Health & WellnessS


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The Poison business: The Monsanto papers reveal media, science, and regulatory collusion

Jeffery Jaxen
Greenmedinfo.com
Wed, 09 Aug 2017 16:01 UTC
monsanto
Major tectonic shifts have occurred around the historically secretive multinational corporate structure of Monsanto, forcing transparency, furthering the public debate, and assisting lawsuits that expose the true nature of Monsanto's toxic product and its multi-level collusion to hide the fact of its carcinogenicity.

The public and regulatory pushback against Monsanto's flagship herbicide Roundup® and its active ingredient glyphosate has slowly simmered for years and now appears to be hitting breakaway speeds. A large regulatory blow to Monsanto was the 2015 decision of the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to give glyphosate a Group 2A designation of being "probably carcinogenic to humans." The second blow came in June 2017 when California state's health officials added glyphosate to the list of chemicals that can cause cancer under California's Proposition 65.

Comment: The "Poison Papers" represent a vast trove of rediscovered chemical industry and regulatory agency documents and correspondence stretching back to the 1920s. Taken as a whole, the papers show that both industry and regulators understood the extraordinary toxicity of many chemical products and worked together to conceal this information from the public and the press.
But, before we get into the competing studies, here is a brief look at the 'extensive' work that Monsanto and the EPA did prior to originally declaring Roundup safe for use (hint: not much). As the excerpt below reveals, the EPA effectively declared Roundup safe for use without even conducting tests on the actual formulation, but instead relying on industry research on just one of the product's active ingredients.
"EPA's minimal standards do not require human health data submissions related to the formulated product - here, Roundup. Instead, EPA regulations require only studies and data that relate to the active ingredient, which in the case of Roundup is glyphosate. As a result, the body of scientific literature EPA has reviewed is not only primarily provided by the industry, but it also only considers one part of the chemical ingredients that make up Roundup."
Meanwhile, if that's not enough for you, Donna Farmer, Monsanto's lead toxicologist, even admitted in her deposition that she "cannot say that Roundup does not cause cancer" because "[w]e [Monsanto] have not done the carcinogenicity studies with Roundup."


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Footprints

Why flip-flops are not the best choice for daily footwear

Dr. Mercola
mercola.com
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 14:53 UTC
flip flop shoes
Especially in colder climates, summertime means the bliss of putting away coats and boots and hauling out shorts and flip-flops. It's great to step outside, wriggle your toes and literally cool your heels without restriction. Best of all, you can just slip them on and go - no lacing, zipping or buckling required. But are flip-flops your best bet for foot health? You probably already know the answer is not so much.

As the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) reports, 198,437 emergency room visits in 2014 were due to shoe-related injuries, and flip-flops were blamed for 25,300 of them.1

Podiatrist and foot and ankle surgeon Dr. Christina Long, from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, says summer is the time people with flip-flop-related foot conditions start showing up at her door. Most of them are due to the unstructured nature of flip-flops, which result in a lack of support for your feet. Medicine Net quoted Long:
"Flip-flops don't offer any arch or heel support, and you have to grip them with your toes to keep them on. Wearing them for too long or for the wrong activity can cause a lot of different problems."2
Dr. Jordan Metzl, from the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, says he sees a lot of people coming in for help with pain due to suddenly wearing flip-flops every day after having worn better-constructed shoes all winter.3 Much of the pain comes from having too much pressure placed on your tendons and bones, known as "overuse" injuries, and even from altering your foot structure.
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Alarm Clock

Surprise! Big Pharma is hindering treatment of the opioid addiction epidemic

Robin Feldman
The Conversation
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 13:26 UTC
opioid epidemic
© AP Photo/David DermerPaul Wright, in treatment for opioid addiction in June 2017 at the Neil Kennedy Recovery Clinic in Youngstown Ohio, shows a photo of himself from 2015, when he almost died from an overdose.
"A crippling problem." "A total epidemic." "A problem like nobody understands." These are the words President Trump used to describe the opioid epidemic ravaging the country during a White House listening session in March.

The percentage of people in the U.S. dying of drug overdoses has effectively quadrupled since 1999, and drug overdoses now rank as the leading cause of death for Americans under 50.

