Book Review: Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You! by Uffe Ravnskov, MD PhD.

Fat and cholesterol good for your?? Why its preposterous I tell you! And if this wasn't such a serious and important topic it might be worthwhile to spend a good deal of time simply on the reaction of mainstream medicine to Dr. Ravnskov's positions. To point out how this medical doctor, nephrologist and PhD could not get an English language publisher for his first book on the topic, The Cholesterol Myths until Sally Fallon in the alternative medicine field published it through her own company. How, despite being literally burned on a Finnish talk show, the original book was in such demand that it was selling often selling for well over 100 dollars for a used copy until the publication of the current book. Even with the publication of Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You! which covers and expands upon the material in the first book, used paper back copies of The Cholesterol Myths sell for over twenty dollars and new copies around $40.

The topic of heart disease is a serious one, however, and rather then spend more time on the reaction to these writings it is necessary to try and at least scratch the surface of what Dr. Ranvskov is actually saying. This is not so easy in that the numerous chapters are wide ranging, controversial and generally include some 30 - 70 references a piece. While it has become more fashionable recently to question the cholesterol lowering campaign, to my knowledge, even to the present no one has put together such a well-referenced, well organized and cogent critique of the cholesterol lowering campaign as Dr. Ravnskov. Personally, this was the first book I read which led me to begin to question much of the conventional medical wisdom I had been taught in medical school and beyond. If cholesterol lowering for heart disease may be in error, what other precepts of modern medicine might not be equally idolatrous? I also suspected when I first heard of this book, that despite the author's credentials it would almost certainly be laughably bad, well I was in for a surprise.

Jim is a 46 year old retired New York policeman who uses power tools to repair his house. His problem is chronic pain at the base of the thumb and wrist. The pain worsens with use of the hand, making it difficult to use the power tools. Other repetitive motions cause pain such as turning a key in a lock, unscrewing the lid of a jar, and opening the car door. Jim also has "trigger finger" involving the thumb joint, and at night, before sleep he notices tingling and numbness in the hands.

Conventional Treatment - Steroid Injection and Splint

Jim's hand pain worsened lately, so he went to a hand surgeon who gave him a steroid injection at the base of the thumb and applied a hand/wrist splint. These measures were ineffective, and his pain continued. The surgeon suggested operation. Jim came into the office to ask if anything else could be done to avoid surgery.

P-5-P, Vitamin B6, Pyridoxine for Trigger Finger

As it turns out, there is a simple and effective vitamin therapy for Jim's Trigger Finger hand condition called Pyridoxine, vitamin B6. Jim was given a bottle of pyridoxine phosphate (the activated form) and 3 weeks later, an amazed Jim returned to report that his pain and swelling is gone, and his trigger finger had also resolved. He no longer needs the operation.

Here are some simple guidelines you can implement today for better sleep and more fulfilling days!

Ministers of parliament and senior advisers in the UK government ruled against the flu vaccine for children under 5. This decision comes even though a flu epidemic is currently striking the UK.

Possibly they took a look at what Dr. Hugh Fudenberg, one of the world's leading immunologists, has had to say on the flu vaccine. Fudenburg found that anyone who had more than two flu vaccines between 1970 and 1980 has a far higher chance of having Alzheimer's in old age.

According to Vaccine Truth:

"Perhaps the UK government has learnt their lesson. Instead of vaccination they have decided to bring back last year's Swine Flu ads with the caption 'Catch it, Bin it, Kill it' ... The message is the best way to combat the flu is a lesson in hygiene."

Sources:

Vaccine Truth December 31, 2010

Mail Online December 31, 2010

A deficiency in this critical nutrient makes you twice as likely to die as other people, according to a study published in The Journal of Intensive Care Medicine.(i) It also accounts for a long list of symptoms and diseases - which are easily helped and often cured by adding this nutrient. In fact, in my practice, this nutrient is one of my secret weapons against illness. Yet up to half of Americans are deficient in this nutrient and don't know it.

I'm talking about magnesium.

It is an antidote to stress, the most powerful relaxation mineral available, and it can help improve your sleep.

I find it very funny that more doctors aren't clued in to the benefits of magnesium, because we use it all the time in conventional medicine. But we never stop to think about why or how important it is to our general health or why it helps our bodies function better.

The plant has been used for centuries as a traditional folk medicine to treat conditions such as warts, asthma and several types of cancer.

But for the first time a team of scientists in Australia has carried out a clinical study of sap from Euphorbia peplus, which is related to Euphorbia plants grown in gardens in the UK.

