Health & WellnessS


Biohazard

'Forever' chemicals put kids at higher risk of diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases

Chemicals
Exposure to "forever" chemicals can put children and young adults at higher risk for a broad range of diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer, according to a study published Wednesday in Environmental Health Perspectives.

Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California found that PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — used in a wide variety of consumer products — disrupt key biological processes.

Comment: Given that longterm exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals is known to cause abnormalities in growth and sexual development in animals, it makes one wonder whether chemical toxicity could, at least in part, help to explain the gender dysphoria crisis we are currently witnessing?


Alarm Clock

Human 6G antennas? 'One of the worst ideas ever,' critic says

6g antennas
Human beings could be used as part of an electromagnetic radiation (EMR) antenna system by wearing a special copper-coiled bracelet, according to a team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.

The researchers said they developed a low-cost way to "harvest" the radiofrequency (RF) radiation that gets "leaked" during visible light communication (VLC) — a technology they said is likely to be used in the "coming 6G networks."

But some critics allege that using human beings as RF antennas for 6G is disrespectful to the human body and may have unknown health implications.

Clipboard

Hard evidence in new study: Brain, heart damage caused by mRNA vaccine

coronavirus
© Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock
Scientists in Germany have found that mRNA vaccination, not COVID-19 infection itself, caused brain and heart damage in an older adult with underlying conditions.

This study was published in October 2022 in the journal Vaccines: "A Case Report: Multifocal Necrotizing Encephalitis and Myocarditis after BNT162b2 mRNA Vaccination against COVID-19." It examined the situation of a 76-year-old German man with Parkinson's disease.

The patient died three weeks after receiving his third COVID-19 injection.

The first vaccine he received in May of 2021 was the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. That was followed by two more injections in July and then December of the same year. His two subsequent vaccines were both made by Pfizer.

After the second vaccine, the patient's family noticed marked changes in his behavior. He started experiencing more anxiety, became more lethargic, and did not want to be touched. He became withdrawn, even from close family members, and the symptoms of his pre-existing Parkinson's disease worsened considerably.

Given the ambiguous clinical symptoms prior to his death, his family requested an autopsy.

Light Saber

COVID-19 and excess deaths: A defence of the virus theory

covid
Has COVID-19 caused excess deaths? This might seem an odd question, as most people do not doubt that the answer is yes. However, a growing number on the sceptical side of the aisle have been questioning this recently. This is not necessarily because they don't believe in viruses - most of them do - but sometimes because they think there is nothing special about SARS-CoV-2 and invariably because they think interventions such as lockdowns, faulty treatment protocols and vaccines are responsible for any deaths out of the ordinary.

The first thing to be said in response to this is that there definitely is something special about SARS-CoV-2. Namely, that it is the only known SARS-like virus with a furin cleavage site - likely a feature it was given in a lab - which makes it unusually infectious. This essentially makes it like SARS-1 but with aerosol transmission, and so far more transmissible.

A second thing to underline is that no one has yet shown any convincing relationship between policy interventions and deaths. Studies based on real-world data rather than modelling show that restrictions made little or no difference to outcomes. Here are five examples:

Comment: Whie at the beginning this may have been true, at this point the continued excess mortality seems to be less due to the virus more likely due to other causes.


Attention

The mask mandates did nothing. Will any lessons be learned?

masks on street garbage
© Benjamin Lowy
The most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of scientific studies conducted on the efficacy of masks for reducing the spread of respiratory illnesses — including Covid-19 — was published late last month. Its conclusions, said Tom Jefferson, the Oxford epidemiologist who is its lead author, were unambiguous.

"There is just no evidence that they" — masks — "make any difference," he told the journalist Maryanne Demasi. "Full stop."

But, wait, hold on. What about N-95 masks, as opposed to lower-quality surgical or cloth masks?

"Makes no difference — none of it," said Jefferson.

What about the studies that initially persuaded policymakers to impose mask mandates?

"They were convinced by nonrandomized studies, flawed observational studies."

What about the utility of masks in conjunction with other preventive measures, such as hand hygiene, physical distancing or air filtration?

"There's no evidence that many of these things make any difference."

Newspaper

Pfizer vaccine trial fraud charges set out in mainstream press for first time

Guy/Vaccine
© Facebook/Pfizer/KJNPfizer • Argentine Lawyer Augusto Roux
I am pleasantly surprised to see the mainstream German publication Die Welt openly reporting that clinical trials of the Pfizer Covid vaccine were rife with alleged fraud. What a change!

The article explains that Pfizer unblinded and removed numerous patients who suffered adverse events from the Covid vaccine trial. It also gives examples of Pfizer subjects whose deaths appear to have been covered up. One of the victims described by Die Welt is Pfizer subject C4591001 1162 11621327, whose story I unearthed in July of 2022.
Welt has documents according to which patient no. 11621327 was found dead in his apartment three days after the second dose, apparently a stroke. Patient #11521497 died 20 days after vaccination, diagnosis of cardiac arrest. "According to the current state of science, these two cases would be assigned to the vaccination," says the Berlin pharmaceutical specialist Susanne Wagner, "especially since the U.S. health authority CDC is currently investigating strokes in vaccinated people."
As you remember, Pfizer's investigators implausibly ruled these deaths unrelated.

Cupcake Pink

Set up to fail

obesity
© Gaulsstin/FlickrChildhood Obesity
According to a new study, British toddlers (children between two and five years old) have possibly the worst diet in the world among their age cohort, with the highest rate of processed-food consumption on record. Nearly two-thirds of British toddlers' average calorie intake comes from processed foods, which have been linked to a wide variety of serious health problems - from obesity to cancer, and even autism. Under-5s in the US and Australia hardly fare much better, with 58 percent and 47 percent, respectively, of their calories coming from this garbage. This is a problem throughout the developed world, whether you're in Brazil or Belgium, Pittsburgh or Paris.

Doctors warn, on the basis of a growing body of scientific evidence, that children who consume such diets are likely to go on consuming them for the rest of their lives. Of course, we hardly need scientific studies to tell us that children who pick up bad habits are often stuck with them, to their own detriment and the detriment of those around them. What we really need to know is, why are our children being set up to fail?

Before we go any further, it's worth saying exactly what processed foods are. The easiest working definition is foods that are prepared in a factory, wrapped in plastic and contain ingredients you wouldn't find in a normal home kitchen - things like emulsifiers, stabilisers, humectants (to maintain moisture) and preservatives. In some stores, that would be virtually everything on the shelves.

Comment: What's in your cupboard?


Target

Mediocrity and moderation: Distinguishing between conflated concepts

workout equip
© Luis Reys
I read an article by Adam Ellwanger entitles "I Don't Even Lift, Bro" and feel compelled to comment. It essentially casts the behaviors of the author as "moderate" indicating at one point that "moderation is a virtue." I agree with that very much, but I didn't see any defense of moderation within. What I did see was summarized eloquently by William Hunter Duncan thus: An Ode to Mediocrity.

What Adam has done is conflate moderation with mediocrity. By the standards he outlines, he demonstrates he misunderstands the role resistance training has in optimizing health. He doesn't see the utility. This is mind boggling to me. Of all the things you could allocate time and effort to in life, one of the things with the largest magnitude return on investment is resistance training. Let us examine why resistance training is useful.

Syringe

Past COVID infection 'as good as vaccines' at preventing severe illness

swab test
While the research suggests that natural immunity could be just as good as vaccines at preventing serious illness from COVID-19 infection, the study's authors encourage people to still get vaccinated, to avoid any complications from any initial infections.

Previous COVID infection boosts long-term immunity and lowers the risk of hospitalisation and death at the same level as vaccination, new peer-reviewed research shows.

The study, led by the University of Washington and published by The Lancet medical journal, is said to be the "most comprehensive study to date" on the impact of natural immunity for the disease.

"For people who have been infected with COVID-19 at least once before, natural immunity against severe disease (hospitalisation and death) was strong and long-lasting for all variants (88% or greater at 10 months post-infection)," researchers said.

Comment: See also:


Beaker

Lab-grown meat's impending CANCER problem: 'We could eat malignant chicken tumors by the bucket load'

lab grown meat fake meat
© The National Pulse
"Immortalized cells are a staple of medical research, but they are, technically speaking, precancerous and can be, in some cases, fully cancerous..."

Lab-grown meat, touted as the "cruelty-free" food of the future by everyone from the World Economic Forum to Hollywood mega-celebs like Leonardo DiCaprio, may have a fatal problem, according to a new Bloomberg story.

The problem is that the materials used to make the product - "immortalized cell lines" - replicate forever, just like cancer. Which means, in effect, that they are cancer. Although these cell lines are widely used in scientific research, they've never been used to produce food before.
"Immortalized cells are a staple of medical research, but they are, technically speaking, precancerous and can be, in some cases, fully cancerous... [but d]on't worry: Prominent cancer researchers tell Bloomberg Businessweek that because the cells aren't human, it's essentially impossible for people who eat them to get cancer from them, or for the precancerous or cancerous cells to replicate inside people at all."

Bloomberg BusinessWeek
Industry types are "confident" that eating such products poses no risk — although there isn't any hard data — but it's not difficult to see, even if the products are "proven" safe, how people might be put off by the thought they're eating a glorified tumor.

Comment: