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Best of the Web: Has Drug-Driven Medicine Become A Form of Human Sacrifice?

US Constitution
© GreenMedInfo
"Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution the time will come when medicine will organize itself into an undercover dictatorship. To restrict the art of healing to doctors and deny equal privileges to others will constitute the Bastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic."

~ Attributed to Dr. Benjamin Rush,
Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Benjamin Rush accurately foretold a grave possibility facing Americans today, namely, that the art and science of healing be restricted to a select class of allopathic physicians, who have the sole legal right to recommend and administer medicines, and whose pharmacopeia excludes - as a matter of principle - all the healing foods, vitamins and herbs which have been used safely and effectively for countless millenia in the prevention and treatment of disease.

We have entered an era where medicine no longer bears any resemblance to the art and science of healing. The doctor no longer facilitates the body's innate self-healing capabilities with time, care, good nutrition and special help from our plant allies. To the contrary, medicine has transmogrified into a business enterprise founded on the inherently nihilistic principles of pure, unbridled capitalism, with an estimated 786,000 Americans dying annually from iatrogenic or medically-caused deaths.*

Health

Pet Cat Ups Allergy Risk For Adults

Kitten
© redOrbit

Having a pet cat as a child may protect against future allergies, but a new study has found that getting a pet cat as an adult nearly doubles the risk of developing an immune reaction to it.

The study, published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, found that people who already had other allergies were at a higher risk of having an allergic reaction to a new feline in the house.

"Our data support that acquiring a cat in adulthood nearly doubles the risk of developing cat sensitization," Mario Olivieri, from the University Hospital of Verona in Italy, told Rick Dewsbury of The Daily Mail Online. "Hence, cat avoidance should be considered in adults, especially in those sensitized to other allergens and reporting a history of allergic diseases."

More than 6,000 adult Europeans took part in the study, with researchers surveying them twice over a nine year period and taking blood samples. None of the participants had antibodies to cats in their blood at the beginning of the study, meaning they were not sensitized to the pet's dander.

About three percent of the study group who did not have a cat at either time of the survey became sensitized over the course of the study, compared to five percent of those who acquired a cat during the nine year period.

Four in ten of the newly sensitized people also said they had experienced allergy symptoms around animals, four times the rate seen in people without antibodies against cats. It also turned out that only people who let their cat into the bedroom became sensitized.

Pills

Best of the Web: Are Psychiatrists Inventing Mental Illnesses to Feed Americans More Pills?

prescription bottles
© n/a
Mental health professionals say new diagnoses will lead to overmedication.

Anyone who's ever tried to get reimbursed by a health insurance company after seeing a psychiatrist or psychotherapist, or taking a child or teenager to one, has no doubt noticed the incomprehensible numbers that appear on the clinician's statement, perhaps preceding some slightly less imponderable phrase.

Maybe you are a 296.22 (major depressive disorder, single episode, mild) or a 300.00 (anxiety disorder NOS - not otherwise specified). Hopefully, you are not a 301.83 (borderline personality disorder). Your kid might be a 313.81 (oppositional defiant disorder) or, more likely, a 314.01 (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, predominantly hyperactive-impulsive type).

Since 1952, a tome called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, better known as the DSM, has been reducing to a few digits the psychological malady said to afflict a patient. This bible of mental health treatment, published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), provides a list and description of every mental health condition known to - or invented by - psychiatry, from histrionic personality disorder (301.50) to transvestic fetishism (302.3).

Beaker

Oil is more toxic than previously thought, study finds

phototoxicity in Pacific herring embryos
© Dr. Carol Vines, UC Davis Bodega Marine LaboratoryPhotos from a UC Davis / NOAA study show the effects of phototoxicity in Pacific herring embryos. Embryos on the left are unexposed to oil; those on the right have been in oil and then exposed to sunlight and show cells destroyed.

Bad news for the Gulf of Mexico: a study released this week sheds new light on the toxicity of oil in aquatic environments, and shows that environmental impact studies currently in use may be inadequate. The report is to be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study, spearheaded by the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory in collaboration with NOAA, looked into the aftermath of the 2007 Cusco Busan spill, when that tanker hit the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and spilled 54,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the bay.

The key finding involved the embryos of Pacific herring that spawn in the bay. The fish embryos absorbed the oil and then, when exposed to UV rays in sunlight, physically disintegrated. This is called phototoxicity, and has not previously been taken into account when talking about oil spills.

Attention

Is the FDA Trying to Take Away Your Vitamins?

Image
© foxnews.com
What began as a murmur last year about a possible ban on thousands of dietary supplements in the U.S. has reached cacophonous levels over the last few months, as the Food and Drug Administration indicated its intent to regulate "new dietary ingredients" in current and future products.

What does this mean? And, more importantly, how might it affect you and your health?

This past summer, the FDA issued a draft of guidelines for complying with the New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) notification protocols. Translation: Any company or individual wishing to sell or develop a supplement containing new ingredients would have to notify the FDA of their intent. A "new" ingredient is defined as one added after 1994, when Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). If the FDA deems a new ingredient unsafe or unscientific, the entire supplement can be removed from the market.

Just. Like. That.

Bacon

To Achieve Optimal Health, Eat 50-70% of This Frequently Demonized Food


Comment: To learn more about the benefits of a diet high in saturated fats and why Saturated Fat is Good for You read the following articles:

Get Saturated: Four Reasons Saturated Fat is Healthy
Enjoy Saturated Fats, They're Good for You!
Wrongly Convicted? The Case for Saturated Fat
The Big Lie: "Saturated Fats Are Bad For You"
You've Been Living A Lie: The Story Of Saturated Fat And Cholesterol
The Forbidden Food You Should Never Stop Eating


Health

Preventive care: It's free, except when it's not

Chicago - Bill Dunphy thought his colonoscopy would be free.
Image
© Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo In this photo taken Dec. 2, 2011, Bill Dunphy poses for a photo in Phoenix. Dunphy, a 61-year-old small business owner, thought his colonoscopy would be free under the nation's year-old health care law.

His insurance company told him it would be covered 100 percent, with no copayment from him and no charge against his deductible. The nation's 1-year-old health law requires most insurance plans to cover all costs for preventive care including colon cancer screening. So Dunphy had the procedure in April.

Then the bill arrived: $1,100.

Dunphy, a 61-year-old Phoenix small business owner, angrily paid it out of his own pocket because of what some prevention advocates call a loophole. His doctor removed two noncancerous polyps during the colonoscopy. So while Dunphy was sedated, his preventive screening turned into a diagnostic procedure. That allowed his insurance company to bill him.

Like many Americans, Dunphy has a high-deductible insurance plan. He hadn't spent his deductible yet. So, on top of his $400 monthly premium, he had to pay the bill.

Evil Rays

The Danger of CT Scans: The Leading Cause of Breast Cancer?

mammography clinic
© n/a
Profiteers in the medical CT scan business took a big hit last week from a major new government report on the causes of breast cancer.

Published by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, the exhaustive analysis found that medical radiation, particularly the large radiation dose delivered by CT scans, is the foremost identifiable cause of breast cancer.[1]

Almost 230,480 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed this year in the United States, and about 40,000 women will die of the disease, roughly one out of every 3,875 women.

The new Institute of Medicine report probably doesn't sit well with the industry, hospitals and clinics that make so many millions of dollars selling and over-using CT machines. The authors suggest that women avoid "unnecessary" or "inappropriate" medical radiation, a thinly veiled criticism of the industry that will give you a CT scan for a tooth ache if you don't object to it.

Cell Phone

Health Canada Admits Studies on Cell Phones Convincing Enough To Promote Limited Use

cell phone brain
© Unknown
Ignorance may or may not be bliss, but one thing is certain -- it is very profitable. At least that's what cell phone companies count on to increase their bottom line. Health Canada may not be the most reputable agency when it comes to protecting the health of Canadians, but a promising initiative from the regulating body is proposing to adopt a precautionary approach and guidelines for limited cellphone use.

Canadians are encouraged to limit cellphone call length and to text message or use a hands-free device whenever possible (to increase the distance between the cellphone and the user's head). Those under 18 should be especially careful to limit all cellphone use. Children are still growing and are therefore much more sensitive to external agents such as radiation.
In May, mobile phone owners were urged to limit their use after the World Health Organisation admitted they may cause cancer. The UN's health agency were the first international governing agency to advise 'pragmatic' measures to reduce exposure, such as using hands-free kits and texting instead of calling.

Despite decades of evidence, the disturbing report from the WHO marked the first time a link was admitted between mobiles and cancer, and follows earlier research linking just half an hour's use a day with up to 40 per cent higher odds of brain cancer.

Info

Dow's New GM Corn: The Return of Agent Orange

DOW
© GreenMedInfo

Whether you are aware of it or not, your food, air and water are the battle ground upon which a titanic struggle between the multinational biotech corporations Monsanto and Dow AgroScience is now playing out. As a result, your health and environment (and that of all future generations) are at risk of being irreparably harmed.

Dow AgroSciences (a subsidiary of Dow Chemicals) recently announced their development of genetically-engineered corn, soybean, and cotton plants metabolically resistant to the herbicide 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), a major ingredient in Agent Orange. What this means for our future is that, if approved for use, vast regions of our country will soon be sprayed with a chemical that has been linked to over 400,000 birth defects in Vietnam.

How did we end up here?

History is repeating itself before our eyes. Dow Chemicals and Monsanto, joined at the karmic hip, both manufactured Agent Orange for use in Vietnam, and both are notorious for minimizing the adverse health effects associated with exposure to the agent. Neither corporation learned from its mistakes, largely because the US government underwrote the risk of using the chemical, and therefore shielded them from the bulk of the legal and financial fallout. But this lack of culpability has now set up the conditions for a reliving of the horrors of systemic herbicide exposure, only this time on American soil, with Monsanto choosing glyphosate (also a birth-defect causing chemical), and Dow sticking with its old time favorite.