Rather Be Healthy

Recent news again highlights why you’d be well advised to heed early warnings about potentially dangerous drugs.

The first featured article reports that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now investigating a potential link between a commonly used class of diabetes drugs and pancreatic inflammation and pre-cancerous changes to the pancreas.1

The FDA is also adding a heart-risk warning to the antibiotic Zithromax (azithromycin), better known as the Z-Pak.2

I’ve discussed the dangers of Zithromax before, most recently in December last year, and warned of potential dangers of Januvia all the way back in 2006 — the same drug now being investigated by the FDA for a potential link to pancreatic cancer. I also published a strong warning against this class of drugs last year.

In each case, I presented the evidence against the drugs long before any warnings were issued by the FDA, or action was taken to remove the dangerous drugs from the market.

In the case of Vioxx, my warnings preceded the drug’s eventual removal by five years, but it was too late as the drug had already killed over 60,000 people.

I have no doubt that these newer diabetes drugs will kill tens of thousands of people from cancer before action is taken. There is a good chance the death toll will even exceed that from Vioxx. Hopefully, you or someone you love will not be one of the victims, as you will have this potentially life-saving information.

“Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong – these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.” ~ Winston Churchill

FDA Investigates Potential Cancer Link to Popular Diabetes Drugs

According to an FDA notice,3 posted on March 14, the agency is:

“Evaluating unpublished new findings by a group of academic researchers that suggest an increased risk of pancreatitis, or inflammation of the pancreas, and pre-cancerous cellular changes called pancreatic duct metaplasia in patients with type 2 diabetes treated with a class of drugs called incretin mimetics. These findings were based on examination of a small number of pancreatic tissue specimens taken from patients after they died from unspecified causes.”

This class of diabetes drugs, known as incretin mimetics, includes:

Exenatide (Byetta, Bydureon)

Liraglutide (Victoza)

Sitagliptin (Januvia, Janumet, Janumet XR, Juvisync)

Saxagliptin (Onglyza, Kombiglyze XR)

Alogliptin (Nesina, Kazano, Oseni)

Linagliptin (Tradjenta, Jentadueto)

Incretin mimetics (also known as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist, or GLP-1 agonist, and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors, or simply DPP-4 inhibitors), work by mimicking incretin hormones, reducing glucagon levels, and inhibiting the enzyme called DPP-4.

Incretins are a group of gut hormones your body produces naturally to stimulate the release of insulin in response to a meal. So, as your blood sugar rises, the drug prompts your pancreas to release insulin. It also prevents your pancreas from putting out too much glucagon, another hormone, which causes your liver to release stored sugar into your bloodstream.

Another mechanism by which it helps control your blood sugar level is by inhibiting DPP-4 — a protease (an enzyme that chops up protein chains) that, among other things, destroys the hormone GLP-1, which may explain why these drugs appear to be linked to increased cancer risk. (I’ll discuss this more below.)

The medication also slows the rate at which your stomach empties after you’ve eaten a meal, which may reduce feelings of hunger. This dampens the rate at which your blood sugar rises after eating.

The first drug in this class — Sitagliptin, manufactured by Merck and sold under the name Januvia4, 5 — received FDA approval in 2006.6 It is one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for diabetes, which is why it will have such a devastating effect if it not stopped soon. Saxagliptin (Onglyza), another DPP-4 inhibitor, was approved in July 2009, followed by Linagliptin (Trajenta) in 2011. A number of additional DPP-4 inhibitors are currently under development, including a potentially disastrous once-a-week version.

Other Cancer Links Found, Which are Not Addressed by the FDA

The fact that this class of drugs could have a damaging effect on your pancreas was already known. In fact, one of the known side effects listed on the “Warnings and Precautions” section of the drug label is acute pancreatitis. According to a study7 published on February 25 in the journal JAMA, exenatide or sitagliptin doubled the risk of developing acute pancreatitis.

What’s “new” (at least to the FDA) is that these drugs may also cause pancreatic duct metaplasia (pre-cancerous cellular changes). However, previous research has not only indicated a pancreatic cancer risk with these drugs, they’ve also indicated a connection of thyroid, colon, melanoma, and prostate cancer! Dr. Ron Rosedale first made me aware of this connection. He is a pioneer in the natural cure of diabetes and knew this years ago because he reviewed studies like the following:
•A 2006 study8 found that “the use of DPP-4 inhibitors together with GLP-2 led to increased proliferation as well as elevated migratory activity. Therefore, the use of DPP-4 inhibitors could increase the risk of promoting an already existing intestinal tumor and may support the potential of colon cancer cells to metastasize”
•One 2008 study9 found that DPP-4 inhibitors may proteolytically inactivate local mediators involved in gliomagenesis (the formation and development of brain tumors). Another study published that same year10 linked the drug to prostate cancer
•In 2010,11 researchers concluded that “although the data on the effects of DPP-IV inhibitors in humans are scarce, the increased risk of infections and the tendency towards a higher incidence of some tumors fall in line with experimental evidence suggesting the possibility of their adverse immunological and oncological effects”
•According to a 2011 study in the journal Gastroentorology:12, 13 “data are consistent with case reports and animal studies indicating an increased risk for pancreatitis with glucagon-like peptide-1 based therapy. The findings also raise caution about the potential long-term actions of these drugs to promote pancreatic cancer, and DPP-4 inhibition to increase risk for all cancers”
•Earlier this year, researchers warned14 DPP-4 “is implicated in regulation of malignant transformation, promotion and further progression of cancer, exerting tumor-suppressing or even completely opposite – tumor-promoting activities”

This study indicates the need for exploring the cause and the importance of the disturbances in the serum DPP-4 activity and in the CD26 expression on immunocompetent cells in complex molecular mechanisms underlying the development and progression of melanoma. Significant decline in serum DPP-4 activity found in melanoma patients compared to healthy controls might indicate its possible role in development and progression of melanoma, but further research needs to be done in order to fully elucidate the cause and the importance of observed changes in DPP-4 activity.

The reason why incretin mimetic drugs appear to be associated with increased risk for a number of different cancers might be due to the following, which you’re unlikely to hear from your doctor: DPP-4 is a tumor suppressor,15 so by inhibiting DPP-4 — which these drugs do — you are continuously inhibiting one of your body’s natural cancer suppressing mechanisms. According to Januvia’s drug information, the drug inhibits the DPP-4 enzyme for 24 hours, and you take it daily. So you are effectively permanently blocking the activity of a tumor suppressor gene.

Yet none of the safety studies on Januvia addressed its impact on tumor growth! What I find interesting is that the FDA’s investigation was launched after pancreatic tissue samples were taken from patients who died from “unspecified causes,” opposed to some identified pancreatic issue. So I guess there’s still room for additional issues associated with these drugs…

Beware — Novel Combo Drug Will Likely Increase Both Cancer AND Heart Failure

Remarkably, Merck has indicated that the once-a-week version of the DPP-4 inhibitor being developed is also being tested in combination with certain statin drugs, such as Lipitor and Simvastatin. The reasoning for these drug combinations is that diabetics fall under the guidelines of being statin candidates because they have a higher cardiovascular risk, but 40 percent of diabetics don’t take them. The idea is to create a combination drug containing both a DPP-4 inhibitor and a statin.

So they’re combining two hazardous drugs into one pill that synergistically will radically increase your risk of cancer AND heart failure! These are very common side effects from these drugs when taken individually, but what has not even been studied is the synergistic toxicity of taking these dangerous drugs together.

It’s sheer madness in a pill… What makes it all the more frustrating is that pharmaceutical companies are raking in the profits from these dangerous drugs when type 2 diabetes is one of the easiest diseases to address without ANY drugs. Merck, for example, made an astounding $6 BILLION in combined sales for Januvia and Janumet last year alone, making these drugs the company’s top sellers.

FDA Adds Heart-Risk Warning to Z-Pak

Earlier this month, the FDA also announced it is adding a new warning to the label of Zithromax, a very potent antibiotic used to treat bronchitis, pneumonia and other serious infections, including sexually transmitted diseases. Or at least it should be reserved for serious infections. It’s widely overused, which is troubling for several reasons. First of all, the new warning states that the drug can cause deadly heart arrhythmias. The FDA warns that:

“Doctors should consider prescribing other antibiotics to patients at risk of heart problems, including those with irregular heartbeats or low levels of potassium or magnesium in their blood.”

The popularity of Zithromax is driven by the fact that you don’t have to take it for as many days as other, less potent antibiotics — a regular course is only five days, compared to 10 days for most others. But therein lies another problem. Overuse of potent antibiotics drives the rapid rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and renders the drug useless for more serious infections. According to the FDA, an astounding average of 50 million prescriptions for Zithromax are filled each year.

This is a Flash-based video and may not be viewable on mobile devices.

Risks Associated with Z-Pak You Need to Know

“…[T]he FDA warned it could be dangerous for some people and urged everyone to understand the risks… The new drug label follows a Vanderbilt University study released in May showing a slightly higher chance for deadly heart problems in patients taking the drug. Researchers analyzed health records and data from millions of prescriptions for several antibiotics given to about 540,000 Tennessee Medicaid patients from 1992 to 2006. The highest risks were in Zithromax patients with existing heart problems,” according to MSN News:16

“The results suggested there would be 47 extra heart-related deaths per 1 million courses of treatment with Zithromax, compared with another antibiotic, amoxicillin.”

The study in question, published in the New England Journal of Medicine17 found that azithromycin increases your chances of dying from a cardiovascular event by 250 percent within the first five days of usage, compared to those who took amoxicillin. This is nearly the same as that for Vioxx, which killed 60,000 people and was voluntarily removed from the market nearly eight years ago. When researchers looked at people who already had heart problems, their risk of dying while on this drug were even higher. The risk of cardiovascular death was also significantly greater with azithromycin than with ciprofloxacin, while levofloxacin and azithromycin had comparable risks of cardiovascular death. Other known side effects of the Z-Pak include skin rashes, itching, severe, watery diarrhea, and severe allergic or anaphylactic reactions. If you take a statin drug, you may also experience more severe side effects, such as myopathy―muscle and tendon pain, weakness and cramping.18

The primary problem here though appears to be related to using the drug acutely. So if you took the drugs months or years ago there is nothing to worry about as the increased risk of causing this heart rhythm abnormality has eventually disappeared. However the disruption to your ever important gut flora could last many years or even decades unless you take aggressive efforts to reverse the damage.

While not stated anywhere on the drug label, all antibiotics, and especially the more potent ones like the Z-Pak, decimate your gut flora, which in turn leaves you with a sorely weakened immune system until the beneficial bacteria in your gut has time to repopulate. Ideally it would be wise to eliminate sugars and regularly use fermented foods or a high-quality probiotic supplement to restore your normal gut flora.

Remember, antibiotics should only be taken when absolutely necessary, almost a life and death scenario. If, for whatever reason, you do choose to use them it is crucial to rebalance your intestinal flora to prevent long-term effects to your health. Typically this results in an overgrowth of yeast, fungi and pathogenic organisms, which can persist for years or decades unless you carefully address the damage. Taking probiotics while on an antibiotic can also help reduce diarrhea, which is a common side effect. Saccharomyces boulardii is beneficial yeast that is not killed by antibiotics so it can actually be taken while you are on the antibiotics.

Do You REALLY Need a Drug?

In more recent years, a growing body of research shows that simple lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise are effective remedies for many common health problems. At the same time, we’re seeing more and more evidence of the lethal harm being brought by poorly tested drugs.

To me, the choice is clear. But a lot of people still do not realize just how effective lifestyle changes can be in treating their disease. Many diabetics, for example, are convinced they need drugs, and resist the idea that treating or even curing their disease is entirely within their own control. The truth is, type 2 diabetes is virtually 100 percent avoidable and treatable entirely without drugs. If you’re still in the dark about how to accomplish this, please see this link.

Similarly, many are quick to ask for an antibiotic, even in cases where antibiotics are useless, such as for viral infections. The temptation is to opt for a potent antibiotic to resolve the infection as quickly as possible, but this can have very serious ramifications, from decreasing your immune function for an extended period of time, to contributing to the rise of antibiotic-resistance. The Z-Pak is a great antibiotic, but if used inappropriately, it may no longer work when you really need it.

If you absolutely need to use an antibiotic, use the least potent one that is appropriate for the infection, and make sure to reseed your gut with beneficial bacteria.

Your best bet is to eat plenty of fermented foods, such as fermented vegetables, each day. Each mouthful of fermented food can provide trillions of beneficial bacteria — far more than you can get from a probiotics supplement, which will typically provide you with colony-forming units in the billions.

Last year, my team started testing fermented vegetables produced with our probiotic starter culture to determine their probiotic potency and we were astounded to discover they had 10 trillion colony-forming units of bacteria. Literally, one serving of vegetables was equal to an entire bottle of a high potency probiotics. Another really novel additional benefit is that it also produces very high levels of vitamin K2, nearly 500 mcg. We are currently in the midst of doing very sophisticated and expensive DNA sequencing analysis to optimize this starter culture formula and hope to be able to launch it later this year.

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The reports are absolutely true. Facebook suspended the Natural News account earlier today after we posted an historical quote from Mohandas Gandhi. The quote reads:

“Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.” – Mohandas Gandhi, an Autobiography, page 446.

This historical quote was apparently too much for Facebook’s censors to bear. They suspended our account and gave us a “final warning” that one more violation of their so-called “community guidelines” would result in our account being permanently deactivated.

They then demanded we send them a color copy of a “government issued identification” in order to reactivate our account. Our account was removed from suspension just minutes before InfoWars posted its article on this Facebook censorship, and the Facebook page is now functioning at:
www.Facebook.com/NaturalNews

This is a separate account from our primary Facebook account, which has nearly 250,000 followers at:
www.Facebook.com/HealthRanger

Logic is an enemy and history is a menace
That Facebook would choose to disable our account after we posted a Gandhi quote is incredibly shocking. The historical rise of oppressed Indian people against tyrannical British rule is apparently no longer allowed to be discussed on Facebook. The very IDEA of a free people overcoming tyrannical government rule now “violates community guidelines.” The removal of this content is akin to online book burning and the destruction of history.

This post was not in any way malicious, nor encouraging violence, nor even describing guns or the Second Amendment. It merely reflected the words of one of our world’s most celebrated rebel leaders who helped an entire nation throw off the shackles of oppression and British occupation. That Facebook would find this to “violate community guidelines” is nothing short of absolutely bewildering.

Here is the full image as originally posted on Facebook. Keep in mind that THIS is now considered unacceptable speech across the “Facebook community,” where any number of people can openly call for the murder of the NRA president and have absolutely no action taken against them:

InfoWars.com is also now reporting that Facebook is running an across-the-board PURGE of pro-gun accounts. A huge number of accounts are all being systematically disabled or suspended, with all content being wiped clean.

We have entered the era of the Ministry of Truth from George Orwell’s 1984 novel. And while Facebook assaults the First Amendment in America, Senator Feinstein is busy assaulting the Second.

Facebook declares war on human history
What’s especially alarming about all this is that Gandhi himself was of course a champion of resistance against tyranny. To banish quotes from Gandhi is much like banning quotes of freedom from Martin Luther King (who also openly supported concealed firearms, by the way, and who personally owned an entire “arsenal” of firearms).

What’s next? Will Facebook ban quotes by Thomas Jefferson and George Washington? Any and all patriots, founding fathers and liberty lovers throughout history might soon be stricken from the Facebook servers, and any who dare to post historical quotes supporting liberty, the Bill of Rights, or the Second Amendment risk having their accounts terminated and all content deleted.

Collectivist propaganda has now reached a point where you can’t even discuss liberty or anything out of history that supported the right to keep and bear arms. You are required to stay focused solely on celebrity gossip, sports stars, fashion distractions and tabloid garbage. Anyone who wishes to discuss actual American history must now go underground and speak softly in dimly-lit rooms, behind secret walls and drawn curtains.

The era of total oppression and collectivist mind control has fully arrived in America. This is not hyperbole… IT IS HERE NOW.

Memorize this quote, because it too shall soon be purged from the internet:

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Honey and cinnamon cures – do they really work? Here’s what you need to know

Hopeful newcomers to holistic health marvel at reports about honey and cinnamon as a miracle cure-all. On the other hand, alternative health skeptics scoff at the notion of cinnamon and honey as medicine, pointing out that the plethora of articles about the curative benefits of this food duo originated with a 1995 article in the tabloid newspaper Weekly World News. The truth is that cinnamon and honey have been used to promote health for centuries, but their efficacy depends largely on a lifestyle of energetic activity and whole foods.

Traditional Healing
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), cinnamon is viewed as possessing heat or yang, and is thus used to cure ills stemming from excess yin or coldness. Honey, in this system, is viewed as a neutral substance, balanced between yin and yang. Ancient practitioners of India’s healing tradition, Ayurveda (from the Sanskrit Ayur meaning life and Veda meaning knowledge), classified 8 different varieties of honey each with its own healing properties. Ayurvedic healers use cinnamon to help heal gum disease, erectile dysfunction, and many other conditions.

Honey and Cinnamon Benefits
Folk wisdom still retains knowledge of the healing properties of both honey and cinnamon. Honey and cinnamon are still used as medicine in many situations, especially among people who, because of distance or income, have reduced access to mainstream health care.

Honey possesses natural anti-bacterial properties. Honey poured on wounds or burns prevents infection and promotes healing. Regular consumption of honey and cinnamon together, when combined with an overall healthy diet and moderate activity level, can prevent heart disease by clearing clogged arteries.

Drinking honey and cinnamon in lukewarm water results in them moving through the bladder and cleansing it, as well as clearing infections there. Drinking this beverage on a regular basis can also relieve, and in some cases entirely cure, arthritis pain.

This drink also strengthens the immune system, helping ward off colds as well as some viruses. Applying a paste of honey and cinnamon to infected gums can ease pain and bleeding as well as slow the progression of the infection.

When consumed together, honey and cinnamon can ease digestion, helping to prevent gas. Honey and cinnamon also provide energy, making people more mentally alert and ready for physical activity.

The two biggest claims for honey and cinnamon are that they enhance the ability to lose weight, and they are effective against some forms of cancer.
While these latter two claims are unproven, however nature does provide an amazing range of natural healing substances, most of which are untested by medical science. Relying exclusively on honey and cinnamon for either weight loss or eliminating cancer is not advisable.

How to Gain Maximum Benefits
Cinnamon and honey can boost your health, both separately and in combination. However, our modern dependence on the pharmaceutical industry has fooled us into believing that medicines should be able to provide a cure regardless of lifestyle. If you follow health news, it becomes obvious that the pharmaceutical industry’s “magic bullet” drugs make one set of symptoms disappear, only to create a new set of symptoms.

Disease results from imbalance, so finding health and balance again requires a recalibration of choices about how we live. A couch potato who follows up a dinner of fried chicken and potato chips with a dessert of cinnamon and honey will receive few health benefits. You are more likely to reap the full healing power when you include honey and cinnamon as part of your healthy lifestyle.

Sources:

http://www.snopes.com/medical/homecure/honey.asp

http://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/animal-product/health-ben…

http://1stholistic.com/reading/health/health-honey-and-cinnamon.htm

http://www.ayurvedictalk.com/honey-treatment-for-arthritis-cholestrol…

http://www.naturalnews.com/001957.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/001958.html

http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/heaty.html

http://www.naturalbloom.com/articles/ayurveda-108/

http://ayurveda-foryou.com/ayurveda_herb/cinnamon.html

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Writing on the blog of the Department of Health and Human Services on the third anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, more popularly known as Obamacare, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had this to say about the impact of the law on insurance rates:

As a former state insurance commissioner, I know that for too long, too many hard-working Americans paid the price for policies that handed free rein to health insurance companies. For more than a decade before the Affordable Care Act, premiums rose rapidly, straining the budgets of American families and businesses. And insurers often raised premiums without any explanation. … The Affordable Care Act is working to bring affordability and fairness to the marketplace by barring insurers from dropping your coverage when you get sick or placing a lifetime dollar limit on coverage.

