Three studies coming out of the American Epilepsy Society's 67th Annual Meeting in Washington DC expose the high prevalence of epilepsy and other neurological disorders in US Veterans who served in Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn. The research conducted from these studies indicate that veterans are at a particularly high risk for traumatic brain injury (TBI), post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), psychological non-epileptic seizures (PNES) and epileptic seizure diagnoses.

A study by the Southeast Epilepsy Centers of Excellence and Duke University Medical Center found that 87,377 Veterans with seizures diagnoses were managed within the Veterans Health Administration during the 2011 Fiscal Year. The prevalence rate was 15.5 per 1,000 and incidence was 148.2 per 100,000. Higher incidence of diagnoses was found in young veterans under the age of 46.

"Appropriately diagnosing and treating Veterans with TBI and PTSD is notoriously difficult," said Tung T. Tran, MD. "It involves a multidisciplinary approach to include both epilepsy and mental health specialists."

A woman has documented her one-year, 88-lb. weight loss journey in a series of pictures, which have garnered over three million views on Reddit in the year since they were posted, and compelled one user to turn the pictures into a time-lapsed, morphing transformation.

Amanda, who withheld her last name, dropped 88 lbs. in just over a year. Beginning her journey in July of 2011 at 222 lbs., she embarked on a mission to lose weight through a ketogenic diet - a diet high in fats, moderate in protein, and low in carbohydrates. The 26-year-old conceded she did "virtually zero intentional exercise" over the course of her weight loss journey, just simple dietary swaps and the occasional picture as a reminder.

"I knew that I had to start somewhere," Amanda told ABC News. "I figured if I did it [took pictures] at least once a month, at the end of however long it took, I would have this really cool end product."

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The Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) is on its way to approve a licence application from PaxVax Australia (PaxVax) for the intentional release of a GMO vaccine consisting of live bacteria into the environment in Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria.

According to the regulator, it qualifies as a limited and controlled release under section 50A of the Gene Technology Act 2000 (the Act).

PaxVax is seeking approval to conduct the clinical trial of a genetically modified live bacterial vaccine against cholera. Once underway the trial is expected to be completed within one year, with trial sites selected from local government areas (LGAs) in Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia.

PaxVax has proposed a number of control measures they say will restrict the spread and persistence of the GM vaccine and its introduced genetic material, however there is always a possiblity of these restrictions failing and infecting wildlife and ecosystems.

Despite shelves overflowing with colorful packages, increased consolidation of the grocery industry leaves shoppers with diminishing choice and higher grocery bills.

Today, Food & Water Watch released an in-depth analysis of the consolidation of the grocery industry and the range of impacts it has on the food chain. Grocery Goliaths: How Food Monopolies Impact Consumers examines 100 types of grocery products and found that the top four or fewer food companies control a substantial majority of the sales of each item. Most often, the biggest food manufacturers offer multiple brands in each type of grocery, giving consumers the false impression that they are choosing between competing products when in fact all the sales can go to the same parent company. Over the past few years as food companies and supermarket chains have consolidated, this illusion of choice has coincided with increasingly expensive grocery bills.

"You might think you're a savvy shopper, supporting independent businesses when you buy a product from the organic foods aisle of your grocery store, but chances are you're really being duped by a small handful of grocery industry Goliaths hiding behind an array of brands and pretty packaging," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch.

"The largest mega-retailers and manufacturers control more of what we eat than you thought. And they're not only costing shoppers, but farmers and small food companies too."

If you eat seafood, unless you catch it yourself or ask the right questions, the odds are pretty good it comes from a fish farm. The aquaculture industry is like a whale on steroids, growing faster than any other animal agriculture segment and now accounting for half the fish eaten in the U.S.

As commercial fishing operations continue to strip the world's oceans of life, with one-third of fishing stocks collapsed and the rest headed there by mid-century, fish farming is seen as a way to meet the world's growing demand. But is it really the silver bullet to solve the Earth's food needs? Can marine farms reliably satisfy the seafood cravings of three billion people around the globe?

This article looks at aquaculture and its long-term effects on fish, people, and other animals. With this industry regularly touted as a paragon of food production, whether you eat seafood or not, you should know these nine key facts about farmed fish.

What kind of hornet's nest was opened up for the GM industry in view of the retraction of the two year "Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize", by G E Séralini et al, published in Food and Chemical Toxicology 2012, 50(11), 4221-31?

