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The Exposome: The unique cloud of airborne microbes and chemicals that surrounds each of us

Richard Conniff
Scientific American
Fri, 28 Sep 2018 19:12 UTC
Mapping the exposome
© atlantamagazine.com
Mapping the exposome
Researchers begin to explore the unique cloud of airborne microbes and chemicals that surrounds each of us

In the past few decades, researchers have opened up the extraordinary world of microbes living on and within the human body, linking their influence to everything from rheumatoid arthritis to healthy brain function. Yet we know comparatively little about the rich broth of microbes and chemicals in the air around us, even though we inhale them with every breath.

This struck Stanford University genomics researcher Michael Snyder as a major knowledge gap, as he pursued long-term research that involved using biological markers to understand and predict the development of disease in human test subjects. "The one thing that was missing was their exposure" to microbes and chemicals in the air, Snyder says. "Human health is clearly dependent not just on the genome or the microbiome, but on the environment. And sampling the environment was the big hole."
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Glyphosate Ban: Is your country or county safe from the agrichemical behemoth RoundUp?


baumhedlundlaw.com
Fri, 07 Jun 2019 13:30 UTC
Map of Glyphosate Ban
A number of cities, counties, states and countries throughout the world have taken steps to either restrict or ban glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup weed killer.

The following countries have issued outright bans on glyphosate, imposed restrictions or have issued statements of intention to ban or restrict glyphosate-based herbicides, including Roundup, over health concerns and the ongoing Roundup cancer litigation
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Cow

Even if CO2 caused climate change, it would be the cars, not the cows

Paul John Scott
Star Tribune
Sun, 07 Jul 2019 13:34 UTC
cow farts
© Rob Dobi for the Star Tribune
People tend to feel weird about meat, even if for no apparent reason. As Michael Pollan said, "eat food, not too much, mostly plants." It sounded good, anyway.

In reality, the argument for avoiding animal foods has never been strong. When it comes to health, the case against meat is almost exclusively derived from a scientific methodology known as nutritional epidemiology, a real weakling of the lab. Though it may arrive on the news as gospel, your typical study showing that eggs, butter or beef promotes disease almost always relies on questionnaires, and the unverifiable, approval-seeking recall of participants. Plus, the end result of an epidemiology study can still only show associations, not cause-and-effect.

But you wouldn't know that from the confidence with which, for five decades now, we have been directed toward the salad bar.

Comment: Despite the fact that this author is totally caught up in the 'CO2 = Climate Change' narrative, the article is illustrative of the fact that, even according to that narrative, the vegan-environmental argument makes no sense. 'But muh carbon' is a red herring, but even if it wasn't, pastured meat consumption would be helping matters, not causing climate catastrophe.

See also:

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Cheeseburger

Are Beyond Meat's plant-based burgers healthier than red meat? Dietitians say no

Amelia Lucas
CNBC
Thu, 04 Jul 2019 10:00 UTC
beyond meat burger
© Adam Berry | Getty Images
A Beyond Burger, a vegan veggie burger, is seen at the Vedang fast food restaurant in the Mall of Berlin on May 18, 2019 in Berlin, Germany. With fast food chains such as Burger King, Chick-Fil-A, Taco Bell and Dunkin’ Donuts now offering ‘fake meat’ versions of their main meal options, the vegan burger industry is booming, as consumers look beyond real meat products out of health and environmental concerns.
Beyond Meat's sales pitch to customers has focused on the benefits of abstaining from meat: a healthier planet and a healthier lifestyle.

But dietitians are not completely sold on the plant-based burger trend.

Vegan patties from Beyond and its rival Impossible Foods have offered Americans a new way to reduce their meat consumption. Mintel found that nearly 60% of U.S. consumers have expressed interested in eating less meat. These so-called flexitarians are driving restaurant chains like Burger King and Carl's Jr. to add meatless burgers to their menus.

Comment: Proving once again that, even when they have a slight clue, dietitians really don't get it. They're right that these fake meat burgers shouldn't be considered a health food, but they don't go far enough - fake meat shouldn't be considered food at all. The fact is, these fake meat burgers are loaded with GMOs, glyphosate, chemical flavorings, and lab-synthesized proteins. They are the embodiment of 'processed food', coming in the guise of health food. But dietitians look primarily at the benign saturated fat and sodium, completely missing the crux of the matter. These people should not be looked at as 'authorities' any more than fake meat should be looked at as 'food'.

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Objective:Health: #22 - ‌Poisoned Agriculture, Poisoned World


Sott.net
Mon, 08 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC
O:H header
The 'Green Revolution' marked a turning point in the progress of our civilization. While it was, and still is, hailed as a triumph of technology, utilizing chemistry to revive over-farmed soils and increase crop yields worldwide, it took us down a path that has lead us to where we are now. There are 34,000 pesticides currently registered for use in the US by the EPA and modern agriculture has become completely reliant on their use.

This increasing reliance on technology, and the movement away from nature, has cost us dearly. Our soils have been poisoned, our air is toxic and the entire planetary ecosystem suffers from mass death and destruction, while our foods become increasingly depleted of nutrition. It's an entirely unsustainable practice, yet with the introduction of GMOs, there is no sign of it letting up. We're on a runaway train that is heading for an inevitable crash.

But not all hope is lost. Recent movements towards sustainable and regenerative agriculture, that work within the rhythms of nature to benefit both the environment and ourselves, are gaining momentum. Many groups are achieving impressive results with farming methods that build rather than destroy.

Will the Big Ag monocroppers continue their path of destruction toward inevitable planetary collapse, or will the growing movement be able to convince the world we need to change? Join us on this episode of Objective:Health for a lively discussion on the future of agriculture and our planet.


Running Time: 01:06:06

Download: MP3 — 60.1 MB

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Info

The International Life Sciences Institute: The dangerous 'nonprofit' harming your health

Dr. Joseph Mercola
Mercola.com
Wed, 19 Jun 2019 14:10 UTC
Junk Food
© isupportgary
The International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. Their mission, according to their website,1 is "to provide science that improves human health and well-being and safeguards the environment."

The organization was founded by Alex Malaspina, a former senior vice president at Coca-Cola Co. and a regulatory affairs leader. While he founded ILSI in 1978, his ties with Coca-Cola were not severed. Coca-Cola awarded scientists the inaugural ILSI Malaspina International Scholars Travel Award in 2015 when Coca-Cola attended the 2015 ILSI annual meeting in Phoenix, Arizona.2

Comment: CDC Official Dr. Barbara Bowman steps down after Coca-Cola ILSI scandal comes to light

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Beaker

Strain of common cold virus could revolutionise treatment of bladder cancer - Study

Natasha Meredith
University of Surrey
Fri, 05 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC
A strain of the common cold virus has been found to potentially target, infect and destroy cancer cells in patients with bladder cancer, a new study in the medical journal Clinical Cancer Research reports. No trace of the cancer was found in one patient following treatment with the virus.
Pancreas
© Getty Images
Researchers from the University of Surrey and Royal Surrey County Hospital investigated the safety and tolerability of exposure to the oncolytic ('cancer-killing') virus coxsackievirus (CVA21), a naturally occurring strain of the common cold, in fifteen patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). NMIBC is found in the tissue of the inner surface of the bladder and is the tenth most common cancer in the UK with approximately 10,000 people each year diagnosed with the illness.

Current treatments for this cancer are problematic. Transurethral resection, an invasive procedure that removes all visible lesions, has a high tumour recurrence rate ranging from 50 per cent to 70 per cent as well as a high tumour progression rate between 10 per cent and 20 per cent over a period of two to five years. Another common course of treatment, immunotherapy with Bacille Calmette-Guerin, a live bacterium used to treat bladder cancer, has been found to have serious side effects in one third of NMIBC patients while one third do not respond to the treatment at all.
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Propaganda

Freedom to dissent and the new blacklist in America

Barbara Loe Fisher
National Vaccine Information Center
Mon, 01 Jul 2019 18:34 UTC
blacklist keyboard button
Every July 4 since our nation declared independence in 1776, Americans have celebrated this truth:
...that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." 1
The Declaration of Independence rejected unjust laws imposed by a privileged ruling class. The guiding principles of the Declaration of Independence were codified into the Bill of Rights to limit the power of government and protect our unalienable natural rights.

Comment: See also:

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Archaeology

The Seeds of Agroecology and Common Ownership

Colin Todhunter
Counter Punch
Tue, 10 Oct 2017 23:06 UTC
Institute for European Environmental Policy
© Institute for European Environmental Policy
The increasingly globalized industrial food system that transnational agribusiness promotes is not feeding the world and is responsible for some of the planet's most pressing political, social and environmental crises. Localised, traditional methods of food production have given way to globalised supply chains dominated by transnational companies policies and actions which have resulted in the destruction of habitat and livelihoods and the imposition of corporate-controlled, chemical-intensive (monocrop) agriculture that weds farmers and regions to a wholly exploitative system of neoliberal globalisation.

Whether it involves the undermining or destruction of what were once largely self-sufficient agrarian economies in Africa or the devastating impacts of soy cultivation in Argentina or palm oil production in Indonesia, transnational agribusiness and global capitalism cannot be greenwashed.

In their rush to readily promote neoliberal dogma and corporate PR, many take as given that profit-driven transnational corporations have a legitimate claim to be custodians of natural assets. There is the premise that water, seeds, land, food, soil and agriculture should be handed over to powerful, corrupt transnational corporations to milk for profit, under the pretense these entities are somehow serving the needs of humanity.

These natural assets ('the commons') belong to everyone and any stewardship should be carried out in the common interest by local people assisted by public institutions and governments acting on their behalf, not by private transnational corporations driven by self-interest and the maximization of profit by any means possible.

Comment: Agroecology: Bringing farming back to nature

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Bacon n Eggs

Genes, yes, but obesity pandemic mostly down to diet: study


Medical Xpress
Thu, 04 Jul 2019 00:01 UTC
stop obesity
A three-fold jump since 1975 in the percentage of adults worldwide who are obese has been driven mainly by a shift in diet and lack of exercise, but genes do play a role as well, according a large-scale study published Thursday.

For people genetically predisposed to a wider girth, these unhealthy lifestyles compounded the problem, resulting in an even higher rate of weight gain, researchers reported in The BMJ, a peer-reviewed medical journal.

The standard measure for obesity, the Body-Mass Index (BMI), is calculated on the basis of weight and height.

Comment: As this study shows, contrary to what the genetic determinists state, genetics is only part of the picture. Even those unfortunate enough to have the 'obesity gene(s)' are capable of counteracting this through diet and lifestyle. The same can be said of any number of genes for different conditions and diseases. Your genes are not necessarily your fate.

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