Health & WellnessS


Syringe

Bio Fear Mongering?: WHO 'deeply concerned' by deadly flu research

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© Jayanta Dey/ReutersHealth workers carry poultry for disposal at Gandhigram village, about 22 miles west of Agartala, capital of India's northeastern state of Tripura, March 7, 2011, after an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu.
London - The World Health Organization [WHO] issued a stern warning on Friday to scientists who have engineered a highly pathogenic form of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, saying their work carries significant risks and must be tightly controlled.

The United Nations health body said it was "deeply concerned about the potential negative consequences" of work by two leading flu research teams who this month said they had found ways to make H5N1 into a easily transmissable form capable of causing lethal human pandemics.

The work by the teams, one in The Netherlands and one in the United States, has already prompted an unprecedented censorship call from U.S. security advisers who fear that publishing details of the research could give potential attackers the know-how to make a bioterror weapon.

The U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity has asked two journals that want to publish the work to make only redacted versions of studies available, a request to which the journal editors and many leading scientists object.

Comment: From Wikipedia: "Biological warfare (also known as germ warfare) is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi with intent to kill or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war."

Governments do not always claim war in order to begin reducing or weakening a population of what is considered, less desirable peoples. Consider the items in your local Grocery store that can have a negative affect on (your) a persons immune systems. It is not by accident that there are items once considered healthy and beneficial which retard and/or disrupt our ability to fight off illness. See the Diet and Health section of our Forum for more information and discussion.


Heart - Black

Virus Sickens 110,000 in Vietnam, Kills 166

Vietnam says an outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease has infected more than 110,000 people this year and killed 166, most of them children under 5 years old.

A Health Ministry official said Friday that the infection rate was slowing from a September peak of 3,000 per week to about 1,500 per week in December. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing policy.

The virus typically infects up to 15,000 children per year in Vietnam, killing 20 to 30 of them. Most people recover quickly from the illness after little more than a fever and rash.

The official says this year's figures cannot easily be compared to previous years, because the government has only collected thorough data on this disease in the past year.

Health

Chinese City Finds Cancer-Causing Fungi in Food

Chinese food safety regulators in the southern city of Shenzhen have found carcinogenic mildew in peanuts and cooking oil, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

The cancer-causing substance, called aflatoxin, triggered public concern this week after milk giant Mengniu Dairy Co Ltd said last weekend its Sichuan plant had destroyed products found by a government quality watchdog to contain it.

Aflatoxin occurs naturally in the environment and is produced by certain common types of fungi. It can cause severe liver damage, including liver cancer.

Xinhua reported that the Shenzhen market supervision bureau had said it found up to 4.3 times of the permitted level of aflatoxin in peanuts sold in two supermarkets and one frozen food store, and up to four times the allowed level of aflatoxin in cooking oil in four restaurants.

Health

Simple Green: Are You Using This Toxic Cleaner?

Toxic Cleaner
© GreenMedInfo

Simple Green, a hugely popular household cleaner, is marketed to the consumer as a "non-toxic," "biodegradable," and "non-hazardous" alternative to presumably more toxic cleaners. And yet, the material safety data sheet (MSDS) for Simple Green, which is federally mandated to be made available to the consumer by the product manufacturer (in this case Sunshine Makers, Inc.), tells a radically different story.

Toxic Cleaner_1
© GreenMedInfoFrom Simple Green's website
The MSDS for Simple Green states that the formula contains up to 4% 2-Butoxyethanol by volume. 2-Butoxyethanol is a petrochemical solvent which gives Simple Green, and products like Windex, their characteristic odor.

It is classified, according to the Dangerous Substance Directive (one of the main European Union laws concerning chemical safety), as "Harmful (Xn)," and has recently been recommended by Environment and Health Canada to be added to the Schedule 1 toxic substances list of the Canadian Environment Protection Act (CEPA). It is also listed by the state of California as a "hazardous substance" and a "toxic air contaminant." Hmm? Non-Toxic, really?

Cheeseburger

US: FDA Draws Criticism After U-turn on Antibiotics in Animal Feed

A pig farm in northern Missouri
© Daniel Pepper/Getty ImagesA pig farm in northern Missouri. Critics say the reversal is at odds with its obligations to protect public health.
Environmental groups dismayed after agency drops long-held plan to regulate use of human antibiotics fed to healthy animals.

Environmental and consumer groups have condemned the US Food and Drug Administration's move to renege on its long-held policy to regulate the use of human antibiotics in animal feed.

