Health & WellnessS


Ambulance

Children exposed to more brain-harming chemicals than ever before

Alice Park
Time
Fri, 14 Feb 2014 00:00 UTC
toxic chemicals graphic
© Maine Today Media
In recent years, the prevalence of developmental disorders such as autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia have soared. While greater awareness and more sophisticated diagnoses are partly responsible for the rise, researchers say the changing environment in which youngsters grow up may also be playing a role.

In 2006, scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai identified five industrial chemicals responsible for causing harm to the brain - lead, methylmercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (found in electric transformers, motors and capacitors), arsenic (found in soil and water as well as in wood preservatives and pesticides) and toluene (used in processing gasoline as well as in paint thinner, fingernail polish and leather tanning). Exposure to these neurotoxins was associated with changes in neuron development in the fetus as well as among infants, and with lower school performance, delinquent behavior, neurological abnormalities and reduced IQ in school-age children.

Now the same researchers have reviewed the literature and found six additional industrial chemicals that can hamper normal brain development. These are manganese, fluoride, chlorpyrifos, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, tetrachloroethylene and polybrominated diphenyl ethers. Manganese, they say, is found in drinking water and can contribute to lower math scores and heightened hyperactivity, while exposure to high levels of fluoride from drinking water can contribute to a seven-point drop in IQ on average. The remaining chemicals, which are found in solvents and pesticides, have been linked to deficits in social development and increased aggressive behaviors.

Comment: The best way to protect yourself and your children from environmental toxins is to be aware of the sources and take steps to limit exposure:
Toxic Chemicals in Everyday Products: Find Out What's in the Stuff You Use
Fluoride in Water Linked to Lower IQ in Children
Cadmium, mercury and phthalates - oh my!
Toxic Metals, Chemicals Found in Jewelry Marketed to Children
How to Detox Fluorides from Your Body

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X

Doctor says tap water still not safe to drink in West Virginia

Marcus Constantino
Chalrestown Daily Mail
Sun, 16 Feb 2014 20:29 UTC
Charleston, West Virginia -- People across the Kanawha Valley are all asking themselves the same questions: Is my water safe to drink? Can I shower in it? Can I even rinse off my toothbrush?

After thousands of gallons of a relatively-obscure chemical leaked into the Elk River on Jan. 9 and then into the water plant that supplies nine counties, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set 1 part per million as the safe level for crude MCHM in drinking water based on limited information available, mostly tests on rats.

However, the CDC took a step back on Jan. 15 - two days after the first zone had been lifted from the do-not-use order - and advised pregnant women not to drink tap water until undetectable levels of crude MCHM are found in the tap water.

In a press conference at the state Capitol this month, Dr. Tanja Popovic, acting director of the National Center for Environmental Health within the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the CDC doesn't like to use the word "safe," and that the advisory was meant to "empower" pregnant women.

"What we want them to do is we want them empowered to feel that they can follow their instincts and do what they feel is good for them," Popovic said.

If you ask Elizabeth Brown, an internal medicine doctor from South Charleston, about the safety of your tap water, her advice to you will be simple: "I don't think it's really safe for anyone at this point."

Brown has seen the effects of what she believes is MCHM exposure first-hand. She continues to see them daily.

"My patients who are coming in with strange rashes and irritated eyes they connect with the water, I'm telling them to avoid it for now and use extra caution," Brown said.
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Bacon n Eggs

On sugar and our heart

Chris Decker, ND
Primal Docs
Sat, 15 Feb 2014 00:01 UTC
Heart
© Rudyard.org
My father used to eat a fairly healthy bacon-and-eggs breakfast every morning before heading off to his job at the factory - that is, till we all got word from the medical powers-that-be that this sort of fare would kill us. Dutifully, my dad swapped his heart-healthy but now anathema bacon for a big bowl of Rice Krispies sweetened with a top layer of Cheerios, over which he would slice half a banana and pour a cup of 2 percent milk. At 9 p.m. every night it was his habit to have milk and cookies, which he'd share with our five dogs. And he loved candy. My parents had a special cupboard in our kitchen set aside for themselves that housed nothing but sweets.

My father also made a point of eating plenty of vegetables, which he also believed were good for his heart, and, I think, just because he liked them. He ate this way, as far as I know, for decades, obediently and unquestioningly following the low-cholesterol dictates of medical authority, just as a lot of people did. On the day I started naturopathic medical school, my dad died of a massive stroke. He was dead, I was told three thousand miles away, before he could even be got to the hospital. I don't know how many countless lives have been lost owing to the absolutely unsubstantiated medical advice that cholesterol and saturated fat are bad for us and that we should eat a bunch of carbohydrate in all its various guises, but my father, as you now know, was one of them.
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Arrow Down

Backslide: Dow and Dupont get a green light to grow GMO corn in EU

Christina Sarich
NaturalSociety
Sun, 16 Feb 2014 01:41 UTC
GMO Protest
© Tobias Schwarz/ReutersA protest against GMOs outside Berlin’s Bundestag. The sign says “Stop Genetically Modified Corn.”
While it isn't Monsanto getting away with murder this time around, Dow and DuPont Chemical companies have been given a seal of approval by the European Union to grow their GMO corn. The vote which took place that could have vetoed the proposition lost 19 to 28, with 4 member states abstaining from voting. This means only five states wanted GM corn, but the way the weighted voting system is set up in the EU, the Commission is now obliged to pass the GMO crop initiative.

Without a negative qualified majority against the proposal the Commission says it will pass it, according to the Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner, Tonio Borg.

Germans who didn't want GMO crops in their country are furious at their representatives from abstaining to vote, since their single vote would have made a difference. Peter Simone from the Green's said:
"Today the Federal government missed an historic opportunity to be a clear voice against genetic engineering in Europe. The approval of genetically modified maize on European soil puts genetically modified food on consumer's plates. Almost all Germans oppose that."
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Health

Symptoms of GABA Deficiency

Beverly Meyer
Primal Docs
Tue, 11 Feb 2014 00:00 UTC
gaba deficiency
Want to know your brain a little better? Here's an intro to one of your main inhibitory neurotransmitters - GABA.

Inhibitory sounds like a bad thing, but there's a balance between the excitatory and the inhibitory aspects of all function; just as there's light/dark, up/down, fast/slow and cold/hot. If we were to run on hot all the time, like most of us do in modern times, we'd get burnt out. Sick... Tired...

And often oddly wired at the same time.
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Bandaid

The remarkable power of the placebo: Patients who had FAKE surgery for a broken back recovered just as well, documentary reveals

Olly Bootle
Daily Mail
Thu, 13 Feb 2014 02:07 UTC
Image
Test: Dr Kallmes set up a revolutionary trial to test if fake operations could also heal damaged vertebra in the back. He found that patients who believed they'd been treated - but actually hadn't - recovered as well as those who really did have the op.
We've all heard of placebos. They're dummy pills. They can't do anything real. After all, there's nothing in them.At least, that's what we thought. But in recent years, evidence has built up to suggest that placebos can be highly effective - particularly in treating pain, depression, and even alleviating some of the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

And it isn't just dummy pills that seem to be able to work: you could get life-changing improvements from a pretend potion that's actually just water; or perhaps fake acupuncture with needles that don't even puncture your skin.

The key is simply that you think it might help you. But when it comes to placebos, it doesn't get much more dramatic than what's been called sham surgery - as Dr David Kallmes discovered a few years ago.

He's a successful radiologist at the Mayo Clinic, one of the world's leading hospitals - it's where the Presidents of the United States often get treated. For the past 15 years, he's been fixing broken backs by injecting them with a special kind of medical cement.

Dr Kallmes regularly performed the procedure - called vertebroplasty - and found it hugely effective. 'We saw terrific results from the procedure, really amazing results,' he told me.

However, there were some questions as to exactly what was going on - because some people seemed to get better even when the operations went horribly wrong.
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Black Cat

Cat parasite found in western Arctic Beluga deemed infectious

Brian Lin
University of British Columbia
Thu, 13 Feb 2014 13:48 UTC
University of British Columbia scientists have found for the first time an infectious form of the cat parasite Toxoplasma gondii in western Arctic Beluga, prompting a health advisory to the Inuit people who eat whale meat.

