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Experts confirm differences between genome editing and conventional breeding


Sustainable Pulse
Mon, 09 Jul 2018 16:25 UTC
DNA image
© www.testbiotech.org/en/node/2224
In a recent publication jointly prepared by experts from the German regulatory authority (BVL) and US corporation DowDuPont, the experts have explicitly confirmed significant differences between new methods of genetic engineering and conventional plant breeding.

According to the publication, plants manipulated with methods known as genome editing can be identified and traced in most cases. This position is in contradiction to previous BVL statements denying such differences.

The experts state that relevant differences between methods using tools such as CRISPR-Cas and conventional breeding can also be observed in cases where no additional genes are inserted:

Comment: For years one of the main arguments put forth by GMO advocates is that the genetically modified organisms are 'substantially equivalent' to their non-modified counterparts, and therefore do not need to be regulated. It seems the experts disagree.

See also:

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Health

What's so great about yams and sweet potatoes?

Dr. Mercola
mercola.com
Mon, 23 Jul 2018 19:24 UTC
bunch of yams
Yams are one of the most delicious vegetables you can eat, but you may not be aware that, as a root vegetable that's been around for eons, they also have a long history of use as an alternative medicine. Modern researchers are examining possible health benefits of wild yams that include relief from muscle cramps, rheumatoid arthritis and symptoms of menopause and diabetes prevention.

Over centuries, yams have gleaned a few other names, including China root, rheumatism root or colic root, which makes sense according to the potential aforementioned uses, but they've even been referred to as devil's bones, which speculators have concluded must be because their roots are thin, long and tangled, giving them a skeletal look. The roots and rhizomes are what are typically used in natural medicine.

Many people believe differentiating the root vegetables yams and sweet potatoes is simply a matter of semantics, but the two are not even the same type of plant. Yams are part of the Dioscoreae family, which includes morning glories, while sweet potatoes belong to a genus called Convolvulaceae.1

Yams, from the Senegalese word "nyami," means "to eat." They have only one embryonic seed leaf, while sweet potatoes have two. Wild yams, unlike sweet potatoes, are rough, scaly and usually longer, but they're more moist and less starchy in comparison.
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USA

New investigation cites the US as the worst place in the world to give birth

Andrea Germanos
Natural Blaze
Mon, 30 Jul 2018 19:18 UTC
newborn baby
© steve_h/flickr/cc
A new USA Today investigation offers a searing indictment of maternal care in the United States, and says the country "is the most dangerous place in the developed world to give birth."

"Deadly Deliveries," the result of a four-year investigation, references federal data showing that more than 50,000 women are "severely injured" and roughly 700 die during childbirth each year. Perhaps even more staggering is that "half of these deaths could be prevented and half the injuries reduced or eliminated with better care," the investigation found.

The findings, based on interviews with women and a trove of internal hospital records, "reveal a stunning lack of attention to safety recommendations and widespread failure to protect new mothers."

Such failures often stem from inadequate or delayed responses to hemorrhages and dangerously high blood pressure.

Comment: See also:

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Bug

A bite from the lone star tick can trigger an allergy to beef and pork

Aimee Cunningham
ScienceNews
Mon, 30 Jul 2018 17:00 UTC
lone star tick
© Fritz Floohr Reynolds/Flickr.com
The lone star tick, found in the southeastern United States and spreading north and west, is known as an aggressive tick. A bite might make a person allergic to red meat.
It sounds bonkers that a tick bite might make meat eaters allergic to their steaks and ribs, but it's true. Now new research has added a potential twist: The source of this tick-related sensitivity to red meat may also be linked to coronary artery disease.

A bite from the lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum, can trigger antibodies to a sugar called alpha-gal, found in many mammals but not humans. For some of the tick-bitten, that produces an allergic reaction to alpha-gal in red meats like beef and pork. A new study also finds that heart patients with the antibodies had more plaque buildup in their artery walls. Of 118 people with coronary artery disease, 31 who tested positive for the antibodies had about 25 percent more plaque in their artery walls than those who were negative, researchers report in the July Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.

Study participants were aged 30 to 80; the connection between extra gummed-up arteries and the presence of antibodies was strongest in those 65 and younger. For the antibody-positive participants in that group, the plaques penetrating the walls of the arteries were of the sort more likely to rupture and cause a heart attack (SN Online: 5/5/09).
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Ambulance

US pushes to make UN declaration on TB friendlier to big-pharma, S. Africa opposes


RT
Mon, 30 Jul 2018 15:16 UTC
TB sufferer
© Abhisek Saha/ZUMA Press / Global Look Press
A TB sufferer in Agartala, India.
The US pushed to delete a provision in a draft UN declaration on fighting tuberculosis, which encouraged poorer countries to make TB treatments more affordable while snubbing copyright holders, documents reviewed by RT confirm.

In September, the UN high-level Meeting on ending tuberculosis will meet in New York to pass a political declaration on fighting the disease. TB is the world's most deadly infection and kills over a million people each year, with an overwhelming majority of the deaths occurring in developing countries. The text of the declaration had been negotiated over the past few months and was understood to be settled, until South Africa made an eleventh-hour decision to break a so-called "silence procedure" last week, publishing the near-final draft in the hope of relaunching negotiations.

According to a Medic Without Borders (MSF) statement, South Africa, which is among the countries suffering most from TB, is unhappy that the American delegation pressured other negotiators to drop a provision, which encourages countries to use international trade rules that allow leeway in protecting intellectual property, if it is needed to address a public health crisis, like a TB epidemic. Such flexibility is allowed by the 1994 Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) Agreement, as explained in the Doha Declaration of 2001.
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Health

Denver hospital on lockdown amid fear of Ebola spreading


RT
Mon, 30 Jul 2018 08:36 UTC
health workers hazmat
© Darrin Zammit Lupi / Reuters
Health workers in hazmat suits decontamination process.
A possible Ebola infection has prompted Denver Health Medical Center to go into temporary lockdown, as medical staff in hazmat suits handled a patient who recently returned from a visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Emergency crews in hazmat suits were seen entering the medical facility on Sunday afternoon, after the medical center had admitted a man that morning who showed symptoms characteristic of the Ebola virus. As the patient was rushed into an isolation unit, the hospital was placed on lockdown, with ambulances diverted to other locations. Three ambulance staffers were also placed in a biocontainment unit, over fears that they might have been exposed to the virus.

Comment: See also:

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Syringe

Pandora's Box: Why the federal government broke vaccine law for 30 years

Jon Rappoport
NoMoreFakeNews.com
Mon, 23 Jul 2018 00:00 UTC
CDC vaccines
In my previous article on this subject, I established that, as a result of Robert F Kennedy, Jr.'s and Del Bigtree's work, we now know the federal government broke vaccine law for 30 years.

The Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), starting in 1988, was supposed to report every two years to the Congress, on ongoing efforts to improve vaccine safety. NO REPORTS WERE EVER MADE.

So...why didn't they follow the law?
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Cupcake Pink

Natural Flavor: Food chemistry & engineering

David Andrews
Environmental Working Group
Sun, 29 Jul 2018 19:06 UTC
Natural Flavor
© NPR
If you cook food at home, odds are you have a spice rack with 10, 20 or maybe even 50 different herbs and spices. I know I do.

But processed food doesn't rely just on those simple ingredients for its flavor. "Natural flavor" is the fourth most common ingredient listed in EWG's Food Scores, which rates more than 80,000 foods on their degree of nutrition, ingredient concerns and processing concerns.

In other words, "natural flavor" finds its way into more than a fifth of that roster of 80,000 foods, with only salt, water and sugar mentioned more frequently on food labels.

Comment: Natural flavors are more like natural disasters!

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Brain

Brain fog: What is it & how to treat it

Jennifer Giustra-Kozek
Collective Evolution
Tue, 24 Jul 2018 18:05 UTC
brain fog
Brain fog is a state of mental confusion. Some find it difficult to think, concentrate, or find the right words to say. Some have trouble recalling facts, faces, or events. Brain fog can also make a person feel unmotivated, depressed, anxious and moody as well. Many individuals with brain fog are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).

Unfortunately, western medicine often overlooks energetic imbalances in the body. Our doctors will often put an individual on stimulant medication and send them on their way. With this approach, we are missing key opportunities to heal the body and beat brain fog naturally and effectively without potentially dangerous side-effects.

Comment: Learn more about the ketogenic diet for alleviating Brain fog:
Elevated ammonia levels and depressed GABA levels contribute to a condition called "brain fog." We've all had it. Everything is muffled. Your synapses fire blanks, your neuronal communication medium is cold molasses. Work suffers, nothing gets done.

According to a very interesting post from Dr. Bill Lagakos of the always interesting Calories Proper blog, ketosis has the potential to alleviate brain fog. There's a lot of biochemistry thrown around, so geeks are advised to read the post in full, but two big, relevant takeaways are these:

Ketosis increases brain glutamine synthetase, and brain glutamine synthetase mops up extra ammonia.

Ketosis increases GABA signaling. GABA is the "chill-out" neurotransmitter. It opposes glutamate, the excitatory neurotransmitter. We need both for cognitive function (or else we wouldn't make both), but too much glutamate can lead to neuronal injury and neurodegeneration. GABA is the counterbalance.


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Megaphone

Hold up Pro-Vaxxers - don't be so quick to blame the unvaccinated

Marco Cáceres
The Vaccine Reaction
Tue, 17 Jul 2018 17:46 UTC
vaxxers
Four things struck me about the Women's Health article "A 4-Month-Old Just Died From Meningitis After Likely Exposure To An Unvaccinated Person" by Korin Miller. First, that the author would infuse her piece with an unfounded suggestion that the infant (Killy Schultz), who reportedly died of meningitis on June 30, 2018, was infected by an unvaccinated person and, at the same time, use it as a platform to promote vaccination.1

According to Miller, the child's mother, Alex Dempsey, said that Killy developed a rash and high fever on his way home from daycare and that...
... health officials told her that it's most likely that an unvaccinated person infected her child-which is why Alex is now urging everyone to get vaccinated.1
Infected the child with what? There is no mention of what kind of meningitis. Not all meningitis is caused by the same microbe. Was it meningococcal meningitis? Was it Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) meningitis?

Comment: What drives the vaccine blame game? Illogical fear
The idea that unvaccinated people are to blame for certain infectious disease outbreaks has become a common refrain in the media-mainly due to ignorance and fears fueled by that ignorance. The idea that people who get vaccinated with ineffective or live virus vaccines are playing a role in such outbreaks is much less popular-or well known.

Many of those, who like to point fingers at anyone concerned about the safety of vaccines seem to have this vague notion that, unlike vaccinated people, unvaccinated people carry dangerous hidden microbes that can magically appear at anytime and infect vaccinated people, thus spreading disease. In other words, that unvaccinated people are contaminated, while vaccinated people are not.


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