Drugs do exist to reverse opioid overdoses or treat long-term opioid addiction. But while opioids have become easier and easier to obtain through illicit markets and sellers on the dark web, a drug that could save countless lives has become increasingly out of reach.
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Water

267 contaminants found in America's tap water

Anna Hunt
Waking Times
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 14:43 UTC
water fountain
Research conducted by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) revealed that hundreds of contaminants are present in U.S. tap water. To be exact, EWG revealed that 267 out of 500 contaminants were detected during tests conducted by more than 48,000 utilities companies across 50 states. This shows that no matter where you live in the U.S., your tap water is very likely contaminated.

Of the 267 contaminants found,
  • 93 were linked to an increased risk of cancer,
  • 78 were associated with brain and nervous system damage,
  • 63 were connected to developmental harm in children or fetuses,
  • 38 were contaminants that could cause fertility issues; and
  • 45 were endocrine disruptors.
Here are a couple more important details about EWG's findings:
  • Over 80% of water systems had known or likely carcinogens at levels that exceeded health guidelines
  • More than 19,000 public water system had lead levels considered potentially-harmful for formula-fed babies, at above 3.8 parts per billion
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Syringe

Clinical Rheumatology study: Vaccine manufacturers & FDA regulators caught hiding risks of HPV vaccines

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Collective Evoultion
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 12:44 UTC
GARD
A new study published in Clinical Rheumatology exposes how vaccine manufacturers used phony placebos in clinical trials to conceal a wide range of devastating risks associated with HPV vaccines. Instead of using genuine inert placebos and comparing health impacts over a number of years, as is required for most new drug approvals, Merck and GlaxoSmithKline spiked their placebos with a neurotoxic aluminum adjuvant and cut observation periods to a matter of months.

Researchers from Mexico's National Institute of Cardiology pored over 28 studies published through January 2017-16 randomized trials and 12 post-marketing case series-pertaining to the three human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines currently on the market globally. In their July 2017 peer-reviewed report, the authors, Manuel Martínez-Lavin and Luis Amezcua-Guerra, uncovered evidence of numerous adverse events, including life-threatening injuries, permanent disabilities, hospitalizations and deaths, reported after vaccination with GlaxoSmithKline's bivalent Cervarix vaccine and Merck's quadrivalent or nine-valent HPV vaccines (Gardasil and Gardasil 9). Pharmaceutical company scientists routinely dismissed, minimized or concealed those injuries using statistical gimmicks and invalid comparisons designed to diminish their relative significance.
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Health

Lung cancer rates among non-smokers doubled in the last decade; air pollution blamed

Rory Tingle
Daily Mail
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 13:49 UTC
air pollution
The number of lung cancer cases among non-smokers has doubled in the last decade, with experts blaming air pollution on the rise.

If the trend continues, the number of deaths from lung cancer among non-smokers will leapfrog those among nicotine users in a decade.

Previously, nine in ten cases of the disease were linked to cigarette use, but this proportion has decreased as more people shun the habit.

The increase in lung cancer rates among non-smokers was noted by experts at the UK's largest cancer surgery centre, London's Brompton Hospital and Harefield NHS Trust, The Times reported.

National data regarding lung cancer among non-smokers is hard to obtain, so other researchers are yet to notice the trend.

However, a similar trend has been observed in America.

Comment: One obvious question: If pollution can cause lung cancer in never-smokers can't it cause lung cancer in smokers too? And finally...Smoking Does Not Cause Lung Cancer

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Pills

From prescription to addiction: Investigation shows Big Pharma bribed 68,000 doctors to push deadly opioids

Claire Bernish
Free Thought Project
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 12:58 UTC
opioid deaths
© Real Leaders
More than 68,000 doctors received payments in excess of $46 million - in the span of just 29 months - from Goliath pharmaceutical corporations pushing opioid painkillers, researchers in a groundbreaking investigation of Big Pharma's and the epidemic of legal and illicit opiates plaguing the United States.