According to the article published December 5, 2013 in the Ecologist,

This arbitrary, groundless retraction of a published, thoroughly peer-reviewed paper is without precedent in the history of scientific publishing, and raises grave concerns over the integrity and impartiality of science. These concerns are heightened by a sequence of events surrounding the retraction:

• the appointment of ex-Monsanto employee Richard Goodman to the newly created post of associate editor for biotechnology at FCT
• the retraction of another study finding potentially harmful effects from GMOs (which almost immediately appeared in another journal)
• the failure to retract a paper published by Monsanto scientists in the same journal in 2004, for which a gross error has been identified. ^[1]

I was surprised and somewhat disappointed to learn that Al Gore has gone vegan. I don't begrudge his right to do so, of course, and I don't know his specific reason for the switch, though the article I read suggested it was a variation on the "red meat is bad for the planet" argument that ones hears all the time. This was disappointing because there is an alternate take on the meat question that too often gets lost in the news. It's called grassfed beef. Here's a profile I wrote recently as part of my 2% Solutions series:

"Eat less red meat" is the most frequent response I hear at conferences when a distraught member of the audience asks a presenter "What's the one thing I can do for the planet?" What the presenter should have said is "Eat less feedlot meat." A lot less, in fact.


Actually, the correct answer is "Eat grassfed meat." It's the only type of meat to eat - for our health, for the welfare of livestock and for the well-being of the planet.

Dr. Diane Harper was the lead researcher in the development of the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines, Gardasil™ and Cervarix™. She is now the latest in a long string of experts who are pressing the red alert button on the devastating consequences and irrelevancy of these vaccines. Dr. Harper made her surprising confession at the 4th International Converence on Vaccination which took place in Reston, Virginia. Her speech, which was originally intended to promote the benefits of the vaccines, took a 180-degree turn when she chose instead to clean her conscience about the deadly vaccines so she "could sleep at night". The following is an excerpt from a story by Sarah Cain:

"Dr. Harper explained in her presentation that the cervical cancer risk in the U.S. is already extremely low, and that vaccinations are unlikely to have any effect upon the rate of cervical cancer in the United States. In fact, 70% of all HPV infections resolve themselves without treatment in a year, and the number rises to well over 90% in two years. Harper also mentioned the safety angle. All trials of the vaccines were done on children aged 15 and above, despite them currently being marketed for 9-year-olds. So far, 15,037 girls have reported adverse side effects from Gardasil™ alone to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), and this number only reflects parents who underwent the hurdles required for reporting adverse reactions. At the time of writing, 44 girls are officially known to have died from these vaccines. The reported side effects include Guillian Barré Syndrome (paralysis lasting for years, or permanently - sometimes eventually causing suffocation), lupus, seizures, blood clots, and brain inflammation. Parents are usually not made aware of these risks. Dr. Harper, the vaccine developer, claimed that she was speaking out, so that she might finally be able to sleep at night. 'About eight in every ten women who have been sexually active will have HPV at some stage of their life,' Harper says. 'Normally there are no symptoms, and in 98 per cent of cases it clears itself. But in those cases where it doesn't, and isn't treated, it can lead to pre-cancerous cells which may develop into cervical cancer.'"

(NaturalNews) Disclaimer: I am not an opponent of the theory of inoculation. Nor am I opposed to science. What I am opposed to is fraudulent science, and that's what this article is all about.

Measles and mumps are making a huge comeback in the United States, but doctors and journalists all make the same critical error in understanding why. They blame "parents who don't vaccinate their kids" as the cause, but the real cause -- as revealed by whistleblowing scientists working for top vaccine manufacturers -- is that measles and mumps vaccines are designed to fail from the start.

Scientific fraud, it turns out, is an inherent part of the vaccine industry.

How do we know? Because whistleblowers who worked in the industry have found the courage to speak out and tell the truth. These people are the Edward Snowdens of the vaccine industry.

In the ongoing battle to take the poison out of our food, the state of Hawaii has banned Genetically Modified Organisms, also known as GMOs. The longest running studies on GMOs have shown results linking them to greatly shortening life and increasing your risk of cancer. The people of Hawaii voiced their concerns, forcing the Hawaii County Council to draft and dispatched Bill 113 Draft 3 to Mayor William P. Kenoi.

The new bill states they will not allow propagation, open air cultivation or any expansion of genetically engineered products.

The new bill holds a stiff fine for violators. Violators will be charged $1000 per day, per location. The stiff fine is not all that violators will be responsible for. Hawaii will not burden the tax payer for costs involved for violators. In inclusion to the daily fines, violators will subsequently be held accountable for costs of investigation, court and legal costs, damage caused to non-genetically engineered crops, plants, neighboring properties and water sources.

On December 5th, 2013 Mayor Kenoi signed the bill into law.

In a letter from Mayor Kenoi (attached below) he went on to say (say:)

"Today our communities expect that government will be as cautious as possible in protecting our food and water supplies. We all want to minimize impacts to the environment while also producing abundant, affordable food for local consumption. This ordinance expresses the desires and demands of our community for a safe, sustainable agricultural sector that can help feed our people while keeping our precious island productive and healthy."

This affect Monsanto's wallet. Mexico earlier this year banned GMO's as well.