The same team also discovered a new strain of the parasite Sarcocystis, previously sequestered in the icy north, that is responsible for killing 406 grey seals in the north Atlantic in 2012.

Presenting their findings today at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Michael Grigg and Stephen Raverty from UBC's Marine Mammal Research Unit say that the "big thaw" occurring in the Arctic is allowing never-before-seen movement of pathogens between the Arctic and the lower latitudes.

"Ice is a major eco-barrier for pathogens," says Michael Grigg, a molecular parasitologist with the U.S. National Institutes of Health and an adjunct professor at UBC. "What we're seeing with the big thaw is the liberation of pathogens gaining access to vulnerable new hosts and wreaking havoc."
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Attention

Fluoride: Killing your child's brain... softly

Alex Pietrowski
Waking Times
Thu, 13 Feb 2014 08:00 UTC
fluoride poison
© unknown
One of the most surprising absurdities of our times is the continuing practice of fluoridating our water supply and supplementing dental and oral healthcare products with this toxic by-product of the aluminum industry. The evidence demonstrating the harmfulness of this is beyond abundant, and the case against fluoride continues to grow. Across the United States the movement against this wholesale poisoning of our people and the creatures downstream also continues to grow, in tandem it seems with even more research studies and scientific evidence further proving that fluoride is a grave public health issue.

The history and known dangers of fluoridation is easy to find and easy to digest online, however, each new study warrants media, or alternative media, attention because for some odd reason mass public opinion on this issue is critically slow to tip in favor of non-fluoridation.
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Health

Flashback Has cancer been completely misunderstood?

Sayer Ji
GreenMedInfo
Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:15 UTC
cancer cell
© unknown
A Failed War On Cancer

Ever since Richard Nixon officially declared a war on cancer in 1971 through the signing of the National Cancer Act,[i] over a hundred billion dollars of taxpayer money has been spent on research and drug development in an attempt to eradicate the disease, with trillions more spent by the cancer patients themselves, but with disappointing results.

Even after four decades of waging full-scale "conventional" (surgery and chemo) and "nuclear" (radiotherapy) war against cancer, one in every four Americans will be diagnosed with the disease within their lifetimes - and this number is projected to grow - unabated -- not unlike the process of cancer itself.

Could this colossal failure reflect how profoundly misunderstood the condition is, and misguided are our attempts to prevent and treat it?

The Question That Must Be Answered Anew: What Is Cancer?

Perhaps we need to return back to the fundamental question of 'What Is Cancer'? After all, until we find an accurate answer to this question, all attempts to 'prevent' and 'treat' a disease we do not understand are doomed to fail.
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Extinguisher

SOTT Focus: Are you inflamed over GMO foods?

Erica Burt
Sott.net
Thu, 13 Feb 2014 16:54 UTC
Image
Several years ago the general public was completely unaware of GMOs and GE foods (genetically modified organisms or genetic engineering), but today the topic is becoming rather well known, thanks to growing education and alternative media coverage. The general public is becoming better informed about the potential harms and health issues associated with biotechnology and bioengineered foods, but the smoke and mirrors the mega-corporations use to obfuscate deeper understanding of the dangers inherent in such 'mad science' increases in tandem with growing awareness.

Ok, so a lot of people know they are eating GMO's and what they are, but the real question is: are GMOs actually safe, as proponents and supporters of biotechnology claim, or are they not? Should we be worried about the long-term health and environmental effects of genetically altered foods? In the following article I hope to present clear evidence and data for stating very definitively: YES! We should be very concerned!

As an organic farmer, agriculture consultant and researcher, I became interested in the GMO issue over seven years ago, particularly their effects on the soil and the contamination or mutation of various plant species. 'Connecting the dots', so to speak, it dawned on me how serious this issue is, not just in terms of the environmental effects of GMOs, but also the consequences of eating GMO foods for human health.

A very disturbing picture began to emerge.
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