The study of 36 patients with a total of 48 non-melanoma lesions included basal cell carcinomas (BCC), squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) and intraepidermal carcinomas (IEC), a growth of cancerous cells confined to the outer layer of the skin.

Patients had failed to respond to conventional treatment including surgery, or they refused or were unsuitable for surgery because of their age.

The patients were treated once a day for three consecutive days by an oncologist using a cotton bud to apply enough of the E.peplus sap to cover the surface of each lesion.

Let It Burn

"A fabulous Easter gift," commented Monsanto Director of Development Initiatives Elizabeth Vancil. Nearly 60,000 seed sacks of hybrid corn seeds and other vegetable seeds were donated to post-earthquake Haiti by Monsanto. In observance of World Environment Day, June 4, 2010, roughly 10,000 rural Haitian farmers gathered in Papaye to march seven kilometers to Hinche in celebration of this gift. Upon arrival, these rewarded farmers took their collective Easter baskets of more than 400 tons of vegetable seeds and burned them all.[i] "Long live the native maize seed!" they chanted in unison. "Monsanto's GMO [genetically modified organism] & hybrid seed violate peasant agriculture!"

According to Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, coordinator of the Papay Peasant Movement (MPP), "there is presently a shortage of seed in Haiti because many rural families used their maize seed to feed refugees."[ii] Like any benevolent disaster capitalist corporation, Monsanto extended a hand in a time of crisis to the 65 percent of the population that survives off of subsistence agriculture. But not just any hand was extended in this time of great need, rather: a fistful of seeds. The extended fist was full of corn seeds, one of Haiti's staple crops, treated with the fungicide Maxim XO. With similar benevolence, not just any tomato seeds were donated to the agrarian peasants, but tomato seeds treated with Thiram, a chemical so toxic the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ruled it too toxic to sell for home garden use, further mandating that any agricultural worker planting these seeds must wear special protective clothing.[iii] Happy Easter! Monsanto's web site's official explanation for this toxic donation is that "fungicidal seed treatments are often applied to seeds prior to planting to protect them from fungal diseases that arise in the soil and hamper the plant's ability to germinate and grow. The treatments also provide protection against diseases the seed might pick up in transfer between countries."[iv] However, according to the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet, "repeated exposure [to Thiram] can affect the kidneys, liver and thyroid gland. High or repeated exposure may damage the nerves."[v] Why would Monsanto be so eager to donate seeds that could potentially compromise the health of so many famished people?

Marc Miller survived a motorcycle crash in October near his Baltimore County home, but his foot had been dragged along the pavement and badly damaged. That injury would require both the most advanced medicine and an ancient therapy - leeches.

Trauma doctors at Johns Hopkins, the University of Maryland and other U.S. hospitals routinely use leeches as a temporary measure to keep blood flowing as new vessels grow in a damaged area. The animals kept blood moving in and out of a new skin flap sewn onto Miller's foot. They also can get blood flowing to amputated digits that are reattached. And because the leeches' saliva has a natural anesthetic, some doctors now are looking to use them to ease pain.

"They can be the difference in whether the tissue lives or dies," Dr. Scott D. Lifchez, who treated Miller and is section chief of plastic surgery at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, said about the blood-sucking worms.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave its approval to market leeches as medical devices in 2004, though they had been used for many years before then. And their use appears to be growing, said Dr. Ronald A. Sherman, director of the BioTherapeutics, Education and Research Foundation, which supports the medical use of leeches and other furry, slimy and microscopic animals.

Israeli researchers are reporting a link between exposure to artificial light at night (LAN) and elevated rates of breast cancer and prostate cancer. The 10-year study conducted by the University of Haifa's Biology Department confirmed suspicions that exposure to higher-intensity light during sleep can be dangerous. The results were recently published in the Chronobiology International journal.

More than 1,670 Israeli women took part in the study which found that those exposed to higher intensity light in their sleeping environment had 22 percent higher odds of developing breast cancer than those who slept in total darkness.

"Bulbs with high-intensity light contribute more to environmental light pollution, and lead to cancer," said researcher Professor Avraham Haim.

Study participants were asked about light in the bedroom from electrical fixtures, street fixtures outside the bedroom window, light from other rooms, and whether they went to sleep with the TV on.

The most significant predictor of breast cancer was exposure to artificial light in the bedroom.

Journalist Peggy Orenstein wrote Cinderella Ate My Daughter out of concern over what messages the "pink, princess" girl culture was doing to her daughter Daisy.