Sebelius goes on to imply that provisions within the law (requiring more “transparency” from insurance companies, for instance) will eventually help lower rates (though she never says so directly). In other words, she’s dodging the issue of rising premiums, and with good reason: Premiums under Obamacare are likely to double for most Americans, according to health insurers who are being forced to comply with Obamacare’s stringent coverage requirements.

Wait – weren’t premiums supposed to go down?

“Health insurers are privately warning brokers that premiums for many individuals and small businesses could increase sharply next year because of the health-care overhaul law, with the nation’s biggest firm projecting that rates could more than double for some consumers buying their own plans,” The Wall Street Journal reported March 22.

Insurers made those projections in sessions with agents and brokers; they provide some of the most damning evidence so far of just how much Obamacare will force companies to raise rates when major provisions of the law kick in next year – just as scores of industry experts and economists warned would happen.

Such predictions don’t jibe with the rosy – and misleading – rhetoric from Sebelius and her boss, President Obama, the latter of whom said in 2010:

“You’ll be able to buy in, or a small business will be able to buy into (government insurance pools). And that will lower rates, it’s estimated, by up to 14 to 20 percent over what you’re currently getting. That’s money out of pocket. … Your employer, it’s estimated, would see premiums fall by as much as 3,000 percent, which means they could give you a raise.”

Both the president and his team don’t understand free-market economics, or they do and they have been intentionally misleading. Either way, the figures the insurance companies are projecting are the polar opposite of what Americans were promised by Obamacare advocates regarding the future cost of policies (and really, prices for such services have never really gone down).

“There’s no question premiums are still going to keep going up,” Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a research clearinghouse on the health care system, told CBS News shortly before Obamacare became law. “There are pieces of reform that will hopefully keep them from going up as fast. But it would be miraculous if premiums actually went down relative to where they are today.”

Yet another Obamacare lie

The one ace in the hold the government retains; however, is regulatory power over the insurance companies in terms of price increases. Under Obamacare, insurers have to request rate hikes and they must be approved by government bureaucrats, the vast majority of whom have a) never run a business; b) never had to meet a payroll; and c) have never had to cover employees’ health insurance and other benefits.

So in this sense, the government very well could keep rates artificially lower than they normally would be, but while requiring insurers to cover more people for less, they won’t be in business long.

And that could well be the administration’s goal.

“Carriers will be filing proposed price increases with regulators over the next few months,” WSJ reported. Time will tell how that goes, but the word is out: What Americans were told about lower premiums under Obamacare, like most of what they were told about the law, was a lie.

Sources:

http://online.wsj.com

http://www.healthcare.gov

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-250_162-6306991.html

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Teens Susceptible to Hepatitis B Infection Despite Vaccination as Infants

By Dr. Mercola

By the time your newborn is 12 hours old, federal health officials recommend administering the first dose of hepatitis B vaccine. TWELVE HOURS! If you want to avoid it you must make it VERY clear to all hospital staff well before the delivery and monitor your baby closely until you leave the hospital.

Three hepatitis B shots are part of the standard government-recommended childhood vaccination schedule, with the third dose to be given before 18 months of age.

But hepatitis B is a primarily blood-transmitted adult disease associated with risky lifestyle choices such as unprotected sex with multiple partners and intravenous drug use involving sharing needles — it is NOT primarily a “children’s disease” or one that is a common threat to newborn babies.

In fact, according to the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC):1

“The primary reason that the CDC recommended hepatitis B vaccination for all newborns in the United States in 1991 is because public health officials and doctors could not persuade adults in high risk groups (primarily IV drug abusers and persons with multiple sexual partners) to get the vaccine.”

But now new research has shown that by the time a child reaches his or her teenage years – the time when acquiring a hepatitis B infection may be more likely – the protection from the childhood vaccine may have long since waned…

Infant Hepatitis B Vaccination May be Ineffective in Teenagers

The study, which involved nearly 9,000 high school students, found that by the age of 15, about 15 percent of teens who received the full series of hepatitis B shots as infants tested positive for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), which is an early indicator of infection or a sign that the person is a chronic carrier of the virus.2

This percentage was even higher among teens who had received the hepatitis B vaccine off schedule, or whose mothers were high risk, meaning they tested positive for hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg).

In other words, it appears that in many this vaccine does NOT provide lasting protection. The researchers noted:

“A significant proportion of complete vaccinees may have lost their immunological memories against HBsAg.”

It’s for this reason that the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns and young children is the least justifiable of any vaccine I can think of and certainly should not be mandated for daycare or school attendance. Remember, the disease is only transmitted via contaminated needles, blood transfusion, or contact with contaminated blood and/or body fluids.

In fact, it is described by the CDC primarily as a sexually-transmitted disease, e.g. vaginal, anal, oral sex transmitted. While babies can contract hepatitis B vertically via their mother at birth, this very rare risk can be identified via prebirth hepatitis screening of mothers, hence making vaccination essentially unnecessary in nearly every case.

And so, we must ask ourselves, if the only way a newborn infant can be infected with hepatitis B in a hospital is through infected blood or semen, either the hospital is doing a terrible job of protecting their newborns against such exposure, or the medical justification for vaccinating infants against Hepatitis B simply doesn’t exist.

Hepatitis B Vaccine Linked to SIDS and Other Serious Side Effects

The recommendation to vaccinate newborns against a disease they have little to no risk of catching becomes all the more ludicrous when you consider the serious side effects the vaccine may cause. As NVIC reported:3

“As of March 2012, there was a total of 66,654 hepatitis B vaccine-related adverse events reported to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), including reports of headache, irritability, extreme fatigue, brain inflammation, convulsions, rheumatoid arthritis, optic neuritis, multiple sclerosis, lupus, Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) and neuropathy.

There have been more than 1,500 hepatitis B vaccine-related deaths reported, including deaths classified as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).”

Keep in mind that this is likely an underestimation because only a fraction of the serious health problems, including deaths, following vaccination are ever acknowledged due to a lack of public awareness about how to recognize signs and symptoms of vaccine reactions.

Also, vaccine adverse events are substantially underreported — some estimate only between one and 10 percent of all serious heath problems and deaths that occur after vaccination are ever reported — even though the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 mandated that all doctors and other vaccine providers report serious health problems, including hospitalizations, injuries and deaths following vaccination.

Moreover, often only acute reaction symptoms that occur soon after vaccination are recognized, since chronic inflammation and other subclinical adverse effects may take weeks, months, years or even decades to fully manifest. This makes it very difficult, if not impossible in many cases, to link chronic health problems back to an earlier vaccination or series of vaccinations, especially when doctors fail to inform themselves or their patients about vaccine risks and fail to keep accurate medical records.

The 1986 Act did not include sanctions for failing to inform, record or report potential vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS). So most vaccine providers, for reasons that are obvious, e.g. their guilt and desire to conveniently write off all vaccine-associated health problems as a “coincidence,” do not file a report when the health of a person recently vaccinated begins to deteriorate.

Truth be told, many vaccine reactions are not even recognized by medical personnel as vaccine-related, in part because many have been mislead into believing that vaccine-induced injuries are exceedingly rare.

For instance, when babies die after hepatitis B vaccinations, most of the time their deaths are automatically attributed to SIDS — without investigation into whether the vaccine caused the baby’s sudden death. When a baby’s death is listed as “SIDS,” rarely does anyone ask about the deceased infant’s vaccination history to find out whether there were symptoms of vaccine reactions before death, even though the biomedical literature has repeatedly signaled this connection.4

60 Diseases and Adverse Reactions are Associated With the Hepatitis B Vaccine

As Dr. Jane Orient of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) testified to Congress:

“For most children, the risk of a serious vaccine reaction may be 100 times greater than the risk of hepatitis B.”

Indeed, at least 60 diseases or adverse unintended consequences are associated with hepatitis B vaccination.5 Common reactions to the vaccine include fatigue, muscle weakness, fever, headache, irritability and joint pain. A study published in Annals of Epidemiology6 also found that giving hepatitis B vaccine to infant boys more than tripled their risk for an autism spectrum disorder. This was doubly concerning because an earlier study by the same researcher group, using a different database, found the same results. And there have been reports of disabling neurological and immunological disorders that have developed following hepatitis B vaccinations as well, including:

Multiple sclerosis (MS)

Guillain Barre syndrome

Bell’s Palsy

Diabetes

Rheumatoid arthritis

Lupus

Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia purpura

Convulsions and brain disorders such as encephalitis (brain swelling) and brain demyelination

Immune dysfunction

Visual and hearing impairments, including optic neuritis

Pancreatitis

Autism spectrum disorders

The association between hepatitis B vaccine and autism, particularly the 3-fold higher risk in males as reported by parents,7 may be explained by the well-known phenomena of molecular mimicry. Some researchers have proposed that the hepatitis B vaccine induces autoimmune demyelinating disease through the molecular mimicry that exists between the vaccine antigen, Epstein-Barr virus and human myelin. Basically, the vaccine stimulates an antibody response that cross-reacts against neurological self-structures, such as myelin, resulting in neurological damage.8

What You Should Know About Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is often called “the silent killer” because as many as 95 percent of those with the disease exhibit no symptoms at all, until it’s too late. The disease can progress unnoticed for years in some cases, and patients oftentimes learn they have chronic hepatitis B once they develop severe liver damage Hepatitis actually means liver inflammation. Ironically, hepatitis B vaccines have actually been shown to induce liver inflammation associated with hepatitis.9 The “A,” “B” and “C” designations refer to the type of hepatitis virus involved. Symptoms of hepatitis A and B are very similar, and include:
•Abdominal pain
•Fever
•Fatigue
•Joint pain
•Jaundice (yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes)

Fortunately, in most cases the hepatitis B infection will resolve on its own provided you have a well-functioning immune system. Symptoms can be relieved by:
•Resting
•Avoiding foods that weaken your immune function, such as sugars/fructose, grains, and processed foods. Healthful foods that help boost your immune system include fermented foods and organic vegetables. (For a list of the top 12 most beneficial foods for robust immune function, please see this previous article)
•Optimizing your vitamin D levels
•Drinking plenty of pure water
•Avoiding alcohol and drugs

If you recover completely from hepatitis B infection, you’ll acquire life-long immunity. A diagnosis of chronic hepatitis B, on the other hand, will typically include some form of antiviral medication, and depending on how far along your disease has progressed, you may even require a liver transplant. Even if you have been vaccinated as a child, it’s important to remember that you may not be protected from these risks, and could still be infected via IV drug abuse, sexual activity with an infected partner, a blood transfusion with contaminated blood or even getting a manicure or pedicure…

You Have a Choice Regarding Hepatitis B Vaccination

If you’re an expecting parent, it’s important to know that the hepatitis B vaccine is given to virtually every newborn in the hospital — many times without parents’ consent — shortly after the child is born.

Please carefully review the reward-to-benefit ratio well before your deliver. If you conclude like many concerned health care professionals, that subjecting all healthy newborns to hepatitis B vaccination within hours of birth is both risky and unnecessary and you decide it is not appropriate for your baby, you can amend the “consent for medical treatment” forms you sign upon entering the hospital before giving birth by writing on the form that you do not give consent for your baby’s hepatitis B vaccination in the newborn nursery. You should let any nurses or other medical staff taking care of you and your baby know this directly as well.

However, there are reports that some newborns are being vaccinated in the newborn nursery against the parent’s wishes. So it is a good idea to keep your newborn with you at all times or have a family member stay with the baby while in the hospital.

That said, it is important to be tested for hepatitis B if you’re pregnant, as it’s possible to have a chronic infection with no symptoms and not know it. If you are pregnant and are a carrier for the hepatitis B virus, your baby could be at risk for being infected during childbirth.

And although hepatitis B vaccines may be “mandated” for your child to attend school or day care, most states offer different legal vaccine exemptions (medical, religious, and philosophical). On NVIC.org, you can research your state’s specific vaccine laws and requirements and find out what kind of exemption to hepatitis B vaccination you are allowed to exercise in your state for your child to attend daycare or school.

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

By Dr. Mercola

Over 100 million people are prescribed drugs known as benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax, Ativan, etc.) for anxiety and insomnia each year.1 Despite the fact that these drugs are only meant to be used for short periods, up to a few weeks, many use them for years, and new research suggests doing so may raise your risk of dementia.

Though a direct cause-and-effect link has yet to be established, the research revealed a strong association between the drugs and dementia risk.

Benzodiazepines Linked to 50 Percent Greater Dementia Risk

Among adults over 65, those who used benzodiazepines were 50 percent more likely to develop dementia over a 15-year period.2 This was true even when taking into account other factors that might increase dementia risk, such as age, gender and diabetes.

These findings echo earlier research, including:
•A 2002 study that also found former use of benzodiazepines was associated with a significantly increased risk of dementia.3
•A 2005 literature review, which found three of six papers reviewed found an increased risk of cognitive decline in benzodiazepine users.4 Researchers concluded:

“As a large proportion of subjects are exposed to benzodiazepines, a small increase in the risk of cognitive decline may have marked deleterious consequences for the health of the general population.”

The authors of the current study sounded a similar warning:

“Considering the extent to which benzodiazepines are prescribed and the number of potential adverse effects of this drug class in the general population, indiscriminate widespread use should be cautioned against.”
•A 2009 study that found long-term use of benzodiazepines was significantly associated with an increased risk of dementia, leading researchers to recommend “long-term use of BZDs should be avoided among the elderly, who may be at a higher risk for developing dementia, in addition to other health problems.”5

These Drugs May Increase Your Risk of Dying Prematurely Four Fold

Both anxiety and sleeping disorders are serious health issues that need to be addressed, but you need to think long and hard about whether benzodiazepines are the best solution. The risks are extremely steep; most would not knowingly put their life on the line, but you may be doing just that if you take benzodiazepines.

Research involving data from more than 10,500 people who received drugs for poor sleep (including benzodiazepines) showed that “as predicted, patients prescribed any hypnotic had substantially elevated hazards of dying compared to those prescribed no hypnotics”6 and the association held true even when patients with poor health were taken into account — and even if the patients took fewer than 18 pills in a year.

The study suggested that those who take such medications are not only at higher risk for certain cancers, but are nearly four times more likely to die than people who don’t take them. There are other serious risks too, like addiction.

Addiction is Common

These drugs exert a calming effect by boosting the action of a neurotransmitter called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the same way as opioids (heroin) and some cannabinoids (cannabis) do. This in turn activates the gratification hormone, dopamine, in your brain. Since the identical brain “reward pathways” are used by both types of drugs, they can be equally addictive.7

Older adults have a much more difficult time eliminating benzodiazepines and similar drugs from their bloodstreams, especially while on multiple medications, which overburden the detoxification systems.

Over time, these drugs can accumulate in your body, which will increase your risk of an accidental overdose. Even at regular doses, these are mind-altering drugs, and as such have been linked to a seriously increased risk of getting into a car accident if you attempt to drive while taking them.8 Other common side effects of this class of drugs, regardless of age, include:
•Unsteady gait, and falling
•Dizziness
•Hip fractures
•Drug-induced or drug-worsened impairment of thinking, memory loss
•Cancer and premature death

Natural Approaches for Relieving Anxiety

Feeling anxious is never pleasant, and you naturally want to escape it as quickly as possible. But remember, drugs should typically be your last choice. Mental illness is devastating. It takes a toll on the healthiest of families and can destroy lifelong friendships. Few things are harder in life than watching someone you love struggle with anxiety, panic attacks or depression, and to not have anything within your power that can change things for them. You wonder if you will ever have your loved one “back” again.

Oftentimes you cannot change your circumstances. You can, however, change your response to them. I encourage you to be balanced in your life. Don’t ignore your body’s warning signs that something needs to change. Sometimes people are so busy taking care of everybody else that they lose sight of themselves.

There are times when a prescription drug may help restore balance to your body. But it’s unclear whether it is the drug providing benefits, or the unbelievable power of your mind that is convinced it is going to work. And oftentimes the risks you subject yourself to are simply too great … So I urge you to explore the safe and effective ways to address anxiety and other mental health conditions that do not involve unsafe drugs, including:
•Dramatically decrease your consumption of sugar (particularly fructose), grains, and processed foods. (In addition to being high in sugar and grains, processed foods also contain a variety of additives that can affect your brain function and mental state, especially MSG, and artificial sweeteners such as aspartame.)

There’s a great book on this subject, The Sugar Blues, written by William Dufty more than 30 years ago, that delves into the topic of sugar and mental health in great detail.
•Increase consumption of fermented foods, such as fermented vegetables and kefir, to promote healthy gut flora. Mounting evidence tells us that having a healthy gut is profoundly important for both physical and mental health, and the latter can be severely impacted by an imbalance of intestinal bacteria. Your gut is your “second brain” and will help normalize the production of neurotransmitters that are responsible for optimal brain functioning.
•Optimize your vitamin D levels, ideally through regular sun exposure. Vitamin D is very important for your mood and mental health. The best way to get vitamin D is through exposure to sunshine or a safe tanning bed if you don’t have regular access to the sun.
•Get plenty of animal-based omega-3 fats. Many people don’t realize that excluding water their brain is 60 percent fat, but not just any fat. It is DHA, an animal-based omega-3 fat that, along with EPA, is crucial for good brain function and mental health, including reducing anxiety. Unfortunately, most people don’t get enough from diet alone. Make sure you take a high-quality omega-3 fat, such as krill oil.
•Get adequate daily exercise, which is one of the most effective strategies for supporting positive mental health. Studies on exercise as a treatment for depression have shown there is a strong correlation between improved mood and aerobic capacity. So there’s a growing acceptance that the mind-body connection is very real, and that maintaining good physical health can significantly lower your risk of developing mental and emotional challenges in the first place.
•Get adequate amounts of sleep. You can have the best diet and exercise program possible but if you aren’t sleeping well you can easily become depressed and anxious. Sleep and depression are so intimately linked that a sleep disorder is actually part of the definition of the symptom complex that gives the label depression.

If you struggle with insomnia, I suggest reading my Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep for 33 simple tips on improving your sleep. Whether you are not able to fall asleep, wake up too often, or don’t feel well rested when you wake up in the morning, these guidelines will provide you with various useful techniques to improve sleep problems.
•I strongly believe that energy psychology is one of the most powerful tools for resolving emotional issues – specifically a technique called the Emotional Freedom Technique, or EFT.

If You’re Taking Benzodiazepines for Sleep …

As with anxiety, these drugs do nothing to help the underlying reasons why you’re having trouble sleeping. This is likely why studies have shown that cognitive behavioral therapy can treat insomnia better than drugs.

Instead of resorting to drugs, I suggest reading my Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep for 33 simple tips on improving your sleep. There are many factors that can play a role, but one that many fail to consider is the use of lights, such as your TV, iPad, and computer, before going to bed. These emit the type of blue light that will suppress your pineal gland’s ability to convert serotonin to melatonin and hamper your ability to fall asleep. Ideally, you’ll want to turn them off at least an hour prior to bedtime. Next, making sure your bedroom is ideally suited for sleep can also go a long way to ensure restful and uninterrupted sleep:
1.Cover your windows with blackout shades or drapes to ensure complete darkness. Even the tiniest bit of light in the room can disrupt your internal clock and your pineal gland’s production of sleep hormones. (Even the faint glow from your clock radio could be interfering with your sleep.)

Also close your bedroom door, get rid of night-lights, and refrain from turning on any light during the night, even when getting up to go to the bathroom. If you have to use a light, install so-called “low blue” light bulbs in your bedroom and bathroom. These emit an amber or red light that will not suppress your natural melatonin production.
2.Keep the temperature in your bedroom at or below 70 degrees F (21 degrees Celsius). Many people keep their homes and particularly their upstairs bedrooms too warm. Studies show that the optimal room temperature for sleep is quite cool, between 60 to 68 degrees F (15.5 to 20 C). Keeping your room cooler or hotter can lead to restless sleep.

When you sleep, your body’s internal temperature drops to its lowest level, generally about four hours after you fall asleep. Scientists believe a cooler bedroom may therefore be most conducive to sleep, since it mimics your body’s natural temperature drop.
3.Check your bedroom for electro-magnetic fields (EMFs). These can disrupt your pineal gland and the production of melatonin and serotonin, and may have other negative effects as well.

To do this, you need a gauss meter. You can find various models online, starting around $50 to $200. Some experts even recommend pulling your circuit breaker before bed to kill all power in your house. Move alarm clocks and other electrical devices away from your head. If these devices must be used, keep them as far away from your bed as possible, preferably at least 3 feet.
4.If you’re feeling anxious or restless, try using the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which can help you address any emotional issues that might keep you tossing and turning at night.

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

Big Dairy Petitions FDA to Allow Unlabeled Use of Aspartame in Dairy Products

The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) have filed a petition with the FDA1 requesting the agency “amend the standard of identity” for milk and 17 other dairy products. This was done to provide for the use of any safe and suitable sweetener as an optional ingredient — including non-nutritive sweeteners such as aspartame to deceive you by not having to indicate its use on the label.

It’s a move that could endanger your health for decades to come, and disproportionally harm underprivileged children who rely on school lunches for the bulk of their nutrition.

If the amendment goes through, that would mean anytime you see the word “milk” on the label, it could include aspartame, sucralose, or any other dangerous artificial sweetener, but you could never be quite sure, since there will be no mention of it — not by listing the artificial sweetener used, nor with a no- or low-calorie type label, which is a tip-off that the product might contain a non-nutritive sweetener.

The IDFA and NMPF claim the proposed amendments would “promote more healthful eating practices and reduce childhood obesity by providing for lower-calorie flavored milk products” since many children are more inclined to drink flavored milk products than unflavored milk.

According to the Federal Register:

“[T]he proposed amendments would assist in meeting several initiatives aimed at improving the nutrition and health profile of food served in the nation’s schools. Those initiatives include state-level programs designed to limit the quantity of sugar served to children during the school day.”

As if that’s not nonsensical enough, the IDFA and NMPF argue that the proposed amendments would “promote honesty and fair dealing in the marketplace.” How could altering the definition of “milk” to include unidentified artificial sweeteners possibly promote honesty or fair dealing in the marketplace, you might ask? Read on…

When One Lie + Another Lie = ‘Honesty’

According to the IDFA and NMPF, nutrient content claims such as “reduced calorie” are not attractive to children and have led to an overall decline in milk consumption in schools. Essentially, as with the GMO labeling issue, they don’t want you or your child to be “confused” or perhaps “scared away” by truthful labeling…

The IDFA and NMPF actually maintain that “consumers can more easily identify the overall nutritional value of milk products that are flavored with non-nutritive sweeteners if the labels do not include such claims.”

They also state that consumers generally don’t recognize milk — including flavored milk — as necessarily containing sugar. Therefore, since you don’t realize that flavored milk might contain added sugar, sweetening the product with non-nutritive artificial sweeteners, while listing it as simply “milk” on the label, will make it easier for you to identify its overall nutritional value.

Get it? If not, you’re not alone.

In order to understand this twisted logic, you need to know that the FDA already allows the dairy industry to use the unmodified “milk” label for products that contain added sugar or high fructose corn syrup.2

Artificial sweeteners are allowed to be added, but must currently be listed on the label. Quoting Section 130.10 of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990, the IDFA and NMPF claim no extra labeling is required for artificial sweeteners because sugar is added to milk without labeling it, and “the modified food is not inferior in performance,” and “reduced calories are not attractive to children.”

Therefore marketing products as such is neither of benefit or detriment to anyone… Knowing that nutritive sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup can be added without being listed as an ingredient, is it any wonder that people generally “don’t recognize” these products contain added sugar?

Going along with their twisted reasoning, since they don’t have to tell you there’s HFCS in that flavored milk or yoghurt — which leaves you ignorant of the fact that it’s there — it might “confuse” you were they to tell you another version contains an artificial sweetener. It also puts those products at a market disadvantage, since the HFCS-containing products don’t have to list it — the HFCS is simply hidden as part of the “milk” designation.

Hence, hiding ALL added sweeteners from you would “promote honesty” and “fair dealing in the marketplace.” Not only is this a perfect example of how you may be consuming hidden fructose in your diet, even if you are an avid label reader… it’s also a valuable lesson in just how little you’re allowed to know about the foods you buy.

Which Products Would Be Affected?

The petition also requests the FDA similarly amend the standards of identity for 17 other milk and cream products, to allow the use of any safe and suitable sweetener in the optional ingredients, without specifying the type of sweetener used on the label:

Acidified milk

Cultured milk

Sweetened condensed milk

Nonfat dairy milk

Nonfat dry milk fortified with vitamins A and D

Evaporated milk

Dry cream

Heavy cream

Light cream

Sour cream, and acidified sour cream

Light whipping cream

Eggnog

Half-and-half

Yoghurt

Lowfat yoghurt

Nonfat yoghurt

What Prompted the Request to Alter Standard of Identity of Milk?

Many are surely scratching their heads wondering WHY anyone would want to alter the definition of milk. One potential clue — besides sheer unbridled greed on behalf of the dairy industry who’d rather not give you the option of choosing — can be found in an April 13, 2011 letter from the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) to Julie Brewer, Chief of the Policy and Program Development Branch of the Child Nutrition Division of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).3

The letter was in response to the USDA’s proposed rule to revise the meal patterns and nutrition requirements for the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs. One of the proposed changes was to limit flavored milk products to fat-free versions only — a change the NMPF claimed would have a negative impact on the goal of increasing overall milk consumption. The letter reads in part:

“The proposed rule will not be a success if milk consumption drops as a result of flavored milk choices that are not appealing (or at least not as appealing as competitive beverages students may bring to school from elsewhere). Flavored milk was included as an option in the proposed rule in recognition that the small amount of added sugar (flavored milk contributes only 2-3% of added sugars to the diets of children and adolescents) is an acceptable trade-off for the extensive nutrient contribution flavored milk provides.

Therefore, NMPF urges the Department to modify the proposed rule to include both low-fat and fat-free flavored milk as options available to schools. To limit the potential for additional calories in a low-fat flavored milk (as compared to a fat-free formulation) we urge the establishment of a calorie limit on flavored milk of 150 calories per eight-ounce serving.

This will provide schools the flexibility to procure milk products that maintain high levels of acceptability and nutrient intake, while also assuring that flavored milk fits within overall calorie limits for meals. Many milk processors have proactively committed to and met a goal of 150 calories per serving as a way to limit the amount of sugar in flavored milk, and have worked within this constraint to formulate products that have demonstrated acceptability among students in schools across the country.”

In essence, it has little to do with making your purchasing decisions easier, and more to do with:
•Fooling your kids into drinking otherwise unpopular fat free or low fat milk, and
•Allowing the national school breakfast and lunch programs to “look good” by successfully reducing overall calories of the meals while simultaneously helping the dairy industry protect profits

I’m not sure what’s more frustrating here, the fact that the USDA insists on using the flawed theory of calories as a measure of the “healthfulness” of school meals; their misguided insistence on fat free and low fat products to combat obesity; or their ignorant stance on artificial sweeteners.

When combined, what you end up with is a nutritional nightmare. How can anyone believe a fat free, hormone-laced pasteurized milk-like product from cows raised on genetically engineered corn, flavored with artificial flavors, colors and chemical sweeteners might actually do a growing body good? The nutritional illiteracy within these agencies is staggering… yet they’re responsible for making decisions that affect over 30 million school children across the US on a daily basis.

Take Action NOW! Let the FDA Know What You Think of the Proposed Rule

The FDA is currently accepting public comments on this petition. You have until May 21st, 2013 to submit your comments, and I urge you to do so right away. You can submit your comments electronically or via regular mail. For instructions, please see the following link to the Federal Register.

Milk Use Guidelines

While we are on topic of milk I would also like to add my latest recommendations. As always of course, the only acceptable dairy products would be raw unpasteurized organic varieties. Raw is more important than organic so don’t be fooled. Although raw milk is only available commercially in a few states in the US, nearly everyone can get it by going to RealMilk.com.

You should only drink whole milk; the lower the fat content the more processed and less wholesome it is. It is also probably wise for most adults, especially if they are overweight, have diabetes, hypertension, or high cholesterol to limit drinking milk because of the sugar (lactose) content. For those, fermented dairy like cheese and homemade yogurts are a better choice.

Aspartame — A Trojan Horse that Can Wreck Your Health

Aspartame is primarily made up of aspartic acid and phenylalanine. The phenylalanine has been synthetically modified to carry a methyl group, which provides the majority of the sweetness. That phenylalanine methyl bond, called a methyl ester, is very weak, which allows the methyl group on the phenylalanine to easily break off and form methanol.

You may have heard the claim that aspartame is harmless because methanol is also found in fruits and vegetables. However, in fruits and vegetables, the methanol is firmly bonded to pectin, allowing it to be safely passed through your digestive tract. Not so with the methanol created by aspartame; there it’s not bonded to anything that can help eliminate it from your body.

Methanol acts as a Trojan horse; it’s carried into susceptible tissues in your body, like your brain and bone marrow, where the alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) enzyme converts it into formaldehyde, which wreaks havoc with sensitive proteins and DNA. All animals EXCEPT HUMANS have a protective mechanism that allows methanol to be broken down into harmless formic acid. This is why toxicology testing on animals is a flawed model. It doesn’t fully apply to people.

There IS an Obvious Biological Explanation for Aspartame Reactions…

The industry is fond of claiming that there’s “no biological explanation” for the health problems reported by so many after consuming aspartame. Of course this is meant to make you think such reports aren’t true, or are unrelated to aspartame. Alas, there is in fact an obvious biological explanation according to Dr. Monte:

“‘Here is the story: there is a major biochemical problem here,’ he says. ‘Methyl alcohol is known now, and has been known since 1940, to be metabolized differently by humans from every other animal.'”

Here’s how it works: Both animals and humans have small structures called peroxisomes in each cell. There are a couple of hundred in every cell of your body, which are designed to detoxify a variety of chemicals. Peroxisome contains catalase, which help detoxify methanol. Other chemicals in the peroxisome convert the formaldehyde to formic acid, which is harmless, but this last step occurs only in animals. When methanol enters the peroxisome of every animal except humans, it gets into that mechanism. Humans do have the same number of peroxisomes in comparable cells as animals, but human peroxisomes cannot convert the toxic formaldehyde into harmless formic acid.

So to recap: In humans, the methyl alcohol travels through your blood vessels into sensitive areas, such as your brain, that are loaded with ADH, which converts methanol to formaldehyde. And since there’s no catalase present, the formaldehyde is free to cause enormous damage in your tissues.

Download Interview Transcript

Symptoms from methanol poisoning are many, and include headaches, ear buzzing, dizziness, nausea, gastrointestinal disturbances, weakness, vertigo, chills, memory lapses, numbness and shooting pains in the extremities, behavioral disturbances, and neuritis. The most well known problems from methanol poisoning are vision problems including misty vision, progressive contraction of visual fields, blurring of vision, obscuration of vision, retinal damage, and blindness. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen that causes retinal damage, interferes with DNA replication and may cause birth defects.

A Historical Timeline of Aspartame

Aspartame is the number one source of side-effect complaints to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with over 10,000 complaints filed and over 91 symptoms documented that are related to its consumption. With that many reports of adverse effects, it’s hard to believe aspartame is still allowed on the market — let alone being weaseled in as an unlabeled ingredient in dairy products of all kinds.

Unfortunately, aspartame’s approval was and still is largely a political affair. Many readers have long forgotten what 60-Minutes’ correspondent Mike Wallace stated in his 1996 report on aspartame — that the approval of aspartame was “the most contested in FDA history.” And for good reason. At the time, independent studies had found it caused brain cancer in lab animals, and the studies submitted by G.D. Searle to the FDA for the approval were quickly suspected of being sloppy at best.

To get an idea of of how aspartame made it through the FDA approval process despite warning signs of potential health hazards and alleged scientific fraud, take a look at the historical timeline of aspartame:

The Most Dangerous Food Additive on the Market: Are You Being Affected?

Unfortunately, aspartame toxicity is not well known by physicians, despite its frequency. Diagnosis is also hampered by the fact that it mimics several other common health conditions. It’s quite possible that you could be having a reaction to artificial sweeteners and not even know it, or be blaming it on another cause. To determine if you’re having a reaction to artificial sweeteners, take the following steps:
•Eliminate all artificial sweeteners from your diet for two weeks.
•After two weeks of being artificial sweetener-free, reintroduce your artificial sweetener of choice in a significant quantity (about three servings daily).
•Avoid other artificial sweeteners during this period.
•Do this for one to three days and notice how you feel, especially as compared to when you were consuming no artificial sweeteners.
•If you don’t notice a difference in how you feel after re-introducing your primary artificial sweetener for a few days, it’s a safe bet you’re able to tolerate it acutely, meaning your body doesn’t have an immediate, adverse response. However, this doesn’t mean your health won’t be damaged in the long run.
•If you’ve been consuming more than one type of artificial sweetener, you can repeat steps 2 through 4 with the next one on your list.

If you do experience side effects from aspartame, please report them to the FDA (if you live in the United States) without delay. It’s easy to make a report — just go to the FDA Consumer Complaint Coordinator page, find the phone number for your state, and make a call reporting your reaction.

Will You Allow the Industry to Poison Dairy with Aspartame?

Again, if this proposed amendment goes through, anytime you see the “milk” on the label, it could include any variety of artificial sweeteners. Who knows where it might end. Imagine if it goes further, and any processed food containing “milk” becomes permitted to include artificial sweeteners without listing them… This is a slippery slope I believe can only end in destruction of health.

The FDA is currently accepting public comments on this petition. You have until May 21st, 2013 to submit your comments, and I urge you to do so right away. You can submit your comments electronically or via regular mail. For instructions, please see the following link to the Federal Register.

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

If you’re like the average American, you waste more than 20 pounds of food every month. This is because 40 percent of the food in the US goes uneaten1 – that’s almost half.

While some of this food is lost during production and processing (such as produce that goes bad before it’s harvested), a significant amount is wasted in people’s homes simply because it goes bad before it’s eaten.

Wasted Food Costs US Families Thousands of Dollars a Year…

Not only does this amount to more than $2,000 in annual losses for the average US household of four, but all of that wasted food uses up precious stores of freshwater – about 25 percent of freshwater use is wasted on food that’s not even eaten!

Plus, this “throw-away” food takes up land space to grow it (which is then doused with chemicals) and generates increased methane gas emissions in landfills when it sits and starts rotting… it’s a massive unnecessary waste on all fronts.

Of course, you probably don’t set out to waste food. But if you purchase fresh produce in larger quantities — a must if you like to eat healthily but don’t have time to run to the market every day — it can be difficult to use it up before it goes bad.

Not surprisingly, these types of healthy fresh foods are the foods most likely to be wasted. For instance, more fruits and vegetables are wasted in the U.S. food system than are actually consumed (52% are wasted versus 48% consumed).2

The good news is that there are many tricks you can use to extend the “shelf-life” of your fresh foods; you don’t need to resign yourself to frozen or canned alternatives!

How to Make Your Groceries Last Longer: 27 Tips

When you invest the time and money into a trip to the grocery store, you want to be sure the foods you purchase last as long as possible. The featured article has compiled more than two-dozen tricks to keep up your sleeve to do just that:

Vegetables
1.Store onions in old pantyhose to keep them fresh for up to eight months (tie a knot in between each one to keep them separate).
2.Chop dry green onions and store them in an empty plastic water bottle. Put the bottle in the freezer and sprinkle out what you need when you’re cooking.
3.When storing potatoes, keep them away from onions (this will make them spoil faster). Storing them with apples will help keep the potatoes from sprouting.
4.Asparagus should be stored in your fridge upright in a glass of water (like cut flowers, cut the asparagus bottoms off first), and covered with a plastic bag.
5.Store salad greens in a bowel covered with plastic wrap, and add a paper towel to help absorb moisture. A salad spinner will also help remove excess moisture — a key culprit in wilting leaves — from your greens.
6.Mushrooms should be stored in a paper bag in a cool dry place, or in the fridge. Avoid storing mushrooms in plastic, as any trapped moisture will cause them to spoil.

Fruits
7.Swirl berries in a mixture of one part vinegar (white or apple cider) to 10 parts water. You won’t taste the vinegar but the solution will help keep your berries from getting moldy and soft.
8.When storing chopped avocado or guacamole, leave the pit in, spritz it with some lemon juice or olive oil, cover with plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge. This will help keep it from turning brown.
9.If you spot a rotten apple, remove it right away, as one rotten apple really can spoil the whole bunch.
10.Put plastic wrap around the crown of a bunch of bananas to keep them fresh for days longer (and be sure to store them away from other fruits, as they emit a lot of ethylene gas which accelerates ripening).
11.Store tomatoes at room temperature away from sunlight, in a single layer with the stem side up (don’t put them in plastic bags, which will cause them to spoil faster).

Herbs
12.Store delicate herbs like parsley, basil, cilantro and chives upright in a glass of water (like you would arrange cut flowers) in your fridge. Put a plastic bag over the top and secure it around the glass with a rubber band for optimal freshness.
13.Bunch oily herbs like thyme loosely together, secure them with a string around the base and hang them in your kitchen for storage.
14.Fill an ice cube tray with olive oil, then add chopped herbs (rosemary, sage, thyme or oregano) to each cube. Pop one out when you’re cooking for instant herb-infused oil.
15.Store fresh ginger root in the freezer. You can grate it frozen (peel and all) when cooking.

Dairy and Nuts
16.Rub the cut side of a block of cheese with butter to keep it from drying out.
17.Cheese should be wrapped in cheese paper or wax paper, not plastic wrap, then put in a plastic baggie.
18.Store cheese in the warmest part of your fridge, such as the vegetable or cheese drawer.
19.Nuts can be stored in the freezer to keep them fresh longer. Ideally put them in Mason jars that have the air vacuumed out with a Food Saver and attachment.

Organization, Gadgets and Other Tips
20.Keep milk and other highly perishable items on the middle shelf in your fridge, NOT in the door where temperatures fluctuate.
21.Avoid mixing produce and meats in the same drawer, as cross contamination can lead to food waste.
22.Avoid over-stocking your fridge, as a crowded fridge will keep air from circulating properly leading to warm spots that can cause spoilage.
23.Avoid chopping up your fruits, veggies and meats before storage, as this will make them spoil faster.
24.Glass mason jars make a great food-storage option, and you can seal them with an automatic vacuum sealer like Food Saver for even more freshness.
25.Remove spoiled food from your fridge promptly to keep mold from transferring to fresh food.
26.Get an ethylene gas absorber for your fridge; they’re available online and can keep your produce fresh up to three times longer than normal. There are many types of bags that can do this. They are typically called “green bags.” One example would be Debbie Meyer Green Bags.
27.A gadget called the Herb Savor, which has a well for water and a plastic cover to keep herbs fresh, claims to make herbs last for up to three weeks.

Vacuum Packing: One of My Favorite Food-Storage Tips

One of my all-time favorite tricks, which works for most produce, is to create a “vacuum pack” to help protect it from oxygen and airborne microbes that will accelerate its decay. Leave the produce in the bag it came in from the grocery store, place it against your chest and use your arm to squeeze the excess air out of the bag.
Once the air is removed you can seal it with a twist tie and thus minimize exposure to oxygen. This simple technique can easily double or triple the normal shelf life of your vegetables by keeping air away from them. Alternatively, you can use an automatic vacuum sealer, like the FoodSaver available on Amazon, to do this automatically and create an even tighter, airtight seal.

However, I nearly always store my food in quart or pint glass Ball jars. The FoodSaver brand also has a wide-mouth jar sealer attachment, which is ideal for sealing your leftovers, fermented veggies, sauces and other liquids stored in a wide-mouth jar, and can keep your food fresh up to five times longer. I regularly use it for extending the life of my vegetable juice and making my juicing more efficient so I don’t have to juice every day.

Food Loss and Waste is a Global Problem

Curbing food loss and waste is something that should be a priority on both global food system and individual (consumption and behavioral) levels. As the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations reported:3

“In developing countries the problem is chiefly one of inadequate harvest techniques, poor post-harvest management and logistics, lack of suitable infrastructure, processing and packaging, and lack of marketing information which would allow production to better match demand. The advice is therefore to strengthen the food supply chain by assisting small farmers to link directly to buyers. The private and public sectors should also invest more in infrastructure, transportation and in processing and packaging.

In middle- and high-income countries food losses and waste stem largely from consumer behavior but also from lack of communication between different actors in the supply chain.

At retail level, large quantities of food are also wasted due to quality standards that over-emphasize appearance. Surveys show that consumers are willing to buy produce not meeting appearance standards as long as it is safe and tastes good. Customers thus have the power to influence quality standards and should do so, the report said.

Selling farm produce closer to consumers, without having to conform to supermarkets’ quality standards, is another suggestion. This could be achieved through farmers’ markets and farm shops. Good use for food that would otherwise be thrown away should be found. Commercial and charity organizations could work with retailers to collect, and then sell or use products that have been disposed of but are still good in terms of safety, taste and nutritional value.”

Planning Your Meals Can Cut Down on Food Waste in Your Home

The FAO report found that people in rich countries generally buy more food than they need, then end up throwing away the excess. They noted that “generally speaking, consumers fail to plan their food purchases properly … that means they often throw food away when ‘best-before’ dates expired.” I’ve long stated that planning your meals is important for a number of reasons, one of which is reducing the amount of food that will go to waste, since you’ll only buy what you need each time you visit the store, and you’ll have a plan in place to use it all up once you get home.

I also recommend buying your food locally, preferably from a small organic farming operation you can visit and inspect for yourself. This guarantees that you get the freshest foods right from the start, giving you a few extra days of leeway before they spoil.

Finally, for the packaged foods you do buy, they are often good beyond their expiration date. Unbeknownst to many, “best by” dates on many food packages are typically a measure of peak quality, not an indication of food safety. Typically, it is still safe to eat a food after the “best by” or “best before” date (the exception is infant formula, which has safety-based “use by” dates).

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Lycopene is a vital anti-oxidant that has been shown to have potent anti-cancerous activity. This compound is not naturally produced in your body, so it must be supplied via your diet.

Tomatoes, which are actually a fruit and not a vegetable, contain a number of valuable nutrients, and according to recent research, organically-grown tomatoes are even more nutritious than their conventionally-grown counterparts.

One of the most well-known nutrients in tomatoes is lycopene — the compound that gives tomato its deep red color.

Lycopene is a vital anti-oxidant that has been shown to have potent anti-cancerous activity. This compound is not naturally produced in your body, so it must be supplied via your diet.

Other fruits and vegetables also contain lycopene, but none has the high concentration of lycopene that the tomato boasts.

Interestingly, when cooked, the bioavailability of lycopene increases rather than decreases, as is the case with many other raw foods, as heat has a tendency to destroy valuable nutrients.

That said, you’re best off avoiding canned tomatoes and tomato sauces as can liners tend to contain potent estrogen mimics such as bisphenol A (BPA), which is also a toxic endocrine disrupting chemical. Your best bet is to make your own organic tomato sauce from scratch, or buy organic sauce sold in glass jars.

Organic Tomatoes have 139 Percent Higher Phenolic Content, Study Shows

It seems perfectly sensible that food grown in healthier soil with natural fertilizers and no synthetic agricultural chemicals would be more nutritious. This is common knowledge among farmers, yet this age-old, common sense wisdom is greatly suppressed in the United States in order to protect the large-scale industrial farming model.

According to a recent study published in the journal PLOS One,1 growing tomatoes according to organic standards results in dramatically elevated phenols content, compared to tomatoes grown conventionally, using agricultural chemicals.

The researchers compared total phenol content in organic and conventional tomatoes grown in nearby plots in Brazil. This allowed for a more accurate comparison of the tomatoes, as both varieties were grown in similar soil- and climate conditions that might otherwise affect nutrient content.

According to the authors:

“This study was conducted with the objective of testing the hypothesis that tomato fruits from organic farming accumulate more nutritional compounds, such as phenolics and vitamin C as a consequence of the stressing conditions associated with farming system.”

The organic tomatoes were found to contain 55 percent more vitamin C, and 139 percent more total phenolic content at the stage of commercial maturity, compared to the conventionally-grown tomatoes. According to the authors:

“[T]his seems consistent with the more than two times higher activity of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) we observed throughout fruit development in fruits from organic farming.

Taken together, our observations suggest that tomato fruits from organic farming experienced stressing conditions that resulted in oxidative stress and the accumulation of higher concentrations of soluble solids as sugars and other compounds contributing to fruit nutritional quality such as vitamin C and phenolic compounds.”

Today’s Vegetables Aren’t as Nutritious as They Used to Be…

There was a trade-off, and that was size. The conventional tomatoes were significantly larger. However, while many unaware consumers equate size with quality, this simply isn’t the case. At least in the case of organic tomatoes, you get more even though it’s in a smaller “package.”

This does tend to hold true for other organic produce as well though. According to research published in 2009, American produce, while larger than ever before, contains fewer nutrients and tastes worse than it did in your grandparents’ days.

In fact, the average vegetable found in today’s supermarket is anywhere from 5 percent to 40 percent lower in minerals such as magnesium, iron, calcium and zinc than those harvested just 50 years ago. As the featured study suggests, jumbo-sized produce contains more “dry matter” than anything else, which dilutes mineral concentrations.

Other Studies Have Also Shown Organic Fruits and Veggies Are More Nutritious

Previous research has also shown there can be a nutritional difference between organic- and conventionally-grown vegetables. For example, a 2003 study in the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry2 found that organic foods are better for fighting cancer. And in 2005, scientists found that, compared to rats that ate conventional diets, organically fed rats experienced various health benefits. Rats that ate organic or minimally fertilized diets had:
•Improved immune system status
•Better sleeping habits
•Less weight and were slimmer than rats fed other diets
•Higher vitamin E content in their blood (for organically fed rats)

Other studies assessing the nutritional composition and difference between organic and conventional produce include:
•A 2010 study conducted by PloS ONE3 (partially funded by the USDA), which found organic strawberries to be more nutrient-rich than non-organic strawberries
•In 2009, the American Association for the Advancement of Science featured a presentation on soil health and its impact on food quality.4, 5 Conclusion: Healthy soil leads to higher levels of nutrients in crops
•Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted their own behavioral study that found higher risk of ADHD in children with higher levels of organophospates (pesticides)6

But perhaps one of the best studies out there on the benefits of organic versus conventionally-grown foods is the 2007 Quality Low Input Food Project7 — a $25-million study into organic food, and the largest of its kind. The researchers grew fruit and vegetables, and raised cattle, on adjacent organic and non-organic sites, and discovered that:
•Organic fruit and vegetables contain up to 40 percent more antioxidants
•Organic produce had higher levels of beneficial minerals like iron and zinc
•Milk from organic herds contained up to 90 percent more antioxidants

The results were so impressive they stated that eating organic foods can even help to increase the nutrient intake of people who don’t eat the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Besides the potential for improved nutrition, other reasons for choosing organic, and ideally locally-grown food include better food quality, better taste and, in the case of local food: increased freshness since the food has not traveled over thousands of miles.

Another Important Boon of Organic = Reduced Toxic Load

Many “health” experts insist there is little difference between organic and conventionally raised produce, but their arguments are flimsy at best. For example, a 2012 meta-analysis by Stanford University8 received widespread media coverage, and with few exceptions, conventional media outlets used it to cast doubt on the value of an organic diet. You had to be a reader of alternative media to get the real scoop on this study…

In a nutshell, the meta-analysis, which looked at 240 reports comparing organically and conventionally grown food (including 17 human studies), found that organic foods ARE safer, and probably healthier than conventional foods — if you are of the conviction that ingesting fewer toxins is healthier and safer for you. Interestingly, the Stanford study also found that organic foods tend to have higher levels of phenols, specifically.

While I believe organic foods grown in healthy soils can be more nutritious than their conventional counterparts grown in depleted soils with synthetic chemicals, a major benefit of organically grown foods really is the reduction in your toxic load. Agricultural chemicals, such as synthetic fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, can cause a wide variety of health problems, including:
•Neurotoxicity
•Disruption of your endocrine system
•Cancer
•Immune system suppression
•Male infertility and miscarriages in women

The Health Benefits of Tomatoes

Tomatoes are rich in flavonoids and other phytochemicals that have anticarcinogenic properties. They’re also an excellent source of lutein, zeaxanthin, vitamin C, which is most concentrated in the jelly-like substance that surrounds the seeds, as well as vitamins A, E and B-complex vitamins, potassium, manganese and phosphorus. Other lesser known phytonutrients found in tomatoes include:
•Flavonols: rutin, kaempferol, quercetin
•Flavonones: naringenin, chalconaringenin
•Hydroxycinnamic acids: caffeic acid, ferulic acid, coumaric acid
•Glycosides: esculeoside A
•Fatty acid derivatives: 9-oxo-octadecadienoic acid

Getting back to lycopene — a carotenoid antioxidant that gives fruits and vegetables like tomatoes and watermelon a pink or red color — this is one nutrient you’ll want to be sure you’re getting enough of.

Lycopene’s antioxidant activity has long been suggested to be more powerful than other carotenoids such as beta-carotene, and recent research revealed it may significantly reduce your stroke risk (while other antioxidants did not). The 2012 analysis9 followed over 1,000 men in their mid-40s to mid-50s for more than 12 years.

After controlling for other stroke risk factors, such as older age and diabetes, they found that men with the highest blood levels of lycopene were 55 percent less likely to have a stroke than those with the lowest. Other antioxidants, including alpha carotene, beta-carotene, alpha tocopherol (vitamin E) and retinol (vitamin A), showed no such benefit.

The high blood levels of lycopene were said to be a marker for intake of tomatoes and tomato-based products, as these are a particularly concentrated source. It’s estimated that 85 percent of dietary lycopene in North Americans comes from tomato products such as tomato juice or tomato paste.10 In addition to lowering your risk of stroke, lycopene from tomatoes (including unsweetened organic tomato sauce) has also been shown to be helpful in treating prostate cancer.

Tomatoes Must be Eaten with Fat for Proper Absorption, and Two Other Caveats

Lycopene is a fat-soluble nutrient, which means eating it with some dietary fat is essential in order for it to be properly absorbed. So a slow-cooked tomato sauce that contains olive oil or another source of healthy fat, such as grass-fed beef, may be an ideal source.

One caveat: when making your tomato sauce, start out with fresh tomatoes, as canned tomatoes typically have a lining that contains bisphenol-A (BPA) which is a potent estrogen mimic that have been linked to a number of health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, neurological effects, reproductive problems and obesity.

The current US federal guidelines put the daily upper limit of “safe” exposure at 50 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight. According to endocrinologist Dr. Fredrick vom Saal, a tin can contains around 50 mcg of Bisphenol A (BPA), and when the cans contain acidic food such as tomatoes, it will leach more BPA from the liner into the food. According to Consumer Reports’ testing, just a couple of servings of canned food can exceed the safety limits for daily BPA exposure for children.

So, ideally avoid canned foods entirely and stick to fresh fruits and vegetables, or switch over to brands that use glass containers instead. One other point: if you eat a lot of ketchup, you might want to consider choosing an organic version (as well as one that is unsweetened, as regular ketchup is a common source of sugar and high fructose corn syrup). Organic ketchup has been found to contain 57 percent more lycopene than conventional national brands.11

Cooked Tomatoes May be Better than Raw

Tomatoes differ from many other raw foods in that cooking them may in fact be better than eating them raw. Research shows that cooked tomatoes (such as in tomato sauce or tomato paste) not only increases the lycopene content that can be absorbed by your body, but also increases the total antioxidant activity. In one study,12 when tomatoes were heated to just over 190 degrees F (88 degrees C) for two minutes, 15 minutes and 30 minutes:
•Beneficial trans-lycopene content increased by 54 percent, 171 percent and 164 percent, respectively
•Levels of cis -lycopene (which is a form easily absorbed by your body) rose by 6, 17 and 35 percent, respectively
•Overall antioxidant levels increased by 28, 34 and 62 percent, respectively

Return to ‘the Way Things Were…’

The simplest way back toward health is to focus on whole, organic foods, grown or raised as nature intended. Meaning, it’s grown using sustainable farming practices, and without the use of chemical additives, pesticides and fertilizers. You can even grow your own. Picking the types of seeds can go a long way in helping your garden be plentiful and even determines how juicy or hardy your vegetables are. Heirloom seeds are seeds that have been carefully cultivated to produce the best plants possible; they’re hardy and bountiful. You can find packages containing 26 of the popular heirloom seeds in my Heirloom Variety Seed Collection, available in my online store.

As the featured study attests, fruits and vegetables grown according to organic standards are typically nutritionally superior, but even if they weren’t, organic produce will limit the amount of toxic residues you end up consuming, which is a major benefit in and of itself.
As for tomatoes, they’re one of the most potent sources of lycopene, shown to have anti-cancerous activity and the potential to reduce stroke risk. Just remember to consume your tomatoes, whether raw or cooked, with some type of fat, such as olive oil, since lycopene is a fat-soluble nutrient. Also remember to choose organic varieties, whether whole tomatoes or tomato paste, ketchup or sauce, and avoid anything that comes in a can, since the acidity of the tomatoes will increase toxic BPA release from the liner in the can.

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It’s no secret that medical errors are one of the leading causes of death in the United States.

At a quarter million every year, they’re so prevalent that if you were to add them all up, they most likely would be at least No. 3 on the death list, according to Dr. Peter Pronovost, and anesthesiologist and critical care physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

What’s shocking is that the harm often is preventable.

In an effort to help consumers become their own patient advocates, CNN has compiled this list of the top 10 mistakes hospitals make, and what you can do prevent them.

1. Treating the Wrong Patient

If your identity gets mixed up with someone else’s, you can get the wrong medications or even the wrong surgery. Most hospitals now give patients a wristband with your full name, date of birth and a unique barcode. Make sure this is checked and verified before every medical procedure.

2. Surgical Souvenirs

Surgical tools or other objects are left inside people after surgery far more often than you’d like to think. This is often the result of surgical staff failing to count, or miscounting, equipment during the procedure. Unexpected pain, fever and swelling after surgery are all indications that you could have a surgical tool still inside you.

Just how often does this occur? One study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that about 1,500 Americans have objects left inside of them following surgery every year.i Surgical sponges, which can fill up with blood and resemble bodily tissues, are by far the most common item left behind, but incidents involving clamps, retractors, electrodes and other objects have also been reported. If you have an emergency surgery, your likelihood of being impacted by an object left behind increases by 900 percent, and by 400 percent if unexpected changes occur during the procedure. Being overweight or obese also increases the risk.

Before heading in to surgery, alert your surgeon and attendants that you are aware of this issue, and ask them to be especially careful. Also make sure counts of surgical equipment are routine at the institution where the surgery is being performed.

3. Lost Patients

Patients with dementia or other mental disorders can wander off, get lost, become trapped in closets and even die from hypothermia, dehydration and other hazards. A GPS tracking bracelet can ensure that your loved one will always be easily locatable.

4. Fake Doctors

Sometimes con artists like to pretend they’re doctors, offering medical treatments that make them rich but will only make you sicker. CNN gave the example of Sarafina Gerling, who wore a back brace advertised online by a man found guilty of insurance fraud. Gerling thought the brace would help her scoliosis, but it only made the condition worse. Make sure any health care practitioner you receive treatment from is, in fact, qualified to do so.

5. The ER Waiting Game

Emergency rooms and hospitals only have so much space, so when beds are full it can mean you’re forced to wait for medical care — and that wait time can sometimes be the difference between life and death, or the loss of limbs, as happened to Malyia Jeffers, a baby who waited five hours for medical care while flesh-eating bacteria spread through her body.

6. Air Bubbles in Blood

If the hole in your chest isn’t sealed correctly (airtight) after a chest tube is removed, air bubbles can enter the wound and cut off blood supply to your lungs, heart, kidneys and brain — a life-threatening event. Before having a chest tube removed, ask the nurse how you should be positioned to avoid air bubbles, and make sure the hole will be sealed airtight.

7. Operating on the Wrong Body Part

It can happen if a surgeon misreads your chart, or if the chart is incorrect. Surgical drapings can also cover marks made on a person’s body to indicate where the surgery is to be performed. If you are having surgery, make sure you confirm with the surgeon, nurses and other staff that they have the correct body location on which to operate — and if any marks are drawn to indicate the area, make sure they are in the proper location.

8. Infection Infestation

Hospital-acquired infections are alarmingly common, and sadly they’re often deadly. In the United States, more than 2 million people are affected by hospital-acquired infections each year, and a whopping 100,000 people die as a result. According to the 2011 Health Grades Hospital Quality in America report,ii analysis of approximately 40 million Medicare patients’ records from 2007 through 2009 showed that 1 in 9 patients developed such hospital-acquired infections!

The saddest part is, most of these cases could likely have been easily prevented with better infection control in hospitals—simple routines such as doctors and nurses washing their hands between each patient, for example. Be aware and make sure doctors, nurses and other health care providers wash their hands before touching you; if you feel uncomfortable speaking up … realize that doing so could literally save your life.

9. Lookalike Tubes

Medical tubing serves a variety of unique purposes in hospitals, for instance delivering medication, fluids, food, gases or blood to different areas of the body — the veins, arteries, stomach, lungs, etc. Unfortunately, many varieties of medical tubing are interchangeable and easily connectable, meaning it is very simple to mistakenly connect a feeding tube to an intravenous line, or IV fluids to an oxygen tube, leading to suffocation.

There have been cases reported where a spinal anesthetic used for pain relief during childbirth was mistakenly put into a vein, killing the 16-year-old recipient, and a healthy young pregnant woman and her unborn daughter died after a feeding tube was mistakenly connected to an intravenous line, sending liquid food directly into her veins — a fatal, and completely avoidable, mistake.iii

With nurses often working overtime or covering too many patients at once, it is all too easy to connect a tube improperly, leading to an often fatal outcome for the patient. A simple solution would be to change the design of the tubes so tubing for different functions are no longer compatible with one another, but so far the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been slow to take action. Until that change takes place, protect yourself by asking nurses to trace all medical tubing back to its original source to prevent mishaps.

10. Waking up During Surgery

If you receive an under-dose of anesthesia, your brain may be “awake” even if you can’t move your muscles. Unable to move or speak, you may still feel the surgery taking place. Express any concerns you have with your surgeon and anesthesiologist prior to surgery, including asking about options for local anesthesia in lieu of being put to sleep.

Medical Errors are Alarmingly Common — How to Save Your Life if You’re Admitted to the Hospital

Download Interview Transcript

According to the 2011 Health Grades report, the incidence rate of medical harm occurring in the United States is estimated to be over 40,000 harmful and/or lethal errors each and EVERY day.iv

In my recent interview (above) with Dr. Andrew Saul, co-author of Hospitals and Health: Your Orthomolecular Guide to a Shorter Hospital Stay (which is available on Amazon), he explained that the lowest estimate makes hospitals one of the top 10 causes of deaths in the United States … and the highest estimate makes hospital and drugs the number one cause of death in the United States.

One of the reasons I am so passionate about sharing the information on this site about healthy eating, exercise, and stress management with you is because it can help keep you OUT of the hospital. But if you do have to go there, you need to know how to play the game.

My primary suggestion is to avoid hospitals unless it’s an absolute emergency and you need life-saving medical attention. In such cases, it’s worth taking one of Dr. Saul’s recommendations, which is to bring a personal advocate — a relative or friend who can speak up for you and ensure you’re given proper care if you can’t do so yourself. If you’re having an elective medical procedure done, remember that this gives you greater leeway and personal choice—use it!

Many believe training hospitals will provide them with the latest and greatest care, but they can actually be far more dangerous.

As a general rule, avoid elective surgeries and procedures during the month of July because this is when brand new residents begin their training. According to a 2010 report in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, lethal medication errors consistently spike by about 10 percent each July, particularly in teaching hospitals, due to the inexperience of new residents.v Also be cautious of weekends.

I recommend you watch the video above for more potentially life-saving tips in the event you find yourself in a hospital. Knowing how to prevent disease so you can avoid hospitals in the first place is clearly your best bet. But knowing what to do to make your hospital stay as safe as possible is equally important.

Understand that you, the patient, are the most powerful entity within the entire hospital system. However, the system works on the assumption that the patient will not claim that power. Knowing your rights and responsibilities can help ensure your hospital stay is a safe and healing one.

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