Health & WellnessS


Bug

DHS Report: 70% Chance Disease Will Escape Proposed Biodefense Laboratory

Martin Matishak
Global Security Newswire
Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:38 UTC
agro ,defense, facility
© U.S. Homeland Security Department imageA rendering of the U.S. National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility planned for Manhattan, Kansas. In a report issued yesterday, the National Research Council said a government safety evaluation for the proposed facility contained "several major shortcomings".

This November 16 article should have stated that a calculation that there is a nearly 70 percent chance a pathogen could escape the planned Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Kansas was made by a National Research Council panel based on data from a U.S. Homeland Security Department risk assessment. The NRC panel also estimated economic losses of between $9 billion and $50 billion from a postulated foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.

Washington -- An expert panel said yesterday the U.S. Homeland Security Department has not adequately gauged the potential risks associated with a proposed multimillion-dollar infectious-disease research laboratory in Kansas (see GSN, May 20 ).

There are "several major shortcomings" in a department risk assessment of its planned National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility near Manhattan, Kansas, according to a report by the National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences. The proposed site is roughly 120 miles west of Kansas City.

The facility's construction is expected to cost between $500 million and $700 million. The 520,000-square-foot center, slated to begin construction in 2012, would study highly infectious animal-borne pathogens, some of which could pose a threat to humans. It would replace the Plum Island Disease Center located near Long Island, New York, which was established in 1937.

The new site would also be the world's third Biosafety-Level 4 Pathogen laboratory to work with large animals. The other two such facilities are in Australia and Canada.
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Red Flag

Research Suggests Mercury Linked to Dementia


Physorg.com
Tue, 16 Nov 2010 20:34 UTC
Image
© physorg.comProfessor Richard Deth
New research by Northeastern University professor Richard Deth and academic colleagues in Germany suggests that long-term exposure to mercury may produce Alzheimer's-like symptoms in people.

Deth also discovered a probable biological mechanism through which mercury can destroy neurological brain function in humans.

The findings were reported this month in a study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

The team of researchers conducted a literature review of more than 100 experimental and clinical studies on mercury exposure in cell models, animals and humans. They found that animals exposed to mercury exhibited many of the pathological changes associated with the Alzheimer's disease, including memory loss, poor cognitive performance and confusion.

Comment: To learn more about detoxing mercury for better health and wellness read the following:

Mercury: How to Get this Lethal Poison Out of Your Body

Chelation Detox Eliminates Mercury and Heavy Metals and Leads to Better Health

In addition read the extensive thread on the forum:

Detoxification: Heavy Metals, Mercury and how to get rid of them

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Family

To Read Others' Emotions, It Helps to be Poor

Stephanie Pappas
Live Science
Tue, 16 Nov 2010 15:01 UTC
empathy
© Unknown
Money can't buy you happiness - or social skills, apparently. A new study finds those who are poor are better at empathy than the wealthy.

In multiple experiments, people of high socioeconomic status (or people who perceived themselves to be well-off) were worse at judging other people's emotions than those of low socioeconomic status, both when looking at photographs and interacting with real people. The reason may be that people with low income or low education have to be more responsive to others to get by, said study author Michael Kraus, a postdoctoral researcher in psychology at the University of California, San Francisco.

"You can see how being empathic provides a better ability to respond to social threats," Kraus told LiveScience. "It also gives you an opportunity to respond to social opportunities."
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Target

Genetically Modified Foods and the Monsanto Initiative

Steven Forrest
OpEd News
Sat, 23 Oct 2010 18:39 UTC
Image
© unknown
"If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny."
- Thomas Jefferson

Deception, manipulation, propaganda and profit: These words have become the basis of the American corporate and political landscape without any seeming concern or guilt over their promulgation. One company in particular, which seems to be the iconographic example of this is Monsanto or so go the claims today by the "conspiracy crowd" in reaction to the Genetically Modified (GM) food technology and its apparent governmental backing.

In order to understand the purpose of GM foods and the reasons stated for its implementation, the powers that be will tell us we need only look at the current global environment and the necessity of solutions to provide an adequate food supply to those in need in the global community. Farmable land and access to water, energy, and biological resources are not as plentiful in many countries as they are in many parts of America. These shortages equate to low crop yield which means certain death and starvation to many people around the world each year.


Comment: The Food Crisis is Not About a Shortage of Food
Hunger can have many contributing factors; natural disaster, discrimination, war, poor infrastructure. So why, regardless of the situation, is high tech agriculture always assumed to be the only the solution? This premise is put forward and supported by those who would benefit financially if their "solution" were implemented. Corporations peddle their high technology genetically engineered seed and chemical packages, their genetically altered animals, always with the "promise" of feeding the world.
...
Food shortages are seldom about a lack of food, there is plenty of food in the world, the shortages occur because of the inability to get food where it is needed and the inability of the hungry to afford it. These two problems are principally caused by, as Francis Moore Lappe' put it, a lack of justice. There are also ethical considerations, a higher value should be placed on people than on corporate profit, this must be at the forefront, not an afterthought.
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Video

The World According to Monsanto: The History of Agent Orange


Salem-News.com
Sun, 14 Nov 2010 18:27 UTC
Monsanto insists that its genetically modified crops are safe. Their history however includes the deaths of millions from Agent Orange...

This is a clip from the French documentary The World According to Monsanto. It summarizes the history of Agent Orange, a toxic herbicide produced by Monsanto, Dow Chemical, and other companies.
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Beaker

Flashback Study Finds High-Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury


Washington Post
Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:44 UTC
High Fructose Corn Syrup
© quest.tvHigh Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
Almost half of tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contained mercury, which was also found in nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first- or second-highest labeled ingredient, according to two new U.S. studies.

HFCS has replaced sugar as the sweetener in many beverages and foods such as breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments. On average, Americans consume about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS, but teens and other high consumers can take in 80 percent more HFCS than average.
"Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply,"
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Dr. David Wallinga, a co-author of both studies, said in a prepared statement.
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Beaker

Frankenplants in the service of Big Pharma: Scientists develop GMO plant that produces pharmaceutical drugs

Ethan A. Huff
Natural News
Sun, 14 Nov 2010 11:46 UTC
GMO plant
© Keith Wood (of DeLuca lab) for Science Magazine
Splicing and dicing natural plant compounds and patenting them for profit may be a thing of the past for drug companies, at least in terms of them having to do it manually in a laboratory. It might seem like something out of a science fiction movie, but a team of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has actually developed a way to genetically engineer plants that are programmed to create pharmaceutical drugs instead of their natural healing compounds.

You read that right. Sarah O'Connor and her colleagues from MIT added bacterial genes to periwinkle plants that altered their natural alkaloid production system, causing them to accept external chemical additions. Chemists then added halogens like chlorine and bromine to the plants' biosynthetic mechanisms, which altered the composition of the final alkaloids. So instead of producing their natural alkaloids, the altered periwinkles literally started producing synthetic pharmaceutical drug versions of those alkaloids instead.
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Beaker

70% of World's Raw Chocolate Soon To Be Genetically Modified


Prevent Disease
Tue, 16 Nov 2010 14:07 UTC
With the intention of flooding 70% of the global cocoa supply with genetically modified (GMO) cocoa tree hybrids, a collaboration involving Mars, USDA and IBM is accelerating this process.

With primary funding from US chocolate producer Mars, the partnership includes scientists based at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the US Department of Agriculture and Science as well as researchers working at IBM's Thomas J Watson Research Center.

The scientists are determined to finalize gene sequencing of the cocoa genome which they say will "benefit" the chocolate industry and cocoa growers in West Africa where 70 percent of the world's cocoa is produced, and in other tropical zones.
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Syringe

Does Having RH-negative blood Make you more susceptible to Mercury Toxicity in Vaccines?

Starfire
RH Negative blood, fact and theory
Mon, 15 Nov 2010 23:27 UTC
Last week I was studying legal cases relating to the RhoGam brand of Anti-D. I stumbled upon an interesting case and read the full text of of the proceedings. Here is the name of the case I read.
John and Jane DOE 2, Individually, and as Guardians ad Litem, of Minor Child Doe 2, Plaintiffs,
v. ORTHO-CLINICAL DIAGNOSTICS, INC., Defendant.
No. 1:03CV00669.
United States District Court, M.D. North Carolina.
While reading this case, I found that one of the expert witnesses was a geneticist named Dr. Mark Geier. During the course of the proceedings I found that Dr. Geier mentioned studies specifically talking about RH negative mothers having a higher incidence of children with Autism, and Autism Spectrum Disorders, learning disabilities etc. So, I went looking for his research. This is what I found.

Comment: SOTT urges all of those who are dealing with Mercury toxicity issues to check out the works of Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Sherry Rogers, Dr. Sydney MacDonald Baker, and others spearheading the field of detoxing the body. There are detox programs for children as well as adults that are demonstrating remarkable results.

Also, for body detox assistance, please check the Éiriú Eolas where you can learn about this remarkable stress-control, healing, detoxing and rejuvenation program. Scientific studies show that stimulation of the vagus nerve assists the body in detoxing and boosts the immune system. And those are just two of the benefits of learning and regularly practicing this program!

Finally, scientific studies have shown a relationship between gluten and casein sensitivity and mercury toxicity. See the work of Dr. Peter Osborne for details. Individuals with type O blood, both positive and negative, appear to be particularly sensitive to gluten and casein. There are many articles and studies in the SOTT Health and Wellness database on this topic.

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Bell

Kids of Deployed Soldiers May Face More Mental Health Woes

Maureen Salamon
Health Day News
Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:08 UTC
Image
© theautismnews.com
Mental and behavioral problems cause children of U.S. soldiers deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and other war zones to need considerably more outpatient medical visits than those with non-deployed parents, a new study suggests.

Researchers examined the medical records of more than 640,000 military children between the ages of 3 and 8, and found that those separated from deployed parents sought treatment 11 percent more often for cases of mood, anxiety and adjustment disorders. Visits for conditions such as autism and attention-deficit disorder, whose causes are not linked to deployment, also increased.

The study, reported online Nov. 8 and in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics, also revealed larger increases in mental and behavioral visits among older children, children with military fathers and children of married military parents.
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