Stents are commonly used for stable chest pain - but the devices may not be helping.

There's an epidemic of unnecessary medical treatments, as David Epstein of ProPublica recently documented in a terrific investigation: Doctors routinely perform procedures that aren't based on high-quality research, or even in spite of evidence that contradicts their use.

One of the prime examples of a dubious treatment that Epstein and others have pointed to is cardiologists putting little mesh tubes called stents in patients with stable angina - chest pain caused by clogged coronary arteries that arises only with physical exertion or emotional stress.

Doctors insert the devices into narrowed or blocked arteries to pop them open, helping blood flow to the heart again. The idea is that stents should help soothe the suffering of patients with angina (or chest pain) and drive down the risk of a heart attack and death in the future.

I've written many articles discussing vaccine safety and freedom of choice. The encouraging news is that while we've faced more than 180 legislative attempts in the states to add more vaccine mandates and restrict or eliminate vaccine choices in the U.S. in the past two years, we've successfully defeated all but a few. As noted by Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC):

"What we've seen in the last few years is a very orchestrated attack on vaccine laws that allow people to have choice ... We've had some of the most restrictive and oppressive vaccine laws. We do have exemptions in the laws and that's what they want to eliminate. They want to eliminate all choice.

We have organized, and - through the NVIC advocacy portal, which people can sign onto - we've kept people informed by monitoring all the bills in the States. We have been able to generate enough opposition to not lose, despite more than 180 bills this last legislative session trying to add more vaccine mandates, trying to monitor vaccine status of everyone, trying to restrict or eliminate exemptions - we defeated all of those bad vaccine bills.

The only bill that passed was a meningococcal vaccine mandate in Indiana for college students. This is an incredible accomplishment, but the heat is on. We're going to see another mass attempt in 2018 to take away exemptions."

Vaccine Safety and Freedom of Choice Have Become International Issues

Americans are no longer alone in our fight for medical freedom of choice, as the aggressive push for mandatory vaccinations has gone international. Part of the problem is that governments are making business deals with vaccine makers. The Gates Foundation is also very much involved in the global mass-vaccination agenda.

The spread of a plague outbreak in Madagascar may finally be slowing down.

The epidemic, which began in August, has taken the lives of 133 people and resulted in 1,836 suspected or confirmed cases. However, the occurrence of new cases is finally decreasing, according to a report released Wednesday by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The week of October 9, there were 477 new cases, compared with 161 during the week of October 23. The report says 1,044 patients have been cured, and 83 others are receiving treatment.

The number of hospitalizations because of the plague has also decreased, according to the World Health Organization. Although the number of total cases has continued to increase, this is because of "enhanced surveillance and ongoing investigations," the WHO said; some of the cases were not actually infected, upon inspection.

For those who doubt that Big Pharma is part of the destructive Deep State, consider the following:

Since July 26, 2000, when a landmark review was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), pharmaceutical companies, their FDA partner, many members of Congress, medical schools, and doctors have been aware that approved medical drugs have been killing and maiming Americans at a disastrous rate.

These drugs, brought to you by Pharma, kill 106,000 Americans a year like clockwork. That extrapolates to over a MILLION deaths per decade.

The 2000 JAMA review was written by the late Dr. Barbara Starfield, who was a revered public health expert at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

I interviewed Dr. Starfield in 2009, a year or so before her death. She confirmed several key points: the figure of 106,000 deaths was a conservative estimate; there was NO comprehensive effort by the federal government to reverse this trend; no one from the federal government had ever approached her to consult on "the situation."

At the top of the food chain, Big Pharma executives and financiers are completely aware of what their drugs are doing.

You could call this reckless endangerment, or negligent homicide. I call it what it is: murder.

The effort to kill, maim, debilitate, and disable large sectors of the population makes that population easier to control. That IS a Deep State operation. In one way or another, it has been so since the dawn of organized society.

Now we have the opioid crisis. These medical drugs are wiping out people at an alarming rate. As I've written in recent articles, one of the two major pipelines for the trafficked drugs starts with the pharmaceutical manufacturers, who are intentionally distributing opioids far beyond any legitimate need.