Last week, the agency quietly announced it was withdrawing its plan to limit the use of antibiotics fed to healthy livestock intended for human consumption.

Critics say the U-turn, which comes amid the FDA's own stated concerns over food safety, is at odds with its obligations to protect the public.

The groups also criticised the timing of the announcement, which was made during the holiday season and disclosed only in the federal register.

Health

Gluten Intolerance & Autism - Is There a Connection?

say no to gluten
© cafepress

The popularity of the gluten free diet has grown dramatically. More and more parents are turning toward a gluten free diet to help alleviate symptoms of autism and other learning disorders in their children. To a large degree, many in the medical community have ridiculed this, stating that diet and the autistic spectrum have nothing to do with one another. Medical research and anecdotal evidence however shows that thousands of people have had improvement with diet alterations.

What does diet have to do with behavior?

The food we eat is comprised of carbohydrates, fats, protein, nucleic acids, phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, water, and other nutrients necessary to sustain the healthy function of the body. It is the basis of how our internal biochemistry works. Ignoring the possibility that food contributes to disease is a cardinal mistake. Food is a drug and therefor can have drug like properties. One person's food is another person's poison. That being said, it goes to say that investigating the potential for a person to react negatively to food should be a primary tool in the "tool-belt" of all physicians.

In the research study below, a case is presented of a 5-year-old boy diagnosed with severe autism at a specialty clinic for autistic spectrum disorders. After initial investigation suggested underlying celiac disease and varied nutrient deficiencies, a gluten-free diet was instituted along with dietary and supplemental measures to secure nutritional sufficiency.

The patient's gastrointestinal symptoms rapidly resolved, and signs and symptoms suggestive of autism progressively abated. This case is an example of a common malabsorption syndrome associated with central nervous system dysfunction and suggests that in some contexts, nutritional deficiency may be a determinant of developmental delay. It is recommended that all children with neurodevelopmental problems be assessed for nutritional deficiency and malabsorption syndromes.

Another research study found a strong correlation with autism and intestinal permeability - AKA leaky gut syndrome. The conclusion of the study is below:
CONCLUSIONS:

The results obtained support the leaky gut hypothesis and indicate that measuring IPT (intestinal permeability)could help to identify a subgroup of patients with autism who could benefit from a gluten-free diet. The IPT alterations found in first-degree relatives suggest the presence of an intestinal (tight-junction linked) hereditary factor in the families of subjects with autism.
Source:
  • J Child Neurol. 2010 Jan;25(1):114-9. Epub 2009 Jun 29.
  • J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2010 Oct;51(4):418-24.

Magnify

Flashback The New Frontier: Genetically Modified Oil Wars

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© gmo-journal.com
Consumer Beware: the next generation of biotech crops focus directly on you. Unlike most of GM crops currently on the market, which are genetically altered to be herbicide and pesticide resistant, the new generation of GM crops are designed to express alleged nutritional benefits. Focusing on soybean oil - the fastest way to reach the broadest number of consumers because of its ubiquitous presence in many foods - biotech companies are mutating seeds used to produce oil designed to express various types of "nutritional" benefits.

Since we do not yet know whether genetically modified crops and food products made from them are safe, and in fact studies have suggested otherwise, it is hard to swallow and digest (no pun intended) the news that GM oils are designed to express nutritional benefits. How nutritious can food be if it has, as is suggested by studies, adverse health impacts?

But that is not stopping biotech companies from R&D. And so the oil wars have officially begun.

Health

No Deaths from Vitamins: America's Largest Database Confirms Supplement Safety

multivitamins
© Unknown
There was not even one death caused by a vitamin supplement in 2010, according to the most recent information collected by the U.S. National Poison Data System.

The new 203-page annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers, published online [pdf], shows zero deaths from multiple vitamins; zero deaths from any of the B vitamins; zero deaths from vitamins A, C, D, or E; and zero deaths from any other vitamin.

Additionally, there were no deaths whatsoever from any amino acid or dietary mineral supplement.

Syringe

20 facts about vaccines you won't likely see on a government website

  1. In 1868, 1873, and 1881 smallpox vaccinations in the USA led to an alarming spread of leprosy as reported to the Board of Health.
  2. In 1883 A Vaccine Disaster Record was published that documented over 400 deaths from vaccination.
  3. In 1900 the Rockefeller and JP Morgan syndicate purchased Encyclopedia Britannica and had all derogatory information and references about vaccinations removed from it.
  4. In 1917 during World War I, U.S. soldiers vaccinated before shipping over to Europe were dropping dead from a strange syndrome that seemed to be attacking only young people.
  5. In 1928 [August 27] the League of Nations [forerunner to the United Nations] published a report on encephalitis (brain inflammation) that stated, "The post-vaccinal encephalitis with which we are dealing has become a problem of itself... a new, or at least previously unsuspected or unrecognized risk attaches to vaccination..."
  6. U.S. Secretary of War, Henry L Simpson, issued a report in 1942 that said, "Recent Army experience with yellow fever vaccine resulted in 28,505 cases of hepatitis with 62 deaths."
  7. The Willowbrook School vaccine experiment lasted from the 1950s until 1972 during which time mentally disabled children were deliberately infected with hepatitis in an effort to find a vaccine.
  8. In 1957 The New York Times reported that close to 50 percent of polio cases that occurred in children between 5 and14 years of age, occurred in children vaccinated against polio.
  9. In 1972 before a Senate subcommittee hearing, polio vaccine inventor Jonas Salk testified that nearly all polio outbreaks since 1961 resulted from or were caused by the oral polio vaccine.
  10. The Lancet reported in 1976 that vaccines do not adequately protect against whooping cough and close to one-third of notified cases were fully vaccinated.
  11. The Lancet reported in 1977 that there is no protection demonstrated from whooping cough vaccine in infants.
  12. Science reported in 1977 that as many as 26 percent of children receiving the rubella vaccination develop arthritis.
  13. In 1984 the Archives of Disease in Childhood, Vol.59, No.2, pp.162-65 reported, "Since the decline of pertussis immunisation, [sic] hospital admission and death rates from whooping cough have fallen unexpectedly... The severity of attacks and the complication rates in children admitted to hospital were virtually unchanged."
  14. 1986 U.S. Vaccine Injury Compensation Act passed by Congress.
  15. 1988 U.S. Vaccine Injury Compensation Program funded.
  16. The Lancet reported in 1994 that asthma is five times more common in vaccinated children than in non-vaccinated children.
  17. The Merck Manual in 1996 publishes that "Autoimmune diseases may be initiated by the encephalitis that can follow rabies vaccination in which an autoimmune cross-reaction probably is initiated by animal brain tissue in the vaccine".
  18. The Lancet publishes in 1999 that there were 15,229 cases of diphtheria in Russia, and that most children were fully vaccinated.
  19. According to the NIH, a Japanese study in 2002, "Development of Vaccination Policy in Japan," documents the number of Japanese children developing autism rose and fell in direct proportion to the number of children vaccinated each year.
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  21. In 2006 polio was reported on the rise in Nigeria despite an almost universal rate of vaccination in that country.

Health

Are Your Clothes Making You Sick?

Clothes
© Natural Society

With every form of industry slashing costs and utilizing potentially dangerous new manufacturing technologies in an attempt to monetize and reduce workload, many of these companies are putting your health at risk. Such is the case with the clothing industry according to new research, which asks the question as to whether or not your clothes may be making you sick.

Some corporations have begun embedding something known as antimicrobial compounds into a number of common products including toothpaste, hand soaps, and even items within the clothing industry. The antimicrobial compounds are added to kill germs and odors, which appears to be beneficial at first glance. The truth of the matter, however, is that scientists have found that these antimicrobial chemicals may actually be damaging your thyroid in addition to your hormonal system.

Triclosan, Nanoparticles Added to Clothing Pose Health & Environmental Risk

Furthermore, these antimicrobial compounds do not really pack a powerful anti-odor or anti-germ punch. In fact, the antimicrobials added into premium brand name clothing items are actually the same as washing with soap and water. These products are sometimes loaded with harsh antibacterial agents such as triclosan, and trichlorocarban. Silver can also be used in nanoparticle form, which are tiny particles that can cross the blood-brain barrier. Prominent health professionals have warned against products containing nanoparticles due to the fact that the technology has never been thoroughly tested for effects on human health.

These two chemicals were found to begin washing out of the clothing quickly, and within around 10 washes half of the triclosan and triclocarban washed out. What this means is that the chemicals could easily be absorbed into your skin as a result of sweating or even from water touching the antimicrobial clothing. Washed out chemicals can also negatively impact the environment after passing through water treatment plants, posing a risk to wildlife, humans, and the food supply. The Swedish Chemical Agency, where researchers conducted the tests, also warned that children could absorb the microbial compounds which could negatively impact their developing bodies.