Welcome to Sott.net
Fri, 15 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Health & Wellness
Map

Bad Guys

Judge Strikes Fear into Biotech Industry with Nullification of Patents on Human Genes BRCA1

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Getty Images
As NaturalNews readers already know, corporations and universities right now claim intellectual property ownership over roughly twenty percent of your genetic code. This absurdity has occurred due to bizarre operations of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office which has handed corporations intellectual property monopolies over everything ranging from human genes to animals and seeds. Monsanto's "ownership" of genetically modified seed crops, for example, was only made possible by the patent office's willingness to grant the corporation intellectual property ownership over seeds.

I have long argued that granting patents on seeds, genes and medicines is a violation of natural law. In 2007, for example, I wrote an article entitled " Corporate Greed, Intellectual Property Laws and the Destruction of Human Civilization" in which I argued that the granting of such patents is a threat to not just human freedom but also the future of life on earth.

What happens when corporations, for example, wish to start collecting royalties on the human genes that you are copying when you reproduce by having children? The mere act of conceiving a child makes you a patent law violator... a criminal engaged in genetic piracy under U.S. law. This may sound patently absurd, if you'll excuse the expression, but it is precisely what has been held as true under current U.S. patent law.
      Read More...
Bad Guys

National Institutes of Health Researchers Are Up-Front About Their Support From Drug Companies, Right? Wrong!

S. L. Baker
NaturalNews
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Medical research that is sponsored by drug companies has long been a conundrum. After all, scientists often welcome the big bucks of the drug industry in order to finance their studies -- but can they be totally objective when they are supported by Big Pharma? NaturalNews has previously covered this problem and how mainstream medicine, including the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), has glossed over issues of researchers failing to disclose their association with drug companies.

But at least the U.S. government's own National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded scientists are open about their financial arrangements with drug companies, right? Wrong. And the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), an independent nonprofit group that investigates and exposes corruption and other misconduct in the federal government, is calling the NIH out on this problem.

POGO has gone public to urge NIH Director Francis Collins to deal strongly and openly with financial conflicts of interest among researchers funded by the NIH in universities and medical schools. Currently, the financial arrangements are reported on a strictly confidential basis only to the researchers' institutions. This secrecy has obviously created opportunities for abuses and conflicts of interest involving scientists funded by Big Pharma.
      Read More...
Bad Guys

National Health Service Recruits Six Times More Bureaucrats than Nurses

Marek Doyle
NaturalNews
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
The flaws of Britain's failed state health system have been highlighted again and again in recent years, and now the National Health Service has responded - by hiring an additional 5,000 administrators. The NHS Information Centre released statistics this week that show that, whilst the numbers of nurses have risen by just 1.9 percent, there has been a 12 percent increase in the number of 'pen-pushers'. There are now 44,660 bureaucrats employed by the health service.

Total staff numbers in the NHS reached 1,432,000 in 2009, which is 30 percent more than a decade before. This means that, with a population of 60 million people, an incredible one in every 42 people living in Britain is employed by the NHS. Patients can be forgiven for wondering where their tax contributions are going.

Despite the long waits, restricted access to care and a culture of confusion and waste, the NHS was actually offered as a good example of universal healthcare by lobbyists in the recent battle in Congress to reform the US health system. These latest figures suggest that a system that removes choice and accountability may result in equal reductions in both quality of care and cost efficiency.
      Read More...
Magnify

Genetic Breakthrough Findings Often Bogus, Even When in Medical Journals

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Many scientific "breakthroughs" widely reported in the popular press are actually false, warn researchers Marcus Munafo of the University of Bristol and Jonathan Flint of Oxford University, writing in The Guardian.

"The social environment in which research occurs places scientists under pressure to perform, measured by the amount and quality of publications, and success in attracting research funding from government and charitable agencies," the scientists write.

This pressure encourages researchers to find some exciting conclusion to report, the authors write, even if that conclusion is probably false.
      Read More...
Bad Guys

Britain Becoming Nation of Pill-Poppers as Medication Rates Skyrocket

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Prescription rates in the United Kingdom have been rising rapidly, showing an increasing reliance on pharmaceuticals to treat everything from allergies to obesity, according to a report released by the National Health Service (NHS) Information Center.

The NHS data show that 842.5 million prescriptions were dispensed in the country in 2008, which comes out to 16.4 prescription items per person. This marks a significant (5.8 percent) increase over 2007. When compared with figures from a decade earlier, the rise is even more astonishing: 64.1 percent more prescriptions were filled in 2008 than in 1998.

These figures cannot be explained by rising population. In 2007, 15.6 prescriptions were dispensed per person; in 1998, only 10.5 were.
      Read More...
Magnify

How to Avoid Olive Oil Deceptions that Harm Health

Paul Fassa
NaturalNews
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
When you buy olive oil labeled "Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil," you think you're getting the best of all possible salad oils. If it is what the label says, especially if it's from Italy, you assume that you are getting the healthiest oil possible.

But is that really true?

There have been several cases of fraud discovered in the olive oil industry over the last two decades. Hardly anyone gets prosecuted, although a lot of doctored oil gets destroyed.
      Read More...
Magnify

Twenty Percent of Hospital Patients Have Diabetes

Ethan Huff
NaturalNews
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
The National Health Service (NHS) of the U.K. recently conducted an audit of its hospital patients and found that 20 percent of them have diabetes. Many of these patients had been admitted to the hospital to be treated for conditions caused directly by the disease, illustrating the tremendous social burden being caused by the obesity-related illness.

While not all diabetes patients had been admitted for the treatment of diabetes-related conditions, many had been, including for things like kidney failure, ulcers, nerve damage, heart attacks and strokes. Those with diabetes are 500 more prone to suffer from a heart attack or stroke.

Even among those with diabetes who had been admitted for other unrelated conditions, the report showed that these patients generally remained in the hospital for a longer period of time than did those without diabetes. Experts are concerned that the burgeoning rates of both obesity and diabetes are placing enormous strain on Britain's health care system.
      Read More...
Magnify

Obesity: Trouble is Caused by Eating Quickly

Matthew Denos
NaturalNews
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Have you ever been told to eat your food slowly? Parents often encourage their children to eat at a moderate rate and chew their food completely. It turns out that this is good advice.

Recent research, conducted by three independent groups, suggests that eating slowly actually reduces caloric intake and may help curb the growing problem of obesity.

Fast Eaters Eat More

In 2008, Andrade published a study in the Journal of American Dietetic Association, which shed light on the question of eating quickly. According to Andrade's research, the rate at which a person eats affects how many calories he ingests. Two test groups were used in the study. Each group was given a large portion of food and told to eat as much as wanted.
      Read More...
Magnify

Four Natural Ways Help You Look and Feel Younger

Kim Evans
NaturalNews
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
At a time in history when all the rage is in looking and feeling young, there are a couple of things to understand. Most important: looking and feeling young doesn't come from pills or chemical based potions. It comes from healthy, chemical-free living and a body that's well nourished with appropriate foods and oils - and one that's free of toxic waste. If you're ready to take some simple steps to shave a few years off your appearance and start feeling better than ever, here are some easy ways to get started.

1) Eat coconut oil daily and use it as your body lotion.

Coconut oil keeps your skin soft and supple, and of course, the smoothness of the skin is often associated with a younger appearance. Coconut oil can be used both internally and externally for this purpose. Coconut oil also helps detoxify the body which means to remove harmful substances from the body. Cultures that use coconut oil regularly have markedly decreased disease rates. And of course, a body that's free of disease will feel much younger than one that's riddled with it.

2) Detoxify your body to remove acids and waste.

Most people don't understand how much toxic waste is stored inside the body. Common estimates are that the average person has ten or more pounds of stored filth - just in the colon. But unfortunately, these days the waste isn't even contained in the colon - it's often throughout the body.
      Read More...
Family

Employers penalizing bad habits

Cheryl Powell
The Columbus Dispatch
Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:51 UTC
If you smoke or refuse to participate in programs to improve your health, it might cost you in the future.

A growing number of U.S. companies want to start penalizing workers for unhealthy behaviors, according to a recent study from Hewitt Associates, a national human-resources consulting firm.

The study found nearly half of 600 large U.S. companies surveyed already use or plan to use financial penalties during the next three to five years for employees who don't participate in health-improvement programs, such as smoking cessation or biometric screenings.
      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts