drug dealers. As these companies have shown time and again, they consistently put profits above human health … and this includes your health.

Adding salt to the wound, most of the top-selling drugs treat conditions that are better treated with lifestyle changes, healthy food and other forms of natural healing!

You don’t want to be their next victim. My site is chock full of free comprehensive recommendations that can serve as an excellent starting point to break free from this fatally flawed paradigm. The tools I provide will help you to reduce your reliance on the broken health care system, including its overuse of often-dangerous drugs, and provide you with the tools and resources to take control of your health.

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

Microflora Being Investigated to Ascertain Links with Autism and IBS

By Dr. Mercola

More and more, science is finding that teeny tiny creatures living in your gut are there for a definite purpose. Known as your microbiome, about 100 trillion of these cells populate your body, particularly your intestines and other parts of your digestive system.

In fact, 90 percent of the genetic material in your body is not yours, but rather that of bacteria, fungi, viruses and other microorganisms that compose your microflora.

True, some of these bacteria can make you sick; for example, the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases recently found Crohn’s Disease may be caused by immune responses to certain gut microbiota.

But the majority are good, and they work together as helpmates to aid your digestive system and keep you well. Beneficial bacteria, better known as probiotics, along with a host of other microorganisms, are so crucial to your health that researchers have compared them to “a newly recognized organ.” For example, we now know that your microflora influence your:
•Genetic expression
•Immune system
•Brain development, mental health, and memory
•Weight, and
•Risk of numerous chronic and acute diseases, from diabetes to cancer

According to the featured article in Time Magazine:1

“Our surprisingly complex internal ecology has been a hot topic in medicine lately. Initiatives such as the Human Microbiome Project2, an extension of the Human Genome Project, have been working tirelessly to probe potential links between the human microbiota and human health, and to construct strategies for manipulating the bacteria so that they work with us rather than against us.

…They’ve been linked to a range of nasty conditions, including obesity, arthritis, and high cholesterol. Now, two newer areas of research are pushing the field even further, looking at the possible gut bug link to a pair of very different conditions: autism and irritable bowel disease.”

Microflora Being Investigated to Ascertain Links with Autism and IBS

This is precisely what Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s work centers around, and her Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) nutritional plan is designed to reestablish proper gut flora in order to heal and seal your gut – thereby reversing and eliminating ailments running the gamut from autism, ADD/ADHD, learning disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, just to name a few possibilities. It’s exciting to see science is starting to take this more seriously, as autism has reached epidemic proportions.

According to the featured Time article:3

“Up to 85 percent of children with autism also suffer from some kind of gastrointestinal distress such as chronic constipation or inflammatory bowel disease. Research published in 2005 in the Journal of Medical Microbiology and in 2004 in Applied Environmental Microbiology4 reported that the stools of autistic children contained higher levels of the bacterium Clostridium,while two 2010 studies in the Journal of Proteome Research5 and Nutritional Neuroscience6 reported unusual levels of metabolic compounds in autistic children’s urine consistent with the high bacterial levels found in the stools of autistic patients.

In 2011, a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that mice with essentially germ-free guts showed abnormal movement and anxiety symptoms, suggesting that at least some active intestinal biome is essential for normal development.

‘Until a little while ago it was outlandish to suggest that microbiomes in the gut could be behind this disease,’ University of Guelph assistant professor of biology Emma Allen-Vercoe said. ‘But I think it’s an intersection between the genetics of the patient and the microbiome and the environment.'”

Recent research published in the journal Science7 may shed much needed light on the persistent and hard-to-treat nature of irritable bowel disease (IBD). The researchers infected mice with Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite associated with lethal food-borne illness.

Interestingly, when the immune system of the mouse reacted to the presence of the parasite, it also began overreacting to beneficial bacteria. In fact, while about 10 percent of the T cells in the GI tract attacked the parasite, approximately 45 percent of the T cells began attacking other gut microbes. Furthermore, once the parasite had been successfully cleared, the immune system continued to misidentify beneficial bacteria as a foreign agents, preventing the mice from ever fully recovering from the infection. As stated by Time:

“If something similar happens in humans – either with Toxoplasma gondii or another invader – it could go a long way to explaining both the existence and persistence of all of the IBD conditions.”

According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases:8

“The team’s findings are among the first to demonstrate that T cells in the gut mount an immune response to commensal bacteria [normal microflora] during an infection. They also are the first to show that commensal-specific T cells remain in circulation after the infection is cleared. Based on their observations, the investigators speculate that, when uncontrolled, commensal-specific T cells may contribute to development of Crohn’s disease, but more research is needed.”

Who Would Have Known? Breast Milk Boosts Beneficial Growth of Gut Flora

Adding more weight to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s insistence that breastfeeding is crucial to help normalize an infant’s microflora (hence protecting against disease and developmental problems), a first-of-its-kind study on human breast milk and its impact on infants’ gut flora gives new insight on why breast milk is better than formula at protecting newborns from infectious illness.9

The study’s author, William Parker, explained that breast milk appears to promote a healthy colonization of beneficial biofilms. Previous research has already established that breast milk reduces diarrhea, flu, and respiratory infections in babies, as well as lowers their risk of developing allergies, Type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and other diseases.

According to Duke University:10

“‘This study is the first we know of that examines the effects of infant nutrition on the way that bacteria grow, providing insight to the mechanisms underlying the benefits of breast feeding over formula feeding for newborns,’ said William Parker, PhD, associate professor of surgery at Duke and senior author of the study.

Only breast milk appears to promote a healthy colonization of beneficial biofilms, and these insights suggest there may be potential approaches for developing substitutes that more closely mimic those benefits in cases where breast milk cannot be provided.”

The researchers grew bacteria in samples of three popular brands each of milk- and soy-based infant formulas, cow’s milk, and breast milk. All samples were incubated with two strains of beneficial E.coli bacteria (while some E.coli cause violent disease, other ‘friendly cousins’ actually serve helpful roles). While the bacteria rapidly multiplied in all the specimens, there was one major difference. In the breast milk specimens, the bacteria formed biofilms, whereas the bacteria in the whole milk and the different infant formulas grew as individual organisms and failed to form into a biofilm.

This is indeed important. Biofilms are essentially thin, sticky bacterial “sheaths” that adhere to your intestinal wall, where they serve as a shield, effectively blocking out pathogens and infectious agents. This is an essential part of the “healing and sealing” of your gut that Dr. Campbell-McBride’s GAPS protocol accomplishes.

According to Duke University:

“…This study adds even more weight to an already large body of evidence that breast milk is the most nutritious way to feed a baby whenever possible,” said Gabriela M. Maradiaga Panayotti, M.D., co-director of the newborn nursery for Duke Children’s and Duke Primary Care. “We know that babies who receive breast milk have better outcomes in many ways, and mother who breast feed also have improved health outcomes, including decreased risks of cancer. Whenever possible, promoting breast feeding is the absolute best option for mom and baby.”

How to Optimize Your Gut Flora

A healthy diet is the ideal way to maintain a healthy gut, and regularly consuming traditionally fermented or cultured foods is the easiest way to ensure optimal gut flora. Healthy options include:

Fermented vegetables of all kinds (cabbage, carrots, kale, collards, celery spiced with herbs like ginger and garlic)

Lassi (an Indian yogurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner)

Tempeh

Fermented raw milk such as kefir or yogurt, but NOT commercial versions, which typically do not have live cultures and are loaded with sugars that feed pathogenic bacteria

Natto

Kim chee

Just make sure to steer clear of pasteurized versions, as pasteurization will destroy many of the naturally occurring probiotics. For example, most of the “probiotic” yogurts you find in every grocery store these days are NOT recommended. Since they’re pasteurized, they will be associated with all of the problems of pasteurized milk products instead. They also typically contain added sugars, high fructose corn syrup, dyes, and/or artificial sweeteners; all of which are detrimental to your health.

Consuming traditionally fermented foods will also provide you with the following added boons:
•Important nutrients: Some fermented foods are excellent sources of essential nutrients such as vitamin K2, which is important for preventing arterial plaque buildup and heart disease. Cheese curd, for example, is an excellent source of both probiotics and vitamin K2. You can also obtain all the K2 you’ll need (about 200 micrograms) by eating 15 grams, or half an ounce, of natto daily. They are also a potent producer of many B vitamins
•Optimizing your immune system: Probiotics have been shown to modulate immune responses via your gut’s mucosal immune system, and have anti-inflammatory potential. Eighty percent of your immune system is located in your digestive system, making a healthy gut a major focal point if you want to maintain optimal health, as a robust immune system is your number one defense system against ALL disease
•Detoxification: Fermented foods are some of the best chelators available. The beneficial bacteria in these foods are very potent detoxifiers, capable of drawing out a wide range of toxins and heavy metals
•Cost effective: Fermented foods can contain 100 times more probiotics than a supplement, so just adding a small amount of fermented foods to each meal will give you the biggest bang for your buck
•Natural variety of microflora: As long as you vary the fermented and cultured foods you eat, you’ll get a much wider variety of beneficial bacteria than you could ever get from a supplement

When you first start out, you’ll want to start small, adding as little as half a tablespoon of fermented vegetables to each meal, and gradually working your way up to about a quarter to half a cup (2 to 4 oz) of fermented vegetables or other cultured food with one to three meals per day. Since cultured foods are efficient detoxifiers, you may experience detox symptoms, or a “healing crisis,” if you introduce too many at once.

Learn to Make Your Own Fermented Vegetables

Fermented vegetables are easy to make on your own. It’s also the most cost-effective way to get high amounts of healthful probiotics in your diet. To learn how, review the following interview with Caroline Barringer, a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP) and an expert in the preparation of the foods prescribed in Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) Nutritional Program. In addition to the wealth of information shared in this interview, I highly recommend getting the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome, which provides all the necessary details for Dr. McBride’s GAPS protocol.

Although you can use the native bacteria on cabbage and other vegetables, it is typically easier to get consistent results by using a starter culture. Caroline prepares hundreds of quarts of fermented vegetables a week and has found that she gets great results by using three to four high quality probiotic capsules to jump start the fermentation process.

Download Interview Transcript

Caroline prepares the vegetables commercially and I used hers for a month before I started making my own. So, if you just want to put your toe in the water and see if you like them, you can order a jar or two and try them out. You can find her products on www.CulturedVegetables.net or www.CulturedNutrition.com.

AVOID This to Optimize Your Gut Flora!

Along with eating naturally fermented foods and/or taking a high-quality supplement, it’s essential that you avoid sugar, including fructose. Sugar nourishes pathogenic bacteria, yeast, and fungi in your gut, which may actually harm you more than its impact on insulin resistance. One of the major results of eating a healthy diet like the one described in my nutrition plan is that you cause your beneficial gut bacteria to flourish, and they secondarily perform the real “magic” of restoring your health.

Remember, an estimated 80 percent of your immune system is located in your gut, which is just one more reason why “tending to” your gut microflora is an essential element of good health. A robust immune system, supported by your flourishing inner ecosystem, is your number one defense against ALL disease, from the common cold to cancer. I feel very strongly that if we can catalyze a movement to get more people to implement this ancient dietary wisdom to their normal eating patterns, then we’ll start seeing a radical change in health.

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New research confirms what scores of earlier studies have found, that it’s possible to lower your blood pressure with omega-3 fatty acids.

A randomized, controlled study by researchers at the Department of Medicine, Maulana Azad Medical College and Lok Nayak Hospital, New Delhi, involving 100 patients who had been diagnosed with high blood pressure, found that low doses of the omega-3 fatty acids, in conjunction with a reduction of omega-6 fatty acids, could help to reduce the effects of hypertension.

“Subjects were further screened for fasting hyperinsulinemia, of whom 20 patients with hyperinsulinemia underwent four weeks of dietary control followed by six weeks of either 0.6 omega-3 g/d (group 1) or 1.2 omega-3 g/d (group 2) daily,” said a summary of the study. “At the end of four weeks of diet control phase, no significant change was observed. However, after omega-3 administration, both treatment groups experienced varying but significant reduction of fasting plasma insulin levels, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, serum cholesterol, triglycerides and low density lipoprotein.”

The results “suggest that low dose omega-3 fatty acid intake,” along with cutting back on omega-6 fatty acids, “may be effective in the management” of high blood pressure, the summary said.

Several studies continue to show the benefits of omega-3

For years, studies have either suggested or confirmed that omega-3 fatty acids, most commonly found in fish, nuts and seeds, can lower blood pressure levels or help prevent them from rising.

“A large percentage of people between ages 20 and 60 have a rise in blood pressure, and by middle age many have high blood pressure,” said Dr. Jeremiah Stamler, professor emeritus of preventive medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, in discussing the results of his 2007 study with Reuters.

“We’re looking at dietary factors that may help prevent that rise, and omega-3 fatty acids are a small, but important piece of the action,” he said.

That study examined diet and its relationship to blood pressure in 4,680 men and women ages 40-59, who lived in Japan, China, Britain and the U.S.

After participants provided researchers with details about their diets and alcohol consumption, they gave urine samples and had their BP measured twice at each of four study visits. The research team then adjusted for 17 variables that are known to influence blood pressure such as age, gender, weight, exercise and salt intake.

The results, which were published in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation, found that people who ate diets loaded with omega-3 fatty acids had slightly lower blood pressure on average than those who ate less omega-3.

“With blood pressure, every millimeter counts. The effect of each nutrient is apparently small but independent, so together they can add up to a substantial impact on blood pressure,” Dr. Hirotsugu Ueshima of Shiga University of Medical Science in Otsu, Japan, said in a statement.

“If you can reduce blood pressure a few millimeters from eating less salt, losing a few pounds, avoiding heavy drinking, eating more vegetables, whole grains and fruits (for their fiber, minerals, vegetable protein and other nutrients) and getting more omega-3 fatty acids, then you’ve made a big difference,” Ueshima said.

More to it than just blood pressure reduction

Research and studies conducted by the University of Maryland Medical Center went even further. Noting that omega-3 is “an essential fatty acid,” the ingredient reduces “inflammation and may help lower risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and arthritis,” the university said.

“It is important to have the proper ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 (another essential fatty acid) in the diet. Omega-3 fatty acids help reduce inflammation, and most omega-6 fatty acids tend to promote inflammation. The typical American diet tends to contain 14-25 times more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids, which many nutritionally oriented physicians consider to be way too high on the omega-6 side,” said the university, on its website.

Sources:

http://www.vitasearch.com/get-clp-summary/40478

http://www.reuters.com

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/omega-3-000316.htm

http://www.naturalnews.com/omega-3_fatty_acids.html

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/038507_blood_pressure_omega-3_fatty_acids.html#ixzz2GoEWT4SOBB

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By Dr. Mercola

A recent NPR article1 highlights the truly frightening environmental effect of monoculture. NPR commentator and science writer Craig Childs decided to replicate a photo project by David Liittschwager, a portrait photographer who spent years traveling the world dropping one-cubic-foot metal frames into gardens, streams, parks, forests, and oceans, photographing anything and everything that entered the frame.

Around the world, his camera captured thousands of plants, animals, and insects within the cubes, with entirely different “worlds” of plants and animals living as little as a few feet away from each other.

Childs recruited a friend, and together they set out to replicate Littschwager’s “critter census” in a corn field in Grundy County, Iowa.

But whereas Littschwager’s camera captured several dozens of insects wherever he set up his frames, Childs and friend found nothing stirring among the genetically engineered corn stalks on the 600 acre farm in Iowa, where they spent an entire weekend crawling around on the ground. No signs of life with the exception of an isolated spider, a single red mite, and a couple grasshoppers.

“It felt like another planet entirely,” Childs said. “I listened and heard nothing, no birds, no clicks from insects. There were no bees. The air, the ground, seemed vacant.”

“Yet, 100 years ago, these same fields, these prairies, were home to 300 species of plants, 60 mammals, 300 birds, hundreds and hundreds of insects,” Robert Krulwich writes2. “This soil was the richest, the loamiest in the state. And now, in these patches, there is almost literally nothing but one kind of living thing. We’ve erased everything else.”

How Monoculture Threatens the Future of Food

The “faster, bigger, cheaper” approach to food is slowly draining dry our planet’s resources and compromising your health. The Earth’s soil is depleting at more than 13 percent the rate it can be replaced. We have already lost 75 percent of the world’s crop varieties over the last century. Over the past 10 years, we’ve had 100 million tons of herbicides dumped onto our crops, polluting our soil and streams… And genetically engineered (GE) crops are now speeding up the destructive process by completely altering the composition of soil bacteria in the fields where such crops are grown.

It’s imperative to understand that agriculture is a complete ‘system’ based on inter-related factors, and in order to maintain ecological balance and health, you must understand how that system works as a whole. Any time you change one part of that system, you change the interaction of all the other components, because they work together. It is simply impossible to change just one minor aspect without altering the entire system, and this is in part why GE crops are not a viable alternative.

Dr. Don Huber’s research, which spans over 55 years, has been devoted to looking at how the agricultural system can be managed for more effective crop production, better disease control, improved nutrition, and safety. The introduction of genetically engineered crops has dramatically affected and changed all agricultural components:
•The plants
•The physical environment
•The dynamics of the biological environment, and
•Pests and diseases (plant-, animal-, and human diseases)

One of the major modifications done to genetically engineered food crops is the introduction of herbicide resistance. Monsanto is the leader in this field, with their patented Roundup Ready corn, cotton, soybean and sugar beets, which can survive otherwise lethal doses of glyphosate—the active ingredient in Roundup. The working premise is that by making the plants resistant to the herbicide, farmers can increase yield by cutting down on weed growth. This premise has been found to be severely flawed however, as farmers around the world are now losing acreage to glyphosate-resistant super-weeds at an alarming rate.

According to the British Institute of Science in Society3, the US has fared the worst, now combating 13 different glyphosate-resistant weed species in 73 different locations.

But the introduction of glyphosate-resistance has also had a direct impact on soil microbes. While the link between an herbicide (which is directed toward plants) and soil microbes may not be immediately apparent, this ripple effect occurs because, again, it’s an inter-related system. In a nutshell, herbicides are chelators that form a barrier around specific nutrients, preventing whatever life form is seeking to utilize that element from utilizing it properly. That applies both to plants and soil microbes—as well as animals and humans.

Genetically Engineered Crops Implicated in Bee Colony Collapse Disorder

GE crops and chemical agriculture in general are also prime culprits in the disappearance of bees and other insects, such as butterflies. The phenomenon is known as bee colony collapse disorder (CCD), and GE crops have been implicated in CCD for years now. Since 2006, it’s estimated that close to one-third of all honey bee colonies have simply vanished into thin air. The bees leave the hive and simply never return…

In 2007, a German study 4 demonstrated that horizontal gene transfer appears to take place between the GE crop and the bees that feed on it. When bees were released in a field of genetically modified rapeseed, and then fed the pollen to younger bees, the scientists discovered the bacteria in the guts of the young ones mirrored the same genetic traits as ones found in the GE crop. Naturally, this is bad news for the biotech industry, which may be why not just one but two major biotech companies have now entered the business of bee research…

Biotech Industry Now Infiltrating Bee Research

Monsanto, which is the world leader in genetically engineered crop seeds and toxic herbicide falsely advertised as “safe” and “biodegradable,” purchased one of the leading bee research firms in September 2011– one that lists its primary goal as studying colony collapse disorder. The purchase was completed just months before Poland announced it would ban growing of Monsanto’s genetically modified MON810 maize because “pollen of this strain could have a harmful effect on bees5.”

More recently, Bayer CropScience announced plans to build a second bee care research facility—this one in North Carolina6. Earlier this year, the company established a global Bayer Bee Care Center at the joint headquarters campus of Bayer CropScience and Bayer Animal Health in Monheim, Germany. According to Bayer:

“The Bayer Bee Care Center is dedicated to promoting and protecting bee health so that these hard-working, beneficial insects can continue to provide hive products as well as pollination services for foods we enjoy each day.”

Indeed, bees pollinate at least 130 different crops in the U.S. alone, including fruits, vegetables and tree nuts, and without bees, the very future of our food supply is at risk. The question is whether Big Biotech can be trusted with this kind of research. If history is any indication, it’s far more likely that studies will be slanted and manipulated to hide damage caused by GE crops and agricultural chemicals. After all, it wasn’t all that long ago since the German Coalition against Bayer Dangers accused Bayer of marketing dangerous pesticides and thereby causing the mass death of bees all over the world.

German beekeepers lost thousands of hives to poisoning by Bayers pesticide clothianidin in 2008. At the time, the Coalition suspected Bayer had submitted flawed studies to play down the risks of pesticide residues in treated plants — a suspicion that was later confirmed by the Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency. Considering these companies’ past sordid behavior, it is hard to imagine any rational person believing anything issued by the likes of Monsanto or Bayer… Their marketing material is littered with catch phrases like “sustainable agriculture,” even though it’s apparent they have no idea what that even means, considering the fact they violate the fundamentals of sustainable agriculture with every single product they produce.

GE Corn Treated with Insecticide Toxic to Bees

Newer systemic insecticides, known as neonicotinoids, have also been implicated in CCD. Two prominent examples, Imidacloprid and Clothianidin, are used as seed treatments in hundreds of crops, and virtually all of today’s genetically engineered Bt corn is treated with neonicotinoids. Bee colonies began to vanish in the U.S. shortly after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allowed these new insecticides on the market. Even the EPA itself admits that “pesticide poisoning” is a likely cause of bee colony collapse.

These insecticides are highly toxic to bees because they are systemic, water soluble, and very pervasive. They get into the soil and groundwater where they can accumulate and remain for many years and present long-term toxicity to the hive. They enter the vascular system of the plant and are carried to all parts of it, as well as to the pollen and nectar. Neonicotinoids affect insects’ central nervous systems in ways that are cumulative and irreversible. Even minute amounts can have profound effects over time. And the little bees are being exposed over and over again as pesticides become more necessary due to the inherent weaknesses of monoculture.

One of the observed effects of these insecticides is weakening of the bee’s immune system. Forager bees bring pesticide-laden pollen back to the hive, where it’s consumed by all of the bees. Six months later, their immune systems fail, and they fall prey to natural bee infections, such as parasites, mites, viruses, fungi and bacteria. Indeed, pathogens such as Varroa mites, Nosema, fungal and bacterial infections, and IAPV are found in large amounts in honey bee hives on the verge of collapse. In addition to immune dysfunction and opportunistic diseases, the honey bees also appear to suffer from neurological problems, disorientation, and impaired navigation. A bee can’t survive for more than 24 hours if she becomes disoriented and unable to find her way back to the hive.

What Can You do to Help the Honey Bees?

The documentary film Vanishing of the Bees recommends four actions you can take to help preserve our honey bees:
•Support organic farmers and shop at local farmer’s markets as often as possible. You can “vote with your fork” three times a day. [When you buy organic, you are making a statement by saying “no” to GMOs!]
•Cut the use of toxic chemicals in your house and on your lawn, and use organic pest control.
•Better yet, get rid of your lawn altogether and plant a garden. Lawns offer very little benefit for the environment. Both flower and vegetable gardens provide good honey bee habitats.
•Become an amateur beekeeper. Having a hive in your garden requires only about an hour of your time per week, benefits your local ecosystem, and you can enjoy your own honey! For more information about raising bees, consult The Practical Beekeeper7.

If you are interested in more information about bee preservation, the following organizations are a good place to start.
•Pesticide Action Network Bee Campaign8
•The Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees9
•American Beekeeping Federation10
•Help the Honey Bees11

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