Here are my raw notes I prepared for the Coast to Coast AM interview I did two days ago with George Noory. They tell the story in telegraphic fashion:

John Kapoor, 74, board chairman of Akorn Pharmaceuticals and CEO of Insys Therapeutics Inc. and several others have been indicted and charged with leading a nationwide conspiracy to bribe doctors to prescribe his company's opioid painkiller Subsys, The Chicago Tribune reported.

Kapoor is being charged with RICO conspiracy, as well as other felonies, including conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Law in a larger conspiracy.

Worldwide, we're seeing strong growth in organics and grass fed farming. As of 2016, the organic food sector accounted for 5.3 percent of total food sales in the U.S.¹ We now also have a brand-new grass fed certification by the American Grassfed Association (AGA), which is the highest certification you can get for dairy, beef, sheep and goats.

In short, we're seeing a radically increased demand for healthier foods. A lot more people now know about the drawbacks of factory farmed beef and dairy, and are aware that when herbivores are grazed naturally, without hormones, antibiotics and other drugs, you end up with a healthier product.

Unfortunately, the current food system still leaves a lot to be desired. Built around efficiency and profit, inevitable quality and safety deficiencies are par the course. International trade agreements also protect profits over safety and consumer ideals.

While traceability is key for food safety, country of origin labeling (COOL) was rejected by the World Trade Organization (WTO) for being "discriminatory." In other words, you're not allowed to know where a food comes from simply because that might influence you to buy or not buy, depending on your preferences.

The ramifications are presently evident in the beef industry, where tainted beef is being exported around the globe while local ranchers struggle to compete with bottom-priced imports.

Tens of thousands of children with inherited risk of high cholesterol should be put on statins as early as the age of 10, according to new guidance. It comes as part of a radical National Health Service (NHS) strategy to tackle deadly heart disease.

New guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) calls on GPs to dig out medical records to find who may be carrying the gene defect that afflicts them with high cholesterol levels, a condition known as familial hypercholesterolemia (FH).

Amid growing concerns that cases of high cholesterol are going undetected, Nice argues prescribing the drugs to children as young as 10 could minimize the risk of them suffering from heart disease when they reach middle age. Although it is believed up to 260,000 people - including 56,000 children - are suffering from the genetic defect, only 15 percent are actually being treated for the condition. Some 600 of those are children.

Professor Mark Baker, director of the center for guidelines at Nice, said: "Familial hypercholesterolemia is a serious, often undiagnosed but relatively common condition which, if treated early, ideally in childhood, will not affect normal life expectancy for the majority of people with it.

Scientists have linked a neurotransmitter known as GABA to unwanted and intrusive thoughts. These findings could have a major impact on our understanding of conditions like obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and schizophrenia.

Don't Think About It

Most of us know the feeling of being unable to distract ourselves from a particular thought, however much we might want to. Now, scientists might have found the reason why.

In a study carried out at the University of Cambridge, participants were given pairs of words to associate with one another. The words were unrelated in order to ensure that pre-existing associations didn't have any influence. Participants were then given a word and either a green or a red signal. If it was the former, they would try to recall the other half of the pairing, and if it was the latter, they would try to deliberately suppress the associated term from their mind.

Manipulating mitochondrial networks inside cells - either by dietary restriction or by genetic manipulation that mimics it - may increase lifespan and promote health, according to new research from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The study, published Oct. 26 online in Cell Metabolism, sheds light on the basic biology involved in cells' declining ability to process energy over time, which leads to aging and age-related disease, and how interventions such as periods of fasting might promote healthy aging.

Mitochondria - the energy-producing structures in cells - exist in networks that dynamically change shape according to energy demand. Their capacity to do so declines with age, but the impact this has on metabolism and cellular function was previously unclear. In this study, the researchers showed a causal link between dynamic changes in the shapes of mitochondrial networks and longevity.

Colon cancer, Crohn's, and other diseases of the gut could be better treated - or even prevented - thanks to a new link between inflammation and a common cellular process, established by the University of Warwick.

Led by Dr Ioannis Nezis at Warwick's School of Life Sciences, new research demonstrates that autophagy - an essential process whereby cells break down and recycle harmful or damaged elements within themselves to keep our bodies healthy - causes tissue inflammation when dysfunctional, which in turn leaves us susceptible to harmful diseases, particularly in the gut.

Understanding this link could lead to more effective treatments for gut diseases - such as colon cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis - giving healthcare professionals the ability to target the root cause of these diseases, by regulating and controlling autophagy.