Health & WellnessS

What does Monsanto's 'Roundup' do to you?

Pete Bianco
Utica Phoenix
Fri, 09 Nov 2018 00:01 UTC

Stephanie Seneff is a Senior Research Scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In the last few years she has focused her attention on studying the way glyphosate, one of the ingredients in the weed Killer roundup, affects the human body. She has not proven anything yet but has brought some compelling clues to the surface. There is a great need to understand the health effects of the most-used agricultural chemical ever.

Ms. Seneff's interest in glyposate began when she heard a lecture by Don Huber, Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology at Purdue University. At the time she was researching what was causing the autism epidemic.

Most of the research funding for Autism was focused on genetic causes. This would mean the body was inherently defective as opposed to some outside force causing a drastic change in the body. Ms. Seneff knew that genetics do not change very fast but autism among children is increasing at an alarming rate. Because of this she was looking for causes outside the body such as changes in our environment.

Comment: If there is such a thing as the most evil man made chemical, glyphosate should be a front runner. As more people learn the truth about Roundup, it can only be hoped that more countries will take the example by France, to ban it outright, to heart.

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Weedkiller Roundup banned in France after court ruling

France24
Wed, 16 Jan 2019 07:44 UTC

© Philippe Huguen/AFPIn this file photo taken on June 15, 2015 bottles of Monsanto's Roundup pesticide are pictured in a gardening store in Lille, as a French court in Lyon cancelled the authorisation to sell Monsanto's Roundup Pro 360.

French authorities on Tuesday officially forbid the sale of a form of controversial weed-killer Roundup following a court ruling that regulators failed to take safety concerns into account when clearing the widely used herbicide.

Roundup, owned by Germany's Bayer after its purchase of US agro-giant Monsanto last year, contains glyphosate which environmentalists and other critics have long believed causes cancer.

The French food and environmental safety agency ANSES said in a statement that sales of Roundup Pro 360 were banned as of Tuesday following a court ruling earlier in the day.

Comment: Nice one France! It looks like Macron is actually good for something. One can only hope that other countries will take up this initiative and we can rid the planet of this horrible and unnecessary toxin.

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Melbourne hospital to conduct magic mushroom trial for end-of-life patients

Benjamin Ansell
9NEWS
Tue, 15 Jan 2019 16:01 UTC

Palliative care patients will be treated with the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms in a bid to reduce their anxiety during end of life care.

The first of 30 patients in Melbourne's St Vincent's Hospital trial will be treated with psilocybin in April after a year-long battle to have the study approved by the ethics committee, as well as state and federal authorities.

Patients will be given a single dose of the psychedelic drug, which stimulates feelings of euphoria and is believed to be able to ease anxiety, fear and depression for up to six months.

Applicants will be screened, requiring a state government permit to take the medication, and will be closely monitored by two clinicians on the 'dose day' while the initial high wears-off.

Comment: More on psilocybin:

Surprise, surprise: Government data show average American significantly larger than in the past

Nicholas Bakalar
The New York Times
Mon, 14 Jan 2019 00:01 UTC

New government data charts some interesting changes in average bodies over recent decades.

Meet the average American man. He weighs 198 pounds and stands 5 feet 9 inches tall. He has a 40-inch waist, and his body mass index is 29, at the high end of the "overweight" category.

The picture for the average woman? She is roughly 5 feet 4 inches tall, and weighs 171 pounds, with a 39-inch waist. Her B.M.I. is close to 30.

Comment: The subtitle for this article is "New government data charts some interesting changes in average bodies over recent decades." Interesting changes? Is that supposed to be facetious? Were the words "alarming", "worrisome" or "jaw-dropping" too understated? Americans are getting 'Yuge', and not in a good way, but it seems little actual intervention is being made. Same dietary guidelines, same lifestyles, same garbage diets and same non-solutions being offered. One wonders when the average American is going to say "enough is enough".

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Tylenol damages the brains of children, research reveals

William Parker, Ph.D.
GreenMed Info
Wed, 16 Jan 2019 13:03 UTC

Millions use Tylenol on a daily basis without concern, but it has a wide range of toxic side effects you should be aware of, especially if you are pregnant or use it with your children.

A number of non-peer-reviewed articles have been written and published on the web claiming that there is literally nothing to fear from acetaminophen during pregnancy. There are two types of articles that fall into this category. First, reputable watchdog organizations have weighed in on the issue, declaring acetaminophen use during pregnancy and during childhood to be proven safe. In particular, the National Health Service of the UK and the Center for Accountability in Science have both strongly criticized the Spanish study from 2016 showing a link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and ADHD/autism.

Comment: See also:

Vegans take 'twice as many sick days' as their carnivore colleagues

news.com.au
Wed, 16 Jan 2019 12:31 UTC

Vegans have twice as many sick days as their meat-eating colleagues in the UK, according to a new report.

The study found that vegans had almost five days off a year for the likes of flu, cold and minor ailments - well above the national average.

They were also three times more likely to visit the GP.

Comment: Also see:

Researchers successfully turn breast cancer cells into fat to stop them from spreading

Jacinta Bowler
Science Alert
Tue, 15 Jan 2019 00:01 UTC

Researchers have been able to coax human breast cancer cells to turn into fat cells in a new proof-of-concept study in mice.

To achieve this feat, the team exploited a weird pathway that metastasising cancer cells have; their results are just a first step, but it's a truly promising approach.

When you cut your finger, or when a foetus grows organs, the epithelium cells begin to look less like themselves, and more 'fluid' - changing into a type of stem cell called a mesenchyme and then reforming into whatever cells the body needs.

Comment: Very promising new treatment, indeed! It would be interesting to see if this therapy would work on other types of cancer. Nothing is mentioned in the article about side effects, which would be nice to know for measuring risk versus reward. As with all promising therapies, however, it's unknown when, or indeed if, these treatments will ever be available to the public. We're sure it will need to be ensured that the treatment wouldn't eat into chemotherapy profits in order to see the light of day.

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Is sunscreen the new margarine?

Rowan Jacobsen
Outline
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 00:01 UTC

Current guidelines for sun exposure are unhealthy and unscientific, controversial new research suggests - and quite possibly even racist. How did we get it so wrong?

These are dark days for supplements. Although they are a $30-plus billion market in the United States alone, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, beta-carotene, glucosamine, chondroitin, and fish oil have now flopped in study after study.

If there was one supplement that seemed sure to survive the rigorous tests, it was vitamin D. People with low levels of vitamin D in their blood have significantly higher rates of virtually every disease and disorder you can think of: cancer, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, heart attack, stroke, depression, cognitive impairment, autoimmune conditions, and more. The vitamin is required for calcium absorption and is thus essential for bone health, but as evidence mounted that lower levels of vitamin D were associated with so many diseases, health experts began suspecting that it was involved in many other biological processes as well.

And they believed that most of us weren't getting enough of it. This made sense. Vitamin D is a hormone manufactured by the skin with the help of sunlight. It's difficult to obtain in sufficient quantities through diet. When our ancestors lived outdoors in tropical regions and ran around half naked, this wasn't a problem. We produced all the vitamin D we needed from the sun.

Comment: The advice to avoid all sun exposure is a result of black and white thinking and has always been extreme. A more moderate approach is obviously what's called for, and the fact that the 'experts' are so unwilling to dial back their advice would be comical if it weren't so typical.

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Almost no children in France are medicated for ADHD: Here's how they identify & treat it taking a holistic approach

Kalee Brown
Collective Evolution
Fri, 28 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 11% of American children between the ages of 4 and 17 have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as of 2011. However, if you ask the American Psychiatric Association (APA), they maintain that even though only 5% of American children suffer from the disorder, the diagnosis is actually given to around 15% of American children. This number has been steadily rising, jumping from 7.8% in 2003 to 9.5% in 2007.

Big Pharma has played a significant role in manufacturing the ADHD epidemic in the U.S., convincing parents and doctors that ADHD is a common problem amongst children and one that should be medicated. However, many countries disagree with the American stance on ADHD, so much so that they have entirely different structures for defining, diagnosing, and treating it. For example, the percentage of children in France that have been diagnosed and medicated for ADHD is less than 0.5%. This is largely because French doctors don't consider ADHD a biological disorder with biological causes, but rather a medical condition caused by psycho-social and situational factors.

Why France Defines ADHD Differently

French child psychiatrists use a different system than American psychiatrists to classify emotional problems in childhood. Instead of using the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the French use an alternative classification system produced by the French Federation of Psychiatry called Classification Française des Troubles Mentaux de L'Enfant et de L'Adolescent(CFTMEA). Not only does this significantly differ from the APA's system, but it was actually created with the intention to "offer French child psychiatrists an alternative to DSM-III" because it didn't complement French psychiatric practices. The CFTMEA encourages psychiatrists to identify the underlying issues that cause a child's symptoms and to address them using a psychopathological approach.

France defines ADHD as a sociological disorder that's caused by a set of social situations, whereas the U.S. sees ADHD as a neurological disorder whose symptoms are the result of biological disfunction or a chemical imbalance in the brain. France's definition of ADHD drastically differs from that of the U.S., which is in part because the pharmaceutical industry helped define ADHD in the U.S. (you can read more about that here). France's treatment methods, therefore, also greatly differ from those practiced in the U.S.

Health dangers of eating fruit

Dr. Kevin Stock
kevinstock.io
Thu, 04 Oct 2018 00:01 UTC

In the exploration of the Health Dangers of a Plant-based Diet fruit plays an interesting role. Most people think fruit is healthy because they are high in antioxidants, they are a good source of fiber, and they contain essential vitamins and minerals. And unlike other plant parts (roots, seeds, stems, and leaves) which the plant desperately wants to protect for survival, the plant actually wants predators to eat its fruit and spread their seeds. So here we'll explore if there are any health dangers of eating fruit.

Spreading Seed

Some plants don't want predators to spread their seeds (naked seeds). Others depend on animals to do so.

Comment: See also: