The Health and Wellness show on the SOTT Radio Network covers topics of health, diet, science, homeopathy, wellness culture, and more. Tune in weekly!

Today we'll be discussing health and wellness of infants and children - What's the best thing to feed your baby? How can one optimise prenatal health and breastfeeding? What components in the surrounding environment can compromise your child's health?

Included, as always, is the pet segment.

Running Time: 01:58:00

Download: MP3

The proverbial brick wall of bad dietary advice is a-crumblin'. This week brings truly world-changing news in the field of nutrition.

On May 8, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association) made its official comments on the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and recommend dropping saturated fat from nutrients of concern due to the lack of evidence connecting it with cardiovascular disease.

However, because past advice from the Academy and others has caused issues with ALL of our body systems, I would also argue that this is actually earth-shattering news in the world of cardiology, nephrology, lipidology, endocrinology, pulmonology, orthopedics.... you get the point.

There is a long list of common iatrogenic (drug- or doctor-caused) diseases caused by prescription drugs or vaccine ingredients like aluminum and mercury. Dr. Gary G. Kohls says, "Common iatrogenic (drug- or doctor-caused) diseases can be caused by commonly prescribed drugs and/or commonly injected vaccine ingredients, which are making many of us highly drugged, malnourished, environmentally-toxic and also thoroughly vaccinated."

Pharmaceutical companies, the CDC and the AAP continue to recommend annual (aluminum and mercury-containing) flu shots for immature, immune-vulnerable, brain-undeveloped babies as young as 6 months of age, and for their pregnant mothers. That is all you need to know about these organizations and many more like the EPA and the FDA, all of which support the poisoning of adults and children alike.

Vaccines, the holy grail of modern medicine, is not what they tell the public it is. It is embarrassing to the entire field of medicine that pediatricians, those most responsible for babies and their health, would inject poisons directly into their blood streams and pretend to everyone, including themselves, that they are doing something good.

Dr. Kohl continues, "Many of these disorders (see list below) are actually caused by prescription drugs, vaccines and/or other toxic chemicals that are poisoning the mitochondria in our brains, nerves, muscles and other organs. Thus we are being afflicted by preventable, iatrogenic- or industry-caused diseases. Both realities are taboo subjects in the current era of mind-control by America's powerful, profit-motivated, multinational corporations in BigPharma, BigChemical, BigMedicine, BigMedia, BigFood and BigAgribusiness industries. That pervasive group prefers our ignorance, and each of them spends unlimited amounts of money to ensure it."

Dr. David Brownstein said, "More and more children continue to get the MMR vaccine even though a 2004 CDC MMR study was falsified to hide the fact that the MMR vaccine was found to significantly increase the risk of autism in boys who received it. Our children are currently suffering with an autism epidemic as nearly one in fifty children currently have autism. Where are the Congressional hearings? Where is the media?"

"All classes of psychotropic drugs have been documented to damage mitochondria, as have statin medications, analgesics such as acetaminophen, and many others. Mitochondrial damage is now understood to play a role in a wide range of seemingly unrelated disorders such as schizophrenia, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. Recently it has become known that iatrogenic (physician or treatment-caused) mitochondrial damage explains many adverse reactions from medications," writes Dr. John Neustadt and Dr. Steven Pieczenik.

Americans spend nearly 20% of their GNP on health care—far more than any other developed country and yet have the worst health in the world and part of the reason for that is that they vaccinate and prescribe more pharmaceutical drugs than anywhere else. If there were any validity to vaccines and the pharmaceutical paradigm, you would think they would have better health for it. However because vaccines and most drugs are mitochondrial poisons Americans are very sick and getting sicker as every year passes.

The U.S. Congress is now entertaining legislation which will make mandatory childhood vaccination schedules currently prescribed by the CDC. The way of enforcing this new and stricter regime is by tying compliance directly to federal funding. From the bill:

"REQUIREMENT.—For a State or a political subdivision or other public entity of a State to be eligible to receive a grant under this section, the applicant shall demonstrate to the Secretary's satisfaction that, subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), the State requires each student enrolled in one of the State's public elementary schools or public secondary schools to be vaccinated in accordance with the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices."

Should this legislation pass, it will make it virtually impossible for parents to opt out their children from the aggressive childhood schedules, regardless of the reason. Up until now, there have been exemptions granted for a variety of good reasons. Religious and philosophical exemptions are chief among those which have produced an immediate release for those children attending public school.

What is particularly puzzling is that children are reacting to the ingredients in vaccines with greater frequency. Nevertheless, doctors rarely if ever test their pediatric patients for allergies, sensitivities, or intolerances to the various proven toxins and contaminants put in vaccines.

It would seem reasonable that the undeveloped and fragile bodies of newborn infants and young children would prompt the medical authorities to err on the side of caution. In fact, there is always a rush to vaccinate in spite of the complete lack of qualifying each baby or young child as a candidate for these potentially illness-causing vaccines. Family histories alone would provide a good starting point in trying to determine the likelihood of an adverse reaction.

Do you think there should be mandatory vaccinations, or do you think parents should have the choice to vaccinate their children - or at least decide to opt out of certain vaccinations while allowing others?

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is giving millions of dollars to universities across America for the development and study of nanotechnology to be used in food.

Despite research existing on the potential concerns over health and safety of nanotech in food, the USDA wants to push forward with nanotech in full force. This agency of the government is known for its revolving door relationship with Big Food.

A statement from the Center for Food Safety sums up the health concerns well:

The subject of nanotechnology and our food supply offers an alarming view of the potential for human health issues. Amazingly, the U.S. government currently does not regulate the use of nanotechnology in food products, despite its widespread use and serious public health concerns. Europe and the Canadian government have taken the first steps to limit the use of nanotechnology in food, but the U.S. has so far only issued draft guidelines to companies.

The International Society of Doctors for the Environment (ISDE) has written to officials of the EU Parliament and Commission asking for an immediate ban on glyphosate herbicides and four insecticides judged by the World Health Organisation's cancer agency, IARC, to be probable carcinogens.

The letter states that glyphosate herbicides are associated with health problems such as birth defects, infertility, damage to the nervous system, Parkinson's disease and several forms of cancer.

The letter adds, "for safeguarding the health of European populations, ISDE states that the rational basis is already strong enough" to justify an immediate and permanent ban.

The ISDE's Board includes doctors from Europe, North and South America, Pakistan, and Kenya. ISDE has national and regional member organisations in over 25 different countries.

There is no shortage of things driving us crazy in the world today, but there are some things that could do it in a shorter amount of time. These gut disturbing, liver compromising, and brain damaging ingredients have come from the "infinite genius" of man, and have clearly ruined our ability to think clearly.

Avoid these 5 ingredients scrupulously, and watch your brain function improve:

Gluten

Gluten is a common protein molecule found in wheat, barley, rye, kamut, and spelt. This sticky protein binds to the small intestinal wall where it can cause digestive and immune system disorders. Celiac disease is the most common condition associated with gluten sensitivity. However, there is also a condition termed non-celiac, gluten sensitivity (NCGS), and it is a major factor in the inflammatory disorders of the brain and nervous system.

Studies have shown many associations between gluten sensitivity and disorders in every part of the neurological system including the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. Gluten has been shown to be a big trigger in psychiatric disorders, cognitive impairment, dementia, and virtually every other neurological disorder.

Chronic pain is known to cause brain anatomy changes and impairments, but yoga can be an important tool for preventing or even reversing the effects of chronic pain on the brain, according to a National Institutes of Health (NIH) official speaking at the American Pain Society's annual meeting.

M. Catherine Bushnell, PhD, scientific director, Division of Intramural Research, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, NIH, explained in a plenary session address that many chronic pain patients show associated anxiety and depression as well as deficits in cognitive functions. In addition, brain imaging studies in rats and humans have shown alterations in gray matter volume and white matter integrity in the brain caused by the effects of chronic pain.

"Imaging studies in multiple types of chronic pain patients show their brains differ from healthy control subjects," said Bushnell. "Studies of people with depression show they also have reduced gray matter, and this could contribute to the gray matter changes in pain patients who are depressed. Our research shows that gray matter loss is directly related to the pain when we take depression into account," said Bushnell.

Gray matter is brain tissue with numerous cell bodies and is located in the cerebral cortex and subcortical areas. The impact of gray matter loss depends on where it occurs in brain. Decreased gray matter can lead to memory impairment, emotional problems and decreased cognitive functioning.

Bushnell said there is compelling evidence from studies conducted at NIH/NCCIH and other sites that mind-body techniques, such as yoga and meditation, can counteract the brain anatomy affects of chronic pain. "Practicing yoga has the opposite effect on the brain as does chronic pain," said Bushnell.

It's common knowledge that fast food isn't exactly healthy, but just how unhealthy is it? According to Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London, it is devastating to a human's gut bacteria. He writes in The Conversation, that eating that type of highly processed food can wreak total havoc on the healthy bacteria in a person's digestive system. Spector wanted to find out just how bad McDonald's is for gut bacteria for his upcoming book The Diet Myth.

Biological and health scientists from Russia and Iran to the USA are calling on the UN, the World Health Organization and national governments to develop strict regulations concerning devices and cellphones that create electromagnetic fields.

The scientists are from 39 nations and have authored 2,000 peer-reviewed papers on the health and biological effects of non-ionizing radiation, which is part of the electromagnetic field spectrum. In a letter, they say that devices like cellphones pose risks of cancer, genetic damage, changes in reproductive system, and learning and memory deficits.

"Putting it bluntly they are damaging the living cells in our bodies and killing many of us prematurely,"said Dr. Martin Blank, from the Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University, in a video message.

"We have created something that is harming us, and it is getting out of control. Before Edison's light bulb there was very little electromagnetic radiation in our environment. The levels today are very many times higher than natural background levels, and are growing rapidly because of all the new devices that emit this radiation."