Money to push opioids found one doctor in 12, and the rampant destruction wrought upon countless American families forced to cope with loved ones dependent on prescription painkillers, or on heroin sought when those ran out, proves circumstantially the dollars did their job.

"The next step is to understand these links between payments, prescribing practices, and overdose deaths," Scott Hadland, a pediatrician and author of the study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, told the Washington Post.

Comment: Trump declares opioid crisis a 'national emergency'
"The opioid crisis is an emergency, and I'm saying officially right now it is an emergency. It's a national emergency," President Trump told reporters before a security briefing on Thursday at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.

"We're going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis."

Trump told reporters the drug crisis afflicting the US is a "serious problem the likes of which we have never had" and said he's drawing up documents "to so attest."
The question now is will Trump and his 'documents' go after Big Pharma and their role in the opioid epidemic?

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Health

Five people dead after weight-loss balloon insertion, FDA investigates


RT
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 13:49 UTC
stomach balloon
© BusinessWire / YouTube
Weight-loss balloons have caught the attention of federal authorities in the US, after five people died within a month of being fitted with the devices.


Comment: Researchers employ swallowable balloons in latest weight loss trick


A report by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released Thursday states that the five people had undergone a procedure to be fitted with the saline-filled balloon since April last year. In each case, the patient died within a month or less. In three cases, the patients died within three days of the procedure.

The cause of the patients' deaths remains unknown, the FDA noted in its report.

"At this time, we do not know the root cause or incidence rate of patient death, nor have we been able to definitively attribute the deaths to the devices or the insertion procedures for these devices," the report says.
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Syringe

Follow the money! The unknown reasons doctors push vaccines

Catherine Frompovich
Activist Post
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 15:29 UTC
vaccines
© The Conscious Resistance Network
Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Blue Care Network of Michigan publishes online a shameless and bold report of how much cash they reward physicians for performing certain tests, and which apparently acts as an incentive to over-prescribe, thus inflating the costs of U.S. healthcare, which should be illegal.

Blue Cross/Blue Shield published the 2016 Performance Recognition Program, a 28-page report indicating how medical insurance companies actually increase the costs of healthcare!

Comment: How much money do pediatricians really make from vaccines?
Big Pharma funds medical education programs for physicians and then pitches new drugs to them. Pharma pays doctors for promotional speaking engagements and provides them with free drug samples and free meals, etc.2 To get an idea of the extent of these financial ties, the pharmaceutical industry paid physicians and hospitals at least $3.5 billion during only the last five months of 2013.3
Doctors pushing vaccines receive 'Merck Vaccination Service Awards'
    Where does your doctor's allegiance lie? Does your healthcare professional listen to your needs and wants as a parent or are they nothing more than affiliate distributors for pharmaceutical companies? It was reported by independent journalist recently that some doctors offices are now demanding their patients sign an immunization contract. What's an immunization contract you ask? The contract-created outside of law and denying informed consent-requires prospective patients to agree, by signature, to allow 25 vaccines to be injected into their child over a series of visits. Also uncovered in the same investigation, doctors can receive up to $225 per service achieved in the insurance provider category of "childhood immunization [combo 2]" .


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Info

Health charity says: Official advice on low-fat diet & cholesterol is wrong


The Guardian
Mon, 23 May 2016 14:41 UTC
avocado
© FotografiaBasica/Getty ImagesThe report called for a return to ‘whole foods’ such as meat, dairy and high-fat healthy foods like avocados.
Report accuses UK public health bodies of colluding with food industry and calls for overhaul of dietary guidelines

Urging people to follow low-fat diets and to lower their cholesterol is having "disastrous health consequences", a health charity has warned.

In a damning report that accuses major public health bodies of colluding with the food industry, the National Obesity Forum and the Public Health Collaboration call for a "major overhaul" of current dietary guidelines. They say the focus on low-fat diets is failing to address Britain's obesity crisis, while snacking between meals is making people fat.

Comment: While this article is over a year old it is interesting to note that Prof Naveed Sattar states that "eating more fat is highly contentious and could have public health consequences." The opposite is shown to be true! Fat is good for you! Eating a high carb -low fat diet is what is causing adverse public health consequences:

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