The medical industry's obsession with bigger, more powerful (and above all, patentable!) medicines may lead to killer pandemics.

We frequently discuss the global threat of superbugs - drug-resistant bacteria, which are created in two ways:

• If a drug can kill, say, 95% of bacteria, the 5% that remain are by definition much stronger than the others, not killed by current medicines, and can then reproduce without any interference or competition from other bacteria, allowing them to quickly take over.
• Drugs target specific bacterial proteins, so any new mutation in these proteins will interfere with or negate the drug's destructive effect, resulting in antibiotic resistance. Drug resistance is a natural response to pressures imposed on any living organism: you must adapt, or you die. Many adapt. Many become resistant to more than one drug, making them even harder to kill.

A few weeks ago we told you about weeds becoming resistant to the lethal pesticide Roundup, creating strains of "superweeds." It's the same principle at work.

Today's Dear Mark post touches on a concept that many of us have pondered: the perfect food. That is, does such a thing even exist? What with phytates, lectins, easily-absorbed fat-soluble vitamins, allergenic proteins, and all the rest, it sometimes seems like every good food has a crippling downside. If you read too many health and nutrition blogs that delve into these relatively arcane topics (my own not necessarily excluded!), it often feels like you can't eat anything at all without risking some horrible illness, deficiency, or excess.

The following is an excerpt from a longer email in which a reader expressed concern over the apparent scarcity of "perfect foods.":

Dear Mark,

I'm getting very frustrated. I don't know if it's a case of over researching things, but I'm beginning to feel that there are very few perfect foods. That there is something bad in everything. Beef, pork, and fish have creatine. Nuts, grains, seeds, and legumes have phytates. What are we supposed to do, just live on veggies, chicken, and eggs? How is it that Grok got enough magnesium, not too much phytates, etc, etc?

Brad

When you see a headline like this in the news, "Anti-inflammatory Drugs Reduce the Effectiveness of SSRI Antidepressants," what does it make you think? The impression given is that if you are taking an SSRI then you shouldn't take any pain pills if you want the antidepressants to work - which is the clear message of the press release^[1] that accompanied the study. If you're keeping up with your health knowledge, you would realize that SSRI antidepressants must be "working" by some type of inflammatory method. It is now common knowledge that low-grade excess inflammation is behind virtually every disease of aging. The obvious contradictions don't add up to health. Pulling strings further, as I explain in this article, leads to an understanding as to why antidepressants are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, brain damage over time, and a significantly increased risk of early mortality. This is information the pill pushers at Big Pharma would prefer you never understood.

The study showed that the use of anti-inflammatory pain medications, such as ibuprofen, aspirin and naproxen, reduced the "effectiveness" of the most widely used type of antidepressants. A combination of an animal study and a large scale human data evaluation led researchers to conclude that the typical response rate to SSRIs of 54% dropped to 40%.

You may know phthalates to be the 'sister' chemicals that oftentimes accompany toxic bisphenol A (BPA) in many plastic containers and food packaging. While less frequently discussed than BPA, phthalates are a threat to human health that could especially be impacting the health of pregnant mothers and fetuses alike. According to new research, phthalates may be associated with an increase in miscarriage risk due to the fact that the industrial chemicals can lower sperm counts and boost a woman's chance of infertility.

In a study published in Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers analyzed the link between pregnancy loss and urine levels of phthalates. The ubiquitous nature of phthalates makes them a challenge to avoid, with the chemicals typically being used in plastic containers, synthetic fragrances, pesticides, and soft vinyl products. Looking specifically at two phthalates used in vinyl products and the synthetic fragrances known as DEHP and DEP, the scientists reached a shocking conclusion.

"The tendency of a mass vaccination program is to herd people. People are not cattle or sheep. They should not be herded. A mass vaccination program carries a built-in temptation to oversimplify the problem; to exaggerate the benefits; to minimize or completely ignore the hazards; to discourage or silence scholarly, thoughtful and cautious opposition; to create an urgency where none exists; to whip up an enthusiasm among citizens that can carry with it the seeds of impatience, if not intolerance; to extend the concept of the police power of the state in quarantine far beyond its proper limitation; to assume simplicity when there is actually great complexity; to continue to support a vaccine long after it has been discredited;... to ridicule honest and informed consent.¹"

There is plenty of confusion on the topic of vaccination, especially amongst brainwashed doctors who trusted their medical schools. Then the unsuspecting, trusting public trusts them...because the medical establishment must know best, right? And doctors are nice people, trying to do a good thing. True. I was once one of those brainwashed doctors who believed in the benevolence of the medical system and believed that all I learned was the best that modern times had to offer. It is blazingly clear to me now though, that much of what is taught in medical school is enormously limited. I now see that most doctors are little more than blind slave-technicians who follow the dogma they were taught and were rewarded for repeating, even as the truth unfolds in front of them dictating otherwise.

Unbeknownst to most doctors, the polio-vaccine history involves a massive public health service makeover during an era when a live, deadly strain of poliovirus infected the Salk polio vaccines, and paralyzed hundreds of children and their contacts. These were the vaccines that were supposedly responsible for the decline in polio from 1955 to 1961! But there is a more sinister reason for the "decline" in polio during those years; in 1955, a very creative re-definition of poliovirus infections was invented, to "cover" the fact that many cases of "polio" paralysis had no poliovirus in their systems at all. While this protected the reputation of the Salk vaccine, it muddied the waters of history in a big way.

Even during the peak epidemics, unifactorial poliovirus infection, resulting in long-term paralysis, was a low-incidence disease² that was falsely represented as a rampant and violent crippler by Basil O'Connor's "March Of Dimes" advertising campaigns. At the same time as Basil O'Connor was pulling in 45 million dollars a year to fund the Salk vaccine development, scientists started to realize that other viruses like Coxsackie, echo and enteroviruses, could also cause polio. They also discussed the fact that lead, arsenic, DDT, and other commonly-used neurotoxins, could identically mimic the lesions of polio. During the great epidemics in the United States, the pathology called polio was reversed by alternative medical doctors who attested to great success, using detoxification procedures available at the time - yet they were categorically ignored.³

Doctors have been prescribing tonsillectomies for decades for those with recurrent sore throats. However, health experts now know that the long-term risks of this procedure are a detriment to overall immunity and exceed any short-term benefit.

Previous research at the University at Buffalo has shown that removal of tonsils and adenoids results in less fidgeting and other non-exercise motor activity which results in weight gain.

In another study involving 300 children aged 2 to 8 advised to have their tonsils out, those who avoided surgery had fewer annual visits to doctors and lower resulting medical costs due to fevers and throat infections.

A new study provides evidence that a critical type of immune cell can develop in human tonsils. The cells, called T lymphocytes, or T cells, have been thought to develop only in the thymus, an organ of the immune system that sits on the heart.

The study, led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center -- Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC -- James), could improve the understanding of T-cell cancers, autoimmune diseases and the importance of first line of immune defence mechanisms such as the tonsils.

Abstract - The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is manifested by a lipid triad which includes elevated serum triglycerides, small LDL particles, and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, by central obesity (central adiposity), insulin resistance, glucose intolerance and elevated blood pressure, and it is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. We have developed a new hypothesis regarding MetS as a consequence of a high intake in carbohydrates and food with a high glycemic index, particularly fructose, and relatively low intake of cholesterol and saturated fat. We support our arguments through animal studies which have shown that exposure of the liver to increased quantities of fructose leads to rapid stimulation of lipogenesis and accumulation of triglycerides. The adipocytes store triglycerides in lipid droplets, leading to adipocyte hypertrophy. Adipocyte hypertrophy is associated with macrophage accumulation in adipose tissue. An important modulator of obesity-associated macrophage responses in white adipose tissue is the death of adipocytes. Excess exposure to fructose intake determines the liver to metabolize high doses of fructose, producing increased levels of fructose end products, like glyceraldehyde and dihydroxyacetone phosphate, that can converge with the glycolytic pathway. Fructose also leads to increased levels of advanced glycation end products. The macrophages exposed to advanced glycation end products become dysfunctional and, on entry into the artery wall, contribute to plaque formation and thrombosis.

The Soursop is a flowering, evergreen tree native to tropical regions of the world. It also contains a long, prickly green fruit which may be effective against some forms of cancer.

Annona muricata is an active principle in an herbal remedy marketed under the brand name Triamazon.

According to Cancer Research UK, "in laboratory studies, graviola extracts can kill some types of liver and breast cancer cells that are resistant to particular chemotherapy drugs. But there haven't been any large scale studies in humans. So we don't know yet whether it can work as a cancer treatment or not."

This tree is low and is called graviola in Brazil, guanabana in Spanish and has the uninspiring name "soursop" in English. The fruit is very large and the subacid sweet white pulp is eaten out of hand or, more commonly, used to make fruit drinks and sherbets.

Did you know that astronauts undergo vastly accelerated aging during space flights? According to a recent review in the journal Clinical Interventions in Aging:

"The loss of the functional capacity of the cardiovascular system with space flight is over ten times faster than the course of aging on Earth."

It has been postulated that magnesium (Mg) deficiency may be the major contributing factor underlying these observed pathological changes. Indeed, the review pointed out that "With space flight there are significant reductions of serum Mg (P<0.0001) that have been shown in large studies of astronauts and cosmonauts."

Due to the fact that magnesium is an antioxidant and calcium blocker, and is also required for ATP production within the mitochondria of the heart muscle cells, it is likely that a correction of Mg deficiency would be an effective strategy to reduce space flight-associated cardiovascular decline and accelerated aging.

Magnesium deficiency, however, does not only afflict those in space. Here on earth, magnesium deficiency is probably one of the most common nutritional deficiencies of our time. The Western diet, in fact, is characteristically low in magnesium-rich foods, e.g. dark green leafy vegetables, legumes and whole grains. A 2008 review on the subject of aging and magnesium deficiency explored the topic further:

"Most human cells can only replicate a limited number of times in cultures before they lose the ability to divide, a phenomenon known as replicative senescence, which seems to play a role in aging at the organismal level. Recent studies have shown that culture in low magnesium (Mg) accelerates the senescence of human endothelial cells and fibroblasts. Given the numerous critical roles of Mg, it seems likely that Mg inadequacy would interfere with cellular metabolism, which could affect the senescence process. Since i) several pieces of evidence link low Mg to aging and age-related diseases and ii) the Occidental diet is relatively deficient in Mg, we propose that broadly correcting nutritional intakes of Mg might contribute to healthier aging and the prevention of age-related diseases."

If you're reading this blog post on 5th March 2012, there's a good chance you came to it as a result of listening to discussion on BBC Radio 4's programme 'You and Yours' about the most appropriate diet for those suffering from diabetes. You can listen to the broadcast here (the item starts about 15 minutes into the show). The UK's largest diabetes charity - Diabetes UK - advises diabetics to include starchy foods with every meal. I strongly object to this on the grounds that this approach is unscientific, counter-intuitive, and likely to worsen blood sugar control and increase the risk of complications. I wrote this article ahead of time, because I know how challenging it can be to get all the most important facts out when time is short. This article is an attempt to get down what I believe to be the salient points, with some references to the science where relevant.